This report is a thesis made during graduation period at ENGIE Services West Industrie in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. This thesis has been realized over a course of 17 weeks in the department of Industrial Automation. The problem, for which a solution has been created, is related to the process of …

Background: COPD self-management is a complex behavior influenced by many factors. Despite scientific evidence that better disease outcomes can be achieved by enhancing self-management, many COPD patients do not respond to self-management interventions. To move toward more effective self-management interventions, …

The past decade has shown a great rise in digital tools to measure various aspects of daily life. Such measured data does not exist in a vacuum and is increasingly integrated in newly designed interactive products. Meanwhile our cities are moving toward smart infrastructure and supporting innovation …

The semantic differential is a widely applied measurement technique in the information systems field. As we demonstrate in this study, however, there is evidence that many of the applications of the semantic differential seem to be subject to common shortcomings. In this study, we address these shortcomings …

Family foster care placement decision-making has a weak scientific underpinning. Mostly a ‘variable-oriented approach’ is taken, which requires a lot of information that is not always available. The identification of clusters of foster children with similar characteristics may be a more viable decision …

Environmental unsustainability is due to both structural features and historically specific characteristics of industrial capitalism resulting in specific patterns of production and consumption, as well as population growth. Sustainability literature criticises the established corporate and political …

Using fMRI, cerebral activations were studied in 24 classically-trained keyboard performers and 12 musically unskilled control subjects. Two groups of musicians were recruited: improvising (n=12) and score-dependent (non-improvising) musicians (n=12). While listening to both familiar and unfamiliar music, …

From the perspective of caregivers, social interaction is a dynamic process in which many aspects are involved. Caregivers reported about eight main themes across child factors, parental factors and environmental factors that influence real-time as well as long term processes of social interaction. Our …

The aim of this study was to understand the motives for using the Internet, and its associations with users' attitudes, social values, and relational involvement. Also, this study attempted to crossculturally compare the difference in the pattern of motives and the associations among three countries …

The Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science has funded a five years program to encourage the use, creation and sharing of Open Educational Resources (OER) by teachers from various types of education. This program is known as Wikiwijs. Ultimo 2013, the program has come to an end. As some of the …