Perceptions of Safety and Support among High School Football Players Utilizing a Helmet Impact Detection System

Background: Concussions are common in high school football athletes and can have short and long-term health impacts. New football helmets furnished with accelerometers to detect rate and location of impact have recently emerged. The use of these helmets offers the ability to rapidly and objectively assess concussions on the sideline. However, minimal research has explored athlete’s perceptions of the use of these helmets. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine high school football players’ perceptions of safety and support following a season of use of a Helmet Impact Detection System. Methods: 118 high school football players from a large parochial school completed an electronic 29-item cross-sectional survey to obtain demographic information and safety perceptions at the end of a football season. Participants wore Riddell InSite Helmets (Riddell, Inc. Elyria, OH) the entire football season prior to the survey. Descriptive statistics were computed utilizing SPSS software. Results: When asked to rate the degree to which players felt the concussion helmets helped keep them safe, 69.1% of students strongly agreed and 23.6% somewhat agreed. When asked if they agreed or disagreed that they felt safer than opposing teams that did not wear the helmets only 47.3% of players strongly agreed. When asked if they played harder or more confidently due to the helmets 57.3% of players strongly agreed. Finally, 17.3% of players somewhat or strongly agreed that they would not play football if it were not for the helmets. Conclusion: These findings suggest the use of instrumented helmets may encourage athletes’ feeling supported by coaches/administrators and their perceptions of safety which could impact their decision to engage in football. However, more research is needed to determine if these feelings of safety translate to a change in rates of concussions compared to players with traditional helmets

The Role of Alpha-Band Brain Oscillations as a Sensory Suppression Mechanism during Selective Attention

Evidence has amassed from both animal intracranial recordings and human electrophysiology that neural oscillatory mechanisms play a critical role in a number of cognitive functions such as learning, memory, feature binding and sensory gating. The wide availability of high-density electrical and magnetic recordings (64–256 channels) over the past two decades has allowed for renewed efforts in the characterization and localization of these rhythms. A variety of cognitive effects that are associated with specific brain oscillations have been reported, which range in spectral, temporal, and spatial characteristics depending on the context. Our laboratory has focused on investigating the role of alpha-band oscillatory activity (8–14 Hz) as a potential attentional suppression mechanism, and this particular oscillatory attention mechanism will be the focus of the current review. We discuss findings in the context of intersensory selective attention as well as intrasensory spatial and feature-based attention in the visual, auditory, and tactile domains. The weight of evidence suggests that alpha-band oscillations can be actively invoked within cortical regions across multiple sensory systems, particularly when these regions are involved in processing irrelevant or distracting information. That is, a central role for alpha seems to be as an attentional suppression mechanism when objects or features need to be specifically ignored or selected against

CP Tagged Decays at SuperBaBar

We explore the possibility of measuring the CKM parameter gamma using CP tagged decays at a very high luminosity e+e- B Factory. A new collider capable of integrating as much as 10 inverse attobarns per year is being discussed as a possible future for SLAC beyond the current PEP-II program, and could also be in the future of KEK. In two years of operation, it could be possible for a successor to BaBar or Belle to accumulate a sample of one million CP tagged B decays. We find that a theoretically clean extraction of gamma with uncertainty less than 5 degrees may be achievable in the analysis of such a data set.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures; minimal revisions for version to appear in Physical Review D, all formulas and conclusions unchange

Star Formation and AGN Activity in Galaxy Clusters from z=1−2z=1-2: a Multi-wavelength Analysis Featuring HerschelHerschel/PACS

We present a detailed, multi-wavelength study of star formation (SF) and AGN activity in 11 near-infrared (IR) selected, spectroscopically confirmed, massive ($\gtrsim10^{14}\,\rm{M_{\odot}}$) galaxy clusters at $1<z<1.75$. Using new, deep $Herschel$/PACS imaging, we characterize the optical to far-IR spectral energy distributions (SEDs) for IR-luminous cluster galaxies, finding that they can, on average, be well described by field galaxy templates. Identification and decomposition of AGN through SED fittings allows us to include the contribution to cluster SF from AGN host galaxies. We quantify the star-forming fraction, dust-obscured SF rates (SFRs), and specific-SFRs for cluster galaxies as a function of cluster-centric radius and redshift. In good agreement with previous studies, we find that SF in cluster galaxies at $z\gtrsim1.4$ is largely consistent with field galaxies at similar epochs, indicating an era before significant quenching in the cluster cores ($r<0.5\,$Mpc). This is followed by a transition to lower SF activity as environmental quenching dominates by $z\sim1$. Enhanced SFRs are found in lower mass ($10.1< \log \rm{M_{\star}}/\rm{M_{\odot}}<10.8$) cluster galaxies. We find significant variation in SF from cluster-to-cluster within our uniformly selected sample, indicating that caution should be taken when evaluating individual clusters. We examine AGN in clusters from $z=0.5-2$, finding an excess AGN fraction at $z\gtrsim1$, suggesting environmental triggering of AGN during this epoch. We argue that our results $-$ a transition from field-like to quenched SF, enhanced SF in lower mass galaxies in the cluster cores, and excess AGN $-$ are consistent with a co-evolution between SF and AGN in clusters and an increased merger rate in massive haloes at high redshift.Comment: 26 pages, 14 figures, 6 tables with appendix, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

Application of Pinniped Vibrissae to Aeropropulsion

Vibrissae of Phoca Vitulina (Harbor Seal) and Mirounga Angustirostris (Elephant Seal) possessundulations along their length. Harbor Seal Vibrissae were shown to reduce vortex induced vibrations and reduce dragcompared to appropriately scaled cylinders and ellipses. Samples of Harbor Seal vibrissae, Elephant Seal vibrissae andCalifornia Sea Lion vibrissae were collected from the Marine Mammal Center in California. CT scanning, microscopy and3D scanning techniques were utilized to characterize the whiskers. Computational fluid dynamics simulations of thewhiskers were carried out to compare them to an ellipse and a cylinder. Leading edge parameters from the whiskerswere used to create a 3D profile based on a modern power turbine blade. The NASA SW-2 facility was used to performwind tunnel cascade testing on the 'Seal Blades'. Computational Fluid Dynamics simulations were used to studyincidence angles from -37 to +10 degrees on the aerodynamic performance of the Seal Blade. The tests and simulationswere conducted at a Reynolds number of 100,000. The Seal Blades showed consistent performance improvements overthe baseline configuration. It was determined that a fuel burn reduction of approximately 5 could be achieved for a fixedwing aircraft. Noise reduction potential is also explore

Test-Retest Reliability of the Repetitive Step Test in Community Dwelling Older Adults

Each year one in every three adults over the age of 65 experience a fall resulting in serious injury and in some instances death. In this population, falling injuries are the leading cause of death and are associated with the greatest number of nonfatal injuries and trauma hospital admissions. Since balance and muscle performance decreases as one ages, it is vitally important to assess these factors as part of a comprehensive strategy to monitor and predict fall risk. Previous data analysis of the Repetitive Step Test (RST) has shown that there is a significant performance difference between non-fallers and recurrent fallers in particular stepping conditions, and that significant inter-limb differences exist in non-fallers.https://ecommons.udayton.edu/dpt_symposium/1033/thumbnail.jp