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The evidence-based parenting program Video-Feedback Intervention to promote Positive Parenting and Sensitive Discipline (VIPP-SD) may have potential to also support teachers in primary schools in their interaction with children with behavior problems. We therefore adapted the intervention for use with primary school teachers (VIPP-School). Here we examined the feasibility of VIPP-School, using qualitative analyses of the perceptions of teachers and VIPP-interveners on their experiences with VIPP-School. Three teacher-child dyads from kindergarten and 2nd grade participated in six sessions of VIPP-School. Perceptions of the participants were collected using semi-structured interviews, logbooks, observations and a questionnaire. The data were qualitatively analysed. Thematic analysis showed five main themes: 1) scheduling of appointments, 2) experiences with intervention elements, 3) working alliance, 4) changes in the teacher-child interaction, 5) defining the target group. Teachers mentioned notable time investment, but appreciated the video feedback as a great way to become more aware of subtle signals of the child and their own behaviors. This study shows that with some adaptations VIPP-School is an acceptable and deliverable intervention for teachers in primary education. It has potential for supporting teachers in the interaction with children with behavioral problems. Further research on the effectiveness of VIPP-School is recommended.

The choice of cortisol sampling times in early childhood studies varies widely. Given that recommendations on sampling protocols are largely based on adults, the present study aimed to broaden current knowledge by examining how reliably cortisol measures obtained at different daytimes would reveal between-individual differences in toddlers' cortisol levels. Parents were instructed to take 10 saliva samples consecutively (five per day) from their toddler (N = 19; M[subscript age] = 15.8 months, SD[subscript age] = 4.2 months). Intra-class correlations (ICCs) were computed to evaluate cortisol reliability. Cortisol samples taken in the morning between 30 and 80 min after awakening and bedtime samples were most reliable in differentiating between children (ICCs [greater than or equal to] 0.80). Wake-up cortisol samples taken within the first 30 min after awakening and afternoon samples showed moderate reliabilities (ICCs = 0.64), whereas the reliability of noon samples was poor (ICC = 0.43). Therefore, when investigating cortisol in young children while being restricted to a few samples only, assessing cortisol in the morning (at least 30 min after awakening) and at bedtime would be advisable.

This study examines which school factors schools report influence their (dis)continuation of lesson study, a professional development initiative, and how after a four-year, cross-school lesson study project ends. To examine this, the framework on three types of school factors (features of employment, malleable school processes and fixed school characteristics) and the concept of organisational routines are used. Semistructured interviews were held with 21 teachers and 15 school leaders from the 14 schools who participated in the project. Findings show schools reported nine school factors that influenced their (dis)continuation of lesson study after the project: five features of employment (part-time appointment, turnover, (un)planned leave of absence, work location and beginning teachers), three malleable processes (policies on improvement, scheduling and school finances), and one fixed school characteristic (school size). School factors were reported to constrain schools from making lesson study a repeated practice in the school, performing its core features, and ensuring collective attendance. Two narrative portraits revealed that the simultaneous occurrence of school factors made continuing with lesson study especially complex and limited schools' ability to move beyond shortened and simplified initiatives to more rich and meaningful professional development.

As a part of the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme (DP) students participate in the Theory of Knowledge (TOK) course. This research used a mixed methods design to investigate the perspective of TOK teachers in IB schools worldwide. To address the research questions, quantitative survey data were analyzed from 1,534 participants, and focus groups with 33 TOK teachers were conducted in Australia, The Netherlands, and the United States. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-tests, ANOVA, and linear trends analysis to identify group differences. Qualitative data were coded and analyzed using an inductive approach. Overwhelmingly, survey results indicated that teachers value the TOK course. Teachers ranked the main purposes of the TOK course as 1) to develop an awareness of how knowledge is constructed, critically examined, and renewed by individuals and communities and 2) to help students make connections among academic disciplines and among thoughts, feelings and actions. Teachers ranked the main benefits to students as 1) students better able to critically evaluate knowledge and 2) students better able to identify and reflect on personal assumptions. Teachers strongly agreed that teaching TOK has been a valuable professional development experience for them. Specifically, they indicated it enhanced their own critical thinking and developed their interdisciplinary understanding. Survey results and focus groups suggest the main challenges are 1) assessment, 2) time, and 3) administrative issues (scheduling and class size). Regarding implementation, approximately half of DP coordinators indicated that TOK implementation was different than other IB Diploma Programme aspects, specifically that teacher support and time were different.

This article questions existing findings and provides new evidence about the consequences of nonstandard work schedules on partnership quality. Using quantitative couple data from The Netherlands Kinship Panel Study (NKPS) (N = 3,016) and semistructured qualitative interviews (N = 34), we found that, for women, schedules with varying hours resulted in greater relationship dissatisfaction than for men. Men with young children who worked varying hours had less relationship conflict and spent more time with children. Parents used nonstandard schedules for tag-team parenting or to maintain perceptions of full-time motherhood. The lack of negative effects, particularly for night shifts, suggests that previous findings--largely U.S. ones--are not universal and may be attributed to wider cultural, industrial relations, and economic contexts.

Distance Learning Providers serve large populations of learners, frequently offering the same course to different groups of learners over lengthy periods of time. This article argues that (re-) running e-learning courses with different combinations of learners and staff requires a distinction between abstract representations of courses and instances of these representations involving specific learners and support staff. The article provides an analysis of the requirements for multiple deliveries of courses, describes the design of an approach which meets these requirements together with experiences resulting from implementation of the design. The article concludes with a discussion of the approach. (Contains 4 tables and 4 figures.)

Describes the conceptual framework for an urban Montessori high school in Holland in 1945. Includes information on implementing fundamental Montessori principles, scheduling, materials, organization of subject matter, use of group mentors, and democracy in school. Focuses on how the school increases adolescents' moral strength with living and working environments fostering mutual collaboration, readiness to help, and a team spirit. (Author/KB)

This paper considers the scheduling of electric vehicles in a public transit system. Our main innovation is that we take into account that charging stations have limited capacity, while also considering partial charging. To solve the problem, we expand a connection-based network in order to track the state of charge of vehicles and model recharging actions. We then formulate the electric vehicle scheduling problem as a path-based binary program, whose linear relaxation we solve using column generation. We find integer feasible solutions using two heuristics: price-and-branch and a diving heuristic, including acceleration strategies. We test the approach using data from the concession Gooi en Vechtstreek in the Netherlands, containing up to 816 trips. The diving heuristic outperforms the other heuristic and solves the entire concession within seven hours of computation time with an optimality gap of less than 3%. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/trsc.2022.0253. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Pneumococcal conjugate vaccines reduce pneumococcal colonization via serotype-specific immunoglobulin G (IgG) at mucosal surfaces. The infant immunization schedule with the ten-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV10) changed from a 3 + 1 schedule (2–3-4–11 months) to a 2 + 1 schedule (2–4–11 months) in The Netherlands in 2013. We compared anti-pneumococcal IgG concentrations in saliva between the schedules. IgG was measured using a fluorescent bead-based multiplex immunoassay at the ages of 6 (post-primary) and 12 (post-booster) months in 51 infants receiving the 3 + 1 schedule and 68 infants receiving the 2 + 1 schedule. Post-primary IgG geometric mean concentrations (GMCs) were comparable between schedules for all vaccine serotypes. Post-booster IgG GMCs were significantly lower after the 2 + 1 schedule for serotypes 4 (p = 0.035), 7F (p = 0.048) and 23F (p = 0.0056). This study shows small differences in mucosal IgG responses between a 3 + 1 and a 2 + 1 PCV10 schedule. Future studies should establish correlates of protection against pneumococcal colonization for mucosal antibodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we consider the train unit shunting problem extended with service task scheduling. This problem originates from Dutch Railways, which is the main railway operator in the Netherlands. Its urgency stems from the upcoming expansion of the rolling stock fleet needed to handle the ever-increasing number of passengers. The problem consists of matching train units arriving on a shunting yard to departing trains, scheduling service tasks such as cleaning and maintenance on the available resources, and parking the trains on the available tracks such that the shunting yard can operate conflict-free. These different aspects lead to a computationally extremely difficult problem, which combines several well-known NP-hard problems. In this paper, we present the first solution method covering all aspects of the shunting and scheduling problem. We describe a partial order schedule representation that captures the full problem, and we present a local search algorithm that utilizes the partial ordering. The proposed solution method is compared with an existing mixed integer linear program in a computational study on realistic instances provided by Dutch Railways. We show that our local search algorithm is the first method to solve real-world problem instances of the complete shunting and scheduling problem. It even outperforms current algorithms when the train unit shunting problem is considered in isolation, that is, without service tasks. Although our method was developed for the case of the Dutch Railways, it is applicable to any shunting yard or service location, irrespective of its layout, that uses self-propelling train units and that does not have to handle passing trains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scheduling the availability of order pickers is crucial for effective operations in a distribution facility with manual order pickers. When order-picking activities can only be performed in specific time windows, it is essential to jointly solve the order picker shift scheduling problem and the order picker planning problem of assigning and sequencing individual orders to order pickers. This requires decisions regarding the number of order pickers to schedule, shift start and end times, break times, as well as the assignment and timing of order-picking activities. We call this the order picker scheduling problem and present two formulations. A branch-and-price algorithm and a metaheuristic are developed to solve the problem. Numerical experiments illustrate that the metaheuristic finds near-optimal solutions at 80% shorter computation times. A case study at the largest supermarket chain in The Netherlands shows the applicability of the solution approach in a real-life business application. In particular, different shift structures are analyzed, and it is concluded that the retailer can increase the minimum compensated duration for employed workers from six hours to seven or eight hours while reducing the average labor cost with up to 5% savings when a 15-minute flexibility is implemented in the scheduling of break times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider a hybrid flowshop scheduling problem that includes parallel unrelated discrete machines or batch processing machines in different stages of a production system. The problem is motivated by a bottleneck process within the production system of a transformer producer located in the Netherlands. We develop an integer programming model that minimises the total tardiness of jobs over a finite planning horizon. Our model is applicable to a wide range of production systems organised as hybrid flowshops. We strengthen our integer program by exploiting the special properties of some constraints in our formulation. We develop a decision support system (DSS) based on our proposed optimisation model. We compare the results of our initial optimisation model with an improved formulation as well as with a heuristic that was in use at the company before the implementation of our DSS. Our results show that the improved optimisation model significantly outperforms the heuristic and the initial optimisation model in terms of both the solution time and the strength of its linear programming relaxation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Using focus groups we study activities in the AV and their impact on other activities. • We identify 4 on-board activity types based on their novelty and priority levels. • Time pressure, amenities, activity needs, wishes, constraints affect activity choice. • Feasibility of on-board activities may decrease or increase time pressure. • We highlight areas for quantitative work and travel behaviour model development. Automated Vehicles (AVs) are expected to allow their users to engage in a broad range of non-driving activities while travelling, such as working, sleeping, playing games. The impact of this possibility on the satisfaction with travel and on travel demand has been extensively discussed in the literature. However, it has been hardly recognised that the availability of on-board activities influences the (time-geographic) constraints of daily activities and may alter the selection, location, and sequencing of other activities in the day. This hampers correct representation of travel behaviour in activity-based models aiming to predict the effects of AVs on mobility and environment (e.g., greenhouse gas emissions). To help fill this gap, we gathered and analysed qualitative data from focus groups, in which 27 commuters discussed their expectations concerning on-board activities and daily schedules in the AV-era. Among the core insights are the following three. First, it is useful to separate in modelling the satisfaction with travel and the potential for on-board activities during travel: they have different determinants and different consequences for activity schedules and individual travel demand. Second, on-board activities may be classified in 4 quadrants according to their novelty and priority level: this classification is helpful in understanding the potential re-arrangements of daily activities. Third, performing new activities during travel may lead to complex re-arrangements of daily activity patterns; the re-arrangements may ease or also increase time pressure. These, and other reported insights may facilitate more realistic representation of activity-travel behaviour in future travel behaviour models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Children are often overlooked as stakeholder in spatial energy transition planning. • We present a game-based SDSS with appropriate context to collect their input. • A pilot shows it helps children to provide diverse and viable transition plans. • But boundaries and scale of study area should match children's familiarity. The transition to sustainable energy in a neighbourhood is not a trivial process and current efforts attempt to garner support and engagement from local stakeholders through public participation processes. This paper presents a game-based decision support system specifically designed to include a relevant (yet often overlooked) group of stakeholders: the children of an area. Combining the principles of public participation and Geodesign, it supports children to learn about and plan renewable energy technologies in their neighbourhood. A pilot in the South-East district of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, shows that this decision support system can collect relevant input from children. Their plans display a diversity in renewable energy technologies applied and building improvements. Furthermore, an impact analysis demonstrates that the children have learned what buildings were suitable for specific technologies. Maps of the results suggest that selecting an appropriate study location for the children is important, to allow planning at a scale proportional to the local knowledge and planning time. The results provide insights into what type of solutions are preferred, the diversity of the solutions and most important, the solutions are spatially explicit about the participants preferences. This demonstrates that such methods are effective in reaching out to and surveying the preferences of this difficult to reach stakeholder group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Storage Readiness Levels framework communicates site appraisal achieved and activities remaining for operational CO 2 storage • Standardised framework based on experience of researchers, regulators and industry • Framework is applied to 742 saline formation and hydrocarbon field sites and extends industry commercial development classification • Framework enables comparison of levels of investment and duration of appraisal to achieve a permit-ready CO2 storage site. A framework of Storage Readiness Levels (SRLs) is presented to communicate the entirety of technical appraisal, permitting and planning activities achieved at a potential CO 2 storage site and what remains to be completed for CO 2 storage operations. The schema, based on learning gained from the experience of researchers, regulators and industry from the 1990s, is described and assessed by application to 742 saline formation and hydrocarbon field sites, offshore the UK, Norway and The Netherlands. The framework is flexible to accommodate national differences in procedures and practise and the unique character of each site. It is applicable regardless of the time-scale of appraisal or scale of assessment. The framework is consistent with and extends the industry commercial project development classification to include categories for sites with a lesser level of data and evaluation. Application to the phases of appraisal of three sites illustrates that investigations may advance understanding by different pathways and rates. The standardised framework enables comparison of the experience of permitting and planning activities completed within different jurisdictions, the level of investment and the duration required to achieve permitted or permit-ready sites. It is intended that the framework of SRLs should be widely applied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Over the past decade, activity scheduling processes have gained increasing attention in the field of transportation research. However, still little is known about the scheduling of social activities even though these activities account for a large and growing portion of trips. This paper contributes to this knowledge. We analyze how the duration of social activities is influenced by social activity characteristics and characteristics of the relationship between the respondent and the contacted person(s). To that end, a latent class accelerated hazard model is estimated, based on social interaction diary data that was collected in the Netherlands in 2008. Chi-square tests and analyses of variance are used to test for significant relations between the latent classes and personal and household characteristics. Findings suggest that the social activity characteristics and the characteristics of the relationship between the socializing persons are highly significant in explaining social activity duration. This shows that social activities should not be considered as a homogenous set of activities and it underlines the importance of including the social context in travel–behavior models. Moreover, the results indicate that there is a substantial amount of latent heterogeneity across the population. Four latent classes are identified, showing different social activity durations, and different effects for both categories of explanatory variables. Latent class membership can be explained by household composition, socio-economic status (education, income and work hours), car ownership and the number of interactions in 2 days. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In order to face the expected growth of transport demand in the next years, several new traffic control policies have been proposed and analyzed both to generate timetables and to effectively manage the traffic in real-time. In this paper, a detailed optimization model is used to analyze one such policy, called green wave, which consists in letting trains wait at the stations to avoid speed profile modifications in open corridors. Such policy is expected to be especially effective when the corridors are the bottleneck of the network. However, there is a lack of quantitative studies on the real-time effects of using this policy. To this end, this work shows a comparison of the delays obtained when trains are allowed or not to change their speed profile in open corridors. An extensive computational study is described for two practical dispatching areas of the Dutch railway network. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This study examined whether the frequency of child-related activities was associated with parents' own work demands and those of their partners. In addition to parental paid working hours, we considered the parents' organizational culture and experienced job insecurity. Moreover, we differentiated between child-related routine and interactive activities. Using self-collected data on 639 Dutch couples with children, we found that paid working hours were consistently associated with a lower frequency of child-related activities. Fathers generally responded more strongly to their own and their partner's work demands than mothers. For fathers, both their own and their partner's work demands were more strongly associated with routine than with interactive activities. Mothers did not differentiate between these activities, however. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In December 2006, Netherlands Railways introduced a completely new timetable. Its objective was to facilitate the growth of passenger and freight transport on a highly utilized railway network and improve the robustness of the timetable, thus resulting in fewer operational train delays. Modifications to the existing timetable, which was constructed in 1970, were not an option; additional growth would require significant investments in the rail infrastructure. Constructing a railway timetable from scratch for about 5,500 daily trains was a complex problem. To support this process, we generated several timetables using sophisticated operations research techniques. Furthermore, because rolling-stock and crew costs are principal components of the costs of a passenger railway operator, we used innovative operations research tools to devise efficient schedules for these two resources. The new resource schedules and the increased number of passengers resulted in an additional annual profit of E40 million ($60 million); the additional revenues generated approximately E10 million of this profit. We expect this profit to increase to E70 million ($105 million) annually in the coming years. However, the benefits of the new timetable for the Dutch society as a whole are much greater: more trains are transporting more passengers on the same railway infrastructure, and these trains are arriving and departing on schedule more than they ever have in the past. In addition, the rail transport system will be able to handle future transportation demand growth and thus allow cities to remain accessible to more people. Therefore, we expect that many will switch from car transport to rail transport, thus reducing the emission of greenhouse gases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fully Automated Vehicles (AVs) have been widely expected to revolutionise the future travel experience. Recent studies have shown that their impact may also reach beyond the travel episode, and lead their users to alter other activities performed during the day – their daily lifestyles. This study is among the first to empirically investigate the changes that travellers expect in their daily activities with AVs. To this aim, we created an interactive stated activity-travel survey, in which respondents designed their current daily schedule and, following that, redesigned it while imagining that their most frequently used travel mode is replaced with an AV. We administered the survey to 509 commuters in the Netherlands and analysed (changes in) on-board and stationary activity patterns using the multiple discrete-continuous extreme value (MDCEV) model. Results show a clear increase in the prevalence of various on-board activities in the AV compared to current modes, and even stronger increase for the high income and higher educated groups. Changes in stationary activities are less pronounced: no changes in the aggregate, but some changes within particular socio-demographic groups. Specific changes in stationary activities were associated with specific changes in on-board activities for the higher educated respondents: switching to AVs, they were more likely than others to add on-board work, meals, and leisure to their trips and more likely to add a getting ready activity to their stationary schedules. This study contributes to the growing body of literature that recognises and models on-board activities as an integral part of daily schedules. • With an interactive activity-travel survey we collected pre- and post-AV schedules. • Using MDCEV we modelled (changes in) on-board and stationary activity patterns. • On-board activities increase with AVs, and more so with high income and education. • Stationary activities do not change in aggregate, only in some demographic groups. • For the higher educated, changes in stationary and on-board schedules may be related. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A substantial amount of research is presently being carried out to understand the complexities involved in modelling the choice of departure time and mode of travel. Many of these models tend to be far too complex and far too data intensive to be of use for application in large scale model forecasting systems, where socio-economic detail is limited and detailed scheduling information is rarely available in the model implementation structure. Therefore, these models generally work on the basis of a set of mutually exclusive time periods, rather than making use of continuous departure time information. Two important questions need to be addressed in the use of such models, namely the specification used for the time periods (in terms of length), and the ordering of the levels of nesting, representing the difference in the sensitivities to shifts in departure time and changes in the mode of travel. This paper aims to provide some answers to these two questions on the basis of an extensive analysis making use of three separate Stated Preference (SP) datasets, collected in the United Kingdom and in the Netherlands. In the analysis, it has proved possible to develop models which allow reasonably sound predictions to be made of these choices. With a few exceptions, the results show higher substitution between alternative time periods than between alternative modes. Furthermore, the results show that the degree of substitution between time periods is reduced when making use of a more coarse specification of the time periods. These results are intended for use by practitioners, and form an important part of the evidence base supporting the UK Department for Transport’s advice for practical UK studies in the WebTAG system. [1] See www.webtag.org.uk. 1 [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper develops a model of activity and trip scheduling that combines three elements that have to date mostly been investigated in isolation: the duration of activities, the time-of-day preference for activity participation and the effect of schedule delays on the valuation of activities. The model is an error component discrete choice model, describing individuals’ choice between alternative workday activity patterns. The utility function is formulated in a flexible way, applying a bell-shaped component to represent time-of-day preferences for activities. The model was tested using a 2001 data set from the Netherlands. The estimation results suggest that time-of-day preferences and schedule delays associated with the work activity are the most important factors influencing the scheduling of the work tour. Error components included in the model suggest that there is considerable unobserved heterogeneity with respect to mode preferences and schedule delay. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Nursing homes are challenged to develop staffing strategies that enable them to efficiently meet the healthcare demand of their residents. In this study, we investigate how demand for care and support fluctuates over time and during the course of a day, using demand data from three independent nursing home departments of a single Dutch nursing home. This demand data is used as input for an optimization model that provides optimal staffing patterns across the day. For the optimization we use a Lindley-type equation and techniques from stochastic optimization to formulate a Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP) model. The impact of both the current and proposed staffing patterns, in terms of waiting time and service level, are investigated. The results show substantial improvements for all three departments both in terms of average waiting time as well as in 15 minutes service level. Especially waiting during rush hours is significantly reduced, whereas there is only a slight increase in waiting time during non-rush hours.

Purpose: We determined if intermittent first-line treatment with paclitaxel plus bevacizumab was not inferior to continuous treatment in patients with HER2-negative, advanced breast cancer., Methods: Patients were randomized to 2 × 4 cycles or continuous 8 cycles of paclitaxel plus bevacizumab, followed by bevacizumab maintenance treatment until disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. The primary endpoint was overall progression-free survival (PFS). A proportional-hazards regression model was used to estimate the HR. The upper limit of the two-sided 95% CI for the HR was compared with the non-inferiority margin of 1.34., Results: A total of 420 patients were included with well-balanced characteristics. In the intention-to-treat analysis, median overall PFS was 7.4 months (95% CI 6.4-10.0) for intermittent and 9.7 months (95% CI 8.9-10.3) for continuous treatment, with a stratified HR of 1.17 (95% CI 0.88-1.57). Median OS was 17.5 months (95% CI 15.4-21.7) versus 20.9 months (95% CI 17.8-24.0) for intermittent versus continuous treatment, with a HR of 1.38 (95% CI 1.00-1.91). Safety results and actually delivered treatments revealed longer durations of treatment in the continuous arm, without significant unexpected findings., Conclusion: Intermittent first-line treatment cannot be recommended in patients with HER2-negative advanced breast cancer., Clinical Trial Registration: EudraCT 2010-021519-18; BOOG 2010-02.