Flight lands over fire scare, but nothing wrong

By David Chang, NBC10

A flight was forced to land at the Philadelphia International Airport due to what was believed to be smoke on the plane.

Officials said the plane departed from Philly International shortly before 6 a.m. and was headed to Cleveland.

Around 6:20 a.m., there was an indication of smoke on the plane, according to officials and the plane was forced to land as a precaution.

Read more from NBC10

No one was injured during the landing and crews said there was no smoke or fire on the plane.

The 47 passengers as well as the crew left the plane and were taken back to the terminal. All the passengers will be accommodated by United Airlines.

Crews inspected the plane and said they found nothing wrong.

Other runways were closed for 11 minutes but have since reopened.

This is a breaking news story. Please check back for more details.

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Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/22/16087609-flight-lands-over-fire-scare-but-nothing-wrong-crews-say?lite

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Natural Setting and Tech Break Boost Creativity

Volunteers who spent at least four days hiking with no communications or computing technology scored higher on creativity tests upon their return than did a control group. Rose Eveleth reports

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Robert Frost famously wrote: "The woods are lovely, dark and deep."

But such natural settings may offer more than just beauty. They might also foster creativity. A recent study suggests that a backpacking trip can substantially increase just how inventive your brain can be. The finding is in the journal PLoS ONE. [Ruth Ann Atchley, David L. Strayer and Paul Atchley, Creativity in the Wild: Improving Creative Reasoning through Immersion in Natural Settings]

Researchers sent 56 subjects out on four-to-six day wilderness hiking trips without access to electronic devices?no cell phones, no iPads, no game boys, nothing.

Upon their return, the hikers took tests designed to measure creativity. A control group that hadn't been in the woods scored a 4.14 out of 10 on the test. But the woods wanderers scored a 6.08.

Previous studies have shown that down time in general makes people more creative. The researchers thus say that this creativity boost is probably due to not just nature, but to taking a break from the stresses of work and technology.

So the next time you get stuck on a tough problem, or can't seem to concentrate?try a walk in the woods. It could help your creative promise.

?Rose Eveleth

[The above text is a transcript of this podcast.]
?

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=4c02e7a30259c4610055c54edd499d82

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Kitchen calamity: More reports of shattering pans

Courtesy the Parker family

The Parker family of Pontiac, Mich., is shown on Christmas Day 2010, minutes before the clear glass baking dish at the head of the table shattered into hundreds of shards, according to Debbie Parker. Parker, standing, said she found glass pieces three feet away under the Christmas tree.

By JoNel Aleccia, NBC News

Debbie Parker of Pontiac, Mich., says she still can't shake the memory of Christmas morning brunch two years ago when the festive egg casserole she baked in a glass Pyrex pan "exploded" without warning on her holiday table.?

?There was this loud crash. We looked to see the dish shattered with shards of glass all around,? recalled Parker, 70, who said she found pieces three feet away under the Christmas tree.

No one was hurt, but Parker said she shudders even now at the thought of her young grandchildren, then ages 1 and 5, who were seated at the table for the family's traditional meal.

?It was right at their eye level or face level,? she said. ?We could have spent Christmas Day at the hospital.?

Other consumers say they have been hurt by suddenly shattering glass cookware, including James Sinton, 29, of Houston. Medical records show that he needed stitches in April 2011 to fix a gash on the inside of his right arm after he said a large Pyrex measuring cup broke when he poured boiling water in it to make tea.

?It exploded. There?s no other way to describe it. It instantly became shrapnel,? recalled Sinton, who said he slipped on the wet floor and landed on the glass pieces, cutting himself.

Such incidents are rare, but reports of glassware abruptly shattering have climbed sharply in recent years, NBC News has learned. And a controversy is heating up over whether the pans or the users are to blame.

Complaints about the problem to the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission rose from just two in 1999 to 144 in 2011. That's a total of 576 during those 13 years, records show. This year, 93 incidents had been reported as of mid-November.?

Emergency room reports collected in a federal database?show that some consumers claim to have suffered cuts to the face when glass pans broke as they opened hot ovens, or claim they?ve been injured by spattering pan juices or hot grease after dishes disintegrated.

At the advocacy agency?ConsumerAffairs.com, which posts reviews about popular goods and services, the two top brands of glass cookware in the U.S. -- Pyrex and Anchor Hocking -- have drawn nearly 1,600 reports combined, mostly accounts of unexpected breakage, since the site began in 1998.

?This is without a doubt the highest number of complaints about a single type of cookware or kitchen accessory,? said Jim Hood, founder and editor of the site, which has been reporting on the problem since 2005.

Sheer volume might account for some of the complaints, considering that glass bakeware is found in at least 80 percent of U.S. homes. World Kitchen, the maker of U.S. Pyrex, produces more than 44 million dishes a year, company officials say. Anchor Hocking makes more than 30 million pieces a year.

The rise in reported incidents has raised new questions about the possible causes of unexpected breakage during cooking. A recent article by two scientists at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa suggests that today?s pans are more prone to sudden shattering than your grandmother?s hand-me-downs.

But World Kitchen officials have filed a trade disparagement lawsuit disputing that article and claiming that the researchers used faulty science to reach their conclusions. They say that any problems with shattering are rare, and that when they do occur, it may be because consumers don't follow the directions included with all cookware.?

Pyrex packaging

A pamphlet with instructions about proper use is included with every Pyrex product.

Many cooks are surprised to learn that?companies, including?World?Kitchen and Anchor Hocking,?have specific safety rules for using glass bakeware.

In instruction leaflets and even embossed on the glass pans themselves, the companies stress correct use.

In responses to complaints filed on the CPSC's?SaferProducts.gov site, World Kitchen posts these instructions:

• Always place hot glass bakeware on a dry, cloth potholder or towel. Never place hot glass bakeware on top of the stove, on a metal trivet, on a damp towel, directly on a counter or in a sink.
• Never put glass bakeware directly on a burner or under a broiler.
• Always allow the oven to fully preheat before placing the glass bakeware in the oven.
• Always cover the bottom of the dish with liquid before cooking meat or vegetables.

People who pull their pans out of the oven and set them on a ?wet or cool surface? such as a sink or a granite countertop -- found in more and more kitchens these days -- risk sudden temperature changes that could induce shattering, glassware companies say.

The glassware makers also urge consumers to be careful with their pans; impact accounts for far more breakage than heat changes -- and it also can weaken the products, raising the chance of shattering, they say.

World Kitchen officials said in a letter to James Sinton that an examination of his broken measuring cup showed it may have been bruised by ?banging? or ?dropping.? Sinton, however, said he?d just bought the glassware weeks earlier and didn?t misuse it. World Kitchen didn?t analyze samples of Debbie Parker?s broken dish, and they say they can?t be sure it even was Pyrex, according to press reports after the incident.

Courtesy Laura Lowe

Laura Lowe, 47, of Evans, Ga., said her chicken dinner was ruined last December when the glass baking pan she was using shattered suddenly inside her oven.

At least one cook whose glass pan shattered suddenly last year said she had no idea there were?rules about use, especially for such a well-known brand.

?I didn?t follow their directions, but it was?Pyrex,? said Laura Lowe, a 47-year-old piano teacher from Evans, Ga.

She said it never would have occurred to her to add liquid to chicken in a baking dish. She assumed that the new glass pans she used were the same material as the pans passed down from her mother and grandmother under a brand once advertised as ?icebox-to-oven? bakeware.

Not your grandmother?s Pyrex
There?s no question that the glass pans made in the U.S. today are not your grandmother?s Pyrex.

The original Corning Inc. pans, invented in 1915, were made from a particularly strong material, borosilicate glass. Virtually all glass bakeware sold in the U.S. since the 1980s is now made of a different material, soda lime silicate glass, said Daniel Collins, a Corning spokesman.

Company officials say that soda lime silicate glass is better able to withstand impact if banged or dropped and that it is better for the environment. Ceramics experts also note that it?s cheaper than borosilicate glass.

Recently, Richard Bradt and Richard Martens, the Alabama scientists, set out to explain the increase in reports of shattering. They said they calculated the breaking range for the glass used to make dishes in the U.S. today -- and compared it with that for old-style glass used in original Pyrex.

Then Bradt, a materials engineer, and Martens, an atomic probe microscopist, bought six new glass pans in local stores -- three Pyrex, three Anchor Hocking -- and tested them in Martens? photoelasticity lab for signs of heat tempering, which boosts the strength of glass.

Their article,?published this fall in the American Ceramic Society Bulletin, concluded that the newer glass is far less able to withstand rapid swings in temperature than the older material now used mostly in pans sold in Europe.

?The margin of safety ? is borderline,? the scientists wrote.

That conclusion, however, is hotly contested by the glassware makers.

?Anchor?s tempered soda-lime glass bakeware has been in the marketplace for close to 30 years with an excellent safety and consumer satisfaction record,? spokeswoman Barbara Wolf said in a statement.

World Kitchen officials maintain there were errors in the researchers? work, namely, that they didn?t fully account for the company?s heat-strengthening process.

?The Bulletin feature story contains serious flaws, inaccuracies and highly misleading assertions and assumptions,? said Ed Flowers, the firm?s senior vice president, in a statement to NBC News.

World Kitchen, which acquired U.S. rights to the Pyrex trademark from Corning in 1998, is now suing the American Ceramic Society, the two researchers and a publicist over the trade journal article. The company has demanded a retraction, claiming that the scientists have launched a deliberate ?campaign of disparagement? against U.S.-made glass cookware, including Pyrex, according to a complaint filed in federal court.

?Defendants have purposely but needlessly frightened consumers into the false belief that Pyrex glass cookware is unsafe for normal kitchen use and could pose an unreasonable risk of serious injury to those who use it,? the complaint states.

Bradt and Martens are standing by their conclusions. So is the American Ceramic Society, which has refused to retract the paper.

Independent ceramics experts who reviewed Bradt and Martens' paper for NBC News found it to be fundamentally sound, though they said more testing was needed to affirm the conclusions.

Glass bakeware under fire
This is hardly the first time that glass bakeware has come under fire. In 2010,?Consumer Reports magazine investigated complaints?of shattering cookware by conducting its own tests on borosilicate and soda lime silicate pans. In a dramatic video demonstration, the magazine concluded that the newer pans, including those made by World Kitchen and Anchor Hocking, were more likely to shatter under extreme conditions than the original Pyrex.

Federal safety officials who've looked into the problem say that while there have been injuries, no deaths have been attributed to the unexpected breakage. There are not enough cases to estimate how many people might be hurt in the U.S. each year, said Scott Wolfson, spokesman for the CPSC. Wolfson wouldn?t speculate about what?s behind the growing numbers. He said the agency analyzed the issue in 2008, but found no cause to recall the glassware.

World Kitchen officials described the Consumer Reports piece as ?seriously flawed.? As for the ceramics journal report, they say that Bradt had a conflict of interest because he has served as a paid witness in lawsuits against makers of glass cookware.

Bradt acknowledged that he has been hired as an expert witness on behalf of clients who brought lawsuits against U.S. glassware makers about the products in recent years. He would not name any companies involved in those lawsuits, citing confidentiality requirements. The cases were settled out of court, he said.

World Kitchen also emphasized that each report to the CPSC is merely a consumer complaint and has not been investigated or confirmed by the agency.

George Quinn, a retired senior ceramic engineer with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, reviewed the ACS paper for Bradt before it was published. Quinn was among several peers in the ceramics field who reviewed the authors' drafts.

?My own professional opinion is that the thermal strengthening may not be adequate for temperatures in the home kitchen,? he said.

He said he handles glass dishes in his own kitchen ?with extreme caution.?

?I?ll set it down on a cloth or on a wooden block,? Quinn said. ?I will put a towel over the Pyrex as I am handling it, so if it should break, I will be protected.?

Courtesy the Parker family

Debbie Parker preserved the shattered dish of egg casserole that she said 'exploded' on her holiday table in 2010.

Debbie Parker said she still uses the old Pyrex pans she got decades ago, but won't buy new products.

Parker says she is certain she followed all the rules for proper baking during her holiday brunch. After the new pan broke, she wrote detailed records about?the timing, temperature and treatment of her glass Christmas pan.

Still, she says, it shattered. When she complained to World Kitchen about her broken Christmas casserole and the danger it posed to her family, she says the company offered to send a new pan.

?They wanted to replace it. I just laughed,? she said, referring to World Kitchen. ?I wouldn?t have another ?new? piece of Pyrex in my home.?

Related stories:?

Source: http://todayhealth.today.com/_news/2012/12/21/16049242-kitchen-calamity-reports-of-shattering-cookware-on-the-rise?lite

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Hostess expects to split up snack cakes in sale

NEW YORK (AP) ? Twinkies, Wonder Bread and Devil Dogs are likely to return to shelves in coming months, but probably not under the same owners.

Hostess Brands Inc. said in bankruptcy court Friday that it's narrowing down the bids it received for its brands and expects to sell off its snack cakes and bread to separate buyers. The testimony came from an investment banker for Hostess, which is in the process of liquidating.

A likely suitor has emerged for the namesake Hostess brand, which includes Twinkies, Ding Dongs and Ho Hos, along with Dolly Madison cakes, which includes Coffee Cakes and Zingers, said Joshua Scherer of Perella Weinberg Partners. He said another viable bid was made for Drake's cakes, which includes Devil Dogs, Funny Bones and Yodels. That bidder also wants to buy the Drake's plant in Wayne, N.J., which Scherer said is the country's only kosher bakery plant.

Additional bids have been submitted for its bread brands, which include Wonder and Home Pride. Hostess expects to file binding "stalking horse" bids for many of its brands in January. Those filings would be followed by a four-week auction process to allow competing bids. Scherer said the auctions could be very active for some of the brands, given the number of parties that have expressed interest. Sales could be completed by as early as mid-March.

About 30 plants could also be sold with the brands, Scherer said, with six plants, several warehouses and a fleet of trucks likely to be closed or scrapped.

Hostess has hired a firm Hilco to act as a sales agent for those additional assets; the firm will also give Hostess a $30 million loan to maintain operations during its liquidation, which is expected to take about a year.

Hostess, based in Irving, Texas, has said potential buyers include major packaged food companies and national retailers, such as big-box retailers and supermarkets. The company has stressed it needs to move quickly in the sale process to capitalize on the outpouring of nostalgia sparked by its bankruptcy.

To begin winding down its operations late last month, Hostess had said it would retain about 3,000 workers to shutter plants and perform other tasks. On Friday, an attorney for Hostess said in court that figure was down to about 1,100 employees. The liquidation of Hostess ultimately means the loss of about 18,000 jobs, not including those shed in the years leading to the company's failure. CEO Greg Rayburn, who was hired as a restructuring expert earlier this year, is earning $125,000 a month.

The company's demise came after years of management turmoil and turnover, with workers saying the company failed to invest in updating its snack cakes and breads. Hostess filed for its second Chapter 11 bankruptcy in less than a decade this January, citing steep costs associated with its unionized workforce.

The company was able to reach a new contract agreement with its largest union, the Teamsters, the bakers union rejected the terms and went on strike Nov. 9. A week later, Hostess announced its plans to liquidate, saying the strike crippled its ability to maintain normal production. Although Hostess sales have been declining over the years, they still clock in at between $2.3 billion and $2.4 billion a year.

When asked how much the brands are expected to fetch from buyers, Scherer said he would rather not say.

___

Follow Candice Choi at www.twitter.com/candicechoi

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-12-21-Hostess-Bankruptcy/id-9d7de18dc7164b0ab063a4b46110a533

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LOCUS-T Announces an Affordable PPC Services Package that Brings Quality Traffic to their Clients? Website

LOCUS-T has introduced the affordable PPC service packages that brings more than 500 potential customers to their client' websites.

(PRWEB) December 21, 2012

LOCUS-T Announces the launch of affordable PPC service package one week ago during their company event. LOCUS-T believes that when a company wants to have a greater amount of traffic for their website, it should be promoted to its full potential. When a website implements an effective internet marketing campaign, it will reap many dividends. LOCUS-T is able to help clients due to its highly renowned Google AdWords service.

As being the ISO 9001 Quality Management System certified, LOCUS-T were actually the first ever home-grown marketing company in Malaysia to be a Google AdWords Certified Partner and Yahoo! Search Marketing (SEA) Authorized Reseller. In order to carry out effective AdWords Services, there are many different marketing approaches which LOCUS-T can complete.

Website Development is one such service which can be provided by LOCUS-T. When a company chooses a PPC Service for its website, it will gain a very high ROI. If a website does not currently have the potential to take advantage of a PPC Service, LOCUS-T can make this happen because it can be developed. PPC Plus is one of many AdWords Services which LOCUS-T is able to deliver. A very good PPC Rate in Malaysia is achieved through placing advertisements in relevant areas so that a greater number of suitable web users view it. This particular PPC Service has great potential for websites to not just have significant traffic levels but to increase its own client list because only suitable web users will see advertisements.

"LOCUS-T has extensive experience of creating SEO-rich content for many clients and we have a proven track record of helping websites around the world courtesy of the Google AdWords services", said Deric Wong. "If a website does not currently have a commanding online presence and adverts are not situated in relevant locations, LOCUS-T can help", added Deric Wong during the company event. With competitively priced Google AdWords services which can suit any budget, LOCUS-T guarantee every client that their hard work will reap many dividends.

So, why not get in touch with LOCUS-T today to find out more information about how Google AdWords can help a business? Ultimate satisfaction is guaranteed even if LOCUS-T is responsible for an extensive PPC Service.

About LOCUS-T ONLINE SDN BHD

LOCUS-T was the first ever company in Malaysia to be a Google AdWords Certified Partner and Yahoo! Search Marketing (SEA) Authorized Reseller. Able to improve a website?s online presence through PPC Services, traffic levels can increase substantially when LOCUS-T is chosen.

Contact

Company Name: LOCUS-T ONLINE SDN BHD

Contact Person: Deric Wong

Telephone Number: +603-71182173

E-mail Address: sales(dot)my(at)locus-t(dot)com

Website Address: http://www.locus-t.com

Deric Wong
LOCUS-T ONLINE SDN BHD
603-71182173
Email Information

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/locus-t-announces-affordable-ppc-services-package-brings-081244449.html

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Why Some Kids Have An Inflated Sense Of Their Science Skills

If you're a student at the halfway point of the academic year, and you've just taken stock of your performance, perhaps you have reason to feel proud of yourself.

But a recent study suggests some of the pride you feel at having done well ? especially in science ? may be unfounded. Or at least your sense of your performance may not be a very accurate picture of how good you actually are.

A massive analysis of some 350,000 students at nearly 14,000 schools in 53 countries has uncovered a paradox: Students in many countries that are mediocre at science have an inflated sense of good they are.

First the good news: The United States isn't among the worst offenders. Students in countries such as Thailand, Jordan, Mexico and Brazil seem to be worse than U.S. students when it comes to science knowledge, but they have even higher levels of self-esteem when it comes to their beliefs about how good they are at science.

But compared to countries such as New Zealand, Australia, Sweden, Japan, South Korea and Great Britain, American students appeared to have an inflated sense of their science abilities. Students in those other countries were better when it came to scientific knowledge than American students, but it was the Americans who had the higher opinion of themselves as students of science.

The study, published in the Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, focused on the academic performance of 15 year-old students. It was conducted by Eva Van de gaer, Aletta Grisay, Wolfram Schulz and Eveline Gebhardt.

The paradox between performance and students' impression of their performance has been noted before. The paper proposes an explanation for it: The reference group effect.

The study argues that countries have very different standards when it comes to science education.

In countries with elite science education standards, you can be a very good science student but, since you measure yourself against an elite standard of performance, you think of yourself as mediocre. On the other hand, if you live in a country with average (or mediocre) science standards, you might be just a decent student, but compared to general expectations of how good students are supposed to be, you feel like a genius.

In an interview, Schulz offered me an analogy. He asked me to think about a person who was 5-foot-10 in China and a person who was the same height in the Netherlands. The Dutch, on average, are taller than the Chinese.

"The person would in China probably think of themselves as a tall person," Schulz said. "If you go to the Netherlands, such a person would rather say, 'ah, I'm a short person,' because you compare yourself to those who surround you."

The same thing happens with science education, he said. Students in countries with elite science standards are much more likely to think of themselves as mediocre, whereas students in countries with mediocre standards are much more likely to think of themselves as elite.

Schulz works at the Australian Council for Educational Research, which studies educational issues in science, mathematics and reading.

Schulz told me the reference group effect could potentially be a double-edged sword: In terms of preparing students for competition with one another, it makes good sense to get a realistic sense of how good you actually are compared to, say, your peers in South Korea. On the other hand, Schulz said, there was also something to be said for having an inflated sense of your own abilities.

"For motivating students to take up science studies, how you perceive yourself is actually more important than how much you know," he said. "If your general belief (is) you're not that good at science, that might have this powerful effect of saying, 'Ah, I'd better stay away from it in the future.' "

Source: http://www.npr.org/2012/12/21/167718275/why-some-kids-have-an-inflated-sense-of-their-science-skills?ft=1&f=1007

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Luxury Envoy Wants To Handle The Lofty Requests That Exec And TaskRabbit Can?t

Let's face it -- we've all wanted to farm tasks onto someone else when we didn?t have the time or the mental resources to devote to them, but some things are too sensitive or too peculiar to trust to just anyone. As it happens, a stealthy Tulsa, OK-based startup called Luxury Envoy wants to handle those more exotic tasks when you can?t, and soon all you?ll have to do is ask.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/Z0K5dJONoHE/

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Pawlenty: Debates Showed GOP Needs to Make Changes

Former Minnesota Governor and GOP presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty says the oft-criticized multitude of presidential debates ?were actually helpful.?

He tells Newsmax: ?They get a little tedious for some because there?s so many and there?s a lot of candidates early on, but if you don?t have a billion dollars and you?re not well known it?s one of the few ways that you can get some exposure and some access if you?re a modestly-funded candidate from a small state.

?If you begin to shrink those kinds of opportunities, either in terms of frequency or magnitude, then basically you?re going to have people who are either celebrities or wealthy or going to raise a ton of money early dominate the debate or dominate the dialogue. I?m not sure that?s healthy.?

Responding to assertions that the debates made some GOP candidates move too far to the right, Pawlenty says: ?I don?t think it?s so much the debates as it is the debates were a bellwether of people trying to gain market share within a party.

?So it really goes to the issue not so much of the debates but to the issue of the state of the party. And of course the Republican Party has a lot of work to do and room for improvement. It needs to do better with women and Hispanic voters and what I call Sam?s Club or Costco voters, particularly in areas that are in swing states but as a country as a whole.?

To see the excerpt of the Newsmax interview with Pawlenty, see below:

Editor's Note: Read the full story of the Newsmax interview with Tim Pawlenty:

? 2012 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

Source: http://www.newsmax.com/US/pawlenty-debates-gop-changes/2012/12/19/id/468447

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Snapguide Comes To The iPad Because The Future Of The How-To Is On The Tablet

I wouldn't have an iPad if I didn't have to do two things: Cook and do interviews. The first I have to do for work but the second I do for fun. Which is why I think that Snapguide's bold and stylish move to the tablet is not only inevitable, but means that the service has finally landed in its true home. For those of you who don't know Snapguide, it is basically How-To guides for Generation Mobile, founded by former Yahoo Pipes PM Daniel Raffel and former Google Chrome engineer Steve Krulewitz. TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington called the duo "blank check guys? in his original post on their launch.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/1EiCSrh9DFY/

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Acase Collatio Leather Wallet-Style Case for iPhone 5 for $10 + $5 s&h

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CTCStore offers the Acase Collatio Leather Wallet-Style Case for iPhone 5 in Chestnut for $35.40. Coupon code "DVNOJYUC" cuts it to $10.40. With $4.50 for shipping, that's $5 under our mention from a month ago and the lowest total price we could find for such an item by $14. It features a card holder for credit cards or business cards. Deal ends December 25.

This item won't arrive in time for Christmas delivery via standard shipping. (Expedited shipping options are available, but are quite costly.)

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Google Music gets iTunes-like 'match,' but free

7 hrs.

Devin Coldewey , NBC News

Google has updated its music storage and streaming service with a handy new song-matching?feature pioneered by Amazon and Apple?? but unlike those companies' services, Google's is free.

Apple launched its "iTunes Match" service just over a year ago, which for $25 a year would scan your music library and offer to replace your own music files (wherever they came from) with Apple's own. Amazon began offering a similar service in July, for the same price but with a limited free option.

Google's service, which launched as Google Music last year and was?later?renamed Google Play Music, let you upload your songs to the cloud but lacked the matching feature?? until Tuesday.

Users can now let the service scan their library and assemble an online version of it using Google's own version of the?tracks. No need to upload gigabytes of MP3s; Google just verifies the artist and album and makes it available for you to stream to any supported devices (or through the Web app) in 320?kbps quality?? that's higher than the 256 kbps Amazon and Apple offer.

Best of all, the feature is totally free, and if you're already using the service, you don't need to do anything: Google is?already looking through the tracks you've uploaded and making high-quality versions available.

So if you're not paying, who is? Apparently, Google: All Things D reports that Google is cutting checks up front to music makers instead of giving them a piece of whatever they charge users.

One caveat: The high-quality versions of the songs can't be downloaded for local use?? only streamed online. So if you had visions of replacing your old 1999-era,?96?kbps CD rips with shiny new tracks freshly formed by Google, you're in for a disappointment.

The feature was announced in this Google+ post.?You can use the service by logging into or creating a Google account and going to the?Music app.

Devin Coldewey is a contributing writer for NBC News Digital. His personal website is coldewey.cc.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/google-music-gets-itunes-match-function-free-1C7662757

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Black, white & gold New Year?s wedding ideas

19 Dec

Been thinking about all the New Year?s brides out there, so thought we?d share this little number with ya. We all know gold, glitter, and sequins are a must for any NYE bash, but if you?re looking for ideas on how to incorporate it all into your wedding invitations, cocktails, decor and fashion, Jessica over at The Petal Company?has some great ones. Check ?em out!

Love those sparkly metallic dresses? You can find a similar style here.

Here?s to many fabulous weddings that will take place when the clock strikes midnight!

Photography: Danielle Capito Photography /?Event + Floral Design:?The Petal Company?/?Hair Stylist:?Lindsay Skog of PMA /?Invitation Designer:?Aerialist Press /?Dress Store:?J?aime Bridal /?Cake Designer:?Sweet Tooth Confections /?Linens and Coverings:?Napa Valley Linens /?Equipment Rentals:?Milk Glass /?Bridesmaid Dresses:?Vici?

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Source: http://www.100layercake.com/blog/2012/12/19/black-white-gold-new-years-wedding-ideas/

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American Heart Association Announces Finalists For Marathon Oil Corporation Paul "Bear" Bryant Awards

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Source: www.streetinsider.com --- Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Visit StreetInsider.com at http://www.streetinsider.com/Press+Releases/American+Heart+Association+Announces+Finalists+For+Marathon+Oil+Corporation+Paul+%26quot%3BBear%26quot%3B+Bryant+Awards/7958526.html for the full story. ...

Source: http://www.streetinsider.com/Press+Releases/American+Heart+Association+Announces+Finalists+For+Marathon+Oil+Corporation+Paul+"Bear"+Bryant+Awards/7958526.html

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South African Football Chief Nematandani Suspended in Match-fixing Scandal

LONDON: The president of the South African Football Association (SAFA) has been suspended as part of an investigation into match-fixing ahead of the country hosting the FIFA World Cup in 2010, reported CNN.

Kirsten Nematandani and four other SAFA officials were suspended as an act of "good governence" following a report by football's global governing body Fifa, who adjudged four friendly matches ahead of Africa's first World Cup had been fixed.

According to the Fifa report, the results of South Africa's matches with Thailand, Bulgaria, Colombia and Guatemala were pre-arranged for the benefit of convicted Singaporean match-fixer Wilson Perumal and his Football 4U organization.

Nematandani declined to comment when contacted by CNN.

Last year, Perumal was imprisoned in Finland after a court ruled that he had arranged the outcomes of at least seven league matches from 2008 onwards.

The Singaporean was also heavily implicated in the match-fixing scandal that affected South Africa's neighbors Zimbabwe between 2007-2009, a process which has had repercussions for nearly 100 footballers while two former national coaches have been banned.

The timing of Fifa's report into match-fixing involving the team known as Bafana Bafana comes at a bad time for South Africa, as it is just one month away from hosting the continent's showpiece football event - the Africa Cup of Nations.

The suspensions were announced by a SAFA emergency committee on Monday, ahead of an enquiry, with vice president Chief Mwelo Nonkonyana set to take interim charge of the governing body.

"The emergency committee considered and accepted the report as received," read an SAFA statement. "The emergency committee felt that the president would have to appear before the commission of enquiry to explain his role in the matter.

"Having considered the implications of this for SAFA, the committee asked the president to take a voluntary leave of absence from his position."

All members of staff mentioned in the report who will need to give evidence at the commission are likewise put on special administrative leave pending the finalization of the enquiry, or pending receiving a clearance from the commission.

"This action in no way implies that these individuals were involved in match fixing. It is again simply for good governance that this measure is being implemented.

"The members of staff so affected are: Dennis Mumble, Lindile 'Ace' Kika, Adeel Carelse and Barney Kujane."

The SAFA were unavailable to clarify what the Fifa report might mean for South African football or what action they may take after the inquiry.

The organization said last week they wanted to "bring this unfortunate matter to a just and final conclusion."

Speaking as president, before his suspension,? Nematandani said: "Having cooperated with Fifa during their investigation, we are happy that this matter is coming to its conclusion and our commitment to zero tolerance to corruption is well documented.

"SAFA remain totally committed to working with Fifa to wipe out the scourge of corruption that is impacting on football globally."

Mumble is SAFA's new chief executive officer.

Interim president Nonkonyama stressed how all parties involved should be considered innocent until proven guilty.

"This is a difficult situation for the association, and for those who have been named in the report. We hope that there will be no speculation about their presumed guilt or otherwise," he said.

"We need to allow the investigation to take place speedily and fairly, so those that are innocent can be separated from those who are not."

In a statement released last week, South African football's ruling body acknowledged that "Perumal and Football 4U managed to infiltrate SAFA prior to the World Cup, with an offer to assist with referee development.

"The offer included providing Fifa-accredited referees at their cost for the friendly matches prior to the Fifa 2010 World Cup."

One of these games - when South Africa beat Guatemala 5-0 in May 2010 - featured the award of three penalties.

- mD

Source: http://www.malaysiandigest.com/sports/198381-south-african-football-chief-nematandani-suspended-in-match-fixing-scandal.html

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Police detain alleged golf club gunman

Tanya Westthorp ??|??December 18th, 2012

Police at the Worongary Shopping Centre. Pic: Milena Stojceska

POLICE have swooped on a man suspected of robbing a woman at gun point on the Gold Coast this afternoon.

Reports suggest the man was armed with a rifle and allegedly approached a woman as she was walking to her car in the carpark of Palm Meadows Golf Club at Carrara about 12.15pm.

He allegedly smashed the window of her Porsche and stole her bag.

He took off in an old model blue Commodore but was quickly tracked by officers to Worongary Shopping Centre, just off the M1.

He was understood to have barricaded himself inside the car when officers arrived.

Witnesses reported seeing a handcuffed man laying on the ground of the underground carpark with about 10 police officers surrounding him, including some sitting on top of him.

Scores of police were on scene and allegedly found drugs and weapons inside the Commodore.

A man is assisting police with their enquiries.?

For more, see tomorrow's Gold Coast Bulletin.?

Source: http://www.goldcoast.com.au/article/2012/12/18/443926_gold-coast-news.html

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Slow Cooker Recipes

If you?re looking to buy someone a Slow Cooker Recipe Book for Christmas, these are my all time favourite 5.? I have quite a collection of Slow Cooker Recipe books but I always find myself going back to these ones again and again.

1)????? Ultimate Slow Cooker Book Over 100 simple, delicious recipes by Sara Lewis

2)????? 200 Slow Cooker Recipes by Sara Lewis

3)????? 200 More Slow Cooker Recipes by Sara Lewis

You?ll notice the first 3 are by the same author Sara Lewis, I would recommend absolutely any book written by her.? I?ve rarely had a duff recipe and she?s given me the confidence to go beyond Stews!

There is a little overlap between the first two, but if you?re buying a gift the first one is much nicer looking but has half the number of recipes.

4)????? DK The Slow Cook Book by Heather Whinney

The reason I love this book is because for each recipe there is a slow cooker method and the traditional method.? So, if I forget to put food on in the morning, there is still time to rustle up dinner.? I also love the fact that it has a Recipe Chooser at the beginning of the book, choose the type of meal Vegetarian, Chicken, Pork etc and it lists, with pictures a selection of meals.

And finally,

5)????? Soups for your Slow Cooker by Diana Peacock

We?ve tried quite a few recipes out of this book; Chinese Pork and Noodle, Mixed Fish and Vegetable and Chargrilled Red Pepper and Tomato.? What we found is that many of the recipes are more substantial than soups and are meal in themselves.

Happy Christmas!

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About Chrissie Saunders

A slightly older mum of one, who drinks far too much red wine and has an unhealthy obsession with her slow cooker. During the day she's an ICT Trainer, Social Media/Online Marketing consultant and does a bit of public speaking.

I'd love to hear your thoughts? Please leave a comment, share using the nifty buttons or subscribe to have future posts delivered to your inbox.

Tagged as: books, cooker, recipe, recommended, slow

Source: http://mediocremum.com/2012/12/my-top-5-slow-cooker-recipe-books-for-christmas/

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Peels - Journal of Medical Internet Research

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Tailored Intervention

The Active Plus interventions are designed to stimulate or maintain PA among people over 50 years of age. These computer-tailored, theory- and evidence-based interventions were systematically developed using the intervention mapping protocol [20,22]. Originally, 2 print-delivered Active Plus interventions were developed and tested for effectiveness. The first was a basic computer-tailored intervention (tailored to personal and psychosocial characteristics). The second was the same intervention extended with additional environmental components that focused on giving tailored advice on local options and initiatives for being physically active. The additional environmental components intended to positively change peoples? perceptions of the possibilities to be physically active in their own locale [21]. Both interventions aimed to influence awareness, initiation, and maintenance of PA by targeting premotivational constructs (ie, awareness and knowledge), motivational constructs (ie, attitude, self-efficacy, social influence, intrinsic motivation, and intention), and post-motivational constructs (ie, commitment, strategic planning, self-regulation skills, action planning, and coping planning) [20]. Previous studies showed that both print-delivered interventions were effective in stimulating PA among people over 50 years of age [23,24].

In 2010, both of the print-delivered interventions described above were adapted and translated into a Web-based intervention [22] using the RE-AIM framework. The content of the Web-based intervention was identical to that of the print-delivered interventions, but the display output of the interactive components in the Web-based version was different (eg, static modelling pictures were transferred into videos, a print-delivered map was transferred into Google Maps, and several hyperlinks were added).

Based on their answers given in the assessments [20,22], participants received tailored advice on 3 occasions (Figure 1): (1) within 2 weeks after the baseline assessment, (2) 2 months after the baseline assessment, and (3) within 4 months after the baseline assessment (based on the second assessment). The Web-based intervention participants received an email with a link that connected them with their online tailored advice. Additionally, they received an email with a copy of the personal advice in the same format as the print-delivered version. The tailored advice contained between 5 and 11 pages of text and illustrations, depending on changes in PA behavior and determinant scores. A more detailed description of the intervention content can be found elsewhere [20,22].

Participants and Procedure

Intervention participants (adults over 50 years of age) were recruited via direct mailing in communities of the participating Municipal Health Council (MHC) regions (N=5; excluding control group participants). To prevent participants from the different intervention conditions contaminating each other, the intervention conditions were located in separate but comparable MHC regions. The regions were randomly assigned to one of the different intervention conditions (ie, Web-based basic, Web-based environment, printed basic, or printed environment). All participants were assigned to one of the intervention conditions based on their region and could not make a choice in the delivery mode of the intervention. This design offers optimal insight into the consequences for response and attrition when using only 1 of the 2 modes for intervention delivery.

For each intervention condition, we selected 14 (matched) neighborhoods: 6 less urban neighborhoods (500-1000 addresses per km²) and 8 modestly urban neighborhoods (1000-1500 addresses per km², Figure 2). We matched the neighborhoods based on their urban character, percentage of people with a low SES, percentage of people with a high SES, percentage of immigrants (also to ensure that we reached mostly Dutch-speaking people), and the percentage of people over 50 years of age. This information was provided by the Dutch Central Bureau for Statistics. Each MHC provided a random sample of eligible participants living in the selected matched neighbourhoods after stratification for age. Therefore, the distribution of differences in age and SES among the invited adults was expected to be equal between the intervention conditions.

In the regions of the print-delivered intervention, a sample of eligible participants (n=4648) received an invitation for the print-delivered intervention. This invitation included an information letter, a questionnaire, a prepaid return envelope, and a form to give informed consent. Because we expected a lower response in the Web-based intervention conditions, we included a larger sample of eligible participants (n=7168) in the regions of the Web-based intervention. Eligible participants received an invitation via written mail, containing a similar information letter about the project, additional information about how to complete an online questionnaire, and a personal username and password to log on to the Active Plus website. People who did not receive an invitation could not participate in this program. A power calculation (effect size=0.4, power=80%, intracluster correlation coefficient =.1) showed that at baseline about 420 participants were needed for each intervention condition (considering a dropout rate of 40% during the 1-year follow-up based on a previous Active Plus study) [22].

Within both the Web-based and print-delivered intervention groups, participants received the basic tailored intervention or the basic intervention with additional environmentally tailored information, depending on their MHC region. Since the aim of this study was only to investigate how the delivery channel (printed or Web-based) and user characteristics are related to dropout and attrition, and not to determine how the content of the message (eg, providing additional environmental information) influences attrition, both of the print-delivered and both of the Web-based intervention groups were considered together. Dropout analyses were corrected for the possible influence of the intervention type.

Participants were enrolled when they completed the baseline questionnaire. For the second assessment, participants of the print-delivered intervention group received an invitation by written mail, which included the follow-up questionnaire and a prepaid return envelope. Participants of the Web-based intervention group received invitations for the follow-up assessment by email, which included a link to the Web-based questionnaire. All participants were asked to complete the questionnaire within 2 weeks. Participants of the print-delivered intervention group who did not complete the questionnaire received a reminder by mail after 2 weeks. Since the response was lower in the Web-based intervention group than in the print-delivered intervention group and sending reminders electronically does not result in additional postage costs, for the follow-up assessment the Web-based intervention group received multiple reminders (9 days and 18 days after the invitation). Since it was not guaranteed that our target population received the online reminders (eg, redirected to spam folders), this group also received an additional reminder by written mail.

This study is approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of Atrium-Orbis-Zuyd (code 10-N-36) and was registered in the Dutch Trial Register NTR 2297.

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Figure 2. Flowchart showing selection of participants for the print-delivered and Web-based intervention groups.

Measurements

The baseline questionnaire included questions about demographics, PA behavior, and sociocognitive determinants of PA behavior. Demographic variables included age, gender, height, weight, and highest education level completed. Education level was categorized into low (primary, basic vocational, or lower general school) and high (higher general secondary education, preparatory academic education, medium vocational school, higher vocational school, or university level), according to the Dutch education system. Body mass index (BMI) was calculated by dividing weight in kilograms by height in metres squared [23]. Participants were classified as being underweight (BMI < 18.5 kg/m²), a healthy weight (BMI 18.5?24.9 kg/m²), or overweight (BMI > 25 kg/m²).

Total weekly days and minutes of PA were measured using the validated self-administered Dutch Short Questionnaire to Assess Health Enhancing Physical Activity (SQUASH) [31]. This questionnaire allows the calculation of the total minutes of moderate- and vigorous-intensity activity per week. It also helps classify participants according to the international guideline for sufficient PA (PA guideline), which is being physically active with moderate to vigorous intensity for at least 30 minutes per day at least 5 days per week [32,33]. The participants? intention to be sufficiently physically active (according to the international PA guideline) was assessed using three items on a 10-point scale (eg, ?To what degree do you intend to be sufficiently physically active?? 1 = Absolutely not, to 10 = Absolutely).

For process evaluation purposes, we asked participants whether they had actually read the advice (?Yes? or ?No?) in the second questionnaire (after 3 months, following the first and second sets of tailored advice) and again in the third questionnaire (after 6 months, following the third provision of tailored advice).

Statistical Analysis

Response and Baseline Characteristics of the Study Population

We analyzed data for participants who completed the baseline questionnaire. We performed descriptive statistics on age, gender, education level, BMI, baseline PA, and intention to be sufficiently physically active to describe the characteristics of the participants. We used univariate one-way analyses of variance (ANOVA) and chi-square tests to determine whether the participants in the print-delivered and Web-based interventions differed on baseline characteristics. Furthermore, we used a chi-square test to find out whether the intervention types (ie, the basic tailored intervention or the tailored intervention with additional environmental information) were equally distributed to the print-delivered and Web-based intervention groups. There was no need to correct baseline data for the intervention type because the content of the baseline questionnaire was similar for all intervention groups.

Dropout Analysis

We performed hierarchical logistic regression analyses to determine whether participants? characteristics were predictors of dropout at the 3-month questionnaire, correcting for intervention type (ie, basic or environmental intervention). We added the user characteristics (ie, age, gender, SES, BMI, intention, and PA behavior) to the second block of the regression analysis. To study whether the delivery mode of the intervention was related to participant dropout, we added the intervention delivery mode to the third block of the regression analysis. The influence of the delivery mode on participant dropout was thus corrected for by user characteristics. The fourth block of the regression analysis contained the interaction terms between the delivery mode and the user characteristics, to determine whether participant dropout was related to certain user characteristics in a specific delivery mode. Because the interaction terms have less power, the significance levels the interaction terms are defined at P=.10 [34]. When a significant interaction term was found, we performed subgroup analyses separately for the print-delivered and Web-based groups. All analyses were performed using SPSS version 18.0.

Response and Baseline Characteristics of the Study Population

A total of 874 adults participated in the print-delivered intervention (response rate of 18.8%) and 855 adults participated in the Web-based intervention (response rate of 11.9%, Figure 3). Baseline characteristics for both intervention groups are shown in Table 1. We found significant differences between the intervention groups with respect to several characteristics. The sample for the Web-based intervention consisted of more men than the sample for the printed intervention (P=.01). Participants in the Web-based intervention were significantly younger (P<.001) and had a significantly higher BMI (P=.001) than the participants of the print-delivered intervention. We found no significant differences between low and high education level among the participants. Regarding PA behavior, the total minutes of moderate to vigorous PA did not differ significantly between the groups. The print-delivered intervention group had a significantly higher intention to be sufficiently physically active (P=.03). Participants of the print-delivered and Web-based intervention groups were equally distributed with respect to the basic and the environmental intervention types.

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Table 2. Hierarchical logistic regression to study the relation between user characteristics, the intervention delivery mode and its interactions, in the prediction of attrition within the intervention period.a

Response

The present study aimed to assess differences in user characteristics related to participation and attrition when comparing a print-delivered intervention and Web-based intervention to stimulate PA among people over 50 years of age. Our study showed that, in this population, the response rate to the print-delivered PA intervention (n=874/4648, 18.8%) was higher than the response rate to the Web-based intervention (n=855/7168, 11.9%). This finding indicates that using a computer might still be a barrier to participation. The difference in response rate may be due to a lack of motivation or limited skills in using the Internet among the target population. This difference is also acknowledged by Venkatesh?s unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT). According to this theory, performance and effort expectancy explain a large proportion of the variance in the intention to use a new technology [35]. This may imply that older adults? skills and self-efficacy in computer usage need to be increased to stimulate the adoption of Web-based interventions. Future researchers should study these barriers further, and may need to incorporate additional information or computer training in their recruitment or intervention to increase the computer skills and self-efficacy of older adults. However, differences in self-efficacy and computer skills among generations might decrease rapidly, since the adults of the current generation have more developed computer skills and are the elderly of the future.

Response rates in Web-based interventions reported in the literature vary substantially between studies. Differences can be caused either by the methodology of the study or by the characteristics of the population. Researchers have conducted several Web-based interventions in populations with known access to the Internet, which resulted in higher response rates than studies in populations without known access [15]. Discovering a lower response rate to a Web-based intervention compared to a print-delivered intervention is in agreement with the findings of a study by Kongved et al [15] that was conducted in a population without known Internet access. The study further showed that after a reminder, when the participants were free to choose between delivery modes, the total response rate was similar in the 2 groups. Similarly, a study by Ekman et al [36] showed that response rates were highest when 2 response methods (ie, print-delivered and Web-based) were offered. In our study, participants of the Active Plus intervention could not choose between delivery modes because different intervention conditions were located in different regions, which prevented participants contaminating each other?s responses. Offering both delivery modes to the participants might have resulted in higher response rates, but would not have provided insight into the actual use of different single-delivery modes.

Another reason for the low response rate could be the length of our questionnaire. A review [37] to identify effective strategies to increase the response to postal and electronic questionnaires showed that the odds of response increased by more than half when participants received shorter questionnaires. The response rate improved with shorter print-delivered questionnaires (odds ratio (OR) 1.64) as well as in studies using electronic questionnaires (OR 1.73), compared to participants given longer questionnaires. Due to research requirements, filling in the Active Plus questionnaires took quite some time (the baseline questionnaire is about 24 pages). In a real-life setting, when no additional questions for research purposes are required, the length of the questionnaires can be shortened, which might result in a higher response rate and limit the dropout rates of the intervention.

We found significant differences between the print-delivered and Web-based intervention groups with respect to several characteristics. The sample for the Web-based intervention was significantly younger and consisted of more men. Both findings can be supported by epidemiological evidence that shows that Internet access is still lower in the over 65 age group, and that men use the Internet more frequently and intensively than women [7,8].

Furthermore, participants of the Web-based intervention had a significantly higher BMI and a lower intention to be sufficiently physically active. This might indicate that adults over 50 years of age who have a low intention to be sufficiently physically active might best be reached using a Web-based intervention. Together with the finding that the majority (480/842, 57.0%) of the Web-based intervention group had an unhealthy BMI, Web-based interventions might be the preferred medium to reach this high-risk population. These differences in user characteristics between print-delivered and Web-based intervention groups should also be taken into consideration when determining the possible effects of the intervention in different delivery modes. However, differences in participant dropout rate between both delivery modes should also be acknowledged.

In contrast to our expectations, no differences were found in education level between the Web-based and print-delivered intervention groups. This is in contrast to several other studies that show that Web-based interventions have a higher reach among high SES populations [38,39]. Possibly, education level is less important to Internet usage in an older population than in the general population. This finding can be explained further by the fact that one of the highest shares of home Internet access in Europe was recorded in the Netherlands (94% in 2011) [8], where differences in Internet access between SES groups has declined rapidly. As epidemiological data shows, in 2010, at the moment of implementing the Active Plus interventions, 87% of the low SES group and 98% of the high SES group in the general population had Internet access [7]. In 2011, the low SES group further increased their Internet access to 90% [7].

Dropout

Since the Active Plus intervention contains multiple provisions of advice, it is important that people continue their participation in the intervention. Our results show that only 61.1% (534/874) of the print-delivered intervention group and only 47.0% (402/855) of the Web-based intervention group filled in the second questionnaire and were thus eligible to receive the third follow-up tailored advice. Furthermore, the number of participants who reported reading their advice was substantially smaller in the Web-based intervention than in the print-delivered intervention. Participant dropout within the intervention period was therefore significantly higher in the Web-based intervention group than in the print-delivered intervention group. The difference in participant dropout rate between the intervention conditions was not explained by user characteristics. We found a significant interaction between the delivery mode and the participants? age in the prediction of participant dropout. Subgroup analyses showed that whereas age was not a predictor of participant dropout in the print-delivered group, there was an indication (almost significant predicator (P=.05)) that younger participants were more likely to drop out from the Web-based intervention. The finding that older adults are more likely to revisit the website is in line with other studies [12,40].

In both delivery modes, a low intention to be physically active was a significant predictor of participant dropout. It is self-evident that people with a lower intention to remain physically active are less likely to continue their participation. Since we also found that low intention participants more often participate in Web-based interventions, this would consequently lead to a higher dropout rate for Web-based interventions. Hence, additional strategies are needed to motivate adults with a low intention to continue their participation in health-promoting interventions. If these participants are less motivated by their health intention, this group needs additional motivators to continue. For example, motivation could be improved by making the intervention more exciting by including gaming elements or by focusing on other aspects besides health, such as news elements, sports games, or social activities.

Since participant dropout was significantly higher in the Web-based intervention and no significant factor was found for user characteristics explaining the differences in dropout rate between the delivery modes, the higher dropout in Web-based interventions must be related to other characteristics. A possible explanation is that it might require more planning to fill in a Web-based questionnaire than a print-delivered questionnaire. A print-delivered questionnaire can be filled in anywhere at anytime, while filling in an online questionnaire restricts one to a computer. Furthermore, in a printed questionnaire, the time required to fill in the questionnaire is more visible (you see the total package in one overview), and it is easier to continue filling in a printed questionnaire after pausing, rather than continuing a Web-based questionnaire, due to loading times and additional log-ins.

Strengths and Limitations

Although this study provides interesting data, some limitations should be noted. First of all, no information was available on those who did not respond to the intervention. We could have performed more predictive analyses if information about the nonparticipants was available to provide insight into the selection process. Second, participants could not choose between the different modes of delivery. They could only choose whether they would like to participate in the intervention with the particular delivery mode that was offered. Giving participants the option to choose between the delivery modes could provide additional insights into the reasons why people participate in a certain intervention. However, not allowing participants to choose between the delivery modes is also a strength?it gave us the opportunity to study the resultant absolute participation and attrition rates for a given delivery mode. In a real-life setting, an intervention is usually offered in only 1 delivery mode because offering both delivery modes results in additional planning and administration. The current design offers optimal insight into the consequences of using 1 of the 2 delivery modes.

Another limitation of this study is that the program evaluation (to assess whether the participants had read the advice) took place several months after the participants received their tailored advice. As a result, some recall bias might have occurred. For future evaluation studies, we recommend sending a short program evaluation questionnaire after each tailored advice to limit recall bias, or to include multiple questions to validate their report.

To our knowledge, this is the only study that compares the characteristics of users related to the use and participant dropout rate of a Web-based intervention and a print-delivered intervention with similar content in an older population. Since older adults are one of the fastest growing online user groups and tend to have the most interest in and need for health advice compared to other age groups [9,10], it is important to gain more insight into this population?s user characteristics. Furthermore, we conducted our study on a large and diverse target population in which both low and high SES subgroups were represented. By stratifying invitees by age and SES at a neighborhood level, we could compare the response rates of the print-delivered and Web-based intervention conditions.

Conclusion

The results of our study suggest that the response to a Web-based intervention is significantly lower than a print-delivered intervention among Dutch people over 50 years of age, and participants with different characteristics were attracted by different delivery modes. Participants with a low intention to be physically active and a high BMI were more attracted by the Web-based intervention, indicating that Web-based interventions might be a good medium to reach this high-risk population.

Although participant dropout was significantly higher in the Web-based intervention, no significant factors were found for user characteristics explaining the differences in participant dropout between the delivery modes. This indicates that the higher dropout rate in Web-based interventions is potentially relevant for all demographic groups and related to characteristics not measured in this study.

Our study has provided important new insights into the differences in user characteristics of participants in a print-delivered or Web-based intervention in an older population. These findings are important when selecting the delivery mode of an intervention that aims to optimize exposure to a certain subgroup and when interpreting and generalizing results of randomized controlled effectiveness trials. Since Internet use is growing rapidly in older populations, more research is needed to explore the prolonged use, appreciation, and effectiveness of Web-based interventions compared to print-delivered interventions in this population. The low cost of Web-based interventions can provide an opportunity to reach more of the population, if the effectiveness of the intervention method can be improved. Furthermore, more research is needed to investigate strategies that limit the high dropout rates in Web-based interventions (especially among participants with a low PA intention) and to ensure a sustained intervention effect.

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Acknowledgments

DPE wrote the first draft of the manuscript. MVS designed the original (print-delivered) intervention. RGO and DPE translated this intervention into a Web-based intervention. Both processes have been supervised by ELE, HDV, CBO, and AMU. DPE and RGO conducted the study. All authors read, modified, and approved the final manuscript.

This study was funded by The Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development (ZonMw, 200110006), and publication was supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). We would like to thank the Municipal Health counsellors that participated in this project.

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Conflicts of Interest

None declared.

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Abbreviations

ANOVA: univariate one-way analyses of variance

BMI: body mass index

MHC: Municipal Health Council

OR: odds ratio

PA: physical activity

RCT: randomized controlled trial

SES: socioeconomic status

SQUASH: short questionnaire to assess health enhancing physical activity

UTAUT: Venkatesh?s unified theory of acceptance and use of technology

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Edited by G Eysenbach; submitted 18.06.12; peer-reviewed by P Krebs; comments to author 31.08.12; revised version received 12.09.12; accepted 12.09.12; published 17.12.12 Please cite as: Peels DA, Bolman C, Golsteijn RHJ, De Vries H, Mudde AN, van Stralen MM, Lechner L Differences in Reach and Attrition Between Web-Based and Print-Delivered Tailored Interventions Among Adults over 50 Years of Age: Clustered Randomized Trial J Med Internet Res 2012;14(6):e179 URL: http://www.jmir.org/2012/6/e179/ doi: 10.2196/jmir.2229 PMID: Export Metadata: BibTeX, compatible with BibDesk, LaTeX RIS, compatible with RefMan, Procite, Endnote, RefWorks Refer, compatible with Endnote Add this article to your Mendeley library Add this article to your CiteULike library Add this article to your Connotea library

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Copyright

?Denise Astrid Peels, Catherine Bolman, Rianne Henrica Johanna Golsteijn, Hein De Vries, Aart Nicolaas Mudde, Maartje Marieke van Stralen, Lilian Lechner. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (http://www.jmir.org), 17.12.2012.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on http://www.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.

Source: http://www.jmir.org/2012/6/e179/

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