Tuesday, February 28th, 13-14 CET. Room: 40.113 (Campus Ciutadella)

Planetary Wellbeing Seminar Series

Title: BYMBOS - Body Mind Interaction in Students

There is an increasing incidence of musculoskeletal conditions (58% increase from 1990 to 2017), especially among adolescents (up to 75% of the population). Psychological factors such as mismanaged stress, anxiety, and other emotions may be contributing factors. Breathing affects motor control, postural stability, and plays several roles in physiological and psychological regulation [3]. Hence, breathing may be a mediator between posture and emotions. Yet, results from preliminary studies suggest that many cannot
intentionally perform diaphragm breathing, impacting their posture, and affecting their emotional regulation abilities. This study aims to identify a possible triangular link among posture, breathing, and stress.

The breathing and posture of UPF volunteers were monitored using stereophotogrammetric technology while anxiety and self-esteem were evaluated using a survey. Breathing is a possible mediator showing relations to stability and psychological health. However, in both cases, the relationship is inverted by
gender. Such differences do not seem explicable by mere biology, and social canons should be taken into consideration.

Sing up HERE for the Zoom link.

Speaker:

Dr. Simone Tassani is senior researcher of the Biomechanics and Mechanobiology (BMMB) team in the SIMBiosys group.

His research career has a strong international connotation due to the activities held in different countries.

Dr Tassani holds a PhD in biomedical engineering from the Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna with the thesis “Evaluation of Bone Strength: Microtomographic Techniques”. During his Ph.D.
he focused his studies over the biomechanics of human trabecular tissue by means of microtomographics techniques, investigating the connection of trabecular tissue to Osteoathritis and Osteoporosis with special attention to the bone framework remodelling. In 2010 he was awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie and he worked for two years at the Institute of Communication and Computer System, National Technical University of Athens, Greece (Project MOSAIC), acquiring knowledge related to image processing (e.g. segmentation, registration of images) and classification procedures (e.g. learning machines, neural networks, linear classifiers). During this period he spent 4 months at the Eindhoven University of Technology , The Netherlands, performing mechanical tests and micro-CT scans of trabecular bone and attending specialized courses on bioethics. Since 2011 he is interested in the study of Tai-Chi, a discipline that is every year more used as rehabilitation and therapy for many musculoskeletal diseases. In 2013 he performed an intensive training in Tai-Chi at Yuntai Mountain International Culture and Martial arts School, Jiao zuo city, Hennan, China. At the end of this training he acquired an official certification. Mixing biomechanical and tai-chi knowledge he was awarded in 2014 with a Beatriz De Pinos (AGAUR-Marie Sklodowska Curie Co-fund) and he started in 2014 at Fundació Privada IBEC, Barcelona, Spain, the sMART-O project for the study of biomechanics characteristics of Tai-Chi. In February 2015 he moved to the Universitat Pompeu Fabra exploring the possibilities of multilevel modelling and the capability of different subject to minimize the amount of energy required during a specific task though relaxation. After two years experience in a movement analysis project he is now director of the Motion Capture laboratory of UPF (110000 euros).

Since 2008 Dr Tassani is an active member of the European Society of Biomechanics and member of the Spanish and Italian chapter of the same society.
During his career he also had experience of clinical collaborations. In 2005 at Rizzoli Orthopaedic Institute, Bologna, Italy, Dr Tassani was on-field coordinator of the HandHealth national project. During the project he worked in ward, next to orthopaedic nurses and surgeons, for the application of new technologies. At the moment, Dr Tassani is collaborating with Hospedal del Mar, Barcelona, Spain, for the gait analysis of Osteoartritic subjects.

His research focuses (i) on multilevel analysis of the interaction between body, organ and tissue level, and (ii) on how these interactions can be driven by, or related to, body motion and subject behaviour, with particular interest to the impact that relaxation disciplines, like Tai-Chi or Yoga, can have over human movement. Numerical methods are used to combine rigid body to organ and tissue level modelling.

Dr. Tassani has more than 60 contributions to congresses, and has published 24 articles in international journals, (ORCID: 0000-0002-8652-2314| Scopus h-Index: 10, Citations: 922 | Google Scholar h-Index: 11, Citations: 1842) and keeps active collaborations with most of his previous colleagues and others overseas in Australia and Brazil.

In 2015 he was also co-promoter of two research contracts with both hospitals and companies. He finally is assigned as referee for the international journals “Journal of Biomechanics”, “Journal of Musculoskeletal and Neuronal Interactions”, “Computer methods and programs in biomedicine”, “Clinical Anatomy”, “Journal of Biomedical Material Research: Part B - Applied Biomaterials” and review editor of “Frontiers”.