Effects of a preoperative psychological expectation-focused intervention in patients undergoing valvular surgery - the randomized controlled ValvEx (valve patients' expectations) study.

Background: Many patients experience a reduced quality of life for months after heart surgery. Besides medical factors, psychological factors such as preoperative expectations influence the recovery process. The ValvEx study investigated whether an expectation-focused preoperative intervention before heart valve surgery would (i) improve the postoperative recovery process by reducing illness-related disability and ii) impact secondary outcomes such as increased positive realistic expectations, and reduce preoperative anxiety.

Neighborhood social vulnerability as a mediator of racial disparities in insomnia severity.

Study Objectives: Recent data has indicated that Black Americans experience more severe insomnia compared to their White counterparts. Although previous studies have identified psychosocial mechanisms driving this disparity, little is known about the structural determinants of insomnia disparities. This study tested neighborhood social vulnerability as a mechanism driving Black-White disparities in insomnia severity in the United States.

Engineered coumarin accumulation reduces mycotoxin-induced oxidative stress and disease susceptibility.

Coumarins can fight pathogens and are thus promising for crop protection. Their biosynthesis, however, has not yet been engineered in crops. We tailored the constitutive accumulation of coumarins in transgenic Nicotiana benthamiana, Glycine max and Arabidopsis thaliana plants, as well as in Nicotiana tabacum BY-2 suspension cells.