Cycling time to failure is better maintained by cold than contrast or thermoneutral lower-body water immersion in normothermia

Purpose
To examine the effects of four commonly used recovery treatments applied between two bouts of intense endurance cycling on the performance of the second bout in normothermia (~21 °C).

Methods
Nine trained men completed two submaximal exhaustive cycling bouts (Ex1 and Ex2: 5 min at ~50 % V˙O2 peak, followed by 5 min at ~60 % V˙O2 peak and then ~80 % V˙O2 peak to failure) separated by 30 min of (a) cold water immersion at 15 °C (C15), (b) contrast water therapy alternating 2.5 min at 8 °C and 2.5 min at 40 °C (CT), (c) thermoneutral water immersion at 34 °C (T34) and (d) cycling at ~40 % V˙O2 peak (AR).

Results
Exercise performance, cardiovascular and metabolic responses during Ex1 were similar among all trials. However, time to failure (~80 % V˙O2 peak bout) during Ex2 was significantly (P < 0.05) longer in C15 (18.0 ± 1.6) than in CT (14.5 ± 1.5), T34 (12.4 ± 1.4) and AR (10.6 ± 1.0); and it was also longer (P < 0.05) in CT than AR. Core temperature and heart rate were significantly (P < 0.05) lower during the initial ~15 min of Ex2 during C15 compared with all other conditions but they reached similar levels at the end of Ex2.

Conclusions
A 30 min period of C15 was more beneficial in maintaining intense submaximal cycling performance than CT, T34 and AR; and CT was also more beneficial than T34 and AR. These effects were not mediated by the effect of water immersion per se, but by the continuous (C15) or intermittent (CT) temperature stimulus (cold) applied throughout the recovery.

Quantitatively evaluating the effects of price promotions using data mining

Price promotions (also called discount promotions), i.e. short-term temporary price reductions for selected items (Hermann 1989), are frequently used in sales promotions. The main objective of price promotions is to boost sales and increase profits. Quantitative evaluation of the effects of price promotions (QEEPP) is essential and important for sales managers to analyse historical price promotions and informative for devising more effective promotional strategies in the future. However, most previous studies only provide insights into the effects of discount promotions from some specific prospectives, and no approaches have been proposed for comprehensive evaluation of the effects of discount promotions. For example, Hinkle [1965] discovered that price promotions in the off-season are more favourable, and the effects of price promotions are stronger for new products. Peckham [1973] found that price promotions have no impact on long-term trend. Blattberg et al. [1978] identified that different segments respond to price promotions in different ways. Rockney [1991] discovered three basic types of effects: effects on discounted items, effects on substitutes and effects on complementary items.

Auditor industry specialisation, service bundling and partner effects in a mining-dominated city

This study examines auditor industry specialisation effects in Perth, a remote mining town in Australia characterised by a large number of small, homogeneous firms. We consider the impact of leadership by the non-Big 4 auditor BDO Kendalls (BDO) for a sample of 371 mining development stage entities (MDSE's). After controlling for factors known to determine audit fees, we find no evidence of auditor industry leadership fee premiums accruing to (BDO), a result robust to a range of sensitivity tests including the broadening of tests Australia-wide. However, when the dependent variable is redefined to the total 'bundle' of services provided by the audit firm (including audit and non-audit fees), the industry leader is shown to earn a fee premium suggesting BDO uses audits as a conduit to supply higher margin non-audit services. Our findings suggest that strategic pricing by industry leaders may not be confined to Big 4 firms.

A data mining framework for electricity consumption analysis from meter data

This paper presents a novel data mining framework for the exploration and extraction of actionable knowledge from data generated by electricity meters. Although a rich source of information for energy consumption analysis, electricity meters produce a voluminous, fast-paced, transient stream of data that conventional approaches are unable to address entirely. In order to overcome these issues, it is important for a data mining framework to incorporate functionality for interim summarization and incremental analysis using intelligent techniques. The proposed Incremental Summarization and Pattern Characterization (ISPC) framework demonstrates this capability. Stream data is structured in a data warehouse based on key dimensions enabling rapid interim summarization. Independently, the IPCL algorithm incrementally characterizes patterns in stream data and correlates these across time. Eventually, characterized patterns are consolidated with interim summarization to facilitate an overall analysis and prediction of energy consumption trends. Results of experiments conducted using the actual data from electricity meters confirm applicability of the ISPC framework.

A data mining approach for detection of self-propagating worms

In this paper we demonstrate our signature based detector for self-propagating worms. We use a set of worm and benign traffic traces of several endpoints to build benign and worm profiles. These profiles were arranged into separate n-ary trees. We also demonstrate our anomaly detector that was used to deal with tied matches between worm and benign trees. We analyzed the performance of each detector and also with their integration. Results show that our signature based detector can detect very high true positive. Meanwhile, the anomaly detector did not achieve high true positive. Both detectors, when used independently, suffer high false positive. However, when both detectors were integrated they maintained a high detection rate of true positive and minimized the false positive

What do indigenous communities think of the CSR practices of mining companies?

This paper examines how one indigenous community in the Western Province of Papua New Guinea (PNG) views the social responsibility initiatives of OK Tedi Mining Ltd (OTML). This mining operation has been controversial since its inception, and various operators of the mine have sought to engage the community and to undertake a number of CSR-related projects. Insights gained from four focus groups amongst the Ok Tedi River indigenous communities show that while some members of the community are satisfied with the company’s efforts at the macro level, many have reservations about the effectiveness of the programs at the micro level on the village and family unit. The implementation of CSR activities are slow and in many instances do not effectively address stakeholder concerns.

Foveal contrast processing of increment and decrement targets is equivalently reduced in glaucoma

Background: 

Impairments of contrast discrimination and contrast adaptation in glaucoma

Purpose: