User Guide to MCA: Multiple Criteria Analysis of Discrete Alternatives with a Simple Preference Specification

This report provides detailed information about using the MCA, which is the Web-based application formultiple criteria analysis of discrete alternatives with a simple preference specification. MCA in its currently available version supports analysis of a set of discrete alternatves, defined either interactively or through a prepared file. Each alternative is characterized by several attributes (indicators) that serve for specification of criteria. MCA has been designed for problems having large numbers of alternatives and of criteria. However, it can also be used for problems with small numbers of criteria and/or alternatives. The report is composed of two main parts. The first one provides an overview of the MCA and summarize the methodology of multiple criteria analysis implemented in the MCA. The second part consists of the step-by-step detailed tutorial to the MCA organized into three stages corresponding to (1) basic funtions of the MCA, (2) specification of problems, instances, and analyses, and (3) interactive multiciteria analysis process

Requirement Analysis and Implementation of Multicriteria Analysis in the NEEDS Project

This report specifies the requirements for and implementation of the multicriteria analysis of future energy technologies performed by a large number of stakeholders within the EU-funded integrated projct NEEDS. The report is composed of two main parts and the appendix. The first part starts with a summary of the objectives of the analysis followed by a detailed specifiation of the analyzed problem, in particular the analysis context, discussion of the sets of criteria and alternatives, and the participation of the stakeholders. Next, the planned problem analysis process is first outlined, and then discussed in more detail. Finally, the requirements for the multicritria analysis are specified. The second part deals with the implementation of the dedicated Web-site developed for this analysis, and later extended to support analysis of any multicriteria choice between discrete alternatives. It starts with an overview of the problem analysis process and the corresponding basic assumptions. Te architecture of the application and its features are then presented. Lessons learned from the development and use of this application conclude this part of the report. The appendix contains a review of the state-of-the-art of applying multicriteria analysis to energy problems, as well as characteristics of three applications that exploit the multicriteria analysis methods for energy problems considered relevant to the analysis reported in this paper

Walking Behaviour of Individuals with Intermittent Claudication Compared to Matched Controls in Different Locations: An Exploratory Study

Individuals with intermittent claudication (IC) are less physically active than their peers, but how this varies with location is unclear. Individuals with IC and matched controls [sex, age ±5 years, home < 5 miles] wore an activity monitor (activPAL) and carried a GPS device (AMOD-AGL3080) for 7 days. GPS data categorised walking events as occurring at home (<=50 m from home coordinates) or away from home, and indoors (signal to noise ratio <= 212 dB) or outdoors. Number of walking events, walking duration, steps and cadence were compared between groups and each location pair using mixed model ANOVAs. In addition, the locus of activity (distance from home) at which walking was conducted was compared between groups. Participants (n = 56) were mostly male (64%) and aged 54-89 years. Individuals with IC spent significantly less time walking and took fewer steps than their matched controls at all locations, including at home. Participants spent more time and took more steps away from home than at home, but were similar when walking indoors and outdoors. The locus of activity was significantly smaller for individuals with IC, suggesting that it is not just physical capacity that influences walking behaviour, and other factors (e.g., social isolation) may play a role

Validity, practical utility, and reliability of the activPAL in preschool children

&lt;p&gt;Purpose: With the increasing global prevalence of childhood obesity, it is important to have appropriate measurement tools for investigating factors (e.g. sedentary time) contributing to positive energy balance in early childhood. For pre-school children, single unit monitors such as the activPALTM are promising. However, validation is required as activity patterns differ from adults.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Methods: Thirty pre-school children participated in a validation study. Children were videoed for one hour undertaking usual nursery activity while wearing an activPALTM. Video (criterion method) was analyzed on a second-by-second basis to categorise posture and activity. This was compared with the corresponding activPALTM output. In a subsequent sub-study investigating practical utility and reliability, 20 children wore an activPALTM for seven consecutive 24-hour periods.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Results: A total of 97,750 seconds of direct observation from 30 children were categorized as sit/lie (46%), stand (35%), walk (16%); with 3% of time in nonsit/lie/upright postures (e.g. crawl/crouch/kneel-up). Sensitivity for the overall total time matched seconds detected as activPALTM ‘sit/lie’ was 86.7%, specificity 97.1%, and positive predictive value (PPV) 96.3%. For individual children, the median (interquartile range) sensitivity for activPALTM sit/lie was 92.8% (76.1-97.4), specificity 97.3% (94.9-99.2), PPV 97.0% (91.5-99.1). The activPALTM underestimated total time spent sitting (mean difference -4.4%, p&#60;0.01), and overestimated time standing (mean difference 7.1%, p&#60;0.01). There was no difference in overall % time categorised as ‘walk’ (p=0.2). The monitors were well tolerated by children during a seven day period of free-living activity. In the reliability study, at least five days of monitoring were required to obtain an intraclass correlation coefficient of ≥0.8 for time spent sit/lie according to activPALTM output.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Conclusion: The activPAL had acceptable validity, practical utility, and reliability for the measurement of posture and activity during freeliving activities in pre-school children.&lt;/p&gt

Development and validation of a physical activity monitor for use on a wheelchair

Study design: Keeping physically active is important for people who mobilize using a wheelchair. However, current tools to measure physical activity in the wheelchair are either not validated or limited in their application. The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a monitoring system to measure wheelchair movement.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; Methods: The system developed consisted of a tri-axial accelerometer placed on the wheel of a wheelchair and an analysis algorithm to interpret the acceleration signals. The two accelerometer outputs in the plane of the wheel were used to calculate the angle of the wheel. From this, outcome measures of wheel revolutions, absolute angle and duration of movement were derived and the direction of movement (forwards or backwards) could be distinguished. Concurrent validity was assessed in comparison with video analysis in 14 people with spinal cord injury using their wheelchair on an indoor track and outdoor wheelchair skills course. Validity was assessed using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC(2,1)) and Bland–Altman plots.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; Results: The monitoring system demonstrated excellent validity for wheel revolutions, absolute angle and duration of movement (ICC(2,1)&#62;0.999, 0.999, 0.981, respectively) in both manual and powered wheelchairs, when the wheelchair was propelled forwards and backwards, and for movements of various durations.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; Conclusion: This study has found this monitoring system to be an accurate and objective tool for measuring detailed information on wheelchair movement and manoeuvring regardless of the propulsion technique, direction and speed

The dynamics of nasopharyngeal streptococcus pneumoniae carriage among rural Gambian mother-infant pairs

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Streptococcus pneumoniae </it>is an important cause of community acquired pneumonia, sepsis, meningitis and otitis media globally and has been incriminated as a major cause of serious childhood bacterial infections in The Gambia. Better understanding of the dynamics of transmission and carriage will inform control strategies.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This study was conducted among 196 mother-infant pairs recruited at birth from six villages in the West Kiang region of The Gambia. Nasopharyngeal swabs were collected from mother-infant pairs at birth (within 12 hours of delivery), 2, 5 and 12 months. Standard techniques of culture were used to identify carriage and serotype <it>S. pneumoniae</it>.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Of 46 serotypes identified, the 6 most common, 6A, 6B, 14, 15, 19F and 23F, accounted for 67.3% of the isolates from infants. Carriage of any serotype among infants rose from 1.5% at birth to plateau at approximately 80% by 2 m (prevalence at 2 m = 77%; 5 m = 86%; 12 m = 78%). Likewise, maternal carriage almost doubled in the first 2 months post-partum and remained elevated for the next 10 m (prevalence at birth = 13%; 2 m = 24%; 5 m = 22%; 12 m = 21%). Carriage was significantly seasonal in both infants and mothers with a peak in December and lowest transmission in August. The total number of different serotypes we isolated from each infant varied and less than would be expected had the serotypes assorted independently. In contrast, this variability was much as expected among mothers. The half-life of a serotype colony was estimated to be 1.90 m (CI_95%: 1.66-2.21) in infants and 0.75 m (CI_95%: 0.55-1.19) in mothers. While the odds for a serotype to be isolated from an infant increased by 9-fold if it had also been isolated from the mother, the population attributable fraction (PAF) of pneumococcal carriage in infants due to maternal carriage was only 9.5%. Some marked differences in dynamics were observed between vaccine and non-vaccine serotypes.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Colonisation of the nasopharynx in Gambian infants by <it>S. pneumoniae </it>is rapid and highly dynamic. Immunity or inter-serotype competition may play a role in the dynamics. Reducing mother-infant transmission would have a minimal effect on infant carriage.</p

A randomised feasibility study to investigate the impact of education and the addition of prompts on the sedentary behaviour of office workers

Abstract Background Office workers have been identified as being at risk of accumulating high amounts of sedentary time in prolonged events during work hours, which has been associated with increased risk of a number of long-term health conditions. There is some evidence that providing advice to stand at regular intervals during the working day, and using computer-based prompts, can reduce sedentary behaviour in office workers. However, evidence of effectiveness, feasibility and acceptability for these types of intervention is currently limited. Methods A 2-arm, parallel group, cluster-randomised feasibility trial to assess the acceptability of prompts to break up sedentary behaviour was conducted with office workers in a commercial bank (n = 21). Participants were assigned to an education only group (EG) or prompt and education group (PG). Both groups received education on reducing and breaking up sitting at work, and the PG also received hourly prompts, delivered by Microsoft Outlook over 10 weeks, reminding them to stand. Objective measurements of sedentary behaviour were made using activPAL monitors worn at three time points: baseline, in the last 2 weeks of the intervention period and 12 weeks after the intervention. Focus groups were conducted to explore the acceptability of the intervention and the motivations and barriers to changing sedentary behaviour. Results Randomly generated, customised prompts, delivered by Microsoft Outlook, with messages about breaking up sitting, proved to be a feasible and acceptable way of delivering prompts to office workers. Participants in both groups reduced their sitting, but changes were not maintained at follow-up. The education session seemed to increase outcome expectations of the benefits of changing sedentary behaviour and promote self-regulation of behaviour in some participants. However, low self-efficacy and a desire to conform to cultural norms were barriers to changing behaviour. Conclusions Prompts delivered by Microsoft Outlook were a feasible, low-cost way of prompting office workers to break up their sedentary behaviour, although further research is needed to determine whether this has an additional impact on sedentary behaviour, to education alone. The role of cultural norms, and promoting self-efficacy, should be considered in the design of future interventions. Trial registration This study was registered retrospectively as a clinical trial on ClinicalTrials.gov (ID no. NCT02609282 ) on 23 March 2015

Parallel computation of 3-D soil-structure interaction in time domain with a coupled FEM/SBFEM approach

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10915-011-9551-xThis paper introduces a parallel algorithm for the scaled boundary finite element method (SBFEM). The application code is designed to run on clusters of computers, and it enables the analysis of large-scale soil-structure-interaction problems, where an unbounded domain has to fulfill the radiation condition for wave propagation to infinity. The main focus of the paper is on the mathematical description and numerical implementation of the SBFEM. In particular, we describe in detail the algorithm to compute the acceleration unit impulse response matrices used in the SBFEM as well as the solvers for the Riccati and Lyapunov equations. Finally, two test cases validate the new code, illustrating the numerical accuracy of the results and the parallel performances. © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011.Jose E. Roman and Enrique S. 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Shifting boundaries between the normal and the pathological:the case of mild intellectual disability

When disorders fade into normality, how can the threshold between normality and disorder be determined? In considering mild intellectual disability, I argue that economic factors partly determine thresholds. We tend to assume that the relationship between disorder, need and services is such that: first, a cut-off point between the disordered and the normal is determined; second, a needy population is identified; and third, resources are found (or at least should be found) to meet this need. However, the changing definitions of intellectual disability can best be understood if we think of this happening in reverse. That is, first, certain resources are thought obtainable, and then a cut-off point for disorder is selected which supplies an appropriately sized ‘needy population’

Characteristics of a protocol to collect objective physical activity/sedentary behaviour data in a large study : seniors USP (understanding sedentary patterns)

The Seniors USP study measured sedentary behaviour (activPAL3, 9 day wear) in older adults. The measurement protocol had three key characteristics: enabling 24-hour wear (monitor location, waterproofing); minimising data loss (reducing monitor failure, staff training, communication); and quality assurance (removal by researcher, confidence about wear). Two monitors were not returned; 91% (n=700) of returned monitors had 7 valid days of data. Sources of data loss included monitor failure (n=11), exclusion after quality assurance (n=5), early removal for skin irritation (n=8) or procedural errors (n=10). Objective measurement of physical activity and sedentary behaviour in large studies requires decisional trade-offs between data quantity (collecting representative data) and utility (derived outcomes that reflect actual behaviour). Keywords: methodology; accelerometer; adherence; data loss; activPAL; postur