Effect of Load Carrying on Local Dynamic Stability

Occupational load carrying tasks are considered one of the major factors contributing to slip and fall injuries. The objective of the current study was to explore the feasibility to assess the stability changes associated with load carrying by local dynamic stability measures. Twenty-five young participants were involved in a treadmill walking study, with their trunk acceleration profiles measured wirelessly by a tri-axial accelerometer. Finite time local dynamic stability was quantified by maximum Lyapunov exponents (maxLE). The results showed a significant increase in long term maxLE in load condition, indicating the declined local dynamic stability due to the load carrying. Thus, current study confirmed the discriminative validity and sensitivity of local dynamic stability measure and its utility in the load carrying scenario.

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Effects of Rucksack Military Accessory on Gait Dynamic Stability

International Journal of Prognostics and Health Management ◽

10.36001/ijphm.2021.v12i4.2778 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (4) ◽

Author(s):

Seong Hyun Moon ◽

Christopher Frames ◽

Rahul Soangra ◽

Thurmon Lockhart

Keyword(s):

Dynamic Stability ◽

Load Carriage ◽

Measurement Unit ◽

Local Dynamic ◽

Maximum Lyapunov Exponent ◽

Normal Walking ◽

Local Dynamic Stability ◽

Significant Difference ◽

Load Carrying ◽

The Stability

Various factors are responsible for injuries that occur in the U.S. Army soldiers. In particular, rucksack load carriage equipment influences the stability of the lower extremities and possibly affects gait balance. The objective of this investigation was to assess the gait and local dynamic stability of the lower extremity of five subjects as they performed a simulated rucksack march on a treadmill. The Motek Gait Real-time Interactive Laboratory (GRAIL) was utilized to replicate the environment of the rucksack march. The first walking trial was without a rucksack and the second set was executed with the All-Purpose Lightweight Individual Carrying Equipment (ALICE), an older version of the rucksack, and the third set was executed with the newer rucksack version, Modular Lightweight Load Carrying Equipment (MOLLE). In this experiment, the Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) system, Dynaport was used to measure the ambulatory data of the subject. This experiment required subjects to walk continuously for 200 seconds with a 20kg rucksack, which simulates the real rucksack march training. To determine the dynamic stability of different load carriage and normal walking condition, Local Dynamic Stability (LDS) was calculated to quantify its stability. The results presented that comparing Maximum Lyapunov Exponent (LyE) of normal walking was significantly lower compared to ALICE (P=0.000007) and MOLLE (P=0.00003), however, between ALICE and MOLLE rucksack walking showed no significant difference (P=0.441). The five subjects showed significantly improved dynamic stability when walking without a rucksack in comparison with wearing the equipment. In conclusion, we discovered wearing a rucksack result in a significant (P < 0.0001) reduction in dynamic stability.

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To What Extent Does Not Wearing Shoes Affect the Local Dynamic Stability of Walking?: Effect Size and Intrasession Repeatability

Journal of Applied Biomechanics ◽

10.1123/jab.2013-0142 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 30 (2) ◽

pp. 305-309 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Philippe Terrier ◽

Fabienne Reynard

Keyword(s):

Dynamic Stability ◽

Effect Size ◽

Intraclass Correlation ◽

Clinical Findings ◽

Local Dynamic ◽

Gait Stability ◽

Local Dynamic Stability ◽

Gait Parameters ◽

Absolute Agreement ◽

The Stability

Local dynamic stability (stability) quantifies how a system responds to small perturbations. Several experimental and clinical findings have highlighted the association between gait stability and fall risk. Walking without shoes is known to slightly modify gait parameters. Barefoot walking may cause unusual sensory feedback to individuals accustomed to shod walking, and this may affect stability. The objective was therefore to compare the stability of shod and barefoot walking in healthy individuals and to analyze the intrasession repeatability. Forty participants traversed a 70 m indoor corridor wearing normal shoes in one trial and walking barefoot in a second trial. Trunk accelerations were recorded with a 3D-accelerometer attached to the lower back. The stability was computed using the finite-time maximal Lyapunov exponent method. Absolute agreement between the forward and backward paths was estimated with the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). Barefoot walking did not significantly modify the stability as compared with shod walking (average standardized effect size: +0.11). The intrasession repeatability was high (ICC: 0.73–0.81) and slightly higher in barefoot walking condition (ICC: 0.81–0.87). Therefore, it seems that barefoot walking can be used to evaluate stability without introducing a bias as compared with shod walking, and with a sufficient reliability.

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Local Dynamic Stability Associated with Load Carrying

Safety and Health at Work ◽

10.5491/shaw.2013.4.1.46 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

pp. 46-51 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Jian Liu ◽

Thurmon E. Lockhart

Keyword(s):

Dynamic Stability ◽

Local Dynamic ◽

Local Dynamic Stability ◽

Load Carrying

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Numerical Nonlinear Analysis for Dynamic Stability of an Ankle-Hip Model of Balance on a Balance Board

Journal of Computational and Nonlinear Dynamics ◽

10.1115/1.4042693 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 14 (10) ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Erik Chumacero-Polanco ◽

James Yang ◽

James Chagdes

Keyword(s):

Dynamical System ◽

Dynamic Stability ◽

Point Of View ◽

Local Dynamic ◽

Stability Properties ◽

Dynamical Behaviors ◽

Local Dynamic Stability ◽

The Stability ◽

Delay Differential ◽

Balance Board

Abstract Study of human upright posture (UP) stability is of great relevance to fall prevention and rehabilitation, especially for those with balance deficits for whom a balance board (BB) is a widely used mechanism to improve balance. The stability of the human-BB system has been widely investigated from a dynamical system point of view. However, most studies assume small disturbances, which allow to linearize the nonlinear human-BB dynamical system, neglecting the effect of the nonlinear terms on the stability. Such assumption has been useful to simplify the system and use bifurcation analyses to determine local dynamic stability properties. However, dynamic stability analysis results through such linearization of the system have not been verified. Moreover, bifurcation analyses cannot provide insight on dynamical behaviors for different points within the stable and unstable regions. In this study, we numerically solve the nonlinear delay differential equation that describes the human-BB dynamics for a range of selected parameters (proprioceptive feedback and time-delays). The resulting solutions in time domain are used to verify the stability properties given by the bifurcation analyses and to compare different dynamical behaviors within the regions. Results show that the selected bifurcation parameters have significant impacts not only on UP stability but also on the amplitude, frequency, and increasing or decaying rate of the resulting trajectory solutions.

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Local Dynamic Stability of Spine Muscle Activation and Stiffness Patterns During Repetitive Lifting

Journal of Biomechanical Engineering ◽

10.1115/1.4028818 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 136 (12) ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Ryan B. Graham ◽

Stephen H. M. Brown

Keyword(s):

Dynamic Stability ◽

Muscle Activation ◽

Muscle Force ◽

Local Dynamic ◽

Rotational Stiffness ◽

Physiological Variables ◽

Repetitive Lifting ◽

Local Dynamic Stability ◽

Muscle Activations ◽

The Stability

To facilitate stable trunk kinematics, humans must generate appropriate motor patterns to effectively control muscle force and stiffness and respond to biomechanical perturbations and/or neuromuscular control errors. Thus, it is important to understand physiological variables such as muscle force and stiffness, and how these relate to the downstream production of stable spine and trunk movements. This study was designed to assess the local dynamic stability of spine muscle activation and rotational stiffness patterns using Lyapunov analyses, and relationships to the local dynamic stability of resulting spine kinematics, during repetitive lifting and lowering at varying combinations of lifting load and rate. With an increase in the load lifted at a constant rate there was a trend for decreased local dynamic stability of spine muscle activations and the muscular contributions to spine rotational stiffness; although the only significant change was for the full state space muscle activation stability (p < 0.05). With an increase in lifting rate with a constant load there was a significant decrease in the local dynamic stability of spine muscle activations and the muscular contributions to spine rotational stiffness (p ≤ 0.001 for all measures). These novel findings suggest that the stability of motor inputs and the muscular contributions to spine rotational stiffness can be altered by external task demands (load and lifting rate), and therefore are important variables to consider when assessing the stability of the resulting kinematics.

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