Human Rights and Standard of Living in Sub-Saharan Africa Challenges and Prospects

This book offers a comprehensive and nuanced examination of the right to an adequate standard of living in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), shedding light on the multifaceted challenges, opportunities, and imperatives for action. The right to an adequate standard of living is a fundamental human right, essential for the dignity and well-being of all individuals. Yet, in SSA, the realization of this right remains a complex and elusive goal, with millions of people facing poverty, inequality, and limited access to basic services. Through a series of in-depth chapters, the book explores the various dimensions of the right to an adequate standard of living, from the pervasive impacts of poverty and inequality to the critical importance of access to healthcare, education, housing, and justice. Drawing on a rich array of case studies, data, and expert analysis, the work provides a compelling and evidence-based assessment of the current state of affairs in SSA, highlighting the urgent need for comprehensive and context-specific approaches to advancing this fundamental right. Providing a roadmap for promoting sustainable and inclusive development, reducing poverty and inequality, and ensuring access to basic services for all, the volume offers a set of actionable recommendations for policymakers, practitioners, and researchers working in the areas of Human Rights Law, Development Law and, in particular, those focused on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. At the same time, it identifies key areas for further research and investigation, underscoring the importance of ongoing knowledge generation and exchange in support of evidence-based policy and practice

Arts-based research and social justice in sport and leisure

The importance of social justice research is well recognised in current times, in particular the need for innovative studies that intervene into the complex challenges faced within twenty-first century societies. Research that makes a difference. Research that works with, on and around the political, economic and sociocultural obstacles that can conspire to inhibit change where it is most badly needed. As the chapters in this Handbook demonstrate, the importance of social justice scholarship across the field of sport, leisure and physical activity is recognised. Here, too, researchers, scholars and activists work in ways that strive to make a positive difference. In this chapter, we consider the utility of arts-based approaches to social justice research and reflect on examples of two film-based projects in sport, leisure and physical activity. We engage with public responses to these examples, demonstrating the personal, social and cultural meaning and impact of the work and showing how arts-based research can generate community, solidarity, and personal or social change. We propose that arts-based research offers a means to radically democratize social justice research and scholarship

Tell-Tall Signs of Voice and Exit’s Hirschman Theory in this Digital Age: Analysis of the Zimbabwean Healthcare Sector

The Zimbabwean healthcare sector has faced a challenging shortage of health professionals in recent days. This study investigates the phenomenon of health professionals leaving the country, and to understand the situation, this review used (Hirschman, Exit, voice, and loyalty: Responses to decline in firms, organizations, and states, Harvard University Press, 1970) voice and exit theory. The researchers took advantage of the digital age and obtained relevant reports on the internet; after a vigorous selection process, the six most relevant reports on Zimbabwean health professionals were selected and analysed in this review. The findings indicate that Hirschman’s theory applies to understanding the employment relations in the Zimbabwean healthcare sector. The data shows that Zimbabwean health professionals used their voices to challenge the status quo before leaving the country. However, the evidence from the data obtained highlighted that these health professionals had no option but to exit the country since the Zimbabwean government’s reaction was powerful and gave no room for active voice behaviours. However, this study recommends the Zimbabwean government consider allowing some voices in the healthcare sector to get a meaningful chance to sort the situation in this sector, as the reports will always be available due to this digital age. Despite limitations in this study, such as the limited data used, the findings are valid, although future researchers should consider larger samples to get an in-depth understanding of the employment relationship in the Zimbabwean healthcare sector

Evaluating a model of best practice in primary care led post-diagnostic dementia care: feasibility and acceptability findings from the PriDem study

Objectives: To evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of a primary care-based intervention for improving post-diagnostic dementia care and support (PriDem), and implementation study procedures. Design: A non-randomised, mixed methods, feasibility study. Setting: Seven general practices from four primary care networks (PCNs) in the Northeast and Southeast of England. Participants: We aimed to recruit 80 people with dementia (PWD) and 66 carers. Intervention: Clinical Dementia Leads delivered a 12-month intervention in participating PCNs, to develop care systems, build staff capacity and capability, and deliver tailored care and support to PWD and carers. Outcomes: Recruitment and retention rates were measured. A mixed methods process evaluation evaluated feasibility and acceptability of the intervention and study procedures. Using electronic care records, researchers extracted service use data and undertook a dementia care plan audit, preintervention and postintervention, assessing feasibility of measuring the primary implementation outcome: adoption of personalised care planning by participating general practices. Participants completed quality of life, and service use measures at baseline, 4 and 9 months. Results: 60 PWD (75% of recruitment target) and 51 carers (77% of recruitment target) were recruited from seven general practices across four PCNs. Retention rate at 9 months was 70.0% of PWD and 76.5% of carers. The recruitment approach showed potential for including under-represented groups within dementia. Despite implementation challenges, the intervention was feasible and acceptable, and showed early signs of sustainability. Study procedures were feasible and accessible, although researcher capacity was crucial. Participants needed time and support to engage with the study. Care plan audit procedures were feasible and acceptable

Performance Mapping and Control; Enhanced Musical Connections and a Strategy to Optimise Flow-State

The technical act of routing and combining control signals from physical interfaces and mapping their parameters to a sound-generating device requires focus and attention to detail. This is at odds with the performative intention of achieving the state of flow described by Nakamura and Csikszentmihalyi (2014), which in improvisational performance and gaming vernacular is known as 'being in the zone' (Vyas, 2021). Parameter mapping occurs when a musician performs with a traditional MIDI keyboard, knobs or faders. Alternatively, a performance artist could use movement sensors, or a sound designer utilises a variety of controllers, or develops customised physical interfaces for performance control. The mappings define possibilities, dimensions, and limitations for creative interaction. This mapping process involves connecting tactile physical controls to specific and meaningful parameters within a given sound-generating construct. Parameter mapping both defines the interaction between humans and machines, and enables fluid and intentional performances. However, this logical mapping process is often tedious and time-consuming, and is incompatible with achieving and maintaining a creative flow state. To better understand, and improve this technology, the researcher conducted interviews with practitioners using live MIDI control. After thematic analysis of the interviews, two key issues were revealed. First, practitioners typically deploy any control interface they possess or design, regardless of the quantity and style of physical controls and their direct compatibility with the target system. Second, practitioners do not want to reconfigure each new sound structure to provide compatibility with their performance apparatus. These interviews informed strategies to enhance the mapping flow between two different systems. The Kyma sound-design platform was used as a host to generate a dynamic set of sound structures that contain several varied control types. Max and a Node.js (JavaScript) server were used to map, combine, and route control signals to Kyma. These mappings could then be assigned, merged and swapped in real time without interrupting the sound processing or performance flow. This new system allowed performers and their directors to interact with the same sound structure, moving an offline logical configuration process toward a real-time reflexive, and creative act. This chapter demonstrates the emergent development of the system, and then extrapolates towards future possibilities of the system

Establishing equitable partnerships between the Global North and Global South. [Correspondence]

In response to The Lancet and colonialism: past, present, and future, colonial legacies affect not only what is published in medical journals. How research takes place to produce such publications has been described as parasitic and parachute. Fostering truly equitable partnerships requires addressing systemic disparities in research funding and capacity. The current inequity is being perpetuated by a series of challenges. A recent British Academy call required 17 pieces of documentation from partners from low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) to be submitted with the grant application. This disadvantages institutions that lack extensive administrative resources and implies a lack of trust in Global South (countries below the Brandt line) partners’ ability to conduct operations appropriately without Global North (countries above the Brandt line) oversight, perpetuating a paternalistic approach.3 Institutions in LMICs not already supported by (post)colonial partners are often woefully underfunded. Bids with them are less likely to succeed than those with partners who are already well equipped. A recent Wellcome Trust-funded pilot project to address power imbalances4,5 was, ironically, awarded to one of the institutions identified as, “asserting European superiority [and] preclude[ing] crediting colonised peoples’ knowledge”1 in Khan and colleagues’ Viewpoint. Health challenges in LMICs are thus addressed by a select few institutions. Researchers from LMICs are hardly ever the principal investigator. Even when they are, they are more likely to follow research geared towards interests of high-income countries (HICs).6 An urgent dialogue is needed to develop sustainable funding that will increase research capacity in LMICs. Meeting this aim requires support for infrastructure development and staff training (including technicians); a flow of funding for consumables and fieldwork; and training and support in meeting the administrative requirements of funders from HICs. Each site's journey towards independence and self-sustainability could necessitate tailored business training. When undertaken properly, this will greatly increase the number of facilities in LMICs capable of operating in equal partnership, the quality of research produced, the incentives for young researchers to build their careers in-country, and, as a result, their ability to undertake research of international quality and to publish as first authors in international journals

Re-imagining Healthy Ageing Through the Lens of Flagship Campaigns: An Introduction

The Decade of Healthy Ageing 2021–2030 and related campaigns are promising initiatives aimed at supporting older adults and their families. Some crises that are experienced globally (e.g. climate change, natural disaster/earthquake, war/violence, infectious diseases, and extreme industrialisation), however, can offset the desired outcomes of these campaigns and make their action plans unachievable. This edited book offers an interdisciplinary discourse on how healthy ageing can be made more realistic amidst crises. It reframes healthy ageing using action plans of flagship campaigns as a lens and comprises 15 chapters contributed by 43 authors in 13 countries. The multidisciplinary nature of the book’s authorship underscores the applicability of its models and evidence in a wide spectrum of disciplines, including public health, architecture, sociology, engineering, finance, human resources management, geography, and social marketing. The themes covered span action plans of the Decade of Healthy Ageing 2021–2030 related to age-friendly communities, ageism, and research data and evidence for healthy ageing. The book suggests that healthy ageing is analogous to ‘sustainable ageing’ in contexts experiencing crises where individuals ultimately maintain healthy longevity despite health and social threats

Backstepping-Based Quasi-Sliding Mode Control and Observation for Electric Vehicle Systems: A Solution to Unmatched Load and Road Perturbations

The direct current (DC) motor is the core part of an electrical vehicle (EV). The unmatched perturbation of load torque is a challenging problem in the control of an EV system driven by a DC motor and hence a deep control concern is required. In this study, the proposed solution is to present two control approaches based on a backstepping control algorithm for speed trajectory tracking of EVs. The first control design is to develop the backstepping controller based on a quasi-sliding mode disturbance observer (BS-QSMDO), and the other controller is to combine the backstepping control with quasi-integral sliding mode control (BS-QISMC). In the sense of Lyapunov-based stability analysis, the ultimate boundedness of the proposed controllers has been detailedly analyzed, assessed, and evaluated in the presence of unmatched perturbation. A modified stability analysis has been presented to determine the ultimate bounds of disturbance estimation error for both controllers. The determination of ultimate bound and region-of-attraction for tracking and estimation errors is the contribution achieved by the proposed control design. The performances of the proposed controllers have been verified via computer simulations and the level of ultimate bounds for the estimation and tracking errors are the key measures for their evaluation. Compared to BS-QISMC, the results showed that a lower level of ultimate boundedness with a higher convergent rate can be reached based on BS-QSMO. However, a higher control effort can be exerted by the BS-QSMO controller as compared to BS-QISMC; and this is the price to be paid by the BS-QSMO controller to achieve lower ultimate boundedness with a faster convergence rate