Older adults often experience hearing loss in one or both ears, and as a result, many participate in aural rehabilitation programs. Often these programs incorporate communication partners and train them to use compensatory strategies. One common compensatory strategy cited is encouraging communication partners to speak more clearly to their loved one with hearing loss. Clear speech often encompass several different strategies such as speaking slower, louder, or over articulating. However, it is unclear what acoustic changes talkers employ when cued to speak in these different ways. The present study evaluated the effect of different cues (i.e., control (habitual), clear, slow, loud, and over articulate) and speaking tasks (oral reading versus monologue) on the acoustic characteristics of speech produced by eight older adults with hearing in the normal range. All speech was recorded in a sound treated booth and analyzed acoustically along six dimensions: articulation rate, percent change in fundamental frequency from control, change in sound pressure level from control, voice range density area, vowel space density area, and cepstral peak prominence. Results revealed statistically significant acoustic changes between conditions for all six acoustic measures. There was also significant effect of task for three acoustic measures. Findings show both group trends as well as individual talker variability. Further research is needed to determine how the acoustic changes associated with different instructional cues negatively or positively impact listeners with hearing loss.

Includes bibliography. / Utilising an individual-difference model of student learning, this study set out to explore the manifestations of qualitative differences in study behaviour at the individual level, amongst a group of educationally disadvantaged students enrolled in the Academic Support Programme in Engineering at Cape Town (ASPECT). The first aim of the study was to describe and conceptually categorise, within the concept of the study orchestration, the manifestation of these individual differences in study engagement, by means of a retrospective analysis of students' school-based study of Science. This process was undertaken when the students first arrived at the university. The quantitative process of classification, done independently of the author, was augmented by each student being individually interviewed by the author about his (retrospective) study behaviour. The second aim was to investigate the study orchestrations of these students in the transition between school and university. Stability over time, in the absence of explicit intervention, of (in particular) students whose study orchestrations had been classified as "at risk" on entry to the university, confirmed the findings from previous studies (some of which had been conducted with groups of educationally disadvantaged students). In previous studies, it had been shown that students in this conceptual category were likely to fail or achieve poorly in conventional university examinations. An ongoing programme of intervention was then designed with the specific aim of enabling "at risk" students to 'reorchestrate' aspects of their study behaviour in qualitatively 'deeper' ways. Modelled in part on previous, more narrowly focused, intervention strategies, the intervention in this study set out to improve "at risk" students' qualitative levels of perceptions of their learning contexts, but it also focused more broadly on the whole ASPECT group without losing sight of the manifestations of qualitative differences in learning conceptions, student epistemologies, and so on, amongst this group. This was achieved by engaging all students in ongoing discourse about crucial learning processes, such as the development of metacognitive awareness and the .need to assume personal responsibility for learning. The study confirmed the findings of other studies: that it is possible to alter "at risk" students' contextualised perceptions in qualitatively 'deeper' ways. In addition, the study suggested lines for individual and subgroup intervention that (1) is possible within the context of everyday learning and teaching; (2) can be carried out by the average academic practitioner, and (3) is transferable to other contexts of academic support.

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Call number: LD2668 .P7 1973 M45

Abstract In this thesis I studied responses of three biennial, monocarpic plants Erysimum strictum, Gentianella amarella, and G. campestris, to various aspects in resource availability (i.e. competition, mineral nutrition, neighbor removal) and environmental stress (early frost) at adult or rosette stages and how these effects are related to grazing tolerance. I also studied how manipulations in resource availability affected arbuscular mycorrhizal colonization of the roots. All three species were relatively tolerant to simulated grazing and in most cases plants were able to compensate quite well for minor biomass losses. According to the compensatory continuum hypothesis, tolerance is most pronounced in resource-rich conditions, but this was not always the case in the present experiments. Erysimum strictum compensated for defoliation at the rosette stage but the reproductive output of adult plants was reduced markedly in the next year. This reduction was strongest among fertilized plants. Moreover, apex removal at the adult stage resulted in overcompensation (i.e. clipped plants were more productive) but only in the absence of fertilization and in the presence of competition, which is against the compensatory continuum hypothesis. In E. strictum a potential cost of compensation appeared as delayed flowering and fruit maturation among clipped plants. However, in spite of early frost treatment clipped plants were still able to overcompensate. In Gentianella amarella and G. campestris, apex removal reduced growth and reproductive performance in most cases. Effects on root fungal parameters were positive or neutral. This pattern suggests that simulated above-ground herbivory tends to increase carbon limitation, and therefore regrowing shoots and the fungal symbionts may appear as alternative, competing sinks for the limited carbon reserves of the host plant. Both shoot architecture and resource availability modify the responses of the study plants to apical damage at both rosette and adult stages. In addition, different environmental stress factors affect success in compensatory growth.

The problem of this study was to compare the written language development of two groups of disadvantaged children at the end of their fourth year of school.

The problem of this study was to determine the difference in academic achievement between disadvantaged pupils who attended a Head Start program and those who did not when that difference was measured by a selected instrument. The groups used for the comparison were (1) Head Start, disadvantaged; (2) non-Head Start, disadvantaged without kindergarten experiences; (3) non-Head Start, advantaged with kindergarten experiences; and (4) non-Head Start, advantaged without kindergarten experiences.

Title: The use of compensatory exercises in sports training process Goals: The aim of this work was to verify the influence of compensatory exercises for treatment of muscle imbalance in a selected group of tennis players. Method: During the research we used Janda' s (2004) functional spine tests and muscle tests, that were applied to selected group of three tennis players. The set of compensatory exercises was designed on the basis of the results of the admission testing. The players were asked to follow this set of exercises with regularly for the period of three months. The selected individuals underwent output testing at the end of the exercise programme. We compared the results of the admission and output testing for the evaluation of the influence of the compensatory exercises of the musculo-skeletal system on the selected subjects. Results: The results that are presented in charts and graphs evaluate the influence of the compensatory ecercises of the musculo-skeletal system on the selected subjects. The results prove that due to regular performance of compensatory exercises we can expect a reduction of muscle shortening and weakening. The muscle shortening in knee flexors and strengthening of the blade muscles occurred at the first of three selected subjects. The second subject' s measured...