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Neighbourhood characteristics and prevalence and severity of depression: pooled analysis of eight Dutch cohort studies
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- Ellen Generaal, Emiel O. Hoogendijk, Mariska Stam, Celina E. Henke, Femke Rutters, Mirjam Oosterman, Martijn Huisman, Sophia E. Kramer, Petra J. M. Elders, Erik J. Timmermans, Jeroen Lakerveld, Eric Koomen, Margreet ten Have, Ron de Graaf, Marieke B. Snijder, Karien Stronks, Gonneke Willemsen, Dorret I. Boomsma, Johannes H. Smit, Brenda W. J. H. Penninx
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- Journal:
- The British Journal of Psychiatry / Volume 215 / Issue 2 / August 2019
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 06 May 2019, pp. 468-475
- Print publication:
- August 2019
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- Article
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Background
Studies on neighbourhood characteristics and depression show equivocal results.
AimsThis large-scale pooled analysis examines whether urbanisation, socioeconomic, physical and social neighbourhood characteristics are associated with the prevalence and severity of depression.
MethodCross-sectional design including data are from eight Dutch cohort studies (n= 32 487). Prevalence of depression, either DSM-IV diagnosis of depressive disorder or scoring for moderately severe depression on symptom scales, and continuous depression severity scores were analysed. Neighbourhood characteristics were linked using postal codes and included (a) urbanisation grade, (b) socioeconomic characteristics: socioeconomic status, home value, social security beneficiaries and non-Dutch ancestry, (c) physical characteristics: air pollution, traffic noise and availability of green space and water, and (d) social characteristics: social cohesion and safety. Multilevel regression analyses were adjusted for the individual's age, gender, educational level and income. Cohort-specific estimates were pooled using random-effects analysis.
ResultsThe pooled analysis showed that higher urbanisation grade (odds ratio (OR) = 1.05, 95% CI 1.01–1.10), lower socioeconomic status (OR = 0.90, 95% CI 0.87–0.95), higher number of social security beneficiaries (OR = 1.12, 95% CI 1.06–1.19), higher percentage of non-Dutch residents (OR = 1.08, 95% CI 1.02–1.14), higher levels of air pollution (OR = 1.07, 95% CI 1.01–1.12), less green space (OR = 0.94, 95% CI 0.88–0.99) and less social safety (OR = 0.92, 95% CI 0.88–0.97) were associated with higher prevalence of depression. All four socioeconomic neighbourhood characteristics and social safety were also consistently associated with continuous depression severity scores.
ConclusionsThis large-scale pooled analysis across eight Dutch cohort studies shows that urbanisation and various socioeconomic, physical and social neighbourhood characteristics are associated with depression, indicating that a wide range of environmental aspects may relate to poor mental health.
Declaration of interestNone.
19 - The Work Practice Center of Excellence
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- By Luke Plurkowski, Palo Alto Research Center, USA, Margaret H. Szymanski, Palo Alto Research Center, USA, Patricia Wall, Xerox Research Center Webster, USA, Johannes A. Koomen, Xerox Research Center Webster, USA
- Edited by Margaret H. Szymanski, Jack Whalen
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- Book:
- Making Work Visible
- Published online:
- 05 August 2012
- Print publication:
- 31 March 2011, pp 336-343
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Summary
In late 2005, a Xerox business group, Creative and Technical Communication (CTC), began to sell its services and solutions to clients outside of Xerox. This transition to the external market would require consulting skills, yet the subject matter experts inside of CTC had very little, if any, experience working with clients other than Xerox. Additionally, because CTC would be a new player in the external market, it needed a distinct way to differentiate itself from its older, more experienced competitors in order to gain traction and increase revenue.
Tom Hurysz, Vice President of CTC, recognized the need to invest in work practice training for his consultants and to establish a center of excellence in his organization that could support their external marketing efforts. Historically, work practice researchers had helped CTC (see Sprague et al., this volume) and other business units with various customer-facing projects; in these engagements, subject-matter experts would work alongside work practice analysts. So Hurysz was familiar with the value of work practice study; and a recent rental car client engagement confirmed the value that work practice could bring (Sprague et al., this volume). Hurysz was quick to champion a work practice study training effort in his organization, stating, “I want work practice study to be a part of the consulting methodology because I think it reveals issues and opportunities that a normal process engineering method is not going to get at” (personal communication, 2008).
13 - Sign of the Times at the Department Store
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- By Johannes A. Koomen, Xerox Research Center Webster, USA
- Edited by Margaret H. Szymanski, Jack Whalen
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- Book:
- Making Work Visible
- Published online:
- 05 August 2012
- Print publication:
- 31 March 2011, pp 240-254
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Summary
Towards the end of the 1990s, Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) spun out an invention called Gyricon in the hopes of commercializing it. Gyricon, a kind of electronic reusable paper, is a static display consisting of thousands of tiny magnetic balls suspended in a thin layer of oil sandwiched between two layers of a clear substrate containing a thin wire grid (see Figure 13.1). The balls are half white and half black, and their orientation can be changed by a magnetic field induced by applying a small electric current to the wire grid. One of the major benefits of the invention is that, once changed, the balls remain in the same orientation and hence the display maintains the same image without needing continuous power. The new company, named Gyricon Media Inc., was to produce signs in various shapes and sizes, targeting conference venues, hotels, and other public places where information such as event announcements and directions can vary from day to day.
Business Services, exploring possibilities for creating solutions and services around the new display technology, approached a major department store chain with the objective to replace the traditional paper signs in the stores with Gyricon signs. The department store chain consisted of a flagship store close to company headquarters, and scores of large-, medium-, and low-volume stores distributed throughout the Eastern United States.
7 - New Ways of Working
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- By Mary Ann Sprague, Xerox Research Center Webster, USA, Nathaniel Martin, Xerox Research Centre Europe, France, Johannes A. Koomen, Xerox Research Center Webster, USA
- Edited by Margaret H. Szymanski, Jack Whalen
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- Book:
- Making Work Visible
- Published online:
- 05 August 2012
- Print publication:
- 31 March 2011, pp 128-146
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Summary
For decades, Xerox Creative and Technical Communications group (CTC) has been the internal Xerox unit that produces most, if not all, documentation for Xerox products. The organization writes, translates, and publishes documents. They deliver manuals, on-line and embedded help files, and training materials to both equipment end-users and service personnel. This chapter describes a work practice relationship that has endured across multiple studies and an external client engagement.
Our relationship with CTC began in 2003 when the research group was studying publishing practices and approached the internal organization as the subject of the study. After an in-depth study of the authoring and publishing areas of the CTC group, we were asked to continue the study by reviewing an authoring system that was being developed and evaluated.
Following a long tradition of document innovation, CTC was trying to restructure their document creation and lifecycle management to reduce development times and cost of producing documentation. We uncovered a mismatch between the expectations of the managers and the workers with these new tools and processes. In 2006, members of our team did a follow-up study to assess their progress. At this point, CTC was working diligently to implement an authoring system similar to the one we had seen earlier.
As part of our standard practice, we presented our findings to the collaborators within CTC. They found the material unsurprising, as we had hoped, but useful to explain their work to outsiders and management. They had a long history of innovation in documentation development.
15 - Designing Document Solutions for Airline Maintenance Advisories
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- By Patricia Wall, Xerox Research Center Webster, USA, Johannes A. Koomen, Xerox Research Center Webster, USA
- Edited by Margaret H. Szymanski, Jack Whalen
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- Book:
- Making Work Visible
- Published online:
- 05 August 2012
- Print publication:
- 31 March 2011, pp 285-298
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Summary
Introduction
At the turn of the 21st century, Xerox Global Services (XGS) was looking to build on Xerox's traditional strengths in product development and solutions sales by providing business process consulting and outsourcing services for large enterprise customers. This would expand the value Xerox could bring to its large customer base by helping customers reduce operating costs and improve processes. XGS was deploying conventional approaches such as Lean Six Sigma (LSS) as well as developing a set of assessment tools to help guide and define their consulting practices.
One area of interest to XGS was the ethnographic-based Work Practice approach, already in use in Xerox Research for several years. Prior to the existence of XGS, extensive studies of field service technician work (Orr, 1996, 2006; Bobrow and Whalen, 2002, Whalen and Bobrow, this volume) illustrated the value of applying work practice methods to understand technical work to inform the design of technology solutions intended to support that work. XGS recognized that the qualitative Work Practice approach was an ideal complement to the quantitative nature of LSS studies. Although the facts and figures resulting from a LSS study are necessary to demonstrate and justify the need for new or changed processes and technologies, they do not sufficiently support all complex consulting engagements. In many cases, a deep understanding of the social and cultural aspects of a work process is necessary to define not only what needs to change, but how best to make those changes so that they fit in the social context of the work and are adopted by the workers with minimal disruption.