The aim of this study was to determine the combined effects of high-heeled shoes and load carriage on gait and posture adaptation. Furthermore, the adaptation of gait and posture to the combined two conditions was examined by a comparison of the measured parameters between experienced and novice groups. 30 participants underwent a quantitative measurement of temporospatial, kinematic, and kinetic parameters of hip, knee, and ankle on both loaded and unloaded limbs using 3D motion analysis. Double support time and stride length increased during high-heeled gait and the magnitude of alteration was greater with a load. Increased plantarflexion was main cause of raised heel. Ankle plantarflexor moment increased with high-heeled but decreased with load carriage. As a result, plantarflexor moment diminished, in addition knee extensor moment exaggerated further. Hip extensor moment increased with heel height but not with load weight, however, hip angle was affected only by the load.

With the popularity of outdoor activities like hiking, the demands of certain types of employment, or being a student, an individual’s ability to carry a load is an important mobility consideration. By understanding the changes to an individual’s gait when supporting a backpack load, an individual’s ability to carry heavy loads for prolonged periods could be improved. Most biomechanical studies have examined the changes in able-bodied gait when carrying a load. However, research is lacking on the effect of backpack loads on amputee gait patterns. This project examined the effects of a backpack load on the gait patterns of unilateral transtibial amputees. Ten participants performed walking trials on four surfaces (level ground, uneven ground, walking up an incline, and walking down an incline), without a pack and with a pack. A total of 40 trials were collected per subject, with 10 trials collected on each surface. Three-dimensional motion data were collected with an eight-camera Vicon Motion Analysis system to describe limb motion as well as compare kinematic outcomes between tasks and conditions. Force platform data were collected during the level ground trials and used to calculate kinetic measures for both limbs. With the addition of the pack changes were seen on each surface, with different changes occurring to each limb. The ramp up surface created the most changes when comparing the two conditions. The only change seen across all four surfaces was a decrease in ankle dorsiflexion before push-off on the prosthetic limb. The two next most common changes were increases in knee and hip flexion during weight-acceptance.

The aim of the study was to examine the muscle activities of fifteen male participants (23.44 ±2.63 years) during unilateral hockey bag load carrying of different weights (10%, 20%, and 30% bodyweight) and sizes (small and large). Walking without a hockey bag was the control condition. The results showed that increased peak and integrated EMG occurred with an increased load weight in the semitendinosus, gastrocnemius, rectus abdominis, and vastus medialis. The left rectus femoris and left semitendinosus were both significantly greater than the right corresponding muscle. Carrying the large hockey bag produced greater peak EMG in the right rectus abdominis and the right rectus femoris, whereas the right vastus medialis showed a larger peak EMG in the small hockey bag. It was concluded that the posterior-lateral carrying style of hockey bag load carriage explained the results being similar to both backpack and side pack load carriage studies.

The thesis investigates deployment of a Peer-to-Peer storage system in a cluster environment, in which machines have good and persist network connection, in order to provide the functionality of a data centre. For various reasons, the implementation is based on the Peer-to-Peer system known as Chord. Chord naturally provides storage load-balancing, especially if its virtual node scheme is used, but this needs to be improved if Chord is used to implement a storage system. A novel, threshold-based storage load-balancing scheme is proposed. Each machine in the system contributes a fixed amount of disk storage space to the Peer-to-Peer storage system. The system commences operation in the normal Chord manner except that two distinct sets of tables are initialised, one to maintain the usual Chord Ring, and one to maintain proximity information about the machines in the system. As files are inserted, the collective storage space gradually fills up. When any machine reaches the threshold for usage of its contributed space, the system behaviour is modified. Attempts are made, repeatedly if necessary, to migrate virtual nodes from heavily loaded machines to less-heavily loaded machines elsewhere in the system. The proximity information is used so as to minimise the costs of this migration. The nature of the proximity information is complex, and a Space-Filling Curve is utilised to reduce the complexity. For reasons of effectiveness, demonstrated by an evaluation against other kinds of Space-Filling Curve, the Hilbert curve is specifically chosen. The performance of the resulting implementation is evaluated in a practical experimental environment which consists of five teaching laboratories in the author’s school. Under the specific conditions of the experiments, the new system achieves significantly better distribution of storage utilisation across the participating machines and also defers the onset of unreliable behaviour in the system. In one experiment, the amount of the total storage space available that is actually utilised by the system increased from ∼ 43% to ∼ 62% using the proposed mechanism. The parameters used in the experiments have been chosen somewhat arbitrarily, so it is possible that even better results might be feasible.

The advent of multi-core processors, particularly with projections that numbers of cores will continue to increase, has focused attention on parallel programming. It is widely recognized that current programming techniques, including those that are used for scientific parallel programming, will not allow the easy formulation of general purpose applications. An area which is receiving interest is the use of programming styles which do not have side-effects. Previous work on parallel functional programming demonstrated the potential of this to permit the easy exploitation of parallelism. This thesis investigates a dynamic load balancing system for shared memory Chip Multiprocessors. This system is based on a parallel computing model called SLAM (Spreading Load with Active Messages), which makes use of functional language evaluation techniques. A novel hardware/software mechanism for exploiting fine grain parallelism is presented. This mechanism comprises a runtime system which performs dynamic scheduling and synchronization automatically when executing parallel applications. Additionally the interface for using this mechanism is provided in the form of an API. The proposed system is evaluated using cycle-level models and multithreaded applications running in a full system simulation environment.

Masters in Public Administration - MPA / Nigeria has been experiencing challenges in the distribution of power to the whole country in the past decades. As a result, more than half of Nigeria's population is affected by the ineffectiveness of the distribution of electricity which lowers their standard of living. As the country's power sector experienced a steady growth after its independence in 1960, it was anticipated at the time that, at that rate of growth and development, most of Nigeria should have been electrified by now. However, challenges in the distribution of electricity have persisted and this has negatively affected the economy and living standard of the country. From the management perspective, this research looks at the situation of the distribution of electricity in Nigeria from the year 2005 to 2015. Specifically, it will analyses management challenges affecting the distribution of electricity in the country. It is well documented how Nigeria is currently facing an electricity crisis despite all the government efforts to provide adequate power to the citizens. In the distribution of electricity in Nigeria, the research will look at how the planning of the organization is been done so as to ensure effective power delivery to the country. The research will further look at how the management manages the organization and how it is being controlled for effective power distribution. In this research, I shall use qualitative and quantitative research techniques. Secondary qualitative and quantitative data will be used in carrying out this research. Published books, journals, newspaper articles, and government policies shall be critically examined in order to produce a well-informed report. Before the research is conducted, the appropriate consent from the University of the Western Cape will be sought to ensure that all protocols are strictly adhered to.

Objective: Physical exercise decreases disability and pain associated with chronic articular cartilage degradation. However, understanding of the pathology is lacking. In this study, the levels of 17 biomarkers of inflammation and cartilage degradation were measured in synovial fluid (SF) before and after a 30-minute run in able-bodied and previously-injured individuals. Materials & Methods: Four able-bodied recreational runners (3 men and 1 woman: 24 ± 2 years, 68 ± 7 kg, and 173 ± 9 cm) and 4 recreational runners who had undergone a unilateral anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLr) (2 men and 2 women: 23 ± 1 years, 71 ± 6 kg, and 175 ± 4 cm) were recruited to participate in this study. Using a saline-assisted method, SF was aspirated before and after both a 30-minute unloading and 30-minute exercise session. Samples were corrected for blood contamination and analyzed for 15 cytokines and 2 matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). Mixed model analyses were used to determine the main effects of session, case/control status, pre/post aspirations, and the interactions between case/control status and pre/post aspirations. Results: Blood protein contamination was calculated and accounted for in 15 of 32 synovial fluid samples. Granulocyte colony stimulating factor (GCSF) was the only detectable cytokine of the 15 analyzed. No statistical differences were found in GCSF concentrations between pretreatment and posttreatment aspirations (p = 0.45), ACLr and able-bodied control groups (p = 0.60), or unloading and exercise sessions (p = 0.96). MMP-13 was undetectable. No statistical differences were found in MMP-3 between pretreatment and posttreatment aspirations (p = 0.15), ACLr and able-bodied control groups (p = 0.85), or unloading and exercise sessions (p = 0.14).Conclusions: Two (GCSF and MMP-3) of the 17 measured biomarkers were detectable. There were no significant differences in either GCSF or MMP-3 due to a 30-minute run or 30-minute unloading period in either the able-bodied or ACLr participants. Further, there were no significant differences between biomarker concentrations and case-control status. A novel method of controlling for blood contamination in synovial fluid samples was implemented.

The analysis of human walking gait is a complex skill for physical therapy students to learn. As a result, students are at risk for a cognitive overload when confronted with these materials. Cognitive load consists of both intrinsic and extraneous loads as well as the germane processes that are required by the learners to process the information in working memory. As working memory is limited in its capacity to process new information, it is necessary to manage the cognitive load experienced by the learners. Intrinsic cognitive load is related to the complexity of the materials that must be learned and cannot be altered by instructional design without sacrificing initial understanding. An isolated elements instructional format purports to reduce the intrinsic CL experienced by learners by isolating the content into the individual elements prior to introducing any complex relationships that may exist between the elements. The purpose of this study was to examine the cognitive load and learning outcome effects of an isolated elements instructional format versus an interacting elements format when teaching observational gait analysis to physical therapy students. A total of 72 students enrolled in a Doctor of Physical Therapy program participated in this study. Mixed factorial designs assessed both between-group and within-group outcomes. The independent variables were the group assignments (isolated or interacting) and time. The dependent variables were cognitive load and learning outcomes. Cognitive load was measured with 7-point Likert-type scales for both mental effort and task difficulty at five separate time points. Learning outcomes were assessed through performance scores and confidence ratings on a posttest and a 1-week follow-up test. Animated videos were used as the medium for instructional delivery. In the isolated elements group, the learners received the content in several separate videos that isolated each of the sub-phases of gait prior to viewing a summary video that included all of the interacting gait cycle components. Learners in the interacting elements group received the content in one video that included the full gait cycle followed by the same summary video. Students in the isolated elements groups reported lower mental effort ratings immediately after viewing the isolated elements videos than did the interacting group after viewing the single video tutorial. However, there was no differences in either mental effort or task difficulty ratings at the other time points during the lesson or during the assessments. Performance scores and confidence ratings did not differ between the two groups. Within-group analyses found that there were significant changes over time in both groups for mental effort, performance scores, and confidence ratings. A statistically significant change was noted over time for task difficulty in the interacting elements group. The reduction in mental effort ratings immediately following the tutorial content for the isolated elements group lends support the theory that isolating the individual elements prior to teaching the complex interactions can reduce cognitive load for learners. However, this reduction in cognitive load did not translate into improved test scores or confidence compared to the interacting elements group. Future research is needed to identify instructional methods that can further reduce the cognitive load and increase the learning outcomes of students learning observational gait analysis. In addition, alternative objective methods of assessing cognitive load should be explored.

As the requirements to operate the electric power system become more stringent and operating costs must be kept to a minimum, operators and planners must ensure that power system models are accurate and capable of replicating system disturbances. Traditionally, load models were represented as static ZIP models; however, NERC has recently required that planners model the transient dynamics of motor loads to study their effect on the postdisturbance behavior of the power system. Primarily, these studies are to analyze the effects of fault-induced, delayed voltage recovery, which could lead to cascading voltage stability issues. Genetic algorithms and constrained multivariable function minimization are global and local optimization tools used to extract static and dynamic load model parameters from postdisturbance data. The genetic algorithm's fitness function minimizes the difference between measured and calculated real and reactive power by varying the model parameters. The fitness function of the genetic algorithm, a function of voltage and frequency, evaluates an individual\'s difference between measured and simulated real and reactive power. While real measured data was unavailable, simulations in PSS/E were used to create data, and then compared against estimated data to examine the algorithms' ability to estimate parameters. / Master of Science

The amphibious fullmetall plane Mermaid is made by company Czech Aircraft Works in Kunovice. Subject of this diploma thesis was involve changes of structure, which pass through during development, to calculation. Within this published work was process: Load calculation of wing Stress analysis of wing Load calculation of aileron Load calculation of flap Load calculation of horizontail tail