7 research outputs found
Take a break! Benefits of sleep and short breaks for daily work engagement
The current study investigates the benefits of a good nightâs sleep and short work breaks for employeesâ daily work engagement. It is hypothesized that sleep and self-initiated short breaks help restore energetic and self-regulatory resources which, in turn, enable employees to experience high work engagement. A daily diary study was conducted with 107 employees who provided data twice a day (before lunch and at the end of the working day) over 5 workdays (453 days in total). Multilevel regression analyses showed that sleep quality and short breaks were beneficial for employeesâ daily work engagement. After nights employees slept better, they indicated higher work engagement during the day. Moreover, taking self-initiated short breaks from work in the afternoon boosted daily work engagement, whereas taking short breaks in the morning failed to predict daily work engagement. Taking short breaks did not compensate for impaired sleep with regard to daily work engagement. Overall, these findings suggest that recovery before and during work can foster employeesâ daily work engagement
The relevance of sleep and circadian misalignment for procrastination among shift workers
This daily diary study contributes to current research uncovering the role of sleep for employeesâ effective selfâregulation at work. We focus on shift workersâ effective selfâregulation in terms of their general and dayâspecific inclination to procrastinate, that is, their tendency to delay the initiation or completion of work activities. We hypothesized that transitory sleep characteristics (dayâspecific sleep quality and sleep duration) and chronic sleep characteristics in terms of circadian misalignment are relevant for procrastination. Sixtyâsix shift workers completed two daily questionnaires over the course of one work week, resulting in 332 days of analysis. Results of multilevel regression analyses showed that on days when shift workers slept better and longerâcompared to days when they slept worse and shorterâthey had more energy and willpower available after sleep and subsequently were less prone to procrastination. Moreover, the more work times (permanent shift) were misaligned with employeesâ sleepâwake preferences (chronotype) the more pronounced was shift workersâ inclination to procrastinate at work. The present findings provide important implications for shift workersâ effective functioning at work
Overcoming procrastination: Time pressure and positive affect as compensatory routes to action
Personality dynamics turn positive and negative mood into creativity
Ministry of Education, Singapore under its Academic Research Funding Tier
The antitumor drug candidate 2-(4-amino-3-methylphenyl)-5-fluorobenzothiazole induces NF-??B activity in drug-sensitive MCF-7 cells
Molecular chaperones and photoreceptor function
Molecular chaperones facilitate and regulate protein conformational
change within cells. This encompasses many fundamental cellular processes:
including the correct folding of nascent chains; protein transport and
translocation; signal transduction and protein quality control. Chaperones are,
therefore, important in several forms of human disease, including
neurodegeneration. Within the retina, the highly specialized photoreceptor cell
presents a fascinating paradigm to investigate the specialization of molecular
chaperone function and reveals unique chaperone requirements essential to
photoreceptor function. Mutations in several photoreceptor proteins lead to
protein misfolding mediated neurodegeneration. The best characterized of these
are mutations in the molecular light sensor, rhodopsin, which cause autosomal
dominant retinitis pigmentosa. Rhodopsin biogenesis is likely to require
chaperones, while rhodopsin misfolding involves molecular chaperones in quality
control and the cellular response to protein aggregation. Furthermore, the
specialization of components of the chaperone machinery to photoreceptor
specific roles has been revealed by the identification of mutations in molecular
chaperones that cause inherited retinal dysfunction and degeneration. These
chaperones are involved in several important cellular pathways and further
illuminate the essential and diverse roles of molecular
chaperones
Meta-analyses identify DNA methylation associated with kidney function and damage
Abstract
Chronic kidney disease is a major public health burden. Elevated urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio is a measure of kidney damage, and used to diagnose and stage chronic kidney disease. To extend the knowledge on regulatory mechanisms related to kidney function and disease, we conducted a blood-based epigenome-wide association study for estimated glomerular filtration rate (nâ=â33,605) and urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio (nâ=â15,068) and detected 69 and seven CpG sites where DNA methylation was associated with the respective trait. The majority of these findings showed directionally consistent associations with the respective clinical outcomes chronic kidney disease and moderately increased albuminuria. Associations of DNA methylation with kidney function, such as CpGs at JAZF1, PELI1 and CHD2 were validated in kidney tissue. Methylation at PHRF1, LDB2, CSRNP1 and IRF5 indicated causal effects on kidney function. Enrichment analyses revealed pathways related to hemostasis and blood cell migration for estimated glomerular filtration rate, and immune cell activation and response for urinary albumin-to-creatinineratio-associated CpGs