Midrand Graduate Institute

Ubuntu is often celebrated as an African worldview that emphasises compassion, dignity, and the collective good. While frequently described as a core social ethos in Africa, some sceptics question whether it remains widely practised today. Revitalising Ubuntu is seen as a potential means of unifying and morally regenerating Africa, offering an alternative to individualistic Western ideologies. This study aimed to assess the prevalence and endorsement of Ubuntu across Africa. A systematic search identified 84 quantitative studies involving Ubuntu as a variable, of which 36 were analysed. The geographical distribution of studies and findings on Ubuntu’s presence and impact was summarised. Only English-language publications were included. Most studies originated from South Africa and neighbouring countries. Findings on Ubuntu’s current relevance were mixed; some confirmed its presence, others challenged it, and several suggested its values extend beyond Africa. Many studies focused on defining or measuring the concept, while others explored its organisational impact. Overall, the limited number of quantitative studies highlights the need for further research. While Ubuntu holds philosophical appeal as a foundation for African unity and reform, its widespread adoption is uncertain. A more objective, quantitative understanding is necessary to support its meaningful application across the continent.

Breast cancer is the most common malignancy among women worldwide, and imaging remains critical for early detection, diagnosis, and treatment planning. Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI), particularly self-supervised learning (SSL) and transformer-based architectures, have opened new opportunities for breast image analysis. SSL offers a label-efficient strategy that reduces reliance on large annotated datasets, with evidence suggesting that it can achieve strong performance. Transformer-based architectures, such as Vision Transformers, capture long-range dependencies and global contextual information, complementing the local feature sensitivity of convolutional neural networks. This study provides a comprehensive overview of recent developments in SSL and transformer models for breast lesion segmentation, detection, and classification, highlighting representative studies in each domain. It also discusses the advantages and current limitations of these approaches and outlines future research priorities, emphasizing that successful clinical translation depends on access to multi-institutional datasets to ensure generalizability, rigorous external validation to confirm real-world performance, and interpretable model designs to foster clinician trust and enable safe, effective deployment in clinical practice.

This study examined globalisation, de-globalisation, the combination, and the future of value chains to ascertain which would be best for the future of value chains. The study used a cross-sectional survey of 277 randomly selected employees of multinational manufacturing firms in Nigeria. The data were analysed using structural equation model path diagram techniques. The results indicate that de-globalisation and the combination of globalisation and de-globalisation have direct and indirect significant relationships with the future of value chains, but globalisation does not have any direct significant relationship with the future of value chains but has an indirect significant relationship with the future of value chains. In addition, supply chain management significantly mediates the relationships among globalisation, de-globalisation, the combination, and the future of value chains. By establishing a significant association between the combination and the future of value chains, the study departs from future studies whose results are largely situated on the bipolar ends of a continuum. The study makes significant contributions to the traditional theory of trade protectionism, endogenous growth theory, and institutional theory, as well as to practice.

This study investigates the association between serum mature brain-derived neurotrophic factor (mBDNF), its precursor proBDNF, and neurocognitive function in ART-naïve adults with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa, exploring the distinct roles of these neurotrophic factors in cognitive health. This cross-sectional analysis utilized stored baseline serum samples and neuropsychological test data from participants in the AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG) A5199 study in the Johannesburg and Harare sites. Serum concentrations of mBDNF and proBDNF were quantified using ELISA. Neurocognitive function was assessed via standardized tests, with results adjusted for site-specific demographics. Linear and quantile regression models examined the relationship of mBDNF and proBDNF with a composite cognitive score (NPZ-6), and structural equation modeling (SEM) explored their association with individual cognitive test outcomes. The analysis involved 157 ART-naïve adults with HIV. Increased serum mBDNF levels showed a significant positive association with cognitive performance (β = 1.30, p = 0.02), while elevated proBDNF levels were linked to poorer outcomes, particularly affecting fine motor skills and speed (β = − 0.29 to − 0.38, p ≤ 0.01). Quantile regression analysis highlighted mBDNF’s stronger positive impact at higher cognitive performance percentiles (β = 1.04 (0.01, 2.06) at the 75th percentile), while proBDNF showed significant negative association at the 75th percentile (β = − 0.26 (− 0.47, − 0.06)). The study highlights the positive association of mature BDNF and the negative association of proBDNF with cognitive function in HIV. These findings emphasize the need for longitudinal research to understand the temporal dynamics of neurotrophic factors during ART initiation and their potential as targets for neurocognitive interventions in HIV.

The non-traditional influences of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) are increasingly gaining attention in international business studies; however, the empirical evidence of these influences is still scant. Using human capital theory within the context of the national competitive framework, the study reported in this paper considers the progress towards achieving Quality education as a likely influence of FDI inflows in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The paper employs a panel data research design and conducts fixed effects estimations. The analysis categorizes FDI flows into global FDI, FDI from developed countries, and FDI from developing countries to SSA. Thus, the paper is centred around three research questions: (1) How does progress toward quality education influence global FDI inflows? (2) How does progress towards quality education influence FDI inflows from developed and (3) from developing countries? The analysis mainly utilizes a bespoke dataset from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and data from trustworthy databases such as UNCTADSTAT and the World Development Indicators (WDI). The results support the claim of the increasing importance of non-traditional influences of FDI flow. Quality Education significantly influenced FDI inflows from the globe and developing countries to SSA. This research provides further evidence that the national competitive framework can thoroughly explain the factors that have different significant powers in influencing FDI flows to SSA from developed and developing countries. The study is highly policy-relevant because it examines the effects of the degree of attainment of specific UN Sustainable Development Goals (quality education) on inward FDI performance. It, therefore, shows the benefits of SSA countries investing in the SDGs for the policy goal of attracting more considerable amounts of inward FDI.

Background: The financial services industry in South Africa has undergone many changes that have given birth to fintechs. Most of these changes are driven by the advent of technology and evolving customer expectations. Fintechs have led to process disruptions and business model transformations, yet their implications have yet to be sufficiently studied. Therefore, it is essential to close this knowledge gap by investigating the impact of fintechs on this industry.Objectives: This research aimed to investigate the impact of fintechs in the financial services industry in South Africa.Method: A qualitative study was conducted in which 18 industry experts were interviewed using semi-structured interviews. The interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed for data analysis. ATLAS.ti 22 was used to organise and analyse data.Results: Fintechs increase competition for the incumbents, reduce profits, expose the inability of the incumbents to be agile and introduce new regulatory risks in the financial services industry. In contrast, fintechs have also brought some positive changes into the industry: financial inclusion, new growth opportunities, increasing choices for consumers and making the industry more competitive, reducing costs, customising financial services, bringing convenience and forcing incumbents and regulators to become more innovative.Conclusion: This study uncovered the positive and negative effects of fintechs in financial services in South Africa.Contribution: The study will benefit academia by expanding the body of knowledge about fintech research and improving the holistic understanding of this field in emerging economies, which can inspire future research on fintech and its application.

We show that the necessary interference for phase retrieval in quantum ghost imaging is naturally embedded in the correlation measurements formed from traditional projective masks.