KINE 5300: Research Methods in Kinesiology Due Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Midterm Exam (100 pts)

1.  Defend the Sliding Filament Theory for skeletal muscle contraction using (a) deductive reasoning and (b) imperfect inductive reasoning. Cite your statements with relevant primary and/or secondary academic references. (5 pts)

2.  Use a real-world example in the general area of Kinesiology that important to you and is worthy of research, BUT IS NOT RELATED TO YOUR RESEARCH PROJECT IN THIS CLASS, to answer the following questions (20 pts):

  1. Carefully identify and state the research problem / question.
  2. Cite the source of your research problem / question (Hint: Lecture 1, slide 10).
  3. Carefully formulate and state your specific hypothesis regarding your research problem / question.
  4. Strategically develop and state the 4 components of a research plan that you will use to address your research problem / question.
  5. Use your skills with FirstSearch to find a closely related article on Medline for your chosen research problem / question. Attach the abstract for the study that you select and report the specific search terms you used to find this article with FirstSearch. (Hint: To grade this question, I will search Medline to see if I can find a better article to represent your topic. I should not be able to find an article on Medline that is more closely related to your topic in this question than the one you select, so take your time, search extensively, and carefully consider your search terms – they will be important).

3.  For this question, your task is to use your skills with FirstSearch to find the following articles on Medline (10 pts):

  1. Find an article with a “descriptive research question.” (1) Report the full reference for this article, (2) briefly justify why you’ve classified this article as a “descriptive question,” (3) print out the abstract and attach it to your response.
  2. Find an article with a “difference research question.” (1) Report the full reference for this article, (2) briefly justify why you’ve classified this article as a “difference question,” (3) print out the abstract and attach it to your response.
  3. Find an article with a “relationship research question.” (1) Report the full reference for this article, (2) briefly justify why you’ve classified this article as a “relationship question,” (3) print out the abstract and attach it to your response.

4.  Download the article by Trowbridge et al. (2004) on our website and use it to answer the following questions (20 pts):

  1. (1) State the research problem / question of this article, (2) classify the research question as descriptive, difference, or relationship, and (3) briefly justify your classification.
  2. Classify this article as Basic or Applied research and briefly justify your classification.
  3. Classify this article as Quantitative or Qualitative research and briefly justify your classification.
  4. Classify this article as Experimental or Nonexperimental research and briefly justify your classification.
  5. (1) State an example of how the authors used/incorporated a Theory and a Hypothesis in this article and (2) explain the conceptual differences between a Theory and a Hypothesis.
  6. What is the purpose statement?
  7. What were the delimitations of this study?
  8. State two potential limitations of this study?
  9. What were the initial hypotheses for this study?
  10. Where the hypotheses rejected or accepted?
  11. What was the overall conclusion of this paper?

5.  Using your skills with FirstSearch to find a specific article on Medline, find the article that summarizes the conclusion in the abstract by stating: “The lateral third of the ipsilateral patellar tendon is a good graft option for revision ACL reconstruction.” (5 pts).

  1. Report the full reference for this article.
  2. Print out the abstract and attach it to your response.

6.  Scenario: Suppose a wrestling coach hires you as a consultant to determine the minimal wrestling weight of the wrestlers on his team. As a graduate student in Exercise Science you are aware that the best way to safely recommend body weight changes is to determine the body composition of these wrestlers. He is the head coach of a local wrestling club for young wrestlers between the ages of 7 and 13 years. He is contemplating the purchase of a near-infrared interactance instrument, because he heard that it would be easy for him to measure the body composition of his wrestlers with this instrument. In your initial interview with him, you inform the coach that skinfolds are also easy to measure (with proper instruction and practice), and with population-specific equations, estimating body composition can be fairly accurate. You also explain to him that there may be some question regarding the accuracy of the near-infrared interactance instrument, but you would be able to answer his question more definitively by reviewing the relevant literature on this topic. As a consultant, your job is to complete the following tasks and answer the following questions (10 pts):

  1. Using your skills with FirstSearch to find articles on Medline, find the single best article that was published in 2004 regarding this topic. (Hint: the bolded words should be helpful in your search).
  2. Obtain a full-text copy of this article (preferably a PDF, but a photocopy of the article from the journal will work as well).
  3. Based on your review of this article, should the wrestling coach spend the money for a near-infrared interactance instrument? Why or why not?

7.  Choose 1 of your 12 articles that you selected for your research project in this class and critique the article using the following guidelines (from your textbook) (10 pts):

  1. Rate your article on each of the 25 items listed.
  2. Provide a justification for your rating for items 1, 12, 21, and 23.
  3. Attach a copy of the full-text article to your response.

8.  State, define, and explain the 3 basic tenets of the Belmont Report of 1979. Give a specific example in our history where one of the tenets of the Belmont Report was violated and describe how it was violated (10 pts).

9.  Scenario: Two weeks ago, you proposed your Thesis, and it was unanimously approved by your committee. Today you received word from your Thesis advisor (who is on the IRB committee) that your protocol was approved by the IRB, but you have not yet received a formal letter indicating that it has been accepted, and your informed consent forms have not been stamped “approved” by the Office of Research Compliance. However, you have a subject that really needs to begin the testing protocol for your Thesis tomorrow – if he cannot begin tomorrow, he will not be able to participate in your study and you will have to recruit another subject to replace him. Knowing that willing subjects that meet the qualifications of your study are hard to come by, what do you do? (5 pts).

  1. Go ahead and test him, and then have him sign the approved informed consent forms after you receive them from the Office of Research Compliance.
  2. Go ahead and test him, and have him sign the informed consent forms that have not been stamped “approved” by the Office of Research Compliance – since they are exactly the same.
  3. Go ahead and test him, and ask your Thesis advisor to be present during the testing to vouch for the approval of your protocol and to oversee the data collection process for safety concerns.
  4. Contact the Office of Research Compliance and ask them if you can personally pick up your letter of approval and stamped informed consent forms today so that you can begin testing tomorrow.
  5. Do not test him, and begin recruiting for a replacement.

Briefly justify your answer.

10.  Scenario: Two weeks ago, you proposed your Thesis, and it was unanimously approved by your committee. Today you received a letter from the Office of Research Compliance that your protocol has been approved and your “stamped” informed consent forms were included with the letter. However, yesterday your advisor recommends that you strengthen your Thesis study by including a 3-day dietary recall for each subject’s initial visit to get a baseline assessment of caloric intake, and you agree that this dietary information would be beneficial to your study. Your first subject is scheduled for tomorrow morning at 9 AM. What do you do? (5 pts).

  1. Proceed with testing your subject tomorrow at 9 AM and administer the dietary recall. No additional steps need to be taken with the IRB, because the dietary recall does not introduce any potential harm to the subject.
  2. Submit a “Change of Protocol Form” to the Office of Research Compliance so that the IRB can approve your new protocol that includes the 3-day dietary recall and postpone your subject tomorrow until after the new protocol has been approved.
  3. Go ahead and test your subject, administer the 3-day dietary recall, submit a “Change of Protocol Form” to the Office of Research Compliance, and ask your subject to sign the new informed consent form next week after it is approved.
  4. Go ahead and test your subject, but do not administer the 3-day dietary recall, submit a “Change of Protocol Form” to the Office of Research Compliance, and only administer the 3-day dietary recall to the new subjects that are tested after the new protocol has been approved by the IRB.

Briefly justify your answer.