Did Egypt's Parliamentary Election just trump citizens’ rights? Arab Citizenship Review No. 12, 19 November 2015

Since the Muslim Brotherhood rule was toppled in July 2013, the regime of President Abd al-Fattah al-Sisi has strived to consolidate his one-man rule; he painted the political opposition and civil society as traitors and foreign agents and exploited the fight against terrorism to suppress freedom of expression, justify a crackdown on the press, eclipse justice in courtrooms, throw thousands in prison, and tighten his grip on police forces. The regime has postponed parliamentary elections for some time, while it marginalised and weakened the non-Islamist political parties that helped Sisi take power. He did so by promoting electoral lists with candidates who are loyal to the president, to ensure control over the new assembly and by obstructing any political alliance that could form an opposition. At the same time, the security apparatus has been given free rein to control the public sphere and engineer the electoral process. This may ultimately lead to a parliament that includes no advocates for rights and liberties, which is particularly significant since the incoming assembly will review the huge amount of legislation that President Sisi has issued in the absence of a parliament. In addition, shortly before elections, President Sisi raised questions about the constitution, calling for it to be amended to reduce the powers of the parliament and increase those of the president. It is thus clear that Sisi seeks not only to consolidate his regime, without political opposition, but to free his rule of any effective oversight from society or parliament

THE POLITICS OF LAND-USE CONVERSION IN THE PERI-URBAN AREAS OF THE EGYPTIAN CITIES

Linkages of rural-urban structures, in both degrees of intensity and typology, are ever changing and consequently changing the interface of the Egyptian urban setting. The dynamics of the rural-urban interrelationships constantly generate different types of powers that have been manipulating the pattern of urban growth as much as articulating distortion and imbalances of the entire urban system. The attributes of the system inputs, for example the nature of land-use policy and tools, determine to a far extent the quality of the outputs that could be epitomized in the accomplishment of the developmental national objectives. On the other hand, expanding the comprehension of the socially and economically-influencing attributes operating in the urban-rural setting, is pivotal in reformulating system inputs that may guarantee a better chance of quality outputs. The objective of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of those influencing attributes and powers operating on the Egyptian rural-urban setting. This attributes underpin the conversion of scarce agricultural-land into urban uses in the peri-urban areas of the Egyptian Metropolitans and large-and-intermediate-size cities. Towards achieving this objective, the research investigates the mechanism of conversion and the nature of the process\u27 stimulators. The employed methodology depended on triple-tire paths: a) repetitive site visits to the peri-urban areas of South-East Alexandria, namely Almadara-Alqebliya and Abeis spanned from January to August 2009. b) Interviews with stakeholders: local residents, local officials, and urban scholars took place in the same time period, and c) desktop review of multiple literatures addressing the subject under investigation. The paper poses and attempts to answer the question of whether there is a potential change in the pattern, pace, and intensity of the agro-land conversion to other uses with the current social, economic, and urban policy context. Answer to this question is meant to constitute a ground for research in the future

MANAGING DISTORTIONS IN THE EGYPTIAN SPATIAL SYSTEM: DOES THE CURRENT DEVELOPMENT POLICY PAY OFF?

This research reviews the recent trend of the Egyptian national development policy of which major objectives are alleviating the intensity of untamed urban growth - and - population concentration in urban cores, and better integration of the national economy subsets. Despite attempts to reconcile these objectives in one agenda, the paper concludes that main issues endemic to the national spatial development policy in Egypt remain dangerously undervalued. The paper poses the question of whether the current spatial development policy paradigm can contribute effectively to managing the Egyptian spatial system imbalances. An answer was sought through policy analysis, which included the utilization of a two-pronged approach of comparing the currently adopted policy development paradigm to the Event-Based Public Development model postulated by Gore & Nicholson (1985), and the examination of data extracted from the three consecutive statistic census\u27 results of years 1986, 1996, and 2006

DEMOCRACY AND CITIZENSHIP IN NORTH AFRICA AFTER THE ARAB AWAKENING: CHALLENGES FOR EU AND US FOREIGN POLICY (EUSPRING). Arab Citizenship Review No. 1, Egypt, August 2013

This series of policy briefs provides a regular update of debates concerning key rights issues in three Arab states, Morocco, Egypt and Tunisia. In a first round of briefs on the three countries, we provide background on these debates since the beginning of the Arab sprin

Citizenship in post-awakening Egypt: power shifts and conflicting perceptions.

This report links Egypt’s shifting political phases to debates more specifically about citizenship rights. It offers a general overview of Egypt’s recent political trajectory, before unpacking the various dimensions of debates over citizenship rights. In each of the three political phases since Mubarak’s ousting, citizenship rights have been curtailed. Crucially, the reasons for their constriction have been different in each phase. Some limitations have derived from largely political power plays, others from more philosophical-theological factors. It is important to distinguish between these different forms of debate if we are better to understand prospects for the future of citizenship rights in Egypt

Evaluation of Coronary Artery Bypass by CT Coronary Angiography

Coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) is an accurate method for graft imaging and assessment than invasive coronary angiography (ICA). CTA has excellent sensitivity and specificity. The chapter describes the role of CTA in evaluation of coronary bypass graft. It covers the appropriate indications for performing CTA after bypass operation, patient preparation, as well as protocol and technique of CTA. The chapter describes the post-examination processing of the images and how to interpret CTA images for detection of graft patency or dysfunction as occlusion, partial thrombosis, poor blood flow, and stealing flow from native artery. According to the American College of Cardiology, the American College of Radiology, and the North American Society for Cardiovascular Imaging, graft patency assessment with CTA is an appropriate approach in symptomatic patients at risk for graft stenosis/occlusion. Cardiac CT can be used to assess the patency of coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) with high diagnostic accuracy compared with ICA and even with a better performance compared to the assessment of native coronaries

Effect of wall cooling on the stability of compressible subsonic flows over smooth humps and backward-facing steps

The effect of wall cooling on the two-dimensional linear stability of subsonic flows over two-dimensional surface imperfections is investigated. Results are presented for flows over smooth humps and backward-facing steps with Mach numbers up to 0.8. The results show that, whereas cooling decreases the viscous instability, it increases the shear-layer instability and hence it increases the growth rates in the separation region. The coexistence of more than one instability mechanism makes a certain degree of wall cooling most effective. For the Mach numbers 0.5 and 0.8, the optimum wall temperatures are about 80 pct and 60 pct of the adiabatic wall temperature, respectively. Increasing the Mach number decreases the effectiveness of cooling slightly and reduces the optimum wall temperature