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The two main objectives of this study were to: (1) evaluate the usability of a major delivery company computer-based performance dashboard design and (2) identify education level differences in user task performance and dashboard usability assessments. Both college educated and non-college educated participants were recruited to complete 15 tasks on a dashboard prototype under time constraints. The dashboard was divided among 5 user roles, and 3 tasks were assigned for each role. Participants also completed the VARK (Visual, Aural, Reading/writing and Kinesthetic) Questionnaire to identify their learning styles and a Computer Experience Categorization tool to categorize them as expert, intermediate or novice computer users. After-task usability questionnaires and an open-ended questionnaire were used to acquire usability ratings from participants. This study suggested that college educated participants performed better than non-college educated participants on dashboard-related tasks. Expert computer users rated the dashboard as more usable than did intermediate computer users. / Master of Science

Over the past several decades, the prevalence of overweight and obesity has increased to 68% of American adults1. During this same time period, there has been an increase in sugar-sweetened beverage consumption. This increase in added sugar consumption, particularly from sugar-sweetened beverages, has been theorized as a possible contributor to the obesity epidemic2,3,4. Sugar-sweetened beverages are the number one source of added sugars in the American diet and organizations such as the American Heart Association have addressed this issue of added sugar consumption due to its association with negative health outcomes5. A variety of demographic factors have been linked to increased added sugar consumption6. Health literacy is another variable which may influence beverage consumption patterns, specifically sugar-sweetened beverage consumption. To date only one study has investigated this association, and the authors reported an inverse relationship between health literacy scores and sugar-sweetened beverage consumption7. Therefore, the purpose of this investigation was to determine what demographic variables serve as predictors of consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages, water, milk, and total beverage calories. This could allow for appropriate interventions to be developed targeting healthier beverage consumption patterns in specific sub-populations. / Master of Science

In this thesis I researched as a student, teacher, educational mentor, researcher and evaluator investigating the effects and functions of feelings in learning. Feelings were defined as physical and mental sensations. Four data strands contributed to a new learning theory developed over eight years. Using collaborative methods I asked the guiding question; “What is the relationship between feelings, thinking and learning?” including an appropriate subsidiary question in each strand. My first aim was to find causes for disaffected student behaviour. While home-tutoring I asked the question; "Emotional blocks: what do they tell us about the learning process?" The resulting narratives revealed complex ecological factors of which I was previously unaware (Bronfenbrenner, 1979; Inquiry Strand 1: Tutoring 12 school refusers). These were analysed thematically. In the second strand I asked; “How do feelings affect my learning and teaching?” resolving learning problems and developing professional insight. (Inquiry Strand 2: The author's learning process). The third strand compared other teachers’ experiences asking; “How do feelings affect other teachers’ learning and teaching?” (Inquiry Strand 3: Mentoring 8 teachers as learners). The fourth strand explored the theory’s potential to inform professional practice (Inquiry Strand 4: Evaluating a primary school arts festival: observations of feeling based learning in action). Strands 2, 3 and 4 were also thematically analysed and included a framework of positive ‘emotionally linked’ learning behaviours as additional themes. The latter were derived from Claxton’s Effective Learning Profile (2002). In this Resilience is associated with absorption, managing distractions, noticing, perseverance; Resourcefulness with questioning, making links, imagining, reasoning; Reflectiveness with planning, revising, distilling, meta-learning and Reciprocity with interdependence, collaboration, empathy, listening and imitation. My fifth aim of sharing findings with others was undertaken throughout the research. My theory developed through reading, self reflection, writing and working with those who participated as colleagues and students (Wenger 2002). The findings make a contribution to knowledge, which evidences the claim that in education feelings may usefully be considered as legitimate thoughts.

Syftet med studien var att undersöka om det finns skillnader mellan generation X och Y med avseende på arbetsmotivation. De individuella faktorer som studerades var generationstillhörighet, kön, utbildningsnivå och arbetsposition. Totalt medverkade 470 anställda (259 kvinnor och 221 män) mellan åldrarna 19-58 år (M = 36.95 år, SD = 12.19) som valdes ut genom ett bekvämlighets- och snöbollsurval. Mätinstrumentet som användes var en webbaserad enkät som konstruerades genom mjukvaruprogrammet esMaker. Enkäten baserades på The Work Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation Scale (WEIMS) av Tremblay et al. (2009). I studien inkluderades dimensionerna amotivation, extern reglering, introjekterad reglering, identifierad reglering, integrerad reglering och intern reglering. För dimensionerna beräknades Cronbach’ Alpha vara mellan .63 och .82. Kvantitativa data analyserades med hjälp av Independent Sample t-test. Resultatet visade att generation X hade högre intern och integrerad reglering medan generation Y hade högre extern och identifierad reglering, samt högre amotivation. Resultatet visade att män har högre introjekterad reglering än kvinnor. Högskoleutbildade uppvisade högre identifierad reglering än gymnasieutbildade. Resultatet visade även att ledare hade högre inre, integrerad, identifierad samt introjekterad reglering än de som inte hade en ledarposition i arbetet. De som inte hade en ledarposition uppvisade högre extern reglering än de som hade en ledarposition. Resultatet visade att demografiska variabler kan påverka arbetsmotivation hos anställda.

Background: The global burden of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) is escalating as part of the rapid health transition that developing countries are experiencing. This increase is associated with shifts in demographics and economics, two of the major factors that affect diet and activity. The term social drift phenomenon (SDP) is used to describe the observations that: in the early stages of the epidemiological and nutrition transitions, it is usually the more affluent, higher socio–economic groups that are affected; in the later stages, it is the poor, lower socio–economic groups that display the consequences of these transitions. Therefore, in developing countries at the beginning of the transition, affluent people have higher prevalence of obesity and increased CVD risk. In developed countries, at much later stages of the transition, obesity and increased CVD risk is more prevalent in the lower socio–economic groups. In South Africa, the Transition and Health during Urbanisation of South Africans (THUSA) study which was done in 1996/1998 indicated that at that time, most of the risk factors for CVD were observed in the more urbanised (richer) subjects. It is not known if this pattern changed in any way due to the present rapid urbanisation of South African blacks. Therefore, in this study we explored the associations between socio–economic status (SES) (measured by level of urbanisation, education and employment) and CVD risk factors in an African population undergoing transition in the North–West Province of South Africa, that were prevalent in 2005 when the baseline data for in the Prospective Urban and Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study were collected. Objectives: The main objective of this dissertation was to examine the SDP in an African population in a nutrition and health transition, by: (i) Reviewing the literature on associations between socio–economic variables and biological health outcomes focusing on CVD risk factors in developed and developing countries; (ii) Analysing the baseline data from the 2005 PURE study to examine the relationships between components of SES, namely level of iii urbanisation, education and occupation, and nutrition–related CVD risk factors in men and women participating in the PURE study; and (iii) Comparing results on these associations between CVD risk factors and SES from the PURE study with those found in the THUSA study, which was conducted almost 10 years earlier, to examine if social drift in these associations has taken place. Study design: The dissertation is based on a comparison of the CVD risk factors and socio–economic status of the THUSA and PURE studies. Secondary analysis of the baseline cross–sectional epidemiological data from the PURE study was executed. The South African PURE study is part of a 12–year Prospective Urban and Rural Epidemiology study which investigates the health transition in urban and rural subjects in 22 different countries. The main selection criterion was that there should be migration stability within the chosen rural and urban communities. The rural community (A) was identified 450 km west of Potchefstroom on the highway to Botswana. A deep rural community (B), 35 km east from A and only accessible by gravel road, was also included. Both communities are still under tribal law. The urban communities (C and D) were chosen near the University in Potchefstroom. Community C was selected from Ikageng, the established part of the township next to Potchefstroom, and D from the informal settlements surrounding community C. The baseline data for PURE were collected from October to December 2005. A total of 2010 apparently healthy African volunteers (35 years and older), with no reported chronic diseases of lifestyle, tuberculosis (TB) or known human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) were recruited from a sample of 6000 randomly selected households. Methods: A variety of quantitative and qualitative research techniques was used by multidisciplinary teams to collect, measure and interpret data generated from biological samples and validated questionnaires. For this study, the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) package (version 17.0, SPSS Inc) was used to analyze the data. Means and 95% confidence intervals (CI) of CVD risk and dietary factors were calculated. Participants of both genders were divided into different groups (according to urbanisation, education and employment levels) and compared. Estimated significant differences between rural and urban participants were determined with analysis of variance using the general linear model (GLM), multivariate procedure. Univariate analysis was used to explore further the influence of education on CVD risk factors and dietary intakes. Employment was used as a proxy for income, and pairwise comparisons using GLM, multivariate procedure were done for comparing the three groups (Not answered, employed and not employed). Tests were considered significant at P<0.05. Results: Comparison of urban with rural subjects participating in the PURE study showed that urban men had significantly higher systolic and diastolic blood pressures and lower fibrinogen levels than rural men. In women, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, fasting blood glucose and serum triglycerides were significantly higher in urban subjects whereas fibrinogen levels were significantly lower among urban subjects. After examining the relationship between the level of education and CVD risk factors, we observed that men with higher education levels had significantly higher BMI. In women, serum triglycerides and blood pressure were lower and BMI was significantly higher in the educated subjects. Because it was difficult to distinguish between reported household and individual income levels, we compared CVD risk factors of employed and unemployed subjects. Employed men had significantly higher BMI whereas the unemployed men had significantly higher fasting glucose and fibrinogen levels. Although mean blood pressure of employed men was higher than that of unemployed men, the difference did not reach significance. In women, the only significant difference seen was that employed women had lower high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, fasting glucose, triglycerides and fibrinogen levels, but they had a significantly higher BMI. Employed women had significantly higher BMI than unemployed women (27.9 [26.3–29.4] versus 26.5 [26.0–27.0] kg/m2). It seems that most of the nutrition related CVD risk factors were still higher in the higher socio–economic group, a situation similar to that reported in the THUSA study. v Conclusion: The results of this study showed little evidence of a major social drift in CVD risk factors from subjects participating in the 1996/1998 THUSA study to those in the 2005 PURE study. Most cardiovascular disease risk factors are still higher in the higher SES groups. However, there were some indications (increased fibrinogen in both men and women living in rural areas; higher triglyceride and fasting glucose levels in unemployed women; no significant differences in blood pressure and total cholesterol across different SES groups which existed in the THUSA study) that a social drift in CVD risk factors in our African population is on the way. This means that promotion of healthy, prudent diets and lifestyles should be targeted to Africans from all socio–economic levels for the prevention of CVD. / Thesis (M.Sc (Dietetics))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

Background: The global burden of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) is escalating as part of the rapid health transition that developing countries are experiencing. This increase is associated with shifts in demographics and economics, two of the major factors that affect diet and activity. The term social drift phenomenon (SDP) is used to describe the observations that: in the early stages of the epidemiological and nutrition transitions, it is usually the more affluent, higher socio–economic groups that are affected; in the later stages, it is the poor, lower socio–economic groups that display the consequences of these transitions. Therefore, in developing countries at the beginning of the transition, affluent people have higher prevalence of obesity and increased CVD risk. In developed countries, at much later stages of the transition, obesity and increased CVD risk is more prevalent in the lower socio–economic groups. In South Africa, the Transition and Health during Urbanisation of South Africans (THUSA) study which was done in 1996/1998 indicated that at that time, most of the risk factors for CVD were observed in the more urbanised (richer) subjects. It is not known if this pattern changed in any way due to the present rapid urbanisation of South African blacks. Therefore, in this study we explored the associations between socio–economic status (SES) (measured by level of urbanisation, education and employment) and CVD risk factors in an African population undergoing transition in the North–West Province of South Africa, that were prevalent in 2005 when the baseline data for in the Prospective Urban and Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study were collected. Objectives: The main objective of this dissertation was to examine the SDP in an African population in a nutrition and health transition, by: (i) Reviewing the literature on associations between socio–economic variables and biological health outcomes focusing on CVD risk factors in developed and developing countries; (ii) Analysing the baseline data from the 2005 PURE study to examine the relationships between components of SES, namely level of iii urbanisation, education and occupation, and nutrition–related CVD risk factors in men and women participating in the PURE study; and (iii) Comparing results on these associations between CVD risk factors and SES from the PURE study with those found in the THUSA study, which was conducted almost 10 years earlier, to examine if social drift in these associations has taken place. Study design: The dissertation is based on a comparison of the CVD risk factors and socio–economic status of the THUSA and PURE studies. Secondary analysis of the baseline cross–sectional epidemiological data from the PURE study was executed. The South African PURE study is part of a 12–year Prospective Urban and Rural Epidemiology study which investigates the health transition in urban and rural subjects in 22 different countries. The main selection criterion was that there should be migration stability within the chosen rural and urban communities. The rural community (A) was identified 450 km west of Potchefstroom on the highway to Botswana. A deep rural community (B), 35 km east from A and only accessible by gravel road, was also included. Both communities are still under tribal law. The urban communities (C and D) were chosen near the University in Potchefstroom. Community C was selected from Ikageng, the established part of the township next to Potchefstroom, and D from the informal settlements surrounding community C. The baseline data for PURE were collected from October to December 2005. A total of 2010 apparently healthy African volunteers (35 years and older), with no reported chronic diseases of lifestyle, tuberculosis (TB) or known human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) were recruited from a sample of 6000 randomly selected households. Methods: A variety of quantitative and qualitative research techniques was used by multidisciplinary teams to collect, measure and interpret data generated from biological samples and validated questionnaires. For this study, the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) package (version 17.0, SPSS Inc) was used to analyze the data. Means and 95% confidence intervals (CI) of CVD risk and dietary factors were calculated. Participants of both genders were divided into different groups (according to urbanisation, education and employment levels) and compared. Estimated significant differences between rural and urban participants were determined with analysis of variance using the general linear model (GLM), multivariate procedure. Univariate analysis was used to explore further the influence of education on CVD risk factors and dietary intakes. Employment was used as a proxy for income, and pairwise comparisons using GLM, multivariate procedure were done for comparing the three groups (Not answered, employed and not employed). Tests were considered significant at P<0.05. Results: Comparison of urban with rural subjects participating in the PURE study showed that urban men had significantly higher systolic and diastolic blood pressures and lower fibrinogen levels than rural men. In women, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, fasting blood glucose and serum triglycerides were significantly higher in urban subjects whereas fibrinogen levels were significantly lower among urban subjects. After examining the relationship between the level of education and CVD risk factors, we observed that men with higher education levels had significantly higher BMI. In women, serum triglycerides and blood pressure were lower and BMI was significantly higher in the educated subjects. Because it was difficult to distinguish between reported household and individual income levels, we compared CVD risk factors of employed and unemployed subjects. Employed men had significantly higher BMI whereas the unemployed men had significantly higher fasting glucose and fibrinogen levels. Although mean blood pressure of employed men was higher than that of unemployed men, the difference did not reach significance. In women, the only significant difference seen was that employed women had lower high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, fasting glucose, triglycerides and fibrinogen levels, but they had a significantly higher BMI. Employed women had significantly higher BMI than unemployed women (27.9 [26.3–29.4] versus 26.5 [26.0–27.0] kg/m2). It seems that most of the nutrition related CVD risk factors were still higher in the higher socio–economic group, a situation similar to that reported in the THUSA study. v Conclusion: The results of this study showed little evidence of a major social drift in CVD risk factors from subjects participating in the 1996/1998 THUSA study to those in the 2005 PURE study. Most cardiovascular disease risk factors are still higher in the higher SES groups. However, there were some indications (increased fibrinogen in both men and women living in rural areas; higher triglyceride and fasting glucose levels in unemployed women; no significant differences in blood pressure and total cholesterol across different SES groups which existed in the THUSA study) that a social drift in CVD risk factors in our African population is on the way. This means that promotion of healthy, prudent diets and lifestyles should be targeted to Africans from all socio–economic levels for the prevention of CVD. / Thesis (M.Sc (Dietetics))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a multi-faceted disease that affects individuals on physical, cognitive and emotional levels. The specific aims of this research are to explore the prevalence of depression and the relationship between depression, neuropsychological performance and clinical variables in a cohort with TBI. This is accomplished through the retrospective review of 75 neuropsychological reports containing information on clinical variables, performance on neuropsychological measures and Beck Depression Inventory- Second Edition (BDI-II) scores of individuals who had sustained a TBI. The neuropsychological domains assessed via the standardized neuropsychological measures were the domains of attention, concentration, memory, learning, non-verbal and abstract reasoning, manual dexterity, verbal recall, working memory, perception, psychomotor performance, incidental learning, concept formation and verbal fluency. These results were statistically analysed to determine relationships with depression and clinical variables. The investigations undertaken in this study signified particularly pertinent relationships in the interactions among the variables of interest. Higher education level was found to be extremely critical in assisting retention of cognitive abilities following a TBI. Primary language was also a significant differentiator of performance among tests. Age had contrasting effects, with increasing age being favourable on the Similarities Test and related to poorer performance on the Letter Cancellation Test. Increasing GCS scores were related to slower performance on the Letter Cancellation Test and decreased performance on the RAVLT Free Recall Test. Longer PTA duration was related to worse performance on the Matrix Reasoning Test. These results indicate that these indicators of injury severity did not correlate with cognitive performance in this sample after TBI. The high incidence of depression in this study confirms that major depression is a very common occurrence after TBI. This has widespread implications for patient and family counselling, and psychotropic interventions in treatment planning after TBI. Further research on the emotional and cognitive aspects of TBIs within the South African population is needed to supplement the lack of information currently available. It is recommended that further studies build on the current study by exploring larger samples, and using more stratification specificity in terms of the type of injury sustained as well as functional outcomes. Copyright / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Psychology / unrestricted

Main goal of this thesis is to analyze human development index for European countries and provide cluster analysis not only of human development index but even of another quality of life variables and to find similarities between particular countries by using hierarchical methods. The first part focuses on quality of life and definition of human development index. Human development index is one possibility how to measure quality of life, there are mentioned another possibilities, though how to analyze it. The second part of the thesis focuses on cluster analysis definition, which is used for searching for similarities between particular countries. Five hierarchical cluster methods is used for classify countries into clusters. Euclidean metric is used for express the distance between countries. Similar variables between countries is judged according to sorting into clusters by hierarchical methods. Diploma thesis enlightens similarity between European countries from quality of life overview and provides statistical evidence about this topic. Results of the thesis confirms similarities between geographical close states.

This thesis describes current options of measuring of media literacy level of elderly and possi- bilities of increasing such value of this kind of population. The goal of this thesis is to analyze possibilities of media literacy level measurements considering specifics of elderly population and identify possible media literacy development of elderly population in Czech Republic. This work focuses on basic definitions, concepts, models and connections of media and media liter- acy. The next part of the work talks about exact measurements possibilities and specifics of the measurements of senior population and also discusses possible development options currently available for seniors in Czech Republic. An empiric part of the work deals with analyses of media literacy research in Czech Republic between years 2016-2020 which were explicitly focused on elderly population or grown-up population where elderly population was part of it. Keywords media, media literacy, elderly, media education, level of media literacy, development of media literacy