A Review of Agricultural Policy Evolution, Agricultural Data Sources, and Food Supply and Demand Studies in Egypt

Over the years the control of the Government of Egypt on the agricultural sector has increasingly weakened with the progressive elimination of the input subsidy, area control, price control, procurement control, and the constraints in private sector participation in processing and trade. The only remaining major government involvement is the food subsidy in some wheat products, the baladi bread subsidy in particular. Policy analysis studies in Egypt have been made possible because the Government of Egypt collects and publishes significant amounts of agricultural data on a regular basis. Two of the most widely used data sets are the Household Budget Survey conducted and published by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics, and the Food Balance Sheet, which is derived and published by the Ministry of Agriculture. However, differences among various data sources remain and need to be harmonized. A number of studies have been conducted to estimate food supply and demand parameters (i.e., elasticities) using mostly the two previously mentioned data sets. However, the range of elasticity estimates in these studies is rather wide. For example, price elasticity estimates classify animal products in the range of inelastic to elastic with respect to price, and as necessity to luxury with respect to income. This lack of precision makes these parameters less useful for policy analysis purposes. Further investigations are needed to pinpoint the source of these differences—whether it is due to data, model specification, or estimation techniques —so corrective measures can be applied to improve their precision. Only then can credible policy analysis be conducted using these parameters

Impact of Arabic Spring on the Competitiveness of Arab States’ Agricultural Exports to EU Markets

The trade between the Arab States (21 countries) and the EU countries represents the largest proportion of their total trade with the whole world. It amounted to more than 60% in 2011. Therefore, the EU markets remain the first priority in achieving competitiveness for the agricultural sector exports of the Arab countries. The study targeted a comprehensive evaluation of competitive agricultural exports through a multi-staged model. The first included design and implementation of an index for agricultural development as a geometric means of four sub-indices: Agricultural Resources Index, Agricultural Productivity Index, Labor Employment Index in Agriculture, and Agricultural Foreign Trade Index. The identified four Arab countries with the highest agricultural development index score were Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt and Sudan

Synthesis and Structural Determination of 6-O-prop-2-ynyl-1,2:3,4-di-O-Isopropylidene-α-D-Galactose

في هذا العمل، تم تحضير إثير ألكينيل سكر مهم في خطوتين متتاليتين بدءًا من سكر د-جالاكتوز المتاح تجاريًا. إن هذا النوع من المركبات يعد ذات أهمية في تحضير مركبات ذات فعالية حيوية مثل الترايازولات و الآيسوكسازولات. في الخطوة الأولى، تم تفاعل الجالاكتوز (3) مع الأسيتون في وجود كبريتات النحاس اللامائي (II) لإنتاج 2،1: 4،3-ثنائي- O- أيزوبروبليدين- د-ألفا- جالاكتوز (4) بمنتوج جيد. ثم تفاعل المركب الأخير مع زيادة من بروميد البروبارجيل في مذيب ثنائي مثيل فورمأمايد بوجود حبيبات هيدروكسيد الصوديوم لتعطي الجزيء المستهدف 5 في بمنتوج جيد جدًا. إن درجة حرارة هذه الخطوة تعد حاسمة في تحديد منتوج التفاعل. تم تحديد الوضعية الفراغية للمركب 5 بإستخدام تقنية الرنين المغناطيسي النووي وحسابات   نظرية الكثافة الوظيفيةDFT .In this work, an important sugar alkynyl ether has been synthesized in two subsequent steps starting from commercially available D-galactose (3). This kind of compounds is highly significant in the synthesis of biologically active molecules such as 1,2,3-triazole and isoxazoles. In the first step, galactose (3) was reacted with acetone in the presence of anhydrous copper (II) sulfate to produce 1,2:3,4-di-O-isopropylidene-α-D-galactose (4) in good yield. The latter was reacted with excess of 3-bromoprop-1-yne in DMF in the presence of NaOH pellets to afford the target molecule 5 in a very good yield. The temperature of this step is crucial in determining the reaction yield. The exact structure of compound 5 is identified using NMR technique and DFT calculations.

قاموس الفجر الأساسي المصور مع الجمل عربي -ملايو-انجليزي (Kamus al-fajar al-asas al-mmusawwaru ma'a al-jumal Arab-Melayu-English)

هذا القاموس فريد من نوعه فهو يستخدم الصور الملونة والمعبرة مع المفردات التي اختيرت بعناية من اللغات الثلاثة العربية والإنجليزية والملاوية مع شرح كل كلمة بجملة لتقريب المعنى، وتوضيح كيفية استخدام هذه الكلم

Production, Characterization, and Antimicrobial Activity of Mycocin Produced by Debaryomyces hansenii

The present study was conducted to estimate the antimicrobial activity and the potential biological control of the killer toxin produced by D. hansenii DSMZ70238 against several pathogenic microorganisms. In this study, the effects of NaCl, pH, and temperature, killer toxin production, and antimicrobial activity were studied. The results showed that the optimum inhibitory effect of killer toxin was at 8% NaCl, and the diameters of clear zones were 20, 22, 22, 21, 14, and 13 mm for Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Streptococcus pyogenes, Candida albicans, and Candida neoformans, respectively. The largest inhibition zones were observed at pH 4.5 with inhibition zone of 16, 18, 17, 18, 11, and 12 mm for the same microorganisms. The results also showed that 25°C is the optimal temperature for toxin killing activity against all targeted microorganisms. In addition, the activity of killer toxin significantly inhibited the growth of fungal mycelia for all target pathogenic fungi and the percentages of inhibition were 47.77, 48.88, 52.22, and 61.11% for Trichophyton rubrum, Alternaria alternata, Trichophyton concentricum, and Curvularia lunata, respectively. The results showed the highest growth rate of D. hansenii DSMZ70238 under condition of 8% NaCl concentration, pH 4.5, and 25°C for 72 h

First year medical students’ perceptions of the impact of wearing scrubs on professional identity: a narrative analysis in the United Arab Emirates

Objectives Medical school serves as a critical developmental period for future physicians, during which students begin to form a professional identity. Just as personal appearance, particularly clothing, is an important external expression of one’s personal identity, ‘uniforms’ in healthcare, including white coats and scrubs, symbolise status and a group identity. There are, however, limited studies on the impact of physician attire on medical students’ formation of professional identity. Accordingly, through qualitative analysis of written narratives, we sought to analyse medical students’ experiences of wearing professional physician attire, namely scrubs, and how the uniform impacted their confidence level, performance and behaviours, as well as their identity as future physicians.Design Qualitative analysis of medical student’s written narratives.Setting Khalifa University College of Medicine and Health Sciences (KU CMHS) is a new medical school in the United Arab Emirates, with an inaugural class of 30 students admitted in August 2019. It is the only medical school in the city of Abu Dhabi, and the only school in the country that follows a postgraduate medical curriculum.Participants All first year medical students at KU CMHS were purposively sampled.Methods Students completed a voluntary online anonymous questionnaire. We employed a social identity approach to data analysis. Thematic content analysis was conducted on their narratives to identify themes.Results We identified three major themes, namely (1) emotions, (2) logistics and (3) interpersonal relationships.Conclusions Medical students form early perceptions regarding physician attire and its impact on their professional identity. Engaging in conversations regarding professional attire with educators or mentors could provide an important opportunity for students to discuss and explore professional identity early in training

GCP compliance and readability of informed consent forms from an emerging hub for clinical trials

Background: The rapid expansion of trials in emerging regions has raised valid concerns about research subject protection, particularly related to informed consent. The purpose of this study is to assess informed consent form (ICF) compliance with Good Clinical Practice (GCP) guidelines and the readability easeof the ICFs in Abu Dhabi, a potential destination for clinical trials in the UAE. Materials and Methods: A multicenter retrospective cross-sectional analysis of 140 ICFs from industry sponsored and non-sponsored studies was conducted by comparing against a local standard ICF. Flesch-Kincaid Reading Scale was used to assess the readability ease of the forms. Results: Non-sponsored studies had signifi cantly lower overall GCP compliance of 55.8% when compared to 79.5% for industry sponsored studies. Only 33% of sponsored and 16% of non-sponsored studies included basic information on the participants′ rights and responsibilities. Flesch-Kincaid Reading ease score for the informed consent forms from industry sponsored studies was signifi cantly higher 48.9 ± 4.8 as compared to 38.5 ± 8.0 for non-sponsored studies, though both were more complex than recommended. Reading Grade Level score was also higher than expected, but scores for the ICFs from the industry sponsored studies were 9.7 ± 0.7, signifi cantly lower as compared to 12.2 ± 1.3 for non-sponsored studies. Conclusion: In spite of the undisputed benefits of conducting research in emerging markets readability, comprehension issues and the lack of basic essential information call for improvements in the ICFs to protect the rights of future research subjects enrolled in clinical trials in the UAE