Background The major challenges in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) care are guiding a patient in daily living with the consequences of the disease, reducing the impact of symptoms and improving Health Related Quality of Life (HRQoL). The new nurse-led COPD-Guidance, Research on an Illness …

From the publisher's website: Large groups in society, in particular people with low literacy, lack the necessary proactivity and problem-solving skills to be self-reliant. One omnipresent problem area where these skills are relevant regards filling in forms and questionnaires. These problems could be …

Interactive Virtual Math (IVM) is a visualization tool to support secondary school students’ learning of graphs by dynamic events. In the prototype version students construct a graph and try to improve it themselves and with the feedback of the tool. In a small-scale experiment, which involved four classes …

The primary research question for this project was “How can Royal FloraHolland increase the consumer spending on Dutch flowers and plants in Turkey?” with the aim to study causes and reasons for the low consumption of flowers and plants in Turkey. The research question was answered through desk and …

This dissertation investigates how an NGO like PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) can recover its brand equity after this was damaged due to a scandal. The focus was on improving perceived service quality as this appeared to be a very important aspect of brand equity that is damaged severely …

Studies monitoring vitamin D status in athletes are seldom conducted for a period of 12 months or longer, thereby lacking insight into seasonal fluctuations. The objective of the cur-rent study was to identify seasonal changes in total 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) concen-tration throughout the year. …

Obesity is a fast-growing societal threat, causing chronic conditions, physical and psychological health problems, as well as sickness absence and heavy healthcare costs. Despite numerous attempts to promote physical activity and healthy diet, existing interventions do not focus on the common emotional …

Against the backdrop of depopulation and Big Society, citizen initiatives in rural areas are believed to be able to mitigate service-provision inequalities between urban and peripheral regions. Factors influencing the success and failure of such citizen initiatives and their potential in providing solutions …

Purpose: The etiology of pain in osteoarthritis (OA) is complex and multifactorial. A growing number of studies suggest that modification of pain-transmission in the peripheral and central nervous system, leading to sensitization, plays a role in OA pain. Sensitization seems to be associated with neuropathic …

BACKGROUND: Health-related quality of life in patients with Addison's disease has been assessed in various European countries, indicating a reduced quality of life. However, no studies have addressed the impact of Addison's disease on physical activity. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate …