Approaching Women\u27s Education: Utilizing Islamic Sources for Empowerment

When the Taliban rose to power in Afghanistan in the 1990s, an Islamic fundamentalist approach was utilized to disempower the Afghani people. The group particularly targeted women and girls, who were stripped of their rights, including their right to an education. While the Taliban is no longer in power, the issue of women’s education in Afghanistan has not received adequate attention, as threats and violence continue to keep women and girls out of school. This paper seeks to address the issue of women’s education in Afghanistan in the post-Taliban period with a focus on alternative models of education, including the Muslim feminist model and the Islamic secular feminist model. Specifically, this paper utilizes Islamic sources, including the Qur’an and hadith reports, and interviews conducted by Lina Abirafeh in Gender and International Aid in Afghanistan and by Rosemarie Skaine in The Women of Afghanistan under the Taliban to reveal a misunderstanding regarding Islam and the rights of women, especially the right of women to an education. I argue that based on the current realities in Afghanistan, the Muslim feminist model is the ideal model for re-structuring the educational system in post-Taliban Afghanistan because it empowers Afghan women to live devoutly as Muslims, while also empowering them to fully participate in society

Monitoring expression of metabolic genes during the hypoxic response of S. cerevisae

All organisms appear to have the ability to sense and respond to changes in their environment. Hypoxia, or low oxygen, is experienced by many organisms at some point in their life cycle. Some organisms such as S. cerevisiae, a species of yeast, respond by dramatically altering gene expression. The result is that genes needed in the new environment are turned on and unneeded genes are turned off. S. cerevisiae has been used in our study because it shares many genes with other eukaryotes, including humans, so many of our findings are applicable to these organisms. Here, we tried to understand how metabolic genes change gene expression during the transition to hypoxia. Many metabolic pathways, such as the electron transport chain, depend upon oxygen and therefore likely respond to changes in oxygen levels. In order to study this, we followed gene expression over four hours as cells transitioned from normoxia to hypoxia. We performed this time course in triplicate and overlaid the expression data onto metabolic pathways in order to uniquely visualize the changes over time and across many pathways. As expected, we found widespread changes in many oxygen-dependent metabolic pathways, such as aerobic respiration and ergosterol biosynthesis. In addition, we found changes in pathways not known to be associated with oxygen, suggesting that oxygen is linked to many aspects of metabolism. Next, we tried to understand the transcriptional regulation of the metabolic genes by searching for transcription factor binding sites and signaling pathways that are enriched in clusters of oxygen-regulated genes. We were able to link known signaling pathways, like the Hap1 and other hypoxia signaling pathways, to control of metabolic genes. Taken together, our work uses novel approaches to show how metabolic pathways change in response to the environment and to identify signaling pathways that mediate this response

The Ecology of the Usambara Double-collared Sunbird (Cinnyris usambaricus)

The ecology of the endemic Usambara Double-collared Sunbird (Cinnyris usambaricus) was investigated in the surrounding areas of and within Mazumbai Forest Reserve in the Lushoto District of Tanzania. As there is little known concerning the ecology of the species, this study sought to illuminate multiple aspects of their behavior and interactions. Over fourteen days (November 2nd-November 21st), the abundance of the species, their nesting behavior, their habitat preferences, their vocalizations, their diet, and their aggressive behaviors were observed and then analyzed. It was determined the species’ activity likely peaks in the early morning, their nesting is similar to other species of equatorial sunbirds, their diet consisted of majority non-native plants, the majority of acts of aggression involved other sunbirds and that the species is found mainly in areas with limited crown cover. The results of this study suggest that the species may be able to adapt better than most to habitat changes in the area, like exotic plant infiltration and deforestation. However, the species limited range puts it at risk of suffering if habitat degradation destroys its food resources and nesting sites

The association of neonatal dacryocystoceles and infantile dacryocystitis with nasolacrimal duct cysts (an American Ophthalmogical Society Thesis)

PURPOSE: To investigate whether neonatal dacryocystoceles and dacryocystitis are associated with nasolacrimal duct cysts, and to report the outcomes of treatment of these disorders. METHODS: This was a retrospective medical record review of two groups of infants with nasolacrimal duct (NLD) obstruction. The first group had dacryocystoceles with or without dacryocystitis. The second group had NLD obstruction with symptoms severe enough to require early NLD probing. All of the patients underwent NLD probing and nasal endoscopy. When present, NLD cysts were removed. RESULTS: In the first group, 33 infants had dacryocystoceles. Acute dacryocystitis was present in 16 patients, 12 had noninfected dacryocystoceles that did not resolve, and 5 had dacryocystoceles that resolved but severe symptoms persisted. All of the patients had NLD cysts that were surgically removed. The symptoms resolved after surgery in 31 patients (94%). In the second group, 27 infants less than 6 months old without dacryocystoceles underwent early NLD probing and endoscopy due to severity of symptoms. Twelve (44%) of these patients had NLD cysts. The symptoms resolved in 11 (92%) of 12 patients following NLD probing and cyst removal. CONCLUSIONS: Neonatal dacryocystoceles are almost always associated with NLD cysts. The success rate of NLD probing and endoscopic cyst removal in these patients is excellent. Nasolacrimal duct cysts also are present in many young infants with severe symptoms of NLD obstruction. Nasal endoscopy is an important adjunct to the management of these infants

Orbital causes of incomitant strabismus

Strabismus may result from abnormal innervation, structure, or function of the extraocular muscles. Abnormalities of the orbital bones or masses within the orbit may also cause strabismus due to indirect effects on the extraocular muscles. This paper reviews some disorders of the orbit that are associated with strabismus, including craniofacial malformations, orbital masses, trauma, and anomalous orbital structures

A characterization of near outer-planar graphs

This thesis focuses on graphs containing an edge whose removal results in an outer-planar graph. We present partial results towards the larger goal of describing the class of all such graphs in terms of a finite list of excluded graphs. Specifically, we give a complete description of those members of this list that are not 2-connected or do not contain a subdivision of a three-spoke wheel. We also show that no members of the list contain a five-spoke wheel