Digital Detox Research: An Analysis of Applied Methods and Implications for Future Studies

The development and increasing use of technology worldwide can lead to potential negative consequences for individuals\u27 well-being and productivity. To counteract negative consequences, both scientific research and practice have shown increasing interest in digital detox research, a rising phenomenon of abstinence and temporary or complete disengagement from digital technologies. To lay a foundation for future research, we conducted a systemic literature review with a focus on the methodological aspects of the existing empirical digital detox studies. Our literature search process revealed a total of 65 studies. Our analyses of this literature basis revealed five different research fields (communication, education, tourism, well-being and health, work environment), and we analyzed the empirical studies in these fields regarding applied research approach, research method, and sample size. This review provides methodological insights to advance the scientific inquiry on digital detox research, a relatively nascent, yet increasingly relevant research topic

Interruption science as a research field: Towards a taxonomy of interruptions as a foundation for the field

Interruptions have become ubiquitous in both our personal and professional lives. Accordingly, research on interruptions has also increased steadily over time, and research published in various scientific disciplines has produced different perspectives, fundamental ideas, and conceptualizations of interruptions. However, the current state of research hampers a comprehensive overview of the concept of interruption, predominantly due to the fragmented nature of the existing literature. Reflecting on its genesis in the 1920s and the longstanding research on interruptions, along with recent technological, behavioral, and organizational developments, this paper provides a comprehensive interdisciplinary overview of the various attributes of an interruption, which facilitates the establishment of interruption science as an interdisciplinary research field in the scientific landscape. To obtain an overview of the different interruption attributes, we conducted a systematic literature review with the goal of classifying interruptions. The outcome of our research process is a taxonomy of interruptions, constituting an important foundation for the field. Based on the taxonomy, we also present possible avenues for future research

Negative psychological and physiological effects of social networking site use: The example of Facebook

Social networking sites (SNS), with Facebook as a prominent example, have become an integral part of our daily lives and more than four billion people worldwide use SNS. However, the (over-)use of SNS also poses both psychological and physiological risks. In the present article, we review the scientific literature on the risk of Facebook (over-)use. Addressing this topic is critical because evidence indicates the development of problematic Facebook use (“Facebook addiction”) due to excessive and uncontrolled use behavior with various psychological and physiological effects. We conducted a review to examine the scope, range, and nature of prior empirical research on the negative psychological and physiological effects of Facebook use. Our literature search process revealed a total of 232 papers showing that Facebook use is associated with eight major psychological effects (perceived anxiety, perceived depression, perceived loneliness, perceived eating disorders, perceived self-esteem, perceived life satisfaction, perceived insomnia, and perceived stress) and three physiological effects (physiological stress, human brain alteration, and affective experience state). The review also describes how Facebook use is associated with these effects and provides additional details on the reviewed literature, including research design, sample, age, and measures. Please note that the term “Facebook use” represents an umbrella term in the present work, and in the respective sections it will be made clear what kind of Facebook use is associated with a myriad of investigated psychological variables. Overall, findings indicate that certain kinds of Facebook use may come along with significant risks, both psychologically and physiologically. Based on our review, we also identify potential avenues for future research

Mobile decision support for transplantation patient data

In high-critical medical fields instant information delivery is essential. Task-flow analyses within the transplantation unit of the Technische Universität München revealed that valuable time could be saved in pre-transplantation management being able to retrieve data of organ receivers ubiquitously. Inspired by this clinical scenario, a mobile application was designed and implemented providing surgeons with decision-relevant information on potential organ receivers. It assists them in considering the prospects of forthcoming organ transplantations and facilitates decision making and documentation with regard to high security demands. The described system services three organ receiver lists and is used by the surgeons in every transplantation procedure. After a 6-month period of clinical usage, the system has been evaluated in terms of handling, clinical benefit and total time savings. Intuitive, ubiquitous access to decision-relevant patient data and authenticated documentation were the major improvements with average total time savings of 50 min in comparison to the old system

PDA-based decision support and documentation for transplantation surgery data

The Transplantation Unit of the Technical University of Munich has developed a mobile, handheld based application for preoperative transplantation patient management. It provides information on potential organ receivers and thus assists the surgeons in considering the prospects of a forthcoming organ transplantation. Any decision is documented and authenticated. The system employs sophisticated security mechanisms for both the front-ends and the synchronization conduit

Response-Predictive Gene Expression Profiling of Glioma Progenitor Cells In Vitro

Background High-grade gliomas are amongst the most deadly human tumors. Treatment results are disappointing. Still, in several trials around 20% of patients respond to therapy. To date, diagnostic strategies to identify patients that will profit from a specific therapy do not exist. Methods In this study, we used serum-free short-term treated in vitro cell cultures to predict treatment response in vitro. This approach allowed us (a) to enrich specimens for brain tumor initiating cells and (b) to confront cells with a therapeutic agent before expression profiling. Results As a proof of principle we analyzed gene expression in 18 short-term serum-free cultures of high-grade gliomas enhanced for brain tumor initiating cells (BTIC) before and after in vitro treatment with the tyrosine kinase inhibitor Sunitinib. Profiles from treated progenitor cells allowed to predict therapy-induced impairment of proliferation in vitro. Conclusion For the tyrosine kinase inhibitor Sunitinib used in this dataset, the approach revealed additional predictive information in comparison to the evaluation of classical signaling analysis

Cellular growth and proliferation under Sunitinib treatment.

<p>BTICs were incubated with 1 µM Sunitinib or 0.00025% DMSO (control), and the XTT proliferation assay was performed after 96 h. Each individual assay was performed with five replicates per treatment group. The assay was repeated at least three times for each cell line. (A) Growth pattern in a responding (BTIC-5) and a non-responding (BTIC-16) BTIC line. Representative pictures are shown for two differently responding BTIC lines. (B) The mean absorbance of Sunitinib treated cells relative to control cells obtained in an individual assay was assessed after 24 h, 96 h and 144 hours incubation period and is plotted in a dot blot graph (y-axis) against incubation time (x-axis). (C) The relative difference of the mean proliferation relative to control is blotted in a dot blot graph (y-axis) against the corresponding BTIC line (x-axis). Each data point indicates the result of an individual experiment. The assay shows the variety of effects in the investigated lines. (D) Prediction of proliferation based on gene expression 6 h after treatment in vivo. The x-axis shows cross validated predictions of proliferation response after 96 hours based on gene expression levels monitored 6 hours after treatment, while the y-axis shows the actual proliferation measurements after 96 hours. The correlation between predicted and measured proliferation is significant (p<0.01, chi-square test). (E) Failed prediction of proliferation using expression values from untreated samples. There is no significant correlation between predictions and measurements (p = 0.98).</p

Phosphorylation pattern of signaling molecules downstream of Sunitinib target receptor tyrosine kinases.

<p>Western Blot analysis was performed with 18 BTIC lines of which 3 representatives are shown. (A) To evaluate distinct phosphorylation patterns under treatment, BTIC-1 was treated with 1 µM Sunitinib or 0.00025% DMSO for 6 hours with growth factor supplementation (25 ng/ml) as outlined. (B) To evaluate a dose curve for Sunitinib, BTIC-14 cells were incubated with different Sunitinib-concentrations or 0.001% DMSO in media supplemented with 25 ng/ml of each VEGFA and PDGF-AB. (C) After definition of growth factor supplementation and Sunitinib dose, Western Blot analysis for changes in phosphorylation after treatment with Sunitinib was performed with 18 BTIC lines of which 3 representatives are shown. Cells were treated with 1 µM Sunitinib or 0.00025% DMSO with (+) or without (–) growth factors (GF) PDGF-AB and VEGFA (25 ng/ml) for 6 h after incubation in growth factor free medium for 16 h. The asterisks (*) indicates the corresponding loading control. GAPDH was used as protein loading control.</p

Heterogeneity of expression response to Sunitinib treatment.

<p>(A) Shown is a heat map of the 300 most differentially expressed genes when comparing Sunitinib treated with untreated samples. The samples are nicely separated into treated vs. untreated samples. However, the pronounced stripes in the heat map indicate that the vast majority of genes change expression only in subsets of cases. (B) The mean logFCs between control and Sunitinib treated samples for the predictive genes (CLK4, BCLAF1, LOC100130581, ACTG2, VAV3, DPF3) of 6 BTIC lines was calculated using (i) Microarray data and (ii) β-Actin normalized expression values assessed by qPCR for each individual gene.</p