Thesis (M.Tech.: Chiropractic)-Dept. of Chiropractic, Durban University of Technology, 2007 xi, 60 leaves, Annexures 1-9 / The Transversus Abdominis (TrA) muscle is recognised in the literature as playing a vital and protective role in maintaining a healthy core and aiding lumbar biomechanics in the dampening of external forces applied to the lumbar spine. Pilates purports to employ the principles of core training yet there remains a deficit in the literature despite its popularity in rehabilitation and fitness industries. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of Pilates method in training the TrA in comparison to a moderately active population that regularly exercises in a gym environment, as well as a sedentary control.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

The purpose of this study is to answer the research question: What are the elements of the writing process and written texts of kindergarten/first grade students in a whole language classroom that constitute authenticity? The written texts of twenty-one children from a variety of ethnic, socioeconomic and linguistic backgrounds were collected over the course of the school year. The tests were categorized according to penpal letters, signs/labels/captions and dialogue journal entries. Each category was analyzed to describe the writer's place in the context of situation, the function that each text served and the interaction of the linguistic cueing systems. The data indicate that the physical elements in the Context of Situation as described by Michael Halliday that proved most important to authenticity are: (1) Availability (proximity) and accessibility of a wide variety of resources. (2) Experience of students in creating and identifying resources in the environment. (3) Many opportunities to interact with audiences. (4) Student ownership of the process. The social relationships within the classroom that proved most important to authenticity are: (1) having a "real" audience for writing. (2) The relationship between the writer and the audience. (3) The degree of invitation with choice of when and where to write. The features of written texts which proved most important to authenticity are: (1) The students' familiarity with the genre of text. (2) The function of the texts to fulfill the purposes of the students. Whole language classrooms such as the one in this study provide a rich source of data for the study of authenticity.

A prática regular de exercícios físicos, no envelhecimento, mostra-se útil para trazer benefícios em todos os aspectos da vida dos idosos, e em especial, ao controle postural destes indivíduos que com a senescência, tendem a diminuir tal capacidade. O objetivo deste estudo foi verificar e analisar as alterações promovidas por dois tipos de programas de exercícios sobre o controle postural de indivíduos idosos saudáveis. O desenho do estudo foi um ensaio clínico simples-cego e aleatorizado com braços paralelos. Participaram da pesquisa 46 idosos (69,5±5,4 anos) divididos aleatoriamente em dois grupos de exercícios: multissensoriais (GMS) (com ênfase na estimulação proprioceptiva geral) e resistido (GR) (para os principais grupos musculares do corpo). As sessões de aproximadamente 1 hora de duração, ocorreram duas vezes por semana num período de 12 semanas no setor de condicionamento físico do Instituto de Medicina Física e Reabilitação (IMREA) do Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo. A avaliação do equilíbrio dinâmico foi feita por meio do teste Timed up and go (TUG). A avaliação do equilíbrio estático, pela plataforma de força e teste de apoio unipodal. Para avaliação das atividades funcionais dependentes do controle postural, foi usada a bateria de testes de Guralnik e escala de equilíbrio funcional de Berg. Também se realizou avaliação isocinética da articulação do tornozelo. Não foram observados efeitos adversos graves. Ao verificar os testes clínicos, apenas o TUG e bateria de testes de Guralnik apresentaram melhoras significativas após a intervenção pelo GMS, sendo que somente a melhora do TUG foi significante em relação ao GR. Quanto à oscilação corporal, apenas o GMS apresentou diminuição significativa da oscilação do centro de pressão na posição unipodal com olhos abertos nos sentidos: ântero-posterior e láteromedial e o GR apresentou apenas diminuição da velocidade de deslocamento do centro de pressão neste mesmo apoio; porém não houve diferenças entre os grupos. O GR apresentou melhora do pico de torque em 3 e o GMS em 6 (dos 8 grupos musculares avaliados) grupos musculares e apenas o GMS melhorou o trabalho dos dorsiflexores e flexores plantares, porém as diferenças entre os grupos não foram significativas. Embora os resultados apresentados pelo GMS tenham sido mais expressivos do que os do GR, os resultados deste estudo permitem afirmar que somente a questão do equilíbrio dinâmico apresentada pelo GMS foi melhor do que a do GR / The practice of regular exercise in aging is helpful to bring benefits in all aspects older peoples life, especially on senescence individuals postural control that tend to reduce such capacity. The aim of this study was to verify and to analyze the changes promoted by two types of exercise programs on postural control in healthy elderly. The study design was a clinical singleblind, randomized parallel-arm. The participants were 46 older (69.5 ± 5.4 years) and were randomly divided into two exercises groups: multi-sensory (GMS) (with emphasis on general proprioceptive stimulation) and resistance (GR) (for the major muscle groups of the body). The sessions of approximately 1 hour long, occurred twice a week over 12 weeks in the fitness department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Institute (IMREA) of the Faculty of Medicine Hospital, University of Sao Paulo. The evaluation of dynamic balance was made by means of the Timed up and go (TUG). The evaluation of static balance, the force platform and one-leg-stance test support. To evaluate the functional activities dependent on the postural control, we used the battery of tests Guralnik battery and balance scale of Berg. We also held isokinetic evaluation of the ankle joint. There were no serious adverse effects. By checking the trials, only the TUG and battery of tests Guralnik present significant improvements after the intervention by the GMS, and only the improvement of the TUG was significant in relation to GR. Relate to the body sway, only GMS was significantly decreased from the displacement of center of pressure in one-leg position with eyes open in the directions: anteroposterior and lateromedial and GR showed only slowing the rate of displacement of center of pressure in this same support, but not were no differences between groups. The GR showed improvement in peak torque at 3 and GMS in 6 (of 8 muscle groups evaluated) muscle groups and only the GMS has improved the work of the dorsal and plantar flexors, but the differences between the groups were not significant. Although the results presented by the GMS have been more significant than the GR, the results of this study have revealed that only the issue of dynamic balance presented by GMS was better than the GR

Huang, Zeping. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 121-132). / Abstracts in English and Chinese; appendix two in English and Chinese. / Acknowledgements --- p.i / Abstract --- p.iii / Abstract (Chinese) --- p.v / Table Of Contents --- p.vi / List of Tables --- p.ix / List of Figures and Graphs --- p.x / Chapter CHAPTER ONE --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1. --- Motivation --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1.2. --- The importance of language use in L2 writing --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1.2. --- The possibilities of integrating corpora into L2 writing instruction --- p.2 / Chapter 1.1.3. --- The need for corpus-informed approach --- p.2 / Chapter 1.2. --- Purpose of this study --- p.4 / Chapter 1.3. --- Research questions --- p.5 / Chapter 1.4. --- Overall research methods --- p.5 / Chapter 1.5. --- Significance of the study --- p.5 / Chapter 1.6. --- Organization of the thesis --- p.6 / Chapter CHAPTER TWO --- LITERATURE REVIEW --- p.8 / Chapter 2.1. --- "Research on corpora and L2 writing...," --- p.8 / Chapter 2.1.1. --- Studies on corpus use from teachers' perspective --- p.9 / Chapter 2.1.2. --- Studies on students' direct use of corpus --- p.10 / Chapter 2.1.3. --- Empirical Studies on corpus and vocabulary learning --- p.17 / Chapter 2.2. --- Evaluations of the studies under review --- p.19 / Chapter 2.2.1. --- Evaluation of research on corpus-informed teaching materials development --- p.19 / Chapter 2.2.2. --- Evaluations of empirical research on students' direct use of corpus --- p.21 / Chapter 2.3. --- Call for further studies --- p.22 / Chapter CHAPTER THREE --- METHODOLOGY --- p.24 / Chapter 3.1. --- Participants --- p.24 / Chapter 3.2. --- Research Setting --- p.25 / Chapter 3.3. --- Materials --- p.25 / Chapter 3.3.1. --- Corpora used --- p.26 / Chapter 3.3.2. --- Selecting the target words --- p.28 / Chapter 3.3.3. --- Sifting the concordance lines --- p.29 / Chapter 3.3.4. --- Formulating the queries --- p.30 / Chapter 3.4. --- Research design --- p.32 / Chapter 3.4.1. --- Pretest --- p.33 / Chapter 3.4.2. --- Immediate posttest --- p.33 / Chapter 3.4.3. --- Delayed posttest --- p.34 / Chapter 3.5. --- Procedures --- p.35 / Chapter 3.6. --- Instruments --- p.37 / Chapter 3.6.1. --- Questionnaires --- p.37 / Chapter 3.6.2. --- Learning journals --- p.38 / Chapter 3.6.3. --- Uptake sheets --- p.38 / Chapter 3.7. --- Data collection and analysis --- p.38 / Chapter 3.7.1. --- Holistic scoring --- p.39 / Chapter 3.7.2. --- Analysis of the use of target words --- p.40 / Chapter 3.7.3. --- Questionnaire responses --- p.42 / Chapter 3.8. --- Chapter summary --- p.43 / Chapter CHAPTER FOUR --- RESULTS --- p.44 / Chapter 4.1. --- Holistic scores --- p.44 / Chapter 4.2. --- Use of signaling nouns (SNs) --- p.46 / Chapter 4.2.1. --- Accuracy --- p.46 / Chapter 4.2.2. --- Complexity --- p.61 / Chapter 4.2.3. --- Retention of the target patterns --- p.73 / Chapter 4.3. --- Content Schemata nouns --- p.74 / Chapter 4.4. --- Evaluation of the concordance exercises --- p.75 / Chapter 4.4.1. --- Effects on vocabulary learning --- p.75 / Chapter 4.4.2. --- Effect on L2 writing --- p.78 / Chapter 4.4.3. --- Difficulties in doing the concordance exercises --- p.80 / Chapter 4.5. --- Chapter summary --- p.84 / Chapter CHAPTER FIVE --- DISCUSSION --- p.85 / Chapter 5.1. --- Did the corpus-informed approach improve students' overall writing quality? --- p.85 / Chapter 5.1.1. --- Cut-off sentences --- p.87 / Chapter 5.1.2. --- Culture-loaded information in concordance lines --- p.88 / Chapter 5.2. --- Did the corpus-informed approach improve vocabulary use in students' writing? --- p.90 / Chapter 5.2.1. --- Interface of lexis and syntax --- p.91 / Chapter 5.2.2. --- Encouraging usage-based learning --- p.95 / Chapter 5.2.3. --- Raising learner awareness of collocation and colligation --- p.97 / Chapter 5.2.4. --- Retention of lexico-grammatical patterns --- p.98 / Chapter 5.3. --- Did students think that corpus-informed approach helped their writing? --- p.100 / Chapter 5.4. --- Towards a tentative model of corpus-informed writing instruction --- p.102 / Chapter 5.4.1. --- Preparing Materials --- p.104 / Chapter 5.4.2. --- During the exploration of a topic-specific corpus --- p.105 / Chapter 5.4.3. --- Follow-up activities after exploration of the topic-specific corpus --- p.106 / Chapter 5.5. --- Chapter summary --- p.108 / Chapter CHAPTER SIX --- CONCLUSION --- p.109 / Chapter 6.1. --- Summary of this study --- p.109 / Chapter 6.1.1. --- Enhancement of lexico-grammatical patterns --- p.109 / Chapter 6.1.2. --- Enhanced awareness of the importance of collocations --- p.111 / Chapter 6.1.3. --- Pivotal role of prior grammatical knowledge in corpus-informed learning --- p.111 / Chapter 6.1.4. --- Insignificant correlation between learning CSNs and ideas development --- p.113 / Chapter 6.2. --- Pedagogical implications --- p.113 / Chapter 6.2.1. --- Writing materials development --- p.114 / Chapter 6.2.2. --- Implementation of corpus-informed activities --- p.115 / Chapter 6.3. --- Limitations and suggestions --- p.117 / Chapter 6.3.1. --- A longer experimental time frame --- p.117 / Chapter 6.3.2. --- More lexical input --- p.118 / Chapter 6.3.3. --- More comparison groups --- p.118 / Chapter 6.3.4. --- Different proficiency levels --- p.119 / Chapter 6.3.5. --- Web-based concordances and more follow-up learning activities --- p.119 / Chapter 6.3.6. --- Case studies --- p.120 / Chapter 6.4. --- Closing remarks --- p.120 / Bibliography --- p.121 / Appendix One Questionnaire One --- p.133 / Appendix Two Questionnaire Two --- p.136 / Appendix Three Learning Journal --- p.139 / Appendix Four Pre-writing Vocabulary Study --- p.140 / Appendix Five Pretest Writing Task --- p.153 / Appendix Six Immediate Posttest Writing Task --- p.154 / Appendix Seven Delayed Posttest Writing Task --- p.155

Tyrimo problema. Medikams ir sveikatos specialistams nerimą kelia blogėjanti moksleivių sveikata. Lietuva pagal nepakankamai fiziškai aktyvių moksleivių dalį užima paskutiniąsias vietas. Daugėja moksleivių laiką leidžiančių prie kompiuterio ir televizoriaus ekranų. 2008 metų tyrimo duomenimis 50,4 proc. Lietuvos berniukų ir 64,4 proc. mergaičių yra nepakankamai fiziškai aktyvūs. Privalomojo sveikatos draudimo informacinės sistemos SVEIDRA duomenimis 2009 m. Lietuvoje buvo užregistruota 780 vaikų susirgimų ar traumų iš 1000. Vaikams (0–17 m.) dažniausiai registruojamos kvėpavimo sistemos ligos (567,8 sirgusiųjų 1000 vaikų 2009 m.), t.y. apie 57 proc. visų vaikų bent kartą buvo sirgę ūminėmis viršutinių kvėpavimo takų infekcijomis ir gripu. Kitomis ligomis vaikai sirgo gerokai mažiau. Lyginant 2008 m. ir 2009 m. rodiklius, reikia pabrėžti, kad 9,3 proc. padaugėjo vaikų sergančių ūminių viršutinių kvėpavimo takų infekcijomis ir gripu (Lietuvos sveikatos statistika, 2009 m.). Mokslinėje literatūroje neteko rasti straipsnių, analizuojančių statinių ir dinaminių pratimų poveikį vaikų sergamumui kvėpavimo sistemos ligomis. Darbo tikslas. Nustatyti statinių ir dinaminių pratimų ryšį su 8–9 metų moksleivių sergamumu kvėpavimo sistemos ligomis. Hipotezė. Statiniai ir dinaminiai pratimai turėtų sumažinti vaikų sergamumą kvėpavimo sistemos ligomis. Tyrimo metodai ir organizavimas. Tyrimas buvo atliekamas Panevėžio Vysk. K. Paltaroko gimnazijoje. Tyrimas vyko vienerius mokslo metus (201... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Research problem. Doctors and health experts are worried about deteriorating children’s health. Lithuania, by insufficient physical activity of students, takes the last place. The number of students who spend time at computer and TV screens is increasing. According to the 2008 research data, 50,4% of Lithuanian boys and 64,4% of girls are not physically active enough. According to the data of an information management system for the public healthcare service SVEIDRA, in 2009 in Lithuania out of 1000 children 780 cases of diseases and traumas were reported. For children (from 0 to17 years old) the respiratory system diseases are most commonly reported (567,8 children out of 1000 in 2009), i.e. about 57% of all children who had at least one record of acute upper respiratory tract infection and influenza. The number of other reported children’s diseases was significantly lower. To have compared the indicators of 2008 and 2009, it should be noted that the number of children who suffered from acute upper respiratory tract infections and influenza has risen by 9.3 percent (Lithuanian Health Statistics, 2009). Research aim. To determine the relation of static and dynamic exercises with 8–9–year–old children’s incidence of respiratory diseases. Hypothesis. Static and dynamic exercises are reducing the incidence of child respiratory diseases Research methods and organization. The research has been carried out in Panevezys, K. Paltarokas Gymnasium. It took one academic year (2010 – 201... [to full text]

The aim of this study was to examine the approaches to the teaching of English composition writing in Botswana junior secondary classrooms and to produce models that might enhance the effective teaching of composition writing at the junior secondary school level. The aims of the study triggered the objectives of identifying the challenges posed by the use of such approaches to teachers; determining if the approaches used by teachers inhibit students' performance in composition writing; and proposing possible solutions or models to the challenges in the teaching and learning of English composition writing in the classroom context. Relevant theoretical and practical literature germane to the study was reviewed and descriptions of the conceptual framework/ the research design, and methodology provided. The study utilized the qualitative technique through interviews, observations, reviews, examination of documents and students' artifacts. Based on the aforementioned methodologies, the major findings were that: * Teachers utilized mainly the product oriented approach to the teaching of English composition writing. * Teachers were confronted with challenges emanating from the use of the product oriented approach to writing such as surface level errors, wrong grammar/tense, lack of vocabulary and organization skills, and inability of students to compose and communicate effectively in writing. * The teachers' use of the product oriented approach is believed to have among other things, contributed greatly to the students' poor development of writing skills such as wrong spelling and punctuation, lack of organization, lack of ideas and vocabulary, and inability to compose and communicate effectively in writing. * A model to improve the teaching of English composition writing was developed based on the major findings above. Finally, on the basis of the findings and the conclusions made, pertinent recommendations were made to enhance the effective teaching of English composition writing at the junior secondary schools in Botswana. / Educational Studies / D.Ed. (Didactics)

This thesis concentrates on compiling a set of exercises which should serve beginner riders as training, muscle-developing and stretching exercises. The work may be divided into three basic parts. Compilation of exercises with respect to the theoretical knowledge of a rider's movements on a horse. Choice of a suitable group of contenders for the experiment and testing their physical abilities with a set of motoric tests. Check-out measuring of changes in movement abilities after fourteen weeks of checking the efficiency of the proposed set of exercises. The project also contains the horseback riding theory and the theory of developing and stretching particular muscle groups. In the final part of the thesis the gathered data are presented in charts and their values, after their statistic evaluation, transfered into graphs.