To test the hypothesis of whether strenuous physical exercise inhibits neutrophils that can get activated by hypobaric hypoxia, we analyzed the effects of both high altitude and strenuous exercise alone and in combination on potentially cytotoxic functions of granulocytes in healthy volunteers (n = 12 men; average age 27.6 yr; range 24-38 yr). To this end, a field study was prospectively perfor...

The purpose of this study was to describe an imaging based, subject specific model that was developed to quantify patellofemoral joint reaction forces (PFJRF's). The secondary purpose was to test the model in a group of healthy individuals while performing various functional tasks. Twenty healthy subjects (10 males, 10 females) were recruited. All participants underwent two phases of data colle...

Walking up and down stairs is a common and important activity of daily living. Women with fibromyalgia often show a reduced ability to perform this task.The objective of this study was to evaluate the test-retest reliability of stair negotiation tasks and to assess the impact of fibromyalgia symptoms on the ability to negotiate stairs.Forty-two women with fibromyalgia participated in this descr...

For decades forecasters in the Queensland Regional Forecast Office of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology have been using winds that turn with height as a rainfall diagnostic, with good success in the subtropics and tropics. The diagnostic is based on the relationship between thermal advection (with its implied isentropic ascent or descent) and geostrophic winds that turn with height. This pap...

Stair gait is a useful activity for the assessment of knee function. The aim of this study was to determine whether knee joint kinematics and moments are affected by the choice of stair gait cycle (SGC) and the step used to measure ground reaction forces (GRFs). This was investigated through motion analysis of ten non-pathological subjects as they ascended and descended a four-step staircase. T...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the reliability of 4 functional tasks relevant to wheelchair seating. DESIGN Within-subject and between-rater comparisons. SETTING Rehabilitation center in Canada. PARTICIPANTS Two separate convenience samples of 10 male wheelchair users. INTERVENTIONS Not applicable. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES The 4 functional tasks were timed forward wheeling, ramp ascent, forward v...

Carrying loads while walking or using stairs is a common activity of daily living. Knee osteoarthritis is associated with increased external knee adduction moment (KAM) during walking, so understanding how the additional challenges of stairs and carrying loads impact these moments is of value. Sixteen healthy individuals performed three types of MOTION (walking, stair ascent, stair descent) und...

The aim of the present study was to establish the behavior of human medial gastrocnemius (GM) muscle fascicles during stair negotiation. Ten healthy male subjects performed normal stair ascent and descent at their own comfortable speed on a standard-dimension four-step staircase with embedded force platforms in each step. Kinematic, kinetic, and electromyographic data of the lower limbs were co...

The behavioural response of cod (Gadus morhua) to sudden pressure reductions was investigated in a large electronic-tagging experiment using data collected from 141 cod tagged in five different areas of the Northeast Atlantic. More than 40% of cod exhibited a characteristic equilibration behaviour after a rapid pressure reduction caused either by capture before tagging, or by pressure reduction...