News
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Standing up to Stress
Prof. Dr. Ulrike Ehlert (URPP DynAge) has had to cope with many a difficult situation in life. Today she is a leading light in psychobiological stress research who also takes a very hands-on approach to looking at what triggers stress and how we can deal with it. A portrait of her journey and research was recently featured in the UZH Magazin, which you can find here.
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Dr. Minxia Luo received one of this year's FAN Awards
We are proud to announce that Dr. Minxia Luo (URPP DynAge) received this year's FAN Award in the Arts and Social Sciences. This award, which is supported by the "Fonds zur Förderung des akademischen Nachwuchses" of UZH Alumni, recognizes outstanding scientific achievements of advanced Ph.D. candidates and early postdoctoral researchers at UZH engaged in research projects of societal relevance and applying inter- or transdisciplinary approaches or methods. More information about the award and Minxia's research can be found here.
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Smartphone App to Change Your Personality
In a recent paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), Dr. Mirjam Stieger (Brandeis University, USA and formerly URPP DynAge), Prof. Dr. Mathias Allemand (URPP DynAge) and colleagues were able to show that daily use of a smartphone app can lead to desired personality changes within three months. And three months after the daily interventions, the changes are still noticeable. The present study has important implications for health promotion and prevention, as it illustrates how people’s attitude to their situation and personality traits such as conscientiousness could have an influence on health and healthy aging. The journal article can be found here and a full UZH news release here.
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Female language style promotes visibility and influence online
In a recent paper that appeared in PLOS One, Dr. Tabea Meier, Dr. Andrea B. Horn, Prof. Dr. Mike Martin (all URPP DynAge) and colleagues were able to show that a female-typical language style promotes the popularity of talks in the digital context and turns out to be an underappreciated but highly effective tool for social influence. This contribution, which relied on the analysis of 1100 TED talks, has received a tremendous amount of attention from researchers, innovators, and the press alike. The journal article can be found here and, to take one illustrative example, an interview by "Westdeutscher Rundfunk 5 (WDR5)" with Dr. Andrea B. Horn can be found (in German) here.
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Old and weak? No way!
In a recent interview with Swiss Radio and Television (SRF), Prof. Dr. Mike Martin, Co-Director of the URPP DynAge, explains how a more differentiated view of aging is needed. By shifting the focus to what we can still learn and do as we age, rather than on how many symptoms or morbidities one may have, one can better understand the heterogeneity of the aging process, as well as how we can continue to flourish and contribute to society at all ages. The interview is available (in German) here.
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WHO Baseline Report for the Decade of Healthy Aging (2021-2030)
The World Health Organization (WHO) has just published its new Baseline Report for the Decade of Healthy Aging (2021-2030). Prof. Mike Martin and Dr. Christina Röcke (both URPP DynAge), have made significant contributions to this report as members of the WHO Working Group on Metrics and Research Standards for Healthy Ageing. The research at URPP DynAage, who coordinates the WHO Collaborating Center Network for Healthy Ageing, is also prominently featured in the Baseline Report. For example, see p. 40 for an overview of contributions from the Within-Person Health Activity Analytics Lab, headed by Dr. Christina Röcke.
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Tabea Meier, M.Sc. was awarded an Early Postdoc.Mobility fellowship by the Swiss National Science Foundation
We are proud to announce that doctoral student Tabea Meier, M.Sc. (URPP DynAge) was awarded a SNSF Early Postdoc.Mobility fellowship. These competitive fellowships are designed to support promising young researchers who wish to pursue an academic career in Switzerland by funding a research stay abroad. Tabea will use the fellowship to study emotional linkage in dyadic interaction across the lifespan with Prof. Dr. Claudia Haase (Human Development and Social Policy, and Psychology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA). More information about Tabea's research can be found here.
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NESTORE, your personal coach in old age
In a recent interview with Science Stories of EU GrantAccess, Dr. Christina Röcke, Deputy Director and Research Group leader at the URPP DynAge, discusses an EU project - NESTORE (Novel Empowering Solutions and Technologies for Older people to Retain Everyday life activities) - in which a consortium of 16 European partners has developed a digital coach that motivates older adult users to strengthen their physical, emotional and cognitive abilities (as well as nutrition) by individually coaching them. The interview is available here and more information about NESTORE can be found here.
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PASEZ Project - Impact of stress on relationship development of couples and children
The PASEZ ("Partnerschaft und Stress: Entwicklung im Zeitverlauf") project examines the impact of stress on romantic relationships and their development over time in a prospective longitudinal study design with multiple age cohorts. PASEZ started in September 2011 as a SNSF Sinergia Project with Prof. Dr. Guy Bodenmann, Prof. Dr. Veronika Brandstätter (future URRP DynAge member), Prof. Dr. Mike Martin (URPP DynAge), and Dr. Fridtjof Nussbeck from the Department of Psychology at UZH. To date, eight annual measurement waves have been completed, with the ninth wave currently underway, and over 200 couples have been accompanied over a period of 10 years. We are very pleased to announce that this project was recently granted a new set of SNSF funds to further pursue its activities. More information about PASEZ can be found (in German) here and (in English) here.
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CAS "Beratungskompetenz zum Leben im Alter"
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Tabea Meier, M.Sc. wins the annual Open Science Prize of the UZH Psychology Department
We are proud to announce that doctoral student Tabea Meier, M.Sc. (URPP DynAge) was awarded this year's Open Science Prize of the UZH Psychology Department in the Paper category for doctoral students for her publication entitled "(Not) Lost in Translation: Psychological Adaptation Occurs During Speech Translation". More information (in German) can be found here.
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The healing effect of writing
In a recent interview with "Radio SRF 2 Kultur" of Swiss Radio and Television, Dr. Andrea B. Horn, Research Group leader at the URPP DynAge, explains how psychologists can rely on the healing effects of writing a diary. Similar to speaking in therapy sessions, writing is a form of self-expression and serves the purpose of self-reflection. The interview is available (in German) here, and the entire show it was part of here.
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Dr. Jessica Oschwald wins the annual dissertation prize of the UZH Philosophical Faculty
Former URPP DynAge doctoral student and post-doc Dr. Jessica Oschwald has been awarded the annual prize of the UZH Philosophical Faculty for her dissertation on "The Longitudinal Covariation of Brain Structure Changes and Cognitive Ability Changes in Healthy Aging". This prestigious award is only given to one person from each faculty of the University per year and was officially announced at this year's Dies Academicus. More information (in German) can be found here.
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From boot camp to start-up
URPP DynAge researcher Dr. Burcu Demiray took part in a funding program of the UZH Innovation Hub with great success. She developed a business idea for an app and acquired entrepreneurial know-how to launch a start-up. More information (in German) about her experience and project can be found in the UZH Annual Report (see p. 46).
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Online dating flourishes during shutdown
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OldSchool. A distance learning platform for 65+
Dr. Burcu Demiray (URPP DynAge) and her colleagues recently presented a project for a distance learning platform tailored for the 65+ at the Online Hackathon VersusVirus. It aims to prevent the isolation of seniors and to provide tools for life-long learning, and we are excited to announce that it was one of the 42 projects (out of 263) to be highlighted by the jury (more information can be found here). This platform corresponds to one component of a larger "Swiss Digital Education Network 60+" developed by Prof. Dr. Mike Martin and Dr. Marc Grosjean (both URPP DynAge), among others, in collaboration with the Swiss Federation of Senior Universities and the People's Universities of Switzerland.
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New Book - Personality and Healthy Aging in Adulthood: New Directions and Techniques
We are pleased to announce that Prof. Dr. Matthias Allemand (Associated Assistant Professor, URPP DynAge) and Prof. Dr. Patrick L. Hill (Washington University, St. Louis, USA) just published a new edited book in Springer's "International Perspectives on Aging" series. More information can be found here.
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The most urgent questions about mental health in Corona times
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EU funded NESTORE Project finalises its integration phase
The technological partners of the consortium of the EU-funded project "Novel Empowering Solutions and Technologies for Older people to Retain Everyday life activities" (NESTORE), of which Dr. Christina Röcke and Prof. Mike Martin (URPP DynAge) are a member, recently met to finalize the integration of the various components of the NESTORE companion system. In particular, the partners focused on the specifications for user management, decision support systems, coach interaction and pathways, and Internet of Things. NESTORE adopts an evolutionary architecture that allows for incremental change, thus ensuring the overall agility of the system. More information regarding these latest developments can be found here.
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The power of writing
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Dr. Burcu Demiray wins Vontobel Award for Research on Ageing
URPP researcher Dr. Burcu Demiray has been awarded one of this year's Vontobel Awards for Research on Age(ing). This prestigeious award, endowed by the Vontobel Foundation, supports gerontological research in Switzerland from any field of science to raise awareness of issues around aging in society among the general public.
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We don't have to have deep conversations all the time
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A steeled mind
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Swiss Network for Well-Being and Aging
Prof. Mike Martin and Prof. Alexandra M. Freund (both URPP) co-founded, along with others, the "Swiss Network for Well-Being and Aging" (wellbeingnetwork.ch), which is a web of basic and applied researchers spread across Switzerland who are interested in the dynamics of well-being over the lifespan. The URPP is currently responsible for the coordination of this national Network, including its visibility and the planning of upcoming events.
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New German update of the automated text analysis program LIWC has been released
Tabea Meier, Andrea B. Horn and Mike Martin have developed a new German adaptation of the word count program LIWC (“Linguistic Word Count and Inquiry”). The major update for the analysis of German text samples was a cooperation with Markus Wolf (UZH). It is the result of an international collaboration with the “father” of LIWC, James W. Pennebaker, one of the most cited Social Psychologists, Ryan L. Boyd (University of Texas, Austin) and Matthias R. Mehl (University of Arizona, Tucson).
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A guide for relatives of dementia patients
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Brain doping: How to become smarter
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Playfully train the brain
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Memory training doesn't lead to a general increase in cognitive performance
URPP Doctoral Student Sabrina Guye discusses how memory training actually works in the Swiss Bulletin for Memory Training:
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Can cognitive training really make us smarter?
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How to measure quality of life?
URPP Co-Director Prof. Mike Martin outlines in the NZZ the research agenda on Quality-of-Life projects at the URPP and the UZH Center for Gerontology
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What type of memory training works?
URPP Doctoral Student Sabrina Guye explains how and how not to keep our brains fit with memory training in a recent article in the Schweizer Illustrierte:
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How can citizen science change research?
Read the perspective of URPP co-director Prof. Mike Martin in the following Q&A in the the UZH Journal:
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The Digital Society Initiative (DSI) of the UZH was launched
Read more about the kick-off of the Digital Society Initiative (DSI), in which the URPP Dynamic of Healthy Ageing is also involved with Prof. Mike Martin as part of the DSI Board of Directors.
UZH News: "The child will still give a lot of joy" (in German)
UZH Journal: "Digitisation is a huge opportunity" (in German; PDF)
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New Head of UZH Senior University
URPP Co-Director Prof. Mike Martin has become the President of the Senior University of UZH since Fall 2016. Read more about it:
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Person-centred health research and the preservation of quality of life
Read the following Curaviva article on the subject of person-centred health research and maintaining quality of life (No. 2, 2015, pp. 36-39):
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Technology for old age
Read the article in the UZH News on the Swiss-Japanese Workshop in Tokyo that took place in March 2015:
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Technology: A look from Switzerland to Japan and back
by Mike Martin, Christina Röcke, Research Focus "Dynamics of Healthy Ageing", University of Zurich, published in Bulletin SAGW:
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Preservation of quality of life despite multimorbidity
In an issue of the Bulletin of the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences on "Multimorbidity: A challenge of modern times", you can find the contributions of two of the URPP directors, Prof. Edouard Battegay and Prof. Mike Martin, who co-lead the Competence Centre for Multimorbidity at UZH.
Download (in German; PDF, 1463 KB)
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Article about the URPP DynAge in the UZH Journal
On pages 10 and 11 of the UZH Journal (No. 3, May 2013), read the article: "In Focus Eight New Teams for the Future" or download the article here:
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Presentation of the new URPPs using the example of the URPP DynAge at the Annual Media Conference of the UZH
Read the press release of the University of Zurich's Annual Media Conference:
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UZH Annual Report
You can find relevant information about the URPPs in the UZH Annual Report 2012.