Title: Effect of core training on anterior shoulder instability on semiprofessional rugby players. The concept of the problem: With Rugby Union football being a contact-collision sport there is a high risk of injury incidence, especially for the upper extremities. The anterior shoulder dislocation carries the highest incidence and severity and may frequently lead to an anterior shoulder instability and is therefore a risk factor for decreasing sporting performance. Working with anterior shoulder instability on a complex basis, there are many possibilities to influence this problem and on of them is incorporating a "core-training" program into functional training patterns. In sports, the core provides a foundation upon which muscles of the extremties and their coordination rely. Objectives: To evaluate the incidence of anterior shoulder instability on semiprofessional rugby players and, subsequently, to attest the effectivity of the "core-training" exercise program on anterior shoulder instability of these athletes, on explosive power of the upper extremities and the performance of "medvěd"- an examination of the "Integrated Stabilizing System of the Spine" (HSSP) from Kolář. Methods: The theoretical part follows up the given issue as a research and theoretical overview of the current findings based...

The purpose of this study was to compare core muscle activity during resistance exercises performed on stable ground versus an unstable surface and to examine whether lifting at different relative intensities affects core muscle activity levels. Twelve trained men performed four different movements including the deadlift, back squat, military press, and curl. Surface electromyography (EMG) was utilized to assess the activity of the rectus abdominis, external oblique, transversus abdominis, and erector spinae muscles. Participants performed each movement under three separate conditions including standing on stable ground with 50% of their one repetition maximum (1-RM), standing on a BOSU balance trainer with 50% of their 1-RM and, standing on stable ground with 75% of their 1-RM. The following muscles exhibited greater activity during the 75% 1-RM condition than all other conditions: the transversus abdominis (TA) and external oblique (EO) muscles during the deadlift; the rectus abdominis (RA) during the squat; the TA, RA, and EO during the press, and TA and erector spinae (ES) during the curl. The ES muscle during the press movement and EO during the squat movement were more active during the BOSU 50% 1-RM condition than the stable 50% 1-RM condition. Healthy individuals might consider performing the military press, curl, squat and deadlift movements with higher intensity resistances while standing on stable ground to incur higher widespread muscle activity of the core region.

Bakgrund: Skolios är en åkomma som förekommer hos två till fyra procent av alla barn och ungdomar i en ålder på 10-20 år. Skolios innebär att personen har en snedställning av ryggraden som mäts och definieras med metoden cobb angle. Detta kan ge upphov till smärta men även andra typer av problem som exempelvis längre livskvalitet. Ungdomarna kan uppleva att det besvärar dem i deras vardag både fysiskt, psykiskt och socialt. Vid andra allmänna former av ryggproblem har studier påvisat goda resultat för minskad smärta vid fysisk aktivitet av bålen.   Syftet: med studien är att utvärdera om coreträning kan minska ryggsmärtor och cobb angle hos tonåringar med idiopatisk skolios.   Metod: Metoden som användes är en deskriptiv litteraturstudie. För att hitta relevanta studier användes databaserna pubmed och cinahl. Studiernas evidensgranskades utifrån ett granskningsprotokoll (GRADE).   Resultatet: inkluderade 14 artiklar som redovisades i fyra olika teman: Coreträning som reducerar smärta & cobb angle, Coreträning utan inverkan på smärta och cobb angle, muskelstyrka & träningskapacitet och samband mellan bålstabilitet & livskvalité. Resultatet påvisade lite delade meningar om huruvida coreträning kan hjälpa till att minska smärta och cobb angle. Merparten av artiklarna visade att specifikt utformad coreträning kan hjälpa till att reducera smärta och cobb angle, men däremot sågs ingen större skillnad mellan generella- och specifika träningsprogram på reducering av smärta och cobb angle.   Slutsats: I denna studie framkom samband mellan ökad bålstabilitet och minskad smärta/cobb angle. Detta kan tyda på att specificerad coreträning skulle kunna agera som behandling för att minska smärta och cobb angle hos tonåringar med idiopatisk skolios.

This dissertation, Constructing Hope: Narrative and the Foster Care Experience, analyzes the language used to explain the foster care experience to children under the care of Arizona's Child Protective Services (CPS). The dissertation proposes revisions to the language around foster care to make the experience less confusing and makes recommendations to encourage hope for foster children. This multi-methodological study combines ethnography and textography. Engaging narrative inquiry, relying particularly on Earnest Bormann and Walter Fisher, the dissertation analyzes Arizona's training material for Child Protective Services (CPS) case managers (CORE training) and Arizona's training material for foster parents (PS-MAPP training) along with interviews of case managers and foster parents. The analysis of the CORE training for CPS case managers reveals that narratives about CPS generally focus on the birth parent as central to the plot and situate children as supporting characters. Also, the analysis shows narrative disjunctures between the characterization of birth parents in the CORE training and the experiences of the case managers interviewed. I show how the language used in the CORE training could be more coherent with the experiences of case managers and the experiences of children. The analysis of the PS-MAPP training reveals a contradiction between the characterization of the foster caregiver and the metaphor of "parent" used to describe the foster caregiver. Also, the study demonstrates ways in which the strength/needs framework, which is central to the training, could be expanded to better prepare foster caregivers for their work. Finally, examining Aviva Children's Services' Life Book program reveals ways in which hope can be cultivated for foster children. The analysis of the Life Book project proposes a rhetoric of hope applicable to other populations who have undergone serious trauma.

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study shows how child and youth care professionals understand and apply activity-oriented interventions with children aged 6 to 11. Thirteen child and youth care professionals who employ activity-oriented interventions with children participated in semi-structured interviews. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed using an inductive content analysis approach. Eighteen emergent themes describe the participants’ perceptions of how activity-oriented interventions engage children, build therapeutic relationships and aid children’s learning. The findings in this study show how activity-oriented interventions fit with children’s development and are seen to be helpful in facilitating self-awareness and promoting change. Further, the findings highlight the lack of activity-oriented core training in Canadian undergraduate and graduate child and youth care programs. These finding suggest that there is a need for increased core curriculum in activity-oriented approaches, and also for future research in the effectiveness of activity-oriented interventions. / Graduate