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Demand for low- or non-alcoholic beers has been growing in recent years. Thus, research is increasingly focusing on non-Saccharomyces species that typically are only able to consume the simple sugars in wort, and therefore have a limited production of alcohol. In this project, new species and strains of non-conventional yeasts were sampled and identified from Finnish forest environments. From this wild yeast collection, a number of Mrakia gelida strains were selected for small-scale fermentation tests and compared with a reference strain, the low-alcohol brewing yeast Saccharomycodes ludwigii. All the M. gelida strains were able to produce beer with an average of 0.7% alcohol, similar to the control strain. One M. gelida strain showing the most promising combination of good fermentation profile and production of desirable flavor active compounds was selected for pilot-scale (40 L) fermentation. The beers produced were matured, filtered, carbonated, and bottled. The bottled beers were then directed for in-house evaluation, and further analyzed for sensory profiles. The beers produced contained 0.6% Alcohol by volume (ABV). According to the sensory analysis, the beers were comparable to those produced by S. ludwigii, and contained detectable fruit notes (banana and plum). No distinct off-flavors were noted. A comprehensive analysis of M. gelida’s resistance to temperature extremes, disinfectant, common preservatives, and antifungal agents would suggest that the strains pose little risk to either process hygiene or occupational safety.

This person-oriented study aimed to identify adolescents’ hierarchical attachment profiles with parents and peers, and to analyze associations between the profiles and adolescent psychosocial adjustment. Participants were 449 Finnish 17–19-year-olds reporting their attachments to mother, father, best friend, and romantic partner and details on mental health (internalizing symptoms, inattention/hyperactivity, and anger control problems) and risk-taking behavior (substance use and sexual risk-taking). Attachment was measured with Experiences in Close Relationships – Relationship Structures (ECR-RS); internalizing, inattention/hyperactivity, and anger control problems with Self-Report of Personality — Adolescent (SRP—A) of the Behavior Assessment System for Children, third edition (BASC-3); substance use with the Consumption scale of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT-C) and items from the Finnish School Health Promotion Study; and sexual risk-taking behavior with the Cognitive Appraisal of Risky Events (CARE). Latent profile analysis identified five attachment profiles: “All secure” (39%), “All insecure” (11%), “Parents insecure – Peers secure” (21%), “Parents secure – Friend insecure” (10%), and “Parents secure – Partner insecure” (19%). “All insecure” adolescents showed the highest and “All secure” adolescents the lowest levels of mental health problems and substance use. Further, parental attachment security seemed to specifically prevent substance use and anger control problems, while peer attachment security prevented internalizing problems. Our findings help both understand the organization of attachment hierarchies in adolescence and refine the role of specific attachment relationships in psychosocial adjustment, which can be important for clinical interventions in adolescence.

To better understand the role of neuroendocrinological regulation in adolescent mental health, stress reactivity needs to be analyzed through both the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. Accordingly, this study examined how adolescents' internalizing and externalizing mental health symptoms are associated with their salivary alpha-amylase and cortisol levels, responses, and coordination (symmetry versus asymmetry). We utilized a developmentally salient stress task of mother-adolescent conflict discussion. Eighty 18-20-year-old late adolescents (55% girls) participated in a home laboratory assessment involving a 10-min conflict discussion with their mothers. Five adolescent saliva samples were collected to measure alpha-amylase and cortisol levels before, immediately after, and in 10-min intervals following the conflict discussion, to indicate stress reactivity. Adolescents had reported their internalizing (depression, anxiety, somatization) and externalizing (inattention, hyperactivity, anger control problems) symptoms 1 year earlier as part of a prospective family study. Internalizing symptoms were associated with adolescents' high baseline cortisol levels, but not with cortisol responses or alpha-amylase levels or responses. In contrast, externalizing symptoms were associated with blunted alpha-amylase responses. Neither internalizing nor externalizing symptoms were associated with asymmetry between alpha-amylase and cortisol reactivity. The mother-adolescent conflict discussion was relevant as a stress stimulus to induce neuroendocrinological stress responses in adolescents. The nature of mental health problems was important for stress reactivity, yet, we found no evidence about mental health problems being related to endocrinological asymmetry in adolescents.