ENGLISH ABSTRACT This thesis deals with sexual behavior of young people from fifteen till twenty-five years in the Czech Republic. Their activities are evaluated and interpreted from anthropological perspective of passage rituals. The official passage rituals of adulthood were eliminated in the western society and one universal passage ritual was crumbled in inexhaustible assemblage of particular unofficial hazy and often unclear ritual actions. This transformation begins because the man is according to Mary Douglas a ritual animal and the ritual suppressed in one form appears in another on even stronger. In this large assemblage of passage rituals of adulthood we can include for example dancing courses, school- leaving examination, gaining of the driving licence, smoking, drinking alcohol or just sexual activity. In the period of adolescence we can mark this activity as ritual because it has not the clear utilitarian procreative aim. This work presents original field research which bears on two main pillars: 1. on the quantitative questionnaire investigation and 2. on qualitative questionnaire investigation. The quantitative research was made in the secondary schools in Pilsen region and its main part count one hundred-eighty eight respondents. The research was going on during the year 2008 - 2009. The...

Chez les rongeurs, les facteurs sociaux sont connus pour pouvoir moduler la transition pubertaire. Ainsi une jeune souris femelle mise en contact avec un mâle adulte présentera une ouverture vaginale plus précoce qu’une femelle isolée du mâle. L’objectif de ma thèse a été de caractériser les conséquences d’une exposition précoce au mâle dans l’espèce caprine. Les caprins sont une espèce dont la reproduction est saisonnée et permettant, de par sa taille, une étude plus fine des sécrétions endocrines que les rongeurs. Nos résultats ont permis de mettre en évidence que la présence de boucs sexuellement actifs induit une puberté précoce chez les chevrettes, l’ovulation pouvant être induite dès l’âge de 3 mois et demi. Les femelles présentent suite à cette première ovulation une cyclicité régulière ainsi qu’une maturation précoce du tractus génital. Le niveau d’activité sexuelle du bouc est un facteur crucial à l’induction d’une puberté précoce chez la chèvre puisque la présence de mâles castrés n’a aucun effet et que les femelles sont toutes pubères dans le mois suivant l’entrée en saison sexuelle des mâles. Ce travail démontre, dans l’espèce caprine, un rôle crucial de l’environnement social dans la régulation de la maturation sexuelle. Plus particulièrement, cela met en évidence que la présence de boucs peut réactiver efficacement et de manière très précoce l’axe gonadotrope de jeunes chèvres immatures. / In rodents, social factors are known to modulate the pubertal transition. Hence, young female mice exposed to adult male exhibit an earlier vaginal opening than young females isolated from male. The aim of my thesis was to characterize the consequences of a precocious exposure to male in another specie, goats. Goats are seasonal breeders and due to their size the fine study of endocrine secretions is easier than in rodents. Our results highlighted that an early exposure to sexually active bucks induces a precocious puberty in young female goats. The first ovulation can be induced as early as 3.5 months old, following this induced first ovulation, goats remain cycling regularly. Females precociously exposed to bucks also exhibit an acceleration of the genital tract maturation. The level of sexual activity of the male is a crucial criteria to induce a precocious puberty in goats as exposure to castrated bucks had no effect on the age at puberty. Moreover, all females exposed to intact bucks ovulated for the first time within a month after buck started to exhibit sexual behaviors. This work revealed, in goats, a crucial role of the social environment on the regulation of sexual maturation. More precisely, it highlights that exposure to bucks is highly efficient to reactivate precociously the gonadotrope axis of youg immature goats.

This study focuses on the strengths of early adolescents after losing a parent to suicide. Strengths is a global phenomenon and yet little research has been undertaken in South Africa pertaining to strengths in early adolescence. The goal of the study was to determine how the early adolescent experiences the suicidal death of a parent while simultaneously going through puberty, and what strengths were present to help them make meaning out of what happened in their lives. The research was conducted through a phenomenological design and followed a qualitative research approach within an interpretivist paradigm. The research design and approach allowed the participants to give meaning to the construct by sharing their own experiences. A total of 6 early adolescent girls from the ages of twelve to sixteen years were purposefully selected from the East Rand area, Gauteng. Five of the girls were Afrikaans speaking and one was English speaking. Three of the girls lost a mother to suicide and three of the girls lost a father to suicide. The qualitative data was collected in the form of individual in-depth interviews with the early adolescents. The interviews were voice recorded, transcribed and typed out by online transcribers. The raw data was checked by the researcher for accuracy and categorised to ascertain certain emerging themes. Thematic data analysis was used to transform the transcribed data into meaningful information. Principles and strategies to increase the trustworthiness of the data were done through a process of crystallisation. The researcher's objective was to understand and interpret the meanings the participants gave to their own experiences, to identify the strengths that emerged and make findings available to professionals and parents. The findings of the study revealed that early adolescents do present with certain strengths of an intrapersonal nature that assisted and support them through the grief and bereavement process after the suicide of a parent. / MA (Psychology), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

This study focuses on the strengths of early adolescents after losing a parent to suicide. Strengths is a global phenomenon and yet little research has been undertaken in South Africa pertaining to strengths in early adolescence. The goal of the study was to determine how the early adolescent experiences the suicidal death of a parent while simultaneously going through puberty, and what strengths were present to help them make meaning out of what happened in their lives. The research was conducted through a phenomenological design and followed a qualitative research approach within an interpretivist paradigm. The research design and approach allowed the participants to give meaning to the construct by sharing their own experiences. A total of 6 early adolescent girls from the ages of twelve to sixteen years were purposefully selected from the East Rand area, Gauteng. Five of the girls were Afrikaans speaking and one was English speaking. Three of the girls lost a mother to suicide and three of the girls lost a father to suicide. The qualitative data was collected in the form of individual in-depth interviews with the early adolescents. The interviews were voice recorded, transcribed and typed out by online transcribers. The raw data was checked by the researcher for accuracy and categorised to ascertain certain emerging themes. Thematic data analysis was used to transform the transcribed data into meaningful information. Principles and strategies to increase the trustworthiness of the data were done through a process of crystallisation. The researcher's objective was to understand and interpret the meanings the participants gave to their own experiences, to identify the strengths that emerged and make findings available to professionals and parents. The findings of the study revealed that early adolescents do present with certain strengths of an intrapersonal nature that assisted and support them through the grief and bereavement process after the suicide of a parent. / MA (Psychology), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

The topic of this diploma thesis is sexual behaviour and sex education. The adolescent body goes through important biological changes that are reflected in the adolescent behaviour. The aim of this thesis is to describe and summarize the biological changes occurring in adolescence and show their connection to sexual, social, emotional and cognitive development in adolescence. The thesis also describes the psychological aspects of adolescence as well as the changes in cognition and the emotionality. Moreover, it also focuses on the development of human sexual behaviour. Finally, the theoretical part defines the theoretical basis of sex education and describes the current state of integration of sex education into the education system of the Czech Republic. Finally, this thesis also aims to analyse attitudes towards sex education of high-school students depending on the sex and type of attended high school, as well as to map experiences in sexual life of the first-year high- school students. Results are compared to the results of national survey on sexual behaviour. KEYWORDS: Sexual behaviour, sex education, high school, biological changes, psychological changes, puberty, adolescence

Thesis aims to analyze some auxological aspects of menarche in a sample of peripubertal school-aged Prague girls. Sample PRAHA 2012 consists of 293 girls from Prague within the age ranging from 11,00 - 14,99 years. Ascertained median age of menarche 12,4 years is significantly lower (p = 0,0004) than median of Prague population - 13,04 years, respectively lower than median age of menarche of Czech population - 13,00 years according to data from the last national anthropological survey (CAV 2001). Our investigation suggests a "break off" in long-term stagnation age of menarche (minus 0,6 year) at least in a urban population in Czech Republic. According to our findings deceleration age of menarche wasn't accompanied by increase of average body height or other nutritional characteristics (body weight, BMI, arm circumference, thickness of skinfolds) in comparison with actual pediatrics standards. Though, there is a clearly evidence that participant's body composition affected age of menarche. A comparison of premenarcheal (n = 139) and postmenarcheal (n = 154) girls of the same age showed statistically significant elevated values in body weight (42,5 kg, 47,6 kg vs 56,3 kg, 54,1 kg), BMI (17,6 kg/mš, 18,3kg/mš vs 21,3 kg/mš, 20,7 kg/mš) and percentage of body fat (19,4%, 19,7% vs 24,5% a 23,1%) at...

A kisspeptina, codificada pelo gene KISS1, é um neuropeptídeo crucial na regulação do início da puberdade. A kisspeptina estimula a secreção hipotalâmica do hormônio liberador de gonadotrofinas (GnRH) após se ligar ao seu receptor GPR54. Mutações inativadoras do GPR54 são atualmente consideradas como uma causa rara de hipogonadismo hipogonadotrófico isolado (HHI) normósmico. Recentemente, uma mutação ativadora no receptor GPR54 foi implicada na patogênese da puberdade precoce dependente de gonadotrofinas (PPDG). Com base nesses achados, levantamos a hipótese de que alterações no gene KISS1 poderiam contribuir para a patogênese de distúrbios puberais centrais. O objetivo do presente estudo foi investigar a presença de variantes no gene KISS1 em pacientes com PPDG e HHI. Sessenta e sete crianças brasileiras com PPDG (63 meninas e 4 meninos) e 61 pacientes com HHI (40 homens e 21 mulheres) foram selecionados, incluindo casos esporádicos e familiares em ambos os grupos. A população controle consistiu de 200 indivíduos com história de desenvolvimento puberal normal. A região promotora e os 3 exons do gene KISS1 foram amplificados e submetidos a sequenciamento automático. Duas novas variantes no gene KISS1, p.P74S e p.H90D, foram identificadas em duas crianças não relacionadas, portadoras de PPDG idiopática. Ambas as variantes estão localizadas na região amino-terminal da kisspeptina-54 e estavam ausentes em 400 alelos controles. A variante p.P74S foi identificada em heterozigose em um menino que desenvolveu puberdade com um ano de idade. Sua mãe e avó materna, que apresentavam história de desenvolvimento puberal normal, eram portadoras da mesma variante em heterozigose, sugerindo penetrância incompleta e/ou herança sexo-dependente. A variante p.H90D foi identificada em homozigose em uma menina com PPDG, que desenvolveu puberdade aos seis anos de idade. Sua mãe, com história de menarca aos dez anos de idade, era portadora da mesma variante em heterozigose. Células transfectadas estavelmente com GPR54 foram estimuladas com concentrações crescentes de kisspeptina-54 (kp-54) humana selvagem ou contendo as mutações (kp-54 H90D e kp-54 P74S) e o acúmulo de fosfato de inositol (IP) foi medido. Nos estudos in vitro, a kp-54 P74S apresentou uma capacidade de ativação do receptor GPR54 semelhante à kp-54 selvagem. A kp-54 p.H90D mostrou uma ativação da sinalização do receptor significativamente mais potente que a kp-54 selvagem, sugerindo que essa é uma mutação ativadora. No grupo de HHI, uma nova variante (c.588-589insT) foi identificada em heterozigose na região 3 não traduzida do gene KISS1 em um paciente do sexo masculino. O papel dessa variante no fenótipo de HHI permanece indeterminado. Em conclusão, duas mutações no gene KiSS1 foram descritas pela primeira vez em associação com PPDG. / Kisspeptin, encoded by the KISS1 gene, is an important regulator of puberty onset. After binding to its receptor GPR54, kisspeptin stimulates gonadotropin-releasing hormone secretion by the hypothalamic neurons. Inactivating GPR54 mutations are a rare cause of normosmic isolated hypogonadotropic hypogonadism (IHH). Recently, a unique GPR54 activating mutation was implicated in the pathogenesis of gonadotropin dependent precocious puberty (GDPP). Based on these observations, we hypothesized that mutations in the KISS1 gene might be associated with central pubertal disorders. The aim of this study was to investigate KISS1 mutations in idiopathic GDPP and normosmic IHH. Sixty-seven Brazilian children (63 girls and 4 boys) with idiopathic GDPP and 61 patients with normosmic IHH (40 men and 21 women) were selected. Familial and sporadic cases were included in both groups. The control population consisted of 200 individuals who had normal timing of puberty. The promoter region and the 3 exons of the KISS1 gene were amplified and automatically sequenced. Two novel KISS1 missense mutations, p.P74S and p.H90D, were identified in two unrelated children with idiopathic GDPP. Both mutations were absent in 400 control alleles and are located in the amino-terminal region of kisspeptin-54. The p.P74S mutation was identified in the heterozygous state in a boy who developed puberty at 1 yr of age. His mother and maternal grandmother, who had normal pubertal development, were also heterozygous for the p.P74S mutation, suggesting incomplete penetrance and/or sex-dependent inheritance. The p.H90D mutation was identified in the homozygous state in a girl with GDPP, who developed puberty at 6 yr of age. Her mother, who had menarche at 10 yr of age, carried the p.H90D mutation in the heterozygous state. CHO cells stably transfected with GPR54 were stimulated with different concentrations of synthetic human wild type or mutant kisspeptin-54 (KP54) and inositol phosphate (IP) accumulation was measured. In vitro studies revealed that the capacity of the p.P74S mutant KP54 to stimulate IP production was similar to the wild type. The p.H90D kisspeptin-54 showed a significantly more potent activation of GPR54 signaling in comparison to the wild type in vitro, suggesting a gain-of-function mutation. In the IHH group, a heterozygous variant in the 3 UTR of the KISS1 gene (c.588-589insT) was identified. The role of this variant in the IHH phenotype remains to be determined. In conclusion, two KiSS1 mutations were described for the first time in association with GDPP.

LEITE, F. Influência da restrição de crescimento intra-uterino na idade da menarca: estudo da coorte de nascidos vivos de Ribeirão Preto de 1978/9. 2008. 85 p. Dissertação (Mestrado) apresentada à Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto/USP. A idade da menarca é um marco da puberdade e, quando antecipada, parece estar associada a um maior risco de desenvolvimento de câncer de mama, síndrome metabólica e obesidade. É possível que alterações no ambiente intrauterino, como a restrição de crescimento do feto, levem a interferências no sistema hipotálamo-hipófise-gonadal resultando em alterações na idade da menarca. Em vista da controvérsia dos fatores que influenciam na idade da menarca, este estudo testou a hipótese da associação entre restrição de crescimento intra-uterino (baixo peso ao nascer, pequeno para idade gestacional, restrição intra-uterina de Kramer) e antecipação da idade da menarca. Em uma sub-amostra foi testada a possível interação entre a restrição de crescimento intra-uterino e o índice de massa corpórea. Para esse estudo foram utilizadas informações coletadas nos seguimentos de 1987/9 e 2004/5 de 1056 meninas nascidas em Ribeirão Preto, provenientes do estudo de coorte dos nascidos vivos em Ribeirão Preto de 1978/9. Menarca antecipada foi definida como primeiro sangramento vaginal ocorrido antes dos 12 anos de idade. Análise univariada foi seguida de análise bivariada e multivariada por meio de modelo generalizado empregando distribuição de Poisson para estimativa de riscos relativos e erro padrão por meio de método robusto. Os fatores de confusão controlados foram idade, escolaridade e situação conjugal da mãe, número de irmãos, comprimento ao nascer, prematuridade e índice de massa corpórea (apenas para a subamostra). Em média, a menarca ocorreu aos 12,3 anos (DP=1,5). A ocorrência de menarca antecipada foi de 27,7% (n= 293) para a coorte inteira e de 29,1% (n= 172) na sub-amostra. Foi encontrada associação negativa entre restrição de crescimento intra-uterino, seja representado por baixo peso ao nascer (Risco Relativo, RR= 0,47; Intervalo de Confiança de 95%, IC95%: 0,26-0,84), pequeno para idade gestacional (RR = 0,57;IC95%:0,37-0,89) ou restrição de Kramer (RR= 0,65; IC95%:0,47-0,92), com a antecipação da idade da menarca. Os resultados foram semelhantes na análise da sub-amostra, porém sem significância estatística. Quando o índice de massa corpórea foi considerado na análise da sub-amostra, não houve modificação dos resultados. Desta forma, este estudo demonstrou associação negativa entre restrição de crescimento intra-uterino e antecipação da idade da menarca, ou seja, a restrição de crescimento foi fator de proteção da menarca antecipada. / LEITE, F. Influence of intrauterine growth restriction on the age of menarche: the cohort study of live births of Ribeirao Preto in 1978/9. 2008. 85 p. Dissertation (Master) submitted to the Faculty of Medicine of Ribeirao Preto/USP. This study tested the hypothesis of association between intrauterine growth restriction and early age of menarche. For this study, follow-up data (n = 1056) from the population based livebirth cohort study of Ribeirao Preto of 19789 were analyzed. Early menarche was defined as having the first menstrual event before 12 years-old and intrauterine growth restriction was defined by three measurements: low birthweight (< 2500grs), small for gestational age (< 10% Williams growth curve) and fetal growth ratio (< 0.85 mean weight for gestational age). Relative risks were estimated by generalized estimation equations (Poisson distribution) with robust method for estimation of standard errors. Analyzes were adjusted for maternal age, education and marital status, number of siblings, birth length and preterm. Body mass index was tested as intervenient or interaction factor in a subsample of the cohort examined at 9 yrs-old. The mean age of menarche was 12.3 years (Standard Deviation = 1.5). Early menarche was observed for 27.7% for the entire cohort and 29.1% for the sub-sample. Negative association was observed between intrauterine growth restriction and early menarche. The adjusted relative risks and respective confidence intervals (95% CI) for low birth weight, small for gestational age and fetal growth ratio were respectively: 0.47 (95% CI: 0.26-0.84), 0.57 (95% CI: 0,37-0,89), and 0.65 (95%CI: 0,47-0, 92). No evidence that body mass index was an intermediate or interaction factor was observed. Thus, this study showed a negative association between intrauterine growth restriction and anticipation of age of menarche.