The Descent !!!

Okay, here we are again. If I may ask, how are you doing? Hope your week has been great and I do hope you have enjoyed reading one or two posts in my blog?
This week is filled up with activities for me and the School of Public Health in general. The APHA was held this week and the comprehensive examination is coming up this week. I also did a couple of examinations in some of my other courses.
Back to the Survey Methodology class, there is nothing much going on at the moment. The instructor did cancel the next class because of the forthcoming comprehensive exams and the APHA conference. I do have my mid term to take sometimes next week. I am keeping my fingers crossed on that one. I do hope I get good grades. I have to get back to studying now. Till next week, take care of you and have a great week.

Roller coaster

I was graciously granted a couple of weeks break by the instructor due to some personal challenges I had recently. I did suffer an emotional tragic loss some weeks back, incidentally my wife also delivered a baby boy during this period. It has been an emotional roller coaster for me. I am glad I am coming out of it.
I will be back in class tomorrow. I read we will be going over our survey and programming. I do look forward to it and meeting up with my group members.

Midway !!!

It is amazing how time flies. We are already half way in to the semester. I have not being in class for the past couple of weeks due to some personal challenges. I do hope to be back as soon as possible.
It will be great to meet up with my group members. I miss them and I miss being part of the activities.

Speed !

The semester is catching up with speed, it is beginning to feel like there is barely enough time in twenty four hours. The mid terms are also a couple of weeks away from most of the courses. We are working on our IRB and Methodology assignments. The instructor was magnanimous to grant us some extra days to work on the assignments. We (Snow Squad) will be meeting during the class time this week to finalize our edit. I have to say I have enjoyed working with my group members so far. Jordan is a good leader and we all do our parts individually for the overall success of our group.

Stratosphere

Last week was wow !!! It was quite a challenge for me to do all I needed to do considering the fact that I was ill. Thankfully I am much better now. We did write our literature review and submitted last week. We are awaiting the instructor's corrections. I hope we did not make many mistakes.
We had a group meeting today to discuss how we will tackle the next assignments, which are IRB protocol and methodology. We divided the work amongst ourselves. I have to say I do like my group members and I do not have an issue with any of them.

Take off !

The course is gradually taking off. It is getting busy and interesting. We are due to submit our literature review. It is a bit challenging getting everybody in my group together because of people have different schedule. Inspite of that, I am enjoying working with my team members. We try to use mobile technology and other means to communicate. I have written my part of the literature review and we are compiling and editing everything together.
Beyond the literature review, our mid term examination is in three weeks. I guess I need to start preparation in earnest. The course has been great so far. I hope I keep enjoying it.

The meeting

My group (The Snow Squad) had a meeting with Dr. Fernando to discuss our research topic on Friday, 09/04/2015 . We intend to explore the topic of vaccinations and religious affiliation. Our research question is "Do specific religious affiliations influence the choice to vaccinate one’s child?".
Dr. Fernando made some corrections and recommendations to our group work. I think the meeting was fine. He discussed our covariates and he gave suggestions on the need to strengthen our second aim, measurement of income and writing literature review amongst others.
We are scheduled to meet tomorrow to review the meeting and work on our literature review. Meanwhile our group leader just dropped the class so the Snow Squad has been reduced to five members.

The Runway

We had our second lecture on Thursday (last week), it was about survey modes and literature review. We were briefed about our next assignment which has got to do with writing literature review. The most interesting part of the class for me was the group presentations on a research topic. My group, The Snow Squad, wanted to evaluate if there is any correlation between clinical depression and smoking in college students. There were some other interesting topics in other groups such as the topic on skittles consumption and supporting Donald Trump. I though that was hilarious.
I have enjoyed working with my group thus far. I think everybody is "cool". We are to make some review on our biosketch, which we have done and re-submit later today. We will also meet this week to discuss our project topic and we are scheduled to meet with Dr. Fernando on Friday.

Two other things......

Last week was terrible for the United States stock market and the world economy in general. There was a huge sell off in the New York stock exchange causing one of the worst dip in decades. I think the slump was due to panic on the part of investors, it is good news that the markets are recovering and the plunge is over. For the smart investors, last week was a good time to buy on the dip. Recovery !

Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) is a new term to most medical professionals. It is actually a brain disorder that was discovered in 2002 by a physician Dr. Omalu while performing autopsy on former professional football player Mike Webster. CTE can cause depression, delirium and ultimately death. It is common among players of contact sports that has to do with the head such as football, ice hockey and boxing. A movie is to be released about the story of Dr. Omalu and his struggle to get the disease recognized. The movie will feature Will Smith and as a big fan of his, I can't wait to see the movie. Concussion !

Journey to Alpha...

Hello ! Welcome to my blog. This is an interesting new experience to me, it is the first time I will be hosting a blog. I intend to use the blog to share my thoughts on the course - Survey Research and Design (Epid 5312) and other general issues. I think I will enjoy the class, I had the opportunity and pleasure of having the instructor, Dr. Fernando, as my adviser while designing a research brief for the Biostatistics and Evaluation Services and Training Center (BEST) / Global Interprofessional Education (IPE) roundtable discussion last session.

We had our first lecture last week and the class was interesting. The structure of the course is different from other classes, it is modeled after a real life situation where various organizations and interest groups compete for grants. We were divided into groups of five and six students and we will be competing for a research grant. I am in the group "SNOW SQUAD". We intend to represent the legacy of John Snow by winning the grant.  

I am keeping my fingers cross as regards what to expect for the duration of the course but so far so good. Survey research and design is a valuable tool and skill in the field of public health, I hope to improve my skills in research design and methodology and enhance my public speaking ability over the duration of the course. Excellence and hard work are the watchwords for me and hopefully it will get me an A (alpha) in the course.