Solar Energy Cost Efficiency: A Simulated Case Study in the Egyptian Context

In Egypt, electric energy coming from fossil fuels represents around 85% of total electricity requirements. However, the supply of energy in the Arab world is expected to run dry in the coming 30-50 years. With the increase in energy needs, rise in fossil fuel prices, and the swelling of green house gas emissions, the use of renewable and more environment-friendly energy sources to supply power is gaining increased attention. Being a country on the Sunbelt, Egypt has great potential in utilizing solar energy to generate energy products and electricity. However, solar energy is still abandoned in Egypt due to its high costs. This paper first aims to examine the relative significance of several accounting and economic related variables to reduce solar energy costs. To be more specific, the paper seeks to examine the effect of using accounting and finance-based factors, related to depreciation schemes and financing options, to decrease solar energy costs. These factors are considered as a substitute for direct subsidies which are difficult to implement because of the narrow financial scope of the Egyptian government. The results of the study provide a number of policy implications that can be applied to make solar energy closer to cost-competitiveness and contribute to solve the energy problem in Egypt.Solar Energy, Cost Efficiency, Government Incentives

The Pricing Behavior of Depository Receipts: Evidence from Emerging Markets

Aquesta tesi ofereix un examen en profunditat del comportament d’apreuament de les accions dipositades per part dels mercats emergents que, en gran part, s’han menystingut tot i el seu paper de dominació en l’àmbit del creuament de cotitzacions estrangeres. Les característiques de les accions dipositades fan que tinguin un valor idèntic al del seu stock subjacent i, per tant, esperen ser valorades de la mateixa manera. El fet de dur a terme una anàlisi detallada d’aquesta qüestió ha estat obstaculitzat fins ara per la falta de qualitat de les dades del dia a dia dels mercats emergents, unes informacions que faciliten l’anàlisi a temps real de la relació entre els preus de les accions dipositades i els seus stocks subjacents. Aquest estudi directe és necessari des del moment que aquests mercats tenen grans barreres comercials que possiblement distorsionen les relacions d’apreuament teòriques i emmascaren els veritables patrons d’apreuament. En el primer assaig s’examina el llarg funcionament fonamental de la relació econòmica que lliga els dos valors: la llei del preu únic. Proves recents demostren que, contràriament a allò que ocorre amb els valors de mercat, l’equitat de preus es trenca en els valors dels mercats emergents a causa de la presència de barreres comercials com ara els preus de comerç, les restriccions de la venda al detall i el control de capital. En el primer assaig es confirma la violació de la llarga carrera de la paritat en els preus de les accions dipositades egípcies, fet que està corroborat per proves de fortalesa dutes a terme durant diversos caps de setmana al mercat local i al mercat amfitrió, com també en els moviments del règim del tipus de canvi. El segon assaig se centra a identificar si existeixen oportunitats reals d’arbitratge quan es viola l’equilibri en la relació d’apreuaments subjacent. En l’anàlisi s’utilitza una única freqüència elevada durant dos anys de dades diàries de 16 valors egipcis i argentins per identificar si existeixen oportunitats d’arbitratge durant el període en què els dos valors estan comerciant i establir si les comercialitzacions d’arbitratge juguen algun paper en la convergència de preus. La metodologia emprada es basa en un procediment d’identificació del nou arbitratge que té en compte les despeses del comerç dinàmic i el volum d’aquest. S’ha establert una evidència de la presència d’un gran nombre d’oportunitats d’arbitratge a través de la mostra. S’ha vist que les oportunitats d’arbitratge persisteixen durant uns quants minuts i demanen més d’una comercialització per convergir en zones no arbitrades. A partir d’un algoritme de filtració s’extreuen les veritables comercialitzacions d’arbitratge de la comercialització d’arbitratge de les dades i s’estableix la importància del rol d’arbitratge en el moment de restablir els preus al seu valor fonamental i en el moment d’evitar que els preus vagin a la deriva lluny d’un preu implícit comú i eficient. El tercer assaig afegeix l’anàlisi de l’arbitratge i fa servir les mateixes dades diàries per examinar si és el mercat local o l’estranger el que juga un paper més dominant en l’apreuament diari dels valors de les cotitzacions creuades egípcies i argentines. Els resultats mostren que els dos mercats són importants per al procés de descobriment de preus, però que tant per a tots els valors egipcis com per a la major part dels argentins, el mercat local juga un paper més dominant. S’ha determinat que la localització de la descoberta del preu depèn de múltiples factors, entre els quals la liquiditat i el volum de comercialitzacions que cada mercat pot atraure són els més importants. El darrer assaig de la tesi va estar motivat pels resultats del tercer assaig i inspirat pels moviments de la Primavera Àrab de l’Orient Mitjà. L’aixecament a Egipte del 25 de gener va estar acompanyat pel tancament complet dels mercats d’stock durant dos mesos sencers. Aquest fet va crear una situació interessant en la qual els únics valors egipcis que podien comercialitzar eren aquells que tenien accions dipositades i que comercialitzaven al Regne Unit. Utilitzem aquest fet per examinar l’efecte d’un canvi en el marc legal en la localització de la descoberta del preu i per determinar que durant el període d’excepció durant el qual el mercat local va estar tancat, la localització de la descoberta del preu va canviar al mercat estranger, fent que aquest fos la localització dominant per a les activitats d’apreuament. Això proporciona dades de la naturalesa dinàmica del descobriment de preus de les accions dipositades.Esta tesis ofrece un examen en profundidad del comportamiento de pricing de los recibos de depósito por parte de los mercados emergentes que, en gran parte, ha sido negligido a pesar de su papel dominante en el ámbito del cross-listing extranjero. Las características de los recibos de depósito hacen que sean títulos idénticos a su stock subyacente y, por tanto, se espera que sean valorados de la misma forma. El análisis detallado esta cuestión ha visto obstaculizado hasta ahora por la falta de datos de calidad intradía de los mercados emergentes, que facilite el análisis en tiempo real de la relación entre los precios de los recibos de depósito y su stock subyacente. Este análisis directo es necesario desde el momento que estos mercados tienen grandes barreras comerciales que posiblemente distorsionan las relaciones de pricing teóricas y enmascaran los verdaderos patrones de pricing. En el primer estudio, se examina la relación económica fundamental a largo plazo que relaciona los dos títulos: la ley del precio único. Pruebas recientes demuestran que, contrariamente a aquello que ocurre con los valores del mercado desarrollado, la paridad de precios se rompe en los valores de los mercados emergentes debido a la presencia de barreras comerciales como los precios comerciales, las restricciones de venta a corto y el control de capital. Este primer estudio confirma la violación de la paridad de precios de los recibos de depósito egipcios, hecho que está corroborado por los tests de fortaleza llevados a cabo durante varios fines de semana entre el mercado local y el de acogida, como también en los cambios de régimen del tipo de cambio. El segundo estudio se centra en identificar si existen oportunidades reales de arbitraje cuando se viola la relación de pricing de equilibrio subyacente. En el análisis, se usa una única serie de datos intradía de alta frecuencia durante dos años de 16 valores egipcios y argentinos para identificar si existen oportunidades de arbitraje durante el período en que los dos valores se están comerciando y establecer si las comercializaciones de arbitraje tienen algún papel en la convergencia de precios. La metodología usada se basa en un nuevo procedimiento de identificación del arbitraje que tiene en cuenta los costes comerciales dinámicos y los volúmenes. Se ha constatado que existe un gran número de oportunidades de arbitraje a lo largo de la muestra. Se ha visto que las oportunidades de arbitraje persisten durante unos cuantos minutos y requieren más de una comercialización para converger en zonas no arbitradas. A partir de un algoritmo de filtración, se extraen los intercambios reales de arbitraje de los intercambios de la serie de datos y se establece la importancia del rol de los árbitros para restablecer los precios a sus valores fundamentales y evitar que los precios se alejen de un precio implícito común y eficiente. El tercer estudio se basa en el análisis del arbitraje y utiliza la misma serie de datos intradía para examinar si es el mercado local o el extranjero el que tiene un papel más dominante en el pricing intradía de los valores de las cotizaciones cruzadas egipcias y argentinas. Los resultados muestran que los dos mercados son importantes para el proceso de revelación del precio, pero que para todos los valores egipcios y para la mayor parte de los argentinos el mercado local tiene un papel más dominante. Se ha observado que la localización de la revelación del precio depende de múltiples factores, entre los cuales la liquidez y el volumen de comercialización que cada mercado puede atraer son los más importantes. El último estudio de esta tesis fue motivado por los resultados del tercer estudio e inspirado por los movimientos de la Primavera Árabe del Oriente Medio. La revuelta del 25 de enero vino acompañado por el cierre total de los mercados bursátiles durante dos meses enteros. Este hecho creó un escenario interesante en el cual los únicos valores egipcios que se podían comercializar eran aquellos que tenían recibos de depósito y que comercializaban en el Reino Unido. Utilizamos este hecho para examinar el efecto de un cambio en el marco legal de la locación del descubrimiento del precio y para ver que durante el período de excepción durante el cual el mercado estuvo cerrado, la localización de la revelación del precio ha pasado al mercado emergente, haciendo que este fuera la localización dominante para las actividades de pricing. Esto demuestra la naturaleza dinámica del descubrimiento de precios de los recibos de depósito.This thesis provides an in-depth examination of the pricing behavior of depository receipts from emerging markets which have been largely overlooked despite their dominating role in the foreign cross-listing arena. Characteristics of depository receipts make them identical securities to their underlying stock and therefore both are expected to be priced equally. A detailed analysis of the issue has been so far hampered by the lack of quality intraday data from emerging markets that facilitates a real time analysis of the relationship between the prices of the depository receipt and its underlying stock. This direct examination is required since those markets have large trading barriers that are hypothesized to distort the theoretical pricing relationship and mask true pricing patterns. The first essay examines the fundamental long run economic relationship that ties both securities: the law of one price. Recent evidence shows that contrary to developed market equities, price parity is broken in emerging market equities due to the presence of trading barriers such as trading costs, short selling restrictions and capital controls. The first essay confirms the violation of long run price parity in Egyptian depository receipts which is corroborated by robustness tests around the different weekends between the local and host market as well as around exchange rate regime shifts. The second essay focuses on identifying whether real arbitrage opportunities exist when the underlying equilibrium pricing relationship is violated. The analysis uses a unique two year high frequency intraday dataset from 16 Egyptian and Argentinean equities to identify whether arbitrage opportunities exist during the period when both securities are simultaneously trading and establish whether arbitrage trades play a role in price convergence. The methodology used relies on a novel arbitrage identification procedure that uses dynamic trading costs and volumes. Evidence of the presence of large number of arbitrage opportunities across the sample is established. Arbitrage opportunities are found to persist for several minutes and require more than one trade to converge to no-arbitrage zones. A filtering algorithm extracts real arbitrage trades from the arbitrage trades from the dataset and establishes the important role of arbitrageurs in restoring prices to their fundamental values and in keeping prices from drifting away from a common efficient implicit price. The third essay builds on the arbitrage analysis and uses the same intraday dataset to examine whether the local or foreign market plays a more dominant role in the intraday pricing of the Egyptian and Argentinean cross-listed securities. The results show that both markets are important for the price discovery process, but that for all of the Egyptian and most of the Argentinean securities, the local market plays a more dominant role. The location of price discovery is found to depend on several factors, most importantly the liquidity and trading volume that each market can attract. The final essay in the thesis was motivated by the results of the third essay and inspired by the Arab spring movements in the Middle East. The 25th of January uprising in Egypt was accompanied by a full stock market closure for a complete two months. This created an interesting setting in which the only Egyptian equities that were allowed to trade were those with depository receipts trading in the UK. We use this event to examine the effect of a change in the legal environment on the location of price discovery and find that during the interim period where the local market was closed, the location of price discovery has shifted to the foreign market making it the dominant location for pricing activity. This provides evidence of the dynamic nature of the price discovery of depository receipts

MAT-724: LOW ENERGY CONCRETE

The escalating demand on energy consumption as well as the scarcity of non renewable energy resources represents a major concern worldwide. Hence, efforts are being exerted to resort to lower energy alternatives in almost all aspects of life. Portland cement concrete has been known as an energy intensive material that emits large amount of CO2 during its various stages of manufacturing. While concrete has been classified over the decades based on its performance, it has seldom been assessed and evaluated based on its embodied energy. This work aims at evaluating concrete mixtures based on energy and CO2 emission together with strength and durability characteristics. Alternative mixtures were targeted for both normal as well as moderate strength concrete as ones potentially having less energy and less CO2. The results were used to establish a simplified user-friendly model for this process. Results reveal that concrete that is somewhat environmental-friendly can be prepared while fulfilling performance criteria and at a relatively less cost

Sero-prevalence and risk factors associated with toxoplasma gondii infection among pregnant women in Alexandria, Egypt

Background: Toxoplasma gondii infection during pregnancy can result in fetal death, neonatal death or various congenital defects. This study aimed to estimate the seroprevalence of toxoplasma gondii infection using two different diagnostic tests, Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) versus Immunochromatographic assay (ICA) and to study the potential risk factors for acquiring infection in pregnant women attending antenatal care clinics in Alexandria, Egypt.Methods: A cross sectional study, conducted between May 2015 and June 2016. The study was done in antenatal care centers of most districts of Alexandria Governorate, Egypt. 382 pregnant women, of a gestational age between 8-40 weeks were included in the study and were given pretested structured questionnaire to assess risk factors, which included: demographic, socio-economic data, kitchen hygiene and behavioral variables. Blood samples were taken and sera were divided into two parts; the first part was examined for anti-T.gondii IgG and IgM antibodies using rapid diagnostic test RDT kit, the other part tested by ELISA.Results: The overall seroprevalence of T.gondii infection was (11.3%) detected by RDT, significantly increased to (57.9%) by ELISA test (X2= 5.3; p=0.001). RDT had the sensitivity of (15.8%), the specificity of (95%), PPV of (81.4%), NPV of (45.1%), with overall diagnostic efficiency of (49.2%). The association between T.gondii infection and the age of the pregnant women was found to be statistically significant (OR=2.84, 95%CI=1.251-6.455).Conclusions: The present study has documented a bad diagnostic performance of RDT in detection T.gondii in serum samples of infected pregnant women as compared to ELISA technique. Age is the only risk factor to be associated statistically with toxoplasma gondii infection

Probabilistic Analysis of the Reliability Performance for Power Transformers in Egypt

From reliability, maintainability, and availability (RAM) points of view, the performance of power transformers has a significant impacts on the performance of the entire power network. Their performance has also a significant impacts on the power interruptions at various voltage levels and the consequent customer interruption costs. This paper will discuss the estimated remaining lifetime of power transformers in the voltages subpopulations: 500kV, 220 kV, 132 kV, 66kV and 33 kV of the Egyptian grid as time between failures (TBFs) will be determined and then determine the best fit probability distribution using MATLAB program for repair time, customer interruption costs (CIC) and TBFs, this is performed in order to estimate remaining lifetime of the transformers, from which the best fit probability distribution will be used in this case study which is Weibull distribution. Finally availability of the transformers per different voltage populations is calculated and determined. Different subassemblies (failures) are also undergo the same process of determining TBFs and estimating remaining lifetime. The results will be helpful in the manufacturing process of the transformers and enhancing the maintenance schedule.          </strong

A REMARKABLE NONLINEAR ALL-OPTICAL DELAY BASED ON FWM IN OPTICAL FIBERS AND DISPERSION AT 10 AND 40-GBPS BIT RATE

A noticeable all-optical tunable delay based on dispersion and wavelength conversion (WC) using four-wave mixing (FWM) non linearity in high nonlinear fibers (HNLFs) and filtering is demonstrated in this work. It explores the delay performance at 40-Gbps while enhancing the delay performance at 10-Gbps delay operation. For 10-Gbps design, a continuously tunable delay over a range of 2.8-ns for 10-ps pulse width (PW) is achieved and a maximum relative delay (MRD) of 280 is realized. The proposed design for 40-Gbps delay system with 2.5-ps PW successfully achieves 633-ps tunable optical delay and MRD of 253. A comparison between this work and related literatures that use FWM Kerr-nonlinearity in HNLFs is carried to explore the merits of this work

Sickle Cell Anaemia, A Study from the Capital Area of Oman

One hundred and six Omani children with sickle cell anaemia (SCA) aged between 10 months and 16 years were studied by reviewing their medical notes and following their clinical course. All the cases were diagnosed on clinical presentation. Eighty-five percent were diagnosed below the age of 3 years. The clinical presentations and complications were compared with studies from Saudi Arabia and some other tropical countries. The frequency of hospitalization due to the complications of the disease is higher than that reported in other parts of Arabian Peninsula. The incidence of serious complications such as vasoocclusive, aplastic, hemolytic and sequestration crisis were high (91%, 1.9%, 59%, 6.7% respectively). Infection is more frequent. However, pneumococci were not the commonest isolated organism. G6PD deficiency was reported in 32% of cases which might explain the higher incidence of hemolytic crisis. Our study shows that SCA has a severe clinical course in Omanis. Because of the intermarriage of Omanis with Africans and Arabs, the nature of the SCA gene needs to be identified in this population. Bahrain Med Bull 1995;17: Sickle cell anaemia SCA is prevalent throughout many parts of the world particularly in tropical Africa, the Middle East, the Mediterranean and parts of India and America 1,2 . This disease constitutes one of the most frequent causes of hospitalization of children in Oman. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the epidemiology and clinical presentation of SCA in Omani children. ------------------------------------------------------------ METHODS The study represented a combined retrospective and prospective studies of all of 106 children with SCA seen at the outpatient clinics and/or admitted to the Royal and Sultan Qaboos University Hospitals in Muscat, the capital of Oman during 1992. The medical records of the patients were reviewed for the clinical presentations, complications and laboratory investigations. Routine hematological parameters were measured on a Coulter counter model S plus. Sickledex screening test (Ortho diagnostics) was used for sickle screening. Hemoglobin electrophoresis was done for all sickle cell positive samples using Gelman agarose gel at pH 8.6 (barbitone buffer) and scanning of the electrophoretic strip. Hemoglobin S and Hemoglobin F were quantified on the scanner 3 . It was not possible to rule out sickle cell/beta thalassemia with absolute certainty as globin chain synthesis could not be done at that time. However all patients with SCA with low MCV and/or high hemoglobin A2 had the diagnosis confirmed by family study. Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD

Diagnostic efficacy of monoclonal antibody based sandwich enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for detection of Fasciola gigantica excretory/secretory antigens in both serum and stool

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>This research was carried out to develop a reliable monoclonal antibody (MoAb)-based sandwich enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the diagnosis of active <it>Fasciola gigantica </it>infection in both serum and stool for comparative purposes.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>From a panel of MoAbs raised against <it>F. gigantica </it>excretory/secretory antigens (ES Ags), a pair (12B/11D/3F and 10A/9D/10G) was chosen due to its high reactivity and strict specificity to <it>F. gigantica </it>antigen by indirect ELISA.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The two MoAbs were of the IgG₁and IgG_2asubclasses, respectively. Using SDS-PAGE and EITB, the selected MoAbs recognized 83, 64, 45 and 26 kDa bands of ES Ags. The lower detection limit of ELISA assay was 3 ng/ml. In stool, the sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic efficacy of ELISA was 96%, 98.2 and 97.1%; while in serum they were 94%, 94.6% and 94.3%, respectively. Moreover, a positive correlation was found between ova count in stool of <it>F. gigantica </it>infected patients and the OD readings of ELISA in both stool and serum samples (<it>r </it>= 0.730, p < 0.01 and r = 0.608; p < 0.01, respectively).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These data showed that the use of MoAb-based sandwich ELISA for the detection of <it>F. gigantica </it>coproantigens in stool specimens was superior to serum samples; it provides a highly efficient, non-invasive technique for the diagnosis of active <it>F. gigantica </it>infection.</p