Assessing the Effectiveness of Partners in Quitting, a Text Message-Based Smoking Cessation Program

This presentation will discuss the implementation of Partners in Quitting, a new text message-based smoking cessation program. It will also provide preliminary data on client engagement rates, program effectiveness, and program challenges. Partners in Quitting is an outreach program that has been implemented at Bread for the City, a large DC hub for free health and social services. Partners in Quitting provides an evidence-based, easily accessible, and comprehensive smoking cessation program to the clients of Bread for the City

Situating Sexual Violence in Rwanda (1990–2001): Sexual Agency, Sexual Consent, and the Political Economy of War

This article situates the sexual violence associated with the Rwandan civil war and 1994 genocide within a local cultural history and political economy in which institutionalized gender violence shaped the choices of Rwandan women and girls. Based on ethnographic research, it argues that Western notions of sexual consent are not applicable to a culture in which colonialism, government policy, war, and scarcity of resources have limited women’s access to land ownership, economic security, and other means of survival. It examines emic cultural models of sexual consent and female sexual agency and proposes that sexual slavery, forced marriage, prostitution, transactional sex, nonmarital sex, informal marriage or cohabitation, and customary (bridewealth) marriages exist on a continuum on which female sexual agency becomes more and more constrained by material circumstance. Even when women’s choices are limited, sometimes impossibly limited, they still exercise their agency to survive. Conflating all forms of sex in conflict zones under the rubric of harm undermines women’s and children’s rights because it reinforces gendered hierarchies and diverts attention from the structural conditions of poverty in postconflict societies

Recent acquisition of Helicobacter pylori by Baka Pygmies

Both anatomically modern humans and the gastric pathogen Helicobacter pylori originated in Africa, and both species have been associated for at least 100,000 years. Seven geographically distinct H. pylori populations exist, three of which are indigenous to Africa: hpAfrica1, hpAfrica2, and hpNEAfrica. The oldest and most divergent population, hpAfrica2, evolved within San hunter-gatherers, who represent one of the deepest branches of the human population tree. Anticipating the presence of ancient H. pylori lineages within all hunter-gatherer populations, we investigated the prevalence and population structure of H. pylori within Baka Pygmies in Cameroon. Gastric biopsies were obtained by esophagogastroduodenoscopy from 77 Baka from two geographically separated populations, and from 101 non-Baka individuals from neighboring agriculturalist populations, and subsequently cultured for H. pylori. Unexpectedly, Baka Pygmies showed a significantly lower H. pylori infection rate (20.8%) than non-Baka (80.2%). We generated multilocus haplotypes for each H. pylori isolate by DNA sequencing, but were not able to identify Baka-specific lineages, and most isolates in our sample were assigned to hpNEAfrica or hpAfrica1. The population hpNEAfrica, a marker for the expansion of the Nilo-Saharan language family, was divided into East African and Central West African subpopulations. Similarly, a new hpAfrica1 subpopulation, identified mainly among Cameroonians, supports eastern and western expansions of Bantu languages. An age-structured transmission model shows that the low H. pylori prevalence among Baka Pygmies is achievable within the timeframe of a few hundred years and suggests that demographic factors such as small population size and unusually low life expectancy can lead to the eradication of H. pylori from individual human populations. The Baka were thus either H. pylori-free or lost their ancient lineages during past demographic fluctuations. Using coalescent simulations and phylogenetic inference, we show that Baka almost certainly acquired their extant H. pylori through secondary contact with their agriculturalist neighbors

Forging networks and mixing ores: rethinking the social landscapes of iron metallurgy

This research explores the networks of technological knowledge that influenced changes in the iron production practices of western Uganda in the second half of the second millennium AD. Temporal and spatial variability in technological processes were observed within the research area, in terms of the style and construction of the furnaces, the use of a manganese-rich flux, and the configuration of tuyères. These shifts were considered in relation to the social dimensions of iron production, specifically the protection of technical knowledge. Informed by ethnographic data from the study area, variations were noted in the participation in, or exclusion from, iron production activity on the basis of gender and clan affiliation. This stands in contrast to ethno-historic accounts that speak of a strongly regulated production environment. This paper considers that an uncritical emphasis on conservatism provides an inadequate framework for addressing long-term change in iron production technologies. It suggests that constellations of knowledge in western Uganda fostered the potential for innovation and experimentation, resulting in dynamic technological practice. This paper urges a more nuanced discussion of how complex metallurgical technologies transform and move within cultural and physical landscapes, with ramifications for how we conceptualize the emergence and adoption of early technologies

Deciphering long-term records of natural variability and human impact as recorded in lake sediments: a palaeolimnological puzzle

Global aquatic ecosystems are under increasing threat from anthropogenic activity, as well as being exposed to past (and projected) climate change, however, the nature of how climate and human impacts are recorded in lake sediments is often ambiguous. Natural and anthropogenic drivers can force a similar response in lake systems, yet the ability to attribute what change recorded in lake sediments is natural, from that which is anthropogenic, is increasingly important for understanding how lake systems have, and will continue to function when subjected to multiple stressors; an issue that is particularly acute when considering management options for aquatic ecosystems. The duration and timing of human impacts on lake systems varies geographically, with some regions of the world (such as Africa and South America) having a longer legacy of human impact than others(e.g. New Zealand). A wide array of techniques (biological, chemical, physical and statistical) is available to palaeolimnologists to allow the deciphering of complex sedimentary records. Lake sediments are an important archive of how drivers have changed through time, and how these impacts manifest in lake systems. With a paucity of ‘real‐time’ data pre‐dating human impact, palaeolimnological archives offer the only insight into both natural variability (i.e. that driven by climate and intrinsic lake processes) and the impact of people. Whilst there is a need to acknowledge complexity, and temporal and spatial variability when deciphering change from sediment archives, a palaeolimnological approach is a powerful tool for better understanding and managing global aquatic resources