Focus Group Report

Report to Terry O'Malley from Tom highlighting favourable responses from a focus group on the "Butter It" campaign.

A discursive analysis of children's recreational adult-organized sport : when do children get to play?

Adult-organized children's sport attracts millions of participants in Canada and the United States each year. Though there is a great deal of research that considers children's sport, little of it focuses on recreational or house league sport and less of it offers a deep examination of children's experience of their participation. Using observations, interviews, and focus groups involving ten participants in mixed-gender recreational basketball, this qualitative research project examined their experiences. With Foucault's concepts of correct training and the panoptic gaze in mind, I used discourse and deconstruction analyses to consider the children's descriptions along with my observations of their basketball experience. I was particularly looking for prevalent discourses on sport, childhood, and gender and how they affected their experiences. Despite the league's discursive emphasis on fun, participation, fairness, and respect, that was not necessarily what the children experienced. While most stated they enjoyed their season many also expressed serious disappointments. Size and particularly skill very much determined who was most involved in the action and thus actually played baskethaW. Gender also played a significant role in their sport experiences. My findings invite questions about what genuine sport participation actually is and how it might be alternatively imagined.

Attention focus and balance control in young and older adults

This thesis investigated attention focus and balance control in eighteen healthy young adults and eighteen healthy older adults. All participants performed sixteen consecutive trials of a balance task which involved standing for 30-s on an unstable platform that could rotate only in the roll direction. There were no attention focus instructions provided on any of the sixteen trials. Following the completion of the initial and final attempt in the series, participants reported "where" their attention had been focused when performing the task. The results showed differences in balance between young and older adults and improvements in balance with practice in both young and older adults. However, there were no differences in attention focus strategies between young and older adults. Both age groups directed attention to multiple sources during the balance task. An equal focus on internal (i.e., feet, trunk, and other body parts) and external (i.e., the platform) sources with little focus on events not related to the task dominated on the first attempt of the balance task. Focus on internal sources was maintained and focus on events not related to the task increased at the expense of focus on external sources on the final attempt of the balance task. Following the series of sixteen trials to establish "natural" attention focus, participants performed three randomly presented trials, each with specific attention focus instructions (i.e., think about minimizing movements of the feet, the trunk, or the platform). The results showed that, in contrast to the literature, instructions to focus on an internal source, the trunk, actually augmented control of the task as reflected in reduced trunk sway whereas instructions to focus on an internal source, the feet, or an external source, the platform, did not benefit performance on the task. Thus, the distance fi-om the interaction point of the body with the external source is critical and may not depend on whether the source is internal or external. Thus, a global attention focus instruction may not be beneficial and the nature of the task should be considered when adopting attention focus instructions for young and older adults.

Out of the darkness and into the light : a study of inauthentic and authentic speech

Introduction Man can be described as the being who shows himself in speech, and from birth to death is continually speaking. Communication is so close to us, so woven into our very being, that we have little understanding of the way it is constituted; for it is as hard to obtain distance from communication as it is to obtain distance from ourselves. All communication is not alike. There are two basic modesl of communication, the inauthentic and the authentic, between which there occurs a constant tension. It is in the inauthentic mode, points out Heidegger, that we find ourselves "proximately and for the most part"; 1. Being and Time, pg. 68 Dasein decides as to the way it will comport itself in taking up its task of having being as an issue for it. " •.• it~, in its very being 'choose' itself and win itself; it can also lose itself and never win itself or only "seem" to do so. But only in so far as it is essentially something which can be authentic--that is, something of its own--can it have lost itself and not yet won itself." 2. therefore Heidegger also terms it "everydayness".2 Caught up in the world of everydayness, our speaking covers over and conceals3 our rootedness in being, leaving us in the darkness of untruth. The image of darkness may be inferred from Heidegger's use of the image of "clearing,,4 to depict being as 2. ibid. pg. 69 "Dasein's average everydayness, however, is not to be taken as a mere 'aspect'. Here too, and even in the mode of inauthenticity, the structure of existentiality lies ~ priori and here too Dasein's being is an issue for it in a definite way; and Dasein comports itself towards it the mode of average everydayness, even if this is only the mode of fleeing in the face of it and forgetfulness thereof." 3. ibid. pg. 59 "covering over" and "concealing" are 1;yays Dasein tries to flee its task of having being as an issue for itself. " ••• This being can be covered up so extensively that it becomes forgotten and no question arises about it or its meaning ••• n How everyday speaking accomplishes this will be taken up in detail in the second chapter which explores Dasein's everyday speech. 4. ibid, pg. 171 lI ••• we have in mind nothing other than the Existential - ontological structure of this entity (Dasein), that it is in such a way as to be its 'there'. To say that it is -' illuminated' [tlerleuchtet"] means that as Being-in-theworld it is cleared [gelichtetJ in itself7 not through any other entity, but in such a way that it is itself the clearing. Only for an entity which is eXistentially cleared in this way does what is present-at-hand become accessible in the light or hidden in the dark •••• " 3 dis-coveredness and truth. Our first task will be to explore the nature of communication in general and then to explore each of the modes manifested in turn. The structure of the inauthentic mode of communication can be explored by asking the following questions: What is this speaking about? Who is it that is speaking and who is spoken to? Does this speaking show man in his speech? The authentic mode is distinguished by the rarity with which we encounter it; as the inauthentic conceals, so the authentic reveals our rootedness in being. Yet this rarity makes it difficult to delineate its elusive structure clearly. Its constituent elements can be brought into focus by asking the same questions of this mode that we previously asked of the inauthentic mode. Our initial response to the disclosure of the authentic mode is to attempt to abandon the inauthentic mode and leave the darkness behind dwelling only in the "lighted place". All through the ages, some men pushing this to extreme, have, upon uncovering their relatedness to being, experienced a deep longing to dwell in such a "place" of pure truth and oft times denigrated or attempted to exclude the everyday world. Such 4. flight is twice mistaken: first it atbempts to fix truth as unchanging and static and secondly, it opposes this to untruth which it seeks to abolish. This is both the wrong view of truth and the wrong view of untruth as Heidegger points out in The Origin of The-Work of Art: The Way-to-be of truth, i.e., of discoveredness, is under the sway of refusal. But this refusal is no lack or privation, as if truth could be simply discoveredness rid of all covers. If it could be that, it would no longer be itself . ••• Truth in its way-to-be is untruth.5 Pure light is not the nature of Being nor is pure unconcealedness possible for man. Failure to remember this is the failure to realize that communication destroys itself in such flight because it no longer maintains the contingency of its task, i.e., the dis-closedness of being. We are reminded of the strong attraction this flight from darkness held for Plato. Light, truth and Being are all beyond the darkness and have nothing to do with it. In Book VII of the R~public, Socrates' explanation of the Allegory of the Cave to Glaucon points to a decided preference men have for the "lighted place". 5. The Origin Of The Work Of Art, pg. 42 5. Come then, I said, and join me in this further thought, and do not be surprised that those who attained to this height are not willing to occupy themselves with the affairs of men, but their souls ever feel the upward urge and yearning for that sojourn above. For this, I take it, is likely if in this point too the likeliness of our image holds. 6 Despite the attraction to pure truth, human communication is more complex than putting down one mode of communication and picking up another. Due to the fact that we are always on the way, the title of my thesis will have to be amended: OUT OF THE DARKNESS AND INTO THE LIGHT--AGAIN AND AGAIN. It must be this way because this is what it means to be human. This is the point made by Mephisto to Faust in pointing out that man, standing between God and the devil, needs both darkness and light: Er findet sich in einem ewigen Gl~t Uns hat er in die Finsternis gebracht, Und euch taugt einzig Tag und Nacht. 7 6. Republic z (517 c & d) It should be noted however, that while the philosopherking must be compelled to return to the cave for purely political reasons, once he has taken adequate view of the "brightest region of being" he has the full truth and his return to darkness adds nothing to the truth. 7. Faust, pg. 188 6. This thesis proposes to examine the grounds that give rise to communication, uncovering the structure of its inauthentic and authentic modes and paying close attention to tpeir interrelationship and to their relationship to language as "the house of Being": language that both covers and opens up man's rootedness in Being, transforming him as he moves along his way, taking up his "ownmost task" of becoming who he is. roots. He is the being who shows himself inn that reflects his forgetfulness or remembrance of his rootedness in being. Man comes into an already existent world and is addressedl through things in the world which are c

The law of the sea: the United States, Canada and the deep seabed

The Falkland Islands War of 1982 was fought over competing claims to sovereignty over a group of islands off the east coast of South America. The dispute was between Argentina and the United Kingdom. Argentina claims the islands under rights to Spanish succession, the fact that they lie off the Argentine coast line and that in 1833 Great Britain took the islands illegally and by force. The United Kingdom claims the islands primarily through prescription--the fact that they have governed the islands in a peaceful, continuous and public manner since 1833. The British also hold that the population living on the islands, roughly eighteen hundred British descendants, should be able to decide their own future. The United Kingdom also lays claim to the islands through rights of discovery and settlement, although this claim has always been challenged by Spain who until 1811 governed the islands. Both claims have legal support, and the final decision if there will ever be one is difficult to predict. Sadly today the ultimate test of sovereignty does not come through international law but remains in the idea that "He is sovereign who can defend his sovereignty." The years preceding the Argentine invasion of 1982 witnessed many diplomatic exchanges between The United Kingdom and Argentina over the future of the islands. During this time the British sent signals to Argentina that ii implied a decline in British resolve to hold the islands and demonstrated that military action did more to further the talks along than did actual negotiations. The Argentine military junta read these signals and decided that they could take the islands in a quick military invasion and that the United Kingdom would consider the act as a fait accompli and would not protest the invasion. The British in response to this claimed that they never signaled to Argentina that a military solution was acceptable to them and launched a Royal Navy task force to liberate the islands. Both governments responded to an international crisis with means that were designed both to resolve the international crisis and increase the domestic popularity of the government. British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was facing an all-time low in popularity for post-War Prime Ministers while Argentine President General Galtieri needed to gain mass popular support so he could remain a viable President after he was scheduled to lose command of the army and a seat on the military junta that ran the country. The military war for the Falklands is indicative of the nature of modern warfare between Third World countries. It shows that the gap in military capabilities between Third and First World countries is narrowing significantly. Modern warfare between a First and Third World country is no longer a 'walk over' for the First World country.

The wars of the gulls; : an historical romance in three chapters; chap. I, Shewing how and why and with whom the gulls went to war: chap. II, Shewing how the gulls make the deep to boil like a pot: chap. III, Shewing how a certain doughty general of the gulls goes forth to play the game of hull-gull in Upper Canada.

Transcribed on front paste-down: W.G. Phelps Oct. 29 1890.

Second Welland Canal - Book 2, Survey Map 8 - Little Deep Cut in Thorold

Survey map of the Second Welland Canal created by the Welland Canal Company showing the canal in Thorold South. Identified structures associated with the Canal include the Little Deep Cut and the towing path. The surveyors' measurements and notes can be seen in red and black ink and pencil. Local area landmarks are also identified and include streets and roads (ex. Road to Beaverdams and Road to Allanburgh), two unnamed bridges, the Spoil Bank, a pond, and the Back Water. Properties and property owners of note are: Lots 29 and 30, Jacob Keefer, John Brown, William Bouck, C. Gisso, and a property reserved for Bridge Tender.

Second Welland Canal - Book 2, Survey Map 15 - Deep Cut in Thorold

Survey map of the Second Welland Canal created by the Welland Canal Company showing the canal in the Thorold Township just south of Allanburgh. Identified structures and features associated with the Canal include the Deep Cut and the towing path. The surveyors' measurements and notes can be seen in red and black ink and pencil. Local area landmarks are also identified and include streets and roads (ex. Road to Port Robinson), and the Spoil Bank. Properties and property owners of note are: Lots 142 and 143, John J. Church, Henry Vanderburgh, and Martin Delamatter and G. Coulter.

Second Welland Canal - Book 2, Survey Map 16 - Deep Cut in Thorold

Survey map of the Second Welland Canal created by the Welland Canal Company showing the canal in the Thorold Township between Allanburg and Port Robinson. Identified structures and features associated with the Canal include the Deep Cut and the towing path. The surveyors' measurements and notes can be seen in red and black ink and pencil. Local area landmarks are also identified and include streets and roads (ex. Road to Port Allanburg), and the Spoil Bank. Properties and property owners of note are: Lots 185, 186, and 187, J. J. Church and H. Vanderburgh. Four properties adjacent to the canal are outlined in blue and labeled J through M, with L and K belonging to John Beatty, M belonging to John Coulter, and J belonging to G. Jordan (formerly belonging to John Coleman Jordan).

Second Welland Canal - Book 2, Survey Map 17 - Deep Cut and Port Robinson

Survey map of the Second Welland Canal created by the Welland Canal Company showing the canal at Port Robinson. Identified structures and features associated with the Canal include the Deep Cut, Old Channel of Canal, and the towing path. The surveyors' measurements and notes can be seen in red and black ink and pencil. Local area landmarks are also identified and include streets and roads (ex. Road to Port Allanburg), the Spoil Bank, an island, several bridges, and a church. Several unidentified structures are present but not labeled. Properties and property owners of note are: Lots 202, 203, and 204. Lot 203 is divided into several properties labeled A - J. Owners of these properties include James McCoppen, John Coulter, James Griffith, John C. Jordan, W. Hendershot, John Greer, Charles Richards, C. Stuart, and S. D. Woodruff. Other property owners include D. McFarland.

Ethnic Minority Parents' Involvement in Education: Exploring and Understanding Their Experiences

Lopez, Scribner and Mahitivanichcha (2001) discuss the limited volume of literature that directly addresses ethnic minority parents' involvement in their children's education and they call upon researchers to fill this gap in the literature. This study is one such positive step with its focus on exploring how ethnic minority parents of secondary school students in southern Ontario understand their involvement in their children's education. Participants in the study included three ethnic minority parents recruited from a local adult education centre, and my parents who, as ethnics minority parents, also faced challenges trying to support their children as we progressed through the Ontario educational system. Primary data were collected through in-depth, open-ended interviews approximately one hour in length. Each of the five participants was interviewed twice. Secondary data included Ontario Ministry of Education documents that addressed programs, policies, and supports for ethnic minority students in Ontario secondary schools. Fieldnotes and a research journal also provided secondary data. The findings highlight, among other things, the challenges the participants faced as ethnic minority parents with a deep desire to support their children's education, but often lacking the cultural capital valued in the Ontario school system to meet that goal. As well, I benefited greatly from this research learning about the various ways in which, in my future work as a teacher of ethnic minority students, I can integrate the knowledge, skills, and experiences of ethnic minorities into my practice to ensure that parents of the non-dominant culture have an opportunity to become highly involved in the education of their children.

The effects of consistency and inconsistency between attentional focus and task objective in learning a golf putting task

Converging evidence has demonstrated learning advantages when an individual is instructed to focus their attention externally. However, many of the motor tasks utilized in past research had clear external objectives (i.e., putting accuracy), creating a compatible relationship between an external focus of attention (i.e., outcome) and an external task objective (i.e., putting accuracy). The present study examined whether or not the consistency of instructions and task objective would differentially impact the acquisition of a golf putting task. Participants performed a putting task in a control condition or in one of four experimental conditions resulting from the factorial interaction of task instructions (internal or external) and task objective (internal or external). The retention and transfer data revealed that participants who received an external task objective demonstrated superior outcome scores. Participants who received technique information paired with outcome information demonstrated superior technique scores.

HUMAN GENOME VARIATIONS AND EVOLUTION WITH A FOCUS ON THE ANALYSIS OF TRANSPOSABLE ELEMENTS

Genome sequence varies in numerous ways among individuals although the gross architecture is fixed for all humans. Retrotransposons create one of the most abundant structural variants in the human genome and are divided in many families, with certain members in some families, e.g., L1, Alu, SVA, and HERV-K, remaining active for transposition. Along with other types of genomic variants, retrotransponson-derived variants contribute to the whole spectrum of genome variants in humans. With the advancement of sequencing techniques, many human genomes are being sequenced at the individual level, fueling the comparative research on these variants among individuals. In this thesis, the evolution and functional impact of structural variations is examined primarily focusing on retrotransposons in the context of human evolution. The thesis comprises of three different studies on the topics that are presented in three data chapters. First, the recent evolution of all human specific AluYb members, representing the second most active subfamily of Alus, was tracked to identify their source/master copy using a novel approach. All human-specific AluYb elements from the reference genome were extracted, aligned with one another to construct clusters of similar copies and each cluster was analyzed to generate the evolutionary relationship between the members of the cluster. The approach resulted in identification of one major driver copy of all human specific Yb8 and the source copy of the Yb9 lineage. Three new subfamilies within the AluYb family – Yb8a1, Yb10 and Yb11 were also identified, with Yb11 being the youngest and most polymorphic. Second, an attempt to construct a relation between transposable elements (TEs) and tandem repeats (TRs) was made at a genome-wide scale for the first time. Upon sequence comparison, positional cross-checking and other relevant analyses, it was observed that over 20% of all TRs are derived from TEs. This result established the first connection between these two types of repetitive elements, and extends our appreciation for the impact of TEs on genomes. Furthermore, only 6% of these TE-derived TRs follow the already postulated initiation and expansion mechanisms, suggesting that the others are likely to follow a yet-unidentified mechanism. Third, by taking a combination of multiple computational approaches involving all types of genetic variations published so far including transposable elements, the first whole genome sequence of the most recent common ancestor of all modern human populations that diverged into different populations around 125,000-100,000 years ago was constructed. The study shows that the current reference genome sequence is 8.89 million base pairs larger than our common ancestor’s genome, contributed by a whole spectrum of genetic mechanisms. The use of this ancestral reference genome to facilitate the analysis of personal genomes was demonstrated using an example genome and more insightful recent evolutionary analyses involving the Neanderthal genome. The three data chapters presented in this thesis conclude that the tandem repeats and transposable elements are not two entirely distinctly isolated elements as over 20% TRs are actually derived from TEs. Certain subfamilies of TEs themselves are still evolving with the generation of newer subfamilies. The evolutionary analyses of all TEs along with other genomic variants helped to construct the genome sequence of the most recent common ancestor to all modern human populations which provides a better alternative to human reference genome and can be a useful resource for the study of personal genomics, population genetics, human and primate evolution.

Can Attention Focus Instructions Reduce the Effects of Fatigue on Balance Control?

Localized muscular fatigue has been identified to have detrimental effects on balance control, an important skill for everyday life. Manipulation of attention focus instructions has been shown to benefit performance of various motor skills including balance and has been found to facilitate endurance during fatiguing tasks. The purpose of this thesis was to determine if the use of attention focus instructions could attenuate the effects of muscular fatigue on balance control. Twenty-four participants performed a balance task (two-legged stance on an unstable platform) before and after a fatigue protocol. Trunk sway, platform excursions, and lower limb muscle activity was measured. Results suggest that use of either internal or external attention focus instructions can reduce the immediate effects of muscular fatigue of the lower limb on balance control as shown through reduced trunk sway and platform excursions. These results have relevance for individuals performing balance tasks in a fatigued state.

The Influence of Attentional Focus on the Self-Efficacy-Performance Relationship in a Continuous Running Task

The self-efficacy-performance relationship in continuous sport tasks has been shown to be significantly reciprocal yet unequal with stronger influences in the performance-to-self-efficacy pathway rather than self-efficacy-to-performance pathway (e.g., LaForge-MacKenzie & Sullivan, 2014b). Bandura (2012) suggested that sociocognitive variables may influence this relationship. Attention as a sociocognitve factor may bias the processing of performance and self-efficacy information (Bandura, 1982, 1997; Bandura & Jourden, 1991). As confidence and attention are important aspects of peak running performance (Brewer, Van Raalte, Linder, & VanRaalte, 1991), the primary purpose of the present study was to examine the self-efficacy-performance relationship under three conditions of attentional focus. The secondary purpose was to examine self-efficacy and performance as separate constructs under the same conditions of attention. Participants ran continuously for one kilometer in one of three randomly assigned attentional focus conditions: internal-focus (n = 51), external-focus (n = 50), and control (n = 49). Self-efficacy was assessed using a one-item measure every 200 meters. Path analyses examining the primary objective revealed significant self-efficacy-to-performance pathways in all conditions: external-focus (p < .05, βs ranging from -.17 to -.32), internal-focus (p < .05, βs ranging from -.26 to -.36), and control (p < .05, βs ranging from -.29 to -.42). Significant reciprocal relationships were absent in all conditions. ANOVAs examining the secondary objectives found significantly faster performance in the control condition at the start (F (2, 147) = 3.86, p < .05) and end of the task (F (2, 147) = 3.56, p < .05). Self-efficacy was significantly higher in the internal-focus condition at the end of the task (Self-Efficacy 4 (F (2, 147) = 3.21, p < .05) and Self-Efficacy 5 (F (2, 147) = 4.74, p < .05). In contrast to previous within-trial research (e.g., LaForge-MacKenzie & Sullivan, 2014b) self-efficacy-to-performance effects were more significant and robust than performance-to-self-efficacy effects. These results provided support for Bandura’s (2012) suggestion that sociocognitive factors may have the ability to alter the causal structure of the self-efficacy-performance relationship, proposing complexities in the self-efficacy-performance relationship (Sitzmann &Yeo, 2013). Results were discussed from both theoretical and applied perspectives.