Design of a Wearable Balance Control Indicator

Each year, one in three elderly fall. Studies show that many factors contribute to an elderly person\u27s risk of falling, but if the factors causing imbalance are improved, a person\u27s risk of falling may be reduced. A device that detects and alerts the user of an off-balance situation before the fall occurs could identify a specific need for improved balance control. This MQP describes the design, testing, and verification of a prototype wearable device that is worn on the right hip during the sit-to-stand activity (STS) to detect and notify the user of an unbalanced STS. By signaling an off-balance situation during STS, our device notifies the user of poor balance control and identifies the need for balance control improvement

Evaluating Hong Kong\u27s Waterfront

Even though Hong Kong is well known for its waterfront views, Victoria Harbour uses little of its waterfront to the fullest potential. From past research, we identified four main qualities essential to a beneficial harbour-front: accessibility, connectivity, quality and design/maintenance. After observing forty-eight sites around Hong Kong\u27s Victoria Harbour, we indicated both positive and negative qualities that added or detracted from the site\u27s vibrancy. We found that a mix of facilities, amenities and activities at water\u27s edge can make Victoria Harbour a more popular destination for both residents and tourists. Our report presents findings and suggestions for the improvement of Hong Kong

Reliability and Validity of a Flume-Based Maximal Oxygen Uptake Swimming Test

A mode-specific swimming protocol to assess maximal aerobic uptake (VO2maxsw) is vital to accurately evaluate swimming performance. A need exists for reliable and valid swimming protocols that assess VO2maxsw in a flume environment. The purpose was to assess: (a) reliability and (b) “performance” validity of a VO2maxsw flume protocol using the 457-m freestyle pool performance swim (PS) test as the criterion. Nineteen males (n = 9) and females (n = 10) (age, 28.5 ± 8.3 years.; height, 174.7 ± 8.2 cm; mass, 72.9 ± 12.5 kg; %body fat, 21.4 ± 5.9) performed two flume VO2maxsw tests (VO2maxswA and VO2maxswB) and one PS test [457 m (469.4 ± 94.7 s)]. For test–retest reliability (Trials A vs. B), moderately strong relationships were established for VO2maxsw (mL·kg−1·min−1)(r= 0.628, p = 0.002), O2pulse (mL O2·beat−1)(r = 0.502, p = 0.014), VEmax (L·min−1) (r = 0.671, p = 0.001), final test time (sec) (0.608, p = 0.004), and immediate post-test blood lactate (IPE (BLa)) (0.716, p = 0.001). For performance validity, moderately strong relationships (p \u3c 0.05) were found between VO2maxswA (r =−0.648, p = 0.005), O2pulse (r= −0.623, p = 0.008), VEmax (r = −0.509 p = 0.037), and 457-m swim times. The swimming flume protocol examined is a reliable and valid assessment of VO2maxsw., and offers an alternative for military, open water, or those seeking complementary forms of training to improve swimming performance

Reliability and Validity of a Flume-Based Maximal Oxygen Uptake Swimming Test

A mode-specific swimming protocol to assess maximal aerobic uptake (VO2maxsw) is vital to accurately evaluate swimming performance. A need exists for reliable and valid swimming protocols that assess VO2maxsw in a flume environment. The purpose was to assess: (a) reliability and (b) “performance” validity of a VO2maxsw flume protocol using the 457-m freestyle pool performance swim (PS) test as the criterion. Nineteen males (n = 9) and females (n = 10) (age, 28.5 ± 8.3 years.; height, 174.7 ± 8.2 cm; mass, 72.9 ± 12.5 kg; %body fat, 21.4 ± 5.9) performed two flume VO2maxsw tests (VO2maxswA and VO2maxswB) and one PS test [457 m (469.4 ± 94.7 s)]. For test–retest reliability (Trials A vs. B), moderately strong relationships were established for VO2maxsw (mL·kg−1·min−1)(r= 0.628, p = 0.002), O2pulse (mL O2·beat−1)(r = 0.502, p = 0.014), VEmax (L·min−1) (r = 0.671, p = 0.001), final test time (sec) (0.608, p = 0.004), and immediate post-test blood lactate (IPE (BLa)) (0.716, p = 0.001). For performance validity, moderately strong relationships (p 2maxswA (r =−0.648, p = 0.005), O2pulse (r= −0.623, p = 0.008), VEmax (r = −0.509 p = 0.037), and 457-m swim times. The swimming flume protocol examined is a reliable and valid assessment of VO2maxsw., and offers an alternative for military, open water, or those seeking complementary forms of training to improve swimming performance

'A certain minor light':Plath in Brontë country

The poet and academic Sarah Corbett reveals Plath’s profound response to Yorkshire’s powerful and often threatening natural and human landscape, as well as to the writings of Emily Brontë and Ted Hughes. In a handful of poems, Plath can be heard sounding out a Hughesian strain of voice against the ghosts and rumoured angels of her own emergent poetic imagination. These West Yorkshire interludes show Plath making use of an ambivalent energy in the landscape to mirror her self/psyche, a technique that can be seen in many of the Ariel poems, and the beginnings of a working out of the struggle between masculine and feminine voices that was to underpin much of her mature work

Plath's Whimsy

Will May returns us to Plath’s early reception, and finds there a vital but overlooked context for her work: the whimsical. Taking seriously Plath’s fascination with the unthreatening fantasy worlds of children’s stories and their attendant winsome philosophy, May rehabilitates a literary term that has often been used disparagingly by the Movement poets. Instead, he shows us how indebted Plath’s dark comedy and verbal games are to whimsy. With close attention to her children’s stories, May unveils Plath’s cultural conversation with the domestic, the miniature and the absurd, though she herself was disingenuous about her interventions with whimsy. May debunks any notion that Plath’s poetry and stories belong in separate spheres. Neither, he argues, does her children’s writing