A 13,000-year history of vegetation and fire in a rare inland pine barrens: The Albany Pine Bush (Albany County, New York, USA).

Two radiocarbon-dated pollen and charcoal records from cores collected at Stump Pond and a wetland in suburban Albany County, New York, provide new insights into the environmental history of a unique inland pine barrens that is currently surrounded and threatened by urban development: the Albany Pine Bush (APB). The Stump Pond core shows that the pond formed roughly 13,000 years ago with the recession of glacial Lake Albany. From ca.

Nedocromil sodium and diphenhydramine HCl ameliorate exercise-induced arterial hypoxemia in highly trained athletes.

Introduction: Exercise-induced arterial hypoxemia (EIAH) has been observed in highly trained endurance athletes during near maximal exercise, which may be influenced by a histamine-mediated inflammatory response at the pulmonary capillary-alveolar membrane. In order to test this hypothesis, we examined whether the mast cell stabilizer nedocromil sodium (NS) and H -receptor antagonist diphenhydramine HCL (DH) would ameliorate EIAH and mitigate the drop in arterial oxyhemoglobin saturation (S O ) during intensive exercise.

Methods: Seven highly trained male cross country runners (age, 21 ± 2 years; V̇O , 74.

Hydroclimatic and cultural instability in northeastern North America during the last millennium.

Long-term, large-scale perspectives are necessary for understanding climate variability and its effects on ecosystems and cultures. Tree ring records of the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA) and Little Ice Age (LIA) have documented major hydroclimatic variability during the last millennium in the American West, but fewer continuous, high-resolution hydroclimate records of the MCA-LIA period are available for eastern North America, particularly during the transition from the MCA to the LIA (ca. A.

Variation in Heart-Rate Profile During a Prolonged, Submaximal Swim Bout.

Purpose: To describe the heart-rate (HR) response during a prolonged, submaximal, multirepetition swimming bout (ie, typical early-season swimming training), as there is currently little or no literature on this topic.

Methods: A total of 12 collegiate swimmers were instructed to complete sixty 91.4-m (100-yd) freestyle repetitions at their fastest sustainable pace, allowing between 5 and 10 seconds of rest between repetitions.

Swimmers' Compliance to Training as a Function of Observation: A Pilot Study.

Unlabelled: Adherence to prescribed training intensity (i.e., swim speed) has been conveyed as a key parameter regarding improvements in seasonal performance.

Acute modulation in dietary behavior following glycogen depletion and postexercise supplementation in trained cyclists.

We investigated the influence of immediate postexercise dietary supplementation on the subsequent food consumption pattern and endurance exercise performance in physically trained individuals. On 2 occasions, trained male cyclists performed a glycogen-depleting exercise bout followed by a 2-h nutritional supplementation period, 28 h of free-living recovery, and a subsequent 40-km cycling time trial. During the 2-h postexercise supplementation, the subjects consumed equal volumes of reduced-fat chocolate milk (CM) or a sports beverage (SB) in a single-blind, randomized design.

Acute hypercapnia does not alter voluntary drive to the diaphragm in healthy humans.

Although systemic hypercapnia is a common outcome of pulmonary disease, the relationship between hypercapnia and voluntary diaphragmatic activation (VA) is unclear. To examine whether hypercapnia independent of ventilatory work contributes to reduced central motor drive to the diaphragm in healthy humans, 14 subjects spontaneously breathed room air (NN) or a hypercapnic gas mixture (HH; 7% CO with air) while at rest. Thereafter, subjects volitionally hyperventilated room air (NH) matching the minute ventilation recorded during HH while maintained at eucapnic levels.

Arrival order and release from competition does not explain why haplochromine cichlids radiated in Lake Victoria.

The frequent occurrence of adaptive radiations on oceanic islands and in lakes is often attributed to ecological opportunity resulting from release from competition where arrival order among lineages predicts which lineage radiates. This occurs when the lineage that arrives first expands its niche breadth and diversifies into a set of ecological specialists with associated monopolization of the resources. Later-arriving species do not experience ecological opportunity and do not radiate.

Climate variability and cultural eutrophication at Walden Pond (Massachusetts, USA) during the last 1800 years.

Recent shifts in the ecological condition of Walden Pond, MA, are of potentially wide interest due to the lake's importance as a cultural, historical, and recreational resource in addition to its scientific value as an indicator of local and global environmental change. Algal microfossils in six sediment cores document changes in hydroclimate and trophic status of the lake during the last 1800 years and extend two previous sediment core records of shorter length. Low percentages of planktonic diatoms in the longest cores (WAL-3, WAL-15) indicate shallowing and/or greater water clarity associated with a relatively arid interval during the Medieval Climate Anomaly, ca.

Addition of acetate improves stability of power generation using microbial fuel cells treating domestic wastewater.

Power generation using microbial fuel cells (MFCs) must provide stable, continuous conversion of organic matter in wastewaters into electricity. However, when relatively small diameter (0.8cm) graphite fiber brush anodes were placed close to the cathodes in MFCs, power generation was unstable during treatment of low strength domestic wastewater.

Greening of the Sahara suppressed ENSO activity during the mid-Holocene.

The evolution of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) during the Holocene remains uncertain. In particular, a host of new paleoclimate records suggest that ENSO internal variability or other external forcings may have dwarfed the fairly modest ENSO response to precessional insolation changes simulated in climate models. Here, using fully coupled ocean-atmosphere model simulations, we show that accounting for a vegetated and less dusty Sahara during the mid-Holocene relative to preindustrial climate can reduce ENSO variability by 25%, more than twice the decrease obtained using orbital forcing alone.

In-Water Resisted Swim Training for Age-Group Swimmers: An Evaluation of Training Effects.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to compare the efficacy of resisted sprint swim training with that of nonresisted sprint swim training on 50-m freestyle competition time (V50) in age-group swimmers.

Methods: Twenty-four age-group swimmers (age 10.6-14.

Tropical cyclone activity enhanced by Sahara greening and reduced dust emissions during the African Humid Period.

Tropical cyclones (TCs) can have devastating socioeconomic impacts. Understanding the nature and causes of their variability is of paramount importance for society. However, historical records of TCs are too short to fully characterize such changes and paleo-sediment archives of Holocene TC activity are temporally and geographically sparse.

A cross-sectional study of physical activity and arterial compliance: the effects of age and artery size.

Our study examined the relationship between habitual high levels of vigorous physical activity on large and small artery compliance via radial artery pulse wave analysis. Eighty-three healthy men (n = 44) and women (n = 39), aged 18-78 years, were recruited as habitually less active (light-to-moderate exercise ≤3 times/wk) or habitually highly active (vigorous exercise ≥5 times/wk). A multivariate analysis of variance revealed a significant interaction of age and activity level; habitual vigorous activity was associated with greater compliance in large and small arteries in older adults (40-78 years) and younger adults (18-22 years).

Prevalence of Exercise-Induced Arterial Hypoxemia in Distance Runners at Sea Level.

Purpose: It has been reported that ~50% of endurance-trained men demonstrate exercise-induced arterial hypoxemia (EIAH) during heavy exercise. However, this often-cited prevalence rate comes from a single study using a cohort of 25 highly trained men who completed maximal cycle ergometry. As arterial oxyhemoglobin saturation (SpO2) during maximal exercise is reported to be significantly lower during treadmill versus cycle ergometry in the same subjects, we hypothesized that the prevalence of EIAH would be greater than previously reported (and commonly referenced) in a larger cohort of highly endurance-trained men during maximal treadmill running.

Physical Activity and Health Perception in Aging: Do Body Mass and Satisfaction Matter? A Three-Path Mediated Link.

Although ageing people could benefit from healthy diet and physical activity to maintain health and quality of life, further understandings of the diet- and physical activity-related mechanisms that may cause changes in health and quality of life perception are necessary. The purpose of the study was to investigate the effect of eating attitudes, body mass and image satisfaction, and exercise dependence in the relationship between physical activity and health and quality of life perception in older individuals. Hundred and seventy-nine late middle-aged, (55-64 yrs), young-old (65-74 yrs), and old (75-84 yrs) senior athletes (n = 56), physically active (n = 58) or sedentary adults (n = 65) were submitted to anthropometric evaluations (body mass, height) and self-reported questionnaires: Body Image Dimensional Assessment, Exercise Dependence Scale, Eating Attitude Test, and Short Form Health Survey (Physical Component Summary [PCS] and Mental Component Summary [MCS] of and health and quality of life perception).

Lane bias in elite-level swimming competition.

Performance outcomes at the 2013 World Swimming Championship were previously shown to be biased depending on the swimmer's lane assignment. The purpose of this study was to determine if this kind of bias was unique, and if not, if the bias was related to the temporary or permanent nature of the pool. The effect of lane on the average odd-length split minus the preceding even-length split in the 800- and 1500-m freestyle events, and on the relative change from qualifying to preliminary performance in the 50-m events, was determined for 16 other elite-level competitions.

Runners maintain locomotor-respiratory coupling following isocapnic voluntary hyperpnea to task failure.

Introduction: Evidence has long suggested that mammalian ventilatory and locomotor rhythms are linked, yet determinants and implications of locomotor-respiratory coupling (LRC) continue to be investigated. Anecdotally, respiratory muscle fatigue seen at the end of heavy exercise may result in an uncoupling of movement-ventilation rhythms; however, there is no scientific evidence to substantiate this claim.

Purpose: We sought to determine whether or not fatigue of the respiratory muscles alters locomotor-respiratory coupling patterns typically observed in highly trained individuals while running.

Endurance exercise performance in acute hypoxia is influenced by expiratory flow limitation.

Purpose: We sought to determine if expiratory flow limitation influences intensive aerobic exercise performance in mild hypoxia.

Methods: Fourteen trained male cyclists were separated into flow-limited (FL, n = 7) and non-FL (n = 7) groups based on the extent of expiratory flow limitation exhibited during maximal exercise in normoxia. Participants performed two self-paced 5-km cycling time trials, one in normoxic (F IO2 = 0.

Of paleo-genes and Perch: what if an "alien" is actually a native?

Documenting whether a biotic taxon is native or alien to an ecosystem has theoretical value for ecological and evolutionary studies, and has practical value because it can potentially identify a taxon as a desirable component of an ecosystem or target it for removal. In some cases, however, such background information is inadequate or unavailable. Here we use paleo-DNA to re-evaluate the historical status of yellow perch in the 6 million acre Adirondack State Park of northern New York.

Large N: a strategy for improving regional sport performance.

Unlabelled: It has been hypothesized that large differences in maximal performance can arise between various geopolitical regions solely on the basis of differing numbers of participants in the target activity. While there is evidence in support of this hypothesis for a measure of intellectual performance, the same relationship has not been examined for a measure of physical performance.

Purpose: To determine whether the number of participants is a predictor of the best athletic performance in a region.

COD removal characteristics in air-cathode microbial fuel cells.

Exoelectrogenic microorganisms in microbial fuel cells (MFCs) compete with other microorganisms for substrate. In order to understand how this affects removal rates, current generation, and coulombic efficiencies (CEs), substrate removal rates were compared in MFCs fed a single, readily biodegradable compound (acetate) or domestic wastewater (WW). Removal rates based on initial test conditions fit first-order kinetics, but rate constants varied with circuit resistance.

Operating lung volumes are affected by exercise mode but not trunk and hip angle during maximal exercise.

Introduction: Despite VO₂peak being, generally, greater while running compared to cycling, ventilation (VE) during maximal exercise is less while running compared to cycling. Differences in operating lung volumes (OLV) between maximal running and cycling could be one explanation for previously observed differences in V E and this could be due to differences in body position e.g.

Current controversy: analysis of the 2013 FINA World Swimming Championships.

Unlabelled: Anecdotal reports regarding the 2013 Fédération Internationale de Natation World Swimming Championships held in Barcelona suggested that swimming performances were biased, presumably because of a current.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to analyze the swimmers' performance data to determine the merit of these rumors.

Methods: The mean time difference between odd and even 50-m lengths for each lane in the 1500-m freestyle was compared.

Lower-leg compression, running mechanics, and economy in trained distance runners.

The efficacy of and mechanisms behind the widespread use of lower-leg compression as an ergogenic aid to improve running performance are unknown. The purpose of this study was to examine whether wearing graduated lower-leg compression sleeves during exercise evokes changes in running economy (RE), perhaps due to altered gait mechanics. Sixteen highly trained male distance runners completed 2 separate RE tests during a single laboratory session, including a randomized-treatment trial of graduated calf-compression sleeves (CS; 15-20 mm Hg) and a control trial (CON) without compression sleeves.