Summary Bioelements are related with the main functions of organism: growth, development, reproduction, metabolism, are a part of bones, are important to oxygen transportation, to muscle contraction and etc. Bioelements as structural and functional components of biosubstrats, perform regulational function of different organs. Topicality. There are many studies on different sports athletes about changes of bioelements while performing different physical activity. Physiological and biochemistry cathedral of Lithuanian academy of physical education has made a lot of studies on handball teams players, track and field athletes about changes of biolements while performing physical activity, but we still don‘t have information about fitness and aerobics exercise influence on changes of bioelements. It was interesting for us to study fitness and aerobics exercise influence on changes of bioelements (K, Na, Ca, Cl, Fe ). Novelty. We don‘t have information how fitness and aerobics exercise influence of bioelements (K, Na, Ca, Cl, Fe ).changes in literaure. Practical sense for sportsmens its very important to restore of water and saline balance . after the physical activity Hypothesis. Body looses a lot of water and mineral salts while sweating, so we thought that different mineral salts concentration will appear in the venous blood of women who perform aerobic and fitness exercises. The aim of the study is to determine the changes of bioelements (K, Na, Ca, Cl, Fe) in venous... [to full text]

Vytautas Jankauskas Analysis of Ltd. Company “LUKOIL Baltija” activity in Lithuania and strategical regulation. In this final paper the strategies of activity and expanding of Ltd. Company “Lukoil Baltija” have been analysed and based on the investigation. In the theoretical part four main business strategies typical of the business of petrol stations have been analysed: business unit strategy, low price strategy, differentiation strategy and concentration strategy. Three types of strategically managed enterprise features have been revealed: the features of diversified organization, mechanical organization and professional organization. The role of leadership in preparing business strategy of enterprise and strategical planning stages has been described. In the investigative part of this final paper the characteristics of Ltd. Company “Lukoil Baltija”, Ltd. the general charakteristics of “Lukoil Baltija” Servisas, detailed micro and makro analysis of business environment situation has been carried out. A lot of attention has been paid to analysis of economy branch competitor possibilities, SWOT analysis. Tne main strategical regulations of Ltd. Company “Lukoil Baltija” have been substantiated also. Vision, mission, aims and objectives of this branch have been formulated. Plan of activities has been coordinated with the strategies. Strategy realization preconditions and three main stages of organizing strategic control have been analyzed. The analysis confirmed the... [to full text]

Bendradarbiavimo formos tarp šeimos ir ikimokyklinės ugdymo įstaigos. Literatūros šaltinių analizė; Anketinė apklausa. Klausimynai paruošti tyrėjos, remiantis specialia literatūra: S. Dapkienė, 2002, p. 34; O. Tijūnėlienė, 1999, p. 152-155. Kiekybinė duomenų analizė, atlikta kompiuteriniu pagrindu, rezultatai apskaičiuoti statistinės analizės programa PAULA; Kokybinė duomenų analizė; Lyginimas. Nustatyta, kad kuo aktyvesnės bendradarbiavimo formos yra taikomos tarp ikimokyklinės ugdymo institucijos ir šeimos, tuo glaudesnis bendradarbiavimas yra pasiekiamas. Aktyvus bei abipusiu pasitikėjimu grįstas bendradarbiavimas sukuria palankias sąlygas vaikų ugdymuisi bei padeda pagrindą asmenybės tolesniai socialinei sklaidai. / Forms of Co-operation Between the Family and Pre-school Educational Institution. Analysis of literature; Anonymous questionnaire. The questionnaire was prepared self on the basis of the special literature: S. Dapkiene, 2002, p. 34; O. Tijuneliene, 1999, p. 152-155. Quantitative analysis of data was carried out with PC statistical analyses software PAULA; Qualitative analysis of data; Comparison. It has been determined that the more active co-operation forms are applied between a pre-school educational institution and the family, the closer co-operation is achieved. Active and based on mutual confidence co-operation creates favourable conditions for children’s education and lays the foundations for further social dispersion of individuals.

The Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area faces numerous transportation challenges now and in the future: congestion, population growth, and an inadequate public transit network. The metropolitan region has also changed in form in past decades, shifting from a monocentric to a polycentric region, further compounding the challenges. Currently, the public transit service is delivered by 9 different agencies comprised of 6 municipal providers, 2 sub-regional providers, and 1 regional provider. A region possessing a multiplicity of agencies suggests an overabundance of jurisdictional borders - borders that can potentially restrict travel across them. This thesis seeks to determine the impact of the presence or the omission of jurisdictional borders on transit patrons. A comparative approach is employed to investigate the benefits and costs to patrons and agencies through greater integration of specific origin-destination (OD) pairs. The chosen methods selects OD pairs that are known to be transit competitive, possess a high travel demand, and cross a transit-jurisdictional border. The relationship between transportation and land-use is relied upon to select clusters of dense employment or population, called activity centres, where public transit is known to compete well with the private auto. The travel demand between these centres is obtained using the 2006 Transportation Tomorrow Survey and the current optimal transit routing is determined using Google Trip Planner. Three OD pairs are selected that possess the most onerous transfers, a proxy for poor integration. Another three OD pairs are selected that possess seamless or no transfers using a variety of modes. In both cases, the existing transit routing is compared to an alternate routing to understand the benefits achieved through inter-jurisdictional integration; the first compares existing trips to improved inter-jurisdictional routes while the second compares existing trips to exclusively intra-jurisdictional routes. Through identification of 40 employment and 29 population activity centres in the region, and the acquiring of travel demand between them, the six case study OD pairs are selected. The three OD pairs investigated, with onerous transfers, are comprised of trips between Brampton-Mississauga, Hamilton-Burlington, and Brampton-Toronto. The remaining inter-jurisdictional case study OD pairs are made up of three different modes: conventional bus, express bus, and regional rail. They comprise trips between Toronto-York Region, Brampton-Mississauga, and Mississauga-Toronto respectively. This study finds that in all cases, the routes with greater integration reduce total travel time and the generalized cost to patrons. Additionally, the penalty due to transferring is reduced through integration implying a current barrier existing at some jurisdictional borders. For the agencies, the cost of delivering the suggested inter-jurisdictional service varies dramatically. The costs are translated into a quantity of additional patrons necessary to justify the operation investment while maintaining the current revenue/cost ratio. These findings provide insight into the current transit network. Promoting integration throughout the network will help attract new riders as the generalized cost of travel is reduced. Also, when inter-jurisdictional connections are made, such as in the case of the Brampton-Mississauga Zum service, the beneficiaries of that service are widespread and not limited to the corridor in which the service operates.

Children who are overweight and physically inactive are a great concern due to the potential negative health consequences. Afterschool physical activity interventions have become increasingly popular in hopes of addressing these health risks. An afterschool program that has drawn attention in recent years is one with a physical activity component known as Coordinated Approach to Child Health (CATCH). The present study examined the effect the CATCH program had on MVPA and physical fitness in children in grades 3 to 6 attending the YMCA afterschool program. Results indicated a significant increase in overall daily MVPA (p=0.047) as well as physical fitness (p=0.000) from baseline to post-test. It was also found that children attending the afterschool program were already accumulating substantial daily MVPA during their regular afterschool program. These findings indicate that while CATCH was successful in increasing MVPA, students attending afterschool programs may already be obtaining sufficient MVPA during afterschool time.

Electroretinoraphic signals (ERGs) are affected when recorded under isoflurane anesthesia in the operating room. We explored the effect of isoflurane and propofol in ex vivo guinea pig retinal preparations using a multielectrode array to record simultaneously ERGs and retinal ganglion cell (RGC) activity. The viability and light-response characteristics of the model were documented. In the presence of isoflurane, the ERG and RGC activity was reduced in a dose-dependent manner, even at sub-clinical doses; the OFF responses were consistently more affected. Propofol had minimal effects: at subclinical doses, a small excitation was measured while a concentration a hundred times stronger than the clinical concentration was required to measure a significant decline in EGR and RGC signals. This study confirms the usefulness of the guinea pig model to study clinically relevant retinal issues and shows that propofol is a better anesthetic to use in the operating room when retinal investigations are required.

Although the perifornical lateral hypothalamic area (PeFLH), which contains orexin/hypocretin (OX) neurons, plays an important role in arousal-related behaviors, its neuromodulatory inputs are incompletely understood. The present study examined the role of glutamatergic inputs to the PeFLH in various arousal-related behaviors. Adult male rats received a microinjection of the ionotropic glutamate receptor agonists AMPA (1 and 2 mM) or NMDA (1 and 10 mM), or vehicle into the PeFLH, and were placed in an open field; 90 min later, rats were perfused for immunohistochemistry for OX and c-Fos as a marker of neuronal activation. AMPA injections dose-dependently increased locomotion, rearing, and drinking. NMDA injections (at 10 mM) increased locomotion and feeding. All these behaviors (except feeding) were positively correlated with the number of c-Fos/OX-immunoreactive neurons. These results support the role of ionotropic glutamate receptors on OX (and other) neurons in the PeFLH in the regulation of locomotor and ingestive behaviors.

This thesis is an investigation of the reproductive performance of dairy herds managed using automated activity monitoring systems for heat detection (AHD) in comparison to herds using timed artificial insemination programs (TAI). Two approaches were taken: a randomized clinical trial and a retrospective cross-sectional study. In the field trial, pregnancy risk (PR) was not different between the AHD (14.6%) and TAI program (15.9%). Overall, time to pregnancy, time to 1st service and time to 2nd service were not different between breeding programs. In the observational study, annual herd-summary reproductive performance in farms using AHD and TAI were not different. Finally, a retrospective analysis in herds that were using AHD for more than one year compared the years before and after adoption of the system. A significant increase of PR and insemination risk was found. In conclusion, AHD systems had comparable reproductive performance to TAI-based programs. / Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. Gencor and SCR Engineers Ltd.

Consumption of whole grains has been linked to reduced risk of colon cancer. This study determined estrogenic activity of sorghum phenolic extracts of different phenolic profiles and identified possible estrogenic compounds in sorghum in vitro, as well as evaluated the potential of estrogenic sorghum phenolic extracts to prevent colon carcinogenesis in vivo. The thermal stability of sorghum 3-deoxyanthocyanins was also studied, to determine their suitability as functional food colorants. White and TX430 (black) sorghum extracts showed estrogenic activity in cell models predominantly expressing estrogen receptor-α (ERα) or ERβ at 5 and 10 µg/mL, respectively. The same treatments led to induction of apoptosis in cells expressing ERβ. The red TX2911 sorghum did not possess these activities. Compositional analysis revealed differences in flavones and flavanones. Flavones with estrogen-like properties, i.e. luteolin and apigenin, were detected in White and TX430 (black) sorghum extracts, but not in red TX2911 extract. Naringenin, a flavanone known to antagonize ERα signalling, was only detected in the red TX2911 extract. Additional experiments with sorghum extracts of distinct flavones/flavanone ratio, as well as with pure apigenin and naringenin, suggested that flavones are the more potent ERβ agonists in sorghum. On the other hand, 3-deoxyanthocyanins were probably not estrogenic. Estrogenic white and black sorghum phenolic extracts (fed at 1% level in the diet) reduced the number of azoxymethane induced colon premalignant lesion (aberrant crypt foci) by 39.3% and 14.7%, respectively, in ovariectomized mice. Further studies are needed to elucidate the protective mechanisms induced by these sorghum extracts. Sorghum 3-deoxyanthocyanins retained good color stability after 30 minutes of heat treatment at 121 °C under pressure: More than 80% of color retained in pH 1 and 2 HCl and citric acid solutions, and 39-84% retained from pHs 3-7. Formic acid negatively affected the color stability at pH 1 and pH 2 due to its reducing capacity. Methoxylation decreased the thermal stability of 3-deoxyanthocyanins. The heat stability of 3-deoxyanthocyanins indicates good potential for food use. Overall, the inherent estrogenic activity of specific sorghum phenolic extracts is a likely mechanism for colon cancer prevention. Further studies are needed to assess physiologically relevant dietary level of sorghum phenolics for prevention of colon cancer, and effect of food processing on the activity and bioavailability of the chemopreventive components.

There is currently a dearth of information suitable for the development of evidence-based physical activity and screen time guidelines for children and youth. The overarching purpose of this thesis was to generate findings that could be used to inform public health recommendations for physical activity and screen time. A series of six manuscripts were completed to explore the relationship between physical activity, sedentary behaviour, and health in youth. The first manuscript examined the dose-response relation between objectively measured total and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity with blood pressure and hypertension. Participating in 30 and 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per day decreased the odds of hypertension in youth by 50% and 63%, respectively. The second manuscript explored the influence of intensity of physical activity and incidental movement on total and trunk adiposity. Moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity was found to predict total and trunk adiposity beyond other intensities and incidental movement. The third manuscript sought to determine whether or not physical activity accrued in bouts was more beneficial than total physical activity with relation to being overweight. The inclusion of short and medium-to-long bouts of physical activity decreased the odds of overweight above and beyond total physical activity level. The fourth manuscript included a detailed examination of the relation between physical activity and screen time by considering different forms of physical activity, different physical activity environments, and various screen time behaviours. By and large, physical activity and screen time were not related. The fifth manuscript determined the proportion of Canadian youth meeting screen time guidelines. Only 18% of girls and 14% of boys in grades 6 to 10 met screen time guidelines of no more than 2 hours per day. The final manuscript examined the relationship between screen time and metabolic syndrome. A dose-response relation was observed between screen time and metabolic syndrome independent of physical activity level. It is hoped that the findings from this thesis will provide useful information that will be considered in developing and modifying physical activity and screen time recommendations for the paediatric population. / Thesis (Ph.D, Kinesiology & Health Studies) -- Queen's University, 2008-12-13 15:44:07.654