The Applied Nutrition Project of Eastern Kenya – An Initiative for Reducing Hunger and Malnutrition

Sustainable development is the only kind of development possible for help in the third world. Due to various historical, political, geographic and climatic conditions the divergence between those countries providing and those receiving help is so vast that donations of labor an/or money is simply not enough. Rather, communities have to be taught to support and develop themselves during the receipt of aid and especially after the help pulls out. It is our goal in this article to summarize one such »sustainable development « project. As volunteers for AMREF (African Medical and Research Foundation), we worked with the remarkable Makueni Applied Nutrition Project in eastern Kenya in the summer of 2001. Our job was to visit the various locations in this semiarid and arid environment and to write a report on the situation of the diverse parts of the project. The Applied Nutrition Project (ANP) started in 1984 and serves as an excellent example of the significant help that can be provided to needy areas of the world with a multifaceted approach

Theory of extraordinary transmission of light through quasiperiodic arrays of subwavelength holes

By using a theoretical formalism able to work in both real and k-spaces, the physical origin of the phenomenon of extraordinary transmission of light through quasi-periodic arrays of holes is revealed. Long-range order present in a quasiperiodic array selects the wavevector(s) of the surface electromagnetic mode(s) that allows an efficient transmission of light through subwavelength holes.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Reducció del malbaratament alimentari en serveis de càtering de grans esdeveniments

Des de que la FAO va notificar que un terç dels productes destinats a l’alimentació humana acabaven llençats, diverses organitzacions i actors de la cadena alimentària van començar a dedicar recursos per a fer front a aquesta problemàtica. Arran d’això s’han realitzat diversos estudis que analitzen l’impacte a nivell social, econòmic i ambiental que el malbaratament alimentari genera. Emmarcat en la tercera fase d’un projecte pilot dut a terme pel Centre de Recerca en Economia i Desenvolupament Agroalimentari (CREDA-UPC-IRTA). Aquest treball de final de grau té com a objectius quantificar el malbaratament alimentari generat al servei de càtering d’una important fira internacional, fer l’anàlisi de les dades recollides, valorar l’efectivitat de les mesures preventives i proposar-ne de noves per a reduir la pèrdua d’aliments en futures edicions. Els resultats obtinguts mostren que l’ús de mesures preventives redueix el malbaratament alimentari i ens confirmen que la major part del malbaratament es degut a la sobreproducció de menúsDesde que la FAO notificó que un tercio de los productos destinados a la alimentación humana acababan desaprovechados. Varias Organizaciones y actores de la cadena alimentaria empezaron a dedicarle recursos a esta problemática. A raíz de esto, se han realizado diversos estudios que analizan el impacto a nivel social, económico y ambiental que el desperdicio alimentario genera. Enmarcado en la tercera fase de un proyecto piloto llevado a cabo por el Centro de Investigación en Economía y Desarrollo Agroalimentario (CREDA-UPC-IRTA). Este trabajo de fin de grado se propone los objetivos de cuantificar el desperdicio alimentario generado por el servicio de catering en una importante feria internacional, hacer el análisis de los datos recogidos, valorar la efectividad de las medidas preventivas y proponer nuevas medidas para a reducir la perdida de alimentos en futuras ediciones. Los resultados obtenidos muestran que el uso de medidas preventivas reduce el desperdicio alimentario y nos confirman que el mayor desperdicio se debe a la sobreproducción de menús.Since the FAO notified that one-third of all food produced for human consumption is wasted. Several organizations and actors in the food chain began to dedicate resources and make efforts to solve this problem. As a result of this, several studies have been done with the objective of define the social, economic and environmental impact that food waste generates. Taking part of the third phase of a pilot project carried out by the Center in Agri-Food Economy and Development (CREDA-UPC-IRTA). This thesis aims to quantify the food waste generated by the catering service of an international fair, analyze the data, evaluate the effectiveness of preventive measures and propose new measures to reduce food waste in future editions. The results obtained show that the use of preventive measures reduces the food waste and confirm that the largest amount of food waste is due to the overproduction of menus.Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::2 - Fam zer

Determinants of trading activity after rating actions in the Corporate Debt Market

The influence of rating announcements on corporate debt market trading has been previously overlooked. Based on an event study, we examine the effects of the three types of announcements provided by credit rating agencies on abnormal trading volume and trading frequency in the Spanish corporate debt market. Additionally, by means of cross-section regressions, we establish what factors determine the sign and intensity of the trading reactions. The presented results indicate that factors related to the characteristics of the rating announcement, the issuing company and the economic environment are relevant in light of several hypotheses.Rating agencies, Rating announcementes, Trading volume, Trading frequency

Credit Rating Announcements, Trading Activity and Yield Spreads: The Spanish Evidence

We test whether or not different rating announcements contain pricing-relevant information and modify trading activity patterns in the Spanish commercial paper and corporate bond markets. We observe a statistically significant widening of yield spreads in both segments of the corporate debt market after reviews of downgrades and negative outlook reports. In addition, we find that certain rating announcements encourage trading activity even when the information is not pricing-relevant. The release of information arouses investor interest for the involved securities. Thus, trading frequency increases, although larger-sized transactions, which should denote possible portfolio rebalancing, are not observed. In the commercial paper note market, we also find that that trading volumes fade away after reviews for downgrade. Investors seem to prefer reducing the trading of these short-term securities to liquidating their positions.Credit rating agencies, Rating changes, Event study, Yields, Liquidity, Trading frequency, Corporate bond market, Commercial paper market.

Roma University Students in Spain : who Are They?

This study has received funding from the National Plan of Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation of the Spanish Government and from the European Structural and Investment Funds under agreement No. RTI2018-097879-A-I00.Roma people in Spain face situations of high deprivation, including high unemployment and early school leaving rates. The strategies to address this situation point to education as the means to overcome poverty and social exclusion. Although efforts have been made within compulsory education, scarce attention has been given to their performance once in higher education. Although young Roma people are reaching higher education more often than their parents, once at university they face specific barriers that hinder their opportunities. Using a mixed-methods approach, UNIROMA analyses those difficulties and formulates orientations to overcome them, thereby contributing to increasing the university graduation rates of Roma students. This paper presents the results of the quantitative fieldwork, consisting of an online questionnaire administered from May to July of 2020 to Roma students enrolled in Spanish universities. In the results, three main profiles were identified: traditional students, young students with other commitments (job and/or family responsibilities) and mature students. The results, concordant with research on other minority groups and higher education, provide evidence of the barriers that Roma students face in university due to the intersectionality of multiple factors of discrimination, namely, belonging to an ethnic minority and being more frequently first-generation, low SES and non-traditional students

Effect of chemical structure on the sonochemical degradation of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs)

Perfluoroalkyl surfactants include chemicals characterized by a fully fluorinated carbon chain (hydrophobic and oleophobic tail) bound to a hydrophilic head (a carboxyl or sulfonic group). These compounds are toxic and highly resistant to chemical/biological attack, and some are known to be bio-accumulative. This study investigates the sonochemical degradation at 500 kHz of different carboxylic and sulfonic perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs, 1.7 mM total organic fluorine) to assess the effect of chain length, functional head group, and substituents (–CH2–CH2– moiety and ether group) on the degradation rate. Under these conditions, the rates of defluorination determined for two widely used perfluoroalkyl substances, perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), were 3.5 to 3.7 μM F− min−1, respectively. The degradation rate of perfluoroalkyl sulfonates decreased with the perfluorocarbon chain length as indicated by the 1.3 and 1.9-fold lower defluorination rates for perfluorohexane- and perfluorobutane sulfonate than that of PFOS. A similar trend was observed during the sonolysis of perfluoroalkyl carboxylate analogs with 6, 5 or 3 carbon atoms which had 1.1-, 1.8-, and 2.3-fold lower defluorination rates, respectively, than that of PFOA. Furthermore, perfluoroalkyl compounds appeared more amenable to sonolysis than the polyfluoroalkyl analogues with the same number of C atoms (defluorination rate of PFOS/6 : 2 fluorotelomer sulfonate ≈ 2.3). The results demonstrate that sonolysis is a promising approach to treat PFASs in aqueous streams. Furthermore, they underscore that the chemical structure of PFASs has a marked effect on the rate at which they undergo sonochemical degradation

Characterization of the austenite recrystallization by comparing double deformation and stress relaxation tests

A high amount of deformation below the non-recrystallization temperature (T-nr) is a common industrial practice to achieve a good combination of toughness and strength in microalloyed steels. To combine the industrially relevant optimum combination of high productivity and product quality, an accurate knowledge of T-nr and the recrystallization kinetics is required. Although a lot of literature data is available on the recrystallization behaviour of microalloyed steels, correlations are often difficult to be made due to the effect of different experimental setups, types of analysis and test schedules that are used to obtain this data. Although this would significantly improve the knowledge about these steels, so far, no systematic comparison has been presented in literature to correlate the different techniques and methods. In this study, different hot rolling simulation techniques, testing schedules and types of analysis were used to determine the recrystallization kinetics of a microalloyed steel. On the one hand, good agreement was found between the results from different test equipment for the double deformations tests. On the other hand, stress relaxation tests showed accelerated kinetics and appeared to be less effective

Evaluación del sistema de control interno en el área de cuentas por cobrar de la empresa Propesco San Martin EIRL de la ciudad de Chiclayo 2021

La investigación busco explicar un diseño de Control Interno para la mejora del proceso operativo del área de Cuentas por Cobrar de la empresa “Propesco San Martin EIRL” en el 2021 y planteó un Flujograma de procesos y cuestionario de Control Interno en el área de Cuentas por Cobrar e identificó los riesgos y controles que la Compañía debe implementar para que la Gerencia alcance las decisiones que tome a futuro. La investigación fue un tipo de investigación descriptiva- correlacional, ya que dio solución a un problema en la empresa “Propesco San Martin EIRL” teniendo en cuenta la información histórica de la misma. De acuerdo a la naturaleza de sus variables se aplicó una investigación no-experimental, a vista de que se analizó y explico los factores de un fenómeno y que se responderán en el futuro. El nivel de investigación fue explicativo

Coaching y el compromiso organizacional de los colaboradores en la empresa Comedsa Ingeniería y Construcción SAC – Puente Piedra, 2021

El objetivo de la investigación fue determinar la relación del coaching y el compromiso organizacional en los colaboradores de la empresa Comedsa Ingeniería y Construcción SAC – Puente Piedra, 2021. La investigación ha sido aplicada, no experimental – transversal, descriptivo correlacional; se recolectó los datos a través del instrumento cuestionario aplicando la técnica de la encuesta a 50 trabajadores de la empresa Comedsa Ingeniería y Construcción SAC; obteniendo una confiabilidad de 0.834 para la variable coaching, lo que significa que posee una magnitud muy alta y 0.801 para la variable compromiso organizacional, lo que significa que tiene una magnitud alta. Los resultados obtenidos fue de una significancia bilateral de 0.006 lo cual es menor a 0.05, por lo que existió relación significativa entre las variables coaching y compromiso organizacional, respecto a la hipótesis específica 1, se obtuvo una significancia bilateral de 0.003 lo cual es menor a 0.005, por lo que existió relación significativa entre la variable coaching y la dimensión compromiso afectivo, en la hipótesis específica 2, se obtuvo una significancia bilateral de 0.001 lo cual es menor a 0.005, por lo que existió relación significativa entre la variable coaching y la dimensión compromiso normativo y en la hipótesis específica 3, se obtuvo una significancia bilateral de 0.000 lo cual es menor a 0.005, por lo que existió relación significativa entre la variable coaching y la dimensión compromiso de continuidad. En conclusión, las variables principales de coaching y el compromiso organizacional se relacionan y tienen mejoras a través de sus componentes