Alternative Method to Evaluate Performance Improvement Rate in Athletics Middle Distance Events

Purpose The aims of this study were to propose an alternative method to assess an optimal performance improvement rate (PIR) that would be used as a tool for coaches and elite athletes willing to reach their personal best, mainly those seeking for national, continental or even world record (WR) in middle-distance events. We further compared the improvement rate of women vs. men of the top-10 ranked athletes in the IAAF running these middle-distance events Method The top 10 athletes in the IAAF ranking of 800 m, 1500 m, and 3000 m events for each sex were assessed for their history of race times before achieving their personal record (PR). The difference between PR (‘actual’ season) and the best race time in the last season was defined as the 1st season improvement rate (1-SIR), whereas the average improvement rate in the last and preceding seasons was the multi-season improvement rate (M-SIR). 1-SIR and M-SIR were calculated for each athlete. Result There were sex differences in the 1500 m with a large effect size (d = − 0.746) in 1-SIR (P = 0.001) and very large (d = − 2.249) in M-SIR (P = 0.001). Women improved more than men before the PR/WR achievements in the 800 m and 1500 m events (P = 0.001) and had similar improvement rates before performing PR/WR in 3000 m events (P = 0.533). Conclusion Women improve more before PR/WR achievement in 800 m and 1500 m races. However, in the 3000 m men and women have similar improvement rates in previous seasons before the PR/WR achievement.

Adjusting the Block Interval in PoW Consensus by Block Interval Process Improvement

Blockchain is not widely applied in various fields due to the critical issue of scalability as part of the blockchain trilemma. This issue arises during consensus among the nodes in a public blockchain. To address the issue of low scalability with proof-of-work (PoW) consensus, various methods have been proposed for transaction per second (TPS) improvement. However, no such methods include an improvement in the consensus step. Therefore, to improve PoW public blockchain scalability, it is important to shorten the time required for PoW consensus. This paper proposes a method for minimizing the block intervals that occur during consensus over a PoW blockchain network. A shortened block interval leads to an increase in the probability of three different attacks: selfish mining, double-spending, and eclipse attacks. According to an experiment using Ethereum, with a typical PoW blockchain, it is inevitable to provide rewards for stable block mining in competition between mining pools. To find an optimal block interval in the PoW consensus algorithm, we conducted a four-step experiment. The purpose of this experiment was to verify the difficulty level and issues with Mainnet security. Therefore, considering stale block mining rewards, an optimal block interval is proposed. The Ethereum TPS was improved by at least 200%. Given this finding, it is considered possible to achieve a similar improvement in a different PoW blockchain. On balance, even if the block interval is shorter than that of the PoW Mainnet, network security falls by only 1.21% in Testnet, even with a rise in the stale block rate, while performance is increased at up to 120 TPS, which is three times higher than that in Mainnet.

Metaphoric interpretation

This paper compares two different theoretical approaches which have been developed to account for metaphoric interpretation: the comparison approach and the categorisation approach. Following a brief review on the history of the two theoretical approaches, the paper points out in part 5 that these two approaches are not fundamentally incompatible. It is further argued in parts 6 and 7 that while the comparison approach can be improved to provide metaphoric interpretations beyond a focus on words and phrases, similar improvement can hardly be made for the categorisation approach, whether by updating the approach itself or by merging it with non-categorisational processes. As a result, the metaphoric cases accountable by the categorisation approach can only be a subset of the cases accountable by the comparison approach.

Anticoncentration versus the Number of Subset Sums

Let w=(w_1,...,w_n) be a vector from R^n. We show that for any n^{-2}<=eps<=1, if the number of zero-one vectors xi such that <xi,w>=tau is at least 2^{-eps*n}*2^n for some tau, then the number of values <xi,w> is at most 2^{O(eps^{1/2}n)} where xi ranges over all zero-one vectors. This exponentially improves the eps dependence in a recent result of Nederlof, Pawlewicz, Swennenhuis, and Węgrzycki and leads to a similar improvement in the parameterized (by the number of bins) runtime of bin packing.

Effect of nanofibrillated cellulose made from enzyme-pretreated bamboo pulp on paper strength

The applicability of bleached bamboo kraft pulp (Ba-BKP) was explored as a raw material for the manufacture of nanofibrillated cellulose (EN-NFC) made of enzyme-pretreated pulps and the effects of the EN-NFC on enhancing paper strength. The Ba-BKP was pretreated using an endo-glucanase enzyme at 50 °C and pH 6, after which the EN-NFC was made by micro-grinding. Bleached hardwood kraft pulp (Hw-BKP) was used as a control, and the non-enzymatic refining pretreatment of BKPs was compared with the enzyme pretreatment. The EN-NFC was incorporated into handsheets, and the sheet strengths were measured. The physical properties of the NFC made from the Ba-BKP were similar to those made from the Hw-BKP. The NFC prepared following enzyme pretreatment were smaller and more uniform than those pretreated with refining. The EN-NFC made from the Ba-BKP was effective at enhancing tensile index by 52.7%, and burst index by 210.2% when 2% of EN-NFC was added in the furnish, and those of handsheets containing the EN-NFC made from Hw-BKP showed the similar improvement. Therefore, Ba-BKP can be used as a raw material for the manufacture of EN-NFC that confers similar physical properties and strength enhancement to paper as those made from Hw-BKP.

Randomized Construction of Complexes with Large Diameter

We consider the question of the largest possible combinatorial diameter among pure dimensional and strongly connected $$(d-1)$$ ( d - 1 ) -dimensional simplicial complexes on n vertices, denoted $$H_s(n, d)$$ H s ( n , d ) . Using a probabilistic construction we give a new lower bound on $$H_s(n, d)$$ H s ( n , d ) that is within an $$O(d^2)$$ O ( d 2 ) factor of the upper bound. This improves on the previously best known lower bound which was within a factor of $$e^{\varTheta (d)}$$ e Θ ( d ) of the upper bound. We also make a similar improvement in the case of pseudomanifolds.

QUALITY LIFE OF PATIENTS OPERATED FOR ULCERATIVE COLITIS

The review presents data from various Western and Russian papers, which assess QoL of patients with ulcerative colitis, who underwent a proctocolectomy with a terminal ileostomy or with ileal pouch. Both procedures have advantages and disadvantages. The QoL assessment was performed using different validated and not validated scales. Study results show that QoL of patients with ileal pouch and end ileostomy are relatively similar. Improvement of QoL after surgery mostly depends of disease elimination by proctocolectomy but by the restoration of anal defecation. However, meta-analysis is complicated due to the inability to comply with methodological requirements and use of different QoL scales. There is a need to continue research in this field.