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<p>[missing page:45]</p> / <p>BACKGROUND: Creatine monohydrate (CrM) supplementation during resistance exercise results in a greater increase in fat free mass (FFM), total body mass (TBM), and strength in young men and women. The purpose of the present investigation was to examine the interactive effects of creatine supplementation and resistance training on body composition, strength, and intramuscular total creatine concentration in older men and women.</p> <p>METHODS: Twenty-eight older men and women were randomly allocated, in a double blind fashion, to receive either CrM (n=14; CrM: 5g + 2g dextrose) or placebo (n=14; PL: 7g dextrose). Subjects participated in a 14 wk progressive, whole-body resistance training program. Pre-and post-training measurements included: 1 RM strength, isometric strength, body composition (TBM, FFM, %BF), muscle fiber area, and muscle total creatine and phosphocreatine.</p> <p>RESULTS: Training resulted in an increase in 1 RM strength for each of the 4 exercises (range = 26 - 60%) (p < 0.001), an increase in knee and dorsiflexion isometric strength (p < 0.001) and an improvement of performance on functional tasks (p < 0.001). Knee isometric strength was increased more for CrM (46.2%) as compared to PL (22.5%) (p < 0.05). Total body mass and lean body mass increased more for CrM (TBM: +1.2 kg; LBM: +1.7 kg) as compared to PL (TBM: -0.2 kg; LBM: 0.4 kg) (p < 0.05)</p> <p>CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that erM supplementation results in a greater increase in isometric knee extensor strength, total body mass and lean body mass during resistance training in older adults.</p> / Master of Science (MSc)

A main goal of mathematics educators is to guide students in becoming better problem solvers; however, the recipe for successful problem solving is complex due to the varying factors that play a role in the problem solving process (Schoenfeld, 1992). There is a limited amount of research that examines problem solving when students work on non-routine problems outside of the classroom; therefore, the goal of this study is to use secondary data analysis to discover what factors (Schoenfeld, 1992) relate to problem solving on non-routine unconstrained tasks of students in the middle grades. Identifying the factors that relate to successful unconstrained non-routine problem solving can help mathematics teachers and policy makers make more informed decisions about curriculum and instruction in order to enhance problem solving aptitude. Using Schoenfeld’s (1992) theoretical framework for mathematical behavior, the following question set the groundwork for the current study: What resource (computational skills and heuristics), control (self-regulation), and belief/affect factors (demographics, motivation, and anxiety) both individually and collectively relate to unconstrained non-routine mathematical problem solving? The research question is answered in a series of three stages that examines how the factors relate to a) problem correctness, b) correct problem set-up, and c) problem completion. Results suggest that higher levels of self-regulation, and SES status predict problem completion; higher self-regulation, ability beliefs, and SES predict correctly setting-up the problem; and higher levels of anxiety and stronger computational skills predict solving the problem correctly. Reasons for the patterns of results are discussed, as well as suggestions for future research to extend on the current findings. / Math & Science Education

This study examined the use of ranking task exercises in physics as a means to elicit student's quantitative and/or qualitative understanding of four different physics concepts. Each ranking task exercise in physics asked students to examine several different scenarios that contain a number of quantitative features and then arrange the scenarios in an ordered sequence according to some other quantitative feature. In this study, students completed four different ranking task exercises as part of their coursework in their high school physics class. The responses of students to these ranking task exercises were scored, analyzed, and categorized according to the extent to which a student's response was primarily quantitative or primarily qualitative in nature. The results show that while students relied on a combination of both qualitative and quantitative representations as they completed the exercises, the majority of students used qualitative representations in their solutions to the ranking task exercises in physics. While the students' qualitative and quantitative representations supported the students' rankings of the scenarios in each ranking task exercise, the qualitative representations used by the students provided insight into the student's current understanding of the physics concepts being investigated. The findings suggest that regardless of the representation used by the student to complete the ranking task exercise, students had difficulty in correctly ranking the scenarios in all of the ranking task exercises used in this study. While the students used both quantitative and qualitative representations in their solutions to ranking task exercises in physics that contained two quantitative variables, the study found that students relied exclusively on qualitative representations in their solutions to the ranking task exercise in physics that contained four quantitative variables. / CITE/Mathematics and Science Education

Dual task studies have found that Task 2 response information is activated during Task 1 response selection, and can have a priming effect on Task 1. This is called the backward compatibility effect (BCE). Giammarco et al. (2016) found that single-task practice of Task 2 in the context of a random, filler task (Practice-T2 condition) extinguished BCE development in a subsequent dual-task. On the other hand, practicing Task 2 in the context of Task 1 (Practice-Both condition) promoted BCE development in subsequent dual-tasks. Experiment 1a sought to replicate this context-specific disruption of BCE development by presenting participants with a single-task practice phase where they practiced Task 2 along with a filler task, and then observed BCE development in a subsequent dual-task phase. Experiment 1b addressed a counterbalancing issue in Experiment 1a. Experiment 2 was an exact replication of the Practice-T2 condition used in Giammarco et al. (2016). Overall, we conceptually replicated the context-specific disruption of BCE in Experiment 2, but not in Experiments 1a and 1b. Further study is warranted to determine the effect of specific response features on the learning context of Task 2. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / Backward compatibility effects (BCEs) have been consistently observed in dual task paradigms. BCEs occur when Task 1 and Task 2 response information are congruent: participants respond faster to Task 1 when the two tasks require congruent responses than when they require incongruent ones. This suggests that there is some parallel processing of Task 2 while performing Task 1. The purpose of this study was to explore the episodic account of BCE development. Since episodic memories are context-specific, BCEs should also be context-specific, according to the episodic account. By manipulating the context of Task 2 learning, we tested whether this affected subsequent BCE development. Our findings suggest that context-specific disruption of BCE development is possible, but depends on other factors as well.