Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / The objective of this study was to determine if introducing acceptance and commitment therapy in the prevention of mother to child HIV transmission (PMTCT) program using weekly mobile phone messages would result in improved mental health status of HIV-positive, pregnant women in Nigeria. The study used a quantitative approach using a Solomon four-group (two intervention and two control groups) randomised design to evaluate the impact of an acceptance and commitment therapy program. The study population was 132 randomly selected (33 per site), HIV-positive pregnant women attending four randomly selected PMTCT centres in Nigeria. Two were Intervention and two were Control sites which functioned as Intervention and Control groups. The intervention groups were exposed to one session of acceptance and commitment therapy with weekly value-based health messages sent by mobile phone for three months during pregnancy. The control groups received only post-HIV test counselling.

When shopping for apparel, many consumers seek advice from friends and family or store personnel. In-store kiosk systems might serve as an alternative decision support system. In the present study we address the key question of how such kiosk systems are evaluated by consumers. We conducted three focus group discussions with regular apparel shoppers aged between 23 and 39 years. In sum, qualitative information from 15 participants was subject to a qualitative content analysis with the aim of gaining a more comprehensive understanding of how apparel shoppers experience the shopping process. Getting a more in-depth understanding of the needs and wishes associated with the apparel shopping process gives a basis for evaluating the potential acceptance of electronic decision support systems in apparel shopping. Although our study is exploratory in nature, we are able to draw an initial picture of how kiosk systems could be used in apparel shopping. (authors' abstract)

Background: Surgeries history stretches far back in time. Stoma operations started being successfully in the 19th century. In the 1950s, a standard treatment for stoma operations was developed which still is being used today. The reason for getting a stoma may be due to various things such as illness or trauma. Getting a stoma can lead to a changed body perception and can affect the individual's experience of health and suffering. It´s up to the nurse to be able to approach these patients and their experiences in the best professional way. Aim: The aim of the study was to describe patients experiences of living with a stoma. Method: This study has been conducted as a qualitative litterature review. An analysis of eleven qualitative articles was carried out. Results: Three themes explaining the patient's experience of living with a stoma where identified as: the patient's path to acceptance, the patient's obstacles to the way of acceptance and the continued life with a stoma. Eight sub-themes: teaching and information, social support, an inner process, complications and leakage, uncertainty and concern, changed body perception, daily constraints, adaptation to a new life situation, where discovered. Conclusion: The experience of living with a stoma varies from person to person. There are factors that can affect the patient's life with a stoma. There are both positive and negative experiences that create an overall picture.

Malnutrition remains a persistent and increasing problem in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Food production has not kept pace with population growth, and many people have poor access to adequate, nutritious diet. In many areas of the developing world, maize is a vital staple and a main source of dietary protein. In Eastern and Southern Africa, maize is the basic food for the subsistence farmers. Per capita consumption of maize in Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe is 100 kg per year, while in Tanzania, per capita consumption is estimated at 73 kg per year. Unfortunately, the nutritional value of conventional maize is poor, partly due to the low biological value of its protein. To ensure sufficient protein intake, conventional maize should therefore be consumed with complementary protein sources, such as legumes or animal proteins. The complementary proteins sources however, tend to be expensive, or take a lot of time and fuel to cook, for instance beans. The main aim of this study was to evaluate the sensory characteristics and consumer acceptance of quality protein maize (QPM) in rural Tanzania. QPM is a maize cultivar which has almost double the amount of tryptophan and lysine. QPM has been adopted in several countries of SSA, but very few studies have been undertaken on its acceptance by consumers. In Tanzania, no study has been undertaken to elicit consumers‟ acceptability for this maize variety. The sensory characteristics of food products affect consumers‟ immediate consumption gratification. This study makes a unique contribution to the literature by exploring the roles that sensory evaluation and nutritional information play in shaping consumers‟ QPM flour purchasing behaviour through economic experiments in rural Tanzania. A triangle test was undertaken to find out whether there is a difference between QPM and conventional maize. Additionally, a rural household survey was undertaken which collected consumers‟ demographic, farming and individual characteristics. This was done using structured questionnaires administered by trained enumerators. Moreover, modified home use sensory testing and central location sensory testing were also undertaken to determine sensory characteristics of QPM and conventional maize. Stiff porridge, a major maize product in East and South Africa, was used to undertake this experiment. Finally, acceptability of QPM was tested using experimental auctions with the Becker-DeGroot-Marschak (BDM) procedure, and maize flour was used to undertake this experiment. The sensory evaluation findings of the study indicated that consumer characteristics of QPM stiff porridge were highly appreciated than those of conventional maize stiff porridge. This was observed both in the modified home use testing and central location testing. Likewise, consumers were willing to pay more for QPM than for conventional maize in all evaluation criteria used. Triangle test showed a significant difference between QPM and conventional maize. Sensory evaluation however needs to be repeated with other QPM varieties to ensure that it is not only a specific QPM variety that has favourable consumer characteristics. This study further revealed that providing QPM nutritional information to consumers increases their willingness to pay for QPM. Subjects who were provided with QPM nutritional information had higher WTP for QPM than those who were not. This shows that creating awareness of the nutritional contents, especially of the new varieties, would increase the appreciation by consumers hence help in fighting malnutrition in SSA. Providing QPM nutritional information, on the other hand, decreased consumers‟ WTP for conventional maize. This was unexpected because the information provided only concerned QPM. The study recommends that another study be carried out to find out the cause of decrease in WTP for conventional maize when QPM nutritional information is provided. This study clearly reveals that QPM is acceptable by rural consumers in Tanzania. This information can help policy makers in Africa to better understand consumers' food behaviour and make initiatives to improve diet and health, which can be important in reducing malnutrition in Sub Saharan Africa. / Dissertation (MSc(Agric))--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development / unrestricted

This quasi-experimental study (N = 139) measured the effect of a reader response based instructional unit of the novel Speak on adolescents’ rape myth acceptance. Participants were eighth grade language arts students at a Title I middle school in a major metropolitan school district. Seven classes were randomly assigned to treatment (n = 4) or control (n = 3) condition. Two teachers participated in the study and both taught both treatment and control classes. The study lasted a period of five weeks. Participants were pretested using the Rape Myth Acceptance Scale (Burt, 1980) and a researcher created scale, the Adolescent Date Rape Scale (ADRMS). Analysis of pretests showed the ADRMS to be a reliable and valid measure of rape myth acceptance in adolescents. Factor analysis revealed it to have two major components: “She Wanted It” and “She Lied.” Pretests supported previous studies which found girls to have significantly lower initial levels of rape myth acceptance than boys (p < .001). A 2 (group) x 2 (instructor) x 2 (sex) ANCOVA using ADRMS pretest as a covariate and ADRMS posttest as a dependent variable found that treatment was effective in reducing rape myth acceptance (p < .001, ή2 = .15). Boys with high rape myth acceptance as demonstrated by pretest scores of 1 standard deviation above the mean on ADRMS did not have a backlash to treatment. Extended analysis revealed that participants had significantly lower scores posttest on Factor 1, “She Wanted It” (p < .001, ή2 = .27), while scores on Factor 2, “She Lied” were not significantly lower (p = .07). This may be because the content of the novel primarily deals with issues questioning whether the main characters assault was a rape rather than a false accusation. Attrition rates were low (N = 15) and attrition analysis showed that drop outs did not significantly alter the treatment or control groups. Implications for reader response instruction of young adult literature, for research on rape myth acceptance in secondary schools, and for statistical analysis of effect size using pretests as filters are discussed.

The present study examined the relations among maternal psychological control, maternal acceptance, maternal acculturation and youth anxiety within the framework of a (partially) moderated mediation model. The sample consisted of 535 Hispanic-Latino youth (46% girls; M = 9.79 years) and their mothers. The study’s data were analyzed using structural equation modeling in the MPlus statistical software program. Results indicated that maternal psychological control and youth anxiety are significantly and positively related. Results also indicated that more acculturated mothers were more psychologically controlling than less acculturated mothers. Results further provided evidence for a partial mediational role of maternal psychological control on the relation between maternal acculturation and youth anxiety symptoms. In addition, there was a direct, positive relation between maternal acculturation and youth anxiety symptoms. No significant findings were observed regarding the moderating role of maternal acceptance on the relation between maternal psychological control and youth anxiety. The findings’ theoretical and clinical implications are further discussed.

The aim of this thesis is to build a framework based on the CAN bus and to create the auto-run scripts followed by the AUTOSAR Acceptance Test for Arctic Core and Arctic Studio, the products from ARCCORE AB. Subsequent to this, the UART driver between the test bench and the application layer has been implemented. In total, 11 test cases are configured with the application layer, the run time environment (RTE) layer and the basic software (BSW) layer. Thus, the test bench of each test case is also implemented. The result shows that 82.7% test cases are passed and the CANTP module and the LDCOM module are found not supported in the Arctic studio.

Wind power is currently one of the main sources of renewable energy worldwide. However, despite its numerous advantages, the deployment of wind turbines is not free from encounters with resistance from the society. This report reviews the principal aspects of the public attitude towards wind power. The research aims to define similarities and differences in attitude between residents of a developed and a developing wind market in Europe, Spain and Poland, respectively. A survey reveals that responses from both groups are similar in terms of the strategies employed by wind developers. The highest discordance is found within aspects of wind technology, such as the aesthetics of wind turbines and the perceived cost of wind power.

The research reported in the thesis investigated exergaming acceptance and expe-rience in older people with special reference to technology acceptance, flowstate, chronic pain and balance control. In recent years, there has been an increasing amount of literature on the beneficial effects of exergaming on older people’s health, well-being and balance, including the use of exergaming as a method of pain con-trol. Nevertheless, when taken separately, specific studies vary in methodology and in type(s) of exergaming topics studied. Health benefits from exergaming may only be gained if older people take part in it. There is evidence in the literature to indicate that usage of a technology is preceded by user acceptance. Few studies, to date, have investigated how older people perceive and experience exergaming in relation to their perceived abilities and future intention to use it, from a technology acceptance point of view. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis was to see if (1) the exergaming technology was acceptable to healthy older people and older people with chronic pain and (2) it had any effect in the self-reported health status, pain conditions and balance in older people with chronic pain. The current thesis consists of two separate studies. In Study 1, twenty-eight healthy older people participated in six 40-minute exergaming sessions within a three-week period. In Study 2, fifty-four older people with chronic musculoskeletal pain attended a twelve 40-minute exercise intervention within a six-week period, either randomised into an exergaming group (IREXTMsystem) or standard physical exercises. A modified version of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) was analysed at baseline and upon completion of the intervention, including specific time points throughout the study. Self-perceived chronic pain and flow state were analysed at baseline and after exercise intervention. Rate of perceived expended physical and mental effort was recorded after every exercise session and compared between groups. Heart rate was recorded in the second study. Postural sway was assessed at the start and the end of the intervention with Centre of Pressure data being extracted via a Kistler force plate (AP SD, AP range ,ML SD, ML range and CoP velocity), where the conditions were quiet bipedal standing with eyes open and eyes closed. Evidence from both studies showed that exergaming technology was acceptable to healthy older people and older people with chronic musculoskeletal pain. Recorded high levels of flow indicated the occurrence of flow during the intervention. Perfor-mance expectancy emerged as the strongest predictor of older people’s behavioural intention to use exergaming. Previous behaviour was an important influence of future behaviour, within the context of exergaming. In Study 1, there were significant increases throughout the intervention in most of the flow state variables except challenge-skill-balance, paradox of control and transformation of time. Thematic analysis of olde rpeople’s responses relating to exergaming revealed that enjoyment was the most frequently cited theme. The significant increase of perceived physical exertion suggested that exergaming provided light-to-moderate intensity exercise for this cohort of healthy older people. In Study 2, an interesting pattern emerged over time where earlier on in the interven-tion, effort expectancy significantly predicted older people’s behavioural intention to use exergaming (instead of performance expectancy). This role was then taken over by performance expectancy midway through the intervention. This indicated that this sample of older people with chronic pain prioritised their personal ability to play the exergames, after which, they then considered the usability of the exergaming technology in choosing whether to use it in future, if it were readily made available. In addition, there was evidence of improvement in post-intervention pain intensity in the exergaming group, suggesting that exergaming may have alleviated older people’s experience of pain to some extent. Flow levels significantly increased from the start to the end of the intervention. Significant improvements over time in postural sway parameters in the control and exergaming groups suggested that short-term exercise contributed to improved balance in older people with chronic musculoskeletal pain. The indication of improved postural sway due to significant mediolateral reductions in the eyes-closed condition in the both groups suggested that older people with chronic pain could benefit from at least subtle improvements in balance after taking part in short-term exercise. Nevertheless, exergaming may have an effect on postural sway when visual sensory information is removed, as found in the experimental group that demonstrated a statistically significantly lower reduction of CoP excursion in the medio-lateral direction, than in the control group.

Previous research on the symptoms of Moral Injury suggests that it commonly results in clinical impairment (Drescher et al., 2011). Recent models have suggested that Acceptance and Meaning-Making may moderate the relationship between Moral Injury and Posttraumatic Growth (Blackie et al., 2016). However, Meaning-Making and Acceptance have yet to be examined in a population with Moral Injury. Data were collected from 120 participants from Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) online marketplace. Participation was restricted to U.S. military and veterans who have experienced a traumatic event. Participants completed a demographics questionnaire (Seidler, 2016), the Posttraumatic Checklist (PCL; Weathers et al., 2013), the Moral Injury Questionnaire-Military Version (MIQ-M; Currier, Holland, Drescher, & Foy, 2013), the Integration of Stressful Live Events Scale (ISLES; Holland, Currier, Coleman, & Neimeyer, 2010), the Acceptance Subscale of the Multidimensional Psychological Flexibility Inventory (MPFI; Rolffs, Rogge, & Wilson, 2016), and The Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI; Tedeschi & Calhoun, 1995). This study tested the following research hypotheses: 1) Scores for Meaning-Making and Acceptance will significantly and positively predict scores for Posttraumatic Growth in a sample population with PTSD; 2) Scores for Meaning-Making and Acceptance will moderate the relationship between measures of Moral Injury and Posttraumatic Growth, with higher scores of Meaning-Making and Acceptance resulting in higher scores of Posttraumatic Growth and lower scores of Meaning-Making and Acceptance resulting in lower scores of Posttraumatic Growth; 3) Three distinct groups of people can be high and low scores for Moral Injury and symptoms of PTSD. In contrast to the hypothesis, both Acceptance of negative emotions and Meaning-Making demonstrated direct effects but did not moderate the relation between Moral Injury and Posttraumatic Growth. Acceptance also appears to partially mediate the relationship between Moral Injury and PTG. The results of the cluster analysis identified three groups of participants based primarily on scores for Moral Injury, namely those with high, low and moderate scores. Participants with high Moral Injury scores had high scores for PTSD symptoms. The other two groups had moderate PTSD symptom scores. Implications of findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.