The benefits of brief-duration, early exercise programs in stroke have been shown, but the effects of longer-duration aerobic training early after stroke have not been examined. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of an early aerobic exercise program that extended beyond inpatient into outpatient rehabilitation on aerobic capacity, walking parameters (walking distance, speed, and symmetry), health-related quality of life, and balance. Patients in the subacute phase after stroke (n = 15) with mild to moderate impairment received aerobic exercise in addition to conventional rehabilitation. The study participants demonstrated significant improvement in aerobic and walking capacity, peak work rate, quality of life, balance, and gait velocity from baseline to midpoint. However, no difference was found between midpoint and final. This early aerobic exercise program following stroke significantly improved aerobic capacity, walking ability, quality of life and balance during the inpatient period although no further improvement was observed during the outpatient period.

The benefits of brief-duration, early exercise programs in stroke have been shown, but the effects of longer-duration aerobic training early after stroke have not been examined. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of an early aerobic exercise program that extended beyond inpatient into outpatient rehabilitation on aerobic capacity, walking parameters (walking distance, speed, and symmetry), health-related quality of life, and balance. Patients in the subacute phase after stroke (n = 15) with mild to moderate impairment received aerobic exercise in addition to conventional rehabilitation. The study participants demonstrated significant improvement in aerobic and walking capacity, peak work rate, quality of life, balance, and gait velocity from baseline to midpoint. However, no difference was found between midpoint and final. This early aerobic exercise program following stroke significantly improved aerobic capacity, walking ability, quality of life and balance during the inpatient period although no further improvement was observed during the outpatient period.

As airspace congestion becomes increasingly more common, one of the primary places airspace congestion is felt today, and will only continue to increase, is in areas where more than one major airport interact. We will call these groups of interdependent airports a metroplex; a term originally coined to describe large metropolitan areas where more than one city of equal (or near equal) size or importance. These metroplex areas are of particular importance in understanding future capacity demands because many of these areas are currently experiencing problems with meeting the current demand, and demand is only projected to increase as air travel becomes more popular. Many of these capacity issues have been identified in the FAA's Future Airport Capacity Task (FACT). From the second FACT report, it is stated that "the FACT 1 analysis revealed that many of our hub airports and their associated metropolitan areas could be expected to experience capacity constraints (i.e. unacceptable levels of delay) by 2013 and 2020, even if the planned improvements envisioned at that time were completed." This analysis shows that the current methods of expanding airports will not scale with the growing demand. To address this growing demand, a three part solution is proposed. The first step is to properly identify the metroplex areas to be evaluated. While the FACT reports serve to identify areas where capacity growth does not meet demand, these areas are not grouped into metroplexes. To do this grouping, an interaction metric was developed based on airport distance and traffic volume. This interaction metric serves as a proxy for how the existence of a second airport impacts the operation of the first. This pairwise metric was then computed for all commercial airports in the US and were grouped into metroplexes using a clustering algorithm. The second obstacle was to develop a tool to evaluate each metroplex as new algorithms were tested. A discrete event based simulation was developed to model each link in the airspace structure for each aircraft that enters the TRACON. This program tracks the delay each aircraft is required to accumulate in holding patterns or traffic trombones. A third and final method discussed here was an optimization program that can be used to schedule aircraft that are entering the TRACON to perform small modifications in their speed while en route to reduce the overall delay (both en route and in the TRACON). While formal optimization methods for scheduling aircraft arrivals have been presented before, the computational complexity has greatly prevented such algorithms from being used to schedule many aircraft in a dense schedule. This is because mixed integer programming (MIP) is a NP-hard problem. Practically, this means that the solution time can grow exponentially as the problem size (number of aircraft) increases. To address this issue, a Benders' decomposition scheme was introduced that allows solutions to be computed in near real-time on commodity hardware. These solutions can be evaluated and compared against the currently used TMA algorithm to show surprising gains in high density traffic.

Different field tests are currently used in a wide extent in different levels of soccer teams. To be able to assess the players’ physiological status the tests must have high validity, reliability and external validity. Many different tests have been developt, but currently only five of these tests are most commonly used: Yo-Yo intermittent recovery test (YIRT), Yo-Yo intermittent endurance test (YIET), Multi-sprint-test, Beep-test and Cooper-test. Presently there is no definitive conclusion regarding which of these tests is most suitable for soccer players. Therefore the present study aimed to, on the basis of previous studies evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of the five most commonly used field test; to analyze the physiological requirements on soccer players with respect to their aerobic and anaerobic capacity; and last to compare among the five field tests and evaluate the validity of the field tests through comparison of field tests results with results from laboratory and soccer matches. During soccer match about 75-96 % of the energy is provided by the aerobic systems, while the rest, 4-25 %, is provided by the anaerobic systems. This fits approximately most of the results from both field tests and laboratory tests through measurement of either pulse, running distance, VO2max or lactate. Among the five tests, Yo-Yo tests (YIRT and YIET) has the best correlation to soccer match with respect to physiological demands on both aerobic and anaerobic capacities. Among the different Yo-Yo tests YIRT2 seems to be the best compared to YIET1, YIET2 and YIRT1.

Road safety and traffic congestion are two of the critical issues facing the transportation profession today. As a means to promote safety and efficiency at United States intersections modern roundabouts are becoming more and more common. Over the last ten years, roundabouts implementation methodologies have been developed using data collected at U.S. roundabouts. These methodologies were first published in National Cooperative Highway Report 572: Roundabouts in the United States and more recently in the second edition of the national roundabout guidelines. This work attempts to validate the use of these methodologies for roundabouts in the state of Texas and also enhance guidelines for evaluating roundabout operations by exploring the effects of exiting flow, origin-destination patterns, and mean speed on roundabout entry-lane capacity. Capacity results from VISSIM are compared to the Highway Capacity Manual entry-lane capacity curve and results from SIDRA. / text

Recent research examining collective efficacy beliefs has generated a plethora of promising findings about their impact on group functioning. However, questions regarding the nature of collective efficacy beliefs across diverse educational organizations and theoretical constructs are understudied in this area of research. Therefore, the current study examines the relationship between collective efficacy beliefs and building group capacity. Self-reported data were collected from participants involved in a 10-month collaborative effort to enhance their proficiency in giving more effective presentations in order to strengthen their divisions’ capacity to improve educational achievement in schools. This top-down approach to building capacity is common, yet challenging to develop and evaluate, especially for organizations consisting of multiple infrastructures. Research findings using separate simple linear regression analyses suggest that perceived collective efficacy highly predicts group capacity, as it accounted for nearly 76% of the variance in self-reported group capacity. In addition, vicarious experience was shown to highly predict collective efficacy beliefs and group capacity. Likewise, perceived autonomy support strongly predicted group capacity, however did not significantly predict collective efficacy beliefs, which has been implied in the recent literature (Goddard, Hoy & Woolfolk Hoy, 2004; Brinson & Steiner, 2007). These findings provide a foundation for future collective efficacy belief research and capacity building efforts in the nonprofit education sector. / text

For over 20 years occupational therapists have been using functional capacity evaluations to provide information about individuals’ ability to work after a musculoskeletal injury. An important component of these evaluations is the determination of the clients’ level of effort during the assessment. Only when a client puts forth high effort are the results considered an accurate measure of their work ability. This qualitative study explored therapists’ perception of the process of determining effort. Consistent with the literature, the results show that effort is a complex construct that is not easily defined, understood, or consistently assessed in practice. The participants in this study spoke about their own struggles defining, explaining, and assessing effort within the medico-legal context of an insurance system. The study results suggest support is needed for clinicians to navigate multiple client contexts, and the term ‘effort’ needs to be conceptualized in line with current knowledge about disability.

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Capacity development has long been considered a cornerstone of development. While the development industry’s commitment to capacity development has been fraught with debate about its ambiguous nature and lack of associated success, after more than thirty years of experience, there is now widespread agreement that capacity development is a priority for development. There is also renewed understanding that an alternative development paradigm is at the core of capacity development and core principles and good practice guidelines are emerging. However, while there has been a transformation in thinking, much of the development industry is entrenched in existing practices and there remains a gap between the theory that is espoused and capacity development in practice. Currently, the development industry is in transition. This transition is necessary and unavoidable if the development challenges faced by billions of people are to be addressed. This research sought to identify ways to facilitate this transition and close the gap between theory and practice. The research was underpinned by a pragmatic philosophical perspective. As such, a central aim of the research was to make a practical contribution to improving practice. A design-based research methodology was used to carry out research into the practice of delivering two capacity development interventions: 1) the Public Sector Linkages Program (PSLP) Project; and, 2) the Sustainable Sanitation and Wetlands Technology (SSWT) Project. These interventions were designed to develop Indonesian capacity in water and sanitation. In design-based research, practice and research are carried out concurrently. This methodology provided an opportunity to advance understanding of the relationship between capacity development theory based on the alternative paradigm and improved practice. A Framework for Capacity Development is the main outcome of this research. The Framework provides specific guidance regarding the design of capacity development interventions based on the alternative paradigm. The Framework was found to facilitate the design of interventions with improved processes and outcomes. Further application of the Framework in different contexts is recommended.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Murdoch University, 2005. / Thesis submitted to the Division of Science and Engineering. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 335-346).