Loneliness and Social Isolation During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The outbreak of the global COVID-19 pandemic has drastically altered people’s lives. Loneliness and social isolation were publicly discussed as possible psychological consequences of the measures taken to slow the virus spread. These public discussions have sparked a surge in empirical studies on loneliness and social isolation. In this study, we first provide a systematic review synthesizing recent literature on the prevalence and correlates of loneliness and social isolation during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic ( k = 53 studies). We found that most quantitative studies included in the systematic review were cross-sectional. The few longitudinal studies mainly reported increases in loneliness, especially when the pre-pandemic measurement occasions were months or years before the COVID-19 pandemic. Studies with pre-pandemic measures weeks or days before the pandemic reported relatively stable or even decreasing loneliness trends. Second, we enrich the systematic review with an empirical investigation on daily changes in the perceived quality and quantity of social relationships during the pandemic compared to before the pandemic ( N = 4,823). This empirical investigation showed that, on average, the quality of social relationships was perceived worse during the pandemic than before. This perception got slightly stronger over the first 2 weeks of the pandemic but stagnated thereafter. Regarding the quantity of social relationships, participants reported on average that they had fewer social interactions at the beginning of the study than before the pandemic. This perceived reduction in the quantity of social interactions linearly decreased over time.Peer Reviewe

Lonely Today, Lonely Tomorrow: Temporal Dynamics of Loneliness in Everyday Life and its Associations With Psychopathological Symptoms

This publication is with permission of the rights owner (Sage) freely accessible.Although theory emphasizes that loneliness fluctuates in everyday life, most previous studies focused on the general and stable tendency of feeling lonely. In the present study, we used daily diary data collected over two 4-week periods (N1 = 3,309; N2 = 907) to examine different indicators of temporal dynamics of loneliness in everyday life and compare them with temporal dynamics of positive and negative affect. Moreover, we examined associations between temporal dynamics of loneliness and psychopathological symptoms (i.e., stress, anxiety, depression). We found large similarities in the variability, instability, and inertia of loneliness and affect. Moreover, all indicators of temporal dynamics of loneliness were related to psychopathological symptoms. However, these indicators had little added value above the average state and trait level of loneliness in predicting psychopathology. We discuss the potential of assessing the short-term dynamics of loneliness for the early detection of mental health issues.Peer Reviewe

Linguistik zum Anfassen: Hör- und Sprecherfahrungen - mit theoretischer Unterfütterung. Konzept für eine Lehrerfortbildung zum Thema "Gesprochene Sprache im DaF-Unterricht.

Horstmann S. Linguistik zum Anfassen: Hör- und Sprecherfahrungen - mit theoretischer Unterfütterung. Konzept für eine Lehrerfortbildung zum Thema "Gesprochene Sprache im DaF-Unterricht. In: Weidner B, Günthner S, Schopf J, eds. Gesprochene Sprache in der kommunikativen Praxis - Analysen authentischer Alltagssprache und ihr Einsatz im DaF-Unterricht. Reihe Deutschdidaktik. Tübingen: Stauffenburg; 2021

Self-rated health among very old people in European countries : An explorative study in Latvia and Sweden

Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2015.Objectives: To explore and gain insight into factors related to self-rated health (SRH) among very old people in two European countries. Methods: The study was based on Latvian (n = 301) and Swedish (n = 397) data from the baseline of the Enabling Autonomy, Participation, and Well-Being in Old Age: The Home Environment as a Determinant for Healthy Ageing Survey Study. Besides descriptive statistics, ordinal regression analysis was used to analyze demographic, physical and mental health-related, functional and environmental factors related to SRH in each sample. Results: In both samples, participants with worse perceived physical mobility and more symptoms were significantly more likely to have worse SRH. There were more diverse results regarding other factors in terms of opposite relations to SRH, comparing the two samples. Discussion: Preventive measures and health care should focus on improving and supporting mobility and physical health among older people. Especially in countries with low scores on indicators of health such as Latvia, to minimize health inequalities. More attention should be paid to factors to improve the general health status of the population.publishersversionPeer reviewe

What Chemsex does to the brain - neural correlates (ERP) regarding decision making, impulsivity and hypersexuality

Chemsex describes the use of specific substances (methamphetamine, GHB/GBL, mephedrone, ketamine) which initiate or enhance sexual experiences and is mainly prevalent among men who have sex with men. Many Chemsex users experience somatic complications (for example sexually transmitted diseases) and sometimes adverse sociological, psychological, and neurological symptoms, such as depression, impulse control disorders or hypersexuality. Changes in impulsivity and deficits in executive functions have demonstrated to be associated with addiction and impulse control disorders as well as frontal brain dysfunction and behavioral control deficits. This study aims to explore the effects of neurophysiological correlates of inhibition and decision making in Chemsex users with an EEG paradigm using event-related potentials (N2, P3). 15 Chemsex users and 14 matched control subjects, all of them men who have sex with man, participated in an auditory Go/NoGo/Voluntary Selection EEG paradigm. In addition, clinical data (e.g. regarding depression), demographic information as well as measures of well-being and sexual behavior were collected. The results demonstrated that clinical symptoms, hypersexuality, and sexual risk behavior were more pronounced in Chemsex users compared to non-users. P3 amplitudes did not differ significantly between groups. However, the Chemsex users showed decreased electrophysiological N2 responses in fronto-central brain regions during decision-making, indicating compromised executive function and inhibitory control. The observed impairments may lead to increased risk behavior regarding drug abuse and hypersexuality. Understanding the neurobiological mechanisms can contribute to targeted interventions in order to mitigate the negative consequences of engaging in Chemsex and improve general well-being

Identification and Characterization of a Liver Stage-Specific Promoter Region of the Malaria Parasite Plasmodium

During the blood meal of a Plasmodium-infected mosquito, 10 to 100 parasites are inoculated into the skin and a proportion of these migrate via the bloodstream to the liver where they infect hepatocytes. The Plasmodium liver stage, despite its clinical silence, represents a highly promising target for antimalarial drug and vaccine approaches. Successfully invaded parasites undergo a massive proliferation in hepatocytes, producing thousands of merozoites that are transported into a blood vessel to infect red blood cells. To successfully develop from the liver stage into infective merozoites, a tight regulation of gene expression is needed. Although this is a very interesting aspect in the biology of Plasmodium, little is known about gene regulation in Plasmodium parasites in general and in the liver stage in particular. We have functionally analyzed a novel promoter region of the rodent parasite Plasmodium berghei that is exclusively active during the liver stage of the parasite. To prove stage-specific activity of the promoter, GFP and luciferase reporter assays have been successfully established, allowing both qualitative and accurate quantitative analysis. To further characterize the promoter region, the transcription start site was mapped by rapid amplification of cDNA ends (5′-RACE). Using promoter truncation experiments and site-directed mutagenesis within potential transcription factor binding sites, we suggest that the minimal promoter contains more than one binding site for the recently identified parasite-specific ApiAP2 transcription factors. The identification of a liver stage-specific promoter in P. berghei confirms that the parasite is able to tightly regulate gene expression during its life cycle. The identified promoter region might now be used to study the biology of the Plasmodium liver stage, which has thus far proven problematic on a molecular level. Stage-specific expression of dominant-negative mutant proteins and overexpression of proteins normally active in other life cycle stages will help to understand the function of the proteins investigated

Förderung von interkultureller Kompetenz durch Auseinandersetzung mit Filmen?

Horstmann S. Förderung von interkultureller Kompetenz durch Auseinandersetzung mit Filmen? In: Chlosta C, Jung M, Fachverband Deutsch als Fremdsprache, eds. DaF integriert. Literatur - Medien - Ausbildung. 36. Jahrestagung des Fachverbandes Deutsch als Fremdsprache 2008 an der Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf. Materialien Deutsch als Fremdsprache. Vol 81. Göttingen: Universitätsverlag; 2010: 59-71

On the remote sensing of oceanic and atmospheric convection in the Greenland Sea by synthetic aperture radar

In this paper we discuss characteristic properties of radar signatures of oceanic and atmospheric convection features in the Greenland Sea. If the water surface is clean (no surface films or ice coverage), oceanic and atmospheric features can become visible in radar images via a modulation of the surface roughness, and their radar signatures can be very similar. For an unambiguous interpretation and for the retrieval of quantitative information on current and wind variations from radar imagery with such signatures, theoretical models of current and wind phenomena and their radar imaging mechanisms must be utilized. We demonstrate this approach with the analysis of some synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images acquired by the satellites ERS-2 and RADARSAT-1. In once case, an ERS-2 SAR image an a RADARSAT-1 ScanSAR image exhibit pronounced cell-like signatures with length scales on the order of 10-20 km and modulation depths of about 5-6 dB and 9-10 dB, respectively. Simulations with a numerical SAR imagaing model and various input current and wind fields reveal that the signatures in both images can be expained consistently by wind variations on the order of±2.5 ms, but not by surface current variations on realistic orders of magnitude. Accordingly, the observed features must be atmospheric convection cells. This is confirmed by visible typical cloud patterns in a NOAA AVHRR image of the test scenario. In another case, the presence of an oceanic convective chimney is obvious from in situ data, but no signatures of it are visible in an ERS-2 SAR image. We show by numerical simulations with an oceanic convection model and our SAR imaging model that this is consistent with theoretical predictions, since the current gradients associated with the observed chimney are not sufficiently strong to give rise to significant signatures in an ERS-2 SAR image under the given conditions. Further model results indicate that it should be generally difficult to observe oceanic convection features in the Greenland Sea with ERS-2 or RADARSAT-1 SAR, since their signatures resulting from pure wave-current interaction will be too weak to become visible in the noisy SAR images in most cases. This situation will improve with the availability of future high-resolution SARs such as RADARSAT-2 SAR in fine resolution mode (2004) and TerraSAR-X (2005) which will offer significantly reduced speckle noise fluctuations at comparable spatial resolutions and thus a much better visibility of small image variations on spatial scales on the order of a few hundred meters

Audiovisueller Input (Minimalpaarrollenspiele) und Reflexion zur Förderung der Gesprächskompetenz in der Fremdsprache

Horstmann S. Audiovisueller Input (Minimalpaarrollenspiele) und Reflexion zur Förderung der Gesprächskompetenz in der Fremdsprache. In: Colliander P, Drumbl H, Höhmann D, Ivanenko S, Knorr D, Moraldo S, eds. Linguistische Grundlagen für den Sprachunterricht : Sektionen C1, C2, C3, C4, C5, C6. IDT 2013. Vol 5. Bozen: bu,press; 2017: 407-424

Altered cortical synaptic lipid signaling leads to intermediate phenotypes of mental disorders

Excitation/inhibition (E/I) balance plays important roles in mental disorders. Bioactive phospholipids like lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) are synthesized by the enzyme autotaxin (ATX) at cortical synapses and modulate glutamatergic transmission, and eventually alter E/I balance of cortical networks. Here, we analyzed functional consequences of altered E/I balance in 25 human subjects induced by genetic disruption of the synaptic lipid signaling modifier PRG-1, which were compared to 25 age and sex matched control subjects. Furthermore, we tested therapeutic options targeting ATX in a related mouse line. Using EEG combined with TMS in an instructed fear paradigm, neuropsychological analysis and an fMRI based episodic memory task, we found intermediate phenotypes of mental disorders in human carriers of a loss-of-function single nucleotide polymorphism of PRG-1 (PRG-1R345T/WT). Prg-1R346T/WT animals phenocopied human carriers showing increased anxiety, a depressive phenotype and lower stress resilience. Network analysis revealed that coherence and phase-amplitude coupling were altered by PRG-1 deficiency in memory related circuits in humans and mice alike. Brain oscillation phenotypes were restored by inhibtion of ATX in Prg-1 deficient mice indicating an interventional potential for mental disorders