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The nature of the relationship between urban street environments and the levels of station use and walk access mode share of urban metro systems remains unclear in transport studies. This thesis explores these relationships (at station catchment level) in several different urban rail systems in the US - Dallas, Phoenix, Atlanta, and Washington DC - that are as comparable as possible with Middle East conditions (in terms of population densities, rail network size, spatial structure, climate, etc.); and then compares model relationships to one of the metro systems in the Middle East (Dubai Metro) in the United Arab Emirates. Aggregate socio-demographic, land use and service frequency data is assembled from different urban datasets within a 400 metre and 800 metre radius of selected rail stations. In addition, for each station catchment area, a newly developed street network connectivity (S-Conn) index (presence of sidewalks, completeness of sidewalks, presence of crossings, and presence of barriers) and a street network quality (S-Qual) index (speed limit, sidewalk condition, dropped kerbs, seating areas, street lights, and amount of street trees) is developed and applied to sample of the street network segments. In general, S-Conn and S-Qual scores more highly within 400m of stations than it does between 400m and 800m, in all cities. Using this collated data, statistical models have been developed to estimate the relationships between the various explanatory variables and average weekday boardings and walk access mode share at selected stations. The study is particularly interested to explore whether urban S-Conn and S-Qual are significant explanatory variables in these models, both within 400m and 800m of stations. The study finds that the S-Conn index is positively associated with the average weekday boardings in the four US cities; but S-Qual is only significant in a few of the models. The findings also showed that the S-Conn index is positively associated with walk access mode shares both in the four US cities and in Dubai models. However, this result does not mean that the S-Qual is not important; its significance may differ for different cities and models. The study concludes that transport planners should take more account of S-Conn around station catchments when planning public transport infrastructure projects, in order to increase station patronage and walk access modal shares.

In 1981 the suspended walkways-or \"skywalks\"-in Kansas City's Hyatt Regency hotel fell and killed 114 people. It was the deadliest building collapse in the United States until the fall of New York's Twin Towers on 9/11. In Skywalks R. Eli Paul follows the actions of attorney Robert Gordon, an insider to the bitter litigation that followed. Representing the plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit against those who designed, built, inspected, owned, and managed the hotel, Gordon was tenacious in uncovering damaging facts. He wanted his findings presented before a jury, where his legal team would assign blame from underlings to corporate higher-ups, while securing a massive judgment in his clients' favor. But when the case was settled out from under Gordon, he turned to another medium to get the truth out: a quixotic book project that consumed the rest of his life. For a decade the irascible attorney-turned-writer churned through a succession of high-powered literary agents, talented ghost writers, and New York trade publishers. Gordon's resistance to collaboration and compromise resulted in a controversial but unpublishable manuscript, \"House of Cards,\" finished long after the public's interest had waned. His conclusions, still explosive but never receiving their proper attention, laid the blame for the disaster largely at the feet of the hotel's owner and Kansas City's most visible and powerful corporation, Hallmark Cards Inc. Gordon gave up his lucrative law practice and lived the rest of his life as a virtual recluse in his mansion in Mission Hills, Kansas. David had fought Goliath, and to his despair, Goliath had won. Gordon died in 2008 without ever seeing his book published or the full truth told. Skywalks is a long-overdue corrective, built on a foundation of untapped historical materials Gordon compiled, as well as his own unpublished writings.

HintergrundDie meisten Stürze älterer Personen finden während des Gehens statt; oftmals liegen ihnen fehlerhafte Reaktionen auf Störungen des Gangs zugrunde. Die Erfassung des reaktiven dynamischen Gleichgewichts hat eine hohe Relevanz für die Bestimmung des individuellen Sturzrisikos und könnte frühzeitig eine Initiierung von Interventionen ermöglichen.ZielVerfügbare Methoden zur Perturbation des Gangs sowie zur Auswertung der entsprechenden Reaktionsmuster werden kritisch diskutiert, um sich der Bewertung des reaktiven dynamischen Gleichgewichts anzunähern.Material und MethodenBasierend auf Literatur wird ein Protokoll für die Perturbation des Gangs auf einem Laufband vorgestellt und eine Möglichkeit präsentiert, das reaktive dynamische Gleichgewicht möglichst umfassend abzubilden.ErgebnisseNach initialer Ermittlung der präferierten Gehgeschwindigkeit über ~6 min werden die Proband:innen über ~4:30 min mithilfe von 9 verschiedenen Perturbationen in ihrem Gang gestört. Die Auswertemöglichkeiten umfassen sowohl spatiotemporale Parameter als auch deren Variabilität sowie die „margin of stability“ und den Lyapunov-Exponenten.DiskussionDas reaktive dynamische Gleichgewicht ist ein vielversprechender, spezifischer Parameter zur Quantifizierung des Sturzrisikos älterer Personen. Die umfassende Bewertung erhobener Parameter ist derzeit unzureichend, da es keine etablierten Methoden oder Referenzen gibt. Die Entwicklung eines einheitlichen Verfahrens zur sensitiven Bestimmung des reaktiven dynamischen Gleichgewichts ist essenziell, um diese für die Bewertung des Sturzrisikos im klinischen Kontext einzusetzen und um Trainingserfolge nutzen zu können.

Technologies that capture and analyze movement patterns for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes are a major locus of innovation in the United States. Several studies have evaluated their measurement properties in different conditions with variable findings. To date, the authors are not aware of any systematic review of studies conducted to assess the concurrent validity of pressure-sensing walkway technologies. The results of such an analysis could establish the body of evidence needed to confidently use these systems as reference or gold-standard systems when validating novel tools or measures. A comprehensive search of electronic databases including MEDLINE, Embase, and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) was performed. The initial search yielded 7670 papers. After removing duplicates and applying study inclusion/exclusion criteria, 11 papers were included in the systematic review with 10 included in a meta-analysis. There were 25 spatial and temporal gait parameters extracted from the included studies. The results showed there was not a significant bias for nearly all spatiotemporal gait parameters when the walkway system was compared to the reference systems. The findings from this analysis should provide confidence in using the walkway systems as reference systems in future studies to support the evaluation and validation of novel technologies deriving gait parameters.