Multi‐sited accumulation of capital: Cape Verdean returnees and small‐scale business

In recent years, policymakers have portrayed return migration as positive for development. In both migrant sending and migrant receiving countries, policymakers expect the transfer of economic, cultural and social capital by returnees to stimulate economic growth. Inherent in these assumptions is the idea of a unidirectional flow of capital from northern countries of immigration to the countries of return. The objective of this article is to contest this idea of a one‐way transfer of capital through a case study of Cape Verdean returnee business owners. To what extent have they accumulated their various forms of capital before emigration, during their sojourn abroad or after return? In this article, I examine the returnees' multi‐sited accumulation of capital and how it corresponds to the resources they need to run a sustainable business. In addition, I analyse how they adapt capital accumulated abroad to the conditions in Cape Verde.     

Social demographic aspects

Unlike in women, where instruments are available to measure the severity of symptoms, cross-culturally validated instruments are lacking for aging males. This study set out to conduct a translation and cultural validation of the 'Aging Males' Symptoms' (AMS) scale, originally developed in German, into English for use in North America and the UK. Following international methodological recommendations, the AMS scale was translated in a standardized way consisting of forward translation, quality control, backward translation and a pretest. Five experienced bilingual translators and reviewers were involved. Many difficulties of compatibility between the cultural backgrounds of Germany, the UK and North America were identified and resolved by consensus. This resulted in one version for British and American English. A pretest in volunteers demonstrated clarity and understandability across social classes, but also suggested minor changes in the instrument. A preliminary test-retest comparison of the final scale showed high reliability with a correlation coefficient of 0.93 for the total AMS score. The AMS scale is a valuable tool for assessing symptoms in the aging male. This scale can be used in German and English speaking countries. Flemish and Finnish versions are also in use.     

Cosmopolitanization in action: connecting scales in international environmental organizations

In this article we analyse how professionals in two international environmental organizations (IEOs) concerned with biodiversity act as ‘entrepreneurs of cosmopolitanization’ by establishing connections between the various scales they mobilize in their daily work. Drawing on an empirical survey, we show that these professionals mobilize a range of activities to meet a twofold requirement. The first requirement is for universality, which corresponds to their status, their determination to adopt a scientific approach and to the scale at which they initially defined the problem of biodiversity loss. The second requirement is to embed in specific contexts. Tension between these two types of requirement is inevitable. It is inherent in the cosmopolitan perspective and leads to contextual arrangements between the global approach to environmental problems and the forging of alliances with national, regional or local institutions and actors, according to opportunities and requirements. Connecting the various scales of environmental action unavoidably remains a partially achieved objective.     

Validation of an Arabic ADAM questionnaire for androgen deficiency screening in the Arab community

Background.?It is well documented that testosterone levels decline with age, this decline is associated with symptoms which could be assessed denoting androgen deficiency. We investigated the validity of an Arabic version of the Saint Louis University androgen deficiency in ageing men (ADAM) questionnaire to screen for androgen deficiency in Saudi and non Saudi Arabic speaking men.

Methods.?It was a cross sectional study of ambulatory community-based Arabic Saudi men recruited from Volunteers in Riyadh city, Capital of Saudi Arabia, aged 18–80 years. Seven hundred thirty men agreed to fill the Arabic ADAM questionnaire, they were invited to a morning blood sample for total testosterone and sex hormone binding globulin and those who agreed to complete the whole study were only 407 men. Low serum bioavailable testosterone (BT) levels (androgen deficiency) were defined as <10th percentile of serum BT levels in young healthy Saudi men (18–30 years).

Results.?Cronbach's Alpha of 0.71 (n?=?730) showed a good internal consistency of the Arabic ADAM questionnaire. Among participants, 18.2% and 77.6% had low serum BT levels and a positive ADAM questionnaire, respectively. The prevalence of positive ADAM and low serum BT is increasing with age. The Arabic ADAM questionnaire had a high sensitivity of 86.5%, a low specificity of 24.3%, and positive predictive values (+PVs) and negative (?PVs) of 20.3% and 89%, respectively.

Conclusion.?The Arabic ADAM questionnaire has a very good sensitivity but very low specificity for screening of androgen deficiency in Saudi men, therefore biological confirmation is needed especially when clinical symptoms of androgen deficiency are present.     

Congress Calendar

Background.?Saliva collection is an easy, non-invasive method to measure hormones.

Methods.?Two studies were performed. In the first, a convenience sample of 1454 males who had submitted saliva for salivary testosterone measurements were studied. In the second study, we intensively studied symptoms and measurements of total testosterone, free testosterone symptoms and measurements of total testosterone, free testosterone and bioavailable testosterone in relationship to salivary testosterone in 127 men. A secondary endpoint was to examine the relationship of salivary testosterone to hypogonadal symptoms in the ADAM and AMS questionnaires.

Results.?In the first study, we have shown that salivary testosterone, measured in 1454 males aged 20 to 89 years, declines by 47% over the lifespan. In the second study, salivary testosterone was strongly correlated with bioavailable testosterone (p < 0.000001) calculated free testosterone (p < 0.00001) and total testosterone (p < 0.002). Salivary testosterone was significantly related to hypogonadal symptoms on the St. Louis University ADAM questionnaire and the Aging Male Survey.

Conclusions.?These studies support the use of salivary testosterone as an acceptable assay for screening for hypogonadism. Salivary testosterone is not a better assay than other measures to diagnose hypogonadism.     

Prevalence of sarcopenia and its association with functional and nutritional status among male residents in a nursing home in Turkey

Introduction The Aging Male Symptoms' (AMS) scale was designed as a health-related quality of life (QoL) scale and standardized as a self-administered scale, first, to assess symptoms of aging (independent from those which are disease-related) between groups of males under different conditions, second, to evaluate the severity of symptoms/QoL over time, and, third, to measure changes pre- and post-androgen replacement therapy. The scale is in widespread use (17 languages currently available) and a recent review of methodological data documented good psychometric characteristics and ability as a clinical utility. This paper describes test characteristics of the AMS (positive and negative predictive values), taking two internationally established and published screening scales for androgen deficiency as the available standard.

Method A sample of 150 German males aged 40–69 years completed the AMS scale and two screening scales for androgen deficiency: the ADAM scale of Morley and colleagues and the screener of Smith and colleagues. The technique of a computer-assisted telephone interview was applied.

Result The comparison of the AMS with the two screening instruments for androgen deficiency showed sufficiently good compatibility despite conceptual differences. The AMS scale sufficiently predicted the results of the two screening instruments. A positive predictive value of 92% and a negative predictive value of 50% were found regarding the ADAM scale. The respective figures regarding Smith's screener were 65% and 49% for positive and negative predictive values, respectively.

Conclusion The AMS scale obviously measures a similar phenomenon as the two established and widely used screeners for androgen deficiency, although it was not developed as a screening instrument.     

Scale,networks, and information strategies: exploring indigenous peoples' refusal of a protected area in Suriname

In this article, we examine the response of three indigenous communities in western Suriname to the proposed establishment of a protected area on their traditional lands. In particular, we focus on how the transnational, national and sub‐national networks associated with indigenous rights and protected areas influenced the decision the communities made to reject the protected area. Central to the analysis are the concepts of scale, networks and information; we explore how a national indigenous rights organization used scale and networks to relay information strategically and empower communities in their decision‐making. However, while scale was an empowering political tool, it has also served to disempower indigenous peoples in Suriname through the continuing importance of the state in protected area implementation and legal claims to lands and resources.     

Cornish identities and migration: a multi‐scalar approach

Abstract In this article we argue that theories of transnationalism have value in exploring the historical context of migration and that historical contexts help to shape such theoretical conceptualizations. Historians of migration have now begun to engage more directly with the literature of transnationalism, focusing on the networks that linked settler and home communities. Here we add to this by examining a nineteenth‐century migrant community from a British region through the lens of transnationalism, applying the concept to the case of the Cornish, whose economic specialization produced culturally distinct Cornish communities on the mining frontiers of North America, Australia and South Africa. In doing so, we bring together the issues of scale and time. We review the multiple levels of the Cornish transnational space of the late nineteenth century, which exhibited aspects of both core transnationalism and translocalism. This waned, but in the later twentieth century, a renewed interest in a transnational Cornish identity re‐emerged, articulating with changing identity claims in Cornwall itself. To capture better the experience of the Cornish over these two very different phases of transnationalism we identify another subset of transnationalism ‐ that of transregionalism.     

Ungrounding knowledges offshore Caribbean Studies,disciplinarity and critique

Abstract

This article considers how the field of Caribbean Studies constructed and defined its objects of study. It critically reflects on the history of the field, drawing mainly from the discipline of anthropology but also attending to the institutional sites of scholarly production and their impact on the worlding of the Caribbean as an 'area' fit for 'area studies'. As it does so, the paper considers the limits of the modes of fact-making implicit in Caribbean Studies, the scalar imaginaries bound up in it, and their implications for the problems of generalizability and distinctiveness subtending social inquiry and 'area' formations more broadly.     

TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS AND TECHNOLOGY ACQUISITION: STRATEGIC DECISION UNDER UNCERTAINTY

We develop a stochastic programming model to aid manufacturing firms in making strategic decisions in technology acquisition. The proposed model maximizes the firm's expected profit under the condition of the uncertainty in technological progress and development. To solve this large‐scale problem, we decompose future uncertainties through scenarios and then develop an algorithm to solve the resulting non‐linear subproblems efficiently. Finally, we develop a heuristic to eliminate the infeasibility in the master problem and obtain best solutions. Numerical results show that our heuristic solutions are very close to the optimal solutions and meaningful insights are derived.