Does one size fit all? The case for ethnic specific standards to assess growth in South Asian children

For South Asian adults lowered BMI cut-offs for overweight and obesity are recommended as these are more in agreement with their body composition (low muscle mass, high fat mass) and the considerably higher risk of cardiovascuar and metabolic disease. For South Asian children living in a Western country lowered BMI norms have not been...

Comfortable passenger seats: Recommendations for design and research

This thesis provides new knowledge on how to design comfortable passenger seats and provides recommendations for design and research. Although the first studies on passenger seat comfort appeared already 40 years ago, the activities and context have changed since then. In this thesis, relationships have been mapped out between activities ...

Patterns in primary midwife-led care in the Netherlands: trends and variation in intrapartum referrals

The number of obstetric interventions during normal term labour is increasing in the Netherlands, for instance for augmentation of labour and epidurals. Offerhaus also observed that the number of unplanned caesarean sections increased for healthy women who were pregnant and gave birth for the first time. These changes were not accompanied by...

Changing curves: monitoring growth of children and adolescents in The Netherlands

Background: Monitoring human growth is important. It is used to detection of abnormal growth trajectories of children, which may reflect nutritional problems or underlying illness. In a larger population, it can provide information about the health status of this population, for example the prevalence of overweight and obesity, or the mean...

On regulatory focus and performance in organizational environments

What motivates people, and when do they perform optimally at work? In this dissertation, a regulatory focus perspective is taken (RFT, Higgins, 1997) to provide answers to these important questions. The results of multiple studies, conducted in complex organizational environments are reported. In many of those environments, there is a clear...

Working longer in good health [Langer doorwerken in goede gezondheid]

Due to an ageing society, an increasing retirement age, and high prevalence of chronic health problems among older persons, it is important to understand how older employees [with health problems] can work for longer and productively, often this is termed ‘sustainable employability’. This context brought about the research presented in this...

Active video games: Can they contribute to the prevention of excessive weight gain in gaming adolescents?

In dit proefschrift wordt onderzocht in hoeverre beweeggames kunnen bijdragen aan de preventie van overgewicht bij 12- tot 16-jarigen. Uit het onderzoek blijkt dat dit soort games nog niet kunnen concurreren met de gangbare computergames en daarom niet aantrekkelijk genoeg zijn voor jongeren om naar over te stappen. Simons raadt de fabrikanten...

Effects of anxiety and exercise-induced fatigue on operational performance

Personalized Educational Games: Developing agent-supported scenario-based training

Pacing strategies during exercise in the heat

Team spirit under pressure: The predictive value of team work engagement on individual resilience among military peacekeepers

Measuring individual work performance

Improving organisational safety through better learning from incidents and accidents

The main objective of this dissertation is to contribute to better learning from safety related incidents and accidents in organisations. The dissertation provides a method to systematically study learning from incidents, by using a model of five phases that represent the actions necessary to successfully follow up on incidents and to learn from...

Prediction of brain target site concentrations on the basis of CSF PK: impact of mechanisms of blood-to-brain transport and within brain distribution

In the development of drugs for the treatment of central nervous system (CNS) disorders, the prediction of human CNS drug action is a big challenge. Direct measurement of brain extracellular fluid (brainECF) concentrations is highly restricted in human. Therefore, unbound drug concentrations in human cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) are used as a...