Football analytics: a Higher-Order PLS-SEM approach to evaluate players’ performance

Nowdays, data science is applied in several area of our life, and also many applications in sports fields are increasing. In this context, we are focusing on football (e.g. soccer); thanks to this work we have the aim to give a new approach in the evaluation of football players’ performance given from the EA Sports experts and available on Kaggle in the KES dataset. For this purpose, we adopt a Higher-Order PLS-SEM approach to the sofifa KPIs (e.g. Key Performance Indicators) in order to compute a composite indicator and compare it with the well-known overall index from EA Sports. The final goal is to suggest a new performance index for helping coaches and scouting staff of professional teams to take strategic decisions, in order to evaluate impartially players’ performance

Formative vs Reflective constructs: a CTA-PLS approach on a goalkeepers’ performance model

Nowadays, PLS-SEM is a trend-topic, whereas football is moving towards a data-driven approach; by combining these two worlds, we aim to show a new way for measuring football goalkeepers’ performance, by using data provided from EA Sports experts and available on the Kaggle data science platform. Furthermore, another objective is to refine the model, supporting football experts from a statistical point of view. For this purpose, we adopt a confirmatory tetrad analysis (CTA-PLS) to validate and evaluate the nature (e.g. formative or reflective) of each latent variable. Then, a second-order PLS-SEM model is built. We validate and compare this new indicator with a benchmark (the EA overall). The final goal is to prove the CTA approach on a real case study and to refine a composite performance indicator for helping football policy makers taking strategic decisions

Spatial differentiation in industrial dynamics : a core-periphery analysis based on the Pavitt-Miozzo-Soete taxonomy

We compare the industrial dynamics in the core, semi-periphery and periphery in The Netherlands in terms of firm entry-exit, size, growth and sectoral location patterns. The contribution of our work is to provide the first comprehensive study on spatial differentiation in industrial dynamics for all firm sizes and all sectors, including services. We find that at the aggregate level the spatial pattern of industrial dynamics is consistent with the spatial product lifecycle thesis: entry and exit rates are highest in the core and lowest in the periphery, while the share of persistently growing firms is higher in the periphery than in the core. Disaggregating the analysis to the sectoral level following the Pavitt-Miozzo-Soete taxonomy, findings are less robust. Finally, sectoral location patterns are largely consistent with the spatial product lifecycle model: Fordist sectors are over-represented in the periphery, while sectors associated with the ICT paradigm are over-represented in the core, with the notable exception of science-based manufacturing

Summarizing physical performance in professional soccer: development of a new composite index

: The aims of this study were to create a composite index to measure the overall players' physical performance in professional soccer matches and analyze the effect of individual playing time and positional differences on this composite index. A total of 830 official matches from LaLiga men's first division and Spanish Copa del Rey were analyzed, which resulted in 24,980 match observations collected from 1138 male players (forwards, n = 286; midfielders, n = 441; defenders, n = 411). The physical performance variables, which represent the locomotor demands, were collected using electronic performance tracking systems. A Partial Least-Squares Structural Equation Model (PLS-SEM) was used to measure performance. The PLS-SEM output had three significant latent components, which explained 95% of the initial variability, that were related to the acceleration-specific performance (component 1), high-intensity running-related variables (component 2), and medium intensity actions variables (component 3). Also, a linear regression analysis was used to explore relationships between playing activity time (hours-X axis) and the composite index (10-point scale-Y axis), in which a strong and positive correlation was observed between individual playing time and the composite index (r = 0.76; p < 0.001; R2 = 0.58). Also, significant positive correlations were observed in forwards (r = 0.85; p < 0.001; R2 = 0.74), midfielders (r = 0.80; p < 0.001; R2 = 0.64), and defenders (r = 0.67; p < 0.001; R2 = 0.45). However, significant differences between playing positions with a small effect size (p < 0.05; eta-squared = 0.01) were found. From a practical perspective, this study may serve as a reference for sports performance practitioners to create a composite index that measures the overall players' physical performance. The instructions to create this index are available in the manuscript

MFN2 overexpression in skeletal muscles of young and old mice causes a mild hypertrophy without altering mitochondrial respiration and H2O2 emission

Abstract Aim Sarcopenia, the aging-related loss of muscle mass and function, is a debilitating process negatively impacting the quality of life of affected individuals. Although the mechanisms underlying sarcopenia are incompletely understood, impairments in mitochondrial dynamics, including mitochondrial fusion, have been proposed as a contributing factor. However, the potential of upregulating mitochondrial fusion proteins to alleviate the effects of aging on skeletal muscles remains unexplored. We therefore hypothesized that overexpressing Mitofusin 2 (MFN2) in skeletal muscle in vivo would mitigate the effects of aging on muscle mass and improve mitochondrial function. Methods MFN2 was overexpressed in young (7 mo) and old (24 mo) male mice for 4 months through intramuscular injections of an adeno-associated viruses. The impacts of MFN2 overexpression on muscle mass and fiber size (histology), mitochondrial respiration, and H2O2 emission (Oroboros fluororespirometry), and various signaling pathways (qPCR and western blotting) were investigated. Results MFN2 overexpression increased muscle mass and fiber size in both young and old mice. No sign of fibrosis, necrosis, or inflammation was found upon MFN2 overexpression, indicating that the hypertrophy triggered by MFN2 overexpression was not pathological. MFN2 overexpression even reduced the proportion of fibers with central nuclei in old muscles. Importantly, MFN2 overexpression had no impact on muscle mitochondrial respiration and H2O2 emission in both young and old mice. MFN2 overexpression attenuated the increase in markers of impaired autophagy in old muscles. Conclusion MFN2 overexpression may be a viable approach to mitigate aging-related muscle atrophy and may have applications for other muscle disorders

MYTHO is a novel regulator of skeletal muscle autophagy and integrity

Autophagy is a critical process in the regulation of muscle mass, function and integrity. The molecular mechanisms regulating autophagy are complex and still partly understood. Here, we identify and characterize a novel FoxO-dependent gene, d230025d16rik which we named Mytho (Macroautophagy and YouTH Optimizer), as a regulator of autophagy and skeletal muscle integrity in vivo. Mytho is significantly up-regulated in various mouse models of skeletal muscle atrophy. Short term depletion of MYTHO in mice attenuates muscle atrophy caused by fasting, denervation, cancer cachexia and sepsis. While MYTHO overexpression is sufficient to trigger muscle atrophy, MYTHO knockdown results in a progressive increase in muscle mass associated with a sustained activation of the mTORC1 signaling pathway. Prolonged MYTHO knockdown is associated with severe myopathic features, including impaired autophagy, muscle weakness, myofiber degeneration, and extensive ultrastructural defects, such as accumulation of autophagic vacuoles and tubular aggregates. Inhibition of the mTORC1 signaling pathway in mice using rapamycin treatment attenuates the myopathic phenotype triggered by MYTHO knockdown. Skeletal muscles from human patients diagnosed with myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1) display reduced Mytho expression, activation of the mTORC1 signaling pathway and impaired autophagy, raising the possibility that low Mytho expression might contribute to the progression of the disease. We conclude that MYTHO is a key regulator of muscle autophagy and integrity

‘Better late than never’: the interplay between green technology and age for firm growth

This paper investigates the relationship between green/non-green technologies and firm growth. By combining the literature on eco-innovations, industrial organisation and entrepreneurial studies, we examine the dependence of this relationship on the pace at which firms grow and the age of the firm. From a dataset of 5498 manufacturing firms in Italy for the period of 2000–2008, longitudinal fixed effects quantile models are estimated, in which the firm’s age is set to moderate the effects of green and non-green patents on employment growth. We find that the positive effect of green technologies on growth is greater than that of non-green technologies. However, this result does not apply to struggling and rapidly growing firms. With fast-growing (above the median) firms, age moderates the growth effect of green technologies. Inconsistent with the extant literature, this moderation effect is positive: firm experience appears important for the growth benefits of green technologies, possibly relative to the complexity of their management