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"Why am I doing this anyway?" : A control-value perspective on boredom in endurance sports
No full textBoredom is a common experience in daily life, yet it has been largely overlooked in the context of sports and exercise. This neglect is perplexing, especially considering that endurance sports can have characteristics conducive to boredom. To fill this gap, we investigated boredom in endurance sports, along with its antecedents and consequences, through the lens of control-value theory (CVT). In a study involving 667 predominantly recreational runners and cyclists, we found support for CVT's predictions. Specifically, lower levels of self-concept, greater levels of underchallenge and overchallenge, as well as lower levels of value were all linked to increased boredom. In turn, higher levels of boredom were associated with more negative psychological (e.g., less satisfaction) and behavioral consequences (e.g., reduced training). Few differences emerged between runners and cyclists, and these differences were primarily in the magnitude of effects. Overall, our research demonstrates that CVT is a promising theoretical framework for studying boredom in sports and exercise. Conversely, endurance sports provides a natural environment in which people experience boredom, and studying boredom in this context might thus provide novel insights into boredom research and CVT. This perspective also suggests actionable insights for practitioners and researchers to mitigate boredom more effectively.publishe
The ‘healthy = sustainable’ heuristic : Effects of health and sustainability labels on perceived sustainability and healthiness of foods
No full textStudies show that foods perceived as healthier are often also seen as more sustainable, suggesting a ‘healthy = sustainable’ heuristic. However, the direction of this effect remains unclear. This study aims to investigate (1) whether perceived healthiness influences perceived sustainability or whether the reverse effect occurs and (2) whether inter‐individual differences, such as health interest, moderate these effects. In an online study, participants (n = 712) were shown pictures of foods with high or low healthiness indices and asked to rate their sustainability. Conversely, they were also shown pictures of foods with high or low sustainability indices and asked to rate their healthiness. Additionally, participants' interest in health and sustainability and their belief in a relationship between the healthiness and sustainability of foods were measured. Exploratory analyses included label credibility as a control variable. Foods with a higher healthiness index were perceived as more sustainable (effect size: δ = 0.39; [CI: 0.36; 0.41]). Similarly, higher sustainability indices led to higher healthiness ratings (effect size: δ = 0.22; [CI: 0.20; 0.24]). Moderating effects of interests were small and dependent on whether label credibility was accounted for. The results support the assumption of a ‘healthy = sustainable’ heuristic, indicating that the effect is bidirectional. The implications for food labelling are discussed.publishe
Spatially restricted coral bleaching as an ecological manifestation of within-colony heterogeneity
No full textCoral bleaching is a widespread stress response of reef-building corals to elevated sea temperatures, resulting in the loss of symbiotic algae and often leading to coral death and reef degradation. Although coral bleaching occurs globally, not all reefs, species, colonies, or polyps bleach equally. Understanding intra-colony bleaching heterogeneity is crucial to anticipate the extent of coral loss at 2°C warming and harness variability to inform restorative interventions. Partially bleached coral colonies are commonly documented yet rarely tracked to determine whether they reflect ecologically distinct heterogeneity (e.g., in thermal tolerance) or eventually bleach completely. Focusing on bleaching that appears restricted to certain areas within a coral colony, we examine its putative basis in the spatial variability of the holobiont. A coral’s three-dimensional structure creates mosaics of microenvironments. Adaptations to these microenvironments are underpinned by intra-colony differences in Symbiodiniaceae association, microbiome assemblage, and nutritional status, giving rise to microhabitats. Genetic mosaicism and epigenetic changes further contribue to intra-colony phenotypic heterogeneity. We pinpoint methodologies to align spatially restricted bleaching to different forms of coral surface heterogeneity, examine the common assumption that coral fragments represent entire colonies, and illuminate implications for coral biology and restoration.publishe
Protein-stabilized Fluorescent Nanoclusters and Their Applications as Artificial Enzymes
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Strain-enabled control of the vanadium qudit in silicon carbide
No full textVanadium in silicon carbide is a promising spin photon interface candidate with optical transitions in the telecom range and a long lived electron spin, hosted in an advanced semiconductor platform. In this detailed investigation of the defect's 16-dimensional ground state spin manifold at millikelvin temperatures, a wide range of previously unreported transitions are observed which are accurately described using a theoretical model that includes strain. Using a superconducting microcoil we achieve Rabi frequencies exceeding 20MHz and perform the first coherent manipulation of a direct hyperfine transition. These insights further underscore the defect's potential for strain engineering and sensing, as well as for fault-tolerant qudit encoding.publishe
Co-Production Phases in the Development and Implementation of Digital Public Services
No full textPublic bureaucracies can be digitally transformed by using co-production approaches to design and develop digital public services with input from their stakeholders. Drawing on interviews with international digital transformation experts, this article explores what co-production looks like—conceptually and empirically. We are making a theoretical contribution to the existing co-production literature by identifying the roles different stakeholders play in each co-production phase and the work practices and approaches used to incorporate the stakeholders’ viewpoints. We show that service users’ input is not included continuously but selectively in the co-production phases of digital public services. Although digital public services are co-designed initially with the input of potential service users in the form of their user needs, the subsequent phases include different stakeholders up until the use phase, where service users are simultaneously using and evaluating the service. The results from this empirical study on the co-production of digital public services expand the existing co-production models—the co-production eco-system of stakeholders must be enlarged by the range of actors that need to be involved and the diverse roles they play in addressing citizen needs in a prospective, concurrent, and retrospective manner.publishe
Health inequality attributions and support for healthcare policy
No full textThis article examines popular explanations of health inequality and introduces a typology distinguishing between behavioural, biological, environmental, and healthcare attributions. Using data from an original survey among 6,000 individuals in Germany, the findings reveal that explanations for the social gradient in health vary by income and political ideology. Lower-income groups primarily attribute health inequality to the healthcare system, whereas higher-income groups attribute them to behavioural factors. Similarly, right-wing individuals tend to view income-related health disparities as a consequence of individual behaviour, while left-wing individuals primarily attribute them to environmental health risks. Furthermore, the study shows that such health inequality attributions are associated with citizens’ support for government responsibility for healthcare provision and willingness to pay higher taxes to improve healthcare. These findings suggest that health inequality attributions play an important role in the democratic legitimacy of healthcare policies. Divergent views on the causes of health disparities may undermine solidarity within healthcare systems.publishe
Towering behavior and collective dispersal in Caenorhabditis nematodes
No full textDispersal behavior allows organisms to find new resources under harsh conditions; collective dispersal in group-living organisms raises interesting questions about kin selection, cooperation, and social conflicts that offer an exciting window into the evolution of sociality. One type of collective dispersal is when individuals physically link their bodies into a super-organism and move as a group, but these phenomena are rare in nature and few empirical systems exist to enable their mechanistic dissection. Individuals of many nematode species can group together and self-assemble into a living tower of worms, which is hypothesized to be a collective dispersal structure. However, direct evidence demonstrating the occurrence and the function of towers in nature has been scarce. We documented towering behavior under natural, semi-natural, and laboratory conditions to confirm its existence and then manipulated these towers to confirm that they can bridge gaps and respond to external stimuli to confer group dispersal by phoresy. Having established the ecological and functional relevance of nematode towers, we developed a laboratory towering assay with the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans to exploit its experimental capabilities. Our lab assay rapidly and robustly induces towering and reveals several fundamental characteristics of both the towers and the constituent individuals, which together demonstrate the high experimental potential of using our model and the ample future research avenues that it opens. In summary, combining ecological relevance and empirical possibilities, our work sets the key foundations to establish nematode towering behavior as a powerful opportunity to elucidate the ecology, the mechanisms, and the evolution of collective dispersal.publishe
Zwischen Präsenzpflicht und Homeoffice-Euphorie : Stand des mobilen Arbeitens fünf Jahre nach Beginn der Corona-Pandemie : Konstanzer Homeoffice Studie Ergebnisreport April 2025
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Europas Frühe Neuzeit : Geschichte und Theorie einer Gesellschaft auf dem Weg in die Moderne
No full textEine Gesellschaft auf ihrem unwahrscheinlichen Weg in die Moderne: Dargestellt werden soziale Strukturen und ihre Veränderung, verbunden mit einer Medientheorie und den Selbstbeobachtungen in der Sozialphilosophie.
Die Beschaffenheit der modernen Gesellschaft in Europa am Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts war so unwahrscheinlich wie welthistorisch einmalig. Das Buch analysiert die Entstehung und Durchsetzung sachorientierter Strukturen aus einer vormodernen hierarchischen Gesellschaftsordnung des Spätmittelalters heraus. Es folgt dabei keiner Modernisierungs- oder Fortschrittstheorie, sondern spürt den Problemen nach, die überwunden wurden, den Zufällen und Wechselwirkungen, die dabei eine Rolle spielten. Die Darstellung verbindet Mediengeschichte, Kommunikationstheorie sowie die Strukturgeschichte sozialer Systeme mit einer überraschenden Lesart der vormodernen Sozialphilosophie. Sie leistet auf diese Weise auch einen Beitrag zur Klärung und Historisierung grundlegender soziologischer Begriffe und Kategorien. Der Autor spannt in seiner Gesellschaftsgeschichte ein weites Panorama auf, das von der Familie über Korporationen, herrschaftliche Verwaltung, Unternehmen, sozialen Protest und religiöse Bewegungen bis hin zu Funktionsbereichen wie Recht und Ökonomie reicht. Die Rationalität der Moderne wird auf diese Weise als Effekt institutioneller Zusammenhänge greifbar, der in einer neuen Anthropologie des Menschen seine Entsprechung fand. Die Veränderung von Strukturen setzte andere Weltzugänge und Beschreibungen voraus und umgekehrt.publishe