Cairo Research Research Articles

European diplomats in the MENA region: a two-sided sense of disillusionment

ABSTRACT The ‘Arab Spring’ posed major emotional challenges to European diplomats. Sympathies for the demonstrators’ open embrace of European norms and values merged with discomfort about incalculable consequences following the former rulers’ eventual fall. Focusing on Egypt, this contribution analyses how European diplomats reacted to Hosni Mubarak’s ouster and the following developments. With their reminiscences to Europe’s own history and the European Union’s (EU) self-perception as ‘force for good’, a two-sided sense of disillusionment grew among European representatives: about the regime’s eventual unwillingness to reform, and about their own incapacity to meaningfully support change. Based on extensive research in Cairo and Brussels, this article analyses the emotions that escorted the actions of officials from the EU and its member states in Egypt. From a multi-level perspective, it considers activities by the EU Delegation to Egypt and EU member states’ embassies in Cairo, plus initiatives coming from Brussels.

Reciprocal spaces: The socio‐material life of balconies in urban Egypt

Abstract“Reciprocal spaces,” such as windows and balconies, connect the vertical and the horizontal, enable the flow of meanings and feelings, and join with other material artifacts to unite emotionally and socially those who are spatially distant, and socially and emotionally distance those who are spatially proximate. Cairo's balconies reveal that reciprocal spaces allow the gaze to be reoriented, the meaning to be circulated, and the feeling to be shared. They blur the distinction between the subject and the object, the observer and the observed, and the high and the low. Drawing on long‐term ethnographic research in Cairo and informed by the work of Pierre Bourdieu and Karen Barad, this paper shows that the balcony is entangled with other objects, spaces, and people in ways that materialize the socio‐economic hierarchies (especially class and gender), which structure daily practices and constitute urban subjects. Incorporating balconies in ethnographic research, this paper argues, enables us to be in the city while thinking of the city, undermining a dichotomy that has long troubled urban anthropology.

Psychiatry, Law, and Revolution: A View from Egypt.

In 2009, Egypt adopted the "Law for the Care of Mental Patients," a rights-based legislation intended to bring the country's mental health system-otherwise defined by resource gaps and chronic underfunding-closer to global standards of care. Yet, the new act stirred dissension among Egyptian psychiatrists. And, in the immediate aftermath of the 2011 uprising, debates about the 2009 law became intertwined with debates about the present and future of the 'new Egypt.' Based on field research in Cairo, this article provides an ethnographic analysis of the making of this mental health act and of the ensuing debates as they unfolded in 2011-2012. Showing the diverging perspectives at the core of these debates on psychiatric power, patient rights, and the law's fit in society, the article highlights the challenges of psychiatric reform in a country of the Global South. It also argues that in a context of revolutionary upheaval, debates about psychiatric reform become a site for political reflection and provide a language for imagining the future of the nation. The article also highlights the centrality of temporality in debating psychiatric reform in times of political transformation.

Beyond 1979 and 2011: When Comparisons Distract

In the midst of several research trips to Iran in the 1990s, I spent one year living and conducting exploratory research in Cairo. In Tehran, revolution seemed unfinished if not perpetual, yet in Egypt it was unimaginable. In spite of the entrenched support for the Leader and the political status quo, at this time Iran's reformist movement was robust. The policies of the Islamic Republic and consequences of the eight-year war with Iraq unleashed new social conditions that combined with established forces to push for women's rights, freedom of speech, independent civil associations, and exposing contradictions in the postrevolutionary order.

Falling through the net: access to water and sanitation by the peri-urban water poor

There is still a considerable gap that needs to be filled in order to meet the water and sanitation target of the Millennium Development Goals. Current efforts are driven by the particular way in which the problem has been conceptualised, and this has implications for a large part of the population that lacks access to water supply and sanitation services (WSS), but is continually overlooked. This article takes a closer look at official attempts to improve WSS in order to understand their underlying assumptions and subsequent implications for the provision of services. This is contrasted with evidence from research in Cairo, Caracas, Chennai, Dar es Salaam and Mexico City, which sheds light on the continued struggles of the peri-urban water poor in gaining access to services. Peri-urban communities in these cities have developed a number of needs-driven practices in order to compensate for the inefficiency of the formal WSS system, but remain largely invisible and unsupported due to their political status. The article argues for recognition and active involvement of the peri-urban water poor to have a realistic chance to address the global water and sanitation challenges.

Phatic labor, infrastructure, and the question of empowerment in Cairo

ABSTRACTIn this article, I draw on ethnographic research in Cairo to analyze outcomes of Egyptian women's practices of sociality. In Cairo, “phatic labor” creates a social infrastructure of communicative channels that are as essential to economy as roads, bridges, or telephone lines. Projects to empower Egyptian women via finance made these communicative channels visible as an economic infrastructure for projects oriented around the pursuit of profit. A social infrastructure that had functioned as a kind of semiotic commons became visible as a resource that could be privatized or formatted as a public good.

Biotechnology Research and Development in Academia: providing the foundation for Egypt's Biotechnology spectrum of colors. Sixteenth Annual American University in Cairo Research Conference, American University in Cairo, Cairo, Egypt

Biotechnology research and development in Egypt was addressed in the 2009 annual American University in Cairo (AUC) research conference held at the AUC new campus in Cairo, Egypt, that took place on April 5th 2009. The aim of the event was to present examples of ongoing biotechnology research activities in Egypt with focus on agricultural and biomedical biotechnology and to highlight the expansion of academic biotechnology research to industry.

Molecular characterization of extended-spectrum-β-lactamases producing Klebsiella pneumoniae and Escherichia coli from hospitalized patients in Oman

Extended-spectrum -lactamases (ESBLs) are plasmid encoded enzymes that confer resistance to -lactam antibiotics through the hydrolysis of the -lactam ring. ESBLs are distributed worldwide with an increasing incidence and prevalence in the Middle East due to the misuse of antibiotics and lack of coherent antimicrobial surveillance studies. The aim of study is to analyze molecularly the antimicrobial resistance mechanisms of 50 Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates from nosocomial infections in hospitalized patients in Oman. Screening for antimicrobial resistance (AR) and ESBL production was carried out with the disk diffusion and E-test methods following CLSI guidelines. ESBL producers were screened for blaCTX-M, blaSHV, and blaTEM resistance markers via PCR using gene-specific primers. All amplified PCR fragments will be sequenced to determine their allelic variants. In order to demonstrate the overall genotypic variation, Pulsed-Field Gel Electrophoresis (PFGE) analyses were done separately among all E. coli and K. pneumoniae isolates. According to the AR analysis, 82% (41/50) of isolates were determined to be ESBL producing bacteria. The percentages of isolates with genetic markers for blaCTX-M, blaSHV, and blaTEM were 73%, 24%, and 68%, respectively. Preliminary PFGE analyses demonstrated high level of variation among ESBL isolates compared to non-ESBL producers. Further surveillance studies are needed to describe better the AR situation in these hospitals in Oman. from 2009 American University in Cairo Research Conference Cairo, Egypt. 5 April 2009

Elucidation of the metabolic fate of glucose in Trichoderma ressei using EST analysis and cDNA microarray: a step towards metabolic engineering of the regulatory networks for anaerobic metabolism for glucose

Glycolysis, the tricarboxylic acid cyle (TCA) and the electron transport chain are part of the metabolic systems of the cell required for the production of energy in the form of ATP from glucose and are common to all eukaryotic microorganisms. Different regulatory networks have developed during evolution in different microorganisms to control these networks to produce ATP by different pathways. For example, in the presence of high concentration of glucose the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae produces energy by anaerobic metabolism accumulating ethanol as the end product of the process. The cellulolytic fungus Trichoderma reesei, however, produces energy from glucose by aerobic metabolism. We have recently addressed this difference using EST analysis and cDNA microarrays. We show that in T. reesei expression of the networks of genes encoding the enzymes of glycolysis, the TCA cycle and the proteins of the electron transport chain is programmed in a way that favours the oxidation of pyruvate via the TCA cycle rather than its reduction to acetaldehyde and then ethanol by fermentation. In addition, our results indicate that the metabolic step required to regenerate NAD+ is regulated differently in S. cerevisiae and T. reesei, in Trichoderma preventing the regeneration of this pivotal product that is required for anaerobic metabolism. Thus, in T. reesei, in contrast to S. cerevisiae, aerobic metabolism prevails in the presence of high levels of glucose. To turn this preferentially respiratory microorganism into a fermenter, we are replacing the promoters of critical genes whose products control the direction of flow of the primary metabolites toward respiratory metabolism, with tightly glucose-repressible promoter. We expect that these promoter-engineering will channel the metabolites toward anaerobic metabolism of glucose and turn this preferentially respiratory microorganism into a fermenter-a step that will be required if T. reesei is to be used for the efficient production of ethanol fuel from cellulose biomass. from 2009 American University in Cairo Research Conference Cairo, Egypt. 5 April 2009

FGFR3 and TP53 mutations in urothelial cell carcinoma: two molecular pathways and diagnostic value

FGFR3 and TP53 mutations are frequent in superficial papillary and invasive disease urothelial cell carcinoma respectively. This high frequency of FGFR3 and TP53 mutations, led us to compare these two genetic alteration in 81 bladder cancer tumors of all stages and grades at initial diagnosis, to determine whether they correspond to different disease pathways and could be used for molecular classification of these tumors. Moreover, the role and the position of FGFR3 mutations in the current models of bladder carcinogenesis need to be clarified. We used denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography and sequencing to screen for FGFR3 and TP53 mutations in 81 newly diagnosed urothelial cell carcinomas. FGFR3 mutations were associated with low-stage (P < 0.0001), lowgrade (P < 0.008) tumors, whereas TP53 mutations were associated with high-stage (P < 0.003), high-grade (P < 0.02) tumors. Mutations in these two genes were almost mutually exclusive. Our results suggest that FGFR3 and TP53 mutations define separate pathways at initial diagnosis of urothelial cell carcinoma. On the other hand, given the high frequency of FGFR3 mutations and the possible implication of this receptor in the development of UCC, it was important to develop a simple, fast, and reliable method to identify these mutations in greater detail as a potential tool for the diagnosis and follow-up of UCC patients. Ten different FGFR3 mutations have been described in UCC, but 4 of them (R248C, S249C, G372C, and Y375C) account for 95% of cases. Therefore in this study we developed an allele specific PCR (AS-PCR) for the detection of these mutations in tumors and urine. For the 95 tumors examined, AS-PCR had a specificity of 90% and a sensitivity of 88%. The test correctly identifies FGFR3 mutations in the 20 tumors and the corresponding urine samples investigated. However, because our study was carried out on primary tumors rather on recurrent tumors, which are usually smaller, a prospective study of the diagnostic value of this test for the detection of recurrences should be undertaken. from 2009 American University in Cairo Research Conference Cairo, Egypt. 5 April 2009

Lats1 differential expression in selected human cancers

Lats1 is a tumor suppressor gene that was studied extensively in Drosophila melangaster. Several studies were done to address the molecular pathway of Lats 1, yet several roles in carcinogenesis are not elucidated. Lats1 is a serine/threonine kinase similar to human myotonic dystrophy kinase (Justice et al., 1995). Lats 1 is phosphorylated in a cell cycle dependent manner and was shown to modulate CDC2 and cyclin A activity (Tao et al., 1999). Transgenic Lats1-/mice develop soft-tissue sarcomas and ovarian stromal cell tumours and sensitivity to carcinogenic treatments (St John et al., 1999). Lats1 was shown to play a crucial role in controlling mitosis progression by forming a Lats1/zyxin complex on mitotic apparatus (Hirota et al., 2000). Overexpression of LATS1 significantly suppressed the human tumor cell growth in vitro and tumorigenicity in vivo by either G2-M arrest or apoptosis (Yang et al., 2001). The kinase inactive Lats1 impaired the G1 tetraploidy checkpoint due absence of p53 induction (Iida et al., 2004). Few clinical studies correlated the expression of Lats1, promoter methylation and tumor progression. We previously correlated Lats 1 overexpression with the transcription regulator CDP/Cux in selected tumors (Siam et al., unpublished results). We are currently correlating these findings in clinical samples to investigate the differential expression of Lats1 in many human carcinomas. The hypermethylation of the Lats1 promoter and how this correlates with regulation of Lats1 expression by CDP/Cux p110 and/or p75 isoforms is under investigation. We have preliminary evidence suggesting that Lats1 expression and methylation status of the Lats1 promoter are distinct in selected cancers. Additionally, we are suggesting the use of Lats1 expression and the methylation status as prognostic marker for selected tumors. from 2009 American University in Cairo Research Conference Cairo, Egypt. 5 April 2009

Best practices: Research, finance, and NGOs in Cairo

In this article, I examine how artifacts of social-science research were incorporated into survival strategies of poor residents of the global South in the 1990s under neoliberalism. I draw on ethnographic research in Cairo among bankers, borrowers, and nongovernmental-organization (NGO) members to engage recent debates in anthropology about finance and knowledge practices. I argue that the incorporation of “best practices” and microenterprise lending into banking in Egypt helped create a new kind of “multiplier effect” related to the one made famous by John Maynard Keynes in economics and to the conviction among some Egyptians that research artifacts held the key to improvement of their life chances.

Electrovasogram in normal and vasectomized men and patients with obstructive azoospermia and absent vas deferens.

The electric activity of the vas deferens (VD) or the electrovasogram (EVG) was recorded in 34 healthy volunteers (mean age 39.3 +/- 7.6 [SD] years), 22 patients with obstructive azoospermia (mean age 38.8 +/- 9.2 years), 10 after epididymovasostomy performed for obstructive azoospermia (mean age 40.6 +/- 4.8 years), 9 with bilaterally absent vasa deferentia (mean age 36.6 +/- 7.4 years), 20 after vasectomy (mean age 44.3 +/- 7.9 years), and 18 after vasectomy reversal (mean age 58.6 +/- 6.8 years). Silver-silver chloride electrodes were applied to the posterior aspect of the upper part of the scrotum and a reference electrode was applied to the lower limb. The intravascular pressure was also measured in 18 subjects during vasectomy reversal operation. Normal EVG manifested as regular slow waves or pacesetter potentials (PPs) which had the same frequency, amplitude, and regular rhythm when the test was repeated in the individual subject. Mean frequency was 6.6 +/- 1.5 cycles/min, amplitude was 0.6 +/- 0.1 mV, and velocity was 5.6 +/- 1.1 cm/s. PPs were followed randomly by action potentials (APs). The EVG in obstructive azoospermia exhibited bradyvasa, i.e., diminished PP frequency, amplitude, and velocity, in 14 patients and a "silent" EVG in 8 patients. Eight of the 10 patients in whom azoospermia persisted after epididymovasostomy had a silent EVG, and the remaining 2 patients whose semen character normalized after the operation revealed normal EVG. A silent EVG was also recorded by the 9 patients with absent vasa deferentia. In vasectomized subjects, PPs from the proximal vasal segment exhibited an irregular rhythm (vasoarrhythmia). During vasectomy reversal, the proximal vasal segment exhibited vasoarrhythmia and high pressure (p < .05) and the distal segment showed a silent EVG and normal pressure (p > .05). EVG performed postvasectomy reversal by 1-6 years showed a normal pattern in 7 subjects who have impregnated their wives and vasoarrhythmic EVG in 11 who could not produce pregnancy. In conclusion, EVG could be characterized for normal and pathologic vasa deferentia. Electrovasography is a simple, noninvasive, and nonradiologic technique that might be used as a diagnostic tool in the investigation of VD disorders and infertility.