Successful wellness initiatives at DaimlerChrysler Canada Incorporated (DCCI) led to a unique partnership between key stakeholders that allowed implementation of Tune Up Your Heart, a program aimed at improving workforce cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. Volunteers were screened and stratified according to their CVD risk. Interventions were tailored to risk level and included goal setting, monitoring progress, and company-wide education programs. Outcome data (CVD risk and components of risk) were collected at study entry and after 18 months. The economic impact of the program was determined using a model based on subject movement across risk categories and historical claims data for life insurance, short- and long-term disability, prescription drugs, and casual absenteeism. Intervention participants (N = 343) demonstrated a significant (P = .0113) relative CVD risk reduction of 12.7%; 36% of participants lost weight, and average body mass index decreased from 28.4 to 28.2 (P = .0419). Average systolic and diastolic blood pressure significantly decreased (P < .0001 and P = .0221, respectively). Subjects reported increased adherence to recommended exercise and diet regimens, and the number of smokers decreased by 14%. The majority of subjects reported satisfaction with the program. Annual savings were estimated at Can$793 for the intervention group and Can$18,461 when projected to the entire workforce (N = 13,629). Savings were sensitive to cost weighting when subjects moved to a lower risk class but more robust to other parameters. The Tune Up Your Heart program significantly improved employee CVD risk profile, and was associated with savings for DCCI.

A solid vegetable waste stream was subjected to dilute acid (HCl) pretreatment with the goal of converting the waste into a form that is amenable to biochemical processes which could include microbial lipids, biohydrogen, and volatile organic acids production. Specifically, this study was conducted to identify the most suitable pretreatment condition that maximizes the yield or concentration of sugars while minimizing the production of compounds which are inhibitory to microbes (i.e., furfural, hydroxymethylfurfural, and organic acids). Temperatures from 50–150 °C and HCl loading from 0–7 wt % were studied to using an orthogonal central composite response surface design with eight center points. The effects of the variables under study on the resulting concentrations of sugars, organic acids, and furans were determined using the quadratic response surface model. Results indicated that the biomass used in this study contains about 5.7 wt % cellulose and 83.8 wt % hemicellulose/pectin. Within the experimental design, the most suitable pretreatment condition was identified to be at 50 °C and 3.5 wt % HCl. A kinetic study at this condition indicated process completion at 30 mins. that produced a hydrolyzate that contains 31.30 ± 0.44 g/L sugars and 7.40 ± 0.62 g/L organic acids. At this condition, a yield of ~0.47 g sugar/g of dry solid vegetable waste was obtained. The absence of furans suggests the suitability of the resulting hydrolyzate as feedstock for biochemical processes. The results suggested that the sugar concentration of the pretreated biomass is highly affected by the presence of other compounds such as amines, amino acids, and proteins. The effect however, is minimal at low levels of HCl where the highest total sugar production was observed.

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