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Between the Mad and the Bad: Psychiatrists and Patients in Egypt’s State Asylums
No full textThe study of mental illnesses and asylums have emerged as fundamental areas of historical inquiry. Research on disability studies and the histories of mental health are growing fields encouraging a rethinking of the cultural, social, economic, and political histories of the Middle East. The history of mental asylums reflects the multiple ways in which colonial governments and modern nation-states defined their national projects and relationships with their subjects. Studying colonial asylums, psychiatry, and constructions of mental illnesses is central to understanding Egypt’s history, shedding light on significant historical processes such as colonization, state building, modernization, medicalization, and professionalization.
Using mental health as the lens through which to examine the colonial state and its engagement with various actors, the dissertation investigates the impact of the British occupation on the development of Egypt’s state asylums of ‘Abbāsiyya and Khānka as well as on the professionalization of psychiatry and the experiences of the asylums’ patients and their families. The goal is to provide a holistic approach to the study of the history of mental health and psychiatry in Egypt, investigating its asylums, doctors, attendants, patients, and their families.
Through the analysis of a wide range of primary and secondary sources written in Arabic, French, and English, including citizen petitions (‘arḍaḥāls), referral memoranda (tadhkaras), Ministry of Interior reports, Reports of the Lunacy Division and the Department of Sanitary Services and Public Health, as well as government and Foreign Office correspondences, the dissertation examines the multi-faceted history of mental health and psychiatry by engaging with its diverse state and non-state actors. The dissertation examines the history of Egypt’s asylums and their relationship with the state, interrogating their significance to the British occupation and their role in the maintenance of order and security. It also moves beyond the asylum itself, focusing on Egyptian psychiatrists and the development of the psychiatric profession. The study further examines the experiences of the asylum’s patients and their families. The ultimate objective of the dissertation’s different chapters is to demonstrate the transformative impact of the British occupation on the asylum, the psychiatric profession, the care and treatment of its patients, and the experiences of their families
EXPLORING HIV HEALTHCARE SERVICE ACCESS ISSUES EXPERIENCED BY ADOLESCENTS LIVING WITH HUMAN IMMUNODEFICIENCY VIRUS (HIV) IN AN HIV-DESIGNATED HEALTHCARE CENTER IN ESWATINI
No full textBackground: HIV remains the leading cause of death among adolescents in Eswatini. The prevalence of HIV among adolescents is increasing as is the number of adolescents living with HIV who experience HIV service access issues. In Eswatini, previous studies explored general experiences of ALHIV with a limited focus on access to HIV healthcare services. The study aimed to describe access issues to HIV healthcare services among adolescents living with HIV in an HIV-designated healthcare center in Eswatini, while exploring the factors influencing HIV service access and suboptimal compliance to HIV treatment.
Methodology: The study used an exploratory-descriptive qualitative design. Adolescents were sampled using purposive sampling and healthcare providers were sampled through convenience sampling.
Results: Adolescents face challenges that limit their ability to perceive a need for HIV care, seek HIV care, reach HIV care, pay for HIV, and engage in HIV care. This is despite some efforts made by the health system through its five dimensions of healthcare access as outlined in the Levesque conceptual framework to facilitate their visibility and success in enhancing adolescents’ abilities.
Discussion: Both the health system factors, and HIV service beneficiaries influence the accessibility of HIV services. A unified effort is needed to address the HIV service access issues experienced by adolescents living with HIV if the country is to achieve local and global HIV targets by 2030.
Conclusion: Adolescents living with HIV are a uniquely vulnerable population facing challenges around accessing HIV services and engaging in sustained HIV care. Promoting access to HIV services for the most vulnerable adolescents will require interventions that address both social and health system factors. The findings have implications for programs that will empower both the health system and adolescents living with HIV
From Religious and Literary Sciences as a lever for Arab Feminism To "Islamic Feminism": From ͑Ᾱ'isha Abdel Raḥmān [Bint Al-Shāṭi'] (d. 1998) to Asmā' al-Murābiṭ (b. 1961-)
Get PDFيتضمن مراجع بيبليوجرافية (صفحات 24-30)هدف هذه المقالة هو العودة الى مساهمة أستاذة كرسي اللغة العربية وآدابها في جامعة عين شمس، العالمة والمفكرة والكاتبة أ.دة. عائشة عبد الرحمن [بنت الشاطئ] (ت 1998) في الدفاع عن حق المرأة المصريّة في التعليم والعمل ونزع الاعتراف بالذاتيّة النسائيّة الأدبية وقضية المرأة وتحررها في الإسلام في أعمالها: صور من حياتهن: من الحريم الى الجامعة (1953)، الشاعرة العربية المعاصرة (1963)، تراجم سيّدات بيت النبّوة (مجلد 1987(، والمفهوم الإسلامي لتحرير المرأة (1967). ان مراجعة هذه الأعمال ستعطينا فرصة النظر الى كيفيّة تطّور العلوم الدينيّة والأدبية والوعي المعرفي من رافعة للنِسويّة العربيّة لدى عائشة عبد الرحمن الى تيار فكري أكاديمي حركي نشأ بالمغرب وخارجها- هو تيار "النِسويّة الإسلامية". سنتعرف على مقاربة أسماء المرابط (م. -1961)، وهي وجه من وجوه "النِسويّة الإسلامية" بالوطن العربي، في عملها الرائد القرآن والنساء: قراءة للتحرر (2010)، والذي أطلقه مركز البحوث والدراسات في القضايا النسائية في الإسلام بالرابطة المحمدية للعلماء عند افتتاح ّ المركز (2010) وفي النساء والرجال في القرآن: أية مساواة؟ (2015). وأعمال المرابط تمثل إحدى الإنجازات التي حقّقها المغرب بالتعاون بين السلطة السياسيّة والمنظومة الفقهيّة والحركة النسائيّة المغربية لأجل بناء معرفي حول المفاهيم، ولإعادة قراءة النصوص الدينيّة من قرآن وحديث وفق رؤية كليّة - "يعني بالتصّور الكلي - الذي نحتاج الى استئناف وإعادة بنائه من منظومتنا الحضارية الإسلامية وما نتج عنه من تطوير "مدّونة الأسرة" التي،" أصبحت النموذج المثال للإصلاح في مدّونات الأحوال الشخصيّة في الوطن العربي.The goal of this research is to return to the contribution of Professor and chair of Arabic language and literature at Ayn Shams University, the scholar, thinker, and writer ͑Ᾱ'isha Abdel Raḥmān [Bint Al-Shāṭi'] (d. 1998) in defending the right of Egyptian women to education and work and recognition of women’s literary subjectivity and the issue of Women's Emancipation in Islam. Reviewing her works will allow us to look at how the religious and literary sciences and cognitive awareness developed from a lever for Arab feminism according to ͑Ᾱ'isha Abdel Raḥmān to a dynamic academic intellectual trend that arose in Morocco and abroad - the “Islamic Feminism”
XCT Non-Destructive Evaluation of FSW Joints via Predictive Modeling of Hounsfield Units
Get PDFThis work employs X-ray computed tomography (XCT), coupled with machine and deep learning techniques to non-destructively evaluate the quality (detecting defects and differentiating of materials) of dissimilar friction stir welded (DFSW) metallic joints.
Since the model will quantify the material mixing taking place within the dissimilar welds. A large number of pure and alloyed metals was scanned, and HU measurements and their standard deviations recorded for these metals. Since this work depends on XCT scanning to identify HU values of metals of interest and since not much is available in the published literature, much effort was spent on collecting such values experimentally. It was found that measured HU values depend strongly on the XCT scanning parameters including tube current and voltage, voxel size (function of the section width, table speed), etc... Therefore, before such an HU database can be used, it was necessary to delineate such dependence in a reliable fashion including using the broader16-bit HU scale to resolve the issue of saturation.
Given that mixing in FSW joints results in a multi-metal component alloy, a method had to be determined to relate the alloy HU value to those of its elemental constituents. A developed weighted average mixture model utilizes the individual HU values of each metal component and their relative weight percentages to predict the HU value for the alloy. The model is then compared against machine learning (ML) and neural network (NN) based methods which were created to also model the HU values- elemental composition relation.
After scanning of the raw materials was concluded and the relations between HU measurements, scanning conditions, and elemental composition well documented, FSW joints of dissimilar aluminum-based (AA6061) and magnesium-based (AZ31b) are fabricated under different sets of welding parameters (mainly the welding tool as well its feed and rotational speed). The FSW parameters are optimized to obtain relatively good-quality welds.
The welded joints are then XCT scanned at optimal scanning parameters. The collected XCT data is then used to train, validate, and test deep-learning-based neural networks, which will be able to detect the presence of defects, identify their locations, quantify their volumes, and differentiate the two metals in the weld zone. Allowing for the fast and reliable evacuation of dissimilar FSW welds
Al Zaytouna Al Samida
No full textA children's book, created by AUB students from the Education Department, for the course EDUC218 as a final project.Ayla -a nine year old Lebanese child from Nabatieh- takes us through a journey with her family's beloved olive tree: Zaytouna
Mapping Imagined Realities: Navigating Thirdspaces in '1982' and 'A Girl Made of Dust'
Get PDFThe aim of this thesis is to analyze how the spatial aspects and imagined realities of
different cultural productions highlight their characters’ developments. The primary
sources analyzed are Oualid Mouaness’s film 1982 (2019) and Nathalie Abi-Ezzi’s novel
A Girl Made of Dust (2008). The narrated events in both works take place during the
Lebanese Civil War, especially in 1982, and they tell the story of Wissam and Ruba
respectively who are child protagonists navigating their complex environments which are
their fictional spaces. The theoretical frameworks I use are Edward Soja’s theory of
Thirdspace and a combined theory of magical thinking based on different psychological
theorists such as Jean Piaget, Jacqueline Woolley, and others. The thesis also conducts a
spatial reading of both mediums that creates spatial maps that demonstrate how space is
depicted.
The Thirdspaces discussed in the thesis are a combination of the tangible and material
elements, the Firstspaces, with the mental and emotional aspects, the Secondspaces.
Hence, the Thirdspaces become a lived-in space that reflects Wissam’s and Ruba’s
developments. Moreover, magical thinking is a psychological coping mechanism that the
child protagonists use to protect themselves and comprehend the brutality of the war
around them.
This thesis explores how magical thinking remains persistent in Wissam’s Thirdspaces
showing that he remained the same throughout the film. However, Ruba gradually loses
her magical thinking in her Thirdspaces as she becomes more aware of her reality which
leads one to infer that she evolved in the novel. I argue that the Thirdspaces in 1982 and
A Girl Made of Dust highlight the child protagonists’ characters’ developments
respectively marked by Wissam’s retention and Ruba’s loss of magical thinking.
The spatial maps present further insights into both mediums and into the characters’
developments. They illustrate how Wissam and Ruba navigate their Thirdspaces and
move in different directions from one another. Wissam’s linear movement shows a zoomout
effect that suggests that the story is not focused on his development, while Ruba’s
shows a zoom-in effect that suggests a reflection towards her inwards state.
Therefore, this comparative study between the novel and film uncovers parallels and
divergences between their characters’ developments in correlation to the established
Thirdspaces and the presence as well as the absence of magical thinking elements
شوكولا؟ بليز!
No full textA children's book, created by AUB students from the Education Department, for the course EDUC218 as a final project.ذهب آدم الى السوبرماركت مع امه مثل كل نهاية اسبوع واراد احضار الشوكولا. لكن، امر غير مسبوق حصل! أقرأ لتعرف ماذا حصل وتساعد آدم في اختيار القرار الصحيح
Subjective Cognitive Decline Among Older Adults and its Link to Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease: The BRFSS 2022 US Study
No full textSubjective Cognitive Decline (SCD) refers to the self-reported instances of increasing confusion or memory loss, as experienced by the individual. In the U.S., 11% of adults older than 45 years, have SCD. Diabetes is one of the known factors associated with cognition. Among adults with type 2 diabetes, the risk of mild cognitive impairment is doubled. Also, cardiovascular disease (CVD) is known as a significant risk factor for SCD. Compared to individuals who do not have SCD, heart diseases are twice as prevalent. This study aims to examine the association between SCD and diabetes, as well as the association between SCD and cardiovascular disease, focusing on Myocardial Infarction (MI), stroke, and Coronary Heart Disease (CHD)/angina.
This study is among U.S. old adults aged 45 years and older, using the BRFSS 2022 data. SCD is treated as a binary outcome so logistic regression is used to explore associations. The results showed that 6,423 individuals, accounting for 10.45%, reported experiencing SCD. Out of them, 30.67% (n=1,761) reported having diabetes, with 90.25% (n=761) of them diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. CHD emerged as the most prevalent among SCD participants at 17.83% (n=1,011), followed by MI at 15.08% (n=865), and stroke in approximately 13.7% (n=795) of individuals. Unadjusted associations between SCD, primary predictors, and other covariates were computed, and the significant variables were used to build our adjusted models. Several models were built, and the primary predictors were mostly switched between the models.
Our main model, the full model, encompassed all main predictors to discern the adjusted associations between each predictor accounting for the effect of all other predictors. In this model, diabetes, CHD, and stroke maintained their significance (p-value 0.05. The most influential predictor for SCD, with the highest OR, is CHD (OR: 1.72; 95%CI: 1.34-2.20) followed by stroke (OR:1.63; 95% CI: 1.26,2.11), and diabetes (OR: 1.25; 95%CI: 1.01-1.54). Notably, CHD is the variable that leads to MI losing its significance. Furthermore, insulin use emerges as a significant predictor that increases SCD risk (OR: 1.31; 95% CI: 1.02-1.68). SCD is a critical issue that must warrant more focus, given its potential as a precursor to more severe cognitive impairments. This underscores the need for awareness and proactive screening for cognitive impairment among individuals with CVDs and diabetes, as cognitive dysfunction can significantly impact their overall well-being
Scaling-Up Educational Innovations: A Systematic Literature Review of Influencing Factors (2000-2023)
Get PDFScaling educational innovations has gained attention, but the conceptual framework remains unclear and key factors are underexplored, leading to a reactive rather than proactive approach. This study examines factors affecting scaling at the designer, teacher, school, and system levels to clarify their interconnections across the education system.
In a final sample of 25 research articles identified systematically, the study highlights multiple influencing themes at each level. Overarching themes are resources, capacity building, strategy, leadership, governance, politics and culture - within each are multiple sub factors. At the designer level, factors include resources, design and implementation
strategies. At the teacher level, cultural norms, working conditions, and professional development are key. At the school level, leadership, policies, and resources are critical. At the system level, politics, policies, funding, and capacity are significant. We propose that collective leadership at every level is key to effective system scaling. Adapting a health innovation scaling implementation model to education, the study
addresses reactive strategies. The study highlights how socio-political instability and donor-driven, uncoordinated efforts in fragile Education in Emergency states like Lebanon hinder sustainable reforms. The lack of Arab region-focused literature on scaling may stem from language barriers, though the discourse is growing. We urge a critical perspective on educational innovations, emphasizing the need to address not just
immediate practice problems but also historical and systemic factors to avoid exacerbating existing inequities. The study concludes with a conceptual framework on scaling-up education innovation across systems for systems change emerged from the key findings and analysis of this study. Recommendations for both researchers and practitioners were included. To enhance future scaling efforts, researchers should do country-specific research, include diverse sources and develop informal networks for knowledge sharing and establishing research priorities. Education practitioners should encourage, integrate scaling principles into training, and develop structured plans for sustainable and proactive implementation
Mapping & Characterizing Battery Waste Management Facilities in Lebanon
No full textThe aim of this study is to investigate the occupational exposure of battery recyclers to
heavy metals and the resulting environmental pollution caused by these recycling
facilities in Lebanon. The study utilized soil and water analysis for the heavy metals Lead
(Pb), Cadmium (Cd) and Mercury (Hg) in the vicinity of three identified battery recycling
facilities in Lebanon, as well as two structured questionnaires, one addressed to the
managers of the facilities and the other to the workers, to assess waste management
practices and determine the extent of exposure and contamination at the workplace. The
results of the metal analysis indicated a significant increase in exposure levels and
environmental contamination of Lead (Pb), and the results of the questionnaires further
revealed several mishandling practices, highlighting the need for improved management
practices and further investigation by designated authorities. This research provides
valuable insights on the impact of battery recycling on both workers and the environment
and offers recommendations for an improved occupational safety. Overall, this study
contributes to a deeper understanding of the potential risks associated with battery
recycling facilities in Lebanon and the need for more sustainable practices in the industry