This thesis reports the results of a study designed to investigate the influence of exposure to televised medical dramas on perceptions of medical miracles. Four hundred and eighty-one college students participated in a survey in which they responded to different questions about their medical drama viewership and their different beliefs with regard to medical miracles. Results found that heavy medical drama viewers perceived belief in medical miracles to be less normal than non-viewers. Similarly, heavy viewers perceived medical miracles to occur less often than non-viewers. Interestingly, heavy viewers perceived medical dramas to be less credible than non-viewers. In addition, this study found that personal experience with medical miracles affected responses across all three measured viewership levels. The study concludes that, when compared to no exposure to medical dramas, heavy exposure has the potential for creating a more realistic view of medical miracles. Future research should continue to study genre-specific cultivation effects with regard to health perceptions.

Television viewing is one of the most easily modifiable causes of obesity among children. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between body composition and TV viewing among adolescents attending high schools in the Tlokwe municipality area of the North West province of South Africa. A cross-sectional study design which is part of the Physical Activity and Health Longitudinal Study (PAHLS) was followed on 154 learners (58 boys and 96 girls) who were aged 14 years in the Tlokwe municipality area. All the learners underwent anthropometric measurements of height, weight, and two skinfolds (triceps and subscapular skinfolds). Percentage body fat (%BF) was calculated from the two skinfolds according to Slaughter‟s et al. (1988) equation. Children were classified into three groups (viz. normal, overweight and obese) according to BMI cut-off point suggested by Cole et al. (2000). Pearson correlation coefficients were used to determine the relationship between television viewing and body composition. The results show respectively high prevalence of overweight and obesity in girls (10.4%; 6.3%) as compared to the prevalence of 5% overweight in boys. With regard to TV viewing, the results show that 54% of the total group watch TV more than two hours a day, while only 11% watched TV less than one hour a day. The results show that the group that watches TV for more than 3 hours had high BMI (21.27kg/m²) and body mass (51.54kg). The group that watches TV for 1-2 hours had low BMI (18.36kg/m²) and body mass (44.79kg). There was a statisitcal significant relationship between BMI and body mass (p=0.001). A significant positive relationship between body mass and TV viewing (r=0.56; p=0.05) in overweight group was found, whilst in the obese group strong significant positive relationship was observed between percentage body fat and TV viewieng (r=0.94; p=0.01). It can be concluded that girls were more overweight and obese respectively as compared to the boys. Furthermore, both boys and girls had high percentages of TV viewing for more than two hours a day. In addition, the results indicated that adolescents who watched TV more than 3 hours are heavier and fatter. Therefore, it is recommended that parents and educational heads should encourage periods of daily physical activity. In addition, it is also important that parents play a more positive role in limiting the amount of hours their children spent watching television. / Thesis (MA (Biokinetics))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

Television viewing is one of the most easily modifiable causes of obesity among children. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between body composition and TV viewing among adolescents attending high schools in the Tlokwe municipality area of the North West province of South Africa. A cross-sectional study design which is part of the Physical Activity and Health Longitudinal Study (PAHLS) was followed on 154 learners (58 boys and 96 girls) who were aged 14 years in the Tlokwe municipality area. All the learners underwent anthropometric measurements of height, weight, and two skinfolds (triceps and subscapular skinfolds). Percentage body fat (%BF) was calculated from the two skinfolds according to Slaughter‟s et al. (1988) equation. Children were classified into three groups (viz. normal, overweight and obese) according to BMI cut-off point suggested by Cole et al. (2000). Pearson correlation coefficients were used to determine the relationship between television viewing and body composition. The results show respectively high prevalence of overweight and obesity in girls (10.4%; 6.3%) as compared to the prevalence of 5% overweight in boys. With regard to TV viewing, the results show that 54% of the total group watch TV more than two hours a day, while only 11% watched TV less than one hour a day. The results show that the group that watches TV for more than 3 hours had high BMI (21.27kg/m²) and body mass (51.54kg). The group that watches TV for 1-2 hours had low BMI (18.36kg/m²) and body mass (44.79kg). There was a statisitcal significant relationship between BMI and body mass (p=0.001). A significant positive relationship between body mass and TV viewing (r=0.56; p=0.05) in overweight group was found, whilst in the obese group strong significant positive relationship was observed between percentage body fat and TV viewieng (r=0.94; p=0.01). It can be concluded that girls were more overweight and obese respectively as compared to the boys. Furthermore, both boys and girls had high percentages of TV viewing for more than two hours a day. In addition, the results indicated that adolescents who watched TV more than 3 hours are heavier and fatter. Therefore, it is recommended that parents and educational heads should encourage periods of daily physical activity. In addition, it is also important that parents play a more positive role in limiting the amount of hours their children spent watching television. / Thesis (MA (Biokinetics))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

There is a growing public health concern over the effects that sedentary lifestyles are having on the health of young people, particularly in relation to overweight and obesity. This thesis presents five studies which examine the prevalence, incidence and determinants of sedentary behaviour among youth. The rationale for eachs tudy derives from a framework of behaviourale. pidemiology applied to physical activity and health. Study I presents four systematic reviews of literature. The first review presents a descriptive epidemiology of youth sedentary behaviour. The second review presents a summary of empirical correlates of television viewing, the most prevalent sedentary behaviour among young people. 'Me third and fourth reviews present quantitative syntheses of empirical relationships between television viewing and body composition (review 3) and sedentary behaviour and physical activity (review 4). Study 2 examines the prevalence and interrelationships among different sedentary behaviours and physical activity in a cross-nationa(l USA & UK) sample of 2,494 youth ages 11-15. Study 3 uses a qualitative strategy to generate a grounded framework from which to understand the choices young people make about how to spend their free-time. Study 4 adopts a micro-behavioural approach for understandingt he incidence and temporal patterning of sedentary behaviour among 162 adolescents (age 13-16). Study 5 presents an evaluation of a behaviour change theory useful for increasing levels of physical activity and reducing sedentary behaviour. Sedentary behaviour and physical activity do not appear to be two sides of the same coin and appear to have different sets of determinants. This is an important finding becausee fforts to increase levels of physical activity may not reduce levels of sedentary behaviour. While television viewing, video games and computer use are consistent referents in the academic and media panic surrounding youth inactivity, it is unlikely that these behaviours play a substantialr ole in epidemiologic trends of adolescent overweight and obesity. Further study should attempt to examine how contemporary lifestyles contribute to the growing prevalence of overweight and obesity among adolescents.

The purpose of this master thesis, performed at FOI, was to evaluate a range gated underwater camera, for the application identification of bottom objects. The master thesis was supported by FMV within the framework of “arbetsorder Systemstöd minjakt (Jan Andersson, KC Vapen)”. The central part has been field trials, which have been performed in both turbid and clear water. Conclusions about the performance of the camera system have been done, based on resolution and contrast measurements during the field trials. Laboratory testing has also been done to measure system specific parameters, such as the effective gate profile and camera gate distances. The field trials shows that images can be acquired at significantly longer distances with the tested gated camera, compared to a conventional video camera. The distance where the target can be detected is increased by a factor of 2. For images suitable for mine identification, the increase is about 1.3. However, studies of the performance of other range gated systems shows that the increase in range for mine identification can be about 1.6. Gated viewing has also been compared to other technical solutions for underwater imaging.

This thesis investigates efficient manual image tagging approaches. It specifically focuses on organising images into clusters depending on their content, and thus on simplifying the selection of similar photos. Such selections may be efficiently tagged with common tags. The thesis investigates known techniques for visualisation of image collections according to the image content, together with dimensionality reduction methods. The most suitable methods are considered and evaluated. The thesis proposes a novel method for presenting image collections on 2D displays which combines a timeline with similarity grouping (Timeline projection). This method utilizes t-Distributed Stochastic Neighbour Embedding (t-SNE) for otpimally projecting groupings in high dimensional feature spaces onto the low-dimensional screen. Various modifications of t-SNE and ways to combine it with the timeline are discussed and chosen combination is implemented as a web interface and is qualitatively evaluated in a user study. Possible directions of further research on the subject are suggested.

The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the temporal stability of a normal heterosexual female response to the Affinity 2.0, a newly standardized viewing time (VT) instrument that purports to measure sexual interest. Participants were 120 female undergraduate and graduate students from a private university (mean age = 21.67 years) who met inclusion criteria of non-pedophilic interest/history, identified as “Exclusively Heterosexual" on the Kinsey Scale, and who took the Affinity 2.0 both at test and at retest (approximately two weeks later). Participants also filled out a questionnaire following the retest composed of demographic questions, a shortened version of the Marlowe-Crowne Desirability Scale-10 [M-C 2(10)], and declared their sexual interest on the Kinsey Scale. Pearson correlation coefficients (PPMCC), Spearman's Rho correlation coefficients, and a Chi-Square Goodness of Fit Test were all utilized to assess the temporal stability of the sample's response to Affinity 2.0. All PPMCC and Spearman's Rho correlations for VT were statistically significant at the p < .01 level; while practical significance for PPMCC could only be considered moderate as best (range of r =.28 - .63), Spearman's Rho correlations (range of r =.41 - .65) were stronger and approached practical significance. The existence of an overall distinct and discernable VT response pattern was apparent as the sample demonstrated identical categorical VT preferences both test and retest. These results were consistent with results from previous VT studies (Quinsey, Rice, Grant & Reid, 1993; Wright & Adams, 1994; Quinsey, Ketsetzis, Earls, & Karamanoukian, 1996). In addition, this VT pattern was found to be stable from test to retest as assessed by a Chi-Square Goodness of Fit Test. An unexpected finding was the presence of elevated VT for adult and juvenile female images. Implications, limitations, and future studies are discussed.

The contents of this graduation thesis is design and assessment of the load-bearing structure of the observation tower situated between the village of Horni Lhota and Provodov. The construction was designed as a steel structure in two variants. Type A is cuboid shape with a side lenght ground plan 6,8 m and height of 37,7 m. Type B is an hourglass shape with a height of 39 m. Ground plan is a regular octagon shape with variable diameter. Detailed static calculation and drawing documentation was processed only for option B.

Charles University Prague, Czech Rep. Raculty of Philosophy Department of Psychology Doctoral Theses Comparison of Accuracy and Precision of Sexodiagnostic Methods of Penile Plethysmography and Viewing Time Ondřej Trojan, 2017 Abstract The diagnosis of pedophilia denotes (according to ICL 10) the erotic preference for prepubescent or early pubescent children. Penile plethysmography (PPG) measures the reaction of these men in respon- se to either visual stimuli or to erotic narrative stories including child objects. Penile plethysmography is quite an intrusive assessment method, so viewing time (VT) might be a good alternative if it is shown to be compapratively accurate. Several studies in the past have shown inconsistent data, therefore more research is needed to confirm its validity in distinguishing responses to the preferred age category of pedophilic men. Method: Participants were 30 self-referred admitting paedophiles aged between 18 and 55 in the experimental group and 30 heterosexual gynephile men in the comparison group. A set of photographs depicting naked adults in addition to male and female children across 6 age categories ranging from young infants to adolescents was used; the same set of 38 stimuli were used to measure PPG (first) and VT(after). PPG apparatus was used to measure penile...

This study investigated distortion that occurs when raw scores are converted to ipsative scores on Affinity 2.0, a relatively new instrument for assessing sexual interest. Using a sample of 146 non-offending, heterosexual females, this study examined the characteristics of distorted ipsative score profiles and attempted to develop an algorithm to identify such distortions. A method was developed for defining distortion objectively. Of the 146 profiles,125 were found to contain some degree of distortion. Several hypotheses were formulated as to variables that might be related to distortion. These relationships were examined using Pearson Product Moment Correlations. Several statistically significant, but weak, correlations were found. An interaction effect was calculated for four of these variables, and was found to have a moderately strong correlation with distortion (r = .530, p <.01). An algorithm for identifying distortion was developed using this interaction effect. Several cut-off scores were tested. The most effective cut-off only correctly identified 42.9% of the significantly distorted profiles. Implications and limitations of the results are discussed, and directions for future research are provided.