How can Trade Help to Rebuild and Enhance the Economies of the Southern Mediterranean Countries?

Arab countries are experiencing major changes in their governance systems. While the features of the new era are still unclear, what is certain is that a new development paradigm will be adopted and significant efforts will be made to rebuild the economies of these countries, which have been seriously disrupted due to the revolutions and their aftermath. This article seeks to answer the question of how trade can play a significant positive role in rebuilding and enhancing the economies of these Southern Mediterranean Countries

PhD

thesis1. An osmohilic yeast strain was isolated from sugar syrup samples of high yeast count. The taxonomic characteristics of this yeast strain were determined. These characteristics showed that it is a new species of the genus Saccharomyces. 2. A series of experiments was conducted to investigate the ability of this yeast strain to fix atmospheric nitrogen. The studies showed that in yeast cultures there was a decrease in total nitrogen, particularly in the first two hours of incubation. In this series of experiments, only one experimental yeast culture showed and increase in total nitrogen. Therefore, the ability of the yeast cells to fix atmospheric nitrogen was ruled out. 3. The role of cations and anions in enhancing growth and possibly stimulating nitrogen-fixation by yeast cells was studied. The cations and anions tested were iron as ferrous sulfate, citrate as sodium citrate, phosphorus as K2HPO4, molybdenum as Na2MoO4.2H20, boron as boric acid and calcium as calcium chloride. These trace elements did not stimulate the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen. The only established effect of these cations and anions was the enhancement of yeast growth as indicated by an increase in the biomass. Phosphorus enhanced the growth more efficiently than the other anions and cations tested. On the other had citrate did not enhance the yeast growth to a significant degree. 4. The effect of sucrose concentration on yeast growth was investigated. It was found that the yeast cells grew well in lower sugar concentrations in the first 24 hours of incubation. After that period, they grew more efficiently at higher sugar concentrations. These findings indicated that this is an osmophilic strain. 5. Studies of the effect of temperature on yeast culture growth indicated that the yeast cells were unable to grow at refrigerator temperature or a 56°C and they grew poorly at 37°C. On the other had there was very good growth of yeast cells when incubated at room temperature (26°C). 6. The effect of hydrogen-ion concentration on yeast growth was studied. It was shown that the yeast cells were able to grow over a wide pH range of 3 to 7 in Mycophil broth containing either 2 per cent or 30 per cent sucrose. 7. The efficiency of the utilization of various amino acids and ammonium sulfate as nitrogen sources by these osmophilic yeasts was studied. The studied indicated that ammonium sulfate was utilized more efficiently than the other nitrogen sources tested. At the same time some of the amino acids investigated such as proline, alanine, threonine and aspartic acid sustained growth better than L-glutamic acid and DL-methionine. It was also found that the growth of 2 per cent sucrose was better than in 30 per cent sucrose during the nine hours incubation period. No experiments of longer during were carried out. 8. A survey of the free amino acids synthesized by the yeast cells cultured in Mycophil broth containing 30 per cent sucrose was made using unidirectional paper chromatography. The solvents applied were butanol-acetic acid-water mixture and phenol. The identified amino acids were L-glutamic acid, L-aspartic acid, DL-histidine, L-tyrosine, L-valine, L-leucine, L-glycine and L-lysine. 9. Investigation of the effect of growth media on the free amino acid pool composition mentioned above was carried out. Besides the Mycophil broth medium, two other media were used. One was Mycophil broth containing no sucrose and the other was 30 per cent sucrose containing no other nitrogen source. This investigation showed that most of the free amino acids identified as members of amino acid pool when cultured in Mycophil broth containing 30 per cent sucrose were found to be present in the pools of the yeast cells cultured in the other two media. Tyrosine was the only amino acid which could not be identified as a member of the free amino acids identified in the yeast cells cultures in the three media mentioned above. It was found that the content of L-glutamic acid, L-aspartic acid and DL-histidine was not significantly affected by differences in culture media. The total level of the free amino acids identified as members of the amino acid pool grown in nitrogen-free medium, i.e., 30 per cent sucrose, was lowered. It was also found that the level of lysine was significantly decreased in the case of yeast cells grown in Mycophil broth containing no suga

The political economy of food price policy in Egypt

The study focuses on the period 2004-09 during which Egypt experienced food crisis. The political economy context on how the government responded to the crisis is analysed while pinpointing to what extent there was a pass-through effect from international to domestic prices. The complexity of food price policy issues and their entanglement with poverty, agricultural, and economic policies in Egypt together with the structural aspects of the food subsidy policies are discussed and evaluated from a political economy perspective. Prospects for reform or lack thereof are also analysed in the context of the 25 January 2011 revolution and new political set-up

The roots of economic challenges facing Egypt in the aftermath of the 25th January revolution. Jean Monnet Occasional Paper No. 9/2014

Introduction. Since the 25th of January 2011 revolution the Egyptian economy has been suffering on all fronts. Almost all the economic indicators have been pointing towards a deteriorating situation, and in many cases have reached the trough. Yet, the economy is still surviving. This is mainly due to the unprecedented support of some of Arab Gulf countries, whose unconditional aid has helped to mitigate the deteriorating economic conditions. The economic challenges facing Egypt have been exacerbated after the 20th of January revolution mainly because of the deteriorating political and security conditions which have interrupted the functioning of the economy. Yet, this is not to say that revolution has caused these challenges. In fact, the challenges that the Egyptian has been facing have deep roots in its socio-political-economic context, which this paper aims to explain. The revolution and its aftermath have brought to the forefront challenges which have always been mitigated by short-term solutions that never dealt seriously with their roots. Moreover, the revolution has brought additional problems associated with the macroeconomic imbalances. As a result, the challenges became more complex especially in light of the need to balance the social and economic aspects. The paper proceeds as follows; in section one we pinpoint the main challenges faced by Egypt where we identify the symptoms and causes of such challenges. In section two we discuss the roots of such challenges. Finally, we conclude and provide our understanding of how Egypt is expected to face its challenges in the near future