Optimization modelling for analyzing fantasy sport games

In a fantasy sport game, participants act like a team manager building a team of real individual players of a professional sport. The real performances of these players (or their teams) are translated into points for their team managers. The managers’ aim is to collect as many points as possible thereby defeating the fantasy teams of opponents. First, we discuss a number of common game rule characteristics of fantasy sport games. Based on these characteristics, we present a mixed integer programming model to produce and analyze ex-post results for a large variety of fantasy sport games. We discuss how these results create value for both the game organizer and the participants. Finally, we apply our system in practice to a fantasy cycling game

Binocular Onset Rivalry at the Time of Saccades and Stimulus Jumps

Recent studies suggest that binocular rivalry at stimulus onset, so called onset rivalry, differs from rivalry during sustained viewing. These observations raise the interesting question whether there is a relation between onset rivalry and rivalry in the presence of eye movements. We therefore studied binocular rivalry when stimuli jumped from one visual hemifield to the other, either through a saccade or through a passive stimulus displacement, and we compared rivalry after such displacements with onset and sustained rivalry. We presented opponent motion, orthogonal gratings and face/house stimuli through a stereoscope. For all three stimulus types we found that subjects showed a strong preference for stimuli in one eye or one hemifield (Experiment 1), and that these subject-specific biases did not persist during sustained viewing (Experiment 2). These results confirm and extend previous findings obtained with gratings. The results from the main experiment (Experiment 3) showed that after a passive stimulus jump, switching probability was low when the preferred eye was dominant before a stimulus jump, but when the non-preferred eye was dominant beforehand, switching probability was comparatively high. The results thus showed that dominance after a stimulus jump was tightly related to eye dominance at stimulus onset. In the saccade condition, however, these subject-specific biases were systematically reduced, indicating that the influence of saccades can be understood from a systematic attenuation of the subjects' onset rivalry biases. Taken together, our findings demonstrate a relation between onset rivalry and rivalry after retinal shifts and involvement of extra-retinal signals in binocular rivalry

RF MEMS Switches for Mobile Communication

Switched capacitors based on radio frequency microelectromechanical systems (RF MEMS) can enable a breakthrough in radio technology. Their switching principle is based on the mechanical movement of the plates of a parallel plate capacitor using the electrostatic force. The resulting difference in capacitance is used to switch an RF signal. This article discusses the device physics and application of these Microsystems

The multi-league sports scheduling problem, or how to schedule thousands of matches

\u3cp\u3eWe consider the simultaneous scheduling of multiple sport leagues, with interdependencies arising from teams in different leagues belonging to the same club. Teams from the same club share the same venue with limited capacity. We minimize the total capacity violation in polynomial time when each league has the same, even number of teams. We introduce two generalizations: one where teams from a club have to play according to the same pattern, and one where club capacities differ throughout the season.\u3c/p\u3

Longitudinal Associations Between Adolescents' Bullying‐Related Indirect Defending, Outsider Behavior, and Peer‐Group Status

During adolescence, youth become more likely to avoid involvement in witnessed bullying and less likely to support victims. It is unknown whether-and how-these bystander behaviors (i.e., outsider behavior and indirect defending) are associated with adolescents' peer-group status (i.e., popularity and social acceptance) over time. Cross-lagged path modeling was used to examine these longitudinal associations in a sample of 313 Dutch adolescents (Mage-T1 = 10.3 years). The results showed that status longitudinally predicted behavior, rather than that behavior predicted status. Specifically, unpopularity predicted outsider behavior and social acceptance predicted indirect defending. These findings suggest that a positive peer-group status can trigger adolescents' provictim stance. However, adolescents may also strategically avoid involvement in witnessed bullying to keep a low social profile

Comparing league formats with respect to match importance in Belgian football

Recently, most clubs in the highest Belgian football division have become convinced that the format of their league should be changed. Moreover, the TV station that broadcasts the league is pleading for a more attractive competition. However, the clubs have not been able to agree on a new league format, mainly because they have conflicting interests. In this paper, we compare the current league format, and three other formats that have been considered by the Royal Belgian Football Association. We simulate the course of each of these league formats, based on historical match results. We assume that the attractiveness of a format is determined by the importance of its games; our importance measure for a game is based on the number of teams for which this game can be decisive to reach a given goal. Furthermore, we provide an overview of how each league format aligns with the expectations and interests of each type of club