A Cross-Sectional Analysis of Functional Movement Screen Scores in Male AAA Minor Hockey Players

The Functional Movement Screen (FMS) has been used as a screening tool to assess inefficiencies and asymmetries associated with movement patterns that could potentially lead to injury risks in athletic populations (Kiesel, Plisky, & Voight, 2007; Parenteau-G et al., 2014; Mokha et al., 2016). The primary purpose of the study was to compare FMS scores across four hockey-specific chronological age groups and five stages of maturity in adolescent male ice-hockey players. The secondary purpose of the study was to determine if years of experience in a specific sport, correlated with movement pattern asymmetries. One hundred and eleven male (9-17 years) AAA players completed a battery of physical measurements including; height (cm), weight (kg), grip strength (kg), sit and reach (cm) and the FMS. FMS scores were analyzed by total score (TS), FMS subgroups (FMS movement, FMS flexibility and FMS stability), frequencies of individual movement pattern scores and left/right asymmetries. Significant differences in FMS TS were revealed across both chronological age, categorized by hockey age groups (F (3,107) = 7.002), p<.001 and stage of maturity (F (4,106) = 4.790), p<.001, suggesting that FMS TS improved with both age and physical maturity. However, ANCOVA results revealed no significant differences across hockey age groups (F (3,106) =1.917), p=.131, when maturity was entered as a covariate, suggesting that maturity did not influence FMS TS beyond the effect age. FMS sub-groups revealed significant differences in FMS move and FMS stab across both hockey age group and stage of maturity. No significant differences were found in the frequencies of individual screen scores or left/right asymmetries across hockey age groups or stages of maturity. Therefore, the results did not support the assumption of hockey being a significant unilateral training stimulus

Vocabulary and Reading Comprehension Intervention: A Focus on Students in the Late Elementary Grades

Literacy skills are key to success in school, career, and everyday life. Despite school curricula being strongly focused on literacy development (Ministry of Education, 2006), many children continue to fall behind the expected literacy skill levels for their grade (Education Quality and Accountability Office, 2012a, 2012b; National Center for Education Statistics, 2011). The present study evaluated a literacy intervention, Better Reading for School Success (BRSS), accompanied by a parent/guardian literacy workshop and weekly tips regarding how parents and/or guardians can promote literacy skill development at home. The BRSS was also evaluated as a subsection of family literacy afterschool programs, ‘Get Set Learn Afterschool’ (GSLA; Kelland & Wasielewski, 2011) or ‘Get Set Learn- Together with Grandparents’ (Hewitt & Davis, in press), which both were run by Project READ Literacy Network Waterloo-Wellington (Project READ). The BRSS was designed for students in Grades 3 to 6 who were “at-risk” of school failure due to low socioeconomic status (SES), or due to having parents and/or guardians who had low literacy levels (Moore, Vandivere, & Redd, 2006) or who did not learn English as a first language (Rush & Vitale, 1994). The principals and/or teachers also helped to identify which students were having difficulties meeting the expectations for their grade level. The final samples included 11 participants whose families took part in both the 20-hour Project READ programs (Hewitt & Davis, in press; Kelland & Wasielewski, 2011) and the 10-hour BRSS component, 13 participants whose families took part in only the BRSS program along with the workshop and weekly literacy tips, and 20 participants who took part in the no- exposure control group. The intervention groups and the control group completed standardized measures of literacy skills and a self-efficacy questionnaire at pretest and posttest and parents and/or guardians completed questionnaires. The control group was not asked to take part in any additional programs, but their families were offered a workshop after the posttesting was complete on ways to promote literacy skills at home. It was hypothesized that the intervention groups would have significantly greater increases in their scores than the no-exposure control group on all measures. When the intervention groups were treated as one overall group and compared to the control group, the intervention group had significantly greater improvements on reading comprehension skills than the control group. When the Project READ and BRSS program (PR/BRSS program), the BRSS program, and the control groups were compared as separate groups, the BRSS intervention group had significantly greater improvements in decoding skills than the PR/BRSS program group and the control group. Including SES as a covariate did not significantly change the results, but literacy measure scores were typically related to one another as expected. There were no significant changes in children’s levels of self-efficacy from pretest to posttest, but results suggest that parents and/or guardians may have gained confidence in supporting their children’s literacy skill development and communicating with their children’s schools. Results are explained in terms of the BRSS group starting off with lower levels of decoding skills, and the importance of decoding skills as a prerequisite for strong reading comprehension skills (Gough & Tunmer, 1986; Hoover & Gough, 1990). Suggestions for future family-focused literacy interventions are provided

Comparative efficacy of fungicides for in vitro control of sheath rot pathogen associated with grain discoloration of rice / Muhammad Alimie Dol Bahar

Rice is one of the important crop in the world that influence in many aspects such as economic, social lifestyle and food consuming by human. The previous economic studies show that more than 90% of rice were produce of by human and being consumed most of the people in the world. Sheath rot disease has become major disease in the rice that is difficult to eradicate and need a proper technique to eliminate this disease. Therefore, the main objective of this study is identified the most effective fungicide to control Sarocladium oryzae that caused sheath rot disease. Next, to construct the rank of effectiveness between different active ingredients of fungicides against sheath rot disease. Following with the last objective is to determine the most economical active ingredient to use to control the disease. In this study, four different active ingredients Azoxystrobin, Propiconazole and Tricyclazole, Difenoconazole and Propiconazole and Carbendazim was chosen based on previous studies that have been conducted to determine its antifungal activity against sheath rot disease in vitro. Sarocladium oryzae was placed on the PDA amended with different of fungicides. The less mycelia growth diameters for antifungal activity proven the effectiveness of active ingredient against Sarocladium oryzae using food poisoning technique in vitro studies. For in vivo studies, the healthy rice was inoculated by sheath rot disease caused by Sarocladium oryzae for pathogenicity test. The data obtained in vitro studies was analyses using ANOVA in SPSS software. The result showed that active ingredient Propiconazole and Tricyclazole, Difenoconazole and Propiconazole and Carbendazim have the highest efficacy rate in terms of reducing the mycelia growth compared Azoxystrobin tested in this study

Goal Setting Support in Alternative Math Classes: Effects on Motivation and Engagement

Helping low-achieving students with learning disabilities and/or emotional-behavioural difficulties to develop the component skills for Self-Regulated Learning (SRL), such as setting and monitoring learning goals, is important for their success, both in and beyond school. This study examined the effects of a goal setting intervention on self-efficacy, motivational beliefs, and academic engagement in alternative Grade 10 mathematics classes for learners with special needs. The teacher modeled and scaffolded students’ writing of daily learning goals throughout a one-semester mathematics course, with the goal of increasing student engagement and self-efficacy in mathematics. Research questions focused on changes in students’ engagement, learning behaviours, and math-related motivational beliefs during the course, as their goal statements became more focused and descriptive. Although individual variability in responses to motivation and self-efficacy measures typified the data from this small sample of learners, the goal-setting intervention appeared to help most students to stay engaged in achievement-oriented classroom behaviour

Toward a generic personalized virtual coach for self-management: a proposal for an architecture

Keywords–virtual coach; personalization; coaching strategy; data science; model based software development