Reported food intake and distribution of body fat: a repeated cross-sectional study

Background  

Body mass, as well as distribution of body fat, are predictors of both diabetes and cardiovascular disease. In Northern Sweden, despite a marked increase in average body mass, prevalence of diabetes was stagnant and myocardial infarctions decreased. A more favourable distribution of body fat is a possible contributing factor.     

Geschäftsmodelle

The business model concept, although a relatively new topic for research, has garnered growing attention over the past decade. Whilst it has been robustly defined, the concept has so far attracted very little substantive research. In the context of the wide-spread digitization of businesses and society at large, the logic inherent in a business model has become critical for business success and, hence, a focus for academic inquiry. The business model concept is identified as the missing link between business strategy, processes, and Information Technology (IT). The authors argue that the BISE community offers distinct and unique competencies (e.g., translating business strategies into IT systems, managing business and IT processes, etc.) that can be harnessed for significant research contributions to this field. Within this research gap three distinct streams are delineated, namely, business models in IT industries, IT enabled or digital business models, and IT support for developing and managing business models. For these streams, the current state of the art, suggest critical research questions, and suitable research methodologies are outlined.     

Hydrolytic decomposition of dichlorodifluoromethane on modified zirconium oxide surfaces

The hydrolytic decomposition of dichlorodifluoromethane (CFC-12) on various modified zirconium oxide surfaces has been studied. The reaction was carried out under flow conditions at 500°C. Complete CFC-12 conversion and long-time stability of the catalysts were achieved accompanied by a limitation of the undesired CFC-13 formation. A maximum CFC-12 conversion was observed on catalysts of sulfated zirconia or zirconia obtained from temperature-controlled calcination of zirconium oxide hydrate. The reaction depends on the presence or in situ formation of Brønsted acid sites. FTIR-photoacoustic measurements were performed on pyridine complexes chemisorbed on the catalyst surface in order to analyze the changes in the catalyst's acidity. The effects of the temperature and water in the reaction gas on the catalyzed decomposition of CFC-12 are examined.     

Impacts of new technologies on media usage and social behaviour in domestic environments

Technological infrastructure at home is changing continuously and is becoming increasingly interconnected. Media devices, including the TV set, provide access to the Internet and offer manifold opportunities to consume media on demand. Additionally, personal devices, such as smartphones, also enable flexible consumption and sharing of media. Questions about how these technologies change the user's media usage and how these changes affect the social structure of a household, however, remain largely unanswered. In order to gain insight into the adoption of new technologies into daily routines, we explored these changes in respect of people's media usage in a qualitative long-term Living Lab study. We will present findings regarding personal routines, flexible integration of new devices into existing practices, influences on households as social systems and related issues in device access and collective use. We will highlight potentials and conflicts regarding device shifts and roles; restrictions in device access; social influences in the living room; and individual changes in media consumption.     

Secondary effects of antioxidant on PS/PVME blends

Interactions between the antioxidant Santonox (4,4′-thiobis(6-tert-butyl-m-cresol)) and the LCST polymer blend of polystyrene (PS) and polyvinylmethylether (PVME) were examined. The presence of the antioxidant caused inhomogeneities in blend films cast from toluene solutions at antioxidant compositions greater than 0.25 wt% of the PVME. Also, the cloud-point of the blend decreased linearly with antioxidant content with a slope of 21 °C/wt%. As expected, the ability of the antioxidant to prevent degradation of the PVME within the blend was found to increase with increasing Santonox composition. Based on these results, an antioxidant composition of no more than 0.10 wt% is recommended in the studies of PS/PVME blends.     

Microenvironmental engineering: An effective strategy for tailoring enzymatic activities

Rationally, engineering a favorable physicochemical microenvironment for enzymes has recently emerged as an effective strategy to improve their catalytic performance. In this review, we discuss four microenvironmental effects according to the mechanism of action: localizing and excluding reactants and regulators, regulating microenvironmental pH, creating a water-like microenvironment, and increasing the local temperature. These mechanisms are enzyme-independent and can in principle be used in combination to tailor enzyme behaviors, offering new approaches to enabling, enhancing, and regulating enzyme catalysis in diverse applications without the need for genetic engineering.     

Product fit uncertainty and its effects on vendor choice: an experimental study

Recommender systems and other Internet-enabled technologies have changed the surrounding conditions of pre-purchase evaluations on the Internet. In some cases consumers can now sample entire products prior to a purchase – hereby removing all uncertainty about whether a product fits their taste. While previous research has mainly focused on vendor and product quality uncertainty, it is still not clear how declining product fit uncertainty affects consumers. To close this gap, we conducted a laboratory experiment to analyze the effects on consumers’ vendor selection. We find that full elimination of product fit uncertainty is beneficial for vendors, as it increases both the number of purchases and consumer loyalty. Interestingly, if product fit uncertainty is only partially eliminated, consumers do not necessarily show differential behavior for different levels of remaining product fit uncertainty. This has important implications for online vendors that consider the implementation of additional means to reduce product fit uncertainty.     

Intrinsic plagiarism analysis

Research in automatic text plagiarism detection focuses on algorithms that compare suspicious documents against a collection of reference documents. Recent approaches perform well in identifying copied or modified foreign sections, but they assume a closed world where a reference collection is given. This article investigates the question whether plagiarism can be detected by a computer program if no reference can be provided, e.g., if the foreign sections stem from a book that is not available in digital form. We call this problem class intrinsic plagiarism analysis; it is closely related to the problem of authorship verification. Our contributions are threefold. (1) We organize the algorithmic building blocks for intrinsic plagiarism analysis and authorship verification and survey the state of the art. (2) We show how the meta learning approach of Koppel and Schler, termed “unmasking”, can be employed to post-process unreliable stylometric analysis results. (3) We operationalize and evaluate an analysis chain that combines document chunking, style model computation, one-class classification, and meta learning.     

DuD Recht

DuD Recht

DuD Recht     

The impact of drywall handling tools on the low back

Carpenters and other construction workers who install drywall have high rates of strains and sprains to the low back and shoulder. Drywall is heavy and awkward to handle resulting in increased risk of injury. The purpose of this study was to evaluate several low-cost coupling tools that have the potential to reduce awkward postures in drywall installers. Five coupling tools were evaluated using the Lumbar Motion Monitor that measures trunk kinematics and predicts probability of low back disorder group membership risk (LBD risk). Workers answered surveys about their comfort while using each tool. The results indicate that use of the 2-person manual lift and the J-handle provide the best reduction in awkward postures, motions, low back sagittal moment, and LBD risk. The two-person manual lift appears to be the safest method of lifting and moving drywall, though using the two-person J-handle also significantly reduces injury risk. Given that carpenters are skeptical about using equipment that can get in the way or get lost, a practical recommendation is promotion of two-person manual lifting. For single-person lifts, the Old Man tool is a viable option to decrease risk of MSDs.