Insect biomass is declining globally, likely driven by climate change and pesticide use, yet systematic studies on the effects of various chemicals remain limited. In this work, we used a chemical library of 1024 molecules-covering insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, and plant growth inhibitors-to assess the impact of sublethal pesticide doses on insects. In , 57% of chemicals affected larval behavior, and a higher proportion compromised long-term survivability.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPerioperative stress and inflammatory signaling can invigorate pro-metastatic molecular processes in patients' tumors, potentially worsening long-term survival. Yet, it is unknown whether pre-operative psychotherapeutic interventions can attenuate such effects. Herein, three weeks before surgery, forty women diagnosed with stage I-III invasive ductal/lobular breast carcinoma were randomized to a 6-week one-on-one psychological intervention (6 meetings with a medical psychologist and bi-weekly phone calls) versus standard nursing-staff-attention.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPatients with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) present as risk-averse and avoidant of feared stimuli, yet the literature examining risk aversion in OCD is conflicting. One possible explanation is that patients may exhibit aversion only on ambiguous tasks where the likelihood of possible outcomes is unknown. To test this idea, the current study assigned 30 patients with OCD versus 30 non-psychiatric controls (NPC) to conditions of known versus unknown risk (i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Effective biomarkers of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) response provide information beyond available behavioral or self-report measures and may optimize treatment selection for patients based on likelihood of benefit. No single biomarker reliably predicts CBT response. In this study, we evaluated patterns of brain connectivity associated with self-focused attention (SFA) as biomarkers of CBT response for anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorders.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSleep disturbances are present in ~65% of individuals with generalised anxiety disorder (GAD). Although both Kundalini yoga (KY) and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) are effective treatment options for GAD, little is known about how these treatments compare in improving sleep for GAD and what drives these changes. Accordingly, we examined the effects of CBT, KY, and stress education (SEdu; an attention control condition) on subjective sleep quality (as measured by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index [PSQI] and Insomnia Severity Index [ISI]) in a randomised controlled trial of 226 adults with GAD (mean age 33.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Macular telangiectasia type 2 (MacTel) is a vision-altering retinal disease with a high prevalence of diabetes. Differences between patients with MacTel with and without diabetes were investigated using fluorescence lifetime imaging ophthalmoscopy (FLIO).
Methods: Eighty-six patients with MacTel (59 ± 12 years) were included.
Introduction: The stressful pre-operative period exerts a profound impact on psychological, physiological and immunological outcomes. Oncological surgeries, in particular, elicit significantly higher stress responses than most other surgeries. Managing these responses through psychological interventions may improve long-term outcomes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBecause it is the precursor for various essential cellular components, the amino acid serine is indispensable for every living organism. In plants, serine is synthesized by two major pathways: photorespiration and the phosphorylated pathway of serine biosynthesis (PPSB). However, the importance of these pathways in providing serine for plant development is not fully understood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFamily accommodation (FA) is key in the maintenance of OCD. However, most studies are cross-sectional, and have not identified long-term trajectories and correlates of FA changes over treatment. This study investigated changes in clinician-rated FA over 10 sessions of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for 142 children with OCD, as well as several key predictors/correlates: (a) clinician-rated OCD symptom severity, (b) child- and parent-rated functional impairment, (c) parent-rated treatment expectancies, and (d) child- and parent-rated therapeutic alliance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Research on stress occupied a central position during the 20th century. As it became evident that stress responses affect a wide range of negative outcomes, various stress management techniques were developed in attempt to reduce the damages. However, the existing interventions are applied for a range of different stress responses, sometimes unsuccessfully.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOne of the major questions in contemporary plant science involves determining the functional mechanisms that plants use to shape their microbiome. Plants produce a plethora of chemically diverse secondary metabolites, many of which exert bioactive effects on microorganisms. Several recent publications have unequivocally shown that plant secondary metabolites affect microbiome composition and function.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe purpose of the present study was to learn about the experiences of parents of children diagnosed with renal failure at different stages of the disease in order to get closer to the process they carry out as caregivers. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 parents and analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis method. Data analysis revealed two axes: spatial and temporal.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: This work evaluates the role of combined phacoemulsification and vitrectomy surgery in the management of cataract associated with noninfectious uveitis.
Methods: A retrospective chart review was conducted of all patients aged 7 years or older who underwent a combined surgical approach from 2005 to 2018.
Results: Eighty-five eyes of 67 patients were included in the study; 10.
Nitrogen metabolism in the rhizosphere microbiome plays an important role in mediating plant nutrition, particularly under low inputs of mineral fertilizers. However, there is relatively little mechanistic information about which genes and metabolic pathways are induced by rhizosphere bacterial strains to utilize diverse nitrogen substrates. Here we investigate nitrogen substrate utilization in three taxonomically diverse bacterial strains previously isolated from Arabidopsis roots.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground There is growing recognition that positive health beliefs may promote blood pressure (BP) reduction, which is critical to stroke prevention but remains a persistent challenge. Yet, studies that examine the association between positive health beliefs and BP among stroke survivors are lacking. Methods and Results Data came from the DESERVE (Discharge Educational Strategies for Reduction of Vascular Events) study, a randomized controlled trial of a skills-based behavioral intervention to reduce vascular risk in a multiethnic cohort of 552 transient ischemic attack and mild/moderate stroke patients in New York City.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Objectives: Studies show that attentional bias towards threat is a key maintenance factor for panic disorder (PD). Attentional bias may be an important mechanism of symptom reduction, and thus, a useful target for optimizing outcomes. The current study examined whether an attention bias modification (ABM) task enhanced CBT outcomes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Establish whether POCD is associated with new disability after surgery, which would inform whether POCD impacts patient-centered outcomes.
Background: POCD is a decline in neuropsychiatric tests scores from presurgical baseline which occurs in approximately 15% of older patients 3 months after surgery. POCD is a research construct meant to investigate patient and family reports of older adults who were "never the same after surgery.
The last decade brought great progress in describing the repertoire of microbes associated with plants and identifying principles of their interactions. Metabolites exuded by plant roots have been considered candidates for the mechanisms by which plants shape their root microbiome. Here, we review the evidence for several plant metabolites affecting plant interaction with microbes belowground.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis article investigates the experience of musicking (the performance of musical activity) among people coping with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Using qualitative research methods, we conducted semi-structured in-depth interviews with 10 male participants in a music project for people coping with PTSD induced by war and terrorism. The project consists of individual music lessons once a week and a musical enrichment group that meets once a month.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe neurobiological mechanisms underlying the pathophysiology of body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) are not well-understood. Oxytocin is a central nervous system peptide which regulates socioemotional functioning and may mediate physiologic processes in a range of psychiatric disorders, particularly those characterized by interpersonal dysfunction. Examining the role of oxytocin in the development and maintenance of BDD may elucidate new targets for intervention.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe present article is based on a qualitative study focusing on parents of children born with congenital heart defects (CHDs) and hospitalized in the children's intensive care unit post-surgery. Our aim was to explore parents' subjective experiences as primary caregivers. Ten semi-structured interviews were conducted and analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis according to the instructions of Smith and Osborn.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFImportance: Dimensional definitions of transdiagnostic mental health problems have been suggested as an alternative to categorical diagnoses, having the advantage of capturing heterogeneity within diagnostic categories and similarity across them and bridging more naturally psychological and neural substrates.
Objective: To examine whether a self-reported compulsivity dimension has a stronger association with goal-directed and related higher-order cognitive deficits compared with a diagnosis of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
Design, Setting, And Participants: In this cross-sectional study, patients with OCD and/or generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) from across the United States completed a telephone-based diagnostic interview by a trained rater, internet-based cognitive testing, and self-reported clinical assessments from October 8, 2015, to October 1, 2017.