Kinesiotherapy Commons^™

The Readiness Reset: Sleep, Stress, And Pain Management For Tactical Performance, Lauren Fried

Tactical & Occupational Performance Conference

Tactical professionals operate in high-demand environments where sleep disruption, chronic stress, and persistent pain are often normalized, but these factors significantly affect readiness, resilience, and long-term performance. This session explores how sleep, stress, and pain interact at the physiological and neurological levels to influence decision-making, recovery, injury risk, and operational effectiveness in first responders and military personnel.

Participants will gain a deeper understanding of how nervous system regulation, circadian rhythms, and pain perception affect both physical and cognitive performance under stress. Drawing on current research and applied human performance principles, this session highlights practical, field-applicable strategies that tactical professionals and …

Stretching The Limit: A Comparative Study On The Various Stretching Modes And Their Effects On Hip Mobility, James Wheeler, Michelle Wolford, Ashlyn Pollock, Kaitlyn Elllis

Student Scholar Symposium

No abstract provided.

Inequities In The Rehabilitation Process Of Musculoskeletal Injuries In Maine, Devon A. Grant

Thinking Matters Symposium

Since 2016, Maine’s population has grown as a result of migration and a welcoming of refugees. Changes in state demographics influence the population’s and individuals’ social determinants of health (SDOH) (ie., “where people live, learn, work, and play”) and health literacy (ie., a person’s ability to find, understand, and use information to inform health-related decisions). This project aims to identify the health inequities or disparities throughout Southern Maine in the care of injuries to the lower extremity, such as the knee or ankle, as well as explore factors that influence the healthcare outcomes of athletes in surrounding communities. This study …

Unraveling Physiologic Mechanisms In Passive And Active Mechanoreceptor Stimulation, Halah Khan, Braden Ashcraft

Annual Research Symposium

No abstract provided.

Idiopathic And Neuromuscular Scoliosis In A Female College Basketball Player Requiring Spinal Correction Surgery, Magan Kim

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

The purpose of this report is to present the case of a 20-year-old female collegiate basketball player who was diagnosed with a combination of idiopathic and neuromuscular scoliosis. Patient underwent thoracic spinal fusion surgery when she was 15 to resolve her extreme scoliosis. The uniqueness of this case stems from the athlete’s urgency to have to undergo a life-altering spine operation and still be able to successfully contribute to a collegiate basketball team. Athletic trainers should be knowledgeable and aware of how to maintain treatment/rehabilitation for athletes with scoliosis, operative or non-operative. Scoliosis should no longer be a reason to …

Ankle–Foot Orthosis Alters Biomechanics Of Lower Extremities During Walking, Farahnaz Fallah Tafti, Iraklis Pipinos, Jason Johanning, Hafizur Rahman, Mahdi Hassan, Sara Myers

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Lower extremity peripheral artery disease (PAD) is a cardiovascular condition caused by narrowed or blocked arteries supplying blood to the legs. Leg pain and myopathy significantly impair gait from the first step. Using AFO may assist the gait and prolong the distance patients with PAD can walk. This study aimed to investigate the effect of AFO on the gait biomechanics of patients with PAD. Fourteen Participants walked over the force platforms with and without an AFO and kinetics and kinematics were combined to quantify torques and powers of the hip, knee, and ankle joints. Our data demonstrate that use of …

Upper Limb Rehabilitation For Amputees, Michaela Ramandanes

Virginias Collegiate Honors Council Conference

It is estimated that 75% of the 30 million people that need prosthetic devices lack access to the technologies they need. This suggests a need for solutions outside of standard healthcare models. In this work we present a solution by development of a simple, safe and accessible at-home exercise program for individuals with upper limb loss. It is intended to help amputees strengthen the muscles needed to operate body-powered prostheses when muscles have atrophied from lack of use. Extensive research identified the most effective exercises to hinder overuse injuries. The exercises were compiled and published on a website with a …

Oral Contraceptives As Possible Acl Injury Prevention Method, Haley Schweizer

Capstone Showcase

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) injuries are an upsetting setback for many athletes that require a long and costly recovery process. The injury rates are four times greater in women than men. Preventative measures that help to prevent ACL injuries are limited to stretching and strengthening. Therefore, this review aims to investigate if oral contraceptive [I] usage provides a possible new avenue for prevention of ACL injury [O] in young female athletes (ages 18-30) [P] compared to those that do not take oral contraceptives [C].

Methods: A literature review was performed though PubMed, Google Scholar, SCOPUS Database, and ClinicalKey …

A Visual Exploration Of Walking In Mild Traumatic Brain Injury (Mtbi), Bryana Popa

OHSU-PSU School of Public Health Annual Conference

Visual exploration of the environment is vital for safe and effective walking, and is influenced by cognitive load. Eye movement deficits can occur following mTBI and may impact visual exploration when walking, leading to issues with mobility. This study aims to examine visual exploration when walking under single and dual-task in mTBI and controls.

Sixteen people with mTBI (Age: 30.1±12.8 yrs, days since injury: 39.5±21.7) and 10 healthy controls (Age: 26.3±5.2 yrs) walked for 1 minute while wearing a mobile eye tracker under single and dual-task conditions. The primary outcome was visual exploration measured by saccade frequency (sacc/sec). Secondary outcomes …

Efficacy Of Assistive Devices Produced With Additive Manufacturing, James Pierce

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Despite the frequency of musculoskeletal injuries such as sprains, broken bones and torn ligaments¹, treatment options are often costly, time-consuming and ill-fitted.^2,3 Additive manufacturing (“3D-printing) allows for the production of highly-customized and inexpensive assistive devices⁴, which suggests potential efficacy in the prescription of splints and casts for musculoskeletal injury.³ In the present study, a parametric, customizable splint/cast was created using a computer-aided design (CAD) package (Fusion 360, Autodesk, San Rafael, CA, USA) and produced with low-cost, desktop 3D printing (Ultimaker 2+ Extended, Ultimaker, Geldermalsen, Netherlands). Fitting of the devices was performed on five healthy …

Developing A Footswitch Device To Assess The Likelihood Of Falls In At-Risk Populations, Arash Mohammadzadeh Gonabadi

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Falls are one of the major cause of injuries, reduced functioning and even mortality in older adults. Most of the falls occur during walking, so considering the mechanics of gait during walking can provide insight to identify the risk of fall in this population. A component of walking mechanics associated with falling in the elderly is gait variability (i.e. the inherent natural fluctuations between strides). Healthy states are associated with an optimal level of movement variability reflecting the adaptability of the underlying control system, while pathological gait can be either too regular, or periodic, or too random and disordered. In …

P19. Head Impacts In Youth Soccer Are Comparable To American Football, Alexandra B. Harriss, Aakash Naik, Dave Walton, James P. Dickey

Western Research Forum

Head Impacts in youth soccer are comparable to American Football

Alexandra Harriss¹, Aakash Naik¹, David M. Walton², James P. Dickey¹

School of Kinesiology¹, School of Physical Therapy², Western University, London, Canada

Background: Research has unequivocally demonstrated that females and youth soccer players are at a significant high risk of concussion. Recently, concerns for “heading” have been raised due to possible adverse neurological effects. While head impact accelerations and rotations have been investigated in American football, head impacts in youth soccer have not been rigorously studied. The purpose is to …

Interactive Video Gaming: Do We Feel Like We Are Exercising?, Antonio Santo, Shaelee Allen, Janet Dufek, Paul Hafen, Michael Jarrett, Krystina Moschella, Robert Rietjens, James Navalta, Richard Tandy, Jacob E. Barkley

Interdisciplinary Research Scholarship Day

The primary purpose of this study was to determine if the rating of perceived exertion (RPE) and hedonics (liking or enjoyment) changed during 30 contiguous minutes of playing select, interactive video games on the Nintendo Wii system. A secondary purpose was to determine if RPE and liking differed among games.These data suggest that individuals do perceive difference in the amount of work they are performing during extended play of the same game or among sedentary and physically interactive games. Additionally, liking was similar during extended game play and among games suggesting that the physical interaction with the game may be …

Examining Lower Extremity Range Of Motion And Movement Variability Chages Due To Focus Of Attention During Landing, Andrew Nordin, Janet Dufek

Interdisciplinary Research Scholarship Day

Attentional focus (AF) has been explored among a variety of motor skills providing evidence that external AF promotes automaticity and enhanced performance [6]. External focus of attention is distinguished from internal focus such that external focus is directed toward movement effect rather than body movements [6]. Movement variability provides a means of assessing functional characteristics of the neuromotor system, where normal functioning is suggested to occur within optimal limits, while excessively high or low movement variability is indicative of system dysfunction [2,4,5]. Additionally, the ability of the motor system to vary, or broadly distribute, internal loads is thought to reduce …