The Glasgow-Maastricht foot model, evaluation of a 26 segment kinematic model of the foot

BACKGROUND: Accurately measuring of intrinsic foot kinematics using skin mounted markers is difficult, limited in part by the physical dimensions of the foot. Existing kinematic foot models solve this problem by combining multiple bones into idealized rigid segments. This study presents a novel foot model that allows the motion of the 26 bones to be individually estimated via a combination of partial joint constraints and coupling the motion of separate joints using kinematic rhythms. METHODS: Segmented CT data from one healthy subject was used to create a template Glasgow-Maastricht foot model (GM-model). Following this, the template was scaled to produce subject-specific models for five additional healthy participants using a surface scan of the foot and ankle. Forty-three skin mounted markers, mainly positioned around the foot and ankle, were used to capture the stance phase of the right foot of the six healthy participants during walking. The GM-model was then applied to calculate the intrinsic foot kinematics. RESULTS: Distinct motion patterns where found for all joints. The variability in outcome depended on the location of the joint, with reasonable results for sagittal plane motions and poor results for transverse plane motions. CONCLUSIONS: The results of the GM-model were comparable with existing literature, including bone pin studies, with respect to the range of motion, motion pattern and timing of the motion in the studied joints. This novel model is the most complete kinematic model to date. Further evaluation of the model is warranted

Enabling political legitimacy and conceptual integration for climate change adaptation research within an agricultural bureaucracy: a systemic inquiry

The value of using systems approaches, for situations framed as ‘super wicked’, is examined from the perspective of research managers and stakeholders in a state-based climate change adaptation (CCA) program (CliChAP). Polycentric drivers influencing the development of CCA research pre-2010 in Victoria, Australia are reflected on, using Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) to generate a boundary critique of CCA research as a human activity system. We experienced the complexity of purpose with research practices pulling in different directions, reflected on the appropriateness of agricultural bureaucracies’ historical new public management (NPM) practices, and focused on realigning management theory with emerging demands for adaptation research skills and capability. Our analysis conceptualised CliChAP as a subsystem, generating novelty in a wider system, concerned with socio-ecological co-evolution. Constraining/enabling conditions at the time dealing with political legitimacy and conceptual integration were observed as potential catalysts for innovation in research management towards better handling of uncertainty as a social process using systemic thinking in practice (StiP)

Designing an inquiry-based learning system: innovating in research praxis to transform science-policy-practice relations for sustainable development

When designers of activities concerned with the dissemination of research findings pursue their practice all too often the linear model is implicitly or explicitly the default position. This paper uses the lens of praxis (theory-informed practical action) to offer a shift in possibility away from reliance on the linear model of innovation to a second-order modality of research practice more suited to sustainable development goal (SDG) implementation. Whilst second-order modalities of knowledge production, necessary to enact sustainability transitions and transformative praxis, are emerging many lack purposefully designed modes of praxis and are limited in their considerations regarding enactment and performativity. We report on the testing and evaluation of a purpose-driven design of a ‘learning system’ within the Australian urban-water sector to enact a ‘systemic inquiry’ capable of generating social learning. Changes in understanding and/or practices by those who participated were achieved, thus satisfying key criteria for initiating but not necessarily sustaining social learning. The praxis innovation described is suited to situations best framed as uncertain, complex and contested. The positive outcomes of the enacted ‘learning system’ support the case for more investment in action-oriented research to support innovation in the field of second-order systems praxis

Characterising water sensitive cities through inquiry-based learning systems

Transitioning to water sensitive cities in Australia is necessary for creating urban areas that are resilient to natural disasters, water shortages and climate change. But how to transform existing urban centres into water sensitive cities remains a difficult prospect, as their situations are characterised by complexity. In this paper we report research to enable systemic-transformations praxis. We brought together water practitioners from various sectors for a number of systemic inquiry events across five cities to understand what was required to begin a transition to water sensitive cities in Australia. Using an approach influenced by systemic innovation, we purposefully designed an inquiry-based learning system to initiate changes in understandings and practices amongst participants. Critically, our learning system design made scientific knowledge available for interpretation, internalisation and contestation, by practitioners in different contexts. The workshops led to identification of characteristics of water sensitive cities; relevant issues and opportunities; and commitments and constraints to action constituting a baseline data set for future evaluation of progress. Transitioning to water sensitive cities requires a combination of leadership, a supportive institutional-sectoral environment, practical implementation of technologies in social contexts and increased collaboration involving knowledge coproduction across disciplines and sectors. Systemic inquiry methods lend themselves to revealing the socially constructed nature of urban water as hybrids of the technical, natural and social. Despite some limitations, our approach enhanced institutional innovation and investment and offers insights into future research and planning for enabling systemic-transformations praxis in multiple sectors and contexts