Habitual Mobility Research Articles

Proboscideans on Parade: A review of the migratory behaviour of elephants, mammoths, and mastodons

The ecology and behaviour of woolly and Columbian mammoths and mastodons have been extensively studied. Despite this, their patterns of mobility, and particularly the question of whether or not they migrated habitually, remains unclear. This paper summarises the current state of knowledge regarding mobility in these species, reviewing comparative datasets from extant elephant populations as well as isotopic data measured directly on the ancient animals themselves.Seasonal migration is not common in modern elephants and varies between years. Nonetheless, non-migratory elephants can still have considerable home ranges, whose size is affected mainly by habitat, seasonal availability of water and food, and biological sex. Strontium isotope analyses of woolly mammoths, Columbian mammoths, and mastodons demonstrate plasticity in their migratory behaviour as well, probably in response to spatio-temporal variations in ecological conditions. However, biological sex is difficult to establish for most proboscidean fossils and its influence on the results of Sr analyses can therefore not be assessed. Advances in intra-tooth sampling and analytical methods for strontium isotope analysis have enabled research on intra-annual movement, revealing nomadic behaviour in all three species. Sulfur isotopes have been analysed from woolly mammoth remains numerous times, but its methodology is not yet developed well enough to inform on past proboscidean mobility in as much detail as strontium studies.The inter- and intra-individual variation in migratory behaviour in mammoths and mastodons implies that their role in the subsistence strategies of Palaeolithic people may have fluctuated as well. Further assessment of hominin-proboscidean predator-prey interactions will require a more detailed understanding of proboscidean habitual mobility in specific contexts and places. Strontium isotope studies based on multi-year enamel sequences from multiple individuals have the potential to provide this insight.

Home-Use Evaluation of a Wearable Collision Warning Device for Individuals With Severe Vision Impairments

There is scant rigorous evidence about the real-world mobility benefit of electronic mobility aids. To evaluate the effect of a collision warning device on the number of contacts experienced by blind and visually impaired people in their daily mobility. In this double-masked randomized clinical trial, participants used a collision warning device during their daily mobility over a period of 4 weeks. A volunteer sample of 31 independently mobile individuals with severe visual impairments, including total blindness and peripheral visual field restrictions, who used a long cane or guide dog as their habitual mobility aid completed the study. The study was conducted from January 2018 to December 2019. The device automatically detected collision hazards using a chest-mounted video camera. It randomly switched between 2 modes: active mode (intervention condition), where it provided alerts for detected collision threats via 2 vibrotactile wristbands, and silent mode (control condition), where the device still detected collisions but did not provide any warnings to the user. Scene videos along with the collision warning information were recorded by the device. Potential collisions detected by the device were reviewed and scored, including contacts with the hazards, by 2 independent reviewers. Participants and reviewers were masked to the device operation mode. Rate of contacts per 100 hazards per hour, compared between the 2 device modes within each participant. Modified intention-to-treat analysis was used. Of the 31 included participants, 18 (58%) were male, and the median (range) age was 61 (25-73) years. A total of 19 participants (61%) had a visual acuity (VA) of light perception or worse, and 28 (90%) reported a long cane as their habitual mobility aid. The median (interquartile range) number of contacts was lower in the active mode compared with silent mode (9.3 [6.6-14.9] vs 13.8 [6.9-24.3]; difference, 4.5; 95% CI, 1.5-10.7; P < .001). Controlling for demographic characteristics, presence of VA better than light perception, and fall history, the rate of contacts significantly reduced in the active mode compared with the silent mode (β = 0.63; 95% CI, 0.54-0.73; P < .001). In this study involving 31 visually impaired participants, the collision warnings were associated with a reduced rate of contacts with obstacles in daily mobility, indicating the potential of the device to augment habitual mobility aids. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03057496.

Diet and Lifestyle in the First Villages of the Middle Preceramic: Insights from Stable Isotope and Osteological Analyses of Human Remains from Paloma, Chilca I, La Yerba III, and Morro I

We present stable isotope and osteological data from human remains at Paloma, Chilca I, La Yerba III, and Morro I that offer new evidence for diet, lifestyle, and habitual mobility in the first villages that proliferated along the arid Pacific coast of South America (ca. 6000 cal BP). The data not only reaffirm the dietary primacy of marine protein for this period but also show evidence at Paloma of direct access interactions between the coast and highlands, as well as habitual mobility in some parts of society. By locating themselves at the confluence of diverse coastal and terrestrial habitats, the inhabitants of these early villages were able to broaden their use of resources through rounds of seasonal mobility, while simultaneously increasing residential sedentism. Yet they paid little substantial health penalty for their settled lifestyles, as reflected in their osteological markers of stature and stress, compared with their agriculturalist successors even up to five millennia later. Contrasting data for the north coast of Chile indicate locally contingent differences. Considering these data in a wider chronological context contributes to understanding how increasing sedentism and population density laid the foundations here for the emergence of Late Preceramic social complexity.

Measuring heterogeneous perception of urban space with massive data and machine learning: An application to safety

In the last decade, large street imagery data sets and machine learning developments have allowed increasing scalability of methodologies to understand the effects of landscape attributes on the way they are perceived. However, these new methodologies have not incorporated individual heterogeneity in their analysis, even though differences by gender and other sociodemographic characteristics in the perception of safety and other aspects of landscapes and public spaces have been widely studied in social sciences and urban planning in lower scale studies. In the present study, we combine computational and statistical tools to develop a methodological proposal with high scalability and low implementation cost, which helps to identify and measure heterogeneous perception and its correlation to the presence of elements in the landscape. To achieve this, we implement a survey of perception of public spaces, collecting sociodemographic information of respondents. Then, we fit a discrete choice model to quantify perceptions of these spaces using a parametrization of images that jointly considers semantic segmentation and object detection as input. Our results show heterogeneity in the perception of safety in public spaces according to gender and the observer’s habitual mobility choices. The model is then applied to the city of Santiago, Chile. This produces a map of safety perception for different types of users. The proposed method and the obtained results can be a relevant input for the design of public spaces and decision making in the urban planning process.

The 30-second chair stand test and habitual mobility predict reduced physical ability after acute admission

The 30-second chair stand test and habitual mobility predict reduced physical ability after acute admission

Fampridine and real-life walking in multiple sclerosis: Low predictive value of clinical test for habitual short-term changes

BackgroundFampridine improves walking speed in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) in performance-based tests. The impact on habitual mobility and its correlation with clinical tests has not been analysed. ObjectiveTo investigate the association between clinical response criteria and habitual mobility in MS patients starting a fampridine treatment. MethodsDuring a four-week baseline-to-treatment study, we assessed in 28 patients (median EDSS 4.75, range 4–6.5) walking tests as the Timed-25-Foot-Walk (T25FW) and mobility questionnaires at day 0, 14 (start of treatment) and 28. Habitual steps and distance per day, total activity and walking speed was measured by accelerometry over four weeks. Beside improvement in real-life mobility, we investigated if such measures differed between non-responders and responders defined by a 20% improvement in clinical tests. ResultsAll clinical test, patient reported outcomes and total activity improved significantly (p<0.05). 46% improved (any change >0) in three of four real-life measures. Change of the T25FW predicted only an increase of distance per day. Subjective rating of patients performed better by predicting distance and walking speed changes correctly. ConclusionFampridine might improve walking in daily life of MS, but clinical tests are weak predictors. Accelerometry opens a new perspective on mobility measurment, but the current data do not show a consistent effect on non-performance based accelerometry outcomes.

Lower limb biomechanics and habitual mobility among mid-Holocene populations of the Cis-Baikal

The mid-Holocene hunter–gatherer populations of the Cis-Baikal represent long-term occupation by the Early Neolithic Kitoi Culture (6800–4900 B.C.) and the Middle Neolithic and Bronze Age Isakovo, Serovo and Glazkovo (ISG) cultures (4200–1000 B.C.). While there is considerable evidence for cultural and genetic discontinuity between these populations, differences in habitual activity between these periods remain poorly understood. The current study uses cross sectional geometric (CSG) properties of the femur and tibia in the lower limb, to investigate variation in mechanical loading and terrestrial locomotion between the Kitoi and ISG cultural groups. The results demonstrate a significant decrease in femoral rigidity and a trend towards more circular femoral diaphyses among the later ISG groups which suggests that there was a significant decrease in terrestrial mobility across this transition. This trend is accompanied by significant declines in tibial rigidity among females, resulting in greater sexual dimorphism among the ISG than the Kitoi. This indicates a shift towards a sexual division of labour which involved greater sedentism of the ISG than Kitoi women. Overall, the results suggest that shifts in habitual activity throughout the mid-Holocene of the Cis-Baikal involved both increased sedentism, and an increase in sexual differences in logistical mobility.

The emergent relevance of care staff decision-making and situation awareness to mobility care in nursing homes: an ethnographic study.

To explore mobility care as provided by care staff in nursing homes. Care staff regularly assist residents with their mobility. Nurses are increasingly reliant on such staff to provide safe and quality mobility care. However, the nature of care staff decision-making when providing assistance has not been fully addressed in the literature. A focused ethnography. The study was conducted in four nursing homes in Melbourne, Australia. Non-participant observations of residents and staff in 2011. Focus groups with 18 nurses, care and lifestyle staff were conducted at three facilities in 2012. Thematic analysis was employed for focus groups and content analysis for observation data. Cognitive Continuum Theory and the notion of 'situation awareness' assisted data interpretation. Decision-making during mobility care emerged as a major theme. Using Cognitive Continuum Theory as a guide, nursing home staff's decision-making was described as ranging from system-aided, through resident- and peer-aided, to reflective and intuitive. Staff seemed aware of the need for resident-aided decision-making consistent with person-centred care. Habitual mobility care based on shared mental models occurred. It was noted that levels of situation awareness may vary among staff. Care staff may benefit from support via collaborative and reflective practice to develop decision-making skills, situation awareness and person-centred mobility care. Further research is required to explore the connection between staff's skills in mobility care and their decision-making competence as well as how these factors link to quality mobility care.

Hodnocení vlivu vzdělání na soběstačnost a mobilitu seniorů

The purpose of this research is to determine the infl uence of level of education to the self-suffi ciency and mobility in seniors, and to map the prevalence of disability and mobility limitations in both elderly men and women. For this study we compiled a random selection of people over 75 years. Th ey were tested with the “Get up and go“ test to assess their habitual mobility and by using the Barthel index, we set their level of dependence in ADL (activities of daily living). Th rough a personality questionnaire, we obtained personal data on the subjects. Using statistical methods, we compared the data obtained from the tests with the personal data from the researched group. Data is still being obtained and processed, therefore we only have preliminary conclusions.

Changes in Activities with the Shift to Agriculture in the Southeastern United States

Changes in Activities with the Shift to Agriculture in the Southeastern United States

The banking system in Sicily: A territorial analysis for planning and marketing purposes

This study has as its main object the analysis of the most important structural aspects of the Sicilian banking system such as efficiency, competition/concentration, composition of deposits and loans, in order to: • - evaluate if the banking system scale was suitable for the real requirements of the island; • - find the most efficient distribution of our bank branches according to the criteria established by the Bank of Italy with regard to the authorisation for opening new branches or moving the existing ones. The first part of the paper is devoted to the exposition of the criteria adopted to measure the competition and efficiency levels and to the presentation of the results obtained for Sicily. The second part is devoted to the methodology that we adopted for the subdivision of Sicily in ‘banking mobility areas’ to which our analysis can usefully refer (it is well known that concepts like competition and concentration are meaningful when they refer to adequate areas). The identified areas are not dependent on the administrative division and take into account the people's habitual mobility to utilize different community and social services (the banking services in particular). At a second stage the areas were economically characterized in an attempt to evaluate the credit demand from a quantitative and qualitative point of view, where the indications derived from the first part of the analysis were not sufficient. The economic reality of the areas is described by constructing indexes and utilizing data analysis techniques.