African Foundation for Research and Interdisciplinary Training in Ageing

Wilson and Adamchak identified a need to link research and training initiatives with policy structures in African countries, to evolve an holistic model of care for older people in the sub-continent.I am now able to announce that the African Foundation for Research and Interdisciplinary Training in Ageing (AFRITA) is shortly to be established as a non-profit-making trust, based in Harare, Zimbabwe. The purpose of the foundation will be to promote, maintain and link training and research in ageing to policy development, within Africa, for the benefit of all older persons and communities. This will enable “in-context” capacity-building, as referred to in the forum

A comparative analysis of decision trees vis-a-vis other computational data mining techniques in automotive insurance fraud detection

The development and application of computational data mining techniques in financial fraud detection and business failure prediction has become a popular cross-disciplinary research area in recent times involving financial economists, forensic accountants and computational modellers. Some of the computational techniques popularly used in the context of - financial fraud detection and business failure prediction can also be effectively applied in the detection of fraudulent insurance claims and therefore, can be of immense practical value to the insurance industry. We provide a comparative analysis of prediction performance of a battery of data mining techniques using real-life automotive insurance fraud data. While the data we have used in our paper is US-based, the computational techniques we have tested can be adapted and generally applied to detect similar insurance frauds in other countries as well where an organized automotive insurance industry exists

Diseño experimental para el mejoramiento de la calidad: Optimización de la línea de producción Bühler 600 de fideo laminado formato fantasía en la empresa Fideos PACA

This project is about an actual operation within a manufacturing company whose main product is the pasta. The investigation is focused on optimizing the production line Bühler 600 in the company Fideos PACA. From the knowledge of how this production takes place, will determine and monitor what are the variables of the quality of response more sensitive, to improve and strengthen them.Este proyecto tratará acerca de una operación real dentro de una empresa de manufactura, cuyo producto principal es la pasta. La investigación está enfocada a la optimización de la línea de producción de Pasta Bühler 600 de la empresa Fideos PACA. A partir del conocimiento de cómo se lleva a cabo esta producción, se podrá determinar y monitorear, cuales son las variables de respuesta de la calidad más sensibles; para así mejorarlas y fortalecerlas. Para cumplir con este objetivo, dentro del proyecto se plantea la utilización del Control Estadístico de Procesos (CEP), a través de las gráficas de control; para determinar el comportamiento de los procesos, realizar mejoras menores y controlar el proceso productivo

Intussusception secondary to retroflexion of a proximal jejunal diverticulum, leading to Type 3 vagal indigestion with severe hypochloraemia in an adult Simmental bull (Bos taurus)

Intussusception is a rare but well described cause of intestinal obstruction in several species, including cattle, and is often associated with enteritis, intestinal parasitism or intestinal neoplasia. Clinical signs are non-specific and include anorexia with reduced faecal output.This report describes a four-year-old Simmental bull that presented with anorexia and reduced faecal output, along with severe ruminal bloat and a large, dilated intestinal loop palpated rectally. Serum biochemistry identified severe hypochloraemia, consistent with proximal intestinal obstruction and a poor prognosis. Although supportive and symptomatic treatment was provided, the bull died before a definitive diagnosis could be made.Post-mortem examination identified a segmental intestinal intussusception, within the proximal jejunum, which had resulted in intestinal obstruction. The primary cause of this intussusception was a retroflexed intestinal diverticulum, which formed the intussusceptum.<br/

Merging Nitrogen Management and Renewable Energy Needs

The ARBRE (ARable Biomass Renewable Energy) project, the first large-scale wood-fueled electricity generating plant in the U.K., represents a significant development in realising British and European policy objectives on renewable energy. The plant is fueled by a mix of wood from short rotation coppice (SRC) and forest residues. Where feasible, composted/conditioned sewage sludge is applied to coppice sites to increase yields and improve soil structure. In the Yorkshire Water region, typical total N:P:K composition of composted/conditioned sludge is 2.9:3.8:0.3, respectively. Sludge application is calculated on the basis of total nitrogen (N) content to achieve 750 kg N ha-1, for 3 years’ requirement. Willow coppice forms a dense, widely spaced, root network, which, with its long growing season, makes it an effective user of nutrients. This, in combination with willow’s use as a nonfood, nonfodder crop, makes it an attractive route for the recycling of sewage sludge in the absence of sea disposal, banned under the EC Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive (UWWTD). Further work is required on the nutritional requirements of SRC in order to understand better the quantities of sludge that can be applied to SRC without having a detrimental impact on the environment. This paper suggests the source of N rerouting under the UWWTD and suggests the likely expansion of SRC as an alternative recycling pathway

Decentering Anarchism: Governmentality and Anti-Authoritarian Social Movements in Twentieth-Century Spain

In this thesis, I outline a genealogy of the Spanish anarchist movement. I outline the epistemological terms on which anarchism has been defined by both historical and contemporary anarchist groups, and then I destabilize these epistemological understandings of anarchism by outlining the historical genealogy of the anarchist movement as it developed alongside the 19th-century Spanish state. I then use a case study of the agrarian anarchist collectivization movement during the Spanish Civil War to illustrate this genealogy. Finally, I theorize the contemporary, post-leftist Spanish anarchist movement, using Foucault's theory of the role of freedom in modern governmentality

Disability Dimensions: Course, Risk and Mortality Salience Predict Workplace Bias

The current study explored the course, risk and mortality salience of a specific disability (N=242). Four job candidates were presented with varying forms of that disability; yet the results indicated ratings of work-related variables changed depending upon perceived dimensions (course and risk) of the candidates’ disability. Furthermore, findings demonstrated a difference in perceived trainability and absenteeism when mortality was made salient. Implications reveal the potential importance of using a dimensional approach to studying individuals with a disability and relevant consequences for organizations when the course, risk or mortality of the disability is made salient

The Relation between Dividend and Financial Constraints to Firm Value

This study examines the relation between dividends and financial constraints to firm value using publicly traded firms in Indonesia from 2013 to 2017. The very exploration used a repeated cross section regression method to understand monotonic and non-monotonic alliance between dividends and financial constraints to firm value. The non-monotonic correlation measured by dummy variables for 6 dividends categories, i.e. 0 category is defined as firms that did not pay dividends and category 5 is defined as firms that pay dividends with the highest quintile. It is found that monotonic bond lowers the financial constraints that has more important and consistent positive effects on firm value relative to dividends. These findings imply investors to have higher preferences for a firm’s ability to realize good investment projects and provide higher future profits, relative to current profit in the form of dividends. It also found that non-monotonic connection between dividends and firm value and dividends and financial constraints have relatively equal positive effect to firm value