Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. Johannesburg, 2013. / The evolutionary genesis and the current adaptive significance of the use of the discontinuous gas exchange cycle (DGC) for respiration by insects is the subject of intense debate. Most current research centers on three adaptive hypotheses and one non-adaptive hypothesis; these are the hygric hypothesis, the chthonic hypothesis, the oxidative-damage hypothesis and the emergent-property hypothesis respectively. Workers of the harvester termite, Hodotermes mossambicus were selected as a model to test three of these hypotheses. The respiratory patterns of workers, investigated using flow-through respirometry, were obtained at 0 % relative humidity (RH), 100 % RH, at 100 % O2 and under varying temperature to evaluate the assumptions of the various hypotheses. A change in ambient humidity had no impact on metabolic rate (VCO2), coefficient of variation (CV) or the pattern of gas exchange but only influenced the amount of water loss experienced by workers. Major workers exposed to hyperoxia (100 % O2) responded by increasing spiracular control and constriction through the use of cyclic gas exchange thereby protecting their interior against the toxic effects of O2. As VCO2 increased in response to increasing temperature, the gas exchange pattern displayed by workers transitioned from a modified DGC through cyclic to continuous gas exchange. A true DGC, defined as showing all three phases and a CV value close to 2, was not expressed under any of the experimental conditions. The results of this study support the oxidative-damage and emergent-property hypotheses but not the hygric hypothesis. The workers of H. mossambicus spend only brief periods above ground before returning to the refuge of their underground nests and as such there is probably little selective advantage to the DGC for limiting respiratory water loss. The conclusion drawn from the study of termite workers is that changes in respiratory patterns are most likely an emergent property of the insects’ nervous and respiratory systems and spiracular control also serves to limit oxidative damage.

The workplace, in general, has been perceived as a comparatively violence-free environment. There have been many studies conducted on workplace violence in the helping profession in health-related occupations that involve substantial contact with clients, such as pre-hospital care, emergency medicine and nursing. However, there is a paucity of research that has explored the social workers’ experiences of workplace violence in South Africa. Workplace violence inflicted on employees may come from both internal sources, such as co-workers, and clients and external sources, such as robbers or muggers. A qualitative study was conducted using semi-structured interviews with 15 social workers from the Limpopo Department of Social Development in the Waterberg District. The study endeavoured to explore the experiences of social workers regarding workplace by external parties. Seven overarching themes and a number of sub-themes emerged from a detailed Thematic Content analysis. The themes highlighted a wide range of psychosocial factors associated with workplace violence. The themes examined are, namely: psychosocial effects on social workers, workplace resources and environment, management of workplace violence and human supervision, and types of workplace violence. The main finding of the study highlighted a lack of organisational resources that contributed to workplace violence and led to frustrations experienced by clients and social workers. This report concludes with a brief discussion of the psychosocial impact of workplace violence and recommendations.

Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, PhD (Management) / The South African Government has entrusted Social Work Professionals (SWP’s) with the responsibility of humanizing the lives of the most vulnerable groups in society. SWP’s are scrupulously trained to rehabilitate and heal the ailing community, but nowadays they are inadvertently incapacitated because their role has grown far beyond its original skill-base whilst their educational grooming and the legislation governing their role has remained stagnant. Furthermore, the Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) within which they operate are unsustainable and many of them struggle for survival. The prevailing socio-economic environment imposes various demands on both the SWP profession and the non-profit sector, forcing them to provide for their survival by performing commercial duties that they are not trained to perform. This practice has resulted in a disjuncture in the roles of SWP’s and a brain-drain of professionals out of the sector. The study was split into two separate albeit related components employing a combination of qualitative methods and techniques to thoroughly investigate the source of this disjuncture and establish viable methods to address it. The first phase was designed to understand the history of social work in South Africa spanning two political dispensations, assess the legislated role that SWP’s should perform against the current role they are performing, in order to understand and explain the discrepancy in their role. Thereafter the second phase was conducted as a follow-up to explore how the concept of Social Entrepreneurship in conjunction with comprehensive management proficiency could provide possibilities of addressing and improving the shortcomings arising in the role of the SWP. ii The first phase documented that SWP’s are currently struggling in practice, with inadequate resources and lack of enterprise and management proficiency to fully facilitate their mandate. This deficiency suggested a shift in their role that is different from their usual rehabilitating role. Social Policy Frameworks were identified as the possible hindrance for the current lack of enterprising in the social sector, followed by socio-economic pressures and insufficient education and training of SWP’s. A paradigm shift to acknowledge and qualify the growth in the role of an SWP academically and legislatively was recommended, followed by relevant intellectual construction of knowledge. The second phase of the study acknowledged that Social Entrepreneurship is a fairly new concept in academic circles. In addition, most reviewed literature on Social Entrepreneurship suggested that the African landscape was either not fully understood by the authors or not yet catered for since most of the solutions were not fully commensurate with problems experienced in (South) Africa. Therefore, the researcher approached available scholars globally with primary data depicting real problems that are experienced on the ground and which seemed to challenge their presented solutions from the reviewed literature. This process systematically examined the concept of Social Entrepreneurship, accentuating how a different set of resource combinations of its aspects customized for the South African socio-economic environment could open up a new window of knowledge to enhance the impending social transformation, notwithstanding the view that further research for African needs was strongly encouraged. Findings from the first phase strongly suggested specialisation in the profession of an SWP in the short term and the development of a new cadre of enterprising SWP’s in the longer term. The second phase’s findings validated the suggestion from the first phase to split the role of an SWP, introduce entrepreneurial and management competence designed for social benefit as a new and special role, and develop a new cadre of professionals over time who will specialise in the new competence. iii Findings from both phases of the study have led to the conclusion that the role of an SWP has shifted and grown far beyond its original skill-base. This conclusion has notable policy implications for legislation governing SWP’s. Whilst this study has acknowledged and qualified the growth in the role of an SWP academically as entrepreneurial and management deficiency, to complete the acknowledgement, this growth has to be recognised legislatively within the policy frameworks. Specialisation in the profession of social work would also need to be legislated to enable academia to provide intellectual leadership on the new role, define research needs, develop a new curriculum, then recruit and develop a new cadre of enterprising SWP’s. These findings lead to a further conclusion that policy frameworks governing SWP’s are not entirely congruent with the prevailing socio-economic environment and might benefit from a review that underlines SWP’s’ core function, education and training that is commensurate with the needs of their role, especially the needs of the shift experienced in their role.

Student Number : 9410914W - MA research report - School of Social Work - Faculty of Humanities / The study aimed at exploring the perceptions of occupational social workers on how their service provision has been affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The focus was on whether they thought that the increasing prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the workplace had led to a shift in their service provision. That was done through: - An investigation of ways in which social worker’s service provision has had to be adjusted in the context of HIV/AIDS in the workplace. - An assessment of the extent to which occupational social workers perceive their HIV/AIDS services at macro level to be acknowledged as valuable by management and the workforce. - An exploration of perceptions of occupational social workers on how HIV/AIDS has affected their relationship with management The research was quantitative and qualitative in approach and the design used was descriptive. Various sectors like manufacturing, government departments, para-statal, military and finance that employ social workers were identified. A list of occupational social workers was obtained from the School of Social Work, University of the Witwatersrand and from the Gauteng EAP Association. A non-probability sample of twenty seven social workers participated in the study. Semi structured interviews lasting for approximately forty five minutes were used as a form of data collection. Data collected was analysed through simple descriptive statistics and development of core themes and common concerns. The findings indicated that most occupational social workers perceived their services not to have been affected by HIV/AIDS, management and employees to have regarded their HIV/AIDS macro practice as valuable and their relationship with management have not been affected negatively by HIV/AIDS.

Master of Science / The hepatitis B virus (HBV) vaccine has contributed greatly to decreasing the HBV epidemic. However, it remains unclear why 5-10% of individuals do not mount an adequate antibody response. Previous studies have shown that genetic variation influences HBV vaccine response. Since such studies are lacking in South African individuals, we examined the associations between HBV vaccine response and genetic variation in HLA-DPB1, additional candidate genes and HLA-DPB1 expression levels in a South African cohort. HLA-DPA1 and -DPB1 allele typing was performed using Luminex technology, twenty-four candidate SNPs were typed by MassArray Analysis and HLA-DPB1 mRNA expression levels were measured by qPCR. HLA-DPB1*01:01, *04:01:01G and *09:01 and SNPs and haplotypes in IL1B, IL4, IL12B, IFNG and the HLA region were significantly associated with HBV vaccine response. A trend of lower HLA-DPB1 expression associating with better anti-HBs response was observed, although this was not significant. Response to the HBV vaccine is multi-genic but HLA-DP plays an important role. / CR2017

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering & Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Building (Project Management in Construction). / The issues relating to women in construction exist internationally and, over the years they have been analysed from affirmative action Piper (2002) to cultural beliefs Hopkins & McManus (1998) job satisfaction and development Dabke (2008) and perception and professional acceptance Perreault (1992) & Enshassia (2008). In South Africa, following studies have been analysed, Verway (2005) looked at comparative analysis between SA and USA women entrepreneurs in construction, Mjolo-Mncube (2005) analysed opportunities for women in housing and construction, Mahlobo (2006) looked at challenges faced by women contractors in housing construction. However, not much emphasis has been put around hindrances that shorten the professional working life of female site engineers on construction sites in South Africa. The study adopted qualitative research method. Fifteen female site engineers currently working on construction sites for different construction companies were selected for questionnaires and open ended interview questions. Major findings identified discrimination, construction culture, work-conflict, glass ceiling, under representation of women and impact of cultural beliefs to be the hindrances that shorten the professional working life of female site engineers on construction sites. To retain female site engineers in the construction industry, it is recommended that employers introduce flexible work schedule; introduce mentorship programs and give them the same opportunities as their male counterparts in order to create more diversity in the sector thus increasing creativity and efficiency. Keywords: construction, site, engineers, work-life balance, hindrances, women, culture.

This study explores the perceptions of health care workers regarding men’s participation in HIV programmes with the objective of identifying factors that may facilitate or hinder the participation of men in such programmes. A sub aim was to explore how perceptions regarding the effects of different constructions of masculinity may be implicated in the ways men respond to HIV programmes. The study was conducted with permission from HIV/AIDS clinics: Thembalethu clinic in the Helen Joseph Hospital, Tshwarisanang couples’ VCT clinic at Chris Hani Baragwanath hospital and two Johannesburg University campus clinics. Data was collected using a purposive sample of 8 health care workers. Each participant took part in one-on-one semi-structured interviews, which yielded the results of this study. The data was analysed using thematic content analysis. The results showed that a majority of the health care workers perceived men to be nonparticipatory in HIV programmes. They perceived barriers to men’s participation to be men’s varied perception of fear knowing their HIV status, fear of dying and fear of the emotional consequences of testing positive such as anger and depression. Men also see counselling as a sign of weakness and as a result, they do not participate in HIV programmes. In conclusion, health care workers identified the need to develop new strategies and best suited programmes that promote HIV testing amongst men.

Thesis (M.Com. (Management))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, School of Economic and Business Sciences, 2016. / In an economic environment where knowledge based-work is the strategic component of value creation and competitive advantage, knowledge workers have become the engine that drives sustainability and profitability. Knowledge workers are described as workers with high degrees of education, expertise and whose primary task is to create, distribute and apply knowledge. With the increasing demand and number of knowledge workers in the work force, the productivity of knowledge workers has become an imperative management task as well as a decisive economic factor. Despite the continuous stream of research on knowledge worker productivity, knowledge worker productivity continues to be one of the greatest challenges facing managers today. Knowledge worker productivity refers to ability of knowledge workers to effectively collect, create and use inherent knowledge to produce goods and services. Inherent knowledge is highly personal and cannot be separated from the person who holds it. Further, inherent knowledge is closely related to the technical skills that an individual has and are only known to the person who possesses those skills. If organisations wish to leverage this inherent knowledge to their competitive advantage, they need to know how to engage and stimulate the deepest parts of the human mind. However, no two individuals are the same. Personnel psychology literature has long stressed that meaningful differences exist between people. These individual differences influence individual work performance and behaviour. Although several studies have addressed the issue of personality predicting job performance, there is a lack of knowledge of the relationship between personality, motivation and knowledge worker productivity, specifically in the South African context. This study attempts to address this lack of knowledge through a quantitative study of the relationship between personality, motivation and knowledge worker productivity. The study investigated whether the intrinsic personalities of knowledge workers and motivation predict knowledge worker productivity. Although several studies have directly addressed the issue of personality predicting job performance, few studies have directly investigated whether motivation mediates the relationship between personality and specifically knowledge worker productivity. Consequently, there is limited evidence to support the arguments of the present study. The theoretical and practical implications for knowledge worker productivity are discussed.

The aim of this study was to explore the emotional labour of domestic violence shelter workers. A qualitative approach was used and four professionals were interviewed. The interviewees described that they were expected to provide different types of services which include empowering their clients so that they can survive independently after leaving the shelter. The findings showed that the shelter workers hide or suppress different types of emotions, especially when they are frustrated or emotionally affected by the client's situation. According to the workers, they experienced stress as a consequence of the emotional labour, and they expressed that working in the field of domestic violence had made it difficult for them to trust men. Making a difference in the lives of the clients was described as a source of motivation and help them to cope with the negative aspects of the shelter work. Even though the findings cannot be generalised, the study provides comprehensive information about how emotional labour in this particular context can be perceived. The shelter workers described that the levels of satisfaction they get from helping clients resolve their problems were more significant than the negative consequences of emotional labour.

Thesis advisor: Kevin J. Mahoney / Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) older adults in the U.S. face disproportionate risk of increased health and mental health problems as compared to their non-LGBT counterparts. Experiences of harassment, discrimination, and violence due to sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) contribute to the chronic stresses associated with being a sexual and/or gender minority. LGBT older adults may avoid or delay needed services in later life, rendering them invisible to health care providers (HCPs) if they do not disclose SOGI and if providers do not ask. This three-paper dissertation explored LGBT older adults' invisibility and outness in aging services. Paper 1 investigated gerontological social workers' biopsychosocial assessment practices to understand how they became aware of clients' SOGI; assessment forms were analyzed and qualitative interviews with social workers were conducted, showing that social workers did not have a systematic way of learning about clients' SOGI. Paper 2 was a quantitative analysis of survey data from 129 LGBT older adults that showed an association between experiences of SOGI-based discrimination/violence after age 50 and not disclosing SOGI to HCPs and having avoided using aging services for fear of coming or being out. Paper 3 was a qualitative analysis of interviews with 22 LGBT older adults that sought to understand how they disclosed SOGI to HCPs. Those who disclosed did so without being asked, because of health conditions, after having sought out an LGBT /LGBT-friendly provider, or after being asked about their sex and/or love lives. Paper 3 findings offered practice and environmental changes that could increase LGBT older adults' SOGI disclosure to HCPs. This dissertation provides suggestions for social work policy, practice, and research aimed at supporting gerontological social workers in learning about their clients' SOGI in an effort to address health disparities among LGBT older adults / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2015. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Social Work. / Discipline: Social Work.