Joint-level contributions to reducing mechanical work during split-belt walking in older adults.

The study of split-belt treadmill adaptation provides insight into the priorities determining how we adapt to novel conditions during walking. During split-belt adaptation, young adults reduce their metabolic cost and positive leg work in part by learning to take longer steps on the fast belt, thus adopting a positive step length asymmetry. However, aging may lead to a shift in the work performed by distal versus proximal joints, so it is unknown if older adults can similarly reduce the work performed by the legs during split-belt walking.

Stroke impairs the proactive control of dynamic balance during predictable treadmill accelerations.

We maintain balance during gait using both proactive and reactive control strategies. Damage to the brain from a stroke impairs reactive balance, but little is known about how a stroke impacts proactive control during walking. Identifying stroke-related impairments to proactive control could inform the design of interventions to improve balance and reduce fall risk.

Associations between asymmetry and reactive balance control during split-belt walking.

The adaptive control of walking is often studied on a split-belt treadmill, where people gradually reduce their step length asymmetries (SLAs) by modulating foot placement and timing. Although it is proposed that this adaptation may be driven in part by a desire to reduce instability, it is unknown if changes in asymmetry impact people's ability to maintain balance in response to destabilizing perturbations. Here, we used intermittent perturbations to determine if changes in SLA affect reactive balance control as measured by whole-body angular momentum (WBAM) in the sagittal and frontal planes.

Creating, curating and evaluating a mitogenomic reference database to improve regional species identification using environmental DNA.

Species detection using eDNA is revolutionizing global capacity to monitor biodiversity. However, the lack of regional, vouchered, genomic sequence information-especially sequence information that includes intraspecific variation-creates a bottleneck for management agencies wanting to harness the complete power of eDNA to monitor taxa and implement eDNA analyses. eDNA studies depend upon regional databases of mitogenomic sequence information to evaluate the effectiveness of such data to detect and identify taxa.

Beach morphodynamics modulate the effects of multidirectional habitat loss on population density and size structure of the Atlantic ghost crab Ocypode quadrata.

Sandy beaches are land-sea transitional habitats experiencing 'multidirectional' habitat loss due to coastal developments (e.g. armoring and/or conversion of natural vegetation into manmade structures) and beach erosion.