The purpose of this study was to explore the need for school nurses in the Saudi school system and to explore the current role of nurses in school health education and health promotion in Saudi Arabia. The study used a qualitative approach that was guided by implementation literature. Fifteen participants (8 nursing students; 4 nursing faculty members; 3 nurses) answered open-ended questions and participated in semi-structured interviews. From the findings, three themes emerged to identify the current role of nurses in Saudi Arabian school: “Health educator”, “Health promoter”, and “Liaison with community”. Four themes were identified based on the potential role of nurses in Saudi Arabian schools: “Leadership role”, “Care provider role”, “Educator role”, and “Liaison with community”. Five themes were identified based on facilitators and barriers to providing health and physical education in Saudi schools: “University and college level support”, “School health services”, “Governmental support”, “Lack of cultural approval”, and “Demand for nurses exceeds supply”. This study contributes to our understanding of what are the current and potential roles of nurses in Saudi Arabian schools, are nursing students currently prepared to provide health education and promotion to school staff and students, and what facilitators and barriers exist for nursing to provide health education and promotion in Saudi schools. This information can contribute to decision-making processes, formulation of necessary legislation, and government measures towards the implementation of school nursing and physical education, particularly in girls’ schools in Saudi Arabia, so as to maximize health and wellness in the Saudi community. / Graduate / 0680,0523,0714 / hebah.alqallaf@gmail.com

There has been a large growth in workplace wellness initiatives; however, use of fitness based health risk assessments (fHRAs) remains largely unexplored. I hypothesized that adding an fHRA to a physical activity counseling intervention (PAC+HRA) would greater increase physical activity levels compared to physical activity counseling alone (PAC). A 4 month, two- group quasi-experimental design was used to test this hypothesis. Over time, there was an increase in total, moderate to vigorous, and moderate physical activity ≥10-minute bouts. Self-Efficacy for Exercise increased and symptoms of depression decreased. Subgroup analysis of the PAC+HRA group found a significant improvement in overall fitness levels. Participants progressed to more advanced stages of change. In conclusion, PAC+HRA did not increase physical activity levels more than PAC. This is likely due to the characteristics of the counseling, fHRA, and outcome measurements. / October 2016

A comparative study was made of the effects of varied time intervals of rest between warm-up and performance in the 440-yard dash by students in selected physical education classes at North Texas State University during the spring semester of 1967. This study was made to determine if the length of a rest interval after cessation of warm-up activity has any significant effect upon the subsequent performance in a 440-yard dash, and to determine if any length of rest interval facilitates performance in a 440-yard dash.

Guided by the expectancy value model of achievement choice, this study examined the relationships among expectancy value constructs (expectancy related beliefs and subjective task values), effort and intention for future participation in a culturally specific dance, soul line, among African American adult women in the church setting. Participants were 100 African American women who were members of the women’s ministries from four predominantly African American churches in the Dallas/Ft. Worth metropolitan area. Participants completed a 20-minute soul line session and responded to survey questions, validated in previous research, assessing their expectancy-related beliefs, subjective task values, effort, intention for future participation and physical activity. This was the first study to use the expectancy value model as a guide to determine motivations attached to physical activities among African American adult women. Usefulness, a component of subjective task values, emerged as a predictor of intention for future participation. Eighty-one percent of the women did not meet physical activity guidelines for aerobic activity. Of those inactive women 60% indicated an interest in doing soul line dancing often at their church after one short exposure to the activity as indicated by the strongest possible response to both intention questions. A slightly smaller percent of the active women provided with a strong positive response for future intention. These findings suggest that soul line dancing is a practical avenue to increase physical activity among African American women in the church. Future research should test this theoretical model on a wider variety of individuals who are sedentary to physically active, measure actual participation, and directly measure BMI and physical activity.

Background. Childhood overweight and obesity is a serious health issue. Childhood obesity is associated with asthma, hepatic steatosis, sleep apnea, psychosocial complications, increased presence of cardiovascular disease risk factors, and increased medical costs. A decrease in physical activity, an increase in sedentary behavior, and unhealthy eating likely contribute to childhood overweight and obesity. Over the last 3 decades, the prevalence of early childhood obesity has also risen. The level of physical activity that preschoolers engage is influenced by policies and practices of childcare centers they attend. Given the large number of children enrolled in preschool settings and the variability of physical activity among centers, these environments provide a promising opportunity to engage more children in health promoting levels of physical activity. Preschool students are highly sedentary and very little is known about how to significantly increase physical activity in childcare environments with structured, teacher-led activity. Methods. Activity levels among children aged 4-5 in four childcare centers were measured before and after a one-day preschool physical activity teacher training by accelerometry for approximately 5 hours per child over two mornings. Observers coded individual child activities by time. Accelerometer measures of activity levels in METs and related indicators were linked at one-minute intervals with child activity codes. Data were evaluated using single-group repeated measures analysis of variance. Results. After six weeks of implementation the intervention, average MET levels in preschoolers in three of the four centers increased by 11.5% from baseline to follow up. The average MET level per minute for these children at baseline was 2.69±0.40 and at follow-up was 2.98±0.52 (p value= .001). Teachers from all four centers reported spending 24.6 ±13.0 minutes per activity session with up to two sessions completed per day. Teachers reported following the curriculum closely and indicated that the children were generally enthusiastic. Conclusions. These results justify larger trials to determine the impact of physical activity teacher training on the intensity and duration of preschool students' physical activity in childcare settings

The topic of this thesis is artistic, cultural, sport and advertising activity of the child. Firstly, the attention is paid to the development of the protection of the child labor and to the detailed international regulation. The thesis deals with the most important international documents signed within the framework of international organizations, such as the UN, Council of Europe and International Labor Organization. Next chapter focuses to the European regulation, in particular Council Directive no. 94/33/EC on the protection of young people in work. In the following chapter the thesis is focused on the detailed analysis of the legal regulation in the Czech Republic. The final chapter is a brief overview of the legal regulation of the children activities in France. The goal of this paper is to provide a comprehensive overview of the legal regulation of the child artistic, cultural, sport and advertising activity in the context of historical and international development.

Neighborhood design affects lifestyle physical activity, and ultimately human wellbeing. There are, however, a limited number of studies that examine neighborhood design types. In this research, we examine four types of neighborhood designs: traditional development, suburban development, enclosed community, and cluster housing development, and assess their level of walkability and their effects on physical activity and wellbeing. We examine significant associations through a questionnaire (n = 486) distributed in Tucson, Arizona using the Walkability Model. Among the tested neighborhood design types, traditional development showed significant associations and the highest value for walkability, as well as for each of the two types of walking (recreation and transportation) representing physical activity. Suburban development showed significant associations and the highest mean values for mental health and wellbeing. Cluster housing showed significant associations and the highest mean value for social interactions with neighbors and for perceived safety from crime. Enclosed community did not obtain the highest means for any wellbeing benefit. The Walkability Model proved useful in identifying the walkability categories associated with physical activity and perceived crime. For example, the experience category was strongly and inversely associated with perceived crime. This study provides empirical evidence of the importance of including vegetation, particularly trees, throughout neighborhoods in order to increase physical activity and wellbeing. Likewise, the results suggest that regular maintenance is an important strategy to improve mental health and overall wellbeing in cities.

Background: Physical activity (PA) poses an additional burden on people living with type 1 diabetes (T1D) as it increases the risk of hypoglycemia, if performed at a moderate intensity. It is hypothesized that adding vigorous PA (VPA) into moderate PA (MPA) may help attenuate exercise-related hypoglycemia. Methods: Seventeen participants with T1D (23.7±6.6 years) completed an observational study of six days with continuous glucose monitoring and accelerometer-derived measures of PA to determine the association between PA intensity and both hypoglycemia risk and glucose variability (GV). Results: Higher evening moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) increased the risk of overnight hypoglycemia (OR 1.03; 95% CI 1.002-1.047, p=0.031). Increased evening VPA was not associated with reduced hypoglycemia, but decreased overnight GV (3.20±0.25 for low vs 2.27±0.29 for high; p=0.022). Conclusions: Performing evening MVPA increases hypoglycemia risk overnight, but incorporating VPA did not prove to be protective. However, VPA reduced GV, which is a predictor of hypoglycemia. / May 2016

Faculty of Science School of Biology 9410199j TEL: 011 673 8139 / I studied the sociality and activity patterns of free-living ice rats Otomys sloggetti robertsi. The ice rat is a medium-sized, diurnal, herbivorous rodent, endemic to the alpine habitats of the southern Drakensberg and Maluti Mountains in southern Africa. These environments are characterized by sub-zero temperatures in winter and high levels of solar radiation in summer, and snow can be expected at any time of the year. Previous research by other scientists indicated that the physiology of ice rats is more similar to congeners living at lower altitudes, and, instead the taxon has morphological and behavioural adaptations for coping with the temperature extremes in its environment. Predator pressure on ice rats was negligible in my study site, making the ice rat an ideal model for testing how environmental factors influence sociality and activity patterns. Sociality was investigated by using direct observations and through experimental manipulations. Colonies comprised 4-17 individuals with several reproductively active males and females. Colony members had a high degree of home range overlap, whereas interactions between colony members were rare and usually resulted in agonistic behaviour. Ice rats responded aggressively to experimentally-caged colony members positioned in different parts of their own colony and these were treated with the same level of aggression as were strangers. Moreover, colony members competed aggressively for better-quality introduced food, particularly in winter. From direct observations of male-female interactions, it appeared that ice rats mate promiscuously, which is most likely a consequence of the multi-male and multi-female colonies. Females spent long periods of time belowground with unweaned young which emerged aboveground independently at four weeks of age. The first litter born in a season dispersed at sexual maturity (males±14 weeks; females±9 weeks), but, since I did not observe the behaviour of litters born later in the breeding season, I was not able to tell if these dispersed as well. I excavated the burrow systems of ice rats and found an intricate interlinking underground tunnel system with sometimes more than 25 entrance holes and 1-2 nesting chambers, which would provide a thermoneutral refuge for the ice rats at night as well as during adverse weather conditions. Because the ratio of the number of animals in the colony to III the number of nest chambers exceeded one, I predicted that huddling occurs belowground, which was confirmed by video recordings of nest chambers. Diurnal aboveground activity patterns of ice rats were influenced by prevailing environmental conditions, which resulted in synchronous aboveground appearance of members in a colony. The summer activity pattern was bimodal, dominated by foraging and sun basking behaviour aboveground, with animals retreating belowground to escape high temperatures and radiation levels prevalent around midday. Ice rats utilized the warmer temperatures throughout the day in winter for aboveground foraging and basking. Otomys s. robertsi displays a spatial shift in its social system: colony members huddle belowground but display temporal territoriality aboveground. Such a social system is contrary to predictions previously made for this taxon (i.e. they live as family groups). Ice rat relatives living at lower altitudes mainly occur as non-social aggregations and one relative, the vlei rat O. irroratus, also displays temporal territoriality. Although sociality is common in rodents inhabiting temperate environments in the northern hemisphere, these rodents do not show territoriality at other times. I conclude that the social system of ice rats, in the absence of significant predation pressure, is determined by a combination of 1) environmental factors driving communal thermoregulation and 2) phylogenetic constraints imposed by competition for limited food resources.

O objetivo deste trabalho foi o de preparar filmes de PVDF na fase ? , caracterizá-lo morfologicamente e polarizá-lo eletricamente para induzir a atividade piezoelétrica. Foram feitos estudos do processo de polarização elétrica em função do tempo, da temperatura e do campo elétrico aplicado na amostra. Também estudou-se a estabilidade da atividade piezoelétrica induzida. Os resultados experimentais são discutidos usando-se o modelo de Broadhurst o qual descreve as mudanças morfológicas e as propriedades elétricas do material. Apresenta-se também uma discussão das possíveis aplicações dos filmes de PVDF- ? e, em particular, a descrição de um microfone e sua caracterização eletro-acústica. / This work is aimed to describe the preparation of piezoelectric ? -PVDF films, its morphological characterization, and its piezoelectric activity induced by electric field. Polarization measurements were carried out as a function of time, temperature and the applied electric field. The piezoelectric activity decay was also studied. Using the model proposed by Brodhurst we discuss the material structure modifications and the electric properties. A general discussion on engineering applications of ? -PVDF is presented and specially a ? -PVDF microphone and its electric-acustics characterization is showed.