Understanding the Impact of Hobby Participation on Quality of Life During Cancer Treatment

Objective: Over the past two decades there has been significant research on the benefits of leisure participation in increasing quality of life (QoL). Additionally, there is a substantial foundation of research exploring the role of leisure engagement in life-threatening illness and cancer. The aim of this study is to explore the role of regular hobby participation on QoL with regards to finding purpose and meaning making, increased coping skills, and social support through hobby participation during breast cancer treatment. Method: Qualitative descriptive study using snowball sampling for participant recruitment. Data collected through semi-structured interviews. Data analysis completed through process of in vivo coding, categorization, and theming. Findings: Major themes found were (1) hobby participation was unimportant during early stages of cancer diagnosis, (2) level of participation impacted overall emotional state, (3) hobby participation strengthened relationships, and (4) cancer experience led to post-traumatic growth. Conclusion: Hobby participation during cancer treatment is believed to increase quality of life during the course of breast cancer treatment based on data collected from participants after completion of cancer treatment. With increased understanding of the role of occupational engagement during cancer treatment, there is room for occupational therapy to increase preventative services for individuals experiencing cancer

Spatial homogeneity of bacterial and archaeal communities in the deep eastern Mediterranean Sea surface sediments

The diversity of microorganisms inhabiting the deep sea surface sediments was investigated in 9 stations (700-1900 m depth) in the Levantine basin by 454 massive tag sequencing of the 16S rDNA V4 region using universal primers. In total, 108,811 reads (an average of 10,088 per sample) were assigned to 5014 bacterial and 966 archaeal operational taxonomic units (OTUs; at 97% cut off). The 55% of the reads were of archaea, indicating dominance of archaea over bacteria at eight of the stations. The diversity and estimated richness values were high (e.g., H´ ranged from 5.66 to 7.41 for bacteria). The compositions of the microorganisms at all stations were remarkably similar, with Bray-Curtis similarities of 0.53–0.91 and 0.74–0.99 for bacterial and archaeal orders respectively. At two stations, very high abundances of only a few genera (Marinobacterium, Bacillus, Vibrio, Photobacterium) were accountable for the dissimilarities documented compared to the other deep sea stations. Half of the bacterial reads (51%) belonged to the phylum Proteobacteria, comprising mainly Gammaproteobacteria (41–72% of the proteobacterial reads per sample), Deltaproteobacteria (12–29%), Alphaproteobacteria (7–18%) and Betaproteobacteria (3–14%). The most abundant bacterial family was Sinobacteraceae (order Xanthomonadales) with 5–10% of total bacterial reads per sample. Most abundant reads (15.4% of all microbial reads) were affiliated with Marine Group 1 archaea, putatively capable of ammonia oxidation (213 OTUs), and bacteria involved in nitrification were found in all samples. The data point to the significant role that chemolithotrophic carbon assimilation and nitrification fill in the oligotrophic deep sea Levant sediments. [Int Microbiol 19(2): 109-119 (2016)]Keywords: deep sea sediments · eastern Mediterranean · microbial communities · ammonia oxidizing Archaea (AOA) · Israe

Innenbeschichtung poröser Körper mittels Atomlagenabscheidung zur Redoxstabilisierung anodengestützter Festoxidbrennstoffzellen

Fuel cells convert directly the chemical energy of fuels into electrical energy with a high efficiency and are flexible in use due to their modular design. Anode-supported Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFCs) consist of a nickel/8YSZ substrate (8YSZ ˆ= with 8 mol-% yttria stabilized zirconia), a nickel/8YSZ anode, an 8YSZ electrolyte, and a cathode. In case of reoxidation of the nickel in the substrate, the substrate expands in lateral direction and creates tensile stresses and cracks in the electrolyte, resulting in a decrease of the cell performance or a complete cell failure. The aim of this work is the stabilization of anode-supported SOFCs with respect to reoxidation by coating the inner surface of the porous substrate, using the process of atomic layer deposition (ALD). The deposited layer protects the nickel in the substrate against oxidation and prevents in this way a crack formation in the electrolyte and a cell failure. More generally, the inner surface coating of porous media using ALD is investigated experimentally and described theoretically by a model. Atomic layer deposition of zirconia using the precursors TEMAZ and O$_{2}$ was developed in the in-house ALD machine, because this process is not described in literature. In order to model atomic layer deposition, Knudsen diffusion and second-order surface reaction kinetics of the precursors were combined and the thickness of the deposited layer within the porous medium was predicted. The inner surface coating of Ni/8YSZ substrates was proven by a conformal coating of the grains and the ALD model was verified. The zirconia layer protected the coated parts of the substrate for at least 17 redox cycles. It was not possible to coat the entire inner surface of the substrate and consequently, reoxidation of the substrate led to cracks in the electrolyte. The zirconia layer did not influence the electrochemical performance of the SOFC leading to the conclusion that a complete coating of the substrate can solve the problem of reoxidation. Additionally, the combination of a thin electrolyte and a low operating temperature is promising, too

Bidirektionale Abbildung zwischen Geschäftsprozessmodellen und IT-Kommunikationssystemen

Wie können Menschen mit verschiedenen Kenntnissen und Erfahrungen Prozessmodelle in der digitalen Kommunikation verwenden und zugleich Systemunterstützung durch die beschriebenen Prozesse erhalten? Diese Fragestellung wird mit einer beidseitigen Transformation auf Basis natürlicher Sprache gelöst und mit praxisnahen Beispielen erläutert. So können IT-gestützte Workflows über bisher schwer überwindbare Systemgrenzen hinweg umgesetzt werden

Design Decisions for a Powertrain Combination of Electric Motor and Propeller for an Electric Aircraft

For the sizing of an electric motor, the diameter and length of the installation space are important parameters that significantly influence and limit the characteristics of the electric motor. From an aerodynamic point of view, it is not technically advantageous to choose a propeller hub diameter that is larger than mechanically necessary. The hub diameter defines the installation space ans thus the outer diameter for the electric motor driving the propeller. The research question that arises is this: Is there an optimum diameter for the hub and thus the electric motor and how is it limited? The present work should help to establish a better understanding of the system combination of electric motor and propeller, especially the choice of the diameter and further geometrical parameters of the electric motor. A parameter study investigating aeromechanical and electromagnetic aspects has been performed and the results are combined to achieve the best solution in terms of efficiency and power density. The investigations show that an increase in the diameter causes little disadvantage from an aerodynamic point of view, but the improvements to the electric motor are significant only up to the point where the diameter-to-length ratio becomes too high and end-region effects become more significant. The installation space for the electric motor could be determined using a hub-to-tip ratio of 0.16 to 0.20, which is applicable to any propeller. In addition, it could be shown that a co-optimisation of the speed throughout a mission profile with regard to the efficiency is affected by the propeller alone

Bidirektionale Abbildung zwischen Geschäftsprozessmodellen und IT-Kommunikationssystemen

How can people with different knowledge and experience use process models in the digital communication and at the same time how can they receive system support through the described processes? This question is solved by a mutual transformation based on natural language which is illustrated with practical examples. Thus, more widespread workflows can be implemented by incorporating system boundaries that were previously hard to overcome

Selectivity of Television Media: The Effects of Quasi-Social Networks on Voter Participation

Television has changed the way average citizens receive information. It has made expressing opinions to a mass amount of people very quickly a possibility. Conventional wisdom suggests that most forms of television depress political participation. However, as the forms of media change and the types of shows change to function more as a social network than simply entertainment, then perhaps television has the capacity to persuade people and to make them more likely to participate. This can potentially change the way in which election seasons function and political parties spend their funds. The only way to get at this is to have detailed information about which kinds of shows people watch, which is afforded to us by the 2012 American National Election Study. I choose to run a multivariate logistic regression to test my theory. My findings were largely inconclusive and unable to contribute significantly to existing research. Neither of my hypotheses about airtime or type of shows were proven in my study. I did analyze finite regressions in order to guide future research into this subject and found a relationship between the amount of hard news watched and the size of one’s social network. This relationship was insignificant when controlling for other factors, but could be useful to future research as a guide. As stated, my results were inconclusive, but another survey could change this finding. Further research into how television use influences and an individual’s social network in relation to voting should be performed