Thesis (M.A.)--University of Alberta, 2010. / Title from PDF file main screen (viewed on July 9, 2010). "A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, Department of Music ... Fall 2010, Edmonton, Alberta". Includes bibliographical references.

MSc (Dent), Orthodontics, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand / This study evaluated the influence of age on the perception of facial attractiveness in three samples of South Africans. Eight digitally morphed lateral facial profiles were created by means of computer animation software and presented, in sequential order, to 1798 school learners, 694 university students and 323 school teachers. Each participant was asked to complete a questionnaire in addition to choosing a single face he/she perceived to be the most attractive. Statistical tests included frequency distributions, percentages, cross-tabulations, odds ratios and the Pearson Chi-square test. Results demonstrated that age was a factor in the perception of facial attractiveness particularly amongst individuals of school-going age. Thereafter, increasing age did not exert a significant influence on the perception of profile preference. There was a definite trend towards the preference for less protrusive facial profiles. Nevertheless, due consideration should be given to the individuality associated with aesthetic choices as a significant proportion of raters did indicate a preference for profiles exhibiting mild protrusion. Furthermore, race and cultural background do appear to play a significant role in the perception of facial profile preferences. It is suggested that future studies of a similar nature be undertaken in order to provide the data to permit comparison with the results reported in this study.

The Bamileke in contemporary Cameroon are known by the services of the General Delegation for National Security as one of the approximately 200 ethnic groups that have been assigned a registration number, and they must like all citizens formally identify their ethnic group at the time of national identification. Unlike most Cameroonians who identify with a primary language, the Bamileke usually identify with a chieftaincy or a village of origin, which may not always correspond with a distinctive language. This situation has led the police to hold a map of chieftaincies during registration in order to assist the self-identification of those whose declared place of origin is located in the former Bamileke Region. While this operation reveals the extent to which the Bamileke ethnonym corresponds to a linguistic umbrella term and sets apart the Bamileke as an ethnic group in state records, it also highlights the general assumption that one can match every registered ethnic group with a discrete region of the country’s territory. The structure that grounds this assumption is referred to as ethnic territorialization in this dissertation and is critically examined from the vantage point of ethnographic exhibition, identification with homelands, political competition, and colonial history. The legibility and traceability of both ethnic identity and putative home villages that come with national identification in Cameroon contrast distinctly with the generally repressed character of ethnicity in national politics and state institutions that have the representation of the nation as one of their main objectives. This was the case in the early 1990s when the newly created National Museum of Yaoundé had to confront the imbalances and contradictions that would result from an effort to put the “synthesis of Cameroonian cultures” on display. It was also the case in 1996 when the newly amended constitution included a provision for the rights of indigenous populations and limited candidacy for each of its ten regional council presidencies to “an indigenous person”. In both cases, the Bamileke have been described in the literature as the major concern for lawmakers. In the first case, the predominance of ethnographic materials from the West Region was perceived as a threat to both the visibility of other ethnic groups and the cherished principle of regional balance which ensures the enrollment of state representatives on the basis of ethnic quotas. In the second case, the protection of indigenous people was understood as a means developed by the ruling party, identified as the Beti, to undermine Bamileke interests in regions other than their own. Given the ambiguous character of ethnicity in Cameroon, this dissertation resists the temptation to reduce the apparently recent institutionalization of indigenous rights in Cameroon to a matter of the current international increase in claims to “belonging” or autochthony, or to a strategy developed by the ruling party in order to fragment the current political opposition. Rather, this dissertation draws lessons from an ethnography of the failure of the government in Yaoundé to give an ethnic description of the nation at the National Museum and the relative success of a non-governmental institution, known as The Road to Chiefdoms, that created a museum in the former Bamileke Region with the same goal. Accordingly, this dissertation suggests that the apparently contradictory outcome of these two initiatives both results from a political fiction that territorializes identity ethnically and makes use of chieftainship and land tenure as its cornerstone. More importantly, this dissertation examines the ways in which the Bamileke actively engage, partake in, and question state politics as both indigenous people or autochthons and gradual opponents of the principle of autochthony. It further highlights the reasons why any debate on either regional balance or autochthony in Cameroon must include the matters of chieftainship and land tenure as institutions whereby the Cameroonian state seeks to portray itself as a supra-ethnic political entity that incarnates a non-ethnic Nation to come and avoids being reduced to only one of the many ethnic groups officially assumed to be at its foundation.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of North Texas, Dec., 2009. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

Version remaniée de : Thèse de doctorat : ? : University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill : 1996 : Multiculturalism in contemporary France : cultural productions from the North African immigrant community. / Bibliogr. p. [201]-211. Index.

Hypertension is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease in both developed and developing countries. Blood pressure normally decreases at night and a number of studies have indicated that a reduced nocturnal decline in blood pressure (BP) increases the risk for cardiovascular disease. Nocturnal decreases in BP are attenuated in subjects of African as compared to European descent, but the mechanisms of this effect require clarity. In the present study I attempted to identify potentially modifiable factors that contribute toward nocturnal decreases in BP in a random sample of 171 nuclear families comprising 438 black South Africans living in Soweto. Prior studies have suggested that adiposity and salt intake may determine nocturnal decreases in BP. Adiposity and salt intake were considered to be potentially important factors to consider in the present study as 67% of the group studied were either overweight or obese and in 291 subjects that had complete 24-hour urine collections (used to assess salt intake) and BP measurements, Na+ and K+ intake was noted to be considerably higher and lower respectively than the recommended daily allowance in the majority of people. Moreover, a lack of relationship between either hypertension awareness and treatment and Na+ and K+ intake suggested that current recommendations for a reduced Na+ intake and increased K+ intake in hypertensives do not translate into clinical practice in this community. In order to assess whether adiposity or salt intake are associated with nocturnal decreases in BP in this community, ambulatory BP monitoring was performed using Spacelabs model 90207 oscillometric monitors. Of the 438 subjects recruited, 314 had ambulatory BP measurements that met pre-specified quality criteria (more than 20 hours of recordings and more than 10 and 5 readings for the computation of daytime and nighttime means respectively). To identify whether adiposity or salt intake are associated with a reduced nocturnal decline in BP, non-linear regression analysis was employed with indices of adiposity and urinary Na+ and K+ excretion rates and urine Na+: K+ ratios included in the regression model with adjustments for potential confounders. Neither body mass index, skin-fold thickness, waist circumference, waist-to hip ratio, urinary Na+ and K+ excretion rates, nor urine Na+: K+ ratios were associated with nocturnal decreases in systolic and diastolic BP. Indices of adiposity were however associated with 24 hour ambulatory systolic and diastolic BP. Unexpectedly, female gender was associated with an attenuated nocturnal decrease in BP. In conclusion, in the first random, community-based sample with large sample sizes conducted with ambulatory BP monitoring in Africa, I found that neither adiposity nor salt intake are associated with a reduced nocturnal decline in BP. The lack of association between either salt intake or adiposity and nocturnal decreases in BP was despite a high prevalence of excessive adiposity in the community, as well as clear evidence that current recommendations for a reduced Na+ intake and increased K+ intake do not translate into clinical practice in this community. Thus, based on this study, the question arises as to whether primordial prevention programs targeting excess adiposity or inappropriate salt intake are likely to modify nocturnal decreases in BP, in urban, developing communities of African ancestry in South Africa. However, unexpectedly I noted that females were more likely to have an attenuated nocturnal decrease in BP. Thus further work is required to explain this finding.

MMed, Chemical Pathology, Faculty of health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, 2009 / Background The 4-variable Modification of Diet in Renal Disease (4-v MDRD) and Cockcroft-Gault (CG) equations are commonly used for estimating glomerular filtration rate (GFR); however, neither of these equations has been validated in an indigenous African population. The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of the 4-v MDRD and CG equations for estimating GFR in black South Africans against measured GFR and to assess the appropriateness for the local population of the ethnicity factor established for African Americans in the 4-v MDRD equation. Methods We enrolled 100 patients in the study. The plasma clearance of chromium-51–EDTA (51Cr- EDTA) was used to measure GFR, and serum creatinine was measured using an isotope dilution mass spectrometry (IDMS) traceable assay. We estimated GFR using both the reexpressed 4-v MDRD and CG equations and compared it to measured GFR using 4 modalities: correlation coefficient, weighted Deming regression analysis, percentage bias, and proportion of estimated GFR within 30% of measured GFR (P30). Results The Spearman correlation coefficient between measured and estimated GFR for both equations was similar (4-v MDRD R2 = 0.80 and CG R2 = 0.79). Using the 4-v MDRD equation with the ethnicity factor of 1.212 as established for African Americans resulted in a median positive bias of 13.1 (95% CI 5.5 to 18.3) mL/min/1.73m2. Without the ethnicity factor median bias was 1.9 (95% CI -0.8 to 4.5) mL/min/1.73m2. Conclusion The 4-v MDRD equation, without the ethnicity factor of 1.212, can be used for estimating GFR in black South Africans.

The use of outcome measures by occupational therapists to establish the effectiveness of treatment is important. The Jebsen-Taylor Hand Function Test (JHFT) was identified as a standardised assessment suitable for the evaluation of outcomes related to the treatment of hand function. This study established norms for this test on 120 normal, ethnically diverse South Africans between the ages of 20 and 59 years. Statistically significant differences were found between the original norms published by Jebsen et al (1) and the South African sample for males and females, dominant and non-dominant hands and ethnic groupings. It is postulated that gender and cultural factors may influence the speed with which different groups complete functional tasks and these must be factored in when using the JHFT as an outcome measure in South Africa. The test appears to have limited application as a norm referenced test in South Africa, but may be valuable in determining progress in therapy or research.

Historians of photography have generally represented colonial photography as a predictable and oppressive genre. Taking the Belgian Congo (1885–1960) as its subject, this dissertation argues that the medium has also been the instrument of a rapprochement between metropole and colony, not only in the hands of Europeans, but also in those of Africans, as the consequence of a long-lasting reaction against the worldwide diffusion of the so-called “Congo atrocities” pictures (1904–1908). Chapter One explores this pivotal episode in the history of photography. The exceptional violence of these images prompted the counter-development of a representational ideal—the colonie modèle—that was deployed at two historical moments: first, in the interwar period with the illustrated magazine L’Illustration Congolaise, and after World War II with the governmental photographic service InforCongo. In Chapter Two and Three, the studies of L’Ilustration Congolaise and InforCongo trace how this colonial rapprochement was encouraged by increasingly representing Congolese décor and subjects as the mirrored image of Belgium, until it peaked in the late colonialism’s concept of a “Belgian-Congolese community.” Chapters Four and Five turn to Congolese family albums and queries how Africans’ self-representations sought to integrate—or not—the model colony. Based on research carried out in Belgium and in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, this dissertation is the first in-depth study of a history of photography in the Congo and the first comprehensive history of photography within a single colonial regime. Similarly, this project presents the first in-depth study of African family albums, examined in the multiple aspects that make up the significance of the photographic subject’s experience. Photography in the Belgian Congo developed in three contexts: European, African and colonial, which overlap but have usually been explored separately. This dissertation aims to weave together these different aspects, fully appreciating and integrating the vivid racial tensions inherent in a colonial system, but ultimately aspiring to complicate the visual colonial relations materialized in photography by taking into consideration parameters of assimilation and collaboration, co-authorship, or again, seduction.

Focusing on humanitarian aid to refugees in the Nyarugusu Refugee Camp in Western Tanzania, this dissertation argues that humanitarianism has shifted from the care of the bodily and immediate material needs to a form of moral care inflected by contemporary human rights discourse. The camp, in operation for over 17 years, became the site of a pedagogical intervention aimed at teaching refugees human rights. Informed by essentialist understandings of Congolese culture, aid agencies enforce a version of human rights in which only women’s rights are human rights. Refugees respond to this in a variety of ways, by contesting, appropriating, or exiting the framework of rights entirely. In reading human rights discourse as a site for an anthropology of ethics, this dissertation argues against simply understanding humanitarian confinement in terms of biopolitics, and looks to black feminist theorizations of the “human” to gesture beyond human rights. It shows how Nyarugusu residents make claims based on bodily vulnerability to decolonize the “human” of “human rights,” and how, in doing so, they point us towards a politics of vulnerability grounded in an ethics of sincerity.