DrAlycia Fong Yan

Project Opportunities

Title: Exploring the health benefits of dance

Summary of opportunity:

Adherence is a major issue when assessing the effectiveness of an exercise program. It has been suggested that dancing could be a solution to improve adherence leading to improved health outcomes. The purpose of this project is to assess current dance programs for their effect on physical health, and develop targeted dance programs for various population groups including obesity, elderly, and neuromuscular conditions.

Opportunity synopsis:

Adherence is a major issue when assessing the effectiveness of an exercise program. It has been suggested that dancing could be a solution to improve adherence leading to improved health outcomes. The purpose of this project is to assess current dance programs for their effect on physical health, and develop targeted dance programs for various population groups including obesity, elderly, and neuromuscular conditions.

--------------------------------------------------

Project Opportunities

Title: Investigating mechanics of dance movement

Summary of opportunity:

This project aims to better understand the movement patterns and forces that dancers undergo during dance performance to inform injury prevention and teaching practices.

Opportunity synopsis:

Dancers push their bodies to the physical limits of motion whilst maintaining the aesthetic requirements of the dance genre. The extreme technical requirements can take a toll on the body with many dancers, both professional and recreational, either injured or at risk of injury. Dancers only have a short professional career and the competition for performance roles and jobs is high. The purpose of this study is to investigate the mechanism for injuries, risk factors for injury, and movement variability.

--------------------------------------------------

Project Opportunities

Title: Footwear and Lower Limb Health

Summary of opportunity:

The project conducts basic research into functional aspects of physical activity requiring support from the lower limb in disease and health and the effect of footwear on efficiency, effectiveness, and injury occurrence in the short and long term and in all populations.

Opportunity synopsis:

During shod walking, the foot and the shoe together provide the interface between the supporting surface and the body, and enable the requisite functions of propulsion, transmission of ground reaction forces, and balance.

• For children: The impact of the shoes as a critical influence on musculoskeletal health has been neglected. Studies that investigate the effects of footwear on foot biomechanics provide qualitative descriptions of footwear properties. There are limited studies providing quantitative assessment of the functional mechanical properties of footwear, and only one study compares shoe mechanical properties with foot kinematics and kinetics (Oleson et al., 2005). This lack of knowledge has made it difficult to determine if a mechanism exists between footwear design/properties and foot function. No longitudinal studies have been found which investigate the long-term effects of footwear on growth and development. This project will remedy this deficiency and make recommendations for the qualities that should be sought in a child’s shoe designed for everyday use.
• For active adults: More studies are available that investigate the acute affect of footwear on lower limb function in adults. However, what long term adaptations occur to the wearing of a particular type of footwear has yet to be studied. We hypothesise that generally the midfoot region of shoes is too rigid for the foot to function as it would without shoes. The long term implications of footwear use are unknown.
• For the symptomatic: (eg functional flat foot, diabetic foot, Marfan syndrome) Individual mechanical reaction to the wearing of orthotics and prosthetics is highly variable. This project aims to establish cause and effect relationships between the anthropometric parameters of the lower limb and the type of footwear intervention so that the intervention can be more tightly prescribed. Parts of this project have substantial support from the Australian Research Council and industry partners.

--------------------------------------------------

Project Opportunities

Title: Development of wireless motion sensors for use in complex movements

Summary of opportunity:

This project aims to develop the technology used in current wireless inertial measurement units (IMU’s) for use in complex movements where the size of current units may impede the natural movement under investigation.

Opportunity synopsis:

Current motion analysis systems are either expensive and require multiple fixed cameras combined with embedded force plates in the ground, or are portable but less accurate. Recently, the use of wireless IMU’s for motion analysis has been utilised in scientific research with some promising results. The IMU’s are bulky and cannot be used for in-shoe measurements and other complex movements where the IMU could impede the intended movement. The purpose of this project is to develop the technology used in IMU’s and compare the reliability, accuracy and validity of the new system against the current gold standard of 3D motion capture technology.