At a time when the population is ageing and most people choose to live in their own home for as long as possible, it is important to consider various aspects of supportive and comfortable environments for housing. This study, conducted in South Australia, aims to provide information about the links between the type of housing in which older people live, the weather and occupants’ heating and cooling behaviours as well as their health and well-being. The study used a Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) system to survey 250 people aged 65 years and over who lived in their own home. The respondents were recruited from three regions representing the three climate zones in South Australia: semi-arid, warm temperate and temperate. The results show that while the majority of respondents reported being in good health, many lived in dwellings with minimal shading and no wall insulation and appeared to rely on the use of heaters and coolers to achieve thermally comfortable conditions. Concerns over the cost of heating and cooling were shared among the majority of respondents and particularly among people with low incomes. Findings from this study highlight the importance of providing information to older people, carers, designers and policy makers about the interrelationships between weather, housing design, heating and cooling behaviours, thermal comfort, energy use and health and well-being, in order to support older people to age in place independently and healthily. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2019.03.023 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jvhoof1980/
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Nature in cities serves a multitude of purposes, one of which is that it provides citizens opportunities to recover from stressful daily urban life. Such stress recovering effects of nature can be experienced through urban green, which in urban planning and design contexts can be divided into large natural areas - urban green space - and small scale elements in urban streets: the urban greenscape. The current study aims at finding the extent to which various small scale natural elements in residential streets and their possible configurations influence citizens' preferences for those streets. The research was conducted through an online survey in four cities in the Netherlands (n = 4,956). It used stated choice methods in a virtual environment street design. The method yielded high quality data, indicating that the use of virtual environments and imagery is suitable for stated choice research in the built environment. The results show that especially trees very strongly influence preference, indicating they deserve more attention and space in cities. Grass, which is typically favored by local governments, and vertical green have the smallest effects in residential streets. Furthermore, the concept of greenscape intensity is introduced as the intensities of both the element and the configuration were found to be highly relevant. The results clearly show that the higher either of these intensities, the more likely a respondent will prefer the greenscape design. Furthermore, low intensity on the one can be compensated by high intensity on the other. With these results, urban design professionals and local governments can better trade-off the different aspects of costs versus positive effects of urban greenscape designs.
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PurposeTo support the development and implementation of exercise programming for people with prostate cancer (PC), we investigated their views on exercise.MethodsOnline survey with open recruitment. We collected data on clinical and sociodemographic variables, experiences with exercise advice, outcome expectations, and preferences. We explored determinants of (1) having been counselled about exercise and (2) preferring supervised exercise.ResultsThe survey was completed by 171 patients (mean age = 70 years, SD = 6.5) from all PC treatment pathways. Sixty-three percent of the respondents reported never having been informed about the potential benefits of exercise. Forty-nine percent preferred exercise to be supervised. Respondents generally reported a positive attitude towards exercise. Seventy-four percent indicated barriers to exercising, including fatigue and lack of access to specific programmes. Outcome expectations were generally positive but moderately strong. Receiving hormonal therapy and younger age were significantly associated with having received exercise advice. Being insured and having higher fatigue levels contributed significantly to the preference for supervised exercise.ConclusionDutch people with PC report receiving insufficient effective exercise counselling. Yet, they are open to exercise and expect exercise to improve their health, although they experience various barriers that limit their ability to exercise.Implications for Cancer SurvivorsThe moderate outcome expectations for exercise of people with PC and their limited recall of exercise counselling highlight the need for better integration of exercise in clinical pathways. The lack of access to specific programming limits the use of evidence-based exercise programmes for people with PC.
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Het lezen van literatuur is gunstig voor de ontwikkeling van leerlingen tot gemotiveerde, ‘diepe’ lezers. Er zijn echter indicaties dat Nederlandse leraren in basis- en voortgezet onderwijs weinig literaire teksten lezen die voor hun leerlingen relevant zijn en dat hun repertoirekennis en leesbevorderingscompetenties achterblijven. Die situatie belemmert leraren de leesfrequentie en -motivatie, en het leesbegrip van leerlingen te stimuleren. Het doel van dit project is de leesfrequentie, repertoirekennis en leesbevorderingscompetenties van zittende en aankomende leraren (studenten van de pabo en tweedegraadslerarenopleiding) te versterken en ze zo in staat te stellen hun leerlingen beter te ondersteunen. Het onderzoek kent twee deelprojecten: één gericht op het basisonderwijs en één op het tweedegraadsgebied Nederlands in het voortgezet onderwijs (vmbo en onderbouw havo/vwo). Elk deelproject bestaat uit een aantal parallelle deelstudies. In de eerste fase van elk project wordt op basis van de uitkomsten van een literatuurstudie, survey-onderzoek en een verdiepend kwalitatief onderzoek inzicht gegeven in leesgedrag, repertoirekennis en leesbevorderingscompetenties van (aankomende en zittende) leraren en van de leescultuur op scholen. In de tweede fase wordt in een designstudie door kennis- en praktijkprofessionals in co-creatie een aanpak ontwikkeld gericht op de versterking van leraren als leesbevorderaars in basis- en voortgezet onderwijs. In de derde fase worden de effecten van de aanpak getest in een veldexperiment. Drie vragen staan hierbij centraal: 1. Leidt stimuleren van het lezen van literaire teksten door leraren en het vergroten van hun leesbevorderingscompetenties tot grotere repertoirekennis bij leraren en tot betere ondersteuning van leerlingen? 2. Leidt dit vervolgens ook tot een grotere motivatie voor en frequentie van het lezen van literaire teksten bij leerlingen en tot een beter (d.w.z. dieper) tekstbegrip? 3. In hoeverre wordt het succes van de aanpak bepaald door de leescultuur op school? Het project resulteert in een overdraagbare interventie, die in de laatste fase wordt verspreid.
Measuring and designing user experience in retail and gaming virtual reality using a CAVE set-up In this project we designed and measured user experiences in a CAVE virtual reality set-up. Virtually all studies have taken the form of experiment studies and have been conducted among consumers (in total more than 1500 consumers) who had to visit the virtual world with assignments based on which behaviour has been observed and after which a survey was conducted afterwards. The studies were carried out within the three lines of inquiry: a. Branded games / in-game advertising, revealing (positive) effects of in-game advertising on attention and attitude based on logos and faces incorporated into the games. Various applications (prototypes) have been developed that stimulate the shopping experience and the interaction between shop and consumer. (b) FMCG: studies answered the question which factors influence search and choice behaviour in the supermarket. On the basis of the studies, the clients have designed new packaging and adapted existing designs, deployed new shelf layouts, developed and implemented new Retail strategies, optimized instore communication and (e) the knowledge about consumer behaviour in the supermarket within the organization has been increased. (c) Location Based Advertising: recommendations have been made for the partners concerned and the field of work on (a) development of non-intrusive pervasive/ubiquitous advertising concepts (2nd screen, LBA, gaze-based advertising etc.), (b) development of virtual test environments and associated interaction methods and (c) exploration and review of theoretical models for persuasive communication and behavioural influence. Partners: Heinz, Nokia, DVJ-Insights, Radboud University, Brand Loyalty, IRI, Talpa, TU/e, Philips
