Exploring psychological detachment, work-related rumination and role-centrality in working from home

Background The change in environment and commute from work to home help to signal psychological detachment, defined by physically and mentally disengaging from work-related thoughts (Smit, 2016). The combination of modern communication technology and a global pandemic has pushed many employees into working from home regularly, eliminating these signals for psychological detachment. Using effort-recovery theory (Meijman & Mulder, 1998), which suggests that investment of mental resources to deal with work-related demands leads to depletion, we hypothesize that work-related rumination will be associated with the inability to psychologically detach from work (Martin & Tesser, 1996). In addition, role centrality is hypothesized to moderate the relationship between work-related rumination and psychological detachment. Greater work-role centrality should make it harder to psychologically detach while at home, as individuals with greater work-role centrality place more emphasis on their work roles (Thoits, 1992; Krause, 1994). Furthermore, research suggests that women experience higher levels of work interference with family than men, even when job demands are equivalent (Mcelwain et al., 2005), therefore we will examine whether gender differences exist in these relationships. See Figure 1 for the proposed theoretical model. Method Participants will include 167 tenure-track and tenured academics employed by U.S. higher education institutions who completed a survey between April-May 2020 at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Instructors and contingent faculty were unable to participate due to disparities in performance appraisal and promotion for rank. A Qualtrics link was sent to department heads from multiple universities and shared amongst their social networks. The survey consisted work and personal demographics, as well measures assessing role centrality (Paullay et al., 1994); psychological detachment (Sonnentag & Fritz, 2007); and work-related affective rumination (Cropley et al., 2008). Proposed Analyses Data will need to be cleaned and coded before using SPSS and M+ for statistical analysis. Analysis will include stepwise regression, nested model comparison to examine gender differences, and descriptive statistics such as correlation analysis to understand the sample. Preliminary Discussion We expect to see a negative association between psychological detachment and work-related rumination. Role centrality is expected to moderate the relationship between work-related rumination and psychological detachment such that those whose role centrality is focused on work will experience less psychological detachment. We also expect gender differences in these relationships because of the gender discrepancies in the division of household responsibilities. Our study will aid in understanding how this evolving work-family conflict affects well-being and the ability to psychologically detach from work responsibilities, as well as the gender differences involved in these relationships

Biochemical and clinical response after umbilical cord blood transplant in a boy with early childhood-onset beta-mannosidosis.

BACKGROUND: Deficiency in the enzyme β-mannosidase was described over three decades ago. Although rare in occurrence, the presentation of childhood-onset β-mannosidase deficiency consists of hypotonia in the newborn period followed by global development delay, behavior problems, and intellectual disability. No effective pharmacologic treatments have been available. METHODS: We report 2-year outcomes following the first umbilical cord blood transplant in a 4-year-old boy with early childhood-onset disease. RESULTS: We show restoration of leukocyte β-mannosidase activity which remained normal at 2 years posttransplant, and a simultaneous increase in plasma β-mannosidase activity and dramatic decrease in urine-free oligosaccharides were also observed. MRI of the brain remained stable. Neurocognitive evaluation revealed test point gains, although the magnitude of improvement was less than expected for age, causing lower IQ scores that represent a wider developmental gap between the patient and unaffected peers. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that hematopoietic cell transplant can correct the biochemical defect in β-mannosidosis, although preservation of the neurocognitive trajectory may be a challenge

Investigating the Gendered Effects of Caregiving Policies in Academia

Although women receive more doctorates across disciplines, they continue to be underrepresented in academia with representation of women faculty diminishing at higher ranks relative to their male counterparts. This phenomenon is known as the ‘leaky pipeline,’ and is frequently observed in STEM fields, though it exists across disciplines. Previous studies suggest the motherhood penalty heavily impacts women’s careers, especially in academia where biological and tenure clocks coincide. The overall aim of this study is to examine the gendered effects of caregiving policies for faculty in STEM fields at regional comprehensive universities through integrating the Work-Home Resources (W-HR) Model and feminist economics. Feminist economics highlights the unequal challenges faced by women and men, which are often overlooked in gender-neutral caregiving policies. The W-HR Model posits that demands in one domain, such as caregiving responsibilities, can spill over to affect resources in another domain, potentially impacting work outcomes. This study will employ a mixed-methods approach, incorporating publicly available data on caregiving policies and the number of male and female STEM faculty pre- and post-policy implementation from university websites; survey measures assessing work (i.e., productivity, workload) and well-being outcomes (i.e., family guilt, work-family conflict); and structured interviews to gather in-depth insights on parental leave policies and return-to-work experiences. The sample will include approximately 150 faculty from STEM disciplines who have utilized caregiving policies at regional comprehensive universities in the United States. Following the implementation of caregiving policies, we expect a decrease in the number of women faculty in STEM from Assistant to Associate Professor ranks. We also expect women faculty in STEM to report spending significantly more time on caregiving responsibilities than their male counterparts, as well as report significantly poorer work-related and well-being outcomes linked to caregiving compared to male colleagues. The study contributes to both research and practice by informing our understanding of the impact of caregiving policies on gender disparities in academia and guiding interventions to enhance the retention of women faculty in STEM at regional comprehensive universities. Achieving gender equity in academia necessitates addressing these issues, and this research aims to facilitate that progress

Barriers to adopting a healthy lifestyle: insight from postpartum women

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Postpartum weight retention can contribute to obesity. There may be unique barriers to weight loss in this period.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>Cases are presented for three postpartum women who declined to participate in a postpartum weight loss intervention.</p> <p>Despite their desire to engage in healthier behaviors, or partake in an intervention uniquely designed to promote healthy lifestyles for postpartum women, some find it too difficult to make such commitments. Barriers women face in adopting a healthier lifestyle in this period include 1) time availability; 2) prioritizing other competing life responsibilities above their own health; 3) support from family members, friends, and/or co-workers; and 4) lack of flexibility in the intervention structure. These illustrations describe their perspectives in the context of life balance, perceived health, and support, and reflect the multi-dimensional nature of their lives during the life cycle change of the postpartum period.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Postpartum women face difficult and complex challenges to prioritizing their health and their weight management.</p

Art as Meditation: A Mindful Inquiry into Educator Well-Being

Being prepared for the intensity and complexities that educators face in their work means building strategies for managing well-being. This qualitative study explored educators’ conceptualizations about their well-being using an arts-based, community-based participatory research (AB-CBPR) methodology. After a brief mindfulness meditation and contemplation of prompting questions, educators were invited to participate in drawing and writing reflections. The artifacts were coded to determine themes. Themes suggested the importance of human connectedness and interconnection, self care and nurturance, the healing qualities of the natural word, and the recognition that institutions need to provide space and resources to support educator well-being. The mindfulness-based art-as-meditation process was itself a salutogenic process and provided a means for developing a deeper understanding of educator well-being through a community-based participatory research approach

Genome-wide association study implicates immune activation of multiple integrin genes in inflammatory bowel disease

Genetic association studies have identified 215 risk loci for inflammatory bowel disease, thereby uncovering fundamental aspects of its molecular biology. We performed a genome-wide association study of 25,305 individuals and conducted a meta-analysis with published summary statistics, yielding a total sample size of 59,957 subjects. We identified 25 new susceptibility loci, 3 of which contain integrin genes that encode proteins in pathways that have been identified as important therapeutic targets in inflammatory bowel disease. The associated variants are correlated with expression changes in response to immune stimulus at two of these genes ($\textit{ITGA4 }$ and $\textit{ITGB8}$) and at previously implicated loci ($\textit{ITGAL }$and $\textit{ICAM1}$). In all four cases, the expression-increasing allele also increases disease risk. We also identified likely causal missense variants in a gene implicated in primary immune deficiency, $\textit{PLCG2}$, and a negative regulator of inflammation, $\textit{SLAMF8}$. Our results demonstrate that new associations at common variants continue to identify genes relevant to therapeutic target identification and prioritization.This work was co-funded by the Wellcome Trust [098051] and the Medical Research Council, UK [MR/J00314X/1]. Case collections were supported by Crohn’s and Colitis UK. KMdL, LM, CAL, YL, DR, JG-A, NJP, CAA and JCB are supported by the Wellcome Trust [098051; 093885/Z/10/Z; 094491/Z/10/Z]. KMdL is supported by a Woolf Fisher Trust scholarship. CAL is a clinical lecturer funded by the NIHR. We thank Anna Stanton for co-ordinating the Guy’s and St Thomas’ patient recruitment. We acknowledge support from the Department of Health via the NIHR comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre awards to Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust in partnership with King’s College London and to Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge in partnership with the University of Cambridge. This research was also supported by the NIHR Newcastle Biomedical Research Centre. The UK Household Longitudinal Study is led by the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex and funded by the Economic and Social Research Council

A call for transparent reporting to optimize the predictive value of preclinical research

The US National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke convened major stakeholders in June 2012 to discuss how to improve the methodological reporting of animal studies in grant applications and publications. The main workshop recommendation is that at a minimum studies should report on sample-size estimation, whether and how animals were randomized, whether investigators were blind to the treatment, and the handling of data. We recognize that achieving a meaningful improvement in the quality of reporting will require a concerted effort by investigators, reviewers, funding agencies and journal editors. Requiring better reporting of animal studies will raise awareness of the importance of rigorous study design to accelerate scientific progress

Expanding the diversity of mycobacteriophages: insights into genome architecture and evolution.

Mycobacteriophages are viruses that infect mycobacterial hosts such as Mycobacterium smegmatis and Mycobacterium tuberculosis. All mycobacteriophages characterized to date are dsDNA tailed phages, and have either siphoviral or myoviral morphotypes. However, their genetic diversity is considerable, and although sixty-two genomes have been sequenced and comparatively analyzed, these likely represent only a small portion of the diversity of the mycobacteriophage population at large. Here we report the isolation, sequencing and comparative genomic analysis of 18 new mycobacteriophages isolated from geographically distinct locations within the United States. Although no clear correlation between location and genome type can be discerned, these genomes expand our knowledge of mycobacteriophage diversity and enhance our understanding of the roles of mobile elements in viral evolution. Expansion of the number of mycobacteriophages grouped within Cluster A provides insights into the basis of immune specificity in these temperate phages, and we also describe a novel example of apparent immunity theft. The isolation and genomic analysis of bacteriophages by freshman college students provides an example of an authentic research experience for novice scientists

Clinical Sequencing Exploratory Research Consortium: Accelerating Evidence-Based Practice of Genomic Medicine

Despite rapid technical progress and demonstrable effectiveness for some types of diagnosis and therapy, much remains to be learned about clinical genome and exome sequencing (CGES) and its role within the practice of medicine. The Clinical Sequencing Exploratory Research (CSER) consortium includes 18 extramural research projects, one National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) intramural project, and a coordinating center funded by the NHGRI and National Cancer Institute. The consortium is exploring analytic and clinical validity and utility, as well as the ethical, legal, and social implications of sequencing via multidisciplinary approaches; it has thus far recruited 5,577 participants across a spectrum of symptomatic and healthy children and adults by utilizing both germline and cancer sequencing. The CSER consortium is analyzing data and creating publically available procedures and tools related to participant preferences and consent, variant classification, disclosure and management of primary and secondary findings, health outcomes, and integration with electronic health records. Future research directions will refine measures of clinical utility of CGES in both germline and somatic testing, evaluate the use of CGES for screening in healthy individuals, explore the penetrance of pathogenic variants through extensive phenotyping, reduce discordances in public databases of genes and variants, examine social and ethnic disparities in the provision of genomics services, explore regulatory issues, and estimate the value and downstream costs of sequencing. The CSER consortium has established a shared community of research sites by using diverse approaches to pursue the evidence-based development of best practices in genomic medicine