Regional differences of physical activity and sedentary behaviour in Swiss children are not explained by socio-demographics or the built environment.

OBJECTIVE: We evaluated whether regional differences in physical activity (PA) and sedentary behaviour (SB) existed along language boundaries within Switzerland and whether potential differences would be explained by socio-demographics or environmental characteristics. METHODS: We combined data of 611 children aged 4 to 7 years from four regional studies. PA and SB were assessed by accelerometers. Information about the socio-demographic background was obtained by questionnaires. Objective neighbourhood attributes could be linked to home addresses. Multivariate regression models were used to test associations between PA and SB and socio-demographic characteristics and neighbourhood attributes. RESULTS: Children from the German compared to the French-speaking region were more physically active and less sedentary (by 10-15 %, p < 0.01). Although German-speaking children lived in a more favourable environment and a higher socioeconomic neighbourhood (differences p < 0.001), these characteristics did not explain the differences in PA behaviour between French and German speaking. CONCLUSIONS: Factors related to the language region, which might be culturally rooted were among the strongest correlates of PA and SB among Swiss children, independent of individual, social and environmental factors.

Psychosocial Quality-of-Life, Lifestyle and Adiposity: A Longitudinal Study in Pre-schoolers (Ballabeina Study).

PURPOSE: In obesity prevention, understanding psychosocial influences in early life is pivotal. Reviews reported contradictory results and a lack of longitudinal studies focusing on underlying lifestyle factors. This study tested whether psychosocial Quality-Of-Life (QOL) was associated with pre-schoolers' lifestyle and adiposity changes over one school year and whether lifestyle moderated the latter. It was hypothesised that QOL might not impact adiposity in everybody but that this might depend on preceding lifestyle. METHOD: Longitudinal data from 291 Swiss pre-schoolers (initially 3.9-6.3 years) was available. The following measures were used in longitudinal regressions: psychosocial QOL by PedsQL, adiposity (BMI z-score, waist, fat%), diet (food frequency), sedentary time and accelerometer-based activity. RESULTS: Concerning lifestyle, low psychosocial QOL was only related to unfavourable changes in diet (less fruit β = 0.21 and more fat intake β = -0.28) and lower physical activity (β = 0.21). Longitudinal QOL-adiposity relations appeared only after moderation by lifestyle factors (beta-range 0.13-0.67). Low psychosocial QOL was associated with increased adiposity in children with an unhealthy diet intake or high sedentary time. By contrast, low psychosocial QOL was associated with decreasing adiposity in high fruit consumers or more physically active pre-schoolers. CONCLUSION: Results emphasise the need for testing moderation in the QOL-adiposity relation. An unhealthy diet can be a vulnerability factor and high physical activity a protective factor in QOL-related adiposity. Consequently, QOL and lifestyle should be targeted concurrently in multi-factorial obesity prevention. The environment should be an 'activity encouraging, healthy food zone' that minimises opportunities for stress-induced eating. In addition, appropriate stress coping skills should be acquired.

Disseny i creació d'un MMORPG

MMORPG són les sigles de Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game: Joc de Rol Multijugador Online Massiu. Els jugadors connecten a un servidor i poden interactuar entre ells en el món virtual que el joc ofereix. Hi pot haver milers d'usuaris connectats simultàniament al mateix món, generant una població i molt d'ambient si el servidor està ben programat, i latència i/o bloquejos si se supera el límit de jugadors simultanis que el servidor suporta. El més atractiu d'aquest tipus de jocs és que dónen la capacitat de jugar amb i/o contra altra gent real. Resulta molt més emocionant veure intel•ligència real dins el joc, sense que tot sigui intel•ligència artificial. A més d'això hi ha el fet de que pràcticament tots aquests jocs són de l'estil Sandbox o sorral, cosa que significa que el jugador és totalment lliure de fer el que vulgui en un món obert, sense haver de seguir una trama lineal. Durant el principi del segon curs vaig començar a investigar una manera de poder jugar a Lineage 2 des de la residència en la que estava aquí a Vic, ja que la seva connexió a Internet tenia un proxy que bloquejava tots els ports excepte HTTP i algunes poques excepcions més, així que no podia connectar al seu servidor per jugar. I aquí vaig topar amb L2JServer, un projecte open source que emula un servidor de Lineage 2. Només instal•lant una base de dades MySQL, el java JDK i extraient uns arxius a una carpeta, ja podies executar el teu propi servidor d'aquest joc. Per entrar-hi només calia enganyar el programa client redirigint la DNS oficial cap a la teva IP utilitzant el fitxer hosts de windows i ja hi podies entrar.

Käsityön opetuksen suunnittelun ja toteutuksen alkuperää etsimässä. Tutkimus käsityön teknisen työn sisältöjen opetuksen suunnittelua ja toteutusta ohjaavista tekijöistä peruskoulun yläluokilla

Tutkimuksen teoreettinen tarkoitus on kuvailla yleisesti opetussuunnitelmaa opetuksen suunnittelua ja toteutusta toimeenpanevana työvälineenä. Lisäksi tutkimuksen teoreettinen tarkoitus on kuvailla suomalaista opetussuunnitelmaa historiallisen tarkastelun avulla ja käsityön teknisen työn kaltaisen oppiaineen opetussuunnitelmallista kehitystä. Tutkimuksen empiirinen tarkoitus on löytää käsityön teknisen työn sisältöjen opetuksen suunnittelua ja toteutusta ohjaavat tekijät sekä kuvailla käsityön opetussuunnitelmaa teknisen työn sisältöjen opettajan työvälineenä. Tutkimus kohdistui Suomessa toimiviin peruskoulun yläluokkien (7-9 lk.) käsityön teknisen työn sisältöjen opettajiin. Perusjoukkoon kuului 770 käsityön teknisen työn sisältöjen opettajaa. Perusjoukosta muodostettiin klusteriotannalla koko valtakuntaa edustava ja maantieteelliseen väkilukuun suhteutettu otos, johon valittiin 100 käsityön teknisen työn sisältöjen opettajaa. Tutkimusaineistoon saatiin vastaukset sadalta käsityön teknisen työn sisältöjen opettajalta. Tutkimuksen teoriaosa perustuu opetussuunnitelmaan liittyvien tekijöiden, kuten kirjoitetun opetussuunnitelman, oppimiskäsityksen ja opetuksen suunnitteluprosessin teoreettiseen kuvaukseen. Tutkimuksen empiirinen osa edustaa määrällistä eli kvantitatiivista tutkimusotetta, jossa mittaus suoritettiin yhden kerran tutkimukseen valituille henkilöille. Tutkimuksessa käytetty kyselylomake eli mittari sisälsi 100 Likert -asteikollista väittämää, jotka oli ankkuroitu viisiportaisesti välille ”täysin eri mieltä” – ”täysin samaa mieltä”. Tutkimustulosten perusteella käsityön opetussuunnitelman ohjausvaikutus on vähäinen eikä käsityön teknisen työn sisältöjen opettaja ole sitoutunut käyttämään käsityön opetussuunnitelmaa. Käsityön teknisen työn sisältöjen opetuksen suunnittelua ja toteutusta ohjaa oppimisympäristö- ja oppilaskeskeinen Curriculum -ajattelu, jossa opetussuunnitelma toimii vapaana ja löyhänä ohjeena toteutettavaa opetusta varten. Tähän perustuen käsityön teknisen työn sisältöjen opettaja toteuttaa opetustaan voimakkaasti omatoimiseen oppimiseen perustuvien oppilaslähtöisten työtapojen suunnassa. Tulevaisuudessa käsityön teknisen työn sisältöjen opettajien täydennyskoulutukseen pitäisi kiinnittää enemmän huomiota, koska sillä on yhteyttä siihen, missä määrin he käyttävät käsityön opetussuunnitelmaa oman opetuksen suunnittelu- ja toteutusprosessissa.

Veritas religionis evangelicae ex scriptis gentilium adserta

Invocatio: I.N.J.C.

Le Constitutionnel : journal politique et littéraire

1816/10/17 (Numéro 291).

Combined application of continuous wavelet transform-zero crossing technique in the simultaneous spectrophotometric determination of perindopril and indapamid in tablets

Signal processing methods based on the combined use of the continuous wavelet transform (CWT) and zero-crossing technique were applied to the simultaneous spectrophotometric determination of perindopril (PER) and indapamide (IND) in tablets. These signal processing methods do not require any priory separation step. Initially, various wavelet families were tested to identify the optimum signal processing giving the best recovery results. From this procedure, the Haar and Biorthogonal1.5 continuous wavelet transform (HAAR-CWT and BIOR1.5-CWT, respectively) were found suitable for the analysis of the related compounds. After transformation of the absorbance vectors by using HAAR-CWT and BIOR1.5-CWT, the CWT-coefficients were drawn as a graph versus wavelength and then the HAAR-CWT and BIOR1.5-CWT spectra were obtained. Calibration graphs for PER and IND were obtained by measuring the CWT amplitudes at 231.1 and 291.0 nm in the HAAR-CWT spectra and at 228.5 and 246.8 nm in BIOR1.5-CWT spectra, respectively. In order to compare the performance of HAAR-CWT and BIOR1.5-CWT approaches, derivative spectrophotometric (DS) method and HPLC as comparison methods, were applied to the PER-IND samples. In this DS method, first derivative absorbance values at 221.6 for PER and 282.7 nm for IND were used to obtain the calibration graphs. The validation of the CWT and DS signal processing methods was carried out by using the recovery study and standard addition technique. In the following step, these methods were successfully applied to the commercial tablets containing PER and IND compounds and good accuracy and precision were reported for the experimental results obtained by all proposed signal processing methods.

Diagnóstico biológico e molecular e análise da seqüência de nucleotídeos do gene da proteína capsidial de um isolado do Apple stem pitting virus

O Apple stem pitting virus (ASPV) foi detectado por RT-PCR em amostras de cultivares de pereiras européias (Pyrus communis L.) cvs. Starkrimson e Abate Fetel, e asiáticas (P. pyrifolia var. culta) cvs. Kousui e Housui coletadas no início do outono de 2003 em pomar da Estação Experimental da Embrapa Uva e Vinho, Vacaria, RS. Utilizando várias combinações de oligonucleotídeos, foram amplificados fragmentos de DNA de 269 e 1554 pb, este último contendo o gene completo (1131 nt) da proteína capsidial do ASPV. Outro fragmento amplificado de 291 pb compreende parte do gene da polimerase viral. Estes fragmentos constituem-se em um excelente instrumento de diagnóstico do ASPV em pereiras. A comparação das seqüências de nucleotídeos do gene da proteína capsidial do ASPV com seqüências do banco de dados GenBank, revelou identidades de 89% com seqüências de um isolado alemão de macieira e de 85 a 88% com isolados poloneses, de pereiras. A indicadora herbácea Nicotiana occidentalis cv. 37B, inoculada mecanicamente com extrato foliar da cv. Housui, apresentou lesões locais necróticas, necrose foliar marginal e das nervuras. O ASPV também foi detectado por dot-ELISA nas cvs. Abate Fetel e Kousui, na cv. Starkrimson por imunoblot, e em Pyronia veitchii (Trabut) Guill. por enxertia de borbulhas da cv. Abate Fetel infetada.

In pursuit of an intercultural dimension in EFL-teaching : exploring cognitions among Finland-Swedish comprehensive school teachers

This thesis is about the educational purpose of foreign language teaching (FLT) in an increasingly internationalised world.The past 20-30 years have witnessed a fundamental rethinking of the aims of FLT, entailing a shift in emphasis from linguistic competence over communicative competence to intercultural competence. The growing emphasis on cultural issues, called for by research and international curricular documents, places new demandson language teachers. The overall aim of this study is to deepen the knowledge about the attitudes of teachers at the upper level of the Finland-Swedish comprehensive school towards the treatment of culture in English foreign language (EFL) teaching. The questions in focus are: 1) How do teachers interpret the concept"culture" in EFL-teaching?, 2) How do they specify the cultural objectives of their teaching? and 3) What do they do to attain these objectives? The thesis strives to reveal whether or not language teaching today can be describedas intercultural, in the sense that culture is taught with the aim of promotingintercultural understanding, tolerance and empathy. This abductive and largely exploratory study is placed within a constructivist and sociocultural framework,and is inspired by both phenomenography and hermeneutics. It takes its starting-point in language didactics, and can also be regarded as a contribution to teacher cognition research. The empirical data consists of verbatim transcribed interviews with 13 Finland-Swedish teachers of English at grades 7-9. The findings are presented according to three orientations and reviewed with reference to the 2004 Finnish National Framework Curriculum. Within the cognitive orientation, "culture" is perceived as factual knowledge, and the teaching of cultureis defined in terms of the transmission of knowledge, especially about Britain and the USA (Pedagogy of Information). Within the action-related orientation, "culture" is seen as skills of a social and socio-linguistic nature, andthe teaching aims at preparing the students for contacts with people from the target language areas (Pedagogy of Preparation). Within the affective orientation, which takes a more holistic approach, "culture" is seen as a bi-directional perspective. Students are encouraged to look at their own familiar culture from another perspective, and learn to empathise with and show respect for otherness in general, not just concerning representatives of English-speaking countries (Pedagogy of Encounter). Very few of the interviewed teachers represent the third approach, which is the one that can be characterised as truly intercultural. The study indicates that many teachers feel unsure about how to teach culture in an appropriate and up-to-date manner. This is attributed to, among other things, lack of teacher insights as well as lack of time and adequate material. The thesis ends with a set of recommendations as to how EFL could be developed ina more intercultural direction.