Winning by hiding behind others: An analysis of speed skating data

In some athletic races, such as cycling and types of speed skating races, athletes have to complete a relatively long distance at a high speed in the presence of direct opponents. To win such a race, athletes are motivated to hide behind others to suppress energy consumption before a final moment of the race. This situation seems to produce a social dilemma: players want to hide behind others, whereas if a group of players attempts to do so, they may all lose to other players that overtake them. To support that speed skaters are involved in such a social dilemma, we analyzed video footage data for 14 mass start skating races to find that skaters that hid behind others to avoid air resistance for a long time before the final lap tended to win. Furthermore, the finish rank of the skaters in mass start races was independent of the record of the same skaters in time-trial races measured in the absence of direct opponents. The results suggest that how to strategically cope with a skater's dilemma may be a key determinant for winning long-distance and high-speed races with direct opponents.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure

High-Efficiency Sky Blue-To-Green Fluorescent Emitters Based on 3-Pyridinecarbonitrile Derivatives

The pyridinecarbonitrile derivative is well known as an acceptor unit in fluorescent materials. However, its use in thermally activated delayed fluorescent (TADF) emitters is very limited compared with its benzenecarbonitrile counterparts. Very recently, we developed a series of 4-pyridinecarbonitrile, so-called isonicotinonitrile derivatives, as a highly efficient sky blue-to-green TADF emitters realizing low-drive-voltage organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs). In this work, we contributed new design and development for three 3-pyridinecarbonitrile-based TADF emitters named 2AcNN, 2PXZNN, and 5PXZNN. Among these emitters, a sky blue emitter, 2AcNN, showed a maximum external quantum efficiency (ηext,max) of 12% with CIE (0.19, 0.36). While green emitters, 5PXZNN and 2PXZNN, realized highly efficient TADF OLEDs with a ηext,max of 16–20%. Introduction of electron-donor moiety into the 2-position of 3-pyridinecarbonitrile contributes a larger overlapping of frontier molecular orbitals (FMOs) and stronger intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) interaction generating efficient TADF emitters

Reliability and Validity of the Japanese Version of the Basel Assessment of Adherence to Immunosuppressive Medications Scale in Kidney Transplant Recipients

A valid and reliable instrument that can measure adherence is needed to identify nonadherent patients and to improve adherence. However, there is no validated Japanese self-report instrument to evaluate adherence to immunosuppressive medications for transplant patients. The purpose of this study was to determine the reliability and validity of the Japanese version of the Basel Assessment of Adherence to Immunosuppressive Medications Scale (BAASIS).; We translated the BAASIS into Japanese and developed the Japanese version of the BAASIS (J-BAASIS) according to the International Society of Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research task force guidelines. We analyzed the reliability (test-retest reliability and measurement error) and validity of the J-BAASIS (concurrent validity with the medication event monitoring system and the 12-item Medication Adherence Scale) referring to the COSMIN Risk of Bias checklist.; A total of 106 kidney transplant recipients were included in this study. In the analysis of test-retest reliability, Cohen's kappa coefficient was found to be 0.62. In the analysis of measurement error, the positive and negative agreement were 0.78 and 0.84, respectively. In the analysis of concurrent validity with the medication event monitoring system, sensitivity and specificity were 0.84 and 0.90, respectively. In the analysis of concurrent validity with the 12-item Medication Adherence Scale, the point-biserial correlation coefficient for the "medication compliance" subscale was 0.38 (; P; < 0.001).; The J-BAASIS was determined to have good reliability and validity. Using the J-BAASIS to evaluate adherence can help clinicians to identify medication nonadherence and institute appropriate corrective measures to improve transplant outcomes

後筋筋電図法

The posterior cricoarytenoid muscle (PCA) is the major laryngeal vocal cord abductor, and electromyography (EMG) of this muscle plays an important role in investigating the mechanism of speech and respiration. However, the EMG study of this muscle has been limited, because it's location makes it difficult to record a signal from the muscle. Different PCA recording techniques have been developed. The approach to the muscle developed along three main lines: per oral, percutaneous and per nasal approach. Three kinds of electrodes; a bipolar needle electrode, a surface electrode and a hooked wire electrode have been used for the recording. Techniques of electrode placement in the PCA are reviewed

喉頭ストロボスコピー所見の定量的評価

A computer system was introduced for quantitative evaluation of laryngeal images in normal volunteers and laryngeal paralysis patients. The subjects consisted of 10 normal volunteers and 10 patients with unilateral laryngeal paralysis (5 median fixation cases and 5 paramedian fixation cases). For phonatory examination, the sustained vowel /e/ with an easy phonation level was used. A glottal area was measured in digitized laryngeal stroboscopic images and normalized by the square of the vocal fold length. The average glottal area was defined to be as the average of the maximum and the minimum normalized glottal areas. In laryngeal paralysis patients, the average glottal area became larger as the paralyzed vocal fold position deviated from the median. Furthermore, the observation methods for vocal fold vibration was reveiwed and discussed. It emphasized that laryngeal stroboscopy was the most useful clinical testing methods