DEBT SUSTAINABILIY AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN EGYPT

The persistence growth of Egypt's public domestic debt has raised concerns regarding its impact on economic growth and fears are being express about the debt sustainability. Utilizing data for the period 1981-2006, the results obtained from cointegration model reveal that the public domestic debt in Egypt has a robust negative impact on growth. The sustainability of debt was examined used some algebra methods. The results suggested that the recent path of debt followed in Egypt was sustainable. For debt to remain sustained in future, substantial fiscal reforms are needed and policies should be adopting to maintain an increasing growth-interest rate differential.Public Domestic Debt; Fiscal Budget; Debt Sustainability; Economic Growth; Cointegration.

Effect of Different Factors on the Service Life of Concrete Structures in Chloride Environments: A Parametric Study – Part One

This paper presents a comprehensive parametric study to determine the effect of different factors on the service life of reinforced concrete structures in chloride-laden environment. A model for corrosion initiation is selected and solved numerically by Finite Element Method for one-dimensional diffusion problem. It has been found that increase in water to cement ratio by 12.5%-50% in range of 0.20-0.40reduces the service life by 8%-35%, and by 7.35%-30.5% for the range 0.40-0.60. Also, the increase in concrete cover in the range of 20-35 mm by 14%-42%increases the service life by 8.1%-25.8%, and in the range of 35-60 mm by 7.7%-21.8%.Regarding mineral admixtures, the addition of fly ash and blast-furnace slag resulted in enhances the service life by 8%-70.7% due to increase of age factor by 25%-200%. Moreover,the addition of silica fume by 5%-15% increases the service life by 25.5%-80.6%.Finally, the rise of temperature by 25%-75% reduces the service life by 6.45%-18.7%, and the reduction of relative humidity by 25%-50% increases the life by 21.2%-89%. These values are based on a conservative approach and tend to guide the practice engineer on how these parameters affect service life of concrete structures

Salinity stress mitigation of some canola cultivars grown under South Sinai conditions using magnetic water technology

Salinity stresses either in irrigation water and/or soil is one of the most serious agricultural problems facing farmers in arid and semi-arid regions included Egypt.  Many areas in the Sinai region depend mainly on the underground water of various degrees of salinity that prevent cultivated crops from reach to the full yield. Under these conditions, a split-plot field experiment using three canola cultivars; Pactol, Serw-4 and Serw-6 under three irrigation water treatments: i) Brackish-water (BW), ii) Magnetic-BW1; brackish water after magnetization through passing a three inch static-magnetic unit,3.75 mT, produced by Delta Water Company, Egypt and iii) Magnetic-BW2; brackish water after magnetization through passing a three inch static magnetic unit, 0.75 mT, produced by Magnetic-Technologies Company, UAE, was carried out at Agricultural Experimental Station of Desert Research Centre, Ras Sidr region, South Sinai Governorate, Egypt during the 2017/18 winter season. The results showed that irrigation with M-BW1 or M-BW2 surpassed irrigation with BW in all tested growth parameters (plant height, branches and leaf number/plant, leaf area, dry matter of leaves, stem and total plant, and total chlorophyll); leaf anatomy (instance, midvein and lamina thickness, length and width of leaf vascular bundle and lower and upper epidermis thickness); stem anatomy (stem diameter and thickness of cortex, xylem and phloem in addition pith diameter) and chemical analysis for mineral content (N, P, K, Mg, Fe, Cu, Zn ) at 85 days after sowing (DAS). As an average of both magnetically brackish-water treatments over tested three canola varieties, the percent of improvement compared to irrigation with brackish-water ranged between 10.78-16.02% for growth parameters, 28.33-31.76% for dry matter of plant; 15.58 -80.81% for leaf ; 10.71-63.88% for stems and 2.42-54.48% for mineral content of leaves at 85 DAS. Reverse trends were observed in the best indicators for alleviation salinity stress (Na, and proline), where these decreased under both magnetic brackish water treatments by 66.08 and 43.75%, respectively (average of both magnetically  brackishwater treatments compared to BW water treatment). Generally, the three tested canola varieties showed a positive response under magnetic brackish water treatments. The positive results in above-mentioned parameters of vegetative growth reflected improvement in canola yield and its components. The percent of improvement ranged between 9.35 and 35.98 for yield components and reached1.29,19.66 and 21.30% in seed oil percentage, seeds and oil yield (kg fed-1; fed=4200 m2), respectively compared to brackish water.&nbsp

Effect of Different Factors on the Service Life of Concrete Structures in Chloride Environment: A Parametric Study - Part Two

In this paper, the effect of different factors on the service life of reinforced concrete structures in marine environments is investigated through a parametric study. The considered case for the study was the two- dimensional diffusion problem. By solving the selected model for corrosion initiation by Finite Element Method, it has been concluded that, corrosion initiates at corner bars before side bars. Also, concrete elements subjected to two-dimensional diffusion are more susceptible to corrosion initiation than elements subjected to one-dimensional diffusion. Moreover, increase in water to cement ratio by 12.5%-50% in range 0.20-0.40 reduces the service life by 6.2%-31%, and by 5.3%-16.9% for the range 0.40-0.60. And, the increase in concrete cover in the range of 20-40 mm by 12.5% - 50% increases the service life by 5.1%-18.8%, and in the range of 35-60 mm by 2.9%-10.3%. The addition of fly ash and blast-furnace slag increased the service life by 6.35%-69.7% due to increase of age factor by 25%-200%. Furthermore, the addition of silica fume by 5%-15% increases the service life by 21.7%-81.2%. Regarding the environmental factors, increasing of temperature by 25%-75% reduces service life by 4.7%-12.75%, and reducing of relative humidity by 25%-50% increases the life by 17.5%-90.4%.are also given

Interaction of CO molecules with (Cu , Ag and Au) deposited on regular and defective MgO and BaO(001) surfaces: Density functional calculations

The adsorption properties and characteristics of CO on Cu, Ag and Au atoms deposited on various sites of the alkaline earth oxide MgO and BaO. The three members of morphological irregularities, terrace, edge, and oxygen terminated corner of MgO and BaO (001) surface have been studied by means of density functional calculations and embedded cluster model. The examined clusters were embedded in the simulated Coulomb fields that closely approximate the Madelung fields of the host surfaces. The  adsorption  properties  of  CO  have  been  analyzed  with reference  to  the  nature  of  the  oxide  support,  pairwise  and  non-pairwise  ..........Please read the full paper

BIOAVAILABILITY STUDY OF ONDANSETRON GEL IN RABBITS AND HUMAN VOLUNTEERS APPLING UPLC AS ANALYTICAL TOOL AND EVALUATION OF THE ANTIEMETIC EFFECT OF ONDANSETRON GEL IN CISPLATIN-INDUCED EMESIS IN RATS

Objective: This study was undertaken to determine the bioavailability of ondansetron gel in experimental animals and humans applying UPLC as an analytical tool and evaluation of the antiemetic effect of ondansetron gel in cisplatin-induced emesis in rats. Methods: Ondansetron gel (F13: sodium alginate 7% w/w) was used, marketed I. V. ondansetron (Zofran) ® was chosen as reference. The bioavailability study in rabbits was selected as a parallel design using nine healthy rabbits divided into three groups whereas, bioavailability study in humans was an open-label, wherein 6 healthy subjects administered ondansetron gel. The potential effect of ondansetron gel was evaluated for the prevention of different phases of emesis motivated by exposure to antineoplastic drugs (cisplatin) by determination of body weight loss, water and food intake applying kaolin-pica model in rats using seventy-two rats divided into six groups. Results: Ondansetron gel (0.5%) showed detectable plasma concentration 22.833±2.17 ng/m1 after ¼ h and 419.55±2.17 ng/ml after 1-h post-treatment in rabbits and human respectively and concentration was maintained above-reported minimum effective concentration for more than 2.5 h for rabbits and 7 h for humans compared to 1.75 h after I. V. administration. The ondansetron gel significantly reduces all phases of cisplatin-induced emesis and a decrease in body weight, water, and food consumption was significantly attenuated. Conclusion: Based on the high efficacy of gel on emesis induced by cisplatin, and its high bioavailability, transdermal ondansetron gel could be a promising convenient system to prevent nausea and vomiting following administration of antineoplastic drugs

Behavior of Beam to Column Cold-Formed Section Connections Subjected to Bending Moments

Cold formed sections are often used in the construction of mid-rise buildings due to their high strength weight ratios, and fast erection. In these buildings, the connections between joists and studs are mainly simple connections. However, application of these sections can be extended to moderate span frames where connections between members are subjected to bending moments. Strength and stability of such frames depends to large extent on the behaviour of the connections between their members. Over the last twenty years, several researchers undertake tests on cold formed section connections subjected to bending moments. Major of them classify the connections as semi-rigid, but some suggested that as we reach the maximum capacity of the connected sections so we can consider it rigid

DETECTION OF CHRONIC TYPHOID CARRIERS AMONG FOOD HANDLERS IN WAD MEDANI , GEZIRA STATE , SUDAN

Typhoid fever remains a disease of major public health importance in the tropics. This cross sectional prospective descriptive study was carried out between July 2005 to July 2008 in Wad Medani Town. The objective of the study was to identify chronic typhoid carriers among food handlers in Wad Medani. To achieve this objective, Vi agglutination test was used to determine suggested typhoid carriers among food handlers then stool culture was performed on those with a positive Vi agglutination test. A questionnaire was designed to collect data from suggested typhoid carriers about hygienic practices during food handling and processing .  The collected data were reviewed and coded. Data were analyzed using SPSS versions 10.0 software for tabulation and statistical analysis. The results showed that, ten percent of the examined food handlers were found positive typhoid carriers by Vi agglutination test, 48.5% of the suspected of typhoid carriers were found positive by stool culture, street vendors were more common among suspected typhoid carriers, all of whom had not received any health education about typhoid disease. The study suggested the following recommendations: Regular health authority inspection visitor food handling personnel specially street vendors to exclude typhoid carriers among them, education and training course in good hygienic practices should be provided to all food handlers specially typhoid carriers by Food Control Department, Ministry of Health, Gezira State

A New Flavonoid C-Glycoside from Celtis australis L. and Celtis occidentalis L. Leaves and Potential Antioxidant and Cytotoxic Activities

A major development over the past two decades has been the realization that free radical induced lipid peroxidation and DNA damage are associated with major health problems, e.g. cancer and ageing. Plant-derived antioxidants are increasingly found beneficial in protecting against these diseases. Celtis australis L. and Celtis occidentalis L. are two plants that have a variety of uses in folk medicine but have not been evaluated before for their antioxidant and cytotoxic properties. Therefore, the extracts of both plants’ leaves were investigated for these activities, as well as isolation of the bioactive compounds responsible for the activities. Molecular structures of the compounds were elucidated by UV, HRESIMS, 1D (1H and 13C) and 2D (1H-13C HSQC and 1H-13C HMBC) NMR analyses. The ethanolic and aqueous extracts, n-butanol fractions and the isolated major compound were tested for their antioxidant activity using DPPH radical scavenging assay, xanthine oxidase-induced generation of superoxide radical and lipid peroxidation assay by thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances (TBARS) method using rat tissue homogenates. Cytotoxic activities were studied using standard MTT assay. A novel flavonoid C-triglycoside, 4‴-α-rhamnopyranosyl-2″-O-β-d-galactopyranosylvitexin, was isolated from both plants’ leaves, together with seven known flavonoids. The n-butanol fractions and the major compound 2″-O-β-galactopyranosylvitexin showed significant antioxidant activities, more pronounced than the tested standards BHT and dl-α-tocopherol in most tests. All extracts showed variable cytotoxic activities. This study provides strong evidence for the antioxidant and cytotoxic activities of the extracts of Celtis australis L. and Celtis occidentalis L. leaves, which were attributed to the polar n-butanol fractions and the major isolated flavonoid 2″-galactosylvitexin