Psychobiology of social support: The social dimension of stress buffering

Social integration and social support have a substantial influence on individual health and longevity, an effect assumed to be mediated through reduced stress reactivity in support recipients. However, considerable variability in individual responses to social support has been documented, suggesting that the beneficial effect of social support interacts with early experiences, genetically influenced differences in biological systems mediating social behavior, personality traits, and psychopathology. Here we outline the historical background of social support research, including epidemiological studies, laboratory studies, and field studies on the subject of social support and health, with regard to different psychobiological effector systems. Most recent research has focused on brain mechanisms which link social integration or social support with reduced neural threat responses. As numerous mental disorders are associated with considerable social impairment, understanding the potentially underlying mechanisms of neural plasticity in relation to social support, stress buffering and health in these disorders can help tailor new diagnostic and treatment strategies. Thus, theories of socially-driven emotional learning and memory, as presented in this review, might eventually lead to psychobiology-based treatment concepts for mental disorders involving social deficits

Multiple Structural Breaks in Interactive Effects Panel Data and the Impact of Quantitative Easing on Bank Lending

This paper develops a new toolbox for multiple structural break detection in panel data models with interactive effects. The toolbox includes tests for the presence of structural breaks, a break date estimator, and a break date confidence interval. The new toolbox is applied to a large panel of US banks for a period characterized by massive quantitative easing programs aimed at lessening the impact of the global financial crisis and the COVID--19 pandemic. The question we ask is: Have these programs been successful in spurring bank lending in the US economy? The short answer turns out to be: ``No''

Spatial and Spatio-temporal Engle-Granger representations, Networks and Common Correlated Effects

We provide a way of representing spatial and temporal equilibria in terms of a Engle-Granger representation theorem in a panel setting. We use the mean group, common correlated effects estimator plus multiple testing to provide a set of weakly cross corr

Calming Effects of Touch in Human, Animal, and Robotic Interaction—Scientific State-of-the-Art and Technical Advances

Small everyday gestures such as a tap on the shoulder can affect the way humans feel and act. Touch can have a calming effect and alter the way stress is handled, thereby promoting mental and physical health. Due to current technical advances and the growing role of intelligent robots in households and healthcare, recent research also addressed the potential of robotic touch for stress reduction. In addition, touch by non-human agents such as animals or inanimate objects may have a calming effect. This conceptual article will review a selection of the most relevant studies reporting the physiological, hormonal, neural, and subjective effects of touch on stress, arousal, and negative affect. Robotic systems capable of non-social touch will be assessed together with control strategies and sensor technologies. Parallels and differences of human-to-human touch and human-to-non-human touch will be discussed. We propose that, under appropriate conditions, touch can act as (social) signal for safety, even when the interaction partner is an animal or a machine. We will also outline potential directions for future research and clinical relevance. Thereby, this review can provide a foundation for further investigations into the beneficial contribution of touch by different agents to regulate negative affect and arousal in humans

Contributions to the analysis of economic growth and cross-sectional dependence

This thesis links the theoretical and the applied literature on interdependence between countries in growth models and their impact on convergence. Economic theory agrees on the existence of interactions between countries, but the empirical literature neglects these interactions. Econometric theory defines two types of dependence between units, which both needs to be taken care of when estimated. The thesis consists of three chapters. The first chapter presents a growth model, which motivates the weaker type of dependence, spatial dependence. In this model, migration, trade and foreign direct investments act as channels for the interaction of countries. The model predicts positive effects of the interactions, especially of migration. It is common to model the second type of cross-sectional dependence in form of a multifactor error structure model in a heterogeneous slope panel. The model is estimated by the Dynamic Common Correlated Effects estimator, which approximates the dependence by time specific averages. The second chapter introduces a Stata package to compute this estimator. It discusses practical challenges in its empirical application, presents examples for the estimation and highlights the requirements for the time and cross-sectional dimensions using a Monte Carlo simulation. The final chapter combines the contributions of the first two chapters. A spatial time lag controls for spatial dependence. The growth model in the first chapter is used to motivate the choice of the weights. Strong cross-sectional dependence is taken care of by the methods explained in the preceding chapter. In addition, the chapter uses a general Lotka-Volterra model to determine the type of convergence in the presence of spatial interactions. Lastly, evidence for conditional convergence is presented for a panel of 93 countries

Scapulakippung und deren Auswirkung auf die radiologische Beurteilung der Pfannenkomponente bei Schultertotalendoprothesen

Die vorliegende Studie befasste sich mit zwei Fragestellungen. Im ersten Teil wurde die Projektionsabhängigkeit von radiologischen Landmarken im konventionellen Röntgenbild der Schulter und damit deren klinische Anwendbarkeit untersucht. Im zweiten Teil wurde das Auftreten von sog. röntgenhellen Linien (RLL) bei Glenoidersatz im konventionellen Röntgen und im CT untersucht. Beide Fragestelllungen sind in der Beurteilung von Landmarken von Glenoidkomponenten in der Endoprothetik der Schulter von Bedeutung. Zur Beantwortung der ersten Frage wurden 6 mit Markierungen versehene humane Scapula-Leichenpräparate in 25 Projektionen geröntgt und der Einfluss der Projektionen auf gängige Landmarken gemessen. Die Landmarken wurden an der Margo lateralis, Margo medialis, knöchernen Glenoid, Coracoidbasis, Fossa supraspinata und oberen Linie der Spina scapulae festgelegt. Zur Beantwortung der zweiten Frage wurden 10 humane Glenoid-Leichenpräparate mit einzementierter Glenoidkomponente im konventionellen Röntgen und im CT untersucht. Alle gewonnenen radiologischen Bilder wurden von zwei Untersuchern vermessen und die Interobserverreliabilität errechnet. Die Ergebnisse des ersten Teiles sowohl der Messwerte der Landmarken als auch der Interobserverreliabilität zeigten, dass die Margo medialis des Schulterblattes die zuverlässigsten Ergebnisse bei der Robustheit gegen Verkippung zur Beurteilung des Kunststoff Glenoids aufwiesen. Im klinischen Alltag ist diese Landmarke jedoch auf vielen Röntgenbildern der Schulter nicht mit abgebildet. Es zeigte sich, dass die am wenigsten projektionsabhängige Landmarke, die regelmässig auf Schulteraufnahmen abgebildet ist, die Margo lateralis scapulae ist. Als Ergebnis des zweiten Teiles zeigte sich, dass im konventionellen Röntgen sichtbare RLL im CT nicht alle zur Darstellung kamen und somit als Artefakte zu werten waren. Aufgrund der klinisch schwierig durchzuführenden Röntgentechnik kann nicht immer eine exakte AP Aufnahme im konventionellen Röntgen gewonnen werden, wodurch auch projektionsbedingt Doppellinien erscheinen können. Diese wurden vermutlich durch die konvexe Form des PE Glenoids und Zementfehlern verursacht. Zur Beurteilung einer Lockerung sollte also eine Computertomografie angefertigt werden. Weiterhin zeigte sich aber auch im CT, dass frisch implantierte Glenoidkomponenten trotz optimaler Bedingungen RLL aufweisen. Dies zeigte deutlich, dass die Zementiertechnik auch in ihrer modernen Form noch nicht voll ausgereift war und deshalb weiterhin nach Verbesserungsmöglichkeiten gesucht werden sollte.The aim of this study was to evaluate the reliability of different bony landmarks on radiographs after implantation of a total shoulder arthroplasty when the scapula is tilted compared with the ideal ap view. To assess loosening of the glenoid component, serial evaluation of ap radiographs of the scapula has been established as the 'gold standard. This study also verified the incidence of radiolucent lines (RLL) in radiographs and on CTscans to show different measurements of localization and appearance of the RLL. For the first aim of this study glenoid components were implanted into 6 human cadaveric scapulae. Radiographs were taken exactly anterior-posterior in the frontal plane, as well as craniocaudal tilted (±15° and ±30°) and mediolateral tilted (±10° and ±20°). The following landmarks were evaluated: lateral margin of the scapula, medial margin of the scapula, floor of the fossa supraspinatus line, spine of the scapula line, glenoid fossa line, and coracoid base line. In the second part of this study, 10 glenoid components were implanted into human cadaveric glenoids and a CT-scan as well as radiographs were made in an exact anteriorposterior view. The images were compared to evaluate the localization, incidence and form of the RLL. Every X-ray was measured by two different examiners to show the interobserver reliability. Regarding robustness against glenoid tilt, the medial margin of the scapula had the best intraobserver and interobserver reliability, whereas the lateral margin of the scapula had an acceptable intraobserver and interobserver reliability. In measuring medial migration, the glenoid fossa line had a significantly lower intraobserver and interobserver reliability than the coracoid base line. Because conventional radiographs were hardly done in exact ap direction despite the laboratory within, RLL were seen on X-ray although no RLL actually existed. The CT-scans highlighted the existence of artefacts, which looked like RLL on conventional radiography. The curved form of the glenoid component can cause double lines, which look like RLL on X-rays. However, the conventional radiography can still be used to detect an increase of RLL in postoperativ control X-rays. To be absolutely sure whether RLL do exist a CT-scan has to be done. This study shows that, even under best conditions for an implantation of glenoid components RLL can be viewed due to false cementation technique. The results underline that the cement implantation can still be improved to minimize the incidence of RLL

Psychological structure and neuroendocrine patterns of daily stress appraisals

Threat and challenge are two fundamental appraisal concepts of psychological stress theories, determined by the mismatch between demands and resources. Previous research has predominantly investigated the neuroendocrine correlates of stress appraisal in laboratory contexts during acute demanding situations. We tested whether the psychoneuroendocrinology of stress appraisals can also be investigated in naturalistic trans-contextual everyday life settings. Forty-two participants produced five daily saliva samples and provided concurrent questionnaire data on subjective stress, demands, resources, and the threat-challenge continuum over the course of five days (69% female; mean age = 22.8, range = 18-30 years). Momentary salivary cortisol and alpha amylase were predicted with three-level autoregressive linear mixed models. We found that both momentary cortisol and alpha amylase were elevated during higher subjective stress. In contrast, cortisol was not significantly related to a bipolar threat-challenge indicator. Moreover within-person response surface analyses showed no effect of the mismatch between demands and resources on either physiological stress indicator, but confirmed theoretically proposed effects on subjective threat-challenge, which was replicated in another intensive longitudinal (N = 61) and a large cross-sectional sample (N = 1194). In sum, our study (a) suggests robust relations between subjective stress and HPA/SAM axis activity on a moment-to-moment basis and (b) confirms theoretical predictions concerning stress appraisal and the mismatch between demands and resources on a psychological level. In contrast, no neuroendocrine patterns of threat-challenge were found, suggesting that neuroendocrine patterns might be context-specific and do not apply to a general demand-resource imbalance in everyday life. (DIPF/Orig.

Cross-cultural comparison of fertility specific quality of life in German, Hungarian and Jordanian couples attending a fertility center

Background: Only a few studies have reported cross-cultural comparisons regarding psychosocial consequences of infertility. Differences between societies with different cultural backgrounds were revealed and seemed to be based on the importance of pronatalism. Our aim was to measure cross-cultural differences in fertility specific quality of life of infertile couples in Germany, Hungary and Jordan who attend a fertility center in a cross-sectional study. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in one fertility clinic in Germany, in five fertility clinics in Hungary and in one fertility clinic in Jordan. Overall 750 couples (252 couples in Jordan, 246 couples in Germany and 252 couples in Hungary) attending the first medical infertility consultation were asked to fill out our questionnaire set. Fertility specific quality of life (FertiQoL) and sociodemographic differences were measured between couples from three countries. Results: Jordanian couples had the shortest relationship (5.8 ± 4.3 yrs.), though they reported the longest duration of child wish (4.2 ± 3.6 yrs.) and fertility treatments (3.0 ± 3.3 yrs.). The proportion of high education was considerably higher in Jordanian women and men (60 % and 66 %, respectively) compared to the other two samples. First, marked cross-country differences were obtained on Emotional, Mind/Body and Relational subscales of the FertiQoL, indicating that Jordanian couples reported poorer fertility-related quality of life than Germans and Hungarians (p < 0.001). After controlling for the sociodemographic and medical variables, a significant difference only in the Emotional domain was observed (p < 0.001). Conclusions: The study revealed only a few cultural based differences in fertility specific quality of life between the couples of the three countries. Thus, infertility counselors should pay attention to psychosocial problems rooted in individual sociocultural aspects of the infertile couple regardless of cultural stereotypes. Further studies should identify sociocultural factors within different subgroups of infertile patients instead of focusing different societies as a whole because intra-cultural psychosocial differences in experiencing infertility seem to be more important for the individual patient than intercultural differences