The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of load carrying methods, stair slopes and walking speeds on heart rate and walking postures. Nine participants climbed up and down stairs with various stair slopes (24°, 30° and 36°), walking speeds (72, 96, and 132 steps per minute), and using different load carrying methods (empty loads, backpack, and hand-held). The effects of these facto...

This paper presents the design of a quadrupedal robot that can automatically adapt its gait to, and climb, staircases of different configurations. This is accomplished by endowing the robot with a parameterized gait for stair climbing: First, a gait plan is synthesized that allows the robot to climb a stair of known dimensions. Second, the robot approaches a previously unseen stair and perceive...

OBJECTIVE We performed a literature review with the main aims to propose an updated overview of the effectiveness of stair-use interventions and to determine the most effective type of intervention. METHODS We systematically searched stair-use interventions performed in worksites or public settings, published up to mid 2013. We used a harvest plot approach to visualize the findings in additio...

BACKGROUND Preoperative evaluation of lung resection candidates with impaired pulmonary reserves includes measurement of aerobic capacity. Stair climbing is an attractive low-cost alternative to treadmill exercise testing but it lacks standardisation. OBJECTIVES To directly compare stair climbing and treadmill exercise testing with respect to an established cut-off value for lung resection. ...

[Purpose] Currently, the six-minute walk distance (6MWD) is used to evaluate exercise capacity in people following lung resection for non-small cell lung cancer. However, it is unclear whether the 6MWD can detect changes in cardiorespiratory fitness induced by exercise training or lung resection. Conversely, the stair-climbing test is used frequently for the preoperative evaluation of lung rese...

This study aimed to compare gait properties during level walking and during stair ascent and descent with varying loads. Fifteen healthy young men (mean age: 22.1 ± 1.6 years) walked while holding four different loads relative to each subject’s body mass (0, 20, 40 and 60% of body mass: BM) on their backs. Stance time, swing time, and double support times were selected as gait parameters. All p...

Corrections to “Recipe development and preparations” Approximately 50 g of uncooked bitter melon per one cup (250 ml) of raw ingredients was added to each dish, except curry dish. The curry dish does not have any other ingredients besides bitter melon and therefore contained approximately 61 g of bitter melon per onehalf cup (125 ml). Each of the raw ingredients in these recipes (except the cur...

Nutrient deprivation can lead to dramatic changes in feeding behavior, including acceptance of foods that are normally rejected. In flies, this behavioral shift depends in part on reciprocal sensitization and desensitization of sweet and bitter taste, respectively. However, the mechanisms for bitter taste modulation remain unclear. Here, we identify a set of octopaminergic/tyraminergic neurons,...

Human bitter taste is mediated by approximately 25 members of the human TAS2 receptor (hTAS2R) gene family. The hTAS2R genes are expressed in taste buds of gustatory papillae on the tongue surface. Because many naturally occurring bitter compounds are toxic, bitter taste receptors are believed to serve as warning sensors against the ingestion of toxic food compounds. An important question is wh...