THERMOAGE – The effects of extreme indoor temperature on postural stability, muscle properties and physiology response in older people
Extreme weather events in the form of cold and heat waves have been more frequent and longer over the past decade. This poses a severe health risk to vulnerable populations, particularly older adults, who have an impaired ability to regulate their body temperature. Aging is also associated with decline in mobility, balance control, muscle properties and physiology response. Thus, having a better understanding of the link between biomechanical and physiological mechanisms and temperature is critical.
A multidisciplinary research team spanning across the School of Biomedical Sciences and School of Engineering at the University of Leeds is currently conducting a research study ‘THERMOAGE’ which aims to investigate the effects of exposure to reduced and elevated temperature on postural sway [the micro-movements the body performs to maintain balance and upright posture], muscle properties e.g. stiffness, physiology response e.g. vascular changes and evaluate whether subjective perception of extreme temperature is reflected in these objective measures.
They are recruiting a research assistant for a total of 50 hours to support participants recruitment and data collection. The research study will be conducted within the state-of-art climatic chamber housed within the School of Biomedical Sciences (LC Miall) and will involve the use of specialist equipment to measure i) continuous pressure distribution at the foot-ground interface as surrogate to estimate the postural sway, ii) muscle stiffness, tone and mechanical relaxation, iii) skin temperature and local tissue oxygenation.
They are interested in hearing from candidates with interest in areas including biomechanics and human physiology but welcome applications from all areas of sport and exercise sciences or allied health areas.
Candidates will preferably be within their second or third year of their PhD, or alternatively hold a PhD in the relevant disciplines.
Informal enquiries can be made to Dr Silvia Caggiari (s.caggiari@leeds.ac.uk)
To apply: Please send an up-to-date CV and cover letter which details how you meet the criteria from the job description and send it to Dr Silvia Caggiari (s.caggiari@leeds.ac.uk)