Here we present a continuous and well-resolved climate-proxy record of hydrological variability during the past 25,000 years from equatorial East Africa. Our results, based on complementary evidence from

seismic-reflection stratigraphy and organic biomarker molecules in the sediment record of Lake Challa near Mount Kilimanjaro, reveal that monsoon rainfall in this region varied at half-precessional (similar to 11,500-year) Belinostat intervals in phase with orbitally controlled insolation forcing. The southeasterly and northeasterly monsoons that advect moisture from the western Indian Ocean were strengthened in alternation when the inter-hemispheric insolation gradient was at a maximum; dry conditions prevailed when neither monsoon was intensified and modest local March or September insolation weakened the rain season that followed. On sub-millennial timescales, the temporal pattern of hydrological change on the East African Equator bears clear high-northern-latitude signatures, but on the orbital timescale it mainly responded to low-latitude insolation forcing. Predominance of low-latitude climate processes in this monsoon

region can be attributed to the low-latitude position of its continental regions of surface air flow convergence, and its relative isolation from the Atlantic Ocean, where prominent meridional overturning circulation more tightly couples low-latitude climate regimes to high-latitude boundary conditions.”
“Background: Reports SCH727965 of illicit substance use by college athletes have become commonplace in recent years, yet comparatively little effort has been put forth by the research community to understand these behaviors.\n\nMethods: Data for this study came from a large, national dataset collected by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). This study compared substance use behaviors of male undergraduate student athletes who reported using ergogenic performance enhancing substances (e.g., anabolic steroids and peptide hormones) during college (PES users) to those who did not selleck screening library (PES non-users).\n\nResults:

A consistent pattern of higher substance use rates was observed among PES users compared to non-users, including heavier drinking, higher prevalence rates of cigarettes, marijuana, amphetamines, narcotics, and a variety of permissible and impermissible dietary supplements. An unexpected finding was that there were large discrepancies in reported prevalence rates between similar or overlapping survey items (e.g., past year use of “narcotics” versus “I have taken Vicodin, Oxycontin or Percocet with/without a prescription”).\n\nConclusions: These findings suggest that male college athletes who use PES while in college demonstrate a general tendency to engage in alcohol and drug use behaviors, regardless of whether these behaviors improve or impede athletic performance.