Investigations into the effect of heat and mass transfer on flow across tube bundles

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Emerging African multi-national corporations : trends and determinants

Despite the recent attempts to address the evolution of EMNCs, limited research has been conducted to examine EAMNCs. Moreover, the importance of this investigation is increased as it may guide African governments in drafting their policy envisaging initiating and boosting the global orientation of their domestic firms. As such, this thesis intends to examine the phenomenon of EAMNCs, with application to South Africa and Egypt. Overall statistics exhibit that both South African and Egyptian MNCs were growing outstandingly, at a different pace during the period from 1990 to 2016. However, both groups of firms significantly lost ground on the emerging MNCs landscape during that period. In 2016, South Africa owned less than a quarter of its share in the early nineties. The Egyptian outbound investment did not surpass one percent of the corresponding investments owned by emerging economies over the same period. Moreover, the outward Foreign Direct Investment Performance Indices of both countries were often less than unity, indicating that they was playing a smaller role in the global outward foreign direct investment than their economies warrant. Apart from the financial sector, the mining and quarrying sector ranked first for South African MNCs, while the industrial sector was the most important for Egyptian MNCs. The private sector dominated, to different extent, in both South African and Egyptian MNCs. Similar to emerging MNCs, South African and Egyptian MNCs both exhibited a remarkable preference to greenfield investment over mergers and acquisitions as foreign market entry mode, and to set their greenfield investments in nearby markets. The empirical research proves that trade openness, patent and the gross domestic product (GDP) and the GDP growth rate of South Africa and Egypt are dominant drivers of their outward foreign direct investment. In contrast, the number of investment treaties and inward foreign direct investment rate do not significantly influence outbound investment decisions of South African and Egyptian corporations. Regarding the pull drivers, the market size, resources endowment and proximity between home and host country are significant pull drivers of both Egyptian and South African MNCs. While not affecting Egyptian MNCs, assets availability, trade openness, the service sector quality, export to the host country, the official exchange rate of the receiving destination and the quality of institutions have an influential impact on foreign market selection of the South African investors. Inflation neither affects the attention of Egyptian firms nor South Africans to choose a certain market to invest in.Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2018.EconomicsPhDUnrestricte

NECESSIDADE DE NORMAS CONTÁBEIS INTERNACIONAIS PARA PRODUTOS DE FINANÇAS ISLÂMICAS: DIFERENÇAS ENTRE AS ESTRUTURAS CONCEITUAIS DA CONTABILIDADE DO IASB E DA AAOIFI

Esse artigo apresenta as diferenças entre as estruturas conceituais da Contabilidade de duas instituições: o International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) e a Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institution (AAOIFI). Em teoria da Contabilidade, as estruturas conceituais adotadas são a manifestação mais próxima da teoria à prática, devido à definição dos objetivos e dos grandes conceitos. Através da abordagem qualitativa buscou-se por meio de pesquisa bibliográfica e documental uma comparação tanto em termos da estrutura quanto da semântica dos termos dos respectivos documentos conceituais, a fim de verificar as diferenças entre estes e se é necessária uma norma específica para produtos de Finanças Islâmicas por parte do IASB. Como as transações islâmicas são diferentes de seus pares convencionais e ocidentais, este artigo conclui que o IASB deve emitir normas específicas para produtos de Finanças Islâmicas, dada a observância de divergências relevantes entre os documentos, principalmente nos objetivos das demonstrações contábeis, dos usuários da informação contábil e no conceito da forma jurídica e essência econômica das transações

EXPLORATORY AND CONFIRMATORY FACTOR ANALYSIS OF PERCEIVED SELF-EFFICACIES AMONG TEACHERS STUDENTS AT FACULTY OF EDUCATION, HELWAN UNIVERSITY, EGYPT: FROM BANDURA’S THEORY TO PROPOSED MODEL

The purpose of this study is to examine the validity and reliability of perceived self-efficacies questionnaire (PSE) which is designed for university students at faculty of education. A total of 472 students participated, selected by using cluster random sampling. In order to examine the construct validity of the PSE, Quantitative data were analysed using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) using SPSS 23 and AMOS 23. EFA revealed similar structures from prior research and the present study. The CFA approach verified the questionnaire of perceived self-efficacies was satisfactory for university students’ context. This work concludes the perceived self-efficacies of university students have a nine-factor structure: Planning perceived self-efficacy, Moral and emotional perceived self-efficacy, Social leadership perceived self-efficacy, Academic perceived self-efficacy, Reading perceived self-efficacy, Technology perceived self-efficacy, Research perceived self-efficacy, Motivated perceived self-efficacy and Creative perceived self-efficacy. The goodness of fit indices values shows good fit for self-efficacies with nine factors. According to these findings, the PSE is appropriate for researchers or teaching staff whose aim is to measure his/her students perceived self-efficacies beliefs. Article visualizations

EFFECT OF IRON OVERLOAD AND IRON CHELATORS ON ANTI-MÜLLERIAN HORMONE LEVEL IN EGYPTIAN FEMALE PATIENTS WITH TRANSFUSION DEPENDENT β-THALASSEMIA

Objective: This work aims to determine the effect of iron overload on serum anti-müllerian hormone (AMH) levels in females subjected to transfusion-dependent β-thalassemia by measuring serum ferritin and to investigate the effects of iron chelation therapy including oral deferiprone and subcutaneous deferoxamine in the management of transfusion-related iron overload together with reproductive function.Methods: 90 female patients with thalassemia major (TM), thalassemia intermedia (TI) and thalassemia minor (T minor) were selected to investigate AMH by ELISA and ferritin by IRMA.Results: Serum AMH level was lower in female patients with transfusion dependent β-thalassemia than in T minor also, Ferritin was 25 fold more in TM compared to T minor (3088.0±2497.6 ng/ml vs. 120.3±36.2 ng/ml). There was significant negative correlation of AMH with ferritin in TM (r =-0.949; P<0.001*), in TI (r =-0.378; P =0.039*) and in T minor (r =-0.754; P<0.001*). The iron chelator, deferoxamine had significantly higher ferritin and lower AMH in TM and TI than deferiprone.Conclusion: the results demonstrated that females with TM and TI were found to have lower serum AMH levels than T minor and inversely related to the serum ferritin levels in all thalassemic groups. Also, it demonstrated that deferiprone was more efficient than deferoxamine in removing excess iron and reduced the deleterious effect of excess iron to the reproductive system, which leads to fertility preservation of female patients with transfusion–dependent β-thalassemia.Keywords: Anti-müllerian hormone, Ferritin, Iron overload, β-thalassemia, Deferoxamine, Deferiprone

THE ROLE OF SOME OBESITY-RELATED BIOCHEMICAL PARAMETERS IN THE INCIDENCE, DIAGNOSIS, AND PROGNOSIS OF POSTMENOPAUSAL BREAST CANCER

Aim: To figure out the association of insulin resistance, serum resistin, insulin, SHBG, and free estradiol with the etiology, diagnosis, and the prognosis of postmenopausal breast cancer. Subjects and Methods: Serum levels of resistin, insulin, SHBG, free E2, glucose, and albumin were assayed in a case-control study of 40 obese postmenopausal breast cancer females and 40 apparently healthy obese postmenopausal controls. Results: Serum levels of resistin, insulin, and free E2 were significantly elevated in breast cancer patients (9.89±0.49, 23.68±2.95 and 9.34±3.02, respectively) compared with controls (8.24±0.63, 13.55±1.31 and 1.01±0.23, respectively). Insulin resistance (IR) was significantly greater in breast cancer patients (7.33±0.95) than controls (3.46±0.37). However, serum SHBG levels were significantly declined in breast cancer patients (42.93± 2.52) compared with controls (64.2±4.89). Serum free E2 had the greatest significant area under the ROC curve, followed by insulin resistance, insulin, SHBG, and resistin. The odds ratio of serum resistin was 4.33 (95% CI=1.69 – 11.06, P=0.002), insulin was 3.66 (95% CI=1.41 – 9.46, P=0.006), insulin resistance was 3.56 (95% CI=1.39 – 9.08, P=0.007), SHBG was 0.25 (95% CI=0.092-0.67, P=0.005), and free E2 was 5.21(95% CI=1.86 –14.52, P=0.002) in breast cancer patients. CONCLUSIONS: From this study, it could be concluded that although insulin resistance, serum resistin, insulin, SHBG, and free E2 may have a role in the incidence and diagnosis of obese postmenopausal breast cancer females, these biochemical parameters cannot be used for the prognosis of these patients. Serum free E2 was the most superior diagnostic marker followed by insulin resistance, insulin, SHBG, and resistin

Chronic endometritis in cases with recurrent embryo implantation failure

Background: Chronic endometritis (CE) is a cause of recurrent implantation failure (RIF) in patients undergoing intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). CE is diagnosed based on the presence of plasma cell infiltration of the endometrial stroma in endometrial biopsies. Hysteroscopy may be suggestive of CE while the immunohistochemistry with specific cell markers for CD138 cells has been suggested as a more accurate test for the diagnosis of CE.Methods: This study included 110 patients with recurrent ICSI failure (two or more), despite using good-quality embryos. Hysteroscopy and endometrial biopsy were performed as an outpatient procedure. Immunostaining was then performed using a mouse monoclonal CD138 antibody. The prevalence rate of CE was calculated, and the correlation between hysteroscopic findings and immunohistochemical results was assessed. Results: In the included patients in this study there was 32 cases (29%) were diagnosed as CE by hysteroscopy, while 27 cases (24.5%) were positive by CD138 immunohistochemistry (IHC), and 18 cases (16.36%) were positive for CD138 IHC with hysteroscopic features of CE. The presence of more than one abnormal hysteroscopic features was considered positive for CE rather than single abnormal feature, the sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values of hysteroscopy would be 22.2%, 98.8%, 85.7%, and 79.6%, respectively.Conclusions: The negative diagnostic value of hysteroscopy is high, the combination of the two diagnostic modalities (hysteroscopy and CD138 IHC) will aid in the detection of most cases of CE

EXAMINING THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN PERCEPTUAL LOAD PATTERNS, SELECTIVE ATTENTION AND VISUOSPATIAL WORKING MEMORY OF TWICE EXCEPTIONAL PUPILS WITH DYSCALCULIA OF PRIMARY STAGE

The research aims to examine the relationships between perceptual load patterns, selective attention and visuospatial working memory of twice exceptional pupils with dyscalculia of primary stage. The sample size consisted of 20 twice exceptional pupils with dyscalculia from sixth primary grade. The instruments were used for date collection: ordinary matrices test, prepared by Raven (1938); reading comprehension test, prepared by researcher; basic mathematical operations test, prepared by researcher; Bender gestalt test of motor visual disorder, prepared by Loretta Bendar (1938); Arabization by Fahmi, Ghoneim, Abu Al-Azayem Hospitalization (1990); quick survey form prepared by researcher; Wechsler 's Test of Children's Intelligence - Revised (1974), Arabization by Ismael and Malika (1999) ; selective attention task, prepared by researcher ;Computerized Verbal and Visual perceptual load pattern tasks (high-medium-low) prepared by researcher and Computerized Visuospatial working memory tasks (Pattern memory-Visual spatial sequencing) prepared by researcher. The date collected were analyzed by using the following statistical methods: frequency counts, percentages, Step-wise multiple regression analysis statistics, Z scores. The research concluded that perceptual load patterns, selective attention were very good predictors of visuospatial working memory of twice exceptional pupils with dyscalculia of primary stage.  Article visualizations

Protective activity of sweet sorghum and sugarcane syrups against oxidative stress induced by cadmium in albino rats

The present study was designed to investigate the effect of sweet sorghum and sugarcane syrups as antioxidants on oxidative stress biomarkers and the lipid profile i.e. serum total triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TC), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and low density lipoproteins cholesterol (LDL-C)) in male rats. Cadmium was received orally to rats daily at a dose of 10mg/L in drinking water. Rats were divided into four groups,-eight rats for each- as follow: (I) control group, (II) cadmium treated group, (III) sweet sorghum syrup solution (500 ppm) once daily at a dose of 1 ml/kg body weight of cadmium acetate solution, (IV) sugarcane syrup solution (500 ppm) and cadmium acetate solution. Bioactive compounds of syrups under investigation were identified, total phenolic and flavonoid contents were determined as well. Results cleared that the effect of variation in varieties on total phenol (mg GAE/ml sample) and antioxidant activity determined by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radical (DPPH) assay of syrup was significant (P≤0.05) while it was not significant (P˃0.05) on total flavonoid (mg CE/ml sample).The highest total phenolic content was recorded by sweet sorghum syrup (1.87 mg GAE/ml sample) meanwhile, total flavonoid content varied between (1.09 and 1.36 mg CE/ml sample). Results also cleared that G.T.54-9 sugarcane and Rex sweet sorghum syrup samples exhibited significant (P≤0.05) scavenging activity compared to commercial sugarcane sample that gave lower scavenging activity (97.16, 96.07 and 74.22, respectively).Sweet sorghum and sugarcane syrups significantly affected (P≤0.05) absolute weight of organs and relative weight of both heart and kidney, while the effect on relative weight of liver was not significant (P>0.05). The treatment of sweet sorghum and sugarcane syrups during cadmium acetate administration in rats led to reduction in alanine transaminase (ALT), aspartate transaminase (AST), antioxidant enzymes, urea, creatinine and biomarkers in rat livers, like reduced glutathione , catalase ,malondialdehyde ,serum total triglyceride, total cholesterol, high density lipoprotein cholesterol and low density lipoproteins cholesterol back near to normal when compared to control rats. In general, the treatment with sugarcane syrup reduced the cadmium acetate induced hepatotoxicity in rats