We show that for a bounded subset $A$ of the $L_{1}(\unicode[STIX]{x1D707})$ space with finite measure $\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}$, the measure of weak noncompactness of $A$ based on the convex separation of sequences coincides with the measure of deviation from the Banach–Saks property expressed by the arithmetic separation of sequences. A similar result holds for a related quantity with the alternating signs Banach–Saks property. The results provide a geometric and quantitative extension of Szlenk’s theorem saying that every weakly convergent sequence in the Lebesgue space $L_{1}$ has a subsequence whose arithmetic means are norm convergent.

We study the inverse boundary value problem for fractional diffusion in a multilayer composite medium. Given data in the right boundary of the second layer, the problem is to recover the temperature distribution in the first layer, which is inaccessible for measurement. The problem is ill-posed and we propose a Fourier spectral approach to achieve Hölder approximations. The convergence analysis is performed in both the $L^{2}$- and $L^{\infty }$-settings.