Intellectuels africains, patriotisme et panafricanisme : à propos de la fuite des cerveaux

Under the guise of a simple sociological description, the concept of brain drain hides a value judgement on the duties of intellectuals towards their homelands. We would not talk about ‘drain’ if every intellectual was not primarily considered as attached to a specific country, a specific continent, and as having some ‘patriotic duty’ to contribute, with all his/her intellectual capacity, to the development,prosperity and influence of their homeland. The intellectuals who havechosen emigration could be accused of prioritizing their interests, and shamefully dissociating themselves from the destiny of their countries, their continents and their peoples. Those intellectuals could be blamed for having failed to make a contribution, however modest it could be, to the construction of fair, democratic and prosperous African societies and to help in the implementation of those nationalist and pan-Africanist projects that were envisioned around the earlypost-independence period. Yet, is patriotism (as well as nationalism) to be considered as a virtue, and should brain drain be regarded as a vice? Aren’t there situations where brain drain itself could be regarded as a virtue, at least in the sense that it could help to put at the service of humankind and its own society (through states that recognize and value it) talents that otherwise would have been left untapped? These are some of the questions, which in fact implicitly contain our assumption, guiding the reflection that we have developed in this article

A Study of Brain Networks Associated with Swallowing Using Graph-Theoretical Approaches

Functional connectivity between brain regions during swallowing tasks is still not well understood. Understanding these complex interactions is of great interest from both a scientific and a clinical perspective. In this study, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was utilized to study brain functional networks during voluntary saliva swallowing in twenty-two adult healthy subjects (all females, 23.1±1.52 years of age). To construct these functional connections, we computed mean partial correlation matrices over ninety brain regions for each participant. Two regions were determined to be functionally connected if their correlation was above a certain threshold. These correlation matrices were then analyzed using graph-theoretical approaches. In particular, we considered several network measures for the whole brain and for swallowing-related brain regions. The results have shown that significant pairwise functional connections were, mostly, either local and intra-hemispheric or symmetrically inter-hemispheric. Furthermore, we showed that all human brain functional network, although varying in some degree, had typical small-world properties as compared to regular networks and random networks. These properties allow information transfer within the network at a relatively high efficiency. Swallowing-related brain regions also had higher values for some of the network measures in comparison to when these measures were calculated for the whole brain. The current results warrant further investigation of graph-theoretical approaches as a potential tool for understanding the neural basis of dysphagia. © 2013 Luan et al

Sequelae due to bacterial meningitis among African children: a systematic literature review

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>African children have some of the highest rates of bacterial meningitis in the world. Bacterial meningitis in Africa is associated with high case fatality and frequent neuropsychological sequelae. The objective of this study is to present a comprehensive review of data on bacterial meningitis sequelae in children from the African continent.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We conducted a systematic literature search to identify studies from Africa focusing on children aged between 1 month to 15 years with laboratory-confirmed bacterial meningitis. We extracted data on neuropsychological sequelae (hearing loss, vision loss, cognitive delay, speech/language disorder, behavioural problems, motor delay/impairment, and seizures) and mortality, by pathogen.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A total of 37 articles were included in the final analysis representing 21 African countries and 6,029 children with confirmed meningitis. In these studies, nearly one fifth of bacterial meningitis survivors experienced in-hospital sequelae (median = 18%, interquartile range (IQR) = 13% to 27%). About a quarter of children surviving pneumococcal meningitis and <it>Haemophilus influenzae </it>type b (Hib) meningitis had neuropsychological sequelae by the time of hospital discharge, a risk higher than in meningococcal meningitis cases (median = 7%). The highest in-hospital case fatality ratios observed were for pneumococcal meningitis (median = 35%) and Hib meningitis (median = 25%) compared to meningococcal meningitis (median = 4%). The 10 post-discharge studies of children surviving bacterial meningitis were of varying quality. In these studies, 10% of children followed-up post discharge died (range = 0% to 18%) and a quarter of survivors had neuropsychological sequelae (range = 3% to 47%) during an average follow-up period of 3 to 60 months.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Bacterial meningitis in Africa is associated with high mortality and risk of neuropsychological sequelae. Pneumococcal and Hib meningitis kill approximately one third of affected children and cause clinically evident sequelae in a quarter of survivors prior to hospital discharge. The three leading causes of bacterial meningitis are vaccine preventable, and routine use of conjugate vaccines could provide substantial health and economic benefits through the prevention of childhood meningitis cases, deaths and disability.</p

Théories de la justice Justice globale, agents de la justice et justice de genre – Séminaires doctoraux de Yaoundé Yaoundé PhD seminars 2012-2014 (Global justice, officers of justice and gender justice - doctoral seminars of Yaoundé Yaoundé PhD seminars 2012-2014)

Le Yaoundé PhD Seminar-Theories of Justice est un séminaire international et pluridisciplinaire qui se tient depuis 2012 à Yaoundé (Cameroun). Il réunit des professeurs et des doctorants africains et non africains ainsi que des professionnels et des représentants de la société civile autour de questions de justice sociale et de politique publique. À l'initiative de doctorants africains et non africains, il a été mis en place conjointement par la Chaire Hoover de l'Université catholique de Louvain (UCL) et par le Centre d’études et de recherches sur la justice sociale et politique de l’Université catholique d’Afrique centrale (UCAC) dans le but de bâtir une véritable solidarité entre le Nord et le Sud dans le domaine de la formation académique et de la recherche. The Yaoundé PhD Seminar-Theories of Justice is an international and multidisciplinary seminar which is held since 2012 in Yaoundé (Cameroon). It brings together teachers and African and non-African doctoral students as well as professionals and representatives of civil society around issues of social justice and public policy. At the initiative of African and non-African students, it has been implemented jointly by the Hoover Chair of the Catholic University of Louvain (UCL) and the Centre of studies and research on social justice and political of the Catholic University of Central Africa (UCAC) in order to build a genuine solidarity between the North and the South in the field of academic training and research