Using Indigenous Approaches as a Bridge between Policies, Interventions, and the Grassroots

Indigenous approaches are crucial for indigenous people across the world including Africans, in assessing the impact of imperialism and its manifestations in colonialism, liberalism, globalization, and Western research. Such approaches acknowledge the fundamental importance of local culture, recognizing that geographical, empirically based knowledge provides culturally appropriate solutions to problems. Indigenous approaches serve as a bridge between policies, interventions, and the grassroots. Social work, as a practice-based profession and an academic discipline, should acknowledge and include indigenous knowledge and methodologies in its curriculum. It is important to empower and provide space and a voice for the grassroots to articulate problems and participate in solving them by sharing their own wisdom and experiences. It is shortsighted and unworkable to rely upon prescribed Western policies and curriculums with the assumption that they will seamlessly transfer to other, fundamentally different, people and cultures. Failing to discard such an “apples to apples approach” will only result in a prolonged failure to adequately address the socioeconomic problems in Sub-Saharan Africa and will only perpetuate the problems associated with imperialism and [neo]colonialism. This chapter provides conceptual definitions to constructs such as decolonization and indigenous knowledge and demonstrates the importance of decolonization and indigenous approaches in social work scholarship and practice as it relates to Africa

Estimation de l’humidité du sol en milieu agricole par combinaison des données polarimétriques radar en bande C et des micro-ondes passives en bande L

L’humidité du sol a un rôle majeur dans la régulation des éléments du climat (précipitations, température, H2O atmosphérique) et du cycle de l’eau. Pour étudier l’humidité du sol à l’échelle globale, la télédétection spatiale micro-onde présente un fort potentiel. Dans le cas du satellite Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP), les méthodes initialement développées permettaient d’obtenir trois produits d’humidité du sol : actif, passif et actif-passif avec une résolution spatiale fine de 3 km, grossière de 40 km et moyenne de 9 km, respectivement. Cependant, six mois après le lancement du satellite, son radar s’est détérioré, empêchant SMAP de générer des produits d’humidité du sol à fine et moyenne résolution spatiale. Dès lors, des équipes de recherche ont étudié la possibilité de combiner des mesures micro-ondes actives et passives avec des capteurs installés sur des plateformes différentes et opérant à des fréquences différentes. Ce projet propose une approche de combinaison des mesures micro-ondes actives et passives de satellites différents pour estimer l’humidité du sol à 1 km de résolution spatiale sur le site de la campagne terrain SMAPVEX16-MB, situé dans une zone agricole du Manitoba. La méthode est basée sur une désagrégation de la température de brillance (TB) de SMAP, de 40 km à 1 km de résolution spatiale, en utilisant les données polarimétriques en bande C de Radarsat-2 corrigées de l’effet de la végétation (la contribution de surface : Ps), plus sensible à l’humidité du sol. La contribution de surface (Ps) est obtenue en appliquant la décomposition polarimétrique de Freeman-Durden. Le résultat de la désagrégation est une température de brillance à 1 km de résolution spatiale, qui est ensuite utilisée dans l’algorithme du Single Chanel Algorithm pour estimer l’humidité du sol à 1 km de résolution spatiale. En ce qui concerne l’estimation de l’humidité du sol, pour tous les dix champs considérés, nous avons obtenu les meilleurs résultats en utilisant les TBV : coefficients de corrélation de Pearson (R) compris entre 0,42 et 0,86, p-values comprises entre 0,003 et 0,27 et erreurs quadratiques moyennes (RMSE) comprises entre 0,02 m3.m -3 et 0,05 m3.m -3. Lorsque nous utilisons les TBH pour estimer l’humidité du sol, nous obtenons : R compris entre 0,39 et 0,75, p-values comprises entre 0,02 et 0,30 et RMSE comprises entre 0,02 m3.m -3 et 0,15 m3.m -3. Ce projet nous a permis d’implémenter une méthode innovatrice de combinaison de données micro-ondes actives et passives pour l’étude de l’humidité du sol. L’approche proposée utilise les Ps au lieu de σ^0 contrairement à la plupart des méthodes que l’on trouve dans la littérature depuis la détérioration du radar de SMAP.Abstract : Soil moisture plays a major role in the regulation of climate elements (precipitation, temperature, atmospheric H2O) and water balance. To study the soil moisture at a global scale, spaceborne microwave remote sensing has a great potential. In the case of the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite, the initially developed methods provided three soil moisture products : active, passive and active-passive with a fine spatial resolution of 3 km, coarse 40 km and medium 9 km, respectively. However, six months after the launch of the satellite, its radar failed, preventing SMAP from generating soil moisture products at fine (3 km) and medium (9 km) spatial resolutions. Since then, research teams have studied the possibility of combining active and passive measurements with sensors installed on different platforms and operating at different frequencies. This project proposes a combined approach of active and passive microwave measurements of different satellites to estimate soil moisture at 1 km spatial resolution at the SMAPVEX16-MB field campaign site, located in an agricultural area of Manitoba. The method is based on a disaggregation of the brightness temperature (TB) of SMAP, from 40 km to 1 km spatial resolution, using Radarsat-2 polarimetric C-band data corrected for vegetation effects. These are represented by the surface contribution (Ps), which is more sensitive to soil moisture and extracted by applying the polarimetric decomposition of Freeman-Durden (Freeman and Durden, 1998) to Radarsat-2 data. Regarding the estimation of the soil moisture, for all the ten fields considered, we obtained the best results by using TBV: (Pearson correlation R between 0.42 and 0.86, p-values between 0.003 and 0.27, and root mean square errors (RMSE) between 0.02 m3.m -3 and 0.05 m3.m -3). When TBH was used to estimate soil moisture, the results were less accurate (R between 0.39 and 0.75 p-values between 0.02 and 0.30; and RMSE between 0.02 m3.m -3 and 0.15 m3.m -3). This project allowed us to implement an innovative methodology using Ps instead of 0 in contrast to most of the approaches combining active and passive microwave data for soil moisture estimation, since the failure of the radar onboard SMAP

Obstetric emergencies in the maternity ward of the Ignace Deen national hospital CHU of Conakry: sociodemographic, therapeutic and maternal fetal prognosis aspects

Background: Despite government efforts to reduce maternal mortality, the risk of a woman dying from obstetric complications is about one in six in the poorest regions of the world compared to one in thirty thousand in North Europe. The objective was therefore to describe the clinical socio-demographic aspects and to establish the maternal and fetal prognosis of obstetric emergencies.Methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional prospective study over a 6-month period from January 1 to June 30, 2020 carried out at the maternity ward of the Ignace Deen national hospital (Conakry university hospital) in Guinea. The study looked at a continuous series of 662 obstetric emergency cases.Results: The frequency of admission of obstetric emergencies was 22.62%. They concerned young women (29.5 years old) on average, first-time mothers (53.32%), with low income professional activities, evacuated from a peripheral maternity unit (63.14%), no schooling (44.9%), married (92.3%), using the more often a means of public transport (66.5%) and whose pregnancies were poorly monitored (63.9%). Fetal emergencies were dominated by acute fetal distress (91.3%) and maternal emergencies were dominated by hypertensive emergencies (pre-eclampsia and eclampsia 37.44%) followed by hemorrhagic emergencies (last trimester hemorrhage and postpartum hemorrhage 34.34%). Pregnant and parturient women were more frequently admitted to labor (62.7%) and gave birth more frequently by caesarean section (86.70%). the staff reacted promptly to make a treatment decision in 75.5% of cases within fifteen minutes. emergency procedures were performed in less than fifteen minutes in almost all cases (97.4%), specific treatment was carried out in less than an hour in the majority of cases (68.3%). The maternal case fatality rate was 4.1% with the main cause of death being hemorrhagic shock of 51.8%. The stillbirth rate was 17.4%.Conclusions: The anticipation of emergency obstetric care (SOU) and close collaboration between the obstetrician, the anesthesiologist-resuscitator are essential in the management of obstetric emergencies

Obstetrical complications among adolescent girls at the maternity ward of Ignace Deen National Hospital

Background: The objective of this study was to highlight obstetrical complications that occurred among adolescent girls who delivered at the ward and to identify factors associated with the occurrence of such complications.Methods: This was a prospective study of descriptive and analytical type extending over a period of one year from September 1, 2016 to August 31, 2017 carried out at the maternity ward of Ignace Deen National Hospital at Conakry Teaching Hospital (CHU). It covered a continuous series of 1034 deliveries among adolescent girls.Results: The frequency of childbirth among adolescent girls was 16.7%. The main complications identified were dystocia, severe preeclampsia, eclampsia, retroplacental hematoma, placenta previa, uterine rupture, severe anemia, postpartum hemorrhage and puerperal endometritis. These complications occurred among adolescent girls aged 18 to 19, christian, skin and pelvic bones secondary school or university students. Factors associated with such complications were the marital status (p=0.010), the gestational age (p=0.012), the number of prenatal consultations (p=0.001), the place of prenatal consultation (p=0.001), the reason for admission (p=0.000) and the mode of admission (p=0.000).Conclusions: Childbirth among adolescent girls is frequent in this context; complications are numerous but they are preventable in the vast majority of cases

Post-operative maternal morbidity and mortality after caesarean delivery and laparotomy for uterine rupture at the gynecology and obstetrics service of the Ignace Deen National Hospital in Guinea

Background: The aim of the work was to study post-operative maternal morbidity and mortality after caesarean delivery and laparotomy for uterine failure, to describe the main causes and to analyze the risk factors.Methods: It was a descriptive, comparative and analytical study lasting 2 years with data collection in 2 phases, one of which was a retrospective study lasting one year from July 2018 to June 2019 and the other a prospective study also lasting one year, from July 2019 to June 2020. It concerned all pregnant women who had been caesarized or had had a laparotomy for uterine rupture with complications and those who had not developed any complications. The parameters studied were types of complications, risk factors and maternal mortality. The Chi-square test was used to compare the two populations with a significance level p=0.05.Results: During the study period, 6141 hospitalizations were recorded among which 5682 surgical procedures were performed, i.e. 92.52% of hospitalizations. Caesarean delivery accounted for 90.55% of surgical procedures and laparotomy for uterine rupture for 1.10%. The overall maternal post-operative morbidity rate was 7.60%. Post-operative anemia was by far the most common complication (75.76%) followed by infection (23.46%). The maternal death rate was 0.92% with a ratio of 409.97 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births and more than 2/3 of these deaths were due to caesarean delivery. Anemia and septic shock were the main causes of death. Factors related to this post-operative maternal morbidity were: age greater than or equal to 40 years, multi-parity, illiteracy, emergency obstetric evacuation, low socio-economic level, poor quality of prenatal follow-up and rupture of membranes before admission.Conclusion: In the emergency context concerning majority of our cesarean deliveries and the totality of uterine ruptures predispose the mother to high significant morbidity and mortality

Bis(2-benzamido­benzimidazolato-κ2 N 1,O)(N,N-dimethyl­formamide-κO)copper(II)

In the title compound, [Cu(C14H10N3O)2(C3H7NO)], the CuII atom is five-coordinated by two N,O-bidentate 2-benzamido­benzimidazolate anions and one O-coordinated dimethyl­formamide (DMF) mol­ecule, resulting in a distorted square-based pyramidal CuN2O3 geometry for the metal atom, with the DMF O atom at the apical site. In the crystal structure, inter­molecular N—H⋯N hydrogen bonds result in chains of mol­ecules propagating along [100]

Effets du compost enrichi de l’urine humaine sur le rendement de la pomme de terre (MANDOLA) dans la Commune Urbaine de Faranah/République de Guinée

Le faible niveau d’apport des engrais minéraux par les producteurs dus son prix exorbitant est l’un des facteurs limitant la production de la pomme de terre. Le compost enrichi de l’urine constitue une alternative pour augmenter le rendement des cultures à faible coût. L’objectif principal de ce travail était d’évaluer l’effet des doses du compost enrichi de l’urine humaine sur le rendement de la pomme de terre (MANDOLA). Les doses du compost enrichi par l’urine humaine utilisées sont : D0=0t/ha (Témoin) ; D1=15t /ha (240g /poquet) ; D2=30t /ha (480g/poquet) ; D3= 45t /ha (720g/poquet). Les résultats de l’observation phénologique ont montré que les différentes doses appliquées ont eu un effet en réduisant le cycle végétatif de la culture D1 (72 jours), D2 et D3 (70 jours) contre D0 (74 jours). Au vu des résultats d’analyse de variance, le rendement total en tubercules la dose D3 (13,07 t /ha) a été meilleure, suivie de D2 (12,76 t/ha) et D1 (11,98 t/ha) ; le plus faible rendement a été obtenu au niveau du témoin D0 (10,16t/ha). Cela dénote que l’apport du compost enrichi de l’urine humaine contribue à l’augmentation du rendement de la pomme terre

Lanthanide(III) complexes with tridentate Schiff base ligand, antioxidant activity and x-ray crystal structures of the Nd(III) and Sm(III) complexes

The tridentate N4-type Schiff base was synthesized from the condensation reaction of 2-hydrazinopyridine and pyridine-2-carbaldehyde. Neodymium and Samarium complexes were isolated when the corresponding nitrate salt was added to the solution of the ligand. The isolated compounds were characterized by elemental analyses, IR study, room temperature magnetic measurements and single X-ray crystal diffraction of the two crystals. Both complexes crystallize in the monoclinic system with space group P21/c. The cell parameters of the Nd complex are a=11.0927(8) Å, b=17.9926 (13) Å, c=11.9395(9)Å and β = 115.274(5) ° while the Sm complex shows parameters cell of a = 11.0477(8) Å, b = 17.9254(13) Å, c = 11.9149(8) Å and β =115.489(5) °. The X-ray study reveals isotopic Nd/Sm binuclear structures were each metal ion is nine-coordinated in the same fashion. Both metal centers have distorted tricapped trigonal prism geometry, with the Schiff base acting as tridentate ligand. The DPPH· radical scavenging effects of the Schiff base ligand and its Ln(III) complexes were screened. The Ln(III) complexes were significantly more efficient in quenching DPPH· than the free Schiff base ligand.Keywords: Lanthanide complexes, hydrazino, antioxidant activity, X-ray structur

1,2-Bis(N′-benzoyl­thio­ureido)benzene

The title compound, C22H18N4O2S2, was characterized by 1H and 13C NMR, solid-state IR spectroscopy and X-ray crystallographic techniques. The crystal structure determination reveals that the twisting modes of the two side arms are different [C—N—C—O and C—N—C—N torsion angles = −1.2 (3) and 1.1 (3)°, respectively, in one arm and 24.1 (3) and −5.1 (3)°, respectively, in the other]. The crystal structure involves N—H⋯O and N—H⋯S hydrogen bonds

Synthesis, physical studies and crystal structure determination of Y(III) and Er(III) complexes of 1-(pyridin-2-yl)-2-(pyridine-2-ylmethylene)hydrazine

Two isotype mononuclear yttrium(III) and erbium(III) complexes, {[Y(HL)(OAc)2(H2O)2]. (H2O)∙(NO3)} (1) and {[Er(HL) (OAc)2(H2O)2].(H2O)∙(NO3)} (2), where HL is the neutral Schiff base ligand 1-(pyridin-2-yl)-2-(pyridine-2-ylmethylene)hydrazine, and OAc is the acetate anion, have been synthesized and characterized by physicochemical methods and single crystal X-ray determination. Both complexes crystallizes in the triclinic space group Pī with unit cell dimensions for complex of Y(III) a = 7.909 (2) Å, b = 11.718 (4) Å, c = 12.497 (3) Å,    α = 78.907 (3)°, b = 73.840 (3)°, γ = 72.074 (3)°, V = 1051.26 (6) Å3, Z = 2, R1 = 0.051 and    wR2 = 0.112 and for complex of Er(III)a = 7.913 (1) Å, b = 11.719 (2) Å, c = 12.487 (2) Å,          α = 78.832 (1)°, α = 73.674 (1)°, γ = 72.012 (1)°, V = 1049.64 (3) Å3, Z = 2, R1 = 0.028, and   wR2 = 0.062. In both complexes, the coordination polyhedra around Ln(III) atoms are best described as a distorted tricapped trigonal prism. Antioxidant activities of the ligand and its Y(III) and Er(III) complexes are studied