Research studies have revealed that male circumcision (MC) reduces the transmission of HIV infection from infected women to circumcised men by up to 60% (UNAIDS 2007:2), hence the adoption of MC as an HIV-infection prevention strategy by the United Nations (WHO 2007:2). Botswana, a sub-Saharan African (SSA) country, has HIV as a leading health and developmental challenge. The government adopted male circumcision as one of the strategies to combat the infection. Apparently, not all tribes in Botswana practise male circumcision as part of their culture. The purpose of this study was to develop and describe a model for HIV-infection prevention using MC. Three theory-generating research objectives were used to develop the model, namely to explore and describe perceptions of men regarding the use of MC, to develop and describe a model for MC service delivery, and to develop and describe guidelines for service providers to facilitate delivery of MC. A theory-generating research design which is qualitative, exploratory, descriptive, and contextual was used to develop the model in three phases. Phase 1 involved concept identification, concept definition, and concept classification. Data was collected using focus group discussions and individual in-depth interviews among 38 men aged 18-49 years and analysed according to recommendations made by Tesch (1990), as cited in Creswell (2009:186). Four themes emerged in the study, namely perceived effects on values, perceived source and provision of information, perceived knowledge of benefits of male circumcision, and perceived risks of male circumcision. The concept of “culture congruence” was derived from the themes as the main concept for the development of a “culture-congruent MC model for HIV prevention”. Phase 2 involved a description of the structure and the process of the model, by organising the concepts in relation to one another. The model was also evaluated. Phase 3 of the model involved the development of guidelines to support health service providers to provide MC services in a culture-congruent way in preventing HIV infection. Recommendations made were incorporation of transcultural health care instruction in nursing and medicine curricula, research on secondary audiences, such as women, and application of a culture-congruent MC model among diverse cultures. / Health Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Health Studies)

本文試圖將日程紀錄法的研究典範應用於憂鬱的心理病理研究，聚焦於兩研究問題：（一）探討個體的憂鬱症狀與其日常生活正/負向情感傾向的關係，以及該正/負向情感傾向如何影響其每日的正/負向想法；（二）根據「素質-壓力模式」的觀點，探討個體於日常生活中展現的情感傾向與認知特性，在控制住基準點的憂鬱症狀後，是否仍可顯著預測個體處於壓力狀態的憂鬱症狀。93名大學生完整參與本研究，問卷評估包括基準點的憂鬱症狀、日程紀錄期間的每日正/負向情感與正/負向想法、以及其期中考期間的憂鬱症狀。研究顯示憂鬱個體展現較低的正向情感傾向與較強的負向情感傾向，而個體的正/負向情感傾向與狀態可顯著預測其正/負向想法，且情感傾向與狀態對想法存在顯著的交互作用；另外，個體於日常生活展現的平均負向想法與正向情感傾向，在控制住基準點的症狀後，仍可顯著預測其處於壓力的憂鬱症狀。最後，我們則探討本研究對心理病理與治療的意涵。 / The authors attempted using diary method paradigm to study psychopathology of depression. The study focused on two questions: (1) explore the relationship between individuals’ depressive symptoms and their tendency of positive/ negative affect, and how the tendency of affect impact their daily positive/ negative thoughts; (2) according to the view of diathesis-stress model, explore how the affective tendency and cognitive characteristics exhibited in daily life could predict their depressive symptoms under stress after the initial symptoms are controlled. 93 participants finished all questionnaires, including initial depressive symptoms, daily positive/ negative affect, positive/ negative thoughts, and depressive symptoms under midterm examination. The results showed that depression is related to low positive affect and high negative affect. Individuals’ tendency and state of positive/ negative affect could predict their daily positive/ negative thoughts, and there exist a significant interaction effect between tendency and state to thoughts. Further, individuals’ tendency of positive affect and average negative could predict their depressive symptoms under stress after the initial symptoms are controlled. Finally, the implications for psychopathology and therapy are discussed.

Research studies have revealed that male circumcision (MC) reduces the transmission of HIV infection from infected women to circumcised men by up to 60% (UNAIDS 2007:2), hence the adoption of MC as an HIV-infection prevention strategy by the United Nations (WHO 2007:2). Botswana, a sub-Saharan African (SSA) country, has HIV as a leading health and developmental challenge. The government adopted male circumcision as one of the strategies to combat the infection. Apparently, not all tribes in Botswana practise male circumcision as part of their culture. The purpose of this study was to develop and describe a model for HIV-infection prevention using MC. Three theory-generating research objectives were used to develop the model, namely to explore and describe perceptions of men regarding the use of MC, to develop and describe a model for MC service delivery, and to develop and describe guidelines for service providers to facilitate delivery of MC. A theory-generating research design which is qualitative, exploratory, descriptive, and contextual was used to develop the model in three phases. Phase 1 involved concept identification, concept definition, and concept classification. Data was collected using focus group discussions and individual in-depth interviews among 38 men aged 18-49 years and analysed according to recommendations made by Tesch (1990), as cited in Creswell (2009:186). Four themes emerged in the study, namely perceived effects on values, perceived source and provision of information, perceived knowledge of benefits of male circumcision, and perceived risks of male circumcision. The concept of “culture congruence” was derived from the themes as the main concept for the development of a “culture-congruent MC model for HIV prevention”. Phase 2 involved a description of the structure and the process of the model, by organising the concepts in relation to one another. The model was also evaluated. Phase 3 of the model involved the development of guidelines to support health service providers to provide MC services in a culture-congruent way in preventing HIV infection. Recommendations made were incorporation of transcultural health care instruction in nursing and medicine curricula, research on secondary audiences, such as women, and application of a culture-congruent MC model among diverse cultures. / Health Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Health Studies)

This research was stimulated by an indication that members of the Africa Gospel Church do not utilise professional health care services optimally, probably due to religious reasons. This may also be the result of registered nurses’ inability to render culture congruent care. To render culture congruent care, nurses require knowledge of the belief system and the health seeking behaviours of the church members. The qualitative research investigated the religious beliefs and health seeking behaviours of members of the Africa Gospel Church in Francistown, Botswana. An exploratory ethnonursing research method was applied. Semi-structured interviews were held with two purposively selected samples. Qualitative data analysis was done using computer software to reduce data and interpret the research results. The study indicated that members utilise the Church structure for health care purposes and seek health care mainly from priests and prophets. / Advanced Nursing Sciences / M.A. (Nursing Science)

Euclidean Geometry is a challenging topic for most of the learners in the secondary schools. A qualitative case study explores the reasoning skills of ninth graders in the proving of congruent triangles in their natural environment. A class of thirty-two learners was conveniently selected to participate in the classroom observations. Two groups of six learners each were purposefully selected from the same class of thirty-two learners to participate in focus group interviews. The teaching documents were analysed. The Van Hiele’s levels of geometric thinking were used to reflect on the reasoning skills of the learners. The findings show that the majority of the learners operated at level 2 of Van Hiele’s geometric thinking. The use of visual aids in the teaching of geometry is important. About 30% of the learners were still operating at level 1 of Van Hiele theory. The analysed books showed that investigation help learners to discover the intended knowledge on their own. Learners need quality experience in order to move from a lower to a higher level of Van Hiele’s geometry thinking levels. The study brings about unique findings which may not be generalised. The results can only provide an insight into the reasoning skills of ninth graders in proving of congruent triangles. I recommend that future researchers should focus on proving of congruent triangles with a bigger sample of learners from different environmental settings. / Mathematics Education / M. Ed. (Mathematics Education)

The multiple constant multiplication (MCM) operation is a fundamental operation in digital signal processing (DSP) and digital image processing (DIP). Examples of the MCM are in finite impulse response (FIR) and infinite impulse response (IIR) filters, matrix multiplication, and transforms. The aim of this work is minimizing the complexity of the MCM operation using common subexpression elimination (CSE) technique and redundant number representations. The CSE technique searches and eliminates common digit patterns (subexpressions) among MCM coefficients. More common subexpressions can be found by representing the MCM coefficients using redundant number representations. A CSE algorithm is proposed that works on a type of redundant numbers called the zero-dominant set (ZDS). The ZDS is an extension over the representations of minimum number of non-zero digits called minimum Hamming weight (MHW). Using the ZDS improves CSE algorithms' performance as compared with using the MHW representations. The disadvantage of using the ZDS is it increases the possibility of overlapping patterns (digit collisions). In this case, one or more digits are shared between a number of patterns. Eliminating a pattern results in losing other patterns because of eliminating the common digits. A pattern preservation algorithm (PPA) is developed to resolve the overlapping patterns in the representations. A tree and graph encoders are proposed to generate a larger space of number representations. The algorithms generate redundant representations of a value for a given digit set, radix, and wordlength. The tree encoder is modified to search for common subexpressions simultaneously with generating of the representation tree. A complexity measure is proposed to compare between the subexpressions at each node. The algorithm terminates generating the rest of the representation tree when it finds subexpressions with maximum sharing. This reduces the search space while minimizes the hardware complexity. A combinatoric model of the MCM problem is proposed in this work. The model is obtained by enumerating all the possible solutions of the MCM that resemble a graph called the demand graph. Arc routing on this graph gives the solutions of the MCM problem. A similar arc routing is found in the capacitated arc routing such as the winter salting problem. Ant colony optimization (ACO) meta-heuristics is proposed to traverse the demand graph. The ACO is simulated on a PC using Python programming language. This is to verify the model correctness and the work of the ACO. A parallel simulation of the ACO is carried out on a multi-core super computer using C++ boost graph library.