Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) offers small loans with easy repayment system and till now these institutions have served millions of needy people around the globe. This study highlights the hurdles influence the smooth working and growth of Microfinance institution in Egypt. The structured interviews were conducted from the top and mid-level managers of MFI's. This study revealed that interest rate, political and economic conditions, corruption, customer outreach, competition and technology are the important elements for MFI's success. It is evident that lack of use of technology and less importance drawn on customer outreach programs are the main challenges of MFI's in Egypt. This study provides a roadmap for practitioners and strategic

Abstract

    Corrosion-fatigue occurs by the combined actions of cyclic loading and corrosive environment. The effect of shot peening on cumulative corrosion-fatigue life of 1100-H12 Al alloy was investigated. Before fatigue testing, specimens were submerged in 3.5%NaCl solution for 71 days. Constant fatigue tests were performed with and without corrosive environment. Cumulative corrosion-fatigue tests were also carried out in order to determine the fatigue life before and after shot peening. The constant fatigue life was significantly reduced due to corrosive environment and the endurance fatigue limit was reduced by 13% compared with dry fatigue. In case of shot peening the cumul

Shallow foundations are usually used for structures with light to moderate loads where the soil underneath can carry them. In some cases, soil strength and/or other properties are not adequate and require improvement using one of the ground improvement techniques. Stone column is one of the common improvement techniques in which a column of stone is installed vertically in clayey soils. Stone columns are usually used to increase soil strength and to accelerate soil consolidation by acting as vertical drains. Many researches have been done to estimate the behavior of the improved soil. However, none of them considered the effect of stone column geometry on the behavior of the circular footing. In this research, finite ele

The influence of fiber orientation and water absorption on fatigue crack growth resistance for cold cure acrylic (PMMA) reinforced by chopped and woven -glass-fibers were investigated. A weight of 2 g for chopped fibers and the same weight for woven -glass-fibers (one layer) were used to prepare samples. Some of these samples would storage in dry condition; the others were immersed in water for 15 days. Fatigue test was carried out. The results shows that, for PMMA, the initial bending stress for dry specimen was 3.392 N/cm2 and the number of cycles were 1364, the initial bending stress for wet samples was 4.20 N/cm2, and the number of cycles was 2411. The samples would cut in two pieces because of the cracks would propagated fast during

In the present study, activated carbon supported metal oxides was prepared for thiophene removal from model fuel (Thiophene in n-hexane) using adsorptive desulfurization technique. Commercial activated carbon was loaded individually with copper oxide in the form of Cu₂O/AC. A comparison of the kinetic and isotherm models of the sorption of thiophene from model fuel was made at different operating conditions including adsorbent dose, initial thiophene concentration and contact time. Various adsorption rate constants and isotherm parameters were calculated. Results indicated that the desulfurization was enhanced when copper was loaded onto activated carbon surface. The highest desulfurization percent for Cu₂O/AC and o