Four-decade Period Research Articles

Detection of long-term land use and ecosystem services dynamics in the Loess Hilly-Gully region based on artificial intelligence and multiple models

Balancing intensive development with biodiversity conservation is critical for ecological sustainability. In the Loess Hilly-Gully region, which has experienced significant environmental changes from 1980 to 2020, land use changes are vital for ecosystem service maintenance. However, these processes are susceptible to environmental stressors such as climate change, land degradation, and inadequate land management. Despite recognizing these stressors, their combined impact on land use and ecosystem services is not well understood. This study addresses this gap by utilizing multi-model land use simulations combined with artificial intelligence to analyze changes over the four-decade period. We focused on identifying ecological nodes essential for landscape connectivity, finding that these nodes significantly enhance regional ecosystem services. We also examined the relationship between land use changes and ecosystem services under various environmental stressors within the specified timeframe. Our analysis indicates that land use changes are a strong indicator of ecosystem evolution in these areas. We observed that under natural conditions, land use and ecosystem services interactions are governed by both stochastic and deterministic factors. Interestingly, multiple stressors intensified the stochastic nature of land use changes and the deterministic aspects of ecosystem services. Specifically, climate change, coupled with suboptimal land management, significantly affects this relationship, with climate change being the most influential factor on land use patterns during the studied period. This research offers important insights for improved environmental management and reducing impacts on aquatic ecosystems amid escalating climate change threats.

Modeling Finance–Growth Nexus in MENA Region Economies: A Panel Data Analysis

The primary objective of this paper is to examine the relationship between finance and economic growth in a cohort of 16 economies within the MENA region spanning a four-decade period from 1980 to 2021. This study employs panel unit root and panel co-integration analyses to investigate this long-term nexus. The fully modified and dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) approaches are utilized to estimate the long-run coefficients. The findings underscore the existence of cross-sectional interdependence among these nations. Furthermore, Pedroni’s panel co-integration research robustly supports the idea of a long-term co-integrating relationship between financial development and economic growth. Our long-run panel estimations reveal a positive and statistically significant impact of financial development on GDP per capita income growth. In addition to this broad analysis, this paper conducts a detailed time-series examination focused on a specific country to validate the robustness of the results. These findings further substantiate the favorable influence of financial development on income growth in the majority of MENA nations. Notably, private sector participation in these economies is found to be alarmingly low. As a result, a significant policy implication of this study underscores the urgent need for policymakers to prioritize measures conducive to private sector expansion. Moreover, enhancing financial inclusion, addressing the crowd-out effect, and tackling non-performing loans are critical areas requiring attention within the MENA region. Furthermore, our research highlights the potential benefits of developing stock markets as part of an optimal strategy to enhance both economic and income growth rates. In conclusion, this study contributes valuable insights into the finance–growth nexus in the MENA region, emphasizing the importance of financial development as a driver of economic prosperity and the need for targeted policy initiatives to support private sector growth and financial stability.

Development versus Structural Heterogeneity: Trajectories of Economic Growth and Income Inequalities in Latin American Countries from the 1980s

This article deals with income inequalities in Latin American countries in the last four decades, relating to economic growth and development. Founded on a structural heterogeneity approach (both its original formulation and recent advances), we adopt a concept of development as a structural process of reducing inequalities. Particularly, we discuss the role of economic policy and institutions on economic growth, income inequalities and development. Empirically, we trace the evolution of economic growth and income inequalities in selected Latin American countries from the period of dominant adoption of neoliberal policies, in the 1980s, to recent decades, when these policies have been partially contested and alternative policies have been established in some cases. In this context, particular attention was devoted to the evolution of social expenditures, identified as a key factor to influence income inequalities. According to the availability of data, we contrast income inequalities in selected Latin American countries and OECD countries by collecting the Gini Index and calculating the Palma ratio for this four-decade period. We analyze the results relating to theoretical basis and institutional elements. Thus, based on the literature review and data analyzed, we contrast trajectories during 1980s and 2000s, stressing that different oriented economic and social policies and institutions lead to different outcomes, which means that trajectories of the countries are mainly outcomes of “choices” made at the national level.

Cash Crop Output and Foreign Currency Exchange Rate in Nigeria: A Vector Error Correction Model Analysis

This study examined the relationship among cash crop exportation, real exchange rate, nominal exchange rate, and exchange volatility. This study focuses on the effects of the exchange rate on cash crop exportation in Nigeria. This study covers a four-decade period between, 1980 and 2020. The study used a pairwise granger, Distributive Lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach to co-integrate the long-run relationship among the variables. The outcome of the study shows that there is unidirectional causality between cash crop production and nominal exchange in the long run. The result also reveals that there is unidirectional causality between exchange rate volatility in the long run. The result further shows that there is a bidirectional causality between exchange rate volatility and the real exchange rate. This study recommended that the government should participate actively in the money market in order to effectively guard the volatility of the market which will go a long way to enhance economic stability.

Remote Sensing-Based Monitoring of Postfire Recovery of Persistent Shrubs: The Case of Juniperus communis in Sierra Nevada (Spain)

Wildfires affect the structure, functioning, and composition of ecosystems. Long-term monitoring of the occurrence, abundance, and growth of plant species is key to assessing the responses of the dynamics of plant populations with regard to environmental disturbances, such as wildfires. In this work, we evaluated the changes in the number of individuals and the canopy cover extent of a population of Juniperus communis L. during a four-decade period following a wildfire in a Mediterranean high-mountain ecosystem (Sierra Nevada, Spain). To do this, we used object-based image analysis (OBIA) applied to very high-resolution aerial images. Our study also provides a new approach to optimize the shrub identification process and to semi-automatically evaluate the accuracy of the number of shrubs and their canopy cover. From the 752 individuals present in 1977, only 433 remained immediately after a fire (1984), a few more disappeared one decade later (420 shrubs in 1997), while by 2008, the population had partially recovered to 578 shrubs. The wildfire decreased juniper canopy cover from 55,000 m2 to 40,000 m2, but two decades later it had already recovered to 57,000 m2. The largest shrubs were more resistant to fire than the smallest ones and recovered in a shorter time period. The protection measures introduced with the park declaration seemed to have contributed to the post-fire recovery. The potential of this methodology in the management and conservation of biodiversity in the future is also discussed.

Standardised survival and excess Life Years Lost in patients with type 3 intestinal failure

Long term outcomes have been reported in home parenteral nutrition (HPN)-dependent patients with type 3 intestinal failure (IF), but there are limited survival data standardised to the general population that would help provide a meaningful prognosis for patients and clinicians. The primary aim of this study was therefore to investigate the survival of HPN-dependent patients and to evaluate the specific impact of type 3 IF on their life expectancy standardised to that of the general population. This was a cohort study of adult patients initiated on HPN between 1978 and 2018at a national UK IF reference centre and followed up until death or censoring date of 31st December 2020. The standardised mortality ratio (SMR) was calculated as observed deaths divided by expected deaths using UK Office for National Statistics database. Excess Life Years Lost (LYL) were calculated separately for each sex as the differences in average life expectancy between patients with type 3 IF and the general population. Survival data were evaluated using cox regression models adjusting for confounding. In total, 1046 patients were identified, with a total observation time of 7344.1 patient-years. Patients with malignancy (n=206) were excluded from the survival analysis. Of the remaining 840 patients, 398 were alive by the end of follow-up. The probability of survival was 91.8% at 1 year, 69.3% at 5 years, 54.3% at 10 years, 29.8% at 20 years and 16.7% at 30 years. Patients who did not achieve nutritional autonomy had an increased likelihood of death compared to patients who ceased HPN. In total, 40 (9.0%) deaths were HPN or IF-related, while underlying disease leading to IF accounted for 98 (22.2%) deaths. There were 270 (61.1%) deaths not related to IF, with the majority of these patients dying from infections unrelated to HPN. Overall mortality rates were higher among patients with a diagnosis of type 3 IF compared with the general UK population with a SMR of 7.48 (95% CI 6.80 to 8.21) and an excess mortality rate of 54.0 per 1000 person-years. All mechanisms of IF were associated with excess mortality, with SMR ranging from 6.82 (95% CI 5.98 to 7.72) for short bowel syndrome to 15.51 (95% CI 11.73 to 20.03) for dysmotility. On average, the excess LYL was 17.45 years for males and 17.39 years for females compared with the general population of the same age. This the largest single-centre series reporting survival outcomes in patients with type 3 IF over more than a four-decade period and the first to report LYL in this patient cohort. Type 3 IF was associated with more than seven-fold higher mortality rates than for the general UK population and shorter life expectancies of more than 17 years. Survival, however, was better in those able to achieve nutritional autonomy. Since the majority of deaths were due to non-HPN or non-IF causes, there is clearly a need now to further explore these causes of death in order to improve our understanding of excessive mortality in type 3 IF and develop ways to prevent it.

Land use/cover spatiotemporal dynamics, and implications on environmental and bioclimatic factors in Chingola district, Zambia

This study uses remote sensing and GIS techniques to examine the intensity and dynamics of land use/cover change and environmental indices across a four-decade period in the Chingola district of Zambia, from 1972 to 2020 using five classification stages (1972, 1992, 2001, 2013, and 2020). A total of 10 key climate change detection monitoring indices were generated using RClimDex to examine the implications of land degradation on the bioclimatic factors from 1983 to 2020. The findings revealed a significant expansion in Built-ups (7.3%/year), farmlands (3.18%/year), and mining areas (0.82%/year) at the expense of natural resources. The highest human pressure was exerted on Savannah woodlands (−0.78), through agriculture (0.76) and infrastructure development (0.44) between 1992 and 2001.The analysis of the bioclimatic indices revealed a significant decline in rainfall quantity and intensity, and a rising in temperature (warmer days and nights). The Annual rainfall has decreased by −3.25%, while the potential evapotranspiration has increased by 0.04% from 1983 to 2020, resulting in an Aridity Index of 0.60 and a moisture deficit index of −0.42. To offset agriculture’s propensity to spatially expand and further encroach into savannah woodlands and forests, urban containment policies and programs that stimulate agricultural intensification are needed to reduce urban sprawl and protect the city’s remaining forestlands.

A bibliometric analysis of humanitarian logistics

Recent years have seen a surge in interest in humanitarian logistics (HL) research. This study conducted a bibliometric analysis of 894 HL-related studies. The publications were chosen using a combination of keywords from their titles, abstracts and author-supplied keywords from the leading database Scopus. The publications were classified according to their publication year, country of origin, type of publication, most relevant journals, and most influential authors. The review’s findings indicate that over a four-decade period, HL research progressed through three distinct stages. In terms of national contribution, the United States of America leads with the most studies published on HL. Additionally, the HL literature is advanced primarily through academic journal articles. The Journal of Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Management is the leading journal in the field, with 148 articles published. The study makes a significant contribution by providing relevant analysis that may inform and guide scholars and researchers as they explore the evolution of HL research and foster networking and collaboration opportunities across multiple institutions.

Retrieval of Land-Use/Land Cover Change (LUCC) Maps and Urban Expansion Dynamics of Hyderabad, Pakistan via Landsat Datasets and Support Vector Machine Framework

Land-use/land cover change (LUCC) is an important problem in developing and under-developing countries with regard to global climatic changes and urban morphological distribution. Since the 1900s, urbanization has become an underlying cause of LUCC, and more than 55% of the world’s population resides in cities. The speedy growth, development and expansion of urban centers, rapid inhabitant’s growth, land insufficiency, the necessity for more manufacture, advancement of technologies remain among the several drivers of LUCC around the globe at present. In this study, the urban expansion or sprawl, together with spatial dynamics of Hyderabad, Pakistan over the last four decades were investigated and reviewed, based on remotely sensed Landsat images from 1979 to 2020. In particular, radiometric and atmospheric corrections were applied to these raw images, then the Gaussian-based Radial Basis Function (RBF) kernel was used for training, within the 10-fold support vector machine (SVM) supervised classification framework. After spatial LUCC maps were retrieved, different metrics like Producer’s Accuracy (PA), User’s Accuracy (UA) and KAPPA coefficient (KC) were adopted for spatial accuracy assessment to ensure the reliability of the proposed satellite-based retrieval mechanism. Landsat-derived results showed that there was an increase in the amount of built-up area and a decrease in vegetation and agricultural lands. Built-up area in 1979 only covered 30.69% of the total area, while it has increased and reached 65.04% after four decades. In contrast, continuous reduction of agricultural land, vegetation, waterbody, and barren land was observed. Overall, throughout the four-decade period, the portions of agricultural land, vegetation, waterbody, and barren land have decreased by 13.74%, 46.41%, 49.64% and 85.27%, respectively. These remotely observed changes highlight and symbolize the spatial characteristics of “rural to urban transition” and socioeconomic development within a modernized city, Hyderabad, which open new windows for detecting potential land-use changes and laying down feasible future urban development and planning strategies.

Öğretmen bilişi: Öğretmenlik alışkanlıklarını geliştiren ve yöneten güçlü bir olgu

Teaching has a complex feature being both a cognitive activity as well as a social behavior; thus, it is highly crucial to monitor how teachers develop and govern their habits and behavioral tendencies in the classroom. Teachers’ mental government has been the focus of educational research for a long time, because it is known to drive their actions. Considering teacher cognition as a powerful asset to develop and govern the habits of teaching, this paper adopts a conceptual review approach and presents a comprehensive and integrated literature review on teacher cognition along with its historical basis, key components, conceptual domains, origins, and driving forces. Building upon the empirical and theoretical literature compiled over a four-decade period, the paper presents a tripartite model regarding the conceptual domains of teacher cognition. As it is influenced by contextual circumstances surrounding teachers’ personal and professional lives, the concept of teacher cognition is revisited with regard to three origins and three driving forces. In this regard, the paper reconsiders teacher cognition in terms of the ways it is constructed and the ways it is oriented to action, and finally concludes with implications for teacher education.

Natural History of Renal Neuroendocrine Neoplasms: A NET by Any Other Name?

Renal neuroendocrine neoplasms are rare, with descriptions of cases limited to individual reports and small series. The natural history of this group of neuroendocrine neoplasms is poorly understood. In this study, we queried the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database over a four-decade period where we identified 166 cases of primary renal neuroendocrine neoplasms. We observed a 5-year overall survival of 50%. On multivariate analysis, survival was influenced by stage, histology, and if surgery was performed. We observed that patients managed by operative management had a greater frequency of localized or regional stage disease as well as a greater frequency of neuroendocrine tumor, grade 1 histology; whereas those managed non-operatively tended to have distant disease and histologies of neuroendocrine carcinoma, NOS and small cell neuroendocrine carcinoma. This is the largest description of patients with renal neuroendocrine neoplasms. Increased survival was observed in patients with earlier stage and favorable histologies.

Psychology-informed doctoral research in tourism

ABSTRACTWhile scholars have reflected on the roles played by psychology in tourism studies, there has been only limited exploration of the contributions of this discipline to tourism doctoral research. The aim of this study is to examine how psychology features in tourism-focused doctoral dissertations completed in the United States (US), Canada, Australia and New Zealand from 1974 to 2013. A content analysis was conducted on the 359 tourism doctoral theses identified during that four-decade period as drawing directly on theory informed by psychology and/or employing psychological concepts. The results indicate that motivation/destination choice, tourist behaviour/experiences, and attitudes/satisfaction are the most prevalent conceptual themes studied and expectancy-value theory the most frequently-invoked theory by psychology-informed doctoral research in tourism. Although collectively drawing on a wide range of methods throughout this period, an increase in the use of mixed and qualitative methodologies in recent decades was evident. This paper adds to a suite of studies exploring the scholarly contributions and trends in the application of psychology to the study of tourism. It serves to highlight gaps and avenues for further research, including the need for a more strategic and documented approach to the selection and application of psychology-informed theory, theoretical frameworks and models.

„Megfogyva bár…” Egy tanyafelmérés tanulságai Békés megyében

Within the framework of a large-scale “tanya” (scattered farmstead settlement) programme launched by the Ministry of Rural Development in 2013, a research group – led by the Békéscsaba Group of CERSHAS – made an almost complete survey of the population and the houses of the outlying areas in Békés county, Hungary. A large scale and spatially sorted data base was built. However, as the basic structure of data tables was pre-defined by the ministry, we had to use additional questions and interviews with local residents to enlarge our information basis and understand the longer-term processes of development. In this paper the authors concentrate on the survey findings to show the different development paths on LAU1 and LAU2 levels 25 years after the transition period (1989–1990).After a four-decade period of “tanya” destruction (1950–1986), there was not a new “resettlement wave” from the centre of villages/towns into the vicinity after the re-privatisation of arable lands in the early 1990s. There was not a widespread process of further destruction, either. The survival of certain “tanyas” was owed only partially to agribusiness (the traditional function of scattered farmstead settlements), but much more and increasingly to their use as second homes and for recreational purposes.The pre-conception of residents in “tanyas” being mostly elderly or socially marginalised groups seems to be a very simplified point of view. In reality, there is a fragmented, highly mixed population living in “tanyas” with different characteristics even in smaller parts of a certain settlement. The demographic profile of them is quite similar to the bigger settlements’ overall average. Meanwhile, there is a continuous change of population which is sometimes caused by a change of function of a “tanya”.A further contraction of the “tanya” network seems almost inevitable in the next decade, as we counted a high number of ruined or abandoned non-residential buildings. This process may also be caused by such factors as the absence of a basic infrastructure (roads, electricity, telecommunications). The most dangerous challenge to the survival of homes in those outlying settlements is losing residential and/or economic functions.We saw different spatial types of “tanyas” in the area of Békés county, rooted in the specific historic patterns of micro-regions. In the North, North-Eastern, and Southern parts of the county, the traditional “tanya” network is almost non-existent. In contrast, there is a lively, multi-functional and morphologically differentiated “tanya” system along the East-West axis of the county, even around major centres.

A Quantitative Assessment of the Effect of First Contract Arbitration on Bargaining Relationships

This article investigates first contract arbitration's (FCA) capacity to foster bargaining relationships and deter misconduct by analyzing its effect on decertifications. Using time-series cross-sectional (TSCS) analysis with data from nine Canadian provinces over a four-decade period, it shows: (1) FCA correlates with 20 to 37 percent fewer decertifications in provinces that have an FCA provision relative to those that do not; (2) of the various types of FCA, the automatic and fault forms have the most robust effect on decertifications while the mediation-arbitration form may have the largest effect on decertifications; and (3) the effect of FCA is heightened in the presence of card-check certification such that the best results for fostering bargaining relationships may be found in the presence of both policies

Leveraging Diversity and Social Capital in U.S. Democracy: Asian American Civic and Political Engagement

Despite its colonial history and accompanying moniker as a “nation of immigrants,” the United States has only recently regained its status as a multicultural nation. In the four-decade period between 1924 and 1965, the United States firmly shut its fabled “golden door” to international migration by systematically prohibiting new entrants from Asia, Latin America, Africa and much of Europe. During that time, its population changed as a result of internal dynamics rather than immigration, and by the time of the Civil Rights Act (1964) and Voting Rights Act (1965), the United States had become a polity described racially as white and black. Nearly a half-century later, and after the reopening of the nation’s borders to foreign migration, the United States is once again visibly a nation of immigrants. More than a third of the population considers itself to be a race other than white, and foreign-born Americans and their second-generation offspring make up more than 20 percent of the U.S. population. How do and how can people with this diverse a set of backgrounds, racial and ethnic identities, languages, and religions get along in politics? This paper considers the question of how racial and ethnic diversity is leveraged in U.S. democracy by highlighting the role of community organizations, political movements, and organized interests in creating social capital among Asian Americans.

Planetary Waves - Major Forcing Agent in Generating Stratospheric and Mesospheric Quasi Biennial Oscillation

Quasi Biennial Oscillation (QBO) and Semi Annual Oscillation (SAO) are dominant natural oscillations in the equatorial lower stratosphere and mesosphere and are believed to be generated by the wave-mean flow interaction. The characteristics of stratospheric QBO (SQBO) and mesospheric QBO (MQBO) and SAO are studied by making use of the monthly mean zonal and meridional winds derived from four decades of balloon (1970-2010) and rocket (1971-2007) flights and seven years of SKiYMET meteor radar (2004-2011) observations over an equatorial station Thiruvananthapuram. The year-to-year variation and interrelationships between these oscillations are also studied. The quantitative estimation of forcing towards the mean flow acceleration producing the maximum phase of SQBO during the four-decade period shows 70-80% contribution from planetary waves, while during minimum phase of SQBO the contribution is 30-35%. It is also found that the contribution by planetary waves towards the mean flow acceleration producing MQBO maximum during the seven-year period is around 30-90% and during MQBO minimum phase it is 30-60%. The vertical structure of these oscillations present over the equatorial station is also derived.

Common Risk Factors in Equity Markets

A betting against consumption (BAC) factor, which goes long high consumption growth markets and short low consumption growth markets, explains most of the cross-sectional variation in returns on equity portfolios from 47 developed and emerging markets over a four-decade period. High sensitivity to BAC is associated with high average returns and commands a pervasive and statistically significant premium. This risk premium is about 50 to 80 basis points per month and has increased in recent years. By investing in high BAC beta markets, investors load up on common macroeconomic risks. JEL: G11; G12

SPEED GOVERNORS: ROAD SAFETY AND INFRASTRUCTURAL OVERLOAD IN POST-COLONIAL KENYA, c. 1963–2013

ABSTRACTIn this article, I focus on the place of road safety in Kenyan legislative history since independence in 1963 as a way of illustrating the analytic value of speed for the anthropology of the state. Road safety, a highly visible public concern in Kenya since the 1960s, offers us a way to rethink the temporal dangers and uncertainties of automotive travel under global capitalism, but also to go further in seeking out historical continuities in Kenya's post-colonial aspirations for safer and more efficient roads. This focus on road safety takes us from Africanization, in the 1960s and 1970s, to the regulatory reforms of the 1990s and 2000s in the guise of neo-liberalism. From the vociferous complaints and debates of Kenyan politicians about imported Peugeots being dangerous to drive on Kenya's rough and sparsely tarmacked roads in 1964, to the much publicized traffic crackdown of 2003, the so-called ‘Michuki Rules’, road safety is a field of study ideally suited to the analysis of infrastructural power and its transformations and continuities over a four-decade period. What is of analytic interest here is the new value of speed in an East African region that has aggressively embraced automobility as a vehicle for enhancing state sovereignty in a globalized economy.

Malignant Lymphoma of Bone: A Review of 119 Patients

Lymphoma of bone is uncommon. As a result of this, many aspects of primary lymphoma of bone (PLB) are controversial: the definition, treatment strategies, response criteria, and prognostic factors. We sought to determine the following in an analysis from a single center over a four-decade period: (1) 5-year disease-free survival of patients with PLB as well as those with systemic lymphoma with bone involvement; and (2) whether prognostic factors (sex, site of tumor, age) were associated with 5-year survival. A total of 119 patients with lymphoma involving the musculoskeletal system were retrospectively evaluated. Among these, 94 patients who had a minimum followup of 6 months (mean, 67 months; range, 6 months to 34 years) were further analyzed for the skeletal site of involvement, the orthopaedic intervention(s) needed, and survival. The overall median age was 45 years (range, 7-87 years). The female-to-male ratio was 1:1.53. There were 70 (65 unifocal, five multifocal) patients with PLB. The femur was the most frequent site involved. Appendicular skeleton involvement was substantially higher in patients with PLB. Thirty-four (36%) patients had at least one surgical intervention. Fourteen patients (41%) needed more than one major surgical intervention. The disease-free 5-year survival for patients with PLB was 81% and for the patients with systemic lymphoma with bone involvement, it was 44%. The disease-free 5-year survival of the patients with PLB younger than 60 years old and 60 years old or older was 90% and 62%, respectively. Age was the only prognostic factor on survival of patients with PLB. Orthopaedic intervention was usually needed for pathologic fractures, avascular necrosis, spinal cord compression, or for the lesions of the weightbearing bones compromising stability or joint motion. The potential for long-term survival suggests the use of implants and techniques that have the best chance of long-term success.

Speed Governors: Road Safety and Infrastructural Overload in Post-Colonial Kenya, c. 1963-2013

In this article, I focus on the place of road safety in Kenyan legislative history since independence in 1963 as a way of illustrating the analytic value of speed for the anthropology of the state. Road safety, a highly visible public concern in Kenya since the 1960s, offers us a way to rethink the temporal dangers and uncertainties of automotive travel under global capitalism, but also to go further in seeking out historical continuities in Kenya's post-colonial aspirations for safer and more efficient roads. This focus on road safety takes us from Africanization, in the 1960s and 1970s, to the regulatory reforms of the 1990s and 2000s in the guise of neo-liberalism. From the vociferous complaints and debates of Kenyan politicians about imported Peugeots being dangerous to drive on Kenya's rough and sparsely tarmacked roads in 1964, to the much publicized traffic crackdown of 2003, the so-called 'Michuki Rules', road safety is a field of study ideally suited to the analysis of infrastructural power and its transformations and continuities over a four-decade period. What is of analytic interest here is the new value of speed in an East African region that has aggressively embraced automobility as a vehicle for enhancing state sovereignty in a globalized economy.