Although adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are commonly associated with depressive symptoms in adulthood, studies frequently collapse ACEs into a single unitary index, making it difficult to identify specific targets for intervention and prevention. Furthermore, studies rarely explore sex differences in this area despite males and females often differing in the experiences of ACEs, depressive symptoms, and inflammatory activity. To address these issues, we used data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health to model the effects of 10 different ACEs on C-reactive protein (CRP) and depressive symptoms in adulthood. Path modeling was used to measure the effects of ACEs on CRP and depressive symptoms conjointly while also assigning covariances among ACEs to assess their interrelations. Sex-by-ACE interaction terms and sex-disaggregated models were used to test for potential differences. Emotional abuse and parental incarceration were consistently related to both CRP and depressive symptoms for males and females. Childhood maltreatment was associated with depressive symptoms for females, whereas sexual abuse was associated with inflammation for males. Several covariances among ACEs were identified, indicating potential networks through which ACEs are indirectly associated with CRP and depressive symptoms. These data demonstrate that ACEs have differing direct effects on CRP and depressive symptoms – and that they differ with respect to how they cluster – for males versus females. These differences should be considered in theory and clinical workflows aiming to understand, treat, and prevent the long-term impacts of ACEs on depressive symptoms and inflammation-related health conditions in adulthood.

Syllable integrity, the idea that the content of syllables may not be metrified separately, is often taken to be an inviolable constraint of grammar. This has been challenged in recent work, though the data are often subject to competing analyses. This article claims that syllable integrity is readily violable in Naasioi. Evidence from stress, the minimal word and metrically sensitive allomorphy supports an analysis of the metrical system operating on bimoraic feet, and in which long vowels can be metrified separately. Despite this, there is also evidence, in the form of vowel shortening and truncation, to indicate that long vowels constitute a single syllable. The net result is a stress system which systematically ignores syllables, a state of affairs which allows for syllable integrity violations to arise.

There is widespread agreement that offspring are shaped by the parenting they receive in early childhood. This development is intertwined with offspring’s biological functioning, evidenced by their telomeres length (TL)—a key biomarker of aging. Until recently, most studies have focused on the detrimental implications of negative parenting for offspring’s TL. Contemporary research is oriented toward exploring the possible resilience-promoting effect of positive parenting on the biological aging of the offspring. We conducted a meta-analysis synthesizing the findings regarding the association between parenting quality and offspring’s TL. It examines whether positive parenting delays aging processes and whether such processes are exacerbated by exposure to negative parenting. An analysis of 15 studies (k = 23; N = 3,599, Mmean cohort’s age = 15.5, SD = 17.5) revealed a significant association between positive parenting and offspring’s longer TL (r = .16, 95% CI [.11, .20]). Negative parenting was associated with an increased risk of TL erosion (r = −.17, 95% CI [−.28, −.06]). Moreover, this negative association became more robust as offspring grew older (β = −.01, p < .001). Future investigations would benefit from probing associations between parental quality and offspring’s development. Interventions fostering positive parenting might also scaffold these biological processes.

Clethodim is an important herbicide for managing Texas panicum. However, its efficacy is influenced by the weed size and environmental stress during application. Therefore, field and greenhouse studies were conducted in 2023 and 2024 to evaluate clethodim efficacy on various Texas panicum sizes. Clethodim was applied at Texas panicum sizes ranging from 5 cm to 60 cm. A sequential application was applied two weeks after the initial treatment for larger weed sizes (15 to 60 cm). In separate field and greenhouse studies, non-ionic surfactant (NIS), crop oil concentrate (COC), methylated seed oil (MSO), COC + ammonium sulfate (AMS), and MSO + AMS adjuvants were mixed with clethodim to determine efficacy on 10-15 cm and 20-30 cm Texas panicum. In the weed size study, sequential applications of clethodim increased Texas panicum control compared to a single application. At the 10-15 cm growth stage, a single application provided 90% Texas panicum control, whereas the sequential treatment improved control from 76% to 91% at the 15-20 cm growth stage. However, clethodim efficacy declined as Texas panicum size increased across single and sequential treatments. In the adjuvant studies, clethodim plus COC, COC+AMS, or MSO+AMS provided 91%, 93%, and 90% control at the 10-15 cm growth stage, respectively; however, efficacy decreased for 20-30 cm Texas panicum. Texas panicum efficacy was higher for clethodim plus MSO+AMS than clethodim plus MSO; however, AMS did not increase clethodim + COC efficacy. Overall, Texas panicum control with clethodim was most effective when weed height was 15 cm or less. A sequential application of clethodim was required for larger Texas panicum (>15 cm). Clethodim plus COC or MSO+AMS provided the highest control of Texas panicum. This study demonstrated that successful Texas panicum management depends on applying clethodim at the optimum size and selecting the appropriate oil-based adjuvant especially at larger Texas panicum sizes.

We conduct a laboratory experiment among male participants to investigate whether rewarding schemes that depend on work performance—in particular, tournament incentives—induce more stress than schemes that are independent of performance—fixed payment scheme. Stress is measured over the entire course of the experiment at both the hormonal and psychological level. Hormonal stress responses are captured by measuring salivary cortisol levels. Psychological stress responses are measured by self-reported feelings of stress and primary appraisals. We find that tournament incentives induce a stress response whereas a fixed payment does not induce stress. This stress response does not differ significantly across situations in which winners and losers of the tournament are publically announced and situations in which this information remains private. Biological and psychological stress measures are positively correlated, i.e. increased levels of cortisol are associated with stronger feelings of stress. Nevertheless, neither perceived psychological stress nor elevated cortisol levels in a previous tournament predict a subsequent choice between tournaments and fixed payment schemes, indicating that stress induced by incentives schemes is not a relevant criterion for sorting decisions in our experiment. Finally, we find that cortisol levels are severely elevated at the beginning of the experiment, suggesting that participants experience stress in anticipation of the experiment per se, potentially due to uncertainties associated with the unknown lab situation. We call this the novelty effect.

Many important decisions are made under stress and they often involve risky alternatives. There has been ample evidence that stress influences decision making, but still very little is known about whether individual attitudes to risk change with exposure to acute stress. To directly evaluate the causal effect of psychosocial stress on risk attitudes, we adopt an experimental approach in which we randomly expose participants to a stressor in the form of a standard laboratory stress-induction procedure: the Trier Social Stress Test for Groups. Risk preferences are elicited using a multiple price list format that has been previously shown to predict risk-oriented behavior out of the laboratory. Using three different measures (salivary cortisol levels, heart rate and multidimensional mood questionnaire scores), we show that stress was successfully induced on the treatment group. Our main result is that for men, the exposure to a stressor (intention-to-treat effect, ITT) and the exogenously induced psychosocial stress (the average treatment effect on the treated, ATT) significantly increase risk aversion when controlling for their personal characteristics. The estimated treatment difference in certainty equivalents is equivalent to 69 % (ITT) and 89 % (ATT) of the gender-difference in the control group. The effect on women goes in the same direction, but is weaker and insignificant.

Individual willingness to enter competitive environments predicts career choices and labor market outcomes. Meanwhile, many people experience competitive contexts as stressful. We use two laboratory experiments to investigate whether factors related to stress can help explain individual differences in tournament entry. Experiment 1 studies whether stress responses (measured as salivary cortisol) to taking part in a mandatory tournament predict individual willingness to participate in a voluntary tournament. We find that competing increases stress levels. This cortisol response does not predict tournament entry for men but is positively and significantly correlated with choosing to enter the tournament for women. In Experiment 2, we exogenously induce physiological stress using the cold-pressor task. We find a positive causal effect of stress on tournament entry for women but no effect for men. Finally, we show that although the effect of stress on tournament entry differs between the genders, stress reactions cannot explain the well-documented gender difference in willingness to compete.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to unprecedented lockdowns with rippling impacts on the lives of humans and animals alike. Since zoos were among the first institutions to close during the pandemic, the lockdowns presented the opportunity to conduct a natural experiment examining the relationship between visitor presence and the welfare of zoo-housed animals. In this study, we assessed the welfare of six Sumatran orangutans (Pongo abelii) at Toronto Zoo both during and following the pandemic lockdowns. We compared behavioural and physiological indicators of welfare during a lockdown and after visitors were reintroduced. Specifically, if the orangutans’ welfare was affected by the visitor re-introduction phase we predicted there would be an increase in the following measures: (1) use of exhibit areas away from visitors; (2) behavioural measures (hiding, self-directed behaviours, agonistic behaviours, agitated movement, and idiosyncratic object-directed behaviours [head slamming, and fabric tearing]); and (3) physiological measures (faecal consistency and glucocorticoid metabolites) when compared to the lockdown. We also measured changes in activity levels such as foraging and inactivity. We found that orangutan exhibit space use did not change when visitors were reintroduced. In fact, the orangutans hid less when visitors were introduced than during the lockdown. Foraging, inactivity, and other behavioural indicators of stress did not change when visitors were introduced. Similarly, neither faecal consistency nor glucocorticoid metabolites changed across the study phases. Our data show that visitor re-introduction did not negatively affect the welfare of the Toronto Zoo orangutans. However, the presence of keepers was found to affect the behaviour of the orangutans and warrants further study.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is considered a psychiatric disorder and have a relationship with stressful events. Although the common therapeutic approaches against MDD are diverse, a large number of patients do not present an adequate response to antidepressant treatments. On the other hand, effective non-pharmacological treatments for MDD and their tolerability are addressed. Several affective treatments for MDD are used but non-pharmacological strategies for decreasing the common depression-related drugs side effects have been focused recently. However, the potential of extracellular vesicles (EVs) derived from mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), microRNAs (miRNAs) as cell-based therapeutic paradigms, besides other non-pharmacological strategies including mitochondrial transfer, plasma, transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), and exercise therapy needs to further study. This review explores the therapeutic potential of cell-based therapeutic non-pharmacological paradigms for MDD treatment. In addition, plasma therapy, mitotherapy, and exercise therapy in several in vitro and in vivo conditions in experimental disease models along with tDCS and TMS will be discussed as novel non-pharmacological promising therapeutic approaches.

Several studies have used a network analysis to recognize the dynamics and determinants of psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) in community samples. Their synthesis has not been provided so far. A systematic review of studies using a network analysis to assess the dynamics of PLEs in community samples was performed. Altogether, 27 studies were included. The overall percentage ranks of centrality metrics for PLEs were 23.5% for strength (20 studies), 26.0% for betweenness (5 studies), 29.7% for closeness (6 studies), 26.9% for expected influence (7 studies), and 29.1% for bridge expected influence (3 studies). Included studies covered three topics: phenomenology of PLEs and associated symptom domains (14 studies), exposure to stress and PLEs (7 studies), and PLEs with respect to suicide-related outcomes (6 studies). Several other symptom domains were directly connected to PLEs. A total of 6 studies investigated PLEs with respect to childhood trauma (CT) history. These studies demonstrated that PLEs are directly connected to CT history (4 studies) or a cumulative measure of environmental exposures (1 study). Moreover, CT was found to moderate the association of PLEs with other symptom domains (1 study). Two studies that revealed direct connections of CT with PLEs also found potential mediating effects of cognitive biases and general psychopathology. PLEs were also directly connected to suicide-related outcomes across all studies included within this topic. The findings imply that PLEs are transdiagnostic phenomena that do not represent the most central domain of psychopathology in community samples. Their occurrence might be associated with CT and suicide risk.