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Title: The knowledge, attitudes and use of performance enhancing substances and supplements among male High-school first and second team athletes in the metropolitan area of Cape Town, South Africa. Objective: Pressure to perform and to achieve success is to many high school athletes the overbearing goal and reality. Many are willing to use substances to achieve their goals even at the expense of their health and wellbeing. Four objectives emanated from this research: To determine the most frequently used sport performance enhancing substances and supplements (PESS) by male high school athletes; to evaluate the prevalence and use of PESS; to determine the main sources of information on PESS to determine the knowledge and lastly to determine the perceptions and attitudes of male high school athletes on PESS usage. Design: This study used a prospective cross sectional survey design. A self-administered questionnaire was employed to assess the participant’s knowledge, perceptions, attitude toward and use of PESS. The selected sample was male athletes in high schools in the central metropolitan area in Cape Town that were involved in competitive sports at the first and second team level. Results: One hundred and twenty two male athletes from four schools in the central metropolitan area of Cape Town participated. No serious PESS use was found. The main first choice of reported sources of information regarding PESS was pharmacists (21.3%), biokineticists (16.4%) and the internet (16.4%). The participants’ knowledge, perception and attitude toward the use of PESS was found to be poor. Conclusion: Most athletes reported to gather information from pharmacists (21.3%) and biokineticists which is encouraging since it is expected of these professionals to provide sound advice. It is suggested to create awareness among such professionals regarding use of PESS by this population and to incorporate organizations such as SAIDS and WADA as part of this dissemination of knowledge. The knowledge, perceptions and attitude toward PESS use by male high school athletes appears to be lacking thus indicating the need for more education on PESS.

MSc (Med), Biokinetics, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand / Introduction: Performance enhancing substance (PES) use is a major concern currently facing adolescent sport. The youth have become more competitive in sport, with some using substances and supplements to improve their performance. Unfortunately, some of these adolescent athletes are using substances that are both harmful to their health and prohibited. Aim of study: To establish the attitudes and perceptions towards and the use of PES, including prohibited substances and food supplements, by adolescent male athletes, in selected Johannesburg boys’ high schools. Method: The study design was a cross-sectional study using a self-administered questionnaire. Male adolescent high school learners involved in 1st and 2nd team competitive high school sport in seven Johannesburg boys’ high schools were invited to volunteer to participate in the study. Questionnaires were completed under conditions similar to an examination, where participants were not allowed to communicate with each other. Demographic data was analysed using descriptive statistics. Results: The sample size was 100. Results indicated that the prevalence of PES use amongst the participants was 30%. The use of prohibited substances was found, including growth hormone (5%), anabolic androgenic steroids (4%), and adrenaline (4%). Food supplement use was also found in this sample, including creatine (32%), protein (61%), carbohydrate (54%), caffeine (57%) and vitamin (61%) supplementation. Most of the participants (83%) that used PES started using them when they were over 15 years old. The majority of the participants (42%) played rugby as their main high school sport. Conclusion: The findings indicate that there was generally a low prevalence of ergogenic substance use in Johannesburg boys’ high school sport for performance enhancement. Substances such as anabolic androgenic steroids (4%) and growth hormone (5%) were found to be used by the learners. The anti-doping attitude of the learners may be improved by education programmes, which aim to decrease the prevalence of prohibited PES use in adolescent sport.

The world of sport has recently been inundated by stories of doping. These reports are not limited to a select few individuals or sports, but seemingly are spread across sports. At first, it was mostly members of the sports community voicing their discontent, but soon actors outside of the sports community, such as government committees, became interested. Anti-doping policies were created to reduce doping; however, these policies were created independently of government and vary in effectiveness. The most visible variances are between professional and amateur sports. Accordingly, this paper investigates why there is variation between professional and amateur anti-doping policies. This investigation is done in a qualitative fashion and employs the Most Similar System of Design (a comparative method) to identify that factors result in the differences. The paper also contributes to the field by creating and organizing the ethics of doping. Furthermore, it compares the various existing approaches to anti-doping policy by analysing the anti-doping policies of the PGA, IOC, WADA, and the MLB. Subsequently, the paper identifies seven obstacles facing anti-doping regulators and identifies new policy tools that could aid anti-doping policies. Finally, it closes with policy recommendations for the future. This paper is comprehensive: it introduces the topic of anti-doping, the subsequent definitions, explains the ethical considerations, answers why there is variation between professional and amateur anti-doping policies, and provides policy recommendations.

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Title: Experiences of gym members with Performance Enhancing Drugs. Objectives: The aim of the diploma work is to explore the prevalence of doping in two particular fitness centres, to specify the most used doping substances, frequency and form of using, way of acquiring and to define reasons leading gym members to using these substances. No less important goal of the work is to find out the most reported benefits resulting from using doping as well as the most reported negative side effects. Methods: The main method used in the research is a questionnaire survey that is divided into three sections. The goal of the survey is to assess aspects of using performance enhancement drugs amongst gym members. Results: We found that 8% of the respondents reported positive experience with anabolic steroids as well as 5,3% of the respondents with diuretics and 3,7% of the respondents reported that they have used growth hormones. The most common substances are nandrolone and stanozolole (53,3%) followed by oxandrolone and testosterone (46,7%). Except these doping substances respondents mentioned methandienone, trenbolone, oxymetholone, clenbuterol, dianabol and boldenone. Keywords: doping, anabolic steroids, attitudes, recreational athletes, performance enhancing drugs

In this thesis we delve into the profile doping scandals involving Marion Jones and Lance Armstrong. Our aim is to analyze how the online news media portray doping allegations in sports specifically on these two athletes. Through a textual analysis and approach encompassing framing theory and intersectionality we explore the gender biases that may exist in media coverage and examine the influence of these representations. The connection between media coverage of suspected drug usage and public sentiment was investigated by using methods mentioned above between two fields of sports- cycling and track and field. This research reveals that the choices made by the media when framing their stories about doping shape opinion. This study also underscores the role played on representation by the media on doping crises within sports. It emphasizes the importance of transparent reporting that fosters discussions. By using these findings as a foundation, we can promote fairness, objectivity and evidence-based reporting when addressing instances of doping in sports.  Furthermore, this study contributes to existing literature on how the media portrays doping allegations by providing a framework for examining how these incidents are depicted by media outlets.

Mass spectrometry is a commonly used technique in the modern sports anti-doping laboratory. Characteristic product ions observed in tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) can be used to identify prohibited substances. However, with continuous introduction of novel uncharacterized drugs, there is a need to increase the selectivity and coverage identification of mass spectrometry and non-mass spectrometry-based methods. The use of separations methods, (e.g., chromatography) is another means to identify substances using retention times, providing an additional dimension of analysis. Broadly, this work examines mass spectrometry of small molecules, with a focus on pharmaceuticals of sports anti-doping relevance. To gain a deeper understanding of characteristic product ions and their dissociation pathways, multi-stage mass spectrometry (MSn) and energy-resolved collision induced dissociation (E-resolved CID) were used. Using these methods, two classes of pharmaceuticals were studied: beta-2 agonists and beta blockers. Sequential versus competitive pathways were elucidated for four beta-2 agonists: isoetharine, salbutamol, formoterol, and salmeterol. Water loss is a common dissociation mechanism, with multiple water losses observed where structurally possible. A similar methodology was used for further investigation of the dissociation chemistry of five beta blockers (labetalol, bisoprolol, carteolol, acebutolol, and atenolol). Insights into the nature of the neutral losses and structures of product ions characteristic to the class are highlighted. Isomers that share product ions pose a special challenge, where differentiation is not possible using single collision energy CID-MS. Three sets of isomers with similar MS/MS patterns (leucine and tert¬-leucine, quinoline and isoquinoline, and para-, ortho-, and meta-aminobenzoic acid) were analyzed by E-resolved CID to investigate the analytical utility of this approach for isomer differentiation. Unique “fingerprints” were found among each set of isomers and additional analytical considerations were also investigated. Finally, separation of enantiomers is another special challenge, as MS techniques are “chirality blind”. Ion mobility spectrometry (IMS), a gas-phase separation technique, has been reported to show separation of enantiomers with the aid of drift gas modifiers (DGMs). Chiral butanol was used as a DGM to aid the IMS analysis of salbutamol enantiomers. These efforts were ultimately unsuccessful, which is in line with current literature.

The diploma thesis is foollow up on nutritional supplements in sport, both allowed and forbidden, therefore doping. It focuses on teaching at secondary (hight) schools and incorporating the issue of sports supplements into lessons. The theoretical part includes an analysis of the RVP for grammar schools and sports grammar schools, a literature search on the topic of support substances i sport and the theory of didactic research. The practical part contains an evaluation of the questionnaire survey, which examines pupils' knowledge about nutritional supplements focused on sport, and evaluation of the evaluation questionnaire, which is served as a feedback reflection in verifying didactic materials. Furthermore, in the practical part there is created technical text for teachers, presentations with didactic notes, worksheet including author's solution and didactic game verifying knowledge after the subject's interpretation.

The transport control protocol (TCP) is one of the most heavily used protocols on the Internet, offering a reliable, connection oriented transport service. However, the quality of service (QoS) provided by the TCP protocol deteriorates when it is used over satellite IP networks. With the increased usage of Internet applications by the military in remote geographical regions, there is an increased need to address some of the shortcomings of TCP performance in satellite IP networks. In this research we describe our efforts at designing and testing a performance enhancing proxy (PEP) that can be used improve the QoS provided by the TCP service in large latency networks. We also show how one can use such a proxy to create a new transport service similar to the Available Bit Rate (ABR) service provided by ATM networks without needing ATM infrastructure, this new service offers a connection oriented, reliable, best effort transport service with minimal queuing delay, jitter and throughput variation.