An Exploration of Leadership Styles and Motivation in Egyptian Business Organizations

Transformational leadership is often lauded as an ideal approach to addressing the demands of the complex global business environment. The purpose of this qualitative grounded theory study was to understand the nature of employee motivation with regard to leadership styles and the role of transformational leadership in Egyptian business organizations. Seventeen Egyptian professionals were interviewed regarding their experiences with organizational leaders; their perceptions of the ideal organizational leader; their feelings about the tenets of transformational leadership; and how leadership styles influence their job performance, satisfaction, and the achievement of their career-related goals. This study yielded not only information that can make it easier to lead and motivate employees in Egyptian business organizations, but also led to the development of a theory for the ideal leadership style for Egyptian employees

An Exploration of Leadership Styles and Motivation in Egyptian Business Organizations

Leadership styles can have a profound impact on employee motivation and performance. The changing global business landscape has drawn much attention to transformational leadership as an approach that addresses the demands of organizations in this complex environment. The purpose of this qualitative grounded theory study was to understand the nature of employee motivation with regard to leadership styles and the role of transformational leadership in Egyptian business organizations. Seventeen Egyptian professionals were recruited through a combination of e-mail and telephone procedures and were interviewed regarding their experiences with organizational leaders; their perception of the ideal organizational leader; their feelings about the tenets of transformational leadership theory; and how leadership styles influence their job performance, job satisfaction, and the achievement of their career related goals. Data were analyzed and emerging patterns and themes were established, such as participants holding largely negative views regarding the majority of leadership behaviors and employee motivation techniques they presently experience and being very receptive to the majority of aspects of transformational leadership. These patterns and themes culminated in the development of a theory for the ideal leadership style for Egyptian employees. The study yielded information that can make it easier to lead and motivate employees in Egyptian business organizations, and increase the ability of Egyptian organizations to effect positive social change by way of leadership practices that allow organizational stakeholders to enjoy the positive impact on society of organizations that are better led, more productive, and more focused on a greater sense of social wellness

Artificial Intelligence-Based Methods for Fusion of Electronic Health Records and Imaging Data

Healthcare data are inherently multimodal, including electronic health records (EHR), medical images, and multi-omics data. Combining these multimodal data sources contributes to a better understanding of human health and provides optimal personalized healthcare. Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, particularly machine learning (ML), enable the fusion of these different data modalities to provide multimodal insights. To this end, in this scoping review, we focus on synthesizing and analyzing the literature that uses AI techniques to fuse multimodal medical data for different clinical applications. More specifically, we focus on studies that only fused EHR with medical imaging data to develop various AI methods for clinical applications. We present a comprehensive analysis of the various fusion strategies, the diseases and clinical outcomes for which multimodal fusion was used, the ML algorithms used to perform multimodal fusion for each clinical application, and the available multimodal medical datasets. We followed the PRISMA-ScR guidelines. We searched Embase, PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar to retrieve relevant studies. We extracted data from 34 studies that fulfilled the inclusion criteria. In our analysis, a typical workflow was observed: feeding raw data, fusing different data modalities by applying conventional machine learning (ML) or deep learning (DL) algorithms, and finally, evaluating the multimodal fusion through clinical outcome predictions. Specifically, early fusion was the most used technique in most applications for multimodal learning (22 out of 34 studies). We found that multimodality fusion models outperformed traditional single-modality models for the same task. Disease diagnosis and prediction were the most common clinical outcomes (reported in 20 and 10 studies, respectively) from a clinical outcome perspective.Comment: Accepted in Nature Scientific Reports. 20 page

Geochemical and biomarker characteristics of crude oils and source rock hydrocarbon extracts: An implication to their correlation, depositional environment and maturation in the Northern Western Desert, Egypt

AbstractOil–oil and oil–source rock correlations are used in this study in order to achieve their relationship, depositional environments and diagenetic processes in the source rocks. Three oil samples and source rock hydrocarbon extracts were analyzed using relative geochemical analyses, and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry are used for this purpose. The results revealed that the extracts of the Alam El Bueib and Khatatba formations are derived from mixed organic sources in which terrestrial dominates marine sources, and deposited in transitional environments under less anoxic conditions. The extracts of Bahariya formation are derived from mixed marine inputs with a limited terrestrial contribution. The Alam El Bueib oil shows more contribution of terrestrial than marine sources. Also, a genetic close relation between them supported the indigenous mixed source of Alam El Bueib oil which related to different sources including the Khatatba, Alam El Bueib and Bahariya formations. Accordingly, the Alam El Bueib formation can be considered as an important source for petroleum generation in the Northern Western Desert

THE IMMUNOTHERAPEUTIC EFFECT OF IL-22 VERSUS PRAZIQUANTEL TREATMENT AGAINST S.MANSONI –INDUCED LIVER FIBROSIS IN MICE

Background/Aim:Praziquantel (PZQ), the primary medication for schistosomiasis treatment, exhibits a potential resistance by the parasite. Therefore, the development of a new effective treatment is obligated. Interleukin-22 (IL-22) has been reported to have a hepatoprotective effect. The current study aimed to compare the effectiveness of IL-22 treatment versus PZQ against S. mansoni - induced liver fibrosis in mice. Materials and Methods: Forty male albino mice were divided into control, infected, IL-22 (0.36 µg/kg),  and PZQ (a single dose of 600 mg/kg) groups. PZQ was administered alone or in combination with IL-22. Inflammatory indicators [tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-17 (IL-17), IL-22, and immunoglobulin E (IgE)], hepatic expressions of signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3), β-catenin, and miR let-7a gene expressions, and liver granuloma index (GI) were estimated. Results:The present result revealed a significant (P <0.05) reduction in liver GI and the pro-inflammatory cytokine, TNF-α, after the treatment with IL-22. Moreover, the treatment enhanced significantly (P <0.05) let-7a miRNA and STAT3 gene expressions as well as downregulated (P <0.05) β-catenin mRNA, which in turn could reduce fibrosis resulting from S. mansoni infection. On the other hand, PZQ treatment alone or in combination with IL-22 reduced significantly (P <0.05) proinflammatory cytokines and IgE but failed to decrease GI or β-catenin gene expression, which might cause a negative impact on liver fibrosis.  Conclusion:IL-22 could be a potential immunotherapeutic agent for S.mansoni-induced liver fibrosis, compared to PZQ, through activating STAT3 and let-7a downstream signalling pathways and inhibiting β-catenin pathway

The potentiality of hydrocarbon generation of the Jurassic source rocks in Salam-3x well, North Western Desert, Egypt

AbstractThe present work deals with the identification of the potential and generating capability of oil generation in the Jurassic source rocks in the Salam-3x well. This depending on the organo-geochemical analyses of cutting samples representative of Masajid, Khatatba and Ras Qattara formations, as well as, representative extract samples of the Khatatba and Ras Qattara formations. The geochemical analysis suggested the potential source intervals within the encountered rock units as follows: Masajid Formation bears mature source rocks and have poor to fair generating capability for generating gas (type III kerogen). Khatatba Formation bears mature source rock, and has poor to good generating capability for both oil and gas. Ras Qattara Formation constituting mature source rock has good to very good generating capability for both oil and gas. The burial history modeling shows that the Masajid Formation lies within oil and gas windows; Khatatba and Ras Qattara formations lie within the gas window. From the biomarker characteristics of source rocks it appears that the extract is genetically related as the majority of them were derived from marine organic matters sources (mainly algae) deposited under reducing environment and take the direction of increasing maturity and far away from the direction of biodegradation. Therefore, Masajid Formation is considered as effective source rocks for generating hydrocarbons, while Khatatba and Ras Qattara formations are the main source rocks for hydrocarbon accumulations in the Salam-3x well

Association of dopamine D4 receptor gene variants with autism

Background: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a heritable neurodevelopmental disorder with poorly understood and complex etiology. The central dopaminergic system is strongly implicated in ASD pathogenesis. Genes encoding various elements of this system have been linked to ASD. This study aimed to estimate the distribution frequency of dopamine D4 receptor-exon III repeat region polymorphic genotypes among Egyptian children with autism.Methods: This case-control study included 178 children with autism (mean age 4.46±1.72 years) (118 males and 60 females) and a normal control group (n=128) of matching age and gender. Assessments by DSMIV- TR criteria, Stanford-Binet intelligence scale and childhood autism rating scale (CARS) were done. Assay for DRD4 48 bp VNTR genotypes was performed on amplified DNA by RFLP-PCR.Results: The 4/4 allele had the highest frequency among both autistic (39.32%) and control children (62.5%), with no significant difference between them. The 7/7 allele had also a high frequency (33.7%) among autistic patients, which was significantly different (p˂0.05) from the control group (12.5%) Furthermore, 70% of the patients carrying the 7/7 allele had the lowest IQ scores (58.5±6.5).Conclusions: There is a strong evidence that the DRD4 7/7 allele might be a risk factor for autism.