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Alopecia areata (AA) is a common disease characterized by hair loss with an autoimmune background. There are many lines of therapy, but no standard line for all cases. Consequently, treating severe forms of AA is challenging. This study aimed to compare the efficacy and safety of the combination of diphenylcyclopropenone (DPCP) and platelet-rich plasma (PRP) with DPCP alone in treating patients with severe or refractory AA. Our randomized clinical trial was conducted on patients with severe and recalcitrant AA. Group A included 13 patients who received only DPCP, while Group B included 11 patients who received both DPCP and PRP. After sensitization in both groups of patients, DPCP was applied to half the scalp weekly. In addition, PRP injection in all scalp was performed once a month in group B. The patients in both groups completed the study for six months. The regrowth scale results were 53.85% and 54.5% for groups A and B, respectively. Although the response rate of group B was higher than that of group A, there is no statistically significant difference between the two groups. From our clinical trial, it can be concluded that DPCP alone or combined with PRP is an effective and safe method for treating severe or recalcitrant AA.

Background Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is an autoinflammatory disease that can have conduction disturbances and cardiac rhythm disorders as manifestations of cardiac involvement. The aim of the study is to assess the susceptibility of children with FMF to cardiac repolarization abnormalities and therefore arrhythmia in children with FMF. Methods A cross sectional study conducted on 60 children had FMF and 40 age and sex matched healthy controls. Cardiac repolarization markers, cardiac dimensions and functions were assessed by electrocardiogram (ECG) and conventional echocardiography in patients and controls. Results The mean ± SD age of the patients was 10.43 ± 3.472 years, corrected QT (QTc) and the ratio of peak to end T wave (Tpe) over QTc interval (Tpe /QTc) increased significantly in FMF patients more than healthy control ( p value 0.023 and 0.022 respectively). P wave dispersion (Pd) was significantly higher in FMF patients with amyloidosis ( p value 0.030). No significant difference was found in cardiac dimensions and functions between the two groups. We found a statistically negative correlation between Pd and age of patients at time of study, age of disease onset and age at diagnosis. On the other hand, we found a statistically significant positive correlation between Pd with number of attacks per year and disease severity score. Furthermore, Tpe/QTc ratio correlated with FMF 50 score, QTc correlated with 24 hours proteinuria. QT, JT intervals correlated with fibrinogen. Conclusions FMF Patients may have increased risk of arrhythmia and should be monitored on regular basis. Compliance to colchicine therapy and better disease control might play a role in decreasing this risk.

The technical education and vocational training (TVET) system is a model of education that is popular all over the world. It is implemented in several countries and consists of several models. One of these models is the dual educational system. It is one of the booming TVET educational models that are common in Europe, especially in Germany. Since Egypt adapted the German dual educational model since the 1990’s, this thesis discusses the dual educational system in Egypt through the lens of governance and quality management. Currently, Egypt is collaborating with several national and international policy advisors on enhancing the dual educational system through international best practices, policy amendments and technical and financial support from donor organizations. This thesis examines, reviews, and analyzes the dual educational system in Egypt, the current challenges, the quality model used to enhance the system (ECTQM and EFQM) and its governance mechanisms. It also elaborates on the way forward for the system, its social perception, its strengths and weaknesses, the system’s accountability, and the possible recommendations that could support enhancing it. The quality management system of Egypt’s dual education has never been researched before, and thus, the analysis of this thesis was fundamentally depending on the primary sources to cover and to fulfill an initial academic contribution in this area. The aim of the research is to pinpoint the challenges existing in the Egyptian dual educational system and recommend feasible solutions. The analysis shows that the system has been affected by the political situations that Egypt witnessed over the past fifteen years, which contributed to the system’s current formulation. Moreover, the analysis elaborated on the reasons contributing to the system’s current social perception and the possible recommendations to achieve an enhanced way forward. The findings added that the usage of ECTQM as a quality model to enhance the Egyptian dual education was not effective and was not fully able to improve the quality management system on the operational level, or on the central level due to several challenges that the thesis will elaborate on in details.

Purpose: This paper addresses the effect of exchange rate on accessibility of sufficient nutritious food, or in other word, its effect on food security in Egypt without any moderator during the period (2000 - 2022). Design/methodology/approach: The research has used Dicky Fuller test of stationarity, and the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bound testing framework, using the variables of exchange rate, per capita food supply variability, and some control variables, that shape the model like gross domestic product, inflation rate, unemployment rate and interest rate. Thus, to examine the hypothesis of the study which are as follows: 1. Exchange rate fluctuations significantly affect food security in Egypt. 2. The weaker national currency negatively impacts food security in Egypt. Findings: The analysis reveals significant statistical effects of various factors on food security (PCFS) at the 5% significance level. Specifically, for every 1 unit increase in exchange rate (EXR), PCFS increases by 0.2603 units (p-value ≥ 0.05). Similarly, a 1 unit increase in inflation (INF) leads to a 0.0001 unit increase in PCFS (p-value ≥ 0.05). Conversely, an increase of 1 unit in interest rate (INT) results in a decrease of 0.001 units in PCFS (p-value ≥ 0.05), while a decrease of 1 unit in unemployment (UNEM) corresponds to a 0.364 unit decrease in PCFS (p-value ≥ 0.05). Finaly, an increase of 1 unit in gross domestic product (GDP) contributes to a 0.273 unit increase in PCFS (p-value ≥ 0.05). Originality/value: There are many studies that investigate the influence of foreign exchange rate on the accessibility of sufficient healthy food, although some of them have attempted to figure out and determine this effect on food prices. So, this paper concerns this matter with a focus on the Egyptian economy. The paper is important as it put the shades on the impact of changing foreign exchange rates, that has government attention, on the national security of Egypt represented by food security, and it also suggests some policies that solve this problem like the policies that encourage local agricultural growth, and so forth.

Although the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) present a detailed set of Science and Engineering Practices, a finer grained representation of the underlying skills is lacking in the standards document. Therefore, it has been reported that teachers are facing challenges deciphering and effectively implementing the standards, especially with regards to the Practices. This analytical study assessed the development of high school chemistry students’ (N = 41) inquiry, multivariable causal reasoning skills, and metacognition as a mediator for their development. Inquiry tasks based on concepts of element properties of the periodic table as well as reaction kinetics required students to conduct controlled thought experiments, make inferences, and declare predictions of the level of the outcome variable by coordinating the effects of multiple variables. An embedded mixed methods design was utilized for depth and breadth of understanding. Various sources of data were collected including students’ written artifacts, audio recordings of in-depth observational groups and interviews. Data analysis was informed by a conceptual framework formulated around the concepts of coordinating theory and evidence, metacognition, and mental models of multivariable causal reasoning. Results of the study indicated positive change towards conducting controlled experimentation, making valid inferences and justifications. Additionally, significant positive correlation between metastrategic and metacognitive competencies, and sophistication of experimental strategies, signified the central role metacognition played. Finally, lack of consistency in indicating effective variables during the multivariable prediction task pointed towards the fragile mental models of multivariable causal reasoning the students had. Implications for teacher education, science education policy as well as classroom research methods are discussed. Finally, recommendations for developing reform-based chemistry curricula based on the Practices are presented.

Value engineering analysis has been increasingly attracting attentions from stakeholders in sustainable building retrofitting activities to identify optimal schemes that can maximize the associated values and functions while reducing costs. Though useful in improving the effectiveness of retrofitting investments, value engineering process often needs significant amount of quantitative information for a reliable analysis. Traditional manual processes of data collection based on 2D drawings are often time-consuming or malfunctional. On the other hand, as a widely adopted intelligent technology, building information modeling (BIM) may represent a significant potential to assist in value engineering analysis during retrofitting projects by overcoming information collection inconvenience. This paper proposed a novel approach to more conveniently implement building retrofitting value engineering analysis based on 3D BIM platform. Firstly, building retrofitting objectives are identified by investigating the target building. Secondly, 3D BIM model is developed based on the existing 2D drawings complemented by historical maintenance records. Thirdly, possible retrofitting option schemes are designed with the corresponding parametric information of functions and costs obtained through BIM-enabled automation process. Finally, the associated scheme values are quantified using the obtained function and life cycle costing information to carry out a quantitative value engineering analysis to locate optimal retrofitting option. The proposed approach is applied to a campus building to demonstrate its utility. The potential implications to engineering managers are investigated and discussed.

This paper investigates Ahmed Khaled Tawfik's short story -The Uninvited|| from the Now We Open the Box short stories collection. The story undergoes a statistical lexical stylistic analysis following Leech and Short's (2007) Checklist of Linguistic and Stylistic Categories investigating the use of nouns throughout the story in order to explore the existence and the depth of the professional influence on Tawfik's lexical style, being a physician-writer. The excerpt investigated comprises a range of 403 nouns, of which 61 are pronouns, and 43 are proper nouns (10.7%). The 403 nouns are categorized into 108 abstract nouns (31.6%) and 234 concrete nouns (68.4%). The text is analyzed separately then the statistical results are compared to reach general conclusions about the author and his lexical style. The nouns have been analyzed to reach a quantitative result followed by some qualitative analysis of some of the apparent stylistic features in the text. The analysis shows significant use of proper nouns denoting medical references, as well as a high correlation between concrete nouns and medical context throughout the story, being the reason behind Tawfik's dominant stylistic choice of concrete words. The use of nouns, hence, reflects the deep professional influence on Tawfik's writing.