“Education Is My Mother and Father”: The “Invisible” Women of Sudan

Education plays a significant role in informing the way people develop gender values, identities, relationships, and stereotypes. The education of refugees, however, takes place in multiple and diverse settings. Drawing on a decade of field research in Kenya, Sudan, Uganda, and North America, I examine the promises and challenges of education for refugees and argue that southern Sudanese refugee women and girls experience gendered and unequal access to education in protracted refugee sites such as the Kakuma refugee camp, as well as in resettled destinations such as Massachusetts. Many of these refugees, who are commonly referred to as the “lost boys and girls,” did not experience schooling in the context of a stable family life; that is why they often reiterate the Sudanese proverb, “Education is my mother and father.” I argue that tertiary education is crucial because it promotes self-reliance. It enables refugees, particularly women, to gain knowledge, voice, and skills which will give them access to better employment opportunities and earnings and thus enhance their equality and independence. Indeed, education provides a context within which to understand and make visible the changing nature of gender relationships of power.L’éducation joue un rôle important dans l’obtention d’information sur la façon dont sont acquises les valeurs, les identités, les relations et comment se développent les stéréotypes relatifs aux genres . L’éducation des réfugiés, par contre, s’effectue dans des milieux multiples et variés . En m’appuyant sur des études de terrain effectuées pendant une décennie au Kenya, au Soudan, en Ouganda et en Amérique du Nord, j’examine les promesses faites aux réfugiés en matière d’ éducation de même que leurs difficultés et j’argumente que les femmes et les filles réfugiées provenant du Sud du Soudan connaissent un accès inégal à l’éducation basé sur leur genre dans des camps de déplacement prolongé, comme celui de Kakuma, ainsi qu’ à des destinations de réinstallation, telles que le Massachusetts . Nombre de ces réfugiés, communément surnommés « enfants perdus », n’ont pas eu droit à des études scolaires dans une situation familiale stable. C’est d’ailleurs pour-quoi ils réitèrent souvent le proverbe soudan « Ma mère et mon père forment mon éducation . » Je soutiens que l’éducation supérieure est primordiale, car elle favorise l’autonomie. Elle permet aux réfugiés, en particulier aux femmes, d’acquérir des connaissances, une voix et des compétences qui leur donneront de meilleures possibilités d’emploi et de meilleurs revenus, ce qui contribue à leur égalité de fait et à leur indépendance. En effet, l’éducation fournit un contexte au moyen duquel on peut comprendre et mettre en lumière la nature changeante des rapports de pouvoir entre les genres

Understanding the host-microbe interactions using metabolic modeling

The human gut harbors an enormous number of symbiotic microbes, which is vital for human health. However, interactions within the complex microbiota community and between the microbiota and its host are challenging to elucidate, limiting development in the treatment for a variety of diseases associated with microbiota dysbiosis. Using in silico simulation methods based on flux balance analysis, those interactions can be better investigated. Flux balance analysis uses an annotated genome-scale reconstruction of a metabolic network to determine the distribution of metabolic fluxes that represent the complete metabolism of a bacterium in a certain metabolic environment such as the gut. Simulation of a set of bacterial species in a shared metabolic environment can enable the study of the effect of numerous perturbations, such as dietary changes or addition of a probiotic species in a personalized manner. This review aims to introduce to experimental biologists the possible applications of flux balance analysis in the host-microbiota interaction field and discusses its potential use to improve human health. [MediaObject not available: see fulltext.

QCD resummation for groomed jet observables at NNLL+NLO

We use a direct QCD approach to carry out the next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic (NNLL) resummation for observables groomed with the modified mass-drop tagger (Soft Drop $\beta=0$). We focus on observables which are additive given an arbitrary number of soft-collinear emissions. For this class of observables, we arrange the structure of the NNLL terms into two distinct categories. The first defines a simplified inclusive tagger, whereby the NNLL collinear structure is directly related to ungroomed observables. The second defines a clustering correction which takes a particularly simple form when the Cambridge-Aachen (C/A) algorithm is used to cluster the jets. We provide, in addition to the QCD resummation of groomed jet mass, the first NNLL resummed predictions, matched to NLO, for a range of groomed jet angularities with mMDT grooming. Moreover, we also include for the first time in the same calculation, finite $z_{\mathrm{cut}}$ effects computed at NLL level alongside the small $z_{\mathrm{cut}}$ NNLL results which simultaneously improves upon both of the calculations used for groomed jet mass phenomenological studies to date. While for simplicity we focus on $e^{+}e^{-}$ collisions, the essential NNLL resummation we develop is process independent and hence with the appropriate NLO matching our results are also applicable for hadron collider phenomenology.Comment: 32 pages, 7 figure

Reddit Users' Questions and Concerns about Anesthesia

Background. Patients utilize social media in search of support networks. Reddit is one of the most popular social media sites and allows users to anonymously connect. Anesthesia patients are actively using Reddit to discuss their treatment options and experiences within the medical system. Methods. Posts published on an active Reddit forum on Anesthesia (i.e., /r/Anesthesia) were used. Big Query was used to collect posts from /r/Anesthesia. We collected 3,288 posts published between December 2015 and August 2019. We collected a control group of 3,288 posts from a Reddit forum not related to Anesthesia. Using latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) we extracted 20 topics from our data set. The LDA topic themes most associated with posts in /r/Anesthesia compared to the control group were determined. Results. LDA analysis of posts in /r/Anesthesia relative to a control group produced 6 distinct categories of posts (Table 1). The posts most associated with /r/Anesthesia when compared to a control group were posts belonging to the “Physician-Patient Experience” category (Cohen’s d= 0.389) while the posts least associated with /r/Anesthesia were from the “Uncertainties” category of posts (Cohen’s d= 0.147). Example experiences from members of the /r/Anesthesia forum highlight subjective experiences of patients undergoing anesthesiology. Conclusions. The language used on social media can provide insights into an individual's experience with anesthesia and inform physicians about patient concerns. Anesthesiologists are poised to address these concerns and prevent anonymous misinformation by providing verified physician insights on the forum /r/Anesthesia

Identification of a Natural Source of Resistance to Watermelon Chlorotic Stunt Virus in an Indigenous Accession of Cucumis Melo Var. Agrestis

Watermelon chlorotic stunt virus (WCSV) is among the most important viral diseases of the family Cucurbitaceae. It is a bipartite begomovirus (DNA-A and DNA-B genome components) that belongs to the family Geminividae (Walkely et al., 1990). It causes severe crop losses, particularly in watermelon and melon (Lecoq et al.,1994). In Sudan, WCSV causes high reduction in yield and quality of watermelon, melon, snake cucumber and squashes. Leaves of infected plants are crinkled, stunted and develop striking chlorotic mottle. The whole plant looked stunted and chlorotic and may be devoid of marketable fruits (Walkely et al., 1990). Resistance to major diseases is very common among indigenous Sudanese melons, Tibish and agrestis (C. melo var. agrestis), compared to other melon types (Mohamed, 2000).    Experiments were conducted at the University of Gezira Research Farm in April (1996-1997) to identify a natural source of resistance to watermelon chlorotic stunt virus in Cucumis melo L. The screened material included: 101 accessions of C. melo var. cantalupensis and C. melo var flexuousus collected in Sudan; nine accessions belong to the indigenous Humaid type (C. melo var. agrestis) and eleven introduced lines such as P1 313970, P1 131375, Pl 255478, Vedrantais, Nantais Oblong, MR-I, Isoblon, Virgos, Margot and Zumo. The inoculation pressure of the virus in the field was increased by growing plants of the susceptible watermelon cultivar "Sugar Baby", obtained from Peto Seed Company, about one month before conducting the screening experiments

Targeting the endocannabinoid system with microbial interventions to improve gut integrity

The endocannabinoid system is a metabolic pathway involved in the communication between the gut microbiota and the host. In the gut, the endocannabinoid system regulates the integrity of the intestinal barrier. A compromised integrity of the intestinal barrier is associated with several disorders such as inflammatory bowel disorder, obesity and major depressive disorder. Decreasing the integrity of the intestinal barrier results in an increased translocation of bacterial metabolites, including lipopolysaccharides, across the epithelial layer of the gut, causing the subsequent inflammation. Targeting the endocannabinoid system in the gut can improve the integrity of the intestinal barrier. Currently, microbial interventions in the form of probiotics are under investigation for the treatment of diseases related to a compromised integrity of the intestinal barrier. However, the role of the endocannabinoid system in the gut is ambiguous since activity of the endocannabinoid system is increased in obesity and decreased in inflammatory bowel disease, emphasizing the need for development of personalized microbial interventions. This review discusses the role of the endocannabinoid system in regulating the gut barrier integrity and highlights current efforts to develop new endocannabinoid-targeted microbial interventions