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Diet quality indices are a practical, cost-effective method to evaluate dietary patterns, yet few have investigated diet quality in athletes. This study describes the relative validity and reliability of the recently developed Athlete Diet Index (ADI). Participants completed the electronic ADI on two occasions, 2 weeks apart, followed by a 4-d estimated food record (4-dFR). Relative validity was evaluated by directly comparing mean scores of the two administrations (mAdm) against scores derived from 4-dFR using Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient and Bland–Altman (B–A) plots. Construct validity was investigated by comparing mAdm scores and 4-dFR-derived nutrient intakes using Spearman’s coefficient and independent t test. Test–retest reliability was assessed using paired t test, intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) and B–A plots. Sixty-eight elite athletes (18·8 (sd 4·2) years) from an Australian sporting institute completed the ADI on both occasions. Mean score was 84·1 (sd 15·2; range 42·5–114·0). The ADI had good reliability (ICC = 0·80, 95 % CI 0·69, 0·87; P < 0·001), and B–A plots (mean 1·9; level of agreement −17·8, 21·7) showed no indication of systematic bias (y = 4·57–0·03 × x) (95 % CI −0·2, 0·1; P = 0·70). Relative validity was evaluated in fifty athletes who completed all study phases. Comparison of mAdm scores with 4-dFR-derived scores was moderate (rs 0·69; P < 0·001) with no systematic bias between methods of measurement (y = 6·90–0·04 × x) (95 % CI −0·3, 0·2; P = 0·73). Higher scores were associated with higher absolute nutrient intake consistent with a healthy dietary pattern. The ADI is a reliable tool with moderate validity, demonstrating its potential for application to investigate the diet quality of athletes.
Heavy alcohol consumption is associated with poorer cognitive function in older adults. Although understudied in middle-aged adults, the relationship between alcohol and cognition may also be influenced by genetics such as the apolipoprotein (ApoE) ε4 allele, a risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease. We examined the relationship between alcohol consumption, ApoE genotype, and cognition in middle-aged adults and hypothesized that light and/or moderate drinkers (≤2 drinks per day) would show better cognitive performance than heavy drinkers or non-drinkers. Additionally, we hypothesized that the association between alcohol use and cognitive function would differ by ApoE genotype (ε4+ vs. ε4−).
Method:
Participants were 1266 men from the Vietnam Era Twin Study of Aging (VETSA; M age = 56; range 51–60) who completed a neuropsychological battery assessing seven cognitive abilities: general cognitive ability (GCA), episodic memory, processing speed, executive function, abstract reasoning, verbal fluency, and visuospatial ability. Alcohol consumption was categorized into five groups: never, former, light, moderate, and heavy.
Results:
In fully adjusted models, there was no significant main effect of alcohol consumption on cognitive functions. However, there was a significant interaction between alcohol consumption and ApoE ε4 status for GCA and episodic memory, such that the relationship of alcohol consumption and cognition was stronger in ε4 carriers. The ε4+ heavy drinking subgroup had the poorest GCA and episodic memory.
Conclusions:
Presence of the ε4 allele may increase vulnerability to the deleterious effects of heavy alcohol consumption. Beneficial effects of light or moderate alcohol consumption were not observed.
To assess trends in consumption of soda, sweetened fruit drinks/sports drinks and any sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) from 2013 to 2016 among all children in California aged 2–5 and 6–11 years and by racial-ethnic group.
Design:
Serial cross-sectional study using the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS).
Setting:
CHIS is a telephone survey of households in California designed to assess population-level estimates of key health behaviours. Previous research using CHIS documented a decrease in SSB consumption among children in California from 2003 to 2009 coinciding with state-level policy efforts targeting child SSB consumption.
Participants:
Parents of children in California aged 2–11 years (n 4901 in 2013–2014; n 3606 in 2015–2016) were surveyed about the child’s consumption of soda and sweetened fruit drinks/sports drinks on the day prior.
Results:
Among 2–5-year-olds, consumption of soda, sweetened fruit drinks/sports drinks and any SSB remained stable. Sweetened fruit drink/sports drink consumption was higher than soda consumption in this age group. Latino 2–5- year-olds were more likely to consume any SSB in both 2013–2014 and 2015–2016 compared with Whites. Among 6–11-year-olds, consumption of soda, sweetened fruit drinks/sports drinks and any SSB also remained stable over time. Latino and African-American 6–11-year-olds were more likely to consume an SSB in 2013–2014 compared with White children.
Conclusions:
SSB consumption among children in California was unchanged from 2013 to 2016 and racial-ethnic disparities were evident. Increased policy efforts are needed to further reduce SSB consumption, particularly among children of Latino and African-American backgrounds.
OBJECTIVES/GOALS: Diverse medication-based studies require longitudinal drug dose information. EHRs can provide such data, but multiple mentions of a drug in the same clinical note can yield conflicting dose. We aimed to develop statistical methods which address this challenge by predicting the valid dose in the event that conflicting doses are extracted. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: We extracted dose information for two test drugs, tacrolimus and lamotrigine, from Vanderbilt EHRs using a natural language processing system, medExtractR, which was developed by our team. A random forest classifier was used to estimate the probability of correctness for each extracted dose on the basis of subject longitudinal dosing patterns and extracted EHR note context. Using this feasibility measure and other features such as a summary of subject dosing history, we developed several statistical models to predict the dose on the basis of the extracted doses. The models developed based on supervised methods included a separate random forest regression, a transition model, and a boosting model. We also considered unsupervised methods and developed a Bayesian hierarchical model. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: We compared model-predicted doses to physician-validated doses to evaluate model performance. A random forest regression model outperformed all proposed models. As this model is a supervised model, its utility would depend on availability of validated dose. Our preliminary result from a Bayesian hierarchical model showed that it can be a promising alternative although performing less optimally. The Bayesian hierarchical model would be especially useful when validated dose data are not available, as it was developed in unsupervised modeling framework and hence does not require validated dose that can be difficult and time consuming to obtain. We evaluated the feasibility of each method for automatic implementation in our drug dosing extraction and processing system we have been developing. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF IMPACT: We will incorporate the developed methods as a part of our complete medication extraction system, which will allow to automatically prepare large longitudinal medication dose datasets for researchers. Availability of such data will enable diverse medication-based studies with drastically reduced barriers to data collection.
Introduction: Trauma care is highly complex and prone to medical errors. Accordingly, several studies have identified adverse events and conditions leading to potentially preventable or preventable deaths. Depending on the availability of specialized trauma care and the trauma system organization, between 10 and 30% of trauma-related deaths worldwide could be preventable if optimal care was promptly delivered. This narrative review aims to identify the main determinants and areas for improvements associated with potentially preventable trauma mortality. Methods: A literature review was performed using Medline, Embase and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials from 1990 to a maximum of 6 months before submission for publication. Experimental or observational studies that have assessed determinants and areas for improvements that are associated with trauma death preventability were considered for inclusion. Two researchers independently selected eligible studies and extracted the relevant data. The main areas for improvements were classified using the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations patient event taxonomy. No statistical analyses were performed given the data heterogeneity. Results: From the 3647 individual titles obtained by the search strategy, a total of 37 studies were included. Each study included between 72 and 35311 trauma patients who had sustained mostly blunt trauma, frequently following a fall or a motor vehicle accident. Preventability assessment was performed for 17 to 2081 patients using either a single expert assessment (n = 2, 5,4%) or an expert panel review (n = 35, 94.6%). The definition of preventability and the taxonomy used varied greatly between the studies. The rate of potentially preventable or preventable death ranged from 2.4% to 76.5%. The most frequently reported areas for improvement were treatment delay, diagnosis accuracy to avoid missed or incorrect diagnosis and adverse events associated with the initial procedures performed. The risk of bias of the included studies was high for 32 studies because of the retrospective design and the panel review preventability assessment. Conclusion: Deaths occurring after a trauma remain often preventable. Included studies have used unstandardized definitions of a preventable death and various methodologies to perform the preventability assessment. The proportion of preventable or potentially preventable death reported in each study ranged from 2.4% to 76.5%. Delayed treatment, missed or incorrect initial diagnosis and adverse events following a procedure were commonly associated with preventable trauma deaths and could be targeted to develop quality improvement and monitoring projects.
Alcohol dependence is one of the most fatal mental diseases amongst men in western industrialized nations and is the major risk factor for the development of more than 60 chronic illnesses. With no further intervention, relapse rates in detoxified alcoholics are high and usually exceed 85% of all detoxified patients. It has been suggested that stress and exposure to priming doses of alcohol and to alcohol-associated stimuli (cues) contribute to the relapse risk after detoxification.
In the last decades there has been substantial progress in scientific research of the neurobiological principles of alcohol-related disorders. Recent studies using multi modal imaging techniques like functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) observed dysfunctions of the mesolimbic dopaminergic brain reward system (ventral striatum including the nucleus accumbens): Functional brain activation is increased during the processing of alcohol-associated cues and decreased during the confrontation with other non-alcoholic reward-indicating stimuli. This alcohol-associated “hijacking” of the reward system is associated with craving and the prospective relapse risk.
Moreover, the reward-associated learning seems to be disturbed in alcohol-dependent patients, so that addicted persons have problems to integrate informations about positive and negative consequences of their actions and to adapt their behavior accordingly. Personality traits like impulsiveness seem to be relevant in this context as well.
These findings about the different neurobiological mechanisms of addiction and relapse raise hope for new psychotherapeutic and pharmacological treatment approaches of alcohol dependence that is adapted to individual relapse mechanisms and needs.
The disposition and maintenance of alcohol addiction has been associated with dysfunctional learning, particularly with increased salience attribution to alcohol-associated stimuli and Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer, which establishes an effect of alcohol-associated cues on operant alcohol seeking and consumption. Previous imaging studies showed that dopamine dysfunction in the ventral striatum is associated with increased brain activation elicited by alcohol-associated cues in brain areas associated with attention. Furthermore, brain activation elicited by non-alcohol (e.g. monetary) reward was decreased in detoxified alcohol-dependent patients. Neuroadaptation following addiction therefore seems to augment neuronal responses to well-established, drug-associated stimuli while interfering with the learning of new, reward-seeking behaviour patterns. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) we showed that in detoxified alcoholics, reward-dependent reversal learning is impaired compared to healthy controls, and that this impairment correlates with reduced functional connectivity between the ventral striatum and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Furthermore, we will present first data from a multimodal imaging study combining fMRI and positron-emission-tomography (PET) to measure the association between dopamine synthesis reduction and impaired functional brain activation during reversal learning in detoxified alcohol-dependent patients compared with healthy controls.
Fluid intelligence expresses the capacity for interpretation of novel stimuli and flexible behavioral adaptation to such cues. Phasic dopamine firing closely matches a temporal difference prediction error (PE) signal important for learning and rapid behavioral adaptation. Both fluid intelligence and dopaminergic neurotransmission decline with age. So far, no study investigated the relationship between fluid IQ, PE signal and direct measures of dopaminergic neurotransmission. Here we used a multimodal imaging approach that combines positron emission tomography and functional magnetic resonance imaging.
Methods
A group of healthy controls was investigated with both 6-[18F]FluoroDOPA PET and functional MRI with a probabilistic reversal task. The task required a constant behavioral adaptation to changes in reward contingencies, while choosing between two abstract stimuli. A reinforcement learning algorithm was used to compute a trial-by-trial prediction error, which was the used as a regressor in the fMRI data analysis with SPM8.
Results
The prediction error signal was associated with functional activation in the basal ganglia including the ventral striatum and putamen. Fluid intelligence was associated with the PE signal in the ventral striatum, which correlated with age-related changes in dopamine synthesis capacity in the prefrontal cortex.
Conclusion
These findings provide insight into the role of age-related changes in dopaminergic neurotransmission on behavioral adaptation. The multimodal imaging approach allows the characterization of interactions between dopamine metabolism and learning-related neuronal activation and may thus be a useful tool to clarify mechanisms underlying learning and plasticity in old age, which are crucial to our understanding of successful aging.
Patients with severe mental illness have significantly reduced lifespans. Excepting suicide, cardiovascular risk is the biggest cause. The problem is exacerbated by psychotropic medication and poor primary care engagement. Therefore psychiatrists should maximise every opportunity to promote physical health.
Aim
We audited physical examination, investigations, and documentation of past medical history (PMH) & assessments in inpatients. We used the Royal College of Psychiatrist's Physical Health in Mental Health Scoping Group 2009 guidelines as our standard.
Methods
We audited notes of all 125 patients admitted to four wards at Ladywell unit over two months (01/07/2011- 31/08/2011). We surveyed trainees to identify training and resource needs and facilitate focussed interventions.
Results
Physical Examination: 102/125(82%) received physical examination, 60/125(48%) on admission. Average delay before examination 12 days.
Blood tests/Investigations: 89/125(71%) received blood tests: 50/125(40%) thyroid function, 67/125(54%) liver function, 28/125(22%) glucose, 1/125(0.8%) HbA1c, 38/125(30%) lipid profile. 48/125(38%) had urine drug screening, 55/125(44%) ECG.
Documentation: The following was documented: 102/125(82%) PMH, 82/125(66%) allergies, 90/125(72%) smoking status. The following was scanned into records: 23/55(42%) ECG, 72/125(58%) physical observation chart.
Survey: The trainee survey highlighted need for training updates on physical health and problems in equipment provision.
Conclusions
Physical assessment is inconsistent, neglecting metabolic screening. Admission is a vital window for screening/modifying physical health.
Recommendations
Focussed assessment guidelines should be formulated. Following the survey, teaching led by consultant physicians has been organised on identified topics including metabolic syndrome. Lack of equipment will be addressed by creation of comprehensive equipment lists, to be distributed to ward administrators.
Negative symptoms and cognitive impairments are both present in patients with an at risk mental state (ARMS) for psychosis and negatively affect functioning and outcome. According to previous studies in patients with first-episode psychosis, negative symptoms are negatively associated with cognitive functioning while positive symptoms do not seem to be associated. Yet, little is known about the specific relationship of negative symptoms and cognitive functioning in ARMS patients.
Objective
To evaluate, the relationship between negative symptoms and cognitive functioning in ARMS patients.
Methods
Data of 154 ARMS patients were collected within the prospective Basel early detection of psychosis (FePsy) study. Negative symptoms were assessed with the SANS, positive psychotic symptoms with the BPRS, cognitive functioning with an extensive neuropsychological test battery. Multiple regressions were applied and results were controlled for age and gender.
Results
Regression analyses showed a significant, negative association between negative but not positive psychotic symptoms and cognitive functioning, showing the strongest association with verbal fluency (see Fig. 1). However, results mainly did not withstand correction for multiple testing.
Conclusions
The association found between verbal fluency and negative symptoms may be indicative of an overlap between those constructs. Finally, verbal fluency might have a strong influence on the clinical impression of negative symptoms, especially on alogia.
Disclosure of interest
The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.
Non-psychotic axis I diagnoses are highly prevalent in at-risk mental state (ARMS) and first episode psychosis (FEP) patients, the most common being affective and anxiety disorders. Few studies have examined differences between ARMS and FEP patients or gender effects regarding such diagnoses.
Objective
To examine current and lifetime comorbidities in ARMS and FEP patients. Furthermore, to examine gender differences, and differences between patients with (ARMS-T) and without later transition to psychosis (ARMS-NT).
Methods
This study was part of the Früherkennung von Psychosen (FePsy) study. Current and lifetime axis I comorbidities were assessed using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID-I).
Results
One hundred and thirty-two ARMS and 98 FEP patients were included. Current comorbidities were present in 53.1% of FEP and 64.4% of ARMS patients, the most common being affective, anxiety and substance use disorders. Current affective disorders were significantly more common in ARMS than FEP. Lifetime comorbidities were diagnosed in 58.2% of FEP and 69.7% of ARMS patients, with significantly more affective and anxiety disorders in ARMS than FEP. Male FEP patients had more current and lifetime substance use disorders (across all substances) compared to female FEP. No differences emerged between ARMS-T and ARMS-NT.
Conclusions
As expected ARMS patients have many comorbidities, while clearly diagnosed FEP have less comorbidities. There were few gender differences in axis I comorbidities. Moreover, no differences between ARMS-T and NT emerged, suggesting that axis I comorbidities do not improve prediction of transition. Nevertheless, the high comorbidity prevalence is relevant for global functioning and clinical treatment.
Disclosure of interest
The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.
Patients with a first episode psychosis (FEP) have repeatedly been shown to have gray matter (GM) volume alterations. Some of these neuroanatomical abnormalities are already evident in the at-risk mental state (ARMS) for psychosis. Not only GM alterations but also neurocognitive impairments predate the onset of frank psychosis with verbal learning and memory (VLM) being among the most impaired domains. Yet, their interconnection with alterations in GM volumes remains ambiguous.
Objective
To evaluate associations of different subcortical GM volumes in the medial temporal lobe with VLM performance in ARMS and FEP patients.
Methods
Data were collected within the prospective Früherkennung von Psychosen (FePsy) study, which aims to improve the early detection of psychosis. VLM was assessed using the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT) and its latent variables Attention Span (AS), Learning Efficiency (LE), Delayed Memory (DM) and Inaccurate Memory (IM). Structural images were acquired using a 3 Tesla magnetic resonance imaging scanner.
Results
Data from 59 ARMS and 47 FEP patients were analysed. Structural equation models revealed significant associations between the amygdala and AS, LE and IM; thalamus and LE and IM; and the caudate, hippocampus and putamen with IM. However, none of these significant results withstood correction for multiple testing.
Conclusions
Although VLM is among the most impaired cognitive domains in emerging psychosis, we could not find an association between low performance in this domain and reductions in subcortical GM volumes. Our results suggest that deficits in this domain may not stem from alterations in subcortical structures.
Disclosure of interest
The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.
Clinical, epidemiological and basic research studies have confirmed that estradiol can have protective effects in schizophrenic psychoses. At the same time many patients with schizophrenic psychoses – even antipsychotic naïve at-risk mental state (ARMS) patients show hyperprolactinemia and gonadal dysfunction with estrogen deficiency in women and possibly testosterone deficiency in men.
Aim
To investigate the relation between the stress hormone prolactin and the sex hormones estradiol in women and testosterone in men in emerging psychosis.
Methods
Forty-seven antipsychotic-naïve ARMS (38 men and 9 women) and 17 antipsychotic-naive first episode psychosis (FEP) (14 men and 3 women) patients were recruited via the Basel Früherkennung von Psychosen (FePsy) study. Blood was taken under standardized conditions between 8 and 10 am after an overnight fast and 30 minutes of rest. We performed a linear regression model to evaluate the association between prolactin and sex hormones including age and current antidepressant use as covariates.
Results
In women, estradiol was negatively associated with prolactin (β = −1.28, P = 0.01) whereas in men there was a positive association of testosterone with prolactin (β = 0.52, P = 0.031).
Conclusion
The often observed estrogen deficiency in women with psychosis could therefore be explained by the stress hormone prolactin suppressing the gonadal axis already in very early untreated stages of the emerging disease.
In ARMS or FEP men prolactin does not seem to influence the gonadal axis in the same way as in women.
Disclosure of interest
The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.
In the growing research field of early psychosis detection in patients with an at risk mental state (ARMS), most studies focus on the transition to frank psychosis. However, the majority of ARMS patients do not go on to develop frank psychosis and reported transition rates are declining. Little is known about the long-term outcome of these non-transitioned patients (ARMS-NT).
Objectives
To investigate in preliminary analyses the long-term outcome of ARMS-NT patients with respect to persistence of ARMS signs and symptoms and the rates of late psychotic transition.
Methods
The ongoing study “FePsy-BHS-NT” follows up ARMS-NT without transition during at least the first two years for up to 15 years after their initial assessment. ARMS status is ascertained with the Basel Screening Instrument for Psychosis (BSIP). ARMS remission is defined as the absence of attenuated psychotic symptoms or brief limited intermittent psychotic symptoms for at least 12 consecutive months.
Results
In this preliminary sample of 51 ARMS-NT, the majority of patients (70.6%) have remitted from their at risk mental state, 13.7% remain at risk and 15.7% have made a late psychotic transition during the course of long-term follow up (median = 5.75, range 4–11 years after initial assessment).
Conclusions
The considerable rates of ARMS persistence and late psychotic transition indicate that longer follow-up durations than commonly recommended should be contemplated in ARMS patients. Potential predictors of favorable long-term clinical outcome, as well as psychosocial, neurocognitive and other outcomes of ARMS-NT patients will be further evaluated in the present study.
Disclosure of interest
The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.
In the last few decades, the discovery of large ditched enclosures in Iberia has revealed the diversity and complexity of deposition and manipulation of human bone remains. Alongside traditional ritual burials (mainly megalithic tombs and hypogea), fragmented and scattered human bones mixed with other kinds of material culture began to appear in many features. This is the case for Ditch 5 at Marroquíes, which offers an excellent opportunity to explore this ritual behaviour. Based on a multi-proxy approach, three main conclusions can be drawn: 1) the skeletal elements present show deliberate selection of particular categories of bones; 2) depositional episodes included the remains of people who died at different points in time and were subject to different taphonomic processes, and 3) mobility patterns indicate that all individuals, with one possible exception, were local. The movement and manipulations of body parts may reflect the active role of people after death as social and symbolic elements that retain agency and capacity for action.
The COllaborative project of Development of Anthropometrical measures in Twins (CODATwins) project is a large international collaborative effort to analyze individual-level phenotype data from twins in multiple cohorts from different environments. The main objective is to study factors that modify genetic and environmental variation of height, body mass index (BMI, kg/m2) and size at birth, and additionally to address other research questions such as long-term consequences of birth size. The project started in 2013 and is open to all twin projects in the world having height and weight measures on twins with information on zygosity. Thus far, 54 twin projects from 24 countries have provided individual-level data. The CODATwins database includes 489,981 twin individuals (228,635 complete twin pairs). Since many twin cohorts have collected longitudinal data, there is a total of 1,049,785 height and weight observations. For many cohorts, we also have information on birth weight and length, own smoking behavior and own or parental education. We found that the heritability estimates of height and BMI systematically changed from infancy to old age. Remarkably, only minor differences in the heritability estimates were found across cultural–geographic regions, measurement time and birth cohort for height and BMI. In addition to genetic epidemiological studies, we looked at associations of height and BMI with education, birth weight and smoking status. Within-family analyses examined differences within same-sex and opposite-sex dizygotic twins in birth size and later development. The CODATwins project demonstrates the feasibility and value of international collaboration to address gene-by-exposure interactions that require large sample sizes and address the effects of different exposures across time, geographical regions and socioeconomic status.
Decreases in Fe status have been reported in military women during initial training periods of 8–10 weeks. The present study aimed to characterise Fe status and associations with physical performance in female New Zealand Army recruits during a 16-week basic combat training (BCT) course. Fe status indicators – Hb, serum ferritin (sFer), soluble transferrin receptor (sTfR), transferrin saturation (TS) and erythrocyte distribution width (RDW) – were assessed at the beginning (baseline) and end of BCT in seventy-six volunteers without Fe-deficiency non-anaemia (sFer <12 µg/l; Hb ≥120 g/l) or Fe-deficiency anaemia (sFer <12 µg/l; Hb <120 g/l) at baseline or a C-reactive protein >10 mg/l at baseline or end. A timed 2·4 km run followed by maximum press-ups were performed at baseline and midpoint (week 8) to assess physical performance. Changes in Fe status were investigated using paired t tests and associations between Fe status and physical performance evaluated using Pearson correlation coefficients. sFer (56·6 (sd 33·7) v. 38·4 (sd 23·8) µg/l) and TS (38·8 (sd 13·9) v. 34·4 (sd 11·5) %) decreased (P<0·001 and P=0·014, respectively), while sTfR (1·21 (sd 0·27) v. 1·39 (sd 0·35) mg/l) and RDW (12·8 (sd 0·6) v. 13·2 (sd 0·7) %) increased (P<0·001) from baseline to end. Hb (140·6 (sd 7·5) v. 142·9 (sd 7·9) g/l) increased (P=0·009) during BCT. At end, sTfR was positively (r 0·29, P=0·012) and TS inversely associated (r –0·32, P=0·005) with midpoint run time. There were no significant correlations between Fe status and press-ups. Storage and functional Fe parameters indicated a decline in Fe status in female recruits during BCT. Correlations between tissue-Fe indicators and run times suggest impaired aerobic fitness. Optimal Fe status appears paramount for enabling success in female recruits during military training.
The objective for this study was to determine if POST-directed applications of flumioxazin reduce fruit yield for chile pepper produced on coarse- and fine-textured soils irrigated by furrow. This objective was addressed with a multiyear (2015, 2016, 2017) field study that compared flumioxazin effects on fruit yield against a commercial standard (POST-directed carfentrazone) and the absence of a POST-directed herbicide. The field study occurred at two university research farms that differed in soil texture. On fine-textured soil, treatments included the no POST–directed herbicide control and the following four POST-directed herbicides applied to raised beds: (1) flumioxazin at 107 g ai ha–1 applied 4 wk after crop thinning, (2) carfentrazone at 35 g ai ha–1 applied 4 wk after crop thinning, (3) flumioxazin at 70 g ai ha–1 applied 4 and 6 wk after crop thinning, (4) carfentrazone at 35 g ai ha–1 applied 4 and 6 wk after crop thinning. On coarse-textured soil, treatments included the no POST–directed herbicide control and the following three POST-directed herbicides applied 4 wk after crop thinning: (1) flumioxazin at 107 g ai ha–1 applied to raised beds, (2) flumioxazin at 107 g ai ha–1 applied to furrows, (3) carfentrazone at 35 g ai ha–1 applied to raised beds. On fine-textured soil, treatment did not affect fruit yield. On coarse-textured soil, flumioxazin applied to furrows did not reduce fruit yield, but flumioxazin on raised beds reduced fruit yield of some cultivars in 2015 and 2017. Year-to-year variability in both flumioxazin-induced yield loss and soil characteristics suggested that chile pepper sensitivity to flumioxazin was negatively associated with soil organic matter content. In a follow-up greenhouse study, soil organic matter lessened flumioxazin-induced crop injury. In general, this study indicates that recommendations for POST-directed flumioxazin in New Mexico chile pepper will need to be soil-type specific.
A better understanding of the dynamics of different particulate organic matter (OM) pools in the coastal carbon budget is a key issue for quantifying the role of the coastal ocean in the global carbon cycle. To elucidate the benthic component of this carbon cycle at the land-sea interface, we investigated the carbon isotope signatures (δ13C and ∆14C) in the sediment pore waters dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) in addition to the sediment OM to constrain the origin of the OM mineralized in sediments. The study site is located at the outlet of the Rhône River (Mediterranean Sea), which was chosen because this river is one of the most nuclearized rivers in Europe and nuclear 14C can serve as a tracer to follow the fate of the OM discharged by the river to the coastal sea. The ∆14C results found in the pore waters DIC show a general offset between buried and mineralized OM following a preferential mineralization model of young and fresh particles. For example, we found that the sediment OM has values with a mean ∆14C=–33‰ at sampling stations near the river mouth whereas enriched ∆14C values around +523‰ and +667‰ respectively were found for the pore waters DIC. This indicates complete mineralization of a riverine fraction of OM enriched in 14C in the river conduit during in-stream photosynthesis. In shelf sediments, the ∆14C of pore waters DIC is slightly enriched (+57‰) with sediment OM reaching –570‰. A mixing model shows that particles mineralized near the river mouth are certainly of riverine phytoplanktonic origin whereas OM mineralized on the shelf is of marine origin. This work highlights the fact that pore waters provide additional information compared to sediments alone and it seems essential to work on both pools to study the carbon budget in river prodelta.