Governing Through Patronage: The Rise of NGOs and the Fall of Civil Society in Palestine and Morocco

This article examines foreign aid and government funding to NGOs as forms of patronage and explores the impact of such funding on the nature and role of civil society. Using qualitative research from Palestine and Morocco, we argue that patronage transforms NGOs into apparatuses of governing. NGOs become key sites for the exercise of productive power through the technologies of professionalization, bureaucratization, and upward accountability. The article explores how this transformation of NGOs depoliticizes their work while undermining their role as change agents within civil society. The findings have implications for understanding the transformation of NGOs, the relationship between patrons and their grantees, and, finally, for exploring the limitations of NGOs as vehicles for social change in sensitive political environments

From Charity to Change: Trends in Arab Philanthropy

From Charity to Change: Trends in Arab Philanthropy, provides a preliminary overview of Arab philanthropy in eight countries of the region including: Egypt, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. The purpose of the study was to document the varying forms of institutionalized philanthropy that currently exist as well as provide recommendations for how philanthropy can become more effective.

Impact of opioid-free analgesia on pain severity and patient satisfaction after discharge from surgery: multispecialty, prospective cohort study in 25 countries

Background: Balancing opioid stewardship and the need for adequate analgesia following discharge after surgery is challenging. This study aimed to compare the outcomes for patients discharged with opioid versus opioid-free analgesia after common surgical procedures.Methods: This international, multicentre, prospective cohort study collected data from patients undergoing common acute and elective general surgical, urological, gynaecological, and orthopaedic procedures. The primary outcomes were patient-reported time in severe pain measured on a numerical analogue scale from 0 to 100% and patient-reported satisfaction with pain relief during the first week following discharge. Data were collected by in-hospital chart review and patient telephone interview 1 week after discharge.Results: The study recruited 4273 patients from 144 centres in 25 countries; 1311 patients (30.7%) were prescribed opioid analgesia at discharge. Patients reported being in severe pain for 10 (i.q.r. 1-30)% of the first week after discharge and rated satisfaction with analgesia as 90 (i.q.r. 80-100) of 100. After adjustment for confounders, opioid analgesia on discharge was independently associated with increased pain severity (risk ratio 1.52, 95% c.i. 1.31 to 1.76; P < 0.001) and re-presentation to healthcare providers owing to side-effects of medication (OR 2.38, 95% c.i. 1.36 to 4.17; P = 0.004), but not with satisfaction with analgesia (beta coefficient 0.92, 95% c.i. -1.52 to 3.36; P = 0.468) compared with opioid-free analgesia. Although opioid prescribing varied greatly between high-income and low- and middle-income countries, patient-reported outcomes did not.Conclusion: Opioid analgesia prescription on surgical discharge is associated with a higher risk of re-presentation owing to side-effects of medication and increased patient-reported pain, but not with changes in patient-reported satisfaction. Opioid-free discharge analgesia should be adopted routinely

Race, gender, and statistical representation: predatory mortgage lending and the US community reinvestment movement

American mortgage markets, once arenas of discrimination by exclusion, now operate as venues of segmentation and discrimination by inclusion: credit is widely available, but its terms vary enormously. One market segment involves sophisticated predatory practices in which certain groups of borrowers are targeted for high-cost credit that strips out home equity and worsens the risks of delinquency, default, and foreclosure. Unfortunately, it has become more difficult to measure inequalities of predatory lending: race – ethnicity and gender are ‘disappearing’ from the main public data source used to study, organize, and mobilize on issues of lending inequalities. In this paper, we present a mixed-methods case study of statistical representation of homeowners and homebuyers marginalized by race, ethnicity, and gender. A theoretical examination of official data-collection practices is followed by a discussion of alternative meanings of racial – ethnic and gender nondisclosure. Interviews with a sample of homeowners and homebuyers in the Washington, DC, area reveal some respondent ambivalence about the details of data-collection practices, but provide no consistent support for the idea that nonreporting is solely a matter of individual choice. Econometric analyses indicate that nondisclosure is driven primarily by lending-industry practices, with the strongest disparate impacts in African-American suburbs. Predatory lending is producing ambivalent spaces of racial – ethnic and gender invisibility, requiring new strategies in the reinvestment movement.

Repressive effect of curcumin against 2-amino-3-methylimidazo [4, 5-f] quinoline induced hepato- and immunotoxicity in mice

365-371The mutagenic heterocyclic amine, 2-amino-3-methylimidazo [4,5-f] quinoline (IQ), produced during cooking of protein rich foods is known to affect liver. Curcumin, a component of turmeric Curcuma longa L., is a safe agent characterized with powerful therapeutic potential. In this study, we explored the possible protective role of curcumin against IQ induced liver damages on immunological, serological, inflammatory and apoptotic levels. Mice were administered IQ alone or IQ and curcumin together for 1, 15 and 30 days. Our results revealed that IQ exerts time dependent down regulation of p53 and upregulation of bcl2 in mice liver, no significant changes were observed in bax and cleaved caspase 3 levels. Curcumin co-administration increased the levels of p53, Bax and cleaved caspase 3 and reduced the level of Bcl2 compared with their levels in IQ treated mice. In addition, it was found that curcumin co-administration protects against IQ-induced modulations of some selected serum proteins, leucocytes percentage and cytokines level. Also, the curcumin protected liver cells from IQ-induced inflammation as detected by mRNA level of the inflammatory marker Ccl5. We conclude that the dietary curcumin is a powerful repressive natural agent against IQ-induced liver injury

A comprehensive survey of warfarin-induced hepatic toxicity using histopathological, biomarker, and molecular evaluation

Warfarin finds human application as anticoagulant therapy. Warfarin usage can cause liver damage and hemorrhage. Besides functioning as anticoagulant and causing continuous bleeding of pests, the mechanism of toxicity of warfarin is unknown. In this study, Wild female and male rats were administrated orally with warfarin for 18 days at 9, 18, 27.5, and 55 mg/kg, respectively. Hepatoxicity was determined by assessing, LD50, leukocyte counts, immunochemistry, histopathology, serum proteins, Western blotting, especially of markers of liver injury, such as AST, ALT & ALP, and markers of antioxidant and oxidative stress markers. Warfarin treatment decreased Nrf2 levels while it increased caspase 3, CYP2C9, COLL1A1. It caused cellular damage and fibrosis of liver. The plasma levels of markers of liver injury, AST, ALT, ALP, bilirubin and transferrin were increased. The plasma levels of albumin, IgG and antitrypsin were decreased. Warfarin treatment decreased RBC and total lymphocyte count while increasing selectively neutrophils. Warfarin exposure caused increased oxidative stress; increased LPO and decreased GSH, SOD, CAT and NO production. Oral exposure of rats with Warfarin leads to increased oxidative stress resulting into liver damage via CYP2C9 mediated by Nrf2 depletion

Weakly compatible fixed point theorem in intuitionistic fuzzy metric spaces

This study presents fundamental theorems, lemmas, and mapping definitions. There are three types of mappings: binary operators, compatible mappings, and sequentially continuous mappings. The symbols used to represent fuzzy metric spaces are intuitive. Icons were also used to prescribe a shared, linked fixed point in intuitionistic fuzzy metric space for two compatible and sequentially continuous mappings that satisfy ϕ-contractive conditions. To accomplish this, finding the intersection of both mappings was necessary