<b><i>Introduction:</i></b> Persistent medically unexplained symptoms (MUS) are a major burden for health care. Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) is efficacious for patients with MUS, with small to medium effects. The current study investigates whether therapy outcomes of a CBT for MUS patients can be improved by complementing it with emotion regulation training. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> In a multicentre trial 255 patients with at least three persisting MUS were randomised to 20 sessions of either conventional CBT (<i>n</i> = 128) or CBT complemented with emotion regulation training (ENCERT; <i>n</i> = 127). Somatic symptom severity and secondary outcomes were assessed at pre-treatment, therapy session 8, end of therapy, and 6-month follow-up. <b><i>Results:</i></b> Linear mixed-effect models revealed medium to large effects in both study arms for almost all outcomes at the end of therapy and 6-month follow-up. ENCERT and CBT did not differ in their effect on the primary outcome (<i>d</i> = 0.20, 95% CI: –0.04 to 0.44). Significant time × group cross-level interactions suggested ENCERT to be of more benefit than conventional CBT for a few secondary outcomes. Moderator analyses revealed higher effects of ENCERT in patients with co-morbid mental disorders. <b><i>Discussion/Conclusions:</i></b> Current findings are based on a representative sample. Results demonstrate that both CBT and ENCERT can achieve strong effects on primary and secondary outcomes in MUS patients. Our results do not indicate that adding a training in emotion regulation skills generally improves the effect of CBT across all patients with MUS. Large effect sizes of both treatments and potential specific benefits of ENCERT for patients with co-morbid mental disorders are discussed.
Furan-2,5-dicarboxylic
acid (FDCA) is a bio-based platform chemical
with the potential to replace terephthalic acid in the production
of polymers. A critical step for enzymatic and whole-cell production
of FDCA from 5-(hydroxymethyl)furfural (HMF) is the transformation
of 5-(hydroxymethyl)furoic acid (HMFA) into 5-formylfuroic acid (FFA).
Here, we establish periplasmic pyrroloquinoline quinone (PQQ)-dependent
alcohol dehydrogenases (ADHs) as biocatalytic tools for the oxidation
of HMFA, HMF, and 5-formylfurfural (FFF). Further, we identify several
amino acid residues including the “lid loop” of the
substrate channel as promising targets for future engineering steps
toward a fully periplasmic oxidation pathway to FDCA.
We scrutinize the argument that unsuccessful replications—and heterogeneous effect sizes more generally—may reflect an underappreciated influence of context characteristics. Notably, while some of these context characteristics may be conceptually irrelevant (as they merely affect psychometric properties of the measured/manipulated variables), others are conceptually relevant as they qualify a theory. Here, we present a conceptual and analytical framework that allows researchers to empirically estimate the extent to which effect size heterogeneity is due to conceptually relevant versus irrelevant context characteristics. According to this framework, contextual characteristics are conceptually relevant when the observed heterogeneity of effect sizes cannot be attributed to psychometric properties. As an illustrative example, we demonstrate that the observed heterogeneity of the “moral typecasting” effect, which had been included in the ManyLabs 2 replication project, is more likely attributable to conceptually relevant rather than irrelevant context characteristics, which suggests that the psychological theory behind this effect may need to be specified. In general, we argue that context dependency should be taken more seriously and treated more carefully by replication research.
When people witness conflicts in their group, they can react in one of the following ways: (a) support one of the involved parties, (b) reconcile the conflict, (c) escalate the conflict, or (d) remain neutral and passive. These reactions can be conceptualized as social roles. Building on the assumption that role-taking in conflicts is intricately intertwined with the moral self-concept, the present research aims at testing three empirical hypotheses. First, taking a moral role is predicted by individual differences in the general relevance of a moral self-concept. Second, taking a moral role increases the situational moral self-concept. Third, the more relevant the general moral self-concept for an actor, the higher the situational moral self-concept increase after moral role-taking. Results from three studies using both experimental and correlational designs ( N = 961) support these hypotheses.
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