When the phenomenon under study has many dimensions, one approach in studying such phenomenon is the construction of a composite index.
In this study, a Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) overall Progress Index is constructed to assess the progress of Egyptian governorates towards achieving the first five MDGs. The status of MDGs is captured from the global perspective and the national perspective. Using SPSS and STATA software, secondary analysis of the existing 2000, 2005 and 2008 HIECS data is conducted.
Upon calculating specific MDG indicators, evidence of dramatic achievements by many governorates is found, such as Port Said, Suez, and Damietta. Such performance suggests that the governorates may achieve most of the highly ambitious MDGs. Moreover, Lower Egypt accounts for many of the star MDG performers. Not surprisingly, the list of laggards largely consists of governorates devastated by poverty, such as Assiut. Most governorates fall somewhere in between, demonstrating solid progress on some indicators and little on others.

This document provides guidance to federal, State and local Traffic Incident Management (TIM) programs and their involved partners on the components needed to develop and sustain a successful fullfledged TIM program. The objectives of this primer are to: œ(1) Identify and summarize the current state of TIM practice and activities at the national and State/local levels. (2) Identify and summarize gaps found in TIM activities/information for national and State/local departments and agencies. (3) Identify and outline a framework for achieving a complete TIM program for the different levels of government utilizing national guidelines. (4) Outline the key elements that are contained in successful TIM programs. A key objective for this document is to address the actual challenges that different TIM stakeholders with varied levels of responsibility face in their current TIM practices on a day to day basis.

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Systems and methods for providing phase shifting in antenna arrays, such as phased antenna arrays of 5G cellular technology, are disclosed. In one aspect, an example phase shift module may include a phase shifter and a frequency multiplier. The phase shifter is configured to receive an LOcal oscillator (LO) signal and output a signal that is phase-shifted by a desired phase shift with respect to the LO signal. The frequency multiplier may be an enhanced frequency multiplier, configured to use not only the phase-shifted signal but also an inverted version of the phase-shifted signal to generate a frequency-multiplied signal having a frequency that is a multiple of the LO signal frequency. In another aspect, an example phase shift module may be configured to apply to an LO signal a phase shift that takes into consideration variations of phase shift over temperature.

Food deprivation affects female reproduction. The goal of the present study was to elucidate in the rabbit model the effects of acute energy restriction on ovarian function (follicle development, atresia rate and in vitro oocyte maturation) and embryonic development and gene expression of some candidate genes. Serum metabolic parameters (non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA), triglycerides, glucose, insulin and leptin concentrations) and endocrine markers (oestradiol-17β and progesterone concentrations) were also studied. A control group of nulliparous does fed ad libitum and a 72-h fasted group were used. At the end of the nutritional treatment, the ovaries of half of the animals were retrieved while the other animals were re-fed and artificially inseminated to recover embryos at 84 h after insemination, during the luteal phase. At the end of fasting, increased serum NEFA and decreased leptin concentrations were observed in the fasted group, but no differences appeared in serum steroid concentrations, follicle population and atresia rate or nuclear and cytoplasmic oocyte maturation. In the luteal phase, insulin concentrations increased notably in the fasted group. The number of recovered embryos per female and the speed of embryo development were reduced in the food-deprived group. Acute fasting altered both metabolic and endocrine markers and embryo development, but follicle and oocyte development and embryo gene expression were not affected.