1,720,954 research outputs found
Nuclear Terrorism as a possible threat to Africa
Get PDFThis study investigates Nuclear Terrorism as a possible threat to Africa by means of a systematic literature review. The danger posed by terrorist groups in acquiring and using nuclear, chemical or biological weapons is more pronounced today than in the past, as terrorist groups have shown more interest in upgrading to more sophisticated tactics in their conduct of terror activity and adapt to more modern and advanced ways and means. Africa has a significant role in preventing the possible threat of nuclear terrorism as it continues to be vulnerable to the unlawful trade and trafficking of radioactive uranium because of its deficient control and regulatory systems which are often prone to malfunction and corruption, such as the existing weak borders that are not effectively controlled in several parts of the continent; the inadequate safety of the operating uranium mining and production sites in Africa; and the prevailing weak and corrupt governing institutions.
The study’s emphasis is on the full implementation of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 1540 (2004) as a central counter-terrorism and non-proliferation instrument in Africa and as a mutually reinforcing and inter-related legal mechanism which complements and reinforces the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The research also revises the role of regional treaties such as the African Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone Treaty (Treaty of Pelindaba), which supports UNSC Resolution 1540 in realising Africa’s efforts in reducing the risks of nuclear proliferation, such as nuclear terrorism. The study remarks on the viewpoint and attitudes towards these initiatives and the role of the African Union (AU), and examines the progress made so far in executing the obligations of the UNSC Resolution 1540 by African member states.
While there is growing international agreement that the threat of nuclear terrorism is real, understanding how the threat and perceptions of it have evolved clarifies the challenges faced by governments and policymakers today. In the identification of the research theme and motivation of the research study, the paper proposes two policy questions that guide and direct the research moving forward, namely: (1) how real is the risk to Africa? and (2) what policy measures would be most effective in reducing the risk? Simply put, what is the appropriate and relevant response by African states to the issue of the possibility of the acquisition and use of nuclear weapons by terrorist organisations?Political SciencesMSecurity StudiesUnrestricte
The securitization of migration: investigating the EU's migration strategies towards Sub-Saharan Africa and the instrumentalization of EU-Africa development policies
No full textThis research is a critical assessment of the securitization processes in migration management following the migration crisis in Europe. It specifically observes the representations of (in)security during the securitization of sub-Saharan migration under the EU’s comprehensive agenda of ‘tackling irregular migration’. The fundamental objective is to; (i) observe and explain the path of the successfully securitized discourse, and the subsequent securitization activities and related interventions in border protection to address the perceived security threat, and to; (ii) examine the resultant strategic shifts and new policy practices under the EU’s new operational cooperation frameworks with African countries of origin and transit following the securitization of the migration agenda. The study shows how the EU’s logic of (in)security reinforces politics of fear and uncertainty, and contributed to the successful operationalisation of the established securitized institutional speech-acts with African collaborators to prevent irregular migration and protect migrants at risk. The examination also observes how the use of development as a strategy of control – “to tackle the root-causes of irregular migration” (European Commission 2016a) – followed the securitization of the EU Agenda on Migration, and how the new security-focused development programmes with African countries of origin and transit under the new Partnership Frameworks reinforces further securitization practices in migration.Diese Forschung ist eine kritische Bewertung der Versicherheitlichungsprozesse im Migrationsmanagement nach der Migrationskrise in Europa. Insbesondere werden die Darstellungen von (Un-)Sicherheit während der Versicherheitlichung der Subsahara-Migration im Rahmen der umfassenden EU-Agenda zur „Bekämpfung irregulärer Migration“ beobachtet. Das grundlegende Ziel ist: (i) den Weg des erfolgreich verbrieften Diskurses und die nachfolgenden Verbriefungsaktivitäten und damit verbundenen Eingriffe in den Grenzschutz zur Bewältigung der wahrgenommenen Sicherheitsbedrohung zu beobachten und zu erklären; (ii) Untersuchung der daraus resultierenden strategischen Veränderungen und neuen politischen Praktiken im Rahmen der neuen operativen Kooperationsrahmen der EU mit afrikanischen Herkunfts- und Transitländern nach der Versicherheitlichung der Migrationsagenda. Die Studie zeigt, wie die EU-Logik der (Un-)Sicherheit eine Politik der Angst und Unsicherheit verstärkt und zur erfolgreichen Operationalisierung der etablierten verbrieften institutionellen Sprechakte mit afrikanischen Kollaborateuren beiträgt, um irreguläre Migration zu verhindern und gefährdete Migranten zu schützen. Die Untersuchung beobachtet auch, wie der Einsatz von Entwicklung als Kontrollstrategie – „um die Grundursachen irregulärer Migration anzugehen“ (Europäische Kommission 2016a) – auf die Versicherheitlichung der EU-Migrationsagenda folgte und wie die neuen sicherheitsorientierten Entwicklungsprogramme mit afrikanischen Herkunfts- und Transitländern im Rahmen der neuen Partnerschaftsrahmen weitere Versicherheitlichungspraktiken in der Migration verstärken
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
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
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
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