Ageing and Elderly Care in the Arab Region: Policy Challenges and Opportunities

Populations are expected to age rapidly in the Arab countries during the coming few decades. However, the current evidence base indicates that many countries in the region are not paying attention to this demographic phenomenon. This is a particular concern as longevity is often accompanied by many years of ill health and disability and most of the countries in the region continue to rely on the family as the primary source of elder care. While the family, and particularly women, are expected to provide increasing support for longer, they are faced by a set of socio-demographic changes that may hinder their ability to provide such care. This paper focuses on the ageing demographics in the Arab region and reflects on the multiple-roles for women by utilising quantitative analysis of international population and socio-economic indicators as well as reviewing the background literature and current ageing policies in the region. The paper then discusses possible strategies to address increasing long-term care needs through a social capital lens, where support to informal carers particularly women is emphasised.Populations are expected to age rapidly in the Arab countries during the coming few decades. However, the current evidence base indicates that many countries in the region are not paying attention to this demographic phenomenon. This is a particular concern as longevity is often accompanied by many years of ill health and disability and most of the countries in the region continue to rely on the family as the primary source of elder care. While the family, and particularly women, are expected to provide increasing support for longer, they are faced by a set of socio-demographic changes that may hinder their ability to provide such care. This paper focuses on the ageing demographics in the Arab region and reflects on the multiple-roles for women by utilising quantitative analysis of international population and socio-economic indicators as well as reviewing the background literature and current ageing policies in the region. The paper then discusses possible strategies to address increasing long-term care needs through a social capital lens, where support to informal carers particularly women is emphasised

A comparison of filtration rates among pelagic tunicates using kinematic measurements

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2009. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Springer for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Marine Biology 157 (2010): 755-764, doi:10.1007/s00227-009-1359-y.Salps have higher filtration rates than most other holoplankton, and are capable of packaging and exporting primary production from surface waters. A method of kinematic analysis was employed to accurately measure salp feeding rates. The data were then used to explain how diverse body morphologies and swimming motions among species and lifecycle stages influence salp feeding performance. We selected five species, representing a range of morphologies and swimming styles, and used digitized outlines from video frames to measure body-shape change during a pulse cycle. Time-varying body volume was then calculated from the digitized salp outlines to estimate the amount of fluid passing through the filtering mesh. This non-invasive method produced higher feeding rates than other methods and revealed that body volume, pulse frequency and degree of contraction are important factors for determining volume filtered. Each species possessed a unique combination of these three characteristics that resulted in comparable filtration (range: 0.44 - 15.33 ml s-1) and normalized filtration rates (range: 0.21 – 1.27 s-1) across species. The convergence of different species with diverse morphologies on similar normalized filtration suggests a tendency towards a flow optimum.This work was supported by NSF project OCE-0647723

Berberine enhances inhibition of glioma tumor cell migration and invasiveness mediated by arsenic trioxide

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Arsenic trioxide (As₂O₃) exhibits promising anticarcinogenic activity in acute promyelocytic leukemic patients and induces apoptosis in various tumor cells <it>in vitro</it>. Here, we investigated the effect of the natural alkaloid berberine on As₂O₃-mediated inhibition of cancer cell migration using rat and human glioma cell lines.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay was used to determine the viability of rat C6 and human U-87 glioma cells after treatment with As₂O₃or berberine, and after co-treatment with As₂O₃and berberine. The wound scratch and Boyden chamber assays were applied to determine the effect of As₂O₃and berberine on the migration capacity and invasiveness of glioma cancer cells. Zymography and Western blot analyses provided information on the effect of As₂O₃and berberine on the intracellular translocation and activation of protein kinase C (PKC), and some PKC-related downstream factors. Most assays were performed three times, independently, and data were analyzed using ANOVA.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The cell viability studies demonstrated that berberine enhances As₂O₃-mediated inhibition of glioma cell growth after 24 h incubation. Untreated control cells formed a confluent layer, the formation of which was inhibited upon incubation with 5 μM As₂O₃. The latter effect was even more pronounced in the presence of 10 μM berberine. The As₂O₃-mediated reduction in motility and invasion of glioma cells was enhanced upon co-treatment with berberine. Furthermore, it has been reported that PKC isoforms influence the morphology of the actin cytoskeleton, as well as the activation of metalloproteases MT1-MMP and MMP-2, reported to be involved in cancer cell migration. Treatment of glioma cells with As₂O₃and berberine significantly decreased the activation of PKC α and ε and led to actin cytoskeleton rearrangements. The levels of two downstream transcription factors, myc and jun, and MT1-MMP and MMP-2 were also significantly reduced.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Upon co-treatment of glioma cells with As₂O₃and berberine, cancer cell metastasis can be significantly inhibited, most likely by blocking the PKC-mediated signaling pathway involved in cancer cell migration. This study is potentially interesting for the development of novel chemotherapeutic approaches in the treatment of malignant gliomas and cancer development in general.</p

The gender gap in mobility: A global cross-sectional study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Several studies have demonstrated that women have greater mobility disability than men. The goals of this research were<b>:</b> 1) to assess the gender gap in mobility difficulty in 70 countries; 2) to determine whether the gender gap is explained by sociodemographic and health factors; 3) to determine whether the gender gap differs across 6 regions of the world with different degrees of gender equality according to United Nations data.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Population-based data were used from the World Health Survey (WHS) conducted in 70 countries throughout the world. 276,647 adults aged 18 years and over were recruited from 6 world regions. Mobility was measured by asking the level of difficulty people had moving around in the last 30 days and then creating a dichotomous measure (no difficulty, difficulty). The human development index and the gender-related development index for each country were obtained from the United Nations Development Program website. Poisson regression with Taylor series linearized variance estimation was used.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Women were more likely than men to report mobility difficulty (38% versus 27%, P < 0.0001). The age-adjusted prevalence rate ratio for female gender was 1.35 (95% CI 1.31–1.38). The addition of education, marital status, and urban versus rural setting reduced the prevalence rate ratio to 1.30 (95% CI 1.26–1.33). The addition of the presence of back pain, arthritis, angina, depressive symptoms, and cognitive difficulties further reduced the prevalence rate ratio to 1.12 (95% CI 1.09–1.15). There was statistical interaction on the multiplicative scale between female gender and region (P < 0.01). The Eastern Mediterranean region, which had the greatest loss of human development due to gender inequality, showed the largest gender gap in mobility difficulty, while the Western Pacific region, with the smallest loss of human development due to gender inequality, had the smallest gender gap in mobility difficulty.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These are the first world-wide data to examine the gender gap in mobility. Differences in chronic diseases are the main reasons for this gender gap. The gender gap seems to be greater in regions with the largest loss of human development due to gender inequality.</p

Gender and Intergenerational Co-residence in Egypt and Tunisia

Aging, Co-residence, Egypt, Gender, Tunisia,