To examine prospectively associations between urinary phthalate metabolite concentrations and body size measures in children.
Urinary concentrations of nine phthalate metabolites: monoethyl (MEP); ...mono-n-butyl (MBP); mono-(3-carboxypropyl) (MCPP); monobenzyl (MBzP); mono-isobutyl (MiBP); mono-(2-ethylhexyl) (MEHP); mono-(2-ethyl-5-oxohexyl) (MEOHP); mono-(2-ethyl-5-carboxypentyl) (MECPP); and mono-(2-ethyl-5-hydroxyhexyl) phthalate (MEHHP) and the molar sum of the low molecular-weight phthalate metabolites (low MWP: MEP, MBP and MiBP) and high molecular-weight phthalate metabolites (high MWP: MECPP, MEHHP, MEOHP, MEHP and MBzP) and of four di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) metabolites (ΣDEHP: MEHP, MEHHP, MEOHP, MECPP) and anthropometry, including body mass index and waist circumference were measured among 387 Hispanic and Black, New York City children who were between six and eight years at cohort enrollment (2004–2007). Relationships between baseline metabolite concentrations and body size characteristics obtained one year later were examined using multivariate-adjusted geometric means for each body size characteristic by continuous and categories of phthalate metabolite concentrations. Stratified analyses by body size (age/sex specific) were conducted.
No significant associations are reported among all girls or boys. Dose response relationships were seen with monoethyl phthalate and the sum of low molecular-weight phthalates and body mass index and waist circumference among overweight children; for increasing monoethyl phthalate concentration quartiles among girls, adjusted mean body mass indexes were as follows: 21.3, 21.7, 23.8, 23.5 and adjusted mean waist circumference (cm) were as follows: 73.4, 73.5, 79.2, 78.8 (p-trend<0.001 for both).
In this prospective analysis we identified positive relationships between urinary concentrations of monoethyl phthalate and the sum of low molecular-weight phthalates and body size measures in overweight children. These are metabolites with concentrations above 1μM.
► We examine the association between phthalate metabolites and body size in children. ► Overall, no significant associations are reported among children. ► Among overweight children, monoethyl phthalate and body mass index were associated. ► In an overweight children, monoethyl phthalate and waist circumference were associated.
Sustainability, in terms of ecological, economic, and social sustainable development, and the advancing digitalization represent some of the most substantial societal challenges today. However, ...little is known about how different actors and decision-makers perceive the relationship of those two challenges. In our paper, by building upon framing theory and social representations theory, we address that gap by investigating how different actors perceive the interrelationship between digitalization and ecological, economic, and social sustainability. Such research is particularly important because understandings of digitalization and sustainability determine how different actors, including managers and policymakers, act in response to those imperatives. Following a multi-method approach, we combined media analysis with two experimental studies examining how various actors frame the relationship between digitalization and sustainability in media discourses and which dimension of sustainability—ecological, economic, or social—dominates. Building upon these results, the studies assess whether the extent of digitalization affects the perception of those three dimensions. Among our findings, perceptions of ecological and economic sustainability but not social sustainability seem to be affected by the extent of digitalization. For future research, those findings indicate the need for a more nuanced view on sustainability that accounts for its different dimensions, especially the social dimension and its relationship with digitalization. Beyond that, because the perceived link between digitalization and ecological, economic, and social sustainability guides how various actors, including managers and policymakers, respond to those imperatives, our work also has substantial practical implications as well.
Display omitted
•Four digitalization-sustainability frames identified by media analysis.•Frames identified: Stand-alone challenges, digital impact, digital ruin, positive catalyst.•The extent of digitalization impacts ecological and economic sustainability perceptions.•The extent of digitalization does not impact social sustainability perception.•A multi-method study is applied, combining media analysis with experimental testing.
Communicating results to participants is a fundamental component of community-based participatory research (CBPR). However, in environmental exposure studies this is not always practiced, partly due ...to ethical concerns of communicating results that have unknown clinical significance.
Growing Up Healthy was a community-based participatory research study that sought to understand the relationship between environmental exposures to phthalates and early puberty in young girls. After in-depth consultation with a Community Advisory Board, study investigators provided group summary results of phthalate exposures and related health information to the parents of study participants. Parents' comprehension and knowledge of the health information provided was then assessed through questionnaires.
After receiving the information from the research team, responders were able to correctly answer comprehension questions about phthalate exposures in their community, were able to identify ways to reduce exposure to phthalates, and indicated plans to do so. Questionnaires revealed that parents wanted more information on phthalates, and that children's environmental health was an important concern.
We conclude that effective communication of exposure results of unknown clinical significance to participants in environmental health studies can be achieved by providing group summary results and actionable health information. Results suggest that there was an improvement in knowledge of environmental health and in risk reduction behaviors in our study population.
Background Traditional research approaches frequently fail to yield representative numbers of people of color in research. Community-based participatory research (CBPR) may be an important strategy ...for partnering with and reaching populations that bear a greater burden of illness but have been historically difficult to engage. The Community Action Board, consisting of 20 East Harlem residents, leaders, and advocates, used CBPR to compare the effectiveness of various strategies in recruiting and enrolling adults with prediabetes into a peer-led, diabetes prevention intervention. Methods The board created five recruitment strategies: recruiting through clinicians; recruiting at large public events such as farmers markets; organizing special local recruitment events; recruiting at local organizations; and recruiting through a partner-led approach, in which community partners developed and managed the recruitment efforts at their sites. Results In 3 months, 555 local adults were approached; 249 were appropriate candidates for further evaluation (overweight, nonpregnant, East Harlem residents without known diabetes); 179 consented and returned in a fasting state for 1/2 day of prediabetes testing; 99 had prediabetes and enrolled in a pilot randomized trial. The partner-led approach was highly successful, recruiting 68% of those enrolled. This strategy was also the most efficient; 34% of those approached through partners were ultimately enrolled, versus 0%–17% enrolled through the other four strategies. Participants were predominantly low-income, uninsured, undereducated, Spanish-speaking women. Conclusions This CBPR approach highlights the value of partner-led recruitment to identify, reach out to, and motivate a vulnerable population into participation in research, using techniques that may be unfamiliar to researchers but are nevertheless rigorous and effective.
Over the past several decades there has been growing evidence of the increase in incidence rates, morbidity, and mortality for a number of health problems experienced by children. The causation and ...aggravation of these problems are complex and multifactorial. The burden of these health problems and environmental exposures is borne disproportionately by children from low-income communities and communities of color. Researchers and funding institutions have called for increased attention to the complex issues that affect the health of children living in marginalized communities-and communities more broadly-and have suggested greater community involvement in processes that shape research and intervention approaches, for example, through community-based participatory research (CBPR) partnerships among academic, health services, public health, and community-based organizations. Centers for Children's Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research (Children's Centers) funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency were required to include a CBPR project. The purpose of this article is to provide a definition and set of CBPR principles, to describe the rationale for and major benefits of using this approach, to draw on the experiences of six of the Children's Centers in using CBPR, and to provide lessons learned and recommendations for how to successfully establish and maintain CBPR partnerships aimed at enhancing our understanding and addressing the multiple determinants of children's health.
Objective Prior studies have shown an association between fast-food restaurants and adolescent body size. Less is known about the influence of neighborhood food stores on a child's body size. We ...hypothesized that in the inner-city, minority community of East Harlem, New York, the presence of convenience stores and fast-food restaurants near a child's home is associated with increased risk for childhood obesity as measured by body mass index (BMI). Design Baseline data of 6- to 8-year-old East Harlem boys and girls (N = 323) were used. Anthropometry (height and weight) was conducted with a standardized protocol. Food-store data were collected via a walking survey. Stores located within the same census block as the child's home address were identified by using ArcGIS 8.3. We computed age- and sex-specific BMI percentiles by using national norms of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Using odds ratios, we estimated risk of a child's BMI percentile being in the top tertile based on number and types of food stores on their census blocks. Results Convenience stores were present in 55% of the surveyed blocks in which a study particpant lived and fast-food restaurants were present in 41%. Children (n = 177) living on a block with 1 or more convenience stores (range, 1–6) were more likely to have a BMI percentile in the top tertile (odds ratio 1.90, 95% confidence interval, 1.15–3.15) compared with children having no convenience stores (n = 146). Conclusions The presence of convenience stores near a child's residence was associated with a higher BMI percentile. This has potential implications for both child- and neighborhood-level childhood obesity interventions.
The considerable body of literature on business models, business model innovation, and sustainable business models has yet to fully account for the impact of external dynamics—including the digital ...imperative—on generating sustainable value propositions. To address this issue, we developed a multifaceted framework of transformative sustainable business models, spanning three levels: the external environment, the organization, and the individual. We drew on the resource-based view and the literature on digitization to explain how organizations can capitalize on dynamic transformative capabilities to generate novel value propositions, based on both reconstructionist logic and shared-value logic. These include elements such as co-creation, usage-based pricing, agility, closed-loop processes, asset sharing, and collaborative business ecosystems.
Organizations increasingly build on business model innovation (BMI) to reinvent their business models in sustainable and circular ways. This is reflected by a surge in academic research and business ...practice on sustainable and circular business model innovation. In this article, we take stock of the current literature to clarify which types of innovations contribute to the transformation to sustainable and circular business models. Building on a systematic literature review on sustainable and circular business model innovation using Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA), our primary contributions include (1) the identification, categorization, and discussion of various innovation types that lead to sustainable and circular business model innovation, (2) the identification of a research gap, and (3) avenues for future research.
Viele CIOs (Chief Information Officer) in Unternehmen haben in der Pandemie einen hervorragenden Job gemacht. In der Zeit nach der Pandemie gilt es, diesen „Rückenwind“ und die Position des CIO neu ...zu definieren. Vor diesem Hintergrund wurden fünf CIOs, Hanna Hennig von der Siemens AG, Andreas Maier von der AXA Schweiz, Michael Müller-Wünsch von OTTO, Rolf Olmesdahl, ehemals Raiffeisen Schweiz, Ursula Soritsch-Renier von Saint-Gobain Paris, und ein Executive-Search-Spezialist, Patrick Naef, Boyden AG, gefragt wie sie die Zukunft des CIO sehen. Alle sechs Persönlichkeiten, die an dem Dialog teilnahmen, sind übereinstimmend der Meinung, dass es auch noch 2030 CIOs geben wird und sie auf der einen Seite verstärkt Treiber der digitalen Transformation in ihrem Unternehmen sein sollten und sie auf der anderen Seite nach wie vor Verantwortung für das Funktionieren der digitalen Infrastruktur tragen.
Abstract Objective The role of neighborhood physical activity resources on childhood physical activity level is increasingly examined in pediatric obesity research. We describe how availability of ...physical activity resources varies by individual and block characteristics and then examine its associations with physical activity levels of Latino and black children in East Harlem, New York City. Methods Physical activity resource availability by individual and block characteristics were assessed in 324 children. Availability was measured against 4 physical activity measures: average weekly hours of outdoor unscheduled physical activity, average weekly metabolic hours of scheduled physical activity, daily hours of sedentary behavior, and daily steps. Results Physical activity resource availability differed by race/ethnicity, caregiver education, and income. Presence of one or more playgrounds on a child's block was positively associated with outdoor unscheduled physical activity (odds ratio OR = 1.95, 95% confidence interval CI 1.11–3.43). Presence of an after-school program on a child's block was associated with increased hours of scheduled physical activity (OR = 3.25, 95% CI 1.41–7.50) and decreased sedentary behavior (OR = 3.24, 95% CI 1.30–8.07). The more resources a child had available, the greater the level of outdoor unscheduled physical activity ( P for linear trend = .026). Conclusions Neighborhood physical activity resource availability differs by demographic factors, potentially placing certain groups at risk for low physical activity level. Availability of select physical activity resources was associated with reported physical activity levels of East Harlem children but not with objective measures of physical activity.
PDF
