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 !