Chris Curry, doctoral student at the School of Kinesiology and lab assistant in the Affordance Perception-Action Laboratory, received a NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) travel grant to attend the Advanced Technology Institute’s Nonlinear Methods for Psychological Science, hosted by the American Psychological Association.
The conference will be held from June 17 – 21, 2019 at the University of Cincinnati.
Yonghwan Chang, PhD, assistant professor in the School of Kinesiology, was selected as the 2019 Emerging Scholar in Sport Marketing by the American Marketing Association (AMA) Sport Special Interest Group. The award recognizes a scholar in the early stage of their career who has significantly contributed to the scientific study of sport marketing.
Chang will be recognized for his achievements at the 2019 AMA Summer Academic Conference in Chicago, Illinois on August 9, 2019.
Nicolette Peterson, doctoral student in the School of Kinesiology and member of the Affordance Perception-Action Laboratory, has received the Mace Travel Award to participate in the International Conference on Perception and Action. The conference will be held in Groningen, Netherlands from July 3 – 7, 2019. The grant is funded by the International Society for Ecological Society and will support Peterson’s travel expenses to the Conference, where she will present three posters.
Zan Gao, PhD associate professor in the School of Kinesiology and director of the Physical Activity Epidemiology Laboratory, has been appointed as an Associate Editor of the Physical Activity and Health Behavior for Research Quarterly in Exercise and Sport. The Research Quarterly in Exercise and Sport journal (RQES) is a flagship journal of SHAPE America, a collection of academic journals. RQES publishes research about the art and science behind human movement, and significantly contributes to the knowledge base of new information, substantiation or contradiction of previous findings, theories or techniques in the field.
Chris Curry, PhD candidate in the School of Kinesiology, has received a certificate of appreciation for mentoring Mehul Maheshwari, a junior attending Wayzata High School (WHS), along with Victoria Interrante, PhD, a professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the U of M.
Curry was recognized at the 2019 WHS Honors Mentor Connection Scholars Forum, where WHS students showcased their research projects from topics like cancer research to artificial intelligence. Maheshwari’s research proposal focuses on the association of field of view in relation to cybersickness, which can create symptoms similar to motion sickness when exposed to virtual reality technology.
Has football players’ athletic performance changed over the past 10 years?
Don Dengel, PhD, professor in the School of Kinesiology, co-founder of Dexalytics, and director of the Laboratory of Integrative Physiology (LIHP), and Charles Jedlicka, graduate student in the School and research assistant in LIHP, co-authored an article, “Are NFL Combine Invitees getting bigger, faster, and stronger?” answering just that.
According to Dexalytics, a software program that analyzes body composition in health and human performance, and the Pro Football Reference, athletes’ performance in the 40-yard dash, bench press and jump test has remained relatively unchanged in the last 10 years. The article also mentions that each NFL Combine uncovers athlete outliers that perform above average, and “will continue to set new records along the way.”
Sarah Greising, PhD, assistant professor at the School of Kinesiology and director of the Skeletal Muscle Plasticity and Regeneration Laboratory, along with the study, PCG-1a overexpression partially rescues impaired oxidative and contractile pathophysiology following volumetric muscle loss injury, is cited in NewsWise article, “Muscles Struggle to Ever Fully Recover After Losing Tissue.” The research analyzes muscle regeneration after a traumatic event like surgery or a gunshot/bomb wound.
The study, funded by the Department of Defense, will “inform physical therapy and treatment for wounded military personnel with muscle-loss injuries,” according to NewsWise. It discovered that damaged muscle can undergo fundamental changes, thereby affecting the long-term rehabilitation process of patients.
Anthony Del Fiacco, recent undergraduate alumni of the School of Kinesiology, has published his honors thesis, “A review and synthesis of environmentalism within the Olympic Movement,” in the International Journal of Festival and Event Management. The thesis analyzes historical differences in leadership and levels of commitment toward environmental sustainability in the Olympics.
Vicki Schull, PhD, Sport Management (SMGT) lecturer and M.Ed. director at the School of Kinesiology, and her class Event Management in Sport (KIN 5115), partnered with the NCAA Men’s Basketball Final Four.
Through this graduate level course, students studying event management received hands-on experience in large event planning and running. The class was responsible for creating and executing a volunteer management plan for the Final Four, and students worked directly with, and learned first-hand from, industry experts and professionals.
In an article, “Final Four a lesson in large-event planning,” Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder quotes Schull explaining, “This class is offering a little bit more. This is much more experience-based course.”
Eydie Kramer, a doctoral student, and Michael Urvig, a senior undergraduate student at the School of Kinesiology, both received high honors for their research presentations at the Northland American College of Sports Medicine (NACSM) Spring Meeting on April 5, 2019.
Kramer was awarded 2nd place out of ten participants in the graduate student research category. Her research examined the relationship between parent perceptions of physical activity environment and the Geographic Information System or GIS measures in rural communities.
Urvig obtained 5th place out of 54 undergraduate abstracts for his research exploring time and financial barriers related to physical activity in African-American women.
School of Kinesiology alumni Emma Lee, PhD, is the lead author of a publication, “Effects of marathon training on maximal aerobic capacity and running economy in experienced marathon runners,” in the Journal of Human Sport and Exercise. Chris Lundstrom, PhD, lecturer and M.Ed. director at the School of Kinesiology, co-authored this publication.
Due to the fact that there is little knowledge about the “physiological changes that occur in competitive runners over a marathon training cycle,” the article studies the impact of running conditions for marathon trainers. It also evaluates race performance under different temperatures.
Chris Curry, PhD student at the School of Kinesiology and member of the Affordance Perception Action Laboratory, presented his poster, “Using Natural Hand Positions to Improve Anthropometric Product Design Data,” at the 2019 International Symposium on Human Factors and Ergonomics in Health Care (HFES). The Symposium offers innovative research, workshops and keynote speakers on issues in health-care and human factors. HFES took place on March 24 – 27, 2019 in Chicago, Illinois.
Curry, along with Dr. Linsey Griffin and Emily Seifert, MS student in Apparel Studies, both from the U of M College of Design, and Dr. Susan Sokolowski, from the University of Oregon, also collaborated on this project.
Curry will help lead the Kinesiology Research Day 2019 Presentation Workshop. Interested participants in KRD19 should attend on Friday, March 29 from 1-3 p.m. in Cooke Hall 101. Visit kinsc.umn.edu/ressearchday19 to learn more.
Thomas Stoffregen, PhD, School of Kinesiology professor and director of the Affordance Perception Action Laboratory, and Pramila Vasudevan, choreographer of Aniccha Arts, are collaborating on a spring “Incubator Project” at the Weisman Art Museum (WAM). Their installation, #1 of 30, uses movement and “performance as a method of scientific and creative inquiry.” By destabilizing the dancers’ environment through external movement and other manipulations, the dancers must adapt to their surroundings, creating an exciting relationship between the subject and their actions.
Explore #1 of 30 on Sunday, March 31, 2019 at 2:00 p.m. The event is open to the public, free, and held at Weisman Art Museum, 333 E. River Pkwy.
Read more here.
Photo courtesy of Zoe Cinel.
Sanaz Khosravani, recent PhD graduate in the School of Kinesiology and member of the Human Sensorimotor Control Laboratory (HSC), Arash Mahnan, doctoral student, and Jürgen Konczak, PhD, professor in the School and director of HSC, along with colleagues from Otolaryngology and Speech & Hearing Sciences, published a research article about the neural correlate underlying the voice disorder, spasmodic dysphonia.
Spasmodic dysphonia (SD) is a debilitating voice/speech disorder without an effective cure. To obtain a better understanding of the underlying cortical neural mechanism of the disease, the researchers analyzed electroencephalographic signals of people with SD during voice production. They found that the disease is characterized by an abnormally high synchronous activity within and across cortical neural networks involved in voice production.
Jürgen Konczak, PhD, professor at the School of Kinesiology and director of the Human Sensorimotor Control Laboratory, Tim Kowalewski, PhD, assistant professor in Mechanical Engineering, and Andrew Grande, MD, assistant professor in Neurosurgery, recently received a $60,000 UMN grant, through the Institute for Engineering and Medicine, to form a campus-wide consortium of experts in neurorobotics.
Robotic technology and medicine is a rapidly emerging field. Therefore, the new Center will leverage the science of intelligent robotics to overcome long-standing barriers to improve neurological care, and elevate the current standard of care in Minnesota and nationwide. The consortium will identify the challenges of treating diseases affecting the nervous system that can be advanced by neurorobotics, and thus, will lead to major breakthroughs in neurological care.
Jake Sorensen, PhD, postdoctoral fellow in the Skeletal Muscle Plasticity and Regeneration Laboratory, directed by Sarah Greising, PhD, under the School of Kinesiology, presents research at the Advances in Skeletal Muscle Biology in Health and Disease Meeting. The Muscle Biology Conference, held from March 6 – 8, 2018 at the University of Florida, Gainesville, FL., will facilitate advances in skeletal muscle biology through discussions and workshops to promote new ideas and research.
Zan Gao, Ph.D., associate professor in the School of Kinesiology and director of Physical Activity Epidemiology Laboratory, published an article, “Effects of exergaming on motor skill competence, perceived competence, and physical activity in preschool children,” in the Journal of Sport and Health Science.
The publication highlights the positive impact exergaming has in promoting preschoolers physical activity at school. As preschool children develop their motor skills, exergaming can enhance their competence and encourage life-long habits of exercise.
Zan Gao, Ph.D., associate professor in the School of Kinesiology and director of Physical Activity Epidemiology Laboratory, publishes research on “Exergaming”, a form of virtual reality physical activity, in Education Week. “Reading Aloud and ‘Exergaming’: A Roundup of Early-Years Research” analyzes two studies involving children: reading aloud and “exercise-related video-games”.
“It is truly important for children, including young children, to be physically active on a daily basis,” says Gao.
Daheia Barr-Anderson, Ph.D., associate professor in the School of Kinesiology and director of the Behavioral Physical Activity Laboratory, co-authored an article, “Consideration of Factors Influencing Weight Outcomes among U.S. Racial-Ethnic Minority Populations in the Social Work Literature” in the Journal of Social Work in Public Health.
The publication identifies factors influencing obesity in racial-ethnic minority communities and offers social workers a comprehensive understanding of “cultural and psychological processes, historical and social contexts, and physical and economic environments.”
D.J. McDonough, Ph.D. student in the School of Kinesiology, advised by Zan Gao, Ph.D., associate professor in the School and director of the Physical Activity Epidemiology Laboratory (PAEL), was selected as one of the only graduate students to receive the 2019 SHAPE America Research Council Graduate Student Research Award in Tampa, Florida this April. Awarded to outstanding authors and presenters of research, the SHAPE America National Convention showcases the highest-rated research abstracts.
McDonough is the lead-author of “College Students’ Physiological and Psychosocial outcomes during Virtual Reality”, among co-investigators Dr. Zan Gao, Dr. Zachary C. Pope, Dr. Nan Zeng, and Wenxi Liu, current and former members of PAEL in the School. McDonough will be recognized at the C. H. McCloy breakfast at the Convention.
