In this study, we analyzed elderly people in Thailand to identify the validity of suggested cutoff points of physical measures, handgrip strength, usual walking speed, and a composite score of both measures to predict functional limitations. Moreover, we examined whether these physical performance measures are accurate indicators of the investigated health outcomes. Methods: Using Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) analysis, we investigated a sample of 8272 respondents aged 60 to 79 years. All data were based on the 2009 National Health Examination Survey (NHES IV) of Thailand. Results: For males aged 60 to 69 years, handgrip strength was used as an indicator of functional limitations. The cutoff point for disabilities in the activities of daily living (ADLs) was 29.5 kg, while in other limitations it ranged from 28.7 to 31.3 kg. In contrast, usual walking speed was able to indicate ADL disabilities at 0.7 m per second (m/s). As one might expect, the cutoff points for males aged 70 to 79 years were lower than for males in the 60 to 69 age group. For females, handgrip strength was able to indicate ADL disabilities at 16.5 kg for both the 60 to 69, and 70 to 79 age groups. Likewise, walking speed was indicative of ADL disabilities at 0.6 m/s for both age groups. Interestingly, the composite measure increases the ability to detect ADL disabilities in the younger group but not in the older group. The area under the curve (AUC) of cutoffs measuring the detection power of a diagnostic test was varied, ranging from 0.535 to 0.7386. Conclusions: The cutoff points of three measures varied according to sex and type of functional limitations. Our findings also showed that physical performance measures were useful for identifying people with an increased risk of functional limitations, particularly for ADL disabilities. However, although the AUC of the cutoffs of other functional limitations were relatively low, they should be considered with caution.

This thesis addresses the problem of generating smooth and efficiently executable locomotion trajectories for legged robots under contact constraints. In addition, we want the trajectories to have the property that small changes in the foot position generate small changes in the joint target path. The first part of this thesis explores methods to select poses for a legged robot that maximises the workspace reachability while maintaining stability and contact constraints. It also explores methods to select configurations based on a reduced-dimensional search of the configuration space. The second part analyses time scaling strategy which tries to minimize the execution time while obeying the velocity and acceleration constraints. These two parts effectively result in smooth feasible trajectories for legged robots. Experiments on the RoboSimian robot demonstrate the effectiveness and scalability of the strategies described for walking and climbing on a rock climbing wall.

A hipertensão arterial pulmonar é caracterizada pela elevação anormal dos níveis pressóricos do território arterial pulmonar com conseqüente falência da função ventricular direita. A doença é altamente incapacitante, conforme demonstrado pela limitação nos testes de avaliação funcional, como o teste de caminhada de seis minutos. Entretanto, o impacto da doença na qualidade de vida dos pacientes não é totalmente conhecido. O objetivo desse estudo foi avaliar a qualidade de vida de pacientes com HAP através do questionário genérico SF-36, correlacionando os achados com os demais marcadores de gravidade da doença, assim como com a sobrevida. Os resultados mostraram que a QV apresenta forte correlação com TC6M e Classe Funcional e tem melhora significativa após tratamento específico. O Componente Físico do SF-36 teve significante associação com a sobrevida, permitindo concluir que a avaliação de qualidade de vida deve fazer parte da avaliação rotineira de pacientes com HAP / Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a rare but insidious disease characterized by progressive pulmonary vascular remodelling with increased pulmonary vascular resistance ultimately leading to right ventricular failure e progressive dyspnea, leading to profound functional limitations, how is demonstrated by the six minute walk test. However, there is limited information about quality of life (QoL) in patients with PAH. The aim of this study was to evaluate the quality of life of PAH patients with the SF-36 generic questionnaire and compare the scores with the surrogate markers and identify the prognostic implication of this assessment. The results showed there was a good correlation with six minute walk test and functional class and there was a significant improvement in QoL after specific treatment. The physical component summary (PCS) of the SF36 QoLQ was significantly related to survival. Conclusion is that QoL is a useful tool for routine evaluation of PAH patients once it correlates with other surrogate markers, reflects treatment effect and predicts survival

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 1981. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ENGINEERING. / Bibliography: leaves 75-77. / by Bradley L. Hunter. / M.S.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 1979. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ENGINEERING. / Bibliography: leaves 188-195. / Ph.D.

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 1980. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ENGINEERING. / Bibliography: leaves 121-122. / by Michael P. Shepley. / M.S.

Thesis (B.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 1981. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ENGINEERING. / Bibliography: leaves 91-92. / by Robert Gregory Clarke. / B.S.

A presente dissertação tem como objetivo analisar uma prática artística que, na contemporaneidade, vem ganhando ampla dimensão e recorrência: o ato de andar. As implicações do percurso e sua dimensão plástica são motes cruciais a esta análise, que busca, à luz de um recorte histórico, traçar as especificidades desse ato com base na análise de produções artísticas posteriores à década de 1960. Para entendimento dos distintos aspectos que o caminhante apresenta na arte contemporânea, são traçadas três aproximações que, paralela e independentemente, dão subsídios à análise proposta. A primeira delas, aborda a caminhada no contexto de um breve panorama histórico das produções artísticas, buscando qualificar dois momentoschaves para a diferenciação dos trabalhos que a tomam como mote: a caminhada como representação e a caminhada como ato. A segunda aproximação faz o levantamento do léxico que tem paulatinamente buscado qualificar a caminhada nas suas mais diferentes acepções. É desse léxico que emergem as principais considerações teóricas sobre as especificidades da caminhada como ato com implicações estéticas, tendo como base a deriva situacionista, a estética radicante de Nicolas Bourriaud e a abordagem fenomenológica de Thierry Davila sobre deslocamento. Por fim, a terceira aproximação apresenta um estudo de caso que consiste na análise da produção do artista de origem belga, radicado no México, Francis Alÿs. / This dissertation aims at analyzing an artistic practice that, in contemporaneity, has gained a vast extension and recurrence: the act of walking. The implications of the pathway and its aesthetic dimension are crucial mottos in the analysis that tries to outline this act\'s specificities, focusing on the artistic productions after the 1960\'s. To understand the distinct qualities that the walker pursues in contemporary art, three approaches are outlined; in parallel and independently, they subsidize the proposed analysis. The first deals with the insertion of the act of walking in a brief historical panorama of the artistic works, specifying two key-moments: walking as representation and walking as an act. The second approach presents an inventory of the lexicon that gradually qualifies the act of walking in its most various meanings. It is from this glossary that the main theoretical considerations about the specificities of walking as an act with aesthetical implications emerge from, based on the situationist dérive, on Nicolas Bourriaud\'s radicant aesthetics and on Thierry Davila\'s phenomenological approach on displacement. Lastly, the third approach presents a case study that has the analysis and interpretation of Belgian artist Francis Alÿs\' as its key element, an example of the artist as a contemporary drifter/wanderer and his insertion in and relation with the city.

A presente pesquisa visa observar o modo de operar da arte contemporânea fundada no caminhar e investigar o quanto ela se faz acessível ao espectador, o quanto ela é inclusiva, relacional e horizontal. Contrariamente a um entendimento de que a arte contemporânea é de difícil acesso, nosso objetivo é relacionar a dissolução de certos estatutos da cena contemporânea com a aproximação do espectador de sua estrutura de funcionamento, a ponto de ele se tornar mais indispensável para sua realização do que o próprio artista. No primeiro capítulo, apresento esse contexto de dissolução (como linhas invisíveis do mapa), inicialmente no campo do teatro e, posteriormente, na configuração das performances, campo no qual as noções de cena, encenação e espectador já não operam. No segundo capítulo apresento o ato de caminhar em relação ao pensar e ao criar; uma prática estética e política a ser desdobrada nos três capítulos seguintes. Desse modo, do segundo ao quinto capítulo observo modalidades do caminhar: passeios, derivas, fugas, perseguições e travessias realizadas por artistas de diversas procedências (do teatro à land art, da dança à arte conceitual, da performance ao real) e, em alguns casos, por espectadores ou passantes. Todas essas ações, sobretudo as performances, resultam em outras materialidades (fotografias, vídeos, desenhos e narrativas) que são igualmente compartilhadas com espectadores ausentes do ato de sua execução. No último capítulo, trato desses rastros ou vestígios - bem como do acesso aos programas dessas ações - como um importante material para os espectadores, que conhecendo os \"modos de fazer\" dessas modalidades artísticas, compreendem seus \"modos de usar\". Assim, caminhar como prática estética configura-se como um ato de transgressão do sistema vigente, uma vez que se trata não apenas de uma ação, mas de uma atitude ao alcance de toda e qualquer pessoa. Ao ocupar o contexto urbano por sua dimensão mais baixa, o chão, o sujeito que caminha experimenta outras formas de sociabilidade e outras configurações para o real, inventando micro-poéticas do devir. / This research aims to observe the way contemporary art founded on walking works and to investigate how much it is accessible to the public, how much it is inclusive, relational and horizontal. Contrary to an understanding that contemporary art is difficult to access, our goal is to relate the dissolution of certain contemporary scenes statutes with the spectator\'s approach of its functional structure, to the point that he becomes more indispensable for its accomplishment than the artist himself. In the first chapter, I present this context of dissolution (as invisible lines of the map) initially in the theater field and, posteriorly, in the configuration of the performances, a field in which the notions of scene, staging and spectator no longer operate. In the second chapter, I present the act of walking in relation to thinking and creating; an aesthetic and political practice to be deployed in the three following chapters. Thus, from the second to the fifth chapters, I observe walking modalities: strolls, drifts, escapes, persecutions and crossings by artists of different origins (from theater to land art, from dance to conceptual art, from performance to real) and, in some cases, by spectators or bystanders. All these actions, particularly the performances, result in other materialities (photographs, videos, drawings and narratives) which are equally shared with spectators absent from the act of its realization. In the last chapter, I deal with these traces or vestiges - as well as the access to the programs of these actions - as an important material for the spectators, who getting to know the \"ways of doing\" of these artistic modalities, understand their \"ways of using\". Therefore, walking as an aesthetic practice configures itself as an act of transgression of the current system, since it is not only an action, but an attitude within the reach of any person. By occupying the urban context in its lower dimension, the ground, the subject who walks experiences other forms of sociability and other settings for the real, inventing micro-poetics of devenir.

Durante o processo de desenvolvimento desta pesquisa, uma série de trabalhos intitulada Redflag foi produzida. Esse grupo torna-se, então, o eixo principal da dissertação. É composta por trabalhos que lidam com a vivência no espaço urbano, principalmente, através de caminhadas e a criação de territórios, e, a partir disso, colocando em pauta questões que permeiam a configuração da cidade. Concomitantemente, são apresentados textos e trabalhos de artistas e de outros autores que relacionam-se diretamente com o tema da pesquisa, (Werner Herzog, Francis Alÿs, Robert Smithson, Hélio Oiticia, entre outros) propondo um percurso onde algumas veredas da arte contemporânea e da literatura abertas pela prática da caminhada se encontram, se bifurcam e se distanciam, tornando a chegada, o ponto de partida. / During the development process of this research, a serie of artwork called Redflag was produced. This group becomes then the main shaft of the dissertation. It is composed of artworks that deal with living in urban areas, mainly through walkings and creating territories, and, from there, putting on the agenda issues that permeate the city configuration. Concomitantly, presented texts and works of artists and other authors that relate directly to the subject of the research, (Werner Herzog, Francis Alÿs, Robert Smithson, Helio Oiticia, among others) proposed a course where some paths of contemporary art and literature were opened for practicing walking meet, bifurcate and move away, making arrival, the starting point.