Social high performers under stress behave more prosocially and detect happy emotions better in a male sample

Psychosocial stress is increasing in society, impacting our lives in all social domains. However, the conditions under which stress facilitates ("tend-and-befriend") or hinders ("fight-or-flight") social approach remain elusive. We tested whether previous heterogeneous findings might be resolved by accounting for individual differences in social performance under stress. For that purpose, we introduce the novel Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) social performance index that was aggregated across ratings from two independent observers. Moreover, we apply an innovative setup enabling electroencephalographic (EEG) data to be measured inside an electrically-shielded cabin during stress, namely the TSST-EEG. Relying on a sample of 59 healthy male participants, we collected behavioral (i.e., sharing resources with others) and cognitive (i.e., detecting facial emotional expressions) approach patterns while participants experienced either acute psychosocial stress (n = 31) or no stress (control condition; n = 28) and while EEG was being recorded. During stress exposure, high-performing participants behaved more prosocially, and differentiated better between happy and neutral emotions on both behavioral and neurophysiological levels (revealed by intensity differences in a N170-like response). Overall, our findings demonstrate the added value of both the novel TSST social performance index and the novel TSST-EEG setup. By showing that high social performance during the TSST is associated with behavioral, cognitive, and neurophysiological approach patterns, our study offers valuable insights into adaptive or maladaptive psychobiological mechanisms in coping with psychosocial stress. Future stress research should address the role of social performance differences during stress in social interaction to better understand the behavioral consequences of psychosocial stress in humans.

A Student's Guide to Randomization Statistics for Multichannel Event-Related Potentials Using Ragu

In this paper, we present a multivariate approach to analyze multi-channel event-related potential (ERP) data using randomization statistics¹. The MATLAB-based open source toolbox Randomization Graphical User interface (Ragu) provides, among other methods, a test for topographic consistency, a topographic analysis of variance, t-mapping and microstate analyses. Up to two within-subject factors and one between-subject factor, each with an open number of levels, can be defined and analyzed in Ragu. Ragu analyses include all sensor signals and no a-priori models have to be applied during the analyses. Additionally, periods of significant effects can be controlled for multiple testing using global overall statistics over time. Here, we introduce the different alternatives to apply Ragu, based on a step by step analysis of an example study. This example study examined the neural activity in response to semantic unexpected sentence endings in exchange students at the beginning of their stay and after staying in a foreign-language country for 5 months.

[Error reporting from a nurse's point of view: results of a survey in nursing homes and hospitals]

AIM OF THE STUDY

The aim of this study was to gain insight into the reporting of errors as perceived by nurses employed in inpatient health-care facilities.

METHOD

A representative written survey of nurses working in German nursing homes and hospitals was conducted.

RESULTS

The 1100 respondents reported an average of 1.9 errors in the last half year, with nurses working in nursing homes reporting more errors than hospital-employed ones. They estimated that 20.5% of all errors are reported. One third of the participants did not know what events should be reported; more than 20% feared repercussions and mentioned a lack of feedback on error reports. RESULTS are not statistically associated to the presence or absence of an error reporting system, but there are hints for organisational advantages and workload-related disadvantages of systematic forms of reporting. Reporting behaviour was also related to the perception of factors concerning the organisation of the actual reporting of errors.

CONCLUSION

Defining reportable error events, organisational barriers to report errors and deficits in the dealing with errors and error reports have to be tackled to augment error reporting rates and profit from reporting systems.

[Nursing errors and the consequences. Results of a survey of nurses from inpatient care institutions]

Internationally, research on the consequences of errors caused by nurses is quite comprehensive. In contrast, the body of knowledge on the effects that errors have on the nurses themselves is rather small. It is well known that errors can have profoundly negative outcomes on nurses. In some cases, however, errors can have useful ramifications. This paper shows the research results of a representative cross-sectional survey that covers 1,100 nurses working in German hospitals and nursing homes and illustrates the effects of errors on them. Most participants in the sample mentioned feelings of regret/remorse and irritation/annoyance/stress as an effect when they made a mistake. More than half of the nurses state that they also learnt from their errors. Hospital nurses frequently suffer from psychological effects while nursing home nurses experience more often professional or legal consequences. With increasing age and professional experience the nurses indicate a lower error impact. The answers given by nurse assistants differ from those of nurses with a three-year training course. The results suggest an amount of stress that may reduce efficiency and increase susceptibility to mistakes and which, therefore, needs to be remedied.

Heterogeneous expression of serine protease inhibitor maspin in ovarian cancer

Ovarian cancer (OC) is a disease with poor prognosis, and molecular markers are needed to improve understanding of disease progression and resultant treatment. Only limited data concerning the expression of maspin, a serine protease inhibitor, in ovarian cancer (OC) are available. This study investigates the prognostic value of maspin expression (ME) in various OC cell lines and clinical tissue specimens from OC patients.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

Tumour purified mouse anti-human maspin monoclonal antibody was applied to tissue specimens from 87 OC patients. ME was recorded by an immunoreactive score, which was correlated with grading, stage, histopathological subtypes and overall survival. Additionally ME was evaluated in established ovarian cancer cell lines (HEY, SKOV3, OVCAR3/8) and paclitaxel- and docetaxel-resistant HEY cells by QRT-PCR.

RESULTS

There was significant correlation between cytoplasmatic ME and overall survival (p<0.05). OC patients with high levels of ME had a median survival of 28 vs. 57 months for those with low levels. Significant differential ME was detected between benign, borderline ovarian lesions and OC, as well as among different tumour gradings. Normal ovarian epithelial cells expressed less maspin than ovarian cancer cells as measured by QRT-PCR. Docetaxel- and paclitaxel-resistant ovarian cell lines showed an even higher level of ME, suggesting an unfavourable role of ME in OC cell lines.

CONCLUSION

Maspin is expressed differentially in OC, and low expression levels of maspin are correlated with a longer survival.

[Optimizing the nursing process by new management instruments. The Northern Germany Nursing Research Network]

The Northern Germany Nursing Research Network (Pflegeforschungsverbund Nord) has dedicated itself to developing management instruments intended to optimize the nursing process. It is coordinated by the administrative office of the Institute of Public Health and Nursing Research (Institut für Public Health und Pflegeforschung IPP, director: Prof. Dr. Stefan Görres), Department of "Interdisziplinäre Alterns- und Pflegeforschung", University of Bremen. Four partial projects are currently being worked on in two groups: Group A--"Deficient areas of nursing action": The projects belonging to this group are "Individual care-patterns of elderly people and their determinants" (University of Bremen) and "Mobility Restrictions in Nursing Homes-Multicentre Observational Study (MORIN)" (University of Hamburg). The purpose of these studies is to examine the relevance of quantitatively significant risk combinations from a nursing science perspective. Group B--"The generation and testing of nursing action management instruments": The projects in this area are "Nursing rounds as instruments of quality assurance in home-based care" (University of Applied Sciences, Bremen) and "Predicting the risk of falls, efficiency of standard scales in opposition to nursing assessment-Cluster-Randomised Controlled Trial (PROFESSION)" (University of Hamburg). These studies concentrate in a unique manner on the generation and testing of management/control instruments suitable for application to nursing action.

[From the foreign to the familiar: the discourse on intercultural care and its impact on nursing science]

This article concerns the discourse on intercultural nursing which can stimulate the further development of nursing theories and practices. In introduction, the article outlines the core of the discourse and some formal aspects. Subsequently, the overlapping discourses concerning the situation of migrant people in the social sciences and in society are discussed and the conclusion is prompted that the discourse needs to become part of general nursing theories to avoid a "culturalization" of ist subject.

[Approach to foreigners--the contribution of ethnology to nursing]

The starting point of this analysis is the concept of "The stranger", as discussed in "transcultural nursing" in the USA and currently researched by cultural anthropologist. The aim is to designate common areas of interest between nursing sciences and cultural anthropology and between ethnological and nursing practice. It is pointed out that more space is needed in nursing theory and practice, for the discussion of the concept of "stranger" and that this should not be confined to the "exotic ethnic" stranger.

[The radiological diagnosis of Crohn's disease with special reference to involvement of the stomach (double-contrast method (author's transl)]

The manifestations of Crohn's disease in the stomach can be demonstrated by a doublecontrast technique. Recognition of detailed mucosal changes, together with certain other typical findings, makes a diagnosis possible, as has been demonstrated by one case.