Gender equality and girls education: Investigating frameworks, disjunctures and meanings of quality education

The article draws on qualitative educational research across a diversity of low-income countries to examine the gendered inequalities in education as complex, multi-faceted and situated rather than a series of barriers to be overcome through linear input–output processes focused on isolated dimensions of quality. It argues that frameworks for thinking about educational quality often result in analyses of gender inequalities that are fragmented and incomplete. However, by considering education quality more broadly as a terrain of quality it investigates questions of educational transitions, teacher supply and community participation, and develops understandings of how education is experienced by learners and teachers in their gendered lives and their teaching practices. By taking an approach based on theories of human development the article identifies dynamics of power underpinning gender inequalities in the literature and played out in diverse contexts and influenced by social, cultural and historical contexts. The review and discussion indicate that attaining gender equitable quality education requires recognition and understanding of the ways in which inequalities intersect and interrelate in order to seek out multi-faceted strategies that address not only different dimensions of girls’ and women’s lives, but understand gendered relationships and structurally entrenched inequalities between women and men, girls and boys

Imatinib in combination with hydroxyurea versus hydroxyurea alone as oral therapy in patients with progressive pretreated glioblastoma resistant to standard dose temozolomide

A randomized, multicenter, open-label, phase 3 study of patients with progressive, recurrent glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) for whom front-line therapy had failed was conducted. This study was designed to determine whether combination therapy with imatinib and hydroxyurea (HU) has superior antitumor activity compared with HU monotherapy in the treatment of recurrent GBM. The target population consisted of patients with confirmed recurrent GBM and an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status of 0-2 who had completed previous treatment comprising surgical resection, irradiation therapy, and first-line chemotherapy (preferably temozolomide (TMZ) containing regimen) and who have progressed despite treatment. If first-line chemotherapy did not contain TMZ, a second completed chemotherapy was acceptable. The primary efficacy parameter was progression-free survival (PFS). The primary comparison of combination therapy versus monotherapy for PFS was not significant (adjusted P = 0.56). The hazard ratio (HR) (adjusted HR = 0.93) was not clinically relevant. The median PFS for the combination arm was low at 6 weeks and similar to the median PFS in the monotherapy arm (6 weeks). The 6-month PFS for the two treatment groups was very similar (5% in the combination arm vs. 7% in the monotherapy arm). No clinically meaningful differences were found between the two treatment arms, and the primary study end point was not met. Among the patients receiving imatinib, no adverse events were reported that were either previously unknown or unexpected as a consequence of the disease

Towards Customary Legal Empowerment

Rule of Law and Development: Formation, Implementation and Improvement of Law and Governance in Developing Countrie

Pharmacokinetics and safety of an 8 week continuous treatment with once-daily versus twice-daily inhalation of tobramycin in cystic fibrosis patients

This randomized, multicentre, open-label, two-period crossover study showed that inhaling tobramycin either once daily or twice daily for 8 weeks appears to be safe and tolerable for treating patients with cystic fibrosis and chronic P. aeruginosa infection.We evaluated the pharmacokinetics, safety and tolerability of two different continuous treatment regimens of tobramycin inhalation solution (TIS) in 29 cystic fibrosis (CF) patients chronically infected with Pseudomonas aeruginosa. In this randomized, multicentre, open-label, two-period crossover study, TIS (300 mg/5 mL) was administered via PARI eFlow(A (R)) rapid once daily and twice daily each for 8 weeks. Serum pharmacokinetics of these two regimens was analysed. Tobramycin levels were determined before the morning dose and at 30, 60 and 90 min after the end of nebulization in the middle and at the end of each 8 week cycle. At these timepoints, trough and peak serum tobramycin concentrations (C-max, mg/L) as well as the area under the curve for 0-90 min of tobramycin (AUC(0-90min)) were assessed in order to evaluate the risk of systemic toxicity. Safety parameters and forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) were assessed. For once-daily treatment, tobramycin levels were 10% higher after 8 weeks compared with 4 weeks (AUC(0-90min) ratioaEuroS=aEuroS1.096, 90% CIaEuroS=aEuroS0.860-1.396, PaEuroS=aEuroS0.5237). For twice-daily treatment, tobramycin levels after 8 weeks showed a 40% decrease compared with 4 weeks (AUC(0-90min) ratioaEuroS=aEuroS0.608, 90% CIaEuroS=aEuroS0.461-0.802, PaEuroS=aEuroS0.0055). The AUC(0-90min) ratio at 8 weeks (once daily versus twice daily) did not differ significantly (AUC(0-90min) ratioaEuroS=aEuroS0.749, 90% CIaEuroS=aEuroS0.514-1.092, PaEuroS=aEuroS0.2009). The mean FEV1 did not differ markedly compared between treatment periods or with baseline. No audiological or nephrotoxic side effects were noted. Continuous treatment with TIS (once daily or twice daily) over 8 weeks appears to be safe and tolerable