أثر المنطقة الديموجرافية ومستوى الدخل على سلوك المستهلك نحو الألبان ومنتجاتها في مصر

The study of consumption is of great importance for the formulation of economic policies and the identification of the projection of consumer behavior and its impact on the quantities consumed by each commodity, thus contributing to the definition of the objectives of economic development plans and hence the policies leading to the achievement of those goals and aimed at satisfying the needs of the population of various goods and services while rationalizing consumption rates. Despite the nutritional importance of dairy products and the availability of a comparative advantage for Egypt in dairy production, the average per capita milk and dairy products are still very low, with a high rate of dependence of domestic consumption on imports to fill the gap between domestic production and consumption, which in turn affects the increase in the deficit in the balance of trade and hence the Egyptian balance of payments. The study aimed at estimation of the dairy products consumption functions as an important component in the Egyptian consumer map to identify the difference between urban and rural communities, besides estimation of impacts in the difference of the level of per capita income on the consumption of milk and dairy products in the two regions, measured as the average of the income elasticity, to determine the current status of food consumption patterns of the per capita consumption behavior in both urban and rural areas. The study relied, mainly, on the field sample data of the household budget survey for the year 2015, conducted by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics. The estimated consumption functions for milk and dairy products included the effects of both the average annual income per capita and the demographic region (urban and rural). Derived results showed that the urban community had a statistically positive impact on consuming of packaged milk (either pasteurized or sterile), as well as the consumption of both yogurt and full-fat white cheese, while there was a statistically negative effect of the damage on the consumption of fatless chees and the urban community had no statistically significant impact on the consumption of fresh milk consumption. The average estimated income elasticity coefficient indicated that the consumer considered both fresh milk and full cream white cheese as semi-superior goods (estimated income elasticity was between greater than 0.5, to less than 1), while packaged milk and yogurt are superior goods (their elasticity was greater than 1), and fatless-cheese is a necessary commodity for low income levels and an inferior commodity for higher income groups

Transparency of law making and fiscal democracy in the Middle East

Fiscal democracy is the capacity of the legislature to make budgetary choices in response to the emerging needs of citizens. This study indicates that, in Middle Eastern countries, there are specific limitations to fiscal democracy in the process of law-making: most notably the lack of attention to financial impact assessments (FIAs). Without systematic FIAs, mandatory out-of-budget allocations are inadvertently included in public spending, as they do not require parliamentary approval within the regular budgeting process. The low level of effective citizens’ engagement in the process of law-making worsens the situation. Budgetary decisions are not well informed by national priorities and preferences. This study utilizes the dataset of the Open Budget Index (OBI) to measure the quality of the law-making process of the budget law in a sample of Middle Eastern countries. The study concludes with recommendations on mapping the law-making process to increase budget transparency

New Therapeutic Targets for Mood Disorders

Existing pharmacological treatments for bipolar disorder (BPD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) are often insufficient for many patients. Here we describe a number of targets/compounds that clinical and preclinical studies suggest could result in putative novel treatments for mood disorders. These include: (1) glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK-3) and protein kinase C (PKC), (2) the purinergic system, (3) histone deacetylases (HDACs), (4) the melatonergic system, (5) the tachykinin neuropeptides system, (6) the glutamatergic system, and (7) oxidative stress and bioenergetics. The paper reviews data on new compounds that have shown antimanic or antidepressant effects in subjects with mood disorders, or similar effects in preclinical animal models. Overall, an improved understanding of the neurobiological underpinnings of mood disorders is critical in order to develop targeted treatments that are more effective, act more rapidly, and are better tolerated than currently available therapies

The outcome of ultrasound-guided insertion of central hemodialysis catheter

Objective: To point out our experience and assess the efficacy and safety of real-time ultrasound-guided central internal jugular vein (IJV) catheterization in the treatment of hemodialysis patients. Methods: This retrospective study comprised 150 patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) who had real-time ultrasonography (US)-guided IJV HD catheters placed in our hospital between March 2019 and March 2021. Patients were examined for their demographic data, etiology, site of catheter insertion, type (acute or chronic) of renal failure, technical success, operative time, number of needle punctures, and procedure-related complications. Patients who have had multiple catheter insertions, prior catheterization challenges, poor compliance, obesity, bony deformity, and coagulation disorders were considered at high-operative risk. Results: All patients experienced technical success. In terms of patient clinical features, an insignificant difference was observed between the normal and high-risk groups (p-value > 0.05). Of the 150 catheters, 62 (41.3%) were placed in high-risk patients. The first-attempt success rate was 89.8% for the normal group and 72.5% for the high-risk group (p = 0.006). IJV cannulation took less time in the normal-risk group compared to the highrisk group (21.2 ± 0.09) minutes vs (35.4 ± 0.11) minutes, (p < 0.001). There were no serious complications. During the placing of the catheter in the internal jugular vein, four patients (6.4%) experienced arterial puncture in the high-risk group. Two participants in each group got a small neck hematoma. One patient developed a pneumothorax in the high-risk group, which was managed with an intercostal chest tube insertion. Conclusions: Even in the high-risk group, the real-time US-guided placement of a central catheter into the IJV is associated with a low complication rate and a high success rate. Even under US guidance, experience lowers complication rates. Real-time USguided is recommended to be used routinely during central venous catheter insertion

Role of quantitative diffusion weighted

Purpose: To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) in differentiating benign from malignant breast lesions. Patients and methods: Forty patients with positive diagnoses at mammography or breast ultrasound were included in this study. Patients were imaged with dynamic contrast enhanced MRI and DWI before biopsy of their breast tumors. Apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) map was utilized to select the region of interest (ROI) for ADC calculation. DWI was performed using three sets of b value (0, 400, and 800 s/mm2). Results: The final analysis comprised 40 breast lesions, 18 of which were malignant and 22 were benign. Significant results were obtained between ADC values of benign and malignant lesions (p < 0.001). The cut-off ADC value for benign and malignant lesions was 1.25 × 10–3 mm2/s. Conclusion: The present study provides consistent evidence to support DWI as a diagnostic tool for breast lesion characterization and as a useful adjunct to standard breast MRI protocols in aiding the diagnosis of breast cancer

Globecom 2013 -Ad Hoc and Sensor Networking Symposium GOSSIPY: A Distributed Localization System for Internet of Things using RFID Technology

Abstract-The popularity of smart objects in our daily life fosters a new generation of applications under the umbrella of the Internet of Things (loT). Such applications are built on a distributed network of heterogeneous context-aware devices, where localization is a key issue. The localization problem is further magnified by loT challenges such as scalability, mobility and the heterogeneity of objects. In existing localization systems using RFID technology, there is a lack of systems that localize mobile tags using heterogeneous mobile readers in a distributed manner. In this paper, we propose the GOSSIPY system for localizing mobile RFID tags using a group of ad hoc heterogeneous mobile RFID readers. The system depends on cooperation of mobile readers through time-constrained interleaving processes. Readers in a neighborhood share interrogation information, estimate tag locations accordingly and employ both proactive and reactive protocols to ensure timely dissemination of location information. We evaluate the proposed system and present its performance through extensive simulation experiments using ns-3

Assessment of informational needs in Behcet’s patients

Behçet’s disease (BD) is one of the rare rheumatologic diseases which affects most commonly young adults in the third or fourth decade of life. Inspite of the multi system nature of the disease can lead to temporary or permanent functional disability, informational needs of BD patients is still unknown as no studies has investigated such issue, hence the aim is to assess the informational needs among patients with Behçet’s disease.&nbsp; A cross-sectional descriptive design on a convenient sample of 68 adult BD patients was utilized. Data was collected using the following tools: (a) structured interview questionnaire and (b) the Arabic version of Toronto Informational Needs Questionnaire (TINQ) adapted for BD. &nbsp;The highest percentage of the study sample was male (82.40%) came from rural area (61.80%) and aged 31-42 (58.00%) with a mean age of (38±7.01 years). The study results showed the information related to treatment, disease characteristics, investigative tests and psychosocial items are highly important needs among BD patients. Age, gender and education are influencing factors for informational needs in the sample of the study. Further replication of the study is recommended from different geographical areas