Influence of Different Performance Levels on Pacing Strategy During the Women's World Championship Marathon Race.

Purpose To analyse pacing strategies displayed by athletes achieving differing levels of performance during an elite level marathon race. Methods Competitors in the 2009 IAAF Women’s Marathon Championship were split into Groups 1, 2, 3, and 4 comprising the first, second, third, and fourth 25% of finishers respectively. Final, intermediate, and personal best (PB) times of finishers were converted to mean speeds, and relative speed (% of PB speed) was calculated for intermediate segments. Results Mean PB speed decreased from Group 1 to 4 and speed maintained in the race was 98.5 + 1.8%, 97.4 + 3.2%, 95.0 + 3.1% and 92.4 + 4.4% of PB speed for Groups 1-4 respectively. Group 1 was fastest in all segments and differences in speed between groups increased throughout the race. Group 1 ran at lower relative speeds than other groups for the first two 5 km segments, but higher relative speeds after 35km. Significant differences (P<0.01) in the percentage of PB speed maintained were observed between Groups 1 and 4, and 2 and 4 in all segments after 20 km, and Groups 3 and 4 from 20-25 km and 30-35 km. Conclusions Group 1 athletes achieved superior finishing times relative to their PB than athletes in other Groups who selected unsustainable initial speeds resulting in subsequent significant losses of speed. It is suggested that psychological factors specific to a major competitive event influenced decision making by athletes and poor decisions resulted in final performances inferior to those expected based on PB times

Evidence for complex integration and dynamic neural regulation of skeletal muscle recruitment during exercise in humans

A model is proposed in which the development of physical exhaustion is a relative rather than an absolute event and the sensation of fatigue is the sensory representation of the underlying neural integrative processes. Furthermore, activity is controlled as part of a pacing strategy involving active neural calculations in a “governor” region of the brain, which integrates internal sensory signals and information from the environment to produce a homoeostatically acceptable exercise intensity. The end point of the exercise bout is the controlling variable. This is an example of a complex, non-linear, dynamic system in which physiological systems interact to regulate activity before, during, and after the exercise bout

Risk management and the stratification of logistics service provision

This paper stems from a research project undertaken between 2007 and 2010. It discusses the development of supply chain management together with the understanding of the impact of supply chain risk. It gives an overview of the increasing stratification of service provision from first part logistics to joint service consortia and proposes a model balancing risk with service provision

Does short termism affect the quality of urban design in the UK?

This paper follows the report on the “Quality of Urban Design: Study of the Influence of Private Property Decision Maker in Urban Design” (RICS 1996). It focuses on one of the findings in the report, namely that decisions made in development, investment and occupation seemed overly influenced by short term considerations. In this paper, the authors review the Report and examine the concept of short termism as it affects urban design decisions. The paper concludes that although it is difficult to establish whether or not short termism exists in many decisions, there are grounds for believing that a priori short termism might particularly influence property orientated decisions. The paper ends with some implications for policy both at the economy and local level

Sit-to stand ground reaction force changes after hip resurfacing or total hip replacement: a pilot study

Two groups of osteoarthritis patients had their ground reaction forces measured during a sit-to-stand task at three months post-operation. One group had a 32mm femoral head fitted during a total hip replacement procedure and the other group had a hip resurfacing procedure. Three validated orthopaedic score questionnaires and an activity questionnaire were completed prior to surgery and at three months post-operation. This pilot study showed that there were no significant differences in the ground reaction forces in the operated and non-operated limb between the groups although both groups exhibited significantly higher ground reaction forces on the non-operated limb compared to the operated one. None of the orthopaedic scores showed any significant differences between the groups, despite the resurfacing group reporting higher levels of sporting activity at three months postoperation

From catastrophe to complexity: a novel model of integrative central neural regulation of effort and fatigue during exercise in humans

It is a popular belief that exercise performance is limited by metabolic changes in the exercising muscles, so called peripheral fatigue. Exercise terminates when there is a catastrophic failure of homoeostasis in the exercising muscles. A revolutionary theory is presented that proposes that exercise performance is regulated by the central nervous system specifically to ensure that catastrophic physiological failure does not occur during normal exercise in humans

Physiological correlates of performance in international-standard squash players

Tactical, technical and fitness factors are important for success in elite squash. While tactical and endurance fitness aspects have been explored, altered demands that have resulted from rule changes and absence of specific tests of high-intensity exercise capabilities have prevented identification of elements of fitness that correlate with performance in elite-standard players. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to investigate relationships between test scores and player rank in such players. With institutional ethics approval, 31 players from the England Squash performance programme participated (11 women and 20 men, mean±SD body mass 62.4±5.5 kg and 73.1±7.5 kg respectively). After habituation, participants completed countermovement and drop-jump tests, squash-specific tests of change-of-direction speed and multiple-sprint ability and the multistage fitness test in one test session. Short recoveries were allowed between tests. World rank at the time of testing was obtained from the Professional Squash Association website. In men, change-of-direction speed (??=?0.59, p?=?0.02, n?=?14) multiple-sprint ability (??=?0.78, p<0.01, n?=?13) and fastest sprint from the multiple-sprint test (??=?0.86, p<0.01, n?=?13) correlated with world rank. In women, only fastest repetition from the multiple-sprint test correlated with world rank (??=?0.65, p?=?0.04, n?=?10). Measures of high-intensity exercise capability correlated with world rank in elite-standard men and women players. Endurance capability did not relate to rank in either the men or women. The results suggest that high-intensity, variable-direction exercise capabilities are important for success in elite squash

Can patients really make an informed choice? An evaluation of the availability of online information about consultant surgeons in the United Kingdom.

Objectives - The National Health Service (NHS) 'Choose and Book' online scheme, which allows patients to select the location and time of hospital appointments, has now been extended to include the option for patients to select a specific consultant to carry out any necessary treatment. The aim of this study was to determine whether there is sufficient online information about consultants or consultant-led teams for patients to make an informed choice regarding a specific consultant. Design - A web-based analysis of the availability of information. Setting - North of England. Participants - Two hundred websites of orthopaedic surgeons. Main outcome measures - The websites were analysed using a bespoke template that took into account recommendations of the 2010 UK Government white paper. Each website was scored in relation to the availability of specific content relating to each surgeon. Results - The majority of websites detailed authorship information (73.2%), level of professional qualification (98.5%) and area of general (73.7%) and specialist (93.3%) interest. However, approximately 50% of websites provided no information in relation to update cycle, involvement in teaching or research and patient satisfaction. Only five (2.6%) of the websites presented death rates, and none indicated morbidity rates. Conclusions - For patients to be able to make informed choices about their healthcare, surgeons need to ensure that sufficient information is available online, according to the identified limitations of the websites investigated in this study

MIREOT: the Minimum Information to Reference an External Ontology Term

While the Web Ontology Language (OWL) provides a mechanism to import ontologies, this mechanism is not always suitable. First, given the current state of editing tools and the issues they have working with large ontologies, direct OWL imports have sometimes proven impractical for day-to-day development. Second, ontologies chosen for integration may be under active development and not aligned with the chosen design principles. Importing heterogeneous ontologies in their entirety may lead to inconsistencies or unintended inferences. In this paper we propose a set of guidelines for importing required terms from an external resource into a target ontology. We describe the guidelines, their implementation, present some examples of application, and outline future work and extensions

Plant growth-promoting <i>Bacillus </i>suppress <i>Brevicoryne brassicae</i> field infestation and trigger density-dependent and density-independent natural enemy responses

Soil-dwelling Plant Growth Promoting (PGP) Bacillus live in intimate associations with plants; some species offer direct benefits via plant growth promotion while others confer protection against various pathogens. However, the roles of PGP Bacillus as elicitors of plant defences against agricultural pests and as a component of integrated pest management systems remain virtually unexplored. The effects of three major ubiquitous gram positive rhizobacteria; Bacillus cereus, Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus amyloliquefaciens were studied individually and in admixture on (i) calabrese (sprouting broccoli, Brassica oleracea) vegetative and reproductive growth parameters and (ii) the population dynamics of the specialist cosmopolitan pest, cabbage aphid (Brevicoryne brassicae) infestation, and its important natural enemies; the braconid endoparasitoid (Diaeretiella rapae), ladybird beetle (Coccinella septempunctata) and syrphid fly (all species). We found that all Bacillus treatments efficiently suppressed B. brassicae field populations in varying magnitudes. B. cereus and B. subtilis significantly increased the rates of parasitism by D. rapae, however, none of the other treated plants lured natural enemies, which responded in a density-dependent manner. Although the mixed Bacillus treatment significantly reduced root weight ratio, none of the Bacillus spp. treatments produced significant effects on calabrese growth. Taken together, PGP Bacillus may offer multiple plant benefits through suppressed pest infestation and increased percent parasitism in the field, with potential applications in integrated pest management