The European peripherality index

Article 2 of the Maastricht Treaty states as the goals of the European Union the promotion of harmonious and balanced economic development, convergence of economic performance, improvement of the quality of life and economic and social coherence between the member states. A prominent role for the achievement of these goals play the envisaged Trans-European Transport Networks (TETN). They are to link landlocked and peripheral areas with the central areas of the Community. The identification of those peripheral regions, whose accessibility and transport infrastructure systems are to be improved, is becoming of great political importance. This is underlined by the European Commission's first Cohesion Report (1997) which emphasises that "regions should ensure that policy success is measurable, that results are regularly monitored, and that the public and political authorities are regularly informed of progress." This paper presents the results of a study on peripherality undertaken for the European Commission. The purpose was to undertake, for the fifteen EU states and twelve candidate countries, the calculation of an index of peripherality of the 'potential' type. The economic potential of a region is the total of destinations in all regions weighted by a function of distance from the origin region. It is assumed that the potential for economic activity at any location is a function both of its proximity or 'travel tim' to other economic centres and of its economic size or 'mass'. The influence of each economic centre on any other centre is assumed to be proportional to its volume of economic activity and inversely proportional to a function of the distance between them. The economic potential of a given location is found by summing the influence on it of all other centres. Based on theoretical considerations, an integrated European Peripherality Index software system was developed to facilitate peripherality indices calculatio scenarios comparison, data updating and results demonstration. It is designed in a way to evaluate the impacts of transport infrastructure projects as well as impacts of general transport policies with respect to peripherality and could be seen as a first attempt for a wider regional monitoring system. In this, it should contribute to answer the debated question whether infrastructure improvements rather lead to cohesion effects or whether they increase disparities between the regions. The paper starts with theoretical considerations on cohesion effects of transport infrastructure improvements and concepts of accessibility and peripherality. Then the methodology used and the software system developed will be addressed briefly. Eventually the results of the indicator calculations will be presented, before the paper concludes with political implications and findings.

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationThis study examines how Islamists are socially, discursively and linguistically represented in the Egyptian newspaper al-Ahram. The main question of this study is what would the Egyptian government do to halt the Brothers' political growth and potential threat? To answer this question, the study uses Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to examine how Islamists are represented in frontpage news reports in the Egyptian newspaper al-Ahram, in 2000 and 2005. The analysis first examines both discursive and social practices related to the Muslim Brotherhood. This analysis examines the process of news making, role of ideology, history of Islamism, and type[s] of relationships between Islamists and the regimes. Second, the news reports are analyzed linguistically in terms of Idealized Reader (IR) framework, transitivity, sourcing, lexical choices and presupposition. The analysis leads to the conclusion that the Egyptian regimes have been practicing a constant and systematic strategy of exclusionary nature towards the Muslim Brotherhood. This exclusion has been implemented through the use of sheer power (detention, prison, and military tribunals) and through soft power (media negative representation) as well. Van Dijk's ideological square (1998) is found well-suited to describe the relationship between the Egyptian regime and Islamists: we are good and they are bad. The analysis of al-Ahram data, supplemented by analyzing other news sources, shows that: A. Almost all the accusations of the Egyptian government against the Muslim Brothers are unfounded, B. al-Ahram uses the technique of silence to conceal the good aspect of the Muslim Brotherhood, C. Islamists, in contrast with what is said about them, are willing to participate in democratic and civil society, and D. There is a relation between the discourse on Islamism and Orientalism. The negative representation, the study also concludes, is explained by the government's fear of Islamists as a political threat, its desire to maintain the West's support, and the continuation of Orientalist discourse

Solar Developing Egypt

Despite the ongoing debate on the usefulness of solar energy, it cannot be denied that Egypt has a high solar availability, and its energy can be used for water pumping, telecommunications, electrification, etc. Unfortunately, little has been done over the years to secure this sustainable type of energy. My paper will confirm my opinion of the importance and effectiveness of solar energy. It will also focus on how solar electricity will ensure electrification and the supply of safe drinking water. For millions around Egypt, electricity and safe drinking water are unavailable. Hence, harnessing the power of the sun through solar panels – a sustainable source of renewable energy – will lead to solving the issues of electrification and water supply in Egypt. I will conduct individual interviews and a focus group with the solar energy specialists of the Research Institute for a Sustainable Environment and other experts, since they have carried out projects pertaining to electrification and irrigation by way of solar panels. Moreover, a short survey of ten questions will be carried out where I will evaluate the AUC community’s acceptability to solar power in Egypt, and find out how much they know about the subject

Role of STIL overexpression in supernumerary centriole formation, chromosomal instability and cancer development in mice

Centrosome is the major microtubule-organizing center in mammalian cell and consists of a pair of centrioles embedded in pericentriolar material. Centrosomes are important for bipolar spindle formation and correct chromosome segregation during mitosis. Disruption of normal centrosome function leads to aneuploidy and chromosome missegregation. Many cancer cells harbor supernumerary centrosomes, which were shown to correlate to chromosomal instability, clinical aggressiveness, and poor prognosis. Nevertheless, the question, whether amplified centrosomes can drive tumorigenesis in vivo remains unresolved. The process of centrosome duplication is tightly controlled by a small set of proteins including the kinase protein PLK4 and the structural centriole proteins as STIL and SAS6. Depletion of any one of these proteins’ blocks centrosome duplication and, conversely, overexpression causes centrosome amplification. In different PLK4 overexpression in vivo models, it remains arguable, whether extra centrosomes could derive tumorigenesis and whether the generated tumors might be induced by the additional serine/threonine kinase functions of PLK4 besides its role in regulating centriole duplication. On the other hand, the structural centrosome protein STIL is involved only in centriole replication without any other known functions up to now and its overexpression leads to the formation of supernumerary centrioles in tissue culture. Therefore, investigating the role of centrosome aberrations in chromosomal instability and tumor formation in vivo using STIL overexpression (STILOE) mouse model will add important information to the conflicting data generated by PLK4 overexpressing mice. Accordingly, we generated a new transgenic Cre-LoxP mouse model, B6-STIL, that overexpresses STIL when bred with a Cre-deleter line leading to STOP cassette excision. These mice were used for (i) generation and characterization of mice with ubiquitous STIL overexpression (STILOE) for the assessment of spontaneous centrosome amplification-driven tumor development; (ii) generation and characterization of mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) derived from these STILOE mice to determine STIL overexpression levels and the development of centrosome amplification, mitotic aberrations; (iii) generation and characterization of mice with tamoxifen-inducible epithelium-specific STIL overexpression (K14(CreERT2);STILOE) with and without active TP53, which were used in skin carcinogenesis assays, to determine the relative contribution of supernumerary centrosomes and chromosomal instability to chemical tumor induction and progression. Our results showed a graded overexpression of STIL mRNA and protein in early MEFs passages and tissues from heterozygous STILOE and homozygous STILOE mice, leading to significant centrosome amplification and chromosomal aberrations via aberrant mitoses. Importantly, MEFs with high levels of STIL-induced centrosome amplification showed a proliferative disadvantage with a strong selective pressure to eliminate cells overexpressing STIL by apoptosis and senescence. In line, rates of both, spontaneous tumor formation in STILOE mice and chemically induced skin tumors in K14(CreERT2);STILOE animals are largely reduced as compared to controls. Thus, centrosome amplification induced by STIL overexpression seems to inhibit tumor formation rather than enhancing it in vivo in mammals

A Government-Binding Analysis of VP Sentential Complements in Egyptian Arabic

This paper examines VP sentential complements in Egyptian Arabic- within a Government and Binding framework. Various types of finite and non-finite sentential complements are identified according to the distribution of the complementizer ?inn 'that' and the elements that fill the complement subject position. It is proposed that Case and Binding parameters are set differently in Egyptian Arabic than in English. In Egyptian Arabic, certain subject NPs are potentially Case-marked by two categories. In these instances the lexical Case-marker prevails, thereby establishing the governing category for the NP, and determining the NP's range of interpretation by the Binding principles

Cooperating Newton’s Method with Series Solution Method for Solving System of Linear Mixed Volterra-Fredholm Integral Equation of the Second Kind

In this paper, for the 1st time, we use Newton’s method with series solution method (SSM) for solving system of linear mixed Volterra-Fredholm integral equations of the second kind (SLMVFIE-2). In this work, we use a new technique for studying the numerical solutions for SLMVFIE-2 which is Newton’s method with SSM, first solving this system using SSM and after that cooperation Newton’s method with SSM, suggesting an algorithm for the technique. The new results are achieved and some new theorems have proved for convergence of the method, several numerical examples are tested for illustrating the usefulness of the technique; the numerical results are obtained and compared with the exact solution, computing the least square error, and running times which are criterion of discussion. For programming the technique, we use general Matlab program