Young Lebanese Research Articles

Buffalo Lockjaw by Greg Ames

Buffalo Lockjaw by Greg Ames

Blood Test by Abbas Beydoun, Max Weiss

vignettes?brief oral histories that Fitzroy had collected before he left town. Throughout the story, Fitz roy attempts to reconnect with his retired office-manager father, a well heeled, country-club type, but uncommunicative enough to make it a frustrating endeavor. The dynam icsof a familysufferingfrom watch ing helplessly the deterioration of an accomplished, fifty-six-year-old woman with Alzheimer's is an almost unbearable agony. The title refers to walking in Buffalo through what the city is best known for: the cold and wind and snow ofwinter. "Three bundled pedestrians venture into the road, inches fromthegrille ofmy car.Stiff necked and scowling, teethgritted, they split the twinbars of thehead lights,one rightafter another. They trudge past with identical Buffalo lockjaw faces." This brilliant firstnovel sug gests that Greg Ames isawriterwho will be heard from formany years to come. Marvin ]. LaHood Amherst, New York Abbas Beydoun. Blood Test. Max Weiss, tr. Syracuse, New York. Syra cuse University Press.2008. 121 pages. $16.95. isbn978-0-8156-0912-4 Editor of the cultural supplement of theBeirutnewspaper As-Safir,Abbas Beydoun isalsowidely known in the Arab world as a leading poet with eleven collections of poetry. This is his firstnovel and the 2007 winner of theKing Fahd Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies Translation ofArabic LiteratureAward. It isan amazing piece ofwriting for a firstnovel. It retains a poetic language inmany instances and a poet's innate love for interiority and search for meaning. Its narrator is Abbas Beydoun a young Lebanese man who, at the sudden death of his father in a dis tant land in West Africa, isprompt ed to investigate all the traceshe left behind, and to collectmemories of him from relatives and friends who knew him in Lebanon and in such West African locales as Dakar, Casa blanca, and others where he had become wealthy. Although repeat edly discouraged in his pursuit by family members, the young man perseveres inan efforttoexplore his own history and identity. The result is thisnovel, which, without a traditional plot,manages to be a page-turner because of the vivid portrayal of a number ofmale and female Arab characters, whose lives intersectinrelationships of love and hatred, friendshipand jealousy, intrigueand insouciance as they try to build fortunes for themselves in Africa, some in theirsearch fordia monds, others in their extravagant riving, others in their quest for a happiness thatkeeps eluding them, and others in theirpursuit of sex. The novel is not divided into chapters, although there are irregu lar small space breaks between sec- E tions of it,and there is a big space = break between pages 62 and 63 in E themiddle of thenovel, as ifdivid- E ing itinto two parts. In the first part, E the young man narrating the nov- E el's events gets sexually involved E with Safia, thewoman with whom E his dead uncle had been likewise E involved inAfrica and who came E to Lebanon and was introduced as E his ostensible fiancee. In the second E part of the novel, the young man E continues the narration?his uncle, E Safia, and the circle of their friends E and relatives in Africa becoming E themselves the greater part of his E investigation. In the end, howev- E er, his investigation raises as many E questions as it answers. E Issa J.Boullata E Montreal E Horacio Castellanos Moya. Tirana = memoria. Barcelona. Tusquets. 2008. E 358 pages. 19. isbn 978-84-8383-089-5 1 It isno accident thatTiranamemoria 's E protagonist, Pericles, shares the E scrupulously honest Greek orator's E name. Horacio Castellanos Moya, E by far theunmatched master of the E "political/dictator/exile" novels of E his generation, has single-handedly E recovered that subgenre, given it E oxygen by divesting itof itshabitual E ideological correctness, and provid- E ed its moribund practice thehumor E and complexity it has needed, at least E since 1959 and afterVargas Llosa. E Like the masterful shorter novels E of Bolano and Aira, Tirana memoria E shows that to denounce sociopo- E litical injustices, a writer need not E belong to the "Stalinist left." With 1 Senselessness and The She-Devil in E the Mirror, his...

Sexual dimorphism of mandibular angle in a Lebanese sample

Sexual dimorphism represents a group of morphologic characteristics that differentiate males from females. Craniofacial morphology and more specifically the mandibular angle have been evaluated for their interest in orthodontic, anthropologic and forensic applications. Currently, limited data are available relative to the significance of the mandibular angle in sex determination in various populations. The objective of this preliminary study is to evaluate the significance of the mandibular angle in sex determination in a sample of Lebanese young individuals. Lateral cephalometric radiographs were obtained from 83 young individuals (40 males and 43 females) aged between 17 and 26 years. No statistically significant differences were detected between both genders relative to the mean values of A1, A2 and A3 measured for each individual using the ramus plane intersected with the mandibular planes of Downs, Sassouni and Steiner, respectively. This study demonstrated no significant difference of the mandibular angle in sex determination in the young Lebanese population. Further investigations with a larger sample size and a strongly established Lebanese background should be conducted to test the applicability of the mandibular angle sexual dimorphism.

Religion and education gender gap: Are Muslims different?

This paper uses individual-level data and a differences-in-differences estimation strategy to test whether the education gender gap of Muslims is different from that of Christians. In particular, the paper uses data for young Lebanese and shows that, other things equal, girls (both Muslim and Christian) tend to receive more education than boys and that there is no difference between the education gender gap of Muslims and Christians. Therefore, the paper finds no support for the hypothesis that Muslims discriminate against female education.

Iron Deficiency in Young Lebanese Children: Association With Elevated Blood Lead Levels

To measure the prevalence of transferrin saturation (TS) <12%, and iron-deficiency anemia (IDA) in Lebanese children, and their association with dietary habits, sociodemographic characteristics, and blood lead levels. A cross-sectional study was performed over a period of 2 years. Of 268 children studied, 142 (53%) were boys and 126 (47%) were girls with an age range of 11 to 75 months. Information collected included nutritional status, blood counts, TS, and blood lead levels. The total prevalence of TS<12% and IDA were 33.6% and 20.5%, respectively, and were associated with not having received iron supplements. IDA was more prevalent among males (P=0.04). TS<12% and IDA were significantly associated with elevated blood lead levels in the first age group (11 to 23 mo) (P=0.04, odds ratio=3.19) and (P=0.006, odds ratio=4.59), respectively. IDA is common in Lebanese children and is associated with increased blood lead levels, lack of iron supplementation, and cultural dietary habits. Remedial measures such as iron fortification of commonly consumed food are needed on the national level. Lead exposure must be controlled and awareness must be raised about the potentially devastating consequences of combined iron deficiency and lead poisoning on young children.

Surfies versus Westies: Kinship, Mateship and Sexuality in the Cronulla Riot

In the predominantly affluent and Anglo Sutherland Shire in southern suburban Sydney, neighbourhood and extended kinship ties continue to exert powerful forces shaping local identities. During the riot of 11 December 2005 these identities were brought into relief by being pitted against the Lebanese immigrant youth who have been spatially and morally separated from Anglo‐Australians. I argue that the strong homosociality exhibited in several different contexts by young Anglo‐Australian men (the barbecue area, a sports team's ‘gang bang’, the violent defence of a neighbourhood controlled beach) and young Lebanese Australian men (paternal cousin and fraternal solidarities, an infamous series of gang rapes, their response to the White riot at Cronulla) are forms of separation that produce particular kinds of male sexual, class and ethnic subjects. I propose that a study of the role of kinship and cohort relationships in Anglo‐Australian and Lebanese‐Australian male groups should include the nature of incestophobia as an essential component of the precipitating fantasies leading to the riot and the subsequent retaliation.

Osseous dysplasia with severe short stature, multiple dislocations, and delayed bone age: Report on a second Lebanese patient

We describe a young girl with severe pre- and postnatal short stature, bilateral dislocation of hips, knees and elbows, and right clubfoot. Skeletal investigations disclosed an anisospondyly, the absence of ossification of the odontoid apophysis and of fusion of the neural arches of the cervical vertebrae, abnormal L3 and L4 vertebrae, partial agenesis of the coccyx, abnormal and sub-luxated radial heads, bilateral dislocation of the hips, dysplastic acetabulae, pseudoacetabulae, hypoplasia of the femoral heads, short femoral necks, short long bones with thin diaphyses, widening of the medullary canal and thinning of the cortical one, slightly enlarged metaphyses, and diffuse osseous demineralization. Bone age was delayed. The girl's parents are first cousins. Differential diagnoses are discussed and the possibility is raised that this might be a second patient with clinical features indicating an entity recently described in a young Lebanese boy [Mégarbané and Ghanem (2004); Am J Med Genet Part A 130A: 107-109]. A clinical follow-up of the latter patient is also reported.

Étude critique des plans d'orientation et de référence en céphalométrie

A critical study of orientation and reference planes used in cephalometrics is undergone. The data consists of cephalometric measurements evaluated in a sample of 90 young lebanese adults, divided into 43 girls and 47 boys, whose lateral cephalograms were registered according to the natural head position. This study shows the importance of the true horizontal as orientation and reference planes, due to the high reproducibility of the natural head position, and the high variability of the intra-cranial reference planes as compared to the true vertical, as well as the low correlation among measurements based on the true horizontal as a reference plane (AB-horizontal), and the measurements based on the intra-cranial planes and points (ANB) as reference. This study also evaluated the variations of some angular and sagittal measurements (SNA, SNB, SNPog) registered according to two orientations: Frankfort plane and the natural head position.

Familial Mediterranean fever mimicking septic arthritis

We report the case of a young Lebanese female who presented with recurrent episodes of left knee and calf swelling and a synovial fluid leucocyte count suggestive of septic arthritis, however bacteriologic cultures were negative. Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) was suspected in view of a positive family history and genetic analysis for the mutations in the pyrin/marenostrin (MEFV) gene revealing a homozygote mutation at methionine-694-valine. The arthritis was controlled with prophylactic colchicine therapy. FMF should be considered in the differential diagnosis of acute monoarticular arthritis with elevated synovial fluid white blood cells counts in regions with high incidence of FMF.

Islam and Female Education: Evidence from Individual-level Data

This paper uses individual-level data from Lebanon to test whether there is a difference between the education gender gap of Muslims and Christians. The paper starts by observing that, in Lebanon, the education gender gap completely disappears for cohorts born after the mid 1950s. The paper conjectures that this was related to the civil war that, rather than cutting the supply of schooling, reduced high school enrollment of boys who were engaged in fighting (or emigrated). Next, the paper uses data for young Lebanese and shows that, other things equal, girls (both Muslim and Christian) tend to receive more education than boys and that there are no differences between the gender gap of Muslims and Christians. Therefore, the paper finds no support for the hypothesis that Muslims discriminate against female education.

Hypovitaminosis D in a sunny country: relation to lifestyle and bone markers.

Hypovitaminosis D is associated with poor dietary intake and inadequate sunshine exposure. It is common worldwide, particularly in European elderly people. Information about vitamin D status in young adult populations from the Middle East is scarce. Furthermore, the relationship between hypovitaminosis D and some lifestyle factors such as style of clothing and dwelling location is not well defined. We assessed vitamin D intake and measured serum calcium, phosphorus, albumin, alkaline phosphatase, 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D], parathyroid hormone (PTH), osteocalcin, and urinary-free deoxypyridinoline (DPD) in 316 Lebanese volunteers (99 men and 217 women) aged 30-50 years; 156 were recruited from rural areas and 160 from urban areas. Fifty-one women from each area were veiled. The average daily vitamin D intake was 100.3 +/- 67.9 IU and was found to be higher in men compared with women, in urban subjects compared with rural ones and in nonveiled women compared with veiled ones. The mean level of 25(OH)D was 9.71 +/- 7.07 ng/ml. Hypovitaminosis D [25(OH)D < 12 ng/ml] affected 72.8% of our population. It was more common in women than in men (83.9% vs. 48.5%). Severe hypovitaminosis D [25(OH)D < 5 ng/ml] was observed in 30.7% of our subjects and was more prevalent in women (41.5%), particularly in the veiled ones (61.8%). 25(OH)D levels were the lowest in veiled women, and in women living in rural areas. Rural men had the highest 25(OH)D levels despite their very low vitamin D intake. In a multivariate model, inadequate vitamin D intake, urban dwelling, veil wearing, and high parity in women were independent predictors of hypovitaminosis D. 25(OH)D was related inversely to PTH and free DPD whereas osteocalcin achieved only a weak positive correlation with 25(OH)D. In the absence of information regarding time spent outdoors, our results show that hypovitaminosis D is common among young Lebanese people and is related mostly to low vitamin D intake. This should emphasize the need for more vitamin D in our population.

Lebanese Society and the Consciouness of Young Muslims : Identity and Conflict of Young Lebanese Muslims

Lebanese Society and the Consciouness of Young Muslims : Identity and Conflict of Young Lebanese Muslims

Chronic illness in Lebanese preschoolers: impact of illness and child temperament on the family.

The impact on their families of chronic illness in young Lebanese children and the relationship between such impact and perceived temperament of the child were assessed. The effect was greater in families of children with leukemia than in families of children with congenital heart defects. Chronically ill children were rated as more persistent/unstoppable, difficult, and irregular, and as less adaptable than were healthy children. Culturally determined perceptions of child temperament were examined with regard to differential impact of illness on the family.

Colorectal adenocarcinoma in young Lebanese adults. The American University of Beirut-Medical Center experience with 32 patients.

Colorectal adenocarcinoma is uncommon in Lebanon. The low frequency and the low average age at the time of diagnosis, 53.7 years, is similar to that observed in other developing countries. Over a period of 40 years (1945-1985), 32 patients (5.8%) developed colorectal adenocarcinoma before age 30 years. Seventeen and 15 patients were males and females, respectively (age range, 14-29 years). The most common presenting symptoms were blood per rectum (27 patients) and abdominal pain (23 patients). The average interval from the first symptom to histologic diagnosis was 5.7 months. The only significant predisposing factors were the presence of a positive family history for colorectal carcinoma in one patient and bladder exstrophy with ureteral diversion in another. Twenty-four patients had surgery with curative intent. Colloid and signet ring adenocarcinoma were present in 22 patients (68.7%). Classification by Duke's staging system demonstrated Stage C in 15 and Stage D in 5 patients. These findings show a definite increase in carcinoma with high histologic grade and advanced stage at presentation in young Lebanese patients.

Synchronized ventilatory support and hypercarb

The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between maximal oxygen consumption (VO2 max) and bone mineral density (BMD) in a group of young Lebanese adults. Twenty women and 37 men whose ages range from 18 to 32 yr participated in this study. Informed written consent was obtained from the participants. Body weight and height were measured, and body mass index was calculated. VO2 max was determined by direct measurement while exercising on a bicycle ergometer (Siemens-Elema RE 820; Rodby Elektronik AB, Enhorna, Sweden). Whole body bone mineral content (WB BMC), whole body bone mineral density (WB BMD), lumbar spine BMD (L1–L4 BMD), total hip BMD (TH BMD), and femoral neck BMD (FN BMD) were measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. In women, VO2 max (expressed as L/mn) was positively correlated to WB BMC (r = 0.82; p < 0.001), WB BMD (r = 0.80; p < 0.001), L1–L4 BMD (r = 0.73; p < 0.001), TH BMD (r = 0.80; p < 0.001), and FN BMD (r = 0.85; p < 0.001). In men, VO2 max (expressed as L/mn) was positively correlated to WB BMC (r = 0.57; p < 0.001), WB BMD (r = 0.53; p < 0.001), L1–L4 BMD (r = 0.50; p < 0.001), TH BMD (r = 0.38; p < 0.01), and FN BMD (r = 0.30; p < 0.05). In both sexes, the positive associations between VO2 max and bone variables (BMC and BMD) remained significant after adjustment for age (p < 0.001). This study suggests that VO2 max (L/mn) is a positive determinant of BMC and BMD in young adults. Aerobic power seems to be a determinant of BMC and BMD in young adults.

Young Professional Lebanese Women Return to Post-War Lebanon

Dr. Hanine Abdallah (H.A.), 28, holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Virginia Tech, and Dr. Nadia EI-Cheikh (N.C.), also 28, holds a Ph.D. in History from Harvard.

Young Lebanese Women Have No Problems

I must admit that for some time now I have been quite frustrated by the fact that young women are not involved in the women's movements in Lebanon. Since I started working with AI-Raida, I am the youngest person attending local activities that address women's issues.

A Young Lebanese Woman talks about her lesbian identity, her relationships and her perspective on homosexuality ….

In recent years, Lebanon has witnessed a proliferation of the gay and lesbian community; at least that’s one generalization many are willing to agree upon. But, agreeing is one thing and providing accurate data is another. In the absence of the latter, the issue is bound to remain subject to generalizations only. As a reporter seeking information on the topic, I learned this fact hands-on. I also learned my task was almost futile when it came down to the lesbian community. There were simply too many obstacles and hindrances. You just didn’t go about investigating the way you did with other topics. One had to be discreet … really discreet.

The Development Patterns of Preschool Children in Lebanon

This joint project of BUC and UNICEF will examine the growth process of the young Lebanese children to determine if there is a variance in this growth.

By Young Lebanese Poets

Poetry, more so than painting, theater, music or dance, is the premier art form in the Arab world, where facility with language has always been highly regarded.