Do sojourn effects on personality trait changes last? A five-year longitudinal study

Richter J, Zimmermann J, Neyer FJ, Kandler C. Do sojourn effects on personality trait changes last? A five-year longitudinal study. European Journal of Personality. 2020;35(3):358-382.This study examined sojourners’ long-term personality trait changes over five years, extending previous research on immediate sojourn effects. A sample of German students (N = 1,095) was surveyed thrice (T1-T3) over the course of an academic year. Sojourners (n = 498) lived abroad shortly after T1 for one or two semesters, stayers (n = 597) remained in their home country. Five years after T1, we surveyed the same participants (n = 441, 40.3%) again (T4). Beyond substantial selection effects, latent neighbor-change models revealed that small differences between sojourners’ and stayers’ openness, agreeableness, and neuroticism changes occurred early after sojourn-induced contextual change. Model estimates suggested sustained sojourn effects on openness and neuroticism changes thereafter, and a reversed effect on agreeableness change after return. Due to reduced power and low accuracy at T4, these estimates were not statistically significant. Based on model comparison analyses, however, we could rule out reversed effects for openness and accentuated effects for agreeableness and neuroticism as least likely. Moreover, separating short-term and long-term sojourners revealed no substantial differences, but recurring sojourn experiences tended to play a role in sustaining differences. We discuss implications for future studies on patterns of sojourn effects on personality trait changes

Metabolomics for Prediction of Relapse in Graves' Disease: Observational Pilot Study

Background: There is a lack of biochemical markers for early prediction of relapse in patients with Graves' disease [GD], which may help to direct treatment decisions. We assessed the prognostic ability of a high-throughput proton NMR metabolomic profile to predict relapse in a well characterized cohort of GD patients.Methods: Observational study investigating patients presenting with GD at a Swiss hospital endocrine referral center and an associated endocrine outpatient clinic. We measured 227 metabolic markers in the blood of patients before treatment initiation. Main outcome was relapse of hyperthyroidism within 18 months of stopping anti-thyroid drugs. We used ROC analysis with AUC to assess discrimination.Results: Of 69 included patients 18 (26%) patients had a relapse of disease. The clinical GREAT score had an AUC of 0.68 (95% CI 0.63–0.70) to predict relapse. When looking at the metabolomic markers, univariate analysis revealed pyruvate and triglycerides in medium VLDL as predictors with AUCs of 0.73 (95% CI 0.58–0.84) and 0.67 (95% CI 0.53–0.80), respectively. All other metabolomic markers had lower AUCs.Conclusion: Overall, metabolomic markers in our pilot study had low to moderate prognostic potential for prediction of relapse of GD, with pyruvate and triglycerides being candidates with acceptable discriminatory abilities. Our data need validation in future larger trials

Электропривод регулирующей трубопроводной арматуры на базе синхронного двигателя с постоянными магнитами

Цель работы – создание нового поколения регулирующих взрывозащищенных электроприводов с минимальными габаритными размерами, массой и себестоимостью, не уступающих по точности регулирования и функциональным характеристикам регулирующим электроприводам производства других фирм. В процессе работы был произведен расчет и выбор электропривода. Проведено моделирование и анализ работы привода в разных режимах.The purpose of the work is to create a new generation of regulating explosion-proof electric drives with minimum overall dimensions, weight and cost, which are not inferior in regulation accuracy and functional characteristics to regulating electric drives produced by other companies. During operation electric drive was calculated and selected. Simulation and analysis of the drive operation in different modes were carried out

Association of HbA1c Values with Mortality and Cardiovascular Events in Diabetic Dialysis Patients. The INVOR Study and Review of the Literature

BACKGROUND: Improved glycemic control reduces complications in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM). However, it is discussed controversially whether patients with diabetes mellitus and end-stage renal disease benefit from strict glycemic control. METHODS: We followed 78 patients with DM initiating dialysis treatment of the region of Vorarlberg in a prospective cohort study applying a time-dependent Cox regression analysis using all measured laboratory values for up to more than seven years. This resulted in 880 HbA(1c) measurements (with one measurement every 3.16 patient months on average) during the entire observation period. Non-linear P-splines were used to allow flexible modeling of the association with mortality and cardiovascular disease (CVD) events. RESULTS: We observed a decreased mortality risk with increasing HbA(1c) values (HR = 0.72 per 1% increase, p = 0.024). Adjustment for age and sex and additional adjustment for other CVD risk factors only slightly attenuated the association (HR = 0.71, p = 0.044). A non-linear P-spline showed that the association did not follow a fully linear pattern with a highly significant non-linear component (p = 0.001) with an increased risk of all-cause mortality for HbA(1c) values up to 6-7%. Causes of death were associated with HbA(1c) values. The risk for CVD events, however, increased with increasing HbA(1c) values (HR = 1.24 per 1% increase, p = 0.048) but vanished after extended adjustments. CONCLUSIONS: This study considered the entire information collected on HbA(1c) over a period of more than seven years. Besides the methodological advantages our data indicate a significant inverse association between HbA(1c) levels and all-cause mortality. However, for CVD events no significant association could be found

“Deliberative Supranationalism” Revisited

Legal and political science cannot merge, but they should, at the very least, 'listen to each other'. This working paper is a further step in an ongoing interdisciplinary cooperation which seeks to make sense out of Louis Henkin’s famous admonition. This co-operation had begun with a research project on the European comitology system in 1995 and the publication, inter alia, of two articles on deliberative supranationalism in 1997. The present article is an effort to get?/go beyond the scope of our original analyses and to explore the potential of our guiding ideas at a more general level of integration research. In Part I of this paper, Jürgen Neyer summarises strands of normative and positive political theory on which deliberative approaches to international and European governance can build. These approaches not only support coherence, social acceptance and normative recognition, they also have in important potential for the design of empirical studies. They seem to be particularly promising for the understanding of the institutional design and the political process in the EU. In Part II, Christian Joerges first summarises the objections against deliberative suprantionalism and comitology in legal science. He then presents a conflict-of-law’s approach to European law which builds upon the 1997 articles and seeks to develop their normative-legal perspectives further. European law is interpreted as a new type of conflict of law which constitutionalises a European unitas in pluralitate. Comitology is interpreted as a cognitive opening of the legal system which institutionalises a second order of conflict of laws

Thinking Inside and Outside the Box: Exploring the Role of Problem-Solving Style in Developing Creative Self-Efficacy Through Applied Training in Creative Problem Solving

Studies investigating the impact of creativity training on the actual belief in these capabilities have shown contradictory findings and fall short on explaining the underlying mechanisms how people gain or lose confidence in their creative abilities. Following a mixed-methods approach, this study explores how problem-solving style influences the impact of creativity training on creative self-efficacy based on a creativity course at a German university. Style preferences were associated with different experiences of creative mastery and other sources of creative self-efficacy. We discuss the implications of these findings for the design of creativity training courses and developing creative talent in organizations

Patterns and Sources of Personality Development in Old Age

Kandler C, Kornadt A, Hagemeyer B, Neyer FJ. Patterns and Sources of Personality Development in Old Age. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 2015;109(1):175-191

Sound Body, Sound Mind? The Interrelation between Health Change and Personality Change in Old Age

Kornadt A, Hagemeyer B, Neyer FJ, Kandler C. Sound Body, Sound Mind? The Interrelation between Health Change and Personality Change in Old Age. European Journal of Personality. 2018;32(1):30-45