On marginality and overcoming: Narrative, memory and identity among British Hazaras

The purpose of this research has been to examine narrative and identity among the Hazara community in England and Hazara transnational connections. Within this thesis I study two Hazara-specific narratives: one on ‘marginality’ and the other about ‘overcoming’ and how these narratives interact with Hazara conceptualisations of identity. These narratives both relate to Hazara history, in that the narrative of marginality relates to the subjugation of the community since the insurrection of Hazarajat and subsequent instances of discrimination and injustice, while the narrative of overcoming stems from the post-2001 gains of the community in Afghanistan. By engaging with these two very distinct community narratives this research allows for an exploration of individual self-identification, community articulations of what it means to ‘be Hazara’ and how the community chooses to present itself to the outside world. This is alongside showcasing an indigenous historiography of the community within the thesis, which is being documented by Hazaras online. Accordingly, this thesis begins with an introduction chapter which explains the rationale behind the research as well as contextualising the narratives of marginality and overcoming and their relevance to this research. This is followed by a literature review and a background chapter which details Afghan migration to Europe since the late 1970s, with a focus on Hazara migration to Britain, after which there are several findings chapters and a conclusion chapter. The findings chapters explore the contents of these narratives, how the community relates to them and the events which shape this historiography project, with various modes of communication and spaces forming the basis of these findings chapters. Therefore within this thesis these modes of communication and spaces can be understood as the following: oral history, religion, social media and community events. In turn this research contributes to the study of Hazaras in Europe, Hazara historiography and Hazara collective consciousness in the 21st Century

'Birds without legs': legal integration as potentiality for women of a Afghan-Turkmen family in Istanbul

This article examines how three generations of women in an Afghan–Turkmen family residing in Istanbul, Turkey, have experienced historical migration and legal integration. We deploy the concept of potentiality to convey these women’s experiences of legal integration as a particular form of existence that is, at times, expressed by them and other families of Afghan background with the Dari metaphor of being ‘birds without legs’. The metaphor conveys their constant mobility. Combining original ethnographic data with the analysis of historical works, we argue that families of Turkic ethnolinguistic backgrounds from Afghanistan residing in Turkey have been unable, and at times unwilling, to realize refuge, citizenship and settlement as the endpoint of their mobile trajectories

The evolving SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in Africa: Insights from rapidly expanding genomic surveillance

INTRODUCTION Investment in Africa over the past year with regard to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) sequencing has led to a massive increase in the number of sequences, which, to date, exceeds 100,000 sequences generated to track the pandemic on the continent. These sequences have profoundly affected how public health officials in Africa have navigated the COVID-19 pandemic. RATIONALE We demonstrate how the first 100,000 SARS-CoV-2 sequences from Africa have helped monitor the epidemic on the continent, how genomic surveillance expanded over the course of the pandemic, and how we adapted our sequencing methods to deal with an evolving virus. Finally, we also examine how viral lineages have spread across the continent in a phylogeographic framework to gain insights into the underlying temporal and spatial transmission dynamics for several variants of concern (VOCs). RESULTS Our results indicate that the number of countries in Africa that can sequence the virus within their own borders is growing and that this is coupled with a shorter turnaround time from the time of sampling to sequence submission. Ongoing evolution necessitated the continual updating of primer sets, and, as a result, eight primer sets were designed in tandem with viral evolution and used to ensure effective sequencing of the virus. The pandemic unfolded through multiple waves of infection that were each driven by distinct genetic lineages, with B.1-like ancestral strains associated with the first pandemic wave of infections in 2020. Successive waves on the continent were fueled by different VOCs, with Alpha and Beta cocirculating in distinct spatial patterns during the second wave and Delta and Omicron affecting the whole continent during the third and fourth waves, respectively. Phylogeographic reconstruction points toward distinct differences in viral importation and exportation patterns associated with the Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Omicron variants and subvariants, when considering both Africa versus the rest of the world and viral dissemination within the continent. Our epidemiological and phylogenetic inferences therefore underscore the heterogeneous nature of the pandemic on the continent and highlight key insights and challenges, for instance, recognizing the limitations of low testing proportions. We also highlight the early warning capacity that genomic surveillance in Africa has had for the rest of the world with the detection of new lineages and variants, the most recent being the characterization of various Omicron subvariants. CONCLUSION Sustained investment for diagnostics and genomic surveillance in Africa is needed as the virus continues to evolve. This is important not only to help combat SARS-CoV-2 on the continent but also because it can be used as a platform to help address the many emerging and reemerging infectious disease threats in Africa. In particular, capacity building for local sequencing within countries or within the continent should be prioritized because this is generally associated with shorter turnaround times, providing the most benefit to local public health authorities tasked with pandemic response and mitigation and allowing for the fastest reaction to localized outbreaks. These investments are crucial for pandemic preparedness and response and will serve the health of the continent well into the 21st century

Hazara representation in popular culture

This post explores the representation of the Hazara community in popular culture, using the examples of a novel The Kite Runner, a TV talent show Sitara-e Afghan (Afghan Star), and a documentary Laila at the Bridge. Rabia Khan discusses the gradual change in perceptions about Hazara identity, especially in terms of community consciousness and individual ... Continue

‘Birds without legs’: legal integration as potentiality for women of a Turkmen-Afghan family in Istanbul

This article examines how three generations of women in an Afghan-Turkmen family residing in Istanbul have experienced historical migration and legal integration. We deploy the concept of potentiality to convey these women’s experiences of legal integration as a particular form of existence that is, at times, expressed by them and other families of Afghan background with the metaphor of being ‘birds without legs’. The metaphor conveys their constant mobility. Combining original ethnographic data with the analysis of historical works, we argue that families of Turkic ethnolinguistic background from Afghanistan residing in Turkey have been unable, and at times unwilling to realise refuge, citizenship and settlement as the endpoint of their mobile trajectories

Role of Endometrial Receptivity Array for Implantation failure in In-Vitro Fertilization & Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection

Background &amp; Objective: Assisted reproductive technique is an evolving field with many recent advances. The success rate is low in developing countries where financial concerns prevail predominantly. This study was designed for the first time in any hospital in Pakistan to determine the role of Endometrial Receptivity Array (ERA) in patients with previous implantation failure to improve pregnancy outcome and to enhance the success rate of in-vitro fertilization &amp; intracytoplasmic sperm injection (IVF/ICSI). Methods: This study was carried out at the Lahore Institute of Fertility &amp; Endocrinology, Lahore-Pakistan. A total of 16 patients were recruited after taking written informed consent. Only those patients were selected who had previous one or more implantation failures in IVF/ICSI cycles and had at least 2 or more good quality frozen embryos. RNA was obtained from the endometrial sample to check ERA through 238 genes expressed using RNA sequencing. Beta HcG level and scans were performed to confirm the clinical pregnancy. Results: All enrolled patients had an ERA test and their embryos transferred according to personalized window of implantation (WOI). A total of 5(31.3 %) patients were stimulated with a long protocol while 11 (68.7%) underwent a short protocol. &nbsp;WOI was receptive in 12 (75%) patients, pre-receptive in 3 (18.2%) and post-receptive in 1 (6.2%), and most of patients showed receptivity at P5 (109-145 hours). Twelve patients (75%) had clinical pregnancy evident by positive beta HCG after embryo transfer. A significant association was found between WOI and receptivity (P&lt;0.05). Conclusion: The results of ERA in our study seem promising especially in our patients with previous one or more implantation failures. Although we have limited number of patients keeping in mind its financial constraints especially in developing countries, still ERA is considered a way of hope especially for those patients who have previous implantation failures. &nbsp;</p

T-Smart: Trust Model for Blockchain Based Smart Marketplace

With the innovation of embedded devices, the concept of smart marketplace came into existence. A smart marketplace is a platform on which participants can trade multiple resources, such as water, energy, bandwidth. Trust is an important factor in the trading platform, as the participants would prefer to trade with those peers who have a high trust rating. Most of the existing trust management models for smart marketplace only provide a single aggregated trust score for a participant. However, they lack the mechanism to gauge the level of commitment shown by a participant while trading a particular resource. This work aims to provide a fine-grained trust score for a participant with respect to each resource that it trades. Several parameters, such as resource availability, success rate, and turnaround time are used to gauge the participant’s level of commitment, specific to the resource being traded. Moreover, the effectiveness of the proposed model is validated through security analysis against ballot-stuffing and bad-mouthing attacks, along with simulationbased analysis and a comparison in terms of accuracy, false positive, false negative, computational cost and latency. The results indicate that the proposed trust model has 7% better accuracy, 30.13% lower computational cost and 31.74% less latency compared to the existing benchmark model

Effect of recombinant follicular stimulating hormone and human menopausal gonadotrophins on the oocytes number in patients undergoing assisted reproductive technique

Background &amp; Objective: The data regarding the effectiveness of various protocols used for controlled ovarian stimulation (COS) in assisted reproductive techniques (ART) in our own population is scant. This study compares recombinant follicular stimulating hormone (rFSH) and human menopausal gonadotrophins (HMG) in terms of follicular numbers and oocytes retrieved in Pakistani women undergoing ART. Methods: A total of 300 patients were selected out of 1,950 patients who visited the hospital for in vitro fertilization/intra cytoplasmic sperm insemination (IVF/ICSI) from June 2018 to December 2020. These patients were further divided into two categories: first category (1) was given long protocol and the second category (2) was given short antagonist protocol. Each category was further sub-divided into two groups; group A who received HMG, and group B who received rFSH for COS. Results: There was a significantly higher number of follicles and oocytes retrieved in category 1, with rFSH (20.01 &plusmn; 4.91, 15.19 &plusmn; 9.18) versus. HMG (16.07 &plusmn; 5.67, 11.10 &plusmn; 5.07) with a p-value (0.00, 0.004). On the other hand, in category 2, the number of follicles was insignificant (p-value = 0.319) in both groups. Contrary to that the number of oocytes retrieved was significantly higher with a p-value of &le; 0.05 in both groups. Conclusion: In COS in ART, long protocol with rFSH has much better results both in terms of follicular numbers and retrieved oocytes. While for the short protocol with the antagonist, rFSH has been demonstrated to be superior to HMG but that is limited to the number of oocytes.</p

Effect of Body Mass Index on the Outcome of In-vitro Fertilization/Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection

Background and Objective: &nbsp;Obesity is becoming a global issue related to many health problems, and infertility is one of them. It has been established in literature that obesity or increased body mass index (BMI) harms the ability of a woman to conceive. Assisted reproductive techniques e.g., in-vitro fertilization (IVF) and Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI) are helping infertile women to conceive. This study's objective was to analyze the effect of BMI on IVF/ICSI treatment outcomes in infertile women. Methods: &nbsp;This was a retrospective cross-sectional study. Samples of 500 patients aged less than 40 years were selected at a tertiary care infertility center: Lahore Institute of Fertility and Endocrinology, Hameed Latif Hospital. The sample was collected from January 2019 to June 2019. A structured proforma was used to collect information about selected anthropometric measurements and ultrasonography findings from the files and follow-ups of the selected patients. Data was processed and analyzed in Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0. Results: &nbsp;The age of the subjects ranged from 18 to 39 years, with a maximum number of subjects in the age category 31 to 35 years. BMI was significantly associated with number of follicles retrieved and clinical pregnancy rate (P= &nbsp;0.001). Conclusion: &nbsp;Normal BMI has positive impact both on follicular response in controlled ovarian stimulation (COS) and clinical pregnancy rates in women undergoing IVF/ICSI treatment.</p

Enhancing gain and isolation of a quad-element MIMO antenna array design for 5G sub-6 GHz applications assisted with characteristic mode analysis

International audienceThis paper presents a novel quad-element array with multiple inputs and multiple outputs (MIMO) designed for 5th generation sub-6 GHz applications. The MIMO system achieves a wide impedance bandwidth, high gain, and high isolation among its components, representing significant advancements in sub-6 GHz antenna applications. The single element, an elliptical resonator with a circular slot, is fed by a 50 Ω microstrip feedline, achieves a broad characteristic bandwidth from 3.7 to 5.7 GHz with a resonant frequency of 4.33 GHz and a gain of 1.81 dBi. Characteristic Mode Analysis (CMA) was employed to elucidate the evolution phases of this design. The quad-element MIMO antenna array maintains a compact size and broadband characteristics by arranging mirrored elements on the same ground plane. Implemented on a cost-effective FR-4 substrate measuring 44 × 44 × 1.6 mm3, the recommended MIMO antenna array, enhanced with a partial ground plane and due to the introduction of a vertical strip, a high isolation of − 38.53 dB is achieved between MIMO components along with a realized gain of 3.01 dBi and a radiation efficiency of 71% in the 5G sub-6 GHz band. Noteworthy properties include high isolation, diversity gain (DG), and envelope correlation coefficient (ECC), verifying the appropriateness of the suggested MIMO scheme for 5G transmission and reception in sub-6 GHz applications