Does Corruption Increase the risk Premium on the West African Economic Monetary Union (WAEMU) Bond Market?

We study the relationship between corruption and risk premium in West African Economic Monetary Union (WAEMU) market bond. Our sample consists of bonds through a public offering and private placement. For this research data was collected from the stock exchange (Bourse Régionale des Valeurs Mobilières). Number of bonds, average corruption and average spread analysis was used to analyze the data. Most country in WAEMU states has a corruption index below 3.5. The results show that corruption score has negative effects on economic performance indicators and there was a predominance of private placement debt relative to debt through a public offering

La contribution des Universités dans la mise en œuvre des ODD au Sénégal : le cas de l’Université Alioune Diop de Bambey

Ce texte est une contribution à la mise en œuvre des ODD au Sénégal de manière générale, dans la localité de Bambey en particulier. Inspirés de l’approche intégrée des ODD de l’Institut Hydro-Québec en Environnement Développement et Société de l’Université Laval, deux ateliers sont réalisés en juillet 2017 à l’Université Alioune Diop de Bambey (UADB), d’abord avec les occupants de l’Université (étudiants, personnels d’administration technique et de services et enseignants) ensuite avec les acteurs de société civile de Bambey. Ces deux ateliers d’appropriation et de mise en situation des 17 ODD ont abouti à des résultats dont l’analyse sociale, économique et environnementale a mis en exergue, pour chaque cadre d’analyse des problématiques agrégées à des ODD. Des liens directs et indirects sont établis entre l’ODD ciblé et les autres en apportant des justifications à toutes les liaisons positives ou négatives. Le système de priorisation privilégié est axé sur un large consensus sur les ODD pour lesquels, l’UADB et la communauté de Bambey doivent se mobiliser pour ériger l’Université en campus durable et impulser le développement local. Pour propulser la dynamique communautaire et universitaire vers de meilleures conditions de vies des habitants, les participants aux ateliers ont élaboré des solutions aux problèmes sociaux, environnementaux et économiques soulevés. Ces solutions sont formulées sous forme de projets pouvant faire office de laboratoires vivants dans lesquels, des chercheurs, des élus locaux, des organismes communautaires et d’autres acteurs pourront interagir et panser les maux de la commune de Bambey, de l’UADB en renforçant la dynamique de la gouvernance participative, un des prérequis de la mise en œuvre des ODD dans des endroits comme le Sénégal. Mots-clés: ODD, Bambey, développement local, gouvernance participative, organisation communautaire This text is a contribution to the implementation of the SDGs in Senegal in general, in the locality of Bambey in particular. Inspired by the integrated approach of the SDGs of the Hydro-Québec Institute for Environment Development and Society of Laval University, two workshops are conducted in July 2017 at the University Alioune Diop Bambey (UADB), first with the University occupants (students, technical administration and service staff, and teachers) and then with Bambey civil society actors. These two workshops for the appropriation and implementation of the 17 SDGs resulted in results whose social, economic and environmental analysis highlighted, for each framework of analysis of the issues aggregated to the SDGs. Direct and indirect links are established between the targeted SDG and others by providing rationale for all positive and negative linkages. The preferred prioritization system is based on a broad consensus on the SDGs for which the UADB and the Bambey community must mobilize to build the University into a sustainable campus and boost local development. To propel the community and university dynamics towards better living conditions of the inhabitants, the participants of the workshops elaborated solutions to the social, environmental and economic problems raised. These solutions are formulated in the form of projects that can act as living laboratories in which researchers, local elected representatives, community organizations and other actors can interact and heal the ills of the Bambey commune of the UADB by reinforcing the dynamics of participatory governance, one of the prerequisites for implementing the SDGs in places like Senegal. Key words  : SDGs, Bambey, local development, participatory governance, community organisation

Predictors of adherence among antiretroviral therapy naive patients on first-line regimen at Themba Lethu Clinic inJohannesburg: results from a prospective cohort study

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Epidemiology and Biostatistics. Johannesburg, November 2017.Introduction Viral load is the most reliable indicator of poor adherence to anti-retroviral therapy (ART). However, this assay is difficult to implement in resource-limited settings due to financial and technical constraints. Laboratory markers, combined with the patient’s demographic and clinical details, have been described as better proxies of adherence than the current self-reported adherence measures. However, the real diagnostic value of these biomarkers remains unknown. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the usefulness of a composite marker to identify poor adherence to ART defined as a detectable plasma viral load in HIV-positive patients on first-line regimen at Themba Lethu Clinic (TLC) in Johannesburg, South Africa Materials and Methods: This study was retrospective cohort analysis of data collected on HIV-positive ART naïve adults initiating first line antiretroviral regimen at TLC following the 2010 South African antiretroviral treatment guidelines. The data collection was carried out as part of the low-cost monitoring (LCM) study at Themba Lethu Clinic in Johannesburg from February 2012 to 2014. The LCM cohort which aims to look at low cost monitoring of HIV treatment in resource limited settings was initiated in 2009 in Johannesburg, South Africa. The study or treatment outcome was failure to suppress viral load (VL ≥ 400 copies/ml) at 6 and at 12 months. Adherence to antiretroviral treatment was assessed using four (4) self-reported adherence (SRA) measures namely: a self-reporting questionnaire, a Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), a pill identification test (PIT) and the Simplified Medication Adherence Questionnaire (SMAQ). The result of each self-reported measure was classified as either positive or negative given a conventional threshold. In our study three (3) self-reported adherence (SRA) measures were combined into a multi-method approach tool which included self-reports combined with VAS and the pill identification test (PIT). Continuous variables were summarized by median with interquartile range. Categorical variables were summarized by giving their frequencies. To compare continuous variables, we used an unpaired t-test if the variable was normally distributed. When continuous variables were compared from baseline to the previous 6 months, a paired t-test was done. In the case of skewed distribution, we used a non-parametric variant of the t-test such as the Mann-Whitney U-test. To compare categorical variables, we used cross-tables with corresponding chi-square test or Fisher exact test. A Modified Poisson Generalized Linear Model (GLM) with robust variance was used to estimate adjusted relative risks (aRR) of failing to suppress viral load at 6 and at 12 months adjusting for age age, gender, self-reported adherence measures, changes in laboratory markers and missed appointments at 6 and 12 months after ART initiation. As there was missing values in the covariatess and the outcome, we performed a multiple imputation technique under missing at random (MAR) assumption in order to compare the robustness of the estimations between the complete case analysis and the imputation model under MAR after imputing missing values. with the imputed dataset. Additionally, we calculated the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) for each self-reported adherence measure using viral load as the reference standard. Thus, we derived two diagnostic risk scores from rounding and adding together the adjusted regression coefficients used to estimate adjusted relative risk and following the Spiegelhalter and Knill-Jones approach, at 6 and at 12 months. The Receiver Operating characteristic (ROC) curves were computed to see the overall discriminative value of each continuous risk score. To assess the clinical usefulness of the continuous riskscores we dichotomized them from 2 ≥ vs < 1 to 5 ≥ vs < 5 and calculated the sensitivity (Se), specificity (Sp), positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) at each cut-off, taking detectable viral load as a gold standard. Results: There were 353 HIV-positive patients initiated on first line ART at TLC for the LCM cohort study. Of these, 80.7% did not suppress viral load after 6 months while 30.1% did not suppress viral load at 12 months. The proportion of patients classified as being highly adherent was 86.7% but this proportion decreased to 60% at 12 months. By 6 months, after adjusting for gender and age, the variables that were significantly associated with detectable viral load included: having missed at least two ARV visits by ≥ 7 days (aRR: 2.35 95% CI: 1.08 -5.11); platelet count < 150 cells/mm3 (aRR: 2.73 95% CI: 1.04 -7.18) and VAS ≤ 95% (aRR: 1.65. 95% CI: 1.01-2.71). At 12 months, the estimates showed a positive relationship only with age group and unemployment. There were no similarities in the results found using complete case analysis and analysis with imputed datasets. However, the largest standard errors were obtained from the complete case analysis. At 6 months, the AUC ROC curve was calculated as 0.63 (95% CI, 0.53 - 0.72) while, for the visual analogue scale, the AUC decreased to 0.55 (95% CI, 0.49 - 0.62); for the Simplified Medication Adherence Questionnaire (SMAQ), the AUC decreased to 0.52 (95%CI, 0.45 - 0.60), while for the multi-method approach, it decreased to 0.53 (95% CI, 0.46 - 0.58). The optimal diagnostic accuracy was obtained with the score 5 (≥5 vs <5 Se: 64% and a Sp: 50.0%) followed by a risk score of 4 (Se of 76.0%, Sp of 34.7%). At 12 months, the AUC of the diagnostic risk score was calculated as 0.44 (95%CI, 0.40 - 0.60) while for the three self-reported adherence methods, it decreased to 0.48 (95% CI, 0.40 - 0.60), 0.51 (95%CI, 0.40 - 0.60) and 0.50 (95%CI, 0.41 - 0.59) respectively for the visual analogue scale, the SMAQ and the multi-method approach method respectively. Conclusion. This study shows that after ART initiation, the 6-month’s adherence can be better diagnosed using laboratory markers combined with patient’s information and traditional self-reported adherence measures at Themba Lethu Clinic. The advantage of this proposed method is that it is based on routine and accessible informations collected during HIV-positive patient visits, thus incurring no additional cost for its implementation. An external validation of this diagnostic risk score is needed for its translation into clinical practice in resource-limited settings.LG201

Les stratégies de gestion des connaissances dans les grandes entreprises françaises

(VF)Plusieurs auteurs évoquent la «codification» et la «personnalisation» comme deux stratégies génériques de gestion des connaissances dans les entreprises. Cependant, aucune recherche n’a jusqu’à présent étudié spécifiquement les prévalences respectives de ces deux stratégies. Notre recherche aborde cette question au moyen d’une analyse typologique. Une étude quantitative menée dans les grandes entreprises françaises révèle plusieurs résultats stimulants qui sont mis en perspective avec les travaux antérieurs sur la «codification» et la «personnalisation». Plusieurs pistes de recherche ouvertes par les résultats sont également détaillées.(VA)Many authors mention «codification» and «personalization» as generic knowledge management strategies in firms. However, to our knowledge, no research has specifically studied the prevalence of either one of these two strategies. Using cluster analysis, the present article addresses this important issue. A quantitative study of large French firms reveals several stimulating findings that are put into perspective with previous work on «codification» and «personalization» and opens several research avenues.codification;GRH; gestion des connaissances; personnalisation;TIC;HRM; ITC;knowledge management;personalization.

The Criticism of Eurocentrism and International Law: Countering and Pluralizing The Research, Teaching, and Practice of Eurocentric International Law

This Chapter draws on Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) in examining the question: how does the research and teaching of international law in the Global South challenge Eurocentrism in international law. The Chapter focuses on the emergent activities within Global South that pluralize Eurocentric international law’s dominance in the research production, teaching, and practice arenas. The Chapter pushes against the unfair over-representation of European countries in the scholarly production and institutions of international law. To illustrate the often-underexplored regional diversity of international law outside Europe, the Chapter reflects on the contemporary roles of critical Global South scholars and scholarship in international law, and the sub-fields of international investment law and international human rights law to pluralize the epistemological foundations of the substantive field of international law