Denial of long-term issues with agriculture on tropical peatlands will have devastating consequences

Non peer reviewe

Evaluation of the Effects of Alpha Size on Explosive Ability, Strength, and IGF-1 Hormone Levels

Ergogenic aides are widely used by fitness enthusiast and athletes to increase performance. Alpha Glycerylphosphorylcholine (A-GPC) has demonstrated some initial promise in changing explosive performance. The purpose of the present investigation was to determine if 6 days of supplementation with A-GPC would augment isometric force production compared to a placebo. Thirteen college aged males (Means ± SD; Age: 21.9 ± 2.2 yrs, Height: 180.3 ± 7.7 cm, Weight: 87.6 ± 15.6 kg; VO2 max: 40.08 ± 7.23 ml O2*Kg-1*min-1, Body Fat: 17.5 ± 4.6 %) gave written informed consent to participate in the study. The study was a double blind placebo controlled, cross-over design. The participants reported to the lab for an initial visit where they were familiarized with the isometric mid-thigh pull in a custom squat cage on a force platform and upper body isometric test against a high frequency load cell, and baseline measurements were taken for both. The participant then consumed either 600 mg per day of A-GPC or placebo, and at the end of 6 days, performed isometric mid-thigh pull and an upper body isometric test. A one week washout period was used before the participants baseline was re-measured and crossed over to the other treatment. The A-GPC treatment resulted in significantly greater isometric mid-thigh pull peak force change from baseline (t= 1.76, p=0.044) compared with placebo (A-GPC: 98.8.±236.9N vs Placebo: -39.0±170.9N). For the upper body test, the A- GPC treatment trended towards greater change from baseline force production (A-GPC: 50.9±167.2N Placebo: -14.9±114.9N), but failed to obtain statistical significance (t=1.16, p=0.127). The study found that A-GPC is effective at increasing lower body force production after 6 days of supplementation. Sport performance coaches can consider adding A-GPC to the diet of speed and power athletes to enhance muscle performance

Cognitive Function and Salivary DHEA Levels in Physically Active Elderly African American Women

Serum and plasma dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS) concentration has been associated with several health parameters associated with aging including cognitive function, bone mineral density, and muscular strength. However, the effectiveness of salivary DHEA for the prediction of cognitive function, bone mineral density, and muscular strength in older adults is currently unknown. Thirty elderly African American females provided early morning salivary samples and DHEA levels were determined using a commercially available immunoassay. Participants completed testing for psychomotor and executive function via Trail Making Tests (TMT) A and B, respectively. Bone ultrasound attenuation (BUA) was used to bone density and an isometric mid-thigh pull (IMTP) was used to determine isometric strength. Age significantly correlated with time on TMT A (r=0.328) and B (r=0.615) but was not related to DHEA, BUA, or IMTP outcomes. Elevated DHEA was associated with longer time to completion for TMT A (χ2=5.14) but not to TMT B. DHEA levels were not associated with BUA or IMTP outcomes. While elevated levels of DHEA were correlated with impaired psychomotor function, salivary DHEA is not associated with executive function, bone mineral density, or isometric strength in elderly African American women

14 years of Mars’ atmosphere monitoring by SPICAM on Mars Express

International audienceSPICAM is entering his 8th Martian yeararound Mars and continues to collect measurementswith its infrared channel. This dataset is uniqueinsofar as it comes from the same calibratedinstrument, continuously over the course of 14 years.Hence, it allows to probe different physicalphenomena with multi-annual and seasonal timescale,as well as episodic events (e.g dust storms). SPICAMcontributed to the improvement of the understandingof Mars’s climate in several areas including loweratmosphere composition, chemical processes and thestructure of the atmosphere

Guidance on harmonised methodologies for human health, animal health and ecological risk assessment of combined exposure to multiple chemicals

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