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,...
The items in this publication are partially derived from presentations given at a
symposium on Arabic Literature of Africa (ALA), at the Program of African
Studies in November 2003. Also included is some detailed information on the
contents of already published volumes (ALA I, II, IIIA, IV), and "Overviews" of...
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...
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...
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...
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...
This working paper surveys Islamic organizations, movements, and ideologies in Nigeria, roughly identifying them along the lines of Islamic traditionalism, Sufi orders (turuq lit. pathways), Salafi/Wahhabi revivalism2 modernist and insurgent Islam(ism), trado-Islamic and Christo-Islamic syncretism and deviant “Islamic” cultism. Previous academic studies of Nigerian Islam were often limited to the...
As the result of centuries of transregional commerce by Muslim merchants and the attendant networks developed by Muslim scholarly families, Islam was well established in the Sahel and Upper Guinea Coast by the seventeenth century. Commercial markets, Muslim states and Islamic institutions developed during a long, generally peaceful process of...
The apparent interest today in Nigerian visual culture has necessitated this paper. Therefore, its
primary focus shall be on the status of visual data from the burgeoning ephemera as a source of
historical knowledge. Using selected visual illustrations in the posters, cartoons and photographs
that were at the core of...
In May 1991 the allied armies of the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF) and the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) overthrew the 27-year military regime (Dergue) in Ethiopia. During the succeeding 27 years, the EPRDF-dominated government attracted one of the highest per capita levels of external aid in the...
The term Connected Vehicle (CV) is broadly used to identify any ‘smart vehicle’ with wireless connectivity to the roadside infrastructure and other vehicles. CVs that can be driven autonomously are called connected autonomous vehicles (CAVs). With real-time communication and data transmission capability, CAVs have the potential to improve the transportation...
Aerospace collectively represents one of the most sophisticated technological endeavors and largest markets in the
world. Coming with substantial costs, nearly every aspect of the industry, from aircraft design to material selection
to operation, has been optimized in at least one way. A critical design consideration in any aircraft is...
Optimization and Game Theory have certain conceptual overlaps. It is even said that John von Neumann
conjectured the Duality Theorem using information from his game theory. This article discusses two optimization
applications to the game theory: a methodology for solving the Nash Equilibrium and a decentralized model in
supply chain...
This article concerns the exponential transformation method for globally solving posynomial (or general
geometric/signomial) optimization problems with nonconvex objective functions or constraints. A discussion of the
method's development and use will be presented.
Logarithmic transformation is a method used to change geometric programs into their convex forms. A
geometric program, or GP, is a type of global optimization problem that concerns minimizing a subject to
constraint functions so as to allow one to solve unique non-linear programming problems. All geometric programs
contain functions...
McCormick Envelopes are a type of convex relaxation used in
bilinear Non Linear Programming problems. Many times these
envelopes are used to solve a Mixed Integer Non Linear
Programming problem by relaxing the MINLP problem so that
it becomes a convex NLP. Solving this convex NLP will
provide a lower...
Spatial branch-and-bound is a divide-and-conquer technique used to find the deterministic solution of global optimization
problems.1 It is a type of branch-and-bound method, which solves for the set of parameters that globally optimize the
objective function, whether that be finding the minimum or maximum value of or , respectively, where...
Computational complexity refers to the amount of resources
required to solve a type of problem by systematic application of an
algorithm. Resources that can be considered include the amount of
communications, gates in a circuit, or the number of processors.
Because the size of the particular input to a problem...
The objective of game theory is to analyze the relationship
between decision-making situations in order to achieve a
desirable outcome. The theory can be applied to a wide range
of applications, including, but not limited to, economics,
politics and even the biological sciences. In essence, game
theory serves as means...
Network Flow Optimization problems form the most special class of linear programming problems.
Transportation, electric, and communication networks are clearly common applications of Network Optimization.
These types of problems can be viewed as minimizing transportation problems. This Network problem will include
cost of moving materials through a network involving varying...
Interior point methods are a type of algorithm that are used in
solving both linear and nonlinear convex optimization
problems that contain inequalities as constraints. The LP
Interior-Point method relies on having a linear programming
model with the objective function and all constraints being
continuous and twice continuously differentiable. In...
Optimization with absolute values is a special case of linear programming in which a problem made nonlinear due
to the presence of absolute values is solved using linear programming methods.
Absolute value functions themselves are very difficult to perform standard optimization procedures on. They are
not continuously differentiable functions, are...
Facility location problems deal with selecting the placement of a facility (often from a list of integer possibilities)
to best meet the demanded constraints. The problem often consists of selecting a factory location that minimizes
total weighted distances from suppliers and customers, where weights are representative of the difficulty of...
The traveling salesman problem (TSP) is a widely studied combinatorial optimization problem, which, given a set of cities and a cost to travel from one city to another, seeks to identify the tour that will allow a salesman to visit each city only once, starting and ending in the same...
Mixed-integer cuts or Cutting-plane methods is an iterative approach used to simplify the solution of a mixed
integer linear programming (MILP) problem. Cutting-plane methods work by first relaxing the MILP to a
complementary linear programming problem and cutting the feasible region to narrow down the solution search
space to only...
A disjunctive inequality is a type of constraint that exists in mixed integer linear programming (MILP) and mixed
integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) problems. It involves constraining a solution space with multiple
inequalities or sets of inequalities related by an OR statement. This "OR" statement must then be reformulated
using one...
Column generation algorithms are used for MILP problems. The formulation was initially proposed by Ford and
Fulkerson in 1958 . The main advantage of column generation is that not all possibilities need to be enumerated.
Instead, the problem is first formulated as a restricted master problem (RMP). This RMP has...
A heuristic algorithm is one that is designed to solve a problem in a faster and more efficient fashion than
traditional methods by sacrificing optimality, accuracy, precision, or completeness for speed. Heuristic algorithms
often times used to solve NP-complete problems, a class of decision problems. In these problems, there is...
Branch and cut method is a very successful algorithm for solving a variety of integer programming problems, and
it also can provide a guarantee of optimality. Many problems involve variables which are not continuous but
instead have integer values, and they can be solved by branch-and cut method. This method...
Lagrangian duality theory refers to a way to find a bound or solve an optimization problem (the primal problem) by
looking at a different optimization problem (the dual problem). More specifically, the solution to the dual problem
can provide a bound to the primal problem or the same optimal solution...
Sigmoid problems are a class of optimization problems with the objective of maximizing the sum of multiple
sigmoid functions. They are defined by their limits at negative and positive infinity. Similar to the unit step
function the function approaches 1 as it approaches infinity and approaches -1 as it approaches...
Mixed-integer linear fractional programming (MILFP) is a category of mixed-integer linear programming (MILP). It is similar to MILP in that it uses the branch and bound
approach. It is widely used in process engineering for optimizing a wide variety of production processes ranging from petroleum refinery to polymerization processses and...
The generalized disjunctive programming (GDP) was first introduced by Raman and Grossman (1994). The GDP extends
the use of (linear) disjunctive programming (Balas, 1985) into mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) problems,
and hence the name. The GDP enables programmers to solve the MINLP/MILP optimization problems by applying a
combination of algebraic...
General disjunctive programming, GDP, is an alternative approach to represent the formulation of traditional
Mixed-Integer Nonlinear Programming, solving discrete/continuous optimization problems. By using algebraic
constraints, disjunctions and logic propositions, Boolean and continuous variables are involved in the GDP
formulation. The formulation process of GDP problem are more intuitive, and the...
The Branch and Bound (BB or B&B) algorithm is first proposed by A. H. Land and A. G. Doig in 1960 for
discrete programming. It is a general algorithm for finding optimal solutions of various optimization problems,
especially in discrete and combinatorial optimization. A branch and bound algorithm consists of...
The organization of general design problems into programming models allows for the defining and finding of their
(global) optimal solution. MINLP models represent problems as a sets of continuous variables with binary integer
variables. The continuous variables are restricted to defined constraints, and the binary variables represent whether
or not...
J.F. Benders devised an approach for exploiting the structure of mathematical programming problems with complicating
variables (variables which, when temporarily fixed, render the remaining optimization problem considerably more
tractable).The algorithm he proposed for finding the optimal value of this vector employs a cutting-plane approach for
building up adequate representations of...
Outer approximation is a basic approach for solving Mixed Integer Nonlinear Programming (MINLP) models
suggested by Duran and Grossmann (1986) . Based on principles of decomposition, outer-approximation and
relaxation, the proposed algorithm effectively exploits the structure of the original problems. The new problems
consist of solving an alternating finite sequence...
Extended Cutting Plane is an optimization method suggested by Westerlund and Petersson in 1996 to solve
Mixed-Integer NonLinear Programming (MINLP) problems . ECP can be thought as an extension of Kelley's
cutting plane method, which uses iterative Newton's method to refine feasible area and ultimately solve a problem
within tolerable...
An algorithm is a line search method if it seeks the minimum of a defined nonlinear function by selecting a
reasonable direction vector that, when computed iteratively with a reasonable step size, will provide a function
value closer to the absolute minimum of the function. Varying these will change the...
Trust-region method (TRM) is one of the most important numerical optimization methods in
solving nonlinear programming (NLP) problems. It works in a way that first define a region
around the current best solution, in which a certain model (usually a quadratic model) can to
some extent approximate the original objective...
The interior point (IP) method for nonlinear programming was pioneered by Anthony V. Fiacco and Garth P. McCormick in the
early 1960s. The basis of IP method restricts the constraints into the objective function (duality
( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duality_%28optimization%29) ) by creating a barrier function. This limits potential solutions to
iterate in only...
The conjugate gradient method is a mathematical technique that can be useful
for the optimization of both linear and non-linear systems. This technique is
generally used as an iterative algorithm, however, it can be used as a direct
method, and it will produce a numerical solution. Generally this method is...
Quasi-Newton Methods (QNMs) are generally a class of optimization methods that are used in Non-Linear
Programming when full Newton’s Methods are either too time consuming or difficult to use. More specifically,
these methods are used to find the global minimum of a function f(x) that is twice-differentiable. There are distinct...
Quadratic programming (QP) is the
problem of optimizing a quadratic
objective function and is one of the
simplests form of non-linear
programming. The objective function
can contain bilinear or up to second
order polynomial terms, and the
constraints are linear and can be both
equalities and inequalities. QP is
widely...
Sequential quadratic programming (SQP) is a class of algorithms for solving non-linear optimization problems
(NLP) in the real world. It is powerful enough for real problems because it can handle any degree of non-linearity
including non-linearity in the constraints. The main disadvantage is that the method incorporates several
derivatives, which...
Subgradient Optimization (or Subgradient Method) is an iterative algorithm
for minimizing convex functions, used predominantly in Nondifferentiable
optimization for functions that are convex but nondifferentiable. It is often slower
than Newton's Method when applied to convex differentiable functions, but can
be used on convex nondifferentiable functions where Newton's Method will...
In this work, we will focus on the “at the same time” or direct transcription approach which allow a simultaneous
method for the dynamic optimization problem. In particular, we formulate the dynamic optimization model with
orthogonal collocation methods. These methods can also be regarded as a special class of implicit...
Geometric programming was introduced in 1967 by Duffin, Peterson and Zener. It is very useful in the applications
of a variety of optimization problems, and falls under the general class of signomial problems[1]. It can be used to
solve large scale, practical problems by quantifying them into a mathematical optimization...
Non-differentiable optimization is a category of optimization that deals with objective that for a variety of reasons
is non differentiable and thus non-convex. The functions in this class of optimization are generally non-smooth.
These functions although continuous often contain sharp points or corners that do not allow for the solution...
The chance-constrained method is one of the major approaches to solving optimization problems under various
uncertainties. It is a formulation of an optimization problem that ensures that the probability of meeting a certain
constraint is above a certain level. In other words, it restricts the feasible region so that the...
Fuzzy programming is one of many optimization models that deal with optimization under uncertainty. This model can be applied when situations are not clearly
defined and thus have uncertainty, or an exact value is not critical to the problem. For example, categorizing people into young, middle aged and old is...
Robust optimization is a subset of optimization theory that deals with a certain measure of robustness vs uncertainty. This balance of robustness
and uncertainty is represented as variability in the parameters of the problem at hand and or its solution [1]. In robust optimization, the modeler
aims to find decisions...
Traditionally, robust optimization has solved problems based on static decisions which are predetermined by the
decision makers. Once the decisions were made, the problem was solved and whenever a new uncertainty was
realized, the uncertainty was incorporated to the original problem and the entire problem was solved again to
account...
Patrick F. Quinn states that Edgar Allan Poe wrote poems at an age “too young to have any knowledge of the world but from his own breast,” and attributes Poe’s decision to leave flaws in his “smaller pieces” intact to “[fondness fostered by] his old age” (Quinn 9). While readers...
Robust optimization is a distinct approach to optimizations problems that allows for the incorporation of
uncertainty. The usefulness of robust optimization lies in the ability to solve for every realization of the uncertain
parameters. As a result, the problem can be solved for the worst-case scenarios of the entire set...
In this essay, I will focus on the fifth theme of the Collaborative Learning Initiative: Reclaiming Security. Attempts to reclaim security in many African countries, tragically, often lead to greater insecurity as rulers respond by heightening repression. Some even close down access to social media and global communications thereby harming...
The European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) was the first step in the process of European integration. Its founders had lofty aspirations that integration in the coal and steel would spill into a larger endeavor, and early scholarly analyses suggested that coal and steel integration was spurring more fundamental political...
From peacekeeping to telecommunication standards, the number, level of detail, and subject matter of international agreements have grown exponentially in recent decades. What are the consequences of the sheer complexity of international governance today? This symposium suggests a new framework to understand this proliferation of international accords: "international regime complexity."...
Most scholars think of courts as a single category of adjudicative bodies or triadic dispute adjudication. But courts play a variety of roles in the domestic political system. Increasingly, the roles and tasks delegated to International Courts (ICs) mimic in form and content the roles and tasks delegated to courts...
The object of this working paper is to present a new explanation for the behavior of rebel groups in relation to host communities. This study, which represents the main argument and ideas of my forthcoming dissertation, accounts for the change in rebel group behavior, from coercive to contractarian and vice...
This essay examines the relationship between religion and the state as articulated in the thought of the founding father of the Republic of Senegal: Leopold Sedar Senghor (Senegal's first President) and Mamadou Dia (Senegal's first Prime Minister). Although Senghor was Catholic and Dia a Muslim, they shared a vision of...
This essay explores how the evolving relationship between religion and the state is affecting the educational system in Senegal. In 2002, the state enacted reforms that introduced the religious education into the state school system and also allowed all children enrolled in the daara (Senegalese Qur'anic schools) to be considered...
This essay provides an introduction to eight papers on the theme of Islam and the Public Sphere in Africa that resulted from two conferences organized by the Institute for the Study of Islamic Thought in Africa (ISITA) in 2007. The author argues that these papers challenge the dichotomous thinking that...
Delegation to ICs has increased rapidly since 1990, leading to a proliferation of international courts with a fundamentally different design. There are now 20 active ICs, plus eight more ICs that exist mostly on paper. "New style" international courts have compulsory jurisdiction, and often they have access for non-state actors...
This essay explores Nigerian women's negotiation of public and private spheres through the meanings of hibjab (Islamic head covering for women) has taken in different contexts, both liberating and limiting women. In the 1970s with the new oil economy, increasing migration to cities and the expansion of education for women,...
This essay analyzes the historical struggle of the Muslim community to have a voice in Kenyan politics and the Islamic topics that have surfaced during electoral periods. A minority group in Kenya, Muslims have faced political marginalization more on the basis of race and ethnicity than religion. The pre-independence period...
This essay discusses the role of the ulama (Islamic scholars) in the 2007 Nigerian elections. Based on interviews and the political activities and statements of the twelve members of the ulama, most of whom are from Kano, the author observes four areas of consensus among these scholars: 1) The compatiblity...
The growing religious identity throughout the world is challenging conventional social science wisdom, according to which modernization leads to the marginalization of religion in the public sphere. This discussion suggests different and alternative models for being both Muslim and modern. The focus is the family law reform within the context...
Among the linkages identified between human rights law and environmental protection, the problem of anthropogenic climate change has emerged as a central concern. Some of the early focus on climate change as itself a human rights violation has given way to a more complete and forward-looking approach that considers how...
This essay asks whether the existence of a viable public sphere hinges upon the banishment of religion to the private realm. While some scholars have suggested that the encounter between "public" Islam and the democratization inevitably produces political collapse (as in the case of Algeria), the author contends that the...
This paper discusses the recent (2007) declaration of the Caucasus Emirate by Islamist guerilla fighters waging jihad against Russia in several republics of the Northern Caucasus (Russian Federation). It analyzes the practical reasons and ideological agendas behind the creation of this new polity that remains largely virtual with the website...
This paper examines secularism in Senegal from a legal viewpoint and traces the history of the deliberate manner in which the Senegalese constitution was constructed to ensure the secular orientation of the state. The author emphasizes that Senegalese secularism is not anti-religious, but rather emphasizes mutual tolerance among diverse religious...
President Barack Obama is escalating an ambitious, U.S.-directed covert war, relying on Special Forces and high-tech strikes in Yemen, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and other countries to track down and eliminate Al Qaeda leaders and militants around the world. Meanwhile, administration officials in Washington are attempting to create a legal framework for...
The proponants of international courts (ICs) expect that creating formal legal institutions will help to increase respect for international law. International relations scholars question such claims, since ICs have no tools to compel state compliance. Such views are premised on the notion that states have unique preferences that ICs must...
Traditional accounts in both the international law and international relations literature largely assume that great powers like the United States enter into international legal communities in order to resolve global cooperative programs or to advance objective state interests. Contrary to these accounts, this article suggests that an incumbent regime (or...
Canada's aboriginal peoples are one of the constituencies most affected by the oil sands boom that has swept across northeastern Alberta in western Canada since the mid-1990s. This paper considers the reaction of these First Nations to exploiting the oil sands. It argues that the conventional view of the First...
The International Criminal Court is considemring adding "aggression" to the crimes for which individuals can be prosecuted by the Court. Michael Glennon's recent article on the subject criticizes this effort from many angles, but a close consideration of his objections shows that each of them misses its target. I use...
This article challenges the role that successive generations of EU scholars have granted to the transnational networks of European federalists in the process of European integration. Whereas a first wave of scholarship has claimed that they played a huge role in the process (1) by convincing states to change their...
This paper opens the analysis of treaties in the security field to sociological and hermeneutic analyses of international lawmaking practices. In a legal world where tensions exist between legal regimes, it claims that the interpretive quality of past treaties determines which legal rules survive and which ones disappear when new...
This article offers a new interpretation of The Gift written by Marcel Mauss. It provides a contextual interpretation of the formation of Mauss' thinking about the international relations in the question of German reparations paid to the Allies. The article starts by showing the intellectual origins of the concept of...
This article examines how powerful policy actors defend themselves against opponents' strategies of conflict expansion through a case study of the Alberta oil sands subsystem. In response to changes in the key issues surrounding the oil sands subsystem, the provincial government along with industry have pursued a strategy of engaging...
The past decade has witnessed exponential growth in study abroad participation. During these same years the promise that studying abroad will make students into Global Citizens has been a nearly ubiquitous feature in the promotion of the experience. Yet, Global Citizenship remains a highly contested concept that is rarely defined,...
The surge in "unconventional" oil projects such as Alberta's Tar Sands in the last decade signals a shift in global production from relatively accessible conventional reserves to "frontier" oil. This paper examines one aspect of the oil/environment tension – the environmental regulatory system surrounding the tar sands – by adopting...
This paper provides an overview of key governance issues of relevance to the upstream oil and gas industry in Canada. The focus is on implications of Canada's constitutional organization as a federation. Regulatory structures and provisions are described, as are revenue-sharing arrangements. Challenges for macro-economic management and for the environmental...