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This book offers a succinct but comprehensive description of the mechanics of muscle contraction and legged terrestrial locomotion. It describes on the one hand how the fundamental properties of muscle tissue affect the mechanics of locomotion, and on the other, how the mechanics of locomotion modify the mechanism of muscle operation under different conditions. Further, the book reports on the design and results of experiments conducted with two goals. The first was to describe the physiological function of muscle tissue (which may be considered as the “motor”) contracting at a constant length, during shortening, during lengthening, and under a condition that occurs most frequently in the back-and-forth movement of the limbs during locomotion, namely the stretch-shortening cycle of the active muscle. The second objective was to analyze the interaction between the motor and the “machine” (the skeletal lever system) during walking and running in different scenarios with respect to speed, step frequency, body mass, gravity, age, and pathological gait. The book will be of considerable interest to physiology, biology and physics students, and provides researchers with stimuli for further experimental and analytical work.
Understanding Mammalian Locomotion will formally introduce the emerging perspective of collision dynamics in mammalian terrestrial locomotion and explain how it influences the interpretation of form and functional capabilities. The objective is to bring the reader interested in the function and mechanics of mammalian terrestrial locomotion to a sophisticated conceptual understanding of the relevant mechanics and the current debate ongoing in the field.
The Theraphosidae are the most famous and diverse mygalomorph spiders, and include some of the largest arachnids on earth. Their unique defense mechanisms, predatory tactics, reproductive strategies and ecological adaptations are displayed by a wide range of terrestrial, burrowing and arboreal species. These arachnids are familiar to the general public thanks to horror movies and a growing interest in tarantulas as pets; however, scientific information on the group is scattered throughout the literature and not easily available. This book reviews all major aspects of New World Theraphosid tarantulas and provides in-depth information on their evolution, taxonomy, behavior, physiology, ecology, reproduction, conservation and biogeography. As a comprehensive guide to the biology of tarantulas, it will appeal to researchers, students and terrarium hobbyists alike.
This fifth edition of “Engineering Physiology” has the same purpose as the earlier prints: to provide physiological information which engineers, designers, supervisors, managers and other planners need to make work and equipment “fit the human.” Chapters have been revised, figures and tables updated. New material discusses, among other topics, models of the human body that provide practical and design-oriented information, biomechanics describing the body’s capabilities and limitations, effects of shift work / sleep loss on attitude and performance, and new techniques to measure body sizes and the resultant changes in applications of that information. The book does not replace standard (biological-medical-chemical) textbooks on human physiology; instead, it provides information on human features and functions which are basic to ergonomics or human (factors) engineering, terms often used interchangeably. It helps lay the foundations for teamwork among engineers and physiologists, biologists and physicians. Bioengineering topics concern bones and tissues, neural networks, biochemical processes, bio- and anthromechanics, biosensors, perception of information and related actions, to mention just a few areas of common interest. Such understanding provides the underpinnings for devising work tasks, tools, workplaces, vehicles, work-rest schedules, human-machine systems, homes and designed environments so that we humans can work and live safely, efficiently and comfortably.
This textbook explores the fundamental qualitative and quantitative aspects of human physiology. It approaches biological and physiological processes and phenomena from a quantitative perspective, revealing how physiological problems can be mathematically formulated starting from simple laws of physics. The book addresses a broad range of topics, including: the statics and dynamics of circulation; muscle and sarcomere force-length and force-velocity relations, together with their mechanisms and functional consequences; subdivisions and meaning of the heat produced by muscle; locomotion, statics and dynamics of respiration; diffusion of gases and acid base equilibrium; phonation; general functions of the kidney and of the different sections of the nephron; changes in clearance with a substance’s plasmatic concentration; pH regulation and the kidney; Donnan’s equilibrium and its consequences; and the Nernst equation. The book offers the ideal learning resource for students of human physiology courses in medicine and biomedicine, as well as biomedical engineering and biophysics graduate students. An elementary grasp of mathematics and physics is sufficient to understand the content.
Animal Locomotion: Physical Principles and Adaptations is a professional-level, state of the art review and reference summarizing the current understanding of macroscopic metazoan animal movement. The comparative biophysics, biomechanics and bioengineering of swimming, flying and terrestrial locomotion are placed in contemporary frameworks of biodiversity, evolutionary process, and modern research methods, including mathematical analysis. The intended primary audience is advanced-level students and researchers primarily interested in and trained in mathematics, physical sciences and engineering. Although not encyclopedic in its coverage, anyone interested in organismal biology, functional morphology, organ systems and ecological physiology, physiological ecology, molecular biology, molecular genetics and systems biology should find this book useful.
This book focuses on a critical issue in the study of physical agents, whether natural or artificial: the quantitative modelling of sensory–motor coordination. Adopting a novel approach, it defines a common scientific framework for both the intelligent systems designed by engineers and those that have evolved naturally. As such it contributes to the widespread adoption of a rigorous quantitative and refutable approach in the scientific study of ‘embodied’ intelligence and cognition. More than 70 years after Norbert Wiener’s famous book Cybernetics: or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine (1948), robotics, AI and life sciences seem to be converging towards a common model of what we can call the ‘science of embodied intelligent/cognitive agents’. This book is interesting for an interdisciplinary community of researchers, technologists and entrepreneurs working at the frontiers of robotics and AI, neuroscience and general life and brain sciences.
Obesity is currently regarded as one of the major health challenges of the developed world. Excess body weight is an important risk factor for morbidity and mortality from cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer, musculoskeletal disorders and even psychiatric problems and is estimated to cause nearly 3 million deaths per year worldwide. Obesity is not necessarily associated with comorbidities: there are indeed metabolically healthy obese individuals. Thus, we need to consider individuals presenting simple with obesity separately from those at risk of developing or who have already developed complex clinical states potentially leading to disability. Comorbidities can tip the balance of independence in patients who already have functional limitations mainly due to the excess of mass itself or who develop conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular conditions, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, where an abnormal metabolism of adipose tissue prevails. Morbid obesity with comorbidities leading to disability represents a real social and economic burden for National Health Systems worldwide. The presence of multiple and associated comorbidities often represents an obstacle to being admitted to hospitals for the treatment of metabolic diseases. On the other hand, clinical units with optimal standards for the treatment of pathological conditions in normal-weight patients are often structurally and technologically inadequate for the care of patients with extreme obesity. The aim of this book is to focus on the pathophysiological and rehabilitative aspects of disabling obesity, highlighting multidisciplinary rehabilitation interventions as key to counteracting the disabling aspects of complicated obesity.
How can geckoes walk on the ceiling and basilisk lizards run over water? What are the aerodynamic effects that enable small insects to fly? What are the relative merits of squids' jet-propelled swimming and fishes' tail-powered swimming? Why do horses change gait as they increase speed? What determines our own vertical leap? Recent technical advances have greatly increased researchers' ability to answer these questions with certainty and in detail. This text provides an up-to-date overview of how animals run, walk, jump, crawl, swim, soar, hover, and fly. Excluding only the tiny creatures that use cilia, it covers all animals that power their movements with muscle--from roundworms to whales, clams to elephants, and gnats to albatrosses. The introduction sets out the general rules governing all modes of animal locomotion and considers the performance criteria--such as speed, endurance, and economy--that have shaped their selection. It introduces energetics and optimality as basic principles. The text then tackles each of the major modes by which animals move on land, in water, and through air. It explains the mechanisms involved and the physical and biological forces shaping those mechanisms, paying particular attention to energy costs. Focusing on general principles but extensively discussing a wide variety of individual cases, this is a superb synthesis of current knowledge about animal locomotion. It will be enormously useful to advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and a range of professional biologists, physicists, and engineers.