Specificity of motor learning in simulator training of endoscopic-surgery skills.

Unlabelled: The introduction of simulators for the practice of endoscopic-surgery sensori-motor skills opens a wide range of design options. An obvious one is augmented visual information early in practice, in particular a direct view of the site instead of the endoscopic view. We studied the effects of such augmented visual information on the simulated ablation of tissue with straight, horizontal and parallel cuts.

Validation of a questionnaire for assessing physical work load.

Objectives: Reliable, valid, and compatible methods are required for exploring the complex interactive effects of psychosocial and physical stressors on complaints and disorders. An instrument for assessing physical work load that integrates information from a biomechanical model of lumbar load is presented and validated.

Methods: Four hundred and fifty-five people working in nursing homes for elderly people in Germany filled out the developed questionnaire 3 times within 1 year.

The relationship between changing body height and growth related changes in maximal aerobic power.

In order to analyse the relationship between maximal aerobic power (VO2max) and height, body mass and lean body mass a multi-longitudinal survey was conducted on three different age groups of randomly selected children from a small Czech community. Beginning at the initial ages of 8, 12 and 16 years subjects were subsequently retested three times at 2-year intervals. At overlapping ages there were no differences in the various age groups between height and VO2max.

Volume calibration of various gasmeters using a modified Tissot spirometer.

Various methods for determinating energy expenditure by indirect calorimetry are used in laboratory and field studies such as the Douglas bag method, often used in combination with a wet gasmeter, the respirometer of Kofranyi and Michaelis (KM) and the Oxylog (OX). To calibrate the volume measurements of these pieces of apparatus a modified Tissot spirometer was built, consisting of an outer casing filled with water, a core and a bell. It was equipped with a solid counterbalance and with an additional roller chain, partly freely suspended on the side of the counterbalance.