Alone together: Biographical crises in times of pandemix

I have been studying biographical crises for some years now. My interest is in understanding how people cope with very personal difficult moments experienced over the course of their lives. I am examining critical events and periods connected, for example, to the death of someone close, a disease, accidents, severe economic difficulties, among other traumatic occurrences [1]. One of the main features of this type of micro analysis is that it examines extremely private dimensions of a person’s life, and deals with the exceptionality and sometimes even unpredictability of these events in that person’s biography. It is true that many of these crises illustrate the individual dimension of larger societal trends. An accident, a death, or a disease can be understood at the individual level as the result of chance, but if we look at the global picture, these are events that are quite common in people’s biographies. They are individually unexpected but collectively probable. And while they tend to have disruptive effects, there are institutional responses to such circumstances [2]. Societies are prepared, through their institutions, to deal with these negative moments, precisely because they are integral parts of social life.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

On the Hausdorff Dimension of Continuous Functions Belonging to Hölder and Besov Spaces on Fractal d-Sets

The Hausdorff dimension of the graphs of the functions in Hölder and Besov spaces (in this case with integrability p≥1) on fractal d-sets is studied. Denoting by s in (0,1] the smoothness parameter, the sharp upper bound min{d+1-s, d/s} is obtained. In particular, when passing from d≥s to d<s there is a change of behaviour from d+1-s to d/s which implies that even highly nonsmooth functions defined on cubes in ℝn have not so rough graphs when restricted to, say, rarefied fractals. © 2011 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

Fitting isochrones to open cluster photometric data III. Estimating metallicities from UBV photometry

The metallicity is a critical parameter that affects the correct determination fundamental characteristics stellar cluster and has important implications in Galactic and Stellar evolution research. Fewer than 10 % of the 2174 currently catalog open clusters have their metallicity determined in the literature. In this work we present a method for estimating the metallicity of open clusters via non-subjective isochrone fitting using the cross-entropy global optimization algorithm applied to UBV photometric data. The free parameters distance, reddening, age, and metallicity simultaneously determined by the fitting method. The fitting procedure uses weights for the observational data based on the estimation of membership likelihood for each star, which considers the observational magnitude limit, the density profile of stars as a function of radius from the center of the cluster, and the density of stars in multi-dimensional magnitude space. We present results of [Fe/H] for nine well-studied open clusters based on 15 distinct UBV data sets. The [Fe/H] values obtained in the ten cases for which spectroscopic determinations were available in the literature agree, indicating that our method provides a good alternative to determining [Fe/H] by using an objective isochrone fitting. Our results show that the typical precision is about 0.1 dex

Validation of the Portuguese version of the Langer Mindfulness Scale and its relations to quality of work life and work-related outcomes

Mindfulness is an active mindset characterized by novel distinction-drawing and has been related to happiness and well-being. This study aims to validate the Portuguese version of the Langer Mindfulness scale (LMS14), to explore its psychometric and structural properties, and to analyze the role of mindfulness on the relation between work characteristics and performance. We conducted three studies; the first (N = 141) tested the scale’s factorial structure and its psychometric properties. In the second we used two samples (N = 330) and tested the factorial structure of the scale, its reliability and validity. In the third (N = 154) we analyzed the moderating role of mindfulness in the relationship between autonomy and feedback with performance. Results showed three factors — novelty seeking, novelty producing, and engagement — and convergent, discriminant, and criterion validity as the scale correlates with well-being, affect, creativity, and work engagement. Results demonstrated that mindfulness moderates the link between autonomy and feedback with performance.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Uncertainty’s impact on adaptive performance in the post-COVID era: The moderating role of perceived leader’s effectiveness

This study builds upon existing research on daily adaptive performance by focusing on two main aspects: (1) the fluctuations within individuals concerning uncertainty in relation to daily negative affect and daily adaptive performance and (2) the variations between individuals in the perceived effectiveness of their leaders as a relevant boundary condition of these relationships. Data were gathered during a post-COVID phase from a sample of 176 Portuguese working adults, for 10 days, resulting in a total of 1,760 measurement occasions. The results of the multilevel analysis revealed a positive correlation between fluctuations in daily uncertainty and daily negative affect. Notably, this relationship was influenced by the perceived effectiveness of leaders. Specifically, the presence of an effective leader mitigated the heightened negative affect caused by increased uncertainty. In addition, the findings demonstrated a positive link between daily negative affect and daily adaptive performance. Moreover, a statistically significant indirect effect was observed, indicating that uncertainty led to fluctuations in adaptive performance through its impact on daily negative affect. Essentially, higher levels of uncertainty contributed to increased negative affect among employees, subsequently influencing their daily adaptive performance. It is important to note that this pathway was further influenced by the perceived effectiveness of leaders. In cases where employees perceived their leaders as less effective, the connection between negative affect and adaptive performance was more pronounced. This study underscores the significance of perceived effective leadership, particularly in unique contexts such as the post-COVID era: an effective leader is always good for affective regulation, but a less effective leader is not always bad regarding adaptive performance. This complexity prompts discussions on implications for both theoretical understanding and practical application.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Mindfulness fills in the blank spaces left by affective uncertainty uplifting adaptive behaviors

Drawing on the integrative model of uncertainty tolerance, we aimed to investigate whether uncertainty relates to adaptive performance, at the within-person level. We argue that daily uncertainty at work will trigger negative affective reactions that, in turn, will minimize adaptive performance. Moreover, we focus on socio-cognitive mindfulness as a cross-level moderator of the indirect relationship of uncertainty on adaptive performance via negative affect. To capture changes in daily life and test our model, we conducted two diary studies across 5-working days: One with a sample of telecommuters (n = 101*5 = 505), and the other with a sample of non-telecommuters (n = 253*5 = 1,265). Study 1 took place between February and March of 2021 (during the mandatory confinement), and Study 2 occurred between April and May 2021 (out of the mandatory confinement). Both studies were conducted in Portugal. The multilevel results showed that at the day-level of analysis, uncertainty decreased adaptive performance through the enhanced negative affect. Moreover, at the person-level of analysis mindfulness moderated (a) the direct relationship of uncertainty to adaptive performance, and (b) the indirect relationship of uncertainty to adaptive performance via negative affect, in such a way that it became weaker when mindfulness was higher (multilevel-mediated moderation effect). This relation was different between Studies 1 and 2; that is, in Study 1, teleworkers who were high on mindfulness engaged in more adaptive performance when negative affect was high. In Study 2, adaptive performance significantly decreased, when negative affect was higher, even though this effect was weaker for mindful of individuals. The findings show that mindfulness helps to fill in the spaces of the affective uncertainty attenuating its detrimental effects.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Corporate blended learning in Portugal: current status and future directions

The aim of this study is to characterize the current status of blended learning in Portugal, given that b-learning has grown exponentially in the Portuguese market over recent years. 38 organizations (representing 68% of all institutions certified to provide distance training by the Government Labour Office – DGERT -) participated in this study. The results revealed that in 2007, although the predominant instructional format in Portugal was still face-to-face training (65%), e-learning at 15% came in behind b-learning with 20%. Data also revealed that 50% of distance training department coordinators believe that b-learning produces better training outcomes than face-to-face training alone, when considering the same content and learning objectives. Furthermore, when comparing b-learning and e-learning outcomes with similar content and learning objectives, 78.1% of these coordinators declared that b-learning produces better outcomes than e-learning alone. Hence, the content analysis indicated positive perceptions with regard to the future direction of b-learning, leading to the conclusion that in the long-term, corporate b-learning training will develop considerably in this country