Matching Items (2)
Description
Gait training therapies are methods for improving the walking stability of individuals who have difficulty walking, whether it is due to injury or neuromuscular conditions. Perturbation training that causes individuals to correct their balance and actively improve their stability could potentially lead to longer term benefits for those with unstable gait. Subjects had the medial lateral movement of their center of mass measured through motion-tracking software (D-Flow 3 and Vicon Nexus 2.2). Perturbation training completed with the GRAIL treadmill randomly triggered medial-lateral sway perturbations of 3 cm a total of fifteen times throughout a five minute training period. Data collected to compare baseline, post-training, and one week follow-up dynamic stabilities were recorded over three minutes without any perturbations. There were no statistically significant differences when comparing the results of all subjects at each instance of data collection with each other. Thus, the perturbation training had no significant impact on the dynamic stability of gait. Major limitations that lend to the inconclusive nature of this study include a small sample size, no repetitions, and only one round of training. Further work can be done to better assess the potential impacts of perturbation training on walking stability for therapeutic use.
ContributorsJamali, Neema (Author) / Lockhart, Thurmon (Thesis director) / Soangra, Rahul (Committee member) / School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
The main factor that has brought humanitarian logistics to the forefront of the disaster relief process is simply the general increase in the number of natural disasters that affect our world. This increase is due to a few different factors. First, global warming is raising the average temperatures of the oceans, which will bring more intense storms in years to come. Next, the overall increase in global population means that more and more people are affected by these storms. Finally, the increased number of people living in low-lying, coastal regions means that a larger percentage of the population will be affected. Focusing more heavily on humanitarian logistics will help mitigate the amount of suffering by the affected populations. For the purposes of this research paper, humanitarian logistics will be defined as the activities of "planning implementing and controlling the efficient, cost-effective flow of and storage of goods and materials as well as related information, from point of origin to point of consumption for the purpose of alleviating the suffering of vulnerable people" (Thomas and Kopczak, 2005 page 4). A relatively large amount of research has been conducted over the past several decades in regards to humanitarian logistics. However, there is a lack of studies that compare the effectiveness of relief responses on a region-by-region basis. In order to understand why these location-driven logistical differences exist, this study compares and contrasts relief responses from both developed and developing countries. The responses were analyzed in terms of government regulations, beginning infrastructure of the country, relative wealth/GDP of the citizens, and the regional culture. The four disasters that were examined are Hurricane Katrina in the United States, Hurricane Mitch in Honduras, the Tohoku Earthquake and resulting tsunami in Japan, and the Haitian earthquake. These cases are first analyzed separately, and then are evaluated against each other. Each case had its shortcomings in terms of humanitarian logistics. Overall, it was concluded that the governments are typically more involved in developed countries, infrastructure and culture affects all regions, and beginning relative wealth/GDP affects mostly the developing countries. These effects can be both positive and negative; for example, the government regulations in the United States severely hampered the response to Hurricane Katrina, while in Japan the government involvement saved lives and reduced suffering. The other effects are analyzed in depth throughout this paper. Overall, there has never been and probably will never be a perfect relief response that is able to immediately end suffering, but there are many steps to take. These future implications can take various forms. One option is to reduce competition between aid organizations so that they may pool resources and share modes of transportation to both lower cost and increase efficiency of response. Natural disasters are only going to increase in number and severity, so understanding how to respond to them will be integral in the world community moving forward.
ContributorsFenton, Maggie Marie (Author) / Oke, Adegoke (Thesis director) / Eftekhar, Mayhar (Committee member) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05