Gender, race, religion, faith? Rethinking intersectionality in German feminisms

Despite the recent wave of scholarship on intersectionality, as well as a surge in feminist scholarship on Islam in German feminist studies, feminist research has yet to adequately engage with the role of religion in intersectionality. In this article the author draws on the work of the Aktionsbündnis muslimischer Frauen in Germany to explore the possibility for incorporating religion and faith into intersectional frameworks, which requires attention to women of color theorizing in German feminisms, recognition of ways in which religions and forms of secularism have been racialized, and recognition of affective attachment to faith

Hijab Martyrdom, Headscarf Debates: Rethinking Violence, Secularism, and Islam in Germany

Fereshta Ludin’s struggle to be appointed as a public school teacher while wearing ahijab received massive media attention in Germany, while the xenophobically motivated murder of Marwa el-Sherbini, who was eventually dubbed the “hijab martyr” internationally, elicited muted response. Yet interpreting the reactions to these two cases together reveals much about the existence of racism and Islamophobia in contemporary Germany. In this article I juxtapose the public discussions of these two cases to consider the potential for a critique of headscarf discourse. I suggest that interrogation of headscarf discourse is only possible by turning the very notion of critique against itself in order to interrogate the conditions of secularism

Precarious Intimacies

Drawing on and responding to the writings of theorists such as Judith Butler, Sara Ahmed, Lauren Berlant, and Lisa Lowe, this book proposes the notion of “precarious intimacies” to navigate a dilemma: how to recognize, affirm, and value love, touch, and care while challenging the racialized and gendered politics in which they are embedded. Twenty-first-century Europe is undergoing dramatic political and economic transformations that produce new forms of transnational contact as well as new regimes of exclusion and economic precarity. These political and economic shifts both circumscribe and enable new possibilities for intimacy. Many European films of the last two decades depict experiences of political and economic vulnerability in narratives of precarious intimacies. In these films, stories of intimacy, sex, love, and friendship are embedded in violence and exclusion, but, as Maria Stehle and Beverly Weber show, the politics of touch and connection also offers avenues to theorize forms of attention and affection that challenge exclusive notions of race, citizenship, and belonging. Precarious Intimacies examines the aesthetic strategies that respond to this tension and proposes a politics of interpretation that identifies the potential and possibility of intimacy

Participatory mapping with indigenous communities for conservation: challenges and lessons from Suriname

The indigenous peoples of Southern Suriname depend on landscape services provided by intact, functioning ecosystems, but their use and reliance on natural landscapes is not well understood. In 2011, Conservation International Suriname (CIS) engaged in a participatory GIS (PGIS) mapping project to identify ecosystem services with the Trio and Wayana indigenous peoples living in five villages in Southern Suriname. The PGIS project involved a highly remote and inaccessible region, multiple indigenous peoples, villages with different perceptions and experiences with outsiders, and a multitude of regional development pressures. We describe the PGIS project from inception to mapping to communication of the results to the participants with a particular focus on the challenges and lessons learned from PGIS project implementation. Key challenges included decoupling the PGIS process from explicit CIS conservation objectives, engaging reluctant villages in the project, and managing participant expectations about project outcomes. Lessons learned from the challenges included the need to first build trust through effective communication, selecting initial project locations with the greatest likelihood of success, and to manage expectations by disclosing project limitations with the indigenous communities and external parties

VALUE trial: Long-term blood pressure trends in 13,449 patients with hypertension and high cardiovascular risk

Background: The Valsartan Antihypertensive Long-term Use Evaluation (VALUE) study compares cardiovascular outcomes in 15,314 eligible patients from 31 countries randomized to valsartan or amlodipine-based treatment. Methods: The blood pressure (BP) trends are analyzed in 13,449 of VALUE study patients who had baseline BP and 24 months BP and treatment data. Results: In a cohort of 12,570 patients, baseline 24 and 30 months BP, but not 30 months treatment data, were available. Of 13,449 patients, 92% (N = 12,398) received antihypertensive therapy at baseline. The baseline BP was 153.5/86.9 mm Hg in treated compared to 168.1.8/95.3 mm Hg in 1051 untreated patients. After 6 months both groups had indistinguishable BP values. At 12 months the BP decreased to 141.2/82.9 mm Hg (P < .0001 for systolic BP and diastolic BP versus baseline), at 24 months to 139.1/80 mm Hg (P < .0001 v 12 months), and to 138/79 mm Hg at 30 months (P < .0001 v 24 months). The systolic BP control (<140 mm Hg) at 30 months increased from 21.9% at baseline to 62.2%, the diastolic BP (< 90 mm Hg) from 54.2% to 90.2% and the combined control (<140 and <90 mm Hg) from 18.9% to 60.5%. At 24 months 85.8% of patients were on protocol drugs: monotherapy = 39.7%, added hydrochlorothiazide = 26.6%, add-on drugs = 15.1%, and protocol drugs in nonstandard doses = 4.3%. Conclusions: The achieved BP control exceeds values reported in most published large-scale trials. The VALUE study is executed in regular clinical settings and 92% of the patients received antihypertensive drugs at baseline. When an explicit BP goal is set, and a treatment algorithm is provided, the physicians can achieve better control rates than in their regular practice. Am J Hypertens 2003;16: 544-548 @ 2003 American Journal of Hypertension, Lt

Synthesis of normal and variant human hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase in Escherichia coli

Naturally occurring mutations in hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase (HPRT) have been identified by amino acid sequencing, cDNA cloning, and direct nucleotide sequencing of PCR-amplified transcripts. To determine the effect these mutations have on the catalytic properties of the molecule, knowledge of the three-dimensional structure of HPRT is required. A prerequisite for this, however, is the availability of a large amount of purified product for crystallization and x-ray diffraction analysis. For these reasons we have developed an effective means of producing high levels of human HPRT in Escherichia coli using the expression cassette PCR. By taking advantage of a T7 polymerase/promoter system, we have expressed both normal and variant human hprt sequences in E. coli. The proteins synthesized from these sequences are immunologically and enzymatically active, and are physically indistinguishable from the HPRT in B-lymphoblasts derived from normal and three HPRT-deficient subjects.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/31002/1/0000677.pd

Reduced CV risk with long-term GH replacement in AGHD: data from two large observational studies

Adult growth hormone deficiency (AGHD) is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular (CV) disease. Long-term growth hormone (GH) trea tment could improve CV outcomes. The objective of this study was to evaluate CV disease risk in patients with AGHD who received GH replacement therapy for up to 10 years as part of NordiNet® IOS (NCT00960128) and the ANSWER Program (NCT01009905). The studies were observational, non-interventional and multicentre, monitoring l ong-term effectiveness and safety of GH treatment. NordiNet® IOS involved 23 countries (469 sites) across Europe and the Middle East. The ANSWER Program was conducted in the USA (207 sites). This analysis included patients aged 18–75 years who were GH na ïve at study entry, who had ≤10 years of GH treatment data and who could be assessed for CV risk for at least 1 follow-up year. The main outcome measure was risk of CV disea se by age 75 years, as calculated with the Multinational Cardiovascular Risk Consortium model (Brunner score) using non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol adjusted for age, sex and CV risk factors. The results of this analysis showed that CV risk decreased gradually over the 10-year period for GH-treated patients. The risk was lower for patients treated for 2 and 7 years vs age- and sex-matched control groups (not yet started treatment) (14.51% vs 16.15%; P = 0.0105 and 13.53% vs 16.81%; P = 0.0001, respectively). This suggests that GH treatment in people with AGHD may reduce the risk of CV disease by age 75 years compared with matched controls

Human Rights and German Intellectual History in Transnational Perspective

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/156446/1/gequ12147.pd

OR-29: The value trial: long-term blood pressure trends in 13,449 patients with hypertension and high cardiovascular risk

Purpose: The VALUE Trial compares cardiovascular outcomes in 15,314 eligible patients from 31 countries randomized to valsartan or amlodipine-based treatment. Methods: The blood pressure (BP) trends are analyzed in 13,449 patients with baseline and 24 months data, and in 12,570 patients with baseline and 30 months data. Results: Ninety two % received antihypertensive therapy prior to enrollment. The (entry) BP in treated patients was 153.5/ 86.9 mmHg compared to 168.1.8/95.3 mmHg in untreated patients. After sixth months both groups had indistinguishable BP values. At 12 months the BP fell to 141.2/ 82.9 mmHg, at 24 month to 139.1/79.8 mmHg (p <0.0001 vs 12 months), and to 138.1/79.0 mmHg at 30 months (p< 0.0001 vs 24 months). Compared to baseline (21.7%) the systolic control BP (<140 mmHg) increased to 59.5% at 24 months and 62.2% at 30 months. Similarly, the diastolic control BP (<90 mmHg) increased from 53.7% at baseline to 88.6% at 24 months and 90.0% at 30 months, and combined control (<140 and <90 mmHg) increased from 18.9% at baseline to 57.6% at 24 months and 60.5% at 30 months. All proportions at 24 and 30 months vs baseline for diastolic, systolic and combined control BP are highly significant (p<0.0001). At 24 months 87.7% of all patients received randomized therapy: monotherapy = 39.7%, added hydrochlorothiazide= 46.0%, additional drugs permitted by the protocol= 15.9%. Conclusion: The VALUE Trial is executed in regular clinical settings. The achieved BP control in this study is better than in any published large-scale trial. Our results demonstrate that when explicit BP goal is set and a treatment algorithm is provided, the physicians achieve much better control rates than in their regular practic

Class dynamics of development: a methodological note

This article argues that class relations are constitutive of developmental processes and central to understanding inequality within and between countries. In doing so it illustrates and explains the diversity of the actually existing forms of class relations, and the ways in which they interplay with other social relations such as gender and ethnicity. This is part of a wider project to re- vitalise class analysis in the study of development problems and experiences