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Rationale/Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify and explore a selection of the tools (alcohol, song/chants, signs) that darts fans use at live Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events and explain how the fans use these tools in the PDC darts arenas. Design/methodology/approach: A three-year empirical qualitative study, using a range of ethnographic methods, was conducted to understand how the use of these tools has made the live PDC darts events one of the ultimate sites of performative fandom. Findings: The carnivalesque atmosphere created by fans at live PDC events has made the events a televisual sports spectacle. This article explores some of the specific tools that are used to create a spectacle by the fans.These fan performances, using the tools, have been critical to the increases in the media viewership of professional darts tournaments and live attendances at the PDC events since the mid-2000s. Research Contribution: This article provides new insight into how a sports governing body utilises fans to create atmospheres at a niche sports event. By analysing darts fans' use of the selected tools, this article examines how a sport can be managed and marketed primarily via event atmospheres rather than the sporting action on the stage or field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the split in darts during the 1990s and a resulting Tomlin order (where terms were agreed in a court of law without admission of liability from either side) in 1997, two governing bodies were recognised as the leading darts organisations: the British Darts Organisation (BDO), and the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC – the new name for the World Darts Council, originally formed in 1992). Though both organisations were initially regarded as equals, the PDC rapidly transformed into the leading version of professional darts in the late 2000s. The multi-million-pound circuit of live PDC darts events held across the globe have been widely celebrated in sports media since the early 2010s. However, what has not been explored in scholarly literature are the key catalysts that led to the rapid changes in the PDC which led to the organisation becoming the preeminent version of professional darts during the 2010s. Using a range of semi-structured interviews and archival information with a variety of professional players, media figures and governance linked to the PDC, this article explicates the key catalysts involved in the development of the PDC as an organisation during the 2000s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three new aaptamines (1–3) together with two known derivatives (4–5) were isolated from the South China Sea sponge Aaptos suberitoides. The structures of all compounds were unambiguously elucidated by spectroscopic analyses as well as the comparison with literature data. All the compounds were evaluated for their cytotoxic activities against five human cancer cell lines including H1299, H520, SCG7901, CNE-2 and SW680 cells. As a result, compounds 3–5 showed moderate cytotoxicities against H1299 and H520 cells with IC50 values ranging from 12.9 to 20.6 μg/mL. Besides, compounds 3–5 also showed potent inhibitory activities toward cyclin-dependent kinase-2 (CDK2) with IC50 values of 14.3, 3.0 and 6.0 μg/mL, respectively. In addition, compounds 3–5 significantly induced G1 arrests of H1299 cells at low concentrations. Drug affinity responsive target stability (DARTS) experiments were carried out and further demonstrated that compound 3 could effectively bind with CDK2 protein and protect it from the degradation by pronase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates Howe and Leota/Turp's accounts of gamesmanship by examining case studies of gamesmanship from professional darts. While Leota and Turp make some substantial improvements on Howe in reconceptualizing the idea of sporting excellence, I claim that there are points of criticism that must be addressed, notably in their claims that sports do not prescribe necessary skills, and that it is impossible to distinguish between legitimate sporting strategy unaccounted for by the rules on the one hand, and gamesmanship on the other. Leota and Turp criticise Howe's account of rules for being misconceived: rather than rules prescribing necessary skills as Howe claims, rules actually proscribe skills and set limits on behaviour, rather than prescribing skills. I use darts and other sports to make the case that rules actually do both things. Elsewhere, in the phenomenon of 'grouping', I argue that we find a skill completely unaccounted for by the rules of darts and not a necessary skill for playing darts, which nonetheless counts as excellence for darts. This problematizes some claims from Leota and Turp on which their account of gamesmanship hinges. An aspect of Howe, Leota and Turp's accounts on which they all agree is the importance of psychological resilience in sporting endeavours, which I discuss with reference to darts and rule changes in professional sport. The article ends with a discussion of an example from darts of a potential gamesmanship strategy, from a match between Michael van Gerwen and Darius Labanauskas, that unquestionably remains within the rules of the sport and which could not be eradicated through rule changes because it would violate the spirit of the sport. This is an interesting, controversial example for studies of the different forms of gamesmanship and their categorization, and indicates some limitations on what I say in my argument. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 outbreak led to the cancellation of sporting events across the world in the spring of 2020 and forced billions of people across the globe to stay home and self-isolate for a number of months. One of the first sports to reposition and adapt their product during the global lockdown in March/April 2020 was professional darts. The Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) took an opportunity to promote their version of darts via an elite online home tournament, the PDC Home Tour, in a vast sports market craving live sporting action. This commentary provides an understanding of how professional darts, a sport that has relied on fan interaction within multi-purpose arenas at live events, attempted to move online to a home-based tournament for a temporary period to fill a sporting void. The commentary discusses the reaction to the tournaments held by the PDC and MODUS and issues encountered, before exploring the reasons for the tournaments being held during the primary global lockdown. As a niche sport, it is hoped that this commentary can provide some insight into the contemporary sport of professional darts, a sport rarely discussed in the scholarly field of sport and leisure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Macroautophagy/autophagy (hereafter autophagy), the process of mass degradation of unnecessary elements within the cell, is often dysregulated in many diseases such as cancer, atherosclerosis, and neurodegenerative diseases. Hence, autophagy modulating agents have a great potential to be therapeutic agents for the autophagy-related diseases. Here we report that an anti-depressant drug sertraline (Sert) is an autophagy-inducing agent. Mechanistically, Sert potentially binds to and antagonizes the mitochondrial VDAC1 (voltage dependent anion channel 1), resulting in reduced cellular ATP (adenosine triphosphate) level, activation of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) and inhibition of its downstream, MTOR (mechanistic target of rapamycin kinase)-RPS6KB1 (ribosomal protein S6 kinase B1) signaling pathway. Cells lacking VDAC1 expression completely abrogate the modulatory effect of Sert on AMPK-MTOR pathway and autophagy-inducing activity. We further show that Sert suppresses tauopathy by promoting the autophagic degradation of MAPT (microtubule associated protein tau) protein via inducing autophagy. Our study demonstrates the potential of Sert as a novel small molecule autophagy-inducing agent and provides a new drug candidate to treat autophagy related diseases by targeting VDAC1. Abbreviations: AMP: adenosine monophosphate; AMPK: AMP-activated protein kinase; ATP: adenosine triphosphate; Baf: bafilomycin A1; BiFC: biomolecular fluorescence complementation; CAMKK2/CAMKKB: calcium/calmodulin dependent protein kinase kinase 2; CC: compound C; DARTS: drug affinity responsive target stability; HUVECs: human umbilical vein endothelial cells; Inda: indatraline; STK11/LKB1: serine/threonine kinase 11; MAPT: microtubule associated protein tau; MAP1LC3/LC3: microtubule associated protein 1 light chain 3; 3-MA: 3-methyladenine; MEFs: mouse embryonic fibroblasts; MTOR: mechanistic target of rapamycin kinase; PI3K: phosphoinositide 3-kinase; Rapa: rapamycin; Sert: sertraline; RPS6KB1: ribosomal protein S6 kinase B1; SQSTM1/p62: sequestosome 1; SLC6A4/SERT1: solute carrier family 6 member 4; TFEB: transcription factor EB; VDAC1: voltage dependent anion channel 1; WT: wild-type; WM: wortmannin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we investigated the effects of modeling type and reflection on the acquisition of dart-throwing skills, self-efficacy beliefs and self-reaction scores by conceptually replicating a study by Kitsantas, Zimmerman, and Cleary (2000). Participants observing a novice model were expected to surpass participants observing an expert model who in turn were expected to outperform participants who learned without a model. Reflection was hypothesized to have a positive effect. 156 High school and university students were tested three times: in a pretest, after a modeling intervention, and after a practice round. Contrary to what was expected, we found no main effects of modeling type and reflection. No interaction effects were found either. There was an effect of testing moment, indicating that participants improved dart-throwing skills, self-efficacy beliefs, and self-reaction scores over time. With these findings, we are not able to replicate Kitsantas et al. From our study, we conclude that observational learning, irrespective of the model's skill level, combined with physical practice, yields similar results as mere physical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various sport scholars have noted the transition of sports from amateur leisure pastimes to professionalised and globalised media sporting spectacles. Recent developments in darts offer an excellent example of these changes, yet the sport is rarely discussed in contemporary sports studies. The only sustained theoretical research on darts focuses primarily on the origins of the sport in its nostalgic form as a working-class, pub taproom pastime in England. This article critically examines the transformation of darts from a leisurely game to a professional sport between the 1970s and the 1990s. The change was enabled by the creation of the British Darts Organisation (BDO) and the introduction of television broadcasting, which together fed a continual process of professionalisation. Initially, this article discusses both the concept of professionalisation and similar developmental changes in a selection of English sports. Following this, via selected interviews, documentary analysis and archival information, the reasons behind the split in darts are explicated, shedding light on how the BDO did not successfully manage the transformation and the sport split into two governing bodies, from which the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC), the sport’s most successful organisation in the present day, has emerged to dominate the world of televised darts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a lucid dream, the dreamer is aware of the dream state and can deliberately practice motor skills. Two field studies indicated that lucid dream practice can improve waking performance in simple motor tasks. The present pilot study investigated the effect of lucid dream practice in a controlled sleep laboratory setting, using a pre-post design with dart throwing in the evening and morning. The experimental group practiced darts in lucid dreams. Because some participants were distracted during lucid dream practice, the group was divided into lucid dreamers with few (n = 4) and many distractions (n = 5). Change of performance was compared to a physical practice group (n = 9) and a control group (n = 9), showing a significant interaction (P = .013,η2 = .368). Only the lucid dreamers with few distractions improved (18%) significantly over time (P = .005,d = 3.84). Even though these results have to be considered preliminary, the present study indicates that lucid dream practice can be an effective tool in sports practice if lucid dreamers find ways to minimise distractions during lucid dream practice. Moreover, the study emphasises the necessity to investigate lucid dream practice experiences on a qualitative level. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Sports statistics are one of the oldest applications of data analysis techniques in order to visualize and understand the outcome of sports events. One particularly interesting application is the analysis of darts data as darts has become tremendously popular and, hence, professional in recent years. In this paper we analyse a data-set consisting of more than 800 professional darts matches. We propose and test various player specific and match specific performance measures in order to identify variables that allow us to assess the players’ winning probabilities in a (single-set) darts match. We find that in about 80% of the analysed single-set matches the winner could be identified correctly by the fitted generalized linear regression models. Afterwards we show how these results can be used in a negative Poisson binomial model to assess the winning probabilities for a multi-set match. Finally, the results of multi-set matches are used in a tournament framework in order to predict the probabilities of all potential outcomes of a darts tournament. The approach is illustrated by analysing the latest World Darts Championship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to problematise and historicise the current dominance of theory in film and photography courses at HE level. The defeat of ‘culturalists’, who championed the cause of experience by the ‘structuralists’, who urged the primacy of theory over experience in the 1970s, and the triumph of psychoanalytic film theory at the journal can be seen in retrospect to have been key moments in the resulting hegemony established by high theory. However, it may be time to point out the historical contingency of the hegemony of theory and to consider whether it is justified any longer. The article suggests firstly that it makes little sense to consider many of the types of study currently carried out under the heading of theory (such as research methods, criticism, cultural/industrial histories, pragmatism and political economy of the industry) as ‘theory’. Secondly, it suggests that the type of high theory whose dominance was established in the 1970s has become institutionalised and a brake on change. Thirdly, it argues that the dominance of theory has led to a downgrading of the importance of creativity, a narrow definition of skill and an insufficiently strong awareness of the underlying economics of media practices. Various correctives to the current dominance of high theory are considered, including ‘mid-range’ theory; greater emphasis on histories; reconsideration of the concept of skill; pragmatism; closer attention to media economics; a wider range of doctoral qualifications to highlight the importance of media creativity, and the need for innovative new business models to support critical practice in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study which aims to identify and create an indices from the dynamics and kinematics of the arm motion of a throwing task player concerning the time of release (ToR). Then study was conducted to seven subjects who were a novice dart players who were instructed to perform 25 dart throws in position under the rules of World Dart Federation. The study shows that the release of dart occurs just before the hand of the players reached its peak velocity.