Management accounting practices in the British food and drinks industry

Purpose – This paper investigates and reports on the management accounting practices in the British food and drinks industry. Design/methodology/approach – The data is generated by a large-scale postal questionnaire which was informed by preliminary interviews. Further interviews were carried out to aid interpretation of the responses. Descriptive statistics on the importance and frequency of use of individual practices provide the basis for discussion. Findings – Direct costing is widely practised and important, by contrast with activity-based costing and full absorption costing. Despite the limitations of conventional budgets, they remain a central management accounting 'pillar' and are frequently used in 'what if?' analyses. The balanced scorecard and other non-financial performance measures are perceived to be important but never or rarely used by 40% of companies. Product profitability analyses are frequently applied, and, surprisingly, the profitability of supplying individual customers is frequently calculated by over 50% of the population. Respondents were sceptical about sophisticated DCF investment appraisals. Practical implications – Traditional management accounting is 'alive and well' but there are indications of likely increased use of: information concerning the cost of quality; non-financial measures relating to employees and analyses of competitors' strengths and weaknesses. There is evidence of a gap between current textbooks and actual practices. Originality/value – The survey provides a unique detailed examination of actual management accounting practices and an indication of future trends

A preliminary investigation of the AUDIT and DUDIT in comparison to biomarkers for alcohol and drug use among HIV-infected clinic attendees in Cape Town, South Africa

Objective: There is growing concern about the effect of substance use on HIV treatment outcomes. The study objectives included: (i) evaluating whether the use of validated questionnaires (AUDIT and DUDIT) provide useful and consistent information of alcohol and drug consumption when compared with the use of biomarkers of alcohol in (urine and hair) and drugs in (urine) and (ii) assessing the feasibility of using self-report measures compared with urine and hair tests.Method: Participants were HIV positive patients attending an HIV community health clinic in Kraaifontein, Cape Town. Hair and urine samples were collected and analysed for alcohol, in Fatty Acid Ethyl Esters (FAEE) and in Ethyl Glucuronide and (EtG), and drugs. Biological markers were compared with self-report measures of alcohol and drug consumption in terms of sensitivity, specificity. Forty-three participants completedthe self-report measures, while 30 provided hair and urine samples. Results: On the AUDIT, 18 (41.9%) participants screened positive for harmful and hazardous drinking and 13 (30.2%) participants on the DUDIT screened positive for having a drug-related problem. Two of 30 participants (7%) tested positive for alcohol abuse on FAEE analysis. For EtG, 6 of 24 (25%) participants tested positive for alcohol abuse. On hair drug analysis, all 30 participants tested negative for cannabis, amphetamines, opiates, cocaine, PCP and methaqualone. On the urinalysis, 1of 30 participants tested positive for cannabis and everyone tested negative for all otherdrugs included in the screening.Conclusion: Substance use among patients attending HIV clinics appears to be a problem, especially alcohol. Self-report measures seem to be a more cost effective option for screening of alcohol and drug abuse inresource poor settings

Annotation and Identification of Several Glycerolipid Metabolic Related Ortholog Genes; Mrub_0437, Mrub_1813 and Mrub_2759 In The Organism \u3cem\u3eMeithermus Ruber\u3c/em\u3e and Their Predicted Respective Orthologs b3926, b4042 and BO514 Found In \u3cem\u3eE.coli\u3c/em\u3e.

We predict Mrub_0437 encodes the enzyme glycerol kinase (DNA coordinates [417621..419183), which is an intermediary step of the glycerolipid metabolic pathway (KEGG map00561), It catalyzes the conversion of glycerol to sn-Glycerol-3-phosphate. The E. coli K12 MG1655 ortholog is predicted to be b3926. We predict Mrub_1813 encodes the enzyme diacylglycerol kinase (DNA coordinates [1864659..1865063), which is an intermediary step of the glycerolipid metabolic pathway (KEGG map00561), It catalyzes the conversion of 1,2-diacyl-sn-glycerol to 1,2-diacyl-sn-glycerol 3-phosphate. The E. coli K12 MG1655 ortholog is predicted to be b4042. We predict Mrub_2759 encodes the enzyme glycerol kinase (DNA coordinates [2799712..2800665), which is an intermediary step of the glycerolipid metabolic pathway (KEGG map00561), It catalyzes the conversion of d-Glycerate to 2-phospho-d-glycerate. The E. coli K12 MG1655 ortholog is predicted to be B0514

AI in colonoscopy-detection and characterisation of malignant polyps

The medical technological revolution has transformed the nature with which we deliver care. Adjuncts such as artificial intelligence and machine learning have underpinned this. The applications to the field of endoscopy are numerous. Malignant polyps represent a significant diagnostic dilemma as they lie in an area in which mischaracterisation may mean the difference between an endoscopic procedure and a formal bowel resection. This has implications for patients’ oncological outcomes, morbidity and mortality, especially if post-procedure histopathology upstages disease. We have made significant strides with the applications of artificial intelligence to colonoscopic detection. Deep learning algorithms are able to be created from video and image databases. These have been applied to traditional, human-derived, classification methods, such as Paris or Kudo, with up to 93% accuracy. Furthermore, multimodal characterisation systems have been developed, which also factor in patient demographics and colonic location to provide an estimation of invasion and endoscopic resectability with over 90% accuracy. Although the technology is still evolving, and the lack of high-quality randomised controlled trials limits clinical usability, there is an exciting horizon upon us for artificial intelligence-augmented endoscopy

TRITIMED; a multidisciplinary project to improve drought adaptation in durum wheat

none6noneHABASH D.; ARAUS J.L.; LATIRI K.; KADER A.A.; TUBEROSA R.; NACHIT M.HABASH D.; ARAUS J.L.; LATIRI K.; KADER A.A.; TUBEROSA R.; NACHIT M

Data describing the eco-physiological responses of Elaeagnus angustifolia grown under contrasting regime of water and fertilizer in coal-mined spoils

To improve our understanding of how coal mining areas can be re-vegetated and ecosystem function restored, we examined the potential effects of five water (W) regimes (40, 50, 60, 70 and 80% of field capacity), five nitrogen (N) (0, 24, 60, 96 and 120 mg kg‒1 soil) and five phosphorus (P) fertilizer doses (0, 36, 90, 144 and 180 mg kg‒1 soil), which control the growth and development of Elaeagnus angustifolia under adverse environmental conditions. To optimize the W-N-P application rate, three factors and five levels of central composite design along with an optimization technique named response surface methodology were utilized. Here we provide data on root-shoot biomass ratio, leaf dry matter content, stomatal conductance, chlorophyll (Chl) a, Chl b, membrane stability index and soluble protein content of E. angustifolia. The data described in this article are available in Mendeley Data, DOI: 10.17632/2vfbrdxyf2.2 [1]. These data could be used to evaluate the improvement in growth performance of E. angustifolia subjected to various regimes of W, N and P. This dataset showed that E. angustifolia grew optimally in coal-mine spoils when irrigated at 66% of field capacity and supplemented with 74.0 mg N and 36.0 mg P kg‒1 soil. This could considerably help the success of revegetation in coal-mined degraded arid areas where W is scarce. This article contains data complementary to the main research entitled "Fine-tuning of soil water and nutrient fertilizer levels for the ecological restoration of coal-mined spoils using Elaeagnus angustifolia" in the Journal of Environmental Management (Roy et al., 2020)

Validation of an electrogoniometry system as a measure of knee kinematics during activities of daily living

Purpose: The increasing use of electrogoniometry (ELG) in clinical research requires the validation of different instrumentation. The purpose of this investigation was to examine the concurrent validity of an ELG system during activities of daily living. Methods: Ten asymptomatic participants gave informed consent to participate. A Biometrics SG150 electrogoniometer was directly compared to a 12 camera three dimensional motion analysis system during walking, stair ascent, stair descent, sit to stand, and stand to sit activities for the measurement of the right knee angle. Analysis of validity was undertaken by linear regression. Standard error of estimate (SEE), standardised SEE (SSEE), and Pearson’s correlation coefficient r were computed for paired trials between systems for each functional activity. Results: The 95% confidence interval of SEE was reasonable between systems across walking (LCI = 2.43 °; UCI = 2.91 °), stair ascent (LCI = 2.09 °; UCI = 2.42 °), stair descent (LCI = 1.79 °; UCI = 2.10 °), sit to stand (LCI = 1.22 °; UCI = 1.41 °), and stand to sit (LCI = 1.17 °; UCI = 1.34 °). Pearson’s correlation coefficient r across walking (LCI = 0.983; UCI = 0.990), stair ascent (LCI = 0.995; UCI = 0.997), stair descent (LCI = 0.995; UCI = 0.997), sit to stand (LCI = 0.998; UCI = 0.999), and stand to sit (LCI = 0.996; UCI = 0.997) was indicative of a strong linear relationship between systems. Conclusion: ELG is a valid method of measuring the knee angle during activities representative of daily living. The range is within that suggested to be acceptable for the clinical evaluation of patients with musculoskeletal conditions