Fall-related hip fractures are a substantial public health issue. Unfortunately, little is known about whether the effective stiffness of the pelvis, a critical component governing impact force during lateral falls, differs substantially across different segments of the population. The objective of this thesis was to enhance the knowledge base surrounding pelvis impact dynamics by assessing the influence of gender and body mass index (BMI) on the effective stiffness of the pelvis, and on resulting peak loads applied to the hip, during sideways falls. Towards this end I conducted pelvis release trials (in which the pelvis was suspended and suddenly released onto a force plate) with males and females with low (<22) and high (>28) BMIs. One resonance-based (kvibe), and three force-deflection based (k1st, kcombo 300, and kcombo opt) methods of effective pelvic stiffness estimation were examined. The resulting stiffness estimates, and peak forces sustained during the pelvis release experiments, were compared between each BMI and sex group. The optimized force-deflection stiffness estimation method, kcombo opt provided the strongest fit to the experimental data. Strong main effects of BMI (f (1,13) = 10.87, p = 0.003) and sex (f (1,13) = 5.97, p = 0.022) were found for this stiffness estimation method. Additionally, a significant BMI-sex interaction was observed (f (3,6) = 5.31, p = 0.030), with low BMI males having much higher stiffness estimates than any other group. Normalized peak forces were higher in low BMI participants than in high BMI participants (f(1,13)=24.9, p<0.001). Linear regression demonstrated that peak impact force was positively associated with effective pelvic stiffness (β = 0.550, t(25) = 3.110, p=0.005), height (β = 0.326, t(25) = 2.119, p=0.045) and soft tissue thickness (β = 0.785, t(25) = 4.573, p<0.001). This thesis has demonstrated that body habitus and sex have significant effects on the stiffness of the pelvis during lateral falls. These differences are likely related to a combination of soft tissue and pelvic anatomical differences between BMI and sex groups. Pelvic stiffness, along with other easily collected variables, may be helpful in predicting peak forces resulting from lateral falls in the elderly. Differences in pelvic stiffness estimates between BMI and sex groups, and estimation method, necessitate careful consideration. These data will aid in selecting the most appropriate pelvic stiffness parameters when modeling impact dynamics for higher energy falls.

For the past several decades there have been many attempts to improve suspension performance due to its importance within vehicle dynamics. The suspension system main functions are to connect the chassis to the ground, and to isolate the chassis from the ground. To improve upon these two functions, large amounts of effort are focused on two elements that form the building blocks of the suspension system, stiffness and damping. With the advent of new technologies, such as variable dampers, and powerful microprocessors and sensors, suspension performance can be enhanced beyond the traditional capabilities of a passive suspension system. Recently, Yin et al. [1, 2] have developed a novel dual chamber pneumatic spring that can provide tunable stiffness characteristics, which is rare compared to the sea of tunable dampers. The purpose of this thesis is to develop a controller to take advantage of the novel pneumatic spring’s functionality with a tunable damper to improve vehicle dynamic performance. Since the pneumatic spring is a slow-acting element (i.e. low bandwidth), the typical control logic for semi-active suspension systems are not practical for this framework. Most semi-active controllers assume the use of fast-acting (i.e. high bandwidth) variable dampers within the suspension design. In this case, a lookup table controller is used to manage the stiffness and damping properties for a wide range of operating conditions. To determine the optimum stiffness and damping properties, optimization is employed. Four objective functions are used to quantify vehicle performance; ride comfort, rattle space (i.e. suspension deflection), handling (i.e. tire deflection), and undamped sprung mass natural frequency. The goal is to minimize the first three objectives, while maximizing the latter to avoid motion sickness starting from 1Hz and downward. However, these goals cannot be attained simultaneously, necessitating compromises between them. Using the optimization strength of genetic algorithms, a Pareto optima set can be generated to determine the compromises between objective functions that have been normalized. Using a trade-off study, the stiffness and damping properties can be selected from the Pareto optima set for suitability within an operating condition of the control logic. When implementing the lookup table controller, a practical method is employed to recognize the road profile as there is no direct method to determine road profile. To determine the road profile for the lookup table controller, the unsprung mass RMS acceleration and suspension state are utilized. To alleviate the inherent flip-flopping drawback of lookup table controllers, a temporal deadband is employed to eliminate the flip-flopping of the lookup table controller. Results from the semi-active suspension with tunable stiffness and damping show that vehicle performance, depending on road roughness and vehicle speed, can improve up to 18% over passive suspension systems. Since the controller does not constantly adjust the damping properties, cost and reliability may increase over traditional semi-active suspension systems. The flip-flopping drawback of lookup table controllers has been reduced through the use of a temporal deadband, however further enhancement is required to eliminate flip-flopping within the control logic. Looking forward, the novel semi-active suspension has great potential to improve vehicle dynamic performance especially for heavy vehicles that have large sprung mass variation, but to increase robustness the following should be considered: better road profile recognition, the elimination of flip-flopping between suspension states, and using state equations model of the pneumatic spring within the vehicle model for optimization and evaluation.

This study examined the effects of plyometrics on running economy, performance, and Achilles tendon properties in female distance runners. Seventeen University athletes matched by running economy were randomly assigned to an experimental group that received supplementary plyometrics training (n=9) or a control group that performed run-training only (n=8). Subject attrition led to a final sample of twelve runners (6 experimental, 6 controls). Measurements were made pre-post an 8-week training period. Running economy was measured as oxygen consumption at three submaximal speeds, performance as time to run 3000 meters, and Achilles tendon properties were estimated via ultrasound during ramp, quasi-isometric plantar flexion to maximum on an isokinetic dynamometer. No significant differences were found between the two groups after eight weeks because of poor subject compliance and excessive variability in ultrasound measurements. The results are inconclusive as to the effect of supplementary plyometric training on running economy, performance and Achilles tendon properties.

The field of autonomous walking robots has been dominated by the trajectory-control approach, which rigidly dictates joint angle trajectories at the expense of both energy efficiency and stability, and the passive dynamics approach, which uses no actuators, relying instead on natural mechanical dynamics as the sole source of control. Although the passive dynamics approach is energy efficient, it lacks the ability to modify gait or adapt to disturbances. Recently, minimally actuated walkers, or dynamic walkers, have been developed that use hip or ankle actuators---knees are always passive---to regulate mechanical energy variations through the timely application of joint torque pulses. Despite the improvement minimal actuation has provided, energy efficiency remains below target values and perturbation rejection capability (i.e., stability) remains poor. In this dissertation, we develop and analyze a simplified robotic system to assess biologically inspired methods of improving energy efficiency and stability in dynamic walkers. Our system consists of a planar, dynamically swinging leg with hip and knee actuation. Neurally inspired, nonlinear oscillators provide closed-loop control without overriding the leg's natural dynamics. We first model the passive stiffness of muscles by applying stiffness components to the joints of a hip-actuated swinging leg. We then assess the effect active knee control has on unperturbed and perturbed leg swinging. Our results indicate that passive joint stiffness improves energy efficiency by reducing the actuator work required to counter gravitational torque and by promoting kinetic energy transfer between the shank and thigh. We also found that active knee control 1) is detrimental to unperturbed leg swinging because it negatively affects energy efficiency while producing minimal performance improvement and 2) is beneficial during perturbed swinging because the perturbation rejection improvement outweighs the reduction in energy efficiency. By analyzing the effects of applying passive joint stiffness and active knee control to dynamic walkers, this work helps to bridge the gap between the performance capability of trajectory-control robots and the energy-efficiency of passive dynamic robots.

For the past several decades there have been many attempts to improve suspension performance due to its importance within vehicle dynamics. The suspension system main functions are to connect the chassis to the ground, and to isolate the chassis from the ground. To improve upon these two functions, large amounts of effort are focused on two elements that form the building blocks of the suspension system, stiffness and damping. With the advent of new technologies, such as variable dampers, and powerful microprocessors and sensors, suspension performance can be enhanced beyond the traditional capabilities of a passive suspension system. Recently, Yin et al. [1, 2] have developed a novel dual chamber pneumatic spring that can provide tunable stiffness characteristics, which is rare compared to the sea of tunable dampers. The purpose of this thesis is to develop a controller to take advantage of the novel pneumatic spring’s functionality with a tunable damper to improve vehicle dynamic performance. Since the pneumatic spring is a slow-acting element (i.e. low bandwidth), the typical control logic for semi-active suspension systems are not practical for this framework. Most semi-active controllers assume the use of fast-acting (i.e. high bandwidth) variable dampers within the suspension design. In this case, a lookup table controller is used to manage the stiffness and damping properties for a wide range of operating conditions. To determine the optimum stiffness and damping properties, optimization is employed. Four objective functions are used to quantify vehicle performance; ride comfort, rattle space (i.e. suspension deflection), handling (i.e. tire deflection), and undamped sprung mass natural frequency. The goal is to minimize the first three objectives, while maximizing the latter to avoid motion sickness starting from 1Hz and downward. However, these goals cannot be attained simultaneously, necessitating compromises between them. Using the optimization strength of genetic algorithms, a Pareto optima set can be generated to determine the compromises between objective functions that have been normalized. Using a trade-off study, the stiffness and damping properties can be selected from the Pareto optima set for suitability within an operating condition of the control logic. When implementing the lookup table controller, a practical method is employed to recognize the road profile as there is no direct method to determine road profile. To determine the road profile for the lookup table controller, the unsprung mass RMS acceleration and suspension state are utilized. To alleviate the inherent flip-flopping drawback of lookup table controllers, a temporal deadband is employed to eliminate the flip-flopping of the lookup table controller. Results from the semi-active suspension with tunable stiffness and damping show that vehicle performance, depending on road roughness and vehicle speed, can improve up to 18% over passive suspension systems. Since the controller does not constantly adjust the damping properties, cost and reliability may increase over traditional semi-active suspension systems. The flip-flopping drawback of lookup table controllers has been reduced through the use of a temporal deadband, however further enhancement is required to eliminate flip-flopping within the control logic. Looking forward, the novel semi-active suspension has great potential to improve vehicle dynamic performance especially for heavy vehicles that have large sprung mass variation, but to increase robustness the following should be considered: better road profile recognition, the elimination of flip-flopping between suspension states, and using state equations model of the pneumatic spring within the vehicle model for optimization and evaluation.

Facades are popular in modern buildings and are made of different materials such as pre-cast concrete, glass, aluminium, granite or marble and steel. During recent times seismic activity in densely populated areas has resulted in damage and a consequent loss of life. There were many types of building failure, including failure of building facade systems. Facade systems are highly vulnerable and fail more frequently than the buildings themselves with significant devastating effects. During an earthquake building frames suffer large interstorey drifts, causing racking of the building facade systems. The facade systems may not be able to cater for such large deformations and this can result in either functional or total failure at the facade connections or damage by pounding (impact) with adjacent facade panels. Façade failure and collapse can cause serious damage to buildings and injury to people in the vicinity. Moreover, facade represent between 10- 20 % or more of the total building cost depending on the size and importance of the facility and facade material (Facades1980). Considering the cost and safety issues, the importance of a well designed facade system on a building needs to be emphasised. In modern buildings, energy absorbing passive damping devices are very commonly used for energy absorption in order to manage the vibration response of multistorey buildings in an earthquake event. A number of manufactured dampers such as Viscoelastic and viscous, friction and yielding dampers are available. These dampers use a range of materials and designs in order to achieve diverse levels of damping and stiffness. This thesis is an investigation of the seismic behaviour of building facade systems and studies the effects of facade and connection properties on this response. The objectives with energy absorbing connections of the study are to determine and control facade distortions and to establish the required connection properties. Finite Element techniques have been used for modelling and analysis of the building frame, facade and connections. Time history analyses under earthquake loadings were carried out to determine the system response in terms of inter-storey drifts, facade distortions, differential displacement between facades and frames and the axial force in horizontal connections. Connection properties with respect to stiffness and energy absorption capability (or damping) have been modelled and varied to obtain the desired response. Findings illustrate the influence of these connection properties on system response and show that it is possible to control facade distortions to within acceptable limits. They also demonstrate that energy absorbing connections are able to reduce inter-storey drifts and mitigate the detrimental seismic effects on the entire building facade system.

Despite their poor performance, non-standard clay bricks are commonly used in construction of low-rise buildings and rural houses in Indonesia. These clay bricks are produced traditionally in home industries. Indonesia is located in an active seismic region and many masonry buildings were badly damaged or collapsed during recent earthquakes. Such buildings are classified as non-engineered structures as they are built without using any proper design standard. Lateral load response of un-reinforced masonry walls is investigated in this research project, with the aim of better understanding the behaviour of these masonry walls using low quality local bricks. A comprehensive experimental program was undertaken with masonry wall elements of 600 mm x 600 mm x 110 mm constructed from local bricks from Cikarang in West Java - Indonesia. Wall specimens were constructed and tested under a combination of constant vertical compression load and increasing horizontal or lateral in-plane loads, of monotonic, repeated and cyclical nature. The vertical compressive loading was limited to 4% of maximum brick compressive strength. Masonry mortar mix used to construct the specimens was prepared according to Indonesian National Standard. Three different types of masonry wall panels were considered, (i) (normal) brick masonry walls, (ii) surface mortared brick masonry walls and (iii) comforted surface mortared brick masonry walls. The results indicated that the lateral load bearing capacity of masonry wall is usually lower than that of mortared and comforted walls. Despite this, the lateral load capacity under cyclic loads decreased 50 % of the average capacity of the walls under monotonic and repeated lateral loads. Using the results from the experimental program, a simplified model for the equivalent diagonal spring stiffness of local clay brick walls was developed. This stiffness model derived from experimental results in then used to simplify the structural analysis of clay brick wall panels in Indonesia. The design guideline for brick masonry houses and low-rise buildings in six Indonesian seismic zones was developed, as a contribution towards the development of design guidance for constructing brick masonry houses in Indonesia.

The insulin resistance syndrome [INSR] is associated with increased cardiovascular risk and affects up to 25% of the Australian population. The mechanism underlying the relationship between the INSR and increased cardiovascular risk is controversial. We postulated that perturbations in the renin-angiotensin system [RAS] and endothelium-derived NO may be implicated in the development of early vascular changes in the INSR. Repeated measurements of arterial stiffness [using digital photoplethysmography] and haemodynamic parameters in response to vasoactive medications were used to demonstrate the functional expression of angiotensin II [Ang II] receptors and NO synthase [NOS]. Ang II acts via two main receptor sub-types: the Ang II type 1 [AT1] and Ang II type 2 [AT2] receptors. The AT1 receptor is central to the development of arterial stiffness and endothelial dysfunction. The role of AT2 receptors in humans is controversial but is postulated to counter-act AT1 receptor mediated effects in diseased vascular beds. We demonstrated increased AT1 and AT2 receptor-mediated effects in small to medium-sized arteries of subjects with early INSR [Chapter 6]. In addition, functional expression of AT2 receptors in adult insulin resistant humans [Chapter 5], but not in healthy volunteers [Chapter 4] was demonstrated. AT1 receptor blockade in subjects with early INSR resulted in improvements in vascular function, with a consequent functional down-regulation of AT2 receptors [Chapter 7]. Functional NOS expression was demonstrated to be increased in subjects with early INSR compared with healthy controls [Chapter 6]. This was postulated to be a homeostatic response to counteract early vascular changes in subjects with early INSR. AT1 receptor blockade in these subjects reduced functional NOS expression [Chapter 8]. In conclusion, patients with early INSR represent a model of early disease where early intervention may be able to reverse the process incited by the initial exposure to multiple cardiovascular risk factors. Early vascular changes in these individuals are mediated at least in part, by increased AT1 receptor activity and/or expression, and may be detected by changes in arterial stiffness indices and non-invasive vascular reactivity studies. There is a compensatory increase in AT2 receptor and NOS expression/activity to counter-act these vascular changes.

The insulin resistance syndrome [INSR] is associated with increased cardiovascular risk and affects up to 25% of the Australian population. The mechanism underlying the relationship between the INSR and increased cardiovascular risk is controversial. We postulated that perturbations in the renin-angiotensin system [RAS] and endothelium-derived NO may be implicated in the development of early vascular changes in the INSR. Repeated measurements of arterial stiffness [using digital photoplethysmography] and haemodynamic parameters in response to vasoactive medications were used to demonstrate the functional expression of angiotensin II [Ang II] receptors and NO synthase [NOS]. Ang II acts via two main receptor sub-types: the Ang II type 1 [AT1] and Ang II type 2 [AT2] receptors. The AT1 receptor is central to the development of arterial stiffness and endothelial dysfunction. The role of AT2 receptors in humans is controversial but is postulated to counter-act AT1 receptor mediated effects in diseased vascular beds. We demonstrated increased AT1 and AT2 receptor-mediated effects in small to medium-sized arteries of subjects with early INSR [Chapter 6]. In addition, functional expression of AT2 receptors in adult insulin resistant humans [Chapter 5], but not in healthy volunteers [Chapter 4] was demonstrated. AT1 receptor blockade in subjects with early INSR resulted in improvements in vascular function, with a consequent functional down-regulation of AT2 receptors [Chapter 7]. Functional NOS expression was demonstrated to be increased in subjects with early INSR compared with healthy controls [Chapter 6]. This was postulated to be a homeostatic response to counteract early vascular changes in subjects with early INSR. AT1 receptor blockade in these subjects reduced functional NOS expression [Chapter 8]. In conclusion, patients with early INSR represent a model of early disease where early intervention may be able to reverse the process incited by the initial exposure to multiple cardiovascular risk factors. Early vascular changes in these individuals are mediated at least in part, by increased AT1 receptor activity and/or expression, and may be detected by changes in arterial stiffness indices and non-invasive vascular reactivity studies. There is a compensatory increase in AT2 receptor and NOS expression/activity to counter-act these vascular changes.

The insulin resistance syndrome [INSR] is associated with increased cardiovascular risk and affects up to 25% of the Australian population. The mechanism underlying the relationship between the INSR and increased cardiovascular risk is controversial. We postulated that perturbations in the renin-angiotensin system [RAS] and endothelium-derived NO may be implicated in the development of early vascular changes in the INSR. Repeated measurements of arterial stiffness [using digital photoplethysmography] and haemodynamic parameters in response to vasoactive medications were used to demonstrate the functional expression of angiotensin II [Ang II] receptors and NO synthase [NOS]. Ang II acts via two main receptor sub-types: the Ang II type 1 [AT1] and Ang II type 2 [AT2] receptors. The AT1 receptor is central to the development of arterial stiffness and endothelial dysfunction. The role of AT2 receptors in humans is controversial but is postulated to counter-act AT1 receptor mediated effects in diseased vascular beds. We demonstrated increased AT1 and AT2 receptor-mediated effects in small to medium-sized arteries of subjects with early INSR [Chapter 6]. In addition, functional expression of AT2 receptors in adult insulin resistant humans [Chapter 5], but not in healthy volunteers [Chapter 4] was demonstrated. AT1 receptor blockade in subjects with early INSR resulted in improvements in vascular function, with a consequent functional down-regulation of AT2 receptors [Chapter 7]. Functional NOS expression was demonstrated to be increased in subjects with early INSR compared with healthy controls [Chapter 6]. This was postulated to be a homeostatic response to counteract early vascular changes in subjects with early INSR. AT1 receptor blockade in these subjects reduced functional NOS expression [Chapter 8]. In conclusion, patients with early INSR represent a model of early disease where early intervention may be able to reverse the process incited by the initial exposure to multiple cardiovascular risk factors. Early vascular changes in these individuals are mediated at least in part, by increased AT1 receptor activity and/or expression, and may be detected by changes in arterial stiffness indices and non-invasive vascular reactivity studies. There is a compensatory increase in AT2 receptor and NOS expression/activity to counter-act these vascular changes.