SiPM technology applied to radiation sensor development

The Silicon Photo-Multiplier (SiPM) being yet in its infancy, a full protocol for the sensor characterization has been developed and implemented at the Physics Department of Universita\u2019 dell\u2019Insubria. Sensors from different producers have been analyzed and compared, in view of the integration in the instruments for radiation detection. Exemplary illustrations are reported here, together with the first results on real-time dosimetry in mammography

Understanding Belongingness in the Gig Economy: The Uplifting and Undermining Effects of Online Communities on Lonely Gig Workers

All humans have a need to belong and belongingness at work serves important organizational and personal purposes. However, gig workers face significant challenges to experiencing belongingness at work because their work is highly temporary, project-based, and occurs outside the relational scaffold afforded by organizations. Given these challenges, gig workers frequently engage in online communities that serve critical social and information-sharing functions. In this dissertation, I focus on gig workers’ individual behaviors in online communities related to gig work and analyze how these behaviors impede or further belongingness. Integrating the evolutionary model of loneliness and regulatory focus theory, I propose that loneliness at work motivates gig workers to engage in online communities in different ways that can either impede or facilitate belongingness. Specifically, I hypothesize that gig workers feel less belongingness when engaging in lurking behaviors, more belongingness when engaging in contributing behaviors. To offer practical advice on how to increase belongingness, I develop an intervention designed to increase contributing behaviors that enhance belongingness. Ultimately, I suggest that belongingness will affect withdrawal from work. I test my theoretical model in a ten-day experience sampling study (ESM) with 95 gig workers. My dissertation contributes to an understanding of how modern workers experience belongingness outside of organizations and the impact of online communities in this process

Self-inconsistency or self-expansion from wearing multiple hats? The daily effects of enacting multiple professional identities on work meaningfulness.

People increasingly support themselves through multiple jobholding—concurrently performing more than one job—and spend time enacting their professional identities each day. In accordance with self-consistency theory, scholars have emphasized that having to act out more than one professional identity promotes a fragmented sense of self for multiple jobholders, which impedes the meaningfulness of their work. However, we assert that this prevailing view about self-inconsistency is incomplete and problematic because it overlooks consideration for how enacting multiple professional identities may be a self-expanding and stimulating experience that satisfies basic needs for growth and exploration. By jointly applying self-expansion theory and self-consistency theory to the day-to-day experience of wearing multiple hats, we unpack how and why enacting multiple professional identities has countervailing implications for work meaningfulness through its effects on stimulation and self-alienation. We also consider the moderating role of identity contrast on these pathways to meaningfulness. We investigate our assertions in a series of preregistered studies—a comprehensive test of our model in a 15-day experience sampling study (Study 1) as well as constructive replications of each stage of our model (Study 2). Overall, we offer novel insights about the day-to-day tension between stimulation and self-alienation for people who act out multiple professional identities and the impact on the meaningfulness of their work.This accepted article is published as Sessions, H., & Pychlau, S. (2024). Self-inconsistency or self-expansion from wearing multiple hats? The daily effects of enacting multiple professional identities on work meaningfulness. Journal of Applied Psychology, 109(6), 897–920. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0001176. Posted with permission. (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserve

The data of others: New and old faces of archival research

Archival data are often big data, yet big data is not always archival but instead is defined through its granularity. This chapter provides a rough roadmap for researchers to use secondary research, including big data. It elaborates upon the opportunities that archival research holds for addressing the crisis of confidence in psychology, specifically the opportunities for external validity and transparency. Subsequently, the chapter describes five ideal types of archival data in detail, outlining their different advantages and disadvantages as well as providing a brief overview of methods used to analyze each type. Furthermore, it provides examples for each ideal type of secondary data. The chapter also illustrates how archival data can be used for true, natural, and quasi-experiments as well as correlational studies. It discusses methodological challenges that many if not all types of archival data share and their remedies. The chapter concludes with a section on ethics. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)This book chapter is published as Pychlau, S., & Wagner, D. T. (2023). The data of others: New and old faces of archival research. In H. Cooper, M. N. Coutanche, L. M. McMullen, A. T. Panter, D. Rindskopf, & K. J. Sher (Eds.), APA handbook of research methods in psychology: Data analysis and research publication (2nd ed., pp. 481–500). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000320-022. Posted with permission

From free pastures to penned in: The within-person effects of psychological reactance on side-hustlers’ hostility and initiative in full-time work.

Multiple jobholding is increasingly common, particularly among full-time employees who have adopted side-hustles—income-generating work from the gig economy that is performed alongside full-time work. A distinguishing feature of side-hustles is substantial autonomy in the work’s timing, location, and method. This autonomy has typically been portrayed as beneficial. We shift this consensus by developing a within-person model that suggests elevated side-hustle autonomy—relative to what is typical for that person—sets the employee on a course to feel “boxed in” by their full-time job. Drawing on psychological reactance theory, we argue that elevated autonomy in a side-hustle sensitizes employees to threats that restrict their control. As these employees shift to full-time work, we theorize that this sensitivity is associated with feelings of hostility that contribute to counterproductive behavior. We also propose, however, that side-hustle autonomy has benefits for full-time work—motivating employees to reassert control through increased initiative, thereby enhancing task performance. We explore the countervailing relationships between side-hustle autonomy and full-time work outcomes with a daily experience sampling study (ESM) of 101 full-time employees with side-hustles and their coworkers (Study 1) and a weekly ESM study of 100 full-time employees with side-hustles (Study 2). Taken together, we build and test theory about how employees’ side-hustle autonomy exhibits within-person relationships that are a “mixed-bag” for their full-time work behaviorThis accepted article is published as Sessions, H., Baer, M. D., Nahrgang, J. D., & Pychlau, S. (2023). From free pastures to penned in: The within-person effects of psychological reactance on side-hustlers’ hostility and initiative in full-time work. Journal of Applied Psychology, 108(12), 1979–1997. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0001115. Posted with permission. (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserve

Mammodos – In-Vivo Dosimetry in Mammography

In the scope of the RAPSODI EU research project, a prototype detector for in-vivo dose measurements in Mammography was developed. We present and discuss first results on the system qualification, in particular on the linear dynamic range, the energy response and the radiological as well as optical transparency of the detector