All posts by Will

#6 – William Hall

For my research example I read an article from the Journal of the American Medical Association titled: “Clinicopathological Evaluation of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) in Players of American Football.” It describes an experiment that sampled 202 deceased American football players who’s brains were donated by family members. There were six different levels of football that the 202 players competed in; pre-high school, high school, college, semi-professional, Canadian football league, and the National football league (NFL). 177 of the 202 players were diagnosed with CTE. 110 out of 111 NFL players in this study were diagnosed with CTE. Meanwhile, 48 out of 53 college students were diangosed, 9 out of 14 semi-professionals were diagnosed, and 7 out of 8 Canadian football league players were diagnosed.
This study suggests that CTE is likely to be related to prior participation in football. Additionally, palyers of American football are likely to be at increased risk of long-term neurological conditions. Lastly, the higher level of play, the more likely one is to be diagnosed with CTE.
Technological advancements will continue to provide more information on the CTE dilemma surrounding American football.
Organizational data is a type of data, while public and private records is a data collection method being used.

Citation:

Mez, Jesse, Daniel H. Daneshvar, and Patrick T. Kiernan. “Clinicopathological Evaluation of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy in Players of American Football.” Journal of the American Medical Association, July 25, 2017, 360-70.

Research Example 5 -William Hall

For Research Example number 5 I discovered an article on the library catalog titled “Concussions in Youth Rugby Union and Rugby League.” I researched concussions in rugby because the sport is very similar to football. Just like football, rugby is a contact sport and the objective is to get an almond shaped object from one side of the field to the other. Meanwhile, players on the opposing team are trying to prevent that from happening by tackling the player with the ball. Rugby players do not wear helmets, and for that reason the sport is surprisingly safer.
Concussions are the most common among NFL players, but according to a study conducted by Hinton Bayre et al, concussions are not the most common injury in rugby. Contusions, muscular strains, joint injuries, abrasions, and lacerations are more common injuries in rugby than concussions. Although this was surprising, it makes sense. Because players do not wear helmets defenders are more aware of their tackling form. They are not as tempted to aim high because not only will that hurt their opponent, but also it will severely hurt them. They have adapted to be spot on when it comes to their tackling form. The NFL has taken notice of this and have even talked about the idea of eliminating helmets altogether. New helmets and rule changes over the past 5 years in the NFL has not made a significant impact on reducing injuries, especially concussions. They will continue to make changes in an attempt to make the game safer, but if that does not make a difference many years down the road they might deeply consider eliminating helmets.
This article also talked about the main causes and preventions of concussions in rugby. Tackling, as expected, was identified as the most common cause for concussions. The tackled players are reportedly more at risk of getting a concussion than the player being tackled. Additionally, forwards are at a greater risk of getting a concussion because they have the ball more than defenders. There are more tackles made in rugby per game than football, so it is common for players to occasionally have poor form when making a tackle. Lastly, it was reported than less training resulted in fewer concussions.
Reports of acts and behaviors as well as expert knowledge was used for this report.
Kirkwood, Graham, Nikesh Parekh, Richard Ofori-Asenso, and Allyson M. Pollock. “Concussion in Youth Rugby Union and Rugby League: A Systematic Review.” British Journal of Sports Medicine 49, no. 8 (2015): 506-10. doi:10.1136/bjsports-2014-093774

Research Example 3

For this research example I looked at an article titled “Mismanaging concussions in intercollegiate Football.” I was interested in this article because the concussions that NFL players experience before they are playing professionally are extremely damaging to the development of their brains. This article uses examples to express the dangers of competing with a concussion, and mismanaging to let athletes compete with a concussion. Athletes are competitive and want to play hard all the time. It is hard for athletes to rest when they are competing for a spot on a team. Additionally, a lot of coaches admire players for going all out. This can lead to several problems. For instance, in the article a player for Eastern Illinois University in 2006 experienced several concussions but was repeatedly cleared to play days after experiencing them. As a result, the player (Adrian Arrington) was forced to drop out of school because he was having memory problems, suffering from depression, and experienced daily migraines. Years later, he mentioned how his coaches mentality was “play hard every day” and that he never stressed the importance of tackling properly and players safety. These examples are seen everywhere now, especially with the development and publicity of CTE. The research question they sought to answer was; does coaching styles effect the health of college football players? This article answers it well and goes into depth about examples of coaches taking the right action to prevent concussions, and coaches taking the wrong action and putting players in higher risk of CTE.
This article used in-depth interviews to find the data. Reports of Acts, behaviors and events was another type of data. Lastly, a data gathering method for this research was public and private records.

Research Example 2 – William Hall

Sufrinko, Alicia. “Family History of Migraine Associated With Posttraumatic Migraine Symptoms Following Sport-Related Concussion.” Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation, Jan. & feb. 2018, 7-14.

For This week’s research example I chose an article titled “Family History of Migraine Associated with Posttraumatic Migraine Symptoms Following Sport-Related Concussion” in the “Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation.” The question this article attempts to answers is: Does a family history of migraines increase the likelihood of posttraumatic migraine symptom (PTM) following a Sports Related Injury? PTM is when one experiences severe chronic headaches after experiencing trauma to the head or neck area. After surveying 232 kids between the ages of 12 and 18 with a published family history of migraine document, it was concluded that 33% of athletes with no family history of migraine met criteria for PTM, meanwhile 57% of athletes with a familial history of migraine met criteria. In conclusion, participants with a family history of migraines are 2.6 times more likely to experience PTM symptoms after experiencing a sports related injury. As a result, family history of migraine may be regarded as a secondary risk factor to consider when one experiences head trauma. There are limitations to this research however. First, there is a possibility of a selection bias because patients were recruited for this research from a specialty concussion clinic with a large interval (1-13 days post injury). Also, the severity of each individuals head injury was different, which also brings up another flaw. It is impossible to research 232 kids with the same severity of concussion, because each concussion is different. All in all, I believe it is hard to ultimately predict whether or not genetics play a significant role in this research.

The author mentioned that he used Chi-square analyses and t tests to determine whether groups differed on any demographic and injury characteristics. Surveys and questionnaires is a data collection method needed for this research, as well as public and private records. Reports of acts, behavior, or events, and demographic data are two types of data needed to conclude this research.

Research Example 1 – William Hall

Steiger, Bill. “Meet Bennet Omalu, MD: The Physician Leader Whose Research Inspired The Movie Concussion.” Physician Leadership Journal 3, no. 2 (March and April 2016): 8-10.

This article explains the story of Bennet Omalu, a Nigerian pathologist who discovered chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Mr. Omalu discovered this disease in 2002 when he autopsied Mike Webster; a former NFL center who died shortly after his NFL career. Initially, Mr. Omalu found nothing out of the ordinary when studying Mr. Webster’s brain. However, he tirelessly continued to analyze it and eventually came across unusual proteins. With help from other pathologists, Mr. Omalu named this disease and then published an article titled “Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy in a National Football League player.” Originally this article did not get much publicity, but eventually the interest for it grew and it became controversial. Critics of the paper threatened Mr. Omalu and attempted to force him to take it down. The article stayed and the concern for NFL players health increased. Since this incident, Mr. Omalu has found the disease in other NFL players who also passed away shortly after their playing careers. This discovery is threatening to the NFL because it creates controversy over whether the sport is safe to play or not. A research question that rises from this article is: Will the revolutionary discovery of CTE pose a threat to the NFL’s future?

Expert knowledge was a type of data used to report findings in this article. Mr. Omalu is a certified doctor and he used his knowledge to conclude his research. Acts, behavior, or events is another data type because Mr. Omalu physically researched and experimented on his own. Ethnography is a data collection method used. The article describes Mr. Omalu’s findings, which were told to the reporter.

Journal Entry #2 – William Hall

Hess, Edward D. “Smart Growth-Creating Real Long-Term value.” Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, May 14, 2010, 74-83.

The article Smart Growth-Creating Real Long-Term Value reflects the business side of my research question. Business strategy and organization determines the success of a business. Mr. Hess explains how businesses get so caught up with the “Grow or die” mentality, that they lose focus of their longevity. Instead, they should focus on “smart growth.” Smart growth is when inspired leaders and employees come together to focus their efforts on short term growth that will continuously improve the success of a business.

For this experiment, Mr. Hess decided to examine whether there was empirical support for the U.S. Growth Model. He looked into the disciplines of economics, finance, strategy, and organizational behavior and design. After researching several companies, he concluded that continuous linear growth is not viable.

Mr. Hass took a look at 22 high growth companies and studied their secret to success. He concluded that most of the high growth companies lacked several characteristics he though they would have. For instance, most companies did not sell unique products or services, did not have the best talent, did not have visionary or charismatic leaders, and did not have innovation leaders. What gave these companies a competitive advantage was that they had built over time an internal enabling Growth System. Thus meaning that employees were treated with loyalty, so worked hard and gave forth their best effort. These companies had productive chemistry, like a championship caliber sports team who is filled with average players but win it all because they play well together. Best Buy Co. was used by Mr. Hass for an example of a successful business. In 2005 Best Buy Co. needed a change so they undertook a major redesign of its business model in an effort to change from a centralized, top-down, product-centric organization to a decentralized, customer-centric organization. In this new culture they identified their customers as “Kings and Queens,” their employees as “royalty,” and their management as “servants.”

Acts, Behavior, or Events and economic data were the types of data used during this experiment. Meanwhile, ethnography is an example of a data collection method because the researcher observed patterns of how the business was running.

Journal Entry #1 – William Hall

Blumrodt, Jens, and Nell C. Huang-Horowitz. “Managing brand identity strategy: how professional football wins the game .” Journal of Business Strategy 38, no. 6 (2017): 31-38.

I chose the article “Managing brand identity strategy: how professional football wins the game,” written by Jens Blumrodt and Nell C.Huang-Horowitz. It is found in the Journal of Business Strategy and it explores the financial success of 20 French professional Football (soccer) clubs. The research question was conducted using a mix-methods approach which consisted of website analysis and personal interviews with fans. Each clubs individual website was studied and the results came back as expected. The richer clubs had more in depth websites that were frequently updated and consisted of more detail and information about the team, while the smaller budget clubs struggled to keep their website up to date. Additionally, every club had running social media sites which allows fans from all over the world to stay connected to their favorite club. Clubs that experience the most success on the field tend to produce the most revenue off the field. That being said, it was proven that a high level of involvement from diehard fans ensures that clubs survive years of poor performance without losing their fan base. Acts, behavior, or events, as well as economic data were used during this experiment. Fans go to games, purchase merchandise and tickets, and support their favorite club online which is an act and behavior. Meanwhile, revenue is earned through these purchases and accounts for the economic data. In depth interviews was one of the methods used during this experiment. 244 fans were individually interviewed for 45-60 minutes each and were asked questions along the lines of how they perceived the club overall, the coach, and the management. This experiment consists of both qualitative and quantitative data. The quantitative data being the number of fans interviewed, and the qualitative being the responses of the fans. The involvement and support for these clubs on a global scale is something that my classmates and other readers will be interested in learning more about.