Compulsory basic military training is characterized not only by being challenging but also by being stressful. Assuming a high frequency of perceived stress events as a negative outcome of training, this article provides evidence on how the perceived frequency of stressful situations is affected by three types of factors: (i) biological stress response variables measured by hair steroid hormone levels, (ii) personality traits measured using the Big Five personality test, and (iii) group cohesion measures in military squads. A total of 112 conscripts in 11 squads participated in the research at the beginning (T1), in the middle (T2), and at the end (T3) of compulsory basic military training. Hair steroid hormone levels (cortisol, cortisone, and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA)) levels were measured by liquid mass spectrometry; other data were collected using self-report questionnaires. The results of the Poisson regression analysis indicated that hair steroid hormone cortisol had a statistically significantly impact and could increase the perceived frequency of stressful situations by up to 1.317 (e^0.275, T2) times. The concentrations of other hormones (cortisone = 1.157, e^0.146, T3 and DHEA = 1.020, e^0.020, T3) also had a statistically significant effect. Other factors had a decreasing effect on the frequency. Extraversion was significant with an effect of 0.907 (e^−0.098, T2) and 0.847 (e^−0.166, T3), while task cohesion had an effect of 0.946 (e^−0.056) and norm cohesion of 0.954 (e^−0.047). The research indicates that the three groups of factors affect the perceived frequency of stressful situations during compulsory basic military training, but their impacts are considerably different.

Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of mortality worldwide. Since atherosclerosis, an inflammatory, lipid-driven disease, is an underlying basis for the development of cardiovascular disease, it is important to understand its relationship with confounding factors, such as oxidative lipid degradation. In contrast, circulating antioxidants prevent oxidative lipid damage, and therefore, may be associated with reduced development of atherosclerosis. We aimed to assess oxidative lipid degradation biomarker malondialdehyde (MDA) and antioxidant defense system components, total antioxidant capacity (TAC) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) inhibition rate levels, in healthy women and evaluate their relationships with age, anthropometric measures, and lipid metabolism biomarkers. The study included 86 healthy middle-aged women. MDA in human serum samples was evaluated by HPLC, and the TAC and SOD inhibition rates were measured by photometric methods. MDA was found to be associated with age, total cholesterol, non-HDL cholesterol, apolipoprotein B and triacylglycerols. TAC was shown to be associated with age, BMI, and waist circumference, as well as lipid metabolism biomarkers apolipoprotein B and triacylglycerol, while SOD inhibition rate was only associated with total cholesterol, apolipoprotein B and triacylglycerols. In conclusion, the association of oxidative status indices, MDA, TAC and SOD, with cardiovascular risk factors suggests that they could be additional useful biomarkers in the research of aging, obesity, and atherosclerosis pathogenesis.

Previous research shows a nonlinear dependency between hair cortisol concentrations and perceived stress levels. This may be due to stress being targeted at the individual level despite it also being a social phenomenon which is often affected by group dynamics. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine the influence of perceived stress on the hair cortisol level, considering the impact of the variables of group dynamics (interpersonal, task, and norm cohesion). Information was collected on 11 groups of, in total, 112 young men in three phases of time during their compulsory military training (covering nine months in total). The classification and regression tree (C&RT) method was used to predict hair cortisol concentrations in groups. The results show that the variability of the hair cortisol level in young men groups can be explained by perceived stress only when the groups were in formation process (47.7% normalised importance in Model 1) and when the groups were working on their final tasks (37.80% normalised importance in Model 3); meanwhile, the importance of perceived stress in explaining hair cortisol concentrations is low when the group is in a routine period of a group life-span (28.9% normalised importance in Model 2). Interpersonal cohesion (normalised importance 100% in Model 1 and 80.0% in Model 3) and task cohesion (normalised importance 78.6% in Model 2) were the most important predictors in the study area. These results point to the importance of the elements of group dynamics when it comes to explaining the nature of hair cortisol as accumulated stress biomarkers in young men.

This study aimed to analyse the association between endogenous hair steroid hormones as reliable biological indicators of an individual’s stress level and the social environmental factors experienced during military training that are manifested at the beginning of compulsory military service. Hair steroid hormone concentrations—cortisol, cortisone, dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), and testosterone—in a group of 185 conscripts were measured using the ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method. Six subjective social environmental factors in the military—attitude towards the military and military service, adaptation to the military environment, team, task, and norm cohesion, as well as psychological (un)safety in the group—were evaluated using military-specific research questionnaires. Weak but significant negative correlations were identified between cortisol and adaptation (r = −0.176, p < 0.05), attitude (r = −0.147, p < 0.05) as well as between testosterone and task cohesion (r = −0.230, p < 0.01) levels. Additionally, a multiple forward stepwise regression analysis highlighted that cortisone variation might be partially explained by task cohesion; the DHEA—determined by psychological (un)safety in the group, attitude towards the military and military service, and norm cohesion; and the testosterone—determined by task cohesion and adaptation to the new military environment. The results of this study suggest that subjective measures of social factors can be used to predict hair steroid hormone levels as objective measures of the chronic stress perceived by conscripts during their basic military training.

Background. Lycopene is a potent antioxidant, and it has been suggested that intake of lycopene-rich food results in a decreased risk of cardiovascular dis­eases. However, no official recommendation of lycopene consumption from natural dietary sources exists, and intake data of the Lithuanian population are limited. The goal of this study was to evaluate the median intake of lycopene in ethnic Lithuanians and to relate lycopene intake with biochemical blood risk factors for CVD in the general population and different ethnolinguistic groups. Materials and methods. One thousand one hundred forty randomly selected individuals (2–85 years of age) from six Lithuanian ethnolinguistic regions provided 3-day diet records for evaluation of lycopene consumption. Individuals were interviewed using a validated questionnaire consisting of lifestyle and clinical data. Serum concentrations of total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglyceride, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, glucose, apolipoprotein A-I, apolipoprotein B, lipoprotein (a) were measured using standardised procedures. Due to the non-normal distribution of variables, nonparametric tests were applied using the IBM SPSS v20.0 software. Results. The mean dietary lycopene intake in the study population was 5.05 ± 7.48 or 0.07 ± 0.11 mg/kg body weight per day. Major food sources of lycopene were tomatoes and tomato products (79%). The lycopene intake from natural dietary sources varied significantly between the Lithuanian ethnolinguistic groups (the lowest intake 3.52 ± 5.64 mg/day, the highest intake 6.22 ± 7.66 mg/ day, p = 0.01) and genders (women 5.26 ± 7.78 mg/day and men 4.8 ± 7.22 mg/ day, p = 0.01). The mean lycopene intake was significantly (p

Plant phenolics are increasingly explored as natural antioxidants for food systems, yet antioxidant capacity data are difficult to compare because assay chemistry and geographic origin can influence outcomes. Moreover, conventional solvent-based assessments may underestimate the contribution of non-extractable phenolic fractions. Here, Berberis vulgaris L. raw materials from six Lithuanian habitats were assessed using hydrolyzed extracts to estimate total releasable phenolics following hydrolytic treatment: total phenolic content (Folin–Ciocalteu) and antioxidant capacity (FRAP, CUPRAC, ABTS, and DPPH) were measured, and fruit extracts were additionally profiled by HPLC–DAD and LC–MS. Across matrices, mean TPC was comparable (108.7 ± 14.1, 111.9 ± 8.4, and 121.9 ± 14.7 mg GAE/g DW for bark, leaves, and fruits, respectively). However, comparable bulk phenolic levels did not translate into uniform antioxidant responses across assays. In contrast, site effects were pronounced, with fruit TPC ranging from 80.0 ± 5.1 to 242.2 ± 61.0 mg GAE/g DW, indicating that geographic origin may outweigh morphological differences when bulk metrics are used. Antioxidant capacity assays further confirmed pronounced site-dependent variability. In particular, leaf extracts exhibited the largest geographic differences, with CUPRAC values ranging from 268.5 ± 32.8 to 586.2 ± 58.6 µmol TE/g DW and ABTS values ranging from 222.0 ± 43.1 to 562.9 ± 26.6 µmol TE/g DW across sampling sites, corresponding to approximately 2.2- and 2.5-fold variation, respectively. Moreover, assay-specific responses led to differences in matrix ranking: bark showed the highest FRAP reducing power (373.2 ± 15.9 µmol TE/g DW), whereas leaves exhibited the highest CUPRAC and ABTS activities (395.7 ± 46.7 and 346.6 ± 48.5 µmol TE/g DW, respectively). Chromatographic profiling of fruits revealed a structurally diverse set of phenolic acids and flavonoids, providing structural support for assay-dependent antioxidant behavior. Overall, integration of multi-assay antioxidant evaluation with hydrolysis-based phenolic assessment and chromatographic profiling provides a broader characterization of Berberis vulgaris as a plant matrix of interest for food applications. This integrated approach supports more context-aware interpretation of antioxidant data in applied food research.