Education and Political Socialisation of a National-Colonial Political Elite in French West Africa, 1936–47

Much has been written about the first generation of political leaders of French West Africa, their leadership skills, personal resources and networks. Their attachment to, and close links with, France played a crucial role in determining the pattern of decolonisation in the colony. Through a study of their political socialisation, this article seeks to throw light on the experiences and influences that fashioned their thinking about politics and created a common stock of ideas, norms and values. Focusing in particular on their education at the William Ponty School and two key moments that shaped their political thinking—the Popular Front period (1936–38) and the immediate post-war period (1944–47)—it will be argued that an appreciation of their process of political socialisation enhances our understanding of their political choices. A final section reflects on the legacy of this process in the postcolonial period.     

A Spatial Mixture Model of Innovation Diffusion

The diffusion of new product or technical innovation over space is here modeled as an event‐based process in which the likelihood of the next adopter being in region r is influenced by two factors: (i) the potential interactions of individuals in r with current adopters in neighboring regions, and (ii) all other attributes of individuals in r that may influence their adoption propensity. The first factor is characterized by a logit model reflecting the likelihood of adoption due to spatial contacts with previous adopters, and the second by a logit model reflecting the likelihood of adoption due to other intrinsic effects. The resulting spatial diffusion process is then assumed to be driven by a probabilistic mixture of the two. A number of formal properties of this model are analyzed, including its asymptotic behavior. But the main analytical focus is on statistical estimation of parameters. Here it is shown that standard maximum‐likelihood estimates require large sample sizes to achieve reasonable results. Two estimation approaches are developed which yield more sensible results for small sample sizes. These results are applied to a small data set involving the adoption of a new Internet grocery‐shopping service by consumers in the Philadelphia metropolitan area.     

Tortuosity or aneurysm? The palaeopathology of some abnormalities of the vertebral artery

The anatomy of the vertebral artery (VA) and two pathological conditions which affect it—tortuosity and aneurysm—are described. The changes which these lesions produce in the cervical vertebrae are also described and we present two cases in which these changes have been found. One case is of a female aged at least 45 years at the time of death from a 15th century medieval cemetery site in Britain with what we consider to be tortuosity of the VA. The second case is of a male aged between 25 and 35 years at the time of death from a Coffin period site in Japan, dating to ca 1600 years BP. The changes in this skeleton are considered to be more in keeping with a diagnosis of aneurysm of the VA. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Erosive osteoarthritis in a medieval skeleton

In human skeletons from archaeological sites, osteoarthritis is by far the most common disease found, but no case of erosive osteoarthritis has been described and we present here what we believe to be the first such case.