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Do physical and psychosocial stressors interact to increase stress in ways not explainable by the stressors alone? A preliminary study compared participants' stress response while subjected to a physical stressor (reduced or full physical load) and a predetermined social stressor (confronted by calm or aggressive behavior). Salivary cortisol samples measured endocrine stress. Heart rate variability (HRV) and electrodermal activity (EDA) measured autonomic stress. Perceived stress was measured via discomfort and stress state surveys. Participants with a heavier load reported increased distress and discomfort. Encountering an aggressive individual increased endocrine stress, distress levels, and perceived discomfort. Higher autonomic stress and discomfort were found in participants with heavier physical load and aggressive individuals. The results suggest a relationship where physical load increases the stressfulness of aggressive behavior in ways not explainable by the effects of the stressors alone. Future research is needed to confirm this investigation's findings.

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Food hubs have seen substantial growth in the past few decades but the overall operational efficiency and effectiveness is a concern for the managers of these facilities. The experiment designed consisted of 60 participants divided into four treatment groups that simulated tasks completed at food hubs. The experiment designed was a 2x2 factorial design and each treatment group had five teams with three members. The treatment groups had all combinations of the two independent variables ‘training’ and ‘process improvement’ and the impact these factors made on time to pack (TP), time to stack (TS), number of errors while stacking (ES), and number of errors while packing (EP) were investigated. The results show that for TS, TP, and ES, both training and process improvement significantly increased the food hub’s efficiency. For EP, process improvement significantly reduced errors while training had less impact.

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