The current epidemic of human obesity implies that whilst energy balance appears to be regulated, the extent of this regulatory process is being overwhelmed in large numbers of the population by environmental changes. Clearly, the shift towards positive energy balance reflects both alterations in energy intake and decreases in physical activity. Increased energy intake and, in particular, the r...

One of the powerful means of detecting the volcanic effect on the earth’s radiation budget and, hence, on the earth’s climate is numerical modeling. However, the atmospheric processes, during and after the eruption, are too complex and frequently prohibit an adequate description of the non-unique effect of volcanic activity on the earth’s energy balance and its individual components. This expla...

Whilst the prevention of childhood obesity is the only viable, enduring, cost-effective solution to the obesity epidemic, effective methods for it remain elusive. Furthermore, strategies to influence obesogenic environments remain relatively unexplored. In order to be able to develop powerful population-level interventions and public health policies to prevent childhood obesity, it is important...

Certain aspects of the home environment as well as individuals' knowledge of energy balance are believed to be important correlates of various dietary and physical activity behaviors, but no known studies have examined potential relationships between these correlates. This study evaluated cross-sectional associations between characteristics of the home environment and energy balance knowledge a...

BACKGROUND The evidence-based Dutch Obesity Intervention in Teenagers (DOiT) program is a school-based obesity prevention program for 12 to 14-year olds attending the first two years of prevocational education. This paper describes the study protocol applied to evaluate (a) the nationwide dissemination process of DOiT in the Netherlands, and (b) the relationship between quality of implementatio...

Understanding successional trends in energy and matter exchange across the ecosystem-atmosphere boundary layer is an essential focus in ecological research; however, a general theory describing the observed pattern remains elusive. This paper examines whether the principle of maximum entropy production could provide the solution. A general framework is developed for calculating entropy producti...

The aim of this study was to analyse whether automatic milking has an effect on reproduction in dairy cows. Probably the most important consequence of automatic milking is an increased milking frequency. More frequent milking means more production and thereby an extra threat for the energy balance during the first months of lactation. A deep negative energy balance (NEB) is often followed by ne...

The energy balance of groundwater flow developed by Oosterbaan, Boonstra and Rao (1994), and used for the groundwater flow in unconfined aquifers, is applied to subsurface drainage by pipes or ditches with the possibility to introduce entrance resistance and/or (layered) soils with anisotropic hydraulic conductivities. Owing to the energy associated with the recharge by downward percolating wat...