Can publicly available webcameras and mechanical Turks be used to evaluate physical activity policy and built environment change?

Introduction: Fewer than 50% of adults and 40% of youth meet US CDC guidelines for physical activity (PA) with the built environment (BE) a culprit for limited PA. A challenge in evaluating policy and BE change is the forethought to capture a priori PA behaviors and the ability to eliminate bias in post-change environments. The present objective was to analyze existing public data feeds to quantify effectiveness of BE interventions. The Archive of Many Outdoor Scenes (AMOS) has collected 135 million images of outdoor environments from 12,000 webcams since 2006. Many of these environments have experienced BE change. Methods: One example of BE change is the addition of protected bike lanes and a bike share program in Washington, DC.Weselected an AMOS webcam that captured this change. AMOS captures a photograph from eachwebcamevery half hour.AMOScaptured the 120 webcam photographs between 0700 and 1900 during the first work week of June 2009 and the 120 photographs from the same week in 2010. We used the Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) website to crowd-source the image annotation. MTurk workers were paid US$0.01 to mark each pedestrian, cyclist and vehicle in a photograph. Each image was coded 5 unique times (n=1200). The data, counts of transportation mode, was downloaded to SPSS for analysis. Results: The number of cyclists per scene increased four-fold between 2009 and 2010 (F=36.72, p=0.002). There was no significant increase in pedestrians between the two years, however there was a significant increase in number of vehicles per scene (F=16.81, p

Adaptation and Evaluation of the Neighborhood Environment Walkability Scale in India (NEWS-India)

Physical inactivity is the fourth leading risk factor for global mortality, with most of these deaths occurring in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) like India. Research from developed countries has consistently demonstrated associations between built environment features and physical activity levels of populations. The development of culturally sensitive and reliable measures of the built environment is a necessary first step for accurate analysis of environmental correlates of physical activity in LMICs. This study systematically adapted the Neighborhood Environment Walkability Scale (NEWS) for India and evaluated aspects of test-retest reliability of the adapted version among Indian adults. Cultural adaptation of the NEWS was conducted by Indian and international experts. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with local residents and key informants in the city of Chennai, India. At baseline, participants (N = 370; female = 47.2%) from Chennai completed the adapted NEWS-India surveys on perceived residential density, land use mix-diversity, land use mix-access, street connectivity, infrastructure and safety for walking and cycling, aesthetics, traffic safety, and safety from crime. NEWS-India was administered for a second time to consenting participants (N = 62; female = 53.2%) with a gap of 2–3 weeks between successive administrations. Qualitative findings demonstrated that built environment barriers and constraints to active commuting and physical activity behaviors intersected with social ecological systems. The adapted NEWS subscales had moderate to high test-retest reliability (ICC range 0.48–0.99). The NEWS-India demonstrated acceptable measurement properties among Indian adults and may be a useful tool for evaluation of built environment attributes in India. Further adaptation and evaluation in rural and suburban settings in India is essential to create a version that could be used throughout India.

Continuing the fight in reducing the risk of surgical site infections in the perioperative environment

Assessing risk has become part of the process of supporting patients andmaintaining safety in the healthcare setting. The risk of healthcare associatedinfections (HCAIs) has long been well documented and surgical site infection (SSI)is recognised as one of the most prevalent (Tanner & Khan 2008, Wilson 2013a).

A Structured Approach to Simulate Manufacturing System In Virtual Environment

Nowadays, the realization of the Virtual Factory (VF) is the strategic goal of many manufacturing enterprises for the coming years. The industrial scenario is characterized by the dynamics of innovations increment and the product life cycle became shorter. Furthermore products and the corresponding manufacturing processes get more and more complex. Therefore, companies need new methods for the planning of manufacturing systems.
To date, the efforts have focused on the creation of an integrated environment to design and manage the manufacturing process of a new product. The future goal is to integrate Virtual Reality (VR) tools into the Product Lifecycle Management of the manufacturing industries.
In order to realize this goal the authors have conducted a study to perform VF simulation steps for a supplier of Industrial Automation Systems and have provided a structured approach focusing on interaction between simulation software and VR hardware tools in order to simulate both robotic and
manual work cells.
The first results of the study in progress have been carried out in the VR Laboratory of the Competence Regional Centre for the qualification of the Transportation Systems that has been founded by Campania Region.