Obesity is a significant issue for health care systems over the world, including Taiwan. In particular, obesity is a chronic disease with monumental public health implications, which associated with metabolic syndrome, and weight reduction was suggested to first line treatment. The objective of the study is to explore the efficacy (including of body composition and blood biochemical lab data) after ear acupuncture combined therapy with diet and physical activity . Participants and Setting: 369 people which belong to overweight ( BMI¡Ù24 kg/m2) and obesity (BMI¡Ù 27kg/m2 ) and a 12-week body weight control trial (purposive sampling trial) from July to December 2006. Intervention: Ear acupuncture was treated weekly for 12 weeks and participants need to keep their regular daily diet and physical activity. Our objective is to explore the efficacy (including of body composition and blood biochemical laboratory data) after 12-week body weight control trial. Results: Participants and Setting: 369 people and a 12-week body weight control trial from July to December 2006, the average of body weight for participants reduction 13.9 ¡Ó 5.0 Kg (p<0.001). BMI for participants reduction 5.3 ¡Ó 1.8 (p<0.001). Body fat for participants reduction 8.8 ¡Ó 2.5 % (p<0.001). Waist circimference for participants reduction 12.8 ¡Ó 5.8 cm (p<0.001). Waist to hip ratio for participants reduction 0.03 ¡Ó0.04 (p<0.001).Fasting sugar for participants reduction 5.0 ¡Ó 12.0 mg/dl (p<0.001). Total cholesterol for participants reduction 30.1 ¡Ó 26.2 mg/dl (p<0.001). LDL-cholesterol for participants reduction 31.2 ¡Ó 24.8 mg/dl (p<0.001). HDL-cholesterol for participants increasing 7.4 ¡Ó 7.8 mg/dl (p<0.001). Triglyceride for participants reduction 24.5 ¡Ó 52.1 mg/dl (p<0.001) GPT for participants reduction 16.1 ¡Ó 24.3 mg/dl (p<0.001). Uric acid for participants reduction 1.0 ¡Ó 5.5 mg/dl (p<0.001). But hemoglobin for participants reduction 0.5 ¡Ó 0.6 g/dl (p<0.001). Conclusion: These findings indicate that 12-week body weight control trial can be effective in treating obesity.

The study and design of light-weight automobiles has emerged as an important area of interest in the government, academia, and the manufacturing industry. Significant advances in vehicle weight reduction technologies have taken place in almost all fields of transportation. Weight reduction is identified as a key factor to achieving fuel-economy, energy efficiency and environmental safety. The main objective of this thesis is to investigate cost effective design methodologies that enable fabrication of light weight structures, which subsequently result in a fuel saving. A few important techniques and trends of weight reduction in the automotive industry over the past few years are studied as part of the thesis. A summary from the survey of various approaches to weight reduction is presented in the literature review. This thesis is based on the theory of semi-tension fields, which was originally applied towards the design of structures in the aircraft industry. A semi-tension field is a post buckling phenomenon in which the load is continued to be carried even after the web has buckled. The advantage of semi-tension fields is twoold: first, by using this theory the structural stability of the original structure is retained; and secondly, its application replaces a comparatively heavy-weight shear resistant web with a thin web, potentially resulting in reduced weight. The semi-tension field theory is applied to the redesign of back panel of a prototype Ford F-150 pick up truck, which was modeled and analyzed using IDEAS Master Series 8 FEA software. The literature review also consists of the survey of several advances in the Semi-tension fields theory, and the corresponding trends in weight reduction. Analytical theories related to semi-tension field-based design and the respective mathematical formulations have also been described. Finite element analyses of the design that resulted from the application of the theory were carried out and results were validated using analytical theories. A technical paper demonstrating the redesign of a door beam was also studied and results are presented as an appendix.

The scope of this work is to generate quantifiable measures of sustainability elements that apply to manufactured products in terms of environmental, social and economic benefits. This thesis presents a comprehensive analysis for developing a methodology to compare the costs encountered by a vehicle over its entire life-cycle (Pre-manufacturing, Manufacturing, Use, and Post-use stages), considering two different material scenarios, aluminum versus steel, used in body-in-white (BIW) structures and exterior body panels. The potential benefits of using lighter materials in auto body applications are further evaluated through a Sustainability Scoring method. The proposed six major integral sustainable elements considered in this work are: products environmental impact, societal impact, functionality, resource utilization and economy, manufacturability and recyclability/remanufacturability. Each of these elements has corresponding sub-elements and influencing factors which are categorized as having equal importance to the product.

amputation, which includes reduced force generation at the knee and ankle, reduced control of the leg, and different mass properties relative to their intact leg. The physical change in the prosthetic leg leads to gait asymmetries that include spatial, temporal, or force differences. This altered gait can lead to an increase in energy consumption and pain due to compensating forces and torques. The asymmetric prosthesis demonstrated in this research aims to find a balance between the different types of asymmetries to provide a gait that is more symmetric and to make it overall easier for an amputee to walk. Previous research has shown that a passive dynamic walker (PDW) with an altered knee location can exhibit a symmetric step length. An asymmetric prosthetic simulator was developed to emulate this PDW with an altered knee location. The prosthetic simulator designed for this research had adjustable knee settings simulating different knee locations. The prosthetic simulator was tested on able-bodied participants with no gait impairments. The kinetic and kinematic data was obtained using a VICON motion capture system and force plates. This research analyzed the kinematic and kinetic data with different knee locations (high, medium, and low) and normal walking. This data was analyzed to find the asymmetries in step length, step time, and ground reaction forces between the different knee settings and normal walking. The study showed that there is symmetry in step lengths for all the cases in overground walking. The knee at the lowest setting was the closest in emulating a normal symmetric step length. The swing times for overground walking showed that the healthy leg swings at almost the same rate in every trial and the leg with the prosthetic simulator can either be symmetric, like the healthy leg or has a higher swing time. Step lengths on the treadmill also showed a similar pattern, and step length of the low knee setting were the closest to the step length of normal walking. The swing times for treadmills did not show a significant trend. Kinetic data from the treadmill study showed that there was force symmetry between the low setting and normal walking cases. In conclusion these results show that a low knee setting in an asymmetric prosthesis may bring about spatial and temporal symmetry in amputee gait. This research is important to demonstrate that asymmetries in amputee gait can be mitigated using a prosthesis with a knee location dissimilar to that of the intact leg. Tradeoffs have to be made to achieve symmetric step length, swing times, or reaction forces. A comprehensive study with more subjects has to be conducted in-order to have a larger sample size to obtain statistically significant data. There is also opportunity to expand this research to observe a wider range of kinetic and kinematic data of the asymmetric prosthesis.

<p>Obesity and overweight is the worst public health related disease today, and it is a constantly increasing problem in societies all over the world. In Sweden the number of overweight persons has been doubled in the last 20 years. Today about 500 000 persons suffer from obesity and overweight.The aim of this study was to investigate obese and overweight people´s thoughts and wishes regarding what support they would like, in order to be able to successfully manage a weightreduction. The study is qualitative and conducted through six interviews, the material was analysed with content analysis. The result of the analysed interviews led to four categories:offered support, wished support, are you strong enough to find support by your own and mental wellbeing.The conclusion of this study is that overweight person’s biggest wish is to get continuous and personal support from the health care system. Sometimes the support needs to be life long. This is what all the interviewed persons think is most important in order to be able to handle a weight reduction. A common understanding among the participants was also that the society needs to take more responsibility in order to prevent more people from getting overweight,and to help people who already are overweight. A feeling of stigmatization is something that all the interviewed feels on a daily basis.</p>

Obesity and overweight is the worst public health related disease today, and it is a constantly increasing problem in societies all over the world. In Sweden the number of overweight persons has been doubled in the last 20 years. Today about 500 000 persons suffer from obesity and overweight.The aim of this study was to investigate obese and overweight people´s thoughts and wishes regarding what support they would like, in order to be able to successfully manage a weightreduction. The study is qualitative and conducted through six interviews, the material was analysed with content analysis. The result of the analysed interviews led to four categories:offered support, wished support, are you strong enough to find support by your own and mental wellbeing.The conclusion of this study is that overweight person’s biggest wish is to get continuous and personal support from the health care system. Sometimes the support needs to be life long. This is what all the interviewed persons think is most important in order to be able to handle a weight reduction. A common understanding among the participants was also that the society needs to take more responsibility in order to prevent more people from getting overweight,and to help people who already are overweight. A feeling of stigmatization is something that all the interviewed feels on a daily basis.

Bakgrund: Övervikt och fetma är en global epidemi. Fetma kan orsakas av arv, miljö och beteendemässiga faktorer. Övervikt kanleda till flera följdsjukdomar. Viktminskning kan ge ökad livskvalité pch psykiskt välbefinnande. Ur ett hälsoekonomiskt perspektiv är det av vikt att det hälsofrämjande arbetet startar tidigt i barndomen. Syftet var att belysa faktorer i familjen som kan påvera det överviktiga barnets möjlighet till viktnedgång. Metod: En allmän litteraturstudie där 14 vetenskapliga artiklar sammanställdes till ett resultat. Resultat: Sammanställningen visade på tre olika teman: positiva, negativa och demografiska faktorer. Diskussion: Eftersom det största hindret för preventionsarbete är bristen på föräldraengagemang är det viktigt för  sjuksköterskan att arbeta för att få familjen motiverad. Detta kan göras med hjälp av Motivernade samtal och genom att medvetandegöra föräldrarna om barnets viktstatus. / Background: Overweight and obesity are both global epidemics. Obesity can be due to genetic, environmental and behavioural factors. Overweight can lead to several complications. Weight reduction can give increased quality of life and psychical well-being. From a health economical perspective it is important that the overweight prevention starts early in the childhood. The aim was to focus on factors in the family that can affect the overweight child's chance to lose weight. Method: A general literature study in which 14 scientific articles were put together to a result. Result: The summary showed three themes; positive, negative and demographic factors. Discussion: Since the greatest barrier to progress of overweight prevention is the lack of parental engagement it's important for the nurse to work on the family's motivation. This can be done with Motivating conversation and by making the parents aware of there child's weight status.

The report is about reducing the Eigen weight of a reach stacker in order to obtain decreased fuel consumption. The detail the product development treats is the telescopic boom. By using steel of higher strength the dimension can be decreased, which in turn results in a reduced weight. Suitable steel for the application might be the high strength structural steel of designation S690QL. With support of calculations and CAD simulations the possible weight reduction is assumed to amount to 28%.

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