Trajectories in life satisfaction before and during COVID-19 with respect to perceived valence and self-efficacy.

Actions taken by governments to counteract the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic led to profound restrictions in daily lives, especially for adolescents and young adults, with closed schools and universities, travel restrictions, and reduction in social contacts. The purpose of the current study is to investigate the development of life satisfaction with assessments before and during the pandemic, including separate measurement occasions during a strict lockdown and when the implemented restrictions were relaxed again. Data are based on the German Personality Panel (GePP) with 1,920 young adults, assessed on four measurement occasions over a period of three years. Using latent change score modeling, we investigate the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic with respect to its perception as a critical life event over time. Further, we examine the influence of self-efficacy on change in life-satisfaction, as the belief in one's innate abilities has been shown to promote health related behavior and buffers against effects of negatively perceived critical life events. While average life satisfaction remained stable across time, we found a main effect of perceived positive valence and self-efficacy on latent change in life satisfaction at the within person level. Expressions of self-efficacy did not moderate the influence of the perception of the pandemic on self-reported life satisfaction. This study provides an important contribution to the recent COVID-19 literature as well as to the debate on stability and change of self-reported life satisfaction.

Second allo-SCT in patients with lymphoma relapse after a first allogeneic transplantation. A retrospective study of the EBMT Lymphoma Working Party.

The aim of this registry-based retrospective study was to analyze the outcome of second allogeneic hematopoietic SCT (alloHSCT_2) performed in patients with lymphoma who had relapsed after a first allogeneic transplant (alloHSCT_1). Patients ⩾18 years who had received an alloHSCT_2 for lymphoma relapse between 2000 and 2011 were eligible. One hundred and forty patients were identified. The diagnosis was Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) in 31%, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma in 14%, T-cell lymphoma in 12%, indolent lymphoma in 19%, mantle cell lymphoma in 16% and other lymphomas in 8% of the patients. The median interval from alloHSCT_1 to alloHSCT_2 was 19 (range 4-116) months. Disease status at alloHSCT_2 was chemosensitive in 46%, refractory in 43% and unknown in 11% of the patients. Three-year PFS, OS, relapse incidence and nonrelapse mortality were 19%, 29%, 58% and 23%, respectively. PFS and OS were significantly affected by refractory disease at alloHSCT_2 and a short interval between alloHSCT_1 and alloHSCT_2. Long-term PFS was observed across all lymphoma subsets except for aggressive B-cell lymphoma. In conclusion, alloHSCT_2 is feasible and can result in long-term disease control in patients with lymphoma recurrence after alloHSCT_1, in particular if relapse occurs late and is chemosensitive.

What determines health-related quality of life in hip fracture patients at the end of acute care?--a prospective observational study.

UNLABELLED: Hip fractures are associated with reduced health-related quality of life (HrQoL). We found pre-existing need of care or limited function, cognitive impairment, and depression to be independent factors associated with lower HrQoL during the postsurgical period. In contrast, joint replacement was associated with better HrQoL compared to internal fixation. Patients' treatment should be focused on functional recovery and treatment of depression. INTRODUCTION: The aim of the study was to identify independent factors that were correlated with health-related quality of life (HrQoL) after hip fracture. METHODS: A total of 402 patients with a mean age of 81 years suffering from a hip fracture were included in this prospective, observational cohort study. HrQoL (determined by the EuroQol instrument) was measured at admission and at discharge from an acute care hospital. Independent factors correlated with HrQoL at discharge and changes from pre-fracture to discharge were determined using multivariate analyses. The influence of antidepressants was evaluated by an ANOVA with repeated measurements. RESULTS: Need of care prior to fracture was the most important determinant of EQ-5D index at discharge (ß = -0.359, p = 0.003). Additionally, low Mini Mental Status Examination (MMSE) was associated with a lower EQ-5D index at discharge (MMSE 0-9: ß = -0.238, p <0.001; MMSE 10-19: ß = -0.294, p <0.001) and a greater decrease in EQ-5D during hospitalisation (MMSE 10-19: ß = 0.281, p <0.001), while joint replacement (compared to internal fixation) was associated with a higher EQ-5D index (ß = 0.188, p = 0.002) and a lower decrease in the index (ß = -0.216, p = 0.003). EQ VAS values at discharge were correlated with pre-fracture Barthel Index (ß = 0.253, p <0.001) and Geriatric Depression Scale scores (ß = -0.135, p = 0.026). Depressive patients on antidepressants demonstrated less of a decrease in the EQ-5D index compared to patients not receiving medication (F = 2.907, p = 0.090). CONCLUSIONS: Acute care of hip fracture patients should be focused on functional recovery and treatment of depression. When the preferred surgical strategy is unclear, joint replacement should be considered.

A gene complex coding for the membrane-bound hydrogenase of Alcaligenes eutrophus H16.

One of the key enzymes in the chemolithoautotrophic metabolism of Alcaligenes eutrophus H16 is a dimeric, membrane-associated hydrogenase. The genetic determinants of this enzyme are located on the endogenous megaplasmid pHG1 (G. Eberz, C. Hogrefe, C. Kortlüke, A. Kamienski, and B. Friedrich, J. Bacteriol. 168:636-641, 1986). Complementation studies showed that the information required for the formation of active membrane-bound hydrogenase occupies more than 7.5 kb of megaplasmid DNA. We cloned and sequenced this region and identified the genes encoding the two hydrogenase subunits (hoxK and hoxG). The nucleotide sequence contains nine additional closely spaced open reading frames. Immunoelectron microscopy showed that the gene product of one of these open reading frames (hoxM) is involved in the process leading to the attachment of hydrogenase to the membrane. Other open reading frames may encode additional processing functions and components of a hydrogenase-linked electron transport chain. Analysis of Tn5-B21-mediated transcriptional fusions provided evidence that the structural genes and accessory functions belong to at least three coordinately regulated transcriptional units.

[Constraint and inclination for reducing complexity--social cognitive aspects of moral judgment in children]. / Zwang und Hang zur Komplexitätsreduzierung--sozialkognitive Aspekte moralischen Urteilens bei Kindern.

When processing information about their reality human beings systematically reduce objective complexity. This is not only true in cognitive problem solving, but also in other every-day situations, e.g., when decisions in situations of moral relevance are required. From a developmental psychological point of view the adequate handling of such situations requires, on the one hand, an age-related differentiation of social cognitions, and, on the other hand, an increasingly effective structuring and integration of information. The latter developmental process, however, bears the danger that an adequate psychosocial development is substituted by a tendency toward complexity reduction in the sense of oversimplification due to the fact that such a tendency may suggest situation-specific alternative actions which are seemingly "easier to handle". In an empirical study with 176 students from Polytechnical High Schools in (East-)Berlin the hypothesis is tested if a tendency toward oversimplification in (fictitious) situations of moral relevance is systematically related to deviant behavior at school. Results show that indeed deviant students have a stronger tendency toward oversimplifying social cognitions than non-deviant students. Furthermore, it can be shown that this result is not moderated by possible sex, age or academic performance effects. As results with regard to moral judgement in the Kohlbergian sense differ substantially in their relation to academic performance and to behavioral deviance, it is assumed that the two judgement processes differ conceptually.