Elections in Egypt: Rumblings for Change

The first and second issue of four volumes, this volume addresses elections in the Middle East. Contributors include: Assia Boutaleb, Judith Harik, Mona Markram-Ebeid, Christopher Parker, Curtis Francis Doebbler, Maye Kassem, Baskin Oran, Sami Zemni.https://fount.aucegypt.edu/faculty_book_chapters/2022/thumbnail.jp

Manufacturing stability: everyday politics of work in an industrial steel town in Helwan, Egypt

A few days before Hosni Mubarak was ousted in 2011, he reminded the Egyptian people that ’istiqrār (‘stability’) was his legacy both domestically and internationally. Their choice was between ‘stability’ and ‘chaos’, he threatened. This thesis argues that stability is a mode of governmentality whose power cannot be fully appreciated at the level of political discourse only. Rather, stability as a practice of government is entangled with peoples’ values, aspirations, and the intimate politics of everyday life. In Egypt between the Free Officers coup of 1952 and the January 25th revolution of 2011, ‘stability’ embodied access to both tenured employment and the means to reproduce the conditions of ‘a good life’ in the context of the family. Adequate understanding of stability and its ubiquity as an ideal must take into account the complex ways in which state projects and imaginative appropriation of those projects intersect. The thesis draws on fieldwork in an industrial neighbourhood of Cairo central to political movements of Egypt to analyse the everyday politics surrounding access to tenured employment in the context of the casualisation of labour and deregulation of capital since the inception of neo-liberal reforms in Egypt in 1991. By analysing the politics of labour at a site of strategic interest to the Egyptian regime from Abdul-Nasser to Mubarak, the thesis highlights how adequate understanding of political economy, practices of governing and neoliberalism must include both the shop floor and the home. The material for this study is drawn from twenty-two months of ethnographic research on the shop-floors and in the homes of the company town of Egypt’s oldest public-owned fully integrated steel plant, the Egyptian Iron and Steel Company (EISCO) in Helwan. I explore how the politics around tenured employment enabled the state to tighten its grip over what historically used to be a leading site of militant labour activism. I argue that the state capitalised on workers’ valuation of relationality and reproduction, represented in their aspiration for ’istiqrār (‘stability’), by confining new temporary fixed-term employment to children and relatives of EISCO permanent workers. In the face of the increased precariousness of work and life conditions under neo-liberalism, permanent work contracts, I propose, acted as a potential property right that transformed a group of militant workers into a privileged group and set their interests against the rest of the working class outside the plant. The thesis shows how the constant innovation in property relations and the re-appropriation of the meaning of work in people’s lives, by turning ‘stability’ from a social value into a productivist and calculative one, perpetuated the capitalist labour regime and values in workers’ communities

Electronic properties of E3 electron trap in n-type ZnO

International audienceDeep level transient spectroscopy measurements were per- formed on three non-intentionally doped n-type ZnO samples grown by different techniques in order to investigate the electronic properties of E3 electron trap. The ionization energy and the capture cross-section are found respectively at 0.275 eV from the conduction band and 2.3×10^−16 cm2 with no electric field dependence. This center is present irrespective of the synthesis method. In view of its physical properties and recent works published in the literature, its physical origin is discussed. Based mainly on its insensibility to the macroscopic electric field, the best candidates turn out to be dual defects with opposite charges on adjacent sites, like the dual vacancy VO -VZn

Use of Balloon-Expandable Stents for Coarctation of the Aorta: Initial Results and Intermediate-Term Follow-Up

AbstractObjectives. In this study we report our preliminary results and intermediate-term follow-up (up to 3.5 years) of stent implantation for coarctation of the aorta (COA).Background. Balloon angioplasty has gained acceptance as a modality of treatment for COA. Some patients do not respond optimally to balloon angioplasty alone. Balloon-expandable stents have been used in pulmonary arteries and large systemic arteries such as the femoroiliac vessels, with a significant improvement in vessel patency and a reduction in the pressure gradient compared with balloon angioplasty alone.Methods. Nine patients (>10 years old) with COA in whom balloon dilation alone was thought to be ineffective underwent stent implantation. Seven patients had a previous operation or balloon dilation, or both, to relieve their coarctation but had a significant residual/recurrent gradient.Results. At the time of stent implantation, the systolic and mean gradients decreased from a mean (±SEM) of 37 ± 7 and 14 ± 3 mm Hg to 4 ± 1 and 2 ± 0.6 mm Hg, respectively (p ≤ 0.002). The coarctation diameter increased from a mean of 9 ± 1 to 15 ± 1 mm (p < 0.002). The patients have been followed for up to 42 months (mean 18, median 13) with no complications; the stents remain in position with no fracture. One patient underwent further successful dilation 3 years after stent implantation because of an exercise-induced gradient. No other intervention has been required. The systolic gradient at latest follow-up is 7 ± 2 mm Hg. Only two (a 44-year old with diabetes and a 50-year old with long-standing hypertension) of five patients previously requiring antihypertensive treatment still remain on medications for blood pressure control.Conclusions. The use of stents in COA is a feasible alternative to surgical repair or balloon angioplasty in selected patients with an effective gradient reduction. Intermediate-term follow-up shows excellent gradient relief, with no complications in this group of patients

Perventricular device closure of muscular ventricular septal defects on the beating heart: technique and results

AbstractObjectiveBoth surgical management and percutaneous device closure of muscular ventricular septal defects have drawbacks and limitations. This report describes our initial experience with intraoperative device closure of muscular ventricular septal defects without cardiopulmonary bypass in 6 consecutive patients.MethodsA median sternotomy or a subxiphoid minimally invasive incision was performed. Under continuous transesophageal echocardiographic guidance, the right ventricle free wall was punctured, and a wire was introduced across the largest defect. The Amplatzer (AGA Medical Corporation, Golden Valley, Minn) muscular ventricular septal defect occluding device (a self-expandable double-disk device) was used. An introducer sheath was fed over the wire, with the sheath tip positioned in the left ventricle cavity. The device was then advanced inside the sheath and deployed by retracting the sheath. Associated cardiac lesions, if any, can then be repaired during cardiopulmonary bypass. A similar technique can also be applied for periatrial closure of complex atrial septal defects.ResultsThe initial 6 patients are presented. Cardiopulmonary bypass was not needed in any patient for placement of the device and needed in 4 patients for repair of concomitant malformations only (double-outlet right ventricle, aortic arch hypoplasia, pulmonary artery band removal). No complications from using this technique occurred. Discharge echocardiograms showed no significant shunting across the ventricular septum.ConclusionsPerventricular closure of multiple muscular ventricular septal defects is safe and effective. We believe that this could become the treatment of choice for any infant with muscular ventricular septal defects or any child with muscular ventricular septal defect and associated cardiac defects

Modèle Markovien et programmation dynamique pour l'extraction de contours : application à des images médicales

Nous proposons de considérer le problème de l'extraction de contours comme la restauration d'une séquence de points. L'extracteur proposé est un système hybride réseau de neurones - chaîne de Markov qui permet l'introduction dans le modèle de connaissances a priori de haut niveau. Une application à la détection automatique du ventricule gauche du coeur dans des radiographies numériques est entièrement décrite

Multi-Institutional US Experience of the Occlutech© AFR Device in Congenital and Acquired Heart Disease

Objectives: To detail the US multi-institutional experience with the Occlutech© (Occlutech International AB, Helsingborg, Sweden) atrial flow regulator (AFR) in children and adults with acquired or congenital heart disease. Background: The creation of a long-term atrial communication is desirable in several cardiovascular disease phenotypes, most notably pulmonary arterial hypertension, disorders of increased left ventricular filling and increased cavopulmonary pressures in patients with a Fontan type circulation. Methods: Patients were identified for inclusion from the AFR device manufacturer database. Data was collected using a RedCap database following IRB approval. 8 weeks of follow up data was sought for each patient based on available data. Data was analyzed and summarized using SPSS. Results: We report the experience of 6 US centers in the implantation of AFR devices in 15 patients, across a wide age range, with different disease phenotypes and a variety of indications. Implantation was technically successful in all patients and improvement was noted in both clinical and hemodynamic parameters. There were no immediate or intermediate term complications reported. 3 patients died remote from implantation. Their deaths were not felt to be related to the AFR device or related procedural complications. Conclusion: Compassionate use of the AFR device in children and adults with congenital & acquired heart disease is technically feasible and produces beneficial short term hemodynamic and symptomatic improvement. Widespread uptake of this technique and treatment at specialist centers has the potential to provide significant benefits to a variety of complex patients with currently limited treatment options and indeterminate prognosis

Intermediate follow-up following intravascular stenting for treatment of coarctation of the aorta

Background : We report a multiinstitutional study on intermediate-term outcome of intravascular stenting for treatment of coarctation of the aorta using integrated arch imaging (IAI) techniques. Methods and Results : Medical records of 578 patients from 17 institutions were reviewed. A total of 588 procedures were performed between May 1989 and Aug 2005. About 27% (160/588) procedures were followed up by further IAI of their aorta (MRI/CT/repeat cardiac catheterization) after initial stent procedures. Abnormal imaging studies included: the presence of dissection or aneurysm formation, stent fracture, or the presence of reobstruction within the stent (instent restenosis or significant intimal build-up within the stent). Forty-one abnormal imaging studies were reported in the intermediate follow-up at median 12 months (0.5–92 months). Smaller postintervention of the aorta (CoA) diameter and an increased persistent systolic pressure gradient were associated with encountering abnormal follow-up imaging studies. Aortic wall abnormalities included dissections ( n = 5) and aneurysm ( n = 13). The risk of encountering aortic wall abnormalities increased with larger percent increase in CoA diameter poststent implant, increasing balloon/coarc ratio, and performing prestent angioplasty. Stent restenosis was observed in 5/6 parts encountering stent fracture and neointimal buildup ( n = 16). Small CoA diameter poststent implant and increased poststent residual pressure gradient increased the likelihood of encountering instent restenosis at intermediate follow-up. Conclusions : Abnormalities were observed at intermediate follow-up following IS placement for treatment of native and recurrent coarctation of the aorta. Not exceeding a balloon:coarctation ratio of 3.5 and avoidance of prestent angioplasty decreased the likelihood of encountering an abnormal follow-up imaging study in patients undergoing intravascular stent placement for the treatment of coarctation of the aorta. We recommend IAI for all patients undergoing IS placement for treatment of CoA. © 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/57392/1/21191_ftp.pd

Evidence of phonon-assisted tunnelling in electrical conduction through DNA molecules

We propose a phonon-assisted tunnelling model for explanation of conductivity dependence on temperature and temperature-dependent I-V characteristics in deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) molecules. The capability of this model for explanation of conductivity peculiarities in DNA is illustrated by comparison of the temperature dependent I-V data extracted from some articles with tunnelling rate dependences on temperature and field strength computed according to the phonon-assisted tunnelling theory. PACS Codes: 87.15.-v, 71.38.-k, 73.40.GkComment: 6 pages, 3 figure