A research report submitted to the School of Public Health, University of WItwatersrand in partial completion of the requirements of the degree Master of Public Health : Social and Behaviour change communication / Three randomised control trials in Kenya, Uganda and South Africa have shown that Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision (VMMC) reduces the risk of heterosexual HIV transmission to men by up to 60%. This has resulted in a WHO and UNAIDS recommendation to promote VMMC as part of comprehensive HIV prevention programming. In order for South Africa to achieve its 80% national coverage target of VMMC, significant investment needs to be made in demand creation programming. The Centre for HIV/AIDS Prevention Studies (CHAPS) provides free VMMCs through 28 community based clinics and hospitals in Gauteng, North West and Limpopo Provinces. In 2013, CHAPS demand creation activities have resulted in some increases in demand but CHAPS have committed to exploring additional demand creation opportunities. In terms of reach, mobile telephones are highly prevalent in South Africa, with more than 90% of South African households surveyed in 2011 reporting to have at least one cellular telephone in the home. The ongoing advancement of mobile phones to allow data transfer and internet access also means that more ‘Technology-Poor’ or ‘ICT Have-nots’ will be able to access the ever increasing knowledge content of the internet, participate in digital social-domains and be reached in shorter times and at lower costs.

Thesis advisor: Elizabeth Rhodes / Hegemonic groups perceive changes, political, economical or social unrest as a direct threat to their status quo. One way to confront the dangers of loosing old privileges is through the redefinition and revival of old codes of conduct and behavior that in the past set them apart from the rest. In the process, old heroes considered instrumental in establishing and shaping their power are retrieved and glorified, and their heroic deeds offered as examples to emulate in the present. During the XVII Century, and in analogous circumstances, the Spanish Baroque writer Baltasar Gracián observes with trepidation the rapid changes in his own society, the breaking down of the social and political order of Imperial Spain. To protect his interests as member of the hegemonic group: —male, Catholic, noble and scholar—, he looks back in history and constructs heroic paradigms utilizing old heroes whose values embody his own. Since the heroic figures incarnate the ideals of the elite, there are neither heroes nor heroism outside the hegemonic class. This dissertation studies three texts by Baltasar Gracián (1601-1658): El Héroe (1637), El Discreto (1646), and El Criticón (Part I, 1651, Part II, 1653, Part III, 1657), that are centered on the heroic male, analyzing changes in the consecutive male heroic prototypes in light of the author's social and historical experience. Gracián's evolving heroic models respond to transformations in the hegemonic position of the Spanish state, moving from profuse optimism and idealism in his first text to disillusion and abandonment in the last one. The Jesuit's work is a crucible in which he tests Occidental values and heroics over his lifetime, adapting each heroic prescription to satisfy the political, historical, social and religious necessities of his present. Although Gracián's heroic formula changes over time, the connecting thread remains: the blood nobility of Castile/Aragón will save the hegemony of the nation. This elitism verbalizes a reactionary anachronism that negates the heroic essence, which is to act in the world on behalf of others. Gracián's texts are progressive, specular images of the author and his society. In all cases, the heroic figure functions as metonym of the Empire in which the strength of the hero confirms the power of the State. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Romance Languages and Literatures.

by Cheung Kwok Keung Bobbie. / Thesis (M.Ph.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1988. / Bibliography: leaves 128-147.

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston University

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston University / This study will discuss the marital interaction of twelve couples in terms of the patterning of their needs, as these can be inferred from material presented to caseworkers in an outpatient clinic for the treatment of alcoholism.

Thesis (M.S.) in Human Development--University of Maine, 2009. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 48-52).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, 2001. / "May 2001." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 104-109).

There are many recent studies that indicate an attitudinal change in the male shopper population. Many of these studies indicate dissatisfaction with the majority of current advertising messages because they feel they are not speaking to a male audience. In fact, many male consumers feel that the tone and content of the ad ignores them entirely. This report examines reasons why the male consumer of today is dissatisfied with current advertising messages and where marketers can make revisions. This report 1) studies the gender role shift of the past few decades, how it has impacted the concept of masculinity and what we know about the modern male shopper; 2) evaluates Tuncay’s eight themes of idealized masculinity as they apply to current advertising messages; 3) looks at how a new approach to segmenting the market can improve our understanding; and 4) considers in what way we can apply these findings to marketing practices today. / text

In examining male support for the Victorian women's movement, I decided to focus upon a number of men who gave active support across the wide range of causes championed by feminists. John Stuart Mill, Henry Fawcett, James Stansfeld, Jacob Bright, Richard Pankhurst and Francis Newman were selected as my main protagonists and their support for the Married Women's Property campaign, the higher education of women, the opening up of the professions to women, women's suffrage and the campaign to repeal the Contagious Diseases Acts was explored. I also examine the views of John Russell, Viscount Amberley, whose early death robbed the women's suffrage movement of his enthusiastic support, and also those of William Johnson Fox, a proponent of women's emancipation who gave his support to the Married Women's Property campaign, but who died when the women's movement had existed for only a decade. The ideas of an important male feminist of an earlier generation, William Thompson, are also explored. I discuss the views of my protagonists on sexual equality and sexual difference, marriage, sexuality, female education, the employment of women and women's suffrage. In seeking to account for the feminism of my protagonists I note the personal characteristics which they broadly shared: moral courage, a tendency to self-sacrifice, sensitivity and a strong sense of justice. Male feminists, especially Mill, were sometimes branded as effeminate, but it seems fairer to suggest that they generally combined the best of both 'masculine' and 'feminine' qualities; they possessed a sufficient degree of 'womanly' sensitivity to empathise with the wrongs of woman and a great deal of 'manly' courage which enabled them to endure the ridicule and abuse which standing up for women's rights frequently entailed. Most of my protagonists were advanced Liberals, and a belief in the need to cultivate altruism was a significant component of their creed; support for women's emancipation was an important aspect of their concern for the welfare of others. The fact that men and women worked closely together in the fight for women's emancipation is explored and especially their intellectual collaboration, notable in the cases of William Thompson and Anna Wheeler, John Mill and Harriet Taylor, and Henry and Millicent Fawcett.

Myxovirus (influenza virus) resistance A (MxA) is an interferon regulated protein responsible for a specific antiviral state against viral infection. Our lab has previously shown that MxA is up-regulated by androgens in the normal prostate epithelial cells; however, there is no known role for MxA in cancer. Meta-analysis of different expression databases (e.g. NCBI GEO and Oncomine) suggested a strong inverse association between MxA expression and prostate cancer. To confirm these studies, we performed immunohistochemistry on normal prostate and prostate cancer tissues. Our results revealed that MxA expression was indeed decreased in cancerous as compared to normal prostate, indicating that MxA could be transcriptionally down-regulated in cancer. Previous studies indicated that MxA down-regulation could be due to a specific polymorphism in the proximal MxA promoter at position -88. This single nucleotide polymorphism G>T (rs2071430) is involved in modifying the gene expression and interestingly, it harbors an interferon-stimulated response element (ISRE) that is required for expression in response to interferons. The "T" allele restores whereas the "G" allele attenuates ISRE binding, resulting in increased or decreased MxA expression, respectively. Based on these observations we hypothesized that decreased expression of MxA in prostate cancer could be due to the rs2071430 polymorphism. We investigated this polymorphism in genomic DNA from equal number of disease free and prostate cancer samples. The results provide evidence that the GG genotype (low promoter activity) is higher in PCa (72%) as compared to normal (58.6%). The TT genotype (high activity) was higher in normal (5.7%) compared to PCa (2.4%) p