Being Cared for in the Context of Crisis: Austerity, COVID-19, and Racialized Politics

This article presents an investigation into the racialized and gendered dynamics of the intensifying crisis in care for older people in the United Kingdom. Deploying a feminist political economy framework, we reveal how the care crisis is an intersectional crisis of social reproduction worsened by both austerity and COVID-19. We do this through an analysis of a small set of interviews with South Asian older women with care needs, conducted during the first period of UK national lockdown in 2020. This was a pilot study, focusing on the challenges faced in accessing formal and informal care during this period of the pandemic. The experiences, fears, and vulnerabilities that came through in the interviews are located within a broader analysis of the racialized care crisis—one that reveals the long-term harms that austerity, including “austerity Islamophobia,” generated for these older women and their families as they struggled to provide and access un/paid care

Behavioral and psychosocial predictors of depression in Bangladeshi medical students: a cross-sectional study [version 1; peer review: 2 approved]

Background: Depression, stress, and anxiety were found in a large number of medical undergraduate students, indicating a neglected aspect of their psychology that required immediate attention. The goal of this study was to find out the prevalence of depression among medical students, as well as potential psychosocial and behavioral predictors for depression.  Methods:   This cross-sectional study was conducted from July to November 2021 among 840 randomly selected medical students from four medical colleges using stratified random sampling. Data were collected using a semi-structured, self-administered questionnaire and were analyzed through the SPSS v.23 software. Multiple regression was performed to assess the effect of several behavioral and psychosocial factors on depression.   Results: Among the 840 study participants, 55.7% (n= 468) were female and 44.3% (n= 372) were male. According to the data, the prevalence of depression, anxiety, perceived stress among medical students was found to be 28.8%, 65% and 85% respectively. A strong link was found between depression and anxiety, stress, poor sleep quality, poor academic performance, and a negative social and romantic relationship status.   Conclusions: A significant number of medical students are depressed. In order to prevent and treat depression, medical students should be screened for depression and its associated factors

Decision Making Status of Rural Housewives in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province

This study was designed to find out the decision making profile of rural women in Pakistan. The study was delimited to one district of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. In multi stage sampling union council was selected on the first step. In second step two villages of the UC were selected randomly. In third stage, 117 women were selected from already selected villages by using random sampling technique. The study was kept descriptive in nature while using a household survey baseline data was collected. The results of the study showed that majority of the respondents were of middle age, married and literate at school level. They had livestock rearing experience up to 11-15 years. Decisions regarding crop production activities and household provisions were generally dominated by male members. Similarly in they dominated in the livestock activities like breeding (79%) and marketing of animals (85.47%). The study revealed active participation of rural women in feeding (79.49%) and health care (64.10%) of animals, and women were jointly involvement in such decisions .Similarly rural women were involved in joint decisions related to food for family, medical care, and construction/repair of house. Study recommends maximum attention towards their capacity building in decision making

Antepartum transabdominal amnioinfusion in oligohydramnios - a comparative study

Background: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the role of antepartum transabdominal amnioinfusion in oligohydramnios with the view to improving pregnancy outcome in oligohydramnios, a serious complication of pregnancy that is associated with a poor perinatal outcome and complicates 1-5% of pregnancies.Methods: The study comprised of a prospective analysis of 130 pregnant women with oligohydramnios, divided into two groups, the study and control group of 65 patients each and were similar with regard to age, gravidity, parity, gestational age. TAA was performed on all patients in the study group and the results were compared and analyzed.Results: Mean gestational age at first treatment was 29.98 weeks in study group. Mean pre-procedure amniotic fluid index was 4.01 and post-procedure was 12.49. A total of 106 infusions were done on 65 patients (mean1.63). Mean latency period in study group was 49.53 and in controls 26.49. There was significant decrease in fetal distress in patients in study group. 30 % of patients needed caesarean section in study group compared to 60% in controls. Number of preterm deliveries was 18 and 45 respectively in study and control groups. 61% of newborns in the study group weighed more than 2.5 kg compared to only 24% in control group. Neonatal ICU admissions and newborn deaths were lesser in study group.Conclusions: Transabdominal amnioinfusion is an extremely useful procedure to reduce complications arising from oligohyramnios. It significantly increases the latency period, decreases the occurrence of fetal distress preterm deliveries, need for caesarean or instrumental deliveries, improves birth weight of the newborns and significantly reduces the neonatal morbidity and mortality

Antinociceptive Activity of Methanol Extract of Areca catechu L. (Arecaceae) Stems and Leaves in Mice

ABSTRACT The antinociceptive effect of crude methanol extracts of stems and leaves of Areca catechu L. (Arecaceae) was evaluated in acetic acid-induced gastric pain writhing model in Swiss albino mice. The methanol extract of Areca catechu stems dose-dependently reduced the number of writhings (constrictions) in mice, when tested at doses of 50, 100, 200, and 400 mg extract administered per kg body weight. Significant reductions in the number of writhings were noted with all administered doses. The percent inhibitions of acetic acid-induced writhings with the four different doses were, respectively, 30.8, 36.6, 40.9 and 59.6. The standard antinociceptive drug, aspirin, when administered at doses of 200 and 400 mg per kg body weight reduced writhings by 42.3 and 55.8%, respectively. A significant dose-dependent inhibition of writhings was also observed with crude methanol extract of Areca catechu leaves, where the extract at doses of 50, 100, 200 and 400 mg per kg body weight significantly inhibited writhings by 55.8, 57.7, 86.5 and 88.5%, respectively. Dose for dose, the leaf extract demonstrated higher antinociceptive activity than the stem extract. At even the lowest dose of 50 mg extract per kg body weight, the antinociceptive activity of leaf extract was comparable to that of 400 mg aspirin per kg body weight. The results suggest that both stem and leaf extract possess good antinociceptive activity, which merits further scientific studies as to isolation of responsible phytochemical component(s)

The other within : securitising Muslim group identity in Britain

Though there has been a long history of portraying Islam as the ‘Other’, the rise of the Islamist movements in the 1970s and the onset of the War on Terror following the September 11th, 2001, Trade Centre terror attacks would see a renewed emphasis on Islam as the Other. Within the U.K., the London July 7th, 2005, bombings would see academics and policymakers turn their attention to British Muslim communities as it was revealed that the perpetrators of the attack were British born citizens. In the days following the attacks, Tony Blair set out measures for dealing with the threat to the U.K. Blair’s declaration that “British Muslims should understand that they are our partners in getting this done,” would frame the British Muslim community as the ‘Other’ within (Blair, 2005)

Decolonising the school curriculum in an era of political polarisation

Recent consciously curated conditions of political polarisation have prevented English schools from taking even the first tentative steps towards decolonising the curriculum. Since returning to power in 2010, successive Conservative Secretaries of State for Education have resolved to restore traditional learning methods to English classrooms, championing the need for children to passively accept content chosen for them by government appointees who are answerable to political rather than to pedagogical priorities. This had already created an unsupportive political environment for transforming what children might learn, before such difficulties were magnified following the Brexit referendum of 2016. Decolonisation has increasingly been identified by Conservative Party strategists as one of their beloved wedge issues, something that can be used to stoke electorally expedient anger against ‘the Remainer elite’ among Leave-voting communities. Hopes for a serious debate about the principles of decolonisation were frustrated by the Johnson government hijacking the very mention of the word to use as evidence that the ‘woke’ brigade was running hopelessly out of control. The case for decolonising the English school curriculum has been subjected to a full-frontal populist culture-war attack on an educational establishment accused of refusing to allow children to see the good in their country

Being cared for in the context of crisis : austerity, COVID-19 and racialized politics

This article presents an investigation into the racialized and gendered dynamics of the intensifying crisis in care for older people in the UK. Deploying a feminist political economy framework, we reveal how the care crisis is an intersectional crisis of social reproduction worsened by both austerity and COVID-19. We do this through an analysis of a small set of interviews with South Asian older women with care needs, conducted during the first period of UK national lockdown in 2020. This was a pilot study, focusing on the challenges faced in accessing formal and informal care during this period of the pandemic. The experiences, fears and vulnerabilities that came through in the interviews are located within a broader analysis of the racialized care crisis – one that reveals the long-term harms that austerity, including ‘austerity Islamophobia,’ generated for these older women and their families as they struggled to provide and access un/paid care

Firefighters' view on Improving Fire Emergency Response: A Case Study of Rawalpindi

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