Zoekresultaten

Diversity in robustness of Lactococcus lactis strains during heat stress, oxidative stress, and spray drying stress

In this study we tested 39 Lactococcus lactis strains isolated from diverse habitats for their robustness under heat and oxidative stress, demonstrating high diversity in survival (up to 4 log units). Strains with an L. lactis subsp. lactis phenotype generally displayed more-robust phenotypes than strains with an L. lactis subsp. cremoris phenotype, whereas the habitat from which the strains had been isolated did not appear to influence stress survival. Comparison of the stress survival phenotypes with already available comparative genomic data sets revealed that the absence or presence of specific genes, including genes encoding a GntR family transcriptional regulator, a manganese ABC transporter permease, a cellobiose phosphotransferase system (PTS) component, the FtsY protein, and hypothetical proteins, was associated with heat or oxidative stress survival. Finally, 14 selected strains also displayed diversity in survival after spray drying, ranging from 20% survival for the most robust strains, which appears acceptable for industrial application, to 0.1% survival for the least-tolerant strains. The high and low levels of survival upon spray drying correlated clearly with the combined robustness under heat and oxidative stress. These results demonstrate the relevance of screening culture collections for robustness under heat and oxidative stress on top of the typical screening for acidifying and flavor-forming properties. © 2014, American Society for Microbiology.

Behaviorally Challenging Students and Teacher Stress

The present study focuses on the level of stress a teacher perceives when dealing with the most behaviorally challenging student in his or her classroom. To measure stress in Dutch elementary classrooms, a sample was drawn of 582 teachers. Two questions concerning this relation between student and teacher will be addressed. First of all, we focus on background variables of teachers and students as sources of variation in explaining the magnitude of challenging student behavior and the associated level of stress teachers experience. The second topic of this paper is to accommodate the potentially stressful relationship between student and teacher in a wider network of surrounding variables, which are, Self-efficacy, Negative affect, Autonomy in taking decisions, and Support amongst colleagues. To evaluate the presence of challenging behavior, the behavior of the student is related to more general variables like student responsibility, class size and ratio of boys to girls. We close our paper by assessing the validity of the studied relationship between teacher and student with respect to possible burnout.

Stress-sensitief inrichten

In de afgelopen jaren groeide het besef dat veel inwoners die een beroep doen op de publieke dienstverlening de nodige stress en zorgen ervaren. Werkloosheid, hoge schulden of problemen in de opvoeding kunnen eraan bijdragen dat het leven van mensen meer vraagt dan zij aankunnen. Het besef dat chronische stress een wissel trekt op het functioneren heeft een groeiende groep publieke dienstverleners geïnspireerd om in de ondersteuning die zij inwoners bieden, (meer) rekening te houden met de doorwerking van de stress op gedrag. Dat een aanhoudend stroom van zorgen verklaart waarom inwoners die hulp nodig hebben te vaak niet in staat blijken om de processtappen te zetten die van hen worden gevraagd: stukken aanleveren, geen afspraken missen, solliciteren, rondkomen van weekgeld, et cetera. Een van de belangrijkste middelen voor professionals om inwoners te motiveren en te ondersteunen de processtappen toch te zetten is het gesprek. Veel professionals (en hun management) hebben de neiging om vooral aandacht te besteden aan de inhoud van die gesprekken. Een verkenning van studies naar de impact van inrichting op ervaren stress leert dat ook de inrichting van een gebouw kan bijdragen aan stress-sensitieve dienstverlening. Op verzoek van de gemeente Utrecht en in nauwe samenwerking met Studio Sociaal Centraal heeft het lectoraat Schulden en Incasso een literatuurverkenning uitgevoerd om de gemeente Utrecht en andere uitvoerders van publieke dienstverlening op weg te helpen bij het inrichten van ontmoetingsruimten voor professionals die uitvoering geven aan onder meer de schuldhulpverlening, re-integratie, Wmo, jeugdhulpverlening en jeugdgezondheidszorg.

The influence of family business characteristics on experienced stress

Music therapy interventions for stress reduction in adults with mild intellectual disabilities

Stress is increasingly being recognized as one of the main factors that is negatively affecting our health, and therefore there is a need to regulate daily stress and prevent long-term stress. This need seems particularly important for adults with mild intellectual disabilities (MID) who have been shown to have more difficulties coping with stress than adults without intellectual disabilities. Hence, the development of music therapy interventions for stress reduction, particularly within populations where needs may be greater, is becoming increasingly important. In order to gain more insight into the practice-based knowledge on how music therapists lower stress levels of their patients with MID during music therapy sessions, we conducted focus group interviews with music therapists working with adults with MID (N = 13) from different countries and clinical institutions in Europe. Results provide an overview of the most-used interventions for stress reduction within and outside of music. Data-analysis resulted in the further specification of therapeutic goals, intervention techniques, the use of musical instruments, and related therapeutic change factors. The main findings indicate that music therapists used little to no receptive (e.g., music listening) interventions for stress reduction, but preferred to use active interventions, which were mainly based on musical improvisation. Results show that three therapy goals for stress relief could be distinguished. The goal of “synchronizing” can be seen as a sub goal because it often precedes working on the other two goals of “tension release” or “direct relaxation,” which can also be seen as two ways of reaching stress reduction in adults with MID through music therapy interventions. Furthermore, the tempo and the dynamics of the music are considered as the most important musical components to reduce stress in adults with MID. Practical implications for stress-reducing music therapy interventions for adults with MID are discussed as well as recommendations for future research.

Effects of music interventions on stress-related outcomes

Music interventions are used for stress reduction in a variety of settings because of the positive effects of music listening on both physiological arousal (e.g., heart rate, blood pressure, and hormonal levels) and psychological stress experiences (e.g., restlessness, anxiety, and nervousness). To summarize the growing body of empirical research, two multilevel meta-analyses of 104 RCTs, containing 327 effect sizes and 9,617 participants, were performed to assess the strength of the effects of music interventions on both physiological and psychological stress-related outcomes, and to test the potential moderators of the intervention effects. Results showed that music interventions had an overall significant effect on stress reduction in both physiological (d = .380) and psychological (d = .545) outcomes. Further, moderator analyses showed that the type of outcome assessment moderated the effects of music interventions on stress-related outcomes. Larger effects were found on heart rate (d = .456), compared to blood pressure (d = .343) and hormone levels (d = .349). Implications for stress-reducing music interventions are discussed.