Nur kein Stress – alles nur ein Spiel!: Vergleichende Evaluation zweier virtueller Stressmanagement-Interventionen

Arbeit ist ein elementarer Bestandteil der menschlichen Lebenswirklichkeit. Sie birgt zahlreiche salutogenetische Potentiale und trägt dazu bei, dass wir gesund bleiben, wachsen und uns weiterentwickeln. Daneben können von Arbeit aber auch pathogene Efekte ausgehen, welche die physische und psychische Gesundheit der Mitarbeiter beeinträchtigen. Die bereits vorherrschende Tendenz hin zu mehr psychischen Beschwerden, wurde durch die pandemische Situation im Zuge von OVID19 noch verstärkt, wie eine aktuelle Meta-Analyse von Salari und Kollegen (2020) zeigt. Es wird deutlich, dass eine Schwerpunktverschiebung der betrieblichen Gesundheitsarbeit hin zur Primärprävention von psychischen Belastungen und Stress und dem sekundärpräventiven Umgang mit Stresssymptomen angezeigt ist. Eine Vielzahl von Studien und Meta-Analysen zeigen hier Zusammenhänge zwischen psychosozialen Belastungsfaktoren wie Arbeitsdruck oder Entgrenzung der Arbeit und stressrelevanten Beanspruchungen und Störungen (van der Molen et al., 2020). Die Vermittlung von Stressmanagementkompetenz stellt somit für Organisationen einen zentralen Stellhebel dar, um die Gesundheit der Beschäftigten zu schützen und die Leistungsfähigkeit des Unternehmens langfristig sicherzustellen (Ford, Cerasoli, iggins, & Decesare, 2011). [Aus: Einleitung

The Effectiveness of a Hybrid Off-Job Crafting Intervention on Employees’ Psychological Needs Satisfaction and Well-Being

Off-job crafting entails deliberate changes people can make in their non-work activities to meet their personal goals and satisfy psychological needs. We conducted a quasi-experimental study with a waitlist control group in three organizations in Finland (N = 86) to evaluate whether participation in a hybrid off-job crafting intervention stimulates employees’ off-job crafting efforts and, in turn, enhances psychological need satisfaction, subjective vitality and work engagement. Intervention group participants took part in an off-job crafting workshop, set a personal crafting goal for the four-week intervention period, received support from a specifically designed smartphone app, and attended a reflection workshop. With a study design consisting of seven measurement occasions in the intervention group and four in the waitlist control group, we examined both the intra-individual and inter-individual effects of the intervention. Contrary to our expectations, intervention group participants did not improve in their off-job crafting efforts, needs satisfaction and well-being over time compared to their own baseline and the waitlist control group. We conducted a detailed process evaluation to shed light on the mechanisms possibly influencing the effectiveness of the intervention. Participants who made less progress with their goal, were less satisfied with the intervention, and participants who did not set a goal focusing on their least satisfied need, experienced a steeper decline in off-job crafting, needs satisfaction and well-being. Interestingly, setting a SMARTer goal and being a more active app user also had a negative effect on the development of one’s off-job crafting, needs satisfaction and well-being over time

Physical activity and health promotion for nursing staff in elderly care: a study protocol for a randomised controlled trial

Introduction Nursing staff is burdened by high workload and stress. Furthermore, heavy lifting, as well as transferring nursing home residents, cause lumbar tissue damage and back pain. Exercise intervention studies to reduce work-related problems are rare and the evidence for efficacy of studies among nurses is limited. Studies including targeted analysis of requirements are necessary to generate effective recommendations and tailored interventions for health promotion programmes. The purpose of this multicentred intervention study is to identify work-related problems, to implement health promotion programmes and to evaluate their effectiveness. Methods and analysis A randomised controlled trial will be conducted, including a total of 48 nursing home facilities in eight regions of Germany with an estimated sample size of 700 nurses. Standardised ergonomics and posture training (10 weeks, once a week for 20–30 min) and subsequently, back-fitness training (12 weeks, once a week for 45–60 min) will be administered. Following the implementation of standardised health promotion programmes, further demand-oriented interventions can be implemented. The perceived exposure to work-related demands, work-related pain in different parts of the body, health-related quality of life, perceived stress, work-related patterns of behaviour and experience, presentism behaviour, work environment as well as general needs and barriers to health promotion, will be assessed at baseline (pre-test), at 10 weeks (post-test, after ergonomics training), at 22 weeks (post-test, after back-fitness training) and at 34 weeks of the programme (follow-up). Ethics and dissemination The study was reviewed and approved by the local ethics committee of the University of Hamburg (AZ: 2018_168). The results of the study will be published in open-access and international journals. Furthermore, the results will be presented in the participating nursing homes and at national and international conferences

Ageing-associated changes in transcriptional elongation influence longevity

Physiological homeostasis becomes compromised during ageing, as a result of impairment of cellular processes, including transcription and RNA splicing1-4. However, the molecular mechanisms leading to the loss of transcriptional fidelity are so far elusive, as are ways of preventing it. Here we profiled and analysed genome-wide, ageing-related changes in transcriptional processes across different organisms: nematodes, fruitflies, mice, rats and humans. The average transcriptional elongation speed (RNA polymerase II speed) increased with age in all five species. Along with these changes in elongation speed, we observed changes in splicing, including a reduction of unspliced transcripts and the formation of more circular RNAs. Two lifespan-extending interventions, dietary restriction and lowered insulin-IGF signalling, both reversed most of these ageing-related changes. Genetic variants in RNA polymerase II that reduced its speed in worms5 and flies6 increased their lifespan. Similarly, reducing the speed of RNA polymerase II by overexpressing histone components, to counter age-associated changes in nucleosome positioning, also extended lifespan in flies and the division potential of human cells. Our findings uncover fundamental molecular mechanisms underlying animal ageing and lifespan-extending interventions, and point to possible preventive measures

Stellar Intensity Interferometry: Prospects for sub-milliarcsecond optical imaging

Using kilometric arrays of air Cherenkov telescopes, intensity interferometry may increase the spatial resolution in optical astronomy by an order of magnitude, enabling images of rapidly rotating stars with structures in their circumstellar disks and winds, or mapping out patterns of nonradial pulsations across stellar surfaces. Intensity interferometry (pioneered by Hanbury Brown and Twiss) connects telescopes only electronically, and is practically insensitive to atmospheric turbulence and optical imperfections, permitting observations over long baselines and through large airmasses, also at short optical wavelengths. The required large telescopes with very fast detectors are becoming available as arrays of air Cherenkov telescopes, distributed over a few square km. Digital signal handling enables very many baselines to be synthesized, while stars are tracked with electronic time delays, thus synthesizing an optical interferometer in software. Simulated observations indicate limiting magnitudes around m(v)=8, reaching resolutions ~30 microarcsec in the violet. The signal-to-noise ratio favors high-temperature sources and emission-line structures, and is independent of the optical passband, be it a single spectral line or the broad spectral continuum. Intensity interferometry provides the modulus (but not phase) of any spatial frequency component of the source image; for this reason image reconstruction requires phase retrieval techniques, feasible if sufficient coverage of the interferometric (u,v)-plane is available. Experiments are in progress; test telescopes have been erected, and trials in connecting large Cherenkov telescopes have been carried out. This paper reviews this interferometric method in view of the new possibilities offered by arrays of air Cherenkov telescopes, and outlines observational programs that should become realistic already in the rather near future.Comment: New Astronomy Reviews, in press; 101 pages, 11 figures, 185 reference

The orbit and stellar masses of the archetype colliding-wind binary WR 140

We present updated orbital elements for the Wolf-Rayet (WR) binary WR 140 (HD 193793; WC7pd + O5.5fc). The new orbital elements were derived using previously published measurements along with 160 new radial velocity measurements across the 2016 periastron passage of WR 140. Additionally, four new measurements of the orbital astrometry were collected with the CHARA Array. With these measurements, we derive stellar masses of $M_{\rm WR} = 10.31\pm0.45 M_\odot$ and $M_{\rm O} = 29.27\pm1.14 M_{\odot}$. We also include a discussion of the evolutionary history of this system from the Binary Population and Spectral Synthesis (BPASS) model grid to show that this WR star likely formed primarily through mass loss in the stellar winds, with only a moderate amount of mass lost or transferred through binary interactions.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure

How much detail and accuracy is required in plant growth sub-models to address questions about optimal management strategies in agricultural systems?

The amount of detail and accuracy required in plant growth sub-models within agricultural systems management models depends strongly on the question being addressed. Taking an ‘as-simple-as-possible’ approach has advantages such as keeping models transparent and easy to analyse while remaining appropriate to the question of interest

Radio & Optical Interferometry: Basic Observing Techniques and Data Analysis

Astronomers usually need the highest angular resolution possible, but the blurring effect of diffraction imposes a fundamental limit on the image quality from any single telescope. Interferometry allows light collected at widely-separated telescopes to be combined in order to synthesize an aperture much larger than an individual telescope thereby improving angular resolution by orders of magnitude. Radio and millimeter wave astronomers depend on interferometry to achieve image quality on par with conventional visible and infrared telescopes. Interferometers at visible and infrared wavelengths extend angular resolution below the milli-arcsecond level to open up unique research areas in imaging stellar surfaces and circumstellar environments. In this chapter the basic principles of interferometry are reviewed with an emphasis on the common features for radio and optical observing. While many techniques are common to interferometers of all wavelengths, crucial differences are identified that will help new practitioners avoid unnecessary confusion and common pitfalls. Concepts essential for writing observing proposals and for planning observations are described, depending on the science wavelength, angular resolution, and field of view required. Atmospheric and ionospheric turbulence degrades the longest-baseline observations by significantly reducing the stability of interference fringes. Such instabilities represent a persistent challenge, and the basic techniques of phase-referencing and phase closure have been developed to deal with them. Synthesis imaging with large observing datasets has become a routine and straightforward process at radio observatories, but remains challenging for optical facilities. In this context the commonly-used image reconstruction algorithms CLEAN and MEM are presented. Lastly, a concise overview of current facilities is included as an appendix.Comment: 45 pages, 14 Figures; an abridged version of a chapter to appear in Volume 2 of Planets, Stars and Stellar Systems, to be published in 2011 by Springe