Promoting stair climbing: Stair-riser banners are better than posters... sometimes

Objective: Stair-riser banners are twice as effective as posters in encouraging stair climbing in shopping centres. This study tested the effectiveness of stair-riser banners in an English train station in 2006-2007. Method: The train station had a 39-step staircase and an adjacent escalator. Baseline observations (3.5 weeks) were followed by 10.5 weeks of a banner intervention supplemented with 3 weeks of a poster intervention. Both poster and banner featured the message ‘Stair climbing burns more calories per minute than jogging. Take the stairs’. Ascending escalator and stair users (N=36,239) were coded for gender. Results: Analyses, controlling for effects of gender and pedestrian traffic volume, revealed no significant change in stair climbing between baseline (40.6%) and the banner intervention (40.9%; p=0.98). Addition of the poster increased stair climbing (44.3%; OR= 1.36, 95% CIs 1.16-1.60, p< 0.001), with the effect reduced at higher pedestrian traffic volumes. Conclusion: While stair-riser banners had no effect, the poster intervention increased stair climbing. The high pedestrian volumes as the wave of disembarking passengers seek to leave the station would have obscured the visibility of the banner for many commuters. Thus stair-riser banners appear unsuitable point-of-choice prompts in stations where pedestrian traffic volume is high

Innovating in the textile industry: An uncoordinated dance between firms and their territory?

Considering the process of innovati on development, this paper aimed to examine the eff ect of diff erent dimensions of proximity and the level of coordinati on that exists in a texti le cluster. This study employed a qualitati ve method, based on indepth interviews that were conducted with two leading fi rms in a texti le cluster in Valencia, Spain, which is subject to intense competi ti on from producers in Asia. Firms were selected according to the criteria of innovati on development and opportunity. This is a pilot study that precedes a more ambiti ous one. The results suggested that fi rms' innovati ons are developed in an isolated, disconti nuous, marginal, and uncoordinated way, and clustering has a marginal eff ect. Furthermore, despite high geographical and cogniti ve proximity, low social proximity is maintained by the low level of trust between the fi rms. These fi ndings may be of signifi cant practi cal value for practi ti oners and insti tuti ons. Firms can gain a bett er understanding of the importance of being located in a cluster, as this is a key factor for their survival under intense competi ti on. However, geographical proximity is not suffi cient, and fi rms need to cooperate with each other and share their ideas and experiences. In additi on, insti tuti ons should interact more with companies, speak their language, meet their needs, and devise strong cluster initi ati ves. This study provides a more comprehensive understanding of how insti tuti ons and fi rms interact within a cluster in the process of innovati on development and elaborate upon diff erent dimensions of proximity among fi rm

A New Model of Biodosimetry to Integrate Low and High Doses

Biological dosimetry, that is the estimation of the dose of an exposure to ionizing radiation by a biological parameter, is a very important tool in cases of radiation accidents. The score of dicentric chromosomes, considered to be the most accurate method for biological dosimetry, for low LET radiation and up to 5 Gy, fits very well to a linear-quadratic model of dose-effect curve assuming the Poisson distribution. The accuracy of this estimation raises difficulties for doses over 5 Gy,the highest dose of the majority of dose-effect curves used in biological dosimetry. At doses over 5 Gy most cells show difficulties in reaching mitosis and cannot be used to score dicentric chromosomes. In the present study with the treatment of lymphocyte cultures with caffeine and the standardization of the culture time, metaphases for doses up to 25 Gy have been analyzed. Here we present a new model for biological dosimetry, which includes a Gompertz-type function as the dose response, and also takes into account the underdispersion of aberrationamong-cell distribution. The new model allows the estimation of doses of exposures to ionizing radiation of up to 25 Gy. Moreover, the model is more effective in estimating whole and partial body exposures than the classical method based on linear and linear-quadratic functions, suggesting their effectiveness and great potential to be used after high dose exposures of radiation

Promoting stair climbing in Barcelona: similarities and differences with interventions in English-speaking populations

This study evaluated the ability of three different messages to encourage stair climbing on the Barcelona underground. Two weeks of baseline were followed by three banner intervention periods with three different messages, each for a 2 week period. Follow-up data was gathered two weeks after removing the messages. Stair climbing increased overall [odds ratio (OR) = 1.45; 95% confidence intervals (CIs) = 1.25–1.68], with no statistical differences between the messages. During follow-up, stair climbing remained elevated (OR = 1.22; 95% CIs = 1.01–1.48). These preliminary data suggest stair climbing interventions, effective in the UK, may prove successful in Catalonia and Spain. Baseline differences, however, outline the magnitude of the task

Análisis simultáneo de aflatoxinas y ocratoxina A en compost por HPLC-MS

Las aflatoxinas y ocratoxina A son las micotoxinas más estudiadas debido a su elevada toxicidad y amplia distribución. En este trabajo se describe un método de análisis simultáneo de las aflatoxinas B1, B2, G1, G2 y la ocratoxina A en compost por HPLC-MS. El método consiste en una extracción de las toxinas con MeOH:H 2O, posterior purificación de la muestra con cartuchos de extracción en fase sólida y posterior análisis cromatográfico en 18 minutos utilizando una columna XTerra (2.1x100mm, 3.5mm). En este trabajo se demuestra que no hay presencia de las toxinas de interes a concentraciones superiores a 0,2mg/kg

Tipología circadiana y problemas de salud mental

La tipología circadiana (matutina, vespertina o intermedia) es una diferencia individual que se ha relacionado con numerosos aspectos de la salud mental. En este estudio se revisan los principales hallazgos publicados en el área. Tras la búsqueda bibliográfica en las principales bases de datos se seleccionaron un total de 70 artículos publicados en castellano e inglés entre los años 1990 y 2012, recogidos en las bases de datos ISI, Scopus y Medline, donde se muestra que los individuos vespertinos presentan una mayor prevalencia de trastorno afectivo estacional, depresión mayor, trastorno bipolar, esquizofrenia, trastornos de la conducta alimentaria, trastornos del sueño, conductas adictivas, TDAH y mayores niveles de ansiedad que los matutinos. La tipología vespertina se perfila como un factor de riesgo y la matutina como un factor protector para el desarrollo de diversas psicopatologías, apuntándose como posibles causas polimorfismos de los genes reloj, el jet-lag social y algunos rasgos de personalidad. La tipología circadiana debe considerarse en la evaluación, tratamiento y prevención de las psicopatologías, pues afecta al inicio, curso, remisión y recaída de las mismas. La utilización de terapia cronobiológica es un factor a tener en cuenta en el abordaje terapéutico cuando la expresión rítmica circadiana se halla alterada