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Objective: To examine whether weight history and weight transitions over adult lifespan contribute to physical impairment among postmenopausal women. Design: BMI categories were calculated among postmenopausal women who reported their weight and height at age 18 years. Multiple-variable logistic regression was used to determine the association between BMI at age 18 years and BMI transitions over adulthood on severe physical impairment (SPI), defined as scoring <60 on the Physical Functioning subscale of the Rand thirty-six-item Short-Form Health Survey. Setting: Participants were part of the Women's Health Initiative Observational Study (WHI OS), where participants' health was followed over time via questionnaires and clinical assessments. Subjects: Postmenopausal women (n 76 016; mean age 635 (sd 73) years). Results: Women with overweight (BMI=250-299 kg/m(2)) or obesity (BMI = 300 kg/m(2)) at 18 years had greater odds (OR (95 % CI)) of SPI (151 (135, 169) and 214 (172, 265), respectively) than normal-weight (BMI=185-249 kg/m(2)) counterparts. Transitions from normal weight to overweight/obese or to underweight (BMI<185 kg/m(2)) were associated with greater odds of SPI (197 (184, 211) and 135 (106, 171), respectively) compared with weight stability. Shifting from underweight to overweight/obese also had increased odds of SPI (152 (111, 209)). Overweight/obese to normal BMI transitions resulted in a reduced SPI odds (052 (039, 071)). Conclusions: Higher weight history and transitions into higher weight classes were associated with higher likelihood of SPI, while transitioning into lower weight classes for those with overweight/obesity was protective among postmenopausal women.

Yes / THIS PAPER INVESTIGATES physical impairment and disability in the c 5th to 6th centuries ad in England through a combination of osteological and funerary analyses. A total of 1,261 individuals, 33 of whom had osteologically identifiable physical impairment, from nine early medieval cemeteries were included. The funerary data for all individuals in each cemetery was collected, and the individuals with physical impairment were analysed palaeopathologically. The burial treatment of individuals with and without physical impairment was compared both quantitatively and qualitatively, and patterns within and between cemeteries were explored to investigate contemporary perceptions and understandings of impairment and disability. The results suggest that some people with physical impairment and potential disability were buried with treatment that was arguably positive, while others were buried with treatment that was either normative or potentially negative. This suggests that, in the same way as the rest of the community, individuals with physical impairment and potential disability had a variety of identities (that may or may not have been influenced by their impairment or disability) and could occupy different social spaces/statuses.

Individuals with physical impairments have been marginalized and discriminated against since the social identification of these individuals occurred as a sub-group within society. While much has been done to resolve prejudice against individuals with physical impairments, more needs to be done to decrease, or at least deter, discrimination and prejudice against individuals who have been marginalized. The purpose of this study is to give four individuals with physical impairments the opportunity to tell their stories. Through the telling of these stories, I believe others can identify with these individuals, and thereby, help decrease discrimination against individuals with physical impairments. Life history has been shown to be an effective method to study individuals with impairments. In order to facilitate understanding of what it is like to be an individual with a physical impairment, four individuals with physical impairments shared their life histories. Research questions include: How do these individuals with physical impairments understand and give meaning to their lived experiences? and How do participants in this study who have congenital disabilities differ from those who have acquired disabilities in the ways they understand and give meaning to their lives? The research questions and parameters of interest are intended to develop and share what it is like to be an individual with a physical impairment. The researcher has known each of the participants for at least ten years. The participants include a 33 year old male with a congenital disability who is white, a 32 year old female who acquired a disability 12 years ago and who is African American, and a married couple who are 62 and 63 years old, one with a congenital disability, the other acquired a disability when she was 14 years old. The researcher shares his responses and reflections, thereby becoming the fifth participant in the study. Because this type of research depends upon verisimilitude, the responses to the research questions are presented for each individual. Each participant defines areas of his or her life that best defines how that person constructs his or her identity and what part the physical impairment plays in that definition. The participants feel that there are some differences between individuals with congenital physical impairments and those with acquired physical impairments. The participants relate that individuals with acquired physical impairments have greater access to funds and equipment based on their perception of how funding agencies provide services and equipment to individuals with physical impairments. The participants also feel that there is a greater stigma associated with having a congenital physical impairment compared to having an acquired physical impairment. Recommendations for future research are offered.

Orientador: João Maurício Rosário / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Mecânica / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-25T20:31:34Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Kuteken_RenatoSuekichi_M.pdf: 4564566 bytes, checksum: 3e020109dd07850f4dc6d80cbf4e64b9 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014 / Resumo: O treinamento de marcha suspensa sobre esteira ergométrica vem sendo aplicado com sucesso em pacientes que perderam os movimentos dos membros inferiores, proporcionando uma reabilitação eficaz, com fortalecimento muscular e redução de atrofias. Além do treino de marcha, exoesqueletos também vem sendo utilizados na recuperação funcional, monitorando e atuando sobre o corpo do paciente. Este trabalho propõe a integração entre um exoesqueleto e uma esteira ergométrica no treinamento de marcha com suspensão de peso através de um sinal de acionamento para a esteira que compense os movimentos das pernas e mantenha fixa a posição do centro de massa do corpo. Este sinal de referência é elaborado a partir de valores angulares obtidos do sensoriamento das juntas do exoesqueleto, aplicados ao modelo cinemático da perna. O desenvolvimento do projeto se deu em duas plataformas, com o uso do Arduino para a aquisição da implementação física e do MATLAB para o desenvolvimento em software / Abstract: The body weight supported gait training on treadmill has been successfully applied on patients who lost their lower limbs movements, providing an efficient rehabilitation, with muscle strengthening and reduction of the atrophy. Besides gait training, exoskeletons have also been used on functional rehabilitation, monitoring and actuating on the patient¿s body. This work proposes the integration between an exoskeleton and a treadmill on the weight supported gait training through a driving signal for the treadmill that compensates the movements of the legs and hold still the position of the center of mass of the body. This reference signal is elaborated making use of angular values obtained from joint sensors on the exoskeleton, applied to the kinematic model of the leg. The development of the project occurred in two platforms, with the use of Arduino to acquisition on the physical implementation and MATLAB to software development / Mestrado / Mecanica dos Sólidos e Projeto Mecanico / Mestre em Engenharia Mecânica

Until recently, individuals with physical impairment have been overlooked within the field of archaeology due to the controversy surrounding the topics of disability and care in the past. The current research adds to the growing body of archaeological disability studies with an exploration of physical impairment and the possibility of disability-related care in Anglo-Saxon England (5th-11th centuries AD), utilising palaeopathological, funerary, and documentary analyses. Palaeopathological analysis of 86 individuals with physical impairment from 19 Anglo-Saxon cemetery populations (nine early, five middle, and five later) was performed, and the possibility of disability-related care was explored for several individuals. The mortuary treatment data (e.g. grave orientation, body position, grave good inclusion) was gathered for the entire burial population at each site (N=3,646), and the funerary treatment of the individuals with and without physical impairment was compared statistically and qualitatively, both within and between the Anglo-Saxon periods. No obvious mortuary differentiation of individuals with physical impairment was observed, although several patterns were noted. In three early Anglo-Saxon cemeteries, spatial association between individuals with physical impairment, non-adults, and females was observed. Early Anglo-Saxon individuals with physical impairment were more frequently buried in marginal locations, and two such individuals were buried in isolation. In the middle and later Anglo-Saxon periods, the funerary treatment of individuals with physical impairment became less variable, they were less frequently buried in marginal locations, and at three middle Anglo-Saxon cemeteries, they were buried in association with socially significant features in the cemetery landscape. The provision of care to ensure survival was not necessary for a majority of the individuals with physical impairment, but several individuals (lower limb paralysis, mental impairment) may have received regular, long-term care. This research proposes that the decreasing variability of mortuary treatment of individuals with physical impairment observed throughout the Anglo-Saxon period suggests that more variable attitudes about disability existed both within and between early Anglo-Saxon communities, while the political, social, and religious unification starting in the middle Anglo-Saxon period may have led to the development of more standardised perceptions of disability in later Anglo-Saxon England.

Yes / This paper explores experiences and perceptions of physical impairment and disability in early medieval England, contrasting pre-Christian (AD 5th–early 7th centuries) and Christian (AD late 8th–11th centuries) communities through a combination of bioarchaeological, clinical, funerary, historical, and theoretical analyses. By comparing understandings of physical impairment and disability in the pre-Christian and Christian periods, this paper investigates how political rearrangements and the growing power of the Church might have influenced changing contemporary perceptions of physical impairment and disability. This research has found that the funerary treatment of individuals with physical impairment in the pre-Christian period was extremely variable within and between cemeteries, and there is evidence for arguably positive, normative, and potentially negative burial treatment. Although mortuary treatment of Christian-era individuals with physical impairment was somewhat variable, this variation was much more subtle. This reflects the overall Christian-era pattern in burial form, and strongly negative or positive mortuary treatment was not identified among the individuals with physical impairment. Based on this evidence, it is proposed that administrative and judicial standardisation, conversion to Christianity, and the spread of Christian morals and doctrine influenced the reduction in mortuary variability observed in individuals with physical impairment and/or disability in the 8th–11th centuries in England.

Current access strategies for minimal interface (e.g., binary switch) users employ time-coded (i.e., synchronous) protocols that map unique sequences of user-generated binary digits (i.e., bits) to each of the available outcomes of a device under control. With such strategies, the user must learn and/or reproduce the timing of the protocol with a certain degree of accuracy. As a result, the number, κ, of device outcomes made accessible to the user is typically bound by the memorization capacity of the latter and by the time required to generate the appropriate bit sequences. Furthermore, synchronous access strategies introduce a minimum time delay that increases with larger κ, precluding access to control applications requiring fast user response. By turning control on its head, this thesis presents an access method that completely eliminates reliance on time-coded protocols. Instead, the proposed asynchronous access method requires users to employ their interfaces only when the behavior of the device under control does not match their intentions. In response to such event, the proposed method may then be used to select, and automatically transmit, a new outcome to the device. Such outcome is informed by historical and contextual assumptions incorporated into a recursive algorithm that provides increasingly accurate estimates of user intention. This novel approach, provides significant advantages over traditional synchronous strategies: i) the user is not required to learn any protocol, ii) there is no limit in the number of outcomes that may be made available to the user iii) there is no delay in the response of the device, iv) the expected amount of information required to achieve a particular task may be minimized, and, most importantly, v) the control of previously inaccessible devices may be enabled with minimal interfaces. This thesis presents the full mathematical development of the novel method for asynchronous control summarized above. Rigorous performance evaluations demonstrating the potential of this method in the control of complex devices, by means of minimal interfaces, are also reported.

Current access strategies for minimal interface (e.g., binary switch) users employ time-coded (i.e., synchronous) protocols that map unique sequences of user-generated binary digits (i.e., bits) to each of the available outcomes of a device under control. With such strategies, the user must learn and/or reproduce the timing of the protocol with a certain degree of accuracy. As a result, the number, κ, of device outcomes made accessible to the user is typically bound by the memorization capacity of the latter and by the time required to generate the appropriate bit sequences. Furthermore, synchronous access strategies introduce a minimum time delay that increases with larger κ, precluding access to control applications requiring fast user response. By turning control on its head, this thesis presents an access method that completely eliminates reliance on time-coded protocols. Instead, the proposed asynchronous access method requires users to employ their interfaces only when the behavior of the device under control does not match their intentions. In response to such event, the proposed method may then be used to select, and automatically transmit, a new outcome to the device. Such outcome is informed by historical and contextual assumptions incorporated into a recursive algorithm that provides increasingly accurate estimates of user intention. This novel approach, provides significant advantages over traditional synchronous strategies: i) the user is not required to learn any protocol, ii) there is no limit in the number of outcomes that may be made available to the user iii) there is no delay in the response of the device, iv) the expected amount of information required to achieve a particular task may be minimized, and, most importantly, v) the control of previously inaccessible devices may be enabled with minimal interfaces. This thesis presents the full mathematical development of the novel method for asynchronous control summarized above. Rigorous performance evaluations demonstrating the potential of this method in the control of complex devices, by means of minimal interfaces, are also reported.

Physical impairment is the most common type of impairment in Sweden. It is estimatedthat 500,000 to 600,000 individuals in the population have a physical impairment.People with physical impairments have higher rates of chronic diseases, report lowerperceived health, and experience more depressive symptoms than the rest of thepopulation. Physical activity has been linked to a variety of health benefits for peoplewith a physical impairment. Next to this, individuals who are physically active have avariety of benefits in physiological, emotional, cognitive, and social categories. Thisthesis defines the motivations and benefits of parasport participation for people with aphysical impairment at FIFH Malmö and what their journeys of parasport participationentail. In total 14 people that participate in parasports offered by FIFH filled out amixed methods survey with both multiple choice and open-ended questions.