Title: Effect of the load and recovery time on a physiological response in sport rock climbers Objectives: The main purpose of this study was to assess the inluence of various types of climbing loads on a physiological response in sport rock climbers. Methods: Seven experienced (8 to 9+, UIAA - Union Internationale des Associations d'Alpinisme) sport climbers (age 25,4 ± 7 years, body 64,8 ± 6 kg, height 175,8 ± 5,3 cm) were subjected to climbing test until exhaustion, which involved three excercises that included various types of load: continuous, intermittent with 30s load and 30s rest periods (test 30/30) and intermittent with 90s load and 90s rest periods (test 90/90). All subjects refrained from exercising at least 48h between each testing. The monitored variables were performance of climbing steps, heart rate (HR), oxygen consumption (VO2), minute ventilation (VE), energy expenditure (EE) and blood lactate (LA). Results: Peak values of monitored variables show that a climbing intensity was similar among all tests (HRpeak 168 ± 11 to 172 ± 7 bites/min, VO2peak 35,2 ± 4,7 to 40,3 ± 5,3 ml/kg/min, LA 4,1 ± 1,1 to 4,9 ± 1,4 mmol/l). EE was in average 9,0 to 9,8 kcal. Subjects climbed longest (4min 45s ± 37s) in the test 30/30 (six climbers achieved maximum defined time 10 x 30s), whereas total...

Name The validity of specific tests of flexibility toward climbing performance Goal To attest the validity of specific tests of flexibility in climbing Method 202 subjects were measured, of this number 136 were men 176,8 cm ± 8,9 cm tall and weighing in at 68,9 kg ± 12,0 kg and 66 were women 168,2 cm ± 15,2 cm tall and weighing in at 62,8 kg ± 13,1 kg. Specific flexibility was measured through three tests: bent knee foot raise test, straight knee foot raise test and foot loading test. The degree of validity of tests has been expressed by the correlation between the climbing performance and the results of the specific flexibility tests. Results All the tests were showing medium dependence to the climbing performance with the correlating coefficient values being: bent knee foot raise test r=0,49, foot loading test r=0,49 straight knee foot raise test r=0,44. These correlating coefficients were calculated from the relative values of test results by averaging the left and right foot results and dividing the resulting number by the height of the subject. Summary Tests used are a suitable indicator of climbing specific flexibility. Keywords Validity, flexibility, sport climbing

Previous work has shown D1/D2 requisite synergism can still occur in the striatum in the absence of action potentials. Some nonclassical communication such as gap junctions may be allowing the segregated dopamine (DA) receptors to interact to produce stereotyped motor activity. Connexin-32 (Cx32) and connexin-36 (Cx36) were targeted for study due to their abundance in neural tissues and presence in the striatum. Mice lacking either the Cx32 or Cx36 gene and their respective wildtype littermates were compared on a climbing behavior task used to gauge their dopaminergic activity after receiving either saline, D1 agonist, D2 agonist, or both D1 and D2 agonists. The results showed that D1/D2 requisite synergism was still intact in both strains of mice. The Cx32 WT mice displayed significantly greater scores than the KO mice in the D1/D2 treatment. The Cx36 mice did not display a significant genotype difference, but a trend was observed with the KO females having larger scores relative to WT females or to males of either genotype.

Recreational sport climbing is characterised by self-selected route choices, which place participants under both physiological and psychological stress. This thesis is comprised of four studies, each conducted with experienced climbers, exploring subjective psychological, objective psychophysiological and behavioural responses to anxiety-inducing stressors. Studies One and Two explored the means of protecting a climber in the event of a fall and the relative difficulty of a route. Significant and meaningful differences in self-reported anxiety and climbing performance were found in both studies. However, notably, psychophysiological measures of anticipatory heart rate and cortisol did not result in meaningful differences. Results suggested that situations, atypical of participants’ normal recreation sessions, with an increased likelihood of a climber falling or being unable to complete the route, were likely to be evaluated as threatening, elicit a negative emotional response and disrupt performance. However, the quantitative methods employed in Studies One and Two did not provide an explanation of the processes underlying participant’s anxious response and disrupted performance. Consequently, Study Three qualitatively explored individual experiences of climbers, with a focus on psychological factors that influence performance. The defining characteristics of lead climbing were discussed, as were the potential for taking falls, and/or the anticipation of falling. Further, interviewees described the choices they make, in order to increase or decrease the physical, psychological and technical challenges present. Critically, the choices made by a climber appear to potentiate or limit opportunities to perform optimally. Climber’s decisions were mediated by a number of antecedents, including a climber’s background in the sport, climbing partners and training status. Data suggests that while decisions made by the climbers allow them to engage with the sport on their own terms and exert a level of control over the challenges of their climbing sessions, it is often at the expense of performance. Interestingly, while interviewees were aware of techniques to reduce anxiety and improve performance, few regularly used these in training. Study Four examined the effectiveness of clip drops and repeat practice to reduce anxiety. Results indicated that neither technique resulted in reduced anxiety or improved performance when compared to the control group. While there were small differences in the success rate of participants in the intervention groups, they were less anxious and interpreted their level of self-confidence as more positive, compared to control, it was not possible to differentiate between the two interventions. However, when the combined means were considered there were significant and meaningful differences observed in the post-intervention red-point ascent compared to the initial on-sight. This thesis highlights the difficulty that arises in attempting to quantitatively examine anxiety. While there might not be (a) anxiety in climbers or (b) quantifiable differences between climbers of different abilities, it may be that what is possibly ‘noise’ in data arises due to weaknesses in the markers themselves. The findings of Study Three provide evidence of the true nature of anxiety for climbers, which was not evident from the quantitative markers; as well as the lengths climbers will go to, to avoid anxiety. Climbers’ responses to anxiety were individualised, consequently, generalised interventions may have a limited effect on reducing anxiety to a level which supports performance improvements. It may be that an individualised approach to anxiety reduction and avoidance behaviours has a more significant impact on performance improvement than any of the latest training programmes, equipment or nutritional strategies.

As a result, this dissertation proposes a novel type of tree climbing robot, named Treebot, which has high maneuverability on trees. The design of Treebot was inspired by arboreal animals such as squirrels and inchworms. The applied extendable continuum maneuvering mechanism has large workspace and high degrees of freedom. It allows Treebot to perform various actions, such as moving between trunk and branches. Treebot is able to grip the surface of trees tightly with a wide range of gripping curvature. It enables Treebot to grip from a big tree trunk to small branches. The special gripping mechanism allows zero energy consumption in static gripping. Although Treebot has high maneuverability, it is compact, lightweight, and only five actuators are used in total. By installing proper equipments, Treebot can assist workers to perform forestry tasks such as inspection and maintenance. It can also be used as a mobile surveillance system to observe behaviors of both ground and arboreal animals. / Climbing robots have become a hot research topic in recent decades. Most research in this area focuses on climbing manmade structures, such as vertical walls, glass windows, and structural frames. Little research has been conducted specifically on climbing natural structures such as trees. The nature of trees and manmade structures is very different. For example, trees have an irregular shape and their surface is not smooth. Some types of trees have soft bark that peels off easily. Hence, most of the climbing methods for manmade structures are not applicable to tree climbing. / In addition to presenting the mechanical design of Treebot, this dissertation also proposes several autonomous tree climbing algorithms. Making a robot climb a tree autonomously is a challenging task, as trees are complex and irregular in shape. However, a certain level of autonomous climbing ability is needed to simplify the operational use of Treebot. The proposed works include autonomous climbing on unknown environment and global path planning on known environment. / Preventing trees from failing is important to protect human life and property in urban areas. Most trees in urban areas require regular maintenance. To reach the upper parts of a tree to perform such maintenance, workers need to climb the tree. However, tree climbing is dangerous, the development of a tree climbing robot is important to assist or replace humans works. / Several robots have been designed to climb trees such as WOODY and RiSE. However, these robots are limited to climbing straight tree trunks, and cannot climb trees that are curved or have branches. As branches and curvature are present in almost all trees, the application of these robots is strongly restricted. / Lam, Tin Lun. / Adviser: Yangsheng Xu. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 73-03, Section: B, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 163-172). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese.

This study is an exploratory look at the social world of indoor rock climbers, specifically, those at Texas A&M University. A specific genre of rock climbing originally created to allow outdoor rock climbers a place to train in the winter, indoor climbing has now found a foothold in areas devoid of any natural rock and has begun to develop a leisure social world of its own providing benefit to the climbers, including social world members. This study explored this social world of indoor rock climbing using a naturalistic model of inquiry and qualitative methodology, specifically Grounded Theory (Spradley, 1979; Strauss & Corbin, 2008). This research borrows from the literature on social world theory, serious leisure as well as specialization. This study confirmed indoor rock climbing to be a form of serious leisure for some participants. Furthermore, it found the social world of indoor rock climbing at Texas A&M provides a deep sense of belonging to some members who were found to coalesce at a mesostructural level into a confederacy of peers (R. A. Stebbins, 1993). Bouldering was found to be an avenue for social world entry for men but the female experience in social world entry was found to be different. The most prominent finding of the study was that the facility itself provides a place of belonging for social world members, even diverse and different groups which, outside of the social world, may be expected to come into conflict. Lastly, it was found that the social world has the ability to mediate conflict or negative experiences arising from competition and feelings of risk and fear. This exploratory study is expected to provide a framework for which to conduct further, more in depth studies into phenomena affecting the lives and experiences of indoor rock climbers. Furthermore this study has practical significance in assisting climbing wall managers to better understand the culture that surrounds and utilizes the facilities they operate. A review of the current literature on rock climbing, research questions that guided the study and methodologies, as well as the study results and conclusions are discussed in this paper.

Dynamics in locomotion is highly useful, as can be seen in animals and is becomingapparent in robots. For instance, chimpanzees are dynamic climbers that canreach virtually any part of a tree and even move to neighboring trees, while sloths arequasistatic climbers confined only to a few branches. Although dynamic maneuversare undoubtedly beneficial, only a few engineered systems use them, most of whichlocomote horizontally. This is because the design and control are often extremelycomplicated.This thesis explores a family of dynamic climbing robots which extend roboticdynamic legged locomotion from horizontal motions such as walking, hopping, andrunning, to vertical motions such as leaping maneuvers. The motion of these dynamicrobots resembles the motion of an athlete jumping and climbing inside achute. Whereas this environment might be an unnavigable obstacle for a slow, quasistaticclimber, it is an invaluable source of reaction forces for a dynamic climber.The mechanisms described here achieve dynamic, vertical motions while retainingsimplicity in design and control.The first mechanism called DSAC, for Dynamic Single Actuated Climber, comprisesonly two links connected by a single oscillating actuator. This simple, openlooposcillation, propels the robot stably between two vertical walls. By rotating theaxis of revolution of the single actuator by 90 degrees, we also developed a simplerrobot that can be easily miniaturized and can be used to climb inside tubes.The DTAR, for Dynamic Tube Ascending Robot, uses a single continuously rotatingmotor, unlike the oscillating DSAC motor. This continuous rotation even furthersimplifies and enables the miniaturization of the robot to enable robust climbinginside small tubes. The last mechanism explored in this thesis is the ParkourBot,which sacrifices some of the simplicity shown in the first two mechanism in favorof efficiency and more versatile climbing. This mechanism comprises two efficientspringy legs connected to a body.We use this family of dynamic climbers to explore a minimalist approach to locomotion.We first analyze the open-loop stability characteristics of all three mechanisms.We show how an open-loop, sensorless control, such as the fixed oscillationof the DSAC’s leg can converge to a stable orbit. We also show that a change inthe mechanism’s parameters not only changes the stability of the system but alsochanges the climbing pattern from a symmetric climb to a limping, non-symmetricclimb. Corresponding analyses are presented for the DTAR and ParkourBot mechanisms.We finally show how the open-loop behavior can be used to traverse morecomplex terrains by incrementally adding feedback. We are able to achieve climbinginside a chute with wall width changes without the need for precise and fast sensingand control.

Thesis (MA(Psychology))-University of Pretoria, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Dept. of Economics, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wyoming, 2009. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on Apr. 8, 2010). Includes bibliographical references (p. 126-135).