Eukaryotic transcriptional activators stimulate transcription of genes otherwise expressed at low levels. The typical activator operates by binding to specific sites on DNA with its activating region contacting the multiprotein machinery that directs transcription. SBF/Staf is a transcriptional activator that binds to the SPH element found in the promoters of genes for snRNAs and genes that code for mRNAs. SBF/Staf binds to SPH through a reiterated zinc finger DNA binding domain and also contains two distinct activation domains, one for snRNA genes and one for mRNA genes. To test the role of SBF/Staf in vivo, morpholino antisense oligos were used to knock down SBF/Staf expression in zebrafish. A high percentage of developing zebrafish embryos exhibited abnormalities. Co-injection of a synthetic mRNA construct rescued the morpholino-induced knockdown. Furthermore, both the mRNA and snRNA activation domains have significant roles in the function of SBF/Staf because when each domain was removed separately, partial rescue of the knockdown phenotype was obtained. When both domains were removed, no rescue of the phenotype was observed. Unexpectedly, knockdown of SBF/Staf expression in zebrafish embryos caused an increase in steady-state levels of all endogenous mRNAs tested, as well as transcripts produced from co-injected U6 maxigenes. However, quantitative RT-PCR analysis showed a relatively smaller increase in the steady-state levels of several mRNAs from genes that contain a SPH element in their promoters. In zebrafish U6 genes, the SPH element is in the unique location of being next to the TATA box, instead of ~220 bp upstream of the start site as in mammals. To determine the significance of the proximally-located SPH element for transcription of the zebrafish U6 snRNA gene, the SPH element was mutated. Transcription of a zebrafish U6 maxigene was reduced to 20.6% in transfected ZF4 cells and 26.8% in injected embryos, compared to that of the U6 maxigene with a normal promoter. This work indicates a more global role of SBF/Staf in mRNA gene transcription, instead of only activating the transcription of snRNA and a few mRNA genes, leading to an increased importance of the role of SBF/Staf in transcriptional control.

Eukaryotic transcriptional activators stimulate transcription of genes otherwise expressed at low levels. The typical activator operates by binding to specific sites on DNA with its activating region contacting the multiprotein machinery that directs transcription. SBF/Staf is a transcriptional activator that binds to the SPH element found in the promoters of genes for snRNAs and genes that code for mRNAs. SBF/Staf binds to SPH through a reiterated zinc finger DNA binding domain and also contains two distinct activation domains, one for snRNA genes and one for mRNA genes. To test the role of SBF/Staf in vivo, morpholino antisense oligos were used to knock down SBF/Staf expression in zebrafish. A high percentage of developing zebrafish embryos exhibited abnormalities. Co-injection of a synthetic mRNA construct rescued the morpholino-induced knockdown. Furthermore, both the mRNA and snRNA activation domains have significant roles in the function of SBF/Staf because when each domain was removed separately, partial rescue of the knockdown phenotype was obtained. When both domains were removed, no rescue of the phenotype was observed. Unexpectedly, knockdown of SBF/Staf expression in zebrafish embryos caused an increase in steady-state levels of all endogenous mRNAs tested, as well as transcripts produced from co-injected U6 maxigenes. However, quantitative RT-PCR analysis showed a relatively smaller increase in the steady-state levels of several mRNAs from genes that contain a SPH element in their promoters. In zebrafish U6 genes, the SPH element is in the unique location of being next to the TATA box, instead of ~220 bp upstream of the start site as in mammals. To determine the significance of the proximally-located SPH element for transcription of the zebrafish U6 snRNA gene, the SPH element was mutated. Transcription of a zebrafish U6 maxigene was reduced to 20.6% in transfected ZF4 cells and 26.8% in injected embryos, compared to that of the U6 maxigene with a normal promoter. This work indicates a more global role of SBF/Staf in mRNA gene transcription, instead of only activating the transcription of snRNA and a few mRNA genes, leading to an increased importance of the role of SBF/Staf in transcriptional control.

Inaug.-Diss.--Leipzig. / Lebenslauf. "Literaturverzeichnis": p. 131-138.

Inaug.-Diss.--Leipzig. / Lebenslauf. "Literaturverzeichnis": p. 131-138.

Objetivo. O valor da mortalidade materna como tema relevante para a Saúde Pública mobilizou esforços de governos e organizações, nacionais e internacionais, para a proposição de programas de prevenção e de redução da mortalidade materna. Os Comitês de Estudos de Morte Materna têm sido considerados como um dos instrumentos importantes no combate à mortalidade materna em todo o mundo. O primeiro Comitê de Estudos de Morte Materna criado no Brasil foi o do estado de São Paulo, em 1988. Este estudo teve como objetivo recuperar e caracterizar a trajetória da criação e implantação desse Comitê e os fatores intervenientes no seu percurso evolutivo. Métodos. Os dados que constituíram a base empírica do estudo foram entrevistas com integrantes, ex-integrantes e fundadores do Comitê do Estado de São Paulo e documentos como: atos oficiais, relatórios técnicos, atas de reuniões, normas operacionais, entre outros. Resultados. A análise dos dados mostrou uma trajetória oscilante, marcada por períodos de atividade e de refluxo tendo sido alteradas, ao longo do tempo, a sua composição e estrutura organizacional, mantendo-se, porém, seus objetivos e funções. Considerações finais. Os dados examinados revelaram que a criação do Comitê representou um avanço para a saúde materna. Mostraram também uma expressiva influência, no percurso do Comitê, das injunções político-institucionais, no âmbito da Administração governamental do estado, no período estudado e o reconhecimento de sua posição como instância situada para além de uma estratégia de vigilância epidemiológica. / As a relevant theme for Public Health, maternal mortality has engendered efforts on the part of Governments as well as of national and international organizations in the proposition of programs for prevention and reduction of maternal mortality. All over the world, the Committees for Stu been considered as important tools on fight against maternal mortality. In Brazil, the first Committee for Studies on Maternal Death was the one created in State of São Paulo, in 1988. The target of the present study was to recover and characterize the trajectory of the creation and implantation of this Committee as well as to make a survey on the intervening factors occurring in its course of evolution. Methods. Data on interviews held with members, former members and founders of São Paulo State Committee for Studies on Maternal Death and documents such as official acts, technical reports, minutes of meetings and, operational norms, among others, constituted the empirical basis for this study. Results. Data analysis disclosed an oscillatory course, marked by periods of activity and reflux. Along the years,both its composition and organizational structure were altered, although maintaining its purposes and functions. Final considerations. According to data, the creation of the Committee represented an improvement for the maternal health. They also indicated that in the course of the Committee there happened, in the studied period, an expensive influence of political-institutional injunctions, in the ambit of the state government administration, and the acknowledgement of this status as an instance located beyond the epidemiological surveillance.

Objetivo. O valor da mortalidade materna como tema relevante para a Saúde Pública mobilizou esforços de governos e organizações, nacionais e internacionais, para a proposição de programas de prevenção e de redução da mortalidade materna. Os Comitês de Estudos de Morte Materna têm sido considerados como um dos instrumentos importantes no combate à mortalidade materna em todo o mundo. O primeiro Comitê de Estudos de Morte Materna criado no Brasil foi o do estado de São Paulo, em 1988. Este estudo teve como objetivo recuperar e caracterizar a trajetória da criação e implantação desse Comitê e os fatores intervenientes no seu percurso evolutivo. Métodos. Os dados que constituíram a base empírica do estudo foram entrevistas com integrantes, ex-integrantes e fundadores do Comitê do Estado de São Paulo e documentos como: atos oficiais, relatórios técnicos, atas de reuniões, normas operacionais, entre outros. Resultados. A análise dos dados mostrou uma trajetória oscilante, marcada por períodos de atividade e de refluxo tendo sido alteradas, ao longo do tempo, a sua composição e estrutura organizacional, mantendo-se, porém, seus objetivos e funções. Considerações finais. Os dados examinados revelaram que a criação do Comitê representou um avanço para a saúde materna. Mostraram também uma expressiva influência, no percurso do Comitê, das injunções político-institucionais, no âmbito da Administração governamental do estado, no período estudado e o reconhecimento de sua posição como instância situada para além de uma estratégia de vigilância epidemiológica. / As a relevant theme for Public Health, maternal mortality has engendered efforts on the part of Governments as well as of national and international organizations in the proposition of programs for prevention and reduction of maternal mortality. All over the world, the Committees for Stu been considered as important tools on fight against maternal mortality. In Brazil, the first Committee for Studies on Maternal Death was the one created in State of São Paulo, in 1988. The target of the present study was to recover and characterize the trajectory of the creation and implantation of this Committee as well as to make a survey on the intervening factors occurring in its course of evolution. Methods. Data on interviews held with members, former members and founders of São Paulo State Committee for Studies on Maternal Death and documents such as official acts, technical reports, minutes of meetings and, operational norms, among others, constituted the empirical basis for this study. Results. Data analysis disclosed an oscillatory course, marked by periods of activity and reflux. Along the years,both its composition and organizational structure were altered, although maintaining its purposes and functions. Final considerations. According to data, the creation of the Committee represented an improvement for the maternal health. They also indicated that in the course of the Committee there happened, in the studied period, an expensive influence of political-institutional injunctions, in the ambit of the state government administration, and the acknowledgement of this status as an instance located beyond the epidemiological surveillance.

Le facteur de transcription Staf et son orthologue humain ZNF143 sont impliqués dans l'activation de la transcription de gènes d'ARN non codants transcrits par l'ARN polymérase II et III et dans celle de 7 gènes de protéines. L'objectif de ma thèse était de caractériser de nouveaux gènes cibles de ce facteur chez l'homme. Par une approche bioinformatique couplée à des expériences de ChIP, nous avons montré qu'environ 10% des promoteurs de gènes de protéines humaines fixent hStaf/ZNF143. Ceci suggère que le site de liaison de hStaf/ZNF143 (SBS) est l'un des plus abondants dans les génomes de mammifères. En parallèle, nous avons étudié les promoteurs des gènes TFAM, BUB1B et SCARNA2 dans lesquels nous avons identifié des éléments conservés dont des sites SBS. Nous avons montré l'importance de ces éléments dans la transcription. Ces résultats mettent en évidence que Staf régule l'activité de gènes impliqués dans des processus cellulaires divers via des promoteurs à architectures variées.

Introduction It cannot be denied that employees bring their emotions to work, especially since emotions form a core part of individuals and cannot be separated from them and is thus part of organisational life. Emotions may influence an individual’s judgement, assessment and understanding of work events, and may therefore add to the complexity of work behaviour. The act of managing emotions and the emotional expressions at work for the purpose of compensation and consistency with the ‘display rules’ of an organisation is known as emotional labour. Emotional labour thus encompasses the management of feelings in an attempt to portray acceptable facial and bodily display to the public. Organisations have implicit and explicit emotional display rules that employees should abide, regardless of the employees’ felt emotions. Emotional labour is conducted by employees in an attempt to adapt, control or manage emotions viewed as inappropriate in the work environment. As such, emotional labour is associated with emotional regulation strategies, deep, surface or genuine acting. The concept of emotional labour has been developed and established within the services industry, for example, with flight attendants and teachers. This study aimed to explore how applicable the concept of emotional labour is within internal organisational services, namely, support staff in support departments across various South African industries. Research purpose The purpose of the study was to explore and describe the emotional labour strategies experienced and applied by support staff. The objectives are:  to explore the level of emotional labour performed by support staff  to describe to what extent difference in the levels of emotional labour occur across different support functions, and demographic groups  to describe the relationship that exists between emotional labour and intention to quit and job satisfaction. Research design, approach and method A cross-sectional survey design was used in this study. A non-probability sample was selected by means of availability and snowball sampling methods. The emotional labour scale, intention to quit and job satisfaction survey was administered to 269 individuals employed in support departments in paper-based and electronic format. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23 was used to conduct descriptive and correlational statistics on the data. Main findings The results of this study showed that support staff do perform emotional labour, with the use of all four emotional labour strategies, namely, hiding feeling, faking emotions, deep acting and genuine acting. Based on the sample used for this study, there was no statistical significant differences between gender, race and educational groups in terms of the emotional labour strategy used. There was, however, a weak, negative relationship between job satisfaction and surface acting, which was measured through hiding feelings and faking emotions. Even though the study was restricted by many methodological limitations, which are discussed in the last chapter of the dissertation, the study did provide some insight into the emotional labour levels and strategies performed by the support staff in the sample within a South African context. / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2019. / Human Resource Management / MCom / Unrestricted