The interaction between the muscle fascicle and tendon components of the human soleus (SO) muscle influences the capacity of the muscle to generate force and mechanical work during walking and running. In the present study, ultrasound-based measurements of in vivo SO muscle fascicle behavior were combined with an inverse dynamics analysis to investigate the interaction between the muscle fascic...

Control of walking has been described by a tripartite model consisting of stepping, equilibrium, and adaptability. This review focuses on walking adaptability, which is defined as the ability to modify walking to meet task goals and environmental demands. Walking adaptability is crucial to safe ambulation in the home and community environments and is often severely compromised after a stroke. Y...

This study investigated the relationship between daytime physical activity patterns and physical fitness in elderly women. The subjects comprised 19 elderly women who resided in a nursing home. Time spent lying, sitting, standing and walking and the number of steps taken during the daytime from 10:00 to 16:00 were measured to determine physical activity patterns. Physical fitness measures inclu...

OBJECTIVE to compare the effects of two different exercise programmes after hip fracture. DESIGN assessor-blinded randomised controlled trial. SETTING hospital rehabilitation units, with continued intervention at home. SUBJECTS 160 people with surgical fixation for hip fracture transferred to inpatient rehabilitation. METHOD in addition to other rehabilitation strategies, the interventi...

We present the results of a theoretical investigation of droplets bouncing on a vertically vibrating fluid bath. An integro-differential equation describing the horizontal motion of the drop is developed by approximating the drop as a continuous moving source of standing waves. Our model indicates that, as the forcing acceleration is increased, the bouncing state destabilizes into steady horizo...

This paper presents biped walking control using a library of optimal trajectories. The biped walking control problem is formulated as an optimal control problem. We take advantage of a parametric trajectory optimization method to find the periodic steady-state trajectory in regular walking. Then we use Differential Dynamic Programming (DDP) to generate a library of optimal trajectories and loca...

Many falls in older adults occur during walking following trips. Following a trip, older adults take longer than younger adults to recover steady-state walking. Although faster gait speed may improve interlimb coordination, it may also increase fall risk in older adults. We hypothesized that older adults would take longer than younger adults to recover from an unexpected perturbation during gai...

The hypotheses have been tested that 1) symmetry of weightbearing in persons who have sustained a stroke could be improved by the addition of a lift to the shoe on the non-paretic lower limb and 2) compelled weightbearing resulting from the addition of a lift in conjunction with targeted exercise helps to overcome the learned disuse of the paretic limb. Weightbearing on the paretic side was mea...

OBJECTIVE to investigate the association between gait speed and the cognitive score of elderly patients enrolled in a Basic Health Unit. METHOD a quantitative cross-sectional study with 203 elderly, a sample calculated based on the estimated population proportion. Data were collected using a sociodemographic and clinical questionnaire, gait speed test (GS) and the Mini Mental State Examinatio...