The validity of small-sided games in predicting 11-vs-11 soccer game performance

Predicting performance in soccer games has been a major focus within talent identification and development. Past research has mainly used performance levels, such as elite vs. non-elite players, as the performance to predict (i.e. the criterion). Moreover, these studies have mainly focused on isolated performance attributes as predictors of soccer performance levels. However, there has been an increasing interest in finer grained criterion measures of soccer performance, as well as representative assessments at the level of performance predictors. In this study, we first determined the degree to which 7-vs-7 small-sided games can be considered as representative of 11-vs-11 games. Second, we assessed the validity of individual players' small-sided game performance in predicting their 11-vs-11 game performance on a continuous scale. Moreover, we explored the predictive validity for 11-vs-11 game performance of several physiological and motor tests in isolation. Sixty-three elite youth players of a professional soccer academy participated in 11 to 17 small-sided games and six 11-vs-11 soccer games. In-game performance indicators were assessed through notational analysis and combined into an overall offensive and defensive performance measure, based on their relationship with game success. Physiological and motor abilities were assessed using a sprint, endurance, and agility test. Results showed that the small-sided games were faster paced, but representative of 11-vs-11 games, with the exception of aerial duels. Furthermore, individual small-sided game performance yielded moderate predictive validities with 11-vs-11 game performance. In contrast, the physiological and motor tests yielded small to trivial relations with game performance. Altogether, this study provides novel insights into the application of representative soccer assessments and the use of continuous criterion measures of soccer performance

Examining the reliability and predictive validity of performance assessments by soccer coaches and scouts:The influence of structured collection and mechanical combination of information

Soccer coaches and scouts typically assess in-game soccer performance to predict players’ future performance. However, there is hardly any research on the reliability and predictive validity of coaches’ and scouts’ performance assessments, or on strategies they can use to optimize their predictions. In the current study, we examined whether robust principles from psychological research on selection – namely structured information collection and mechanical combination of predictor information through a decision-rule – improve soccer coaches’ and scouts’ performance assessments. A total of n = 96 soccer coaches and scouts participated in an elaborate within-subjects experiment. Participants watched soccer players’ performance on video, rated their performance in both a structured and unstructured manner, and combined their ratings in a holistic and mechanical way. We examined the inter-rater reliability of the ratings and assessed the predictive validity by relating the ratings to players’ future market values. Contrary to our expectations, we did not find that ratings based on structured assessment paired with mechanical combination of the ratings showed higher inter-rater reliability and predictive validity. In contrast, unstructured-holistic ratings yielded the highest reliability and predictive validity, although differences were marginal. Overall, reliability was poor and predictive validities small-to-moderate, regardless of the approach used to rate players’ performance. The findings provide insights into the difficulty of predicting future performance in soccer

Farm-Processed Soybeans in Swine Rations

New Equipment is available for processing soybeans into feed for pigs. The authors list some of the factors you should consider and results they obtained with feeding whole infrared roasted soybeans

Targeting the latent human cytomegalovirus reservoir for T-cell-mediated killing with virus-specific nanobodies.

Funder: Department of HealthLatent human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection is characterized by limited gene expression, making latent HCMV infections refractory to current treatments targeting viral replication. However, reactivation of latent HCMV in immunosuppressed solid organ and stem cell transplant patients often results in morbidity. Here, we report the killing of latently infected cells via a virus-specific nanobody (VUN100bv) that partially inhibits signaling of the viral receptor US28. VUN100bv reactivates immediate early gene expression in latently infected cells without inducing virus production. This allows recognition and killing of latently infected monocytes by autologous cytotoxic T lymphocytes from HCMV-seropositive individuals, which could serve as a therapy to reduce the HCMV latent reservoir of transplant patients

Climate change litigation: a review of research on courts and litigants in climate government

Studies of climate change litigation have proliferated over the past two decades, as lawsuits across the world increasingly bring policy debates about climate change mitigation and adaptation, as well as climate change‐related loss and damage to the attention of courts. We systematically identify 130 articles on climate change litigation published in English in the law and social sciences between 2000 and 2018 to identify research trajectories. In addition to a budding interdisciplinarity in scholarly interest in climate change litigation we also document a growing understanding of the full spectrum of actors involved and implicated in climate lawsuits and the range of motivations and/or strategic imperatives underpinning their engagement with the law. Situating this within the broader academic literature on the topic we then highlight a number of cutting edge trends and opportunities for future research. Four emerging themes are explored in detail: the relationship between litigation and governance; how time and scale feature in climate litigation; the role of science; and what has been coined the “human rights turn” in climate change litigation. We highlight the limits of existing work and the need for future research—not limited to legal scholarship—to evaluate the impact of both regulatory and anti‐regulatory climate‐related lawsuits, and to explore a wider set of jurisdictions, actors and themes. Addressing these issues and questions will help to develop a deeper understanding of the conditions under which litigation will strengthen or undermine climate governance. This article is categorized under: Policy and Governance > Multilevel and Transnational Climate Change Governanc

Environmental liability litigation could remedy biodiversity loss

Abstract: Many countries allow lawsuits to hold responsible parties liable for the environmental harm they cause. Such litigation remains largely untested in most biodiversity hotspots and is rarely used in response to leading drivers of biodiversity loss, including illegal wildlife trade. Yet, liability litigation is a potentially ground‐breaking conservation strategy to remedy harm to biodiversity by seeking legal remedies such as species rehabilitation, public apologies, habitat conservation and education, with the goal of making the injured parties ‘whole’. However, precedent cases, expert guidance, and experience to build such conservation lawsuits is nascent in most countries. We propose a simplified framework for developing conservation lawsuits across countries and conservation contexts. We explain liability litigation in terms of three dimensions: (1) defining the harm that occurred, (2) identifying appropriate remedies to that harm, and (3) understanding what remedies the law and courts will allow. We illustrate the framework via a hypothetical lawsuit against an illegal orangutan trader in Indonesia. We highlight that conservationists’ expertise is essential to characterizing harm and identifying remedies, and could more actively contribute to strategic, science‐based litigation. This would identify priority contexts, target defendants responsible for egregious harm, propose novel and meaningful remedies, and build new transdisciplinary collaborations

Structural and putative regulatory sequences of Kluyveromyces ribosomal protein genes

The transcription of the majority of the ribosomal protein (rp) genes of Saccharomyces cerevisiae is activated by cis-acting elements, designated RPG boxes, which specifically bind the multifunctional protein RAP1 in vitro. To investigate to what extent this global system of transcription regulation has been conserved, we have isolated a number of rp genes of the related yeast species Kluyveromyces lactis and Kluyveromyces marxianus, whose counterparts in Saccharomyces are controlled by RAP1. The coding regions of these genes showed a sequence similarity of about 90% when compared to their Saccharomyces counterparts. In contrast, little or no sequence similarity was found between the upstream regions and the intervening sequences of Kluyveromyces and Saccharomyces homologs. However, the occurrence and the position of the introns is conserved. The sequence data also show that the physical linkage that exists in S. cerevisiae between the rp genes encoding RP59 (CRY1), S24 and L46 is conserved in Kluyveromyces. Northern analysis demonstrated that each of the isolated Kluyveromyces genes is transcriptionally active. By sequence comparison we identified a number of conserved sequences in the upstream region of each of the Kluyveromyces rp genes, which we designated the X, Z and RPGK boxes. The last one is highly similar, though not identical, to the S. cerevisiae RPG box. Functional analysis of the intergenic region between the genes encoding Kluyveromyces ribosomal proteins S24 and L46 showed that the RPGK box (+Z box) functions as a transcriptional activator, while the X box acts as a transcriptional repressor. Band-shift assays confirmed the existence of a RAP1-like protein in Kluyveromyces that binds to the RPGK box but not to the S. cerevisiae RPG box. In contrast, S. cerevisiae RAP1 did recognize the RPGK bo

Measurement and modelling of the effects of initial soil conditions and slope gradient on soil translocation by tillage

Tillage erosion studies have mainly focused on the effect of topography and cultivation practices on soil translocation during tillage. However, the possible effect of initial soil conditions on soil displacement and soil erosion during tillage have not been considered. This study aims at investigating the effect of the initial soil conditions on net soil displacement and the associated erosion rates by a given tillage operation of a stony loam soil. Tillage erosion experiments were carried out with a mouldboard plough on a freshly ploughed (pre-tilled) soil and a soil under grass fallow in the Alentejo region (Southern Portugal).status: publishe