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Play-Based Learning in Private International Preschools in Cairo: Teachers\u27 Perspectives
Full text linkThis thesis explores how play-based learning is practiced and contextualized in private, international preschools in Cairo, Egypt through the perspective of teachers. It calls upon both historical and contemporary theories of play and play pedagogies ranging from the times of Plato and Al-Farabi to the 21st century with Montessori and Dewey. Using a contemporary theory of play presented by Stuart Lester and Wendy Russell as a guiding framework, it examines how play and play-based learning are implemented, shaped and even challenged in a Cairene context. These contexts include sociocultural factors such as parents’ expectations and aspirations, institutional barriers, teacher development and the practice of “school readiness”—preparing children for primary school entrance assessments. Using a qualitative methodology, the study gathers and analyzes interviews and observations from teachers to understand their experiences and strategies in balancing structured play, academic instruction, and parental pressure. The findings reveal a hybrid approach to instruction, influenced by international curricula and models but hindered by lack of teacher training, resource limitations, and a widespread undervaluing of early childhood education. This research highlights the need for culturally responsive and play-based educational transformation for the early years and greater awareness for how play and play-based learning are developmentally and holistically beneficial. This research also articulates a more nuanced understanding of play-based learning in that it is not just holistically beneficial, but a basic right of the child
Egypt’s Strategic Hedging in Economics with the United States and China from 2014-2024
Full text linkThis research aims to explain how Egypt is able to engage economically with two internationally competitive powers, the United States and China, using the theoretical framework of strategic hedging in the period of 2014-2024. While existing literature on strategic hedging is primarily focused on Southeast Asia and broadly deals with political hedging, this study applies the framework specifically to Egypt and is limited to economic relations. This research is significant because it identifies how Egypt is able to increase its economic engagement with the U.S. and China despite their competitive status and offers a novel argument which can be tested with any small state courting two larger, competitive powers. This study is explanatory and takes a mixed-methods approach, using content analysis of Egypt’s government publications on the issue of economic relations with both countries in addition to quantitative analysis of its economic relations with both in regards to trade, investments, and loans. This study concludes that Egypt is able to court two competitive powers because they occupy separate areas of the Egyptian market; however, it notes that the Egyptian trend over the past two years toward de-dollarization may open a future point of competition that may disrupt this balance. Ultimately, this research contributes to the growing discourse on how small states can achieve their strategic goals in an increasingly multipolar world by providing a novel argument which can be applied in many settings
Social Media and Public Opinion in Times of Conflict: How Arab Social Media Impacted International Perspectives on the Gaza War
Full text linkThis exploratory study examines how Arab social media content creators impacted the international public perception of the 2023 Gaza war through English-language content. The research is conducted through semi-structured interviews with 19 participants: 4 Arab social media content creators and 15 English-speaking university students (13 American citizens and 2 international students studying in American universities). Through these semi-structured qualitative interviews, the research investigates the agenda-setting capabilities of social media during conflicts and identifies effective cross-cultural communication strategies. The study employed purposive sampling with snowball technique, targeting content creators with established social media presence (37,000-426,000 Instagram followers) and university students who use English as their primary language. Three main themes emerged from the findings: First, Arab content creators effectively became agenda-setters by using English-language content to bridge cultural gaps and present underrepresented narratives to global audiences. Second, emotional and personal content created strong parasocial relationships between social media figures, especially those on the ground in Gaza, and audiences, fostering empathy and understanding. Third, impartial personal narratives and daily life documentation proved most effective in maintaining audience engagement, though challenges emerged regarding content fatigue and desensitization. While the findings provide insights into cross-cultural digital communication during conflicts, the study acknowledges limitations in sample size and generalizability. The research contributes to understanding how social media impacts public opinion during unsettling times, particularly through cross-cultural communication, while highlighting the evolving nature of digital narrative-building in conflict zones
Can Blockchain-adoption Announcements Create Market and Operating value in Banks? Evidence from an Event Study for Global Banks initiatives
Full text linkThis thesis offers quantitative work in exploring the market value and operation advantages associated with blockchain initiatives in listed banks. We utilized an event study approach to analyze the market value added to banks adopting blockchain technology on a short term. The sample consist of 126 event observations spanning 30 different countries in the period between 2016 and 2024. The study also focuses on the signals and cues that drive the changes in the banks’ abnormal returns and cumulative abnormal returns. Different project attributes like the blockchain type, blockchain application, and objective as well as bank characteristics like the bank size were analyzed using OLS regression model. The results showed that banks announcing blockchain initiatives experience a positive abnormal return on the event date and a positive cumulative abnormal return over the event window of [-2,2]. In addition, this paper uniquely studies the long-term impact of blockchain initiatives on banks’ operating performance by utilizing a one-to-portfolio matching method. This study examines three operational metrics: the operating income, revenue from business operations and return on asset by comparing the sample banks with a control group of banks over a 4-year period. The results showed an improvement in all three metrics indicating a positive impact and a performance advantage of banks adopting blockchain compared to other banks. The study provides recommendations on how to maximize the banks’ benefit from future blockchain projects
Assessing School Readiness for Social and Emotional Learning: A Study of School Leadership Perceptions and Attitudes
Full text linkThis study explores the integration of social and emotional learning (SEL) in a number of British schools across Egypt, focusing on how school leaders defined and perceived its importance in student development. Through in-depth interviews with twelve school leaders, this study found that school leaders’ definitions of SEL emphasized self- awareness, self-regulation, and relationship-building, alongside a strong focus on the real-life applicability of SEL both within school settings and in students’ future lives. School leaders also expressed positive attitudes toward the benefits of SEL, particularly its role in enhancing academic performance, promoting student well-being, improving peer relationships, and reducing bullying, contributing to a more positive school climate. However, SEL practices varied significantly across the participating schools. While some schools had integrated SEL into classroom instruction and across school practices, others implemented SEL only occasionally through annual events or on-demand interventions. The implementation of SEL faced systematic, cultural, institutional, training, and assessment challenges. These challenges, both individually and in their interconnectedness, hindered effective SEL integration. Participants identified several key facilitators of effective SEL implementation, including targeted training, dedicated time allocation, and specific teacher attributes such as empathy, commitment, and a willingness to learn. Additionally, community influence was noted as an important factor, emphasizing the need for a multi-level approach to achieve maximum impact. Participants underscored the importance of raising awareness and advocating SEL and its benefits, beginning with school leadership but extending to all stakeholders. Ensuring cultural relevance and appropriateness of SEL practices was also highlighted as essential for successful implementation
Harnessing ML and IIoT for Traceability in Continuous Production Systems: A Conceptual Framework
No full textIn the era of rapid technological advancement, the manufacturing sector faces increasing pressure to leverage emerging technologies to enhance operational efficiency and minimize waste. In this context, traceability plays a pivotal role, as it provides complete visibility of processes and products throughout manufacturing systems, enabling them to identify areas for improvement and take corrective actions accordingly. Additionally, traceability ensures compliance, supports product recalls, provides a clear understanding of the system’s performance, and enables fact-driven decision-making in multiple aspects of the manufacturing system. Although the broad spectrum of traceability applications in batch production-based plants, traceability remains challenging to achieve in continuous production systems due to their unique characteristics. This thesis seeks to integrate Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), Machine Learning (ML), and Big Data Analytics (BDA) to establish a smart traceability system in continuous production plants. This study aims to provide a general conceptual framework for achieving traceability and overcoming traceability challenges in continuous manufacturing systems, regardless of the industry type and/or company size. The proposed framework was validated through one-to-one interviews with experts in related fields with various backgrounds. The validation resulted in a more comprehensive framework that accommodates a broader range of industrial needs. Afterward, it was verified through a case study implementation at a production plant in the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) industry for a baby diaper production line. Verification results showed a ~30% improvement in material recording accuracy, a 90% reduction in data entry time, and the elimination of 60 minutes of stocktaking stoppage per shift. The integration of IIoT, ML, and dashboards enabled real-time monitoring, predictive alerts, and enhanced decision-making, confirming the framework’s feasibility and effectiveness in continuous production systems
Metabolic Syndrome Beyond Diagnostic Criteria: Population-Scale Integrative Metabolomics Characterization
Full text linkBackground: Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a complex cluster of interrelated metabolic abnormalities associated with elevated cardiometabolic risk. While diagnosis is based on well-established five clinical criteria, these may overlook early or atypical metabolic alterations. Large-scale metabolomic profiling offers an opportunity to identify biochemical signatures of MetS beyond diagnostic bias and to evaluate their relative importance across different presentations of the syndrome.
Methods: Data from 117,147 UK Biobank participants were analyzed in a cross-sectional design. High-throughput NMR quantified 75 circulating metabolites, for. Univariate analyses, MetS subtype stratification, and elastic net models with SHAP interpretation were applied to assess feature importance, predictive performance, and phenotypic heterogeneity. Surrogate indices of insulin resistance and visceral adiposity were also derived.
Results: MetS was associated with widespread metabolic alterations across multiple biochemical classes, with the largest effect sizes observed for lipoprotein (LP) subfraction measures, particularly very-low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) subclass concentrations and particle diameters. LP metrics consistently outperformed other metabolite classes in distinguishing MetS from nonMetS, both in univariate and multivariate models, and retained predictive value when considered independently of diagnostic criteria. LP-based models also identified metabolic disturbances in individuals not meeting conventional MetS thresholds, suggesting utility for early or subclinical risk detection. Subtype analyses revealed distinct metabolic patterns across different combinations of diagnostic criteria, highlighting phenotypic heterogeneity within MetS.
Conclusions: This large-scale integrative analysis demonstrates that detailed LP subfraction profiling provides strong, independent discriminatory power for MetS classification and may capture early metabolic risk overlooked by standard diagnostic thresholds
Identifying Neuronal Connectivity in the Rat Lateral Geniculate Nucleus (LGN) from Spike Train Data
No full textThe lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) is conventionally regarded as a passive thalamic relay between the retina and primary visual cortex. However, growing evidence suggests that its neuronal populations engage in higher-order visual information processing. To explore this possibility, we recorded neural activity from the LGN of six adult female Albino rats. Animals were anesthetized, and a 4x4 mm craniotomy was performed over the right LGN. A 32-channel silicon microelectrode array recorded extracellular activity for approximately 26 minutes in a darkened room, with a 13-inch screen positioned tangentially to the left eye at a distance of ~15 cm. The visual stimulus was a 4 × 8-pixel checkerboard in which four randomly selected pixels flickered ON for 200 ms, followed by 300 ms OFF; 32 distinct patterns were presented in pseudorandom order, each repeated 100 times. Spike trains were extracted for each neuron, and their tuning curves were analyzed to estimate receptive fields, evaluating how individual neurons responded to the stimuli. Cross-correlation analysis was performed to infer functional connectivity, and trial-specific adjacency matrices were used to construct directed graphs depicting excitatory and inhibitory connections. We trained support vector machine (SVM) classifiers to distinguish between all possible pattern pairs using three representations of population activity: raw spike trains, spike counts, and connectivity matrices. Across animals, mean classification accuracy for the top 10 stimulus pairs was highest when using connectivity features (mean = 0.86), followed by spike counts (mean = 0.79) and spike trains (mean = 0.75). Effective connectivity outperformed the other representations in five out of six rats (Wilcoxon signed-rank test, p \u3c 0.05), suggesting that incorporating network-based features enhances decoding performance. Statistical significance was corroborated using t-tests, yielding complementary results. Tuning curve and receptive field analyses revealed that individual neurons did not consistently prefer the most accurately classified patterns, suggesting that improved decoding arose from emergent population-level dynamics captured through connectivity. These findings support the hypothesis that interactions among LGN neurons encode information about visual stimuli, consistent with a computational role for the LGN beyond simple signal relay. They further align with recent anatomical findings and theoretical models implicating the LGN in thalamocortical coordination. Overall, our results underscore the value of connectivity-based representations in understanding sensory population coding and inform future applications in visual prosthetics
Isolation and Characterization of Probiotics Producing Levan from Egypt’s Wadi El Natron Soda Lake and Its Potential Applications in Skin Care Products
No full textThe marine environment is a promising source of microbial biodiversity that offers sustainable bioactive compounds for therapeutic and cosmeceutical applications. With the rising demand for eco-friendly alternatives and growing concerns over synthetic chemicals in skincare, natural products such as levan, a microbial exopolysaccharide, have gained attention for their moisturizing, antimicrobial, anti-aging, and prebiotic activities.
This study explored the microbes of El Hamra Lake, part of the hypersaline Wadi El-Natrun in Egypt, known for its extreme alkaline conditions (pH 8.5–11) and high salinity (91.0–393.9 g/L) for their levan production capabilities. Using microbiological and molecular techniques, twenty bacterial strains were isolated on two types of media, starch casein agar and casein nutrient agar, characterized based on their salt tolerance, and identified using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Among them, four were halophilic and sixteen were halotolerant strains.
The isolates were screened for levansucrase activity, and the levan for each isolate was extracted and purified for further evaluation. The highest levan yield was obtained from A2 (Mesorhizobium sp.) and B7 (Bacillus pumilus), ranging from 166.8 g/L to 120.7 g/L, respectively, using a 10% sucrose medium. Structural confirmation was performed using NMR (1H and 13C) and FT-IR spectroscopy, confirming the β-(2→6)-linked fructan structure.
The extracted levans, particularly B10 and B15, exhibited notable antimicrobial activity against skin pathogens such as Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Moreover, B14, B10, B15, and B7 levans demonstrated strong prebiotic effects in enhancing the growth of skin probiotics Lactobacillus plantarum and Lactobacillus acidophilus. Safety and efficacy were evaluated through cytotoxicity assays on Human Skin Fibroblast (HSF) cells, with the optimal therapeutic dose of 200 µg/mL. Levans A10 and B17 promoted HSF proliferation, resulting in the highest cell viability percentages of 495.57% and 452.70%, respectively.
These findings suggest that extreme environment-derived levan has great potential in the cosmetic industry. Its natural origin, human skin safety, moisturizing properties, and ability to support healthy skin microbiota make it a promising ingredient for the development of safe and effective skincare formulations/products. Additionally, it highlights the potential of Wadi El-Natrun’s microbes as a valuable source for eco-safe levan production, offering scalable, natural alternatives for cosmeceutical product development
Exploring the effect of advantaged ethnopolitical minority rule on political violence in Middle Eastern civil conflicts
Full text linkDoes advantaged ethnopolitical minority rule result in high intensity violent civil conflict? Is this always the case? If it is not always the case, then what are the causes of the exceptions? The works of Andreas Wimmer, Lars-Erik Cederman, and Brian Min argue that ethnopolitical minority rule indeed does result in high intensity violent civil conflict. this because minoritarian states inherently violate nationalist principles of political legitimacy and that such violations cause grievances within the majority community which has a relatively greater capacity to mobilize into violent opposition because of the presence of larger numbers of people in such communities. But, if that is the case, then what accounts for ambiguous cases like Jordan or Bahrain which have had minority rule without witnessing significant violence, or even, Oman which has not experienced violence or sectarian conflict at all after the 1970s? What distinguishes these countries from Syria, Iraq or even Rwanda and Burundi which have experienced minority rule and high intensity violent civil conflict? In this research paper I seek to answer these questions. I do this by conducting qualitative research on five countries which include, Oman, Jordan, Bahrain, Syria, and Iraq. I contend that three variables offset the bellicose effects of ethnopolitical minority rule and therefore hinder its ability to cause high intensity violent civil conflict. These variables include, consistent non-competitive foreign support, ability to effectively use relatively abundant hydrocarbon wealth, and relatively equal distribution of state patronage resources. I further that contend the cases in which some of the offsetting variables are present and other are not, high intensity violent civil conflict is avoided but there will still be conflictual majority-minority ethnopolitical dynamics in which the incumbent and the challengers contend for power – albeit not in ways that result in extreme violence. It was found that Syria and Iraq - who lacked the offsetting variables - experienced high intensity violent civil conflict. Oman, Jordan, and Bahrain did not witness high intensity violent civil conflict. Lastly, in the period being explored, Oman was more successful in mitigating the legacy of pre-existing civil conflicts than Jordan and Bahrain, such that Oman is the only case that did not witness majority-minority ethnopolitical dynamics