Šiandieninėje visuomenėje projektai tampa vis aktualesni, kadangi jie padeda spręsti verslo, meno, mokslo, technologijos bei daugelį kitų uždavinių. Vienas iš ugdymo kokybės gerinimo būdų - dalyvavimas tarptautiniuose projektuose. Tarptautinių projektų pagalba siekiama gerinti ugdymo įstaigos materialinę bazę, įtraukti tėvus į ugdymo procesą, suteikti vaikams kuo įvairesnių įspūdžių, kelti pedagogų kvalifikaciją bei įstaigos prestižą. Šio darbo tema yra aktuali dėl kelių priežasčių. Tai dėl projektinės veiklos rengimo galimybių bendrojo lavinimo įstaigose atskleidimo, taip pat tarpkultūrinio ugdymo galimybių šioje plotmėje. Apžvelgus literatūrą projektų metodo klausimais, išnagrinėjus Lietuvoje ir atlikus kiekybinį tyrimą, galime daryti sekančias išvadas: Pastebėta, kad tarpkultūrinė kompetencija sėkmingai gali būti ugdoma „keliaujant" į kultūriškai skirtingų šalių bendruomenes, ir ptojekto metodas, kaip priemonė šias siekiamybes įgyvendinti. Prieš atliekant tyrimą galima buvo numatyti, jog konkretaus patirtinio metodo, tokio kaip projekto taikymas, siekiant nustatyti tarpkultūrinės kompetencijos raišką, galimai išryškins tik kai kurias tiriamos kompetencijos struktūrines dalis. Gauti tyrimo rezultatai iš dalies patvirtino prielaidą. Tyrimo metu paaiškėjo, kad labiausiai buvo atskleistos respondentų žinios ir nuostatos, tačiau nebuvo išsamiai identifikuoti gebėjimai ir kultūrinis/kritinis sąmoningumas. Tyrimas parodė, kad tarpkultūrinė kompetencija glaudžiai siejasi su... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / In today’s society projects become more and more relevant since they help to solve the objectives of business, art, science, technologies and many other issues. One of the ways of improvement of education quality - participation in international projects. With the help of international projects it is attempted to improve the base of learning recourses of educational institution, to involve parents into educational process, to provide the children with a diversity of impressions, to raise qualification of the pedagogues and status of the institution. The theme of the present work is relevant due to several reasons. First of all, due to revealing of the possibilities of organization of project activity in institutions of general education, also due to the opportunities of intercultural education in this field. The following conclusions may be made after review of literature on the issues of project method, analysis in Lithuania and conduction of quantitative research: It has been noticed that intercultural competence may be developed successfully when “entering” the communities of the culturally different countries, and project method as a means of implementation of these aims. Before conduction of the research it was possible to foresee that application of particular experiential method such as application of project in pursuance of determination of expression of intercultural competence may highlight only some structural parts of the competence analyzed. The results... [to full text]

Dissertation submitted in partial compliance with the requirements for the Masters Degree in Technology: Chiropractic at the Durban University of Technology, 2009. / It has been noted that in many recent research studies mechanical neck pain is a serious problem in the world today. There are epidemiological and statistical studies documenting the high incidence and prevalence of mechanical neck pain, which effects people’s daily living (Drew, 1995; Ferrari and Russell, 2003; Cote et al., 2000, Venketsamy, 2007 and Haldeman et al., 2008). Background: Treatments for chronic neck pain, which are non-surgical, appear to be the most beneficial for patients (Haldeman, 2008). In brief, the presentation of chronic mechanical neck pain is defined as localised, asymmetrical neck pain with restricted range of motion and dysfunctional musculature (Grieve, 1988). The muscular dysfunction known as the upper cross syndrome is defined as tightness of the upper trapezius, pectoralis major and levator scapulae and weakness of rhomboids, serratus anterior, middle and lower trapezius and deep neck flexors. These muscles are responsible for stabilizing the scapula and the patient may present with rounded, elevated shoulders and anterior head carriage when diagnosed with this syndrome (Liebenson, 1996). Clinical trials conducted by Cassidy et al., (1992 a, b) concluded that spinal manipulative therapy (SMT) was highly effective in treating mechanical dysfunctions within the cervical spine. However, due to multi systemic involvement of the muscular, neural and passive systems in mechanical neck pain, the treatment may need to target all three of the subsystems of spinal stability to be most effective (Panjabi, 1992 a, b; Lee et al., 1998; Lee 2004 and Richardson et al., 2002). No research has been conducted on the effects and benefits of treatment directed on the cervical spine and upper cross syndromes. This research will compare scapula stabilization training and SMT to SMT in isolation, as a treatment for chronic mechanical neck pain. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to determine the effect that scapula stabilization had on chronic mechanical neck pain. Pilates exercises were used to strengthen and stabilize the scapula muscles (this included stretching out the hypertonic musculature of the upper cross syndrome). The aim was to improve posture as well as to decrease the mechanical stress on the neck. SMT was also concomitantly used to correct any cervical restrictions that were present. These results were then compared to the results of a group that only received spinal manipulative therapy. The null hypothesis was that the intervention group would not respond differently to the treatment protocol in terms of the subjective and objectives measurements. iv Method: This clinical trial was conducted on a sample population of 30 patients with chronic mechanical neck pain. Each patient was assigned to one of two groups (n=15) according to convenience sampling. Both groups received SMT to the cervical spine, while group B (intervention group) also received pilates classes twice weekly for four weeks, which retrained the scapula stabilization muscles to function optimally. The patients each underwent six spinal manipulative treatments over four weeks and a seventh consultation in the fifth week for data collection. Both groups were evaluated in terms of subjective and objective clinical findings. Subjectively the assessment included 2 questionnaires (Numerical Pain Rating Scale and Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College [CMCC] neck disability index). Objective assessment included cervical motion palpation, Cervical Range Of Motion goniometer (CROM) measurements, scapula stabilization tests and a postural analysis with the use of digital photography. The statistics were completed under the guidance of a biostatistician, from the College of Health Science, University of KwaZulu – Natal, (Esterhuizen, 2008) who analyzed the captured data with the use of SPSS version 15. All outcome measures were quantitative. Repeated measures ANOVA testing was used to assess the presence of a different effect for each outcome measure over time between the two treatment groups. A statistically significant time by group effect would indicate a significant treatment effect. The minimum significance level was 0.05. The trends and direction of the effect were assessed via profile plots. Result: According to the statistical analysis, both groups showed improvements - subjectively and objectively - with regards to chronic mechanical neck pain, which is in keeping with the literature. In terms of the inter-group comparison the SMT group (Group A) showed a more constant improvement in range of motion, pain and disability indexes with the SMT only group while the SMT and pilates group (Group B) showed a greater effect in stabilizing the scapula and increasing the functionality of the surrounding musculature. Conclusions and Recommendations: The intervention treatment (Group B) did not have a greater effect on the short-term treatment of chronic mechanical neck pain than the reference group (Group A). It was also evident that the intervention group (Group B) often continued to improve when the SMT (Group A) only group often regressed at the follow up sessions. This improvement was either not significant enough or v the follow up session did not allow for enough time for a true reflection to be noted. It is recommended that more research be carried out to gain conclusive results indicating whether there is a more beneficial long term result to this treatment protocol.

Dissertation submitted in partial compliance with the requirements for the Masters Degree in Technology: Chiropractic at the Durban University of Technology, 2009. / It has been noted that in many recent research studies mechanical neck pain is a serious problem in the world today. There are epidemiological and statistical studies documenting the high incidence and prevalence of mechanical neck pain, which effects people’s daily living (Drew, 1995; Ferrari and Russell, 2003; Cote et al., 2000, Venketsamy, 2007 and Haldeman et al., 2008). Background: Treatments for chronic neck pain, which are non-surgical, appear to be the most beneficial for patients (Haldeman, 2008). In brief, the presentation of chronic mechanical neck pain is defined as localised, asymmetrical neck pain with restricted range of motion and dysfunctional musculature (Grieve, 1988). The muscular dysfunction known as the upper cross syndrome is defined as tightness of the upper trapezius, pectoralis major and levator scapulae and weakness of rhomboids, serratus anterior, middle and lower trapezius and deep neck flexors. These muscles are responsible for stabilizing the scapula and the patient may present with rounded, elevated shoulders and anterior head carriage when diagnosed with this syndrome (Liebenson, 1996). Clinical trials conducted by Cassidy et al., (1992 a, b) concluded that spinal manipulative therapy (SMT) was highly effective in treating mechanical dysfunctions within the cervical spine. However, due to multi systemic involvement of the muscular, neural and passive systems in mechanical neck pain, the treatment may need to target all three of the subsystems of spinal stability to be most effective (Panjabi, 1992 a, b; Lee et al., 1998; Lee 2004 and Richardson et al., 2002). No research has been conducted on the effects and benefits of treatment directed on the cervical spine and upper cross syndromes. This research will compare scapula stabilization training and SMT to SMT in isolation, as a treatment for chronic mechanical neck pain. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to determine the effect that scapula stabilization had on chronic mechanical neck pain. Pilates exercises were used to strengthen and stabilize the scapula muscles (this included stretching out the hypertonic musculature of the upper cross syndrome). The aim was to improve posture as well as to decrease the mechanical stress on the neck. SMT was also concomitantly used to correct any cervical restrictions that were present. These results were then compared to the results of a group that only received spinal manipulative therapy. The null hypothesis was that the intervention group would not respond differently to the treatment protocol in terms of the subjective and objectives measurements. iv Method: This clinical trial was conducted on a sample population of 30 patients with chronic mechanical neck pain. Each patient was assigned to one of two groups (n=15) according to convenience sampling. Both groups received SMT to the cervical spine, while group B (intervention group) also received pilates classes twice weekly for four weeks, which retrained the scapula stabilization muscles to function optimally. The patients each underwent six spinal manipulative treatments over four weeks and a seventh consultation in the fifth week for data collection. Both groups were evaluated in terms of subjective and objective clinical findings. Subjectively the assessment included 2 questionnaires (Numerical Pain Rating Scale and Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College [CMCC] neck disability index). Objective assessment included cervical motion palpation, Cervical Range Of Motion goniometer (CROM) measurements, scapula stabilization tests and a postural analysis with the use of digital photography. The statistics were completed under the guidance of a biostatistician, from the College of Health Science, University of KwaZulu – Natal, (Esterhuizen, 2008) who analyzed the captured data with the use of SPSS version 15. All outcome measures were quantitative. Repeated measures ANOVA testing was used to assess the presence of a different effect for each outcome measure over time between the two treatment groups. A statistically significant time by group effect would indicate a significant treatment effect. The minimum significance level was 0.05. The trends and direction of the effect were assessed via profile plots. Result: According to the statistical analysis, both groups showed improvements - subjectively and objectively - with regards to chronic mechanical neck pain, which is in keeping with the literature. In terms of the inter-group comparison the SMT group (Group A) showed a more constant improvement in range of motion, pain and disability indexes with the SMT only group while the SMT and pilates group (Group B) showed a greater effect in stabilizing the scapula and increasing the functionality of the surrounding musculature. Conclusions and Recommendations: The intervention treatment (Group B) did not have a greater effect on the short-term treatment of chronic mechanical neck pain than the reference group (Group A). It was also evident that the intervention group (Group B) often continued to improve when the SMT (Group A) only group often regressed at the follow up sessions. This improvement was either not significant enough or v the follow up session did not allow for enough time for a true reflection to be noted. It is recommended that more research be carried out to gain conclusive results indicating whether there is a more beneficial long term result to this treatment protocol.