Relations between personality and coping: A meta-analysis.

Personality may directly facilitate or constrain coping, but relations of personality to coping have been inconsistent across studies, suggesting a need for greater attention to methods and samples. This meta-analysis tested moderators of relations between Big Five personality traits and coping using 2,653 effect sizes drawn from 165 samples and 33,094 participants. Personality was weakly related to broad coping (e.g., Engagement or Disengagement), but all 5 traits predicted specific strategies. Extraversion and Conscientiousness predicted more problem-solving and cognitive restructuring, Neuroticism less. Neuroticism predicted problematic strategies like wishful thinking, withdrawal, and emotion-focused coping but, like Extraversion, also predicted support seeking. Personality more strongly predicted coping in young samples, stressed samples, and samples reporting dispositional rather than situation-specific coping. Daily versus retrospective coping reports and self-selected versus researcher-selected stressors also moderated relations between personality and coping. Cross-cultural differences were present, and ethnically diverse samples showed more protective effects of personality. Richer understanding of the role of personality in the coping process requires assessment of personality facets and specific coping strategies, use of laboratory and daily report studies, and multivariate analyses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Leadership and Cultures of Lithuanian and Dutch Construction Firms

This paper addresses both firm cultures and top leadership styles in construction firms in a West and an East-European country, the Netherlands and Lithuania. Human Resource managers filled in valid questionnaires during an interview on the premises of 16 construction firms in each country. The significant differences between the two countries pertain predominantly to the desired firm cultures and leadership styles. Construction firms in Lithuania strive toward more job autonomy, a more external orientation, an improved human resource orientation, a stronger interdepartmental orientation, and more of an improvement orientation in general. The Dutch respondents seek firm-culture improvements only in terms of a more external and interdepartmental orientation. Concerning desired transformational and transactional leadership, both leadership styles are significantly more desired by Lithuanian construction firms. Dutch top managers appear to rely already on transformational leadership with some transactional style components. Lithuanian managers have started to rely more on transformational leadership, whereas transactional leadership remains important in Lithuanian construction firms. Combining transformational and transactional leadership styles is highly recommended by current leadership research. Also, learning from “the best of both worlds” in terms of firm culture is recommended.     

The impact of negative moods on self-enhancing cognitions: The role of reflective versus ruminative mood orientations.

This research program examined how self-focused attention to feelings affects the relation between mood negativity and self-enhancing thought. The primary hypothesis was that the particular manner in which people focus on their moods (reflective vs. ruminative) determines whether they reveal positive (i.e., mood-incongruent) or negative (i.e., mood-congruent) self-relevant thoughts in response to negative moods. Studies 1-4 revealed that social comparisons, temporal comparisons, and other self-enhancing cognitions (i.e., attributions, disidentification, relationship evaluations) are more likely to be mood incongruent when people adopt a reflective orientation to their negative feelings and more likely to be mood congruent when they adopt a ruminative orientation. Additionally, moods and mood orientations affected self-enhancing thoughts through the mediating influence of mood regulation goals and intentions (Studies 5 and 6). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Open Loop Robust Equilibria in Uncertain Discrete Time Games

International Journal of Control, Automation and Systems - This paper tackles the problem of a discrete time N players game affected by some sort of time-varying uncertain perturbation. The...     

Human Neural Stem Cell-Based Drug Product: Clinical and Nonclinical Characterization

Translation of cell therapies into clinical practice requires the adoption of robust production protocols in order to optimize and standardize the manufacture and cryopreservation of cells, in compliance with good manufacturing practice regulations. Between 2012 and 2020, we conducted two phase I clinical trials (EudraCT 2009-014484-39, EudraCT 2015-004855-37) on amyotrophic lateral sclerosis secondary progressive multiple sclerosis patients, respectively, treating them with human neural stem cells. Our production process of a hNSC-based medicinal product is the first to use brain tissue samples extracted from fetuses that died in spontaneous abortion or miscarriage. It consists of selection, isolation and expansion of hNSCs and ends with the final pharmaceutical formulation tailored to a specific patient, in compliance with the approved clinical protocol. The cells used in these clinical trials were analyzed in order to confirm their microbiological safety; each batch was also tested to assess identity, potency and safety through morphological and functional assays. Preclinical, clinical and in vitro nonclinical data have proved that our cells are safe and stable, and that the production process can provide a high level of reproducibility of the cultures. Here, we describe the quality control strategy for the characterization of the hNSCs used in the above-mentioned clinical trials.     

Who is treated in psychiatric scatter beds in general hospitals? An imputational algorithm.

We imputed where mental, alcohol, and drug disorders are treated in general hospitals (GHs). The 1980 Hospital Discharge Survey, enhanced with other information, provided data. An algorithm based on multiple discriminant analysis and clinical assumptions imputed which GH patients were treated in a psychiatric unit (PU), a chemical dependency unit (CDU), or a general medical/surgical scatter bed (SB). SBs were used much less than expected. Over 60% of GH episodes occurred in specialized sites: PUs (63%), CDUs (15%), or specialty hospitals (22%). Most SB episodes occurred in GHs with no specialized unit (75%). Patients treated in scatter beds differed systematically from those in units of the same hospital and those in hospitals with no specialized units (e.g., less psychosis and psychiatric complexity, more physical comorbidity). The de facto system of assignment of disorders to hospital sites appears rational. Implications for public policy regarding inpatient treatment are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)