Rethinking Muslim women’s equal rights: faith, property and empowerment

The pursuit of gender equality and women’s empowerment, especially in parts of the Arab and Muslim world, struggles in the face of several conundrums. How can women’s civil and political rights be strengthened without corresponding attention to their socio-economic rights and poverty alleviation? How could women’s participation in the public sphere be expanded when their private and intra-household leverage remains limited? How could Muslim women’s rights be sustainable through secular discourse in traditional and religious communities? How can innovative formulations of women’s rights be transformed into workable tools and embedded in formal systems for practical gains for Muslim women in complex environments? Recent developments and efforts in the arena of women’s access to resources and property offer some fresh approaches to women’s empowerment

What makes a successful transition from primary to secondary school?

This report presents the findings of a sub-study on transitions undertaken as part of the Effective Pre-school, Primary and Secondary Education 3-14 (EPPSE 3-14 project) a major longitudinal study investigating the influence of pre-school, primary and secondary school on children’s cognitive and social/behavioural development in England. The transitions sub-study of more than 500 children and families sheds light on current transition practices and highlights what helps and hinders a successful transition. It takes into account the influence of child and family background characteristics such as socio-economic status (SES) and gender. It suggests how the transition experience could be improved to enhance the smooth continuity between primary and secondary school. By adopting a mixed methods approach, the study investigated the issues related to transition for four distinctive groups: Local Authorities, children, parents and schools. Officers in six Local Authorities were asked about the way transition was dealt with in their Authority. Children in their first term at secondary school completed a questionnaire on their thoughts and experiences of transition, and the study also sought their parents’ opinions in order to illustrate the whole family’s experience. Finally, there were twelve case studies selected from the respondents of the questionnaire because of their positive experiences of transition. These involved interviews with the children and their primary and secondary teachers. This provided further details of the systems in place that support the transition processes between school phases. The sample was drawn from children and families in the wider EPPSE project. 1190 children from the EPPSE sample made a transition at the end of the 2005-06 academic year. Responses were received from 550 children (a 46% response rate) and 569 parents (a 48% response rate) from across England drawn from 6 Local Authorities (Shire County, Inner London borough, Midlands/Metropolitan region, East Anglia area, and two authorities in the North East). Children were recruited to the case studies using stratified selection to get a balanced mix by region, gender, socio-economic status (SES) and ethnicity. A wide range of data, already available from the main EPPSE study was used to complement the analyses

Totally Umbilical Pseudo-Slant Submanifolds of a Nearly Cosymplectic Manifold

2000 Mathematics Subject Classification: 53C40, 53B25.In the present note we study totally umbilical pseudo-slant submanifolds of a nearly cosymplectic manifold. We have obtained a classification theorem for totally umbilical pseudo-slant submanifolds of a nearly cosymplectic manifold

CFD Modeling of Three-phase Bubble Column: 1. Study of Flow Pattern

Bubble column (BC) or slurry bubble column (SBC) reactor has emerged as one of the most promising devices in chemical, biochemical and environmental engineering operations because of its simple construction, isothermal conditions, high heat and mass transfer rates, and on-line catalyst addition and withdrawal. The present work has been carried out to characterize the dynamics of three-phase flow in cylindrical bubble column, run under homogeneous bubble flow and heterogeneous flow conditions using CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) simulation. Investigation has been done to study the flow pattern of three-phase bubble column along with parametric studies. The simulations were performed for air-water-glass beads in a bubble column of 0.6m height, 0.1m i.d. and 0.05m sparger diameter to study the flow pattern. Eulerian-Eulerian three-phase simulations with k-ε turbulence for liquid phase were carried out using the commercial flow simulation software CFX-5.6, with a focus on characterizing the dynamics properties of gas liquid solid flows. The model has been validated using available experimental data and is in good agreement. Detail study of the flow pattern in three-phase bubble column has been carried out and flow pattern has been presented in the form of contour and vector plots. The results presented are useful for understanding the dynamics of gas liquid solid flows in bubble column and provide a basis for further development of CFD model for three phase systems

Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase pathway genomic alterations in 60,991 diverse solid tumors informs targeted therapy opportunities.

BackgroundThe phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) pathway is frequently altered in cancer. This report describes the landscape of PI3K alterations in solid tumors as well as co-alterations serving as potential resistance/attenuation mechanisms.MethodsConsecutive samples were analyzed in a commercial Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendment-certified laboratory using comprehensive genomic profiling performed by next-generation sequencing (315 genes). The co-alterations evaluated included the Erb-B2 receptor tyrosine kinase 2 (ERBB2), ERBB3, ERBB4, RAS, MET proto-oncogene tyrosine kinase (MET), and mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase (MAP2K) genes as well as tumor protein 53 (TP53), estrogen receptor 1 (ESR1), and androgen receptor (AR).ResultsAlterations in any of 18 PI3K-pathway associated genes were identified in 44% of 60,991 tumors. Although single base and insertions/deletions (indels) were the most frequent alterations, copy number changes and rearrangements were identified in 11% and 0.9% of patients, respectively. Overall, the most frequently altered genes were PIK3 catalytic subunit α (PIK3CA) (13%), phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) (9%), and serine/threonine kinase 11 (STK11) (5%). Tumor types that frequently harbored at least 1 PI3K alteration were uterine (77%), cervical (62%), anal (59%), and breast (58%) cancers. Alterations also were discerned frequently in tumors with carcinosarcoma (89%) and squamous cell carcinoma (62%) histologies. Tumors with a greater likelihood of co-occurring PI3K pathway and MAPK pathway alterations included colorectal cancers (odds ratio [OR], 1.64; P < .001), mesotheliomas (OR, 2.67; P = .024), anal cancers (OR, 1.98; P = .03), and nonsquamous head and neck cancers (OR, 2.03; P = .019). The co-occurrence of ESR1 and/or AR alterations with PI3K alterations was statistically significant in bladder, colorectal, uterine, prostate, and unknown primary cancers.ConclusionsComprehensive genomic profiling reveals altered PI3K-related genes in 44% of solid malignancies, including rare disease and histology types. The frequency of alterations and the co-occurrence of resistance pathways vary by tumor type, directly affecting opportunities for targeted therapy