Sect and House in Syria: History, Architecture, and Bayt Amongst the Druze in Jaramana

This paper explores the connections between the architecture and materiality of houses and the social idiom of bayt (house, family). The ethnographic exploration is located in the Druze village of Jaramana, on the outskirts of the Syrian capital Damascus. It traces the histories, genealogies, and politics of two families, bayt Abud-Haddad and bayt Ouward, through their houses. By exploring the two families and the architecture of their houses, this paper provides a detailed ethnographic account of historical change in modern Syria, internal diversity, and stratification within the intimate social fabric of the Druze neighbourhood at a time of war, and contributes a relational approach to the anthropological understanding of houses

The stateless (ad)vantage? Resistance, land and rootedness in the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Territory, Politics, Governance on 08 April 2020, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/21622671.2020.1743203International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Hague, Netherland

B-cell infiltration is associated with survival outcomes following programmed cell death protein 1 inhibition in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

Programmed cell death protein 1(PD-1) axis blockade has become the mainstay in the treatment of recurrent and/or metastatic (R/M) head and neck squamous cell cancer (HNSCC). PD-L1 is the only approved biomarker for patient selection; however, response rate is limited even among high expressors. Our primary objective was to investigate the association of immune-cell-related biomarkers in the tumor and tumor microenvironment with PD-1 checkpoint inhibitors' outcomes in patients with R/M HNSCC. NCT03652142 was a prospective study in nivolumab-treated platinum-refractory R/M HNSCC, aiming to evaluate biomarkers of response to treatment. Tumor biopsies and blood samples were collected from 60 patients at baseline, post-treatment, and at progression. Immune cells in the tumor and stromal compartments was quantified by immunofluorescence using a five-protein panel (CD3, CD8, CD20, Foxp3, Cytokeratin). Tertiary lymphoid structures (TLS), PD-L1 expression, and peripheral blood immune-cell composition were also evaluated for associations with outcome. Our findings were validated by gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) mRNA in situ expression data from the same patients, for B-cell and TLS associated genes. High pre-treatment density of stromal B-cells was associated with prolonged progression-free survival (PFS) (p=0.011). This result was validated by GSEA, as stromal enrichment with B-cell-associated genes showed association with response to nivolumab. PD-L1 positivity combined with high B-cell counts in stroma defined a subgroup with significantly longer PFS and overall survival (p=0.013 and p=0.0028, respectively). Increased B-cells in pre-treatment HNSCC biopsy samples correlate with prolonged benefit from PD-1-based immunotherapy and could further enhance the predictive value of PD-L1 expression