The research presented in this thesis had two overarching aims; the first, to supplement our knowledge concerning the aetiological underpinnings of poor comprehension, and the second, to investigate the impact of being a poor comprehender on behavioural and educational outcomes in the school context. A combination of standardised test batteries, novel experimental paradigms, and questionnaire measures were used to obtain data that addressed hypotheses connected to these two aims. Poor comprehenders were found to have working memory deficits, as well as more specific deficits in suppressing irrelevant information from working memory. However, these deficits were largely confined to the verbal domain, giving credence to the theory that their poor performance on working memory and suppression tasks may be driven by underlying language difficulties. Poor comprehenders did show some evidence of broader executive deficits in both the verbal and non-verbal domains, raising the possibility that there might be subgroups of poor comprehenders with distinct aetiological profiles. In terms of behavioural and educational outcomes, poor comprehenders’ deficits were found to impact selectively on these areas, producing a distinct pattern of behavioural and educational impairments. These findings highlighted the need for early identification of, and effective intervention for, poor comprehenders.

Little research has addressed the degree to which domestic violence is mutual and whether patterns are stable across women's relationships. Studies that exist have conflicting results. This study addressed these issues and the effects of sustaining past violence on women's expressions of violence in their current relationship. Archival data from a sample of severely psychologically abused community women (N = 92) and a sample of low-income community women (N = 836) were analyzed. Results showed the presence of mutual violence in women's current relationships which was not related to past partners' violence. Results regarding the stability of violence are weak, but indicate that the frequency and severity of violence across relationships sustained by women does not decrease across relationships. Overall, results supported the hypothesis that violence is mutual in the relationships of community women, although specific patterns may differ by ethnicity.

The continued investigation into the experiences of individuals with schizophrenia who participate in biomedical research trials is necessary in order to understand participants’ perspectives, motivations, attitudes, values, and beliefs. As important stakeholders in the clinical research process, participant feedback is significant and can help shed light on, not only their experiences, but also deepen understandings when it comes to clinical trial participants’ perceptions of informed consent and personal autonomy. Conducting ethical research demands the exploration of these issues and specifically targeting this vulnerable group helped to address a gap in the literature. This study was conducted for InSite Clinical Research and gathered data in the form of in-depth semi-structured interviews and a short survey instrument with 20 low-income adults diagnosed with schizophrenia that participate in clinical research trials. Findings indicate overall positive research experiences, with motivations aligning with previous research when it comes to trial participation including: altruism, personal benefit, access to medications, financial incentives, and psychosocial treatment. Learning about their illness and themselves, autonomy, and debriefing were also particularly important within this group. Unique to this sample were findings of friendship. Trust in the research staff was identified as a major underlying value and shaping factor impacting informed consent decisions. These conclusions have implications for recruitment and informed consent practices at InSite Clinical Research.

High prevalence rates exist for physical (i.e., threatened or actual physical force) and relational (i.e., actions meant to harm another’s social relationships) aggression within early adolescence, and these behaviors lead to detrimental social, physical, and mental health outcomes. Thus, there is a need to identify risk and protective processes related to these subtypes of aggression, especially those that can inform violence prevention efforts. Prior studies including early adolescents have shown emotion dysregulation to be a risk factor for aggression. However, few studies have incorporated the emotional competence process of poor emotional awareness, which may be a risk factor for emotion dysregulation and, in turn, for aggression. Furthermore, little research has assessed relations between subtypes of emotion dysregulation (i.e., anger and sadness) and physical and relational aggression. The current study examined longitudinal relations between poor emotional awareness and these subtypes of emotion dysregulation and aggression, as well as concurrent pathways between the emotion dysregulation and aggression variables. Exploratory tests for gender differences were also conducted. Rating scales were collected from 528 sixth graders (51% girls, 49% boys; missing data n = 8) and their teachers over a six month period in the fall and spring of the school year. Across the full sample, 65% of students identified as African-American, 19% European-American, 2%, Hispanic Latino, 11% Multiracial, and 3% as “Other”(missing data n = 8). Results indicated no significant differences by gender in the strength of relations between study variables. Poor emotional awareness was not directly related to changes in subsequent frequency of physical or relational aggression. However, poor emotional awareness at Time 1 was associated with later rates of anger and sadness dysregulation. Furthermore, an indirect effect was found for poor emotional awareness on both physical and relational aggression via anger dysregulation, and this was true for student- and teacher-rated outcomes. Sadness dysregulation showed a negative concurrent association with teacher-rated physical aggression; and there was an indirect effect of poor emotional awareness on teacher-rated physical aggression via sadness dysregulation. Study findings have important implications for theoretical treatises, youth violence prevention programs, and future directions for research, which are all discussed.

A model for health care utilization was applied to a sample of low income women. Demographic Predisposing, Psychosocial Predisposing, Illness Level, and Enabling indicators were examined separately for African American (n = 266), Anglo American (n = 200), and Mexican American (n = 210) women. Structural Equation Modeling revealed that for African American and Anglo American women, Illness Level, the only significant path to Utilization, had a mediating effect on Psychosocial Predisposing indicators. The model for Mexican Americans was the most complex with Enabling indicators affecting Illness Level and Utilization. Psychosocial Predisposing indicators were mediated by Illness Level and Enabling indicators which both directly affected Utilization. Implications of the results for future research are addressed.

The main aim of this thesis is is to analyze the influence of information and communication technologies (ICT) on the development of poor countries and to identify and clasify the particular mechanisms, through which ICT are beeing enforced. The particular resarched ICT are computers, internet and mobile phones. The thesis consists from two main chapters. In the first one is analyzed the relation between ICT and development on aggregated "macro" level (mostly level of countries). Based on the scientific literature, there are researched the general linkages between ICT and development, measuring possibilities of development and ICT and differences in use of ICT between countries. Part of this chapter is as well the quantitative analyze of the relationship between ICT and socioeconomic development. The second "micro" chapter is finding mechanisms through which the ICT in developing countries are enforcing. and which are the conditions of mentioned "macro" linkages. The systematic review of scientific literature is trying to clarify and uncover the relationship between ICT and development which is working on the micro-level of poor countries based on mechanisms between particular technologies and component particular sphere of development. Moreover of the two main chapters, there is also the third part which...

Title: Application of compensation exercises in basketball Objectives: The main objective of this thesis is to verify the effectiveness of the compensation practise on selected muscle group and selected basketball players. Methods: In order to obtain the results the functional tests of the spine and testing of shortened muscle groups Janda (2004) were used, which were applied to a selected group of seven basketball player from two different teams. Measured values of shortened muscle groups - initial measurements (pretest) were compared with the results of the measured muscle groups (posttest) after less than three months of compensation program. Based on the results of the entrance test were designed tray compensatory exercises that players should adhere to within the specified regularity. Results: We found out that after almost three months of compensation program the state of shortened and weakened muscle groups has improved significantly. All the results are recorded in the form of tables and graphs. Keywords: Compensation exercises, basketball, muscle imbalance

Dans la seconde moitié du XVIIIe siècle, la France connut le mouvement philanthropique qui ouvrit la voie à la première expérience précoce de la bienfaisance nationale pendant la Révolution française. Cette mutation idéologique et institutionnelle bouleversa la solidarité traditionnelle locale au sein de laquelle les élites assistaient les pauvres pour obtenir le salut de leur âme et remplir le devoir social attaché à leur rang. Les études sur le lien solidaire se focalisent sur la mentalité et la pratique charitable des élites pour comprendre comment la charité privée fut utilisée pour gouverner la société de l’Ancien Régime et quels furent les changements que la Révolution apporta à sa fonction. L’action charitable privée des élites locales est ainsi examinée à travers leur engagement dans la gestion et le financement des établissements de charité, l’activité collective au sein des associations privées et la pratique individuelle devant la mort pour une période relativement longue allant de 1750 à 1830, dans le but d’envisager la spécificité du motif et des formes de leurs bonnes actions de l’époque. L’espace de notre observation est localisé sur les différentes communautés de Bordeaux, cœur administratif de la Guyenne, métropole religieuse et ville portuaire cosmopolite en plein essor où la splendeur des nobles et négociants riches faisait un contraste avec la pauvreté du peuple accentuée par l’immigration des ruraux. Ces études à l’échelle locale nous permettent de décrire l’évolution du rôle que les élites jouaient dans les rapports sociaux à travers les vicissitudes historiques. / In the second half of the eighteenth century, France experienced the philanthropic movement that paved the way for the first early experience of national charity during the French Revolution. This ideological and institutional change upset the traditional local solidarity in which the elites assisted the poor in order to obtain the salvation of their souls and fulfill the social duty linked to their rank. Studies on the link of solidarity focus on the mentality and charitable practice of elites to understand how private charity was used to govern society under the Ancien Régime and what were the changes that the Revolution brought to its function. Charitable and private action of local elites is examined through their involvement in the management and financing of charitable institutions, collective activity within private associations and individual practice before death for a relatively long period from 1750 1830 in order to consider the specific reasons and forms of good deeds at that time. The space of our observation focuses on the different communities of Bordeaux, administrative heart of Guyenne, religious metropolis and booming cosmopolitan port city where the splendor of the nobles and wealthy merchants contrasted with the poverty of the people emphasized by the rural immigration. These studies at local scale enable us to describe the evolution of the role that elites played in social relations through historical vicissitudes.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / The high rate of poverty in Nigeria has reached alarming proportions. Despite average economic growth rates of 6 percent between 2004 and 2010, the incidence of poverty has remained high, increasing from 54.7 percent in 2004 to 60.9 percent in 2010 (Nigerian Bureau of Statistics, 2010). A drop in the poverty rate to an average of 56.1 percent between 1999 and 2007 could be attributed to the measures taken by the civilian government against administrative corruption, increased domestic and foreign investments and some implemented agricultural policies. These efforts were thwarted by subsequent administrations with devastating effects for the Nigerian population. It is in recognition of this that this study examines the political economy of poverty in Nigeria; analyses the variations in poverty and inequality across the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria; examines the impact of economic growth on poverty reduction across the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria over the period 2010 - 2013; investigates the reasons for the low rates of poverty reduction in Nigeria and analyses whether economic growth in Nigeria was pro-poor.

Thesis (M.Com. (Development Theory and Policy))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, School of Economic and Business Sciences, 2015. / Food price inflation has been an important subject of debate internationally since 2008. This sharp increase in food prices experienced during 2008 lead to intense research into the causes, dynamics and responses to this particular instance of food price inflation. The international literature attributed food price inflation to such factors as climate change, increases in energy costs and speculative activity in financial markets for agricultural commodities. This research report undertakes a review of the measurement of food price inflation in South Africa, broadly assessing how it is to be linked to the poor in South Africa. The research report focuses on the work of institutions concerned with the measurement of food price inflation in South Africa. Different methodologies of identifying foods as food staples are looked at. Food prices and trends are analysed using CPI data from January 2008 until October 2008, using selected consumer price index series from Statistics South Africa. The research report finds that the institutions studied show evidence of that higher food price inflation is correlated with demographic markers of poverty, although the traditional measure, the CPI, does not suggests that this is very extensive. This, it is argued, is due to the calculation methodologies used in the published CPI, and the data period. The research report then ends with an overview of the political economy of food in South Africa, thereby makes recommendations as to why the measurement of food price inflation is important for the poor.