Mechanotransduktion in Osteoblasten

Niertransplantatie is de beste behandeling voor nierfalen, maar sommige patiënten doen het beter dan anderen. Als we wisten waarom, zouden we misschien kunnen helpen als het minder goed gaat. Twee studies keken naar de invloed van individuele kenmerken op de patiëntenbeoordeling van gezondheid en welzijn. Eén omvatte patiënten tot 15 jaar na niertransplantatie, de ander volgde patiënten van vóór tot een jaar na transplantatie. Vele jaren met een getransplanteerde nier gaan samen met meer bijkomende aandoeningen en meer symptomen vanwege nierziekte en medicatie.Desalniettemin beoordeelden patiënten hun gezondheid even hoog dan kort na transplantatie. In sommige gevallen rapporteerden patiënten echter een verslechtering van hun gezondheid na transplantatie. Hoewel het niet mogelijk bleek deze verslechtering vooraf te voorspellen, waren deze patiënten vaak vrouwen met meer bijkomende aandoeningen en complicaties. Alhoewel de kwaliteit van leven na transplantatie vaak lager was dan patiënten hadden verwacht, waren daaruit voortvloeiende psychische klachten slechts van korte duur. Een slechte gezondheid leidde echter tot meer psychische klachten, omdat het de beoordeling van de gezondheid alsmede gevoelens van controle, optimisme en zelfrespect verlaagde. Omgekeerd resulteerden verhoogde gevoelens van controle en minder obstructie van belangrijke doelen na transplantatie in minder psychische klachten. Regelmatige controles van de patiëntenbeoordeling van gezondheid en welzijn zouden degenen kunnen identificeren die het minder goed doen. Daarna kan een beter beheer van symptomen en bijkomende aandoeningen, evenals interventies ter verbetering van het gevoel van controle, zelfrespect en het vermogen om met geblokkeerde doelen om te gaan, de gezondheidsbeoodeling en het welzijn van patiënten helpen verbeteren.Kidney transplantation is the best treatment for kidney failure, but some patients fare better than others. If we knew why, we might be able to help those who fare less well. Two studies were conducted to investigate the influence of individual characteristics on patient ratings of health and well-being. One included patients up to 15 years after kidney transplantation, the other followed patients from before to one year after transplantation. Patients who lived with a transplanted kidney for many years had more additional conditions and more symptoms because of their kidney disease and medication. Nevertheless, they rated their health equally high than those who lived shorter periods with a transplanted kidney. In some cases, however, patients reported a deterioration of their health after transplantation. While it was not possible to predict this deterioration beforehand, these patients were often women with more additional conditions and complications. Although quality of life after transplantation was often lower than patients had expected, any resulting distress was short-lived. Poor health, however, led to higher distress, because it lowered health ratings and feelings of control, optimism, and self-esteem. Conversely, increased feelings of control and less obstruction of important goals after transplantation resulted in less distress. Regular checks of patients’ health ratings and well-being could identify those who fare less well. Thereafter, enhanced management of symptoms and additional conditions, as well as interventions to improve feelings of control, self-esteem, and the ability to cope with obstructed goals might help to boost patients’ health ratings and well-being

Mapping political trust and involvement in the personality space - A meta-analysis and new evidence

Objective: Relations between the Big Five personality dispositions and individual differences in political trust and involvement in politics have been investigated in many studies. We aimed to systematically integrate these findings and further explore the correlations at different hierarchical levels of the Big Five and political trust and involvement. Method: We conducted a meta-analysis of 43 publications (N1 = 207,360 participants) and estimated latent correlations at different hierarchical levels using two additional samples (N2 = 988 and N3 = 795). Results: The meta-analysis revealed substantial correlations between involvement and openness (+), extraversion (+), and neuroticism (−), but only small correlations between trust and the Big Five. We also found a substantial amount of inconsistency in findings across studies. Our additional analyses showed that (a) correlations with the Big Five were larger for higher-order factors of general political trust (as opposed to subdimensions such as trust in politicians) and general political involvement (as opposed to subdimensions such as political interest) and (b) correlational patterns within each Big Five domain differed across facets. Conclusion: Our analyses indicate that political involvement is more strongly linked to the Big Five than political trust. We discuss the theoretical and empirical relevance of hierarchical constructs

A translation and validation of the Perceived Political Self-Efficacy (P-PSE) Scale for the use in German samples

Caprara et al. (European Journal of Social Psychology 39:1002–1020, 2009) criticized existing measures of internal political efficacy for not taking into account psychological theories of self-efficacy and for the resulting low construct validity. As an alternative, they presented a ten-item measure called Perceived Political Self-Efficacy (P-PSE) Scale. Based on social cognitive theory, it adopts a psychological understanding of self-efficacy and captures the phenomenon in a more systematic and complete manner than previous measures of internal efficacy. We translated the P-PSE scale to German and tested it in a German national quota sample, using quotas for age, gender and education (N = 1025). We provided evidence on the scale’s construct validity (by testing its correlations towards related constructs) and on its criterion validity (by regressing political participation propensity on the P-PSE score). The scale explained ΔR2 = 26% of people’s propensity for political participation over and above sociodemographic variables, and ΔR2 = 12% over and above previously existing measures, demonstrating its incremental value. We also tested cross-cultural measurement invariance towards an Italian sample, establishing configural, as well as partial metric and scalar invariance. In addition, we validated a four-item short version of the scale, which proved to be similarly valid as the full version. We argue, that these two measurement instruments provide a more adequate way of assessing internal political efficacy for research in German-speaking countries

High School Students\u27 Adaptation of Task Definitions, Goals and Plans to Task Complexity – The Impact of Epistemic Beliefs

Accurate task perception is an important prerequisite for self-regulated learning. The present study explores if 12th-grade high school students (N=131) adapt their task definitions, goals and plans to task complexity when confronted with six differently complex tasks and if this process is related to their epistemic beliefs. Results indicate that students successfully discriminate between tasks and mostly adapt accordingly. For example, students plan to use the strategy of processing critically more frequently for progressively more complex tasks. These adaptations are also related to students\u27 epistemic beliefs. For example, students who believe in variable knowledge plan more shallow approaches to learning for simple tasks and deeper approaches for complex tasks than their counterparts believing in stable knowledge