Biomechanical Analysis of Change of Direction Movements in Women\u27s Collegiate Soccer Players

Change of Direction (COD) tasks are common in a variety of high performance sports. PURPOSE: This study aims to determine technique and kinetic differences between unexpected defensive COD tasks in women’s collegiate soccer players. METHODS: Eleven collegiate soccer players participated voluntarily in accordance with the local IRB, performing six 180°R and L , 135° L, and 225°R tasks, approaching from 5m and exiting 3m. Force (Kistler, 1200Hz) and timing information (Brower) data was collected. Repeated Measures ANOVA determined differences across the group between movement directions. RESULTS: Four categories of techniques emerged: natural step, shuffle, hop, and stomp. 135L COD tasks proved to be faster (1.866 ± 0.132 s) than 225R tasks (1.945 ± 0.159 s, p = 0.003), however no other significant differences were found between conditions. CONCLUSION: Athletes used varying self-selected techniques to complete COD tasks with similar biomechanical factors and performance outcomes. This may suggest players at the collegiate level have adjusted to their individual movement patterns. Further study of the kinetics of prior incoming or later outgoing steps is necessary. Change of direction movements are a necessary part of defensive play in women’s soccer and efficiency as outlined in this study could directly affect game performance. Natural step COD seems to be the most effective technique, therefore it would be interesting to analyze the incorporation of this method at the amateur level. Regardless, exposing athletes to situations which require differing COD techniques may best prepare players to move effectively during competition

ChatGPT and Bard Responses to Polarizing Questions

Recent developments in natural language processing have demonstrated the potential of large language models (LLMs) to improve a range of educational and learning outcomes. Of recent chatbots based on LLMs, ChatGPT and Bard have made it clear that artificial intelligence (AI) technology will have significant implications on the way we obtain and search for information. However, these tools sometimes produce text that is convincing, but often incorrect, known as hallucinations. As such, their use can distort scientific facts and spread misinformation. To counter polarizing responses on these tools, it is critical to provide an overview of such responses so stakeholders can determine which topics tend to produce more contentious responses -- key to developing targeted regulatory policy and interventions. In addition, there currently exists no annotated dataset of ChatGPT and Bard responses around possibly polarizing topics, central to the above aims. We address the indicated issues through the following contribution: Focusing on highly polarizing topics in the US, we created and described a dataset of ChatGPT and Bard responses. Broadly, our results indicated a left-leaning bias for both ChatGPT and Bard, with Bard more likely to provide responses around polarizing topics. Bard seemed to have fewer guardrails around controversial topics, and appeared more willing to provide comprehensive, and somewhat human-like responses. Bard may thus be more likely abused by malicious actors. Stakeholders may utilize our findings to mitigate misinformative and/or polarizing responses from LLM

Functionality of intrinsic disorder in tumor necrosis factor-α and its receptors

Tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) is a pleiotropic inflammatory cytokine that exerts potent cytotoxic effects on solid tumor cells, while not affecting their normal counterparts. It is also known that TNF-α exerts many of its biological functions via interaction with specific receptors. To understand the potential roles of intrinsic disorder in the functioning of this important cytokine, we explored the peculiarities of intrinsic disorder distribution in human TNF-α and its homologs from various species, ranging from zebrafish to chimpanzee. We also studied the peculiarities of intrinsic disorder distribution in human TNF-α receptors, TNFR1 and TNFR2. Analysis revealed that cytoplasmic domains of TNF-α and its receptors are expected to be highly disordered. Furthermore, although the sequence identities of analyzed TNF-α homologs range from 99.57% (between human and chimpanzee proteins) to 22.33% (between frog and fish proteins), their intrinsic disorder profiles are characterized by a remarkable similarity. These observations indicate that the peculiarities of distribution of the intrinsic disorder propensity within the amino acid sequences are evolutionary conserved, and therefore could be of functional importance for this family of proteins. We also show that disordered and flexible regions of human TNF-α and its TNFR1 and TNFR2 receptors are crucial for some of their biological activities