This study investigates the relationship between media consumption and weight control, using data from a nationally representative study on adolescent health to examine differences between younger and older females (N=2,519). No relationship was found between television viewing and weight control for the sample as a whole; however, a negative association was noted for younger girls when the ages were split. There was no significant finding for the relationship between TV hours and negative body image for either age group. Positive relationships were noted for both groups in terms of negative body image and weight control. These results do not support the hypothesis that media use is predictive of weight control behaviors. Though a connection between negative body image and weight control was supported, no link was found between body image and media consumption. These results underscore the need for further research on weight control that can lead to eating disorders. / Department of Sociology

Studies in the United States suggest that girls are developing secondary sexual characteristics at earlier ages than in previous years, with non-Hispanic black girls in the United States experiencing menarche at an earlier age when compared to their peers. Early puberty and menarche may have multiple detrimental effects, including reduced adult height, increased risk of breast cancer, obesity, and endometrial cancer. In this thesis, data from published sources of height and skeletal information on non-Hispanic blacks dating from 1763 to 1861 in the United States are compared with modern population data from 1988 to 1994. The expected result is that the modern population should be taller than the historic population. This held true for males, but not for females. The sexes differed from each other in each population group. This could suggest that female maturation is under greater genetic control than male, compensating for harsh living conditions. / Department of Anthropology

Robotic exoskeletons are important tools in medicine for characterizing certain aspects of diseases, enabling physical therapy treatments, or providing assistance to those with impairments. One area in particular where these devices can make an impact is the study and treatment of scoliosis. First, I adapt a design of a robotic torso exoskeleton to serve the population most susceptible to scoliosis, female adolescents. I used the device to compare the torso stiffness of members of this group with and without scoliosis, and found an interaction effect of degree of freedom (DOF) and torso segment on translational stiffness, and an interaction effect of DOF and group on rotational stiffness. These results can inform the models used to create rigid orthoses for conservative treatment or to simulate the effects of surgical procedures. Second, I explore the effects of different types of augmented sensory feedback commonly used in scoliosis physical therapy. I compare visual and force feedback provided by the exoskeleton on one’s ability to replicate static poses and dynamic movements. I find that while force feedback leads to faster initial improvement, visual feedback may enable the user to learn finer details of the movement. Third, I design a torso exoskeleton for people with neuromotor impairments. People who are not able to sit up independently are at a high risk of developing neuromuscular scoliosis, and must balance the benefits of treatment with rigid orthoses, with the limits that these devices place on functional movements. The device allows users four degrees of freedom, to support functional movements such as reaching and pressure relief maneuvers, but prevents lateral translation and axial rotation, which can contribute to neuromuscular scoliosis. Together, these results demonstrate the potential for robotic exoskeletons in torso study, training, and assistance.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how a coed environment affects a female student's performance in physical education classes. The focus of this study is middle school students. Most middle school students are normally going through puberty and many environmental changes at a new school. These changes can influence a student's performance often in P.E., causing a decrease in performance and participation which can lead to physical inactivity.

Thesis (M.M. (Public and Development Management))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Wits School of Governance, 2017 / Developments in information and communication technologies (ICTs) have revolutionised banking, in that consumers can make use of mobile devices to conduct daily banking, independent of a traditional bank branch. The adoption of mobile banking has continued to be low in South Africa, at 24%, while the mobile phone market has experienced a significant increase in market penetration to 96%. However, very few studies have investigated the impact of mobile banking among bottom of the pyramid consumers. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of financial literacy, social pressure and perceived credibility on the adoption of mobile banking among the bottom of the pyramid consumers in South Africa. An empirical study on bottom of the pyramid consumers in Johannesburg, South Africa with a sample of 235 questionnaires was conducted. The measurement items were assessed through three hypotheses using Structural Equation Modelling with IBM SPSS 23 and AMOS 23. The results confirm that all three hypotheses are significant and supported by indicating that financial literacy, social pressure and perceived credibility have an impact on mobile banking among bottom of the pyramid consumers. The findings revealed that social pressure and mobile banking was the weakest significant relationship, while perceived credibility had the strongest significant relationship on mobile banking. This study adds to the theoretical knowledge of financial literacy, social pressure and credibility as the factors that impact on mobile banking among bottom of the pyramid consumers. The managerial implications of the study indicate that in order for managers to increase mobile banking adoption, they need to create strategies that will drive education around mobile banking, use other people as advocates and place emphasis on communicating the safety and privacy of the services. Recommendations, limitations and future research on mobile banking are discussed. Keywords: Mobile Banking, Financial Literacy, Perceived Credibility, Social Pressure, Bottom of the Pyramid / GR2018

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a trauma-related disorder that may develop in response to traumatic or stressful events. Dysfunction of the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis has been implicated in the disorder. Studies support such dysfunction as being a consequence of PTSD, rather than a precursor. However, most studies of the HPA are either cross-sectional or have been carried out in adults. The aim of the present study was to identify whether HPA dysregulation interacts with stressful experiences to increase the likelihood of developing PTSD symptoms in a community-recruited sample of healthy adolescent girls. Adolescent girls (N = 550) and one of their parents participated. Adolescents’ clinical symptoms were assessed at baseline and at a nine month follow-up. Saliva samples were collected from all adolescent participants at waking, 30 minutes after waking, and 8 pm on 3 consecutive days. Flattened diurnal slope of cortisol at baseline was associated with increased PTSD symptoms nine months later. Baseline cortisol awakening response (CAR) per se was not prospectively related to developing PTSD symptoms, but its interactions with stressful experience was associated with elevated PTSD symptoms at follow-up. Effects were small and need to be replicated in samples with more severe stressors, as well as more clinical levels of PTSD. Nevertheless, findings suggest that dysregulated basal HPA functioning may be involved in the development of PTSD symptoms.

Adolescent girls and young women (AGYW; aged 15-24 years) in sub-Saharan Africa, the epicenter of the global HIV epidemic, have carried the primary burden of new HIV infections in this area for almost 40 years. Research has prioritized characterizing the individual predictors of HIV infection among AGYW by creating risk assessment tools that identify high-risk sub-populations for targeted HIV prevention efforts. Despite substantial efforts, there remains a disproportionate disease burden among this vulnerable population, suggesting a need to identify and assess new intervention targets beyond the individual. The objective of this dissertation is to expand our understanding of the complex relationship between the multi-level drivers of HIV infection among AGYW using advanced data science and epidemiologic methods. This dissertation is divided into six chapters, the first of which is an introduction to the dissertation. The second chapter is a scoping review of the extant HIV-related literature that has leveraged data integration methods to combine heterogeneous, multi-level data sources. Chapters 3, 4, and 5 are empirical aims. Chapter 3 describes the development of an integrated dataset that combines information from the Population-based HIV Impact Assessment (PHIA) project, the Population and Housing Census, and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) Policy Indicators platform. The resulting dataset captures data at the individual, interpersonal, community, and societal levels across five sub-Saharan African countries: Cameroon, Eswatini, Malawi, Rwanda, and Uganda. Chapter 4 uses the dataset described in Chapter 3 and presents the application of causal discovery algorithms to characterize and graphically depict the pathways among individual, interpersonal, community, and societal risk factors of HIV infection among AGYW to identify the potential underlying causal mechanisms supported by the data. Chapter 5 uses the results from Chapter 4 to assess the impact of increasing the proportion of AGYW who completed secondary education on HIV prevalence using parametric g-formula. This dissertation ends with Chapter 6, which summarizes the dissertation's results and situates the findings within the broader HIV prevention literature. A brief description of the dissertation results follows. The scoping review describes the four types of data integration methods: record linkage, multiple frame methods, imputation-based methods, and modeling techniques. I identified five thematic uses of data integration in the literature that supported the included articles’ study objectives. Those themes included using data integration to 1) describe HIVrelated etiology and prognosis; 2) develop or operationalize an HIV-related databases; 3) characterize sociodemographic, behavioral, clinical, and care risk factors; 4) estimate the population size of key or hard-to-reach populations; and 5) estimate HIV prevalence for key populations or varying geographical units. Then, using one of the described integration techniques, multiple frame methods, I present the process of developing a multi-level and -country integrated dataset that combined data from the PHIA Project, the Population and Housing Census, and the UNAIDS Policy Indicators platform. Additionally, I described the population of AGYW included in this study, as well as the different interpersonal, community, and societal environments they reside in, across Cameroon, Eswatini, Malawi, Rwanda, and Uganda. I then applied the PC causal discovery algorithm to that dataset to elucidate the interconnectedness between individual, interpersonal, community, and societal level risk factors on HIV status among AGYW across each of the countries and overall. Community-level HIV prevalence and interpersonal sexual relationship factors consistently had direct paths to AGYW's HIV status for almost all country analyses. Additionally, there were multiple individual-level factors that had direct paths to AGYW's HIV status, and most of those variables were related to sexual behavior (e.g., number of sexual partners in the last 12 months, age of sexual debut). Additionally, there were multiple indirect paths to HIV status identified across all levels of organization. My last empirical study used the findings from Malawi and applied the parametric g-formula, to assess the impact of three hypothetical scenarios that model how increasing the proportion of AGYW who completed secondary education impacts HIV prevalence. I found that increasing the proportion of AGYW who completed secondary education from about 31% to 100% is associated with about a 26% decreased odds of HIV. The findings highlight the importance of improving educational attainment among AGYW, which will impact their life trajectory, economic prosperity, and overall autonomy. The findings from this dissertation improve the knowledge base informing prevention interventions, thereby advancing the development of interventions that go beyond the individual to reduce the burden of HIV among AGYW. Additionally, the methods used in this dissertation provide an illustrative example of a novel and intersectional approach to assessing the multi-level determinants of health that may expand the current epidemiologic research program.

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Accompanying materials housed with archival copy. / The purpose of this research was to describe and critically interpret girls' experiences with respect to body image, physical activity and health. The qualitative inquiry included focus group and individual interviews, document analysis and field observations. These methods were used to explore the perceptions of sixty-three girls (grades eight and eleven) and staff from an inner-city high school. Through interpretive data analysis (and constant comparison), the inter-related themes of body image, physical activity and health branched into the sub-themes of societal influences and personal attitudes including: friends, boys, family, school and media. Girls' body images ranged from minor preoccupations to major dissatisfaction with their bodies, while a few girls were happy being themselves. Weak or negative family influences gave way to influences by media, boys and friends. A few girls were very active, whereas others' low levels of participation were attributed to: disinterest in physical activity, intimidation by boys, or perceived lack of opportunity. The girls' perceptions of health incorporated fitness, weight, and eating habits. Girls often used negative qualifiers when describing their weight or body shape. Generally, girls perceived overweight individuals as not taking care of themselves. This research supports the development of gender sensitive physical education programs promoting healthier lifestyles for females.

Accompanying materials housed with archival copy.