Infrastructure and economic growth in Egypt

In the past half a century, Egypt has experienced remarkable progress in the provision of infrastructure in all areas, including transportation, telecommunication, power generation, and water and sanitation. Judging from an international perspective, Egypt has achieved an infrastructure status that closely corresponds to what could be expected given its national income level. The present infrastructure status is the result of decades of purposeful investment. In the past 15 years, however, a worrisome trend has emerged: Infrastructure investment has suffered a substantial decline, which may be at odds with the country’s goals of raising economic growth. Improving infrastructure in Egypt would require a combination of larger infrastructure expenditures and more efficient investment. The analysis provided in this paper suggests that an increase in infrastructure expenditures from 5 to 6 percent of gross domestic product would raise the annual per capita growth rate of gross domestic product by about 0.5 percentage points in a decade’s time and 1 percentage point by the third decade. If the increase in infrastructure investment did not imply a heavier government burden (for instance, by cutting down on inefficient expenditures), the corresponding increase in growth of per capita gross domestic product would be substantially larger, in fact twice as large by the end of the first decade. This highlights the importance of considering renewed infrastructure investment in the larger context of public sector reform.Transport Economics Policy&Planning,Public Sector Economics,Non Bank Financial Institutions,Debt Markets,Economic Theory&Research

Effects of Freestream Turbulence on Cavity Tone and Sound Source

To clarify the effects of freestream turbulence on cavity tones, flow and acoustic fields were directly predicted for cavity flows with various intensities of freestream turbulence. The freestream Mach number was 0.09 and the Reynolds number based on the cavity length was 4.0 × 104. The depth-to-length ratio of the cavity, D/L, was 0.5 and 2.5, where the acoustic resonance of a depth-mode occurs for D/L = 2.5. The incoming boundary layer was laminar. The results for the intensity of freestream turbulence of Tu = 2.3% revealed that the reduced level of cavity tones in a cavity flow with acoustic resonance (D/L=2.5) was greater than that without acoustic resonance (D/L=0.5). To clarify the reason for this, the sound source based on Lighthill’s acoustic analogy was computed, and the contributions of the intensity and spanwise coherence of the sound source to the reduction of the cavity tone were estimated. As a result, the effects of the reduction of spanwise coherence on the cavity tone were greater in the cavity flow with acoustic resonance than in that without resonance, while the effects of the intensity were comparable for both flows

Combustion Synthesis Technology for a Sustainable Settlement Overnight

Space technology has been developed for frontier exploration not only in low-earth orbit environment but also beyond the earth orbit to the Moon and Mars, where material resources might be strongly restricted and almost impossible to be resupplied from the earth for distant and long-term missions performance toward “long-stays of humans in space”. For performing such long-term space explorations, none would be enough to develop technologies with resources only from the earth; it should be required to utilize resources on other places with different nature of the earth, i.e., in-situ resource utilization. One of important challenges of lunar in-situ resource utilization is thermal control of spacecraft on lunar surface for long-lunar durations. Such thermal control under “long-term field operation” would be solved by “thermal wadis” studied as a part of sustainable researches on overnight survivals such as lunar-night. The resources such as metal oxides that exist on planets or satellites could be refined, and utilized as a supply of heat energy, where combustion synthesis can stand as a hopeful technology for such requirements. The combustion synthesis technology is mainly characterized with generation of high-temperature, spontaneous propagation of reaction, rapid synthesis and high operability under various influences with centrifugal-force, low-gravity and high vacuum. These concepts, technologies and hardware would be applicable to both the Moon and Mars, and these capabilities might achieve the maximum benefits of in-situ resource utilization with the aid of combustion synthesis applications. The present paper mainly concerns the combustion synthesis technologies for sustainable lunar overnight survivals by focusing on “potential precursor synthesis and formation”, “in-situ resource utilization in extreme environments” and “exergy loss minimization with efficient energy conversion”

EXPERT OPINION ON PHARMACOTHERAPY

Background: With limited real-world insulin glargine 300 unit/mL (Gla-300) data available, we assessed the effectiveness and safety of Gla-300 in the Japanese type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) population. Research design and methods: X-STAR was a prospective, observational, 12-month post-marketing study of Gla-300 from 2015 to 2018. T2DM patients received Gla-300 as the first insulin (insulin-naïve) or after treatment with another type of insulin (insulin-experienced). Results: We identified 1,227 insulin-naïve and 3,394 insulin-experienced patients. Insulin-naïve group increased the Gla-300 starting dose by 2.80 U/day during 12 months (7.49 to 10.29 U/day). Mean HbA1c reduced by 1.99% (9.82 to 7.83%), and 28.4% showed HbA1c < 7.0%. Insulin-experienced group had a baseline insulin dose of 14.86 U/day, which increased by 0.73 U/day. Mean HbA1c reduced by 0.18% (7.99 to 7.81%), and 24.6% showed HbA1c < 7.0%. Adverse drug reactions occurred in 3.42% (insulin-naïve) and 4.45% (insulin-experienced); symptomatic hypoglycemia (2.93% and 3.86%, respectively) was the most common in both groups. Conclusions: Gla-300, in clinical practice, provides an effective and safe therapy as HbA1c was reduced/maintained in insulin-naïve/experienced Japanese T2DM patients without new safety signal. This study provides insights into the current Japanese clinical practices where insulin use is delayed and conservative despite relatively low HbA1c achievement

Risk of hypoglycemia in Japanese people with type 2 diabetes mellitus who initiated or switched to insulin glargine 300 U/mL : A subgroup analysis of 12-month post-marketing surveillance study (X-STAR study)

Aims: This study investigated the hypoglycemia risk in people with type 2 diabetes (T2D) who initiated or switched to insulin glargine 300 U/mL (Gla-300) by stratifying them by age and renal function. Methods: We examined data from 4621 people with T2D (1227 insulin-naïve and 3394 insulin-experienced) of the X-STAR study, a prospective, observational, 12-month study conducted from December 2015 to August 2018 in Japan. Participants were stratified by age (<65, 65 to <75, and ≥75 years) and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) (≥90, 60 to <90, 30 to <60, and <30 mL/min/1.73 m2). Hypoglycemia was defined according to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare manual of Japan. Results: No apparent increase in the proportion of people who experienced hypoglycemia was found in all subgroups. The proportions were 2.9–3.5% and 2.7–5.2% of insulin-naïve and insulin-experienced people, respectively, for age subgroups, and 2.4–4.7% and 4.6–4.8%, respectively, for eGFR subgroups. The result was similar for HbA1c levels below and at or above 7.0% in all age subgroups. Conclusions: Our study found no apparent increase in the hypoglycemia risk in people with older age and renal impairment who were administered Gla-300. These results would provide reassuring information on Gla-300 use

Real-world data on the use of insulin glargine 300 U/mL in Japanese patients with type 1 diabetes : twelve-month results from a post-marketing surveillance study (X-STAR study)

Background: With limited real-world insulin glargine 300 U/mL (Gla-300) data among Japanese patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) available, the authors describe its effectiveness and safety in Japanese T1DM patients switching to Gla-300. Research design and methods: X-STAR was a 12-month prospective, observational, post-marketing study in Japanese patients with diabetes mellitus from 2015 to 2018: insulin-experienced T1DM patients initiating Gla-300 were analyzed. Results: Of 774 patients, mean (±standard deviation) HbA1c (%) and fasting plasma glucose (mg/dL) decreased from 8.27 ± 1.55 to 8.15 ± 1.35 (by −0.12 ± 1.30 [p = 0.013]) and 167.9 ± 92.6 to 153.9 ± 70.9 (by −13.9 ± 103.8 [p = 0.067]) from baseline to month 12, respectively. A total of 16.3% achieved HbA1c <7.0% at month 12. Gla-300 dose increased by 1.13 ± 3.18 U/day (0.02 ± 0.05 U/kg/day) (p < 0.001), with a + 0.22 ± 2.70 (p = 0.037) body-weight change (kg) from baseline 60.83 ± 12.81 to 12-month 61.06 ± 12.89. Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) and serious ADRs occurred in 9.82% and 0.78% of the patients, respectively. Hypoglycemia was the most common ADR (9.30%). In total, 88.9% adhered to Gla-300 administration schedules, whereas <40% adhered to exercise and dietary instructions, respectively. Conclusions: Gla-300 showed no unprecedented safety concerns for insulin-experienced T1DM patients in Japanese clinical settings. Our results provide insights into strategies for blunted Gla-300 up-titration dose, despite insufficient HbA1c control and lifestyle modification

Tele-presence and Using Media in Higher Education

高等教育におけるメディア利用指向は大きなものであるが、単に新しいメディアを利用することで既存の問題が解決されるわけではない。ここでは根本に立ちかえって、新たなメデイアがその成立過程にどのような仕組みで成立してきているのか、ソシオ・メデイア論的立場から実例を元に検証し、その背景を分析した。また、新しいメディアの中でも実際に教育・研究の中に取り込まれ、運用されてきているビデオ・コンファレンスについて、その根本的問題点を抽出した。キーとなる概念はテレ・プレゼンスであり、技術的限界、可能性の側面にとらわれがちな我々に新たな視点を提供するものである。Because of the rapid development of various information technologies, we have had little time for careful consideration of how these new technologies can change our personal lives, political system, society and culture. The same thing applies to higher education and the media: we adopt them "without preparation" . History tells us that the development of new media always depends not only on technological factors, but also on "people\u27s expectations" and "people\u27s criticism". We must also give sufficient weight to criticisms concerning the use of the new media in higher education. Another point requiring consideration is the difference between technological factors and user\u27s sense (mode of communication). Users will choose those media through which they can feel the "tele-presence" of other people, even if the media is technologically inferior to another type. "Tele-presence" is a very important factor in thinking and using new media