Multidimensional Monitoring of Recovery Status and Implications for Performance.

Monitoring recovery in the context of athletic performance has gained significant importance during recent years. As a systematic process of data collection and evaluation, the monitoring of recovery can be implemented for various purposes. It may help prevent negative outcomes of training or competition, such as underrecovery, overtraining, or injuries. Furthermore, it aims to establish routines and strategies necessary to guarantee athletes' readiness for performance by restoring their depleted resources. Comprehensive monitoring of recovery ideally encompasses a multidimensional approach, thereby considering biological, psychological, and social monitoring methods. From a biological perspective, physiological (eg, cardiac parameters), biochemical (eg, creatine kinase), hormonal (eg, salivary cortisol), and immunological (eg, immunoglobulin A) markers can be taken into account to operationalize training loads and recovery needs. Psychological approaches suggest the application of validated and reliable psychometric questionnaires (eg, Recovery-Stress Questionnaire for Athletes) to measure a subjective perception of recovery, as well as the subjective degree of training- or competition-induced fatigue. Social aspects also play a role in performance monitoring and may hence provide essential performance-related information. The implementation of a monitoring routine in athletic environments represents a continuous process that functions as an effective addition to training and depends on a range of conditions (eg, organizational regulations, commitment of athletes). Current research in the field of monitoring aims to establish individualized monitoring regimens that refer to intraindividual reference values with the help of innovative technological devices.

Recovery and Performance in Sport: Consensus Statement.

The relationship between recovery and fatigue and its impact on performance has attracted the interest of sport science for many years. An adequate balance between stress (training and competition load, other life demands) and recovery is essential for athletes to achieve continuous high-level performance. Research has focused on the examination of physiological and psychological recovery strategies to compensate external and internal training and competition loads. A systematic monitoring of recovery and the subsequent implementation of recovery routines aims at maximizing performance and preventing negative developments such as underrecovery, nonfunctional overreaching, the overtraining syndrome, injuries, or illnesses. Due to the inter- and intraindividual variability of responses to training, competition, and recovery strategies, a diverse set of expertise is required to address the multifaceted phenomena of recovery, performance, and their interactions to transfer knowledge from sport science to sport practice. For this purpose, a symposium on Recovery and Performance was organized at the Technical University Munich Science and Study Center Raitenhaslach (Germany) in September 2016. Various international experts from many disciplines and research areas gathered to discuss and share their knowledge of recovery for performance enhancement in a variety of settings. The results of this meeting are outlined in this consensus statement that provides central definitions, theoretical frameworks, and practical implications as a synopsis of the current knowledge of recovery and performance. While our understanding of the complex relationship between recovery and performance has significantly increased through research, some important issues for future investigations are also elaborated.

Impact of Age and Hearing Impairment on Work Performance during Long Working Hours.

Based on demographic prognoses, it must be assumed that a greater number of older workers will be found in the future labor market. How to deal with their possible age-related impairments of sensory functions, like hearing impairment and work performance during extended working time, has not been addressed explicitly until now. The study addresses this interplay. The study was performed on two consecutive days after normal working hours. The 55 participants had to "work" in the study at least three additional hours to simulate a situation of long working hours. The tested measures for (job) performance were: general attention, long-term selective attention, concentration, and reaction time. All of the investigated variables were taken at both days of the study (2 × 2 × 2 repeated measurement design). The results show effects for age, the interaction of hearing impairment and time of measurement, and effects of the measurement time. Older participants reacted slower than younger participants did. Furthermore, younger participants reacted more frequently in a correct way. Hearing impairment seems to have a negative impact especially on measures of false reactions, and therefore especially on measurement time 1. The results can be interpreted in a way that hearing-impaired participants are able to compensate their deficits over time.

Enhancing Resources at the Workplace with Health-Promoting Leadership.

Leaders engaging in health-promoting leadership can influence their employees' health directly by showing health awareness or indirectly by changing working conditions. With health-promoting leadership, leaders are able to support a healthy working environment by providing resource-oriented working conditions for their employees to support their health. Changing working conditions in a health-supportive way can prevent possible negative consequences from critical working conditions (e.g., burnout risk). The present study examined the relationship between health-promoting leadership and the employees' resources, stress and burnout. To analyze our proposed model, structural equation modelling was conducted in two samples. The resulting model from the first sample of 228 Austrian workers was cross-validated and could be verified with the second sample (N = 263 Austrian workers). The results supported a model in which health-promoting leadership has a strong direct effect on the employees' resources and an indirect effect on stress and burnout, which was mediated by resources. The results indicate that health-promoting leadership describes the leaders' capability and dedication creating the right working conditions for their employees by increasing the employees' resources at the workplace. This in turn minimizes the risk of experiencing burnout.

Dimensions of vehicle sounds perception.

Vehicle sounds play an important role concerning customer satisfaction and can show another differentiating factor of brands. With an online survey of 1762 German and American customers, the requirement characteristics of high-quality vehicle sounds were determined. On the basis of these characteristics, a requirement profile was generated for every analyzed sound. These profiles were investigated in a second study with 78 customers using real vehicles. The assessment results of the vehicle sounds can be represented using the dimensions "timbre", "loudness", and "roughness/sharpness". The comparison of the requirement profiles and the assessment results show that the sounds which are perceived as pleasant and high-quality, more often correspond to the requirement profile. High-quality sounds are characterized by the fact that they are rather gentle, soft and reserved, rich, a bit dark and not too rough. For those sounds which are assessed worse by the customers, recommendations for improvements can be derived.

Investigation of Psychophysiological and Subjective Effects of Long Working Hours - Do Age and Hearing Impairment Matter?

Following current prognosis, demographic development raises expectations of an aging of the working population. Therefore, keeping employees healthy and strengthening their ability to work, becomes more and more important. When employees become older, dealing with age-related impairments of sensory functions, such as hearing impairment, is a central issue. Recent evidence suggests that negative effects that are associated with reduced hearing can have a strong impact at work. Especially under exhausting working situations such as working overtime hours, age and hearing impairment might influence employees' well-being. Until now, neither the problem of aged workers and long working hours, nor the problem of hearing impairment and prolonged working time has been addressed explicitly. Therefore, a laboratory study was examined to answer the research question: Do age and hearing impairment have an impact on psychophysiological and subjective effects of long working hours. In total, 51 white-collar workers, aged between 24 and 63 years, participated in the laboratory study. The results show no significant effects for age and hearing impairment on the intensity of subjective consequences (perceived recovery and fatigue, subjective emotional well-being and physical symptoms) of long working hours. However, the psychophysiological response (the saliva cortisol level) to long working hours differs significantly between hearing impaired and normal hearing employees. Interestingly, the results suggest that from a psychophysiological point of view long working hours were more demanding for normal hearing employees.

The Taskload-Efficiency-Safety-Buffer Triangle--development and validation with air traffic management.

The Taskload-Efficiency-Safety-Buffer Triangle (TEST) was developed as a new computerised scaling tool for quickly visualising changes in and trade-offs between the three critical factors that determine the work situation of air traffic management (ATM), i.e. taskload, efficiency and safety-buffers. Based on a task analysis of ATM and backed up by the stress-strain model, an easy-to-interpret triangle was constructed and validated both in simulated and real ATM workplaces. Results from the validation studies show that TEST does not only reflect the most relevant task characteristics, but also provides additional insights in the controllers' working styles. The TEST tool can make ATM safety surveys more efficient and help supervisors to decide about optimal times for opening or closing additional sectors. Statement of Relevance: TEST is a new tool to assess taskload, efficiency and safety-buffers in a joint scaling. It reflects increases in taskload and effects of taskload on safety-buffers and efficiency, as well as trade-offs in opposite directions. This tool might be very useful to check sector capacity in ATM and other high risk environments.

General methodological considerations for the assessment of nutritional influences on human cognitive functions.

The premise that cognitive functioning can be influenced through dietary means has gained widespread interest. The assessment of cognitive functioning is a key method to scientifically substantiate such nutritional effects on cognition. The current paper provides a basic overview of the main concepts, issues and pitfalls of human cognitive research. General methods of cognitive assessment, selection of appropriate tests, factors that may mediate task performance and issues pertaining to the interpretation of the results are discussed.

How should we measure nutrition-induced improvements in memory?

There is a basic distinction between declarative memories, which can be stated verbally, and non-declarative memory, such as how to ride a bicycle, which cannot be expressed in words. With age it is the performance of declarative memory, particularly episodic memory that requires recall of events placed in time, that declines. As memory is not a unitary phenomenon, it should be ideally monitored using a range of tests that reflect theoretical conceptions of the topic. If circumstances demand the use of a single test then a measure of episodic memory is suggested. When it proves only possible to use a rating scale it should be ensured that memory is distinguished from other aspects of cognition and that different types of memory are not confused. The tests used, and the form in which they are used, need to be chosen to be of appropriate difficulty for the sample studied. A major conclusion is that the selection of the measure of memory used in the study of a dietary intervention should never be routine. It is inevitable that the form of the test used will need to be chosen carefully for the population being studied.

Coping with stress: its influence on periodontal therapy.

BACKGROUND: Individual stress coping strategies appear to influence periodontal disease: individuals with inadequate stress behavior may be at greater risk of developing disease. The purpose of this 24-month prospective study was to examine the influence of different coping behaviors on a non-surgical periodontal therapy and on the course of periodontal disease. METHODS: In 80 patients with chronic periodontitis, a non-surgical periodontal treatment was conducted after their individual stress coping strategies had been recorded. After 2 years of regular maintenance, their periodontal condition was evaluated. The stress coping questionnaire was used to obtain psychodiagnostic data. Clinical attachment loss (CAL) served as the clinical parameter. RESULTS: Patients with a defensive coping style had statistically significant poorer attachment values (P= 0.000) after 2 years compared to patients with other coping behaviors. The percentage of sites with slight to moderate CAL (<5 mm) was significantly less in patients with a defensive coping style than in patients with other coping strategies (P = 0.000). The number of sites with severe advanced CAL (>5 mm) was significantly correlated with a suppressive coping style (P= 0.0001). None of the individual stress coping styles revealed significant overall changes over time. The subtest of drug use (alcohol, nicotine, tranquilizers) as well as changes in this subtest over time were significantly correlated with the CAL (P = 0.003); an increase in the t value of the subtest of drug use was accompanied by a significant increase in CAL. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study show that passive coping strategies were more pronounced in advanced disease as well as in cases of poor response to a non-surgical periodontal treatment, whereas patients with active coping modes had milder disease and a more favorable course of treatment. Thus, maladaptive behavior, especially in association with behavior-related risk factors such as smoking, are of great importance in the medical history, treatment, and maintenance of patients with periodontal disease.