1,720,965 research outputs found
What harm? Kenyan and Ugandan perspectives on khat
No full textWhat harm does khat actually do to users and the communities in which they live? In this article, the health-related, social, economic, and religious arguments of Kenyans and Ugandans for and against khat consumption are reported. The medical evidence for harm from khat is far from compelling, and the East African debate on khat is informed by local political discourses that often are closely connected to issues of ethnicity and the control of resources. As a result, the harm attributed to khat consumption is contested. The objective of most local efforts to curb the use of khat in East African towns is the reduction of social and economic ills. Yet, eliminating khat consumption would not reverse the problems that it is identified as causing
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
How ‘Cool’ is heroin injection at the Kenya coast
No full textQualitative research methods were used to contact, observe and interview about 40 heroin users living in a Kenyan coastal town with a lively tourist industry. It was found that injecting practices were similar to those reported in other parts of the world. High status, or 'cool', among heroin users was associated with injecting alone and with personal autonomy. The sharing of injecting equipment, however, did occur. Most users were ill informed about the risk of transmission of HIV through injecting equipment. Injecting heroin can be status enhancing within this subculture. 'Cool' among these heroin users was associated with personal self-control, a key attribute of Swahili culture. Intervention measures should build on local values of the need to maintain individual self-control and discourage the sharing or communal use of equipment to inject heroin
Khat chewing as a new Ugandan leisure activity
No full textA culture of hedonism that attaches a high value to leisure has prevailed in much of Uganda. Having in the past been associated only with Somali and Yemeni migrants, khat consumption has spread among all ethnic groups and to all parts of Uganda. The locus of consumption has moved from the living room to video halls, alleyways and the ghettos of both urban and rural areas. Khat chewing, which takes several hours if the full sequence of effects is to be achieved, is viewed as idling by mainstream society, and as an affront to the core Ugandan values of hard work and education. There are two types of consumer: 1) the traditional users, maqatna, who chew khat accompanied by soft drinks; 2) the mixers who combine khat sessions with alcohol and/or cannabis use. The mixers have abandoned the rules and rituals of consumption that pertain in other khat-using settings. Many Ugandans confuse cannabis and khat, condone alcohol use, and brand khat chewers as, at best, idlers, and at worst violent criminals
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
The Hidden Past and Untold Present of African-Palestinians
No full textBackground: Whilst visiting the Gaza Strip at the start of a EU-funded project to evaluate and improve maternal and child healthcare to palestinians. I stumbled suddenly upon a social issue so sensitive that nobody wanted to discuss it. A Palestinian colleague was driving us through a refugee camp when I saw a group of women of sub-Saharan African appearance who were dressed and walked with the demeanour of local people. Who are they?" I asked my colleague. "They are Africans. we like them",was his cryptic response
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