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Patients with borderline personality disorder show initially reduced psychophysiological relaxation levels but intact relaxation response
No full textIntroduction:
Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is associated with psychological as well as physiological dysregulation in patients, including reduced parasympathetic activity at baseline and difficulties returning to baseline after a stressor. Whether this impacts the relaxation response independent of a stressor has so far not been investigated.
Methods:
In a within-subject design, we compared two relaxation interventions, a virtual reality nature video, and a paced breathing intervention. We assessed a female-only sample, with 20 BPD patients (meanage = 23.75 ± 4.39) during their inpatient treatment and 22 matched healthy controls (HC; meanage = 22.68 ± 2.68). Psychological relaxation was assessed with the Relaxation State Questionnaire (RSQ) and physiological relaxation with vagally mediated heart rate variability (HRV).
Results:
We employed multilevel models to test whether BPD significantly influenced the psychophysiological relaxation response. For psychological relaxation, we found an increase in RSQ scores in both groups in response to both interventions. The HC showed overall higher RSQ scores. For physiological relaxation, we found overall higher HRV values in the HC group but no differences in the relaxation response.
Conclusion:
BPD patients exhibit lower psychophysiological relaxation levels at baseline and throughout the experiment, while there was no significant difference in response to relaxation interventions when compared to HC. Future studies should focus on interventions targeting baseline psychophysiological relaxation in BPD patients.publishe
Digital generation : the association between daily smartphone app use and well-being
No full textSmartphones are omnipresent and serve as a tool for various purposes. In Switzerland, more than 90% of the population owns a smartphone and uses it on average around 2.0 to 5 h daily. Smartphone app use is linked with both higher and lower levels of well-being. However, it remains unclear whether smartphone app use is the antecedent or the consequence of well-being. Based on the stimulation (online communication increases well-being) and the displacement (online communication decreases well-being) hypotheses, this study explores how daily smartphone app use and well-being are associated over time. A total of N = 130 employees (M = 35.61; SD = 10.62) participated in a three-week intensive longitudinal study. Daily minutes of different types of smartphone app use (e.g. email apps and chat apps) were tracked by a mobile application. Furthermore, daily self-reports of positive and negative affect were assessed in a morning and end-of day diary. Positive morning affect was negatively associated with the use of email apps. Furthermore, a negative between-person relationship of chat app use with end-of day positive affect was observed. The results are in favour of the displacement hypothesis. Future studies should investigate causal relationships between specific forms of smartphone usage and the user’s well-being.publishe
Computational analysis of US congressional speeches reveals a shift from evidence to intuition
No full textPursuit of honest and truthful decision-making is crucial for governance and accountability in democracies. However, people sometimes take different perspectives of what it means to be honest and how to pursue truthfulness. Here we explore a continuum of perspectives from evidence-based reasoning, rooted in ascertainable facts and data, at one end, to intuitive decisions that are driven by feelings and subjective interpretations, at the other. We analyse the linguistic traces of those contrasting perspectives in congressional speeches from 1879 to 2022. We find that evidence-based language has continued to decline since the mid-1970s, together with a decline in legislative productivity. The decline was accompanied by increasing partisan polarization in Congress and rising income inequality in society. The results highlight the importance of evidence-based language in political decision-making.publishe
The global dimension of the personal network of Martí de Burguès (1756-1809) based on his epistolary exchanges
No full textEl artículo reconstruye, analiza y compara la red personal de Martí de Burguès (1756-1809) a partir de sus intercambios epistolares, aplicando la metodología de los modelos de hipereventos relacionales (RHEM). La investigación se centra en cómo las relaciones sociales de Burguès reflejan las estructuras sociales y culturales de su época, incluyendo la centralidad de la familia, el patronazgo, y las relaciones militares y profesionales. Se destaca la continuidad de las estructuras relacionales a lo largo del tiempo, así como la influencia de factores macrosociales y culturales en la configuración de la red personal. Los resultados sugieren que, a pesar de las diferencias, la red personal de Burguès comparte características estructurales con las redes personales contemporáneas, así como en la dispersión geográfica de las relaciones. El estudio concluye con una reflexión sobre la utilidad de observar las estructuras relacionales para comprender los fenómenos socioculturales.publishe
Reliability of the adapted compensatory arm and leg movements scale during perturbation treadmill walking in older adults
No full textIntroduction: Reactive balance during walking is crucial for fall prevention, as it determines recovery from unexpected perturbations like slips and trips. Existing reactive balance assessments are complex and lab-based, lacking an easy-to-use alternative for broader application in clinical environments. The Adapted Compensatory Arm and Leg Movements (A-CALM) scale was developed to address this gap by providing an observer-based tool to evaluate compensatory balance reactions during perturbation treadmill walking. This study assessed its inter- and intra-rater reliability in fall-prone older adults.
Methods: Eighteen participants aged 82 ± 7 years walked on the BalanceTutor® perturbation treadmill. Depending on assigned intensity levels, each received 8, 16, or 24 perturbations in mediolateral and anteroposterior directions. Compensatory balance reactions after each perturbation were video-recorded and evaluated by three trained raters using the A-CALM scale, capturing responses from minor adjustments to near-fall scenarios. Arm movements were rated on a five-point scale (1 = near fall, 5 = regular arm swing), while leg movements were rated on an eight-point scale (1 = near fall, 8 = normal walking), with intermediate scores reflecting varying recovery steps. Inter-rater reliability was assessed using Fleiss' Kappa, while intra-rater reliability over a two-week interval was evaluated using Cohen's Kappa.
Results: Overall, 288 perturbations were recorded. The A-CALM scale demonstrated strong intra-rater reliability, with Kappa values of 0.85 (95% CI = 0.80–0.89) for arm scores, 0.80 (95% CI = 0.75–0.86) for leg scores, and 0.86 (95% CI = 0.83–0.90) for total scores, indicating a high level of consistency in the raters' assessments across time. Inter-rater reliability was substantial for arm scores (K = 0.67, 95% CI = 0.62–0.72) but moderate for leg scores (K = 0.48, 95% CI = 0.44–0.51) and total scores (K = 0.41, 95% CI = 0.38–0.44) with significant values in all analyses (p < 0.001).
Conclusion: The A-CALM scale showed high intra-rater consistency and moderate-to-substantial inter-rater agreement, with greater reliability for arm than leg movements. Single-rater use is recommended to enhance stability, while future work should refine leg scoring and validate the scale in larger cohorts with outcomes like falls and functional decline.publishe
When conflict becomes calamity : Understanding the role of armed conflict dynamics in natural disasters
No full textCan armed conflict amplify the societal impacts and humanitarian consequences of natural hazards? Given that these hazards affect millions of people worldwide and that climate change is expected to increase the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, it is paramount that we advance our understanding of what makes societies vulnerable to these hazards. Existing research has focused mainly on political violence as a consequence of natural hazard-related disasters but has neglected that conflict can also be an underlying factor that shapes the impact of these events. Consequently, we know little about whether and how exposure to violent armed conflict increases vulnerability to natural hazards. This study argues that the local dynamics of conflict can have a significant effect on vulnerability and empirically investigates how periods of high-intensity conflict can affect the humanitarian consequences of natural hazards in the context of tropical cyclones in the Philippines. By combining data on physical storm exposure with highly detailed subnational data on disaster fatalities and conflict events, the empirical analysis allows the identification of the independent effect of conflict on hazard impacts. Results show that local periods of high-intensity conflict significantly increase the humanitarian consequences of natural hazards. These results have important implications for research investigating the impacts of disasters on peace and conflict, as they show that the consequences of natural disasters depend fundamentally on pre-existing conflict dynamics.publishe
Global Patterns and Drivers of Soil Extracellular Enzyme Activities in Response to Plant Invasion : A Meta‐Analysis
No full textAim
Plant invasion is a major global environmental challenge. While invasive plants can potentially enhance soil nutrient availability by stimulating soil extracellular enzyme activities, empirical studies have yielded conflicting results. A comprehensive understanding of global patterns and underlying drivers is therefore essential for inferring generalities.
Location
Global.
Time Period
2000–2025.
Major Taxa Studied
Invasive plants and soil microorganisms.
Methods
We conducted a meta‐analysis on 635 observations from 117 studies worldwide, investigating the effect of plant invasion on 11 soil carbon (C)‐, nitrogen (N)‐ and phosphorus (P)‐acquiring enzyme activities. We also analysed how environmental drivers and ecosystem types modulated these responses.
Results
Plant invasion significantly increased hydrolytic C‐, N‐ and P‐acquiring enzyme activities by 18% (11%–27%), 29% (22%–37%), and 32% (24%–41%), respectively, while it had no significant effects on oxidative enzyme activities. These enzymatic responses were primarily driven by elevated dissolved organic carbon and soil moisture content, coupled with decreased fungal/bacterial ratios under invasion. The most pronounced enzymatic responses occurred in neutral and alkaline soils during the early stages of invasion and when invasive plants formed mycorrhizal associations. Different ecosystem types displayed distinct enzymatic responses to plant invasion: grasslands showed elevated N‐acquiring enzyme activities, wetlands exhibited enhanced P‐acquiring enzyme activities, croplands demonstrated increases across all hydrolytic enzyme classes, while woodlands displayed modest enzymatic responses to invasion compared to other ecosystem types.
Main Conclusions
We found that (i) plant invasion consistently increased hydrolytic enzyme activities while it had negligible effects on the activities of oxidative enzymes; (ii) enzymatic responses to invasion were modulated by ambient soil pH, invader mycorrhizal status and invasion duration; and (iii) invasive plants enhanced soil nutrient availability across ecosystem types through different impacts on enzyme activities. These findings provided mechanistic insights into plant invasion success and advanced our predictive capacity for invasion impacts on biogeochemical processes.publishe
Parental investment and body temperature explain encephalization in vertebrates
No full textThe systematic variation in relative brain size among vertebrate classes remains poorly understood. Here, based on the expensive brain hypothesis, we propose that two broad constraints explain much of the variation: 1) the ability to produce large offspring, and so provide them with the energy required for constructing larger brains, and 2) the ability to sustain continuously high body temperatures, because cooler and varying brain temperatures reduce brain performance and thus fitness. We therefore predicted that encephalization (major evolutionary increases in brain size) only happened where changes in physiology or natural history created these abilities. First, comparative analyses across all major vertebrate classes (n = 2600 species) revealed that protecting or provisioning eggs or embryos is associated with larger newborns. Subsequent analyses at the class level confirmed that newborn size and adult brain size underwent correlated evolution in birds, mammals, and cartilaginous fishes, but not in other fishes, amphibians, and reptiles. Second, we found a positive relationship between mean body temperature and brain size within each class (albeit sometimes insignificant). Third, a combined analysis across all vertebrates revealed a positive interaction between the effects of body temperature and newborn size. In conclusion, encephalization became most pronounced in vertebrate lineages that can both produce large offspring, reflecting internal fertilization with matrotrophy, and sustain high body temperature, partly linked to endothermy.publishe
Programmed neurite degeneration in human central nervous system neurons driven by changes in NAD<sup>+</sup> metabolism
No full textNeurite degeneration (ND) precedes cell death in many neurodegenerative diseases. However, it remains unclear how this compartmentalized cell death process is orchestrated in the central nervous system (CNS). The establishment of a CNS axotomy model (using modified 3D LUHMES cultures) allowed us to study metabolic control of ND in human midbrain-derived neurons without the use of toxicants or other direct disturbance of cellular metabolism. Axotomy lead to a loss of the NAD+ synthesis enzyme NMNAT2 within 2 h and a depletion of NAD+ within 4-6 h. This process appeared specific, as isolated neurites maintained ATP levels and a coupled mitochondrial respiration for at least 6 h. In the peripheral nervous system (PNS) many studies observed that NAD+ metabolism, in particular by the NADase SARM1, plays a major role in the ND occurring after axotomy. Since neither ferroptosis nor necroptosis, nor caspase-dependent apoptosis seemed to be involved in neurite loss, we investigated SARM1 as potential executioner (or controller). Knock-down or expression of a dominant-negative isoform of SARM1 indeed drastically delayed ND. Various modifications of NAD+ metabolism known to modulate SARM1 activity showed the corresponding effects on ND. Moreover, supplementation with NAD+ attenuated ND. As a third approach to investigate the role of altered NAD+ metabolism, we made use of the WLD(s) protein, which has been found in a mutant mouse to inhibit Wallerian degeneration of axons. This protein, which has a stable NMNAT activity, and thus can buffer the loss of NMNAT2, protected the neurites by stabilizing neurite NAD+ levels. Thus CNS-type ND was tightly linked to neurite metabolism in multiple experimental setups. Based on this knowledge, several new strategies for treating neurodegenerative diseases can be envisaged.publishe