Effectiveness of commercial versus homemade sports drinks on fluid balance and exercise capacity during high-intensity intermittent exercise

Commercial sports drinks are used widely by athletes involved in high-intensity intermittent (HII) exercise. However, little has been reported on their relative effectiveness compared to simple homemade drink formulations. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of different sports drink formulations (commercial v homemade), water and no drink on fluid balance and exercise capacity during HII exercise. Twelve trained men (age: 27 ± 2.1 y) performed a 90-min HII running protocol designed to simulate activity experienced during a football match. The protocol was arranged in six 15-min stages where running speeds ranged between 55% and 120% of VO2max. The HII protocol included half-time and a run to fatigue post 90 min. Using a single-blind, randomized, cross-over design, participants ingested a preload of 5 mlkg-1 10 min before HII exercise and 3 mlkg-1 every 15 min of either Isostar® (ISO), a homemade sports drink (CHO), placebo (P) or no drink (ND). Blood lactate (Hla), blood glucose (Bgluc), heart rate (HR) and ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) were measured before, during (every 15 min) and after the 90-min HII protocol. Changes in plasma volume were measured at half-time and post 90 min. Sweat rate and fluid balance were calculated post each trial. Time to fatigue (TTF) was recorded at exhaustion. In the ND trial, TTF decreased by approximately 17%, 28% and 43% compared to P, CHO and ISO, respectively (p0.05). No differences were noted in HLa, RPE, PV or SR between the trials (p>0.05) but there were significant effects of time (p<0.05). Bgluc peaked at 30 minutes in ISO and CHO, but dropped by ~27% in ISO and by ~30% in CHO after half time. Absence of fluid ingestion surprisingly had no significant effect on altering plasma volume or decreasing sweat rate despite causing noticeable decreases in exercise capacity. The homemade drink improved exercise capacity in a similar manner to that of the commercial drink, but neither sports drink achieved superior hydration compared to water. Ingestion of exogenous carbohydrate through sports drink consumption caused an exercise-induced glycemic response when exercise was restarted after half-time. This decline in blood glucose after half-time appears to be marginally attenuated in P trial. A possible suggestion for team sports could be to drink water rather than sports drink prior to half-time period

Eurasian beaver activity increases water storage, attenuates flow and mitigates diffuse pollution from intensively-managed grasslands

This is the final version of the article. Available from Elsevier via the DOI in this record.Beavers are the archetypal keystone species, which can profoundly alter ecosystem structure and function through their ecosystem engineering activity, most notably the building of dams. This can have a major impact upon water resource management, flow regimes and water quality. Previous research has predominantly focused on the activities of North American beaver (Castor canadensis) located in very different environments, to the intensive lowland agricultural landscapes of the United Kingdom and elsewhere in Europe. Two Eurasian beavers (Castor fiber) were introduced to a wooded site, situated on a first order tributary, draining from intensively managed grassland. The site was monitored to understand impacts upon water storage, flow regimes and water quality. Results indicated that beaver activity, primarily via the creation of 13 dams, has increased water storage within the site (holding ca. 1000m(3) in beaver ponds) and beavers were likely to have had a significant flow attenuation impact, as determined from peak discharges (mean 30±19% reduction), total discharges (mean 34±9% reduction) and peak rainfall to peak discharge lag times (mean 29±21% increase) during storm events. Event monitoring of water entering and leaving the site showed lower concentrations of suspended sediment, nitrogen and phosphate leaving the site (e.g. for suspended sediment; average entering site: 112±72mgl(-1), average leaving site: 39±37mgl(-1)). Combined with attenuated flows, this resulted in lower diffuse pollutant loads in water downstream. Conversely, dissolved organic carbon concentrations and loads downstream were higher. These observed changes are argued to be directly attributable to beaver activity at the site which has created a diverse wetland environment, reducing downstream hydrological connectivity. Results have important implications for beaver reintroduction programs which may provide nature based solutions to the catchment-scale water resource management issues that are faced in agricultural landscapes.The Devon Beaver Project is led by Devon Wildlife Trust, monitored by the University of Exeter, and funded by Devon Wildlife Trust and Westland Countryside Stewards

Molecular Characterization of Rotavirus Gastroenteritis Strains, Iraqi Kurdistan

Of 260 children with acute diarrhea in Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan, 96 (37%) were infected with rotavirus. Reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction identified G1, G4, G2, G9, P[8], P[6], and P[4] as the most common genotypes. Eight G/P combinations were found, but P[8]G1 and P[4]G2 accounted for >50% of the strains

Effect of human rotavirus vaccine on severe diarrhea in African infants.

BACKGROUND: Rotavirus is the most common cause of severe gastroenteritis among young children worldwide. Data are needed to assess the efficacy of the rotavirus vaccine in African children. METHODS: We conducted a randomized, placebo-controlled, multicenter trial in South Africa (3166 infants; 64.1% of the total) and Malawi (1773 infants; 35.9% of the total) to evaluate the efficacy of a live, oral rotavirus vaccine in preventing severe rotavirus gastroenteritis. Healthy infants were randomly assigned in a 1:1:1 ratio to receive two doses of vaccine (in addition to one dose of placebo) or three doses of vaccine--the pooled vaccine group--or three doses of placebo at 6, 10, and 14 weeks of age. Episodes of gastroenteritis caused by wild-type rotavirus during the first year of life were assessed through active follow-up surveillance and were graded with the use of the Vesikari scale. RESULTS: A total of 4939 infants were enrolled and randomly assigned to one of the three groups; 1647 infants received two doses of the vaccine, 1651 infants received three doses of the vaccine, and 1641 received placebo. Of the 4417 infants included in the per-protocol efficacy analysis, severe rotavirus gastroenteritis occurred in 4.9% of the infants in the placebo group and in 1.9% of those in the pooled vaccine group (vaccine efficacy, 61.2%; 95% confidence interval, 44.0 to 73.2). Vaccine efficacy was lower in Malawi than in South Africa (49.4% vs. 76.9%); however, the number of episodes of severe rotavirus gastroenteritis that were prevented was greater in Malawi than in South Africa (6.7 vs. 4.2 cases prevented per 100 infants vaccinated per year). Efficacy against all-cause severe gastroenteritis was 30.2%. At least one serious adverse event was reported in 9.7% of the infants in the pooled vaccine group and in 11.5% of the infants in the placebo group. CONCLUSIONS: Human rotavirus vaccine significantly reduced the incidence of severe rotavirus gastroenteritis among African infants during the first year of life. (ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00241644.

Bacterial communities associated with individual transparent exopolymer particles (TEP)

Transparent exopolymer particles (TEP) are polysaccharide-rich microgels that are prevalent in the marine environment and have important roles in the aggregation of organic matter and carbon export from the euphotic zone. TEP are readily colonized by bacteria and utilized by specialized taxa, such as Alteromonadaceae. However, bacterial community composition specifically attached to natural TEP remains largely unknown. In this study, we isolated individual TEP from Plymouth Sound (UK) and performed DNA sequencing of the TEP-attached bacterial communities. We also sampled the cognate bulk seawater total bacterial communities for comparison. The bacterial communities associated with individual TEP showed distinct differences compared to the total bulk bacterioplankton communities, with Alteromonadaceae significantly more abundant on TEP. The TEP-associated Alteromonadaceae consisted of two operational taxonomic units that were closely related to Marinobacter and Glaciecola, both previously associated with biogenic aggregates and microgel-rich habitats. This study provides novel insight into marine bacterial–microgel interactions

Eukaryotic community composition in the sea surface microlayer across an east–west transect in the Mediterranean Sea

The sea surface microlayer (SML) represents the boundary layer at the air–sea interface. Microbial eukaryotes in the SML potentially influence air–sea gas exchange directly by taking up and producing gases and indirectly by excreting and degrading organic matter, which may modify the viscoelastic properties of the SML. However, little is known about the distribution of microbial eukaryotes in the SML. We studied the composition of the microbial community, transparent exopolymer particles and polysaccharides in the SML during the PEACETIME cruise along a west–east transect in the Mediterranean Sea, covering the western basin, Tyrrhenian Sea and Ionian Sea. At the stations located in the Ionian Sea, fungi – likely of continental origin and delivered by atmospheric deposition – were found in high relative abundances, making up a significant proportion of the sequences recovered. Concomitantly, bacterial and picophytoplankton counts decreased from west to east, while transparent exopolymer particle (TEP) abundance and total carbohydrate (TCHO) concentrations remained constant in all basins. Our results suggest that the presence of substrates for fungi, such as Cladosporium, known to take up phytoplankton-derived polysaccharides, in combination with decreased substrate competition by bacteria, might favor fungal dominance in the neuston of the Ionian Sea and other low-nutrient, low-chlorophyll (LNLC) regions

Gap-filling carbon dioxide, water, energy, and methane fluxes in challenging ecosystems - Comparing between methods, drivers, and gap-lengths

Eddy covariance serves as one the most effective techniques for long-term monitoring of ecosystem fluxes, however long-term data integrations rely on complete timeseries, meaning that any gaps due to missing data must be reliably filled. To date, many gap-filling approaches have been proposed and extensively evaluated for mature and/or less actively managed ecosystems. Random forest regression (RFR) has been shown to be stable and perform better in these systems than alternative approaches, particularly when filling longer gaps. However, the performance of RFR gap filling remains less certain in more challenging ecosystems, e.g., actively managed agri-ecosystems and following recent land-use change due to management disturbances, ecosystems with relatively low fluxes due to low signal to noise ratios, or for trace gases other than carbon dioxide (e.g., methane). In an extension to earlier work on gap filling global carbon dioxide, water, and energy fluxes, we assess the RFR approach for gap filling methane fluxes globally. We then investigate a range of gap-filling methodologies for carbon dioxide, water, energy, and methane fluxes in challenging ecosystems, including European managed pastures, Southeast Asian converted peatlands, and North American drylands. Our findings indicate that RFR is a competent alternative to existing research standard gap-filling algorithms. The marginal distribution sampling (MDS) is still suggested for filling short ( 30 days) gaps in carbon dioxide fluxes and also for gap filling other fluxes (e.g. sensible heat, latent energy and methane). In addition, using RFR with globally available reanalysis environmental drivers is effective when measured drivers are unavailable. Crucially, RFR was able to reliably fill cumulative fluxes for gaps > 3 moths and, unlike other common approaches, key environment-flux responses were preserved in the gap-filled data

An assessment of the strength of knots and splices used as eye terminations in a sailing environment

Research into knots, splices and other methods of forming an eye termination has been limited, despite the fact that they are essential and strongly affect the performance of a rope. The aim of this study was to carry out a comprehensive initial assessment of the breaking strength of eye terminations commonly used in a sailing environment, thereby providing direction for further work in the field. Supports for use in a regular tensile testing machine were specially developed to allow individual testing of each sample and a realistic spread of statistical data to be obtained. Over 180 break tests were carried out on four knots (the bowline, double bowline, figure-of-eight loop and perfection loop) and two splices (three-strand eye splice and braid-on-braid splice). The factors affecting their strength were investigated. A statistical approach to the analysis of the results was adopted. The type of knot was found to have a significant effect on the strength. This same effect was seen in both types of rope construction (three-strand and braid-on-braid). Conclusions were also drawn as to the effect of splice length, eye size, manufacturer and rope diameter on the breaking strength of splices. Areas of development and further investigation were identified

Responsible management: Engaging moral reflexive practice through threshold concepts

YesIn this conceptual paper we argue that, to date, principles of responsible management have not impacted practice as anticipated because of a disconnect between knowledge and practice. This disconnect means that an awareness of ethical concerns, by itself, does not help students take personal responsibility for their actions. We suggest that an abstract knowledge of principles has to be supplemented by an engaged understanding of the responsibility of managers and leaders to actively challenge irresponsible practices. We argue that a form of moral reflexive practice drawing on an understanding of threshold concepts is central to responsible management, and provides a gateway to transformative learning. Our conceptual argument leads to implications for management and professional education