VIP in construction: systematic development and evaluation of a multifaceted health programme aiming to improve physical activity levels and dietary patterns among construction workers

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The prevalence of both overweight and musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) in the construction industry is high. Many interventions in the occupational setting aim at the prevention and reduction of these health problems, but it is still unclear how these programmes should be designed. To determine the effectiveness of interventions on these health outcomes randomised controlled trials (RCTs) are needed. The aim of this study is to systematically develop a tailored intervention for prevention and reduction of overweight and MSD among construction workers and to describe the evaluation study regarding its (cost-)effectiveness.</p> <p>Methods/Design</p> <p>The Intervention Mapping (IM) protocol was applied to develop and implement a tailored programme aimed at the prevention and reduction of overweight and MSD. The (cost-) effectiveness of the intervention programme will be evaluated using an RCT. Furthermore, a process evaluation will be conducted. The research population will consist of blue collar workers of a large construction company in the Netherlands.</p> <p>Intervention</p> <p>The intervention programme will be aimed at improving (vigorous) physical activity levels and healthy dietary behaviour and will consist of tailored information, face-to-face and telephone counselling, training instruction (a fitness "card" to be used for exercises), and materials designed for the intervention (overview of the company health promoting facilities, waist circumference measuring tape, pedometer, BMI card, calorie guide, recipes, and knowledge test).</p> <p>Main study parameters/endpoints</p> <p>The intervention effect on body weight and waist circumference (primary outcome measures), as well as on lifestyle behaviour, MSD, fitness, CVD risk indicators, and work-related outcomes (i.e. productivity, sick leave) (secondary outcome measures) will be assessed.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>The development of the VIP in construction intervention led to a health programme tailored to the needs of construction workers. This programme, if proven effective, can be directly implemented.</p> <p>Trial registration</p> <p>Netherlands Trial Register (NTR): <a href="http://www.trialregister.nl/trialreg/admin/rctview.asp?TC=2095">NTR2095</a></p

Systems Approaches in the Enterprise Architecture Field of Research : A Systematic Literature Review

This study explores the use of the systems approaches (systems thinking and systems theories) as the theoretical underpinnings for Enterprise Architecture (EA) research. Both the academic and the practitioner communities have maintained an interest in EA due to its potential benefits, promising for the recent technological and business advances. EA as a research area is, however, characterized by diversified views depicted in different definitions of the concept, and no acknowledged common theoretical foundation. A number of prior studies have noticed this gap in the EA field of research, and called for a strengthening of the theory of EA. Variegated systems approaches have been suggested as a theory base. The aim of this study is to examine if, and to what extent the systems approaches could provide a common theoretical foundation. We contribute with a systematic literature review on the state-of-art of systems approaches in EA research. We find that the systems approaches are, indeed, frequently referred to in the EA studies. However, as of yet, the application of these theories appears to be fragmented, and the approaches are rarely systematically used in empirical studies. We discuss the findings, reflecting to the types of theory and the use of theory in our area of research.peerReviewe

Neuronal expression of splice variants of "Glial" glutamate transporters in brains afflicted by alzheimer's disease: unmasking an intrinsic neuronal property

Anomalies in glutamate homeostasis may contribute to the pathological processes involved in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Glutamate released from neurons or glial cells is normally rapidly cleared by glutamate transporters, most of which are expressed at the protein level by glial cells. However, in some patho-physiological situations, expression of glutamate transporters that are normally considered to be glial types, appears to be evoked in populations of distressed neurons. This study analysed the expression of exon-skipping forms of the three predominant excitatory amino acid (glutamate) transporters (EAATs1-3) in brains afflicted with AD. We demonstrate by immunocytochemistry in temporal cortex, the expression of these proteins particularly in limited subsets of neurons, some of which appeared to be dys-morphic. Whilst the neuronal expression of the "glial" glutamate transporters EAAT1 and EAAT2 is frequently considered to represent the abnormal and ectopic expression of such transporters, we suggest this may be a misinterpretation, since neurons such as cortical pyramidal cells normally express abundant mRNA for these EAATs (but little if any EAAT protein expression). We hypothesize instead that distressed neurons in the AD brain can turn on the translation of pre-existent mRNA pools, or suppress the degradation of alternately spliced glutamate transporter protein, leading to the "unmasking" of, rather than evoked expression of "glial" glutamate transporters in stressed neurons

Data acquisition architecture and online processing system for the HAWC gamma-ray observatory

The High Altitude Water Cherenkov observatory (HAWC) is an air shower array devised for TeV gamma-ray astronomy. HAWC is located at an altitude of 4100 m a.s.l. in Sierra Negra, Mexico. HAWC consists of 300 Water Cherenkov Detectors, each instrumented with 4 photomultiplier tubes (PMTs). HAWC re-uses the Front-End Boards from the Milagro experiment to receive the PMT signals. These boards are used in combination with Time to Digital Converters (TDCs) to record the time and the amount of light in each PMT hit (light flash). A set of VME TDC modules (128 channels each) is operated in a continuous (dead time free) mode. The TDCs are read out via the VME bus by Single-Board Computers (SBCs), which in turn are connected to a gigabit Ethernet network. The complete system produces approximate to 500 MB/s of raw data. A high-throughput data processing system has been designed and built to enable real-time data analysis. The system relies on off-the-shelf hardware components, an open-source software technology for data transfers (ZeroMQ) and a custom software framework for data analysis (AERIE). Multiple trigger and reconstruction algorithms can be combined and run on blocks of data in a parallel fashion, producing a set of output data streams which can be analyzed in real time with minimal latency (<5 s). This paper provides an overview of the hardware set-up and an in-depth description of the software design, covering both the TDC data acquisition system and the real-time data processing system. The performance of these systems is also discussed. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved