Walking and bicycling to work, active commuting, can contribute to sustainable mobility and provide regular health-enhancing physical activity for individuals. Our knowledge of active commuting behaviours in general and in different mode and gender groups in particular is limited. Moreover, the validity and reproducibility of the methods to measure the key variables of the behaviours are uncertain. The aims of this thesis is to explore gender and mode choice differences in commuting behaviours in terms of distance, duration, velocity and trip frequency, of a group of adult commuters in Greater Stockholm, Sweden, and furthermore to develop a criterion method for distance measurements and to assess the validity of four other distance measurement methods. We used one sample of active commuters recruited by advertisements, n = 1872, and one street-recruited sample, n = 140. Participants received a questionnaire and a map to draw their commuting route on. The main findings of the thesis were, firstly, that the map-based method could function as a criterion method for active commuting distance measurements and, secondly, that four assessed distance measurement methods – straight-line distance, GIS, GPS and self-report – differed significantly from the criterion method. Therefore, we recommend the use of correction factors to compensate for the systematic over- and underestimations. We also found three distinctly different modality groups in both men and women with different behaviours in commuting distance, duration and trip frequency. These groups were commuters who exclusively walk or bicycle the whole way to work, and dual mode commuters who switch between walking and cycling. These mode groups accrued different amounts of activity time for commuting. Through active commuting per se, the median pedestrian and dual mode commuters met or were close to the recommended physical activity level of 150 minutes per week during most months of the year, whereas the single mode cyclists did so only during the summer half of the year. / FAAP

The work performed in this thesis involves the study of human hip joint kinematics and load analysis. Such analyses are very useful for investigating mobility and natural functionality as well as the variation in motion due to replacement implants. The objective of this study is to design, build and testing of a universal human joint simulator that is configurable to hold several human joints and easily programmable to create the required motion. This was performed by creating a Stewart Platform, which is capable of moving in all six degrees of freedom; the maximum number needed by any human joint. Many specific human joint simulators are available on the market for simulating all major human limbs. These are used for wear testing replacement joints by using high load repetitive motion. These systems have a predetermined limit degree of movement and are very expensive; if one wanted to emulate another joint, one would have to purchase a whole new system. This novel system compromises of a three-phase power supply, Control Area Network with six actuators and drivers, a force reading clamp with strain gauges and data logger. A user friendly computer program was developed that is able to derive joint movement data from two inputs and replicating the movement by driving the platform, as well as recording force and displacement data from the joint. The product would be marketed towards biomechanical researchers and implant designers. Verification of this system was performed by simulating the human hip joint. A known combination of kinematic and force data were inputted into the system for nine different types of activities. The resultant force and joint centre displacement was then compared to see how well the system perform in comparison to the inputted data from a previous study. The outcome of this project is a fully functional machine and configurable program that can create movement data at varying speeds and body weights; which is also able to drive the human joint simulator. The design also costs a fraction of any industrial joint simulator. It is hoped that the simulator will allow easier study of both the kinematics and load analysis within the human joints, with the intent on aiding investigation into mobility and functionality; as well as variation in motion caused by a replacement implant.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is associated with a complex state of immune dysfunction characterised by immune depression, which predisposes CKD patients to infections, and by immune activation resulting in inflammation, which is associated with cardiovascular disease among these patients. It has been suggested that regular moderate exercise may enhance immune function and exert anti-inflammatory effects. However, such effects are still unclear in CKD. Therefore, we investigated the effects of acute and regular (1-month and 6-months) moderate intensity aerobic exercise (walking) on measures of immunity and inflammation in pre-dialysis CKD patients. A single bout of walking exercise induced an overall immune and inflammatory response that was comparable to that observed in healthy individuals, with no indication of harmful effects to patients underlying state of immune dysfunction. Acute exercise induced a normal pattern of mobilisation of immune cells. Concerning immune cell function, acute exercise had no effect on T lymphocyte and monocyte activation, while it actually improved neutrophil responsiveness to a bacterial challenge in the recovery period. In addition, acute exercise induced a systemic anti-inflammatory environment, evidenced by the marked elevation in plasma IL-10 levels after exercise, which was most likely mediated by the observed increase in plasma IL-6 levels. Regular walking exercise exerted anti-inflammatory effects, with no apparent detrimental effects to patients immune and inflammatory status. Regular exercise led to improvements in the systemic inflammatory status (ratio of pro-inflammatory IL-6 to anti-inflammatory IL-10 cytokine levels) that were accompanied, and most likely mediated, by the observed down-regulation of T lymphocyte (only evident at 6-months) and monocyte activation. In addition, a reduction in IL-6 production in PBMC and whole blood cultures was also observed (only assessed at 1-month). Regular exercise had no effect on circulating immune cell numbers and neutrophil degranulation responses. These findings provide compelling evidence that walking exercise is safe from an immune and inflammatory perspective and has the potential to be an effective anti- inflammatory therapy in pre-dialysis CKD patients.

A research investigation that illustrates the development of the European landscape tradition as an unbroken interactive and material movement, through discussion of artists from Annibale Carracci (1560-1609) to Richard Long (1945 –). The contribution of each artist within their respective epoch will be used to propose that the subject of landscape has become an actual creative medium, integral to and consistent with the external Plein-Air technique. Thus, presenting a ‘creative narrative’ from the observed into the articulated that will demonstrate how the examination and representation of actual landscapes have become physically used within creative presentations. The study uses key artworks that have been inspired by landscape to show the shift from documentation into interaction with the reality of the natural world. This entails the chronology of the investigation and commences with the concept of Ideal Landscape, established by Carracci, within the late 16th century, through the development of the Plein-Air tradition and culminating with particular emphasis on European landscape artists’ and movements since 1945 that have interacted with actual sites and natural materials: from the ideal to the actual. Furthermore, the European transfer and diffusion of interactive and material based landscape methods, including drawing and painting outside, the collection of organic items and photography, passed and developed from one generation to the next, informs a body of personal creative work. This is a 50/50 co-dependent strand used to illustrate the practical and creative discourses between practitioner and landscape, involving the articulation of actual land materials, found objects and Plein-Air excursions to the drawing locations of previous practitioners’, sketchbooks and journals. The insights provided, by the personal practice and associated theoretical position, aid the evaluation, analysis and description of the evolution of the creative methods inherent in the development of subject into media, but not presently described in historical accounts, therefore, presenting a Material Chronology and thus the original contribution of knowledge for this investigation.

In this dissertation, we describe the development of a humanoid bipedal robot that fully physically models the human walking system, including the biomechanics of the leg, the sensory feedback pathways available in the body, and the neural structure of the central pattern generator (CPG). Using two different models of the CPG, we explore several issues in the neurobiology and robotics literature, including the role of reflexes in locomotion, the role of load reception and positive force feedback in generating the gait, and the degree to which central or peripheral control plays in human walking. We show that the walking pattern can be generated by a combination of a half-center CPG and reflex interactions phase modulated by the CPG, and that load receptors in the muscles can play a substantial role in generating the gait, using positive force feedback. We compare the gait of the robot to human subjects and show that this architecture produces human-like stepping. Varying the degree of direct central control of lower limb muscles by the CPG, we show that the most human-like gait is generated with a relatively weak central control signal, which modulates reflex responses that generate most of the muscle activation. These results allow us to conceive of locomotion as a series of nested loops, with a central CPG or rhythm generator modulating lower level reflex interactions, while higher centers modulate the CPG. Since locomotion is a primary mechanism by which animals interact with the world, this research is relevant to artificial intelligence researchers. Recent understanding of cognition holds that minds are embodied, situated relative to a set of goals, and exist in a feedback loop of interaction with the environment. In our robot, we model the dynamics of the body, the neural architecture and the sensory feedback channels in a complete dynamical feedback loop, and show that the robot entrains to the the natural dynamics of the world. We propose the concept of nested loops with descending phase modulation as a conceptual paradigm for a more general understanding of nervous system organization.

Dieser Vortrag befasst sich mit der Prozesskette bei der Entwicklung spinnenartiger Laufroboter. Es wird eine Möglichkeit der Abstraktion von der Natur aufgezeigt, sowie dessen Überführung in ein technisches System. Das kinematische Modell wird anschließend in MSC Adams simuliert.

Male crickets produce a species specific song to attract females which in response move towards the sound source. This behaviour, termed phonotaxis, has been the subject of many morphological, neurophysiological and behavioural studies making it one of the most well studied examples of acoustic communication in the animal kingdom. Despite this fact, the precise leg movements during this behaviour is unknown. This is of specific interest as the cricket’s ears are located on their front legs, meaning that the perception of the sound input might change as the insect moves. This dissertation describes a methodology and an analysis that fills this knowledge gap. I developed a semi-automated tracking system for insect motion based on commercially available high-speed video cameras and freely available software. I used it to collect detailed three dimensional kinematic information from female crickets performing free walking phonotaxis towards a calling song stimulus. I marked the insect’s joints with small dots of paint and recorded the movements from underneath with a pair of cameras following the insect as it walks on the transparent floor of an arena. Tracking is done offline, utilizing a kinematic model to constrain the processing. I obtained, for the first time, the positions and angles of all joints of all legs and six additional body joints, synchronised with stance-swing transitions and the sound pattern, at a 300 Hz frame rate. I then analysed this data based on four categories: The single leg motion analysis revealed the importance of the thoraco-coxal (ThC) and body joints in the movement of the insect. Furthermore the inside middle leg’s tibio-tarsal (TiTa) joint was the centre of the rotation during turning. Certain joints appear to be the most crucial ones for the transition from straight walking to turning. The leg coordination analysis revealed the patterns followed during straight walking and turning. Furthermore, some leg combinations cannot be explained by current coordination rules. The angles relative to the active speaker revealed the deviation of the crickets as they followed a meandering course towards it. The estimation of ears’ input revealed the differences between the two sides as the insect performed phonotaxis by using a simple algorithm. In general, the results reveal both similarities and differences with other cricket studies and other insects such as cockroaches and stick insects. The work presented herein advances the current knowledge on cricket phonotactic behaviour and will be used in the further development of models of neural control of phonotaxis.

This thesis muddies the idea of singular being, tracing the footprints of nature writer and poet Edward Thomas, from the beginning of his epically creative final four years, to the site where he died in 1917, during the Battle of Arras. It is presented as a series of engagements with landscape, writing, and poetry; affective mapping, chasing memory-prompts, bookmarks and the shock of the poetic. The journeys seek to return to an ‘open’ idea of the geographical imagination, negating a negative, reductionist form of geography; shifting the focus away from sociologically determined notions of mobility. A resident of England for all his life, but with Welsh heritage, Edward Thomas believed he belonged nowhere. His texts: little time capsules, admixtures of social commentary, environmental action, and personal musings, are archaeological exercises, presenting a complicated picture of loss, demonstrating the value of artistic imagination. Loss - and subsequent estrangement from the world - would become his poetic source. This thesis is about trying to understand the relationship between poetry - indeed all ‘land writing’ - and place. How it affects in-place, what it does in-place? To understand this relationship properly it was necessary to consider why, as humans, we write? To find out what the subjective condition of the poet, or writer, emerges out of - in order to relay the experience of meeting poetry in-place. Edward Thomas began as a nature writer and became a poet after much agonizing. This made him a useful subject (object) (neither). Furthermore he suffered a long period of introspection and had a knowledge of Freud and psychoanalysis - which he underwent in 1912. This was played out in what Edna Longley (2008) terms; ‘poetic psychodrama.’ His poems often feature a split self or switch between patient and analyst (Longley, 2008). The Other Man, is his doppelganger, who he plays himself off against: the poems are, as such, multi-voiced, counterpointed, intersubjective. Deleuze and Guattari wrote in A Thousand Plateaus (1988: 3): ‘since each of us was already several, there was already quite a crowd.’ Edward Thomas knew this all too well. From the beginning of this ambulatory homage my psyche became inextricably linked with his.

Detta examensarbete har studerat hur produktionsplaneringen av en manuell produktion/montering kan bli produktivare. Genom empiriskt material från fallföretaget och insamlade av relevant teori presenteras idéer om hur detta kan göras. Två viktiga slutsatser från detta arbete är att företag bör planera sin manuella produktion/montering längre tid i förväg och därmed möjliggöra för fler förutbestämda planeringsregler, det vill säga vilka produkter som produceras/monteras när. Dessa slutsatser har dragits utifrån aktuell och relevant teori om produktionsplanering av manuell produktion. Fokus i arbetet har dock legat på att testa om ett införande av ett Walking Workers Assembly Line - system (WWAL) i den manuella produktionen påverkar produktiviteten. För att testa hur införandet av WWAL påverkar produktiviteten har det i arbetet gjorts ett experiment i en manuell produktions-/monteringslinje, experimentet har bedrivits i flertalet veckor för att säkerställa resultaten. Resultaten från experimentet visar att införandet av ett WWAL-system påverkade produktiviteten positivt, totalt sett. Däremot visade experimentet att olika delar av den manuella produktionen påverkades på olika sätt, i en del av linjen påverkades produktiviteten positivt med cirka 40 procent och i en annan del negativt med cirka 9 procent. Dessa skillnader kan bland annat förklaras av att det uppstod ett så kallat rabbit chase i den ena delen, men inte i den andra. Vidare visar experimentets resultat att kostnaderna för att införa WWAL var noll, vilket står i strid med aktuell relevant teori. Teorin antyder också att det kan vara svårt att lyckas med WWAL när det gäller komplexa produkter, detta motsäges av experimentet som har gjort på en relativt komplex medicinteknisk produkt. Arbetet kommer också fram till slutsatsen att det kan vara viktigare att införa WWAL än att jobba med Lean till 100 procent, denna slutsats bygger till stor del på att införandet av WWAL var kostnadsfritt.

Weather, how we tangibly engage with climate in our everyday lives, is a central underpinning to life in Canada and around the world. This thesis investigates relating to weather through a focused exploration of wind in the everyday lives of fire lookout observers in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Stitching together approaches from anthropology, phenomenology and mountain meteorology, it brings to bear insights on coexisting with weather changes through an understanding of lived mountain climates. Perched atop the front ranges of the Alberta Rocky Mountains are located a string of mountain fire lookouts. Tasked with discerning and detecting smoke plumes that may signal the start of a wildfire, lookout observers, who inhabit these remote lookout places for five to six months of the year, are attentive to the wind’s effect on visibility, its role in wildfire processes, and as a force to contend with in their daily lives on the lookout. Through participant observation, interviews and photo elicitation, I draw on fire lookout observers’ past and present experiences of wind, and its role in larger weather processes. With many lookout observers returning to their posts season after season, the breadth and depth of their experience stretches over three decades. Over the course of a summer’s fieldwork, I hiked in, and at times lived with, lookout observers. Walking, as a contemplative research practice, continued beyond the field and into analysis, engaging in a process I call ambulant listening as an alternative to transcribing interviews verbatim. This involved walking and listening to interviews multiple times, with notes later drawn out visually using mind maps. Through this process, I learned that wind stirs up much more than simply considering air in motion. Entwined in a variety of multi-sensory engagements, wind touches on broader themes of awareness, encounter and wonder that emerge as weather consciousness. This study offers a rare lens into a way of life that has been increasingly shuttered across Canada and around the world, while at the same time exemplifying ways of being and knowing weather inherent to coexisting with increasingly uncertain and unpredictable weather patterns in the midst of climate change. / Graduate / 0326, 0334,0314,0344 / kristen.walsh@hotmail.com