Introduction: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk assessment is becoming increasingly common in routine clinical practice. Consequently many individuals are likely to be identified as being at increased CVD risk and risk reducing strategies implemented with a view to preventing future CVD. There are many steps along the pathway from CVD risk assessment to the prevention of CVD events. First, CVD risk needs to be accurately estimated using an appropriate CVD risk calculator. Secondly CVD risk information needs to be effectively communicated to the individual identified as being at increased risk. Thirdly, the risk information communicated needs to be capable of motivating behaviour change and finally behaviour change needs to result in a reduction in CVD risk. The evidence base for many of these steps has yet to be fully established. Aims: The overall aims of this work were first to adapt the United Kingdom Prospective Diabetes Study (UKPDS) Risk Engine to better display risk and achievable risk. Secondly to investigate lay perceptions of risk and to develop two interventions designed to reduce CVD risk. The two interventions were a personalised 10-year CVD risk estimate and a brief lifestyle advice intervention. Finally, the capacity of these interventions to increase physical activity and improve CVD risk factors in adults at increased CVD risk was tested. Methods: Three focus groups were held to investigate lay perceptions of risk and to inform the design of the UKPDS Risk Engine interface and a brief lifestyle advice intervention designed to motivate risk reducing behaviours. The two interventions were then tested in a 2x2 factorial randomised controlled trial. Results: The focus group results demonstrated that public interest and understanding of risk was high. In addition participants expressed clear views regarding how risk information and lifestyle advice should be presented. 194 participants at increased 10-year CVD risk (≥ 20%) were recruited from 4 Oxfordshire general practices. Neither a personalised 10-year CVD risk estimate nor a brief lifestyle advice intervention was capable of increasing physical activity or reducing estimated 10-year CVD risk in this group. Conclusions: Whilst public interest in CVD risk appeared to be high this study was unable to demonstrate that a 10-year personalised CVD risk estimate or a brief lifestyle advice intervention was able to increase physical activity in adults at increased CVD risk.

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No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese-Arlene Araujo Nogueira.pdf: 8227777 bytes, checksum: 7744d770e72fcc52d8c81e89659feceb (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-04-08 / FAPEAM - Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Amazonas / Understanding the process of oral language development in the first years of life is essential to qualify the pedagogical work in a nursery. The Historical-Cultural Theory emphasizes that the development of oral language and the child's communication activity – as well as all kinds of human mental functions development – are not natural process, but socially mediated. It is up to the adult in charge of education the development of activities that intentionally promote the child interaction. Doing so, communication is set as a necessity, promoting development. Thus, one could ask: how is the development of oral language in early childhood according to historical and cultural perspective? How do the adult-child and child-child interactions interfere with the development of oral language of children in day care situation? How can the pedagogical work in the nursery provide significant verbal interactions? With the purpose of understanding the development process of oral language in early childhood stage, according to the assumptions of Historical-Cultural Theory; besides knowing the influence of adult-child child-child interactions for the development of oral language of children in day care situation; and also with the aim of bringing to the light how pedagogical work in day care can contribute to any significant verbal interactions between children and adults, so, these were the reasons why this research has been conducted. In fact, it is part of the Research Line number 3 – Training and Praxis of the educator before the Amazonian Challenges in the Post-Graduation Program Studies in Education of the Federal University of Amazonas. Three teachers and seven children of one and two years of age were the subjects of this research, held in a nursery called Creche Municipal Maria Ferreira Bernardes, in 2014, in Manaus-AM. The research focused on the development of oral language of young children in an interactive daycare context, based on the theoretical and methodological contributions of the Historical-Cultural Theory, according to which the higher mental functions of humans arise both from the close relationship between biological factors inherent of mankind, and cultural factors, built throughout human history – idea published by L. S. Vygotsky, its principal representative. The empirical knowledge was acquired through participatory observations of everyday life, with the support of photographs, video recordings and records in fieldwork notebook; and also by semi-structured interviews and formative meetings with the teachers. The systematization of data enabled to group the interactive situations experienced by children and their teachers – which have revealed the emergence of oral language – in two categories: 1) direct communication Interactions: through communicative activities whose reasons were personal, based on emotional communication; and 2) communicative interactions mediated by objects: a communicative activity, based on the practice of situations involving manipulation of objects. After analyzing the empirical categories, one could note that the activities proposed by the teachers and the interactions between child-child and adult-child, in the nursery, potentiate the communicative activity of children and the development of oral language, according to the theoretical assumptions of Vygotsky and his collaborators. While we recognize that children build each other interactions that carry rich meanings and produce language, we emphasize the mediating role of teachers in these moments and intentional organization of interactive experiences that promote oral language. Besides that, discussion groups with teachers about oral language development enable the expansion of references to think about the pedagogical activity, confirming the potential of formative research. / Compreender como se dá o desenvolvimento da linguagem oral na primeira infância é fundamental para qualificar o trabalho pedagógico na creche. A Teoria Histórico-Cultural preconiza que o desenvolvimento da linguagem oral e da atividade de comunicação da criança, como ademais todo o desenvolvimento das funções psíquicas humanas, não é um processo natural, mas socialmente mediado. Cabe, pois, ao adulto que educa, promover atividades que intencionalmente coloquem a criança em interação, de modo que a comunicação se configure como uma necessidade, mobilizando o desenvolvimento. Dessa forma, indagamos: de que maneira ocorre o desenvolvimento da linguagem oral na primeira infância segundo a perspectiva histórico-cultural?; como as interações adulto-criança e criança-criança interferem no desenvolvimento da linguagem oral das crianças em situação de creche?; como o trabalho pedagógico na creche pode propiciar interações verbais significativas? Com os objetivos de compreender o processo de desenvolvimento da linguagem oral na etapa da primeira infância, de acordo com os pressupostos da Teoria Histórico-Cultural; conhecer a influência das interações adulto-criança e criança-criança para o desenvolvimento da linguagem oral das crianças em situação de creche; e elucidar como o trabalho pedagógico na creche pode contribuir para que ocorram interações verbais significativas entre crianças e adultos, realizamos este trabalho, que insere-se na Linha de Pesquisa 3 – Formação e Práxis do(a) Educador(a) Frente aos Desafios Amazônicos do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação da Universidade Federal do Amazonas. Foram sujeitos da pesquisa três professoras e sete crianças de um a dois anos de idade, matriculadas na Creche Municipal Maria Ferreira Bernardes, em 2014, em Manaus-AM. A investigação enfoca o desenvolvimento da linguagem oral da criança pequena no contexto interativo da creche, fundamentando-se nos aportes teóricos e metodológicos da Teoria Histórico-Cultural, segundo a qual as funções psíquicas superiores dos seres humanos surgem da estreita relação entre os fatores biológicos caraterísticos do homem e os fatores culturais, construídos ao longo da história humana – ideia apregoada por L. S. Vigotski, seu principal representante. A construção dos dados empíricos se deu por intermédio de observações participativas do cotidiano, com o apoio de fotografias, videogravações e registros em caderno de campo; entrevistas semiestruturadas e encontros formativos com as professoras. A sistematização dos dados possibilitou agrupar as situações interativas vivenciadas entre as crianças e suas professoras – que revelam a emergência da linguagem oral – em duas categorias: 1) Interações comunicativas diretas: atividade comunicativa cujos motivos são pessoais, baseada na comunicação emocional; e 2) Interações comunicativas mediadas por objetos: atividade comunicativa de natureza prática-situacional, apoiada na manipulação dos objetos. A análise das categorias empíricas permitiu notar que as atividades propostas pelas professoras e as interações criança-criança e adulto-criança, na creche, potencializam a atividade comunicativa das crianças e o desenvolvimento de sua linguagem oral, de acordo com os pressupostos teóricos de Vigotski e seus colaboradores. Apesar de reconhecermos que as crianças constroem entre si interações que portam ricos significados e produzem linguagem, enfatizamos o papel mediador das professoras nesses momentos e na organização intencional de vivências interativas promotoras da linguagem oral. Além disso, os grupos de discussão com as professoras a respeito do desenvolvimento da linguagem oral possibilitam a ampliação de referências para pensar a atividade pedagógica, atestando o potencial formativo da pesquisa.

South African indigenous language teaching and learning materials do not provide sufficient information to help additional language learners learn the target languages effectively. While there are institutions that are tasked with developing and sharpening the skills of students in speaking South African indigenous languages, such students hardly, if at all master the art of speaking them eloquently. Students who study these languages in order to converse proficiently with their mother-tongue speakers experience insurmountable difficulties, in spite of various efforts made by the teachers who train them to read books on their own. Passing their examinations does not mean that the students’ ability to communicate with mother-tongue speakers will improve to the extent of eliminating the prevailing misunderstanding between the two groups. The persistence of this problem reveals a discrepancy between the studies of indigenous languages in South Africa and the way of speaking them, whereby important linguistic elements that make communication more authentic are excluded in language materials. This study analyses the use and significance of CIFWs in daily interactions by investigating the two Xhosa CIFWs words wethu and bethu. The overall aim of this study is to explore the use of a corpus in the examination of CIFWs in general, and wethu and bethu in particular. Both a quantitative approach based on the Gothenburg-Unisa spoken corpus and a qualitative approach based on Allwoods’ ACA theoretical framework were used in the analysis and description of the functions and significances of wethu and bethu as communicative and interactive function words. / Linguistics / MA ((Applied Linguistics)

South African indigenous language teaching and learning materials do not provide sufficient information to help additional language learners learn the target languages effectively. While there are institutions that are tasked with developing and sharpening the skills of students in speaking South African indigenous languages, such students hardly, if at all master the art of speaking them eloquently. Students who study these languages in order to converse proficiently with their mother-tongue speakers experience insurmountable difficulties, in spite of various efforts made by the teachers who train them to read books on their own. Passing their examinations does not mean that the students’ ability to communicate with mother-tongue speakers will improve to the extent of eliminating the prevailing misunderstanding between the two groups. The persistence of this problem reveals a discrepancy between the studies of indigenous languages in South Africa and the way of speaking them, whereby important linguistic elements that make communication more authentic are excluded in language materials. This study analyses the use and significance of CIFWs in daily interactions by investigating the two Xhosa CIFWs words wethu and bethu. The overall aim of this study is to explore the use of a corpus in the examination of CIFWs in general, and wethu and bethu in particular. Both a quantitative approach based on the Gothenburg-Unisa spoken corpus and a qualitative approach based on Allwoods’ ACA theoretical framework were used in the analysis and description of the functions and significances of wethu and bethu as communicative and interactive function words. / Linguistics and Modern Languages / M.A. (Applied Linguistics)