About the "away goals rule" in association football:Does scrapping the rule increase the fairness of the game?

The present study analyzes all major international football tournaments organized by UEFA and CONMEBOL during a period of 30 years to assess the impact of the away goals rule (AGR). The study takes advantage of natural experiment given by the differentiated application of the AGR by both confederations, in order to assess the efficacy and the consequences of the rule in terms of both the total amount of goals being scored (the original intention of the rule) and the teams that progressed onto the next stages. The results show that the AGR seems to have failed to fulfill its original goal of increasing both scoring by teams playing away and scoring in general. The AGR is found to have a significant impact favoring the chances of the team starting the series at home. However, it still does not translate into a higher probability of progressing onto the next stage than the team closing the series at home. Closing the series at home has an intrinsic advantage, which is only countered, although not completely, by the impact of the AGR. Regarding tiebreakers, we observe that closing the series at home has a positive impact no matter whether overtimes with AGR or penalty shootouts are used as tiebreakers. However, playing an overtime, when no AGR is set in place has a determining influence favoring the team closing the series at home

Learning data structure from classes: A case study applied to population genetics

In most cases, the main goal of machine learning and data mining applications is to obtain good classifiers. However, final users, for instance researchers in other fields, sometimes prefer to infer new knowledge about their domain that may be useful to confirm or reject their hypotheses. This paper presents a learning method that works along these lines, in addition to reporting three interesting applications in the field of population genetics in which the aim is to discover relationships between species or breeds according to their genotypes. The proposed method has two steps: first it builds a hierarchical clustering of the set of classes and then a hierarchical classifier is learned. Both models can be analyzed by experts to extract useful information about their domain. In addition, we propose a new method for learning the hierarchical classifier. By means of a voting scheme employing pairwise binary models constrained by the hierarchical structure, the proposed classifier is computationally more efficient than previous approaches while improving on their performance

QUALITATIVE BIOMECHANICS FOR COACHING

Session Information: Coaches must apply principles of biomechanics in their qualitative judgments of the technique used by athletes. These judgments can have a major influence on performance and injury risk. This session will focus on the most effective use of qualitative biomechanical analyses and video replay software. Several scholars who have experience teaching qualitative biomechanical analysis to future coaches will present, followed by a question and answer session. Schedule of Presentations: Dr. Knudson will introduce the session and provide a brief overview of qualitative biomechanical analysis. 11:00 – 11:15 Dr. Alderson will present sport injury models as they apply to assessment, intervention and rehabilitation of common injuries in cricket, tennis and running. Relevant qualitative and quantitative 2D features of SiliconCoach that can be utilised by a coach to potentially reduce injury incidence will be presented. 11:15 – 11:45 Dr. Bahamonde will present how qualitative analysis can be used to teach biomechanics concepts to physical education and coaching students. Movement examples from tennis, soccer and track field and meaningful features of Hu-m-an software will be illustrated. Hu-m-an is unique in that it was developed with a specific teaching-learning focus. 11:45 – 12:15 Dr. Bird will present biomechanical core concepts as a “common language” to evaluate and improve all human movements. The core concepts are visually observable, but meaningful features of Dartfish will be illustrated to enhance what is seen by both the coach and the mover. Movement examples from golf, resistance training, basketball, and other sports will be presented. 12:15 – 12:45 Discussion: 12:45 – 13:00 This will provide an opportunity for delegates to ask specific questions relating to any of the presenters

Depositional style and tectonostratigraphic evolution of El Bierzo Tertiary sub-basin (Pyrenean orogen, NW Spain)

El Bierzo Tertiary sub-basin (Oligocene-Miocene, NW Spain) is a small remnant of the western Duero Basin, a nonmarine broken foreland basin developed in front of the Cantabrian Mountains (Pyrenean orogen). The alluvial infill of El Bierzo Tertiary sub-basin consists of a coarsening-upward succession from fluvial (Toral Formation) to alluvial-fan deposits (Las Médulas Formation) and reflects the uplift of the Cantabrian Mountains, in the north, and then of the related Galaico-Leoneses Mountains, in the south. These alluvial deposits show signs of having been laid down mainly by catastrophic flows (flood-dominated systems) and consist of three main depositional elements, namely, flood-plain fines, and lobe and channel conglomerates and sandstones. The vertical stacking patterns of these deposits and their relationships to the Alpine structures permit to unravel the tectonosedimentary evolution of the basin. The alluvial-plain element is the main constituent of a wide unconfined alluvial plain (Toral Formation) during the early stages of basin evolution, whereas the channel and lobe elements form a set of relatively small, laterally confined alluvial fans (Las Médulas Formation) fed first from the north and then from the south. Las Médulas deposits form two superposed units, the lower unit, cut by the Alpine thrusts, shows a progradational character, and the upper unit, which postdates most of the thrusts but not the youngest ones, displays a composite retrogradational trend. This organisation reflects the interplay between thrust emplacement and alluvial-fan sedimentation and suggests that maximum progradation took place during the climax of Alpine deformation

El icnogénero Zoophycos y su valor sedimentológico y paleoambiental

El icnogénero Zoophycos (Cancellophynts) puede proporcionar datos sedimentológicos de sumo interés, lo cual viene favorecido por: su fácil reconocimiento (tanto en series estratigráficas como en testigos de sondeos), relativa frecuencia de aparición, y amplia reparticibn temporal (Ordovicico - Cuaternario)

From riding to driving:The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on public transit in Metro Vancouver

This study analyzed a panel-based dataset to understand the effect of COVID-19 on transport behavior in Metro Vancouver, Canada, between December 2020 and May 2021. Findings from the sample indicate a decline in transit users compared to pre-pandemic levels and an increase in car use. On the other hand, we saw a shift to a more positive perception of transit in May 2021, while also capturing an increase in perceived levels of crowding. The study underscores the necessity for transit agencies to focus on instilling the feeling of safety among the population, as the majority of those who have not used transit since the beginning of the pandemic reported their willingness to return only with widespread vaccination, community immunity, or other broad successful treatments

Depositional style and tectonostratigraphic evolution of El Bierzo Tertiary sub-basin (Pyrenean orogen, NW Spain)

El Bierzo Tertiary sub-basin (Oligocene-Miocene, NW Spain) is a small remnant of the western Duero Basin, a nonmarine broken foreland basin developed in front of the Cantabrian Mountains (Pyrenean orogen). The alluvial infill of El Bierzo Tertiary sub-basin consists of a coarsening-upward succession from fluvial (Toral Formation) to alluvial-fan deposits (Las Médulas Formation) and reflects the uplift of the Cantabrian Mountains, in the north, and then of the related Galaico-Leoneses Mountains, in the south. These alluvial deposits show signs of having been laid down mainly by catastrophic flows (flood-dominated systems) and consist of three main depositional elements, namely, flood-plain fines, and lobe and channel conglomerates and sandstones. The vertical stacking patterns of these deposits and their relationships to the Alpine structures permit to unravel the tectonosedimentary evolution of the basin. The alluvial-plain element is the main constituent of a wide unconfined alluvial plain (Toral Formation) during the early stages of basin evolution, whereas the channel and lobe elements form a set of relatively small, laterally confined alluvial fans (Las Médulas Formation) fed first from the north and then from the south. Las Médulas deposits form two superposed units, the lower unit, cut by the Alpine thrusts, shows a progradational character, and the upper unit, which postdates most of the thrusts but not the youngest ones, displays a composite retrogradational trend. This organisation reflects the interplay between thrust emplacement and alluvial-fan sedimentation and suggests that maximum progradation took place during the climax of Alpine deformation