Life Sciences Commons^™

Quantifying Static And Dynamic Stability Using Mobile Sensors, Mason Schleu

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Balance disorders impact millions of people causing substantial impact on quality of life due to psychological and physical hardships associated with poor balance. However, a clinically relevant, low cost, self-service system in detecting such disorders does not exist. Previous research has shown the built in accelerometer and gyroscope sensors of a smart phone to be valid tools in detecting standing balance performance using traditional linear analysis, however, such a system has yet to be proven useful in detecting dynamic postural variability. Indeed, more quantitative methods than are typically used in clinical settings are necessary for early detection of poor postural …

Design Of An Instrumented Cane For Real-Time Force Feedback, Samantha Sack

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Stroke is a major cause of adult disability in the United States, and many affected stroke survivors require the use of an assistive device post-stroke. Even so, the effects of these assistive devices on specific movement outcomes like propulsion in rehabilitation are not well studied. The goal of this study was to develop an instrumented cane capable of recording accurate force data and providing real-time feedback to the user. A standard, single-point cane was instrumented with a force cell that measures force applied to the cane and a motor that vibrates once a threshold value has been applied. The force …

An Investigation Into The Correlation Between Step Width Variability And Balance Deficits In Patients With Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, Jordan Freeman

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) experience a higher incidence of falls. Further, gait variability has been shown to be a useful predictor of future falls. It is unknown if balance measures and gait variability are related. Our purpose was to investigate if step width (SW) variability is related to balance deficits in patients with COPD. We hypothesized that functional balance tests will closely correlate to the step width variability as compared to subjective balance questionnaires. Nine subjects with COPD and six controls performed a series of balance measures: sensory organization test (SOT), motor control test (MCT), Fullerton advanced …

Movement Variability And Sensorimotor Cortical Activation During Forward And Backward Walking, Boman Groff

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Previous research has used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to show that motor areas of the cortex are activated more while walking backward compared to walking forward. It is also known that head movement creates motion artifacts in fNIRS data. The aim of this study was to expand on previous findings by examining cortical activation during forward and backward walking, while also measuring head movement. We hypothesized that greater activation in motor areas while walking backward would be concurrent with increased head movement.

Participants (N=8) performed forward and backward walking on a treadmill. Participants wore motion capture markers on their head …

Influence Of Neuromuscular Fatigue On The Reliability Of Gait Variability Measures, Nicholas Reynolds

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Walking in healthy young adults displays an optimal pattern of variability from one stride to the next. This level ensures that each step taken is not stereotyped but also not completely unpredictable. Previous studies have investigated differences in stride-to-stride characteristics comparing groups of young to groups of elderly. The consistency of gait variability measures on an individual level remains to be determined. The first aim of this study is to determine the between day and between trial consistency of gait variability measures in healthy young adults. We hypothesize that there will be a high level of consistency from day-to-day and …

An Investigation In Muscle Activation During Load Carrying, Sidney Baudendistel

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Carrying items is essential to everyday living, but is often reported to be a functional limitation in individuals with respiratory dysfunction. The interaction between breathing and carrying a bimanual load (i.e., carrying an evenly distributed load in each hand) is not well understood and limits the capacity to derive interventions to address functional limitations. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of two bimanual loads, 10% and 5% of body weight, on gait. Fourteen healthy, young adults walked with and without a load on each wrist (2.5 and 5% of body weight) using wrist weights. The mean, …