Somatic movement and education: a phenomenological study of young children's perceptions, expressions and reflections of embodiment through movement

This reflexive account is of a phenomenological study that took place over two years. It explores how a group of primary-aged children perceive, express and reflect on their embodiment through movement. Children aged between four and eleven took part in sessions of yoga, somatic movement and developmental play during the school day. The data include field notes, observations, a reflexive journal, photographs of and by the children, their drawings, mark-makings, writing and posters. Children were also interviewed at the end of the study, when they had an opportunity to reflect on all their work and experiences. All the children were capable of expressing and reflecting on their experiences, and the oldest children in particular appeared to enjoy and seemed to benefit from the reflective process. By linking together a sense of self-awareness and reflection, the children appeared able to gain insight into their embodied experience and reflect on emotions, feelings and events. Embodiment is a process as much of a state of being, and as such has implications for perceptions of mind and body, learning, and reflective practice. This approach to embodied reflective practice thus has potential for educators, and teacher trainers as well as direct work with children

Effects of aversive conditioning on behavior of nuisance Louisiana black bears

Consistent habitat loss and fragmentation are contributing factors to the rise of human-bear conflicts in south Louisiana. Complaints associated with nuisance activities of Louisiana black bears (Ursus americanus luteolus) experienced in this region have steadily increased since 2000, requiring intervention by state and federal agencies. As a threatened species, Louisiana black bears require non-lethal management referred to as aversive conditioning. We used rubber buckshot and dogs to test the effectiveness of management techniques used by the state to deter nuisance activity by black bears. Eleven bears, representing approximately 15% of the estimated population in this region, were captured in residential and industrial areas reporting nuisance activity. Bears were fitted with radio-transmitting collars and released within 2 km of the capture site. Each bear was randomly placed within 1 of 2 treatments; treatment 1 (n=5) used rubber buckshot and treatment 2 (n=6) used the rubber buckshot in combination with dogs. Bears were monitored using telemetry to estimate movements and interactions with anthropogenic resources. Bears, on average, remained within 2 km of capture sites 2 weeks following release. Ten bears (91%) returned to nuisance behavior within 5 months, regardless of treatment. Results suggest that aversive conditioning techniques used to deter bears from nuisance activity have limited short term effectiveness

Self Complexity as a Buffer for Stress and Somatic Complaints

Through addressing potential problematic life events and their connection with self knowledge, the current research sought to examine whether complex cognitive representation acted as a buffer in situations of major and minor life events in relation to psychosomatic illness

Understanding South Asian residential preferences in Glasgow: neighbourhood attachment and suburbanisation

Although, much has been written about the housing conditions and segregation of minority ethnic groups, less has been written about their housing careers, residential mobility, and preferences. This thesis attempts to address these limitations in our knowledge and to enhance our understanding of the residential location and preferences of South Asian households. To fully explore these objectives the research adopts a triangulated approach; combining a quantitative study using census data of both the residential location and concentration of South Asian groups in the study area and in-depth interviews with migrating South Asian households. The major findings of the research show that over the past ten years Greater Glasgow has seen changes in the residential location of its South Asian population; the results of the census analysis detail the maintenance of both residential differentiation and continued concentration in the inner city as well as evidence of dispersal to traditionally white suburban areas, areas adjacent to the core and in-between areas. The processes underlying these changes are shown to be dynamic and complex, encompassing elements of choice and constraint and reflecting negotiated choices. Cultural expectations, religious observance, financial constraint and limited housing options interact with choice in sustaining ethnic clustering in the inner-city. On the other hand we seen the spatial ramifications of changing practices social aspirations and economic opportunity for a selected group of movers. Although ethnicity and religion play a continuing role in shaping the residential choices of the South Asians interviewed, these factors were not independent but interacted with individual/personal factors, class, economic status, gender, age, family issues and the dynamic nature of culture in determining locational needs and preferences. The South Asian population is shown to be differentiated from within. This suggests that the idea of a coherent ‘Asian community’ obscures differences and generates assumptions regarding residential behaviour and ‘in-group’ identities not matched in the empirical data presented here

A discontinuous space : postmodern perspectives on mental health discourse

Language in the mental health field is rich with powerful metaphors, hyperbolic phrases, and linguistic symbols of historical, political and social meaning. At a closer look, a dominant discourse rooted deep in the grounds of empirical science is revealed. In this theoretical study, mental health language is deconstructed using Critical Discourse Analysis and other related theories to locate and analyze a dominant discourse, which opens space for a non-dominant discourse. Postmodern theory assumes that power, entangled with and interdependent on powerlessness, is an absolute phenomenon, and that power abuse can be revealed through the study of a discourse itself. The purpose of this thesis is to locate the way power in a dominate discourse is practiced and spoken in common, everyday mental health language, in order to connect this power to an \u27Other\u27 discourse whose ideology and voice is marginalized. Although there are numerous alternative discourses, one that is gaining recognition and posing hard challenges toward the dominate discourse is the Recovery discourse, a language that speaks clearly about this place of discontinuity and oppression. As all people are subject to and participants of the dominant discourse (to one degree or another), this investigation aims to focus on how social workers participate in the dominant discourse and investigates the role of consciousness regarding power and oppression in therapeutic settings, posing questions about the role and place of social workers, regarding language use in the mental health field

Development of a Mathematical Model for Predicting Digestible Energy Intake to Meet Desiered Body Condition Parameters in Exercising Horses

Information regarding dietary requirements to maintain or alter body condition in the horse is scarce; however, a recently developed nutritional model was acceptably accurate in prediction of the energy required to alter BCS in sedentary mares. The objective of this study was to expand the scope of this model to include exercising horses. Previously published estimates of energy expenditure in the exercising horse were incorporated into the model. Stock type horses (n=24) were assigned to treatments of light exercise, heavy exercise or control and fed according to the model to gain or lose 2 BCS within 60 d. The energy expenditure for exercise was quantified for each horse via indirect calorimetry using the K4b2 (Cosmed) adapted for use in horses. Body parameters were also measured including, BCS, %BF estimated from RFT, BW, body length, heart girth circumference and neck circumference at 2 wk intervals throughout the study. Model evaluation revealed acceptable precision when predicting BCS and BW in control horses (r^2 = 0.91 and r^2 = 0.98 respectively) but was less precise when predicting %BF (r^2 = 0.51). Model precision for BCS, BW and %BF in lightly (r^2 = 0.29, 0.85, 0.57) and heavily (r^2 = 0.04, 0.84, 0.13) exercised horses was low. Statistical analysis of indirect calorimetry data revealed that the observed and model predicted DE (Mcal/d) expenditure for lightly exercised horses were similar (0.71 vs 0.81, P = 0.46); however, the observed energy expenditure in heavily exercised horses was lower than the model predicted value (3.63 vs 6.79, P = 0.04). Also, observed energy expenditures were lower than the NRC recommendations for both light and heavy exercise groups (P < 0.05). Regression analysis revealed that rider BW, environmental humidity and horse age are significant contributors to VO2. Further investigation into the relationship between these factors, VO2 and body composition could yield a more precise predictive equation which would increase the precision of both the model and NRC recommendations for exercising horses

Dust properties of Z~2 infrared-luminous lyman break galaxies.

Lyman break galaxies (LBGs) are well-known indicators of star formation. By analyzing the dust of moderate redshift (z ~ 2) LBGs, we can further investigate the properties of these strongly star forming galaxies at an epoch when global star formation is expected to peak. Using data observed by the Herschel satellite, we derive far-infrared fluxes for our color-selected sample of LBGs in the GOODS-S field, including a subsample of infrared-luminous LBGs (ILLBGs). This is one of the first samples of UV dropouts/partial dropouts, which are also infrared-luminous, to be studied for their far-IR properties. Fitting modified Planck curves and model spectral energy distributions (SEDs), we make estimations for dust temperatures and masses for our ILLBGs. We find dust temperatures ranging from ~ 19-70 K, with masses ~ 5:2x10^6 to 3:3x10^9 M, and star formation rates on the order of ~10 M yr^-1

Chronic trauma effects on personality trait trajectory in police officers

The impact of chronic trauma exposure on personality trajectories over time was examined in a sample of urban police officers. Scores from a personality measure taken in pre-hire psychological evaluations were compared with follow up scores administered for this study five to ten years later. An urban police agency of approximately 1000 commissioned police officers agreed to allow its officers to be recruited as participants. The consulting psychologist who performed the agency’s pre-hire psychological evaluations during the applicable period supplied historical data with participant consent and agency approval. Personality change between the two times was analyzed using hierarchical regression analysis, with the independent variables of interest including measures of exposure to potentially traumatic events (PTEs) and posttraumatic stress symptoms. The study tested the research hypothesis that cumulative exposure to PTEs measured by the Critical Incident History Questionnaire (CIHQ) and the Life Events Checklist (LEC) would explain a statistically significant portion of the variance in change over time between scores for the Wellbeing, Empathy, Independence, Good Impression, and Self-Control scales of the California Psychological Inventory (CPI) from baseline (pre-hire) and 5-10 years later. Higher PTE exposure scores were hypothesized to correlate with lower scores on all five measures of positive personality characteristics. The results were significant for all of the traits except Empathy. However, the direction of the change in the remaining traits were counter to the hypothesis; higher CIHQ and LEC scores were correlated with a more positive trajectory in four of the scales when controlling for the effects of posttraumatic stress (PTS) symptoms as measured by the Posttraumatic Checklist (PCL). This apparently positive response to trauma exposure may be accounted for by selection and posttraumatic growth (PTG)