Study Finds Brain Effects in High-School Football Players Without Concussions
The findings from 24 high-school athletes suggest that a series of small, successive blows to the head can prompt changes in the brains of young people. The research was presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America.
The study didn’t look at brain function, so the cognitive effect of the observed brain-structure changes remains unknown. A 2013 analysis of 80 Division I college football and ice-hockey players, though, found that the more the brain changed over a single season, the worse athletes did on learning and memory tests.
“There’s a lot we don’t know about these changes. Do they persist over time? Do they go away? Are they associated with some subtle cognitive changes?” said Christopher Whitlow, an associate professor of radiology at Wake Forest School of Medicine in North Carolina. “We haven’t really answered those questions yet, but are planning to in the future.”
Most attention to brain injury during football has been focused on professional players. Yet there are only 1,700 National Football League players, compared with 2.8 million young people who play the sport in the U.S.
“We know little about head injury risks for those youth football players,” Whitlow said. “If we can identify risks, then we can intervene, decrease the risks, and make this sport as safe as possible for all the children who are playing it.”
Heavy Hitters
The study is the latest in a series of analyses from the Wake Forest’s Kinematics of Impact Data Set, or KIDS, project, the largest study of its kind to assess head impacts in youth football.
During games and practice for a single football season, the researchers outfitted the players, ages 16 to 18, with accelerometers on their helmets to detect how many head impacts the players had and how hard the hits were.
Before the season, the players underwent advanced MRI scans, called diffusion tensor imaging or DTI, which detects the microstructure of the brain’s white matter — the millions of nerve fibers called axons that transmit information around the brain.
Based on the accelerometer data, the researchers categorized the players in two groups — identifying nine heavy hitters and 15 light hitters.
Corpus Callosum
After the season, they were scanned again. The tests found that the heavy hitters showed statistically significant abnormalities in the white matter in specific parts of the brain — notably the corpus callosum and deep white matter tracts — areas previously found to be altered after mild traumatic brain injuries.
The brain changes occurred despite the fact that none of the players were found to have experienced a concussion during the season.
More research needs to be done. “It is unclear whether or not these effects will be associated with any negative long-term consequences,” Whitlow said in a statement accompanying the study.
Football’s positive health effects still outweigh any potential for brain damage, according to Tracey Covassin, an associate professor at Michigan State University and an athletic trainer.
“Football has positive youth development, it has obviously an exercise component, but we still need to do a lot more in regards to educating individuals more about concussions,” Covassin said in a phone interview. “I still do believe kids should play football.”
Football Lawsuits
Concussions and head injuries to players have become the subject of litigation at levels of organized football from the pros down to high school.
The NFL got preliminary approval from a federal judge in Philadelphia in July for a $765 million head injury settlement in lawsuits filed by about 5,000 former players. The accord would reimburse retirees who suffer from a list of qualified injuries including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association has proposed a $75 million negligence lawsuit settlement that would screen all its athletes for concussions for 50 years.
Over the weekend, a former high-school quarterback filed a class action lawsuit accusing the Illinois High School Association of failing to protect his health after he suffered multiple concussions when he played.
Authorities in Columbus, Ohio, are investigating the death of Ohio State University defensive lineman Kosta Karageorge, whose body was found with a gun in a trash bin near campus yesterday. The player was reported missing last week by his family, who said he had told them he sustained a number of concussions playing football and was suffering their after- effects.
“The attorney fees are covered by insurance so there is no cost [or] impact to Orono taxpayers,” she said.
Maine School Management Association, RSU 26’s insurance carrier, used Aspen Speciality Insurance to cover the legal fees associated with the lawsuit brought by Nicole Maines, said Melissa Hewey, a Portland attorney representing the school board, on Monday. Orono only incurred a one-time $5,000 deductible when the suit was initially filed.
Neither Hewey nor Superintendent Harriman would release the total amount spent on legal fees over the last seven years around the Maines lawsuit.
Messages left at the Aspen Speciality Insurance office in New York for comment about the legal costs were not immediately returned.
Nicole Maines, now 17, is a male-to-female transgender person who was enrolled as a fifth-grade student at Asa Adams Elementary School in Orono during the 2007-2008 school year when she was denied access to the girl’s bathroom. She was told to use a staff bathroom, after the grandfather of a male student complained.
The following year, as a sixth-grader, Maines was again denied access to the girls bathroom at Orono Middle School. She sued, starting a seven-year process that began with a complaint to the Maine Human Rights Commission in 2008 and a second complaint filed in 2009.
Nicole Maines’ parents, Wayne and Kelly Maines, then sued what is now Regional School Unit 26 in 2009 in Penobscot County Superior Court on behalf of their daughter, who has a twin brother.
A final order in her case was issued Nov. 25 in Penobscot County Superior Court, stating that Orono violated the law and preventing the school district “from refusing access by transgender students to school restrooms that are consistent with their gender identity.”
The court also awarded $75,000 to the Boston- and Portland-based legal firms that represented the girl and her parents. The Maines family now lives in Cumberland County and the teen siblings attend a private school.
Initially, Superior Court Justice William Anderson ruled in the school district’s favor in November 2012, but the Maine Supreme Judicial Court reversed that ruling in a 5-1 decision in January of this year.
Harriman said Tuesday that now that the lawsuit is finalized, the school finally has direction about how to handle transgender students.
“In terms of changes in Orono schools — we are happy to finally have some clear guidance from the court and we are following the court’s directive,” the superintendent said.
Penerus NEX-5 ini membawa sejumlah peningkatan dan penambahan feature baru yang membuatnya makin hebat.
Sejak pertama kali ikut bersaing pada kelas compact system camera pada tahun 2010 lalu, Sony NEX bisa dibilang cukup berhasil merebut perhatian.
Sony yang saat itu mengandalkan NEX-3 dan NEX5 mampu menghadirkan sebuah sistem kamera yang sangat kompak, namun mampu menghasilkan gambar yang berkualitas tinggi. Ini ditambah fleksibilitas tinggi dengan kemampuan lensa yang bisa diganti -ganti.
Kali ini, kami berkesempatan untuk menguji penerus dari NEX-5, yaitu NEX-5N. Sony NEX- 5N ini membawa sejumlah peningkatan dan perbaikan kinerja dari pendahulunya.
Melihat penampilannya, Sony NEX-5N ini masih memiliki penampilan yang mirip dengan NEX-5. Desainnya terbilang kompak, kalau tidak mau dibilang terlalu kecil untuk tangan kebanyakan orang. Hadirnya grip di bagian depan membuat kamera ini cukup nyaman digenggam.
Kualitas bodinya tergolong solid dengan penggunaan bahan magnesium alloy pada sebagian besar bagian tubuhnya. Di bagian belakangnya terdapat beberapa tombol yang bisa digunakan untuk melakukan pengaturan. Sementara di bagian atasnya hanya terdapat tombol review dan tombol shutter bersama dengan saklar power.
Sony NEX-5N dibekali dengan spesifikasi yang sangat menggiurkan. Jika Sony NEX-5 dibekali dengan sensor 14 mega piksel, NEX-5N ini dibekali dengan sensor baru yang mampu menghasilkan gambar hingga 16 mega piksel. Sensor ini juga mampu menghadirkan tingkat sensitivitas yang lebih tinggi dibandingkan sebelumnya.
Sony NEX-5N ini memiliki rentang ISO mulai dari ISO 100 hingga 25600 (bandingkan dengan NEX-5 yang memiliki jangkauan ISO 200 hingga 12800). Sensor yang digunakan ini juga mampu menangkap gambar dengan lebih jernih dengan noise yang lebih sedikit.
Untuk mempermudah pemakaian, Sony membekali NEX-5N ini dengan layar lipat. Layar lipat ini sangat membantu para pengguna saat akan mengambil gambar dengan sudut rendah atau tinggi.
Namun sayangnya, mekanisme layar lipatnya agak terbatas. Karena engselnya tidak terletak di bagian samping, Anda hanya bisa melipat layarnya ke atas atau ke bawah saja, tidak ke samping.
Layar berukuran 3 inci ini juga merupakan layar sentuh. Anda bisa memanfaatkan layar sentuhnya untuk menentukan titik fokus, menggeser foto saat review, atau mengakses menu pengaturan.
Menggunakan Sony NEX-5N ini tergolong menyenangkan. Pengguna awam pun tdak akan merasa kesulitan menggunakan kamera ini karena tersedia modus iAuto. Jika diaktifkan, modus iAuto ini akan mendeteksi secara otomatis situasi pemotretan yang sedang dihadapi dan memberikan pengaturan yang paling pas menurut kamera.
Untuk pengguna yang lebih mahir juga tersedia modul semi auto dan kontrol manual. Sayangnya, melakukan pengaturan ISO, white balance, dan yang lainnya tergolong agak merepotkan. Karena tombol yang minim, Anda harus masuk ke jauh ke dalam menu untuk sekadar mengganti pengaturan tersebut.
Kualitas foto yang dihasilkan Sony NEX- 5N ini tergolong sangat baik untuk kelas compact system camera. Sensor CMOS 16 mega piksel yang dimilikinya mampu menghadirkan gambar yang jernih. Lensa standar 18-55 mm f/3.5-5.6 yang disertakan juga cukup baik dan tajam.
Kamera ini juga mampu meminimalisir noise yang dihasilkan saat menggunakan ISO tinggi. Menurut kami, hasil foto yang dihasilkan pada ISO 1600 masih terbilang bersih dan layak pakai. Untuk videonya, kamera ini mendukung format AVCHD dengan resolusi 1920x1080.
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Sony NEX-5N ini adalah kamera yang sangat menarik. Bentuknya ringkas, kinerja dan hasil fotonya juga sangat baik. Jika Anda mencari sebuah sistem kamera kompak yang ringkas dan berkinerja bagus, Sony NEX-5N ini bisa Anda jadikan pilihan utama.
Spesifikasi Sony NEX-5N
Resolusi
16 megapiksel
Resolusi Foto (min/max)
2448 x 1376 / 4912 x 3264 piksel
Resolusi Video (min/max)
640 x 480 / 1920 x 1080
Media Perekam
SD/SDHC/SDXC
Format File
AVCHD
Ekivalen ISO
ISO 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200, 6400, 12800, 25600
Kecepatan shutter (detik)
30 - 1/4000
Viewfinder
Elektronik (opsional)
Diagonal LCD
3 inci (bisa dilipat)
Koneksi komputer
USB
Tipe baterai
Sony NP-FH50
Baterai charger
Ada
Dimensi (plt)
111 x 59 x 38 mm
Bobot (gr)
269 gram (tanpa lensa)
Garansi
1 tahun
Situs Web
http://www.sony.co.id
Harga kisaran*
Rp7.000.000
Layar Lipat
Sony NEX-5N memiliki sebuah layar sentuh LCD 3 inci yang bisa dilipat ke atas atau ke bawah. Tujuannya membantu pengambilan gambar dalam sudut yang sulit. 
Tombol Ringkas
Karena ukuran fisiknya yang kecil, Sony NEX-5N memiliki tombol yang tidak terlalu banyak. Tombol putar (dial) yang tersedia berguna untuk melakukan penjelajahan menu/gambar dan mengubah sett ng. 
16 Mega Piksel
Kamera ini dibekali dengan sensor CMOS 16 mega piksel yang mampu menghasilkan gambar dengan jernih dan noise yang minim.
Kabar gembira datang dari ASRock. Salah satu motherboard anyar keluaran produsen hardware asal Taiwan tersebut meraih penghargaan Recommended Buy dari situs review hardware ternama, Tom’s Hardware, untuk bulan ini.
Adalah motherboard ASRock X79 Extreme4, sebuah mobo LGA 2011 berdasarkan chipset X79 Intel, yang mendapatkan kehormatan itu. Produk ini mengalahkan saingannya dari Asus, Biostar, ECS, Intel, dan MSI.
Hasil pengujian dan komparasi di antara keenam motherboard X79 Intel tersebut bisa dibaca di artikel berikut: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/x79-extreme4-dx79to-p9x79-benchmark,3138.html.
Menurut Thomas Soderstrom (reviewer Tom’s Hardware), motherboard ASRock X79 Extreme4 menggambarkan upaya ASRock yang berkelanjutan dalam menyediakan peranti keras kelas atas tanpa membanderol harga premium pada platform ini.
Sebagai informasi, ASRock X79 Extreme4 dikemas dengan fitur yang hebat dan canggih. Kapasitas premium gold bekerja sama dengan Digi Power untuk memberikan kemulusan, efisiensi, dan solusi daya yang stabil.
Ada juga XFast family eksklusif ASRock meliputi XFast USB, XFast LAN, XFast Charger, dan XFast RAM yang dapat meningkatkan kinerja sistem sehingga dapat memperpanjang jangka waktu penggunaan HHD atau SSD pada saat yang sama.
Selain itu, NVIDIA 3-Way SLI dan teknologi AMD 3-Way CrossFireX yang menjamin visual eye popping membuat X79 Extreme4 penuh dengan keunggulan.