Analysis and comparison of competitive balance in the Spanish ACB basketball league : a preliminary study

Regardless its relevance in sports economics, competitive balance has not been studied neither in Spanish nor in European professional basketball. In this preliminary study we measured the competitive balance in the Spanish ACB League from seasons 1983/1984 to 2003/2004 using the well-known winning percentage standard deviation index. Results showed great difference between seasons and a general low competitive balance index. In addition, tournament designing did not seem to affect the competitive balance in ACB

SARS-CoV-2 mutant spectra reveal differences between COVID-19 severity categories

Trabajo presentado en el XVI Congreso Nacional de Virología, celebrado en Málaga (España) del 06 al 09 de septiembre de 2022.RNA virus populations are composed of complex mixtures of genomes that are termed mutant spectra. SARS-CoV-2 replicates as a viral quasispecies, and mutations that are detected at low frequencies in a host can be dominant in subsequent variants. We have studied mutant spectrum complexities of SARS-CoV-2 populations derived from thirty nasopharyngeal swabs of patients infected during the first wave (April 2020) in the Hospital Universitario Fundación Jiménez Díaz. The patients were classified according to the COVID-19 severity in mild (non-hospitalized), moderate (hospitalized) and exitus (hospitalized with ICU admission and who passed away due to COVID-19). Using ultra-deep sequencing technologies (MiSeq, Illumina), we have examined four amplicons of the nsp12 (polymerase)-coding region and two amplicons of the spike-coding region. Ultra-deep sequencing data were analyzed with different cut-off frequency for mutation detection. Average number of different point mutations, mutations per haplotype and several diversity indices were significantly higher in SARS-CoV-2 isolated from patients who developed mild disease. A feature that we noted in the SARS-CoV-2 mutant spectra from diagnostic samples is the remarkable absence of mutations at intermediate frequencies, and an overwhelming abundance of mutations at frequencies lower than 10%. Thus, the decrease of the cut-off frequency for mutation detection from 0.5% to 0.1% revealed an increasement (50- to 100 fold) in the number of different mutations. The significantly higher frequency of mutations in virus from patients displaying mild than moderate or severe disease was maintained with the 0.1% cut- off frequency. To evaluate whether the frequency repertoire of amino acid substitutions differed between SARS-CoV-2 and the well characterized hepatitis C virus (HCV), we performed a comparative study of mutant spectra from infected patients using the same bioinformatics pipelines. HCV did not show the deficit of intermediate frequency substitutions that was observed with SARS-CoV-2. This difference was maintained when two functionally equivalent proteins, the corresponding viral polymerases, were compared. In conclusion, SARS-CoV-2 mutant spectra are rich reservoirs of mutants, whose complexity is not uniform among clinical isolates. Virus from patients who developed mild disease may be a source of new variants that may acquire epidemiological relevance.This work was supported by Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Spanish Ministry of Science and In-novation (COVID-19 Research Call COV20/00181), and co-financed by European Development Regional Fund ‘A way to achieve Europe’. The work was also supported by grants CSIC-COV19-014 from Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), project 525/C/2021 from Fundació La Marató de TV3, PID2020-113888RB-I00 from Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, BFU2017-91384-EXP from Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (MCIU), PI18/00210 and PI21/00139 from Instituto de Salud Carlos III, and S2018/BAA-4370 (PLATESA2 from Comunidad de Madrid/FEDER). C.P., M.C., and P.M. are supported by the Miguel Servet programme of the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (CPII19/00001, CPII17/00006, and CP16/00116, respectively) co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). CIBERehd (Centro de Investi-gación en Red de Enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas) is funded by Instituto de Salud Carlos III. Institutional grants from the Fundación Ramón Areces and Banco Santander to the CBMSO are also acknowledged. The team at CBMSO belongs to the Global Virus Network (GVN). B.M.-G. is supported by predoctoral contract PFIS FI19/00119 from Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Ministerio de Sanidad y Consumo) cofinanced by Fondo Social Europeo (FSE). R.L.-V. is supported by predoctoral contract PEJD-2019-PRE/BMD-16414 from Comunidad de Madrid. C.G.-C. is sup-ported by predoctoral contract PRE2018-083422 from MCIU. BS was supported by a predoctoral research fellowship (Doctorados Industriales, DI-17-09134) from Spanish MINECO

SARS-CoV-2 Mutant Spectra at Different Depth Levels Reveal an Overwhelming Abundance of Low Frequency Mutations

Populations of RNA viruses are composed of complex and dynamic mixtures of variant genomes that are termed mutant spectra or mutant clouds. This applies also to SARS-CoV-2, and mutations that are detected at low frequency in an infected individual can be dominant (represented in the consensus sequence) in subsequent variants of interest or variants of concern. Here we briefly review the main conclusions of our work on mutant spectrum characterization of hepatitis C virus (HCV) and SARS-CoV-2 at the nucleotide and amino acid levels and address the following two new questions derived from previous results: (i) how is the SARS-CoV-2 mutant and deletion spectrum composition in diagnostic samples, when examined at progressively lower cut-off mutant frequency values in ultra-deep sequencing; (ii) how the frequency distribution of minority amino acid substitutions in SARS-CoV-2 compares with that of HCV sampled also from infected patients. The main conclusions are the following: (i) the number of different mutations found at low frequency in SARS-CoV-2 mutant spectra increases dramatically (50- to 100-fold) as the cut-off frequency for mutation detection is lowered from 0.5% to 0.1%, and (ii) that, contrary to HCV, SARS-CoV-2 mutant spectra exhibit a deficit of intermediate frequency amino acid substitutions. The possible origin and implications of mutant spectrum differences among RNA viruses are discussed.This work was supported by Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (COVID-19 Research Call COV20/00181), and co-financed by European Development Regional Fund ‘A way to achieve Europe’. The work was also supported by grants CSIC-COV19-014 from Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), project 525/C/2021 from Fundació La Marató de TV3, PID2020-113888RB-I00 from Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, BFU2017-91384-EXP from Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (MCIU), PI18/00210 and PI21/00139 from Instituto de Salud Carlos III, and S2018/BAA-4370 (PLATESA2 from Comunidad de Madrid/FEDER). C.P., M.C., and P.M. are supported by the Miguel Servet programme of the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (CPII19/00001, CPII17/00006, and CP16/00116, respectively) cofinanced by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). CIBERehd (Centro de Investigación en Red de Enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas) is funded by Instituto de Salud Carlos III. Institutional grants from the Fundación Ramón Areces and Banco Santander to the CBMSO are also acknowledged. The team at CBMSO belongs to the Global Virus Network (GVN). B.M.-G. is supported by predoctoral contract PFIS FI19/00119 from Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Ministerio de Sanidad y Consumo) cofinanced by Fondo Social Europeo (FSE). R.L.-V. is supported by predoctoral contract PEJD-2019-PRE/BMD-16414 from Comunidad de Madrid. C.G.-C. is supported by predoctoral contract PRE2018-083422 from MCIU. P.S. is supported by postdoctoral contract “Margarita Salas” CA1/RSUE/2021 from MCIU. B.S. was supported by a predoctoral research fellowship (Doctorados Industriales, DI-17-09134) from Spanish MINECO.Peer reviewe

Statistical logic of scoring interaction in NBA playoffs (2014-2019): The influence of time and space

El baloncesto es un deporte de engaños, pero también de números, y el conocimiento de su lógica interna se ha beneficiado desde hace décadas con las aportaciones de colegas como Sampaio e Ibáñez-Godoy. Aceptando que los playoffs de la NBA son la competición más exigente de nuestro deporte, nos planteamos dos objetivos complementarios: aportar las probabilidades asociadas a los lanzamientos de campo en función del espacio y el tiempo, y mostrar el camino seguido en el entorno R. Nuestros análisis nos permiten aportar las distribuciones de probabilidad asociadas a los lanzamientos de campo en función del momento de juego y de la distancia al aro, como muestra la tabla1. Además, mediante sencillos modelos logit podemos constatar y mensurar el impacto que las distancias y los momentos del partido (periodo y minuto) tienen sobre la probabilidad de acierto. Los mejores jugadores de baloncesto del mundo maximizan la utilidad de sus lanzamientos sin poder escapar de la lógica espacio-temporal del juego: la relación de fuerzas entre el ataque y la defensa sale a la luz en forma de funciones probabilísticas con una alta linealidad, sobre todo en lo que respecta al espacio, y apunta hacia interesantes cuestiones prospectivas. En este sentido, nuestro estudio proporciona bases estadísticas generales para la comprensión de esta lógica, permitiendo en un futuro avanzar en modelos de estudio bayesianos mejor informados.Basketball is a sport of deceptions, but also of numbers, and the knowledge of its internal logic has benefited for decades from the contributions of colleagues such as Sampaio and Ibáñez-Godoy. Accepting that NBA playoffs are the most demanding competition in our sport, we set two complementary goals for this study: to provide the a priory probabilities associated with field shots based on space and time, and to show the way we followed to calculate them in the R environment. Our analyses allow us to provide the probability distributions associated with field shots based on clock-time and court position, as shown in Table1. In addition, by simple logit models we can see and messure the impact that distances and moments dring the match (period and minute) have on the probability of success. The best basketball players in the world maximize the utility of their shots without being able to escape the space-time logic of the game: the balance between attack and defense comes to light in the form of probabilistic functions with high linearity, especially in terms of space, and points to interesting forward-looking questions. In this sense, our study provides general statistical basis for understanding this logic, allowing in the future to advance in better informed, bayesian study models.peerReviewe

Analysis and comparison of competitive balance in the Spanish ACB basketball league : a preliminary study

Regardless its relevance in sports economics, competitive balance has not been studied neither in Spanish nor in European professional basketball. In this preliminary study we measured the competitive balance in the Spanish ACB League from seasons 1983/1984 to 2003/2004 using the well-known winning percentage standard deviation index. Results showed great difference between seasons and a general low competitive balance index. In addition, tournament designing did not seem to affect the competitive balance in ACB

Equilibrio competitivo en ACB : Un estudio preliminar

La Asociación de Clubes de Baloncesto (ACB) fue fundada en 1982 como un medio para aumentar el control de los propietarios y gestores de los equipos profesionales que participaban en la Liga Española, organizada hasta entonces por la Federación Española de Baloncesto. Con independencia de su naturaleza jurídica, la asociación nació para fomentar la profesionalización de este deporte y aumentar la prosperidad del sistema en general. El objetivo de este estudio es plantear la cuestión del equilibrio competitivo en el campeonato de la ACB cuestionando también si los diferentes diseños de competición (Martinez-Santos, Enjuanes, Pino, De la Cruz, & Crespo, 2009) guardan alguna relación con él. El equilibrio competitivo, «el grado de igualdad de las fuerzas de juego de los equipos» (Dorian Owen, Ryan, & Weatherston, 2007) es uno de los conceptos clave de la economía deportiva, y «se cree que el equilibrio competitivo afecta a la asistencia de lo seguidores a través de su influencia en la victoria y la respuesta de los seguidores a las victorias» (Sanderson & Siegfried, 2003, p. 15)

Los diseños de competición de los campeonatos de liga de la ACB

Una de las piedras angulares de la temporalidad de los juegos deportivos en general y del baloncesto en particular es su memoria (Parlebas, 1986, 1999), o dicho de otro modo, el sistema por el que los juegos permiten recordar lo que ha sucedido. En este sentido, una de las peculiaridades de los deportes colectivos es que dan lugar a sistemas de competición extendidos en el tiempo que desde el punto de vista estructural funcionan como suprajuegos (Parlebas, 1999). La Asociación de Clubes de Baloncesto, fundada en 1982, es la responsable de organizar el campeonato de liga profesional de baloncesto de España desde la temporada 1983-1984, lo que supuso la desaparición del campeonato de liga que la Federación Española de Baloncesto organizó desde 1957. La diferencia más visible entre ambas competiciones es la presencia de la fase de playoffs en las competiciones organizadas por la ACB, lo que muestra la voluntad que la asociación de clubes tuvo desde un principio de explorar estructuras competitivas que favorecieran los intereses de los clubes (y Sociedades Anónimas Deportivas posteriormente) y de la propia liga. Por todo lo anterior, el objetivo de este estudio, que es describir los elementos fundamentales de las estructuras de competición empleadas en la liga ACB desde la primera temporada, 1983-84, hasta la última celebrada, 2008-09