The Taliban and the Crises of Afghanistan and Pakistan

Overview: Ziauddin Yousafzai is a man who was born and raised in Pakistan. He is a devout Muslim and takes pride in two things – his family and education. He is responsible for the building and running of multiple schools in the Swat Valley – for both boys and girls. His daughter has won multiple awards in school for her work and speeches. Their nation is not perfect, and that certainly needs reform, but Ziauddin believes that education can solve these problems. His life and the lives of his family and friends move on until one word stops everything – Taliban. Suddenly, radicalization is spread throughout his home. This group who is spilling over from Afghanistan gains a substantial amount of support at the very beginning – but who can blame them? The Pakistani government is corrupt and does nothing for its people. Change is something anyone would want. Besides, to Ziauddin and many other people of Pakistan, the Taliban does not seem like a severe threat at first. They preach a return to more focused practices of the teachings of the Quran. While fear is still there, no one in Pakistan is able to predict what might happen next. Suddenly, as if overnight, he is forced to watched as schoolhouses are bombed, people are executed in the streets - the Taliban has taken over Swat Valley. He remains adamant about all of his children, including his daughter, receiving education and does what most are too afraid to do – he speaks out publicly against the Taliban. While his efforts are valiant, they prove to be useless as the government does little to rescue his home from the invading extremists. Tensions rise, and the violence escalates until he finds himself on a one-way flight to Birmingham, England to stay with his daughter, Malala, as the entire world reacts in shock that even the Taliban would shoot a fourteen-year-old girl simply for going to school. Situations such as the one told above have almost become the norm within not only Pakistan, but Afghanistan as well. Unfortunately, not as many people are lucky and survive the onslaughts as Malala and her father did. For decades, the Taliban has been rising to power in these two Middle Eastern nations. Their extremist views have gained international attention and condemnation and are also responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent citizens during the War in Afghanistan and their invasion of Pakistan. While they have been around since the Cold War, it seems to most the Taliban has exploded into power and influence, especially during the late 20th century and into the 2000s. When the mountainous geography of both nations and the amount of power and influence the Taliban held over people is explored, it is easy to see how a small militia of a few hundred grew so quickly and became one of the largest terrorist threats in the world

Collaborating with youths as coteachers in literacy learning

The authors featured in this department column share instructional practices that support transformative literacy teaching and disrupt “struggling reader” and “struggling writer” labels.This work was supported by a Boston University Consortium grant and a Boston University School of Education Faculty Research Award. (Boston University Consortium; Boston University School of Education Faculty Research Award)Accepted manuscrip

Clinical and molecular analyses of NEONAB: a phase II trial of breast cancer patients treated with neoadjuvant epirubicin, cyclophosphamide and nab-paclitaxel

This thesis presents the clinical, imaging and translational research outcomes from NEONAB: a phase II clinical trial in early breast cancer

Evidencing sexual violence: a socio-legal analysis of (gendered) norms and policies

As MacKinnon suggested, ‘women who work with the law have learned that while legal change may not always make social change, sometimes it helps, and law unchanged can make social change impossible.’This paper offers a comparative analysis of several jurisdictions, looking particularly at gendered, often systemic, patriarchal attitudes towards sexual violence. It draws upon a wide range of resources to argue that law and policy reforms alone cannot address the challenges associated with preventing - or prosecuting - acts of sexual violence, given certain socio-cultural attitudes towards victims generally. Clearly, sexual violence may lead to (often highly gendered) public health and human rights violations, with both short and longer-term consequences. Given that, globally, as many as one in five women are likely to be sexually assaulted over the course of their lifetime, female victims may feel that their evidence will be largely or completely discredited, or their experiences simply ignored. And yet, violence against women is not unique to any specific historical period or culture. As Sigsworth has further argued (in relation to South Africa) a perceived need to assert – or reassert - masculinity may also be relevant in many cases. The concept of the ‘vulnerable population’ can often be reflective of social attitudes or of ambiguous laws or policies. (Disabled women, for example, are more likely to be sexually abused, raped, or assaulted that those who are able-bodied. ) Within many criminal justice systems, long delays, judicial or jury bias, and potentially degrading cross-examinations of victims cannot be ignored. Victim-blaming can further exacerbate inherent vulnerabilities. The reporting of sexual violence often varies significantly across jurisdictions: as such, the extent to which victimhood and gendered stereotypes might be either constructed or interpreted by wider society will also be discussed here.   &nbsp

Snog, Marry or Avoid? Class, taste and the making of selfhood in makeover televison

‘Snog, Marry or Avoid?: Class, taste and the labour of selfhood in makeover television’, is an exploration of the way social stratification is visited on individual and collective corporeality, externalised through the mechanics of taste and regulated within the makeover television genre. Research for this thesis has been primarily informed by the theory of French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, who, in the latter half of the twentieth century, aimed to expose the role of culture as implicated in the functioning of power within capitalist societies. Bourdieu’s work reminds us that social stratification is inevitably inscribed on corporeality, through the structure of habitus and its relation to capital. This thesis demonstrates how class often informs the subtext of makeover television – as middle-class tastes are held as the key to affecting legitimate selfhood – yet social difference is subsumed in the ideology of individualism. These concepts are developed with reference to Snog Marry Avoid? (2008--), a British ‘make-under’ series that subtly works to equate middle-class taste with a ‘natural’, desirable state of being. Through examination of this text, questions are raised about the arbitrariness of ‘good’ taste, the durability of habitus and how these constructs inhibit social mobility and interpersonal success. Ultimately, this thesis figures as an indictment of the way (classed) bodies are devalued by discourses of self-legitimation

Growth of Perkinus marinus by Bioreactor Fermentation

Perkinsus marinus is a marine protozoan responsible for “Dermo” disease in the eastern oyster species, Crassostrea virginica. P. marinus has been detected along the Atlantic Coast of the United States and Mexico. In laboratory studies, many parasites need to be maintained in vivo, which complicates the study of the organism. However, In vitro cell culture for P. marinus at a scale of 1 mL was established in 1993 by several groups with the 1995 optimization (Gauthier & Vasta, 1993, 1995) considered the gold standard for small scale growth of this species. In addition to its importance as a parasite of an important food source, P. marinus is notable among easily cultured microbes in its ability to produce, fold and excrete very large, complex proteins. Such proteins could potentially be used for therapeutic applications, such as development of vaccines. In order to be useful as an organism to produce vaccines, we need to learn how to grow the organism at larger scale. Transitioning the growth procedures from small culture vials to tenfold larger bioreactors is a first step towards achieving this scale up. Growing P. marinus in a bioreactor introduces new production variables and challenges, such as: aeration, pH control, temperature control, and cost of media. In this study we developed methods and procedures to grow P. marinus in bioreactors and have also developed a lower cost growth medium that reduced the cost of growth medium ingredients by about 60%. Higher order cell culture comes with expensive media components, most notably fetal bovine serum (FBS), which provides essential growth factors and cytokines for growing cells. A promising replacement for FBS was found to be chicken serum (CS). It has the potential to provide growth factors and cytokines at a much lower cost than FBS. SuperPro Designer v10 (Intelligen, Inc., Scotch Plains, New Jersey) is a process simulator software designed to analyze the techno-economics of commercial-scale bioprocesses. SuperPro Designer v10 was used to translate the experimental fermentation data from this study into a process model that provides insight into the financial feasibility of growing P. marinus at an industry scale

The Visual Impairment/Cognitive Impairment Co-morbidity : Examining the Genotype-Structure-Function Relationship

This research was supported by the Canadian National Institute for the Blind Ross C. Purse Doctoral Fellowship (2013), Fonds de Recherche en Sante du Quebec (FRSQ) Doctoral Fellowship, the School of Optometry at the University of Montreal and the Recruitment to Vision Science bursary from the Vision Health Research Network of the FRSQ.Un nombre de recherches rapportent une forte cooccurrence de la dégénérescence maculaire liée à l'âge (DMLA) et la maladie d'Alzheimer (AD), ce qui suggère que les déficiences visuelles et cognitives peuvent être liées. Ceci est davantage soutenu par des similitudes structurelles dans la rétine et le cerveau qui sont des facteurs de risque de maladie partagés et des preuves histopathologiques, y compris le bêta-amyloïde. En raison de cela, l'hypothèse selon laquelle DMLA et AD peuvent également partager des facteurs de risque génétiques. L'objectif de cette recherche était de reproduire des études démontrant une incidence plus élevée d'altération cognitive chez les personnes atteintes de DMLA et d'explorer la relation entre le génotype, la structure, et la fonction dans cette comorbidité. Les résultats ont montré qu'un plus grand nombre de personnes atteintes de DMLA ont obtenu un résultat positif pour déficience cognitive par rapport aux témoins. Le résultat MoCA moyen pour le groupe DMLA était inférieur à celui du groupe témoin, mais ce n'était pas significatif. Ces résultats positifs pour déficience cognitive dans la DMLA et les groupes témoins diffèrent considérablement sur les domaines cognitifs avec lesquels ils avaient des difficultés. Bien que les contrôles aient des difficultés avec la mémoire seulement, ceux avec DMLA ont eu de la difficulté avec la mémoire en plus d'autres domaines cognitifs, ce qui indique un risque plus élevé de progression vers AD. Les résultats génétiques ont montré que les polymorphismes de nucléotide unique (SNP), CFHY402H et ARMS2A69S de DMLA les plus fréquents se produisent dans les fréquences attendues au sein de la population québécoise. FADS1 rs174547, qui a une contribution moins significative à AMD, a été constaté surreprésenter dans la population québécoise, ce qui indique un effet fondateur pour ce SNP. En terme de fonction visuelle, les transporteurs de CFHY402H se sont révélés avoir une mauvaise stabilité de la fixation par rapport aux non-porteurs, tandis que les porteurs d'ARMSA69S avaient une acuité visuelle et une sensibilité au contraste plus médiocres. L'analyse de la structure rétinienne a révélé que CFHY402H était liée à l'augmentation de la zone de Drusen, à la réflexivité moyenne et à l'atrophie géographique, tandis que l'ARMS2A69S avait moins de corrélations avec les caractéristiques du Drusen. Ensemble, ces résultats suggèrent que le SNP de CFH joue un rôle dans la perturbation de l'architecture de la rétine alors que le SNP ARMS2 est impliqué dans le dysfonctionnement des photorécepteurs. Ceci est encore mis en évidence par les résultats des mesures psychophysiques, où les porteurs d'ARMS2A69S avaient une difficulté particulière avec les stimuli de premier ordre qui dépendent fortement de la sensibilité au contraste. Bien qu'aucune différence significative n'a été trouvée dans la performance cognitive basée sur le statut de transporteur CFH ou ARMS2, tous ceux qui ont obtenu une évaluation positive pour une déficience cognitive étaient des porteurs du SNP FADS1 avec des homozygotes ayant les scores cognitifs les plus bas. Ces résultats ont des répercussions sur les domaines de la génétique, de la biologie et de la rééducation à faible vision. En explorant la comorbidité cognitive de DMLA dans l'ensemble du spectre de la fonction génotype-structure, la communication à travers les sciences augmente pour mieux servir la population croissante confrontée à cette comorbidité.Research reports a high co-occurrence of Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) and Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), suggesting that visual and cognitive impairments may be related. This is further supported by structural similarities in the retina and brain, shared disease risk factors, and histopathological evidence, including beta-amyloid. Due to this, it is hypothesized that AMD and AD may share genetic risk factors as well. The goal of this research was to replicate studies demonstrating a higher incidence of cognitive impairment among individuals with AMD, and to explore the relationship among genotype, structure, and function in this co-morbidity. The results showed a greater number of individuals with AMD scored positive for mild cognitive impairment (MCI) compared to controls. Mean Montreal Cognitive Assessment score for the AMD group was lower than that of the control group, however this was not significant. Those scoring positive for MCI in the AMD and control groups did differ significantly on the cognitive domains with which they had difficulty. While controls had difficulty with only memory, those with AMD had difficulty with memory in addition to other cognitive domains, indicating a higher risk of progression to AD. The genetic results showed that the most common AMD single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), CFHY402H and ARMS2A69S, occur in the expected frequencies within the Quebec population. FADS1 rs174547, which has a less significant contribution to AMD, was found to be overrepresented in the Quebec population, indicating a possible Founder Effect for this SNP. In terms of visual function, carriers of CFHY402H were found to have greater ecentricity compared to non-carriers while carriers of ARMSA69S had poorer visual acuity and contrast sensitivity. Analysis of retinal structure revealed CFHY402H was related to increased drusen area, mid reflectivity, and geographic atrophy, meanwhile ARMS2A69S had fewer correlations with characteristics of drusen. Taken together, these results suggest that the CFH SNP plays a role in the disruption of retinal architecture while the ARMS2 SNP is involved in photoreceptor dysfunction. This is further evidenced by the results of psychophysical measures, where carriers of ARMS2A69S had particular difficulty with first order stimuli which relies heavily on contrast sensitivity. Although no significant differences were found in cognitive performance based on CFH or ARMS2 carrier status, all those scoring positive for MCI were carriers of the FADS1 SNP with homozygotes having the lowest cognitive scores. These results have implications for the fields of genetics, biology, and low vision rehabilitation. Exploration of the AMD/cognitive impairment co-morbidity across the spectrum of genotype-structure-function increases communication across the sciences to better serve the growing proportion of the population facing this co-morbidity

Post-Disaster Group Art Therapy Treatment for Children

A qualitative research study presents a thorough examination of a group art therapy curriculum for child survivors of disaster or traumatic events. A review of the existing literature was used to inform the current study. The researcher utilized focus group method of inquiry to gain a better understanding of the topic from experts in the art therapy field. Through the gathering of data and analysis, the findings suggest that the curriculum developed to assist child survivors of traumatic events or disasters has intrinsic value and can assist in the recovery process. The focus group provided a means to analyze the curriculum in a critical manner, allowing it to be adjusted and revised for implementation in the future. Drawing on their expertise in working with survivors of disaster or traumatic events, the focus group participants provided valuable feedback used to revise the proposed curriculum. The revised curriculum has the potential to provide safety and containment to encourage integration of the trauma amidst internal and external chaos that a disaster or traumatic event may evoke

Liquid Laws: Extractivism and Unstable Authority

This thesis concerns the co-constitution of extractivism and claims to authority, particularly in contexts where the legal narrative hides the ways that extractivism is facilitated. I examine how law implicitly structures extractivism, as well as how states use extractivism to generate authority. I look at this relationship in the context of international legal debates over the Antarctic Treaty, and a history of extractive interventions by the settler colonial state towards the Murray-Darling River Basin in south-eastern Australia. The way I read claims to authority engages both the violence and instability of these claims. The specific ways in which the relationship between extractivism and authority is enacted in these contexts depends in part on the spatial construction of water and ice. The co-constitution of extractivism and authority in these examples is also revealed both through imperial imaginaries that have material effects, and material practices that build a colonial legal imaginary