Web-based interventions for weight loss and weight maintenance among rural midlife and older women: protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Background: Weight loss is challenging and maintenance of weight loss is problematic among midlife and older rural women. Finding effective interventions using innovative delivery methods that can reach underserved and vulnerable populations of overweight and obese rural women is a public health challenge. Methods/Design: This Women Weigh-In for Wellness (The WWW study) randomized-controlled trial is designed to compare the effectiveness of theory-based behavior-change interventions using (1) website only, (2) website with peer-led support, or (3) website with professional email-counseling to facilitate initial weight loss (baseline to 6 months), guided continuing weight loss and maintenance (7-18 months) and self-directed weight maintenance (19-30 months) among rural women ages 45-69 with a BMI of 28-45. Recruitment efforts using local media will target 306 rural women who live within driving distance of a community college site where assessments will be conducted at baseline, 3, 6, 12, 18, 24 and 30 months by research nurses blinded to group assignments. Primary outcomes include changes in body weight, % weight loss, and eating and activity behavioral and biomarkers from baseline to each subsequent assessment. Secondary outcomes will be percentage of women achieving at least 5% and 10% weight loss without regain from baseline to 6, 18, and 30 months and achieving healthy eating and activity targets. Data analysis will use generalized estimating equations to analyze average change across groups and group differences in proportion of participants achieving target weight loss levels. Discussion: The Women Weigh-In for Wellness study compares innovative web-based alternatives for providing lifestyle behavior-change interventions for promoting weight loss and weight maintenance among rural women. If effective, such interventions would offer potential for reducing overweight and obesity among a vulnerable, hard-to-reach, population of rural women

Colonization of synthetic sponges at the deep-sea Lucky Strike hydrothermal vent field (Mid-Atlantic Ridge): a first insight

The main objective of the present study was to investigate invertebrate colonization processes at deep-sea hydrothermal vents in response to environmental factors and to the presence of complex artificial substrata (i.e., synthetic sponges). We set out a pilot experiment at 1700 m depth on the Lucky Strike vent field (Eiffel Tower, Mid-Atlantic Ridge). Synthetic sponges were deployed in 2011 at five sites along a gradient of hydrothermal activity and were recovered in 2013, and the composition of macro- and meiofauna was assessed on four of them. The influence of temperature and fluid inputs on colonizer faunal abundance and diversity was analyzed. Faunal abundance and diversity decreased with increasing distance from vent emission. The colonizers were represented by a subset of species characterizing the natural populations at the Eiffel Tower edifice. Some taxa (e.g., pycnogonids, ophiuroids, cnidarians, foraminiferans) represented new records not yet found on deployed substrata on the Eiffel Tower. Synthetic sponges harbored a high percentage (from 17.5% to 55%) of juveniles and larval stages of polychaetes, molluscs, and copepods. A mature nematode community (mainly Cephalochaetosoma and Halomonhystera) in a reproductive stage was found. Variability in faunal composition was significantly correlated with distance from fluid emission. We hypothesize that the complex structure of inorganic sponge substrata may have favored settlement of juveniles and larvae. Sponge substrata may, therefore, help sample a wider range of organisms than other substrata, and, thereby, provide a more complete picture of vent biodiversity. The results provided in this study might improve our understanding of mechanisms that govern faunal colonization processes at vents