Systematic reviews in context: highlighting systematic reviews relevant to Africa in the Pan African Medical Journal

Health research serves to answer questions concerning health and to accumulate facts (evidence) required to guide healthcare policy and practice. However, research designs vary and different types of healthcare questions are best answered by different study designs. For example, qualitative studies are best suited for answering questions about experiences and meaning; cross-sectional studies for questions concerning prevalence; cohort studies for questions regarding incidence and prognosis; and randomised controlled trials for questions on prevention and treatment. In each case, one study would rarely yield sufficient evidence on which to reliably base a healthcare decision. An unbiased and transparent summary of all existing studies on a given question (i.e. a systematic review) tells a better story than any one of the included studies taken separately. A systematic review enables producers and users of research to gauge what a new study has contributed to knowledge by setting the study’s findings in the context of all previous studies investigating the same question. It is therefore inappropriate to initiate a new study without first conducting a systematic review to find out what can be learnt from existing studies. There is nothing new in taking account of earlier studies in either the design or interpretation of new studies. For example, in the 18th century James Lind conducted a clinical trial followed by a systematic review of contemporary treatments for scurvy; which showed fruits to be an effective treatment for the disease. However, surveys of the peerreviewed literature continue to provide empirical evidence that systematic reviews are seldom used in the design and interpretation of the findings of new studies. Such indifference to systematic reviews as a research function is unethical, unscientific, and uneconomical. Without systematic reviews, limited resources are very likely to be squandered on ill-conceived research and policies. In order to contribute in enhancing the value of research in Africa, the Pan African Medical Journal will start a new regular column that will highlight priority systematic reviews relevant to the continent.Pan African Medical Journal 2016; 2

Effets de la lisibilité du texte et de l’image sur l’efficacité du message publicitaire

Dans le domaine de la publicité, le modèle de Petty et Cacioppo (1979) est encore largement reconnu pour tenter d’expliquer les processus de persuasion et de changements d’attitude du consommateur. Ce modèle ne tient pas compte du degré d’élaboration cognitive du message par le récepteur ce que vient résoudre le modèle de Mick (1992). Nous tentons d’établir des liens entre ces deux modèles à partir d’une recherche exploratoire portant sur les effets de lisibilité d’un texte et d’une image publicitaire.Nous avons mesuré les effets de la manipulation de certaines variables (niveaux d’implication, niveaux de lisibilité d’un texte et niveaux de lisibilité d’une représentation picturale du message publicitaire) sur le changement d’attitude, la mémorisation et la compréhension du message publicitaire. Nos résultats montrent que nos hypothèses se sont révélées justes sous implication forte, mais les modèles ne permettent pas de prédire le comportement du consommateur, en particulier la compréhension, sous implication faible.In advertising, in the field of persuasive communication, Petty & Caccioppo's "Elaboration Likelihood Model" (1979) is still considered as an important milestone to explain attitudes changes. This model did not take into account levels of subject's comprehension. Mick (1992), in his information processing model, related levels of objective and subjective comprehension in advertising processing to ad perceptions, attitudes and memory. Our objectives are to elaborate relations between those two models in a readability context.A 2x2x2 experiment was designed to test the effects of two levels of text readability, two levels of picture readability, and two levels of issue-involvement on the attitudes toward the advertising message and the intend to behave accordingly. The "Elaboration Likelihood Model" hypotheses were tested. Results show some suppport for our hypothesis under high involvement but not under low involvement. This research comfirm the importance of intelligibility and comprehensibility in the advertising strategy

Integrated Management: A Coastal Community Perspective

This paper was prepared for the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations Regional Workshops on Small-Scale Fisheries "Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries: Bringing together responsible fisheries and social development". It presents a review of what are seen as 'good practices' globally in policy and governance of small-scale fisheries, with a particular focus on addressing rights-based issues, viewed broadly as incorporating fishery rights, other rights to natural resources, and rights and entitlements in relation to human, social and economic rights. It draws extensively on the 1995 Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries and related technical guidelines, particularly those concerning small-scale fisheries and their roles in poverty alleviation and food security, and the human dimensions of the ecosystem approach to fisheries. The paper is also strongly informed by the papers prepared for and outcomes of the 2008 Global Conference on "Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries: Bringing together responsible fisheries and social development" and the relevant rights-oriented components of the 'Bangkok Statement' produced by the Civil Society Preparatory Workshop for the Global Conference. It also draws upon a set of research documents in the international literature focusing on small-scale fisheries and related policy issues [e.g., Allison et al. (2010), Charles (2009, 2011), McConney and Charles (2009); Kurien (2000, 2007)]

QUALITE INSTITUTIONNELLE ET DEVELOPPEMENT FINANCIER DANS LA CEMAC: UNE ANALYSE PANEL VAR

The countries of CEMAC have been reporting for several decades a credit rationing problem. However, a series of reforms was made there in the early 1990s with the aim of promoting the financial development of the region. The obvious failure of these reforms to date has led to the search for the reasons. One of the arguments widely accepted in the literature is that of the quality of institutions. This is why this study aims to determine the effect of institutional quality on the financial development of CEMAC countries. To do this, data, ranging from 1985 to 2016, from the World Bank, the BEAC and the International Country Risk Guide made it possible to estimate a VAR Panel using the generalized moments method. As a result, it emerged that the institutional quality in CEMAC is not yet capable of promoting the financial development of the countries of this region. These include the quality of bureaucracy, corruption control, democratic accountability and the legal and judicial system. However, by acting positively on the business climate of the region, the financial development of these countries comes out beneficial. It also appears that the budgetary balance and economic growth of the countries of this region are favorable to the financial development of these countries

MOBILE MONEY ET AUTO-EMPLOI DES FEMMES EN AFRIQUE

In this work the objective is to determine the effect of mobile money on the self-employment of women in Africa. The pursuit of this objective required data, between 2010 and 2018, from the World Bank (2019) and the Financial Access Survey (2019). Thanks to the use of Panel Corrected Standard Error and the least squares possible, it appears that an increase in mobile money transactions is favorable to the self-employment of women in Africa. It also appears that the regulation of the private sector tends to discourage women in Africa to undertake and the refore to self-employ. These results suggest that mobile money should be encouraged among women in these countries. And that it is important to create a favorable business climate, which requires optimal regulation of the private sector

Fatally entangled right whales can die extremely slowly

Author Posting. © IEEE, 2006. This article is posted here by permission of IEEE for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Proceedings Oceans 2006, Boston, MA, USA, 3 pp, doi:10.1109/OCEANS.2006.306792.Unlike smaller marine mammals that lack the mass and power to break free from serious entanglements in fixed fishing gear, right whales can do so, but they are not always rope free. The remaining rope can gradually constrict one or more body parts and the resulting debilitation and ultimate death can take many months. Thus the practices that lead to these mortalities need to be viewed not only as a conflict between the cultural and socioeconomic value of a fishery versus a potential species extinction process, but also in terms of an extreme animal welfare issue.Supported by NOAA NA04NMF4720392, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Ocean Life Institute, and the North Pond Foundation