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The present study aimed at studying the recycling of shredded currency waste of The Egyptian Central Bank, ECB, in the form of good-quality products. The techniques used include soaking with chemicals, screening to separate the detached ink particles from the soaking step, pulping at high temperature, screening to separate large nylon pieces and small ink particles, flotation to separate large ink particles and small pieces of nylon and bleaching as the final step to increase the whiteness of the product. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines Egypt's labor market transition dynamics post-Arab Spring based on the two most recent rounds of the Egypt Labor Market Panel Survey conducted in 2012 and 2018. In addition to providing disaggregated level analysis by examining labor market transitions by gender, education, and age groups, our paper provides a cross-country perspective by comparing Egypt's labor market transitions with Jordan's. Regression analyses focusing on transitions to and from the dominant absorbing labor market states in Egypt – public sector employment for both genders, non-participation for women, and the informal sector for men – show that having a post-secondary education is associated with a lower probability of remaining out of the labor force (OLF) for women who were already OLF at baseline, while being married at baseline is found to be a significant predictor for women to stay out of the labor force if they were already so. As for men, the better educated are found to be more likely to secure formal employment, be it in the public or in the private sector, and also more likely to keep their public formal jobs once they secure them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental applications play a significant role in the ongoing research area of Polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (PolSAR) image classification. In this paper, a new model is proposed for classifying PolSAR images and applied to a part of the Greater Cairo area in the Nile basin, South of Delta, Egypt. First, the proposed model performs data pre-processing by extracting the coherency and covariance elements noted as [T] and [C] matrices, respectively. Second, temporal convolutional networks (TCN) deep learning is used to extract the features from coherency and covariance elements and then train the model. Third, the SoftMax classifier is used to classify the PolSAR image. Finally, the proposed model is tested with evaluation metrics. The obtained results show that the proposed model can achieve high classification performances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the individual might feel isolated, and his psychological capital (PsyCap) is negatively influenced. Most research on peer support has focused on its contribution to employee well-being when the peers are in the same workplace. Scant research targets the times of lockdowns and social distancing. This paper investigates how peer support influences employee PsyCap during the COVID-19 pandemic. By conducting a questionnaire with N = 42 employees and three online focus groups with N = 15 employees out of N = 350 employees working at an international organization operating in Egypt as a bilateral development partner funded by the German government, the paper concludes that peer support has a positive influence on employee PsyCap, especially self-efficacy, hope, and optimism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia possess diverse natural resources and a substantial labor force that permit forming a successful trade integration. However, the recent dispute over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) project between Ethiopia and downstream countries, Egypt and Sudan, has weakened the bilateral relations and disrupted trade flows among the three countries. This paper investigates the pattern of trilateral trade between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia during the period between 1995 and 2018. The study also examines the prospects and challenges for establishing a trilateral trade integration between the three countries. The study adopted the gravity model approach, along with the export diversification and trade complementarity indices, in order to scrutinize the pattern and structure of trade between the countries under study. The analysis indicated that Egypt is the most diversified economy with many crucial comparative advantages, which may grant it a leader position in the integration. Moreover, the paper revealed many challenges that may hinder the implementation of trilateral trade integration including, export concentration, poor infrastructure and disputes over water resources. Finally, the paper recommends that facilitating bilateral trade among the riparian countries of Eastern Nile Basin would mitigate the complex clashes over water rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The South African bioeconomy strategy did not clearly articulate the measurement framework to monitor the implementation of the strategy. This paper provides an analysis of bioeconomy patents, the most prolific organizations and citations at the EPO and USPTO for South Africa, BRICS, Egypt and Nigeria during the Ten-Year Innovation Plan 2008–2018. The terms 'biotechnology', 'medical technology', 'pharmaceuticals' and 'selected environment-related technologies' were used to search for patents. The OECD patents by technology, the EPO PATSTAT and the USPTO PatFT databases were used to map patents and citations. The results show that South Africa ranked last in the BRICS group but produced a higher number of patents than Egypt and Nigeria. The number of patents generally decreased for the selected countries except for China. The total citations for the selected countries was generally inconsistent. The important innovators for South Africa in the bioeconomy are mainly universities and public research institutions. A new fiscal approach to encourage knowledge application in bioeconomy in South Africa is required. Incentives from government that encourage collaboration between research institutions and industry to direct research with industry application are required. The study contributes to the development of metrics to monitor the bioeconomy in South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper provides a comprehensive comparison of the experiences of debt accumulation and of the debt crises which took place within less than a decade during the second half of the nineteenth century in Tunisia, Egypt and the Ottoman Empire. The comparison covers the period from the 1850s to the 1880s, as the three countries were attempting to modernize and meet the challenges posed by the industrial revolution and the European expansion globally. They quickly faced financial constraints, increased their external borrowing and ran into crisis. These crises, which were triggered from 1867 to 1876, were part of the second wave of crises during the nineteenth century. The countries differed considerably in the way the crises were managed and resolved. In this context, based on available information, the paper provides a quantitative assessment of the debt burden and the various indicators of creditworthiness using constructed series on total GDP for the three countries for the period 1860–1884. This allows for a comparison of the full processes of debt accumulation, the triggering of the crises and their resolution. In doing so it brings together a wealth of data and information about the factors which impacted creditworthiness and capacity to service debt, relating to trade and fiscal revenues, which played a major role in determining the severity of the crises and the way they were resolved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the juristic discussions about women’s access to their financial rights during late Ottoman Egypt. Taking fatwa collections as a source of social history, one can recognize that women sometimes gave up their financial entitlements to their male relatives voluntarily. This concession is thought to have occurred due to the influence of deeply ingrained social customs in some tribes. While various historical and anthropological studies have explored this social practice, this paper focuses instead on the Islamic law ruling concerning this phenomenon. I discuss in this paper how some ostensibly conservative ulama in nineteenth-century Egypt, in pursuit of upholding women’s financial rights against patriarchal oppression, recognized an important principle of social coercion. By considering fear of social stigma as a constraint on women’s free will and thus as a form of legal duress, those ulama enabled women to reclaim their rights when possible— likely following the death of their male relatives. This paper urges us to rethink the position of the ulama in nineteenth-century Egypt regarding women’s rights. Furthermore, it illuminates an overarching concept of coercion in Islamic law, which holds relevance to various modern debates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social entrepreneurs face the challenge of resource constraints that affect their ability to scale social impact and expand in various geographical locations. In order to overcome resource barriers and to scale up social impact, social ventures deploy resources currently owned, and form distinct partnerships to acquire new resources, and hence implement unique strategies to achieve a pre-determined social impact. Through the lens of the Resource Based View (RBV) and Resource Dependency Theory (RDT), this paper explores the current discourse on social venture growth and scale-up strategies, and employs a grounded theory approach on 20 social ventures in Egypt to further develop a matrix for social ventures' scale-up strategies based on resources' availability. In addition, the paper introduces a typology of social impact scaling strategies given social ventures' social impact objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 2011 Arab Spring revolutions many scholars of the Middle East have built and analyzed locally-sourced protest event datasets, which have been hailed for providing superior coverage to various off-the-shelf datasets that rely primarily on English-language sources. This paper assesses the extent of these coverage improvements. It shows that across five different MENA countries, locally-sourced datasets identify considerably more events than most off-the-shelf datasets. It then compares one locally-sourced dataset of protests in Egypt from January 2012 to July 2013 to two prominent off-the-shelf datasets: ACLED and SCAD. These comparisons reveal that both ACLED and SCAD significantly overcount large, urban, violent, and political events. Next the paper compares the Egypt dataset to data compiled by two Egyptian activist groups, and finds that the locally-sourced dataset is also biased in key respects, undercounting small labor events outside the capital. Finally, the paper demonstrates the implications of these biases by showing how statistical models of protest repression differ when using the locally-sourced dataset versus SCAD. Scholars of Mediterranean politics analyzing within-case and sub-national mobilization dynamics should use locally-sourced datasets whenever possible, but should also be aware that using local sources does not entirely eliminate certain forms of bias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper employs a historiographical approach to review the allied fields of Egyptology and Egyptian Archaeology in relation to studies of disability and bodily differences in ancient Egypt. We incorporate critical disability studies and embodiment theories to consider whether ableism is prevalent across these disciplines. The focus of this study has been inverted from 'identifying' disability. Instead our primary driving question is: are Egyptological approaches to bodily differences and disabilities contributing to a production and maintenance of ableism in Egyptology? Here we first identify ableist narratives within numerous methodologies highlighting the need to reconsider existing approaches, terminologies, models, and assumptions regarding studies of disability in the ancient past. We then challenge readers to recognise ableism as a form of inequality in the existing scholarship, and in turn, call for better awareness of assumptions relating to bodily norms, terminologies, and inclusivity in ancient world studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2005, a team of Polish archaeologists discovered three Coptic codices, two on papyrus and one on parchment, in the rubbish dump of a hermitage at Sheik Abd el-Gurna, Egypt. While the parchment codex and the remains of the bindings of the papyrus ones have been conserved, the text blocks of the papyrus codices were opened and disassembled and after being disinfected remained untouched for nearly 15 years, until the current project started. Currently, all three books are stored in the collection of the Coptic Museum in Cairo. Our team undertook the conservation of and archaeometric research on the papyrus codices. The first of the books contains the Canons of Pseudo-Basil, while the second is an Encomium of St. Pisenthios. Both codices have been palaeographically dated to the seventh-eighth centuries CE. In this paper, we describe our project and present the results of the work carried out on the Canons of Pseudo-Basil. Our work involved photography in transmitted light, measurements of the thickness of the papyrus leaves, and digital microscopy under three-light illumination. These measurements allowed us to determine the types of the inks and characterize the papyrus writing substrate. For conservation, we used a novel method developed in the Egyptian Museum in Berlin that comprises suspending papyrus folios on a translucent, extremely thin Japanese paper inside glass frames without the use of adhesives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The observed low level of information and communication technology (ICT) usage among micro, small, and medium-sized enterprise (MSME) firms in many African countries may serve as a major constraint to their productivity. The productivity of service and manufacturing firms is impacted differently due to this low uptake of ICT. This paper seeks to examine the differential effects of ICT on MSMEs' productivity in emerging African economies, specifically Egypt and Nigeria. This study evaluates the effects of ICT on MSMEs' productivity across different sectors (services and manufacturing), by size and aggregated. The estimated results support the positive impact of MSMEs' website presence and use of email on their productivity, though the magnitude varies across different analyses and sectors. This appears to support the differential sectoral impacts of ICT on MSMEs' productivity across countries in emerging markets. Specifically, this study finds evidence for a higher impact of firms' website presence on productivity in the manufacturing sector than the services sector across emerging economies. The study, therefore, recommends that emerging markets economies that want to implement appropriate national technology policies to enhance their firms' productivity should always consider their differential effects on various sectors, as universal ICT policies may not achieve the desired objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous literature on diasporas assert that political crises such as revolutions in home states work as pressuring devices which activate diasporas, alongside political opportunity structures (POS) present in host countries, as an explanation for mobilisation. However, this does not sufficiently explain why two diaspora groups from the same country of origin mobilise in a sustained or episodic manner. Through interviews this paper will focus on the two core Egyptian diaspora groups in the United Kingdom (UK) since 2011 – the sustained mobilisation of the Egyptian Revolutionary Council (ERC), and the episodic mobilisation of the Egyptian National Association for Change (ENAC). It argues that the availability of specific incorporation mechanisms such as movement diffusion and the (non) -existence of elite proximity in host states incorporate or disincorporate a group, leading to sustained or episodic mobilisation. It contributes to emerging literature on contentious diaspora politics with these two added variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shifts the focus from male paperless migrants to the women who stay in their country of origin. My analysis of the discrepancy between borderless economics and the bordered movement of people explores the representation of the women left behind in Ayman Zohry's novella 'The Mediterranean Sea', which describes irregular migration from Egypt to Italy. This paper investigates the intersection between the forces of patriarchy and globalisation in the lives of the women who are left in the sending countries. The article starts by shedding light on the writer, who is an expert in immigration studies. The second section of this essay focuses on the wives' struggle against the glocal masculine and geopolitical dictates. The third part of the paper analyses the juncture of gender and global capital in the lives of the mothers left behind. My investigation of the hardships endured by migrants' wives and mothers demonstrates that immigration torments those women who stay in the homeland as much as it afflicts the spouses who travel to 'Hopeland' (Obi, Cyril. 2007. "From Homeland to Hopeland? Economic Globalization and Ogoni Migration in the 1990s." In The Cultures of Economic Migration: International Perspectives, edited by Suman Gupta, and Tope Omonyi, 115. Burlington, VT: Ashgate). My main argument is that the Egyptian women left behind have to strive against both the contradictions induced by globalisation and the subordination generated by male domination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through addressing four public universities in Egypt, the author of the present study seeks to answer the question of why women faculty are poorly represented in both professorial and academic managerial positions. Upon conducting semi-structured interviews with 22 academic leaders in the addressed universities, the author of the present paper has found that the representation of women faculty is determined by both cultural barriers (e.g., familial obligations, the think manager think male culture, religious barriers) and institutional limitations (e.g., lack of administrative support, gender bias, greediness of academic institutions). To the best of the author's knowledge, this study is the first of its kind in the context of a developing nation to focus on the representation of women faculty from the perspective of academic leaders, and subsequently, it fills a gap in HR management, public administration and higher education, in which empirical studies that address academic leaders to identify their perceptions of the representation of their female colleagues have been limited so far. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research aims to develop mitigation techniques for the implications that affect the city planning sectors in Egypt during COVID-19, which will guide urban planners and policymakers to enhance Egyptian citizen life during pandemics. A statistical thematic methodology was adopted by the research. The research method divided into three phases. The first phase considers the attitude of Egyptian citizens toward the global pandemic through conducting surveys. These surveys discuss the global effects of the pandemic and if these effects are felt in the Egyptian context or not. The second phase targets the citizen that disagree with the global effects as a result of the phase one survey through structured interviews. These interviews concluded the reasons behind the disagreement of the surveys in phase one as well as the effects that they personally suffer from during the pandemic. The third phase targets the policymakers and planners inside Egypt and their perspectives on the suitable mitigation techniques that can be implemented in the Egyptian context. This will finally lead to suggesting a set of mitigation techniques suitable for Egyptian cities. The research paper identified through a review of literature the mostly affected city planning sectors during COVID-19 which were 6 sectors. In addition, 25 global mitigation measures were identified through the literature. Results of the Surveys and structured interviews confirmed that the most affected sectors are transport & land use, housing, and ICT respectively. Findings of data analysis showed that 10 extra mitigation measures were encountered to better enhance the Egyptian cities. These findings help planners and policy makers to plan cities that can cope with future pandemics. This research presents mitigation techniques for the implications that affect the city planning sectors in Egypt during COVID-19. It was based on research from case studies, a literature review, and a survey questionnaire. The mitigation techniques developed in a practical procedure where the goals of the research; required activities; techniques, and tools; elaborated the citizen needs and outputs. The mitigation techniques was authenticated by 24 of the Egyptian professionals' planners and policy makers to ensure its viability and practicability for implementation. The research categorized and examined the global effects that changed the quality of life during pandemics. Moreover, real life case study authenticated the global effects and explored the most successful mitigation countermeasures that suites the Egyptian context. The study focused on a subject that has recently attracted interest on a global scale. In addition, this paper developed 10 extra mitigation measures to better enhance the Egyptian cities and other developing countries of similar context. It represents a novel contribution that planners and policy makers can employ in similar context to the Egyptian cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transition to non-employment is prevalent for women in the Egyptian labor market, particularly those working in the private sector. This paper analyzes women's labor market transitions, particularly to non-employment and to other labor market states in the time around marriage and childbirth. We test whether individual characteristics, work characteristics, or agency affect women's transitions. Specifically, the paper answers three main questions: First, what are the explanatory factors for the women's transition to non-employment? Second, what are the differences between the effect of previous job characteristics and women's agency on the employment decision? Third, what are the determinants of the transition to other labor market states (multiple employment decisions)? Drawing on panel and retrospective data from the 2012 and 2018 waves of Egypt's Labor Market Panel Survey, we estimate these relationships using a single risk model and a competing risk model. Results show that marriage and motherhood increase women's transition to non-employment. The timing of the transition happens at marriage and the year before marriage (anticipation effect). This impact is more considerable for women working in the private sector than the public sector. Women working in non-wage work transition to private wage work in the years before marriage. The results show that the sector of employment plays a crucial role in women's transition to non-employment. In addition, the availability of external help in the household is considered an important factor that can help retain women in the labor force. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There have been a great number of works on the Suez Crisis, but scarce academic attention has been paid to the process whereby its settlement was achieved. This paper argues that Britain succeeded in securing fairly sufficient Egyptian concessions with support from the US and the UN. The Americans, who had been hostile to the British prior to their agreement to withdraw troops from the Canal Zone, led the effort to make the Egyptians concede during negotiations on the Canal's reopening. Contrary to the prevailing argument that Britain suffered a political defeat because of international pressure, this paper argues that Britain persuaded the US to acquiesce to the de facto arrangement because of the Canal's economic value. The deployment of the UNEF brought a certain level of humiliation to Egyptian sovereignty. As Nasser's influence in Middle Eastern affairs was contained, Britain chose a pragmatic deal with Egypt over the Canal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2011, Egypt saw one of the largest protest movements in its modern history: the 25th of January revolution. One of its major demands was the call for democracy and end of dictatorship after 30 years of Mubarak's rule. After ousting Mubarak, the Egyptian public sphere witnessed an openness. Even with increasing levels of oppression and violence, there were open spaces for freedom of association, expression, and demonstration, etc. Yet, in 2013 and with the intense protests against the elected Muslim Brotherhood (MB) president, the military interfered and ousted the elected president. In light of these events, Egypt witnessed a backlash against democracy under the pretext of fighting 'terrorism'. Since then, Egypt has been seeing manifestations of this relapse on almost all levels, in terms of legislations, decrees, practices that closed the public space to any protesting voices, with higher levels of oppression and violence against the opposition and not only the so-called 'terrorists'. In this context, this paper proposes to dissect the Egyptian stumbling road to democratisation since 2011. It examines internal factors as well as the role of regional and international actors in orchestrating developments in Egypt. The paper proposes that the process of democratisation in Egypt has faced multiple drawbacks, not only related to regime type (military rule) but also with respect to social movements, the involvement of regional actors, etc.. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emerging economies are experiencing dramatic rises in internet penetration, along with an expansion of cyber-dependent critical infrastructure. Nevertheless, in many countries and regions, critical information infrastructure protection (CIIP) efforts remain at a relatively nascent stage. Early and widespread approaches to critical information infrastructure protection are informed by higher income, early digitising nations, which may not reflect the priorities, needs, or challenges faced by late-digitising emerging economies. This paper analyses CIIP efforts and processes in Nigeria and Egypt, considering the degree to which the standards and approaches to CIIP adopted by early digitising countries apply to each county's experience. Evidence from both countries suggests that emerging economies will not follow the same trajectory or benefit from the same lessons learned in CIIP as early digitising regions of the world. Both countries face a different mix of CII and CII-vulnerabilities, a greater emphasis on internal cyberthreats, and significant resource and capacity constraints in comparison to early digitising nations. This suggests that 'leap-frogging' may not always be possible, and innovative, context-specific CIIP policies and strategies are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the diffusion of working hours standards beyond tier-1 suppliers in the garment supply chain. It compares working hours designs and rationales of tier-1 and tier-2 garment suppliers in Jordan and garment and textiles suppliers in Egypt. Building on the idea of crossvergence, the paper extends previous insights on explanatory factors that are rooted in the supply chain and captures global, local, and firm-level rationales. The analysis followed a flexible pattern matching logic and draws on a qualitative multiple-case study encompassing 30 owner-manager interviews, 13 expert interviews, and multiple documents and field observations. Convergence to global standards was found to be higher in tier-1 compared with tier-2 garment firms and differed between the garment and the textiles industry. The study showed that labour standard demands of global buyers dissolve along the supply chain, while the price and lead time squeeze persists or increases. How suppliers navigate the antagonism of labour standard and procurement demands depends upon local level factors and firm resources. A framework of human, intellectual, physical, and financial resources was developed to capture structural differences between higher- and lower-tier suppliers. The findings underscore the need for new procurement strategies of global buyers and tier-1 suppliers, and further investments in multi-stakeholder initiatives that monitor sub-suppliers, support resource development, and address systemic barriers to labour standard compliance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arab cinema has not featured many protagonists with disabilities, but over the past two decades differently abled characters have appeared on movie and television screens in the Middle East and North Africa. From feature films to Ramadan serials, characters with Hansen's Disease, Down Syndrome, autism, visual impairments, dwarfism, and missing limbs have emerged in films and television shows from Egypt, Syria, and Lebanon. Characters with disabilities in Yomeddine (Egypt), Behind the Sun (Syria), and Tale of Amal (Lebanon) challenge disability stigma in Arab cultures and highlight the toll of caregiving. While these portrayals, which all incorporate religious interpretations of disability and feature poor characters living on the margins, attempt to correct the absence of disability representations and discourse in Arab societies, they fall into familiar tropes of disability objectification by employing the 'prosthetic' of a disability narrative to explore other marginalized social issues like abortion, gender, race, and religious differences. There is hardly any research on how disability is portrayed in film and television in Syria, Egypt, and Lebanon The research sheds important light on how disability and poverty intersect in Arab popular culture This paper discusses how religion (Islam in particular) is used to understand, interpret, and manage disability in Arab societies This research shows how Arab filmmakers are using film and television to advocate for more awareness and compassion for people with disabilities in Arab societies. This paper covers taboo subjects related to disability such as abortion, religious minorities, sexuality, and gender marginalization [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to explore political street art images as sequences in a dialogue that feeds from, and extends to, wider political discourse. The paper argues for the centrality and predominance of the visual in the way everyday political discourse is negotiated and in the process through which space is produced in the city. The images are conceptualized through sociocultural psychology as intervention tools that are used by different social actors in response to different political dialogues in public discourse. A longitudinal methodology is used to follow the transformative social lives of those images as they borrow from, and respond to, one another. A longitudinal series of images will be presented from one wall in the area of Tahrir Square during and after the Egyptian revolution of 2011, images which were made by different social groups in response to political and social changes, and which thus demonstrate contested political dialogue in the form of inscribing and re-inscribing the recent history of the revolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper delineates a distinctly post-1960s expression of hunger and desire for food in Cuban and Egyptian cultural production. Hunger has always been present in aesthetic renditions of everyday life in both locales. Following the early-1960s socialist expansion of the role of the state, a new expression of hunger for animal protein emerged that relied on vegetarian tropes and parodied official discourse. Expressions of this "new hunger" captured the contradictory state of being conditioned, through state food programs, to see the consumption of animal products as the epitome of a healthy diet that endows one with the status of being "developed" and "modern" while simultaneously not being afforded satisfactory access to those food items due to conditions beyond one's individual control. In such contexts, the average citizen is primarily vegetarian and not by choice, while those with access to power live the promised dream of carnivorous plenty. This article analyzes several political speeches, cartoons, jokes, and songs to map the rhetorical and aesthetic characteristics of such satiric expressions and demonstrate how they were informed by the growing gap between early revolutionary official promises of food for all and actual food shortages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to identify the extent to which neurodiverse individuals experience fair representation in public sector organizations in Egypt and the main factors that foster such representation. A systematic qualitative research method was used with data collected through semi-structured interviews with 36 street-level bureaucrats who have the title "general manager." The findings show the underrepresentation of neurodiverse individuals in the Egyptian public sector. Moreover, we consider the three main categories of barriers hindering the active participation of people with neurological conditions in the Egyptian public sector to be as follows: individual barriers (inability to create social dialogue, lower educational level), organizational barriers (neurotypical employees lack the socio-cultural readiness to accept neuro-atypical colleagues, traditional means of recruiting, lack of flexibility of jobs in public organizations) and national barriers (high unemployment rate among neurodiverse individuals in Western countries, discretionary power granted to public employees, slow adoption of the social approach to disability in the Egyptian context). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After a long decline, fertility in Tunisia, as in some Arab countries like Algeria and Egypt, recorded an unexpected increasing trend over the 2000 – 2018 period. To account for such demographic change, this paper re-examined the behavior of the main fertility decline factors tested by the previous empirical studies (such as education, income, mortality, and contraceptive use) to check whether they have changed in favor of an upward fertility evolution. Deepening the analysis, it introduced three new socio-economic factors that are likely to favor fertility increase: divorce, unemployment, and longevity. The dynamic one-step generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation on a cylindrical data panel from 1998 to 2018 for eight Tunisian regions confirmed the positive effect of these new variables. Additionally, the education-fertility interaction was found to be no longer obvious. The family planning program appeared to no longer play its role in limiting fertility. The income effect overcame the substitution effect in favor of a fertility increase. The observed increasing fertility trend in Tunisia seems to be more explained by the dominance of some sociocultural factors. Thus, policymakers should seek to better focus on the family institution's behavior to sustain fertility decline and improve the efficiency of its family planning program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The practice of burying boats and digging boat-shaped pits inside funerary complexes belonging to Early Dynastic elites and kings is well attested in early Egypt. However, the origins of this custom and its evolution from the 1st Dynasty until the Middle Kingdom remain to be fully addressed holistically and diachronically. This paper aims to re-evaluate current data regarding Early Dynastic boat burials and boat-shaped pits, to share some insights on the development of this tradition, and to address its adaptation to Old Kingdom religious and political innovations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the analysis of Israeli society and the experience of immigration and integration into it in the first decades after its establishment in 1948, an Ashkenazi-Mizrahi dichotomy became prevalent, and the explanatory efficacy of other contributing factors went mostly unnoticed. The academic, institutional and public discourses that focused on those among the Mizrahi Jews, who struggled to fit-in, perpetuated the early Ashkenazi establishment's biases against all that was Arab and by extension Mizrahi. Exploring socio-cultural practices - such as dress codes and choice of language, of Jews arriving in Israel from Egypt during this period, this paper will examine the role of class identity and performativity (rather than ethnicity) in shaping the immigrant experience of newcomers. Relying on multiple sources including interviews, life stories and oral testimonials, it will argue that the Jews of Cairo and Alexandria shared an urban middle-class habitus with the Israeli Ashkenazi elites; and that the performative expression of this shared identity enabled them to open doors closed to many other Middle Eastern and North African groups and paved their way into the Israeli mainstream despite their Mizrahi decent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a comprehensive assessment of the effect of different trade barriers (tariffs, non-tariff measures and services restrictions) on wage disparities in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. We look at wage disparities from three dimensions: industry premia, gender-based and skill-based disparities. We use three Labor Market Surveys for Egypt, Jordan, and Tunisia to directly assess the effect of trade policy on wage disparities using the human capital model. To which different trade barriers are added. Our results suggest that, in general, the effect of services restrictions and non-tariff measures is much stronger than that of tariffs on wage premium. When we look at different segments, we found that females are more affected by non-tariff measures than their male counterparts. At the skill level, given the abundancy of blue collars in the MENA region, production workers are less affected by both non-tariff measures and by services restrictions than non-production workers but more affected by tariffs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the study of crustal movements and their relation to earthquake activities within Egypt using the GNSS and seismicity measurements. Fourteen campaigns of GNSS measurements have been collected, processed, and adjusted. The collected data of about 50 permanent and campaign GNSS stations, which covered the whole geographic area of Egypt covering about 12 years, were used. The collected data are utilised using differential GPS with surrounded IGS stations by Bernese software V 5.0. The results of the deformation analysis indicate that northern Egypt is deformed more than the southern part. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several emerging economies have embarked on structural adjustment reform programs that focused more on short-run-oriented stabilization reforms. Yet, longer-term structural policies that can shift their potential GDP were not fully taken into consideration. Thus, this paper contributes to the literature in three ways. First, we contrast the effects of stabilization and allocation policies in order to examine to what extent they complement or substitute each other. Second, we analyze how the effects of such policies can differ in the short and long term and with different market structures (perfect vs. imperfect competition). Third, we develop a CGE model for Egypt that was subject to a recent reform program developed with the IMF. Our main findings show that stabilization reforms reduce economic growth by 2.5% in the short run. Yet, they positively affect it over time especially if they are accompanied by structural reforms. Indeed, the latter increase economic growth (of 8.6% in the long run). Furthermore, from a social perspective, stabilization reform deteriorates households' welfare in the short run. Finally, we find that negative effects of stabilization and structural reforms are more pronounced under imperfect competition pointing out the importance of an effective competition policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study contributes to the existing literature by investigating the relationship between structure of the State budget and fiscal deficit-to-GDP ratio in Egypt over the period 1981/1982–2020/2021. The dynamic relationship between the examined variables is tested using an Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach to cointegration. The study finds an empirical evidence that supports the hypothesis that budget structure matters for fiscal deficit in Egypt. A higher share of investment expenditure in total government expenditure is correlated with a lower fiscal deficit-to-GDP ratio in the long- and short-run. The share of taxes in total government revenue is found to be negatively (positively) associated with the fiscal deficit-to-GDP ratio in the short-run (long-run). In addition, the current account balance is found to be negatively correlated with the fiscal deficit, in the long-run, which supports the 'twin deficits hypothesis' and the 'current account targeting hypothesis'. Furthermore, the study finds a unidirectional Granger causality relationship that runs from fiscal deficit to government investment expenditure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The activity of Italian banks in Egypt represents an almost unexplored field of investigation in economic history. This article is the first to attempt to add to the Italian banking literature in this area. At the same time, it contributes to the multinational banking literature on the characteristics of banks belonging to multinational groups, which are subject to a 'liability of foreignness' due to differences between the home country and the host economy. The paper explains the short-lived success of Italian banks, which were able to occupy primary positions in the Egyptian banking sector thanks to an aggressive policy focussed on the cotton market. It then highlights the reasons for the subsequent problems these institutes faced, showing the difficulties of a latecomer and capital-poor country, such as Italy, in carrying out a catching-up process aimed at widening its influence over geographical areas considered strategic in terms of political and commercial penetration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By most available measures, the level of inequality in the MENA region, including Egypt, is considered relatively low. This regularity applies to both inequality of outcomes as well as inequality of opportunity. This paper challenges this view. It argues specifically that circumstances beyond the control of individuals account for a larger share of inequality of opportunity when asset distribution is considered rather than the distribution of earnings, essentially because earnings are subject to measurement errors and idiosyncratic shocks. The paper tests this proposition by estimating the extent to which factors related to the circumstances a person is born into contribute to inequality of opportunity in earnings as well as asset ownership. The results show that circumstances account 26–32% of inequality of asset distribution, compared with only 8–10% of inequality of opportunity in earnings. The analysis further shows that the area of birth and fathers education level are the two most important circumstance factors contributing to inequality of opportunity, for both assets and earnings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although evidence-based policy making has been advocated for the past two decades, yet the politics encompassed therein, has not been sufficiently emphasized. The following paper presents the case of Egypt's reporting on SDG 16 implementation as a case in point. SDG 16 is one of the most sensitive goals to report on, especially in developing non-democratic countries. Through reviewing published reports and studies by both international and national agencies, the current research paper explores to what extent Egypt has progressed with the achievement of SDG 16 indicators. Findings point out to deficiencies in government reporting yet the availability of alternative reliable proxy measures. The paper concludes with recommendations for the international community to recognize the politics in evidence-based policy making, and for the civil society, academia and research centers to play a more active role in monitoring and reporting on the politically sensitive indicators of the SDG 16. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper adopts an extended exogenous Solow-Swan growth model with time series framework to analyse the relationship, if any, exists between growth of working age population, savings, tertiary enrolment, trade openness and GDP per capita of Egypt during the 1971–2015 period. A multivariate cointegration analysis is developed and results reveal a potent and long run relationship exists, thus error correction model constructed to trace both the short and the long run behaviour among variables of the model. The short run dynamic shows that the lagged differential growth of working-age population to total population is positively associated with changes in GDP per capita and savings. Among our key results, growth of working age population found to be dividend and stimulating GDP per capita in both short and long run. In addition, it boosted economic growth through its dynamic interaction with gross savings. Furthermore, variance decomposition and the impulse response function show growth of working age population has a feedback effect on GDP per capita on the long run. An implication, priority should be given to population age structure, if Egypt is to reap the benefits of demographic dividend. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Communication towers are vital assets in our daily lives as they transfer signals between cell phones facilitating communication and commerce among people and businesses all around the world. Wind loads are crucial in the communication towers design since they are tall and slender. With climate change bringing more storms and higher wind speeds, it is more crucial to research the finest tower structure that withstands such conditions with the least life cycle cost. Therefore, in this paper, a comparative case study is performed between 45 m height lattice tower and monopole tower in Egypt. Two locations were considered, the first is inside the city and the second is an open terrain. In addition, two load scenarios were investigated. The comparison parameters are the behavior under critical wind loads taking into account three wind speeds which are 100 km/hr, 130 km/hr and 140 km/hr, and life cycle cost analysis. It was found that the lattice tower behaves better under critical wind loads with a maximum tilting equal to 0.4784 degrees at location 1, load 2, and a wind speed of 140 km/hr compared to 0.5806 in the case of the monopole tower. Similarly, the lattice tower behaves better at the second location as well. However, the monopole tower has less life cycle cost with a total life cycle cost of 3,201,846.80 EGP compared to 4,380,419.91EGP in case of lattice tower. Therefore, based on the location, wind speed, and available land area, and life cycle cost assessment, the optimum tower structure could be selected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the Egyptian building design strategies for different building envelope shapes based on the green building design using the DesignBuilder program by simulating the outdoor climate conditions depending on the Egyptian meteorological data. The simulated results are applied to Minia City as one of the hotdesert climate regions in Egypt. The research is performed on the hottest day in summer according to the analysis of climatic data overall months using the climate consultant tool. This research studies two main variables to characterize the quantitative relationships between the building form and the Natural Ventilation (NV) of thermal comfort to be achieved, which are mixed-mode maximum wind speed, and natural ventilation setpoint temperature. The research focuses on two output parameters, which are air velocity and pressure, relating to natural outdoor ventilation. The simulation findings revealed that the circle form offers the best case, which has a significant role in achieving thermal comfort that optimized the value between the two major parameters in building design, while the worst case is the U-shaped building based on the same two optimized values. Finally, the usage of natural ventilation, simultaneously with choosing the suitable building geometry, is principal for adapting the current outdoor air velocity and pressure, thus reducing the energy consumption of buildings. Practical application: This paper studies the relationship between building form and natural ventilation to achieve outdoor thermal comfort and its effects on buildings. The study assesses the wind speed and temperature parameters using the DesignBuilder tool. The study suggests a combination between natural ventilation and choosing the suitable building form to adapt the air velocity and pressure to reduce the energy consumption of the buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the multiscale bidirectional volatility spillover effect between the national stocks and exchange rate markets in four African countries – Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt and Morocco. Our computations involve the wavelet transformation of the empirical series, creation of the regime-dependant conditional volatilities via MS-GARCH model and measurement of the volatility spillover effect in the quantile regression framework. We find an evidence of the bidirectional volatility spillover effect, but the volatility impact from exchange rate market to stock market is stronger in all the African countries, except Nigeria. Regarding the direction from stocks to exchange rate, we report that volatility spillover effect is the strongest in South Africa, because Johannesburg stock exchange is the most developed and liquid market. As for the reverse direction, the spillover effect is recorded in longer time-horizons in the Egyptian and Moroccan cases, which indicates to flow-oriented model, while for South Africa, the effect is found in shorter time-horizons, which is in line with the portfolio-balance theory. In South Africa, investors should protect themselves against exchange rate risk in shorter time-horizons, in Morocco and Egypt in longer time-horizons, while in Nigeria, hedging against exchange rate is not needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Egypt's need for clean and renewable energy is pressing for numerous reasons, such as unpredictable fuel prices, diminishing fossil fuel resources, and growing concern about environmental degradation. Harvesting untapped geothermal resources could meet domestic electricity needs besides enabling Egypt to export electricity. The location of Egypt confirms that it has suitable geothermal energy potential areas in some provinces around the country, especially along the Gulf of Suez, the Red Sea, and the Western Desert. The Red Sea coast and the coasts of the Gulf of Suez exhibit several surface manifestations (hot springs and thermal water wells), indicating the presence of geothermal systems in these areas. The objective of this paper is to investigate the geothermal resources and obtain a full image of the geothermal potential of the Hurghada area along the Red Sea coast using geophysical potential field data. Aeromagnetic and aerogravity data were used to identify the most promising target regions for geothermal potentiality. Power spectral analysis of the aeromagnetic data was utilised to appraise the Curie point depth (CPD) and obtain geothermal gradient and heat flow maps of the Hurghada area, whereas a 3-D inversion of gravity data was utilised to estimate the depths to the Precambrian basement rocks. In addition to 3-D inversion of magnetic data to evaluate the spatial distribution of magnetic susceptibility. This study found no direct relationship between basement depths and the CPD, where basement rock outcrops at some locations correlate to a decrease in the Curie surface, while at others, they correspond to an increase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this study is to perform an analysis of the performance of radiant cooling panels using experimental testing and transient system simulation software. The effect of design parameters such as water supply temperature and water flow rate on thermal comfort and energy efficiency is studied. Two control schemes are used in the study in which either the water flow rate or the water temperature difference between the inlet and outlet of radiant panels is held constant. This paper demonstrates the modeling and validation of a radiant cooling system in TRNSYS and uses this model to study the performance of the system during the cooling season in Egypt. It was found that the lower water temperature of 16 °C was found to be suitable for achieving thermal comfort. The constant water flow rate control scheme showed a 5% less unmet hours percentage than the constant water temperature difference, but the latter used 38% less electrical energy. A constant water temperature difference control scheme can achieve better thermal comfort with an unmet hours percentage down to 12.5% by coupling the system with a dehumidification device. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discussions on daily life in Early Bronze Age society in the southern Levant often focus on subsistence or ritual phenomena, while aspects relating to entertainment and leisure are rarely discussed. This paper presents evidence for gaming behaviour, in the form of game boards and game pieces, that were recovered in the excavations of the Early Bronze Age (early to mid-3rd millennium bce) residential neighbourhood at Tell eṣ-Ṣâfi/Gath, Israel. All the objects discussed are considered to be part of games (playing pieces, casting pieces, and boards) based on their resemblance to game boards and pieces published from various Early Bronze sites in the southern Levant (e.g., Arad, Megiddo, and Bab edh-Dhra), serve as the backdrop for: 1) a perspective on the social and cultural relationships reflected in these games; 2) an examination of the origins of the 'Senet/30 Houses' game; and 3) the appropriation of foreign cultural facets in Early Bronze Age Canaan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the diverging translations of an unnamed protester photographed several times throughout the early days of the 2011 Egyptian uprisings. Using iconographic tracking, the paper argues that self-seductive translation is an important concept for critical cultural studies. Self-seductive translation targets neocolonial audiences with an identification chain that obscures the asymmetry of the neocolonial relationship. In the case of the unnamed protester, self-seductive translation encouraged US English speakers to identify themselves as equals with the imaged protester, where the now-equal relationship is delivered by tools and technology of the West. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special section is based on part of the papers presented at the 'Gramsci in the Arab World' conference, held at the Università degli studi di Bari (Italy), in late 2017. Academic writings of Arab societies have been scarce and fragmented until the 1990s, when with the crisis of the Arab State and the end of the Cold War, Gramsci became one of the most cited European thinkers in the Arab region. Eventually, the 'Gramscian moment' in the MENA had a sudden 'explosion' at the time of the Arab Uprisings. Indeed, from 2011 onwards Arab and non Arab scholars have increasingly resorted to Gramsci's analytical categories to read the ongoing revolutionary events. The rationale of this special section is to contribute to this debate, with a special focus on Egypt and Tunisia. Contextualized by an historical introductory article, the special section is composed of five contributions, analyzing the pre and post-2011 situation in Egypt and Tunisia, through a Gramscian lens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transition to adulthood around the world is increasingly characterized by young people's desire to form independent households. Forming such households in Egypt requires buying or building a dwelling or obtaining a rental unit. Policies governing housing markets, such as rent control, and limited financing options have historically made access to housing for young couples challenging. In this paper, we use a difference-in-difference approach to evaluate how the liberalization of rental markets in Egypt affected the timing of marriage. We find that Egypt's 1996 rental reforms accelerated marriages and led to a reversal in the trend of rising age at marriage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The congress of the British Archaeological Association in Canterbury in September 1844 was the first archaeological conference in Britain. This paper examines the visual practices of performance and display incorporated within the congress, focusing on three events: a trip to watch a barrow excavation; a visit to the Faussett collection of antiquities; and an unrolling of an Egyptian mummy. Through an analysis of these events the paper examines the ways in which members of the nascent British archaeological community in the early Victorian era learned how to observe archaeology within the correct social, intellectual and spatial frames. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Private institutions are increasingly visible in the higher education landscape of Egypt. Many of these institutions, however, are within the ‘demand-absorbing’ category, offered at relatively lower fees and requiring lower test scores for admission. Building on interview data, this paper looks at how the graduates of some of these institutes reflect on their learning experience. In the discourse of these graduates, the learning experience is described as ‘easy’ and less demanding. This ‘easy’ education is accepted, justified and even celebrated. Credential fetish and the social status associated with a higher education degree are central to the perpetuation of the allure of ‘easy’. However, ‘easy’ education is also condemned for its compromised quality and low status. The paper seeks to situate these competing and overlapping discourses on private institutes within the analysis of the structure of the education system in Egypt and the global neoliberal tide for education reform. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper studies the differences in employment probabilities and their changes over time for the different tranches of Egyptian society. For this, I simulate probabilities for four labour market states (inactivity or unemployment; government sector; private sector and, self-employment and unpaid work) separately by marital status and level of household wealth. Then, I follow these probabilities over time using the three rounds of the Egypt Labor Market Panel Surveys of 1998, 2006 and 2012. The findings of this research, and unlike what the previous literature established, confirm that the gender gap in employment Egypt differs according to the economic and the social circumstances. For instance, if both a man and a woman come from 'relatively good' economic and social circumstances, they showed relatively equal employment chances. The findings of this research show that the gender gap in employment aggravates with the deterioration of the individual's economic and social characteristics. For instance, education and income in addition to a number of other individual and household characteristics would allow women to attain a better position of gender equality in employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholarly work on migration to Europe and North America asserts that states adopt liberal migration policies when migrants are able to mobilise and when they are assisted by state and non-state institutions. To what extent does this explanation for mobilisation transfer to the Global South where authoritarian state structures might be in place, thereby constraining certain political behaviours? This paper examines why migrants and refugees have been able to mobilise to a greater extent in Morocco than in Egypt. Drawing primarily on original data from semi-structured interviews, this paper assesses the formal and informal rules that constrain or permit certain political behaviours among non-national populations in each host state. I find that the Moroccan system has been more responsive than the Egyptian state to migrant and refugee mobilisation due primarily to the type of authoritarian governance in place. While both Egypt and Morocco seek to retain control overt opposition, the Moroccan regime since the 1990s has allowed for a degree of openness, permitting visible forms of resistance and ultimately co-opting critics, whereas Egypt – especially since 2013 – has sought to violently eliminate any form of contestation and since 2014 has also sought to limit any associational activities related to human rights promotion. The findings address the question of whether extant explanations for migrant mobilisation and subsequent policy reform travel to the Global South, and also contribute to understandings of whether and how the political mobilisation of migrants and refugees can take place in non-democratic spaces and to what effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]