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Ce mémoire a pour but une compréhension globale de ce qu'est l'entraînement de l'esprit à la Société de tai chi taoïste du Canada. Dans le chapitre I, j'ai d'abord décrit certains aspects de la culture de cette organisation et j'ai élaboré quelques concepts qui pourraient être interprétés comme constituant l'entraînement de l'esprit. Ensuite, dans le chapitre II, j'ai approfondi des éléments provenant de mes observations et de mon expérience à la Société, pour faire des parallèles avec des caractéristiques attribuées aux processus de changement en U telles que recensées, entre autres, par Paul Carle (2012). Dans le chapitre III, j'ai décrit les étapes par lesquelles j'ai dû passer pour entrer en relation avec l'organisation en tant que chercheuse. J'ai donc exposé les moments importants dans la mise en place de ma démarche, dont le point culminant a été la diffusion du questionnaire en ligne aux instructeurs. Le chapitre IV expose en détail les réponses reçues et qui m'ont permis de mieux comprendre comment est vécu et perçu ce qu'on appelle l'entraînement de l'esprit à la Société et comment cela pouvait être vécu comme un processus de changement. J'ai aussi témoigné d'une expérience personnelle rappelant un tel processus, suivant une trajectoire en U, et que j'ai vécu dans une situation qui pourrait être interprétée comme l'entraînement de l'esprit à la Société. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Entraînement de l'esprit, courbes en U, la Société de tai chi taoïste du Canada, processus de changement.

In this research work we tried to determine shin flexors and extensors muscles power, body balance and posture changes for the patients diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, depending of performed work and disease conditions. The purpose Of this research work was to determine the maximum power of shin flexor and extensor muscles and human body balance changes. Aims: To determine shin flexor muscles power, at different degrees of angular velocity. To determine shin extensor muscle power, at different degrees of angular velocity. To compare flexor and extensor muscle power at different degrees of angular velocity. To determine body swing lengths. To determine Tai Chi marital art exercises effectiveness on human body balance. Methods. In this research took part Multiple Sclerosis Society of Kaunas District “OREMUS” patients. Man (n=3), women (n=6). Age average in years 46 ± 6. The applied tests methods were dynamometric, posturographic and physiotherapy. Dinamometry sessions consisted of four series (5, 10, 15, 15 repetitions) performed at 30°/s, 180°/s, 300°/s, 500°/s of angular velocity. A ten seconds rest was allowed between the series. Verbal encouragements was given during every trial. 4 such testing session were done all together. Peak torque, average power and work performed were recorded. During the second test method applied, patients were allowed to stand steady 60s. on the tensoplatform and to step on it from the right and secondarily from the left leg. Body Mass... [to full text]

The current study compared participants’ ability to perform tasks using two nutrition labels: a control Nutrition Facts table of the current Canadian format (n=64), and an experimental label (n=64), identical to the control label with the exception of a footnote explaining how to interpret percent daily values. A 25% subset of participants answered questions using a think aloud technique, and data was analyzed using content analysis. The main outcome measured was ability to interpret percentages correctly, with ability to compare, define and manipulate information as secondary outcomes. No significant differences were seen in ability to perform tasks between the experimental and control conditions for any outcomes. As determined by chi square tests, higher performance was associated with higher education, being male, and report of previous Nutrition Facts table use. Verbal protocol analysis identified that interpretation of percentages was based on the meal, food type, and comparison to other foods.

Empirical likelihood (EL) is a recently developed nonparametric method of statistical inference. Owen’s 2001 book contains many important results for EL with uncensored data. However, fewer results are available for EL with right-censored data. In this dissertation, we first investigate a right-censored-data extension of Qin and Lawless (1994). They studied EL with uncensored data when the number of estimating equations is larger than the number of parameters (over-determined case). We obtain results similar to theirs for the maximum EL estimator and the EL ratio test, for the over-determined case, with right-censored data. We employ hazard-type constraints which are better able to handle right-censored data. Then we investigate EL with right-censored data and a k-sample mixed hazard-type constraint. We show that the EL ratio test statistic has a limiting chi-square distribution when k = 2. We also study the relationship between the constrained Kaplan-Meier estimator and the corresponding Nelson-Aalen estimator. We try to prove that they are asymptotically equivalent under certain conditions. Finally we present simulation studies and examples showing how to apply our theory and methodology with real data.

Mixture modeling has numerous applications. One particular interest is microarray data analysis. My dissertation research is focused on the Contaminated Chi-Square (CCS) Modeling and its application in microarray. A moment-based method and two likelihood-based methods including Modified Likelihood Ratio Test (MLRT) and Expectation-Maximization (EM) Test are developed for testing the omnibus null hypothesis of no contamination of a central chi-square distribution by a non-central Chi-Square distribution. When the omnibus null hypothesis is rejected, we further developed the moment-based test and the EM test for testing an extra component to the Contaminated Chi-Square (CCS+EC) Model. The moment-based approach is easy and there is no need for re-sampling or random field theory to obtain critical values. When the statistical models are complicated such as large mixtures of dimensional distributions, MLRT and EM test may have better power than moment based approaches, and the MLRT and EM tests developed herein enjoy an elegant asymptotic theory.

Constant False Alarm Rate (CFAR) Processors are important for applications where thousands of detection tests are made per second, such as in radar. This thesis introduces a new method for CFAR threshold estimation that is particularly applicable to sound source detection with distributed microphone systems. The novel CFAR Processor exploits the near symmetry about 0 for the acoustic pixel values created by steered-response coherent power in conjunction with a partial whitening preprocessor to estimate thresholds for positive values, which represent potential targets. To remove the low frequency components responsible for degrading CFAR performance, fixed and adaptive high-pass filters are applied. A relation is proposed and it tested the minimum high-pass cut-off frequency and the microphone geometry. Experimental results for linear, perimeter and planar arrays illustrate that for desired false alarm (FA) probabilities ranging from 10-1 and 10-6, a good CFAR performance can be achieved by modeling the coherent power with Chi-square and Weibull distributions and the ratio of desired over experimental FA probabilities can be limited within an order of magnitude.

Thesis (M.Ing. (Development and Management Engineering))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.

Tai Chi Chuan is a safe alternative for those who wish to improve balance and physical wellbeing. It is a popular form of exercise that is supported by a growing body of research aimed towards improving the health of a sedentary elderly population. The purpose of this study was to examine the biomechanical features of the lower extremity during performance of two Tai Chi movements, the “Repulse Monkey (RM)” and “Wave-hands in clouds (WHIC).” The study’s parameters included quantitative measures of the temporospatial, kinematic, and kinetic characteristics of the lower extremities. A group of experienced male Tai Chi practitioners (n = 15) between the ages of 65 to 75, performed “Repulse Monkey (RM)”, “Wave-hand in Cloud (WHIC)”, and forward walking. Three-dimensional (3-D) kinematic and kinetic data was collected using VICON motion analysis system with 10 infrared cameras and 4 force plates. The following variables were examined: stride width, step length, step width, single- and double-support times, centre of mass (COM) displacement, peak joint angles, range of motion, peak joint moments, time to peak moment, and ground reaction force (GRF). The differences in the measurements of the two Tai Chi movements were compared with walking using two-way ANOVA. The study’s results showed that the two Tai Chi movements elicit gentle and fluid changes to position of the upper body mass and the joints in the lower extremity. In terms of joint kinematics, the knee remained flexed throughout RM and WHIC. Unlike walking, RM had larger abduction and adduction angles at the knee joints and large plantar- and dorsiflexion ROM at the ankle. Reduced posterior, mediolateral, and vertical GRF were seen; the loading joints at the ankle and hip were gentle and smaller than walking. Varus/valgus moments were notably larger at the knee joint during RM and eversion moment was larger at the ankle joint during WHIC movement. A large, but slow loading rate at the knee joint has implication towards the viscoelastic properties of the knee. A better understanding of RM and WHIC would facilitate the improvement of balance, physical capacity, and joint flexibility for the elders.

Thesis (M.Ing. (Development and Management Engineering))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.