Pope awarded $1200 COGS Travel Grant to present at SHAPE America’s national convention

March 7, 2017

Zachary Pope, Ph.D. candidate in the School of Kinesiology, has been awarded a $1200 Council of Graduate Students (COGS) Travel Grant to present two posters and give one oral presentation at the Society for Health and Physical Educators (SHAPE) America National Convention held in Boston March 14-18. Pope is advised by Zan Gao, Ph.D., associate professor and director of the Physical Activity Epidemiology Laboratory.

COGS is a University-wide student organization that represents, advocates for, and supports graduate students at the U of M. The travel grant supports students who present original work at a conference with a poster, oral presentation, or other acceptable format. The maximum award is $1200.

While at the SHAPE America Convention, Pope will also be awarded a 2017 Research Council Graduate Student Research Award by SHAPE America for his project, “Validity of Smartwatches in Assessing Energy Expenditure and Heart Rate.”

Tucker Center research referenced at Women in Sports panel in Chicago

March 6, 2017

Tucker Center research on media coverage for women’s sports was cited in an article appearing on The DePaulia online site, “Jean Lenti Posetto and Doug Bruno talk DePaul and women’s sports at symposium.” The symposium, held in Chicago, featured a panel of Chicago-based sports professionals who agreed that they were “tired of continuously fighting for equal female rights within the world of sports.”

The symposium was jointly sponsored by Chicago Sports Net and DePaul University, and gave attendees a first look at their upcoming six-part documentary, “Tomboy,” that takes a deeper look into the involvement of women in sports. The article cites the Tucker Center’s statistic that only four percent of all sports coverage includes women’s sports.

PAEL researchers will present next week at SHAPE America National Convention

March 6, 2017

Researchers from the Physical Activity Epidemiology Laboratory (PAEL) in the School of Kinesiology will give six presentations and be included as coauthors on two other presentations at the Society for Health and Physical Educators (SHAPE) America National Convention in Boston, MA, from March 14th to 18th. PAEL Director Zan Gao, Ph.D., and Ph.D. candidates June Lee and Zachary Pope, Ph.D. student Nan Zeng, and undergraduate student Kalli Fautsch will be presenting. Their presentations are listed below.

Gao, Z., Leininger, B., Schulz, C., Bronfort, G., Evans, R., Pope, Z., Zeng, N., & Haas, M. (2017, March). Relationships between physical activity and low back pain in adolescents
Fautsch, K., Pope, Z., Zeng, N., Zhang, Y., & Gao, Z. (2017, March). Exercise modalities on physical activity and behavior in ASD children.
Lee, J., Pope, Z., Zeng, N., Zhang, Y., & Gao, Z. (2017, March). Effect of home-based Exergaming on preschool children’s cognitive function and cardiorespiratory fitness.
Li, X., Peng, Q., Tan, J., Yang, H., He, W., Zeng, N., & Gao, Z. (2017, March). Relationships among Chinese college children’s motives and physical activity behavior.
Peng, Q., Li, X., Tan, J., Yang, H., He, W., Zeng, N., & Gao, Z. (2017, March). Associations among college students’ physical activity, sedentary time and health.
Pope, Z., & Gao, Z., (2017, March). Effectiveness of smartphone-based physical activity intervention on college student health: Randomized-controlled trial.
Pope, Z., Lee, J., Zeng, N., & Gao, Z. (2017, March). Validity of smartwatches in assessing energy expenditure and heart rate.
Zeng, N., Lee, J., Pope, Z., & Gao, Z. (2017, March). Comparison of physiological and psychological outcomes between normal weight and overweight/obese college students during exergaming.

Russell, White, and Wiese-Bjornstal publish study in Sage Publications

March 3, 2017

School of Kinesiology alumna Hayley Russell, Ph.D. (2014), is the lead author on an article just released by Sage Publications. Co-authors are Andrew White, Kinesiology Ph.D. student, and their adviser, Diane Wiese-Bjornstal, Ph.D., Kinesiology professor. Dr. Russell is currently a faculty member at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, MN.

The complete citation is: Russell, H. C., White, A. C., & Wiese-Bjornstal, D. M. (2017). Physical and psychological changes during marathon training and running injuries: An interdisciplinary, repeated-measures approach. SAGE research methods cases. London, UK: Sage Publications.

LaVoi interviewed for article in Minnesota Women’s Press

March 1, 2017

Nicole LaVoi, Ph.D., senior lecturer in the School of Kinesiology and co-director of the Tucker Center, was interviewed for an article in Minnesota Women’s Press on the disparity today between the number of girls and women involved in sports and the number of women coaching women’s sports. LaVoi also discussed the gap in media coverage between women’s and men’s sports.

In the article, “Where are the women coaches? Media coverage?”, LaVoi points out that while female participation in sports has grown impressively since Title IX was passed in 1972, the number of women coaching women’s teams is down 90%. Today, 43% of women’s teams are coached by men and 2% of men’s teams are coached by women. In terms of media, the gap between coverage of men’s and women’s sports has grown over time.

Read the full article here.

HSC lab publishes on exercise and brain dysfunction

February 28, 2017

Y-Ting Tseng, Sanaz Khosravani, and Arash Mahnan, all graduate students in the Human Sensorimotor Control Laboratory (HSCL), together with their adviser Juergen Konczak, Ph.D., professor and lab director, published in the journal Kinesiology Review. Their review titled “Exercise as Medicine for the Treatment of Brain Dysfunction: Evidence for Cortical Stroke, Cerebellar Ataxia, and Parkinson’s Disease” addresses the role of exercise as an intervention for treating neurological disease. It focuses on three major neurological diseases that either present in acute or neurodegenerative forms—Parkinson’s disease, cerebellar ataxia, and cortical stroke.

The paper is part of a series of invited papers from the National Academy of Kinesiology that appear in Kinesiology Review. Maureen Weiss, Ph.D. serves as the current editor of the journal.

Kinesiology Student Council awarded grant monies to host Kinesiology Research Day

February 27, 2017

The Kinesiology Student Council has been awarded over $900 combined in grant monies to host the 2nd Annual Kinesiology Research Day on April 21, 2017, in 400 Suite Walter Library. These monies came from two sources: A Minnesota Student Association’s Event Grant and a CEHD GradSEHD Cohort Development Grant.

Kinesiology Research Day promises to be an opportunity for faculty members, staff, graduate students and undergraduate students from the School of Kinesiology and relevant departments to interact in an interdisciplinary forum, exchange ideas and present their achievements. Notably, this is the second consecutive year the Council has acquired funding for this annual event, with the Council intending to once again make Kinesiology Research Day a first-class affair.

Wade to give talk at University of Georgia

February 9, 2017

On February 17, 2017, Michael G. Wade, Ph.D., professor in the School of Kinesiology, will speak at the College of Education, University of Georgia, as part of their Research Colloquium Series.

In his talk, “Does theorizing about Developmental Coordination Disorder inform diagnosis and intervention?”, Dr. Wade will comment on the empirical data and conclusions as to the possible cause of developmental coordination disorder. He argues that the data for an information theory explanation is not compelling, and a reconsideration of developmental coordination disorder from a dynamical systems perspective is perhaps more promising.

Stoffregen appointed to Gait & Posture board

February 7, 2017

Thomas Stoffregen, Ph.D., professor in the School of Kinesiology and director of the Affordance Perception-Action Laboratory (APAL), has accepted an appointment to the editorial board for Gait & Posture, one of the pre-eminent journals in the field of Movement Science. The journal is a vehicle for the publication of up-to-date basic and clinical research on all aspects of locomotion and balance.

Gait & Posture has a 1-year Impact Factor of 2.286, and a 5-Year Impact Factor of 2.864.

Moore and Inoue presenting research results to Minnetonka Senior Services

February 6, 2017

image of Yuhei Inoue — Yuhei Inoue, Ph.D.

Graduate assistant Chris Moore, advised by Yuhei Inoue, Ph.D., assistant professor of Sport Management in the School of Kinesiology presented research results to study participants at the Minnetonka Senior Services.

This research study titled “The Influence of Sport Team Identification on Mental Health for Older Adults” was funded by Janet B. Parks NASSM Research Grant. For this study, Moore and Inoue worked with Minnetonka Senior Services to recruit older adults and coordinated trips to three home games of University of Minnesota Women’s volleyball team. The purpose of the project was to examine if attending sporting events and establishing a sense of connections with the sport team and its fans may help enhance older adults’ social relationships and well-being.

Kihl and collegeaues serve as guest editors for special issue on corruption in sport

February 6, 2017

Lisa A. Kihl, Ph.D., associate professor of Sport Management in the School of Kinesiology, and colleagues James Skinner, MBA, Ph.D. (Loughborough University-London) and Terry Engelberg-Moston, Ph.D. (James Cook University-Australia) served as guest editors for the Special Issue – Corruption in sport: Understanding the complexity of corruption in European Sport Management Quarterly.

In addition, to serving as guest editors, Kihl and colleagues wrote an introductory piece emphasizing how the special issue increases our understanding of the complexity and multidimensional nature of sport corruption through examining integrity and different causes of match fixing.

The entire piece can be read online: “Corruption in sport: Understanding the complexity of corruption“.

Wiese-Bjornstal will present at Florida State University’s SPEAR conference

February 3, 2017

On February 9, Diane Wiese-Bjornstal, Ph.D., professor in the School of Kinesiology and director of the Sports Medicine Psychology Lab, will be the keynote speaker at Florida State University’s Sport Professionals’ Experience and Research (SPEAR) conference hosted by the student-led graduate organization, Sport Psychology Organization & Research Team (SPORT). Dr. Wiese-Bjornstal will be giving two invited lectures about evidence-based research and evidence-based practice in sports medicine psychology.

Wiese-Bjornstal, alumna Russell, publish in SAGE Research Methods

February 3, 2017

Diane Wiese-Bjornstal, Ph.D., professor in the School of Kinesiology, and Ph.D. alumna Hayley Russell, ’14, have published a research methods case study in SAGE Research Methods Cases. Russell is an assistant professor in the Department of Health and Exercise Science at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, MN. The case is titled “A Narrative Approach to Understanding Psychological Stories of Overuse Injuries Among Long-Distance Runners,” and it investigates the experiences of athletes with overuse injuries, specifically long-distance runners, by means of a narrative methodology.

Read the full study here.

Stoffregen to publish in Ecological Psychology

February 3, 2017

A study by Thomas Stoffregen, Ph.D., professor in the School of Kinesiology and director of the Affordance Perception-Action Laboratory (APAL), along with Bruno Mantel and Benoit G. Bardy, has been accepted for publication in Ecological Psychology. The article is titled “The senses considered as one perceptual system.”

While peer-reviewed, the article was invited as part of a special issue commemorating the 50th anniversary of the publication of The Senses Considered as Perceptual Systems, by James J. Gibson, one of the foundational statements of the Ecological Approach to Perception and Action.

Dr. Mantel is on the faculty at the University of Caen, while Dr. Bardy is on the faculty at the University of Montpellier, both in France.

Inoue and partners featured in The Japan Times

February 2, 2017

Yuhei Inoue, Ph.D., assistant professor of Sport Management in the School of Kinesiology together with his partners from Temple University and the University of Tsukuba in Japan are featured in The Japan Times, Japan’s largest English-language newspaper.

The article discusses the project to reform Japanese college sports by establishing an athletic department that is modeled after US intercollegiate athletic departments. In the next two years, Dr. Inoue and his partners will study the first implementation of this structure at the University of Tsukuba.

Read the entire article titled “Researchers urge Japan to reform college sports system”.

LaVoi, Tucker Center’s Women Coaches Report Card featured on espnW

February 2, 2017

The Tucker Center‘s “Women Coaches Research Series & Report Card,” authored by co-director and School of Kinesiology faculty Dr. Nicole M. LaVoi, is featured in an online espnW article, “Tucker Center report: Number of women college coaches still not making the grade.” The report is quoted multiple times within the article, discussing the impact women coaches have on the diversity and culture of sports.

Gao and Lee publish paper in Computers in Human Behavior

January 31, 2017

Zan Gao, Ph.D., associate professor in the School of Kinesiology and Director of the Physical Activity Epidemiology Lab, recently published a paper in Computers in Human Behavior. The first author, Jung Eun Lee, is Dr. Gao’s Ph.D. student and currently an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota Duluth.

The paper examined the acute effect of playing a single bout of active video games on children’s mood change and whether mood change differed by gender and age group. The researchers found that a short bout of active video games significantly reduced anger, depression and vigor, and fourth grade children had greater vigor than the third graders.

Lee, J., Xiang, P., & Gao, Z. (2017). Acute effect of active video games on older children’s mood change. Computers in Human Behavior, 70, 97-103. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2016.12.060 (impact factor: 2.69)

Inoue to publish in Journal of Business Research

January 27, 2017

A research paper by Yuhei Inoue, Ph.D., assistant professor of Sport Management in the School of Kinesiology, has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Business Research.The study, titled “Predicting behavioral loyalty through corporate social responsibility: The mediating role of involvement and commitment“, examined whether consumers’ perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities can predict behavioral loyalty, and how attitudinal constructs mediate this relationship. A field study of 634 customers of an Australian professional football team was conducted by combining attitudinal surveys with actual behavioral data collected one year later. The study’s findings indicate that the contribution of CSR initiatives to behavioral loyalty is not as robust as past research suggests, and is contingent upon specific psychological states activated by consumers’ perceptions of such initiatives.

Citation of this article: Inoue, Y., Funk, D.C., & McDonald, H. (in press). Predicting behavioral loyalty through corporate social responsibility: The mediating role of involvement and commitment. Journal of Business Research.

Konczak publishes in Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation

January 27, 2017

Together with colleagues from Italy and Singapore, Jürgen Konczak, Ph.D., professor in the School of Kinesiology and director of the Human Sensorimotor Control Lab, published a paper that presents a new method to measure proprioception in children. Francesca Marini, a doctoral student at the Italian Institute of Technology, is the first author of the article, “Robot-aided developmental assessment of wrist proprioception in children.“

Neurodevelopmental disorders and brain injuries in children have been associated with proprioceptive dysfunctions that will negatively affect their movements. Unfortunately, the knowledge of how proprioception evolves in typically developing children is still sparse due to the lack of reliable clinical examination protocols.

Kane discusses gender gap in sports on CEHD 2020 Vision blog

January 27, 2017

Dr. Mary Jo Kane Mary Jo Kane, Ph.D., director of the Tucker Center and professor in the School of Kinesiology, has a featured post in the CEHD Vision 2020 blog. Based on the research conducted in the Tucker Center, Kane’s post, “Progress and Inequality: Women’s Sports and the Gender Gap” discusses current aspects of this topic.

CEHD News Kinesiology

CEHD News Kinesiology