Facilitating Employee Recovery From Work: The Role of Leader‑Member‑Exchange

Building on Affective Events Theory (AET), this study examined within-person relationships between employee perceptions of day-level leader-member exchange (LMX) and day-level positive affect as well as between positive affect and recovery from work in the evening (i.e., relaxation, mastery, control, and psychological detachment from work). In addition, LMX variability was examined as a moderator of these within-person relationships. Employees (N = 160) completed surveys at the end of the workday and in the evening across five consecutive workdays. Results indicate direct relationships between perceptions of LMX and employee positive affect at work. In addition, positive affect was positively associated with two of the four recovery experiences (mastery and relaxation). Furthermore, LMX variability across the workweek moderated these positive indirect effects such that the indirect associations between the perceptions of LMX and employees’ recovery experiences during the evening via positive affect was only positive when LMX variability was low. The indirect effects, however, were nonsignificant when LMX variability was moderate or high. The present study expands LMX research by adopting a dynamic within-person perspective and by connecting the literature on workplace leadership with the literature on recovery from work, indicating that perceptions of LMX can potentially impact employees’ nonwork time

Report No. 29: The Mobility and Integration of People with Disabilities into the Labour Market

Report based on a study conducted for the European Parliament, Bonn 2010 (95 pages)

Do All Employees Benefit From Daily Networking?: The Moderating Effect of the Affiliation Motive

Networking is a viable career self-management strategy. Most studies so far in the networking domain have focused on long-term consequences and used a between-person trait approach. To address recent calls for more time-oriented approaches in career research, we extend the existing research by conducting a diary study over five consecutive working days (N = 59 employees). Specifically, we examined the within-person relationship between networking and career-related outcomes (i.e., task performance and career optimism). Further, adopting a motivational approach, we investigated whether need for affiliation moderates the daily networking career-related outcomes association. Our findings lend support to the moderating role of the need for affiliation in the relationship between daily networking and both daily task performance and daily career optimism. Our study connects motivation research with networking research by means of a dynamic approach that helps to understand the short-term effects of networking

LOW-COST BACTERIAL DETECTION SYSTEM FOR FOOD SAFETY BASED ON AUTOMATED DNA EXTRACTION, AMPLIFICATION AND READOUT

To ensure food, medical and environmental safety and quality, rapid, low-cost and easy-to-use detection methods are desirable. Here, the LabSystem is introduced for integrated, automated DNA purification and amplification. It consists of a disposable, centrifugally-driven DNA purification platform (LabTube) and the subsequent amplification in a low-cost UV/vis-reader (LabReader). In this paper, food safety was chosen as the first sample application with pathogenic verotoxin-producing (VTEC) Escherichia coli (E.coli) in water and milk, and the product-spoiler Alicyclobacillus acidoterrestris (A acidoterrestris) in apple juice as sample organisms. DNA was amplified qualitatively using isothermal loop-mediated DNA amplification (LAMP) and quantitatively using real-time PCR. By optimizing manual purification protocols inside the LabTube, as little as 45 inserted DNA copies were extracted from E.coli and A.acidoterrestris lysates in real samples (milk, juice and water). To run isothermal DNA amplification (LAMP) and PCR inside the LabReader, temperature control as well as data analysis methods were implemented. Combined detection limits for DNA purification and amplification from bacteria lysates in real samples at 102-103 inserted copies were achieved. The demonstrated LabSystem runs with standard laboratory equipment and reduces hands-on times from 30min to 3min

Hierarchical mission planning with a GA-optimizer for unmanned high altitude pseudo-satellites

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are gaining preference for mapping and monitoring ground activities, partially due to the cost efficiency and availability of lightweight high-resolution imaging sensors. Recent advances in solar-powered High Altitude Pseudo-Satellites (HAPSs) widen the future use of multiple UAVs of this sort for long-endurance remote sensing, from the lower stratosphere of vast ground areas. However, to increase mission success and safety, the effect of the wind on the platform dynamics and of the cloud coverage on the quality of the images must be considered during mission planning. For this reason, this article presents a new planner that, considering the weather conditions, determines the temporal hierarchical decomposition of the tasks of several HAPSs. This planner is supported by a Multiple Objective Evolutionary Algorithm (MOEA) that determines the best Pareto front of feasible high-level plans according to different objectives carefully defined to consider the uncertainties imposed by the time-varying conditions of the environment. Meanwhile, the feasibility of the plans is assured by integrating constraints handling techniques in the MOEA. Leveraging historical weather data and realistic mission settings, we analyze the performance of the planner for different scenarios and conclude that it is capable of determining overall good solutions under different conditions

The Compact Linear Collider (CLIC) - 2018 Summary Report

The Compact Linear Collider (CLIC) is a TeV-scale high-luminosity linear e+e- collider under development at CERN. Following the CLIC conceptual design published in 2012, this report provides an overview of the CLIC project, its current status, and future developments. It presents the CLIC physics potential and reports on design, technology, and implementation aspects of the accelerator and the detector. CLIC is foreseen to be built and operated in stages, at centre-of-mass energies of 380 GeV, 1.5 TeV and 3 TeV, respectively. CLIC uses a two-beam acceleration scheme, in which 12 GHz accelerating structures are powered via a high-current drive beam. For the first stage, an alternative with X-band klystron powering is also considered. CLIC accelerator optimisation, technical developments and system tests have resulted in an increased energy efficiency (power around 170 MW) for the 380 GeV stage, together with a reduced cost estimate at the level of 6 billion CHF. The detector concept has been refined using improved software tools. Significant progress has been made on detector technology developments for the tracking and calorimetry systems. A wide range of CLIC physics studies has been conducted, both through full detector simulations and parametric studies, together providing a broad overview of the CLIC physics potential. Each of the three energy stages adds cornerstones of the full CLIC physics programme, such as Higgs width and couplings, top-quark properties, Higgs self-coupling, direct searches, and many precision electroweak measurements. The interpretation of the combined results gives crucial and accurate insight into new physics, largely complementary to LHC and HL-LHC. The construction of the first CLIC energy stage could start by 2026. First beams would be available by 2035, marking the beginning of a broad CLIC physics programme spanning 25-30 years

How Acute and Chronic Alcohol Consumption Affects Brain Networks: Insights from Multimodal Neuroimaging

Background— Multimodal imaging combining 2 or more techniques is becoming increasingly important because no single imaging approach has the capacity to elucidate all clinically relevant characteristics of a network. Methods— This review highlights recent advances in multimodal neuroimaging (i.e., combined use and interpretation of data collected through magnetic resonance imaging [MRI], functional MRI, diffusion tensor imaging, positron emission tomography, magnetoencephalography, MR perfusion, and MR spectroscopy methods) that leads to a more comprehensive understanding of how acute and chronic alcohol consumption affect neural networks underlying cognition, emotion, reward processing, and drinking behavior. Results— Several innovative investigators have started utilizing multiple imaging approaches within the same individual to better understand how alcohol influences brain systems, both during intoxication and after years of chronic heavy use. Conclusions— Their findings can help identify mechanism-based therapeutic and pharmacological treatment options, and they may increase the efficacy and cost effectiveness of such treatments by predicting those at greatest risk for relapse

Choice architecture interventions promoting sustained healthier food choice and consumption by students in a secondary school setting: a systematic review of intervention studies

Abstract Objective: To systematically review the impact of choice architecture interventions (CAI) on the food choice of healthy adolescents in a secondary school setting. Factors potentially contributing to the effectiveness of CAI types and numbers implemented and its long-term success were examined. Design: PUBMED and Web of Science were systematically searched in October 2021. Publications were included following predefined inclusion criteria and grouped according to the number and duration of implemented interventions. Intervention impact was determined by a systematic description of the reported quantitative changes in food choice and/or consumption. Intervention types were compared with regard to food selection and sustained effects either during or following the intervention. Setting: CAI on food choice of healthy adolescents in secondary schools. Participants: Not applicable. Results: Fourteen studies were included; four randomised controlled trials and five each of controlled or uncontrolled pre–post design, respectively. Four studies implemented a single CAI type, with ten implementing > 1. Three studies investigated CAI effects over the course of a school year either by continuous or repeated data collection, while ten studies’ schools were visited on selected days during an intervention. Twelve studies reported desired changes in overall food selection, yet effects were not always significant and appeared less conclusive for longer-term studies. Conclusions: This review found promising evidence that CAI can be effective in encouraging favourable food choices in healthy adolescents in a secondary school setting. However, further studies designed to evaluate complex interventions are needed