Digital Commons Network^™

Crafting Power, Piety, And Memory: The Sabil-Maktab Of 'Abd Al-Rahman Katkhuda In Bayn Al-Qasrayn, Cairo (1157 Ah/ 1744 Ce), Nehal Hany Al-Shamy

Theses and Dissertations

Among hundreds of sabil-maktabs in Cairo, the one ʿAbd al-Rahman Katkhuda built in Bayn al-Qasrayn in 1157/1744 stands out as an iconic jewel, rising to be a symbol of the city itself. However, this sabil is more than just a beautiful building, for its beauty was only a means to channel political, commemorative, and spiritual connotations. This thesis is concerned with analyzing the raisons d’être of constructing the sabil through investigating the historical and political circumstances that influenced its patron at the time, and their reflections in the artistic choices he made. I argue that crafting the sabil as a …

Scalable And Fault-Tolerant Network Architectures For Real-Time Video Transmission In Industrial Networked Control Systems, Moustafa Awad

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis addresses the challenge of transporting supervisory video alongside time-critical control traffic in industrial Networked Control Systems (NCS) without violating stringent real-time constraints. A simple yet scalable network architecture is developed and evaluated for a plant-level deployment comprising three interconnected workcells with sensors, controllers, actuators, and cameras. The design explicitly accommodates bandwidth-intensive video streams while preserving the responsiveness of watchdog/control traffic. Analytical delay modeling decomposes end-to-end latency into transmission, propagation, processing, and queuing components, and Riverbed-based simulations are used to validate the model under realistic mixed-traffic conditions. A traffic-engineering strategy - phase-shifting supervisory camera transmissions - effectively desynchronizes frame …

Political Party Leaders’ Branding: The Case Of The Uk Conservative & Labour Parties, Dania Akkawi

Theses and Dissertations

Political party branding has become increasingly shaped by digital communication, particularly through social media platforms where voters actively engage with political leaders and one another. This thesis studies “Political Party Branding: The Case of the UK Conservative & Labour Parties”, focusing specifically on the interconnections between Stakeholder Theory and Emotional Branding Theory on voter opinion and voter interest, during the 2024 UK general election. Through a comparative analysis of Rishi Sunak (Conservative Party) and Keir Starmer (Labour Party), the study tests theoretical propositions drawn from the theories to assess how visibility and emotional intensity shape voter opinion and interest. Using …

Exploring Artificial Intelligence Governance In Higher Education: Policy Design, Implementation And Adaptability In Egypt, Rolane Eissa

Theses and Dissertations

The rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in higher education (HE) underscores the need for effective governance frameworks that ensure ethical use and academic integrity. Despite increased policy attention, universities face significant challenges in translating AI governance (AIG) principles and policies into coherent, practical practices within complex organizational settings. Existing research on AIG remains conceptual and focused on the Global North. It offers limited empirical insight into how AI policies are interpreted and enacted at the institutional level, particularly in HE systems in the Global South. This study addresses these gaps by examining AIG in Egyptian universities, thereby providing empirically …

Emergency-Use Vaccine Mandates And Bodily Integrity: Assessing The Validity Of Proportionality Test In Legal Frameworks, Eman Hussien Khalil

Theses and Dissertations

Courts confronting emergency-use vaccine mandates during pandemics have revealed that existing legal frameworks are not equipped to handle the emergency context, as seen in their inconsistent description of government measures and their limited capacity to integrate evolving scientific developments on EUA vaccines into proportionality analysis. This thesis argues that when mandates concern Emergency Use Authorized COVID-19 vaccines, courts must abandon the formalistic distinction between “mandatory” and “compulsory” measures and instead focus on whether the practical consequences of non-compliance remove an individual’s genuine choice; where they do, the measure is coercive in substance and triggers the examination of proportionality. Drawing on …

On Education-Occupation And Skill-Occupation Mismatches Among Generation Z In Egypt, Hamsa Mohamed Ebrahim Yousef Ebrahim

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the impact of education-occupation and skill-occupation mismatches, specifically with regard to Generation Z in Egypt, with a focus on prevalence, socioeconomic factors, and their impact on youth employability and human capital utilization. The research examines education and skill mismatches through a quantitative approach, relying primarily on quantitative analysis of the Egypt Labor Market Panel Survey (ELMPS) 2023 data using multinomial logistic regression for education mismatches and probit regression for skill mismatches. The results indicate that education and skill mismatches are common among employed Gen Z, with a considerable percentage of 38-45%. This is despite the fact that …

Security In The Arctic: The Decline Of Arctic Exceptionalism? Between Cooperation And Militarization, Victoria Berg Hagen

Theses and Dissertations

The Arctic has been understood as a region separated from international relations, where states choose to collaborate and maintain stability (Gjørv et al. 2020: 2). This has led to the creation of the concept of “Arctic Exceptionalism” (Heininen 2019: 226). Currently, the Arctic is becoming strategically important. Furthermore, the region is witnessing militarization and increased international tensions affecting the Arctic states (Padrtova 2020: 38). This thesis analyzes how Arctic exceptionalism, as reflected in bilateral relations (specifically Russia-Finland and Russia-Norway), has been impacted by the Donbas War, the invasion of Ukraine, and militarization in the Arctic by both NATO and Russia. …

The Impact Of Violent Content Media Exposure On Behavioral Outcomes: The Mediating Role Of Media Engagement, Melissia Emad Eskander

Theses and Dissertations

This study explores how repeated exposure to violent content in films, television series, and video games may influence behavioral outcomes among Egyptian media consumers. Drawing on the General Aggression Model, Social Learning Theory, and Cultivation Theory, it examines how individual interpretation, emotional involvement, and narrative absorption mediate the effects of media violence. It also considers how personality traits shape audience responses, specifically aggression, empathy, and narrative immersion.

A mixed-methods approach was adopted. A structured survey of 200 Egyptians aged 18 and above assessed media exposure, aggression, empathy, narrative engagement, and behavioral outcomes. In parallel, a content analysis of Egyptian films …

Stories Take A Life Of Their Own: Exploring The Metoo Movement In Egypt, Menatallah Salama

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the unfolding of Egypt’s MeToo movement through the stories that emerged in the wake of the 2020 Ahmed Bassam Zaki case. Rather than framing this moment as a rupture or a crisis, it seeks to situate it within a longer genealogy of feminist resistance, digital activism, and everyday acts of speaking out and silencing. At the heart of this work is the question: what does it mean for a story to take a life of its own? Stories here are not fixed entities but rather living actants—capable of forming solidarities, generating intensities, and unsettling hegemonic narratives. Drawing …

Under The Guardianship: Experiences Of Mothers In Egypt’S El Nayaba El Hesbaya, Hana Khayry

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the intersectional lived experience of El Nayaba El Hesbaya in Egypt. El Nayaba El Hesbaya, operating under Law 119/1952, is the administrative and judicial body responsible for overseeing the financial and legal affairs of minors whose father or mother had passed. Hundreds of thousands of mothers in Egypt have (had) children under the guardianship of El Nayaba El Hesbaya. This research delves into the experience of mothers whose children are or were under the guardianship of El Nayaba El Hesbaya, examining how it shape(s/d) their everyday life as women, mothers, widows or ex-wives, citizens, and legal subjects. …

Journeys Of Emancipation, Struggle, Or Both? Accounts From Professional Egyptian Migrant Women In Germany, Adam Eddouss

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the migration experiences of a group of professional Egyptian migrant women living in Germany. By employing a qualitative approach, primarily through semi-structured interviews, and guided by migration literature, this research attempts to move away from the oversimplistic approach that migration is an ‘either or’ reality. Mainstream migration scholarship, specifically that focusing on migrant women, tends to focus on depicting migration within an emancipation-struggle binary, presenting migrant women either as victims or as heroines. This work, antithetically, describes how migrant women experiences can be complex, highlighting, both instances of strength and struggle. Grounded in the words of the …

In Her Words: The Silent Battles Of Egyptian Women With Breast Cancer, Nada Mohamed Ahmed Hassan Nh

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the emotional, social, and economic difficulties encountered by Egyptian women from middle- to working-class origins after a breast cancer diagnosis. Despite being a worldwide health concern, local cultural, institutional, and economic circumstances have a significant impact on the lived consequences of breast cancer. Women's post-diagnosis experiences in Egypt are greatly exacerbated by deeply ingrained gender stereotypes, stigma associated with cancer, and systemic injustices in the healthcare system. This research emphasizes women's situated knowledge and views their bodily experiences as crucial sources of insight into larger societal power relations. It is based on feminist perspective theory, especially the …

Metagenomic Profiling Of Gut Microbiome Signatures Across Liver Disease Stages And Hcv-Related Hepatocellular Carcinoma In Egyptian Patients, Marwa A. Zahra

Theses and Dissertations

Dysbiosis in the gut microbiome, particularly concerning the synchronous crosstalk between the gut and the liver, has been associated with various diseases. This study profiles the gut microbiome in liver diseases among Egyptian patients, with a focus on the hepatitis C virus (HCV) and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), both of which are highly prevalent in Egypt. Utilizing shotgun metagenomic sequencing, we analyzed microbial gene catalogs and taxonomic profiles from 46 Egyptian patients categorized into five groups: healthy individuals, liver disease patients of different etiologies, post-HCV, treated HCV, and HCV-HCC patients. Healthy and treated HCV patients exhibited distinct microbial profiles characterized by …

Development Of A Novel Innovative Umbrella Falsework System For Concrete Slabs, Abdelazem Hashim

Theses and Dissertations

Formwork is one of the major elements that contribute to the cost and duration of concrete building projects. This is why optimizing such an element can lead to huge savings to all parties involved in the construction projects. With contractors facing huge challenges in such a competitive industry and employers seeking the least price and least duration for their projects, contractors are constantly under the obligations of finding the best alternatives to deliver their projects in terms of both time and money. Therefore, the main aim of this research project is to develop a falsework system, where the falsework system …

Gender, Integration, And Labor Market Access: The Case Of Syrian Refugees In Germany, Feras Al-Mekhlafy

Theses and Dissertations

Germany hosts one of the largest populations of Syrian refugees in Europe, making their successful labor market integration critical for social and economic stability. This study investigates the gender gap among Syrian refugees in Germany within the broader refugee–native labor market gap. Using cross-sectional data from the 2022 SOEP refugee survey, it applies a Heckman two-step selection model to jointly analyze employment and wage outcomes while correcting for selection bias. Results reveal that structural barriers (e.g.: legal and bureaucratic) and compositional factors (e.g.: human capital) rather than wage discrimination drive most observed disparities. Female refugees face significantly lower employment probabilities, …

Post Tension Losses: A Comparative Study Of Different Codes Of Practice, Hana Moataz Tolba

Theses and Dissertations

Pre-stressed post-tensioned concrete has become a cornerstone of contemporary structural design due to its ability to enhance load-bearing capacity, minimize deflections, and extend span lengths efficiently. Accurate estimation of pre-stress losses is essential for ensuring structural reliability and serviceability over the lifespan of such systems. This study presents a comprehensive evaluation of initial and long-term pre-stress losses in post-tensioned concrete elements, applying and comparing provisions from four major international design codes: The Egyptian Code for Design and Construction of Concrete Structures (ECP 203-2007), the American Concrete Institute's ACI 423.10R-16, Euro code 2, and the Canadian CSA A23.3 standards as detailed …

Inspect: Intelligent Node-Based System For Ifc Processing And Evaluation, With Conversational Tool Support —Llmassisted Natural Language Ifc Querying, Basel Abdelshaheid

Theses and Dissertations

Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) enables the open exchange of Building Information Models, yet effective validation of real-world IFC deliveries remains challenging. Project models frequently contain incomplete, inconsistent, or incorrectly exported metadata, and explicit IFC relationships are often missing or degraded during conversion from proprietary formats. Many validation questions are inherently spatial, including connectivity, containment, proximity, and clashes, and therefore cannot be answered reliably from properties alone. As a result, federated model validation is often slow, fragmented across tools, and dependent on specialized IFC expertise.

This challenge is increasingly important for coordination, quality assurance, and information management across disciplines and lifecycle …

Global Public Health Feasibility: Digital Dentistry In Geriatric Population, Merna Amr Saleh

Theses and Dissertations

Oral health is a critical yet often overlooked determinant of well-being among older adults in Egypt, where mobility limitations, geographic barriers, and low awareness of preventive practices exacerbate dental disparities. DentalPal, a teledentistry-based mobile application, was developed to provide older adults with remote dental consultations, oral hygiene advice, and triage guidance. The platform enables users to submit oral photographs or radiographs for assessment, seek second opinions, and initiate follow-up chats directly with the healthcare provider. This flexible design allows users to access dental consultations on demand while ensuring continuity of care The question that guided this study was how older …

Facebook Interaction As A Potential Marker Of Cognitive Decline: Pilot Study, Esraa M. Qansuwa

Theses and Dissertations

One of the critical challenges in brain disorder research is the early identification of individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) who may later develop Alzheimer’s disease (AD) or other dementias. MCI in older adults is frequently associated with diminished social engagement and observable behavioral changes. With the rapid expansion of social media platforms and advances in Machine Learning (ML), digital traces from online activity present a novel and scalable avenue for mental health screening. In particular, predictive ML approaches have demonstrated strong potential in building reliable classifiers for early detection of neurocognitive decline. This study introduces an innovative framework that …

Perceptions Of Healthcare Access Barriers Among Eritrean, Sudanese, And Somali Refugees And Asylum Seekers In Cairo., Ayan Musa Mohamed

Theses and Dissertations

As the world witnesses an increase in different displacements of individuals for various reasons, ranging from wars, civil conflicts, human rights violations, and natural disasters, refugees and asylum seekers, who are among those forcibly displaced, continue to face challenges in access to health care services in host countries. The topic of barriers to health care has been widely researched, with a large body of literature on refugees' interactions with health care systems. However, there is limited literature on the perceptions of Eritrean, Sudanese, and Somali refugees and asylum seekers' experience with healthcare access in host countries. Therefore, this thesis aims …

Nlp-Based Comparative Assessment Of Clauses Quantifying Risk Transfer In Construction Contracts, Hoda M. Elshamy

Theses and Dissertations

Employers in the construction industry mostly deviate from standard contract forms such as FIDIC and NEC, by introducing alterations to the contract conditions that shift a great portion of risks from the client to the contractor. Originally, these risks were distributed more equitably between all contracting parties in the standards forms. The imbalances in the contractual conditions create fertile ground for conflicts, and if not resolved, will escalate to disputes during the project execution phase, leading to significant cost overruns and time delays. The contractors, therefore, attempt to restore the original balance through making amendments to the communicated contract, through …

Proposed Modifications To The Egyptian Concrete Code Based On A Comprehensive Sustainability Assessment Of Portland Cement Alternatives For Climate Change Mitigation, Yasmin Elhakim

Theses and Dissertations

Climate change is a major challenge facing planet earth today. This phenomenon is foreseen to continue to represent a major concern for decades to come. The construction industry is one of the most polluting sectors worldwide and is considered one of the top greenhouse gas emitters. Egypt, in particular, is one of the most vulnerable countries to the adverse effects of climate change. The construction sector plays a major role in Egypt’s economy, contributing significantly to the national GDP, yet it also represents one of the country’s largest greenhouse gas emitters. However, the Egyptian Concrete Code does not enforce the …

Navigating Radical Indeterminacy In The Struggle For A Global Collective Consciousness: The Question Of Eco-Justice And Law Or Universalize The Pluriverse: A Manifesto, More Or Less, Omar Auf

Theses and Dissertations

The processes of interpretation, communication, and re-interpretation leads to the emergence of an approximated collective consciousness, for which it may be struggled and contested by hegemonic. The dominant forces of this contest, capitalism and nationalism, lead to an interdivided world: one that possesses the tools to empathize with each other but is instead leading people to keep their heads down and focus on surviving their own contexts, perceived as existing within different historical times on the same timeline. This leads to legal and justice systems that fail their claim to universality and/or impartiality. Incorporating an ecological lens to justice within …

An Ethnographic Exploration Of The Lived Experiences With Gynecologic Cancers, Norma Naser Aldeen

Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

This thesis stays close to conversations with nine women who spoke about living with and through gynecologic cancers, from moments of finding out, through treatment, and into what follows. These encounters unfolded primarily through digitally mediated exchanges across Baalbek, Beirut, and other translocal settings shaped by distance and movement. Rather than approaching illness as a bounded biomedical event, this thesis attends to how gynecologic cancer is narrated as something that lingers—pressing into everyday life through bodily sensations, altered rhythms, and ongoing recalibrations of care, responsibility, and what remains possible.

Across these encounters, care rarely appears as a stable system …

The Indeterminacy Of Customary International Law, Mohamed Diaa Tawfik

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the judicial formation of customary international law and examines how international courts oscillate between interpretive and law-making functions. It analyzes key theoretical frameworks—including Kelsen’s Pure Theory of Law, Dworkin’s Law as Integrity, Kennedy’s radical indeterminacy, and Koskenniemi’s Descending-Ascending Approach—to understand how courts assert and shape customary norms beyond mere state practice and opinio juris. The work concludes that the International Court of Justice and other tribunals increasingly act as de facto lawmakers under the guise of interpretation, advocating the indeterminacy they try to avoid.

The Role Of Formal And Informal Institutions In Shaping The Challenges Faced By Social Entrepreneurs: A Cross-Country Analysis Between Egypt And Tunisia, Mirna Magdy Saleh

Theses and Dissertations

This study explores how formal and informal institutional contexts influence social entrepreneurs in Egypt and Tunisia; Tunisia is characterized by legal recognition and a framework governing social enterprises, whereas Egypt does not have a legal framework. Both countries are characterized by prolonged political uncertainty and high levels of informality. Utilizing Institutional theory as the main conceptual framework, the study explores how different contextual factors shape the challenges and opportunities faced by social entrepreneurs. Drawing on qualitative data from founders of social enterprises and experts in the field from both countries, this research aims to identify how institutional regulatory voids, normative …

Refugees In Egypt: State Framing, Ministerial Narratives, And The Politics Of Representation On Social Media, Habiba Kohail

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines Egyptian government discourse on refugees in 2024, a year characterized by heightened regional displacement and the enactment of Egypt’s first Asylum Law (Law No. 164 of

2024). Using a multidisciplinary framework that combines framing analysis with van Dijk's socio-cognitive approach, the study systemically analyzes how the government construct refugees on social

media and sets the boundaries of their inclusion in Egypt.

The thesis analyzes the Egyptian government discourse on refugees across official social media platforms from January 1, 2024, to December 31, 2024, a period that witnessed an increase in the government engagement in the refugee issue …

What Are The Factors Affecting The Financial Sustainability Of Social Enterprises In Egypt?, Mina Atta Ghaly

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates what factors affect the financial sustainability of social enterprises (SEs) in Egypt, situating them within a constrained MSME, legal and sectoral context marked by informality, weak innovation and recurrent shocks. Drawing on global and Egyptian literature, it identifies ten candidate factors—business model, financial management, founders’ skills and mindset, revenue structure, sector and mission, legal framework and innovative finance, capacity building, investment mechanisms and “the right investor”, adaptability to shocks, and ecosystem conditions—and integrates them into an extended Social Enterprise Model Canvas. Using a qualitative, exploratory design with semi‑structured interviews of social enterprise founders, incubators/accelerators, investors and experts, …

Metal-Free Nitrogen-Enriched Graphitic Carbon Nitride Architectures For Advanced Supercapacitor Energy Storage: Design, Synthesis, And Electrochemical Performance Optimization, Loujain Gamal Mohamed

Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

This thesis addresses the urgent global requirement for efficient energy storage materials by developing and characterizing advanced graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4)-based electrode materials for supercapacitors. A facile, low-cost thermal polymerization method produces 2D nitrogen-rich GCN nanosheets exhibiting excellent electrochemical stability and wide voltage windows, enabling symmetric devices with 19.33 Wh/kg energy density and remarkable cycling stability over 21,000 cycles. To overcome intrinsic limitations of pristine GCN, a 3D/2D metal free composite with bio-derived carbon (Bio-Cx) is synthesized, delivering high capacitance, wide potential windows, and ultrahigh energy density of 53.72 Wh/kg in asymmetric configurations paired with mesoporous nitrogen-doped carbon (MPNDC). …

The Impact Of Universities’ Social Media Content And Digital Brand Equity On Potential Students’ Perception, Engagement And Trust: The Case Of Egyptian Private Universities, Mahy Shoukry

Theses and Dissertations

Universities are increasingly using social media platforms as tools for marketing, brand building, and student engagement as a result of the digital transformation in higher education. This study investigates how prospective students' perceptions, levels of engagement, and trust are impacted by universities' digital brand equity and social media content. This study attempts to close the knowledge gap on how visual and user-generated information influences the decision-making processes of potential students, given the competitive environment among Egyptian private institutions. Particular focus is placed on how authenticity, video content, and images influence educational institutions' online appearance and reputation. The methodology used a …