CRITICAL SPEED AND CRITICAL STROKE RATE COULD BE USEFUL PHYSIOLOGICAL AND TECHNICAL CRITERIA FOR COACHES TO MONITOR ENDURANCE PERFORMANCE IN COMPETITIVE SWIMMERS

The purposes of this study were to determine whether the concepts of critical swimming speed (CSS) and critical stroke rate (CSR) could be reliable and used by coaches in order to control and monitor endurance performance in competitive swimmers. The results of this study conducted with well-trained swimmers showed that CSS could be determined easily from two common distances and more accurately from 200- and 400-m tests after a correction of minus 1.4 %. Moreover, CSS was well correlated with swimming velocity corresponding to 4 mmol.l-1 of blood lactate concentration and could avoid using lactate testing. Furthermore, the concept of a critical stroke rate defined as ‘the stroke rate value, which can be theoretically maintained continuously indefinitely without exhaustion’ and expressed, as the slope of the regression line between the number of stroke cycles and time seemed to be reliable. Coaches, in order to set not only aerobic training loads but also to control swimming technique, could easily use CSS and CSR

A life cycle stakeholder management framework for enhanced collaboration between stakeholders with competing interests

This is a postprint version of the Book Chapter. Information regarding the official publication is available from the link below - Copyright @ 2011 SpringerImplementation of a Life Cycle Sustainability Management (LCSM) strategy can involve significant challenges because of competing or conflicting objectives between stakeholders. These differences may, if not identified and managed, hinder successful adoption of sustainability initiatives. This article proposes a conceptual framework for stakeholder management in a LCSM context. The framework identifies the key sustainability stakeholder groups and suggests strategic ambiguity as a management tool to harness dysfunctional conflict into constructive collaboration. The framework is of practical value as it can be used as a guideline by managers who wish to improve collaboration with stakeholders along the supply chain. The article also fills a gap in the academic literature where there is only limited research on sustainability stakeholder management through strategic ambiguity

Cracking in asphalt materials

This chapter provides a comprehensive review of both laboratory characterization and modelling of bulk material fracture in asphalt mixtures. For the purpose of organization, this chapter is divided into a section on laboratory tests and a section on models. The laboratory characterization section is further subdivided on the basis of predominant loading conditions (monotonic vs. cyclic). The section on constitutive models is subdivided into two sections, the first one containing fracture mechanics based models for crack initiation and propagation that do not include material degradation due to cyclic loading conditions. The second section discusses phenomenological models that have been developed for crack growth through the use of dissipated energy and damage accumulation concepts. These latter models have the capability to simulate degradation of material capacity upon exceeding a threshold number of loading cycles.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Peculiarities of a wake potential formation due to a polarization interaction of channeling electron with ionic crystal solid state plasma

Under the influence of electric and magnetic fields generated by a nonrelativistic electron moving in the regime of a plane channeling, the induced time dependent ion electric dipole moments of a crystal medium are calculated. Accounting the causality principle for this dipole system a general scalar potential which can be named a “wake” one is found. It is shown that this potential in some crystallographic directions (for example, in ionic crystals) may lead to an essential reverse influence on the regime of the channeling particle motion.Под воздействием электрического и магнитного полей, создаваемых движущимся в режиме плоскостного каналирования релятивистским электроном, рассчитываются зависящие от времени наведенные электрические дипольные моменты ионов кристаллической среды. С учетом принципа причинности для этой системы диполей находится суммарный скалярный потенциал, который можно назвать “кильватерным потенциалом”. Показывается, что этот потенциал в некоторых кристаллографических направлениях (например, в ионных кристаллах) может приводить к существенному обратному влиянию на режим движения каналируемой частицы.Під дією електричного та магнітного полів, створених рухомим у режимі площинного каналювання релятивістським електроном, розраховуються залежні від часу наведені електричні дипольні моменти іонів кристалічного середовища. На підставі врахування принципу причинності для цієї системи диполів знаходиться сумарний скалярний потенціал, який можна назвати “кільватерним потенціалом”. Показується, що цей потенціал у деяких кристалографічних напрямках (наприклад, в іонних кристалах) може приводити до суттєвого зворотного впливу на режим руху канальованої частинки

An improvement of the Berry--Esseen inequality with applications to Poisson and mixed Poisson random sums

By a modification of the method that was applied in (Korolev and Shevtsova, 2009), here the inequalities $$\rho(F_n,\Phi)\le\frac{0.335789(\beta^3+0.425)}{\sqrt{n}}$$ and $$\rho(F_n,\Phi)\le \frac{0.3051(\beta^3+1)}{\sqrt{n}}$$ are proved for the uniform distance $\rho(F_n,\Phi)$ between the standard normal distribution function $\Phi$ and the distribution function $F_n$ of the normalized sum of an arbitrary number $n\ge1$ of independent identically distributed random variables with zero mean, unit variance and finite third absolute moment $\beta^3$. The first of these inequalities sharpens the best known version of the classical Berry--Esseen inequality since $0.335789(\beta^3+0.425)\le0.335789(1+0.425)\beta^3<0.4785\beta^3$ by virtue of the condition $\beta^3\ge1$, and 0.4785 is the best known upper estimate of the absolute constant in the classical Berry--Esseen inequality. The second inequality is applied to lowering the upper estimate of the absolute constant in the analog of the Berry--Esseen inequality for Poisson random sums to 0.3051 which is strictly less than the least possible value of the absolute constant in the classical Berry--Esseen inequality. As a corollary, the estimates of the rate of convergence in limit theorems for compound mixed Poisson distributions are refined.Comment: 33 page

Chronic Eczematous Eruptions of the Elderly Are Associated with Chronic Exposure to Calcium Channel Blockers: Results from a Case–Control Study

It has been suggested that chronic eczematous eruptions of the elderly could be associated with chronic drug exposure. To determine the drugs associated with these eruptions, we conducted a case–control study on 102 cases and 204 controls. Cases were consecutive patients older than 60 years presenting with an eczematous eruption that had evolved continuously or recurrently for more than 3 months without a reliable cause. Two controls were matched to each case on age, sex, in/outpatient origin, and center. Information about drug exposure was obtained from patients and their pharmacists. Drug use for more than 3 months within the year preceding the eruption was compared between cases and controls. An association was found between calcium channel blockers (CCB) and eczema, with a matched OR (odds ratio) of 2.5 (95% CI (confidence interval): 1.3–4.6). To ascertain the course of patients after CCB withdrawal, two ancillary studies were performed on 74 patients with eczematous eruptions from our department before the case–control study period, and on 101 patients registered in the French “Pharmacovigilance” database. Healing of these eruptions after CCB withdrawal occurred in 83 and 68% of these cases, respectively. The long-term use of CCB is a risk factor for chronic eczematous eruptions of the elderly

Face Value: The Rhetoric of Facial Disfigurement in American Film and Popular Culture, 1917-27

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Taylor & Francis via the DOI in this record.The return of facially disfigured men from the trenches of World War One occasioned a muted public reaction in the US. However, this article will show that burgeoning discourses concerning plastic surgery in the US also generated a significant reaction in the popular press, and that these were reflected, too, in several feature films dealing with facial surgery on disfigured veterans. Though several of these films depicted miraculous transformations occasioned by the surgeons, Robert Florey’s 1927 film, Face Value, focused on an American veteran with facial scarring that could not be repaired. The article will argue that this film drew strongly upon the increasingly prominent public presence of the gueules cassées in the US during 1926 and 1927. Depicting gueules cassées and their facial injuries prominently in several scenes, the film brought to attention difficult questions concerning the futures of such men, which the US media had hitherto rarely addressed