The Impact of Strategic Leadership Program as ODI on the Usage Accounting Information System and Financial Performance

This study aimed to examinethe impact of Strategic Leadership Program (SLP) as organization development interventions (ODI) on the Usage Accounting Information System and Financial Performance.Strategic Leadership Program (SLP) designed as intervention programs, implemented to enhance Strategic Leadership Mindset (SLM) in Optics Groups, one of the market leader of eyeglasses industry in Indonesia. In this research the programs consist of four themes to enhance the strategic leadership index. The themes includes: (1) The roles of leadership;  (2) Value Chain; (3) Human Capital and (4) Four Types of Cultures.The data analyzed and confirm that the SLP as ODI has succeeded to bring the improvement of SLM of the leaders which created an impacton the level of accounting information system usage and financial performance. Additionally, the monthly survey show concomitand finding on employee satisfaction and competitive advantage indexthat the intervention did not only solve the financial problems but also improve the non-financial performance because of the effect of accounting information system usage.

Effects of aerobic training with and without weight loss on insulin sensitivity and lipids

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of exercise training with modest or greater weight loss (≥3%) or not (<3%) on insulin sensitivity, lipoprotein concentrations, and lipoprotein particle size in overweight and obese participants. Methods: Adults (N = 163, body mass index: 25–37 [kg/m2]) participated in 8 months of exercise training. Insulin sensitivity, lipid concentrations, lipid particle size and other cardiometabolic variables were measured at baseline and follow-up. Participants were categorized by whether they achieved at least modest weight loss (≥ 3%) or not (<3%) following the intervention. Results: A greater improvement in insulin sensitivity was observed in adults performing exercise training with at least modest weight loss (2.2 mU·l-1 ·min -1, CI: 1.5 to 2.8) compared to those who did not (0.8 mU·l-1 ·min -1, CI: 0.5 to 1.2). Similar results were observed for acute insulin response, triglycerides, non-HDL cholesterol concentration, low density lipoprotein (LDL) particle size and high density lipoprotein (HDL) particle size (p<0.05), when all exercise groups were combined. No significant results across weight loss categories were observed for LDL, HDL, glucose, or insulin levels. Conclusion: The present study suggests that aerobic exercise combined with at least modest weight loss leads to greater improvements in insulin sensitivity, triglycerides as well as other non-traditional lipid risk factors (non-HDL cholesterol, HDL/LDL particle size). Clinicians should advocate patients who are overweight/obese to exercise and obtain modest weight loss for improved cardiovascular benefits

Relationships between Adipose Tissue and Cytokine Responses to a Randomized Controlled Exercise Training Intervention

Adipose-derived cytokines play a prominent role in mediating the metabolic consequences of obesity and excess body fat. Given this, we hypothesized that alterations in adipose tissue stores incurred with exercise training would be reflected in changes in systemic cytokine concentrations. The Studies of Targeted Risk Reduction Intervention through Defined Exercise (STRRIDE), where pronounced changes in adipose tissue stores were observed in the absence of significant changes in dietary intake, provided an ideal setting in which to test this hypothesis. Participants were randomized to six months of inactivity or one of three types of aerobic exercise training regimens: low-amount-moderate- intensity, low-amount-vigorous-intensity, and high-amount-vigorous-intensity. Plasma samples were collected at baseline and two weeks after cessation of six months of exercise training or inactivity. In 189 participants, concentrations of seventeen cytokines were measured using Bio-Plex Cytokine Assays (BioRad, CA); ten additional cytokines were measured in sixty of these subjects. Of all cytokines tested, the only concentration changes that approached statistical significance were those for granulocyte monocyte-colony stimulating factor and vascular endothelial growth factor, which appeared to increase with training in the low-amount-high-intensity group only (P<0.05 for both cytokines). No response to exercise training was noted for any additional cytokine in any of the groups. No relationships were observed between changes in cytokine concentrations and changes in fat mass or other measures of body habitus. In contradiction to our hypothesis, despite significant alterations in body composition, exercise training produced limited cytokine responses. Originally published Metabolism, Vol. 57, No. 4, Apr 200

Individual differences in naturalistic learning link negative emotionality to the development of anxiety

Organisms learn from prediction errors (PEs) to predict the future. Laboratory studies using small financial outcomes find that humans use PEs to update expectations and link individual differences in PE-based learning to internalizing disorders. Because of the low-stakes outcomes in most tasks, it is unclear whether PE learning emerges in naturalistic, high-stakes contexts and whether individual differences in PE learning predict psychopathology risk. Using experience sampling to assess 625 college students\u27 expected exam grades, we found evidence of PE-based learning and a general tendency to discount negative PEs, an optimism bias. However, individuals with elevated negative emotionality, a personality trait linked to the development of anxiety disorders, displayed a global pessimism and learning differences that impeded accurate expectations and predicted future anxiety symptoms. A sensitivity to PEs combined with an aversion to negative PEs may result in a pessimistic and inaccurate model of the world, leading to anxiety

Chemically Enhanced Treatment Wetland to Improve Water Quality and Mitigate Land Subsidence in the Sacramento‒San Joaquin Delta: Cost and Design Considerations

Water quality impairment and land surface subsidence threaten the viability of the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta (Delta), a critical component of California’s water conveyance system. Current-day irrigation drainage through Delta island peat soils affects drinking water treatment and is linked to mercury transport, potentially posing both ecological and public health concerns. To cost-effectively treat agricultural drainage water from subsided Delta islands to reduce the export of drinking Water Quality Constituents of Concern and mitigate land subsidence through accretion, we studied hybrid coagulation-treatment wetland systems, termed Chemically Enhanced Treatment Wetlands (CETWs). We provide cost estimates and design recommendations to aid broader implementation of this technology. Over a 20-year horizon using a Total Annualized Cost analysis, we estimate treatment costs of $602 to$747 per acre-foot (ac‑ft) water treated, and $36 to$70 per kg dissolved organic carbon (DOC) removed, depending upon source water DOC concentrations for a small 3-acre CETW system. For larger CETW systems scaled for island sizes of 3,500 to 14,000 acres, costs decrease to $108 to$239 per ac-ft water treated, and $11 to$14 per kg DOC removed. We estimated the footprints of CETW systems to be approximately 3% of the area being treated for 4-day hydraulic retention time (HRT) systems, but they would decrease to less than 1% for 1-day HRT systems. CETWs ultimately address several of the Delta’s key internal issues while keeping water treatment costs competitive with other currently available treatment technologies at similar scales on a per-carbon-removed basis. CETWs offer a reliable system to reduce out-going DOC and mercury loads, and they provide the additional benefit of sediment accretion. System costs and treatment efficacy depend significantly on inflow source water conditions, land availability, and other practical matters. To keep costs low and removal efficacy high, wetland design features will need site-specific evaluation

Dietary carbohydrate intake and high sensitivity C reactive protein in at-risk women and men

Background— The quality and quantity of dietary carbohydrate intake, measured as dietary glycemic load (GL), is associated with a number of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors and, in healthy young women, is related to increased high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) concentrations. Our objective was to determine if GL is related to hsCRP and other measures of CVD risk in a population of sedentary, overweight, dyslipidemic middle-aged women and men enrolled in an exercise intervention trial (STRRIDE). Methods— This was a cross-sectional evaluation of the relationships between measures of dietary carbohydrate intake, calculated from food frequency questionnaire data, and CVD risk factors, including plasma hsCRP, measured in 171 subjects. Results— After adjusting for energy intake, GL and other measures of carbohydrate intake were not independently related to hsCRP (P>0.05 for all). In analyses performed separately for each gender, only the quantity of carbohydrate intake was independently related to hsCRP (R2=0.28; P<0.04), and this relationship was present for women but not for men. The strongest relationship identified between GL and any CVD risk factor was for cardiorespiratory fitness (R2=0.12; P<0.02); an elevated GL was associated with a lower level of fitness in all subjects, and this relationship persisted even when the findings were adjusted for energy intake and gender (R2=0.48; P<0.03). Conclusions— In middle-aged, sedentary, overweight to mildly obese, dyslipidemic individuals, consuming a diet with a low GL is associated with better cardiorespiratory fitness. Our findings suggest that the current literature relating carbohydrate intake and hsCRP should be viewed with skepticism, especially in the extension to at-risk populations that include men. Originally published American Heart Journal, Vol. 154, No. 5, Nov 200

Effects of exercise amount and intensity versus a combined exercise and lifestyle intervention on metabolic syndrome in adults with prediabetes: a STRRIDE-PD randomized trial

The purpose of this secondary analysis was to determine what portion of the effects of a Diabetes Prevention Program-like intervention on metabolic syndrome (MetS) could be achieved with exercise alone, as well as to determine the relative importance of exercise intensity and amount to the total exercise effect on MetS. Sedentary, overweight adults with prediabetes were randomly assigned to one of four 6-month interventions: 1) low-amount/moderate-intensity (10 kcal/kg/week at 50% peak V˙O2); 2) high-amount/moderate-intensity (16 kcal/kg/week at 50% peak V˙O2); 3) high-amount/vigorous-intensity (16 kcal/kg/week at 75% peak V˙O2); or 4) diet (7% weight loss) plus low-amount/moderate-intensity (10 kcal/kg/week at 50% peak V˙O2). The primary outcome of this secondary analysis was change in the MetS z-score. A total of 130 participants had complete data for all five Adult Treatment Panel (ATP) III MetS criteria. The diet-and-exercise group statistically outperformed the MetS z-score and the ATP III score compared to the exercise alone group. Aerobic exercise alone achieved 24%–50% of the total effect of the combined diet-and-exercise intervention on the MetS score. Low-amount moderate-intensity exercise quantitatively performed equal to or better than the interventions of high-amount moderate-intensity or high-amount vigorous-intensity exercise in improving the MetS score. The combined diet-and-exercise intervention remains more efficacious in improving the MetS z-score. However, all three exercise interventions alone showed improvements in the MetS z-score, suggesting that a modest amount of moderate-intensity exercise is all that is required to achieve approximately half the effect of a diet-and-exercise intervention on the MetS.Clinical Trial Registration:clinicaltrials.gov, identifier NCT00962962

Effect of exercise intensity and volume on persistence of insulin sensitivity during training cessation

Effect of exercise intensity and volume on persistence of insulin sensitivity during training cessation. J Appl Physiol 106: 1079â 1085, 2009. First published February 5, 2009; doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.91262.2008. The purpose of this study was to determine whether exercise prescriptions differing in volume or intensity also differ in their ability to retain insulin sensitivity during an ensuing period of training cessation. Sedentary, overweight/obese subjects were assigned to one of three 8-mo exercise programs: 1) low volume/moderate intensity [equivalent of 12 miles/wk, 1,200 kcal/wk at 40-55% peak O2 consumption (VO2peak), 200 min exercise/wk], 2) low volume/vigorous intensity (12 miles/wk, 1,200 kcal/wk at 65-80% VO2peak, 125 min/wk), and 3) high volume/vigorous intensity (20 miles/wk, 2,000 kcal/wk at 65-80% VO2peak, 200 min/wk). Insulin sensitivity (intravenous glucose tolerance test, SI) was measured when subjects were sedentary and at 16-24 h and 15 days after the final training bout. SI increased with training compared with the sedentary condition (P less than or equal to 0.05) at 16-24 h with all of the exercise prescriptions. SI decreased to sedentary, pretraining values after 15 days of training cessation in the low-volume/vigorous-intensity group. In contrast, at 15 days SI was significantly elevated compared with sedentary (P less than or equal to 0.05) in the prescriptions utilizing 200 min/wk (low volume/moderate intensity, high volume/vigorous intensity). In the high-volume/vigorous-intensity group, indexes of muscle mitochondrial density followed a pattern paralleling insulin action by being elevated at 15 days compared with pretraining; this trend was not evident in the low-volume/moderateintensity group. These findings suggest that in overweight/obese subjects a relatively chronic persistence of enhanced insulin action may be obtained with endurance-oriented exercise training; this persistence, however, is dependent on the characteristics of the exercise training performed

A whole blood gene expression-based signature for smoking status

BACKGROUND: Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death worldwide and has been shown to increase the risk of multiple diseases including coronary artery disease (CAD). We sought to identify genes whose levels of expression in whole blood correlate with self-reported smoking status. METHODS: Microarrays were used to identify gene expression changes in whole blood which correlated with self-reported smoking status; a set of significant genes from the microarray analysis were validated by qRT-PCR in an independent set of subjects. Stepwise forward logistic regression was performed using the qRT-PCR data to create a predictive model whose performance was validated in an independent set of subjects and compared to cotinine, a nicotine metabolite. RESULTS: Microarray analysis of whole blood RNA from 209 PREDICT subjects (41 current smokers, 4 quit ≤ 2 months, 64 quit > 2 months, 100 never smoked; NCT00500617) identified 4214 genes significantly correlated with self-reported smoking status. qRT-PCR was performed on 1,071 PREDICT subjects across 256 microarray genes significantly correlated with smoking or CAD. A five gene (CLDND1, LRRN3, MUC1, GOPC, LEF1) predictive model, derived from the qRT-PCR data using stepwise forward logistic regression, had a cross-validated mean AUC of 0.93 (sensitivity=0.78; specificity=0.95), and was validated using 180 independent PREDICT subjects (AUC=0.82, CI 0.69-0.94; sensitivity=0.63; specificity=0.94). Plasma from the 180 validation subjects was used to assess levels of cotinine; a model using a threshold of 10 ng/ml cotinine resulted in an AUC of 0.89 (CI 0.81-0.97; sensitivity=0.81; specificity=0.97; kappa with expression model = 0.53). CONCLUSION: We have constructed and validated a whole blood gene expression score for the evaluation of smoking status, demonstrating that clinical and environmental factors contributing to cardiovascular disease risk can be assessed by gene expression