In this research, we study the oxidation process of the Transition Metal Dichalcogenide (TMD) niobium diselenide, NbSe2. TMDs are a category of van der Waals materials, of which samples are...Show moreIn this research, we study the oxidation process of the Transition Metal Dichalcogenide (TMD) niobium diselenide, NbSe2. TMDs are a category of van der Waals materials, of which samples are obtained by exfoliation. The measurements are performed with the Low Energy Electron Microscope (LEEM), which measures reflectivity at different energy, resulting in the so-called IV curves. To analyze oxidation, we have developed a new method to obtain in situ exfoliated flakes in the LEEM set-up. First, we measure in situ cleaved NbSe2 flakes (bulk). The reflectivity upon adding (pure) oxygen is followed. Additionally, the reflectivity of ex situ cleaved NbSe2 flakes is assessed. Here, an intensity boundary between flake’s edge and center is recognized. The reflectivity measurements show that the electronic structure is different across the boundary: a V-shaped reflectivity minimum appears, which sharpens over time upon oxidation. The boundary is further researched with Atomic Force Microscopy and Energy Dispersive X-ray analysis. Additionally, we perform roughness analysis and Principal Component Analysis. The latter provides an alternative method to follow the change in electronic properties over time. We propose that already degraded NbSe2 flakes are more susceptible to oxidatin damage, compared to in situ exfoliated flakes. Upon further measurements, the in situ cleaved samples do not show any degradation signs, therefore we attribute the presence of an intensity contrast with the associated IV features, to oxidized NbSe2.Show less
Research shows that many students don’t have enough reading comprehension to understand texts. One way of improving students’ reading comprehension could be by providing feedback to students while...Show moreResearch shows that many students don’t have enough reading comprehension to understand texts. One way of improving students’ reading comprehension could be by providing feedback to students while they answer questions about a text. To use feedback efficiently in the future, it’s important to know how elaborate effective feedback should be. Considering this, the current study examined the relation between feedback and the use of reading strategies in general, and for the use of reading strategies while reading a text. Moreover, the relation between the amount of information provided in the feedback and the use of reading strategies was examined. Experimental data of 97 participants aged 10 and 11 years (52.6% boys, M = 10.45, SD = 0.52) was collected using questionnaires, namely the Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory and the Task-Specific Strategy Self-Report. Participants were pre- and post-tested and had three intervention sessions. They were randomly assigned to a condition, namely no feedback, short feedback, or elaborate feedback. During the intervention sessions, participants had to read a text, and answer questions about the text. Depending on their condition, they either received feedback or not. If they did, the amount of information in the feedback differed. Every session ended with a questionnaire. Using SPSS, two repeated measures ANOVA were completed. According to the results, there was no relation between feedback and the use of reading strategies. Furthermore, no differences were found for the different amounts of information in feedback and the use of reading strategies. The biggest limitation of the current study was the lack of a motivational component in the used intervention. Therefore, future research should use motivation as part of the intervention to investigate if feedback could help in improving the use of reading strategies for youth aged 10 to 11.Show less
Insomnia is highly prevalent in patients with long-term medical conditions. Although fatigue is the most common daytime symptom of insomnia, it is still largely unknown which underlying components...Show moreInsomnia is highly prevalent in patients with long-term medical conditions. Although fatigue is the most common daytime symptom of insomnia, it is still largely unknown which underlying components are associated with fatigue in a broader population of insomnia patients. Previous literature stated that dysfunctional sleep-related beliefs (DSRB) and pre-sleep arousal (PSA) could explain the relationship between insomnia and fatigue. Additionally, subjective sleep characteristics, such as insomnia severity, number of nocturnal awakenings (NoA) and sleep efficiency might also be components of this relationship. This study aimed to investigate how these factors affect fatigue in a broad medical population with insomnia. It was hypothesized that more disturbed sleep-related psychological factors and subjective sleep characteristics were associated with increased fatigue. This cross-sectional study, derived from the ongoing TIMELAPSE study, consisted of 154 participants. Participants completed questionnaires assessing fatigue (Checklist Individual Strength-20), DSRB (Dysfunctional Beliefs and Attitudes about Sleep-16), PSA (Pre-Sleep Arousal Scale), and insomnia severity (Insomnia Severity Index). The Consensus Sleep Diary tracked NoA and sleep efficiency daily for one week. Two multiple regression analyses were performed to assess the relationship between sleep-related psychological factors (DSRB, PSA), subjective sleep characteristics (insomnia severity, NoA, sleep efficiency) and fatigue. Age, gender, and depression were included as controlling variables. Results showed that DSRB (β = .174, p = .027), PSA (β = -.160, p = .036), and insomnia severity (β = .243, p = .002) were factors associated with fatigue in insomnia patients. More severe DSRB and higher insomnia severity predicted elevated levels of fatigue. Contrary to expectations, PSA was negatively associated with fatigue. Lastly, NoA and sleep efficiency were not related to fatigue. This study uncovered connections between more severe DSRB, lower PSA, and higher insomnia severity that led to higher levels of fatigue. The current study suggests that improvements in DSRB and reducing insomnia severity may reduce fatigue of insomnia patients with long-term medical conditions. Sleep interventions should emphasize on challenging these DSRB. Future research is needed to examine the complex relationship between PSA and fatigue, as well as whether changes in DSRB during CBT-I treatment reduce fatigue symptoms in this population.Show less
This thesis explores the impact of gain-framed messages on psychological detachment from work among self-employed workers, considering the moderating effects of financial stress and message trust....Show moreThis thesis explores the impact of gain-framed messages on psychological detachment from work among self-employed workers, considering the moderating effects of financial stress and message trust. Using an experimental between-subject design with online surveys, 225 UK-based participants were randomly assigned to control or gain-framed message conditions. The gain-framed message conditions included health-gain and work-performance-gain. Surprisingly, participants in the control group showed more detachment than those in the message conditions, challenging previous literature. Contrary to the expectations, the moderating effects of financial stress and message trust were not found. Despite limitations, such as a sample limited to the UK and the use of a questionnaire, the research contributes new insights into messaging effects on preventive behaviors. It underscores the importance of context and individual differences in message reception and behavior, and urges future research to consider the effectiveness of gain-framed messages in motivating people to adopt certain behavior.Show less
Met de vergrijzing van de bevolking groeit ook het belang van een vroege en nauwkeurige diagnose van neurodegeneratieve aandoeningen zoals de ziekte van Alzheimer (AD). Dit onderzoek richt zich...Show moreMet de vergrijzing van de bevolking groeit ook het belang van een vroege en nauwkeurige diagnose van neurodegeneratieve aandoeningen zoals de ziekte van Alzheimer (AD). Dit onderzoek richt zich specifiek op het verkennen van de verschillen tussen twee vormen van AD, namelijk Early-Onset Alzheimer's Disease (EOAD) en Late-Onset Alzheimer's Disease (LOAD), met als doel het verbeteren van classificatiemodellen. We hebben vier classificatiemodellen ontworpen, elk gericht op specifieke hersengebieden die mogelijk atrofie vertonen, met Model 1 en 2 gericht op respectievelijk LOAD en EOAD, Model 3 als een gecombineerd model en Model 4 dat de algehele hersenatrofie omvat. Deze modellen zijn geanalyseerd aan de hand van Area Under the Curve (AUC) en zijn ontwikkeld met behulp van logistische regressie en LASSO om de meest relevante variabelen te selecteren. Onze bevindingen suggereren dat EOAD en LOAD verschillende neuropathologische patronen vertonen, waarbij EOAD mogelijk wordt gekenmerkt door specifiekere neuropathogenese patronen, terwijl LOAD meer uniforme hersenveranderingen vertoont. Model 3, dat specifieke hersengebieden combineerde, presteerde het beste bij het classificeren van beide groepen, terwijl Model 4, dat alle hersengebieden omvatte, een lagere classificatie-accuratesse vertoonde voor EOAD. Deze resultaten benadrukken dat AD patiënten geen homogene groep zijn en benadrukken het belang van gedifferentieerde diagnostische benaderingen om rekening te houden met de heterogeniteit binnen deze aandoening.Show less
Prosocial behavior, defined as any action taken to benefit another, has maintained persistent interest in regarding its intricate relationship with loneliness and apathy. Loneliness, conceptualized...Show moreProsocial behavior, defined as any action taken to benefit another, has maintained persistent interest in regarding its intricate relationship with loneliness and apathy. Loneliness, conceptualized as a subjective feeling of social isolation is often found comorbid with apathy; one’s reduced motivation to put in effort for others’ benefit relative to one’s own benefit. Although all three variables demonstrate a relationship to one another, research remains scarce regarding their shared impact. However, findings show a positive influence of prosocial behaviors on social connections, consequently decreasing experiences of isolation as well as apathy. This investigation aims to uncover the potential mediating effect of prosocial behavior on the bidirectional relationship of loneliness and apathy. To fill the gap in the literature, assessing both models helps highlight intervention approaches aiming to effectively break the cycle – ultimately improving well-being. Higher levels of loneliness are expected to indicate higher levels of apathy, whereas prosocial behaviors may mediate and limit the negative affect. Ultimately, it is also expected higher levels of apathy lead to higher levels of loneliness, with prosocial behavior possibly mitigating this negative affect. 287 participants underwent a behavioral task assessing their prosocial tendencies, as well as questionnaires measuring their level of loneliness and apathy. Both mediation analyses revealed a significant total effect between the variables. This was indicative of a negligible mediating role of prosocial acts. These results underline the specific gaps left for future research, ranging from exploring the nuanced relationships and contextual factors involved affecting the constructs over time.Show less
Research suggests a prominent relationship between self-esteem and social evaluation, such that individuals with low self-esteem may show biased perceptions of social evaluation. This study...Show moreResearch suggests a prominent relationship between self-esteem and social evaluation, such that individuals with low self-esteem may show biased perceptions of social evaluation. This study examines interactions between self-esteem, attachment styles, and neural sensitivity to social feedback using electroencephalography (EEG). The focus was on the Feedback-Related Negativity (FRN) component, indicative of neural sensitivity to expectancy violations in social feedback. It was hypothesized that low self-esteem would predict greater FRN during the SELF-Profile task, with insecure attachment styles adding to the variance of this relationship. Individuals with insecure attachment styles were also predicted to underestimate proportions of acceptance feedback received during the task, with low self-esteem and an insecure attachment predicting a lower proportion of expected acceptance feedback. Eighty adolescents aged 12-to-18 years (60 females, 20 males) participated in this study. Participants completed the SELF-Profile task, involving receiving probabilistic feedback from peers on social-media-like profiles, mimicking real-word scenarios of social feedback and potential uncertainties around these interactions. Participants indicated their perception of the interaction, reporting percentages of perceived social acceptance from peers. EEG recordings were conducted throughout this task. Results demonstrated that participants with low self-esteem exhibited heightened FRN amplitudes in response to positive incongruent feedback, suggesting increased sensitivity to unexpected positive social feedback. Moreover, individuals with insecure attachment styles show trends of amplified neural reactivity to social feedback which was visible in FRN outputs. Regression analyses additionally found significant correlations between self-esteem, attachment style and overall expectation of social feedback (positive and negative), with self-esteem explaining most of the variance. These findings elucidate neural mechanisms underlying feedback processing in relation to self-esteem and attachment, suggesting that low self-esteem and insecure attachment styles influence our social feedback sensitivity and expectation. Results provide insights for clinical practice suggesting the importance of improving self-esteem when working on client difficulties in social settings through positive feedback reinforcement.Show less
Steun die vanuit ouders wordt ontvangen blijkt uit onderzoek negatief samen te hangen met depressie symptomen in adolescenten. Uit onderzoek blijkt daarnaast dat adolescenten die lage steun vanuit...Show moreSteun die vanuit ouders wordt ontvangen blijkt uit onderzoek negatief samen te hangen met depressie symptomen in adolescenten. Uit onderzoek blijkt daarnaast dat adolescenten die lage steun vanuit ouders, maar hoge steun vanuit vrienden ontvangen, meer depressie symptomen laten zien dan adolescenten die vanuit beide groepen lage steun ontvangen. In dit cross-sectionele onderzoek is gekeken of dit effect ook te vinden is in een gedeeltelijk klinische steekproef. Gezonde (N = 80) en depressieve adolescenten (N = 35) voerden een gesprek met hun ouders over een emotionele gebeurtenis. Hierna werd de steun vanuit de ouders tijdens het gesprek beoordeeld door de adolescenten. Deze steun vanuit ouders was negatief gecorreleerd met depressie symptomen bij de adolescenten. Steun vanuit vrienden bleek deze negatieve relatie niet significant te beïnvloeden. Er zal meer onderzoek gedaan moeten worden in welke context steun vanuit vrienden wel of niet deze relatie tussen steun vanuit ouders en depressie beïnvloedt.Show less
The global prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease is expected to rise from 50 to 152 million cases by 2050 due to the limited availability of therapeutic and preventive strategies and ageing populations...Show moreThe global prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease is expected to rise from 50 to 152 million cases by 2050 due to the limited availability of therapeutic and preventive strategies and ageing populations. Although digital tools can address the growing gap between healthcare supply and demand, their implementation is difficult, and personal factors can influence individuals’ intention to use such tools. Thus, this study explores the relationship between various personal factors, as self-reported by healthy individuals (N = 507) who are part of a brain research registry, and their intention to use and promote using digital tools in the context of brain health and dementia. According to the hypothesis formulated for the research, higher financial scarcity, lower educational attainment, and lower employment status predict lower intention to use and promote digital tools for brain health. The study examined four distinct digital tools: (1) MijnBreincoach (a prevention tool), (2) cCog (a diagnostic tool), (3) ADappt (a patient- orchestrated care tool), and Neurokeys (a prediction tool). It was found that Neurokeys exhibited the highest score for intention to use but the lowest score for intention to promote. In addition, medium and high educational attainment predicted higher behavioral intention to use MijnBreincoach, while the most beneficial (i.e., most secure, stable, and safe) employment status predicted higher intention to promote MijnBreincoach and cCog. In conclusion, it is important to recognize differences in intention to use and promote different types of digital tools across potential users and the influence of personal characteristics on the intention to use and promote digital tools for brain health. During the development of a digital tool, it is recommended to consider which target audience would derive the greatest benefit from it and tailor it accordingly.Show less
This 3-wave study aims to examine the relationship between cognitive empathy (awareness and understanding of another’s emotion), affective empathy (experience of emotions consistent with those of...Show moreThis 3-wave study aims to examine the relationship between cognitive empathy (awareness and understanding of another’s emotion), affective empathy (experience of emotions consistent with those of the observed person), and self-perception of close friendships (one’s perception of the ability to form and maintain close friendships), both directly and indirectly through prosocial behavior (voluntary behavior intended to benefit another person) from late childhood to early adolescence. Participants were 127 adolescents aged between 10 and 14 years old who reported on their empathy, prosocial behavior, and self-perception of close friendships in three consecutive years, respectively. Simple mediation analyses revealed that cognitive and affective empathy did not have a significant positive effect on adolescents’ self-perception of close friendships two years later. Considering these findings, prosocial behavior was not found to be a mediator between adolescents’ cognitive or affective empathy and their self-perception of close friendships from late childhood to early adolescence. Moreover, cognitive and affective empathy did not significantly predict prosocial behavior one year later, whereas prosocial behavior did significantly predict the self-perception of adolescents’ close friendships one year later. These results underline the significance of developing tailored intervention programs targeting prosocial behavior to foster adolescents’ self-perception as close friends, a competence that is crucial during this developmental period considering the greater influence of peers.Show less
Gezonder eten: een doel dat velen van ons nastreven, maar vaak lukt het niet dit gedrag vol te houden. Op dat moment vindt er een terugval plaats, ook wel een setback genoemd. Na het ervaren van...Show moreGezonder eten: een doel dat velen van ons nastreven, maar vaak lukt het niet dit gedrag vol te houden. Op dat moment vindt er een terugval plaats, ook wel een setback genoemd. Na het ervaren van een setback wordt het moeilijker een gedragsdoel vol te houden. Deze studie onderzoekt waarom dit moeilijk wordt door de relatie tussen de ervaren setbacks tijdens het volgen van een dieet en maintenance self-efficacy te analyseren, met subjectief succes als mogelijke mediator. Met een online vragenlijst (N= 74) zijn de ervaren setbacks, maintenance self-efficacy en subjectief succes uitgevraagd. De vragenlijst had een cross-sectioneel, between-subjects design. De antwoorden op de vragenlijst zijn geanalyseerd met lineaire regressieanalyses en met een mediatie analyse. De resultaten lieten een significante negatieve relatie zien tussen de ervaren setbacks en maintenance self-efficacy. De relatie tussen de ervaren setbacks en subjectief succes was significant negatief, maar de relatie tussen subjectief succes en maintenance self-efficacy was niet significant. Echter, de resultaten lieten zien dat de ervaren setbacks weldegelijk negatief gerelateerd waren aan maintenance self-efficacy, en dat subjectief succes een negatieve mediërende rol in deze relatie kan hebben. Samengevat, de resultaten suggereren dat de ervaren setbacks kunnen zorgen voor een afname in maintenance self-efficacy en subjectief succes, wat weer zou kunnen leiden tot een toename in het ervaren van setbacks. Deze resultaten hebben gezorgd voor nieuwe inzichten, maar meer onderzoek is nodig naar andere mediërende factoren zoals recovery self-efficacy om het setback effect beter te kunnen begrijpen.Show less
As more environmental challenges arise, pro-environmental engagement becomes increasingly important. While sustainable diets are widely acknowledged for their ecological benefits, the interplay of...Show moreAs more environmental challenges arise, pro-environmental engagement becomes increasingly important. While sustainable diets are widely acknowledged for their ecological benefits, the interplay of social-emotional factors shaping such choices remained relatively underexplored. This study explored the interplay between guilt proneness, emotional support from best friends, and open- mindedness and their influence on young adults’ pro-environmental dietary choices. These variables were selected for their distinct impacts on decision-making processes and behavioural intentions, as guilt proneness motivates alignment with moral values, emotional support provides social reinforcement and validation, and open-mindedness encourages adoption of atypical diets. Plant-based diets involve (mostly) excluding meat including variations like flexitarian and pescetarian diets, while vegetarian diets exclude meat, and vegan diets exclude meat and animal-derived foods and products. The dietary choices in this study rank from the least to the most sustainable diet, being omnivores, plant-based, vegetarian, and ultimately, vegan. The cross-sectional design incorporated 213 individuals aged 17 to 26 from multiple genders and nationalities. The multiple stages assessment included a 45-minute online survey that employed specific tests to assess the factors. Dietary choice was assessed using the Dietarian Identity Questionnaire, guilt proneness using the Test of Self-Conscious Affect–3, emotional support from best friends using the Official short version of the Network Relationship Inventory, and open-mindedness using the Big Five Inventory-2. The multiple regression analyses indicated that guilt proneness, emotional support from best friend, open-mindedness, and the three-way interaction of these variables were non-significant predictors of dietary choice. These results diverged from initial hypotheses, emphasizing the need for exploration within different contexts and populations. The study's strengths included its cross-sectional design encompassing multiple nationalities and genders, and the thorough validation of statistical assumptions. However, the questionable to low reliability of some measures and the unequal gender distribution possibly affected the generalizability of the findings. Additional factors that may influence dietary choices among young adults, including cultural norms, socioeconomic status, anticipated pride, and peer influence, should be incorporated in future research. Interventions aimed at promoting pro- environmental dietary choices among young adults must adopt a holistic approach, considering individual, social, and environmental factors to facilitate long-term behaviour change.Show less
