How does emotion affect the way we walk?

Gait, the way that human beings walk, is a large component and indicator of health in both young and older adults. Gait has been used in the past to identify injury and fall risk, progression of diseases and is used as a measure indicative of overall health in adults. Many factors affect the gait cycle including age, disease, injury, and even mood disorders such as anxiety and depression. This study aims to investigate how moods themselves or emotions affect gait to understand whether everyday emotions may impact gait and whether emotions could be potential confounds in gait analysis. Using the 5-factor model of gait, this study aimed to categorize how gait parameters changed when feeling the emotions of happy, excitement, anger, fear, and sadness. It was hypothesized that emotions of happy, excitement, and anger would result in increased pace while emotions of fear and sadness would result in decreased pace but increased variability when compared to a neutral condition. Secondary analysis of how gait is correlated with changes in the pleasure, arousal and dominance dimensions of emotions were also conducted to map changes in gait to changes in underlying dimensions of emotions rather than specific discrete categories. It was hypothesized that pleasure, arousal, and dominance would be positively correlated with the pace domain and negatively correlated with the variability domain. The study examined 26 healthy young adults and 14 of which were selected for further analysis. Emotions were elicited using virtual reality and immersive video. The results showed that only sadness of all emotion conditions was different from other emotions and the neutral condition. During the sadness condition, participants walked with reduced step length, gait speed (pace domain) and with increased step time and stance time (rhythm domain) when compared to all other emotion conditions including the neutral condition. No changes were observed in other domains of variability and postural control. Correlation tests showed that it was mainly the dimensions of pleasure and dominance that were associated with changes in gait patterns, resulting in positive correlation with step length and gait velocity. Arousal showed a weak negative correlated with stride velocity variability and no other correlations were observed. Overall, these results indicate that while everyday emotions may play some role in influencing gait, it is really the emotion of sadness, that plays a large role in modulating gait; perhaps this emotion should be taken into account as a potential confound for future gait analysis

Economic analysis of vegetation management alternatives in Ontario

Vegetation management practices have become an integral component of forest management. Economics of alternative vegetation management treatments were analyzed in this thesis on the basis of two journal papers. Six research sites established and managed by Vegetation Management Alternatives Program of Ontario were the sources of data. In the first paper, differences in stem quality, and volume and value of fibre produced by planted white spruce [Picea glauca (Moench) Voss] 16 years after vegetation management treatments in northwestern Ontario were examined. Forest Vegetation Simulator (FVSOntario) was used to pro-ject the total and merchantable volume to age 70 and BUCK-2 was used to opti-mize the resulting product mix. Projected value was based on 2009 prices for hog fuel and SPF (spruce-pine-fir) eastern green lumber prices. At 16 years post-treat-ment, gross total volumes in herbicide-treated and mechanically cut plots were significantly higher (120-165% and 94-98%, respectively) than that in control plots (14.73 m3 ha-1). Based on height, diameter, and taper criteria, observed tree quality did not differ among treatments. The projected value of the fibre produced was 36 to 53% higher in herbicide-treated plots and 24 to 37% higher in mechanically cut plots than in control plots ($18,486.76 ha-1). Second paper presents the stand-level benefit-cost analyses of 12 vegeta-tion management treatments applied at six study sites in northern Ontario. Net present value (NPV), benefit-cost ratio (BCR), and internal rate of return (IRR) for crop and all species in each treatment and site were calculated and compared using 2009 constant dollars and variable real discount rates. Aerial herbicide treatments produced the highest NPV, BCR, and IRR. Internal rates of return of 4.32% for aerial herbicide, 2.90% for manual brush cutting, 2.82% for ground ap-plied herbicide, and 2.50% for brush cutting plus herbicide treatments indicated that all of the vegetation management alternatives evaluated are economically viable

Environmental and economic impact assessment of biochar-based bioenergy production in Northwestern Ontario, Canada

Bioenergy is becoming very popular in Ontario with the 2014 ban on the use of coal in power generation. Biochar is produced as a by-product or a co-product of bioenergy. Past literature shows that if biochar is produced as a co-product with bioenergy from sustainably managed forests and used for soil amendment, it could provide a carbon neutral or even carbon negative solution for current environmental problems. It also shows that detailed life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle cost assessment (LCCA) that compares the potential environmental and economic impacts of BBBP system with those of conventional coal-based system is missing. This study fills that gap by assessing environmental and economic implications of a BBBP system in northwestern Ontario throughout its lifecycle using SimaPro® Ver. 8.1, EIOLCA® software and spreadsheet modeling. Under the assumption that only forest residues and/or under-utilized species are used, results show that although a system including biochar based land application consumes 4,847 MJ t-1 dry feedstock more energy than the conventional coal-based system, it reduces the GHG emissions by 68 kgCO2e t-1 dry feedstock during its life cycle. It also improves the ecosystem quality by 18%, reduces global warming potential by 15%, and resource use by 13% but may impact human health by increasing disability adjusted life years (DALY) by 1.7% if biomass availability is low to medium. The economic viability of this BBBP system, within the LCA system boundary, is directly dependent on the costs of pyrolysis, feedstock processing (drying, grinding and pelletization), feedstock collection and the value of total carbon offset provided by the system. The BBBP system is economically viable only in case of high biomass availability within 200km and when the cost of carbon sequestration exceeds C$60 t-1 of CO2e. The environmental and economic impact assessment results developed through this study, can be scaled up to a larger regional scale which is expected to help in reinforcing the confidence of industries and its partners in promoting BBBP systems and the use of biochar as a soil amendment in the region

Environmental and economic impact assessment of biochar-based bioenergy production in Northwestern Ontario, Canada

Bioenergy is becoming very popular in Ontario with the 2014 ban on the use of coal in power generation. Biochar is produced as a by-product or a co-product of bioenergy. Past literature shows that if biochar is produced as a co-product with bioenergy from sustainably managed forests and used for soil amendment, it could provide a carbon neutral or even carbon negative solution for current environmental problems. It also shows that detailed life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle cost assessment (LCCA) that compares the potential environmental and economic impacts of BBBP system with those of conventional coal-based system is missing. This study fills that gap by assessing environmental and economic implications of a BBBP system in northwestern Ontario throughout its lifecycle using SimaPro? Ver. 8.1, EIOLCA? software and spreadsheet modeling. Under the assumption that only forest residues and/or under-utilized species are used, results show that although a system including biochar based land application consumes 4,847 MJ t-1 dry feedstock more energy than the conventional coal-based system, it reduces the GHG emissions by 68 kgCO2e t-1 dry feedstock during its life cycle. It also improves the ecosystem quality by 18%, reduces global warming potential by 15%, and resource use by 13% but may impact human health by increasing disability adjusted life years (DALY) by 1.7% if biomass availability is low to medium. The economic viability of this BBBP system, within the LCA system boundary, is directly dependent on the costs of pyrolysis, feedstock processing (drying, grinding and pelletization), feedstock collection and the value of total carbon offset provided by the system. The BBBP system is economically viable only in case of high biomass availability within 200km and when the cost of carbon sequestration exceeds C$60 t-1 of CO2e. The environmental and economic impact assessment results developed through this study, can be scaled up to a larger regional scale which is expected to help in reinforcing the confidence of industries and its partners in promoting BBBP systems and the use of biochar as a soil amendment in the region

Differences in extrinsic tree quality and value of fibre production following alternative vegetation management treatments in Northwestern Ontario

This is the publisher’s version of a work published in The Forestry Chronicle 90:1 (2014) The version on the publisher's website can be viewed at http://pubs.cif-ifc.org/doi/abs/10.5558/tfc2011-012We examined differences in stem quality, and volume and value of fibre produced by planted white spruce 16 years after vegetation management treatments in northwestern Ontario. Forest Vegetation Simulator (FVSOntario) was used to project the total and merchantable volume to age 70 and BUCK-2 was used to optimize the resulting product mix. Projected value was based on 2009 prices for hog fuel, pulpwood and SPF (spruce–pine–fir) eastern green lumber prices. At 16 years posttreatment, gross total volumes in herbicide-treated and mechanically cut plots were significantly higher (120%–165% and 94%–98%, respectively) than that in control plots (14.73 m3 ha-1). Based on height, diameter, and taper criteria, observed tree quality did not differ among treatments. The projected value of the fibre produced was 36% to 53% higher in herbicide- treated plots and 24% to 37% higher in mechanically cut plots than in control plots ($18 486.76 per ha)

Emotional states affect steady state walking performance.

Gait is a large component and indicator of health. Many factors affect gait including age, disease, and even mood disorders. Few studies have looked at the influence of emotional states on gait. This study aimed to investigate the influence of emotional states on walking performance to understand whether an emotional state may be an important factor to consider when evaluating gait. Thirty-six young adults were recruited (23F, 13M) and performed a neutral baseline condition of walking which included six passes of walking across an 8m walkway (a total of 48m of walking). Participants then completed 6 pseudo-randomized emotional state induction conditions while immersive 360-degree videos were used to induce the following emotional conditions: happiness, excitement, sadness, fear, and anger. Participants viewed the emotion elicitation videos using a virtual reality head-mounted display (HMD), then rated their emotional state using self-assessment manikins and walked (without the HMD) over a pressure sensor walkway. One-way repeated measures ANOVA and pairwise comparisons were used to examine differences in gait parameters across the emotional conditions. Participants walked with significantly reduced step length and speed during the sadness condition compared to the other emotional conditions and the neutral condition. Furthermore, participants adjusted the timing of their walking during the sadness condition and walked with significantly increased step, stance, and swing times compared to other emotional conditions, but not the neutral condition. Step time was significantly reduced during the conditions of excitement and fear compared to the neutral condition. Emotions may impact variety of gait parameters involving pace and rhythm, however have little influence on gait variability and postural control. These results indicate that perhaps the emotions of sadness and excitement should be taken into account as potential confounds for future gait analysis