A divine cosmopolitanism? Religion, media and imagination in a socially divided Cairo

With a focus on young Egyptian women, this article explores the different ways it becomes possible to reconcile a Muslim identity with a cosmopolitan openness towards the world. Informed primarily by transnational television, these women articulate a divine cosmopolitan imagination through which they form multiple allegiances to God, the nation and global culture simultaneously. Thus, a close analysis of their regular consumption of transnational television helps challenge linear and somewhat naturalized preconceptions of how Muslims articulate perceptions of self and others. In the articulation of both their cosmopolitan imagination and religious identities, young Egyptian women have become skilled negotiators, moving within and between mediated and non-mediated discourses. They move physically within a grounded place that sets the moral boundaries for bodily existence, yet shift subjectively between disembedded spaces of mediated representation, often providing new contexts for meaning and inclusivity. The result, for young Egyptian women, is a divine cosmopolitan imagination

Investigation into the Microteaching Practices of Egyptian Pre-service Teachers of English in an EFL Teacher Preparation Programme: Implications for Curriculum Planning and Design

Based on an interpretive paradigm, this study aimed at probing into the perceptions of Egyptian EFL pre-service teachers and their lecturers of the new microteaching course. It investigated a) pre-service teachers and lecturers' perceptions about the course focuses; b) pre-service teachers' and lecturers’ perceptions of the difficulties encountered during course application, and finally c) pre-service teachers' perceptions about the helpfulness of the microteaching course in enhancing their teaching performance during practicum. Moreover, the study aimed at utilising this investigation for developing a framework for microteaching curricula planning and design. Data collection was based on a sequential mixed methods approach, thus in the first phase of the study, the researcher administered a questionnaire to 10 lecturers and 125 EFL pre-service teachers in the third year English department at the Faculty of Education of Menoufia University in Egypt. In Phase Two the researcher conducted semi-structured in-depth interviews with 7 lecturers and 15 pre-service teachers, who also completed a reflective journal. Data were analysed quantitatively and qualitatively. The findings of the current study indicated that that there are nineteen focuses of the microteaching course at Shebin Elkom Faculty of Education. These focuses have been classified into three main themes: lesson planning skills, lesson implementation skills, and lesson evaluation skills. As revealed by data analysis, lecturers devoted less time to practising lesson evaluation skills. Findings also revealed that EFL pre-service teachers and their lecturers encountered the following difficulties during peer group work: modelling the skills, planning a micro-lesson, teaching a micro-lesson, and when giving and receiving feedback. Furthermore, it was found that the course was helpful in enhancing pre-service teachers’ teaching performance at practicum concerning their professional skills rather than their personal qualities. Psychological, socio-cultural, and socio-political factors that affect the implementation of the microteaching course are discussed. Implications and suggestions for further research are provided.The Egyptian Cultural Centre and Educational Burea

A tale of three cities?: mediated imagination, class and the many young cosmopolitans of Cairo

This thesis has explored the ways in which young Egyptians construct different classed versions of a cosmopolitan imagination while located in the megacity of Cairo. In an intense ethnographic study, I have examined the ways in which young men and women shape their identities at the juxtaposition of a social reality, which is rigidly structured around classed and gendered divides on the one hand, and a diverse and fluid system of media representations of the self and others, on the other hand. Focusing on everyday life in Cairo has allowed me to examine the contradictory social and cultural experiences associated with being young in a megacity of the global south. Whilst the daily urban lives of these young Cairenes are located within embedded structures that place firm limits on their social and physical mobilities, the city is also a more creative terrain where these highly structured limits on the self are negotiated. As young people move physically in the city, yet shift imaginatively between different systems of representation available to them in the rich mediascapes they have access to, their sense of identity expands. Specifically, this cosmopolitanism takes the form of a dynamic subjective space and a category of imagination from within which identities, drawing heavily on globally circulating media products, are reflexively understood and interpreted. Thus, operating from within repressive, socially fragmented, yet highly mediated everyday contexts, I explore how young Egyptians construct three different versions of a cosmopolitan imagination: closed cosmopolitanism as imagined by the upper middle class, critical cosmopolitanism relating to the experiences of the lower middle class, and for the working class, an implicit cosmopolitan imagination

Machine learning approaches for early prediction of hypertension.

Hypertension afflicts one in every three adults and is a leading cause of mortality in 516, 955 patients in USA. The chronic elevation of cerebral perfusion pressure (CPP) changes the cerebrovasculature of the brain and disrupts its vasoregulation mechanisms. Reported correlations between changes in smaller cerebrovascular vessels and hypertension may be used to diagnose hypertension in its early stages, 10-15 years before the appearance of symptoms such as cognitive impairment and memory loss. Specifically, recent studies hypothesized that changes in the cerebrovasculature and CPP precede the systemic elevation of blood pressure. Currently, sphygmomanometers are used to measure repeated brachial artery pressure to diagnose hypertension after its onset. However, this method cannot detect cerebrovascular alterations that lead to adverse events which may occur prior to the onset of hypertension. The early detection and quantification of these cerebral vascular structural changes could help in predicting patients who are at a high risk of developing hypertension as well as other cerebral adverse events. This may enable early medical intervention prior to the onset of hypertension, potentially mitigating vascular-initiated end-organ damage. The goal of this dissertation is to develop a novel efficient noninvasive computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) system for the early prediction of hypertension. The developed CAD system analyzes magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) data of human brains gathered over years to detect and track cerebral vascular alterations correlated with hypertension development. This CAD system can make decisions based on available data to help physicians on predicting potential hypertensive patients before the onset of the disease

EVALUACION DEL EFECTO DEL DISRUPTOR ENDOCRINO DIOXINA SOBRE MARCADORES CELULARES Y MOLECULARES DEL SISTEMA REPRODUCTOR INMUNE Y NERVIOSO

ES UNA TESIS DE DOCTORADO SOBRE DIOXINAS DEL PROGRAMA DE DOCTORADO EN CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y RECURSOS NATURALESLos químicos disruptores endocrinos (EDC) son compuestos que alteran la estructura y función del sistema endocrino y pueden estar contribuyendo a trastornos de los sistemas reproductivos, metabólicos, neuroendocrinos y otros sistemas complejos. Las dioxinas es una clase de contaminantes ampliamente diseminados en todo el ambiente y causan efectos tóxicos a altas dosis demostrada en varias especies. La exposición de animales de laboratorio causa muchas formas de toxicidad, como hepatotoxicidad, inmunosupresión e infertilidad. Se realizó un ensayo de toxicidad subaguda con el disruptor endocrino 2,3,7,8- tetraclorodibenzo-p-dioxina (TCDD) en conejos adultos machos de Nueva Zelanda (n = 30) y ratones CD1 machos adultos (n = 30) con tres dosis bajas para simular la realidad de la exposición a este compuesto ( 0.375, 0.75 y 1.5 μg / kg). Los resultados de este trabajo muestra una disminución del peso corporal en ratones y conejos adultos sin afectar significativamente el peso de testículos, hígado y bazo. Las enzimas aspartato aminotransferasa (AST) y la alanina aminotransferasa (ALT) muestran una variación significativa en los grupos tratados con respecto al control. Se evidencia efectos significativos en la motilidad y la malformación de los espermatozoides. Se determinó la citotoxicidad y la apoptosis de los espermatozoides y los linfocitos de bazo e hígado mediante 7AAD y Anexin V usando citometría de flujo. Estas evaluaciones muestran un aumento de la citotoxicidad y una disminución de la apoptosis en las células de hígado y bazo. Eso se corroboró en las alteraciones presentadas en el análisis histopatológicos de testiculo, hígado, bazo y sistema nervioso. Concluyendo que la exposición a las dosis bajas de TCDD causa efectos negativos en los órganos analizados en ambas especies.UAEME

Insulin sensitivity and plasma glucose response to aerobic exercise in pregnant women at risk for gestational diabetes mellitus

Background: Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is one of the common complications that occur during pregnancy. Early intervention is essential to prevent the development of the disease in the non-pregnant state but also helpful in preventing the occurrence of GDM. The aim of the study was to assess the effect of aerobic exercises on insulin sensitivity and fasting plasma glucose level in pregnant women with risk for gestational diabetes mellitus.Materials and methods: Forty multigravidae women between 20-24 weeks of gestation with risk for GDM were randomly selected (age range was 25-35 years), body mass index ranged from 30-35 kg/m². Women were divided into two equal groups: intervention group (A), which followed an aerobic exercise program in the form of walking on treadmill, three times weekly until the end of 37 weeks of gestation in addition to diet control. Control group (B) which received diet control with usual care given by obstetricians and midwives. Evaluation of the women in both groups was carried out before and after treatment program through assessment of fasting blood glucose and insulin levels.Results: There was a highly statistically significance decrease in fasting blood glucose level, fasting insulin level in both groups where the p value was 0.0001 favoring group (A).Conclusion: Moderate intensity of aerobic exercises were effective in reducing fasting blood glucose level and fasting insulin level in pregnant women with risk for gestational diabetes mellitus.Keywords: Aerobic exercise, Blood glucose level, Insulin level, Pregnancy, Maternal diabete

The Role of PCR in the Diagnosis of Dermatophytes in Onychomycosis

Background:  Onychomycosis is a critical medical problem. This fungal infection of the nails leads to disfigurement, pain and impaired quality of life.  Given that it requires long-term expensive therapy; a proper diagnosis of this infection is greatly demanded.  Hence, study aimed at investigating the different laboratory methods used in the identification of dermatophytes implicated in onychomycosis including conventional laboratory methods (KOH preparation), Culture and PCR (multiplex). Subjects and Methods: This cross-section study included sixty-one (61) patients [ 82% females and 18% males]. All collected samples were investigated using microscopic examination and cultivation of samples. In addition, DNA extraction and PCR amplification were evaluated. Results: Distal and lateral subungual onychomycosis(DLSO) was the most common clinical types of onychomycosis represented 70 % of total cases. Pain was the most common presenting symptoms. Among the studied group, the most common fungal infections encountered were chronic paronychia, tinea pads and tinea manum (37.7%, 16.4%, and 8.2%) respectively. The 67.2% of the studied group by PCR were +ve, by culture 60.7% were +ve and finally, 73.8% were +ve by direct smear. The sensitivity of PCR in the diagnosis of lesions was 100% specificity was 83.3% and accuracy was 93.4%. Conclusion: The dermatophyte responsible for a majority of cases of onychomycosis. However, the role of NDMs should not be ignored and this may be now a consideration in evaluating and treating onychomycosis. PCR is highly sensitive methods for diagnosis of fungal infection. The application of PCR technology directly to the clinical specimens will allow early and accurate diagnosis of onychomycosis. This will permit prompt and targeted initiation of antifungal therapy. So, it is recommended to be used in the rapid diagnosis of onychomycosis. &nbsp

Optimized Adaptive Frangi-based Coronary Artery Segmentation using Genetic Algorithm

Diseases of coronary artery are deliberated as one of the most common heart diseases leading to death worldwide. For early detection of such disease, the X-ray angiography is a benchmark imaging modality for diagnosing such illness. The acquired X-ray angiography images usually suffer from low quality and the presence of noise. Therefore, for developing a computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) system, vessel enhancement and segmentation play significant role. In this paper, an optimized adapter filter based on Frangi filter was proposed for superior segmentation of the angiography images using genetic algorithm (GA). The original angiography image is initially preprocessed to enhance its contrast followed by generating the vesselness map using the proposed optimized Frangi filter. Then, a segmentation technique is applied to extract only the artery vessels, where the proposed system for extracting only the main vessel was evaluated. The experimental results on angiography images established the superiority of the vessel regions extraction showing 98.58% accuracy compared to the state-of-the-art

Nonlinear dynamics analysis of hydraulic turbochargers in reverse osmosis desalination plants

The authors deeply appreciate the contributions of the late Prof. Mokhtar Omar from Cairo University, who passed away on December 22, 2023. The first and second authors fondly recall their personal interactions with him, particularly in insightful discussions concerning the adopted bearing model.Peer reviewe