Women-owned MSMEs and Financial Inclusion in Egypt

In Egypt, Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) play a crucial role in the economy, with their contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employment. Despite being the backbone of the economy, they are constantly confronted with challenges in the business environment. Primary amongst these challenges is limited access to formal financial capital at an affordable interest rate leading them to depend on other sources of finance like savings and informal financial services. Women-owned MSMEs especially, have been found to face more challenges in terms of financial accessibility and exclusion from the formal financial market. This work highlights the extent of financial inclusion in Egypt with respect to not only access, but also usage and quality of financial service problems faced by MSMEs in general and women-owned businesses in particular. The analysis of the study follows the comprehensive framework of financial inclusion including access, usage and quality of financial products and services. The findings of this research reveal that while women-owned MSMEs face certain challenges similar to those of their male-owned counterparts, the severity of their challenges is more pronounced by virtue of they being women-owned. Specific constraints faced by women includes risk aversion of banks, lack of financial services and products targeting women-owned MSMEs, lack of collateral and low levels of financial awareness and financial literacy. Whilst a number of interventions have been put in place by the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) and the Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) to address the issue of financial inclusion within the MSME sector, most of them do not take gender into consideration. The study recommends continuing supporting MSMEs financial inclusion especially women-owned MSMEs through addressing non-price barriers like supporting a secured collateral framework, raising the capabilities of financial institutions to better serve women-owned MSMEs and focusing on raising financial awareness and literacy among women-owned MSMEs

Low Complexity V-BLAST MIMO-OFDM Detector by Successive Iterations Reduction

V-BLAST detection method suffers large computational complexity due to its successive detection of symbols. In this paper, we propose a modified V-BLAST algorithm to decrease the computational complexity by reducing the number of detection iterations required in MIMO communication systems. We begin by showing the existence of a maximum number of iterations, beyond which, no significant improvement is obtained. We establish a criterion for the number of maximum effective iterations. We propose a modified algorithm that uses the measured SNR to dynamically set the number of iterations to achieve an acceptable bit-error rate. Then, we replace the feedback algorithm with an approximate linear function to reduce the complexity. Simulations show that significant reduction in computational complexity is achieved compared to the ordinary V-BLAST, while maintaining a good BER performance.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables. The final publication is available at www.aece.r

Matrix isolation studies of transition metal halides and main group Lewis acid‒base complexes

The main purpose of this work was to synthesise and study the binary fluorides of nickel, cobalt and chromium, and the binary halides of palladium and molybdenum in solid argon matrices. Both UV/vis spectroscopy and FTIR spectroscopy were employed to identify the products formed. Additionally, this work also investigated the reaction between SiF4 with alkyl phosphines.In the beginning, the work focused on isolation of atomic nickel, cobalt, molybdenum, and palladium in neat argon matrices. The FTIR data revealed the interaction of nickel and fluorine atoms in solid argon matrix and the formation of nickel fluoride molecules NiF, NiF2, and NiF4 and also provided evidence for the formation of NiF3 molecules. Moreover, cobalt atoms trapped in a matrix of argon doped with fluorine yielded the formation of CoF, CoF2, CoF3, CoF4, and Co2F2 molecules. Furthermore, molybdenum fluoride species in an argon matrix have been obtained, which is the first observation of the vibrational modes for MoF and MoF2 in matrices. The geometry of MoF2 species was assigned to be bent with a bond angle of 132°. In addition, FTIR data indicated the formation of matrix isolated chromium fluorides in solid argon matrix. The study succeeded in the characterisation of CrF and CrF6 molecules, as well as the previously identified CrF2, CrF3, CrF4 and CrF5. The IR band related to CrF6 is observed at 757 cm−1. A computational study suggested that PdCl2 is linear.The reaction between SiF4 and PMe3 at cryogenic temperatures led to the formation of a SiF4−PMe3 complex and indicated the formation of two different species. The reaction between SiF4 and PEt3 revealed the formation of a 1:1 adduct of trigonal bipyramid structure with axial PEt3 of SiF4.PEt3 and a 1:2 complex of trans–[SiF4.(PEt3)2] structure. The results were supported by computational data

Optimum Resilient Operation and Control DC Microgrid Based Electric Vehicles Charging Station Powered by Renewable Energy Sources

This paper introduces an energy management and control method for DC microgrid supplying electric vehicles (EV) charging station. An Energy Management System (EMS) is developed to manage and control power flow from renewable energy sources to EVs through DC microgrid. An integrated approach for controlling DC microgrid based charging station powered by intermittent renewable energies. A wind turbine (WT) and solar photovoltaic (PV) arrays are integrated into the studied DC microgrid to replace energy from fossil fuel and decrease pollution from carbon emissions. Due to the intermittency of solar and wind generation, the output powers of PV and WT are not guaranteed. For this reason, the capacities of WT, solar PV panels, and the battery system are considered decision parameters to be optimized. The optimized design of the renewable energy system is done to ensure sufficient electricity supply to the EV charging station. Moreover, various renewable energy technologies for supplying EV charging stations to improve their performance are investigated. To evaluate the performance of the used control strategies, simulation is carried out in MATLAB/SIMULINK. Document type: Articl

Frequency of abdominal aortic aneurysm in persons who have been examined with ultrasound at Kasr Al-Ainy Hospitals: a single center pilot study

Introduction: To know frequency of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) using ultrasound and clarify associated risk factors in 1000 Egyptians. Material and methods: Prospective study. 1000 patients aged 50 years or more (mean: 57.97 ± [7.68]) were examined by B-mode ultrasound at our radiology department to measure suprarenal maximum diameter of the abdominal aorta (wall to wall measurement) and to identify the occurrence of AAA (aneurysms were defined as 1.5 times the mean diameter). Demographic data and risk factors were also noted. Results: Mean aortic diameter in study population was 18.9 ± (3.2) mm. AAA diameter was 28.3 mm. Frequency of AAA was 1.5%. AAA prevalence: 2.35% in males versus 0.75% in females. Prevalence of AAA in different age groups: < 60 years (n = 653), 60–70 (n = 282), > 70 years (n = 65) was 6 (0.9%), 6 (2.1%), 3 (4.6%) respectively. Patients with AAA were older (P < 0.001), more often male (P < 0.001), smokers (P < 0.001). Conclusion: Study showed that mean aortic diameter was 18.9 mm and AAA is present in 1.5% of the study population which was less than that seen in previously conducted studies in other countries

Use of Foley\u27s catheter balloon tamponade to control placental site bleeding resulting from major placenta previa during cesarean section

Aim: To evaluate the effect of 2-way Foley\u27s catheter balloon tamponade on controlling immediate postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) in cases of major placenta previa during cesarean section (CS). Methods: We evaluated women with placenta previa from May to November 2015. Women with immediate PPH during CS due to major placenta previa were managed by 2-way Foley\u27s catheter balloon tamponade when medical treatment failed, and before any surgical intervention. Results: Twenty patients, had major placenta previa, were delivered by elective CS and complicated by immediate PPH. Three placenta accreta patients (15%) underwent hysterectomy, 17 (85%) were managed by the 2-way Foley\u27s catheter balloon tamponade. In two patients, Foley\u27s catheter balloon failed to control bleeding and hysterectomy was done immediately. However, Foley\u27s catheter balloon successfully treated the remaining 15 patients. The median bleeding during the operation was 1522.5 (± 619.29) ml. None of them presented complications related to this procedure or required any further invasive surgery. Conclusion: The 2-way Foley\u27s catheter tamponade could be an option to control immediate postpartum hemorrhage resulting from major placenta previa during the cesarean section. This method is simple, cheap, nearly non-invasive and should be considered to reduce the risk of peripartum hysterectomy

Greedy Representative Selection for Unsupervised Data Analysis

In recent years, the advance of information and communication technologies has allowed the storage and transfer of massive amounts of data. The availability of this overwhelming amount of data stimulates a growing need to develop fast and accurate algorithms to discover useful information hidden in the data. This need is even more acute for unsupervised data, which lacks information about the categories of different instances. This dissertation addresses a crucial problem in unsupervised data analysis, which is the selection of representative instances and/or features from the data. This problem can be generally defined as the selection of the most representative columns of a data matrix, which is formally known as the Column Subset Selection (CSS) problem. Algorithms for column subset selection can be directly used for data analysis or as a pre-processing step to enhance other data mining algorithms, such as clustering. The contributions of this dissertation can be summarized as outlined below. First, a fast and accurate algorithm is proposed to greedily select a subset of columns of a data matrix such that the reconstruction error of the matrix based on the subset of selected columns is minimized. The algorithm is based on a novel recursive formula for calculating the reconstruction error, which allows the development of time and memory-efficient algorithms for greedy column subset selection. Experiments on real data sets demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed algorithms in comparison to the state-of-the-art methods for column subset selection. Second, a kernel-based algorithm is presented for column subset selection. The algorithm greedily selects representative columns using information about their pairwise similarities. The algorithm can also calculate a Nyström approximation for a large kernel matrix based on the subset of selected columns. In comparison to different Nyström methods, the greedy Nyström method has been empirically shown to achieve significant improvements in approximating kernel matrices, with minimum overhead in run time. Third, two algorithms are proposed for fast approximate k-means and spectral clustering. These algorithms employ the greedy column subset selection method to embed all data points in the subspace of a few representative points, where the clustering is performed. The approximate algorithms run much faster than their exact counterparts while achieving comparable clustering performance. Fourth, a fast and accurate greedy algorithm for unsupervised feature selection is proposed. The algorithm is an application of the greedy column subset selection method presented in this dissertation. Similarly, the features are greedily selected such that the reconstruction error of the data matrix is minimized. Experiments on benchmark data sets show that the greedy algorithm outperforms state-of-the-art methods for unsupervised feature selection in the clustering task. Finally, the dissertation studies the connection between the column subset selection problem and other related problems in statistical data analysis, and it presents a unified framework which allows the use of the greedy algorithms presented in this dissertation to solve different related problems

Dispersed Ag2O/Ag on CNT-Graphene Composite: An Implication for Magnificent Photoreduction and Energy Storage Applications

A simple hydrothermal route assisted by a triblock copolymer was used to synthesize Ag2O/Ag nanoparticles on a robotic support consists of functionalized MWCNTs and graphene composite (Ag2O/Ag/CNT-graphene). The composites together with the individual analog of Ag/CNT and Ag/graphene were characterized by means of XRD, TEM-SAED, N2 sorptiometry, Raman, FTIR, UV-Vis, and photoluminescence spectroscopy. These nanomaterials were then tested for the catalytic reduction of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) to the technologically beneficial 4-aminophenol (4-AP). The Ag2O@Ag@CNT-graphene composite calcined at 400°C has shown fascinating reduction performances for 4-NP either in the dark (k = 0.014 s−1) or under visible light illumination (k = 0.039 s−1) in the presence of 5 mM NaBH4 compared to Ag/CNT (0.0112 s−1) and Ag/graphene (0.010 s−1) catalysts. This was chiefly because Ag2O@Ag@CNT-graphene comprises the highest pore volume (0.49 cm3/g) and involves three types of pores in the margin from 1.8 to 4.0 nm in front of only one modal type of pores for the rest of the catalysts and thus maximizes the adsorptive capacity of the reactants (4-NP and NaBH4). Moreover, the former composite exhibits the highest concentration of the Ag2O component as established by numerous techniques in addition to the cyclic voltammetry, proposing it's facile reaction with 4-NP along with the simultaneous transfer of surface hydrogen and electrons from NaBH4 ions to produce 4-AP. The promotion of the p-n junction evaluated using the Mott-schottky equation on Ag2O@Ag@CNT-graphene assisted by charges separation and surface plasmon resonance bands of Ag and Ag2O are found to be advantageous for 4-NP reduction. The latter composite delivers a specific capacitance of 355 F g−1 at 1.0 A g−1 exceeding those of Ag/CNT (230 F g−1) and Ag/graphene (185 F g−1). The EIS study establishes the high electronic conductivity of the metallic Ag and Ag2O moieties, low internal resistance of CNT-graphene as well as the marked ionic transfer facilitated by the composite porous nature

A multi-sectoral intervention model to scale up family planning services utilization at the primary health care level: evidence from a priority district, Fayoum governorate, Egypt

Background: Egypt is one of the most populous countries in the Middle East and Africa. Evidence from developing countries revealed that increasing family planning use is associated with substantial declines in fertility and population growth. The objective of this study was to assess the impact of implementing a multisectoral intervention model on the family planning utilization at the Primary Health Care (PHC) level in a priority district, Fayoum governorate, Egypt.  Methods: A quasi-experimental design was conducted from July 2016 to September 2016. The model targeted 10 PHC units out of 23 at Tamia district, with two types of interventions; health sector and non-health sector related interventions carried out in the intervention units and their catchment areas. The family planning utilization of the intervention units (n=10) was compared to the control units (n=13). Additionally, the overall family planning utilization at the district level was measured.  Results: Following the implementation of the interventions, the overall family planning utilization at the district level showed a significant increase in mean ± Standard Error of the Mean (SEM) of new family planning clients (44.4±11.0vs. 63.3±13.8; P= 0.006) recording 43% change. The mean ± SEM of intrauterine devices dispensed from the intervention units significantly increased by 391% (3.5±1.0 vs. 17.2±3.3; P=0.002). Findings from the control units didn't reveal significant increase regarding the dispense of any family planning method.  Conclusion: Mobilizing and optimizing resources use, empowering district authorities and strengthening collaboration across sectors were key drivers of the success of this model in scaling up family planning services utilization.  &nbsp

Critical Discourse within European Plays in the First Half of the Twentieth Century and the Manifestations of a Similar Phenomenon in Modern Egyptian Drama

This thesis closely examines the utilisation of dramatic characters’ comments on matters of literary and theatrical criticism. This phenomenon shaped a trend in European theatre during the first half of the twentieth century, and Egyptian theatre in the second half of the century. My main hypotheses are, firstly, that dramatic characters’ comments on literary and theatrical matters of criticism respond to specific problems that challenge theatre practice. Thus, my reading of literary and theatrical criticism within the dramatic texts studied in my thesis focuses on this criticism’s reformative function to rectify the crisis that faces theatre practice in general, rather than playwrights’ individual motives, such as responding to their critics. Secondly, socio-political, economic, and cultural aspects shape historical circumstances, which influence the current state of the theatre industry. Therefore, although Egyptian plays are noticeably influenced by European metatheatre, Egyptian playwrights utilise these borrowed techniques to highlight specific problems of Egyptian theatre such as the corrupt administration of governmental theatre and censorship. Finally, while Egyptian plays exploit European metatheatrical techniques, Egyptian playwrights claimed their works as a revival of intrinsically anti-illusionist traditional forms of entertainment such as the shadow play and Karagöz. This claim reflected increasing calls for pure Egyptian theatre, as part of the anti-Western jingoistic discourse of the political regime of the 1950s. In order to examine these assumptions, my theoretical approach draws from the fields of metatheatrical studies; literary and performance studies of parody and intertextuality; the history of European and Egyptian theatre; sociological, political and cultural studies; theories of modern criticism, and critical reviews. My contribution to the field of metatheatrical studies is in highlighting the reformative function of literary and theatrical criticism, whether as a discourse or a metatheatrical device, within a group of European plays that belong to different movements of the avant-garde during the first half of the twentieth century. More significantly, my study investigates the same phenomenon in Egyptian plays that, since the 1980s, have gradually been marginalised as fringe theatre and neglected by academic studies