APAL members attend annual NASPSPA meeting in Minneapolis

June 19, 2014

The Affordance Perception-Action Laboratory (APAL) was well represented by faculty, alumnus, and students at the annual North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity meeting (NASPSPA), June 12-14.

Professor Michael Wade, Ph.D., chaired a seminar titled, “Atypical motor development: Issues in children with developmental coordination disorder,” and Tom Stoffregen, Ph.D., professor of kinesiology and director of the APAL, served as the discussant for this seminar.

APAL alumna Dr. Yawen Yu was lead author on a talk given at NASPSPA titled, “Exploratory movement as a general process for affordance perception.” Stoffregen and former APAL research assistant (B.S., Kinesiology, ’11) Lauren Hemingway co-authored the talk.

During the conference APAL members presented the following posters:

Perception of Affordances From Photographs. Eric Haaland, Justin Munafo, and Thomas A. Stoffregen.
Precursors of Post-Bout Motion Sickness in Adolescent Female Boxers. Yi-Chou Chen, T. C. Tseng, T. S. Hung, & Thomas A. Stoffregen.
Postural Precursors of Motion Sickness and Concussion-Related Symptoms in Adult Male Boxers. Yi-Chou Chen, T. S. Hung, T.C. Tseng, & Thomas A. Stoffregen.
Expert handball goalkeepers make accurate decisions about 7-m throw directions before ball release. Khaled E Alsharji & Michael G. Wade.
The horizon affects postural sway in older adults at sea. Justin Munafo, Thomas A. Stoffregen, & Michael G. Wade.
Sexual dimorphism in susceptibility to motion sickness.Frank Koslucher, Eric Haaland, & Thomas A. Stoffregen.

Access Minnesota interviews Ji on oats that fight inflammation

June 19, 2014

Li Li Ji, Ph.D., director of the School of Kinesiology and director of the Laboratory of Physiological Hygiene and Exercise Science (LPHES), recently participated in an interview with Access Minnesota titled “Fighting Inflammation with Oats.”

In the interview Dr. Ji explained how oats and other types of foods can help protect people from inflammation. Prior to this interview, the University of Minnesota featured Dr. Ji’s collaboration with researchers at the University of Madison-Wisconsin in, “Oats – the new exercise recovery food.” The article summarized his research findings and the potential impact oats and common foods can have on the body.

To listen to the full interview click here.

For Dr. Ji’s research on oats and inflammation click here.

Weiss becomes editor of Kinesiology Review

June 19, 2014

On June 1, Maureen Weiss, professor of kinesiology, became the editor of Kinesiology Review, the official journal of the National Academy of Kinesiology and the American Kinesiology Association—the two societies that oversee the scholarly, engagement, teaching, and service realms of the discipline as a whole.

The mission of Kinesiology Review is to advance the field by publishing evaluative, insightful, and integrative scholarly reviews, including theoretical expositions, position papers, critical analyses of significant issues, and similar manuscripts along conceptual and multidisciplinary lines. The journal is unique in publishing reviews from all sub-disciplines within kinesiology—biological, physical, social, psychological, historical, philosophical—and strongly encourages papers that focus on important and timely issues that consider the contribution and interaction of multiple perspectives.

Smith to present at the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting

June 16, 2014

Thomas Smith, Ph.D., lecturer in the School of Kinesiology, has had two papers for presentation, and publication in the proceedings, of the 2014 Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, that will convene in Chicago this October. The paper titles are: “Occupancy Quality Predictors of Office Worker Job Satisfaction” and “Variability in Human Performance – the Roles of Context Specificity and Closed-Loop Control.”

Weiss referenced in The Fort Collins Coloradoan

June 16, 2014

An article in The Fort Collins Coloradoan recently noted the research of professor Maureen Weiss. The article, “Parents find benefits, drawbacks in coaching their kids,” made mention of Weiss’ 2005 work on parent-coach/child-athlete relationships.

Continue reading “Weiss referenced in The Fort Collins Coloradoan”

Tucker Center launches new infographic for #HERESPROOF Project

June 12, 2014

The Tucker Center for Research on Girls and Women in Sport launched Infographic #2 to support their #HERESPROOF Project. This infographic highlights the increased online traffic to espnW, increased television viewership during women’s sporting events, and the number of followers professional female athletes gained through social media.

The #HERESPROOF Project encourages people to to post #heresproof-tagged images and comments about women’s sports through social media.

Hwang presented at NASSM

June 7, 2014

Geumchan Hwang presented at the North American Society for Sport Management (NASSM) annual conference which took place May 27-31 in Pittsburgh, PA.

Geumchan-Hwang_umn — Geumchan Hwang presenting at the 2014 NASSM Conference

Doctoral student Geumchan Hwang presented work titled, 1) “The influence of CSR in college sports on local fan’s patronage intentions” and 2) “How sport organizations should manage a crisis: Examination of an image repair strategy after an athletic celebrity scandal” with the assistance of Dr. Lisa A. Kihl, associate professor of sport management in the School of Kinesiology.

APAL presenting at ISEP North American Meeting

June 6, 2014

The Affordance Perception-Action Laboratory (APAL) gave several presentations at the North American Meeting of the International Society for Ecological Psychology, June 5-8, Miami University, Oxford OH.

The following presentations were given by APAL:

“Exploring Len Mark’s Affordances”, by Thomas A. Stoffregen, an invited talk in a special symposium given to honor Professor Leonard Mark at his retirement.
“Postural dynamics of motion sickness in elite adolescent male boxers”, by Yi-Chou Chen, T. C. Tseng, T. H. Hung, & Thomas A. Stoffregen. Poster presentation.
“Perception of maximum sitting height with and without a reference object”, by Eric Haaland, Justin Munafo, and Thomas A. Stoffregen. Poster presentation.
“Sexual dimorphism contributes to sex differences in susceptibility in motion sickness”, by Frank C. Koslucher, Eric Haaland, & Thomas A. Stoffregen. Poster presentation.
“Subjective reports and postural performance among elderly passengers on a sea voyage”, by Justin Munafo, Michael G. Wade, & Thomas A. Stoffregen. Poster presentation.
“Postural effects of interpersonal visual contact at sea”, by Thomas A. Stoffregen, Manuel Varlet, Fu-Chen Chen, Cristina Alcantara, & Benoit G. Bardy. Poster presentation.

Dr. Thomas A. Storffregen is a professor of kinesiology and is the director of APAL. Dr. Michael G. Wade is a member of APAL and a professor of motor learning and motor development in the School of Kinesiology. Eric Haaland, Frank Koslucher, Yi-Chou Chen, and Justin Munafo are graduates students in APAL.

Lupinek and Brownlee presented on Cleveland Indians student project

June 6, 2014

brownlee_lupinek_umn — Johsua Lupinek (left) and Eric Brownlee (right) at the 2014 NASSM Conference

Last week, doctoral student Joshua Lupinek and former sport management faculty Dr. Eric Brownlee presented “Student Led Group Ticket Sales Projects” at the Teaching and Learning Fair at the North American Association for Sport Management (NASSM) conference in Pittsburgh, PA hosted by Duquesne University.

This project provided the framework for setting up a sport sales class into a realistic sales department experience with industry management hierarchy. Student-led teams collaborated to create realistic sales teams to sell Cleveland Indians tickets. Teams worked in conjunction with the Indians. Top performing students, teams, and schools were rewarded with Indians tickets, gear, and personal interviews with top management. This project was initially started with the Minnesota Timberwolves and successfully ran in-conjunction with the Cleveland Indians last year.

The presentation included a detailed class project description, assessment rubric, and sales tracking spreadsheet for the student-led group ticket sales project. This student project was integrated into a sport marketing course.

Fitzgerald accepts tenure-track position at UND and publishes dissertation

June 4, 2014

Dr. John Fitzgerald completed his Ph.D. in May 2013 and he has accepted a tenure-track position at the University of North Dakota. Fitzgerald also had his dissertation accepted for publication in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. His dissertation was titled, “Vitamin D Status and VO2peak during a Skate Treadmill Graded Exercise Test in Competitive Ice Hockey Players.”

Dr. Fitzgerald completed his Ph.D. under the advisement of Dr. Stacy Ingraham and Dr. Beth Lewis.

Wilson accepts Postdoctoral position at the University of Nebraska

June 4, 2014

Dr. Patrick Wilson successfully defended his doctoral dissertation and has accepted a Postdoctoral Research Associate position for sport nutrition at the University of Nebraska’s Athletic Performance Laboratory in Lincoln, NE. Dr. Wilson completed his Ph.D. under the advisement of Dr. Stacy Ingraham and Dr. Eric Synder. He began his new position on June 3.

Gao presents research at two events in Orlando

June 3, 2014

GaoZ-pref Dr. Zan Gao, assistant professor in the School of Kinesiology and director of the Physical Activity Epidemiology Lab (PAEL), served as lead author for two separate research projects that he presented in Orlando, Fl.

One of the projects, “Children’s physical activity levels in school-based and after school programs,” he presented at the 2014 American College of Sports Medicine Annual Meeting. Gao also presented, “Effects of exergaming on children’s health outcomes: A meta-analysis,” at the Congress on Exercise is Medicine Annual Meeting.

MIAC announces Valentini as Men’s Tennis Coach-of-the-Year

June 3, 2014

Doctoral candidate Tommy Valentini, head coach of the Gustavus Adolphus men’s tennis team, was named Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Steve Wilkinson Men’s Tennis Coach-of-the-Year.

This is Valentini’s second MIAC coaching award in his five years as head coach of Gustavus. Valentini led the Gusties to a perfect 9-0 record in conference this year, and the team also won its fourth consecutive MIAC playoff title.

Bosch has manuscript accepted for publication

May 23, 2014

Doctoral candidate Tyler Bosch is the lead author of an article to be published in the journal, Pediatric Obesity. The article, “Visceral adipose tissue measured by DXA correlates with measurement by CT and is associated with cardiometabolic risk factors in children,” examined the a new method of determining visceral adipose tissue in children using dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). This measure of visceral adipose tissue was associated with cardiometabolic risk factors. This article was part of Mr. Bosch’s doctoral dissertation. Donald R. Dengel, Ph.D., a professor of kinesiology and director of the Laboratory of Integrative Human Physiology in the School of Kinesiology, is a co-author on this article.

Gao presents at exergaming conference

May 23, 2014

GaoZ-pref Dr. Zan Gao, assistant professor in the School of Kinesiology and director of the Physical Activity Epidemiology Lab (PAEL), presented, “The Role of Exergaming in Contributing to Children’s Daily Physical Activity Levels” at 2014 The Games for Increasing Physical Activity conference in Houston, TX. The purpose of this conference is to identify best practices and research needed to develop a new generation of exergames that meaningfully increase physical activity. The conference brought together video game designers, epidemiologists, kinesiologists, and behavioral and communication scientists to analyze exergaming with an eye toward developing best practices and identifying needed research for increasing physical activity. In-depth discussions were held on what is known about how exergames influence behavior, what are current exergame best practices for increasing physical activity, and what additional research is needed to move this field forward.

PE 1262 Marathon Training course culminates in Eau Claire Marathon

May 8, 2014

University of Minnesota’s School of Kinesiology Marathon Training course (PE 1262) completed its 6th year on May 4 with 100 students completing the Eau Claire Marathon. Not only did all of the 100 of the University runners finished the race, but the first and second place finishers of the race were U of MN students.

Eric Glaubke, a sophomore business information systems major, finished first with a time of 2:45.06 (6:17 min per mile) and Zachery Haus, a senior political science major, finished 2nd in a time of 2:51.08. Also in the top ten finishers was James Arneson (5th) in 3:03.32 and Brock Purtell (6th) in 3:03.37. For the women, the top finishers were Jordan Ecker, 1st overall in the women’s 16-19 age division in a time of 3:47.59, Emily Ralph, 4th overall in the women’s 20-29 age division in a time of 3:33.53, Ellie Walch (12th) in 3:52.50 and Margaret Mysz (13th) in 3:53.24. Glaubke, Haus, Arenson, Purtell and Ralph all qualified for the Boston Marathon for 2015. A majority of the class finished between 4-5 hours.

The class was also featured in Eau Claire’s Leader Telegram.
Continue reading “PE 1262 Marathon Training course culminates in Eau Claire Marathon”

Lundstrom featured on Competitor

May 6, 2014

Chris Lundstrom, doctoral candidate in the School of Kinesiology and instructor for the PE marathon course , was featured in Competitor, a website devoted to running and related health and wellness topics.

The article, “Meet Chris Lundstrom, Running’s Jack Of All Trades,” highlighted Lundstrom’s running achievements, personal life, and his persepctive on competition. In the article Lundstrom explained why he competes in such intense running competitions, “I’ve read Born To Run, and what I got out of it is that we are capable of amazing feats of endurance. It’s who we are as a species. In that spirit, I wanted to test my limits, to see what I could get away with.”

Photo courtesy of voyageurtrailrun.blogspot.com

Wiese-Bjornstal spoke to students at St. Olaf College on careers

May 2, 2014

Dr. Diane Wiese-Bjornstal, associate professor of kinesiology, spoke to the Psychology Club at St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN. Dr. Wiese-Bjornstal spoke to students about different career paths related to sport and exercise psychology.

Konczak organizes international symposium

May 2, 2014

konczakJ Jürgen Konczak, Ph.D., professor of kinesiology and director of the Human Sensorimotor Control Laboratory (HSC), organized a symposium at the Annual Meeting of the Neural Control of Movement Society in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He spoke to over 350 scientists from across the world on how body awareness (proprioception) becomes impaired in patients with dystonia or Parkinson’s disease and how these sensory deficits lead to problems in the patients’ movement.

HPTL hosts high school students

May 2, 2014

Screen Shot 2014-05-01 at 1.37.08 PM The Human Performance Teaching Laboratory (HPTL) hosted over 30 high school students as part of the Scrubs, Gloves & Microscopes-Sports Medicine Program.

Donald Dengel, Ph.D., professor of kinesiology and director of the HPTL, held a hands-on event for high school students allowing them to gain a better understanding of sports medicine.

CEHD News Kinesiology

CEHD News Kinesiology