This thesis deals with family and its values. It focuses on changing attitudes to family in the context of social transformation after 1989. At the beginning of the thesis there are defined the basic functions of family and types of families. The following describes the historical evolution of family from the early Middle Ages to the present. It tries to capture the changes associated with the second demographic transition and to describe what this transition was concerned with and if it is linked with the situation in the Czech Republic after 1989. It describes values in general and approaches to research of values. The last part is devoted to analysis of family values, which is done by comparing questions from the three waves of "European Values Study" surveys. The main goal of this thesis was to verify whether people's attitudes to family after 1989 have changed and how it affected demographics.

Thesis (MPH.) -- University of Limpopo, 2021 / Background: The provision and success of Antiretroviral therapy (ART) depend on monitoring and evaluation of treatment programmes which should be assessed during regular patient follow-ups. The treatment of HIV infection can only be effective if patients are retained in care and programme monitoring is adequately undertaken to understand the effectiveness of the emerging treatment. The outcome of patients lost to follow-up (LTFU) has received relatively little attention and it is predicted that these patients may have stopped taking antiretroviral drugs, resulting in high morbidity and mortality. The provision of ART was introduced into South African public health facilities in 2003 and therefore, attention has shifted from the immediate need to get patients into care, to the long-term challenges of keeping patients in care and on treatment. The objective of the current study was to determine the trends at which HIV-positive patients become LTFU on the ART programme at Shiluvana Local Area’s six clinics in the Greater Tzaneen Sub-District, Limpopo Province, South Africa. Methods: A retrospective cohort study approach was used and data was collected from the database of patients who were LTFU from 2012 – 2017 in the electronic data management system of the District Health Information System. Data was collected from 1161 patients. Data analysis was done using SPSS version 25, in which categorical data was presented using frequencies and percentages and comparisons between groups was done using Chi-square test for categorical data, and Student’s t-test for continuous data. A p-value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Univariate regression analysis was done to determine the contributory factors to LTFU for a period of more than 3 months. Results: The mean age of the study population was 36.5 years old ranging from 16 years to 87 years old and the age distribution of people who were LTFU for ART showed a significant association (p = 0.001). The study participants’ distribution by gender revealed that majority were females at 71.4%. The study findings also revealed there was a statistically significance difference in health status of the study population and majority of the LTFU were in the younger age group. The CD4 count of LTFU patients showed a statistically significance difference and majority of the LTFU in patients with a CD4 count of less than 200 were in younger age group also. The TB/HIV co-infection in the study population showed a statistically significance difference and majority of LTFU in the study did not have TB/HIV co-infection. The WHO clinical HIV staging in the study population did not show a statistically significance difference. Marital status, TB/HIV co-infection and WHO clinical staging were found to be a strong predictor of LTFU of more than 3 months. Conclusion: The study findings bring with them a number of recommendations such as there is a need to have a standardised tracking method of patients who migrate to other health facilities for their ART treatment. This will provide more accurate information regarding LTFU levels and reduce the misclassification of patients. The age group which is affected by LTFU in all variables was in the 20 – 34 years’ age group. This is of great concern, as this is the age group who are economically active and should contribute to the future economy of the country. It is therefore recommended that a greater focus should be placed in this age group, with policies and programmes that bring them into ART and retain them there. Lastly, educational campaigns, in a form of pamphlets and posters to emphasize adherence to ART and the importance of remaining on ART within designated health facilities. In conclusion, patients should be retained in care for as long as possible to prevent the prevalence of the ARV resistant virus that can impact negatively on the ART programme. Keywords: Antiretroviral treatment. Human immunodeficiency virus, Loss to follow-up, socio-demographic.

Healthcare associated infections cause 75,000 to 80,000 deaths a year. Many are preventable with proper hand hygiene adherence (HHA). Worldwide, HHA range is between 40-60%, far below the 100% recommended. The purpose of this quantitative, cross-sectional, prospective study was to investigate any association between 15 demographic variables and HHA of ICU nurses. A convenience sample of 613 hand hygiene opportunities was collected by direct observation at each of 5ICUs (4 hospitals) in Texas for 8 consecutive hours each day for 3-5 days. The theoretical foundation guiding this study was the healthcare environment theory. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences software was used for descriptive and inferential analysis of data. An aggregated overall HHA rate of 64.09% was identified among all nurses, 66.88% among male nurses and 62.27% among female nurses. Number of children, age of the nurse, number of years of living in the U.S., and the number of years of active nursing practice were significantly associated with HHA (p = .000) using paired sample t-test. The potential social change impact of this study is identifying variables associated with HHA, identification and measurement of 4 barriers to HHA, measuring the Hawthorne Effect, identification of Low Gelers, High Gelers, and Super Gelers, average rate may not be indicative of what is happening in hospital, and call for standardization of surveillance methodology. Findings may lead to specific interventions to increase HHA among nurses with certain demographic characteristics.

Background In the context of booming e-commerce and associated logistics flows, there is a considerable challenge to support the future of volumes, specifically more towards home deliveries by logistics service providers (LSP). There are means of addressing this challenge by identifying the key factors that influence consumer behaviour and lead to better adoption by meeting their convenience through right self collection end points setups thus decreasing the logistics costs, meeting sustainability targets and also efficiencies for logistics service provider operations. Purpose The purpose of this study is to study and investigate the convenience factors of self-collection endpoints and associated levels that influence consumer preferences for logistics services to use self-collection last-mile endpoint in Sweden and also associate with observed behaviour across different demographic segments. Methods For research, quantitative research was done using conjoint analysis. Data was collected using a questionnaire sent in Google forms from volunteers, designed through an orthogonal designed based profile to rate the relevance and interest it generated. Results were based on 161 respondents' feedback on 16 such profiles (autogenerated in the SPSS platform). Analyses on existing historical parcel data of the logistics service provider along with the demographic data to build decision-tree models which supports determining the crucial attributes which influence home deliveries and also identify the potential site for trialability by LSP to support better decision-making aligned with the new Innovation diffusion into usage. Conclusions The research has shown that the collection distance is the most crucial convenience factor which can drive/steer consumers to use self-collection endpoints by being relevant in the context of convenience factors to be considered as an alternate to home delivery, followed by handling time. Respondents were willing to compromise on home deliveries if distance was within their expectations, such as &lt;300m from the study conducted. During the thesis work, decision-tree models have also been developed, which has shown relationship/dependency between demographics to different delivery methods like home vs. service points across different geographies and factors influencing it. It has been further observed that different influencing attributes play a significant role across geographical type of delivery locations, such as urban, sub-urban volume data.

The purpose of this study was basically twofold: 1) to develop an evaluative instrument to measure interpersonal communicative competence, and 2) to determine its relationship to three other supervisory variables—demographic characteristics, self-actualization, and leader behavior. Hypotheses testing, via the Pearson correlation coefficient, indicated the following relationships between interpersonal communicative competence (as measured by the IICC) and supervisory demographics, self-actualization (as measured by the POI), and leader behavior (as measured by the SBDQ): 1) The age of the supervisor was negatively related to the IICC at the .001 level of statistical significance. 2) Years of formal education was positively related to the IICC at the .001 level. 3) The sex of the supervisor (females scoring higher) was related to the IICC at the .01 level. 4) No significant relationship existed between years of supervisory experience and the IICC. 5) Six scales of the POI (I, Ex, Fr, S, A, C) were related to the IICC at the .001 level of statistical significance, one scale (Sy) at the .01 level and two scales (Tc, Sa) at the .05 level. Three scales (SAV, Sr, Nc) were not significantly related to the IICC. 6) No significant relationship existed between the IICC and the two dimensions of leader behavior—structure and consideration.

Microclimates associated with environmental and geographic factors directly affect the ability of an organism to survive in a particular area. Survival is affected by: predator/prey abundance, temperature, relative humidity. A group of organisms that are particularly prone to habitat sensitivity are web-building spiders, because building the web commits them to a particular site for a period of time. Anelosimus studiosus is a small (~8 mm) Theridiid spider that exhibits varying degrees of sociality: a subsocial phenotype and a social phenotype. Population densities of A. studiosus vary significantly among seemingly suitable habitats within its range in east Tennessee. I conducted a large-scale survey of east Tennessee lake systems to establish connections between spider presence and geographic features such as aspect, slope and elevation. These geographic features were shown to have a strong impact on overall spider density.

This essay concerns itself with the measurement of poverty. Through a lens of gender sensitivity, combined with three dimensions of gender, this essay analyses the quality of various SDG indicators. The paper has incorporated a methodology based on a qualitative content analysis, this method proves as an excellent way to analyse the strength of indicators relating to the SDG:s, as well as proves to work in symbiosis with the analytical framework of this essay. Through the analysis of this essay, it has been concluded that the instances as the SDG:s measure poverty proves to be insufficient. As the overall quality, combined with in some instances, the quantity of measurement instances holds sub-standard characteristics, the goal of leaving no one behind proves to be quite difficult to overcome.

Aging populations in Europe is a fact and it will affect everything from welfare systems and consumption patterns to the wealth of whole countries. The life expectancy has increased at the same time as the birth rate has decreased which has led to the population growth to cease in many countries. This means that a smaller workforce needs to uphold the nation’s production and provide for the part of the population not working. This study aims to examine the interconnection between the old age dependency ratio and GDP growth in the EU. The question is answered by multiple regressions using panel data from 27 countries in the EU between the years 1960 to 2020. The results show that there is a negative correlation between the old age dependency ratio and GDP growth in the EU and this result is possibly generalisable. An increase of one unit in the old age dependency ratio causes a decrease in the GDP growth by ca. 0,26-0,32 percentage points. This is an effect of economic significance that will have noticeable consequences for the economies within the EU in the foreseeable future. However, this effect is not statistically significant if time fixed effects are included in the model which makes the connection between the old age dependency ratio and GDP growth in the EU questionable. / Åldrande befolkningar i Europa är ett faktum och det påverkar allt från välfärdssystem och konsumtionsmönster till hela länders välstånd. Den förväntade livslängden ökar samtidigt som det föds färre barn och befolkningstillväxten har därmed avstannat i många länder. Det gör att ett allt mindre antal förvärvsarbetande måste upprätthålla landets produktion och försörja den del av befolkningen som inte arbetar. Denna studie syftar till att undersöka vilket samband som finns mellan äldreförsörjningskvoten och ekonomisk tillväxt i EU. Frågeställningen besvaras genom ett flertal regressioner som genomförs med paneldata över 27 stycken EU-länder från år 1960-2020. Resultaten visar att det finns ett negativt samband mellan äldreförsörjningskvoten och BNP-tillväxt i EU och att detta resultat antagligen också är generaliserbart. En enhetsökning i äldreförsörjningskvoten ger en genomsnittlig minskning av BNP-tillväxten med ca. 0,26-0,32 procentenheter. Det är en effekt av ekonomisk signifikans som kommer ha kännbara effekter för EU-ländernas ekonomier inom en överskådlig framtid. Emellertid blir effekten inte statistiskt signifikant när tidsfixa effekter inkluderas i modellen vilket innebär att sambandet mellan äldreförsörjningskvoten och BNP-tillväxt i EU kan ifrågasättas.

There is increasing recognition of the relationship between depression and obesity in the pediatric population and recently, there has been a focus on inflammation as a potential link. Both conditions are considered to be pro-inflammatory states, and certain inflammatory markers are linked to depression in obese adults and vice versa. Leptin has also been implicated in depression as a potential mediator between inflammation and depression. Brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which is associated with depression and obesity, is influenced by inflammation and leptin in animal models as well. Few studies have examined the interactions between depression, adiposity, and biological markers in obese youth and therefore, our objective was to explore the determinants of depression in obese youth in a clinical setting. We studied 244 youth aged 8-17 years (125 girls, 119 boys) at the time of entry to a weight management program, as part of a prospective, longitudinal study. The CES-DC depression-screening tool was used to assess depressive symptoms, and a participant was classified as having high depressive symptoms if the CES-DC score ≥15 or taking antidepressants. Questionnaires assessed socio-demographic factors and puberty while adiposity was measured using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Inflammatory markers (IL-6, TNFα, CRP, IL-10), leptin, and BDNF were quantified by immunoassays. Of the 244 participants, 8 were on antidepressants and 88 (36.4%) met the criteria for high depressive symptoms. We confirmed previous findings that household income and body fat were important determinants of depressive symptoms. However for the first time, it was identified that leptin levels predicted CES-DC score independent of body fat. Neither inflammatory markers nor BDNF were significantly related to depression scores. Our findings suggest that leptin may mediate the relationship of adiposity and depression but it is uncertain if this is related to direct action or to the phenomenon of leptin resistance. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / Obesity has a significant impact on depression in children and adolescents. Inflammation – the body’s response to injury – is measured through markers in the blood and leptin – the marker of body fat – have shown to be related to depression. Research indicates that depression influences these factors to act on obesity. However, research on the interactions of biological and socio-demographic factors with depression in youth with obesity is lacking. Therefore, our objective was to explore the impact of these factors on depression in obese youth entering into a weight management program. Using a depression-screening tool, we studied 244 youth under 18 years and confirmed that household income and body fat were important factors of depression. However for the first time, we found leptin influenced depression regardless of the amount of fat present suggesting that depression acts on obesity through leptin but it is uncertain how this occurs and further research is warranted.

This research paper investigates the effectiveness of a campaign conducted by me and SJ to recruit new members on board trains, focusing on the interplay between strategic communication, demographic factors and technology use. With the increasing majority of online platforms and the pervasiveness of smartphones, the study recognizes the significance of mobile media and technologies like QR codes in shaping everyday experiences. By examining the campaign's outcomes and reach, this study evaluates the effectiveness of the campaign in attracting new members. Additionally, the study investigates the influence of background factors such as gender, and geographic affiliation on recruitment outcomes and target audience responses. Moreover, it analyses how technology usage impacts users' navigation through the campaign, the recruitment process onboard trains, and their responses to SJ´S email communication. A reference group of self-initiated members within SJ´s loyalty program is incorporated to compare the behaviour and engagement of campaign members and self-initiated members. Through this analysis, the paper sheds light on the dynamics of strategic communication in the digital age and provides insights into the role of technology and demographic factors in shaping campaign effectiveness and user engagement. The result of the structured observation study showed that the campaign has effectively recruited new members, with technology usage patterns influenced by age, gender, and geographic factors to some extent. Women demonstrate a higher level of receptiveness to email communication from SJ, as indicated by their greater tendency to interact with emails. In contrast, men display a lower probability of opening emails. Moreover, older age groups exhibit higher levels of campaign participation and demonstrate better navigation skills.