PlayeRank: data-driven performance evaluation and player ranking in soccer via a machine learning approach

The problem of evaluating the performance of soccer players is attracting the interest of many companies and the scientific community, thanks to the availability of massive data capturing all the events generated during a match (e.g., tackles, passes, shots, etc.). Unfortunately, there is no consolidated and widely accepted metric for measuring performance quality in all of its facets. In this paper, we design and implement PlayeRank, a data-driven framework that offers a principled multi-dimensional and role-aware evaluation of the performance of soccer players. We build our framework by deploying a massive dataset of soccer-logs and consisting of millions of match events pertaining to four seasons of 18 prominent soccer competitions. By comparing PlayeRank to known algorithms for performance evaluation in soccer, and by exploiting a dataset of players' evaluations made by professional soccer scouts, we show that PlayeRank significantly outperforms the competitors. We also explore the ratings produced by {\sf PlayeRank} and discover interesting patterns about the nature of excellent performances and what distinguishes the top players from the others. At the end, we explore some applications of PlayeRank -- i.e. searching players and player versatility --- showing its flexibility and efficiency, which makes it worth to be used in the design of a scalable platform for soccer analytics

Knowledge Discovery through Mobility Data Integration

In the era of Big Data a huge amount of information are available from every sin- gle citizen of our hyper-connected world. A simple smartphone can collect data with different kinds of information: a big part of these are related to mobility. A smartphone is connected to networks, such as GSM, GPS, Internet (and then social networks): each of them can provide us information about where, how and why the user is moving across space and time. Data integration has a key role in this understanding process: the combination of different data sources increases the value of the extracted knowledge, even though such integration task is often not trivial. This thesis aim to represent a step toward a reliable Mobility Analysis framework, capable to exploit the richness of the spatio-temporal data nowadays available. The work done is an exploration of meaningful open challenges, from an efficient Map Matching of low sampling GPS data to Inferring Human Activities from GPS tracks. A further experimentation has been performed over GSM and Twitter data, in order to detect and recognize significant events in terms of people presence and related tweets. Another promising perspective is the use of such extracted knowledge to enrich actual geospatial Datasets with a ’Wisdom of the crowd’ dimension to derive, for instance, routing policies over road networks: most chosen paths among usual drivers are more meaningful than simple shortest paths

Map Matching di tracce GSM con tecniche di Data Mining

In questa tesi si propone un metodo per assegnare dati di posizionamento GSM agli archi di una rete stradale. L'approccio sfrutta la continuità nel tempo delle rilevazioni, estraendo pattern di spostamento frequenti, successivamente utilizzati per ricostruire in modo più preciso il percorso realmente seguito. La tesi include una validazione del metodo su dati reali opportunamente rielaborati

Hsp70 Oligomerization Is Mediated by an Interaction between the Interdomain Linker and the Substrate-Binding Domain

Oligomerization in the heat shock protein (Hsp) 70 family has been extensively documented both in vitro and in vivo, although the mechanism, the identity of the specific protein regions involved and the physiological relevance of this process are still unclear. We have studied the oligomeric properties of a series of human Hsp70 variants by means of nanoelectrospray ionization mass spectrometry, optical spectroscopy and quantitative size exclusion chromatography. Our results show that Hsp70 oligomerization takes place through a specific interaction between the interdomain linker of one molecule and the substrate-binding domain of a different molecule, generating dimers and higher-order oligomers. We have found that substrate binding shifts the oligomerization equilibrium towards the accumulation of functional monomeric protein, probably by sequestering the helical lid sub-domain needed to stabilize the chaperone: substrate complex. Taken together, these findings suggest a possible role of chaperone oligomerization as a mechanism for regulating the availability of the active monomeric form of the chaperone and for the control of substrate binding and release. © 2013 Aprile et al.FAA was recipient of a graduate fellowship from the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research. AD is grateful for support from Murray Edwards College, Cambridge, through a Junior Research Fellowship. FS is a Sir Henry Wellcome Fellow. CR acknowledges financial support by the Spanish Ministry of Health according to the 'Plan Nacional de I+D+I 2008-2011', through ISCIII with cofunding by FEDER (CP10/00527). JLPB is a Royal Society University Research Fellow. FAA and PT are grateful for support from Regione Lombardia (NEDD and >Network Tecnologico integrato per lo studio proteomico e trascrittomico di malattie neurodegenerative correlate a deposizioni di amiloidi>). CMD acknowledges support from BBSRC (BB/E019927/1), the Wellcome Trust (094425/Z/10/Z), the European Commission (project LSHM-CT-2006-037525). NC acknowledges support from Human Frontiers Science Program (HFSP) through a Long-term Fellowship (LT000795/2009).Peer Reviewe

Incremento da depuração renal em pacientes gravemente enfermos: Incidência, fatores associados e efeitos no tratamento com vancomicina

Objective: An augmented renal clearance has been described in some groups of critically ill patients, and it might induce sub-optimal concentrations of drugs eliminated by glomerular filtration, mainly antibiotics. Studies on its occurrence and determinants are lacking. Our goals were to determine the incidence and associated factors of augmented renal clearance and the efects on vancomycin concentrations and dosing in a series of intensive care unit patients. Methods: We prospectively studied 363 patients admitted during 1 year to a clinical-surgical intensive care unit. Patients with serum creatinine >1.3mg/dL were excluded. Creatinine clearance was calculated from a 24-hour urine collection. Patients were grouped according to the presence of augmented renal clearance (creatinine clearance >120mL/min/1.73m2), and possible risk factors were analyzed with bivariate and logistic regression analysis. In patients treated with vancomycin, dosage and plasma concentrations were registered. Results: Augmented renal clearance was present in 103 patients (28%); they were younger (48±15 versus 65±17 years, p>0.0001), had more frequent obstetric (16 versus 7%, p=0.0006) and trauma admissions (10 versus 3%, p=0.016) and fewer comorbidities. The only independent determinants for the development of augmented renal clearance were age (OR 0.95; p<0.0001; 95%CI 0.93-0.96) and absence of diabetes (OR 0.34; p=0.03; 95%CI 0.12-0.92). Twelve of the 46 patients who received vancomycin had augmented renal clearance and despite higher doses, had lower concentrations. Conclusions: In this cohort of critically ill patients, augmented renal clearance was a common finding. Age and absence of diabetes were the only independent determinants. Therefore, younger and previously healthy patients might require larger vancomycin dosing.Facultad de Ciencias Médica