With the rise of individuals attending music festivals each year, some have turned to illicit substances like 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) in hopes to enhance their experience. MDMA is known to activate dopaminergic mesolimbic reward pathway areas of the brain such as the ventral pallidum, the ventral striatum, and the nucleus accumbens. In addition, the perception of positive consonant music also increases the activation of similar areas of the mesolimbic pathway as activated by MDMA, thus reinforcing any addictive behaviors during the consumption of MDMA at music festivals. Recently, the reappearance of opioids, such as fentanyl, with MDMA has contributed to fatalities correlated to MDMA consumption at music festivals.

Depression is a serious mental disorder that is highly prevalent among Canadians. Stigma associated with depression is a key barrier in preventing depressed individuals from seeking psychological services. This type of help-seeking behavior is especially low in Asian individuals, which can be accounted for by the stigmatization of depression in this population. However, little research has been conducted on depression stigma in East Asian Canadians; specifically, those who are Chinese, Korean, and Japanese. Furthermore, no research has directly investigated self-stigma for depression in this population.

The Lorentz-violating Standard-Model Extension is a general framework with coefficients that describe potential violations of special and general relativity. Many constraints that have been placed on the Standard-Model Extension (SME) involve combinations of multiple coefficients. We untangle some of these constraints to obtain simpler bounds on the basic SME coefficients that appear in the fundamental action of the framework and focus on the electron cμv coefficients, which affect the electron’s dispersion relation in a Lorentz-violating vacuum. We find several constraints are some of the most sensitive yet reported.