{"id":44315,"date":"2017-04-03T12:23:37","date_gmt":"2017-04-03T16:23:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=44315"},"modified":"2017-07-04T16:13:44","modified_gmt":"2017-07-04T20:13:44","slug":"student-researcher-in-running-for-nserc-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2017\/04\/student-researcher-in-running-for-nserc-finals\/","title":{"rendered":"Student researcher in running for NSERC finals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Having a mere 60 seconds to explain complex research in simplistic terms can prove challenging for even the most seasoned researcher.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>But Brock grad student Angel Phanthanourak was not only up to the task, but unafraid to make the most of her one-minute window.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She\u00a0produced a video, Fear of Falls, that has now propelled her into the Top 25 of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada\u2019s (NSERC) <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Science, Action!<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Competition.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Phanthanourak\u2019s video is one of 25 from across the country now under review by a panel of judges working to determine the contest\u2019s finalists.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Winners of the 15 available cash prizes, including a top prize of $3,500, will be announced Wednesday, April 5.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Phanthanourak, a Master of Science in Applied Health Sciences student in the Department of Kinesiology, used her video to explore how anxiety and a fear of falling influences the way people move their bodies. If they stiffen up or have poor postural strategies, it may increase the likelihood of falling during voluntary movements.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/SnQitCPFurE\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Phanthanourak\u2019s entry, along with three others submitted by Brock students, made it into the contest\u2019s Top 40. The top 25 videos with the most views on YouTube then advanced to the final round.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am so grateful to all my friends and family that watched and shared the video online \u2014 making the final 25 would not have been possible without them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cA special thank you goes out to my amazing lab mates and supervisor (Craig Tokuno) for all their encouragement and support, and to my wonderful grandma for being a great sport and agreeing to star in the video.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Phanthanourak first became interested in anticipatory postural adjustments after learning that movements made to prevent a loss of balance become less efficient with aging. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As her grandparents aged, she observed how debilitating elevated levels of anxiety related to the fear of falling can be. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cBy demonstrating the role psychological factors play in reducing the efficiency of postural control, I hope to aid in the development of interventions meant to reduce feelings of anxiety and encourage older adults to engage in activities,\u201d Phanthanourak said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The top 25 <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">videos can be viewed on the<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca\/ScienceAction\/index_eng.asp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Science, Action! website<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Brock graduate student Angel Phanthanourak has made the Top 25 in NSERC&#8217;s Science, Action! Competition and will learn Wednesday whether her video has been chosen the winner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":43609,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[36,55,1,4,5],"tags":[5134,996,5505,2195,5133],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44315"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}