An interdisciplinary inventory of anti-corruption solutions : towards a better anti-corruption strategy adapted to Egypt's context

La présente thèse a examiné et discuté des mesures prises par le gouvernement égyptien pour lutter contre la corruption en fournissant une étude constructive et interdisciplinaire post-mortem critique du premier projet de stratégie nationale de lutte contre la corruption élaboré par l’Égypte en 2014 et devant s’appliquer de 2014 à 2018. Il visait à examiner dans quelle mesure les politiques mises en œuvre étaient susceptibles d'atteindre leurs objectifs, compte tenu du taux élevé de corruption administrative et des problèmes de gouvernance ayant fortement affecté l'application des réformes proposées dans ladite stratégie. L'objectif principal de cette thèse est de formuler des recommandations de réformes sur mesure afin de combler le fossé entre les réformes de gouvernance envisagées et la réalité sur le terrain. Comment la gouvernance législative de l’Égypte pourrait-elle tirer parti d’une panoplie de mesures correctives contre la corruption? Telle est la question de recherche que cette thèse a cherché à aborder. En vue d'atteindre cet objectif, la méthodologie s’est appuyée sur des données secondaires combinant une analyse documentaire, une analyse documentaire de solutions efficaces et l’expérience réussie des pays en développement dans la lutte contre la corruption, des formations aux institutions de lutte contre la corruption et de gestion, un examen des rapports, observations et connaissance du contexte particulier dédits pays. L'étude visait à créer un dialogue entre diverses disciplines dans le but d'identifier et de décrire les mesures efficaces susceptibles de garantir le succès des futures stratégies de lutte contre la corruption. L'examen du contexte historique des efforts consentis par l'Égypte dans sa lutte contre la corruption, de 1952 à 2014, a montré que les dirigeants politiques égyptiens avaient affronté tous les problèmes de corruption en promulguant des lois sans accorder une attention soutenue au degré de leur mise en œuvre. La présente thèse vise à combler une lacune importante dans la recherche en proposant une étude interdisciplinaire du problème de la corruption administrative en Égypte, qui ne soit pas uniquement centrée sur la modification des lois. Toutefois, il convient de noter que l'approche interdisciplinaire ne compromet nullement le rôle de la loi dans la lutte contre la corruption, mais fournit à la loi un soutien et des ressources supplémentaires pour l'aider à atteindre l'objectif ciblé. Cette thèse a tenté de proposer des moyens efficaces de servir l'esprit de la loi et l'intention du législateur. La recherche a conclu qu'il était recommandé que les décideurs politiques cherchent à adopter une approche à la fois plus disséminée, plus participative, plus protectrice et plus stimulante, lors de la mise en œuvre de stratégies futures de contrôle de la corruption et d'application des lois anticorruption. Outre le caractère exhaustif de l'approche proposée, la volonté politique de soutenir les mesures de lutte contre la corruption revêt, dans tous les cas, une importance primordiale.This thesis examined and discussed the measures undertaken by the Egyptian government to fight corruption by providing a critical post-mortem interdisciplinary constructive study of Egypt’s first drafted National Anti-Corruption Strategy that was developed in 2014, and scheduled to run from 2014-2018. It sought to examine the extent to which the implemented policies were likely to achieve their goals, given the high rate of administrative corruption and the governance problems that strongly affected the enforcement of the reforms proposed in the strategy. The main aim of this thesis is to formulate custom-made recommendations for reforms in an effort to bridge the gap between the intended governance reforms and the reality on the ground. How can Egypt’s legislative governance benefit from an inventory of anti-corruption remedies? That is the research question that this thesis sought to address. In order to serve this purpose, the methodology relied on secondary data that combined desk review, a literature review of effective solutions and successful in-progress countries’ experiences in tackling corruption, trainings in anti-corruption and management institutions, review of international organizations’ reports, observations and knowledge of the countries’ particular context. The study aspired to create a dialogue among a range of disciplines in an attempt to identify and describe the effective measures that would guarantee the success of the future anti-corruption strategies. The review of the historical background of Egypt’s efforts to fight corruption from 1952-2014 has shown that political leaders in Egypt have faced every corruption problem by promulgating laws without giving much attention to the degree of their implementation. This thesis fills an important gap in research by providing an interdisciplinary study of the problem of administrative corruption in Egypt that is not solely centered on changing the laws. However, it is important to note that the interdisciplinary approach does not undermine the role of the law in fighting corruption, rather it provides the law with additional support and resources to help it in achieving its intended goal. This thesis attempted to propose effective ways to serve the spirit of the law and the intention of the legislator. The research concluded that it is recommended that policy makers may seek to adopt an approach that is at the same time more disseminative, more participative, more protective, and more stimulating when implementing future strategies to control corruption and enforce anti-corruption laws. In addition to the comprehensiveness of this proposed approach, the political will to support anti-corruption measures is, in all cases, of paramount importance

Extracellular Vesicle-based Nano/Microparticles for Novel Vaccination Approaches

Pneumococcal infections cause many fatalities worldwide. Growing resistance to antibiotics and incomplete coverage of available vaccines against all serotypes made the search for novel vaccination approaches a global necessity. Extracellular membrane vesicles are secreted nanostructures, which are physiologically secreted from seemingly all living cells and harbor their virulence factors and immunogenic components. In this work, several research objectives were explored: (i) Isolation and characterization of pneumococcal vesicles. (ii) Biocompatibility and uptake with cell lines and primary human cells. (iii) Yield Enhancement of pneumococcal vesicles. (iv) Immunostimulation of immune cells by pneumococcal vesicles. (v) Formulation of spray-dried vaccine microparticles for pulmonary immunization. The isolated vesicles exhibited excellent biocompatibility with several cell lines and primary cells, without cytotoxic effects. Pneumococcal vesicles demonstrated rapid uptake into immune cells and stimulated the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines. We successfully formulated spray-dried vaccine microparticles with enhanced stability and increased cytokine release for pulmonary delivery. Our findings confirm the strong potential of pneumococcal membrane vesicles as vaccine candidates, and provide a sound basis for further translation and scale-up for pulmonary delivery and immunization.Pneumokokken-Infektionen führen weltweit zu zahlreichen Todesfällen. Die zunehmende Resistenz gegen Antibiotika und die unvollständige Abdeckung durch verfügbare Impfstoffe gegen alle Serotypen machen die Suche nach neuen Impfansätzen eine globale Notwendigkeit. Extrazelluläre Membranvesikel sind sezernierte Nanostrukturen, die von ziemlich allen Zellen ausgeschieden werden und ihre Virulenzfaktoren und immunogenen Komponenten beherbergen. In dieser Arbeit wurden mehrere Forschungsziele verfolgt: (i) Isolierung und Charakterisierung von Pneumokokken-Vesikeln. (ii) Biokompatibilität und Aufnahme gegenüber Zelllinien und primären menschlichen Zellen. (iii) Erhöhung der Ausbeute. (iv) Immunstimulation von Immunzellen durch Pneumokokken-Vesikel. (v) Formulierung von sprühgetrockneten Impfstoff-Mikropartikeln für die Immunisierung der Lunge. Die isolierten Vesikel zeigten eine ausgezeichnete Biokompatibilität mit verschiedenen Zelllinien und Primärzellen. Pneumokokken-Vesikel zeigten eine schnelle Aufnahme in Immunzellen und stimulierten die Freisetzung von proinflammatorischen Zytokinen. Sprühgetrocknete Impfstoff-Mikropartikel wurden mit verbesserter Stabilität und erhöhter Zytokinfreisetzung für die pulmonale Verabreichung formuliert. Unsere Ergebnisse bestätigen das große Potenzial von Pneumokokken-Membranvesikeln als Impfstoffkandidaten und bilden eine wichtige Grundlage für die weitere Umsetzung und das Scale-up für die pulmonale Verabreichung und Immunisierung.PhD fellowship (German-Egyptian Research Long-term Scholarship) from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and Egyptian Ministry of Higher Education. NanoMatFutur grant from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research

Attention: a descriptive taxonomy

The term attention has been used to mean so many different things that some have despaired of it being useful at all. This paper is devoted to bringing a modicum of order to the chaos through the time-honored device of categorization. The chief purpose of this paper is to introduce a comprehensive descriptive taxonomy of the nuanced ways the term attention may be employed. It is presented in table form, followed by elucidations and illustrations of each of its items. But first, I offer reasons why a taxonomy of attention is needed and explore some of its possible benefits. After presenting the taxonomy, I sketch by way of example how it might be applied to two interesting questions: is the umbrella term attention still useful?; and, what is it that ties the subdefinitions of attention together yet distinguishes them from other kinds of cognition

Is attention both necessary and sufficient for consciousness?

Theoretical thesis.Bibliography: pages 399-436.1. Q: Is attention both necessary and sufficient for consciousness? -- PART I. (RE-) LAYING THE FOUNDATIONS: 2. Phenomenal consciousness -- 3. The many faces of attention -- 4. Relationships -- 5. Working memory -- PART II. ADDRESSING Q: 6. Pulling attention and consciousness apart -- 7. Phenomenal overflow -- 8. Triangulating capacity limitations -- 9. Answer(s) to Q -- Appendices -- BibliographyIs attention both necessary and sufficient for consciousness? Call this central question of this treatise, "Q." We commonly have the experience of consciously paying attention to something, but is it possible to be conscious of something you are not attending to, or to attend to something of which you are not conscious? Where might we find examples of these? This treatise is a quest to find an answer to Q in two parts. Part I reviews the foundations upon which the discourse on Q is built. Different inputs to Q produce different answers. After consideration of the many ways "attention" and "consciousness" have been defined, I settle upon phenomenal consciousness and Executive Attention (defined as a suite of strategies for structuring cognition for further processing implemented by the executive of working memory) as the most interesting inputs to Q, and the ones on which Part II focuses. Attention without consciousness seems relatively easy to establish empirically, but consciousness without attention is much harder. The putative candidates all seem to have major problems, but I build a strong abductive case for the hitherto ignored case of foveal phenomenal overflow. We consciously see far more detail in our foveal fields than we can Executively Attend, although there is a serious obstacle to our ever confirming that empirically - identifying conscious content relies on Executive Attentional report. Triangulating the capacity limitations of attention, consciousness, and working memory strengthens this case for consciousness without attention, and suggests that cognition must work something like my "Witches' Hat Model," on which con tent can become conscious outside of Executive Attention or working memory. I conclude with some reflections on the implications of my arguments for the discourse on Q, and for other discourses such as the ontologies of attention and consciousness, theories of consciousness, some other cognitive concepts, and ethical considerations in humans, animals, and machines. A conclusive answer to Q continue s to elude us. It may perhaps be an ultimately insoluble conundrum. But it is the very essence of humanity to seek an answer, and in so doing, to improve our understanding of our own nature : "The proper study of mankind is man."1 online resource (436 pages

‘A Moral Divinitie’: Emmanuel College and the Origins of Cambridge Platonism

This thesis attempts to shed light on the origins of the movement known as 'Cambridge Platonism' through a close philosophical and historical analysis of three key figures belonging to Emmanuel College (referred to as the Emmanuel Three): Benjamin Whichcote (1609–1683), Ralph Cudworth (1617–1688) and John Smith (1618?–1652). In particular, it focuses on the common Platonic outlook which the Emmanuel Three deployed against key tenets of the Calvinist theology of their Puritan colleagues at the university. It is argued that the Smith and Cudworth played a central role in the religious controversy that culminated in a tense correspondence between Whichcote and the Puritan theologian Anthony Tuckney in 1651. Part I of the thesis situates this analysis of the Emmanuel Three within the historiographical controversy around Cambridge Platonism. Part II gives an overview of the Emmanuel Three's intellectual context, with a particular focus on a Platonic current centred at Emmanuel College in the late 1630s. Part III turns on to the 1640s and identifies three key areas in which the Emmanuel Three present strikingly similar critiques of important Calvinist doctrines, with a secondary focus on the ways (often recognised by their opponents) in which these critiques reveal the influence of Platonism. Finally, Part IV explores the 'philosophical core' of the Emmanuel Three's philosophical outlook, providing a detailed analysis of their participatory religious epistemology and their conceptions of divine and human freedom. In sum, the thesis uses the historical problem of the origins of Cambridge Platonism to bring out the distinctive philosophical contribution of the often neglected Emmanuel Three to central and formative debates in philosophy of religion

First Report of Leishmania tropica from a Classical Focus of L. major in North-Sinai, Egypt

This is the publisher's version, also available electronically from http://www.ajtmh.org/content/81/2/213.long.Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is prevalent in the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula and previous research has consistently documented the etiologic agent to be Leishmania major. We report the first isolation of Leishmania tropica from human cases of CL in a Northern Sinai community bordering Palestine. Parasite culturing, real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR), gene sequencing, and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analyses indicate CL cases in this community were caused by either L. major or L. tropica (three cases each). Two wild-caught rodents (Gerbillus pyramidum floweri) were infected with L. tropica. Phlebotomus papatasi sand flies were found harboring L. major, however only non-infected individuals of Phlebotomus sergenti, a vector for L. tropica, were caught. Patients with L. tropica had not traveled from the region in over a year, suggesting these cases are autochthonous. This scenario is consistent with an incursion of L. tropica from bordering countries and raises concerns about expansion of this parasite further into Egypt

Fuzzy-Skyhook Control for Active Suspension Systems Applied to a Full Vehicle Model

Nowadays, most modern vehicles are equipped with controlled suspension systems for improving the vehicle ride comfort. Therefore, this paper is concerned with a theoretical study for the ride comfort performance of the vehicle. The theoretical investigation includes a suggestion of an active suspension system controller using fuzzy-skyhook control theory, which offers new opportunities for the improvement of vehicle ride performance. The ride comfort of the active suspension system has been evaluated using a 7 degree of freedom full vehicle mathematical model. The simulation results are presented in the time and frequency domain, also in terms of RMS values, and it’s shown that the proposed active suspension system with fuzzy-skyhook control improved the vehicle ride quality in terms of body acceleration, suspension working space and dynamic tyre load in comparison with the passive and skyhook suspension systems

Isocyanide-Based Multicomponent Reactions of Free Phenylboronic Acids

Boronic acids are amongst the most useful synthetic intermediates, frequently used by modern drug design. However, their access and fast synthesis of libraries are often problematic. We present a methodology on the synthesis of drug-like scaffolds via IMCRs with unprotected phenylboronic acids. To demonstrate an application of our approach, we also performed one-pot Suzuki couplings on the primary MCR scaffolds. Moreover, we performed a thorough data-mining of the Cambridge Structural Database, revealing interesting geometrical features

Case Report: Patient with Hepatitis C, p-ANCA, and Cryoglobulin Antibodies Presenting with Necrotizing Crescentic p-ANCA Glomerulonephritis

Hepatitis C (HCV) infection has a prevalence of 3 million infected individuals in the United States, according to recent Center for Disease Control reports, and can have various renal manifestations. Cryoglobulins, antibodies that precipitate at colder temperatures in vitro, are a relatively common cause of renal disease in HCV infection. The cryoglobulin proteins can form occlusive aggregates in small glomerular capillary lumina or deposit in other areas of the glomerulus, resulting in hypocomplementemia, proteinuria, hematuria, and renal injury. The typical biopsy pattern is that of membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis (MPGN). There are, however, other HCV-related patterns of glomerular injury. Anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCA) are known to exist in HCV-infected patients. In many reported cases, ANCA serologic testing may appear positive due to cross-reactivity of the immune assays; however, the biopsy findings do not support ANCA-associated crescentic glomerulonephritis (GN)/vasculitis as the primary cause of glomerular injury. There are rare reports of microscopic polyangiitis (MPA) p-ANCA vasculitis, in patients with HCV infection. In comparison with the MPGN pattern of cryoglobulinemic glomerular injury, biopsies from these HCV-infected patients with concomitant MPA revealed a crescentic GN, associated with normal serum complement levels. We present a case of HCV-associated glomerular disease with the surprising biopsy finding of necrotizing and crescentic p-ANCA GN, with a background, low-grade mesangial immune complex GN. Thus, p-ANCA disease should also be considered in HCV-infected patients, in addition to the more typical lesions of MPGN or cryoglobulinemic GN