Coaches\u27 Liability for Athletes\u27 Injuries and Deaths

In the brutally hot summer of 2001, three prominent athletes lost their lives on playing fields across the country. Football players Korey Stringer of the Minnesota Vikings,\u27 Rashidi Wheeler of Northwestern University, and Eraste Autin of the University Florida collapsed and died in summer practices. These practices are an annual rite that has preceded each football season since the sport was conceived approximately ninety years ago. While these deaths are tragic, they are certainly not uncommon. Since 1995, eighteen high school and collegiate football players have died while participating in practices or games. In America\u27s litigious society, these deaths raise important questions regarding a coach\u27s responsibility to the team and his players. Specifically, should a coach be held personally liable when his athlete is injured or dies while participating in an athletic event? On its face, the behavior of such coaches seems barbaric and outrageous, but society seems to condone or ignore it because it forges football champions. In a strictly legal sense, where does society draw the line between forging champions and committing a tort? When does a coach\u27s behavior constitute a tort and what standard should be applied? This article analyzes the liability of a coach for an athlete\u27s injury or death while participating in an athletic event. In particular, the article describes the theory of negligence as applied to an athletic coach, as well as other theories of liability and legal defenses a coach may employ. The article concludes by applying these theories to the circumstances surrounding the deaths of Stringer, Wheeler, and Autin

Coaches\u27 Liability for Athletes\u27 Injuries and Deaths

In the brutally hot summer of 2001, three prominent athletes lost their lives on playing fields across the country. Football players Korey Stringer of the Minnesota Vikings,\u27 Rashidi Wheeler of Northwestern University, and Eraste Autin of the University Florida collapsed and died in summer practices. These practices are an annual rite that has preceded each football season since the sport was conceived approximately ninety years ago. While these deaths are tragic, they are certainly not uncommon. Since 1995, eighteen high school and collegiate football players have died while participating in practices or games. In America\u27s litigious society, these deaths raise important questions regarding a coach\u27s responsibility to the team and his players. Specifically, should a coach be held personally liable when his athlete is injured or dies while participating in an athletic event? On its face, the behavior of such coaches seems barbaric and outrageous, but society seems to condone or ignore it because it forges football champions. In a strictly legal sense, where does society draw the line between forging champions and committing a tort? When does a coach\u27s behavior constitute a tort and what standard should be applied? This article analyzes the liability of a coach for an athlete\u27s injury or death while participating in an athletic event. In particular, the article describes the theory of negligence as applied to an athletic coach, as well as other theories of liability and legal defenses a coach may employ. The article concludes by applying these theories to the circumstances surrounding the deaths of Stringer, Wheeler, and Autin

User-Defined Material Model for Progressive Failure Analysis

An overview of different types of composite material system architectures and a brief review of progressive failure material modeling methods used for structural analysis including failure initiation and material degradation are presented. Different failure initiation criteria and material degradation models are described that define progressive failure formulations. These progressive failure formulations are implemented in a user-defined material model (or UMAT) for use with the ABAQUS/Standard1 nonlinear finite element analysis tool. The failure initiation criteria include the maximum stress criteria, maximum strain criteria, the Tsai-Wu failure polynomial, and the Hashin criteria. The material degradation model is based on the ply-discounting approach where the local material constitutive coefficients are degraded. Applications and extensions of the progressive failure analysis material model address two-dimensional plate and shell finite elements and three-dimensional solid finite elements. Implementation details and use of the UMAT subroutine are described in the present paper. Parametric studies for composite structures are discussed to illustrate the features of the progressive failure modeling methods that have been implemented

Does Organizational Innovation Capability Impact Electronic Medical Records Implementation Success?

Innovation capability involves the bringing to the market and/or successful implementation of a new product or service. It is the ability to mobilize the knowledge of the employees and the organization from past experiences to create new knowledge, and use such new knowledge to bring to the market and/or successfully implement a new product or service. Innovation capability is associated with higher levels of product and process innovation within the organization. EMR is considered a technology innovation per research literature. In this research-in-progress paper, we posit that an organization with a high level of innovation capability based on product and process innovation implementations in the past will successfully implement a technology innovation such as an EMR system. A conceptual model is presented with related hypotheses

Heart of glass anchors Rasip1 at endothelial cell-cell junctions to support vascular integrity.

Heart of Glass (HEG1), a transmembrane receptor, and Rasip1, an endothelial-specific Rap1-binding protein, are both essential for cardiovascular development. Here we performed a proteomic screen for novel HEG1 interactors and report that HEG1 binds directly to Rasip1. Rasip1 localizes to forming endothelial cell (EC) cell-cell junctions and silencing HEG1 prevents this localization. Conversely, mitochondria-targeted HEG1 relocalizes Rasip1 to mitochondria in cells. The Rasip1-binding site in HEG1 contains a 9 residue sequence, deletion of which abrogates HEG1's ability to recruit Rasip1. HEG1 binds to a central region of Rasip1 and deletion of this domain eliminates Rasip1's ability to bind HEG1, to translocate to EC junctions, to inhibit ROCK activity, and to maintain EC junctional integrity. These studies establish that the binding of HEG1 to Rasip1 mediates Rap1-dependent recruitment of Rasip1 to and stabilization of EC cell-cell junctions

A Conceptual Model of the Role of Relative Advantage, Compatibility and Complexity in Electronic Medical Records Implementation Success

Successful Electronic Medical Record (EMR) implementation is expected to help control costs and increase efficiencies in healthcare delivery while also improving the quality of care. EMR is an information technology innovation per research literature. It is therefore important that EMR implementations succeed. A large number of information technology implementations fail resulting in monetary and non-monetary losses. EMR implementations in the United States and around the world have been fraught with problems and delays, resulting in unsuccessful or partially successful implementations. Knowing factors that are associated with successful information technology implementations may help EMR implementations succeed. The goal of this research-in-progress is to investigate whether the factors relative advantage, compatibility and complexity, which have most often been associated with successful information technology implementations in other domains such as e-commerce, are also associated with successful EMR implementations

Genetic Correlations of Fatty Acid Concentrations with Carcass Traits in Angus-Sired Beef Cattle

Fatty acid composition of beef is heritable in grain-fed calves. To select for beef that is more healthful, it is important to know the genetic correlations of specific fatty acid concentrations with carcass traits that have been under selection for several years. The most relevant fatty acids in beef for selection would be myristic acid, because of its impact on healthfulness, and oleic acid, because of its amount in beef. Myristic acid has favorable genetic correlations with hot carcass weight, 12-13th rib subcutaneous fat thickness, and Warner-Bratzler shear force (-0.23, 0.27, and 0.31, respectively). Additionally, the genetic correlation of oleic acid with marbling is very strong and favorable (0.83). Unfortunately, myristic acid has a moderate antagonistic genetic correlation to marbling (0.31). In addition, oleic acid has weak to moderate antagonistic genetic correlations with hot carcass weight, 12-13th rib subcutaneous fat thickness, percentage kidney, pelvic, and heart fat, and Warner-Bratzler shear force (-0.14, 0.18, 0.36, and 0.12, respectively). Information about the genetic correlations of traditional carcass traits and fatty acid concentrations will enable us to create a selection scheme that will create more healthful beef that meets the other carcass characteristics desired by the consumer

Pendulum--a reversible computer architecture

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 1995.Includes bibliographical references (p. 76-78).by Carlin James Vieri.M.S

Direct regional microvascular monitoring and assessment of blood brain barrier function following cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury

Evans Blue (EB) is often used to evaluate Blood-Brain Barrier Damage (BBB) in cerebral ischemia, frequently by dye extraction. Herein we present a method that allows assessing regional brain microvasculature, distribution of EB and Fluorescent Isothiocyanate-Labeled Red Blood Cells (FITC-RBCs) in a rat model of acute cerebral Ischemia-Reperfusion (I-R). Wistar rats were subjected to 3 h of middle cerebral artery occlusion and then reperfused. At ~2.5 h of reperfusion, BBB opening was assessed by contrast enhanced magnetic resonance imaging. It was followed by injections of EB and FITC-RBCs that circulated for either 5 or 20 min. Regional microvasculature and tracer distributions were assessed by laser scanning confocal microscopy. Microvascular networks in stroke-affected regions networks were partially damaged with apparent EB extravasation. Brain regions were affected in the following order: preoptic area (PoA)\u3estriatum (Str)\u3ecortex (Ctx). EB leakage increased with circulation time in Str. Cells around the leakage sites sequestered EB. An inverse correlation was observed between low CBF rates recorded during MCA occlusion and post-reperfusion EB extravasation patterns. Accordingly, this approach provided data on brain regional microvascular status, extravascular tracer distribution and its cellular uptake. It may be useful to evaluate model-dependent variations in vascular injury and efficacy of putative vascular protective drugs in stroke