The sustainable management of byproducts of the steel industry: Egypt case study

In society today, the world is faced with multiple challenges within the realm of sustainability in the economic, social, and environmental sectors. Egypt has also been faced with challenges that have been growing over the decades that require a vision that will put forward mitigation efforts and recommendations. Egypt’s steel industry has been rapidly and vastly expanding over the past decade due to an overall increase in demand in steel, this is also linked to the fact that with population growth the supply demanded increases which in turn requires that the demand meet. The growing steel market has sparked the emergence and opening of a number of newly introduced companies who have joined this viable production sector. As steel production in Egypt is increasing, the country must also adapt and develop ways to sustainably treat the by- products of steel production, which are harmful to the environment, society, and the economy. The types of waste generated from steel production include byproducts that are usually left unrecycled or that are thrown away. These byproducts include slag and dust. Sustainable methods of reusing byproducts generated by steelmaking plants would help develop more viable production cycles for steel plants in Egypt, especially with their current uses that are not being employed correctly. However, to date, no sustainable practices for the reuse of steelmaking byproducts have been implemented by the steel making industry in Egypt. By researching ways in which steel byproducts are dealt with in other countries and assessing how such methods are suitable in the Egyptian context, this thesis will make important recommendations for a more sustainable management of byproducts of steel in Egypt. This thesis will employ a case study method and pros and cons will be discussed to examine which approach is the optimal choice for the industry in Egypt. Further research regarding the procedures of implementations, the current and potential difficulties that will be faced and the lessons learnt from case studies abroad will also be taken into consideration. Ultimately, this thesis shows positive results from the mathematical calculations that have forecasted the potential reuse profits of slag and dust. This will imply that these methods are viable for Egypt to implement as recommendations for the next steps forward. In addition to that looking and learning from countries methodologies abroad that have implemented vast methods of byproduct dealings and their impacts on the three pillars of sustainability

Acquired Aorto-Atrial Fistula from Intravenous Drug Use with Underlying Congenital Heart Disease.

The development of an aorta-atrial fistula secondary to mechanical aortic valve infective endocarditis, is a rare, serious complication. The fistula is an aberrant intra-cardiac shunt that occurs between the aorta and either the left or right atrium. An aorta-atrial fistula can be congenital or acquired. In the case of infective endocarditis, the infection’s expansion beyond the valvular structure, may result in an aorto-cavitary fistula (ACF or AAF) with an estimated incidence of 1-2% (1). No clinical trials have been conducted for the best approach of management for this condition. Therefore, treatment strategies are applied to a case-by-case basis by expert opinion. Patients develop symptoms of heart failure secondary to AAF complications. The underlying cause of AAF needs to be identified with the use of imaging studies, to determine the approach of optimal treatment (2). We are reporting a case of a 32-year-old male with a history of repaired congenital heart disease, who developed mechanical aortic valve infective endocarditis from intravenous drug use with subsequent development of an aorta-atrial fistula

Establishment of a Chebyshev-dependent Inhomogeneous Second Order Differential Equation for the Applied Physics-related Boubaker-Turki Polynomials

This paper proposes Chebyshev-dependent inhomogeneous second order differential equation for the m-Boubaker polynomials (or Boubaker-Turki polynomials). This differential equation is also presented as a guide to applied physics studies. A concrete example is given through an attempt to solve the Bloch NMR flow equation inside blood vessels

Perspectives and attitudes of jordanian medical and paramedical students toward surrogate pregnancy

Purpose: This study aims at investigating the perspectives of Jordanian medical and paramedical students on surrogate pregnancy. Methods: A questionnaire-based cross-sectional study design was used. The sample consisted of n=328 students of both genders. The questionnaire responses were numerically coded and analyzed across gender and the level of education. Results: Approximately, 18% of the students reported good awareness about the ethical dilemmas of surrogacy. The results showed a general reluctance to accept surrogate pregnancy as the majority (80.5% of male students and 97.6% of female students) had a negative attitude toward surrogacy. In addition, undergraduate students were less supportive to surrogate pregnancy than graduate students. Religious considerations were the main reason (accounts for about 70%) for driving negative attitude toward surrogacy. Conclusion: The findings of the study indicate a general reluctance toward accepting the concept of surrogate pregnancy, which is mainly due to religious reasons

Global, regional, and national burden of disorders affecting the nervous system, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

BackgroundDisorders affecting the nervous system are diverse and include neurodevelopmental disorders, late-life neurodegeneration, and newly emergent conditions, such as cognitive impairment following COVID-19. Previous publications from the Global Burden of Disease, Injuries, and Risk Factor Study estimated the burden of 15 neurological conditions in 2015 and 2016, but these analyses did not include neurodevelopmental disorders, as defined by the International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-11, or a subset of cases of congenital, neonatal, and infectious conditions that cause neurological damage. Here, we estimate nervous system health loss caused by 37 unique conditions and their associated risk factors globally, regionally, and nationally from 1990 to 2021.MethodsWe estimated mortality, prevalence, years lived with disability (YLDs), years of life lost (YLLs), and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), with corresponding 95% uncertainty intervals (UIs), by age and sex in 204 countries and territories, from 1990 to 2021. We included morbidity and deaths due to neurological conditions, for which health loss is directly due to damage to the CNS or peripheral nervous system. We also isolated neurological health loss from conditions for which nervous system morbidity is a consequence, but not the primary feature, including a subset of congenital conditions (ie, chromosomal anomalies and congenital birth defects), neonatal conditions (ie, jaundice, preterm birth, and sepsis), infectious diseases (ie, COVID-19, cystic echinococcosis, malaria, syphilis, and Zika virus disease), and diabetic neuropathy. By conducting a sequela-level analysis of the health outcomes for these conditions, only cases where nervous system damage occurred were included, and YLDs were recalculated to isolate the non-fatal burden directly attributable to nervous system health loss. A comorbidity correction was used to calculate total prevalence of all conditions that affect the nervous system combined.FindingsGlobally, the 37 conditions affecting the nervous system were collectively ranked as the leading group cause of DALYs in 2021 (443 million, 95% UI 378–521), affecting 3·40 billion (3·20–3·62) individuals (43·1%, 40·5–45·9 of the global population); global DALY counts attributed to these conditions increased by 18·2% (8·7–26·7) between 1990 and 2021. Age-standardised rates of deaths per 100 000 people attributed to these conditions decreased from 1990 to 2021 by 33·6% (27·6–38·8), and age-standardised rates of DALYs attributed to these conditions decreased by 27·0% (21·5–32·4). Age-standardised prevalence was almost stable, with a change of 1·5% (0·7–2·4). The ten conditions with the highest age-standardised DALYs in 2021 were stroke, neonatal encephalopathy, migraine, Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, diabetic neuropathy, meningitis, epilepsy, neurological complications due to preterm birth, autism spectrum disorder, and nervous system cancer.InterpretationAs the leading cause of overall disease burden in the world, with increasing global DALY counts, effective prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation strategies for disorders affecting the nervous system are needed

Global burden of 288 causes of death and life expectancy decomposition in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

BACKGROUND Regular, detailed reporting on population health by underlying cause of death is fundamental for public health decision making. Cause-specific estimates of mortality and the subsequent effects on life expectancy worldwide are valuable metrics to gauge progress in reducing mortality rates. These estimates are particularly important following large-scale mortality spikes, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. When systematically analysed, mortality rates and life expectancy allow comparisons of the consequences of causes of death globally and over time, providing a nuanced understanding of the effect of these causes on global populations. METHODS The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021 cause-of-death analysis estimated mortality and years of life lost (YLLs) from 288 causes of death by age-sex-location-year in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations for each year from 1990 until 2021. The analysis used 56 604 data sources, including data from vital registration and verbal autopsy as well as surveys, censuses, surveillance systems, and cancer registries, among others. As with previous GBD rounds, cause-specific death rates for most causes were estimated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model-a modelling tool developed for GBD to assess the out-of-sample predictive validity of different statistical models and covariate permutations and combine those results to produce cause-specific mortality estimates-with alternative strategies adapted to model causes with insufficient data, substantial changes in reporting over the study period, or unusual epidemiology. YLLs were computed as the product of the number of deaths for each cause-age-sex-location-year and the standard life expectancy at each age. As part of the modelling process, uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated using the 2·5th and 97·5th percentiles from a 1000-draw distribution for each metric. We decomposed life expectancy by cause of death, location, and year to show cause-specific effects on life expectancy from 1990 to 2021. We also used the coefficient of variation and the fraction of population affected by 90% of deaths to highlight concentrations of mortality. Findings are reported in counts and age-standardised rates. Methodological improvements for cause-of-death estimates in GBD 2021 include the expansion of under-5-years age group to include four new age groups, enhanced methods to account for stochastic variation of sparse data, and the inclusion of COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality-which includes excess mortality associated with the pandemic, excluding COVID-19, lower respiratory infections, measles, malaria, and pertussis. For this analysis, 199 new country-years of vital registration cause-of-death data, 5 country-years of surveillance data, 21 country-years of verbal autopsy data, and 94 country-years of other data types were added to those used in previous GBD rounds. FINDINGS The leading causes of age-standardised deaths globally were the same in 2019 as they were in 1990; in descending order, these were, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lower respiratory infections. In 2021, however, COVID-19 replaced stroke as the second-leading age-standardised cause of death, with 94·0 deaths (95% UI 89·2-100·0) per 100 000 population. The COVID-19 pandemic shifted the rankings of the leading five causes, lowering stroke to the third-leading and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to the fourth-leading position. In 2021, the highest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 occurred in sub-Saharan Africa (271·0 deaths [250·1-290·7] per 100 000 population) and Latin America and the Caribbean (195·4 deaths [182·1-211·4] per 100 000 population). The lowest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 were in the high-income super-region (48·1 deaths [47·4-48·8] per 100 000 population) and southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania (23·2 deaths [16·3-37·2] per 100 000 population). Globally, life expectancy steadily improved between 1990 and 2019 for 18 of the 22 investigated causes. Decomposition of global and regional life expectancy showed the positive effect that reductions in deaths from enteric infections, lower respiratory infections, stroke, and neonatal deaths, among others have contributed to improved survival over the study period. However, a net reduction of 1·6 years occurred in global life expectancy between 2019 and 2021, primarily due to increased death rates from COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality. Life expectancy was highly variable between super-regions over the study period, with southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania gaining 8·3 years (6·7-9·9) overall, while having the smallest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 (0·4 years). The largest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean (3·6 years). Additionally, 53 of the 288 causes of death were highly concentrated in locations with less than 50% of the global population as of 2021, and these causes of death became progressively more concentrated since 1990, when only 44 causes showed this pattern. The concentration phenomenon is discussed heuristically with respect to enteric and lower respiratory infections, malaria, HIV/AIDS, neonatal disorders, tuberculosis, and measles. INTERPRETATION Long-standing gains in life expectancy and reductions in many of the leading causes of death have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the adverse effects of which were spread unevenly among populations. Despite the pandemic, there has been continued progress in combatting several notable causes of death, leading to improved global life expectancy over the study period. Each of the seven GBD super-regions showed an overall improvement from 1990 and 2021, obscuring the negative effect in the years of the pandemic. Additionally, our findings regarding regional variation in causes of death driving increases in life expectancy hold clear policy utility. Analyses of shifting mortality trends reveal that several causes, once widespread globally, are now increasingly concentrated geographically. These changes in mortality concentration, alongside further investigation of changing risks, interventions, and relevant policy, present an important opportunity to deepen our understanding of mortality-reduction strategies. Examining patterns in mortality concentration might reveal areas where successful public health interventions have been implemented. Translating these successes to locations where certain causes of death remain entrenched can inform policies that work to improve life expectancy for people everywhere. FUNDING Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

La conférence d'extension du TNP vue du Tiers-Monde

The 1995 NPT Review and Extension Conference : A Third World Perspective, by Mahmoud Karem The unlimited extension of the NPT was the resuit of strong pressures by the NWS, which was apparent in their refusal of secret voting. The extension was secured at the expense of alternative proposals by non-aligned states, of the review of the Treaty (witness the lack of a final declaration) ; and of the reduction of the arsenals of the NWS. The NPT Conference did, however, adopt a resolution on the Middle East. Egypt seeks the end of the arms race in the region, which is linked to the efforts of other states to reach parity with a nuclear-armed Israel. Israel should adhere to the NPT, and the denuclearisation of the Middle East should be envisage d in the framework ofthe ACRS talks, for nuclear threats are among the paramount sources of instability in the Middle East.La prorogation illimitée du TNP a été obtenue au moyen d'une forte pression des EDAN, qui s'est manifestée en particulier par leur refus d'un vote secret. Ceci s'est effectué au détriment de toute proposition alternative émanant des pays non-alignés ; de l'examen du traité, dont témoigne l'absence d'une déclaration finale ; et de la réduction des arsenaux des EDAN. En ce qui concerne le Moyen-Orient, à propos duquel une résolution a été adoptée à New York, l'Egypte est favorable à la cessation de la course aux armements, qui est liée à la recherche par d'autres pays de la parité avec un Etat hébreu doté de l'arme nucléaire. Israël devrait donc adhérer au TNP et la dénucléarisation de la région doit être envisagée dans le cadre des pourparlers ACRS, car il s'agit là d'une des principales sources d'instabilité au Moyen-Orient.Karem. La conférence d'extension du TNP vue du Tiers-Monde. In: Politique étrangère, n°3 - 1995 - 60ᵉannée. pp. 621-632

Central Moments via Factorial Moments for Some Discrete Distributions

Abstract: Central moments are usually calculated in terms of non central moments. This may be difficult in many discrete distributions. In this paper, the factorial moments are simply calculated. Then a closed form is deduced for the central moments. A new number is produced to simplify calculations of the required moments. Central moments are calculated for some discrete distributions. Key Words: central moments, factorial moments, discrete distributions 1

Physical and Sedentary Activity during COVID19-induced Confinement

Coronavirus disease 19 (COVID19) have compelled implementing confinement measure across the globe. These measures can potentially lead to many changes in lifestyle. However, no studies examined the effect of COVID19-induced confinement on physical (PA) and sedentary (SA) activity. Therefore, the current study surveyed changes in PA and SA during April and May of 2020. The participant of the study were 1844. Among the participants who were regularly involved in PA, the majority (41.8-42.2%) of the participants reported a “decrease” (p<0.05) in walking, jogging, and sports while the majority (46.3-53.1%) reported a “no change” (p<0.05) in swimming, cycling, and weightlifting. With regard the SA, most of the participants reported an “increase” in watching TV (72.3%), using electronics (82.7%), and logging to social media (81.9%). Additionally, gender, job type, obesity, gender and being worried to conduct the disease are associated (p<0.05) with changes in PA while age, gender, obesity, job type and income are related (p<0.05) to changes in SA. In conclusion, the results might enhance our knowledge about the impact of COVID19 on lifestyle, particularly PA and SA. Subsequently, can also be used to establish strategies to enhance engagement in activities during the current and future pandemics