‘Because I know God answers prayers’: The Role of Religion in African - Scandinavian Labour Migration

Drawing on interviews conducted with highly skilled Nigerian women footballers that have migrated to work in Scandinavian clubs, this article provides an analysis of how religious beliefs and practices function as resources for articulating, producing, and maintaining transnational mobility. Through taking part in transnational Pentecostal communities, Nigerian women migrants access networks and forms of knowledge that supports their status and mobility as labour migrants. Moreover, these women believe that their transnational and daily religious practices, such as prayer, are ways through which a transnationally mobile career can be achieved and sustained. Drawing on material from ethnographic fieldwork and in-depth interviews with migrant Nigerian women football players, I argue that religion provides these labour migrants with access to material, inter-personal and transcendental resources for achieving their career and migratory aspirations

Religion and Migration in Africa and the African Diaspora

Reflections on migration and religion at a time when migration remains a controversial political issue, whether it concerns disagreements in the US senate over financing President Trump’s proposed wall at the US-Mexico border, the continuing influx of refugees from Africa and the Middle East into Europe, or xenophobia towards African migrants in South Africa and the Royinga in Myanmar. Consequently, continously changing trajectories, net-works and caravans of migration are produced, as a result of peoples differing needs and desires for movement and settlement.Those who have worked in the field of migration know that the migration of people has been a sustained phenomenon that has shaped the ma-king of societies, it has fractured hegemonies and ultimately produced diverse diasporas. This was evident in the works Stuart Hall, Paul Gilroy and Jamaica Kincaid as they have reflected on the fortunes and hardships of the windrush generation in the United Kingdom. Similarly, their predecessors Frantz Fanon, James Baldwin, Aime Cesaire, and Sol Plaatjie wrote widely about the social condition of being black in the world through narratives of migration, where they variously came to confront themselves of the objects of terror, curiosity and the exotic – all tropes that operate to deny black subjectivity. Thus we take as a starting point that transnational migration has significantly shaped the political and intellectual labour has of people of colour

Football, Femininity and Muscle: An exploration of Heteronormative and Athletic Discources in the lives of elite-level women footballers in South Africa

Normalised constructions of masculinity and femininity within a heteronormative social structure have shaped beliefs about women's capacities, characteristics and bodies, and have constructed a hegemonic feminine ideal that has historically excluded the possibility of being simultaneously feminine and athletic. However, following developments in Europe and North America (such as Title IV and WIS) and the increased production and consumption of globalised sports, new and more athletic feminine ideals have emerged and opened spaces for women to form sporting and athletic subjectivities. As a part of this process, women's football, across the world, has grown exponentially, in popular support and participation rates, since the first World Cup was organised in China in 1991 (Hong, 2004; Cox and Thompson, 2000). In South Africa, the development of structures for women's football was late, and women's football is not yet fully professional. In South Africa football is viewed as a game for men, and it remains a flagship masculine sport that serves to maintain and support masculine domination (Pelak, 2005). Because women's participation in a sport like football is considered a transgression, there is a heightened need to mark women's bodies as feminine, so as to reinforce the heteronormative and dichotomous constructions of male/female and masculine/feminine. This thesis presents an exploration of the ambivalent relationship between empowerment and surveillance as it presents itself in the lives of elite level women footballers in South Africa. It discusses empowerment and surveillance as they appear at the most intimate levels of women's sporting experience, and impact on the ways in which women footballers discipline and regulate their bodies within the expectations of heteronormativity, femininity and athleticism. The discussion is based on qualitative, informal interviews with 18 elite level women footballers in South Africa, 12 of which are currently members of the 5 senior women's national football team, Banyana Banyana. The remaining 6 participants are members of one of Cape Town's oldest and most successful women's football teams. The interviews took place at a national team camp in Pretoria in October 2008, and in Cape Town between August and November 2008. Utilising discourse analysis and postmodern feminist standpoint theory this thesis concludes that the empowerment and transformation sport has the potential to offer women should not be assumed to follow directly from participation. Women's access to sports participation and sporting subjectivities is stratified, and a complex and ambivalent relationship exists between empowerment and surveillance. This tense relationship between is particularly evident in analyses of gender/race/class intersections, heteronormativity and through examining women's participation at a professional level. Although the neo-liberal feminine athletic validates sporting subjectivities and offers women in elite-level South African football an arena for physical expression and freedom, this empowerment is deeply embedded within the regulatory schemes produced through constructions of a heteronormative feminine aesthetic

The Jervell and Lange-Nielsen syndrome; atrial pacing combined with ß-blocker therapy, a favorable approach in young high-risk patients with long QT syndrome?

BackgroundPatients with Jervell and Lange-Nielsen syndrome (JLNS) exhibit severe phenotypes that are characterized by congenital deafness, very long QT intervals, and high risk of life-threatening arrhythmias. Current treatment strategies include high doses of beta-blocker medication, left cardiac sympathetic denervation, and ICD placement, which is challenging in young children.ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to evaluate the safety and effect of pacing in addition to beta-blocker treatment in children with JLNS.MethodsAll genetically confirmed patients with JLNS born since 1999 in Norway were included in the study. Data on history of long QT syndrome–related symptoms, QT interval, and beta-blocker and pacemaker treatment were recorded.ResultsA total of 9 patients with QT intervals ranging from 510 to 660 ms were identified. Eight patients developed long QT syndrome–related symptoms, and 1 patient died before diagnosis. The survivors received beta-blocker medication. Seven patients also received a pacemaker; 1 had a ventricular lead and 6 had atrial leads. The patient with the ventricular lead died during follow-up. The 6 patients with atrial leads survived without events at a mean follow-up of 6.9 years after pacemaker implantation. Two patients received prophylactic upgrade to a 2-chamber ICD.ConclusionNo arrhythmic events occurred in 6 very young JLNS patients who received atrial pacing in combination with increased doses of beta-blockers during 7-year follow-up. If confirmed in additional patients, this treatment strategy may prevent life-threatening arrhythmias in this high-risk patient group and may act as a bridge to insertion of a 2-chamber ICD when left cardiac sympathetic denervation is not available

Genetic testing in specific cardiomyopathies

An increasing number of genetic tests for cardiomyopathies are becoming available for clinical use. This commentary will give a short overview of indications and challenges concerning genetic testing for these conditions

Survival after prolonged resuscitation with 99 defibrillations due to Torsade De Pointes cardiac electrical storm: a case report

A 48-year-old previously healthy woman suffered witnessed cardiac arrest in hospital. She achieved return of spontaneous circulation and was transferred to the intensive care unit. During the following 3 hours, she suffered a cardiac electrical storm with 98 episodes of Torsade de Pointes ventricular tachycardia rapidly degenerating to ventricular fibrillation. She was converted with a total of 99 defibrillations. There was no response to the use of any recommended anti arrhythmic drugs. However, the use of bretylium surprisingly stabilized her heart rhythm and facilitated placing of a temporary pacemaker. Overdrive pacing prevented further arrhythmias and was life saving. A number of beneficial factors may have contributed to the good neurological outcome. Further investigations gave no explanation for her cardiac electrical storm

Thoracic Epidural Analgesia for Postoperative Pain Management in Liver Transplantation: A 10-year Study on 685 Liver Transplant Recipients

Background. Thoracic epidural analgesia (TEA) is not widely used for postoperative pain management in liver transplantation due to hepatic coagulopathy-related increased risk of inducing an epidural hematoma. However, an increasing number of patients are transplanted for other indications than the end-stage liver disease and without coagulopathy allowing insertion of an epidural catheter. Methods. This study is a retrospective observational single-center study of all adult patients undergoing first-time liver transplantation at Oslo University Hospital between January 1, 2008, and December 31, 2017. Data regarding patient characteristics were obtained from the Nordic liver transplant registry, medical records, and pain registration forms. Patients without coagulopathy (international normalized ratio 100 × 109/L) were eligible for TEA. Results. Out of 685 first-time liver transplantations in a 10-year period, 327 received TEA, and 358 did not. The median Model of End-stage Liver Disease score was lower in the TEA group than in the non-TEA-group (9 versus 17, P < 0.001), and fewer patients were hospitalized preoperatively (16 versus 127, P < 0.001). The median international normalized ratio (1.1 versus 1.6, P < 0.001) and platelet count (190 versus 78, P < 0.001) were different between the TEA and non-TEA groups. There were no serious complications related to insertion or removal of the TEA catheters. Patients in the TEA group had less pain with a mean numeric rating scale at postoperative days 0–5 of 1.4 versus 1.8 (P = 0.008). Nearly 50% of the patients were prescribed opioids when discharged from hospital (non-TEA 154 versus TEA 158, P = 0.23), and there was no difference after 1 year (P = 0.718). Conclusions. Our report revealed very good pain control with both TEA and the non-TEA modality. TEA was without any serious complications like epidural hematoma or infection/abscess in selected liver transplant recipients without severe coagulopathy. Opioid prescription at hospital discharge and by 1-year follow-up did not differ between the groups.publishedVersio

Nadolol decreases the incidence and severity of ventricular arrhythmias during exercise stress testing compared with β1-selective β-blockers in patients with catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia

BackgroundCatecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (CPVT) is an inheritable cardiac disease predisposing to malignant ventricular arrhythmias.ObjectiveWe aimed to explore the incidence and severity of ventricular arrhythmias in patients with CPVT before the initiation of β-blocker treatment, when treated with β1-selective β-blockers, and when treated with nadolol.MethodsIn this study, 34 patients with CPVT were included (mean age 34 ± 19 years; 15 (44%) women; 30 (88%) ryanodine receptor 2 variant positive). We performed 3 bicycle exercise stress tests in each patient: (1) before the initiation of β-blocker treatment, (2) after >6 weeks of treatment with β1-selective β-blockers and (3) after >6 weeks of treatment with nadolol. We recorded resting and maximum heart rates and the most severe ventricular arrhythmia occurring. Severity of arrhythmias was scored as 1 point for no arrhythmias or only single ventricular extrasystoles, 2 points for >10 ventricular extrasystoles per minute or bigeminy, 3 points for couplets, and 4 points for nonsustained ventricular tachycardia or sustained ventricular tachycardia.ResultsResting heart rate was similar during treatment with nadolol and β1-selective β-blockers (54 ± 10 beats/min vs 56 ± 14 beats/min; P = .50), while maximum heart rate was lower during treatment with nadolol compared with β1-selective β-blockers (122 ± 21 beats/min vs 139 ± 24 beats/min; P = .001). Arrhythmias during exercise stress testing were less severe during treatment with nadolol compared with during treatment with β1-selective β-blockers (arrhythmic score 1.6 ± 0.9 vs 2.5 ± 0.8; P < .001) and before the initiation of β-blocker treatment (arrhythmic score 1.6 ± 0.9 vs 2.7 ± 0.9; P = .001); however, no differences were observed during treatment with β1-selective β-blockers compared with before the initiation of β-blocker treatment (arrhythmic score 2.5 ± 0.8 vs 2.7 ± 0.9; P = .46).ConclusionThe incidence and severity of ventricular arrhythmias decreased during treatment with nadolol compared with during treatment with β1-selective β-blockers. β1-Selective β-blockers did not change the occurrence or severity of arrhythmias compared with no medication