The usefulness of secondary exposure and health data to improve public health in South Africa will be assessed. Given the tremendous health impact of air pollution exposure the focus of this thesis is on primary prevention, that is the identification of outdoor air pollution and the use of dirty fuels (wood, animal dung, crop residues, coal, paraffin) for cooking and heating as risk factors, whilst controlling for confounding. Hourly averaged outdoor PM10 mass, NO2, NO, SO2, O3 data (1 August 1998 - 31 July 2003) from Cape Town were analysed in a nonparametric Spearman’s Rho correlation analysis to determine the seasonal spatial correlation between the monitoring sites. Trend and descriptive analyses were conducted on the outdoor hourly and daily PM10 mass data to investigate the current and future health implications in the Khayelitsha sub-district, Cape Town. The 1998 South African Demographic and Health Survey (SADHS) data were analysed. The survey involved 13 826 individuals in 12763 households. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses generated crude and adjusted odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals in order to assess the influence of dirty fuel use for cooking and heating on adult (> 15 years) respiratory health, childhood (< 59 months) respiratory health and 1-59 month mortality. It was found that outdoor air pollution is not homogenously distributed in Cape Town during all seasons. Elevated PM10 mass concentrations are frequently present in the Khayelitsha sub-district. There is a strong case for acknowledging the large public health risk arising from air pollution exposure in South Africa, despite the limitations of the 1998 SADHS data. Not much progress has been made in air pollution epidemiology in the country during this investigation due to the identified limitations. Secondary exposure and health data are thus only useful in improving public health in South Africa by supplying baseline data for trend analysis or hypotheses generation. It is recommended that the country must develop environmental public health tracking networks, which incorporates various data sources from multi-sectoral collaborative intervention projects with analytic study designs, in all major cities in the country. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2006. / School of Health Systems and Public Health (SHSPH) / PhD / Unrestricted

Previous research on investor preferences focused mainly on the relationship between socio-demographic variables and risk tolerance. This study extends the research in this area by focusing on three aspects of investor preferences: risk tolerance, time horizon, and estate intentions. The objective is to provide a more comprehensive model of investor preferences, including both psychological and attitudinal variables. This study addresses the following: Are socio-demographic variables sufficient to predict investor preferences? Is there a difference between males and females? How much additional variance is explained by including political ideology, positive psychology attitudes, and pro-social attitudes? Are these attitudinal variables simply additive or are they interactive? Data were collected from MBA students and senior undergraduate students in a major research university in South Florida. A scale was developed to measure estate intentions, a construct that has never been examined in management studies. The findings supported the expectation that psychological variables would be positively correlated with the dependent variables. However, I expected that pro-social attitudes would be a moderator variable, and this expectation was not realized. This dissertation contributes to the investor preferences field in several ways. First, it demonstrates the importance of psychological and attitudinal variables in explaining investor preferences. I also found differences between males and females regarding risk tolerance. This study can provide financial advisers with a deeper understanding of the importance of psychological and attitudinal variables in determining investor behavior. Finally, the results of this study augment and expand stakeholder theory. This study brings the investor into the stakeholder model, enhancing the descriptive, explanatory, and predictive capabilities of stakeholder theory. Future research could replicate this study using real investors in different locations for cultural variation, or using a panel of respondents for a longitudinal study.

The diploma thesis deals with the situation on senior tourism market. The aim of the diploma thesis is to characterize seniors on tourism market, describe the current situation in senior tourism market and define the most important characteristics of senior customer,including possible segmentation. The diploma thesis is divided into six chapters.

This thesis deals with the problem of childlessness, fertility and infertility. The aim of this study was to trace the reproductive behavior and changes that have occurred over time. The current situation in the Czech Republic, I relied on demographic statistics of the Czech Statistical Office. For comparison, the Czech Republic and other European countries I used data obtained from Eurostat. Own research I carried out a questionnaire on the website Vyplňto.cz.

This is a descriptive study of functional specialization in cities and its relation to certain social, economic and demographic variables.

Magister Philosophiae - MPhil / This thesis examines the distribution of African migrants across the different segments of the labour force in South Africa. The specific objective of this study is to demonstrate that there has been structural changes from 2001 to 2011 in the deployment of African immigrants in terms of occupation, employment sector, income groups just to name a few. Studies that have been recorded using the 2001 population census suggest that the South African labour market attracts majority of African migrants that are not highly qualified. The proposed study makes use of the 2011 population census to evaluate the extent to which the situation has changed or whether it remained the same between the two periods. The assumption underlying this study is that, over time the magnitude of qualified migrants has improved. As far as African migration is concerned, to capture the structural changes during the ten-year period (2001 to 2011) this study focuses on variables such as demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. To profile changes in the participation of African migrants, this study makes use of the 2001 and 2011 national population census data. Furthermore, statistical packages are used to test the relationship between variables. Policy document about migration are also used to provide the legislated framework with regards to the involvement of foreign labour in the South African labour force. The geographical scope of the study is national meaning it covers all nine provinces of South Africa.

Magister Psychologiae - MPsych / Previous studies on motivation of higher education students have predominantly focused on the role of motivation in academic achievement. The aim of this study was to identify what motivates students to attend university and to establish the connection of this motivational orientation to demographic correlates. A correlational research design was employed and data was analysed by means of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Correlational analysis (Pearson’s correlation coefficient (r)) was used to determine the strength of the association between demographic factors and student motivations for attending university.

The theoretical part of the thesis dealing with the theme of Age Management contains a relatively new concept concerning the field of Human Resources Management which focuses on taking the age of eymployees into account. The theoretical part is also approaches current demographic trends in the Czech Republic and points out the problems that may arise in connection with future demographic development. The practical part deals with the analysis of the external and internal environment of a company which serves as the basis for initial proposals of the application of Age Management in a particular company.

Due to the health and relational benefits associated with mindfulness, interest has increased in researching the topic. Typically, samples have been more homogeneous with no attention given to variations in mindfulness levels that may exist based on individuals’ characteristics. Therefore, this study assessed levels of three facets of mindfulness – non-reactivity, awareness, and non-judgement - with 1796 diverse individuals. Results indicate differences in mean level of non-reactivity based on sex, education level, income, and relationship status, with higher levels, on average, for males, individuals without a high school degree, individuals with an annual salary of $75,000+, and married individuals; differences in mean level of awareness based on sex and race, with higher levels, on average, for females and white individuals; and differences in mean level of non-judgement based on income, with higher levels, on average, for low income individuals. Findings highlight the value of considering social address in mindfulness studies.

Balanites maughamii is an ecologically and culturally valuable tree species, heavily impacted by elephants, which strip bark selectively off the largest trees, increasing their susceptibility to fire damage. Elephants also break intermediate sized trees extensively, keeping them trapped in non-reproductive stages. The trees can however survive breaking, stripping and · toppling by elephants, as well as top kill by fires, because they resprout vigorously in response to damage. They also produce root suckers. independently of disturbance. Vegetative reproduction buffers the populations from the infrequent recruitment of seedlings, and facilitates the maintenance of populations over the short term. Balanites maughamii trees are reliant on African elephants (Loxodonta africana) for seed dispersal and to provide a germination cue through mastication. In the absence of elephants, the population experiences a recruitment bottleneck, but root suckers functionally replace seedlings and fill the "recruitment gap", so over the short term, the population is resilient. In all populations, whether elephants are present or not, another hurdle affects recruitment, and it is seed limitation due to seed predation pre- and post- dispersal. Cafeteria experiments revealed that bushveld gerbils (Tatera leucogaster) were removing many seeds but do not scatter- or larder-hoard. They are simply seed predators.