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In 1965, Chinua Achebe, in his classic essay \"The Novelist as Teacher\", declared that the \"African past - with all its imperfections - was not one long night of savagery from which the early Europeans acting on God's behalf, delivered them.\" That assertion included a still reverberating sentiment shared by many of the first generation of African writers that it is possible to reclaim that distorted past creatively in order to show and understand \"where and when the rain started beating Africa\". Many genres and forms of literary and cultural production have recalled and recorded and reconfigured that past - many projecting a new confident African future defined by self-determination. The spectrum of that complex engagement, which encompasses critical issues in politics and social justice, provides the basis of this volume, which concludes with tributes to the life and works of Kofi Awoonor. Articles on: Binyavanga Wainaina + Ben Okri & Nationhood + J.M. Coetzee & the Philosophy of Justice + Isidore Okpewho & \"Manhood\" + Ngugi's Matigari & the Postcolonial Nation + Yambo Ouologuem's Bound to Violence + Politics & Women in Irene Salami's More Than Dancing + Ayi Kwei Armah's The Resolutionaries + Victor Epie 'Ngome's What God Has Put Asunder Ernest Emenyonu is Professor of Africana Studies at the University of Michigan-Flint, USA; the editorial board is composed of scholars from US, UK and African universities

To map and characterize anthropogenic transformation of the terrestrial biosphere before and during the Industrial Revolution, from 1700 to 2000. Global. Anthropogenic biomes (anthromes) were mapped for 1700, 1800, 1900 and 2000 using a rule-based anthrome classification model applied to gridded global data for human population density and land use. Anthropogenic transformation of terrestrial biomes was then characterized by map comparisons at century intervals. In 1700, nearly half of the terrestrial biosphere was wild, without human settlements or substantial land use. Most of the remainder was in a seminatural state (45%) having only minor use for agriculture and settlements. By 2000, the opposite was true, with the majority of the biosphere in agricultural and settled anthromes, less than 20% seminatural and only a quarter left wild. Anthropogenic transformation of the biosphere during the Industrial Revolution resulted about equally from land-use expansion into wildlands and intensification of land use within seminatural anthromes. Transformation pathways differed strongly between biomes and regions, with some remaining mostly wild but with the majority almost completely transformed into rangelands, croplands and villages. In the process of transforming almost 39% of earth's total ice-free surface into agricultural land and settlements, an additional 37% of global land without such use has become embedded within agricultural and settled anthromes. Between 1700 and 2000, the terrestrial biosphere made the critical transition from mostly wild to mostly anthropogenic, passing the 50% mark early in the 20th century. At present, and ever more in the future, the form and process of terrestrial ecosystems in most biomes will be predominantly anthropogenic, the product of land use and other direct human interactions with ecosystems. Ecological research and conservation efforts in all but a few biomes would benefit from a primary focus on the novel remnant, recovering and managed ecosystems embedded within used lands.

Incipient Rift (IR) is the latest in a sequence of short‐lived rifts that form ridge‐ridge‐ridge triple junctions with the East Pacific Rise (EPR) in the Galapagos triple junction region. IR extends ∼65 km southeastward from its intersection with the EPR at 2°40′N. IR originated ∼0.4 Ma; its opening rate is ∼15 km/Myr. Seafloor photographs document active fissuring and volcanism on IR up to 60 km east of the EPR. Eruptive fissures cut sedimented seafloor and lavas overlie sediment. Geochemical data suggest IR lavas >7 km from the EPR have a parental magma composition produced by smaller extents and higher pressures of melting compared to lavas near the EPR. IR eruptions may tap melt accumulating at the lithosphere‐asthenosphere boundary (LAB) as part of the off‐axis EPR melting regime beneath this young oceanic lithosphere. Melt overpressure at the LAB combined with IR extension would explain observations.

Although “population health” is one of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s Triple Aim goals, its relationship to accountable care organizations (ACOs) remains ill-defined and lacks clarity as to how the clinical delivery system intersects with the public health system. Although defining population health as “panel” management seems to be the default definition, we called for a broader “community health” definition that could improve relationships between clinical delivery and public health systems and health outcomes for communities. We discussed this broader definition and offered recommendations for linking ACOs with the public health system toward improving health for patients and their communities.

Disability is an emerging field within public health; people with significant disabilities account for more than 12% of the US population. Disparity status for this group would allow federal and state governments to actively work to reduce inequities. We summarize the evidence and recommend that observed differences are sufficient to meet the criteria for health disparities: population-level differences in health outcomes that are related to a history of wide-ranging disadvantages, which are avoidable and not primarily caused by the underlying disability. We recommend future research and policy directions to address health inequities for individuals with disabilities; these include improved access to health care and human services, increased data to support decision-making, strengthened health and human services workforce capacity, explicit inclusion of disability in public health programs, and increased emergency preparedness.

Background: Governments are responsible for ensuring children’s rights, wellbeing, and safety, including by adequately supporting families and communities in responding to the impacts associated with social determinants of health throughout the lifespan. Article 24 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child emphasises the right of every child to the highest attainable standard of health. The World Health Organization (2023) reports that injuries (including road traffic injuries and drowning), interpersonal violence, self-harm and maternal conditions are the leading causes of death among youth. Recognising the multiple social determinants of children and young people’s health and wellbeing, investing in integrated healthcare services and taking a holistic approach to children’s health and welfare is necessary. Despite the need to advocate for improved equitable access to healthcare, including integrated care to reduce inequality, only nine Public Health Associations (PHAs) out of 130 globally have policies that relate to women, children and youth. Approach: Members of the World Federation of Public Health Associations (WFPHA) Women Children and Youth Working Group of drafted a Children and Young People’s Health and Rights Policy and an Implementation plan in 2024. The working group membership includes over 50 representatives of Public Health Associations globally. The WFPHA policy committee then reviewed and approved the draft policy and implementation plan. Results: The WFPHA emphasises the need for integrated care and comprehensive support for children and young people from birth to 18 to ensure their optimal health and wellbeing. Governments should support children facing multiple disadvantage by increasing justice diversionary programs and community-led initiatives. Governments must tackle inequality and discrimination in healthcare, law enforcement, education, and welfare systems, providing holistic support to marginalised groups. A rights-based approach to engage marginalised groups is needed. Ensuring equitable access to health services is crucial for achieving health equity. Children should be recognised as active participants in decisions affecting them, with their voices heard and respected. Policy, research, and program development support should involve co-design and participatory approaches. Strengthening primary healthcare and educating communities about preventive health measures such as vaccination is crucial. Governments should invest in early intervention and prevention strategies to address mental health issues and trauma in children and young people. Adequate resourcing and integration of child protection, family support, and welfare services are essential to promote children’s rights and break cycles of disadvantage is needed. Addressing inequities faced by Indigenous children requires a focus on self-determination and cultural respect. Implications: The WFPHA has published a policy on Children and Young People’s Health and Rights to advocate for measures to ensure holistic support and equitable access to integrated health, education, and human services for all children and young people. Governments should uphold children and young people’s rights, promote safety, and mitigate poverty, inequality, and discrimination. There is a need to progress policy and advocacy action for these population groups. The WFPHA policy provides a global tool for advocacy to reduce inequality within and among countries.  

A number of programs, policies, and practices have been tested using rigorous scientific methods and shown to prevent behavioral health problems (Catalano et al., Lancet 379:1653–1664, 2012; National Research Council and Institute of Medicine, 2009). Yet these evidence-based interventions (EBIs) are not widely used in public systems, and they have limited reach (Glasgow et al., American Journal of Public Health 102:1274–1281, 2012; National Research Council and Institute of Medicine 2009; Prinz and Sanders, Clinical Psychology Review 27:739–749, 2007). To address this challenge and improve public health and well-being at a population level, the Society for Prevention Research (SPR) formed the Mapping Advances in Prevention Science (MAPS) IV Translation Research Task Force, which considered ways to scale up EBIs in five public systems: behavioral health, child welfare, education, juvenile justice, and public health. After reviewing other efforts to scale up EBIs in public systems, a common set of factors were identified as affecting scale-up in all five systems. The most important factor was the degree to which these systems enacted public policies (i.e., statutes, regulations, and guidance) requiring or recommending EBIs and provided public funds for EBIs. Across systems, other facilitators of scale-up were creating EBIs that are ready for scale-up, public awareness of and support for EBIs, community engagement and capacity to implement EBIs, leadership support for EBIs, a skilled workforce capable of delivering EBIs, and data monitoring and evaluation capacity. It was concluded that the following actions are needed to significantly increase EBI scale-up in public systems: (1) provide more public policies and funding to support the creation, testing, and scaling up of EBIs; (2) develop and evaluate specific frameworks that address systems level barriers impeding EBI scale-up; and (3) promote public support for EBIs, community capacity to implement EBIs at scale, and partnerships between community stakeholders, policy makers, practitioners, and scientists within and across systems.

The CDKN2A/ARF locus encompasses overlapping tumor suppressor genes p16(INK4A) and p14(ARF), which are frequently co-deleted in human malignant mesothelioma (MM). The importance of p16(INK4A) loss in human cancer is well established, but the relative significance of p14(ARF) loss has been debated. The tumor predisposition of mice singly deficient for either Ink4a or Arf, due to targeting of exons 1α or 1β, respectively, supports the idea that both play significant and nonredundant roles in suppressing spontaneous tumors. To further test this notion, we exposed Ink4a(+/-) and Arf(+/-) mice to asbestos, the major cause of MM. Asbestos-treated Ink4a(+/-) and Arf(+/-) mice showed increased incidence and shorter latency of MM relative to wild-type littermates. MMs from Ink4a(+/-) mice exhibited biallelic inactivation of Ink4a, loss of Arf or p53 expression and frequent loss of p15(Ink4b). In contrast, MMs from Arf(+/-) mice exhibited loss of Arf expression, but did not require loss of Ink4a or Ink4b. Mice doubly deficient for Ink4a and Arf, due to deletion of Cdkn2a/Arf exon 2, showed accelerated asbestos-induced MM formation relative to mice deficient for Ink4a or Arf alone, and MMs exhibited biallelic loss of both tumor suppressor genes. The tumor suppressor function of Arf in MM was p53-independent, since MMs with loss of Arf retained functional p53. Collectively, these in vivo data indicate that both CDKN2A/ARF gene products suppress asbestos carcinogenicity. Furthermore, while inactivation of Arf appears to be crucial for MM pathogenesis, the inactivation of both p16(Ink4a) and p19(Arf) cooperate to accelerate asbestos-induced tumorigenesis.