TPS
Temporary Protected Status (TPS) is a temporary immigration status authorized by the Immigration Act of 1990, granting eligible nationals of designated foreign countries (or stateless persons who last resided there) protection from deportation and work authorization when their home country faces ongoing armed conflict, environmental disasters, epidemics, or other extraordinary and temporary conditions that prevent safe return.[1] The U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security designates countries for TPS for initial periods of 6 to 18 months, with possible extensions if conditions persist, though the status does not provide a direct path to lawful permanent residency or citizenship and requires continuous U.S. residence since a specified date for eligibility.[1] Beneficiaries must re-register during open periods and remain admissible, excluding those with certain criminal convictions or security risks.[1] As of March 2025, TPS protected approximately 1.3 million individuals from 17 designated countries, including longstanding cases like El Salvador (designated since 1990) and more recent ones such as Sudan and Ukraine, with beneficiaries contributing to the U.S. economy through taxes and labor in sectors like construction and healthcare.[2][3] The program's humanitarian intent has shielded migrants from perils like civil wars and natural disasters, but repeated extensions—often spanning decades for countries like Haiti and Nicaragua—have drawn criticism for transforming TPS into a de facto amnesty mechanism, undermining its temporary framework and incentivizing unauthorized entries followed by deferred enforcement.[4][5] Policy debates intensified under successive administrations, with termination efforts for nations like Venezuela and Haiti facing federal court injunctions alleging procedural flaws or discriminatory intent, while extensions under prior leadership expanded designations to over a dozen countries, prompting accusations of executive overreach and fiscal strain from unvetted long-term stays.[3][6] In 2025, the Department of Homeland Security initiated terminations for several designations, including Venezuela's, citing improved conditions and the need to restore TPS's original temporary purpose, though some face renewed litigation.[7][8] These actions underscore ongoing tensions between humanitarian relief and immigration enforcement priorities.[3]Government and Politics
Temporary Protected Status
Temporary Protected Status (TPS) is a humanitarian program administered by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that grants temporary immigration relief to eligible nationals of designated foreign states—or stateless individuals who last resided in those states—when the DHS Secretary determines that conditions such as ongoing armed conflict, environmental disasters, or other extraordinary and temporary circumstances would pose a serious hazard to their personal safety upon return.[1][3] Enacted under section 244 of the Immigration and Nationality Act as part of the Immigration Act of 1990, TPS provides deportation forbearance and eligibility for employment authorization during the designation period, typically 6 to 18 months, with possible extensions if conditions persist.[3][9] The program does not confer a path to permanent residency or citizenship but allows beneficiaries to apply for other relief if eligible, such as asylum or adjustment of status through family or employment ties developed during their stay.[10] The first TPS designations occurred in 1990 for El Salvador amid its civil war, followed by extensions and new ones for countries like Kuwait after the Gulf War invasion.[11][3] Over time, the program expanded under successive administrations; by March 2025, approximately 1.3 million individuals from 17 designated countries benefited, including Haiti, El Salvador, Venezuela, Ukraine, and Syria, though numbers fluctuated with redesignations and terminations.[12] As of October 2025, following DHS terminations and U.S. Supreme Court rulings upholding them, active designations persist for fewer countries, such as El Salvador and Myanmar, with over 700,000 estimated beneficiaries remaining after the effective ends for Haiti (September 2, 2025) and Venezuela (post-October 3, 2025 Supreme Court stay lift).[13][7][14] The DHS Secretary holds sole discretion to designate, extend, or terminate TPS based on periodic reviews of foreign conditions, a process often subject to litigation.[1] TPS beneficiaries receive protection from removal proceedings, work authorization via Form I-765, and in some cases, travel permission, enabling family unity and economic participation during crises.[10] Empirical analyses indicate TPS holders contribute significantly to the U.S. economy; for instance, those from El Salvador, Honduras, and Haiti alone generated about $4.5 billion in annual pre-tax wages as of recent estimates, while households headed by TPS holders paid roughly $2.2 billion in total taxes in 2021, supporting federal, state, and local revenues.[12][15] These contributions stem from labor in sectors like construction, services, and manufacturing, where TPS fills workforce gaps without displacing native workers, per labor market data.[16] Despite its temporary framing, TPS has faced criticism for recurrent extensions—over 90% of initial designations have been prolonged—effectively granting de facto long-term residency and enabling chain migration through family-based petitions or adjustment pathways after years in the U.S.[17] This pattern, evident in cases like El Salvador's 30+ years of coverage, raises causal concerns about incentivizing irregular migration to the U.S. rather than addressing root governance failures in origin countries, with fiscal burdens on taxpayers estimated in debates to include welfare access and enforcement costs exceeding contributions in net terms, though precise aggregates vary by study.[3] Politicization is evident across administrations: Trump-era terminations for Haiti, Venezuela, and others were challenged in court as arbitrary but largely upheld, including a 2025 Supreme Court decision allowing immediate effect for Venezuela, affirming executive discretion.[7][18] Conversely, Biden-era extensions for Ukraine, Sudan, and others drew accusations from restrictionist perspectives of evading congressional limits on amnesty, prolonging uncertainty without resolving foreign instabilities.[19][20] Humanitarian advocates emphasize TPS's role in averting returns to peril, yet empirical outcomes highlight tensions between short-term relief and long-term policy realism, with mainstream sources often underemphasizing enforcement strains due to institutional biases favoring expansive interpretations.[3][17]Computing and Technology
Transactions Per Second
Transactions per second (TPS) measures the throughput of a computing system by counting the number of atomic transactions—such as database reads, writes, or ledger updates that execute fully or roll back to ensure consistency—it can process in one second. This metric is fundamental for assessing performance in online transaction processing (OLTP) environments, where high-volume applications like financial services, e-commerce, and payment networks demand reliable scalability without data loss or delays.[21][22] The TPS concept traces to the 1970s mainframe computing era, when early transaction monitors quantified capacity for business workloads involving concurrent user interactions. Standardized evaluation emerged with benchmarks like TPC-C, introduced in the 1990s by the Transaction Processing Performance Council, which simulates a wholesale supplier's order-entry system through five transaction types (e.g., new orders, payments, stock checks) across warehouses and districts to yield comparable tpmC (transactions per minute) results, convertible to TPS. Modern databases achieve TPS in the tens of thousands under TPC-C via optimized hardware and indexing, though results must account for price-performance ratios and full disclosure rules to prevent misleading optimizations.[23] In blockchain networks, TPS highlights decentralization's scalability trade-offs, as consensus mechanisms prioritize security and fault tolerance over raw speed. Bitcoin's network sustains approximately 3 to 7 TPS on average, constrained by 1-megabyte block limits and 10-minute intervals under proof-of-work. Ethereum's base layer processes 15 to 30 TPS, bottlenecked by gas limits and EVM execution, though layer-2 rollups like Optimism batch transactions to reach thousands of TPS while settling on layer-1 for finality. These figures derive from live network data, contrasting with theoretical maxima; for instance, Visa's centralized system averages 1,700 TPS in production, scaling to peaks beyond 20,000 TPS in controlled tests.[24][25][26] Real-world TPS often falls short of vendor claims due to variables like network latency, validator synchronization, and adversarial conditions absent in lab simulations. Blockchain projects frequently report peak TPS from isolated tests (e.g., Avalanche's consensus demonstrating over 4,500 TPS in sub-second finality scenarios), but independent monitoring of live chains reveals sustained rates orders of magnitude lower amid real traffic, underscoring the need for adversarial audits over promotional benchmarks. Limiting factors include sharding inefficiencies, state bloat from smart contracts, and the blockchain trilemma, where boosting TPS via centralization risks censorship or double-spends—evident in Ethereum's post-Merge persistence below 30 TPS despite upgrades. Transparent, peer-reviewed testing thus remains critical to distinguish viable systems from hype-driven overstatements.[27][28][29]Transaction Processing System
A transaction processing system (TPS) consists of integrated software and hardware components engineered to execute high volumes of routine, data-intensive business operations, such as inventory updates from sales orders or financial debits from ATM withdrawals. Central to TPS design are the ACID properties—atomicity, which guarantees that transactions complete fully or not at all; consistency, preserving data integrity rules; isolation, preventing interference between concurrent transactions; and durability, ensuring committed changes persist despite failures.[30][31] These attributes enable reliable handling of repetitive tasks where errors could propagate financial or operational losses.[32] Early TPS relied on batch processing, accumulating transactions for periodic execution without immediate user interaction, a method dominant until the 1960s. Transition to online real-time processing accelerated with systems like IBM's Information Management System (IMS), developed jointly with North American Rockwell for NASA's Apollo program and first deployed in 1968, which incorporated hierarchical databases and transaction queuing for ordered execution.[33][34] Preceding IMS, IBM's Sabre system for American Airlines, operational by 1964, marked an initial TPS milestone by automating seat reservations across multiple IBM 7090 computers, processing up to 83,000 flights daily through centralized coordination.[32] This evolution shifted from offline aggregation to interactive systems, incorporating recovery logs for auditing and rollback to mitigate data corruption from hardware faults.[35] TPS variants distinguish batch processing, suited for non-time-sensitive bulk operations like payroll computation at end-of-cycle, from online transaction processing (OLTP), which supports immediate, user-driven interactions via normalized databases minimizing redundancy.[36][37] Core elements include transaction managers orchestrating resource locks and commits, persistent logs recording pre- and post-change states for durability, and queuing subsystems buffering inputs during peaks to prevent overload.[38] Commercial implementations, such as Oracle Database OLTP modules or SAP's enterprise resource planning integrations, embed these for enterprise-scale deployment.[30] Distributed TPS face reliability challenges, addressed by protocols like two-phase commit, where a coordinator polls participants in a preparation phase before issuing global commits or rollbacks, averting partial updates across nodes.[39] Scalability demands trade-offs, with sharding—dividing datasets horizontally across servers—enabling parallel processing but introducing coordination overhead that can degrade consistency under high contention.[40] Overloads exacerbate risks, as seen in 2019 Sabre reservation system glitches affecting American Airlines, triggering over 2,000 delays from unhandled transaction surges.[41] Cloud adaptations, via platforms like AWS Lambda for serverless orchestration, bolster fault tolerance through multi-region replication and automatic failover, though latency spikes persist in geo-distributed commits.[42]Science and Engineering
Thermal Protection System
A thermal protection system (TPS) consists of specialized materials designed to shield aerospace vehicles from extreme aerodynamic heating during atmospheric reentry, where temperatures can exceed 1,650 °C (3,000 °F) due to friction with air molecules compressed at hypersonic speeds.[43][44] These systems operate on principles of heat dissipation, either through ablation—where surface material vaporizes and carries away thermal energy—or insulation via low-conductivity reusables that limit heat transfer to underlying structures.[45] Ablative TPS, common in single-use capsules, prioritizes peak heat flux tolerance over longevity, while reusable variants, as in orbiters, emphasize minimal mass loss for multiple missions but require precise engineering to avoid cracking or detachment under thermal cycling.[46] Development of TPS traces to the 1950s amid intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) programs, where ablative nose cones were essential for warhead reentry vehicles to survive plasma sheaths forming at Mach 20+ velocities.[44] Early U.S. efforts, such as the Atlas and Titan missiles operational by 1959-1962, relied on phenolic resins that char and erode controllably, informed by wind tunnel tests simulating reentry trajectories.[47] NASA's Space Shuttle program (1981-2011) advanced reusable TPS with over 20,000 silica-based tiles (high-temperature reusable surface insulation, or HRSI) coating the orbiter's underside, capable of withstanding 1,260 °C (2,300 °F) while maintaining structural integrity through porosity that radiates heat.[48] Carbon-carbon composites reinforced the nose cone and wing leading edges for peaks up to 1,650 °C, balancing low density (1.7 g/cm³) against oxidation risks.[43] Catastrophic failures underscored TPS vulnerabilities and drove iterative improvements grounded in postmortem analyses. The 1986 Challenger disaster stemmed from O-ring seal failure in a solid rocket booster joint, exacerbated by launch temperatures of -1 °C (30 °F) below design limits, allowing hot gases to breach containment—highlighting thermal seal dependencies in launch systems ancillary to reentry TPS.[49] More directly impacting reentry shielding, the 2003 Columbia accident (STS-107) occurred when foam insulation debris from the external tank, weighing about 1.5 kg, struck the left wing at 500 m/s during ascent, breaching reinforced carbon-carbon panels and allowing superheated plasma intrusion at 2,800 m altitude, disintegrating the vehicle and crew.[50] Subsequent hypervelocity impact testing and redesigns, including serial inspection ports and tougher nose plugs, informed the Orion capsule's adoption of AVCOAT—a phenolic epoxy ablative applied as 5,800 blocks totaling 240 kg, verified through 1,000+ arc-jet and flight tests to endure lunar-return heats up to 2,760 °C.[51] Beyond crewed spacecraft, TPS principles apply to ICBM reentry vehicles, where ablatives like carbon-phenolic ensure 90%+ survivability against ablation rates of 1-5 mm/s under 10 MW/m² fluxes, and emerging hypersonic vehicles like the U.S. Air Force's X-51 Waverider, which integrate ceramic matrix composites for sustained Mach 6+ flight.[44] Trade-offs center on mass efficiency: reusables reduce per-flight weight by 20-30% over ablatives for high-flight-rate vehicles but demand costly refurbishment (Shuttle tiles averaged 10-20% replacement per mission), whereas ablatives excel in one-off high-energy entries yet add launch mass penalties from char residue.[52] Empirical data from ground simulations prioritize minimal-thickness designs—e.g., Orion's 3.6 cm AVCOAT layer—optimized via finite-element modeling of pyrolysis and recession to achieve bondline temperatures below 150 °C.[53]Throttle Position Sensor
The throttle position sensor (TPS) is an electronic sensor that measures the angular position of the throttle valve in fuel-injected internal combustion engines, transmitting this data as a variable voltage signal to the engine control unit (ECU). This input allows the ECU to calculate and adjust the appropriate air-fuel mixture ratio, injector pulse width, and ignition timing based on driver demand.[54][55] In operation, the TPS typically employs a potentiometer mechanism with three wires: a 5V reference supply, a ground, and a signal output that varies linearly from approximately 0.5 volts at closed throttle (idle) to 4.5 volts at wide-open throttle, corresponding to a mechanical range of 0 to 90 degrees.[55][56] Non-contact variants, such as Hall effect or inductive sensors, have gained prevalence in newer designs to reduce wear from mechanical wiper contact and improve reliability under high-vibration conditions.[57] TPS integration became standard with the widespread adoption of electronic fuel injection (EFI) systems in passenger vehicles during the 1980s, following early implementations in select European models from the late 1970s, such as those by Volkswagen and Bosch.[58] By providing real-time throttle position data independent of airflow sensors like mass air flow (MAF) or manifold absolute pressure (MAP), the TPS enables the ECU to distinguish between steady-state cruising, rapid acceleration, and deceleration, optimizing transient engine responses for smoother operation and reduced emissions.[59] Failures, often due to sensor wear, wiring faults, or contamination, manifest as erratic idling, hesitation during acceleration, decreased fuel efficiency, or engine stalling, commonly triggering OBD-II diagnostic trouble code P0120 for throttle/pedal position sensor circuit malfunction.[60][61][62] In terms of performance impacts, precise TPS feedback contributes to fuel economy gains in EFI-equipped engines; for instance, optimized throttle body designs incorporating TPS in throttle body injection systems have demonstrated reductions in fuel consumption by approximately 6% under low-load conditions compared to carbureted predecessors.[63] Broader electronic throttle control (ETC) architectures, which rely on TPS for position verification, further enhance efficiency and driveability, with studies indicating potential improvements in emissions compliance and overall economy through better transient control.[64] In hybrid electric vehicles and full electric vehicles, TPS equivalents—often pedal position sensors—support drive-by-wire systems, where electronic signals from the accelerator replace mechanical cables, allowing integrated control of electric motor torque and regenerative braking without direct throttle valve linkage.[65][66] This adaptation maintains the core function of position monitoring while enabling software-mediated interventions for safety and efficiency, such as torque limiting during traction loss.[67]Other Uses in Science and Engineering
In electronics and test engineering, TPS refers to a Test Program Set, comprising executable test software, interface test adapters, and supporting documentation designed to diagnose and verify the performance of electronic assemblies on automated test equipment. These sets are integral to military and defense applications, where they facilitate fault isolation and system validation in compliance with standards such as DI-ATTS-82427 for TPS data requirements and guidelines from the Automatic Test Systems Development Plan.[68][69] Development involves interface device design, code compilation, and integration testing, often tailored for platforms like the Consolidated Automated Support System (CASS) family of testers.[70] In materials engineering for glazing and insulation systems, TPS designates Thermo Plastic Spacer, a pliable, molecular sieve-filled thermoplastic profile extruded directly onto glass edges during insulating glass unit production. This spacer serves as both primary seal and desiccant matrix, minimizing thermal bridging—reducing edge heat loss by up to 20-30% relative to metal spacers—while enhancing argon gas retention and elasticity to accommodate glass stress.[71] Applied via automated processes, it supports standards for energy-efficient fenestration, such as those in European insulating glass norms, and is noted for its vapor-tight properties that curb condensation.Business and Manufacturing
Toyota Production System
The Toyota Production System (TPS) is a manufacturing philosophy originating at Toyota Motor Corporation, developed primarily by industrial engineer Taiichi Ohno from the late 1940s onward as a response to post-World War II resource constraints and the need for efficient production.[72] It centers on eliminating waste (muda) through two foundational pillars: just-in-time (JIT) production, which synchronizes material flows to demand by producing only required quantities at required times, and jidoka, or "automation with a human touch," enabling machines to halt operations upon detecting defects while empowering workers to intervene.[73] These elements prioritize flow efficiency over mass production stockpiles, drawing from empirical observations of overproduction as a root cause of inefficiency in earlier systems like Ford's assembly lines.[74] Key operational tools within TPS include kanban, a visual card-based signaling method that controls inventory by authorizing production or movement only upon consumption signals, thereby preventing excess buildup, and kaizen, a practice of ongoing incremental improvements driven by frontline workers to refine processes.[75] By the 1970s, TPS implementation yielded measurable waste reductions, including minimized work-in-process inventory and faster throughput, enabling Toyota to achieve lower production costs and greater flexibility compared to Western competitors reliant on batch methods.[76] This data-driven approach emphasized causal links between inventory buffers and hidden defects, fostering a system where empirical feedback loops, rather than theoretical models, guided refinements. TPS principles have influenced global manufacturing and beyond, with adaptations in non-automotive sectors such as healthcare and services to curb non-value-adding activities like waiting or overprocessing.[77] When combined with Six Sigma methodologies focused on variability reduction, TPS adopters have reported defect rates below 3.4 per million opportunities, reflecting enhanced quality control through statistical process rigor.[78] Proponents, often from efficiency-oriented analyses, credit TPS for causal realism in resource allocation, praising its role in Toyota's market dominance via sustained productivity gains without proportional workforce expansion. Critiques of TPS highlight risks from its lean structure, including vulnerability to supply disruptions due to minimized buffers; the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami exemplified this, halting key suppliers and causing Toyota's production to plummet 78% year-over-year in April 2011, erasing substantial profits amid just-in-time dependencies.[79] [80] Labor-focused examinations argue that the system's demand for rapid cycle times and problem-solving can induce worker strain, potentially elevating repetitive motion injuries in high-volume plants, though plant-specific data shows variability and Toyota's Japanese facilities often outperforming industry ergonomics benchmarks.[73] While right-leaning economic reviews laud TPS for unmasking inefficiencies in buffered systems, left-leaning labor critiques frame it as exploitative pace-setting, yet empirical productivity metrics substantiate waste elimination as a neutral causal driver rather than inherent bias.[81]Arts, Entertainment, and Gaming
Third-Person Shooter
A third-person shooter is a subgenre of action video games where players control an on-screen character from an external camera angle, with core gameplay centered on shooting enemies using firearms or other ranged weapons.[82] This perspective contrasts with first-person shooters by making the avatar visible, allowing observation of animations, movements, and interactions that enhance tactical decision-making.[83] Early examples include Tomb Raider (released October 25, 1996), which integrated third-person shooting with platforming and puzzle-solving, establishing foundational mechanics for visible character control in 3D environments.[84] The genre evolved significantly in the mid-2000s with Gears of War (November 7, 2006), which introduced over-the-shoulder aiming for precise targeting and a cover system enabling players to duck behind obstacles, reducing exposure to enemy fire while planning advances.[84] These features addressed aiming challenges inherent to third-person views by incorporating aim-assist algorithms and dynamic camera shifts, improving accuracy over fixed distant cameras used in prior titles.[82] The cover mechanic, popularized here, became a staple, as it simulates realistic combat positioning and extends gameplay beyond pure run-and-gun sequences to include strategic pauses and flanking maneuvers.[84] Third-person shooters balance player immersion—through visible character models conveying physicality and vulnerability—with broader environmental awareness, as the external view reveals threats outside the avatar's direct line of sight.[83] This design supports narrative-driven campaigns, where character animations reinforce storytelling, such as reloading under duress or executing melee finishers. In market terms, the global third-person shooter segment reached an estimated USD 7.42 billion in 2024, reflecting sustained demand within the broader USD 72.68 billion shooter games category, driven by console and PC titles emphasizing cinematic experiences.[85][86] Variants often hybridize with action-adventure elements, incorporating exploration, vehicle sections, or puzzle integration, as seen in series like Uncharted (debut 2007), which layers shooting atop acrobatic traversal and narrative set pieces.[84] Isometric or top-down perspectives occasionally appear as sub-variants, though modern iterations favor over-the-shoulder for fluidity. Critiques highlight potential repetition in cover-heavy designs, where linear corridors and enemy waves can limit innovation, leading to formulaic progression despite graphical advancements.[87] Nonetheless, the genre's adaptability has sustained its viability, with procedural generation and multiplayer modes countering staleness in titles post-2010.[83]TPS Report
The TPS report originated in the 1999 comedy film Office Space, directed by Mike Judge, where it serves as a satirical emblem of corporate bureaucracy and meaningless administrative busywork.[88] In the movie, employees at the fictional Initech company are repeatedly hounded by manager Bill Lumbergh to complete these reports, which require attaching multiple colored cover sheets—a detail underscoring the film's critique of redundant office protocols.[89] The acronym TPS stands for "Test Program Specification," a nod to real documentation in software testing and quality assurance, but exaggerated for comedic effect to highlight how such requirements can stifle productivity without adding value.[88] The concept's cultural resonance stems from its encapsulation of widespread frustrations with corporate drudgery, evolving into a meme shorthand for any pointless paperwork or compliance ritual in professional settings.[89] Post-release, "TPS reports" permeated office vernacular, with references appearing in tech communities to decry overly prescriptive documentation that prioritizes form over function, as seen in critiques of waterfall methodologies versus more iterative approaches like Agile.[90] This enduring appeal reflects the film's prescient satire, as evidenced by its invocation in discussions of workplace inefficiency even 25 years later.[91] In real-world contexts, TPS reports analogue test procedure specifications used in software engineering and military systems for outlining step-by-step validation processes, such as those detailed in IEEE standards or Department of Defense guidelines.[69] However, the Office Space portrayal critiques these for fostering inefficiency, mirroring arguments that excessive QA documentation can create bureaucratic overhead without proportionally enhancing reliability, a view echoed in professional software development where automation and streamlined reporting are increasingly favored to mitigate such redundancies.[90]Sports
Third-Point Shot
In basketball, the third-point shot, more commonly termed the three-point shot, refers to a field goal attempted from beyond the three-point arc, which awards three points upon successful completion rather than the standard two for shots inside the arc. This scoring mechanism incentivizes long-range shooting as a high-efficiency option, provided the attempt rate and accuracy justify the risk of lower conversion probabilities compared to closer-range shots.[92] The National Basketball Association (NBA) introduced the three-point line for its 1979-80 season on a trial basis, with Boston Celtics player Chris Ford credited for the league's first successful three-point field goal on October 12, 1979. Initially viewed as a novelty with limited strategic integration—teams averaged fewer than 10 attempts per game in the early 1980s—the shot gained prominence through the 1990s and accelerated in the 2000s amid analytical advancements emphasizing expected value calculations, where a made three-pointer outperforms two two-pointers in point production per possession. By the 2010s, influenced by players like Stephen Curry, teams shifted toward volume three-point strategies; league-wide three-point attempt rates rose annually for a decade through 2021, with many franchises exceeding 40% of field goal attempts from beyond the arc by the mid-2020s.[93][92] NBA league-average three-point success rates have remained stable at approximately 35-36% across two decades, reflecting consistent shooter skill levels despite surging volumes—teams averaged over 35 attempts per game collectively in recent seasons. This efficiency threshold, derived from historical data, underscores the shot's viability only for teams with above-average accuracy, as subpar shooting erodes offensive output.[94][95] Analytics further reveal the three-point shot's causal role in elevating game pace, defined as possessions per minute, by prioritizing transition opportunities and spacing that facilitate quicker ball movement and shot release; post-2010 adoption of heavy three-point reliance correlated with a 10-15% rise in league pace from the early 2000s lows, boosting overall scoring through more high-variance, high-reward possessions.[96][97]Other Uses
- Temporary Protected Status: A humanitarian immigration program in the United States, enacted via the Immigration Act of 1990, allowing the Secretary of Homeland Security to designate countries for TPS when they face ongoing armed conflict, environmental disasters, or other extraordinary temporary conditions that prevent safe return; beneficiaries receive deportation relief and work authorization, with active designations as of 2025 including for over 700,000 individuals from 16 countries such as El Salvador (extended through March 2025) and Ukraine (through April 2025).[1][3]
- Transactions per second: In information technology and database management, a metric quantifying the rate at which a system processes complete transactions, critical for evaluating performance in applications like online banking or e-commerce platforms, where benchmarks such as those from the Transaction Processing Performance Council test systems under standardized loads.
- Technical Performance Specification: In engineering and procurement, a document outlining measurable performance criteria for systems or components, often used in defense and aerospace contracts to define requirements beyond basic functionality.