Influence of advanced shoe technology on the top 100 annual performances in men’s marathon from 2015 to 2019

The NIKE Vaporfly shoe was introduced in May 2017 as part of the original #Breaking2 Project (an event aimed to run the first marathon under 2 h). This new advanced shoe technology (NAST) changed the footwear design conception. The aim of this study was (i) to analyse the effect of NAST in men’s marathon performance, (ii) to analyse whether the changes in the environmental constraints (temperature and wind) and orography of the marathons, age and birthplace of the runners has changed from 2015 to 2019 and (iii) to analyse the impact of NAST on the historical 50 best performances. Data from top-100 men's marathon performances were collected in that timeframe. The shoes used by the athletes were identified (in 91.8% of the cases) by publicly available photographs. External and environmental conditions of each marathon and age and birthplace of the runners were also analysed. Marathon performances improved from 2017 onwards between 0.75 and 1.50% compared to 2015 and 2016 (p < 0.05). In addition, the improvement was greater in the upper deciles than in the lower ones (p < 0.001). Runners wearing NAST ran ~ 1% faster in marathon compared to runners that did not use it (p < 0.001). When conducting an individual analysis of athletes who ran with and without NAST, 72.5% of the athletes who completed a marathon wearing NAST improved their performance by 0.68% (p < 0.01). External and environmental conditions, age or birthplace of runners seems not to have influenced this performance improvement. NAST has had a clear impact on marathon performance unchanged in the environmental constraints (temperature and wind), orography, age, and birthplace of the runners but with differences between venues.

Response time and response time variability as indicators of response quality during static automated perimetry

Purpose Perimetry is a both demanding and strenuous examination method that is often accompanied by signs of fatigue, leading to false responses and thus incorrect results. Therefore, it is essential to monitor the response quality. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the response time (RT) and its variability (RTV) as quality indicators during static automated perimetry. Methods Size III Goldmann stimuli (25.7′) were shown with the OCTOPUS 900 perimeter in four visual field locations with 13 different stimulus luminance levels (0.04–160 cd/m2). An increased rate of false-positive and false-negative catch trials (25% each) served to monitor the response quality simultaneously together with response time recording. Data evaluation was divided into global and individual analysis. For global analysis, the agreement indices (AI, agreement between time periods with an increased number of false responses to catch trials and time periods with pathological response to time-based values set into relation to time periods in which only one of the two criteria was considered pathological) and for individual analysis, the Spearman correlation coefficients were calculated. Ophthalmologically normal subjects with a visual acuity ≥ 0.8, and a maximum spherical/cylindrical ametropia of ± 8.00/2.50 dpt were included. Results Forty-eight subjects (18 males, 30 females, age 22–78 years) were examined. The total number of false responses to catch trials was (median/maximum): 6/82. RT and RTV were compared to the occurrence of incorrect responses to catch trials. The resulting individual Spearman correlation coefficients (median/maximum) were for RT: ρRT = 0.05/0.35 and for RTV: ρRTV = 0.27/0.61. The global analysis of the RTV showed agreement indices (median/maximum) of AIRTV = 0.14/0.47. Conclusions According to this study, an increased portion of catch trials is suitable as a verification tool for possible response quality indicators. The RTV is a promising parameter for indicating the response quality.

Multimodal assessment of regional gray matter integrity in early relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis patients with normal cognition: a voxel-based structural and perfusion approach

Objective: There is increasing evidence that gray matter (GM) impairment is strongly associated with clinical performance decline. We aim to perform a voxelwise analysis between regional GM (rGM) perfusion and structural abnormalities in early relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis patients with normal cognition (RRMS-IC) and explore clinical correlate of early rGM abnormalities. Methods and materials: We studied 14 early RRMS-IC patients and 14 healthy age- and sex-matched controls. Brain perfusion single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), structural MRI, and a comprehensive neuropsychological examination were acquired from all participants. Neuropsychological tests include expanded disability status scale, minimal mental status examination, short physical performance battery, Wechsler memory scale, and quick smell test. Voxel-based morphometry was used for analyzing SPECT and T1-MR images to identify rGM hypoperfusion and atrophy, respectively (RRMS-IC vs controls (group analysis), and also, each patient vs controls (individual analysis)) (p < 0.001). Then, anatomical location of impaired regions was acquired by automated anatomical labeling software. Results: There was no significant difference in total GM volume between RRMS-IC and healthy controls, however, rGM atrophy and hypoperfusion were detected. Individual analysis revealed more rGM impairment compared with group analysis. rGM hypoperfusion was more extensive rather than rGM atrophy in RRMS-IC. There was no spatial association between rGM atrophy and rGM hypoperfusion (p > 0.05). rGM abnormalities correlated with several relevant minimal clinical deficits. Conclusion: Lack of spatial correlation between rGM atrophy and hypoperfusion might suggest that independent mechanisms might underlie atrophy and hypoperfusion. Perfusion SPECT may provide supplementary information along with MRI. Advances in knowledge: Association between rGM atrophy and rGM hypoperfusion and their clinical significance in early RRMS-IC is not well described yet. Our study showed that there is spatial dissociation between rGM atrophy and rGM hypoperfusion, suggesting that different mechanisms might underlie these pathologies.

Análisis de la política de motivación desde una perspectiva de género

The main objective of this paper is to present a method to analyze the motivational policy based on a gender perspective. To do this, we carry out the study of the motivating factors with the greatest presence in the company and the individual analysis of each one of them. We continue with their assessment based on the importance they have for each worker in their job position, using an adequacy coefficient as a measurement tool, comparing this assessment with the ideal of the company. We continue to show different results depending on the level of assessment of the motivational factors and comparing the answers according to the age, gender, etc., of the employees. From the analysis we observe that there are differences in the selection of factors and in the valuation of some of the choosen factors according to the gender of the employees.We conclude by presenting the implications that these results have for business management, highlighting the applicability of the method to any organization by using ad hoc designs.

Characterization of Shifts of the Cellular Component the Immune Status of Patients with Long-Term Course of Chronic Post-Traumatic Uveitis

Purpose: to study the subpopulation composition of peripheral blood lymphocytes in patients with long — term chronic post-traumatic uveitis (CPT).Patients and Methods. There were 131 people aged 17 to 87 years, who received the surgical treatment in the Department of plastic surgery and eye prosthetics in NMITS eye diseases Helmholtz of the Ministry of health, Russia, where the removal of the eyeball by evisceration was carried out in 101 patients (70.3 %), 30 patients (29.7 % of cases) were enucleated. The study identified two groups: the Ist group– with the outcome of the injury, including non-penetrating (n = 46) and penetrating wounds (n = 51) of the eyes, were 97 patients; group II included 34 patients with complications due to single (n = 8) or repeated (n = 26) ophthalmic surgery (development of glaucoma and retinal detachment).Results. When analyzing the mean values, we found a decrease in the relative number of CD3+ CD4+ helpers/inducers in the blood of patients of both groups (up to 43.5 ± 0.81 and 42.19 ± 1.29 % versus 45.7 ± 1.19 % in the control), statistically confirmed for the 2nd group. Individual analysis revealed multidirectional shifts from the norm of cellular immune status of patients with PU in both groups. The most interesting, in our opinion, results were obtained by analyzing the relative number of effector cytotoxic cells of adaptive and nonspecific immunity. The increase in the relative content of t-cytotoxic lymphocytes CD3+ /CD8+ and NK-lymphocytes CD16+ /CD56+ was revealed with the same frequency, approximately in 18.5 and 19.5 % of cases in the PU group at the outcome of injury, in the 2nd group the increased number of these subpopulations was observed more often, amounting to 23.5 and 20.5 %, respectively.Conclusions. The results of the study on a large clinical material indicate that in long-term CPTU there is a pronounced systemic imbalance in the immunoregulatory subpopulations of lymphocytes, revealed by individual analysis in groups of patients.

Assessing recently improved precession-nutation models

&lt;p&gt;In 2020 new estimations of nutation amplitudes or precession parameters have been published or presented at main meetings. The derivation of corrections to improve the current precession-nutation models was encouraged by Resolution 5 of the 2019 General Assembly of the International Association of Geodesy (IAG). Besides, the GGOS/IERS Unified Analysis Workshop held in October 2019 recommended that effort to be prioritized among the tasks of the current IAU/IAG Joint Working Group on Improving Theories and Models of the Earth&amp;#8217;s rotation (JWG ITMER).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This presentation is intended to present comparisons of some of those new semi-empirical and semi-theorical precession-nutation models developed by different authors from either VLBI solutions of individual analysis centers or combinations of them. The models recently introduced by the authors that were reported at the AGU 2020 Fall Meeting are included in this assessment.&lt;/p&gt;