The Buffett Institute publishes working papers to support and promote discussion of current research on international and comparative issues. Papers are written by center affiliates or presented at our conferences or working groups.
Northwestern University provides students the opportunity to participate in research-focused study abroad programs. Participating students conduct original research, often using a combination of fieldwork methods, such as interviews and archival research. This collection archives the research projects completed by students studying abroad.
The DOCS is a collection of articles, administration manuals and clinical scoring form. This collection is available for clinicians and researchers to use with patients who are recovering consciousness. This collection includes the manual and rating forms(s) from the DOCS-23 and the updated version, the DOCS-25.
Acoustic emission (AE) testing was deployed on details of two large steel Interstate Highway bridges: one cantilever through-truss and one trapezoidal box girder bridge. Quantitative measurements of activity levels at known and suspected crack locations were made by monitoring AE under normal service loads (e.g., live traffic and wind). AE...
Scour is by far the primary cause of bridge failures in the United States. Scour and other hydraulic effects are particularly threatening because the deterioration is often invisible, hidden beneath turbid water. Many scour monitoring methods attempt to measure the development of scour pockets themselves. However, this is difficult due...
Kosnik, D. E., Northwestern University . Infrastructure Technology Institute, Department of Civil Environmental Engineering, Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering Applied Science. (2008). A new approach to acoustic emission testing of difficult-to-reach steel bridge details. Evanston, Illinois: Infrastructure Technology Institute/Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering.
This paper describes application of AE monitoring techniques to localize the sources of large noises in civil structures. These noises occur during operation of moveable portions of a structure in such things as lift bridges and moveable sports stadium roofs. The use of straightforward AE monitoring techniques can provide clear...
This paper describes the details of installation and operation of a commercially- available wireless system to measure response of an interior cosmetic crack in a residential structure over a period of a year. Wireless data loggers managed the response of low power draw potentiometers that measured micrometer changes in crack...
This paper describes the technology and methods deployed in the continuous autonomous remote monitoring of cracks in interior and exterior walls of a residence near a limestone quarry. The objective is to quantitatively compare crack response due to blast-induced ground motion to that induced by diurnal temperature changes, weather fronts,...
In this paper vibratory crack response is compared to that produced by volumetric changes in foundation soils induced by natural events. These natural phenomena include changes in the water table, changes in soil moisture, and formation of ice lenses to name a few. Previous papers have compared vibratory responses of...
This paper describes the technology and methods deployed in the continuous autonomous remote monitoring of cracks in interior and exterior walls of a residence near a limestone quarry. The object is to quantitatively compare crack response to blast-induced ground motion to that induced by diurnal temperature changes, weather fronts, and...
Micro-meter dynamic crack responses in a two story structure to rock blasting- and wind gust- excitation are compared to those induced by long term climatological effects. These measurements substantiate the conservancy of the 12.5 mm/s (0.5 in./s) blasting vibration control to protect residential structures against cracking. The test structure was...
A unique judicial opportunity allowed measurement of the response of three cracks in residential structure to blasting for underground aggregate mining. Instrumented cracks were located in the interior basement CMU mortar and upstairs dry wall as well as exterior brick work. The dynamic environment was unusual. Even though the blasting...
Crack and structural response to construction trench blasting was measured in a woodframe house with a stucco exterior. Blasts at distances between 232 m to 368 m produced peak particle velocities (PPV) and air blast over pressures (AB) of 9 mm/sec and 0.02 kPa (123 dB), respectively. Structural response velocities...
This paper describes qualification of devices to measure sub micro-meter changes in crack width, which is the basis of autonomous crack monitoring for control of blasting vibrations. Performance of LVDT, eddy current and potentiometer sensors to monitor long-term and transient displacements will be described. Potentiometers are attractive for wireless measurement,...
This paper reviews the new field of geo-measurement with metallic cable time domain reflectometry (TDR) for surveillance of transportation facilities. TDR is radar in a coaxial cable, and is especially advantageous for remote monitoring because of its inherently digital nature. Advances can be separated into those that leverage use of...
This paper describes developments of integrated tools for predicting, monitoring, and controlling ground movements associated with excavations in urban areas. Successful use of monitoring data to update performance predictions of supported excavations depends equally on reasonable numerical simulations of performance, the type of monitoring data used as observations, and the...
Two numerical procedures are described that quantitatively identify a set of constitutive parameters that best represents observed ground movement data associated with a deep excavations in urban environments. This inverse problem is solved by minimizing an objective (or error) function of the weighted least-squares type that contains the difference between...
Successful use of monitoring data to update performance predictions of supported excavations depends equally on reasonable numerical simulations of performance, the type of monitoring data used as observations, and the inverse analysis techniques used to minimize the difference between predictions and observed performance. This paper summarizes each of these factors...
This paper presents the results of 159 finite element simulations conducted to define the effects of excavation geometry, i.e., length, width and depth of excavation, wall system stiffness, and factor of safety against basal heave on the 3-dimensional ground movements caused by excavation through clays. The results of the analyses...
Several three-dimensional effects were observed in the performance monitoring data collected during excavation for the Ford Engineering Design Center (FEDC) in Evanston, Illinois. These responses are related to lateral deformations of the soil around the excavation walls, forces in the cross-lot and diagonal bracing that supported the temporary wall and...
An empirical procedure for fitting a complementary error function (erfc) to settlement and lateral ground movement data in a direction parallel to an excavation support wall is proposed based on extensive optical survey data obtained around a 12.8 m excavation in Chicago. The maximum ground movement and the height and...
Gentrification - the process in which higher income (and often younger) households displace lower income residents of a city neighborhood - has been occurring in many urban neighborhoods over the last few decades. This process changes the demographics, and often the essential character, of the neighborhood. As a result, we...
The paper deals with the behavior of fluid cement pastes, formulated from Self Consolidating Concretes (SCCs), and the experimental correlation of fundamental rheological properties, such as the yield stress and the viscosity, with measurements from field tests, such as the mini-cone slump flow test. As a matter of fact, several...
In this paper, the correlation of reflection loss measured by an ultrasonic shear wave reflection
method and the microstructure in cement-based material is investigated. Three cement pastes
(Portland cement type I) with different water-cement ratios (0.35, 0.50 and 0.60) cured at 25
°C were examined. The ultrasonic shear wave reflection...
The gradual evolution of the material properties of a cement-based material, i.e. the stiffness of cement paste, is the result of the continuous change of the microstructure with the progress of the hydration process. Based on an existing micromechanical model for the simulation of the shear and elastic modulus of...
This paper describes proposed schemes for describing and indexing two image collections and requirements for the software that would give the end-user access to thesaurus terms and a graphical display of the faceted classification structures of indexing records. Editorial cartoons comprise one collection, dance videos the other.
The issues discussed in this essay - the fundamental objectives of the Nigerian state, public accountability, and a code of conduct for state officials - have been central concerns throughout its post- colonial history. Underlying these debates have been differing views about the best political economy model for Nigeria. The...
A half-century of high revenues from petroleum export has failed to elevate more than a small percentage of Nigerians above the poverty level. The failure to manage the vicissitudes of global oil markets, and to grow other sectors of the economy, has led to constant budget deficits and unsustainable national...
In the years preceding the 1979 national elections, ideology featured prominently in political debates and consultations regarding the new constitutional order. Proponents of a social democratic system were particularly prominent. However, the actual formation of political parties, governed by the new requirements for national representation, and the resurgence of veteran...
The 1979 Nigerian elections reflected the dedication of Nigerians to pursue democratic governance and the severe challenges to be overcome. The sweeping victory of the NPN, and the election of Alhaji Shehu Shagari as president, required a last-minute manipulation of the formula for achieving victory in the first round. After...
The building of a trans-ethnic political space, and a nation that commands the loyalty of the country’s citizens, have been persistent aspirations of Nigerian governments. The 1979 elections demonstrated that, however much political party leaders may seek to build a national following, they are “trapped” by ethnic and other sectional...
The building of the Second Republic required a military government, which had been deeply engaged in shaping the Federation over almost fifteen years, performing as an impartial umpire in the electoral choice of its successors. This complex process is dissected in this article together with an analysis of the relative...
This article resumes the exploration of Nigeria’s political economy and the entrenchment of a prebendal mode of attitudes and behaviors. It takes up the shift to a mono-mineral export economy, the socio- economic proclivities of the dominant class, the considerable expansion in the state’s economic role, and the distinct pattern...
The forcible ending of Nigeria’s second attempt at constitutional civilian rule since independence in 1960 is a mixed story. The 1983 general elections were tarnished by violence and fraud. They took place in a context of economic decline and policy disarray. However, the opposition still retained an important share of...
In this essay, key features of Nigerian governance since independence are reviewed. The military had ruled the county for thirteen years and civilian politicians, in two phases, had done so for ten. Military governments involved significant participation by civilians, so there was overlap between these successive systems. Moreover, the military...
Cracking is one of the most common concerns cited by owners of structures adjacent to construction or mining blasting. While a large database of case studies documenting the relative insignificance of ground motion induced by responsible blasting compared to weather effects on cracks in nearby structures has been established, the...
Most studies of crack response have focused on opening and closing of a crack in the plane of the wall in which the crack occurs. Crack movement also occurs perpendicular or normal to the plane of the wall. This paper will examine and compare the in-plane and out-of-plane (normal) response...
Surveillance of large geotechnical projects requires autonomous collection of data from a wide range of instrument types. An equally large range of data formats are employed by these measurement systems. A data exchange protocol is needed to make field data available for interpretation on a variety of platforms. This paper...
Blasting and climatological response of cracks are compared for structures constructed of concrete block typical of home construction in Europe. While much has been written comparing micrometer crack response of wood frame structures typical of residential construction in North America, little has been written concerning response of structures more typical...
As many systems of military and autocratic rule came under challenge in Africa, Nigeria lost its leadership position in a democratizing era with the collapse of the Second Republic, 1979-1983. Four military heads-of-state followed. One of the most hopeful transitional experiments in Africa, conducted under General Ibrahim Babangida, 1985-1993, ended...
In this article, a Nigerian military system of governance is explicated. It was the dominant mode of governance in Nigeria until civilian rule was restored in 1999, initially under a former military ruler. Starting from the first military coup in January 1966, Nigeria experienced over 33 years of this system,...
This paper was written at the midway point in the governing of Nigeria by a paradoxical individual, Ibrahim Babangida. It should provoke further studies of his 8-year rule, 1985-1993, that seemed transformative during much of this period but ended in disarray and disappointment. The ideological orientation of the Nigerian economy;...
A long-running wager took place between the Babangida regime (1985-1993) and Nigerian civic, professional and political groups that the former would honor its commitment to usher in a Third Republic via free and fair elections. The June 12, 1993 elections were as free, fair and competently administered as could be...
When this testimony was given, there was still hope that Ibrahim Babangida would transfer the presidency to the elected Moshood Abiola before he left office on August 27, 1993. In that way, Nigeria would join the wave of post-Cold War democratizing nations. I had earlier called for a “transition in...
More than taking Nigeria back into the “dismal tunnel” of military rule, after seizing power in November 1993, Sani Abacha raced through the playbook he knew as a senior member of Babangida’s junta. Like Babangida, he pushed back the announced date for the return to civilian rule, launched an exercise...
This revised version of a paper presented at a conference at M.I.T. on State, Conflict, and Democracy in 1997 pulled together key dimensions of a Nigeria that had drifted far from constitutional and democratic governance. State and society had become increasingly criminalized; the educational system and other social sectors were...
This opinion piece, written by two long-term students of Nigerian politics, proposed a different course to the one taken following the death in mid-1998 of a military tyrant and the elected president he had imprisoned. It called for the creation of a caretaker national government of respected civilians that would...
This is the text of a public address at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs delivered soon after the inauguration of Nigeria’s Fourth Republic. It identified several priorities after fifteen and a half years of military government. The country’s eroded legislative, judicial, and other state institutions needed to be rebuilt...
Children are impressionable customers, and the media they consume influences their behaviors and perceptions. Gender stereotypes are highly prevalent in children’s media, which can often lead children to create idealized images of what boys and girls should be. This paper explores advertising in children’s television commercials given changes in our...
The creation of Reactions allows Facebook users to provide emotional support for members within the social network as well as disclose emotions toward various content. This research study investigated how this one-click tool is appropriated depending on the content of the posts and relational intimacy with the poster and the...
While many sources have pointed to oil wealth, a British postcolonial legacy, and a developmental state as the foundation for the incredible economic rise of Nigeria in recent decades, I question the validity of those existing schools of thought and present a cultural explanation. The Nigerian people and their cultural...
The US continues to experience disproportionately high teen birth, pregnancy, and STD rates compared to other developed nations and the appropriate type of sex education for American adolescents’ has been a constant source of debate. Over the last 13 years, the US federal government has invested over $1.5 billion in...
This project would not have been possible without the support and guidance of my supervisor, Emma Elizabeth Ilett. Emma helped me establish the specific research question and structure of the study. She also assisted with statistical analysis, provided helpful advice during each step of the project, and taught me so... and Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) recipients receive pre-transplantation treatment regimens varying in conditioning intensity and antibiotic administration. Broad-spectrum, antianaerobic antibiotics have the potential to disrupt the normal gut microbiome balance and reduce immune function. We aimed to retrospectively examine the impact of pre-transplantation conditioning and antibiotics on rates of mortality,...
This study analyzed the differences between three habitats in and around EcoMinga’s Cerro Candelaria Reserve, which protects part of the Llanganates – Sangay Ecological Corridor in the eastern cloud forest of Ecuador. The EcoMinga Foundation began reforestation efforts in several abandoned pastures in the reserve in 2008, which have since... and This project would not have been possible without the support and kindness of the El Placer community. Thanks to Piedad Recalde for her constant care, humor, and enormous amounts of delicious food. Thanks to Jesús Recalde and Darwin Recalde for their companionship in the field and invaluable insights on the...
This study would not have been possible without the guidance, support, and advice from Clive Bruzas, Eliza Govender, and staff at the Blue Roof Life Space. As my initial advisor, Clive aided in my thought process of formulating a research question based on my personal interests and experience visiting Blue... and What prompts an individual who has had a positive HIV diagnosis to undergo the transition from a limiting life narrative to an empowering life narrative? With HIV positive individuals living longer lives, it is important that individuals are able to integrate the HIV/AIDS identity into their sense of self and...
A Dialogue on Nation-Building took place in Bishoftu, Ethiopia, on January 14-16, 2018. I was one of a dozen individuals invited to serve as resource persons for this meeting of over a hundred representatives from the government, civil society, political and faith-based organizations. The aim of the gathering was to...
Plenary Address to the African Economic Conference of the African Development Bank and the Economic Commission for Africa Addis Ababa, December 4-6, 2017
This thesis analyzes the role segregation and white flight played in the development of New York City’s suburban Westchester County, particularly in regards to how white flight from (and within) New Rochelle during the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s was presaged by the racial reification of the suburb’s communal boundaries during...
Each successive wave of immigrants to America has faced prejudice founded in fear and uncertainty. Immigrants from Italy were particularly discriminated against in the early years of their arrival, from 1880 through 1920. They faced violence, racial slurs, and media attacks based on an unsubstantiated stereotype of criminality. This project...
Marital emotional functioning is one of the most important predictors of marital outcomes (e.g., marital satisfaction), which in turn has important consequences for wellbeing and health factors for both spouses and their children. Thus far, negative emotions (e.g., anger) have been the central focus in distinguishing dissatisfied from satisfied couples...
According to Lisjak, Lee, and Gardner (2012), a threat to a brand can elicit the same response as a threat to the self. The current research examined whether people react differently to brand threats as a function of East Asian versus North American culture and as a function of whether...
Physiological linkage (i.e., the covariation of moment-to-moment physiology between individuals) is thought to play an important role in relationship functioning. The present study examined physiological linkage across interbeat interval (IBI) and skin conductance levels (SCL) in a sample of married spouses (N=106) during both a pleasant and a conflict conversation...
Previous research has shown that bodily gesture aids in learning words and is useful for musical expression. However, no studies to date have examined the use of gesture in learning words and music together. The original impetus for the present study was observing students with cognitive disabilities learn musical songs,...
Patients with psychosis experience deficits in multisensory integration (MSI), or the communication between different sensory modalities, such as sound and sight. One way to assess multisensory integrations is by utilizing voice-pitch tasks in which participants hear the pitch of their own voice artificially altered by a computer. When healthy individuals...
Standard narratives on the relationship between art and urban development detail art networks as complicit agents in processes of upscaling and gentrification connected to the political and economic elite. My thesis challenges the conventional narrative by investigating the relationship between grassroots art spaces, tied to local, community- based interests, and...
Negative emotional behaviors, such as criticism, defensiveness, contempt, and stonewalling, that spouses may show during conflict are key predictors of marital dissatisfaction. Existing research has focused on middle-class couples, but little is known about how these negative emotional behaviors predict marital satisfaction among couples from socioeconomically diverse backgrounds. The present...
The goal of this research paper is to analyze concepts of armed conflict and peacebuilding from a gender perspective using a feminist epistemology approach.
I examine the impact of armed conflict on women, and the implications of women’s roles in armed conflict and in peacebuilding processes post-conflict. In doing so,...
Over the last decades, there have been many changes in the business world that are associated with 52 percent of Fortune 500 companies either going bankrupt, being acquired by other companies, or ceasing to exist. One critical change is the transformation of the economy into a knowledge-based economy, where information...
It has been hypothesized that mindfulness-based programs with a primary focus on teaching self-compassion or empathy will have greater effects on self-compassion and empathy than will mindfulness-based exposure programs, which focus primarily on enhancing present moment awareness and reducing distress. However, because research on mindfulness-based exposure programs has centered on...
There are few concerns greater than those of a parent with an adult with an intellectual or developmental disability (I/DD). How is she or he going to be taken care of as she or he ages? The government provides services and support in the pursuit of care and services, but...
Presentation slides from Open Repositories, 2018. Jekyll is an open source publishing system that relies on plain text files to produce websites. Because it was created as a simple blogging platform, Jekyll can be extended to support the journal publishing needs of any library with a scholarly communication or digital...
Les manuscrits connus comme les « cahiers Ponty », écrits par les étudiants du célèbre Ecole William Ponty près de Dakar, ont été créés sous une politique qui a favorisé l’ethnographie comme outil aussi bien que discipline. Quelques extraits de ces cahiers sont discutés ici, comme un échantillonage pour illustrer... and The manuscripts known as the "cahiers Ponty", written by students at the famous Ecole William Ponty near Dakar, were created under a policy that favored ethnography as a tool as well as a discipline. Several extracts of these student notebooks are discussed here, as a sampling in order to illustrate...
In 1936 Modibo Keita, a twenty-year-old student at the distinguished Ecole William Ponty in Gorée, Senegal, wrote his “mémoire de fin d'étude” on Soninke childhood. The original manuscript is held in the archives of French West Africa in Dakar, part of the collection of “cahiers de William Ponty.” This paper... and En 1936 Modibo Keita, un étudiant de vingt ans à l'école distingué William Ponty à Gorée, au Sénégal, a écrit son mémoire de fin d'étude sur l’enfance sarakollé. Le manuscrit original se trouve dans les archives de l'Afrique occidentale française à Dakar, où il fait partie de la collection de...
The following bibliography developed in conjunction with the research project AMoney Morals:
The Decline of the Naira in the Social Life and Popular Culture of Nigeria, 1985B1995,@
undertaken by Jane Guyer and LaRay Denzer.
To prepare this bibliography, Northwestern University=s Online Catalog (NUcat) and
Northwestern=s online catalog of papers presented...
Though brief, this study has benefited from the intellectual and moral support of many individuals. I
owe an enormous debt of gratitude to colleagues who have provided me with both their time and
criticism in the preparation of this paper. I am particularly grateful to those who have been most...
This paper was commissioned by the Program of African Studies (PAS) as a complement
to the new edition of Dahomean Narrative that was published by Northwestern University Press
as part of the celebration of the PAS’s fiftieth anniversary. The new forward to the volume
places Dahomean Narrative within the history...
This paper explores the relationship between the French state and francophone Africa since
decolonization, rather than narrating the history of French-African policies (Domergue-Cloarec 1994;
Wauthier 1995) or providing an introduction to the full range of cultural, social, and political relations
8
(Manning 1988; Chipman 1989; Andereggen 1994). The focus is...
The primer addresses interdisciplinary work on two levels. It outlines and exemplifies
anthropological modes of thinking, and how those can be applied to numbers through the capacities of the
Epi Info program. At a more practical level it uses particular material to guide the reader through setup
and analysis.
Section...
The completion of this study could not have been possible without the invaluable support
of several individuals. This work is a revised version of my first year research paper, and as such,
I would first like to thank Timothy Breen and my colleagues in the E-70 seminar for their
thoughtful...
This collection of papers contains most of the papers that were delivered at the workshop on
“Normality in Health and the Reproductive Body” at Northwestern in March 2001. The seminar
was used to discuss individual research projects around convergences of thought on the theme at
hand. In their present state,...
On 6 February 2007, President Bush announced that the United States would
create a new military command for Africa, to be known as Africa Command or Africom.
Throughout the Cold War and for more than a decade afterwards, the U.S. did not have a
military command for Africa; instead, U.S....
As a world power after World War II, some U.S. government officials and private
foundations realized how little we knew of Africa, though allied troops had been engaged
in North Africa and transported through West Africa. And the Cold War was leading to
growing USSR influence in Africa. “It...
Writing this keynote address has been a fraught and sobering experience, heightened by
an acute feeling of stepping outside my scholarly comfort zone in east and central African
history before the 19th century CE. The discomfort encouraged me to shift positions, in this case
from that of a scholar writing...
Within Kenya’s political scene, racial and ethnic identities play a crucial role in creating division
in Muslims’ political engagement. Since independence, the racial and ethnic antagonism among
them has weakened a united Muslim’ voice whenever political issues concerning the community
arose. As Kenya was preparing for independence, a section of...
How could so many students of one scholar, one who is not immediately
remembered for his work on the arts, have produced so much major research on African
and African-American arts and artists in virtually all media? This question became the
genesis of this panel; but before turning to our...
Contemporary pattern of relationship between European Union and Africa-Caribbean and
Pacific countries reflects more than two centuries of unequal exchange. Unequal exchange
between the North and the South denotes the falling terms of trade for underdeveloped countries,
while correspondingly increasing the terms of trade for the developed countries. It has...
This paper examines participation in the public economy among two groups of African women, the Yoruba of southwestern Nigeria and the Baganda of central Uganda, during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The analysis considers many kinds of economic activity other than growing food for one’s own family, including independent income-generating...
