This edited volume investigates how refugee communities in the Middle East have adapted to secure their livelihoods within the informal economy. Focusing on Lebanon and Jordan, which between 2011 and 2020 received more refugees as a proportion of their population than any other countries in the world, this edited volume investigates the informal mechanisms that Syrian refugees have adopted to fit into the informal economies of Lebanon and Jordan in the face of significant challenges and barriers. The volume investigates how legality, temporality, connectedness, gender, and geography, among other factors, have influenced the emergence of refugee communities’ informal adaptive mechanisms. Drawing on in-depth, original research among Syrian refugee tribal communities, agricultural workers, female-headed households, and micro-entrepreneurs, the volume provides tangible policy and practice recommendations to help to improve the situation of refugees and vulnerable populations that are employed in the informal economy. Highlighting the resilience and agency demonstrated by refugees, this edited volume’s original community-based analysis will be of interest to students, researchers, and professionals from across Middle East studies, refugee studies, informal labor economics, and development studies.

Asthma is a chronic illness involving the respiratory system in which the airway constricts, becomes inflamed, and is lined with excessive amounts of mucous, often in response to one or more trigger. It is becoming increasingly evident that the cause of the changes in asthma are multifactorial, including contribution from allergen exposure, hygiene and lifestyle changes mainly of diet and physical activity and their product (obesity). We aim to study the clinical and functional changes in asthmatic children after a schedualized training program (walking, swimming, cycling, running and gymnastic) and to evaluate the efficacy of physical activity on both asthma symptoms and pulmonary functions, aiming to modify the asthmatic children's life style. We found clear evidence that Pulmonary Rehabilitation programs that include individually prescribed but generic physical exercise training are capable of improving functional exercise capacity and health-related quality of life and are cost effective, so it should be applied on a larger scale among asthmatic children hospitals, various allergy clinics and even at school if possible, to improve their health outcome and quality of life.

In Egypt, sesame is considering a food crop rather than oilseed crops because most of its seeds consumed directly. It is grown in many Governorates, and ranks first among the cultivated oil crops in Ismailia Gov. Co-evolution of flowering plants and their pollinators started about 225 million years ago. Insufficient number of suitable pollinators causes decline in fruit and seed production. Of the total pollination activities, over 80% is performed by insects and bees contribute nearly 80% of the total insect pollination, and therefore, they are considered the best pollinators. Sesame's blossom structure facilitates cross-pollination, even though the crop is usually viewed as self-pollinating. The rate of cross-pollination lies between 0.5% and 65% depending on insect activity, environmental conditions and availability of other vegetation. The cross pollination rates were between 2.7 and 51.7% in Nigeria. Both open pollination and bee pollination treatments were effective to increase the seed yield of sesame upto 22 to 33 percent more than that in "pollination without insects."