Canada has two official languages: French and English. Each province must allow for an educational program in both languages where the number of students warrant such programs. Although minority language schools exist in all Canadian provinces, some provinces are so overwhelmingly English that the Francophone school programs struggle constantly to survive and threaten to become extinct. Yet a vigilant group of parents and partisans work incessantly to maintain these minority language school programs. This thesis will examine why these schools exist in British Columbia and whether or not they can promote the Francophone minority language and culture in the overwhelming Anglophone environment. Bilingual Canadian wonder that more Canadians are not bilingual. Some Canadians are dedicated to educating their children in their official minority language while others do not understand why Canada is officially bilingual. Yet, to take the example of just one province, British Columbia is and remains an Anglophone province. A Francophone parent would, I shall argue, be doing her child a great disservice to insist on schooling in Francophone minority programs. Family is only part of a child's world. The media, friends, neighbors, the stores, the community centers and the people that surround us make up our language and culture. In British Columbia, the language is English and the cultures are as diverse as the people who are part of them. The purpose of this study is to investigate and present an historical, religious, political and economic analysis of the reasoning behind the existence of Francophone minority language schools and programs in British Columbia, and to evaluate whether or not it is possible for these programs and schools to fulfill their mandate. My initial sentiments were biased in favor of Francophone minority programs and though I still believe that official minorities have an unquestionable constitutional right to their schools and to the administration of these schools, I no longer believe that these schools and programs alone can provide a rich ethnic sanctuary that could permit the minority language and culture to flourish. In fact, I no longer believe that it is in the student's best interest to attend these schools and programs. The students can only be crippled by their lack of knowledge of English and by their limited exposure to the Francophone world. I visited two of the three homogeneous Francophone schools and four Programme cadre programs in the mainstream Anglophone and French immersion schools in BC. I interviewed and videotaped students, parents, teachers, language education experts and attended conferences and meetings, examined pertinent historical, political, legal and pedagogical data, and concluded (not surprisingly) that language and culture are expressions of our everyday lives. My research strategy thus combined elements of historical, legal, sociological, and socio-linguistic method, relying both on direct observation and reference, and on considerable secondary literature. I conclude that one can teach the French language, but unless it is expressed and alive as part of our world, it is but a code with limited value. One cannot teach the Francophone culture. One either lives it (or a limited part of it) in a setting that must exclude the majority, thereby confining the world around and restricting opportunity, or one quickly becomes assimilated. Providing community schools where minority language is strictly enforced and reinforced at home is only the beginning. To date these ethnocentric shelters are not available in British Columbia. Perhaps the recently acquired right to administer some of the Francophone programs by the Francophone minority will empower the Francophone minority in B.C. and provide higher academic standards, a more attractive image of the minority language and culture and force the Francophone community to assume a sense of identity and belonging.

The U.S. Census bureau projects that by 2023, minorities will comprise more than half of all children. The population of school-aged Hispanic children is already the largest ethnic group, and the sheer number and rate of increase of these linguistically and culturally different students creates unfamiliar cultural challenges for school leaders. School districts are confronted with diversity-related issues and school leaders, who are predominantly white and middle class, are often ill-prepared to meet the challenges. Effective professional development aimed at preparing school leaders to better understand the social and academic needs of culturally diverse students is a topic receiving much attention in recent years. Studying the social, cultural, and political circumstances of diversity in its natural setting offers particular advantages that other methods cannot replicate. One suggestion is for school leaders to spend time in the local communities of their Hispanic students. Another option for learning about culture, albeit a more difficult and costly one to achieve, is to have school leaders visit the home country of their Hispanic students and immerse themselves in the local culture for a short period of time. A school district in Georgia decided to provide authentic culture learning for some of its school leaders through a short term cultural immersion experience. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of an eight-day cultural immersion trip to Xalapa, Mexico on school leaders from the Mary County School District in Georgia. Because this short-term cultural immersion experience was aimed at increasing the cultural awareness of school leaders and improving relationships with Hispanic students and their families, the primary focus of this study is to explore the meanings attached to the experiences of administrators participating in the trip.

An efficient micropropagation protocol for large scale production of hazelnut plants is required for consistent supply of elite germplasm to support the growing industry in Ontario. The main focus of current research was to develop a bioreactor based micropropagation protocol for hazelnut multiplication. An integrated approach was developed to increase the multiplication rate by optimizing the nutrient medium supplements and culture technology using a temporary immersion bioreactor system (TIS). As compared to conventional semi-solid and liquid based culture system, the Liquid LabTM temporary immersion bioreactor system (LIS) showed a significant enhancement in the number of shoots (3.3 shoots/explant), shoot height, leaf area and chlorophyll content in micropropagated plantlets. Antioxidant supplements such as ascorbic acid and melatonin along with iron (460 µM FeEDDHA) significantly increased the shoot proliferation (5.5 shoots/explant). However, a much higher shoot proliferation (10.9 shoots/explant) was observed with the addition of aspirin (10 µM) in the presence of BA (17.6 µM). Among several hazelnut cultivars, HF-16 had the highest multiplication rate followed by Geneva and Epsilon. Medium supplemented with 10 µM IBA was the best for rooting of microshoots of HF-16 and the plantlets acclimatized in the green house with 80% survival rate. / Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food and Rural Affairs

Research has shown that children attending immersion programs reach a native-like level in comprehension and in reading by the end of elementary level. However, in writing and speaking, they rarely achieve target-like proficiency. Some conditions seem to favor the production of output. This study presents an investigation of children's ability to notice errors in their French second language in immersion program in Montreal. The study was conducted with forty-three (43) children aged 8-9, and aimed to gather information related to the following research questions: / Can we train 8 year-old second language learners to: (a) notice their errors; (b) self-correct (given certain prompts); (c) use metalinguistic terminology to identify forms; and (d) negotiate form using language as a conscious tool to improve their L2 oral production? / Children were required to participate in two (2) stages: first, video recording of communicative activities whit ungrammatical episodes with provision of corrective feedback were selected; and second, audio recording of children's attempts to negotiate form. The database was collected from these stimulated recall sessions of collaborative discussion. Results show how young learners may benefit from the provision of metalinguistic information, thus facilitating their second language learning development.

Dans ce travail de thèse, on s'intéresse au problème de déplacement et de la localisation d'un robot mobile autonome dans son environnement local. Il est structuré en deux parties. La première partie du manuscrit porte sur les deux tâches de mouvement de base, c'est-à-dire : la stabilisation et le suivi de trajectoire. Deux stratégies de commande ont été traitées: le mode de glissement intégral et la méthode dite "Immersion et Invariance". La deuxième partie porte sur l'asservissement visuel, les deux techniques 2D et 3D d'asservissement visuel ont été appliquées. Les moments d'image ont été choisis comme indices visuels car ils sont moins sensibles au bruit d'image et autres erreurs de mesure. Une nouvelle approche de l'asservissement visuel qui repose sur l'image est ici proposée. Elle est basée sur la génération de trajectoires sur le plan de l'image directement (calcul des valeurs des primitives d'image correspondantes a une trajectoire cartésienne donnée). Cette approche garantit que la robustesse et la stabilité bien connues de l'asservissement 2D ont été étendues en raison du fait que les emplacements initial et désiré de la caméra sont proches. Les trajectoires obtenues garantissent aussi que la cible reste dans le champ de vue de la caméra et que le mouvement du robot correspondant est physiquement réalisable. Des tests expérimentaux ont été effectués et des résultats satisfaisants ont été obtenus à partir des implémentations des stratégies de commande et d'asservissement visuel. Bien qu'ils soient développés et expérimentés dans le cadre spécifique d'un robot de type unicycle, ces travaux sont assez génériques pour être appliqués sur d'autres types de véhicules.

We examined the relationship between orthographic processing and spelling in French immersion children. Study 1 included 148 first graders and they were assessed on orthographic processing and spelling in English and French. In Study 2, we followed 69 second graders for two years. Orthographic processing and spelling in English and French were administered in second and third grade. In Study 3, we analyzed the spelling errors made by the third graders in Study 2. In Study 1, we found a within-language relationship in English and French between orthographic processing and spelling. Cross-language transfer from French orthographic processing to English spelling was also observed. In Study 2, Grade 2 English spelling predicted gains in Grade 3 English and French orthographic processing. Study 3 showed that children made transfer errors when spelling in English and French. Overall, the current research highlights the importance of orthographic processing and spelling in French immersion children.

In the last few years researchers have more and more focussed on the possible use of cryotherapy as an acute and long term recovery facilitating technique by sportsmen and women. Barnette (2006) did, however, state that research supporting cryotherapy as a recovery facilitating technique, is not convincing and that the majority of research show that it has a negative impact on the recovery of subjects after exercise. It is against this background that the aim of the study was firstly to critically analyse the available literature of the past fifteen years (1992-2007) with regard to the study subject; die nature of the cryotherapy technique that was used as well as the findings with regards to the effects of these types of techniques on a wide variety of physiological variables, physical and motor performance; secondly, to provide guidelines for the use of cryotherapy as a recovery facilitating technique and thirdly to determine the effect of cryotherapy on the acute recovery of University netball players' lower leg muscles in an isokinetic ankle exercise. Firstly, it was shown that ice water immersion and ice pack application are the most common techniques that are used in cryotherapy studies. The results in the majority of articles indicated that cryotherapy had a non-significant acute effect on isokinetic, eccentric and concentric peak torque as well as time to reach peak torque and the angle at which the peak torque was reached; isometric, maximal and sub-maximal strength and accuracy of strength execution; normalized, average vertical ground reaction force as well as time of reaching peak power and vertical jump height; baseball pitching accuracy, proprioception, ankle joint range of movement, positioning and speed during execution of a movement; blood lactate removal and blood flow speed as well as muscle soreness after completion of an exercise. With regard to the long term effects of cryotherapy research showed that isotonic hand grip strength and endurance, plasma adrenaline, non-adrenaline, dopamine, renine, aldosterone, heart rate and blood pressure after 6 weeks; respiratory gas exchange ratio, heart rate, muscle glycogen concentration, plasma lactate, glucose and free fatty acids after 8 weeks or brachial artery cross-section and vascular endothelial growth factor after 4 weeks of exercise and cryotherapy did not experience any significant changes between the cryotherapy and control group. Other physical, motor performance and physiological variables did not show a certain trend with regards to the way they were affected by cryotherapy. In some cases variables were affected significantly negatively while the opposite was true in other cases where variables were significantly positively influenced. With regard to the results of the study on the acute recovery of University netball players' lower leg muscles due to cryotherapy, it was found that the acute recovery of only four isokinetic variables were significantly influenced (p = 0.05) by cryotherapy, namely: left leg relative total dorsiflexion work, average peak dorsiflexion torque, right dorsiflexion and plantar flexion endurance. The acute recovery of the first mentioned strength endurance related variable was significantly negatively influenced by the cryotherapy. In contrast with this result the acute recovery of the three last mentioned isokinetic muscle relative peak torque and endurance related variables were significantly positively influenced by the cryotherapy. The overall conclusion that can therefore be drawn from the above-mentioned results show that the majority of isokinetic plantar- and dorsiflexion torque variables (12 out of 16, 75%) as well as other physical, motor performance and physiological variables experience no significant effect with regards to acute and long term recovery due to cryotherapy. The research did, however, show that the effectiveness of cryotherapy was influenced by the adiposity thickness, nature of the cryotherapy application, type of medium that was used for cryotherapy application and the length of time during which cryotherapy was applied. The recommendation for the use of cryotherapy as a recovery facilitating technique can be summarised as follows: the temperature of the cryotherapy medium that is used, must vary between 5°C and 10°C; the duration of cryotherapy between 15 and 20 minutes; the most general application area: for ice water immersion - immersed up until the level of the gluteal fold or crista ileac and the whole arm or forearm; for ice pack application - on the thigh, ankle and peripheral of the shoulder; the most common and effective ice pack application is direct on the skin surface by means of a bag filled with between 500 g and 1 500 g cubic formed ice. For long term use more that 2 consecutive days of cryotherapy application is recommended. / Thesis (M.A. (Human Movement Science))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

Victims of exertional heat stroke (EHS) in whom treatment is delayed have higher rates of multi-organ failure and a greater number of fatalities. Death related to EHS is preventable, through immediate treatment via cold-water immersion (CWI). To date little is known about the influence of treatment delays on core cooling following EHS. Thus we sought to examine the effects of treatment delays on cardiovascular and thermal responses prior to, during, and following CWI treatment in individuals with exercise-induced hyperthermia. Our findings demonstrate that treatment delays resulted in a sustained level of hyperthermia and cardiovascular strain that significantly increased the time an individual is at risk to the potential lethal effects of EHS. Moreover, we report that cold water immersion treatment is powerful enough to overcome the adverse effects of treatment delays and rapidly reduce core temperatures while facilitating the re-establishment of blood pressure towards normal resting levels.

Vers la fin des années 1960, dans la foulée des travaux de la Commission royale d’enquête sur le bilinguisme et le biculturalisme, le gouvernement fédéral a entrepris de financer les provinces pour les aider à assumer les coûts supplémentaires associés à l’enseignement de la langue seconde et à l’instruction dans la langue officielle minoritaire. En tant que politique identitaire, le Programme de bilinguisme en éducation visait à promouvoir la dualité linguistique à travers le pays et à favoriser le rapprochement entre les anglophones et les francophones. Plus de 40 ans plus tard, la représentation de la francophonie qui est véhiculée dans le curriculum des programmes de français mis en place grâce à ce financement peut-elle contribuer à l’atteinte de ces objectifs? Notre étude, qui s’appuie sur la théorie des représentations sociales, propose de répondre à cette question en comparant la représentation de la francophonie qui prévaut dans trois programmes de niveau primaire et secondaire offerts en Colombie-Britannique : français langue seconde en immersion, français de base et français langue première. Notre analyse de contenu démontre que la représentation de la francophonie qui est véhiculée dans ces trois programmes se situe à la jonction entre trois discours : un discours communautaire, qui est dominant, un discours utilitaire ou instrumental et un discours interculturel. Par ailleurs, il ressort que le programme de français langue seconde en immersion est le plus propice à créer un dialogue entre les communautés de langue française et de langue anglaise.

In the last few years researchers have more and more focussed on the possible use of cryotherapy as an acute and long term recovery facilitating technique by sportsmen and women. Barnette (2006) did, however, state that research supporting cryotherapy as a recovery facilitating technique, is not convincing and that the majority of research show that it has a negative impact on the recovery of subjects after exercise. It is against this background that the aim of the study was firstly to critically analyse the available literature of the past fifteen years (1992-2007) with regard to the study subject; die nature of the cryotherapy technique that was used as well as the findings with regards to the effects of these types of techniques on a wide variety of physiological variables, physical and motor performance; secondly, to provide guidelines for the use of cryotherapy as a recovery facilitating technique and thirdly to determine the effect of cryotherapy on the acute recovery of University netball players' lower leg muscles in an isokinetic ankle exercise. Firstly, it was shown that ice water immersion and ice pack application are the most common techniques that are used in cryotherapy studies. The results in the majority of articles indicated that cryotherapy had a non-significant acute effect on isokinetic, eccentric and concentric peak torque as well as time to reach peak torque and the angle at which the peak torque was reached; isometric, maximal and sub-maximal strength and accuracy of strength execution; normalized, average vertical ground reaction force as well as time of reaching peak power and vertical jump height; baseball pitching accuracy, proprioception, ankle joint range of movement, positioning and speed during execution of a movement; blood lactate removal and blood flow speed as well as muscle soreness after completion of an exercise. With regard to the long term effects of cryotherapy research showed that isotonic hand grip strength and endurance, plasma adrenaline, non-adrenaline, dopamine, renine, aldosterone, heart rate and blood pressure after 6 weeks; respiratory gas exchange ratio, heart rate, muscle glycogen concentration, plasma lactate, glucose and free fatty acids after 8 weeks or brachial artery cross-section and vascular endothelial growth factor after 4 weeks of exercise and cryotherapy did not experience any significant changes between the cryotherapy and control group. Other physical, motor performance and physiological variables did not show a certain trend with regards to the way they were affected by cryotherapy. In some cases variables were affected significantly negatively while the opposite was true in other cases where variables were significantly positively influenced. With regard to the results of the study on the acute recovery of University netball players' lower leg muscles due to cryotherapy, it was found that the acute recovery of only four isokinetic variables were significantly influenced (p = 0.05) by cryotherapy, namely: left leg relative total dorsiflexion work, average peak dorsiflexion torque, right dorsiflexion and plantar flexion endurance. The acute recovery of the first mentioned strength endurance related variable was significantly negatively influenced by the cryotherapy. In contrast with this result the acute recovery of the three last mentioned isokinetic muscle relative peak torque and endurance related variables were significantly positively influenced by the cryotherapy. The overall conclusion that can therefore be drawn from the above-mentioned results show that the majority of isokinetic plantar- and dorsiflexion torque variables (12 out of 16, 75%) as well as other physical, motor performance and physiological variables experience no significant effect with regards to acute and long term recovery due to cryotherapy. The research did, however, show that the effectiveness of cryotherapy was influenced by the adiposity thickness, nature of the cryotherapy application, type of medium that was used for cryotherapy application and the length of time during which cryotherapy was applied. The recommendation for the use of cryotherapy as a recovery facilitating technique can be summarised as follows: the temperature of the cryotherapy medium that is used, must vary between 5°C and 10°C; the duration of cryotherapy between 15 and 20 minutes; the most general application area: for ice water immersion - immersed up until the level of the gluteal fold or crista ileac and the whole arm or forearm; for ice pack application - on the thigh, ankle and peripheral of the shoulder; the most common and effective ice pack application is direct on the skin surface by means of a bag filled with between 500 g and 1 500 g cubic formed ice. For long term use more that 2 consecutive days of cryotherapy application is recommended. / Thesis (M.A. (Human Movement Science))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.