Risk Reporting During a Crisis: Evidence from the Egyptian Capital Market

Research purpose: This paper examines corporate risk disclosure (CRD) practices and determinants in the annual reports of Egyptian listed companies during the 2011 political crisis (uprising) in Egypt. Design/Methodology/Approach: Content analysis of the annual reports of a sample of nonfinancial listed companies representing different industry sectors was conducted to investigate attributes and factors underlying their risk disclosures. Findings: The findings demonstrate that companies disclosed more monetary, future and good risk information. The results show a positive and significant relationship between company size and the level of CRD, a positive but insignificant relationship between the extent of CRD and some company-specific characteristics: industry type, profitability and cross-listing, and a negative and insignificant relationship between corporate reserves and the level of CRD. Research Limitations/Implications: A larger sample size would be needed for greater generalization of the findings. This study extends the literature on CRD by examining CRD practices at a time of current and ongoing crisis. However, more research is needed to examine variations in CRD practices before and after the 2011 political crisis. Practical Implications: The results could be used by information users, companies and the capital market authority to inform policy-making and tighten regulations to improve CRD. Recommendations are made for improving the quality and informativeness of risk information. Originality/Value: It is important to investigate CRD practices, considering the dearth of research, particularly in emerging capital markets and during crises, when companies are exposed to more, especially uncontrollable, risks. This study fills a void in literature by examining CRD practices during the 2011 political crisis in Egypt

Towards Understanding The Hepatoprotective effect of Grape Seeds Extract on Cholesterol-Fed Rats

Abstract: In our previous studies, a phenolic-rich extract of grape seed was prepared under optimal conditions. The antioxidant activity of grape seed extract (GSE) was determined in addition to 50 determination of acute oral LD toxicity. The current work studies the protective effect of GSE on hypercholesterolemia, where, W istar rats fed a standard laboratory diet (control group-CG) or a cholesterol-rich diet (hypercholesterolemic group-HCD) and to see the effect of GSE, another group fed on cholesterol-rich diet enriched with 0.3% GSEW /W-PG) for 8 weeks. Serum lipid levels, serum antioxidant status, Liver and kidney function were analysed in addition to histopathological examination of the liver. The hypocholesterolemic effects of GSE is confirmed by lowering the serum total cholesterol (TC) by 31%, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol LDL-C by 41% and elevated the high-density lipoprotein cholesterol HDL-C by 25% compared to TC, LDL-C and HDL-C of HCD group . Furthermore, the liver function expressed as glutamic pyruvate transaminase (GPT) and Albumin serum levels, decreased significantly and reached to normal level in case of oral administration of GSE. The kidney function showed no adverse effect in all groups. In addition, the antioxidant status serum level was increased as compared to those of rats fed only on cholesterol-rich diet. Histological examination of liver sections confirmed the serum analysis where GSE had a protective effect on animals fed on HCD, the liver of these animals showed mild affection in the form of microvesicular vacuolation of hepatocytes in the peripheral zone of the hepatic lobule (<50%) in comparison to the fatty change observed as microvesicular and macrovesicular vacuolation in >50% and <70% of the liver sections in HCD group. T hese results suggested that the GSE has a hypocholesterolemic effect which might be due to its ability to lower serum TC and LDL-C levels as well as slowing the lipid peroxidation process by enhancing antioxidant enzyme activity

Economic Policies, Structural Change and the Roots of the ‘Arab Spring’ in Egypt

This paper analyses the economic challenges facing Egypt in the post-Mubarak period, demonstrating the ways in which economic policy choices over the 2000s have contributed to the economic and social outcomes witnessed in the run up to the 2011 uprisings. The article investigates three specific policy areas and demonstrates their role in reducing employment opportunities, eroding wages and facilitating the creation of an increasingly unequal economic and social structure in Egypt. The three policy areas addressed by the article are (i) the general misplaced fiscal focus on expenditure-reduction rather than revenue-enhancement and the lack of progressive revenue growth; (ii) the manipulation and use of subsidies in Egypt to appease the populous instead of fostering employment generation; (iii) the failure to adequately promote employment-intensive investment

Dynamic and static measures of growth among pre- and postmenarcheal females in rural Bangladesh

Height and weight for age and height and weight velocity are examined in a sample of Bangladeshi adolescents aged 10–20 years with an average age at menarche of 15.8 years. Interpopulation differences between pre- and postmenarcheal girls are assessed and age patterns are compared to standards of U.S. and British adolescents. Bangladeshi adolescents are shorter and lighter for their age and lighter for their height than are U.S. adolescents. The growth spurt in height and weight is delayed and spread out over time, and growth rates are lower throughout the spurt when compared to British and U.S. girls. As in developed countries, most girls attain menarche after peak height velocity, while weight gain per year is highest around the time of menarche. There is no significant relationship between age at menarche and height or weight at menarche.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/38544/1/1310020307_ftp.pd

Middle East - North Africa and the millennium development goals : implications for German development cooperation

          Closed-loop controlled combustion is a promising technique to improve the overall performance of internal combustion engines and Diesel engines in particular. In order for this technique to be implemented some form of feedback from the combustion process is required. The feedback signal is processed and from it combustionrelated parameters are computed. These parameters are then fed to a control process which drives a series of outputs (e.g. injection timing in Diesel engines) to control their values. This paper’s focus lies on the processing and computation that is needed on the feedback signal before this is ready to be fed to the control process as well as on the electronics necessary to support it. A number of feedback alternatives are briefly discussed and for one of them, the in-cylinder pressure sensor, the CA50 (crank angle in which the integrated heat release curve reaches its 50% value) and the IMEP (Indicated Mean Effective Pressure) are identified as two potential control variables. The hardware architecture of a system capable of calculating both of them on-line is proposed and necessary feasibility size and speed considerations are made by implementing critical blocks in VHDL targeting a flash-based Actel ProASIC3 automotive-grade FPGA

Egyptian women entrepreneurs : profiles of success

This publication brings together the profiles of ten Egyptian women entrepreneurs who represent five decades of entrepreneurial history. Collectively these 10 women create jobs for over 700 workers. Championing entrepreneurial women means promotion and awareness-raising as critical elements in changing the business environment in which women operate. One of the factors influencing the level of women’s entrepreneurial activity is the low participation of women in the workforce, which is lower in Egypt than in most non-Arab countries. Even so, there are 630,000 woman-owned micro and small enterprises (MSEs); about 60,000 of these employ between 10 and 49 people

SMEPol Roundtable MSME Data Report [Arabic language]

Text in Arabi