BACKGROUND As gait speed and transfer times are considered to be an important measure of functional ability in older adults, several systems are currently being researched to measure this parameter in the home environment of older adults. The data resulting from these systems, however, still needs to be reviewed by healthcare workers which is a time-consuming process. METHODS This paper prese...

Behaviour and use of the cage area were studied in 96 rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) kept in an enriched cage system - with access to shelter and raised height at the back of the cage - and in a conventional cage system to estimate the effects of the environmental enrichment on the rabbits' welfare. The rabbits' behaviour and placement in the cage were observed, using continuous video recordin...

OBJECTIVES To (1) create a single metric of disability using Rasch modelling to be used for comparing disability severity levels across groups and countries, (2) test whether the interval-level measures were invariant across countries, sociodemographic and health variables and (3) examine the gains in precision using interval-level measures relative to ordinal scores when discriminating between...

The concept of motivation has great relevance for the older adult because of the multiple problems that can result in functional limitations. The ability to overcome and transcend these problems is related to the individuals' motivation to maintain and/or improve function. The purpose of this study, which used a naturalistic or constructivist inquiry, was to explore what motivates the instituti...

AIMS To validate the accuracy of construction worker recall of task and environment based information; and to evaluate the effect of task recall on estimates of noise exposure. METHODS A cohort of 25 construction workers recorded tasks daily and had dosimetry measurements weekly for six weeks. Worker recall of tasks reported on the daily activity cards was validated with research observations...

Dynamic arm supports are provided to assist with activities of daily living (ADLs) in people with limited upper-limb function. However, the perceived functional benefit of these devices in daily life is unknown. Insight into the functional benefit may give direction to the development of new devices and may affect the factors that patients and their health care providers consider during the sel...

uman movement such as sit-to-stand (STS) is one of the most fundamental and essential movement among daily living activities. Elderly who are unable to stand are severely limited in daily activities and rely on others for their care. In the coming next two decades about 20% of US population will be above the age of 65 years, and considering ever-increasing elderly population and health care exp...

To determine the annual incidence of fall-related injuries among community-dwelling elderly people with dementia and to identify the factors predicting those likely to sustain such injuries, we conducted a cohort study with a one-year follow-up. As predicting factors, we paid particular attention to behavioural problems and difficulties in helping with activities of daily living based on the As...

This paper develops a comprehensive representation to describe the activity-travel pattern of workers and proposes an analysis framework to model the activity-travel attributes identified in the representation. The analysis framework is based on a descriptive examination of activity-travel patterns of workers from two locations in the U.S. The paper also formulates an econometric methodology to...

The main objective of this research is to understand the meaning of the practices concerning food hygiene in a street market in Salvador, the capital of Bahia State in Brazil. The ethnographic study presents two main categories for symbolic production related to hygiene practices: cleanliness as order and dirtiness as disorder. These cultural codes make correspondence with the studies of Mary D...