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Inactivity and sedentary behavioural patterns among children contribute greatly to a wide range of diseases including obesity, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes. It is also associated with other important health effects like mental health issues, anxiety, and depression. In order to reduce these trends, we need to focus on the highest contributing factor, which is lack of physical activity in children’s daily lives. 'Exergames' are believed to be a very good solution in promoting physical activity in children. Such games encourage children to engage in physical activity for long periods of time while enjoying their gaming experience. The purpose of this thesis is to provide means of directing child behaviour in a healthy direction by using gaming enhancements that encourage physical exertion. We believe that the combination of both exercising and learning modalities in an attractive gaming environment could be more beneficial for the child's well-being. In order to achieve this, we present an adaptive exergaming system, the "ExerLearn Bike", which combines physical, gaming, and educational features. The main idea of the system is to have children learn about new objects, new language, practice their math skills, and improve their cognitive ability through enticing games and effective exercise. Three games have been incorporated to provide children with various educational benefits. The system has personalized features that allow guardians to customize the learning content, skill level, and required physical activity to meet their child’s needs. A stationary bike is used as a gaming controller to encourage children to undertake daily aerobic exercise. A modular design approach was adopted so that it is possible to use any stationary bicycle as an input interface by simply attaching a number of devices to it. This thesis provides detailed information about the design requirements, the design model, the proposed system and its related hardware components, the design and development of the gaming software, and the qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the system’s performance.

The purpose of this thesis is to explore bicycle use and attitudes towards cycling through case study analyses in Halifax Regional Municipality and the Region of Waterloo. There are two main sections of analyses; the first investigates factors that have been shown by previous research to be associated with cycling behavior for each of the study areas, and the second focuses on the results of a bicycle survey administered for the purpose of this research. The statistical analysis in Part 1 applies Fisher’s Exact Test to reveal statistically significant associations in the survey data. These two sections of analysis are compared and the following conclusions offered: 1. Cycling use is likely associated with city size, density, weather, topography, age, and gender. 2. Cycling trip purpose in Halifax is associated with weather; in Waterloo, trip purpose is associated with weather, gender, and employment. 3. Cycling use in Waterloo is associated with weather, age, gender, employment, and income. 4. There is strong evidence that the provision of bicycle infrastructure has a strong association with bicycle use. In the context of increasing bicycle use, the principal finding is the association between the provision of bicycle infrastructure and increased cycling use. In Waterloo, where the rate of cycling use is higher than in Halifax, there is approximately twice the total number of kilometres of on-street bicycle routes and respondents reported living significantly closer to bike paths, lanes, or trails. In Halifax, where cycling use is less common, respondents expressed much more concern regarding inadequate cycling infrastructure and an overall dissatisfaction with the quality of cycling facilities. These findings reaffirm the previous research suggesting that the provision of more bicycle lanes, paths, route signage, and parking facilities is associated with higher rates of bicycle use among the general public.

Thesis (PhDAppliedScience)--University of South Australia, 2002.

Thesis (PhD)--University of South Australia, 2000

Thesis (M App Sc) -- University of South Australia, 1992

Thesis (PhD)--University of South Australia, 1999

Thesis (M.S.)--University of British Columbia, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 168-173).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Physics and Mathematical Physics, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (8 p. ).