Discrepancy between training,competition and laboratory measures of maximum heart rate in NCAA division 2 distance runners

A percentage of either measured or predicted maximum heart rate is commonly used to prescribe and measure exercise intensity. However, maximum heart rate in athletes may be greater during competition or training than during laboratory exercise testing. Thus, the aim of the present investigation was to determine if endurance-trained runners train and compete at or above laboratory measures of ''maximum'' heart rate. Maximum heart rates were measured utilising a treadmill graded exercise test (GXT) in a laboratory setting using 10 female and 10 male National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) division 2 cross-country and distance event track athletes. Maximum training and competition heart rates were measured during a high-intensity interval training day (TR HR) and during competition (COMP HR) at an NCAA meet. TR HR (207 ± 5.0 b·min^-1; means ± SEM) and COMP HR (206 ± 4 b·min^-1) were significantly (p < 0.05) higher than maximum heart rates obtained during the GXT (194 ± 2 b·min^-1). The heart rate at the ventilatory threshold measured in the laboratory occurred at 83.3 ± 2.5% of the heart rate at VO₂ max with no differences between the men and women. However, the heart rate at the ventilatory threshold measured in the laboratory was only 77% of the maximal COMP HR or TR HR. In order to optimize training-induced adaptation, training intensity for NCAA division 2 distance event runners should not be based on laboratory assessment of maximum heart rate, but instead on maximum heart rate obtained either during training or during competition.

Key points

• A percentage of maximum heart rate is commonly used to prescribe and measure exercise intensity. However, maximum heart rate may be greater during competition or training than during laboratory exercise testing.
• Heart rates during training and competition were significantly higher than maximum heart rates obtained during laboratory exercise testing.
• To optimize training-induced adaptation, training intensity for NCAA division 2 distance event runners should not be based on laboratory assessment of maximum heart rate, but instead on maximum heart rate measure obtained either during training or during competition.

Key words: Competition, heart rate, laboratory, performance, running, training     

Clinically relevant pretraining is all you need

Clinical notes present a wealth of information for applications in the clinical domain, but heterogeneity across clinical institutions and settings presents challenges for their processing. The clinical natural language processing field has made strides in overcoming domain heterogeneity, while pretrained deep learning models present opportunities to transfer knowledge from one task to another. Pretrained models have performed well when transferred to new tasks; however, it is not well understood if these models generalize across differences in institutions and settings within the clinical domain. We explore if institution or setting specific pretraining is necessary for pretrained models to perform well when transferred to new tasks. We find no significant performance difference between models pretrained across institutions and settings, indicating that clinically pretrained models transfer well across such boundaries. Given a clinically pretrained model, clinical natural language processing researchers may forgo the time-consuming pretraining step without a significant performance drop.     

Metabolism of androgens in various histological variants of bone tumors]

The role of androgens in human normal and neoplastic bone tissues is still unclear. The paper presents data on metabolism of androgens in homogenates of malignant (osteosarcoma, chondrosarcoma, Ewing and giant cell) and benign primary tumors from 46 male and female patients aged 14-58 years. Using two substrates (testosterone and 5 alpha-dihydrotestosterone) for the first time are shown activities of main enzymes of androgen metabolism in all tumor types. 5 alpha-reductase activity was similar in all tumors, 3 alpha-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase activity was the highest while that of 17 beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase was the lowest. Unknown metabolite(s) of 5 alpha-dehydrotestosterone was discovered which may be hydroxy-metabolites of 5 alpha-androstane-3 beta, 17 beta-diol. A principal scheme of androgen metabolism in human neoplastic tissue is proposed.     

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