A review of credit guarantee schemes in the Middle East and North Africa Region

Many countries in the MENA region have established partial credit guarantee schemes to facilitate SME access to finance. These schemes can play an important role, especially in a period where MENA governments are making efforts to improve the effectiveness of credit registries and bureaus and strengthen creditor rights. This paper reviews the design of partial credit guarantee schemes in MENA, and assesses their preliminary outcomes. The paper is based on a survey conducted in 10 MENA countries in early 2010. The authors find that the average size of guarantee schemes in MENA (measured by the total value of outstanding guarantees) is in line with the international average, although there are wide differences across countries, and some schemes seem too small to make any significant impact. Most importantly, the number of guarantees looks generally small while their average value looks large. This suggests that guarantee schemes are not yet reaching the smaller firms. Guarantee schemes in MENA look financially sound and most schemes have room to grow. However, this growth should be accompanied by an improvement of some key design and management features, as well as the introduction of systematic impact evaluation reviews.Access to Finance,Debt Markets,Bankruptcy and Resolution of Financial Distress,Microfinance,Banks&Banking Reform

Adaptations to Chronic Hypoxia Combined with Erythropoietin Deficiency in Cerebral and Cardiac Tissues

Chronic anemia-induced hypoxia triggers regulatory pathways that mediate long-term adaptive cardiac and cerebral changes, particularly at the transcriptional level. These adaptative mechanisms include a regulated cerebral blood flow and cardiac output, angiogenesis and cytoprotection triggered by hypoxia-inducible factor 1 alpha (HIF-1α), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) and Epo pathways. All these compensatory mechanisms aim to optimize oxygen delivery and to protect the brain and heart from hypoxic injury. We reviewed the effects of chronic hypobaric hypoxia as well as chronic anemia in the heart and brain, and we compared for the first time the effects of chronic hypobaric hypoxia combined with a severe lack of Epo (chronic anemia) in these vital organs. Functional cardiac adaptations such as cardiac hypertrophy, increased cardiac output as well as angiogenesis occurred along with the activation of HIF1α/VEGF and Epo/EpoR pathways under chronic anemia or hypoxia. Similarly, cerebrovascular adaptations take place through the same molecular mechanisms under chronic hypoxia or anemia. However, when both arterial pressure and content of oxygen are decreased, the cerebral and cardiac adaptative mechanisms showed their limitations. In addition, cerebral and cardiac cell injuries may have occurred following the combined effect of chronic anemia and hypoxia. By emphasizing the anemia and hypoxia-induced cerebral and myocardial adaptations, this review highlighted the crucial role of Epo in its non-erythropoietic functions such as angiogenesis and neuroprotection. Indeed, a better understanding of these protective mechanisms is of great clinical importance to the development of new therapeutic strategies for the management of ischemic heart and brain

Thermophysical Properties Enhancement in Construction Materials Based on Cement and Plaster

Enhancing insulating power of buildings envelope saves energy costs and minimizes associated CO2 emissions. The development of materials with good thermal performance is a major challenge. This work shows the effect of incorporating different additions on the thermal properties of composites based on plaster and cement through a series of experiments. The additives used are among the most widespread wastes in Morocco. Dozens of new samples based on cement and plaster have been prepared and experimentally characterized by the box method to develop environmentally friendly materials with the best thermal characteristics. The results show that increasing incorporation rate of additives significantly improves thermophysical properties of based materials. The addition of 4% alfa and 6% of coffee grounds in plaster matrix and the replacement of cement by 50% of ashes in mortar and concrete record the low thermal properties including thermal conductivity, diffusivity, effusivity and specific heat. The good performance of new materials encourages us to integrate them into the building envelope. The results of the annual simulations carried out for a typical building located in Meknes indicated that the use of these proposed materials has significant economic and environmental benefits. A reduction of 50% in energy and a limitation of 3029.13 kgCO2eq/yr are observed thanks to an effective combination between the developed material

La stratégie de développement durable des forêts et parcours en Tunisie 2015-2024 - Pour une transition vers l’économie verte

La Tunisie vient de se doter d’une nouvelle stratégie de développement et de gestion durable des forêts et des parcours qui couvrent 34% du territoire national, soit 5,6 millions d’hectares. Présentée à Barcelone, lors de la 4e Semaine forestière méditerranéenne (du 17 au 20 mars), cette stratégie couvre la période 2015-2024. Elle vise à dynamiser le secteur forestier et pastoral en Tunisie tout en garantissant un développement local durable, créateur d’emplois et de revenus pour plus de 800 000 personnes vivant dans ces écosystèmes vitaux très vulnérables. Concrètement, la nouvelle stratégie vise la mise en place d’un cadre favorable incitatif au développement de l’économie verte, le renforcement de la prise de conscience quant à l'impact des changements climatiques sur les espaces forestiers et pastoraux et la promotion du partenariat public-privé, en tant qu’appui au développement durable

Creativity-function nexus; creativity and functional attentiveness in design studio teaching

Can creative forms enclose functionally-efficient spaces? Do functional considerations restrict creative design products? The question of creative form versus function is one that is very debatable, and has been in question for a long time in both architectural education and practice. Milestone fi gures of architecture all have their different views on what comes fi rst, form or functional spaces. They also vary in their defi nitions of creativity. Apparently, creativity is very strongly related to ideas and how they can be generated. It is also correlated with the process of thinking and developing. Creative products, whether architectural or otherwise, and whether tangible or intangible, are originated from ‘good ideas.’ On one hand, not any idea, or any good idea, can be considered creative but, on the other hand, any creative result can be traced back to a good idea that initiated it in the beginning (Goldschmit and Tatsa, 2005). However, how can a good idea be classifi ed, which ideas are useful and helpful, and how can they be characterized, are main questions that this research work aims to answer. This paper attempts to discuss and compare various, and often opposing, viewpoints of both students and teaching staff, at the possibility of striking a balance between exciting forms and functional precision in the design studio. The research examines the confl ict that students often face when assigned with a design project, and the diffi culties they experience in translating theoretical and fundamentally-important data into a novel architectural interpretation. Furthermore, the investigation aims at relating the continuous, nonlinear process of review and modifi cation, customary to traditional design-studio approaches, to the fi nal products students submit as part of their design-studio applications. The fi nal issue in question is the role of criticism and assessment in the forms of juries or crits, assessment criteria, and whether this traditional aspect of design-studio education truly provides architectural students with the constructive criticism they need amid feelings of tension and limited time constraints. The Architectural Engineering and Environmental Design department at the Arab Academy for Science and Technology (AAST) is exploit as a case study for the research work presented in this paper

Strategy for the Sustainable Development of Forests and Pasture in Tunisia, 2015 – 2024 - For a transition to a green economy

Tunisia has recently adopted a new strategy for the sustainable development and management of forests and grazing lands which cover 34% of the country, equivalent to 5.6 million hectares. This strategy, which was presented to the 4th Mediterranean Forest Week in Barcelona (17-20 March 2015), covers the period 2015-2024. Its objective is to bring a dynamic impetus to the forestry and livestock grazing sectors in Tunisia while at the same time ensuring sustainable local development, with jobs and income for the 800,000 people who live in these vital but vulnerable ecosystems. In practical terms, the new strategy seeks to implement a favourable framework for developing a green economy, reinforcing awareness about the impact of climate change on forest and grazing land species and promoting public-private partnerships as underpinning for sustainable development

Evaluation of Powdered Activated Carbon Efficiency in Removal of Dissolved Organic Carbon inWater Treatment

Materials and Methods: The increase of PAC for DOC reduction has done in three paths in the Isfahan water treatment plant (WTP). These paths including: 1) Intake up to entrance of WTP 2) Intake to exit ofWTP 3) Between entrance and exit of waterworks. The paths were simulated by the Jar test system. Then DOC and UV254 absorption were analyzed and SUVA parameter for samples and activated-carbon adsorption isotherm was calculated. Results: The injected PAC doses of 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 mg/l caused decreasing in

Assessing 3GPP LTE-Advanced as IMT-Advanced Technology: The WINNER+ Evaluation Group Approach

[EN] This article describes the WINNER+ approach to performance evaluation of the 3GPP LTE-Advanced proposal as an IMT-Advanced technology candidate. The official registered WINNER+ Independent Evaluation Group evaluated this proposal against ITU-R requirements. The first part of the article gives an overview of the ITU-R evaluation process, criteria, and scenarios. The second part is focused on the working method of the evaluation group, emphasizing the simulator calibration approach. Finally, the article contains exemplary evaluation results based on analytical and simulation approaches. The obtained results allow WINNER+ to confirm that the 3GPP LTE Release 10 & Beyond (LTE-Advanced) proposal satisfies all the IMT-Advanced requirements, and thus qualifies as an IMT-advanced system.This work has been performed in the framework of the CELTIC project CP5-026 WINNER+. The authors would like to acknowledge the contributions of their colleagues in the WINNER+ consortium. The authors wish to thank colleagues from Ericsson, Per Skillermark and Johnan Nystrom, for their effort in leading the simulations part of the WINNER+ evaluation group. The work of David Martin-Sacristan was supported by an FPU grant of the Spanish Ministry of Education.Safjan, K.; D'amico, V.; Bültmann, D.; Martín-Sacristán, D.; Saadani, A.; Schöneich, H. (2011). Assessing 3GPP LTE-Advanced as IMT-Advanced Technology: The WINNER+ Evaluation Group Approach. IEEE Communications Magazine. 49(2):92-100. doi:10.1109/MCOM.2011.5706316S9210049

Expression of recombinant Streptokinase from local Egyptian Streptococcus sp. SalMarEg

Streptokinase (SK) is a therapeutically important thrombolytic agent. Cardiovascular disease is the first cause of adult death worldwide. In Egypt about 13% of the population die every year due to ischemic heart disease. In spite of this fact, there is no local production of cardiovascular therapeutics. We reported for the first time the expression of a recombinant SK from a local Streptococcus strain. When produced on industrial scale this r-SK may substantially contribute to reducing the costs of thrombolytic therapy in developing countries. In this study, a highly purified r-SK from Streptococcus sp. isolated from Egyptian pharyngitis patients was obtained. The isolated strain was partially identified using 16S rDNA sequencing and named Streptococcus sp. SalMarEg. It was found to be phylogenetically related to Streptococcus pyogenes. Analysis of the obtained sequence showed high similarity with other SK genes. The protein expression in a prokaryotic system obtained a 47-kDa SK protein that could be purified using a single-step his-tagged affinity purification chromatography, with nearly 80% recovery. The clot lytic activities of both recombinant and commercial SK were similar, thus giving the basis to scale up this SK product in order to evaluate the possibilities of its commercialization in local and/or regional markets.Key words: Streptokinase, Streptococcus SalMarEg, thrombolytic agent, heterologous expression