Impairments of upper limb function can negatively impact an individual???s ability to carry out everyday tasks. Children with cerebral palsy can have limitations of upper limb movement due to physiological and structural changes in their body. Current treatment regimes for children with upper limb involvement of cerebral palsy are assessed using a variety of qualitative assessment tools. These measures rely on subjective input from the assessor, and can be insensitive to significant functional improvements. Research methods in upper limb motion analysis are developing towards use as clinical tools. To date, there is a paucity of knowledge on the quantitative measures of range of motion (ROM) and function of upper limbs in healthy children. There is also lack of agreement on repeatable functional tasks of the upper limb for 3D measurement. The identification of a repeatable task in healthy children would facilitate the use of upper limb 3D motion analysis to guide clinical practice and improve patient outcomes. This thesis aims to describe upper limb joint range of movement in each degree of freedom and present normative three dimensional kinematic data of upper limb movement in healthy children during a repeatable upper limb functional task. This will provide a basis for comparison to children with movement disorders for future research and clinical practice. The UNSW kinematic upper limb model was found to successfully measure three dimensional upper limb anatomical and functional movements in healthy children. Normative kinematic data are reported for anatomical movements and two functional tasks. The results of the studies undertaken showed that differences in dominant and non-dominant limbs were present during anatomical and functional movements. Joint angles measured were found to be repeatable in healthy children. The results suggest that methods used were reliable for investigating upper limb kinematics. Functional movement time-series data were found to be repeatable for the group with the exception of wrist flexion/extension during the hand to mouth movement for both the dominant and non-dominant limbs. These findings improve current knowledge on upper limb kinematics in healthy children. This knowledge can assist the investigation of movement disorders in children to facilitate clinical decision making.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--York University, 2006. Graduate Programme in Psychology. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 148-172). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:NR19801

Diss. (sammanfattning) Uppsala : Sveriges lantbruksuniv., 2008. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Uppsala : Sveriges lantbruksuniv., 2008. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Thesis (MPhyst. (Faculty of Health Sciences))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Summary in English and Afrikaans. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Department of Psychology, Behavioral Neuroscience, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (MSportwet)--University of Stellenbosch, 2005. / Bibliography. Also available via the Internet.

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"Ghost of a Life Long Past" is a memoir about the necessity of movement and physicality. It chronicles the author's life, both before and after a skiing accident that left him with quadriplegia. The memoir is split into two alternating narratives. One follows the author's post-accident journey to regain physicality and the ability to move through the world and function in his environment. The other is a series of flashbacks, looking[at] the author's pre-accident childhood in Juneau, Alaska. Themes include independence, travel, sports, disability, and the need to test the limits of ones body.

A novel anatomical behavioral descriptive taxonomy improves motion capture in complex motor stereotypies (CMS) by indexing precise time data without degradation in the complexity of whole body movement in CMS. The absence of etiological explanation of complex motor stereotypies warrants the aggregation of a core CMS dataset to compare regulation of repetitive behaviors in the time domain. A set of visual formalisms trap configurations of behavioral markers (lateralized movements) for behavioral phenotype discovery as paired transitions (from, to) and asymmetries within repetitive restrictive behaviors. This translational project integrates NIH MeSH (medical subject headings) taxonomy with direct biological interface (wearable sensors and nanoscience in vitro assays) to design the architecture for exploratory diagnostic instruments. Motion capture technology when calibrated to multi-resolution indexing system (MeSH based) quantifies potential diagnostic criteria for comparing severity of CMS within behavioral plasticity and switching (sustained repetition or cyclic repetition) time-signatures. Diagnostic instruments sensitive to high behavioral resolution promote measurement to maximize behavioral activity while minimizing biological uncertainty. A novel protocol advances CMS research through instruments with recursive design.