The desire to age well is a common goal among the human population. How to do so is therefore, a popular question. One theory of ageing involves the accumulation of damage to mitochondrial protein and the subsequent loss of function the damage causes. Increasing the rate of mitochondrial protein synthesis, a variable that declines with advancing age, is one way to improve quality of life in the twilight years. A review of literature lead to a multi-level approach, with measurements of protein synthesis made at the whole body, muscle, and molecular levels. An acute bout of aerobic exercise, followed by feeding, two factors which have a positive effect on the rate of mitochondrial protein synthesis, was used. Adaptations to a period of exercise training are mediated by the accumulation of proteins due to each acute exercise bout, and so an acute intervention was postulated to be indicative of changes expected over the long term. A stable isotope infusion combined with sampling of breath, blood, and muscle was used to determine the rate of whole body protein synthesis in 12 older adults. Intracellular signalling for mitochondrial and whole body protein synthesis was examined using RT-quantitative PCR and Western blotting in eleven young adults. The rate of post-exercise whole body protein synthesis was 19% greater over the first four hours of post-exercise recovery, in subjects receiving a protein-plus-carbohydrate drink immediately after a bout of cycling than in those receiving a carbohydrate-only drink (p = 0.001). The same trend was revealed in signalling for whole body protein synthesis and the abundance of cytochrome c, a mitochondrial protein, although these results were not statistically significant (p = 0.2). In contrast there was a strong, albeit also statistically insignificant, tendency for signalling for mitochondrial protein synthesis to be higher in the skeletal muscle of subjects receiving a carbohydrate-only drink after a bout of cycling (p = 0.06). The exercise and feeding intervention described in this thesis may provide a means to enhance the rate of mitochondrial protein synthesis in older individuals and, in so doing, improve the quality of their old age.

The desire to age well is a common goal among the human population. How to do so is therefore, a popular question. One theory of ageing involves the accumulation of damage to mitochondrial protein and the subsequent loss of function the damage causes. Increasing the rate of mitochondrial protein synthesis, a variable that declines with advancing age, is one way to improve quality of life in the twilight years. A review of literature lead to a multi-level approach, with measurements of protein synthesis made at the whole body, muscle, and molecular levels. An acute bout of aerobic exercise, followed by feeding, two factors which have a positive effect on the rate of mitochondrial protein synthesis, was used. Adaptations to a period of exercise training are mediated by the accumulation of proteins due to each acute exercise bout, and so an acute intervention was postulated to be indicative of changes expected over the long term. A stable isotope infusion combined with sampling of breath, blood, and muscle was used to determine the rate of whole body protein synthesis in 12 older adults. Intracellular signalling for mitochondrial and whole body protein synthesis was examined using RT-quantitative PCR and Western blotting in eleven young adults. The rate of post-exercise whole body protein synthesis was 19% greater over the first four hours of post-exercise recovery, in subjects receiving a protein-plus-carbohydrate drink immediately after a bout of cycling than in those receiving a carbohydrate-only drink (p = 0.001). The same trend was revealed in signalling for whole body protein synthesis and the abundance of cytochrome c, a mitochondrial protein, although these results were not statistically significant (p = 0.2). In contrast there was a strong, albeit also statistically insignificant, tendency for signalling for mitochondrial protein synthesis to be higher in the skeletal muscle of subjects receiving a carbohydrate-only drink after a bout of cycling (p = 0.06). The exercise and feeding intervention described in this thesis may provide a means to enhance the rate of mitochondrial protein synthesis in older individuals and, in so doing, improve the quality of their old age.

O movimento humano, que é o tema dessa tese, teve e tem um papel extraordinário na história do homem no planeta, e na sua própria história de vida. Essa pesquisa, que situa-se em um campo epistemológico comum à Educação e à Educação Física, tem o objetivo geral de definir o papel do movimento humano no processo de letramento, com vistas à formação do licenciado em Educação Física. Para isso, lança mão de uma metodologia que se utiliza da pesquisa científica de base teórico-conceitual, valendo-se do método de investigação de caráter qualitativo e teórico, para sua construção. Como estratégia para o seu desenvolvimento, opto por uma construção singular onde já na introdução discuto e defino os conceitos básicos que darão suporte à tese, por isso essa parte toma um encorpamento maior em volume e importância. Os capítulos são construídos em formato de artigos que, ao mesmo tempo em que se encerram em si mesmos, eles conduzem na direção do objetivo maior da tese, o que se torna claro na conclusão geral da tese onde construo as amarras entre os temas que foram discutidos. Assim, ao investigar o movimento humano, a partir de sua ação para o desenvolvimento cognitivo do sujeito, com o objetivo de dar sustentação à teoria que afirma existirem interfaces entre movimento humano e letramento, foi possível debater vários assuntos ligados ao corpo, à cultura, aos modos de pensamento, à Educação Física e, logicamente ao movimento humano e ao letramento. Finalmente essa pesquisa conclui a existência de uma ligação direta entre movimento humano e desenvolvimento cognitivo do sujeito, o que leva também a possuir interfaces claras e objetivas entre o movimento humano com o processo de letramento, na medida em que a essência do letramento é ser um processo de desenvolvimento cognitivo constante, instalado em uma determinada cultura. Finalmente, visto como um objetivo interdisciplinar, o letramento se apresenta como um tema que também deve ser considerado e buscado pelo professor de Educação Física escolar, se tornando assim um agente de letramento na escola / Human movement, this thesis subject, has had an extraordinary role both in the history of man on the planet and in his own life story. This research, located in an epistemological field common to Education and Physical Education, has the general objective of defining the role of human movement in the literacy process, aiming at enlightening the education of undergraduate students of Physical Education, future teachers or professors. To this end, it makes use of a theoretical - conceptual based scientific research methodology, of qualitative and theoretical nature. As a strategy for its development, the introduction discusses and defines basic concepts that support the thesis, so that its importance and bulk are enhanced. The chapters are written as articles that, while ending in themselves, lead toward the thesis main goal, which becomes clear in its general conclusion, where all discussed parts are brought together. Thus, to investigate human movement in its connection to cognitive development, aiming at supporting the theory according to which there are interfaces between human movement and literacy, different issues related to body, culture, modes of thought, Physical Education, human movement and literacy were discussed. This research concluded that there is a direct link between human movement and cognitive development, with clear and objective interfaces between human movement and literacy process, in so far as the essence of literacy is being a process of constant cognitive development within a certain culture. Finally, seen as an interdisciplinary goal, literacy is presented as an issue that should also be considered and pursued by the teacher of Physical Education, who becomes a literacy agent in educational institutions

O movimento humano, que é o tema dessa tese, teve e tem um papel extraordinário na história do homem no planeta, e na sua própria história de vida. Essa pesquisa, que situa-se em um campo epistemológico comum à Educação e à Educação Física, tem o objetivo geral de definir o papel do movimento humano no processo de letramento, com vistas à formação do licenciado em Educação Física. Para isso, lança mão de uma metodologia que se utiliza da pesquisa científica de base teórico-conceitual, valendo-se do método de investigação de caráter qualitativo e teórico, para sua construção. Como estratégia para o seu desenvolvimento, opto por uma construção singular onde já na introdução discuto e defino os conceitos básicos que darão suporte à tese, por isso essa parte toma um encorpamento maior em volume e importância. Os capítulos são construídos em formato de artigos que, ao mesmo tempo em que se encerram em si mesmos, eles conduzem na direção do objetivo maior da tese, o que se torna claro na conclusão geral da tese onde construo as amarras entre os temas que foram discutidos. Assim, ao investigar o movimento humano, a partir de sua ação para o desenvolvimento cognitivo do sujeito, com o objetivo de dar sustentação à teoria que afirma existirem interfaces entre movimento humano e letramento, foi possível debater vários assuntos ligados ao corpo, à cultura, aos modos de pensamento, à Educação Física e, logicamente ao movimento humano e ao letramento. Finalmente essa pesquisa conclui a existência de uma ligação direta entre movimento humano e desenvolvimento cognitivo do sujeito, o que leva também a possuir interfaces claras e objetivas entre o movimento humano com o processo de letramento, na medida em que a essência do letramento é ser um processo de desenvolvimento cognitivo constante, instalado em uma determinada cultura. Finalmente, visto como um objetivo interdisciplinar, o letramento se apresenta como um tema que também deve ser considerado e buscado pelo professor de Educação Física escolar, se tornando assim um agente de letramento na escola / Human movement, this thesis subject, has had an extraordinary role both in the history of man on the planet and in his own life story. This research, located in an epistemological field common to Education and Physical Education, has the general objective of defining the role of human movement in the literacy process, aiming at enlightening the education of undergraduate students of Physical Education, future teachers or professors. To this end, it makes use of a theoretical - conceptual based scientific research methodology, of qualitative and theoretical nature. As a strategy for its development, the introduction discusses and defines basic concepts that support the thesis, so that its importance and bulk are enhanced. The chapters are written as articles that, while ending in themselves, lead toward the thesis main goal, which becomes clear in its general conclusion, where all discussed parts are brought together. Thus, to investigate human movement in its connection to cognitive development, aiming at supporting the theory according to which there are interfaces between human movement and literacy, different issues related to body, culture, modes of thought, Physical Education, human movement and literacy were discussed. This research concluded that there is a direct link between human movement and cognitive development, with clear and objective interfaces between human movement and literacy process, in so far as the essence of literacy is being a process of constant cognitive development within a certain culture. Finally, seen as an interdisciplinary goal, literacy is presented as an issue that should also be considered and pursued by the teacher of Physical Education, who becomes a literacy agent in educational institutions

After ten years of experience as team building consultant, a literature study, an overseas study tour and the attendance of several national and international seminars on the topic, pointed out that adventure as educational tool is founded in Human Movement Science. This emerging phenomenon draws on knowledge from several disciplines. This interdisciplinary character causes confusion and uncertainty amongst practitioners. Team building is relevant especially when people have to manage the consequences of a changing environment. Contemporary science calls for a different approach to practice which coincides with the demands of a changing business environment. Adventure experiences can be optimised to the level of an educational tool. The educational value of adventure is not a recent phenomenon but can be traced back as far as ancient Greek philosophers like Plato (427 B.c.) and Aristotle (384 B.c.). This was rediscovered by a German philosopher and educator Kurt Hahn (1886-1974) who founded Outward Bound. In 1970 Outward Bound principles were integrated within a high school Physical Education curriculum. The success of Project Adventure made adventure experiences accessible to other disciplines including organisational development through team building. Whenever adventure experiences are optimised to a learning experience it is referred to as adventure related experiential learning. This process consists of a macro and micro phase. This study argues that adventure related experiential learning has it's roots in Physical Education and therefore holds the potential to act as interdisciplinary and intradisciplinary bridge in Human Movement Science. The aim of this study is to revitalise the image of a discipline that became fragmented. / Na tien jaar praktykverwante ervaring as spanboukonsultant, 'n oorsese studiereis, literatuurstudie en die bywoning van internasionale en nasionale kongresse oor die onderhawige onderwerp, wys daarop dat avontuurgerigte spanbou binne die menslike bewegingskundige vakterrein gefundeer is. Hierdie ontluikende belangstellingsveld toon 'n sterk interdissiplinere karakter en dit veroorsaak verwarring en onsekerheid by operateurs. Veranderingsbestuur is 'n gemeenskaplike doelwit van spanbouprogramme. Die eise van 'n ontluikende wetenskapsfilosofie stem ooreen met die eise van 'n veranderende besigheidsmilieu. Avontuurbelewing kan as opvoedkundige hulpmiddel aangewend word. Die gebruik van avontuurbelewing vir opvoedkundige doeleindes kan teruggevoer word tot anti eke Griekse filosofiese sienswyses (Plato 427 v.C. en Aristoteles 384 v.C. ). Die opvoedkundige waarde van avontuurbelewing is deur 'n Duitse filosoof en opvoedkundige Kurt Hahn ( 1886-197 4) herontdek. Hahn se opvoedkundige idees is praktykgerig gelmplementeer onder die vaandel van Outward Bound. Die Outward Bound-beginsels is in 1970 met 'n liggaamlike opvoedingkurrikulum by 'n hoerskool in 1970 gelntegreer. Dit het as Project Adventure bekend gestaan. Die sukses van hierdie program het vinnig uitgebrei na ander dissiplines, onder andere korporatiewe spanbou. Wanneer avontuurbelewing tot leerervaring geoptimaliseer word, word daarna verwys as avontuurgerigte ervaringsleer. Hierdie gebeure-georienteerde proses bestaan uit 'n makro- en mikrofase. In hierdie studie word geargumenteer dat die oorsprong van avontuurgerigte ervaringsleer tot Liggaamlike Opvoeding teruggevoer kan word. Daarom kan avontuurgerigte ervaringsleer interdissipliner en intradissipliner brue slaan vanuit die Menslike Bewegingskunde. Die doel van hierdie studie is om opnuut impetus te gee aan 'n vakterrein wat gefragmenteer is. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 1997. / Biokinetics, Sport and Leisure Sciences / MA / Unrestricted

Numerous studies point to a link between fine motor skills and executive functioning (EF) in 3- to 6-year-olds (e.g., Oberer et al., 2017; MacDonald et al., 2016); however, it is unclear if this relation exists at younger ages. Therefore, the current project aimed to further explore EF and fine motor skills in typically developing 2-year-olds. Participants completed the Minnesota Executive Function Scale (MEFS), Spin the Pots, Shape Stroop, Snack Delay, and the Fine Motor portion (FMQ) of the Peabody Developmental Motor Scale Version-2. These findings demonstrate a link between general EF and visual-motor integration in 2-year-olds.

This project is built on the idea of predicting future human movement in an area. The algorithm’s predictions are based on previous movements in the area which has to be recorded somehow. For this a device with a motion sensor was setup to monitor the movement in a hallway in an office. This data was then used to test and evaluate the prediction algorithm. To give feedback about the movement and how it is changing to the people working in the office the setup device shows sentences on a monitor which describes the movement. The project resulted in a fully working application which measures people walking by, both when and how fast, and predicts future movement. Due to time constraints of the project the device was only up and running for two weeks. This is enough time to get some understanding of how well the prediction algorithm works, but a longer experiment time would have further helped the evaluation. The results showed that the algorithm can predict most of the events during the day, but is bad at predicting sudden spikes or other unusual behavior. / Projektet är baserat på idén att förutse framtida mänsklig rörelse i ett område. För att noggrant kunna förutse framtida rörelse så behöver man kunna mäta tidigare rörelse. För detta så sattes en anordning upp med en rörelse detektor för att mäta rörelsen i en korridor i ett kontor. Data som samlades in användes sedan för att testa och utvärdera förutsägelse algoritmen. För att ge feed-back om rörelsen och hur den ändras till människorna som jobbade i kontoret så visade anordningen meningar på en skärm som beskrev rörelsen. Projektet resulterade i en fullt fungerade applikation som mäter folk som går förbi, både när och hur snabbt, och förutser framtida rörelse. På grund av tids begränsningar i projektet så var anordningen bara uppe och mätte data i två veckor. Detta är tillräckligt mycket tid för att få någon förståelse över hur bra förutsägelse algoritmen fungerar, men en längre experiment tid skulle ha hjälpt utvärderingen. Resultaten visade att algoritmen kan förutse de flesta händelserna under dagen, men är dålig på att förutse plötsliga spikar eller annat ovanligt beteende.

Femoroacetabular impingement syndrome (FAIS) is a disorder characterized by specific morphology of the femur and/or acetabulum, which may lead to hip pain during gait. Compared to individuals without pain, people with FAIS walk with more anterior pelvic tilt, and their pain may result from excessive anteriorly-directed hip joint forces. Previous approaches using musculoskeletal modelling to calculate joint forces, however, may inaccurately assume that each individual stands in an entirely neutral position when determining static joint angles. Consequently, information on parameters that affect joint forces (such as pelvic tilt) is lost in kinematic data used to estimate joint loading. To observe the effect of computationally altered pelvic tilt on joint forces, gait data of six healthy individuals were processed using Vicon and Visual3D. Each participant’s pelvic tilt was adjusted by ±5 degrees and ±10 degrees of tilt at all time points. Five analyses were performed per individual: no change in tilt, two posterior (positive) tilts, and two anterior (negative) tilts. The resulting data were imported into OpenSim to estimate forces from the femur onto the acetabulum in the anterior, superior, and medial directions. Data for each participant were normalized for gait cycle and body weight in MATLAB. Statistical parametric mapping software was used to determine if the differences in joint loads were significant. A more anterior pelvic tilt led to a reduction in anteriorly-directed joint forces, and an increase in the superior and medial directions. Based on these results, each individual’s pelvic tilt (obtained from their stationary kinematic data) was accounted for when modeling FAIS and healthy individuals. Using the same methods as above, the hip joint forces of 22 people with FAIS were compared to those of 22 healthy individuals as both groups walked at a prescribed speed. Although there were reductions in joint forces in both FAIS limbs compared to those of the control group, the differences were not significant, possibly due to the high variability of joint forces. Despite the significant effects of pelvic tilt on hip joint force, other underlying assumptions need to be addressed in musculoskeletal modeling software in order to compare different conditions, such as the use of the same generic model despite differences in sex and hip morphology. Future studies comparing pathological and healthy joint loads can inform researchers on gait alteration strategies and the design of assistive devices to manage the symptoms and onset of conditions such as FAIS. / 2022-05-15T00:00:00Z

The majority of previous research investigating the role of vision in controlling adaptive gait has predominantly focused on over-ground walking or obstacle negotiation. Thus there is a paucity of literature investigating visuomotor control of step descent. This thesis addressed the importance of the lower visual field (lvf) in regulating step descent landing control, and determined when visual feedback is typically used in regulating landing control prior to / during step descent. When step descents were completed from a stationary starting position, with the lvf occluded or degraded, participants adapted their stepping strategy in a manner consistent with being uncertain regarding the precise location of the foot / lower leg relative to the floor. However, these changes in landing control under conditions of lvf occlusion were made without fundamentally altering stepping strategy. This suggests that participants were able to plan the general stepping strategy when only upper visual field cues were available. When lvf was occluded from either 2 or 1 step(s) prior to descending a step during on-going gait, stepping strategy was only affected when the lvf was occluded in the penultimate step. Findings suggest that lvf cues are acquired in the penultimate step / few seconds prior to descent and provide exproprioceptive information of the foot / lower leg relative to the floor which ensures landing is regulated with increased certainty. Findings also highlight the subtle role of online vision used in the latter portion of step descent to 'fine tune' landing control.

No description available.