Subsidies for energy efficiency and alternative energy adoption programs: case study from Egypt taxi recycling program

This thesis was developed to call in question the conventional perception that energy subsidies, especially in the service sector, are necessarily barriers to the adoption of improved technology. It provides a case study for an innovative program that supported energy efficiency and the adoption of alternative energy in the transportation sector and relied in part on subsidy savings. The program-Egypt\u27s Taxi Recycling Program-was not only successful in reaching the targeted population effectively, but also lifted some of the fuel subsidies burden off the government budget. Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) and Soft System Methodology (SSM) were applied to analyze the distribution of benefits from the Taxi Recycling program. The CBA was applied to define the main costs and benefits drawn by the two key stakeholders- the Egyptian Government and taxi owners participating in the program. The SSM was applied to have more detailed understanding of the role and the power of the stakeholders involved; in order to evaluate the performance of the stakeholders. The study findings indicated that the program has an overall positive impact on the different stakeholders involved. Since it was structured as a Public-Private-Partnership, the program offered significant opportunities to the private sector participating companies, either by stimulating vehicles sales and loan demands that would have not otherwise occurred, or by facilitating the communication channels among the different stakeholders involved. The program encountered some challenges that directly and indirectly affected the stakeholders involved. The taxi owners, however, had been the most influenced by the program\u27s challenges. The challenges included: the advertising firm being unable to fulfill its commitments; the maintenance services and maintenance costs; the waiting periods for getting the new cars; the quality of the cars that were sold; and the adoption of natural gas as an alternative fuel. Nonetheless, the program had overall positive social impacts. Through applying CBA from the government perspective, we concluded that the benefits encountered from the program implementation far exceed the costs incurred by the government. Upon reaching the program target of changing around 40,000 old taxi vehicles operating in Greater Cairo Region, the program would save more than LE 380 million annually from the fuel subsidies assigned funds. As for the environmental impacts, the Taxi Recycling program has been divided into eleven separate projects called Certified Project Activities (CPAs); with an average of 4,576 recycled taxi vehicles per CPA. The preliminary assessment, based on CAPMAS\u27s 2010 estimation of the costs associated with CO2 emissions\u27 negative environmental impacts, showed that the new vehicles would result in annual average environmental benefits of 2.080 million US dollars per each Taxi-Recycling-CPA. In addition, these saved emissions represent potential government revenue if the government was able to sell the reduced emissions under the Clean Development Mechanism

EVALUATION OF ETHOSOMAL EPIGALLOCATECHIN-3-GALLATE GEL FORMULATIONS AS AN ANTIOXIDANT AND THERMOGENIC AGENT

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate in vitro and in vivo behavior of the prepared ethosomal formulations of green tea extract, which in turn would result in enhancing their therapeutic efficacy as antioxidants and thermogenic agents in obese mice. Methods: Fat Wistar rats were acclimated for at least 7 d in environmentally controlled cages, then they were divided into five groups: 1st received only distilled water, 2nd received an oral dose of green tea extract, in 3rd group green tea extract loaded gel base was applied on the previously shaven dorsal side of rats and in the other 2 groups selected green tea extract loaded Ethosomal gel base were applied on the previously shaven dorsal side of rats. Total antioxidant capacity by ferric reducing ability of plasma (FRAP) method, catalase enzyme activity, malondialdehyde (MDA) and thiobarbituric acid reactive substance (TBARs) levels, and real-time qPCR of UCP2 and 3 were then determined. Results: Formulation of green tea extract as ethosomal preparations exhibited a controlled release rate due to the reservoir action of ethosomes. The levels of TBARs and MDA were lower in groups supplemented with green tea extracts compared to control group and in groups (3-5) received it transdermal (P<0.0001 in all 3 groups) was lower than group received it orally with P = 0.0081. The messenger RNA levels of UCPs 2 and 3 in BAT were increased in those 3 groups. Conclusion: The results support the efficiency of ethosomal gel in penetrating the lipid rich biological membrane. The in vivo study confirms the antioxidant and thermogenic behavior of transdermal applied green tea extract

Social media has invaded our homes, our lives, even our dining tables : Metaphor in bilingual writers\u27 discourse about social media

In this chapter we focus on linguistic and conceptual aspects of metaphor in the Arabic and English student texts in ZAEBUC. Past research on metaphor based on Lakoff and Johnson’s (1980) pioneering work has shown its cognitive, cultural and rhetorical significance, usually for native speakers. Research on L2 metaphor, on the other hand, has focused more on its linguistic manifestations in texts of different proficiency levels. Using Pragglejaz Group’s (2007) Metaphor Identification Procedure, we annotated linguistic instances of metaphor, and also recurring conceptual metaphors underlying these. We found that the most frequent metaphors are used in both languages, while some are used more in one language or the other, suggesting that they are linked more to students’ Emirati family/community networks (and Arabic) or more to generational/online affiliations associated with English. L2 English writing assessed as more proficient tends to use more novel lexical metaphors, while in L1 Arabic, this pattern is not clearly visible

The Effect of Intermittent Fasting and Caloric Restricted Diet on Diabetic Rats

The present study was aimed to investigate the effect of intermittent fasting and caloric restricted diet (RD) for 8 weeks on diabetic rats. Forty-nine adult male albino rats were divided into two main groups; the first main group was fed only on basal diet and served as negative control group and the second main group: diabetic rats were induced by a single intra-peritoneal injection of freshly prepared STZ (60 mg/kg BW) then divided into 6 subgroups: Subgroup (1) was fed only on basal diet and was served as positive cont. Subgroup (2) was fed on RD only. Subgroups (3, 4) were fed on basal diet and were deprived of food except water from 5 p.m. to 8 a.m. twice a week and every other day, respectively. Subgroups (5, 6): were fed on RD and intermittent fasting twice a week and every other day, respectively. The results indicated that RD and intermittent fasting significantly decreased the final body weight, feed intake and body weight gain % values as compared to the positive control rats. Diabetic treated rats had significant increase (p<0.05) in insulin concentration and lower glucose levels as well as an improvement in liver functions and lipid profile as compared to the positive control group. Conclusion: the findings suggest that intermittent fasting and caloric restricted diet could have a potential role in managing diabetes

Structure of New Solitary Solutions for The Schwarzian Korteweg De Vries Equation And (2+1)-Ablowitz-Kaup-Newell-Segur Equation

In this research, we introduce and represent the modified Khater method on two basic models in the optical fiber. These two models describe the dynamics of the wave movement in the optical fiber.  It is a new modification of new recent method which developed by Mostafa M. A. Khater in 2017. We implement this new modified technique on Schwarzian Korteweg de Vries equation and (2+1)-Ablowitz-Kaup-Newell-Segur equation. This modification of Khater method produces more closed solutions than many other methods. Schwarzian Korteweg de Vries (SKdV) equation has a closed relationship with (2+1)-Ablowitz- Kaup-Newell-Segur equation. Schwarzian Korteweg de Vries equation prescribes the location in a micro-segment of space and motion of the isolated waves in varied fields which localized in a tiny portion of space. It is a great and basic system in fluid mechanics, nonlinear optics, plasma physics, and quantum field theory

Composite Materials Based On Twaron And Nano Materials

This research aims to participate in producing body shield that can overcome pervious drawbacks using behavior of shear thickening fluid. Initially, the rheological behavior of silica-polyethylene glycol shear thickening fluid is examined at different concentrations. Then, ballistic fabric samples are impregnated into silica-polyethylene glycol shear thickening fluid at various concentrations of silica and tested using gas gun simulating real ballistic threat. After that, the impact of rubbery hot water pack filled with around 66.67 wt% starch in water is tested using gas gun. Results showed as the concentration of silica increases, the indentation depth in the impregnated fabric decreases which may result in improving performance of ballistic fabric to 12.5 % in case of using 60 wt% silica, 7.35 % in case of using 30 wt% silica and 3.31 % in case of using 7.5 wt% silica with respect to plain sample. As it showed that no indentation depth is formed in modelling clay when rubbery hot water pack filled with around 66.67 wt% starch in water is tested using gas gun causing improvement percentage to be 100% compared to plain sample of Twaron (CT 714)

Novel Quinuclidinone Derivatives Induced Apoptosis in Human Breast Cancer via Targeting P53

Small molecules that can target human cancers have been highly sought to increase the anticancer efficacy, the present work describes the design and synthesis of novel series of five quinuclidinone derivatives (2a-2e). Their anticancer activities were investigated against breast cancer cells MCF-7, MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells harboring mutant p53 and normal breast counterpart MCF-12a. Derivative 2e reduced proliferation of MCF-7 and MCD-12a while it has no effect on MDA-MB-231. Derivative 2e induced apoptosis in MCF-7 cells which is further confirmed by TUNEL assay and it reduced the percentage of cell in G2/M phase as confirmed by increased expression of cyclin B and reduced expression of cyclinD1. Derivative 2e reduced expression levels of Mdm2, Akt and ERK1/2 by and increased expression level of p53. Moreover, the apoptosis induction by 2e was also inhibited by PFT-α as evidenced by non-significant induction of apoptosis after treatment of MCF-7 cells with both derivative 2e and PFT-α. In addition, docking study reveals that derivative 2e has a binding pattern close to the pattern observed in the structure of the lead fragment 5,6-dimethoxy-2-methylbenzothiazole bound to T-p53C-Y220C. The above findings demonstrate that derivative 2e induces apoptosis in MCF-7 cells via targeting p53 which merits further development

Phenotypic and Genotypic Identification of Vancomycin Resistant Enterococci from Different Sources

Enterococci are reservoirs for transmission of the most clinically important antimicrobial resistances such as vancomycin resistance. Therefore, this work aimed to determine the occurrence of enterococci and their respective vancomycine resistance genes (vanA and vanB) from different sources. Two hundred and twenty-four samples from chickens, turkey, fish and human urine, as well as, two types of human food including milk (raw and milk from mastitic animals) and sausage were tested for isolation of Enterococcus species. The isolates were identified morphologically and biochemically using catalase test, sodium chloride tolerance and growth at pH 9.6 and 10- 45˚C. The vancomycin resistance profile of the isolates was verified by both disc diffusion and agar dilution methods. The genotypic enterococcal identification at both genus and species levels and their vancomycine resistance genes were also ascertained using PCR amplification of the respective genes for 28 isolates. Enterococci isolation rate was 70% of the examined samples with a higher percentage of vancomycine resistance (53.5%) and the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) ranged from 16 to 512 µg/mL. Molecular identification of 28 enterococcal isolates revealed the dominance of E. faecalis (42.8%) and clarified a higher proportion of vanA (78.5%) and vanB (67.8%) genes. In conclusion, administration of the antimicrobials mainly vancomycin may be considered as a pronounced stress factor in the veterinary and human practices. In addition, VRE can act as a reservoir for vancomycin resistance