In the psychological field, a lot of progress has been made in values theory. In marketing theory, however, the use of values has been undervalued. Despite the widespread managerial use of brand values, attention has remained focused on the brand personality concept. This book intends to provide a new perspective to marketing science, by proposing a system of brand values that takes into account the developments in values theory. Values were tested in a number of rounds among a total of more than 3,000 respondents in the Netherlands and several other countries including Germany, Italy, and China.In this study, values that motivate consumer behavior were demonstrated to relate to each other as a consistent value system, labelled here as the Value Compass. We showed that the values with which brands profile themselves can be organized according to a similar structure as the human value system, which opens additional insights into the use of values to position brands, or to predict brand choice. The cross-cultural validation included in this book showed a high degree of equivalence of the Value Compass. This validation provided insight in the cross-cultural similarities in the structure of the value system, but it also emphasized the cross-cultural differences in priorities that individuals attach to certain values.
Learning by creating qualitative representations is a valuable approach to learning. However, modelling is challenging for students, especially in secondary education. Support is needed to make this approach effective. To address this issue, we explore automated support provided to students while they create their qualitative representation. This support is generated form a reference model that functions as a norm. However, the construction of a reference models is still a challenge. In this paper, we present the reference model that we have created to support students in learning about the melatonin regulation in the context of the biological clock.
Peak oxygen uptake (V'O2peak) is recognised as the best expression of aerobic fitness. Therefore, it is essential that V'O2peak reference values are accurate for interpreting a cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET). These values are country specific and influenced by underlying biological ageing processes. They are normally stratified per paediatric and adult population, resulting in a discontinuity at the transition point between prediction equations. There are currently no age-related reference values available for the lifespan of individuals in the Dutch population. The aim of this study is to determine the best-fitting regression model for V'O2peak in the healthy Dutch paediatric and adult populations in relation to age. In this retrospective study, CPET cycle ergometry results of 4477 subjects without reported somatic diseases were included (907 females, age 7.9-65.0 years). Generalised additive models were employed to determine the best-fitting regression model. Cross-validation was performed against an independent dataset consisting of 3518 subjects (170 females, age 6.8-59.0 years). An additive model was the best fitting with the largest predictive accuracy in both the primary (adjusted R2=0.57, standard error of the estimate (see)=556.50 mL·min-1) and cross-validation (adjusted R2=0.57, see=473.15 mL·min-1) dataset. This study provides a robust additive regression model for V'O2peak in the Dutch population.
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Although cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) is being recognized as an important marker of health and functioning, it is currently not routinely assessed in daily clinical practice. There is an urgent need for a simple and feasible exercise test that can validly and reliably estimate an individual’s CRF. The Steep Ramp Test (SRT) is such a practical short-time exercise test (work rate increments of 25 W/10 seconds, so the test phase will only take up to 4 minutes) on a cycle ergometer, that does not require expensive equipment or specialized knowledge, and has been found able to validly and reliably estimate an individual’s CRF. Although the SRT is already frequently used in the Netherlands to evaluate CRF, sex- and age-specific reference values for adults and elderly are lacking thus far, which seriously limits the interpretation of test results.
