Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 80-86). Also available in print.

This paper examines the ways in which individuals attempt to present themselves as healthy and fit human beings, according to the principles of dramaturgic self-presentation. Accordingly, Goffman's notions of face work, teamwork, and stigma are used to develop a framework for understanding how self-presentation impacts human interaction. This framework is then applied to a brief examination of the stigma of AIDS. Next, the framework is applied to the presentation of a healthy and fit self. Three issues are considered: what is common to the definition of fitness, what are some of the dimensions that become salient in light of that common definition, and, what strategies for presentation are possible based on the definition and dimensions. Finally, four variables that might affect which presentation strategy is adopted are considered: attractiveness, gender, age, and class. It is suggested that none of these variables operates in isolation and some of the implications for presentation are considered.

Chik, Tsz Kwan. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 71-86). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / TABLE OF CONTENTS / ABSTRACT --- p.i / ABSTRACT (Chinese version) --- p.iii / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.iv / LIST OF TABLES --- p.viii / Chapter I --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Background of Study --- p.1 / Purpose and Significance --- p.3 / Delimitations --- p.3 / Limitations --- p.3 / Operational Definitions --- p.3 / Health-related physical fitness --- p.3 / Cardiorespiratory fitness --- p.4 / Body composition --- p.4 / Muscular strength --- p.4 / Muscular endurance --- p.4 / Flexibility --- p.4 / Self-reported questionnaire --- p.4 / Hypotheses --- p.4 / Chapter II --- REVIEW OF LITERATURE --- p.6 / Physical Fitness: Definition and its Association with Health and Mortality --- p.8 / Brief review on physical fitness and health --- p.10 / Physical Fitness Evaluation Programs --- p.12 / Existing Laboratory and Field Tests for Health-related Physical Fitness --- p.18 / Laboratory methods --- p.18 / Field tests --- p.21 / Problems associated with laboratory and field tests --- p.25 / Non-exercise prediction models --- p.28 / Self-reported Questionnaire --- p.30 / Perceived Physical Fitness Scale --- p.30 / NASA/JSC Physical Activity Scale (PA-R) --- p.30 / Multidimensional Physical Self-Concept --- p.31 / Validity and reliability of the self-reported fitness questionnaires --- p.31 / Merits and limitations of self-reported questionnaires --- p.33 / Setting of a Questionnaire --- p.35 / Summary --- p.35 / Chapter III --- METHODOLOGY --- p.37 / Development of questionnaire --- p.37 / Item construction --- p.37 / Content validity --- p.38 / Pilot test --- p.38 / Validity and reliability --- p.39 / Criterion measures --- p.40 / Statistical analysis --- p.43 / Descriptive statistics --- p.43 / Reliability --- p.43 / Criterion-related validity --- p.44 / Chapter IV --- RESULTS --- p.45 / Descriptive Statistics --- p.45 / Criterion-related validity --- p.48 / Reliability --- p.49 / Test-retest reliability --- p.49 / Internal consistency --- p.50 / Questionnaire revision --- p.51 / Chapter V --- DISCUSSION --- p.57 / Reliability --- p.57 / Test-retest reliability --- p.57 / Internal consistency --- p.60 / Validity --- p.62 / Limitations --- p.68 / Recommendations for further study --- p.69 / Conclusions --- p.69 / REFERENCES --- p.71 / APPENDIX / Chapter A --- Self-reported Physical Fitness Questionnaire for content validity --- p.87 / Chapter B --- Self-reported Physical Fitness Questionnaire for criterion validity (Chinese version) --- p.108 / Chapter C --- Self-reported Physical Fitness Questionnaire for criterion validity (English version) --- p.113 / Chapter D --- Health History Questionnaire --- p.119 / Chapter E --- PAR-Q --- p.121 / Chapter F --- Informed consent --- p.123 / Chapter G --- "Revised Self-reported Physical Fitness, test-retest reliability, and internal consistency (women)" --- p.124 / Chapter H --- "Revised Self-reported Physical Fitness, test-retest reliability, and internal consistency (men)" --- p.126

Thesis (M.S.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1994. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 136-144). Also available via the Internet.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Liberty University, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1976.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1976.

This thesis attempts to problematize and rethink the inter-related construction of the categories of "environment" and "fitness". It argues that environments are materially and discursively constructed through the mutually constitutive mobilization of networks of human and non-human actors by particularly powerful centers of translation, and that these processes increasingly involve the construction of environments configured to the requirements of an ideal of fitness - a fitness defined in terms of risk, flexibility, response-ability, responsibility, mobility, and consumption. In developing this argument particular attention is given to the relations between bodies and technologies as actors constitutive of the networks from which environments are constructed. As a specific illustrative example of this, the efforts of the fitness equipment manufacturer NordicTrack to mobilize and translate diverse networks of actors in the space of the home and then represent these hybrid networks as ontologically purified, meaningful and marketable environments are examined. The ontological and spatial ambiguity of the types of environments constructed by corporations such as NordicTrack is then discussed, this ambiguity being registered in the difficulty of positioning the boundaries between categories such as subject and object, nature and culture, human and machine, real and virtual. Finally, having illustrated that these ambiguous environments are perhaps constituted by communities of human and non-human actors, this thesis then suggests that such a recognition might open up space for critical geographical imaginations that are responsive to the possibility that political, ethical, and moral community and agency are co-constructions of humans and non-humans. / Master of Science

Syftet med studien var att undersöka upplevd motivation hos tävlingsaktiva inom fitness. Sex semistrukturerade intervjuer analyserades med en abduktiv tematisk ansats. Den teoretiska utgångspunkten var Self-Determination Theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000). Resultatet delades in i fyra teman: Fitness som livsstil, Målsättningens betydelse för tävlingssatsningen, Upplevd valfrihet i fitnessutövandet samt Identitetsskapande inom fitness. Resultatet påvisade en spridning i informanternas tal vad gäller motivation. Utifrån denna spridning utvecklades två profiler: den valfria- och den rigida profilen. Informanter inom den valfria profilen var enligt vår uppfattning drivna av inre motivation och självbestämda former av yttre motivation. Vår tolkning var att träningsglädje, strävan efter personlig utveckling och frihet att ta beslut utifrån lust och behov främjade inre motivation inom denna profil. Informanter inom den rigida profilen var enligt vår tolkning drivna av kontrollerade former av yttre motivation, såsom introjicerad reglering. Vår uppfattning var att minskad flexibilitet kring tränings- och kostupplägg och ett fokus på att prestera bättre än andra underminerade inre motivation inom denna profil. / The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceived motivation of competative athletes in fitness. Six semi-structured interviews were analyzed using an abductive thematic approach. The analysis was based on Self-Determination Theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000). The results were divided into four themes: Fitness lifestyle, The importance of goals in competition investment, Perceived freedom of choice in the pursuit of fitness, and Identity in fitness. The result showed a variation regarding motivation. Two different profiles were developed: the optional- and the rigid profile. Informants in the optional profile were in our opinion driven by internal motivation and self-determined forms of extrinsic motivation. Our interpretation were that training happiness, the pursuit of personal development and freedom to make decisions based on desires and needs promoted internal motivation within this profile. Informants within the rigid profile were according to our interpretation driven by controlled forms of extrinsic motivation, such as introjected regulation. Our interpretation were that reduced flexibility regarding training and diet approach and a focus on outperformin

Evolutionary search algorithms (ESAs from now on) are iterative problem solvers developed with inspiration from neo-Darwinian survival of the fittest genes. This thesis looks at the core issues surrounding ESAs and is a step towards building a rational methodology for their effective use. Currently there is no such method of best practice rather the whole process of designing and using ESAs is seen as more of a black art than a tried and tested engineering tool. Consequently, many non-practitioners are sceptical of the worth of ESAs as a useful tool at all. Therefore the first task of the thesis is to layout the reasons, from computational theory, why ESAs can be a potentially powerful tool. In this context the theory of NP-completeness is introduced to ground the discussions throughout the thesis. Then a simple framework for describing ESAs is developed to form another cornerstone of these later discussions. From here there are two main themes of the thesis. The first theme is that the No Free Lunch result requires us to take a problem centric, as opposed to algorithm centric, perspective on ESA research. The second major theme is the argument that whole algorithms and traditional computer science problem classes are the wrong level of granularity for the focus of our research. Instead we should be researching empirical questions of search bias at the granularity of the components of search algorithms. Furthermore, we should be finding empirical evidence to demonstrate that our granularity of analytic class is such that one analytic class maps onto one search bias class. We will see that this can mean that we have to sub-divide our classic computer science problems classes into smaller sub-classes. The hope is that we can find analytic distinctions that will sub-divide the instances along lines that match the divisions between the various empirically discoverable search bias classes. The intention is to develop our knowledge until we get one analytic class to map into one empirical class. If we have strong empirical evidence to suggest that this has been achieved then we have good grounds on which to confidently use this knowledge to predict the effective search biases required for new problem instances. In the last two chapters of the thesis we demonstrated these ideas on various instances of the euclidean TSP problem class