Bar-Ilan University

About: Bar-Ilan University is a education organization based out in Ramat Gan, Israel. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 12835 authors who have published 34964 publications receiving 995648 citations. The organization is also known as: Bar Ilan University & BIU.

Leader–member exchange, feelings of energy, and involvement in creative work

Abstract: This study examined how leaders create the impetus for creativity at work. One hundred ninety-three employees occupying a variety of jobs in Israeli organizations completed surveys at two points in time to assess their perceptions of the quality of their relationship with their leader (LMX), their level of energy, and their creative work involvement. SEM and regression analyses showed that LMX was positively related to employees' feelings of energy, which in turn were related to a high level of involvement in creative work. Factors that leaders should take into consideration in promoting followers' creative behaviors are discussed.

Evidence of Hominin Control of Fire at Gesher Benot Ya`aqov, Israel

Abstract: The presence of burned seeds, wood, and flint at the Acheulian site of Gesher Benot Ya'aqov in Israel is suggestive of the control of fire by humans nearly 790,000 years ago. The distribution of the site's small burned flint fragments suggests that burning occurred in specific spots, possibly indicating hearth locations. Wood of six taxa was burned at the site, at least three of which are edible--live, wild barley, and wild grape.

Whole-genome sequencing identifies EN1 as a determinant of bone density and fracture.

Abstract: The extent to which low-frequency (minor allele frequency (MAF) between 1-5%) and rare (MAF ≤ 1%) variants contribute to complex traits and disease in the general population is mainly unknown. Bone mineral density (BMD) is highly heritable, a major predictor of osteoporotic fractures, and has been previously associated with common genetic variants, as well as rare, population-specific, coding variants. Here we identify novel non-coding genetic variants with large effects on BMD (ntotal = 53,236) and fracture (ntotal = 508,253) in individuals of European ancestry from the general population. Associations for BMD were derived from whole-genome sequencing (n = 2,882 from UK10K (ref. 10); a population-based genome sequencing consortium), whole-exome sequencing (n = 3,549), deep imputation of genotyped samples using a combined UK10K/1000 Genomes reference panel (n = 26,534), and de novo replication genotyping (n = 20,271). We identified a low-frequency non-coding variant near a novel locus, EN1, with an effect size fourfold larger than the mean of previously reported common variants for lumbar spine BMD (rs11692564(T), MAF = 1.6%, replication effect size = +0.20 s.d., Pmeta = 2 × 10(-14)), which was also associated with a decreased risk of fracture (odds ratio = 0.85; P = 2 × 10(-11); ncases = 98,742 and ncontrols = 409,511). Using an En1(cre/flox) mouse model, we observed that conditional loss of En1 results in low bone mass, probably as a consequence of high bone turnover. We also identified a novel low-frequency non-coding variant with large effects on BMD near WNT16 (rs148771817(T), MAF = 1.2%, replication effect size = +0.41 s.d., Pmeta = 1 × 10(-11)). In general, there was an excess of association signals arising from deleterious coding and conserved non-coding variants. These findings provide evidence that low-frequency non-coding variants have large effects on BMD and fracture, thereby providing rationale for whole-genome sequencing and improved imputation reference panels to study the genetic architecture of complex traits and disease in the general population.

Resilience, COVID-19-related stress, anxiety and depression during the pandemic in a large population enriched for healthcare providers.

Abstract: COVID-19 pandemic is a global calamity posing an unprecedented opportunity to study resilience. We developed a brief resilience survey probing self-reliance, emotion-regulation, interpersonal-relationship patterns and neighborhood-environment, and applied it online during the acute COVID-19 outbreak (April 6–15, 2020), on a crowdsourcing research website ( www.covid19resilience.org ) advertised through social media. We evaluated level of stress (worries) regarding COVID-19: (1) contracting, (2) dying from, (3) currently having, (4) family member contracting, (5) unknowingly infecting others with (6) experiencing significant financial burden following. Anxiety (GAD7) and depression (PHQ2) were measured. Totally, 3042 participants (n = 1964 females, age range 18–79, mean age = 39) completed the resilience and COVID-19-related stress survey and 1350 of them (mean age = 41, SD = 13; n = 997 females) completed GAD7 and PHQ2. Participants significantly endorsed more distress about family contracting COVID-19 (48.5%) and unknowingly infecting others (36%), than getting COVID-19 themselves (19.9%), p 10, 22.2%) and depression (PHQ2 > 2, 16.1%) did not differ between healthcare providers and non-healthcare providers. Higher resilience scores were associated with lower COVID-19 related worries (main effect F1,3054 = 134.9; p < 0.00001, covarying for confounders). Increase in 1 SD on resilience score was associated with reduced rate of anxiety (65%) and depression (69%), across healthcare and non-healthcare professionals. Findings provide empirical evidence on mental health associated with COVID-19 outbreak in a large convenience sample, setting a stage for longitudinal studies evaluating mental health trajectories following COVID-19 pandemic.