Presentations

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https://africarxiv.ubuntunet.net/handle/1/5

A dedicated space for sharing presentations, slides, and talks delivered at conferences, seminars, or academic events pertaining to Africa. This collection aims to disseminate knowledge, research findings, and insights presented in various formats for wider accessibility and reference.

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Now showing 1 - 20 of 63

Artificial Intelligence: The Game Changer in Scientific Research
(2024-08-08) Ilegbusi, Paul
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has revolutionised scientific research by enhancing data analysis, accelerating research processes, and improving accuracy. AI's applications span various fields, including biomedicine, environmental science, physics, and materials science. This paper explores AI's transformative impact on scientific research, highlighting its role, applications, challenges, and future prospects. AI tools, such as Explain Paper, Paper Digest, and Chatdoc, facilitate research by summarizing papers, explaining complex concepts, and assisting with literature reviews. Despite AI's benefits, challenges persist, including data privacy and security concerns, bias, and transparency issues. To address these challenges, the paper emphasizes the need for ethical guidelines, robust security measures, and interpretable AI models. The future of AI in scientific research holds promise, with emerging trends and technologies, interdisciplinary innovations, and collaborative platforms driving progress. The paper concludes by highlighting the importance of addressing AI's challenges to ensure its beneficial impact on science and society.
Understanding the Interplay Among Vulnerabilities, Livelihoods, and Institutional Dynamics in the Context of COVID-19: A Case Study of Selected Rural Communities in South Africa
(University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2023-07-15) Mubangizi, Betty Claire; Okem, Andrew Emmanuel; John, SF; Ngubane, Mnqobi; Barry, I; Adekanla, N; Nyawo, Jabulani Christopher
About the report While our academic outputs cater for scholarly audiences, offering intricate analyses and methodological deliberations, this technical report considers a different path. Recognising the vast spectrum of stakeholders; from policy makers to practitioners - whose decisions and actions are pivotal in shaping the future of rural communities, we’ve crafted this report to be accessible, clear, and action-oriented. Simplicity: Away from the academic jargon and complex terminologies, this report communicates in a plain language, ensuring that findings are clear despite the academic level. Visuals: To further enhance the report’s accessibility, we’ve incorporated a range of visuals – charts, graphs, and illustrative diagrams – to aid the understanding, and also offer a quick snapshot of key findings and recommendations. Utility: At its core, the report aims to be a tool for decision-makers, offering them grounded insights and actionable recommendations. By shedding light on the interplay of vulnerabilities, livelihoods, and institutional dynamics in the context of COVID-19 in rural settings, we hope to inform strategies that can more effectively address similar challenges in future. In addition, the qualitative data from this study was analysed using content analysis. The content analysis was carried out thematically by coding the bunch of text obtained from the field and creating themes as coding, thematic classification of coded texts, and integrating, refining and writing-up theoretical outcomes. NVIVO version 12 was used to code and develop themes from the data with thorough probing into the socio-economic implication of the pandemic on our unit of analysis. Specifically, well-defined explanatory mix, spread across various pre-existing resource endowment of individuals in the sustainable livelihood framework were used to analyse the socio-economic vulnerability of people using consumption and income effect of the pandemic. In conclusion, this technical report stands as a bridge between rigorous research and actionable insights. In synthesising our findings in a user-friendly format, we aspire to arm policymakers and practitioners with the knowledge and understanding required to devise robust, informed strategies. Strategies that can pave the way for more resilient rural communities, better equipped to face the multifaceted challenges of disasters and pandemics. The report is divided into two sections, presenting qualitative and quantitative data.
Validation and field operationalization of one- and two-stage LAMP assay for diagnosis of COVID-19 in low-resourced health facilities in Ghana (VoLCOV)
(2024-07-09) Akorli, Jewelna
The rapid spread of the novel coronavirus disease, COVID-19, necessitates early detection of infected persons as part of strategies to identify and control community transmission. Testing for COVID-19 remain important especially for frontline workers, other high-risk groups and travellers. Although testing methods are available there remains avenues for improving and increasing the capacity to test and detect the virus.
Towards a continental Open Science Vision Making African Research Information & Data Accessible
(2024-07-01) Mchunu, Nokuthula P.
Presentation held at the Africa PID Alliance (africapidalliance.org) Webinar: How effective FAIR data management aids in the visibility of African funding output "Effective FAIR data management significantly aids in the visibility of African funding outputs by making research more discoverable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable. This not only boosts the profile of African research on the global stage but also fosters collaborations, enhances credibility, informs policy, and attracts further funding. For more on how we have been doing this please join our partners Crossref and Research Organization Registry(ROR) as we take you through what we have been doing and listen to some of the African funders case studies from National Research Fund Kenya and National de la Recherche et de l’Innovation pour le Développement - FONRID (Burkina Faso) in addition with the contributions from Association of African Universities and African Open Science Platform who will share the research management and policy-making implications on making African funders output accessible." Presentation held at the Africa PID Alliance (africapidalliance.org) Webinar: How effective FAIR data management aids in the visibility of African funding output "Effective FAIR data management significantly aids in the visibility of African funding outputs by making research more discoverable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable. This not only boosts the profile of African research on the global stage but also fosters collaborations, enhances credibility, informs policy, and attracts further funding. For more on how we have been doing this please join our partners Crossref and Research Organization Registry(ROR) as we take you through what we have been doing and listen to some of the African funders case studies from National Research Fund Kenya and National de la Recherche et de l’Innovation pour le Développement - FONRID (Burkina Faso) in addition with the contributions from Association of African Universities and African Open Science Platform who will share the research management and policy-making implications on making African funders output accessible." Watch the recording at https://doi.org/10.21428/359fb1d2.0361a9d0
Understanding the NREN landscape
(2024-05-27) Litta, Sheena
Design and Implementation of Marketing Strategies for NRENs The RENU Experience
(2024-05-27) Ekaru, Timothy
Advocacy and Capacity Building in Open Access (OA) and Open Science (OS) to top management staff in African Higher Education Institutions, in Egypt
(2022-11-01) El-Shari, Amany; Bahei-El-Din, Yehia; Corletey, Abednego; Persic, Ana; Anand, Roheena; Wanyenze, Rhoda; El-Hefnawy, Aly; Mchunu, Nokuthula P.; Rafols, Ismael; Owango, Joy
This was the second of a series of workshops on Advocacy and Capacity Building in Open Access & Open Science to top management staff in African Higher Education Institutions by the AAU and supporting partners PLOS and TCC Africa. It was hosted by the British University in Egypt.
A Researcher's Guide to Metadata Integration Increasing Discoverability of African Research
(2022-04-22) CLARK, ROSA; Collins, Susan; Fairhurst, Vanessa; Kemp, Jennifer; Obanda, Johanssen; Owango, Joy; van Zyl, Kylie
Crossref, AfricArxiv, and the Training Centre in Communication (TCC Africa) joined forces to host a series of workshops aimed at supporting discoverability or research in Africa through metadata and integrations between repositories and indexing platforms.
Highlight on the Importance of PIDs for Researchers and Institutions
(2020-11-03) Ksibi, Nabil
Presentation given at LIBSENSE Virtual Workshop: Arab Region: Progress & Prospective – 13 October 2020.
Democratizing Higher Education in Zambia Through Open Access Data
(2021-03-11) Owango, Joy; Naylor, Daryl; Zulu, Filipo
TCC Africa Webinar What is Ministry of Higher Education's Role in Supporting the Zambia Academic Community Through Provision of Open Access Data ? What steps has the Ministry taken in democratizing higher education through open access (partnerships, access to infrastructure and data) What are the challenges that have arisen and also what opportunities has the Ministry taken advantage of in using open access and open science in democratizing higher education in Zambia What does the future hold for the Zambia academic community with open access?
Uptake of Wildlife Research in Botswana: Summary of Findings
(2021-04-09) Morrison, Monica
This study set out to identify and understand whether research carried out in or about Botswana has been focused on producing useful and used work in the area of wildlife and related natural resources, with a view to improving the management of these resources. The study investigated this by examining the interactions of researchers and stakeholders engaged in the management, conservation, and use of wildlife resources in northern Botswana. This work draws on the idea that broader societal impact of research can be estimated by following interactions of researchers with potential users of their research throughout the research process. This approach, based on the idea of productive interactions, acknowledges the difficulty of attributing the uptake, use, and impacts of research findings, and moves the focus of investigation from outcomes at the end point of investigation to all the stages and processes of research. Interactions of researchers with potential users of the research - its stakeholders - increase the likelihood of research findings being put to use. In the thesis, this process is viewed through the concept of an extended community of practice that demonstrates mutual engagement, joint enterprise, and shared repertoire. The study used a mixed methods case study approach including literature review, surveys of principal investigators working under Government of Botswana permits and audience members of a public outreach event, interviews, analysis of document content and bibliographic records, and ad hoc participant observation to establish patterns of interaction among researchers and stakeholders working in northern Botswana, and to investigate perceptions of research use. The study found that the northern Botswana's research community of practice consists of a strong core of researchers based in academic institutions and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) who interact with more loosely connected members of the private sector and several levels of government, and with local community members. Findings included that researchers who engage with non-academic stakeholders outside the inner core of this community of practice at early stages, and throughout the research process, are more likely to see their research applied. Their success also appears to be linked to their commitment to working longer-term in northern Botswana, which allows for more, and deeper, interactions with stakeholders. Findings of this study point to validation of the concept of productive interactions in a local community of practice, with effects that extend beyond Botswana and southern Africa. While productive interactions are already taking place in this community, many of them brokered by NGOs, increased deliberate incorporation of the productive interactions approach into the practice of government managers, researchers, and the tourism private sector is likely to increase the relevance, awareness, and uptake of the resulting findings, and to build trust and understanding among research stakeholders.
Introduction to Transcriptomics
(2021-07-07) Ahmad, Umar
Slide deck for a presentation on transcriptomics, delivered on 25.06.2021 during a training session entitled 'Beginner's Guide to Bioinformatics,' organized by Helix Biogen Institute in Nigeria.
How To Use AfricArXiv To Increase Discoverability Of Your Research Output
(2021-09-10) Obanda, Johanssen; Havemann, Jo
A presentation about AfricArXiv hosted by Eider Africa, presented on September 10, 2021.
Bulk Hydrogen Analysis of Cyanogenic Food Plants Using Neutrons for Routine Quality Control
(2023-12-14) Garba, Keziah; Jonah, Sunday; Onyike, Elewechi
Millions face food safety threats, with 70% of rural African staples like cocoyam and sorghum harbouring toxic cyanogenic glycosides. To ensure safe consumption, we employed neutron reflection, a rapid, sustainable technique, to assess hydrogen content, which inversely correlates with cyanide levels. This non-destructive approach proved effective, paving the way for routine food quality control and improved public health through the innovative application of particle radiation technology.
Enabling Global Reach And Discoverability Of African Research Data
(2024-03-07) Cotera, Maria; Hahnel, Mark
Enabling global reach and discoverability of African research data - AfricArXiv Open Science Webinar Series 2024
East African Social Sciences and Humanities Publishing: A Handmade Bibliometrics Approach
(2016-10-20) Schmidt, Nora
Slides for the presentation at the 21st International Conference on Science and Technology Indicators, València (Spain), September 14-16, 2016. Abstract of the paper to be published in the proceedings: For Eastern Africa, very little information about the SSH knowledge production can be found from a European perspective. Adequate indicators like information-rich bibliographic databases that cover journals and book publishers based in East Africa are lacking. This research in progress explores their indexing situation in detail, their development, which is closely connected to political history, their (non-)usage, and affiliations as well as career-stages of their authors. Furthermore, it also pays attention to SSH researchers based in East Africa who use other publication venues. Any bibliometric analysis in this field needs to rely on manual data collection, otherwise it would be heavily biased. This study lays out the foundation for citation analyses, qualitative research on the publications' content and the self-description of East African scholars against the background of an academic environment that is often described as “international”.
Experiences in Open Research & Education for Sustainable Development in Africa
(2019-12-18) Abukutsa-Onyango, Mary
Presentation of my research to promote Sustainable Production and Utilization of African Indigenous Vegetables (AIVs) for Nutrition Security and Poverty Reduction in Kenya (Africa).
Towards Inclusive Innovation: The Role of Open Science
(2020-02-05) Mboa Nkoudou, Thomas Hervé
Workshop on Science, Technology and Innovation for the SDGs Meeting of the IATT and 10-Member group under the TFM in preparation of the Multi-Stakeholder Meeting on Science, Technology and Innovation for the SDGs 2020 Room C1, Vienna International Centre, Vienna, Austria, 3 – 5 February 2020 Co-organized by DESA, UNCTAD, UNOSD, OOSA, and UNIDO.
Open Neuroscience:Challenging Scientific Barriers With Open Source & Open Science tools
(2020-05-12) Maia Chagas, Andre
Presentation given at the SONA/Trend in Africa webinar series. It discusses how researchers should be embracing open source and open science tools to tackle scientific barriers.
No Better Time to Practice Open Science Than Now
(2020-06-05) Akligoh, Harry Sefoga
This is a guest speaker presentation given at the virtual Open Science Fellows Program 2020 in Berlin. The presentation captures the speakers perspectives on Open Science where he related it to the story of William Kamkwamba from Malawi, his journey through Open Science and Projects and Initiatives that are making use of Open Science in overcoming the challenges of COVID-19 today.

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