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The present study examined the effects of a proprietary Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) root and leaf extract (NooGandha® Specnova LLC, USA) supplement for improving cognitive abilities, cortisol levels, and self-reported mood, stress, food cravings, and anxiety with adults who have perceived stress. Healthy adults (n = 43 women and n = 17 men; mean age = 34.41 years) who reported experiencing perceived stress were randomized to the following groups: Ashwagandha (400 mg/d), Ashwagandha (225 mg/d), and placebo for 30 days. The following outcomes were assessed at Day 0, Day 15, and Day 30: saliva cortisol levels, cognitive performance (i.e., CNS vital signs), and the self-reported measures of Trait Anxiety Inventory, Depression Anxiety Stress Scale, Perceived Stress Scale, and Food Cravings Questionnaire-15. For the self-report assessments, significant main effects for time were evidenced for anxiety, depression, perceived stress, and food cravings, p's < 0.01. The main effect for group and the interactions were non-significant. For the CNS vital signs, significant differences were observed in cognitive flexibility, visual memory, reaction time, psychomotor speed, and executive functioning, p's < 0.05, with the Ashwagandha groups often out-performing the placebo group. Both Ashwagandha groups had reductions in cortisol levels over time, with significant reductions evidenced for the Ashwagandha 225 mg/d group from Day 0 to Day 15 to Day 30. The placebo group had a non-significant increase in cortisol levels from Day 0 to Day 15–30. No adverse events were reported. In conclusion, Ashwagandha supplementation may improve the physiological, cognitive, and psychological effects of stress.

Sufficient taxonomic understanding is critical for biodiversity conservation. This is particularly relevant among freshwater fishes, where cryptic undescribed species cause difficulties for promoting conservation efforts. Catostomidae (i.e., suckers) is a family of freshwater fishes with cryptic diversity and biological traits that make them difficult to classify taxonomically. Among suckers, the Carpsuckers ( Carpiodes carpio , Carpiodes cyprinus , Carpiodes velifer ) possess uncertain taxonomic classifications and cryptic diversity despite a rich history of research. Within Carpiodes , uniquely slender‐bodied populations occurring in Western Gulf of Mexico drainages suggest potential for an undescribed species. Originally collected in the Llano River, tributary to the Texas Colorado River, Llano River Carpsucker are morphologically similar to C. cyprinus . Our study explores how historical biogeographic scenarios may have led to lineage diversification of Llano River Carpsucker. We test competing molecular hypotheses (i.e., Native Endemic Species Hypothesis, Native Lineage Hypothesis) to explain the native origin of Llano River Carpsucker and further assess whether the taxon is nonnative C. cyprinus (i.e., Species Introduction Hypothesis), each carrying vastly different conservation and management implications. Additionally, we assessed phylogenetic relationships across the entire genus Carpiodes . Phylogenetic analyses recovered divergent lineages of C. cyprinus in Eastern Gulf of Mexico drainages, suggesting the presence of cryptic undescribed species. Llano River Carpsucker specimens were resolved in unique lineages relative to C. cyprinus , with mitochondrial haplotypes closely related to Mississippi C. cyprinus ( p ‐distance < 0.005). Our study suggests Llano River Carpsucker represent native C. cyprinus , supporting our Native Lineage Hypothesis. We further provide evidence that C. cyprinus readily hybridizes with C. carpio , resulting in mitochondrial introgression across much of their distribution. Lastly, we provide recommendations to promote conservation efforts and discuss further research directions to understand deeper evolutionary and environmental mechanisms behind morphologically and genetically unique C. cyprinus inhabiting Western Gulf of Mexico drainages of Texas.

Background Tart cherry supplementation has been shown to enhance recovery from strenuous exercise due to its antioxidant properties. The majority of these studies used tart cherry juice, with a significant calorie content. The primary purpose of this study was to assess whether powdered tart cherry extract with minimal calorie content reduces oxidative stress and enhances recovery following intense resistance exercise. Methods Thirteen men (mean age: 26.2 ± 5.3 years; height: 184.3 ± 8.2 cm; weight: 92.9 ± 15.6 kg) performed a demanding resistance exercise protocol consisting of 6 sets of 10 repetitions of barbell back squat with 80% 1RM. The protocol was performed once following 7 days of 500 mg of tart cherry extract and once following placebo. Serum protein carbonyl (PC) content, creatine kinase activity (CK) and creatine kinase myocardial band content (CK-MB) were used to assess oxidative stress, skeletal and cardiac muscle damage respectively. Muscle soreness was assessed by visual analog scale. Physical performance was measured by countermovement jump power and handgrip dynamometer strength. Results There was a significant increase in PC in the placebo (PL) condition when compared to the Tart Cherry (TC) condition at Immediate Post (IP) (PL: 0.4 ± 0.3 vs. TC: − 0.4 ± 0.2 nmol∙mg − 1 ; p  < 0.001), 1 h (PL: 0.3 ± 0.3 vs. TC: − 0.7 ± 0.3 nmol∙mg − 1 ; p < 0.001) and 24 h (PL: 0.1 ± 0.4 vs. TC: − 0.3 ± 0.5 nmol∙mg − 1 ; p  = 0.010). There was a significant increase in CK activity in PL when compared to the TC at IP (PL: 491.1 ± 280 vs. TC: 296.3 ± 178 U∙L − 1 ; p  = 0.008) and 3 h (PL: − 87 ± 123 vs. TC: 43.1 ± 105.3 U∙L − 1 ; p  = 0.006). There was a significant ( p  = 0.003) increase in CKMB concentration in PL when compared to the TC (PL: 21.6 ± 12.4 vs. TC: − 0.3 ± 11.8 ng∙ml − 1 ; p  = 0.006) at 1 h post. There was a significant increase in handgrip strength in TC when compared to PL (PL: − 2 ± 5.1 vs. TC: 1.7 ± 3 kg; p  = 0.017) at 24 h post. Conclusions This study demonstrated that tart cherry extract reduced oxidative stress and markers of muscle and cardiac damage following intense resistance exercise. This occurred along with a prevention of the decrease in handgrip strength seen following the intense exercise protocol, indicating a potential reduction in central fatigue. These benefits were seen with minimal energy intake.

Accurate reference spectroscopic information for the water molecule from the microwave to the near-ultraviolet is of paramount importance in atmospheric research. A semi-empirical potential energy surface for the ground electronic state of H216O has been created by refining almost 4000 experimentally determined energy levels. These states extend into regions with large values of rotational and vibrational excitation. For all states considered in our refinement procedure, which extend to 37 000 cm-1 and J=20 (total angular momentum), the average root-mean-square deviation is approximately 0.05 cm-1. This potential energy surface offers significant improvements when compared to recent models by accurately predicting states possessing high values of J. This feature will offer significant improvements in calculated line positions for high-temperature spectra where transitions between high J states become more prominent.Combining this potential with the latest dipole moment surface for water vapour, a line list has been calculated which extends reliably to 37 000 cm-1. Obtaining reliable results in the ultraviolet is of special importance as it is a challenging spectral region for the water molecule both experimentally and theoretically. Comparisons are made against several experimental sources of cross sections in the near-ultraviolet and discrepancies are observed. In the near-ultraviolet our calculations are in agreement with recent atmospheric retrievals and the upper limit obtained using broadband spectroscopy by p. 194, but they do not support recent suggestions of very strong absorption in this region.

This work presents the development of the MethaneAIR Level0–Level1B processor, which converts raw L0 data to calibrated and georeferenced L1B data. MethaneAIR is the airborne simulator for MethaneSAT, a new satellite under development by MethaneSAT LLC, a subsidiary of the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). MethaneSAT's goals are to precisely map over 80 % of the production sources of methane from oil and gas fields across the globe to an accuracy of 2–4 ppb on a 2 km2 scale. Efficient algorithms have been developed to perform dark corrections, estimate the noise, radiometrically calibrate data, and correct stray light. A forward model integrated into the L0–L1B processor is demonstrated to retrieve wavelength shifts during flight accurately. It is also shown to characterize the instrument spectral response function (ISRF) changes occurring at each sampled spatial footprint. We demonstrate fast and accurate orthorectification of MethaneAIR data in a three-step process: (i) initial orthorectification of all observations using aircraft avionics, a simple camera model, and a medium-resolution digital elevation map; (ii) registration of oxygen (O2) channel grayscale images to reference Multispectral Instrument (MSI) band 11 imagery via Accelerated-KAZE (A-KAZE) feature extraction and linear transformation, with similar co-registration of methane (CH4) channel grayscale images to the registered O2 channel images; and finally (iii) optimization of the aircraft position and attitude to the registered imagery and calculation of viewing geometry. This co-registration technique accurately orthorectifies each channel to the referenced MSI imagery. However, in the pixel domain, radiance data for each channel are offset by almost 150–200 across-track pixels (rows) and need to be aligned for the full-physics or proxy retrievals where both channels are simultaneously used. We leveraged our orthorectification tool to identify tie points with similar geographic locations in both CH4 and O2 images in order to produce shift parameters in the across-track and along-track dimensions. These algorithms described in this article will be implemented into the MethaneSAT L0–L1B processor.

The substantia nigra in Parkinson's disease (PD) is depleted of dopaminergic neurons and contains fibrillar Lewy bodies comprising primarily α-synuclein. We screened a library to identify drug-like molecules to probe the relation between neurodegeneration and α-synuclein fibrilization. All but one of 15 fibril inhibitors were catecholamines related to dopamine. The inhibitory activity of dopamine depended on its oxidative ligation to α-synuclein and was selective for the protofibril-to-fibril conversion, causing accumulation of the α-synuclein protofibril. Adduct formation provides an explanation for the dopaminergic selectivity of α-synuclein-associated neurotoxicity in PD and has implications for current and future PD therapeutic and diagnostic strategies.

Water vapor absorption in the near-ultraviolet region is essential to describe the energy budget of Earth, but little spectroscopic information is available since it is a challenging spectral region for both experimental and theoretical studies. A continuous-wave cavity ring-down spectroscopic experiment was built to record absorption lines of water vapor around 415 nm. With a precision of 4×10-10 cm−1, 40 rovibrational transitions of H216O were observed in this work, and 27 of them were assigned to the (224), (205), (710), (304), (093), (125) and (531) vibrational bands. A comparison of line positions and intensities determined in this work to the most recent HITRAN database is presented. Water vapor absorption cross-sections near 415 nm were calculated based on our measurements, which vary between 1×10-26 and 5×10-26cm2 molec.−1. These data will also significantly impact the spectroscopy detection of trace gas species in the near-UV region.

The Leuciscidae (minnows, shiners and relatives) is a diverse family of freshwater fishes with many species endangered due to anthropogenic stressors. and are two shiners found only in the upper Brazos River basin in Texas, USA and listed as endangered due to contracted habitat. The complete mitochondrial genome was sequenced for two vouchered specimens for each species; having a total mitogenome length of 16,711 bp and having a total mitogenome length 16685-16686 bp, with both including 13 protein-coding genes, 22 transfer RNAs genes, and 2 ribosomal RNA genes. Phylogenetic analysis supports previous hypotheses regarding placement of these species.

The contemporary challenges of improving patient engagement in chronic disease management and addressing the growing problem of physician burnout are commonly viewed as separate issues. However, there is extensive evidence that person-centered approaches to patient engagement, such as motivational interviewing (MI), are associated both with better outcomes for patients and improved well-being for clinicians. We conducted an exploratory survey study to ascertain whether resident physicians who perceive that they embrace and utilize the MI approach also report less burnout. A total of 318 residents in several specialties were invited via email to complete a 10-question survey about patient engagement and the experience of burnout. Frequencies and percentages were calculated for all categorical/ordinal variables to describe survey participants and question responses. Correlation coefficients were obtained to assess relationships between all burnout and engagement questions. A total of 79 residents completed the survey (response rate of 24.8%). There was broad agreement about the importance of patient engagement and the use of the MI approach, and approximately 60% of residents indicated that burnout was a problem. Two items related to residents' perceived use of MI were correlated with feeling a sense of personal accomplishment, one of the protective factors against burnout. Consistent with other studies indicating that person-centered approaches are associated both with better patient outcomes and provider wellbeing, our data suggest that residents' self-reported use of the MI approach in patient care may be related to less burnout. It appears that training in the MI approach in graduate medical education may be simultaneously good for patient outcomes and good for resident well-being.