Head Collision Research Articles

NFL’s dangerous strategies of marketing football to youth: shades of big tobacco

ABSTRACT Comparisons have been made between the tobacco industry’s historic tactics in defending their products with the responses of some key actors in the sports world to head injuries. Both, it is said, have deployed deceptive marketing and advertising techniques to entice youth to engage with a subjective pleasure-producing product that has undeniable short- and long-term health detriments. Unlike what is called euphemistically, ‘Big Tobacco’, however, the National Football League (NFL) has evaded legal restrictions on the promotion of an inherently dangerous product that targets youth. By contrast, in 1997, the Federal Trade Commission charged tobacco company R.J. Reynolds with violating federal law by using a cartoon character, Joe Camel, to allure children under age 18. The NFL has partnered with Nickelodeon to produce programs such as NFL Rush Zone and NFL Slimetime that target youth by using cartoon mascots, bright colors, 3D iconography, and other child-friendly symbols. In addition to fostering positive associations between tackle football and cartoons, these broadcasts have explicitly minimized the risks of tackling. For example, one NFL Playoffs on Nickelodeon announcer equated a forceful head collision with a scrape of the knee that a child might experience during school recess. The NFL’s marketing strategies deflect public attention away from the risks of repetitive head collisions, concussions, traumatic brain injury (TBI), and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), portraying football as an appealing activity. The ongoing connections between the NFL and youth-oriented television programming raise crucial questions about how risk is communicated in a sport with inherent dangers of long-term cognitive damage. As long as tackle football is portrayed alongside beloved cartoon characters such as Spongebob Squarepants, impressionable children are likely to form undilutedly positive perceptions of the NFL and ignore the substantial risks of repeated, full-body collisions when enchanted by brightly-colored slime, animated bubbles, and goofy dance moves.

‘The highest confidence that repetitive head collisions causes chronic traumatic encephalopathy’? Analysing the scientific knowledge in the Rugby Union concussion litigation of England and Wales

295 rugby players have begun legal proceedings against World Rugby, the Rugby Football Union and the Welsh Rugby Union. The claimants report they are suffering from chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Among the allegations against the defendants is that the player safety regulations (i.e. the Pitch Side Concussion Assessment and Return to Play protocols) in place at the time of injury were done without proper medical foresight and increased the risks of concussion to players. World Rugby’s safety regulations are informed by the work of the Concussion in Sport Group which maintains that the link between collisions and concussion is unclear. However, recent studies report an unprecedented confidence that sports-related concussion causes brain disease. In 2022, the Concussion in Sport Groups lead author resigned due to 10 counts of plagiarism. This saga risks damaging public respect for both the safety regulations and the science underpinning it. This article examines the state of the scientific literature and considers the challenges in proving (1) the governing bodies breached their duty of care and; (2) the causal link between collisions and brain injury. This article argues that 2022 marked the year that defendants can no longer deny the dangers of sports-related concussion, however, defining the moment when the risks ought to be known remains onerous. On causation, this article examines the principles of material contribution, doubling of the risk, and the material increase in risk. The article concludes with policy considerations inviting an extension of the material increase in risk principle to sports settings.

An Assessment of Sikh Turban’s Head Protection in Bicycle Incident Scenarios

Due to religious tenets, Sikh population wear turbans and are exempted from wearing helmets in several countries. However, the extent of protection provided by turbans against head injuries during head impacts remains untested. One aim of this study was to provide the first-series data of turbans’ protective performance under impact conditions that are representative of real-world bicycle incidents and compare it with the performance of bicycle helmets. Another aim was to suggest potential ways for improving turban’s protective performance. We tested five different turbans, distinguished by two wrapping styles and two fabric materials with a size variation in one of the styles. A Hybrid III headform fitted with the turban was dropped onto a 45 degrees anvil at 6.3 m/s and head accelerations were measured. We found large difference in the performance of different turbans, with up to 59% difference in peak translational acceleration, 85% in peak rotational acceleration, and 45% in peak rotational velocity between the best and worst performing turbans. For the same turban, impact on the left and right sides of the head produced very different head kinematics, showing the effects of turban layering. Compared to unprotected head impacts, turbans considerably reduce head injury metrics. However, turbans produced higher values of peak linear and rotational accelerations in front and left impacts than bicycle helmets, except from one turban which produced lower peak head kinematics values in left impacts. In addition, turbans produced peak rotational velocities comparable with bicycle helmets, except from one turban which produced higher values. The impact locations tested here were covered with thick layers of turbans and they were impacted against flat anvils. Turbans may not provide much protection if impacts occur at regions covered with limited amount of fabric or if the impact is against non-flat anvils, which remain untested. Our analysis shows that turbans can be easily compressed and bottom out creating spikes in the headform’s translational acceleration. In addition, the high friction between the turban and anvil surface leads to higher tangential force generating more rotational motion. Hence, in addition to improving the coverage of the head, particularly in the crown and rear locations, we propose two directions for turban improvement: (i) adding deformable materials within the turban layers to increase the impact duration and reduce the risk of bottoming out; (ii) reducing the friction between turban layers to reduce the transmission of rotational motion to the head. Overall, the study assessed Turbans’ protection in cyclist head collisions, with a vision that the results of this study can guide further necessary improvements for advanced head protection for the Sikh community.

Mechanical intelligence simplifies control in terrestrial limbless locomotion.

Limbless locomotors, from microscopic worms to macroscopic snakes, traverse complex, heterogeneous natural environments typically using undulatory body wave propagation. Theoretical and robophysical models typically emphasize body kinematics and active neural/electronic control. However, we contend that because such approaches often neglect the role of passive, mechanically controlled processes (those involving "mechanical intelligence"), they fail to reproduce the performance of even the simplest organisms. To uncover principles of how mechanical intelligence aids limbless locomotion in heterogeneous terradynamic regimes, here we conduct a comparative study of locomotion in a model of heterogeneous terrain (lattices of rigid posts). We used a model biological system, the highly studied nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans, and a robophysical device whose bilateral actuator morphology models that of limbless organisms across scales. The robot's kinematics quantitatively reproduced the performance of the nematodes with purely open-loop control; mechanical intelligence simplified control of obstacle navigation and exploitation by reducing the need for active sensing and feedback. An active behavior observed in C. elegans, undulatory wave reversal upon head collisions, robustified locomotion via exploitation of the systems' mechanical intelligence. Our study provides insights into how neurally simple limbless organisms like nematodes can leverage mechanical intelligence via appropriately tuned bilateral actuation to locomote in complex environments. These principles likely apply to neurally more sophisticated organisms and also provide a design and control paradigm for limbless robots for applications like search and rescue and planetary exploration.

Detection of attack behaviour of pig based on deep learning

Attack behaviour detection of the pig is a valid method to protect the health of pig. Due to the farm conditions and the illumination changes of the piggery, the images of the pig in the videos are often being overlapped, which lead to difficulties in recognizing pig attack behaviour. We propose an improved YOLOX target detection model to overcome these difficulties. The improvements of the proposed model are: (1) the normalization attention mechanism is adopted to gain global information in the last block of the neck network and (2) the loss function IoU in YOLOX is replaced by DIoU to improve the detection accuracy. The pig attack behaviour considered in this paper includes the ear biting, the tail biting, the head to head collision and the head to body collision. The dataset is builded from the artificially observed attack video segments by using the inter-frame difference method. In the pig attack behaviour detection experiments, the improved YOLOX model achieves 93.21% precision which is 5.30% higher than the YOLOX model. The experiment results show that the improved YOLOX can realize pig attack behaviour detection with high precision.

In-Depth Bicycle Collision Reconstruction: From a Crash Helmet to Brain Injury Evaluation

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a prevalent injury among cyclists experiencing head collisions. In legal cases, reliable brain injury evaluation can be difficult and controversial as mild injuries cannot be diagnosed with conventional brain imaging methods. In such cases, accident reconstruction may be used to predict the risk of TBI. However, lack of collision details can render accident reconstruction nearly impossible. Here, we introduce a reconstruction method to evaluate the brain injury in a bicycle-vehicle collision using the crash helmet alone. Following a thorough inspection of the cyclist's helmet, we identified a severe impact, a moderate impact and several scrapes, which helped us to determine the impact conditions. We used our helmet test rig and intact helmets identical to the cyclist's helmet to replicate the damage seen on the cyclist's helmet involved in the real-world collision. We performed both linear and oblique impacts, measured the translational and rotational kinematics of the head and predicted the strain and the strain rate across the brain using a computational head model. Our results proved the hypothesis that the cyclist sustained a severe impact followed by a moderate impact on the road surface. The estimated head accelerations and velocity (167 g, 40.7 rad/s and 13.2 krad/s2) and the brain strain and strain rate (0.541 and 415/s) confirmed that the severe impact was large enough to produce mild to moderate TBI. The method introduced in this study can guide future accident reconstructions, allowing for the evaluation of TBI using the crash helmet only.

Football (Soccer) as a Probable Cause of Long-Term Neurological Impairment and Neurodegeneration: A Narrative Review of the Debate.

Football (soccer) is the most widely played sport across the globe. Due to some recent high-profile cases and epidemiological studies suggesting football can lead to neurodegeneration, scientific and public interest has been piqued. This has resulted in research into whether an association between football participation and neurodegeneration or neurological impairment is present. It has been theorised that a combination of repeated sub-concussive and concussive injuries, due to ball-heading and head collisions, may lead to neurodegeneration. However, evidence remains conflicting. Due to the popularity of the sport, and the serious conditions it has been linked to, it is important to determine whether repeated head impacts during football participation can play a causative role in neurodegenerative disease. To answer this question, a review of the current literature was carried out. Epidemiological evidence showed a higher incidence of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis amongst amateur and professional footballers and that footballers in positions that involve less contact and heading, e.g., goalkeepers lead significantly longer lives. Additionally, imaging studies reach a similar conclusion, reporting changes in brain structure, blood flow, and inflammatory markers in footballers when compared to controls. However, studies looking at an association between heading frequency and cognition show a lack of consensus on whether a higher heading exposure results in reduced cognition. Similarly, in neuropathological studies, signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) have been found in some former players, with contrasting studies suggesting low levels of CTE-type pathology are found in the general population, regardless of exposure to head trauma. The majority of studies suggest a link between football and neurodegenerative disease. However, the high prevalence of retrospective cohort and cross-sectional studies, often plagued by recall bias, undermine the conclusions drawn. Therefore, until larger prospective cohort studies are conducted, concrete conclusions cannot be made. However, caution can be exercised to limit head impacts.

Progress in Proteomic Mass Spectrometry Studies on the Effects of Borneol and Menthol as Enhancers on Corneal Injury Repair

Cornea transparent, avascular tissue, is an important part of the refractive function. Corneal injury is the destruction of the corneal structure caused by blunt eyeball, external force, high pressure gas or fluid hitting the cornea. Common in boxing injury, ball injury, stone injury, head collision, etc. The external force directly acts on the formation of the cornea, mainly manifested as vision loss, pain, photophobia, tears, ciliary congestion and contusion corneal edema. Mild corneal damage can be restored under the strong self-healing ability of the corneal epithelium. If serious corneal damage, the corneal stromal layer will leave a scar on the cornea to affect the vision, but also likely to cause related complications, and even lead to complete blindness. Recent studies have shown that corneal alkali burn is one of the most common eye injuries. Due to the strong corrosion of alkaline substances, it can cause degeneration and dissolution of corneal tissue proteins. The lipophilic properties of alkaline substances make it difficult to limit the damage site and easy to form ulcers. In this paper, we discuss the borneol and menthol on the corneal damage repair mass spectrometry, through the influence of borneol and menthol on corneal damage repair and the preliminary test of ice and menthol can be used, in order to provide a new clinical treatment of corneal damage to the new research direction.

Prediction of pedestrian's head collision position by analysis of 56 accidents and mathematical model simulation

Prediction of pedestrian's head collision position by analysis of 56 accidents and mathematical model simulation

Comparison of Hockey Helmet Lining Technologies in Mitigating Concussion Risk During Simulated Horizontal Head Collisions

The risk of concussions in ice hockey is high despite use of vinyl-nitrile (VN) and expanded polypropylene (EPP) materials in helmet liners. Linings made of thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) seem to offer better mitigation of impact accelerations. The first purpose of this study was to compare the use of TPU linings to VN and EPP liners on measures of energy absorption capabilities during static loading. The second was to examine the effectiveness of TPU liners in reducing acceleration and risk of head injury when compared to VN and EPP liners during simulated dynamic head impact collisions. The static test indicated that TPU absorbed 38.6% of the loading energy compared to 15.8% for VN and 41.8% for EPP linings. The dynamic testing revealed that the TPU liners outperformed VN and EPP liners at the side, rear boss, and rear locations. Use of multi-material helmet liner made of TPU and EPP is suggested.

Predicting Severity of Head Collision Events in Elite Soccer Using Preinjury Data: A Machine Learning Approach.

To develop machine learning (ML) models that predict severity of head collision events (HCEs) based on preinjury variables and to investigate which variables are important to predicting severity. Data on HCEs were collected with respect to severity and 23 preinjury variables to create 2 datasets, a male dataset using men's tournaments and mixed dataset using men's and women's tournaments, to perform ML analysis. Machine learning analysis used a random forest classifier based on preinjury variables to predict HCE severity. Four elite international soccer tournaments. Elite athletes participating in analyzed tournaments. The 23 preinjury variables collected for each HCE. Predictive ability of the ML models and association of important variables. The ML models had an average area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for predicting HCE severity of 0.73 and 0.70 for the male and mixed datasets, respectively. The most important variables for prediction were the mechanism of injury and the event before injury. In the male dataset, the mechanisms "head-to-head" and "knee-to-head" were together significantly associated ( P = 0.0244) with severity; they were not significant in the mixed dataset ( P = 0.1113). In both datasets, the events "corner kicks" and "throw-ins" were together significantly associated with severity (male, P = 0.0001; mixed, P = 0.0004). ML models accurately predicted the severity of HCE. The mechanism and event preceding injury were most important for predicting severity of HCEs. These findings support the use of ML to inform preventative measures that will mitigate the impact of these preinjury factors on player health.

Prevalence of injuries in the first round of the Tuzos de plata tournament in the Mexican blind soccer league in the 2020 season

Objectives: identify the prevalence of injuries in blind football, as well as the most common pathologies in this sport variant. Methodology: The present study Longitudinal. In conclusion: The most common pathology according to the end of the days corresponding to the first round was skull trauma, due to constant head or fence collisions.

Effect of a new concussion substitute rule on medical assessment of head collision events in Premier League football

ObjectiveTo investigate the utilisation of additional permanent concussion substitutes (APCSs) and its efficacy with regards to rate and duration of medical assessment of head collision events (HCEs) in the 2020–2021...

Research on Neck Response of Elderly Drivers in Rear Collision.

In order to study the neck response of elderly drivers in rear collision, a finite element model for elderly neck was built. By comparing the cadaver experiment data in the literature, the simulation reliability of the head and neck model of the elderly under dynamic load was verified. Through the C-NCAP rear-end collision test on the elderly model, the study showed that the neck of the elderly driver had good dynamic response characteristics. The verified finite element model was used to analyze the head and neck collision response and injury risk of the elderly under different distances between the head and the headrest (vertical distance and horizontal distance). By analyzing the head and neck injuries of occupants at different distances, it was found that when the horizontal distance was 50 mm, and the vertical distance was between +10 and ~+20 mm, the headrest could play the best role in protecting the neck of the elderly driver and could reduce the degree of injury of the elderly driver in the process of rear collision.

A Finite Element Model of Cerebral Vascular Injury for Predicting Microbleeds Location.

Finite Element (FE) models of brain mechanics have improved our understanding of the brain response to rapid mechanical loads that produce traumatic brain injuries. However, these models have rarely incorporated vasculature, which limits their ability to predict the response of vessels to head impacts. To address this shortcoming, here we used high-resolution MRI scans to map the venous system anatomy at a submillimetre resolution. We then used this map to develop an FE model of veins and incorporated it in an anatomically detailed FE model of the brain. The model prediction of brain displacement at different locations was compared to controlled experiments on post-mortem human subject heads, yielding over 3,100 displacement curve comparisons, which showed fair to excellent correlation between them. We then used the model to predict the distribution of axial strains and strain rates in the veins of a rugby player who had small blood deposits in his white matter, known as microbleeds, after sustaining a head collision. We hypothesised that the distribution of axial strain and strain rate in veins can predict the pattern of microbleeds. We reconstructed the head collision using video footage and multi-body dynamics modelling and used the predicted head accelerations to load the FE model of vascular injury. The model predicted large axial strains in veins where microbleeds were detected. A region of interest analysis using white matter tracts showed that the tract group with microbleeds had 95th percentile peak axial strain and strain rate of 0.197 and 64.9 s−1 respectively, which were significantly larger than those of the group of tracts without microbleeds (0.163 and 57.0 s−1). This study does not derive a threshold for the onset of microbleeds as it investigated a single case, but it provides evidence for a link between strain and strain rate applied to veins during head impacts and structural damage and allows for future work to generate threshold values. Moreover, our results suggest that the FE model has the potential to be used to predict intracranial vascular injuries after TBI, providing a more objective tool for TBI assessment and improving protection against it.

Experimental study on car collisions with bicycles equipped with child seats

In Japan, traffic accidents involving bicycles have become a serious problem as a result of the increase in the use of bicycles due to the rising concerns of environmental and health problems. In recent years, bicycles equipped with child seats have become a popular means of transportation for preschool children in urban areas in Japan. Under such adverse circumstances, it is necessary to conduct more studies and evaluations to prevent traffic accidents and the resulting injuries involving bicycles with children. For accident prevention and damage mitigation, this study mainly aims to understand the kinematic behavior and injury risk of children in collisions involving bicycles equipped with child seats through experiments. First, fall tests were conducted to evaluate the effect of the integrated head restraints (also commonly known as headrests) of child seats. It was confirmed that head restraints can reduce the impact of head collisions with the road surface. Second, side collision tests were conducted between a car and a bicycle equipped with a child seat, and the effects of the seat belt and head restraint of the child seat were investigated. It was shown that the kinematic behavior of the child dummy significantly was changed depending on wearing the seat belt. In the condition that the seat belt was not fastened, the child dummy was ejected out of the child seat while rotating toward the hood after the impact with the front of the car. In contrast, when the seat belt was fastened, the child dummy was restrained in the child seat and moved together with the bicycle from the start of the collision until the complete stop. Thus, it was found that using child seats with head restraints and using seat belts can reduce the risk of injury to children during an impact with the road surface, because the child dummy in the tests impacted the road surface only after the bicycle already had contact with the road surface.

Four-Cell Population Collision Tumor of the Scalp: A Case Report and Review of Literature

Background: Most cases of collision tumors (CTum) usually present with 2 histologic cell types. We report a unique CTum case comprised of 4 cell populations. Additionally, we performed a systematic review of the current literature published on head and neck collision tumors (HNCTum). Methods: Eighty-one-year-old male presents with a scalp lesion of several years’ duration. PET/CT scan demonstrated increased uptake in the scalp. Wide local excision with free flap reconstruction was performed and tissue pathology reviewed. Database search of HNCTum was performed and reported. Results: Specimen histopathology consisted of melanoma, squamous cell carcinoma, basal cell carcinoma, and pleomorphic dermal sarcoma. Thirty-one articles met inclusion criteria: 11 thyroid, 7 cutaneous, 7 laryngeal, 2 lymph nodes, 2 salivary gland, 1 glottic, 1 maxillary sinus, and 1 tonsil. Conclusion: We present a highly unique CTum case of 4 different cell populations. The systematic review provides a comprehensive report of HNCTum in literature.

Evaluating the Performance of a Hockey Helmet in Mitigating Concussion Risk Using Measures of Acceleration and Energy During Simulated Free Fall

Hockey helmets represent the best form of head protection available to reduce the occurrence of skull fracture and concussion. Currently, helmet testing protocols focus on the reduction of peak linear acceleration measures. Gaps exist in analyzing how certain impact factors such as angle, neck stiffness, and location influence the energy loaded to the helmet and the risk of injury during head collisions. This study examined the effect of helmet impact angle, neck stiffness-torque levels, and helmet impact locations on energy reduction and risk of head injury grounded on acceleration measures using simulated free fall head collisions. The researchers conducted 540 impacts to collect the data. The results revealed statistical interaction effects between the angle of impact and location on measures of energy and risk of head injury. This study builds on existing literature by introducing an energy measurement technique to assess helmet performance. The outcome also provides an avenue for helmet manufacturers to evaluate the performance of the helmet in reducing concussion risk.

On the Motion of Single and Twin Oblique Particle Clouds in Stagnant Water

Abstract The evolution of single and twin oblique particle clouds in stagnant water was investigated using a series of laboratory experiments and the effects of controlling parameters such as sand mass and nozzle spacing were studied. The time variations of particle cloud properties such as frontal position, horizontal and vertical centroids, cloud width, and frontal velocity were measured using image analysis and particle image velocimetry (PIV) techniques. The entrainment coefficients were extracted from the measurements. It was found that the main vortex motion of the frontal heads altered after the collision and a new integrated frontal head was formed. The effects of release angle and particle interactions were studied by comparing the time histories of maximum centerline velocities. It was found that the centerline velocity of twin oblique particle clouds in comparison with twin vertical particle clouds increased with increasing nozzle spacing. The time history of the ratio of horizontal to vertical centroids in oblique particle clouds determined the potential location of sand particles and a practical model was developed to determine the size and location of particle clouds with time. The time histories of normalized cloud width indicated a significant change after the frontal head collision. The particle interactions due to frontal head collision in twin oblique particle clouds significantly increased the cloud width until particle clouds reached the swarm phase. The time at which twin oblique particle clouds reached the swarm phase was recorded and a linear model was proposed to link the time to reach the swarm phase with the cloud aspect ratio and nozzle spacing.

Cost-Reducing Traits for Agonistic Head Collisions: A Case for Neurophysiology.

Many animal species have evolved extreme behaviors requiring them to engage in repeated high-impact collisions. These behaviors include mating displays like headbutting in sheep and drumming in woodpeckers. To our knowledge, these taxa do not experience any notable acute head trauma, even though the deceleration forces would cause traumatic brain injury in most animals. Previous research has focused on skeletomuscular morphology, biomechanics, and material properties in an attempt to explain how animals moderate these high-impact forces. However, many of these behaviors are understudied, and most morphological or computational studies make assumptions about the behavior without accounting for the physiology of an organism. Studying neurophysiological and immune adaptations that covary with these behaviors can highlight unique or synergistic solutions to seemingly deleterious behavioral displays. Here, we argue that selection for repeated, high-impact head collisions may rely on a suite of coadaptations in intracranial physiology as a cost-reducing mechanism. We propose that there are three physiological systems that could mitigate the effects of repeated head trauma: (1) the innate neuroimmune response; (2) the glymphatic system, and (3) the choroid plexus. These systems are interconnected yet can evolve in an independent manner. We then briefly describe the function of these systems, their role in head trauma, and research that has examined how these systems may evolve to help reduce the cost of repeated, forceful head impacts. Ultimately, we note that little is known about cost-reducing intracranial mechanisms making it a novel field of comparative study that is ripe for exploration.