Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Physiological Values'

<p> This dissertation aims to address a gap in the literature regarding the effect of the achievement-focused student identity on prosocial values and behaviors, specifically among students who predominantly value prosociality. Largely, research on identity and motivation addresses academic outcomes and psychological well-being outcomes (Settles, Sellers, &amp; Damas, 2002; Jaret &amp; Reitzes, 2009) while more recent literature that has addressed prosocial motives (Yeager, et al., 2015) has solely assessed academic performance outcomes. Drawing upon values literature (Schwartz, 1992) it can be inferred that the achievement-focused student identity may inhibit or decrease prosocial values and behaviors. Further, this may be particularly deleterious for the psychological well-being of students who hold prosociality as a central guiding feature of their self-concept. First, I examine whether certain social identities tend to have a higher tendency towards prosociality (Study 1). Second, I assess how a salient achievement-focused identity affects student behaviors (with particular attention to more prosocially inclined students) during a stressful academic situation (Study 2a &amp; 2b). Next, I devise a novel measure to assess the centrality of prosociality to the self and perceptions of conflict between prosocial values and achievement-focused settings (Study 3). Then, I assess how a salient achievement-focused identity impacts prosocial values and behaviors, and offer a new "integrated" approach to the student identity. Last, I assess how this expanded and "integrated" identity influences students' academic perceptions and psychological well-being, specifically for those students who are more prosocially inclined (e.g., women and lower income) as well as for those who perceive higher levels of prosocial-achievement conflict (Study 4).</p>

This study investigated the effects of incremented loads greater than maximal acceptable loads on selected locomotor kinematic and psychophysical variables for four different hand-held load-carriage methods. Ten male and ten female subjects, between the ages of 18 and 30, participated in four experimental sessions. Data collection involved obtaining selected anthropometric, strength, maximal load and preferred load, gait kinematic, and psychophysical values. The anthropometric, strength and load capacity variables enabled absolute and morphology normalised sex-based comparisons to be made. The kinematic and psychophysical parameters were used to quantify any changes from two sets of baseline values,"unloaded" and "maximal acceptable load" values, when loads were increased and carrying methods changed. Statistical analysis revealed that males were taller, heavier and stronger than females (p<0.05). Males chose significantly greater maximal acceptable loads and absolute maximal loads than females when expressed in their absolute or relative terms. Preferred walking speeds were not significantly different for unloaded or loaded conditions, although males walked significantly faster in absolute terms (but not in relative terms) than females. Different load carrying methods and incremented loads brought. about significant changes to several of the kinematic parameters investigated. Finally, ratings of perceived exertion, as well as the number of exertion sites, were seen to increase significantly as load increased. These values were not, however, significantly affected by differences in load carriage method.

The endangered Arabian oryx, Oryx leucoryx faces a wide range of issues that potentially have adverse effects on their welfare while they are free-ranging in their natural habitat, housed in captivity for conservation breeding or when they are translocated from the wild to captivity or vice versa. Furthermore, the global increase in the number of captive Arabian oryx (currently more than 95 % of the world population of about 8000 individuals), gives rise to particular concern for their welfare and health within captive conditions. Thorough assessment of the welfare of animals involves physiological and behavioural measures. Methods for assessment of welfare in Arabian oryx have not been established and the present studies aim at establishing physiological tools for assessment of welfare. Therefore, the present studies developed and applied new methods for non-invasive assessment of welfare in the Arabian oryx (using faecal samples), and established reference values for a range of haematological, biochemical and clinical parameters. The potential disturbances in these parameters were investigated after immobilisation and tranquillisation and post- transportation. Two enzyme immuno-assays (EIA I and II) for faecal glucocorticoid metabolites (FGM) were validated by stimulation and suppression of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis through injection of synthetic adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) and dexamethasone, respectively. These studies established a lag-time of 14 ± 1 h between secretion of glucocorticoids into the blood stream and excretion of the measured FGM. Faecal incubation at 30°C for 3 days showed that EIA I measured more stable faecal glucocorticoid metabolites than EIA II, and has greater potential for application in field conditions. This method was found to be invaluable for measuring stress and hence assessment of welfare status, and its use is recommended in planning welfare improvements. Measurement of FGM successfully detected the stress of road transportation (630 km for 8-10 h), showing an increase 2 days after transport, followed by recovery to basal FGM levels after re-housing for up to 11 days. Releasing oryx to the wild, in Oman, and tracking for 11 days, after transportation 50-70 km from the captive site (Arabian Oryx Sanctuary, Jaaluni), caused an increase in FGM to the highest levels seen in these studies, and suggests a high level of stress was experienced after release of oryx. Published reference values for haematological, biochemical, hormonal and clinical parameters for Arabian oryx are limited, with little information for non-immobilised and non-tranquillised oryx or consideration of possible age and sex differences. Therefore, reference values and inter-percentile ranges (2.5 and 97.5 percentiles) were established for 32 parameters, in separate groups of male and female adult oryx, without using immobilising or tranquillising chemicals during capture. The haematological parameters investigated were white blood cell count and differentiation (%) of cell types (neutrophils, lymphocytes, monocytes, eosinophils, basophils), number of platelets, red blood cell count, haemoglobin concentration and haematocrit, erythrocyte cell volume, erythrocyte haemoglobin content and concentration, serum osmolality and ions (sodium, potassium, chloride, calcium, magnesium and phosphorus). Biochemical parameters investigated were serum urea, glucose, total protein, albumin and plasma lactate concentrations. Clinical parameters investigated were body temperature, heart and respiratory rates. Hormonal parameters measured were cortisol, free-thyroxine, free-triiodothyronine and insulin concentrations. Near basal values for serum cortisol were measured in Arabian oryx sampled within 2 min, while values were significantly higher in oryx sampled within 5-10 min. The reference values established in these studies are considered valuable tools for diagnosis of disease and physiological alterations in male and female Arabian oryx. To investigate the possible effects of the common practice of immobilisation and tranquillisation on physiological and biochemical status, two restraint chemicals (xylazine and perphenazine enanthate) were evaluated. Xylazine (an immobilising agent) caused changes in many clinical, hormonal, haematological and biochemical parameters; respiratory rate decreased by 74 %, heart rate decreased by 58 %, causing a decrease in red blood cell count, haemoglobin concentration and haematocrit, serum albumin and total protein concentration. Xylazine also induced a decrease in serum insulin, which probably caused the observed increase in serum glucose. Perphenazine enanthate (a long-acting tranquilliser) was found to have no adverse effects on most parameters, which generally remained in the reference ranges. However, a reduction in blood haematocrit and related parameters (red blood cell count and plasma haemoglobin concentration) occurred, 1-3 days after injection. The tranquilliser also plays a role in reducing stress and significantly reduced serum cortisol 2-3 days after injection in oryx held in captivity compared to oryx that received a saline (control) injection. FGM increased significantly one day after injection of perphenazine enanthate and saline, suggesting the animals were initially stressed by the handling and venipuncture, taking into consideration the lag-time from cortisol secretion to appearance of FGM. The baseline concentration of serum cortisol was used in assessing the stress caused by handling before and after transporting Arabian oryx for 630 km (8-10 h) and the acute effects of handling and injections. Increased serum cortisol was always associated with leukocytosis, neutrophilia and lymphopenia. Serum cortisol of non-transported oryx was reduced by the tranquilliser perphenazine enanthate, but transportation of tranquillised Arabian oryx during hot ambient temperature (maximum 42 °C) resulted in fatigue and prevented reaching a clear conclusion of the role of the tranquilliser in reducing transport stress. Non-tranquillised oryx transported at a maximum of 26-30 °C showed a similar level of stress as implied by the level of faecal glucocorticoid metabolites, but without fatigue. However, the tranquilliser induced calmness in Arabian oryx for up to 7 days, which facilitated capture and handling. Therefore, perphenazine enanthate has a potential to be used in the management practices, such as movement and transport of Arabian oryx. This thesis discusses the current and future welfare issues that face Arabian oryx in captivity, upon release and in the wild. Additional methods are proposed for thorough assessment and improvement of welfare to complement the methods established by the present studies.

Thesis (MScIng)--University of Stellenbosch, 2004.<br>ENGLISH ABSTRACT: A rough road vibration stimulus was reconstructed on a shaker platform to assess the dynamic comfort of seven seats by six human subjects. The virtual seat method was combined with a paired comparison procedure to assess subjective dynamic seat comfort. The psychometric method of constants, 1-up-1-down Levitt procedure and a 2-up-1-down Levitt procedure were compared experimentally to find the most accurate and efficient paired comparison scheme. A two-track interleaved, 2-up-1-down Levitt procedure was used for the subjective dynamic seat comfort assessment. SEAT value is an objective metric and has been widely used to determine seat vibration isolation efficiency. There was an excellent correlation (R2 = 0.97) between the subjective ratings and estimated SEAT values on the seat top when the values are averaged over the six subjects. This study suggests that the SEAT values, estimated from averaged seat top transmissibility of six carefully selected subjects, could be used to select the best seat for a specific road vibration input.<br>AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Ses persone het deelgeneem aan ‘n eksperiment, om die dinamiese ritgemak van sewe stoele te karakteriseer. ‘n Rowwe padvibrasie is vir die doel op ‘n skudplatform geherkonstrueer. Subjektiewe ritgemak is bepaal deur die virtuelestoel metode met ‘n gepaarde, vergelykingstoets te kombineer. Die psigometriese metode van konstantes, die 1-op-1-af Levitt procedure en die 2-op- 1-af Levitt procedure is vergelyk om die mees effektiewe en akkurate vergelykingstoets te vind. ‘n Tweebaan, vervlegde , 2-op-1-af Levitt prosedure het die beste resultate gelewer en is gekies vir die subjektiewe evaluasie van dinamiese ritgemak. SEAT-waarde is ‘n objektiewe maatstaf, wat gebruik word om te bepaal hoe effektief ‘n stoel die insittende van voertuigvibrasie isoleer. Daar was ‘n uitstekende korrelasie (R2 = 0.97) tussen subjektiewe dinamiese ritgemakevaluesies en SEAT-waardes in die vertikale rigting op die stoelkussing as die gemiddelde oor die ses persone bereken word. Uit die resultate van hierdie studie blyk dit dat SEAT-waardes, wat bereken is vanaf die gemiddelde sitplektransmissie van die ses persone, wat verteenwoordigend van die teikenbevolking is, gebruik kan word om die beste stoel vir ‘n spesifieke vibrasieinset te kies.

Thesis (M. S.)--Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2005.<br>Dr. Athanassios Sambanis, Committee Member ; Dr. Timothy M. Wick, Committee Member ; Dr. Ajit P.Yoganathan, Committee Chair. Includes bibliographical references.

There is abundant anecdotal evidence substantiating Mori's initial observation of the "uncanny valley", a point at which human response to non-human entities drops sharply with respect to comfort (Mori, 1970), and the construct itself has a long-standing history in both Robotics and Psychology. Currently, many fields such as design, training, entertainment, and education make use of heuristic approaches to accommodate the anticipated needs of the user/consumer/audience in certain important aspects. This is due to the lack of empirical substantiation or, in some cases, the impossibility of rigorous quantification; one such area is with respect to the user's experience of uncanniness, a feeling of "eeriness" or "wrongness" when interacting with artefacts or environments. Uncanniness, however, continues to be defined and measured in a largely subjective way, and often after the fact; an experience or product's uncanny features are pointed out after the item has been markedly avoided or complained about by the general public. These studies are among the first seeking to determine a constellation of personality traits and physiological responses that incline the user to have a more frequent or profound “uncanny" reaction when presented with stimuli meeting the criteria for a level of "eeriness". In study 1, 395 adults were asked to categorize 200 images as uncanny, neutral, pleasant, or other. In Study 2, physiological and eye-tracking data was collected from twenty two adults as they viewed uncanny, neutral and pleasant images culled from study 1. This research identifies components of the uncanny valley related to subjective assessment, personality factors (using the HEXACO and Anthropomorphic Tendencies Scale), and biophysical measures, and found that traits unique to Emotionality on the HEXACO inventory, compounded with a form of anthropomorphism demonstrates a level of relationship to the subjective experience of uncanny stimuli. There is evidence that HEXACO type and forms of anthropomorphic perception mediates the biophysical expression and the subjective perception of the stimuli. In keeping with psychological hypotheses, stimuli to which the participants had greatest response centered on death, the threat of death, or mismatched/absent facial features.<br>ID: 031001349; System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader.; Mode of access: World Wide Web.; Adviser: .; Title from PDF title page (viewed April 19, 2013).; Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Central Florida, 2012.; Includes bibliographical references (p. 209-217).<br>Ph.D.<br>Doctorate<br>Psychology<br>Sciences<br>Psychology; Human Factors Psychology

The Canterbury plains are frequently exposed to summer drought and climate predictions forecast that the severity and frequency of summer drought will increase. The most commonly used pasture grass, perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.), is drought sensitive. One possible method to maintain sward dry matter (DM) production under water stress is to use an alternative grass species such as tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.). The objective of this research was to compare summer DM production of monoculture swards of perennial ryegrass and tall fescue under various seasonal drought regimes to study physiological and biochemical drought responses of each species. Data were collected over a period of two-summer seasons, Season One (2006-2007) and Season Two (2007-2008) in an automated rain shelter at Lincoln, Canterbury. Drought treatments included exposure of plants to a spring or autumn drought or a four-weekly "irrigated" drought regime. DM yields of the two species were similar under each watering regime. The control treatment, under non-limiting conditions, has the highest accumulated yield in both Season One and Two for ryegrass (17.1 and 15.7 t DM ha⁻¹) and tall fescue (18.8 and 16.0 t DM ⁻¹) respectively. Spring and autumn drought treatments were similar for the two species in accumulated yield in either season, however the exposure to drought stress returned yields lower than the control. Consistently, the lowest-yielding treatment was the four-weekly irrigated drought, which resulted in an average yield across species in Season One of 10.1 t DM ha⁻¹ and 8.35 t DM ha⁻¹ in Season Two. Growth rates of the swards were calculated using accumulated DM production against accumulated thermal time using a base temperature of 3°C for both species. The control treatments showed a strong linear relationship for both species in both seasons, though Season Two showed a period of approximately 390 °Cd of no growth. Spring growth was similar for all treatments until October when both the spring drought and four-weekly irrigated treatment deviated from the control as water stress commenced. Growth also ceased under autumn drought later in the season. The physiological drought responses between species and among treatments differed. Tall fescue under control conditions had the highest photosynthesis rates of 20.5 µmol CO₂ m⁻² s⁻¹,or 22% higher than ryegrass, whereas the four-weekly irrigated treatment showed no inter-species differences. Differences were also found for other gas exchange parameters. Physiological water use efficiency (phys WUE) in ryegrass was 15% greater than tall fescue in Season Two. Photosynthesis and gas exchange rates against leaf water potential showed declining gas flow in both species across all treatments in response to drying soil conditions and across all irrigation treatments. The osmo-protectant proline was 22% higher in concentration in ryegrass than in tall fescue in Season Two and increased in drought stressed treatments in both seasons. Water stress was found to reduce total chlorophyll concentrations in all treatments and in tall fescue, while little change occurred in the chlorophyll a:b ratio. In conclusion, the findings from this thesis suggest similar DM responses for the two species under drought. The findings suggests that tall fescue performs more as a "water user" under drought conditions, compared with perennial ryegrass, which is more a "water saver." Resonses to the changing environment to a point, before "shuttting up shop" through lower stomatal conductance.

In a context of declining capture fisheries and public pressure for greater access to marine resources, marine aquaculture is receiving increasing interest from the South African government as a means to increase the diversity of economic activities in coastal regions, thereby providing employment and reducing poverty. The east coast rock lobster Panulirus homarus rubellus is currently harvested by subsistence fisherman along the former Transkei coastline of south-east South Africa and presents a possible opportunity for ongrowing wild juvenile lobsters in culture facilities. Lack of compliance coupled with poor enforcement of the minimum size limit (65 mm carapace length) has resulted in the ongoing harvest of undersize size lobsters by subsistence fishers. Generally, fishers either consume these undersize lobsters or sell them to tourists for low prices. In line with international trends in rock lobster aquaculture, interest has subsequently arisen in the possibilities of ongrowing these undersize lobsters as a means of adding value to the P. h rubellus resource for subsistence fishers. The aim of this physiological study was to assess the biological feasibility of harvesting, transporting and culturing wild caught juvenile lobsters, thereby provide empirical data to inform the development of suitable transport and culture protocols. The experimental objectives were to asses the effect of temperature on growth and survival of P. h. rubellus, as well as the effects of a suite of extrinsic and intrinsic factors on ammonia excretion and oxygen consumption. Juvenile lobsters were collected by hand from near-shore reefs (2-15 m depth) off Mdumbi in the former Transkei, Eastern Cape Province and transported by road (7 hours) to the Port Alfred Marine Research Laboratory where they were held in a recirculating culture system. The effect of temperature over a range of 9.7 °C (18.9±0.7 to 28.6±1.5 °C) on the growth and survival of juvenile P. h. rubellus fed a diet of fresh mussel flesh was investigated. Specific growth rate (SGR) was significantly different between temperatures (p = 0.01), with the highest values recorded for the 24 °C and 28 °C treatments. There was no significant difference in moult increment (MI) between temperatures, however, intermoult period (IMP) differed significantly between temperatures (p = 0.0015) with mean IMP lowest at 24 °C, although not significantly different from the means of the 26 °C and 28 °C treatments. IMP was highest at 19 °C and 21 °C. Apparent feed intake was significantly different between treatments (p < 0.0001) and exhibited a strong positive correlation with increasing temperature. Food conversion ratio (FCR) differed significantly between temperatures (p = 0.02) with 24 °C exhibiting the most efficient FCR. The results for growth rate and food conversion efficiency suggested that 24 °C is optimal for the growout of juvenile P. h. rubellus. In the second study, the effect of body weight, emersion, daily rhythm, feeding and ambient ammonia on the total ammonia nitrogen (TAN) excretion rate was investigated. Body weight (n = 16, range of 16.8 – 322 g) was positively correlated to daytime TAN excretion rate (mg h⁻¹). Re-immersion after one hour emersion in a moist environment was characterized by a significant increase in TAN excretion rate for the first hour compared to pre-immersion levels. The amount of TAN excreted during this period was as expected if basal TAN excretion rates were maintained during emersion. TAN excretion rates returned to pre-emersion levels by the end of the second hour. There was no evidence of a daily rhythm in TAN excretion rate for P. h. rubellus. TAN excretion rates were elevated following feeding. An initial peak in TAN excretion rate after seven hours (7.58 times pre-feeding rate) was followed by a smaller peak after 13 hours (6.69 times pre-feeding rate). TAN excretion rate dropped to levels not significantly different from pre-feeding levels after 23 hours and consistently returned to pre-feeding levels after 42 hours. The TAN excretion rates of lobster exposed for two hours to an ambient TAN concentration of 1.02±0.10 mg l⁻¹ and 2.3± 0.2 mg l⁻¹ were not significantly different from TAN excretion rates recorded at low ambient water TAN prior to exposure. Exposure to an ambient TAN concentration of 4.45±0.78 mg l⁻¹ had a significant effect on the TAN excretion rate, with pronounced ammonia uptake occurring for all animals at this concentration. The third study investigated the effects of body weight, diurnal rhythm, feeding and emersion on lobster oxygen consumption. Body weight was positively correlated to both standard and active oxygen consumption (mg O2 h⁻¹) while body weight was negatively correlated to mass-specific standard oxygen uptake (mg O2 g⁻¹ h⁻¹). Diurnal rhythm exhibited a strong effect on the lobsters oxygen consumption, with average night time values 67% greater than those recorded during the day. This was related to activity driven by intrinsic nocturnal foraging behaviour. Feeding resulted in a classic specific dynamic action (SDA) response, with postprandial oxygen consumption increasing to a peak before decreasing gradually to preprandial levels. Emersion resulted in a significant increase in oxygen consumption, with lobsters rapidly recovering to pre-emersion levels after four hours. Results from these studies suggest that the capture, transport and culture of juvenile P. h. rubellus is biologically feasible. Empirical data generated were used to provide recommendations regarding species optimised transport and culture protocols. A purge time of 48 hours before transport is suggested to ensure that ammonia excretion and oxygen consumption are at basal levels. Furthermore, emersed transport for a period of one hour is characterised by rapid recovery upon re-immersion. In order to prevent the accumulation of stressors, it is suggested that consecutive periods of emersion are interjected with recovery periods (five hours) in water to allow the removal of accumulated ammonia and repayment of the oxygen debt incurred. The recorded ammonia rates indicate that a biological filter size of 4.8 m³ is recommended for 1000 kg of fed lobsters in a culture situation, although this can be reduced considerably if lobsters are being held without feeding (0.72 m³). A flow rate of 112 l kg⁻¹ h⁻¹ is required to meet the metabolic requirements of lobsters. Bottlenecks to the viable commercial culture of P. h. rubellus, and the ability of this practice to provide the socio-economic benefits that were envisioned, are discussed.

Native heart valves with limited functionality are commonly replaced by a bileaflet mechanical heart valve (BMHV). However, despite their widespread use, BMHVs still cause major complications, including hemolysis, platelet activation, and thromboembolic events. These complications are believed to be due to the non-physiologic hemodynamic stresses imposed on blood elements by the hinge flows. Three-dimensional characterization of the hinge flows is therefore crucial to ultimately design BMHVs with lower complication rates. This study aims at simulating the pulsatile 3D hinge flows of various BMHVs placed and estimating the thromboembolic potential associated with each hinge. The hinge and leaflet geometries of clinical BMHVs are reconstructed from micro-computed tomography scans. Simulations are conducted using a Cartesian sharp-interface immersed-boundary methodology combined with a second-order accurate fractional-step method. Physiologic flow boundary conditions and leaflet motion are extracted from the Fluid-Structure-Interaction simulations of the BMHV bulk flow. The accuracy of the solver is assessed by comparing the results with experimental data. The numerical results are analyzed using a particle tracking approach coupled with existing blood damage models to relate the flow structures to the risk for blood damage. Calculations reveal complex, unsteady, and highly 3D flow fields. Zones of flow stagnation and recirculation, favorable to thrombosis and regions of elevated shear stresses, which may induce platelet activation, are identified throughout the hinge and cardiac cycle. The hinge gap width and, more importantly, the shape of the hinge recess and leaflet are found to impact the flow distribution. Avoiding sharp corners or sudden shape transitions appear as key geometrical design parameters to minimize flow disturbances and thromboembolic potential. The computed flows underscore the need to perform full 3D pulsatile simulations throughout the cardiac cycle to fully capture the complexity and unsteadiness of the hinge flows. Though based only on three different designs, this study provides general guidelines to optimize the hinge design based on hemodynamic performance and thromboembolic potential. The developed framework enables rapid and cost-efficient pre-clinical evaluation of prototype BMHV designs prior to valve manufacturing. Application to a wide range of hinges with varying design parameters will eventually help in determining the optimal hinge design.

The focus of this study investigates the effect backpack weight has on the height of middle school students. It provides data about the effects of backpack weight on height that has not previously been determined. This study aims to contribute information to a growing body of evidence which supports the limitation of backpack weight for children to be no more than 10% of body weight.

Heart valve tissue engineering (HVTE) stands as a potential intervention that could reduce the prevalence of congenital heart valve disease in juvenile patients. Prior studies in our laboratory have utilized mechanobiological testing to quantify the forces involved in the development of heart valve tissue, utilizing a Flow-Stretch-Flexure (FSF) bioreactor to condition bone marrow stem cells (BMSCs)-derived valve tissue. Simulations have demonstrated that certain sets of flow conditions can introduce specific levels of oscillatory shear stress (OSS)-induced stimuli, augmenting the growth of engineered valves as well as influencing collagen formation, extracellular matrix (ECM) composition and gene expression. The computational findings discussed in this thesis outline the methods in which flow conditions, when physiologically relevant, induce specific oscillatory shear stresses which could not only lead to an optimized valve tissue phenotype (at 0.18≤ OSI≤ 0.23), but could identify native valve tissue remodeling indicative of aortic valve disease.

碩士<br>高雄醫學大學<br>醫務管理暨醫療資訊學系碩士班<br>102<br>The aim of this research was to explore the relations on working pressure event degree, physiological values and quality of life among allied personnel working on outpatient department. This cross-section relational survey was conducted by structured questionnaire and physiiological values. Data were collected between 8am and 9am (before working), including individual´s blood pressure, cortisol level and the structured questionnaire. Blood pressure was also collected when participants finished working. All outpatient department nurses in a southern medical centre were participated.There were 141 valid questionnaires with response rate as 88.1%. Research instruments include: demographic characteristics, working environment, working pressure event scales which was developed by Yan yuch yun(2005) .“Health related quality of life scales (WHOQOL-BREF)” was translated by Yao kai ping. Spss 20.0 version was used for data analysis. Research results and main findings: 一、The overall score on the disturbed degree of working pressure event was 3.32 which indicates between median to high , “Patient often rush in to inquire because of impatience” had the highest score (mean: 4.01), and both “VIP asking for cutting in to see the doctor” and “Colleague in the same hospital asking for cutting in to see the doctor” had second highest score (mean: 3.98) The pre-test systolic blood pressure was114.07（11.90), diastolic blood pressure was70.28（8.12), the post-test systolic blood pressure was 122.29（2.86), and diastolic blood pressure was74.83（9.40), The cortisol data was 12.36（4.77）. In addition, among the four domains on the quality of life, the physical domain had highest average score as13.96, and the social domain was score as 13.80, the psychological domain was scored as 13.12, and the lowest score was environmental domain as13.08 。 二、Despite both increased physiological values and pressure awareness met the medium level in post-test, the data was still acceptable。 三、Among demographic characteristics, marriage, rank, education, degree, health awareness, life happiness, and income had relation to disturbed degree of working pressure event. Working environment had statistically significant difference on both today´s number of appointments and the number of appointments daily and in two weeks. Quality of life had relation to age, education, health awareness, life happiness, income, today´s number of appointments and working pressure。 四、The relation to physiological values and all domains on quality of life, both the systolic blood pressure variance and the diastolic blood pressure variance had negative relation to physical domain; whereas, the relation to physiological values and the disturbed degree of working pressure event, the systolic blood pressure variance had positive relation to administrative. On the other hand, the disturbed degree of working pressure event had significantly negative relation to all domains on quality of life. Furthermore, stepwise the multiple regression analysis to predict quality of life to disturbed degree of working pressure event, and physiological values, the “non-routine task” was the only one negative relation to all domains on quality of life。. The results of this explorative study provide medical authorities better understand about the relations on disturbed degree of working pressure event, physiological values and quality of life among allied personnel working on outpatient department. Although the data on physiological values were found acceptable, a long term constant surveillance was needed to avoid personnel from any physically and mentally damage and to promote their quality of life。

Yeung, Chun Yiu.<br>Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2008.<br>Includes bibliographical references (leaves 53-62).<br>Abstracts in English and Chinese.<br>Abstract --- p.i<br>論文摘要(Chinese Abstract) --- p.ii<br>Acknowledgements --- p.iii<br>List of Tables --- p.iv<br>Chapter Chapter 1: --- Introduction --- p.1<br>Smoking: The greatest single preventable cause of death --- p.1<br>Negative health impacts of smoking on non-smokers --- p.1<br>Smoking ban in Hong Kong in 2007 --- p.2<br>Lack of theory-based local smoking research --- p.3<br>Self-Determination Theory --- p.4<br>Extensions to current SDT research on smoking --- p.6<br>Differentiating autonomous motivation in personal-relational dimension --- p.6<br>Relational-interdependent self-construal and nature of autonomous motivation --- p.8<br>Perceived competence and condition-specific self-efficacy --- p.9<br>Proposed framework --- p.10<br>Research purpose --- p.11<br>Hypotheses --- p.11<br>Statistical analyses --- p.12<br>Chapter Chapter 2: --- Method --- p.14<br>Recruitment strategies --- p.14<br>Attrition of participants --- p.16<br>Instruments --- p.16<br>Variables of smoking pattern --- p.21<br>Chapter Chapter 3: --- Results --- p.24<br>Characteristics of participants --- p.24<br>Attrition analysis --- p.25<br>Descriptive statistics and construct score change from baseline to T2 assessment --- p.27<br>Correlation analysis --- p.28<br>Logistic regression for predicting quitters and non-quitters --- p.31<br>Logistic regression for comparing the fundamental SDT and extended theoretical framework --- p.32<br>Exploring the interaction effects between SDT variables and RISC in the prediction of quitting --- p.33<br>ANOVAs on major variables for smokers with different quitting progress --- p.33<br>"Additional analyses examining the differences in self-efficacy among quitters, quit attempters, and recalcitrant smokers" --- p.36<br>Chapter Chapter 4: --- Discussion --- p.38<br>Autonomous motivation and smoking cessation --- p.38<br>Dilemma among health concerns and quitting behaviors --- p.39<br>Possible priming effects in smoking cessation counseling sessions --- p.40<br>Discrepancies in research design between the present study and previous SDT studies --- p.41<br>Reflecting on the SDT and stages of health behavioral change --- p.42<br>Findings related to proposed theoretical extensions --- p.43<br>Relational autonomous motivation and RISC --- p.43<br>Role of self-efficacy in smoking cessation: inspirations from process models of health behaviors --- p.44<br>Recalcitrant smokers and their self-efficacy to respond to internal tempting conditions --- p.46<br>Quit attempters and their self-efficacy to respond to external tempting conditions --- p.47<br>Research limitations --- p.48<br>Future directions and recommendations --- p.49<br>References --- p.53

We can affirm to apprehend a system in its totality only when we know how it behaves under its natural operating conditions. However, in the face of the complexity of the world, science can only evolve by simplifications, which paradoxically hide a good deal of the very mechanisms we are interested in. On the other hand, scientific enterprise is very tightly related to the advances in technology and the latter inevitably influences the manner in which the scientific experiments are conducted. Due to this factor, experimental conditions which would have been impossible to bring into laboratory not more than 20 years ago, are today within our reach. This thesis investigates neuronal integrative processes by using a variety of theoretical and experimental techniques wherein the approximation of ecologically relevant conditions within the laboratory is the common denominator. The working hypothesis of this thesis is that neurons and neuronal systems, in the sensory and higher cortices, are specifically adapted, as a result of evolutionary processes, to the sensory signals most likely to be received under ecologically relevant conditions. In order to conduct the present study along this line, we first recorded movies with the help of two microcameras carried by cats exploring a natural environment. This resulted in a database of binocular natural movies that was used in our theoretical and experimental studies. In a theoretical study, we aimed to understand the principles of binocular disparity encoding in terms of spatio-temporal statistical properties of natural movies in conjunction with simple mathematical expressions governing the activity levels of simulated neurons. In an unsupervised learning scheme, we used the binocular movies as input to a neuronal network and obtained receptive fields that represent these movies optimally with respect to the temporal stability criterion. Many distinctive aspects of the binocular coding in complex cells, such as the phase and position encoding of disparity and the existence of unbalanced ocular contributions, were seen to emerge as the result of this optimization process. Therefore we conclude that the encoding of binocular disparity by complex cells can be understood in terms of an optimization process that regulates activities of neurons receiving ecologically relevant information. Next we aimed to physiologically characterize the responses of the visual cortex to ecologically relevant stimuli in its full complexity and compare these to the responses evoked by artificial, conventional laboratory stimuli. To achieve this, a state-of-the-art recording method, voltage-sensitive dye imaging was used. This method captures the spatio-temporal activity patterns within the millisecond range across large cortical portions spanning over many pinwheels and orientation columns. It is therefore very well suited to provide a faithful picture of the cortical state in its full complexity. Drifting bar stimuli evoked two major sets of components, one coding for the position and the other for the orientation of the grating. Responses to natural stimuli involved more complex dynamics, which were locked to the motion present in the natural movies. In response to drifting gratings, the cortical state was initially dominated by a strong excitatory wave. This initial spatially widespread hyper-excitatory state had a detrimental effect on feature selectivity. In contrast, natural movies only rarely induced such high activity levels and the onset of inhibition cut short a further increase in activation level. An increase of 30% of the movie contrast was estimated to be necessary in order to produce activity levels comparable to gratings. These results show that the operating regime within which the natural movies are processed differs remarkably. Moreover, it remains to be established to what extent the cortical state under artificial conditions represents a valid state to make inferences concerning operationally more relevant input. The primary visual cortex contains a dense web of neuronal connections linking distant neurons. However the flow of information within this local network is to a large extent unknown under natural stimulation conditions. To functionally characterize these long-range intra-areal interactions, we presented natural movies also locally through either one or two apertures and analyzed the effects of the distant visual stimulation on the local activity levels. The distant patch had a net facilitatory effect on the local activity levels. Furthermore, the degree of the facilitation was dependent on the congruency between the two simultaneously presented movie patches. Taken together, our results indicate that the ecologically relevant stimuli are processed within a distinct operating regime characterized by moderate levels of excitation and/or high levels of inhibition, where facilitatory cooperative interactions form the basis of integrative processes. To gather better insights into the motion locking phenomenon and test the generalizability of the local cooperative processes toward larger scale interactions, we resorted to the unequalized temporal resolution of EEG and conducted a multimodal study. Inspired from the temporal properties of our natural movies, we designed a dynamic multimodal stimulus that was either congruent or incongruent across visual and auditory modalities. In the visual areas, the dynamic stimulation unfolded neuronal oscillations with frequencies well above the frequency spectrum content of the stimuli and the strength of these oscillations was coupled to the stimuli's motion profile. Furthermore, the coupling was found to be stronger in the case where the auditory and visual streams were congruent. These results show that the motion locking, which was so far observed in cats, is a phenomenon that also exists in humans. Moreover, the presence of long-range multimodal interactions indicates that, in addition to local intra-areal mechanisms ensuring the integration of local information, the central nervous system embodies an architecture that enables also the integration of information on much larger scales spread across different modalities. Any characterization of integrative phenomena at the neuronal level needs to be supplemented by its effects at the behavioral level. We therefore tested whether we could find any evidence of integration of different sources of information at the behavioral level using natural stimuli. To this end, we presented to human subjects images of natural scenes and evaluated the effect of simultaneously played localized natural sounds on their eye movements. The behavior during multimodal conditions was well approximated by a linear combination of the behavior under unimodal conditions. This is a strong indication that both streams of information are integrated in a joint multimodal saliency map before the final motor command is produced. The results presented here validate the possibility and the utility of using natural stimuli in experimental settings. It is clear that the ecological relevance of the experimental conditions are crucial in order to elucidate complex neuronal mechanisms resulting from evolutionary processes. In the future, having better insights on the nervous system can only be possible when the complexity of our experiments will match to the complexity of the mechanisms we are interested in.

碩士<br>逢甲大學<br>景觀與遊憩研究所<br>98<br>Tourism researchers have recognized the possible factors influencing hot springs tourists’ revisiting intentions, however, few current studies make an attempt to examine thoroughly the constructs of perceived psycho-physiological health, psychological well-being, perceived value, and the relationships among those constructs. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to investigate empirically the relationships among perceived psycho-physiological health, psychological well-being, perceived value, and revisiting behavioral intention to the Pei-Tou hot springs destination in Taiwan. In this study a total 583 on-site tourists were surveyed. The results indicated that perceived psycho-physiological health, psychological well-being, perceived value were important antecedent variables of hot spring tourists’ revisiting behavioral intentions. Besides, the results showed that the claims of cognitive psychology, "cognitive - affective - attitude - behavior intention," for the hot spring visitors was supported. The findings provide the following suggestions for the hot springs industry, including the advertising appeals of: (1) perceived value of hot springs tourists; (2) the simple happiness and multi-level health experience of hot springs; and (3) perceived physical and psychological health of hot springs.

This study theoretically presupposes that the individual is an integral entity, therefore, education should take place according to the harmonious development of all the facets of a child's being. Even in antiquity, physical education and sport were seen to be important for a balanced education. Every society implements physical education and sport according to own needs and requirements, according certain values to sport, which values are reviewed in this study. A literature study corroborates that the intellectual, physical and social development of the child undoubtedly forms part of the total environment of the educative process. Exclusion of any facet could cause an imbalance in the development of the child. Incorporation of physical education and sport in the post-apartheid educational dispensation of South Africa forms the later part of the investigation. Various factors in South Africa have an influence on the role and place of physical education and sport within the curriculum. Government involvement in sport can determine the place of sport in society and in the curriculum. The readmittance of South Africa into international participation and changes in the political policy also play a role. These factors pose the challenge and facilitate the possibility to reinstate physical education and sport at schools. The structure of South African sport is undergoing a total change and the role players in the sports fraternity are now faced with numerous challenges and opportunities. Reinstating physical education and sport in the school curriculum serves a vital role in the reconstruction and development of a healthy and well-balanced society. Furthermore, reinstatement could reverse the consequences of social and economic injustices. Research undertaken in Australia, also provides some answers to problems for the South African situation. It proposes new initiatives that could be of help to the relevant role players in the planning of physical education and school sport in the post­ apartheid educational dispensation of South Africa.<br>Educational Studies<br>D. Ed. (Comparative Education)

Colonialism in Africa had an impact on the indigenous peoples of Africa and this is shown in some of their games. The purpose of this study is to gain deeper insight into Basotho children's games and to demonstrate that the Western ideas of music and games are not necessarily the same as Basotho folk children's conceptions. The literature on Basotho children's games is reviewed though not much has been contributed by early and present Basotho writers who have generally approached it from the angle of literature without transcribing the songs. The Sesotho word for games (lipapali) embraces entertainment but a further investigation of it shows that aspects of learning of which the children were aware in some cases and in others they were not aware, are present. These are supported by musical examples and texts. The definition of play versus games is treated (with regard to infants and children) and these two concepts are still receiving constant attention and investigation by scholars and researchers as the words are synonymous and can be misleading. Infants' play is unorganised and spontaneous while games are organised structures. Furthermore, play and games are important in child development education. In this study, they are given attention in order to lay the foundation for the understanding and interpretation of games used in both cultures. It is a misconception that African children's games are accompanied with music in the Western sense. Hence, the word `music' in Sesotho children's games takes on a different connotation from those in the West. Music' in Sesotho children's games embraces not only tunes that are sung, but game verses chanted in a rhythmic manner as opposed to spoken verse. Yet, mino (music) exists in Sesotho and is equivalent to the Western idea. These chanted rhythms and games are analysed against the backdrop of specific cultural dimensions for children depending on the function of the game played. The results of this study indicated that though the idea of music in children's games is not the same, games are an educational in character building and learning. Recommendations are made for educationists and music educators.<br>ART HIST, VIS ARTS & MUSIC<br>DLITT ET PHIL (MUSICOLOGY)