The Design of a Persuasive Game to Motivate People with Asthma in Adherence to Their Maintenance Medication

Objective: This study aimed to design a persuasive game, using objective adherence data, to motivate people with asthma to adhere to their medication regimen. Methods: A participatory user-centered design approach was employed, involving end-users and other stakeholders throughout the study. The approach consisted of four phases. Semi...

Towards responsible standardisation:: investigating the importance of responsible innovation for standards development

Responsible Innovation has recently been taken up in public policies and discourses. However, it remains challenging to institutionalise its core dimensions – inclusion, anticipation, responsiveness, reflexivity, and transparency – in practice. De jure standardisation is increasingly seen as an instrument to embed the core principles of...

Understanding civil servants' intentions to open data: factors influencing behavior to disclose data

Purpose: The opening of government data is high on the policy agenda of governments worldwide. However, data release faces barriers due to limited support of civil servants, whereas the literature neglects civil servants' role in opening data. This paper aims at understanding why civil servants can be reluctant to support the disclosure of data....

Influencing the Insulin System by Placebo Effects in Patients with Diabetes Type 2 and Healthy Controls: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Objective The objective of this study was to investigate whether placebo effect induced by pharmacological conditioning with intranasal insulin can affect glucose, insulin, C-peptide, hunger, and memory in patients with diabetes type 2 and healthy controls. Methods Placebo effect was induced by pharmacological conditioning. Thirty-two older...

Conditioning of the Cortisol Awakening Response in Healthy Men: Study Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial

Background: The hormone cortisol plays important roles in human circadian and stress physiology and is an interesting target for interventions. Cortisol varies not only in response to stress but also as part of a diurnal rhythm. It shows a particularly sharp increase immediately after awakening, the cortisol awakening response (CAR). Cortisol...

Nocebo Hyperalgesia in Patients With Fibromyalgia and Healthy Controls: An Experimental Investigation of Conditioning and Extinction Processes at Baseline and 1-Month Follow-up

Nocebo effects are adverse treatment outcomes that are not ascribed to active treatment components. Potentially, their magnitude might be higher in patients with chronic pain compared to healthy controls since patients likely experience treatment failure more frequently. The current study investigated group differences in the induction and...

Susceptibility to Nocebo Hyperalgesia, Dispositional Optimism, and Trait Anxiety as Predictors of Nocebo Hyperalgesia Reduction

OBJECTIVES: The current paper explores the psychological predictors of nocebo hyperalgesia and whether the reduction of nocebo hyperalgesia can be predicted by susceptibility to nocebo hyperalgesia and psychological characteristics. METHODS: Nocebo effects on pressure pain were first experimentally induced in 83 healthy female participants...

How to use participatory design to develop an eHealth intervention to reduce preprocedural stress and anxiety among children visiting the hospital: The Hospital Hero app multi-study and pilot report

Background: Medical procedures can cause considerable stress and anxiety among children. Current interventions mainly diminish stress and anxiety during procedures, while stress and anxiety often build up at home. Moreover, interventions often focus on either distraction or preparation. eHealth can combine multiple strategies and provide a...

Developing a Digital Medication Adherence Intervention for and With Patients With Asthma and Low Health Literacy: Protocol for a Participatory Design Approach

Background: Current eHealth interventions are poorly adopted by people with low health literacy (LHL) as they often fail to meet their needs, skills, and preferences. A major reason for this poor adoption is the generic, one-size-fits-all approach taken by designers of these interventions, without addressing the needs, skills, and preferences...

Single-Electron Occupation in Quantum Dot Arrays at Selectable Plunger Gate Voltage

The small footprint of semiconductor qubits is favorable for scalable quantum computing. However, their size also makes them sensitive to their local environment and variations in the gate structure. Currently, each device requires tailored gate voltages to confine a single charge per quantum dot, clearly challenging scalability. Here, we...

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the in-hospital diagnostic pathway of breast and colorectal cancer in the Netherlands: A population-based study

Background: In the Netherlands, the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a temporary halt of population screening for cancer and limited hospital capacity for non-COVID care. We aimed to investigate the impact of the pandemic on the in-hospital diagnostic pathway of breast cancer (BC) and colorectal cancer (CRC). Methods: 71,159 BC and 48,900 CRC...

An integrated single-cell RNA-seq atlas of the mouse hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus links transcriptomic and functional types

The hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus (PVN) is a highly complex brain region that is crucial for homeostatic regulation through neuroendocrine signaling, outflow of the autonomic nervous system, and projections to other brain areas. In the past years, single-cell datasets of the hypothalamus have contributed immensely to the current...

Downsizing and the use of timber as embodied carbon reduction strategies for new-build housing: A partial life cycle assessment

The 2050 decarbonization goals coupled with the growing housing shortage in Europe intensify the pressure on new-build dwellings to enhance their energy performance. Beyond a zero operational energy, the focus has shifted towards reducing embodied carbon (EC). Against this backdrop, this study investigates the simultaneous impact of downsizing...

The value of a mobile educative Application additional to Standard counselling on aspirin Adherence in Pregnancy: the ASAP study, a randomised controlled trial

Objective: To assess the added value of a novel, mobile educative application to standard counselling on aspirin adherence during pregnancy versus standard counselling alone. Methods: Participants were randomly assigned for additional use of a mobile educative application or standard counselling alone. Main outcome measures were adherence to...

Low disorder and high valley splitting in silicon

The electrical characterisation of classical and quantum devices is a critical step in the development cycle of heterogeneous material stacks for semiconductor spin qubits. In the case of silicon, properties such as disorder and energy separation of conduction band valleys are commonly investigated individually upon modifications in selected...