Regional perspectives on office service accessibility in Finnish banking markets: are there differences in service accessibility between the regions?

In Finland there was huge reduction in number of bank branches during the 1990?s which seems to be stabilized during last few years and even some new bank branches has been founded. In this paper I analyze the locations of bank branches in Finland by using municipality level data containing both economic and geographic variables. At first I analyze banks? entry/exit by the area-basis. Then the concentration in analysis moves to branch network strategies of bank groups, i.e. what is the typical office network strategy of centrally managed bank groups and how bank groups with decentralized decision-making differ from that, and what are the geographic core market areas of the bank groups. At last the differences in bank office service availability between Finnish provinces is analyzed in the light of previous results. Data used in analysis is panel containing bank branch numbers for each bank group in municipality, and population, geographic and economic features of municipalities in years 1995, 1997, 1999 and 2001.

Numerical experiments of adjusted BSSN systems for controlling constraint violations

We present our numerical comparisons between the BSSN formulation widely used in numerical relativity today and its adjusted versions using constraints. We performed three testbeds: gauge-wave, linear wave, and Gowdy-wave tests, proposed by the Mexico workshop on the formulation problem of the Einstein equations. We tried three kinds of adjustments, which were previously proposed from the analysis of the constraint propagation equations, and investigated how they improve the accuracy and stability of evolutions. We observed that the signature of the proposed Lagrange multipliers are always right and the adjustments improve the convergence and stability of the simulations. When the original BSSN system already shows satisfactory good evolutions (e.g., linear wave test), the adjusted versions also coincide with those evolutions; while in some cases (e.g., gauge-wave or Gowdy-wave tests) the simulations using the adjusted systems last 10 times as long as those using the original BSSN equations. Our demonstrations imply a potential to construct a robust evolution system against constraint violations even in highly dynamical situations.Comment: to be published in PR

Reply to 'Comment on 'Heavy element production in inhomogeneous big bang nucleosynthesis''

This is a reply report to astro-ph/0604264. We studied heavy element production in high baryon density region in early universe astro-ph/0507439. However it is claimed in astro-ph/0604264 that small scale but high baryon density region contradicts observations for the light element abundance or in order not to contradict to observations high density region must be so small that it cannot affect the present heavy element abundance. In this paper we study big bang nucleosynthesis in high baryon density region and show that in certain parameter spaces it is possible to produce enough amount of heavy element without contradiction to CMB and light element observations.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, References added, one more reference adde

Toward source region tomography with inter-source interferometry: Shear wave velocity from 2018 West Bohemia swarm earthquakes

The concept of seismic interferometry embraces the construction of waves traveling between receivers or sources with cross‐correlation techniques. In the present study cross correlations of coda waves are used to measure traveltimes of shear waves between earthquake locations for five event clusters of the 2018 West Bohemia earthquake swarm. With the help of a high‐quality earthquake catalog, I was able to determine the shear wave velocity in the region of the five clusters separately. The shear wave velocities range between 3.5 and 4.2 km/s. The resolution of this novel method is given by the extent of the clusters and better than for a comparable classical tomography. It is suggested to use the method in a tomographic inversion and map the shear wave velocity in the source region with unprecedented resolution. Furthermore, the influence of focal mechanisms and the attenuation properties on the polarity and location of the maxima in the cross‐correlation functions is discussed. The intracluster ratio of P wave to S wave velocity is approximately fixed at 1.68

FORCE PRODUCTION IN THE FIRST FOUR STEPS OF SPRINT RUNNING

The purpose of this investigation was to understand how the athlete produces acceleration during the first steps of sprint running. One athlete performed four starts from starting blocks over a series of four force plates. Horizontal impulse (which directly relates to the acceleration of the athlete) gradually decreased after leaving the blocks, while this decrease was transferred to a gradual increase in vertical force production to support the small but required vertical movement of CM in order to increase flight time (to gain longer steps). It also seems that the body can compensate for some technical mistakes during the performance, as the results revealed that an extended braking time in one step yielded a reduced braking time in the next step. This implied that the increased time in the contact was used to get other body parts into more favourable positions for the next step

RELIABILITY ASSESMENT OF KINEMATIC VARIABLES IN THE MOTION ANALYSIS OF FEMALE SPRINT HURDLES

INTRODUCTION: There has been very little attention paid to the reliability of motion analysis in sport applications. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate the reliability of kinematic variables in practical applied sports research utilising sprint hurdles. METHODS: Eight sprint hurdle clearances each from four national level female athletes were videotaped and digitised. The 3-D measurement set-up follows the procedure reported by Salo et al. (1997). Following the calculation of 28 kinematic variables, the reliability of the mean of eight trials was determined by using the ANOVA method (Vincent, 1995). The reliability of a certain number of measurements were estimated using the equation presented in Baumgartner (1989). RESULTS: The range of the reliability values across the eight trials [R(8)] and a single trial [R(1)] as well as the number of variables to gain different reliability levels when estimated from a different number of measurements are presented in table 1. {Table 1.} DISCUSSION: There are no absolute categories or significance test for reliability. However, the estimated R(1) showed that a single trial is not particularly representative for the kinematic analysis of sport events such as sprint hurdles. Athletes were not able to repeat all the specifics of the demanding skill in every trial and although motion analysis can be regarded as an objective method, the manual digitising involves a subjective evaluation. Finally, it is possible that homogenous performance at a group level may bias reliability values and closer examination of the results showed that this may have been the case in two variables. REFERENCES: Baumgartner, T.A. (1989). Norm-referenced Measurement: Reliability. In: Safrit, M.J. and Wood, T.M. (eds.). Measurement Concepts in Physical Education and Exercise Science. Champaign, Illinois, pp. 45-67, 1989. Salo, A., Grimshaw, P.N., Viitasalo, J.T. (1997). Reliability of Variables in the Kinematic Analysis of Sprint Hurdles. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc. 29, 383-389, 1997. Vincent, W.J. (1995). Statistics in Kinesiology. Champaign, Illinois, pp. 168- 181, 1995

Measurement Error in Estimates of Sprint Velocity from a Laser Displacement Measurement Device

This study aimed to determine the measurement error associated with estimates of velocity from a laser-based device during different phases of a maximal athletic sprint. Laser-based displacement data were obtained from 10 sprinters completing a total of 89 sprints and were fitted with a fifth-order polynomial function which was differentiated to obtain instantaneous velocity data. These velocity estimates were compared against criterion high-speed video velocities at either 1, 5, 10, 30 or 50 m using a Bland-Altman analysis to assess bias and random error. Bias was highest at 1 m (+ 0.41 m/s) and tended to decrease as the measurement distance increased, with values less than + 0.10 m/s at 30 and 50 m. Random error was more consistent between distances, and reached a minimum value (±0.11 m/s) at 10 m. Laser devices offer a potentially useful time-efficient tool for assessing between-subject or between-session performance from the mid-acceleration and maximum velocity phases (i. e., at 10 m and beyond), although only differences exceeding 0.22-0.30 m/s should be considered genuine. However, laser data should not be used during the first 5 m of a sprint, and are likely of limited use for assessing within-subject variation in performance during a single session

Modeling the stance leg in two-dimensional analyses of sprinting:Inclusion of the MTP joint affects joint kinetics

Two-dimensional analyses of sprint kinetics are commonly undertaken but often ignore the metatarsalphalangeal (MTP) joint and model the foot as a single segment. Due to the linked-segment nature of inverse dynamics analyses, the aim of this study was to investigate the effect of ignoring the MTP joint on the calculated joint kinetics at the other stance leg joints during sprinting. High-speed video and force platform data were collected from four to five trials for each of three international athletes. Resultant joint moments, powers, and net work at the stance leg joints during the first stance phase after block clearance were calculated using three different foot models. By ignoring the MTP joint, peak extensor moments at the ankle, knee, and hip were on average 35% higher (p .05), respectively, than those calculated with the MTP joint included. Peak ankle and knee joint powers and net work at all joints were also significantly (p < .05) different. By ignoring a genuine MTP joint plantar flexor moment, artificially high peak ankle joint moments are calculated, and these also affect the calculated joint kinetics at the knee

THE EFFECT OF DIGITAL FILTERING PROCEDURES ON KNEE JOINT MOMENTS IN SPRINTING

Inverse dynamics analyses are commonly used to obtain resultant joint moment data during sprinting. This study aimed to determine the effects of using different combinations of cut-off frequencies applied to the kinematic and kinetic input data on the determined knee joint moments. Input data from a sprinter during the first stance phase were recorded, and ten different combinations of cut-off frequency were applied. When the kinetic cut-off frequency exceeded the kinematic one, as is common, larger peaks and rapid fluctuations were evident in the knee joint moment soon after contact due to inconsistent frequency content between the input data. In contrast, when the cut-off frequencies were matched, the peaks and fluctuations were minimal, and it is suggested that they may be anomalies of data processing and not genuine aspects of sprint kinetics