Now, You Can Breathe: A Qualitative Study of the Experiences and Resilience of Egyptian Women Victimized by Narcissistic Relationships

Narcissistic relationships manifest as nonreciprocal affiliations that allow no room for genuine partnership or cooperation. The trait of narcissism is more prevalent in men than in women. However, Egypt’s powerful patriarchal culture has prevented adequate scholarly examination of narcissistic relationships. The current study intends to bridge this gap in knowledge by examining two objectives: a) to investigate the nature of experiences of Egyptian women in narcissistic relationships and b) to elucidate how Egyptian women remain resilient in the aftermath of narcissistic relationships. Data were collected via qualitative, semi-structured interviews conducted with 27 literate women aged 24–54 years who had experienced narcissistic relationships for at least a year. Four main themes emerged: a) the abusive experiences suffered by the women, b) perception of the narcissist as abusive partner, c) the negative impact of the narcissistic relationship on the women socially and psychologically, and d) women’s sources of resilience after leaving this relationship. For the abusive experiences, women suffered from different types of aggressive behaviors (e.g. physical, psychological, and verbal) and they tended to doubt their rationality which is called “the gaslighting effect.” The findings indicated that narcissists were perceived by respondents as dominators, vampires, nonempathetic, aggressive, manipulative, and deceiving actors. Accordingly, their relationships with narcissists were detrimental to the psychological and social wellbeing of the women. The results suggest that women need long-term social and emotional support to fully recover from the after-effects of their narcissistic relationships. Social networks and spirituality were the most frequent sources of resilience. The present paper contributes new understandings of narcissistic relationships as a common type of toxic relationship in Egypt

Wheat allergy

Food allergy is a growing health problem which emerged as the “second wave” of the allergy epidemic, lagging decades behind the ‘first wave’ of asthma, allergic rhinitis and inhalant sensitization.1 Data on challenge-diagnosed FA in some countries (e.g. China and Africa) show rising rates that became similar to those in Western countries.2 A report from US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicated that among children aged 0–17 years, the prevalence of food allergies increased from 3.4% in 1997–1999 to 5.1% in 2009–2011, a 50% rise.3 About 6% of children experience food allergic reactions in the first three years of life, including approximately 2.5% with cow’s milk allergy, 1.5% with egg allergy, and 1% with peanut allergy.4 Wheat is one of the five most common foods that trigger allergic reactions in children.

Some Immunohormonal Changes in Experimentally Pregnant Toxemic Goats

Pregnancy toxemia was induced in nine pregnant goat does with twins by the stress of fasting with access to water in late pregnancy to investigate the effect of pregnancy toxemia on immunoglobulins (IgA, IgM, and IgG), cortisol, insulin, thyroid, and growth hormones and their correlations with the plasma levels of glucose and β-Hydroxybutyrate. Plasma samples were collected at 0, 12, 24, 36, 48, and 72 hours after induction of pregnancy toxemia. The result revealed that experimental animals developed neurological findings with convulsions and acetone odor from the mouth with recumbency after 72 hours. Laboratory findings showed a significant increase in β-Hydroxybutyrate, cortisol, and insulin while there were significant decreases in glucose, thyroid, and immunoglobulins (IgA, IgM, and IgG). Plasma glucose concentrations had significant negative correlations with β-hydroxybutyrate, cortisol, and insulin while the correlations were significantly positive with immunoglobulins and thyroid hormone. Plasma β-hydroxybutyrate concentration was significantly positively correlated with cortisol and negatively correlated with immunoglobulins, insulin, and thyroid hormone. From this study we can conclude that pregnancy toxemia might affect humoral immune responses as well as insulin, cortisol, and thyroid hormones. Moreover, insulin might have a compensatory role to increase suppressive effect on ketogenesis in experimentally pregnant toxemic goats

Shear Behavior of Reinforced Concrete Inverted-T Deep Beam

Contrary to top-loaded deep beams, Inverted-T (IT) deep beams are loaded on ledges at the beam’s bottom chord. The presence of the load near the bottom of the beams creates a tension field in the web at the loading points. An experimental investigation was carried out in which 8 specimens of reinforced concrete IT deep beams were tested and the effect of the following variables was studied: changing the hanger diameter, hanger arrangement in terms of spacing and distribution distance, hanger reinforcement ratio, vertical and horizontal web shear reinforcement diameter, and spacing. In addition, all the tested beams had long ledges extending to the end of the beam. It was concluded that hanger reinforcement diameter and horizontal web shear reinforcement have an insignificant effect on the IT deep beam capacity. While the change in hanger arrangement, vertical web reinforcement, and ledge length has a significant effect on IT deep beam capacity. The maximum spacing of the hanger reinforcement and the minimum hanger reinforcement ratio passing through the load plate length will be studied in the following publication. A finite element model (FEM) was presented to predict the behavior of IT deep beams. The simulation was carried out using the ABAQUS 2017 software program. The results of the numerical model showed good agreement with the experimental program. Analysis using design codes was checked against the experimental data, where the computed beam capacities were compared to those obtained from the test results. The comparison showed a remarkable difference between the predictions using the design codes and the test results. Computation using design codes significantly underestimated the capacities of the beams. Doi: 10.28991/CEJ-2023-09-05-04 Full Text: PD

Breast Cancer in the Setting of HIV

Oncogenesis in immunocompromised patients occurs due to a number of factors including reduced immune surveillance or other viral pathogens. Breast cancer, unlike other non-AIDS-defining cancers, does not appear associated and has rarely been reported. We describe a case with evidence of immune reactivity around the tumor, but not in the tumor itself

Usage of Saliva as Alternative Biological Fluid to Serum for Minerals, Energetic and Hormones Assessment in Lactating Egyptian Water Buffaloes

Blood sample is the most common biological fluid utilized for diagnosis and monitoring of diseases. Saliva contains locally produced substances as well as serum component, so the aim of this study is to compare the profile of minerals, energetic and hormones in Egyptian water buffaloes. Blood serum and saliva samples were collected from 80 healthy multiparous, non- pregnant lactating Egyptian water buffaloes. Both fluids were tested for sodium, potassium, chloride, calcium, phosphorous, magnesium, insulin, cortisol, ACTH, glucose, urea, creatinine, total protein and immunoglobulin [IgA]. The results revealed that, serum concentrations of calcium, glucose, total protein, sodium, chloride, Insulin, cortisol, ACTH and IgA were significantly higher than saliva. In contrast, the concentrations of potassium and phosphorous in the saliva were significantly higher than that of serum. On the other hand no significant change in respect of urea, creatinine and magnesium was noted between saliva and serum. The relationships between saliva and serum of the estimated parameters were significantly positive except the concentrations of insulin in saliva and blood serum did not correlate. In conclusion, the saliva sample can be used in clinical practice with high level of reliability and provide non-invasive biological fluid for monitoring of different parameters in Egyptian water buffaloes

Using contracts to guide the search-based verification of concurrent programs

ISSN:0302-9743ISSN:1611-334

Essays in International Macroeconomics

This dissertation combines theoretical modeling and empirical analysis in macroeconomics, with a focus on open economies. It contains three chapters that study macroeconomic dynamics in the presence of credit frictions and the scope for stabilization policies in this context. Chapter 1, "Macroeconomic Effects of Commodity Booms and Busts: The Role of Financial Frictions", studies the real effects of commodity price shocks in small open commodity exporters; and the role of financial frictions in the transmission of these shocks to economic activity. I begin by estimating a panel VAR system for two groups of countries heavily exposed to commodity goods exports, one containing only advanced small open economies, and the other only emerging small open economies. I show that commodity price shocks are important sources of business cycle fluctuations, and have stronger effects on real activity, credit, and country interest rate in emerging countries. Motivated by these results, I construct a multi-sector open economy model with a banking sector to gauge the importance of different financial frictions in the transmission of commodity price shocks. I find that the main transmission channel is the interaction between the differences in working capital constraints at the firm level and the effect of commodity prices on the country interest rate. Moreover, I show that the financial accelerator and balance sheet mismatches in the banking sector don't have a relevant quantitative amplification effect. Chapter 2, "International Reserves, Credit Constraints, and Systemic Sudden Stops", analyzes the puzzling fact that emerging markets hold very high levels of international reserves and foreign liabilities simultaneously. Moreover, these holdings are positively correlated, which leads to an income loss that might reach 2% of GDP per year. To address this issue, I propose a new motive for international reserves accumulation, namely its role as implicit collateral for external borrowing. In this context, I evaluate whether the role of international reserves as collateral can explain the high levels of international reserves that we see in practice and find that the optimal level is close to the average reserves-to-GDP ratio in Latin American countries. Additionally, the optimal behavior during crises implies an increase of reserve holdings before a Sudden Stop and a small reduction during it, which is coherent with what was observed in the recent Global Financial Crisis. Finally, an alternative policy of keeping reserves at a constant level equal to its average value all the time yields very similar result to the optimal policy during sudden stops, highlighting the stabilizing role of reserves even if Central Banks don't use them at all. Chapter 3, "The Real Consequences of Countercyclical Capital Controls'', coauthored with Savitar Sundaresan, analyzes the effects of capital controls on real activity in Brazil, the most preeminent case of controls being imposed countercyclically. We find that capital controls have a significant negative impact on investment. The macro analysis uses a synthetic control method and finds that investment could have been approximately 20% higher if controls had not been put in place. The micro analysis uses a panel data approach and finds that the controls reduced the investment to assets ratio by as much as 40%, with some of its effects mitigated by the extension of subsidized credit by the government through the development bank. These results indicate that the renewed support for controls since the Great Financial Crisis should be more cautiously evaluated as it might harm the potential growth rate of Emerging Economies for a long-lasting period