This VIDI-project examines why people under stress revert to maladaptive habits, such as eating large amounts of high-caloric food in a short time (bingeing). We looked at brain structures involved in such habits under stress using neuroimaging techniques and using pharmacologically manipulations of the brain’s reward system. We also examined whether binge eating patients show more habits under stress. We demonstrated that increasing dopamine and noradrenaline can reverse brain activity that regulates goal-directed versus habitual behavior. Patients who suffer from binge eating episodes were not particularly vulnerable to bad habits when stressed, compared to healthy control participants.

Contrary to the predominant approach in the epidemiology of ageing of investigating risk factors to identify people who have increased risks of negative health trajectories, this project will investigate the reasons for why some people who are supposed to be at risk for ill-health do not become ill. The aim of this project is: to identify which groups of older adults have aged successfully, despite having been exposed to exceptional socioeconomic adversity and to identify the mechanisms that explain their success. Exceptional socioeconomic adversity is the central risk exposure in this project because it is among the most fundamental causes of suffering currently known. It is measured with father?s and own education level in older indigenous Dutch adults and with being a first-generation Turkish or Moroccan migrant. The project investigates who among the groups that have been exposed to socioeconomic adversity has aged relatively successfully. Successful ageing shall be measured with core indicators of multiple domains of functioning: physical, mental, cognitive and social. The project departs from the following theses: 1) If one has attained relatively good physical, mental, cognitive and social functioning as compared to one?s age peers, one has aged successfully; 2) If one has aged successfully, despite having lived in socioeconomic hardship, one is resilient. Through a mixture of quantitative and qualitative research methods, characteristics of resilient individuals shall be identified. Respondents are obtained from the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (LASA), which is primed to address a broad array of social, cognitive, mental and physical aspects of ageing. Two hypothesised mechanisms of resilience shall be considered: 1) resilient older adults have on average less accumulated risk throughout the lifecourse than the non-resilient older adults, and 2) specific protective factors in resilient older adults buffer against the consequences of living in socioeconomic hardship. The proposed study shall be performed by the applicant and two PhD students. It provides the applicant with the unique opportunity to merge his social scientific and epidemiological backgrounds into a unique scientific approach of the study of ageing.

Road congestion and emissions are regarded as having increasing negative impacts on travelers, environment and economy as a whole. All the evidence suggests that the current trends are not sustainable without effective management of travel demand, and the world will have to confront a series of traffic congestion and air pollution problems caused principally by the unrestricted use of private cars. This proposal will focus on urban travel demand management methodologies and propose the strategies of managing transport network mobility and reducing congestion and emissions with tradable driving rights (TDRs). Methodological developments are focus on the analyses of travel decisions of individuals under implementation of TDR schemes, traffic flow modelling and algorithms design and the mechanism of market under TDRs. Social and spatial equities in the multiple user-classes (with different values of time) network models with TDRs are further discussed, and sustainable transport system with TDRs will be designed and case studies will be implemented in typical areas of Beijing of China and typical cities in Netherlands with the supports of transport management departments of local government. Currently, it has carried out the license plate based restriction in the urban areas of Beijing, which can be considered as a simplex version for the TDR scheme. This proposal will extend the effectiveness of the license plate based restriction with the introduction of the term of ?tradability?. Therefore, innovative and interoperable travel demand management strategies will be brought, which will also bring low carbon futures by improving the efficiency of vehicle using. This proposal will bring many open and potential value avenues of further studies, and provide a sustainable transport development patterns respond the needs of citizens and support transport policy development.

A way to stimulate sports and physical activity is by designing and redeveloping public spaces such that they increase physical activity. Existing literature has addressed the relationship between built environment and physical activity on the neighbourhood level but some vital issues have received limited attention: a. Individuals spend a significant part of their time outside their neighbourhoods and may use physical activity options there; b. Issues such as the design, layout and amenities within public spaces have received limited attention, whereas they may be crucial for individuals? physical activity c. The existing literature does not distinguish well between activities with different intensity. This project applies a novel combination of techniques (GPS tracking combined with accelerometers) to investigate: a. How physical activity is distributed across the home location, the neighbourhood and more remote locations; b. Individuals? behaviour within public spaces to determine what elements are most attractive; These issues are investigated in multiple locations for different target groups. In Zuid-Limburg we investigate the dynamics in the use of public spaces for children in transition from elementary school to secondary school. In Rotterdam and Utrecht we investigate the use of neighbourhood and urban parks for physical activity among 45-65 year olds. GPS/accelerometer measurements are followed by qualitative research to elicit fine grained qualitative aspects of public spaces that stimulate of prohibit their use for physical activity. Based on the outcomes we will work with planners and public health professionals, to develop policy recommendations for increasing physical activity via public spaces.

This project will identify disaster response practices and conditions that can lead to net-centric governance. We define netcentric governance as the organization of a response to disasters by making use of self-directed networks of heterogeneous stakeholders, in an environment enabled by shared technological and organizational infrastructure. We will study whether net-centric governance offers an alternative for formal top-down command and control practices, by drawing on the potential of community networks. Netcentric governance is studied in two different social contexts. Humanitarian work represents weak governmental response structures, but ample experience with social media. The Dutch context represents an over-regulated governmental response structure, but less experience with the use of social media in disaster response. Net-centric governance in these cases can support heterogeneous response networks, building on interconnected goals and ensuring better cooperation. We will combine ethnographic studies with network analysis and semantic analysis, to understand response practices and to chart patterns in information streams among and between heterogeneous networks. The Safety Regions? project ?Netcentisch Werken? for crisis response in the Netherlands, and Ushahidi and CrisisMappers, citizen-based social media platforms in humanitarian relief as used by NGOs, provide the cases. By analyzing the consequences of interconnecting response organizations with community networks, we will identify the possibilities of a more adaptive disaster governance. This project aims at developing principles of net-centric governance, to be implemented in both humanitarian and national disaster response. The project will contribute to a more legitimate and reliable, that is ?smart? disaster response to foster societal resilience.