In the current South African context, negative work attitude of teachers has become a phenomenon to be reckoned with as it has a detrimental effect on the education system. Although research on this phenomenon is still scarce, a growing interest in work attitude and its different underlying constructs is obvious from the increase of work attitude research. It is now time to investigate ways to improve work attitude, one of which could be to invest in meaningful work. The aim of this study is to expand on the understanding of the relationship between experiencing a sense of calling and work attitude as well as to determine the influence of meaningful work on this relationship. Through this study the researcher proposed an adapted model of Steger, Pickering, Shin and Dik (2011) which will serve as an academic tool for future research. This model will also be applicable as a management tool to understand and deal with teachers’ negative work attitude. A quantitative, cross-sectional survey design was used. The analysis was based on data from a representative sample of teachers recruited from primary and secondary schools in the Fezile Dabi district (n = 270) formerly known as the Northern Free State School district. The following measuring instruments were administered: The Calling and Vocation Questionnaire (CVQ), The Work and Meaning Inventory (WAMI), The Work Preference Inventory (WPI) and The Career Decision Profile (CDP). The researcher used the analytic approach of structural equation modelling by means of the statistical program Mplus. The results revealed that a statistically significant relationship existed between the experience of a sense of calling and work attitude. Results also supported the hypothesis that meaningful work has an indirect effect on the relationship between the experience of a calling and work attitude. The findings of this study indicated that positive work attitude tends to be enhanced by the addition of meaningful work. The Department of Education will have to take ognisance of ways to create meaningful work if they wish to succeed in educational transformation, as meaningful work has an indirect effect on the relationship between the experience of a calling and work attitude of teachers. Future studies should include longitudinal studies to validate the proposed adapted model and to identify more predictors of positive work attitude. / MA (Industrial Psychology), North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2013

In 1996, socio-economic rights were included in the Constitution of South Africa as fundamental human rights. The state is thus compelled to give attention to the protection of people's socioeconomic rights. The question is: Is it the duty of the state alone, or does the church also have a calling with regard to socio-economic rights? In this study, the calling of the church with regard to the protection of socio-economic rights in South Africa is researched. Firstly, socio-economic rights as ethical principle are evaluated in the light of the Scripture. The conclusion is that socio-economic rights are important human rights that can be grounded as fundamental human rights. Thereafter, the history of the origin of socio-economic rights is researched and evaluated. In the history of socio-economic rights, it is grounded in the natural dignity of a human being. However, the Bible teaches that God gave people dignity. The history of socio-economic rights in South Africa is also researched and evaluated. South Africa has a long history of colonialism, segregation and apartheid, and the church has not always been an effective advocate for socio-economic rights. To understand the calling of the church with regard to socio-economic rights, the calling of the church in society is researched. Views of different church and theological traditions are researched and evaluated. The reformed view focuses on the kingdom of God, and the calling of the church with regard to socio-economic rights is described as worship, fellowship, testimony and service. In conclusion, concrete guidelines of how to be an advocate for socio-economic rights are given to the church. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Ethics))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007

The purpose of the study was to investigate, using data from the sacerdotal culture, t h espouses of five priests. The main questions were: How does the priestly calling affect thespouse? Do the spouses involve themselves with voluntary work? Do the spouses feel thecongregation have expectations? Do the female and male answers differ?The sacerdotal culture has consisted of several elements. The main element is the priest’scalling for his work. As far as the spouse is concerned within the congregation, the spouseshave been seen as necessary for voluntary work. The congregation has also expected thespouse to act in a certain way and to undertake certain tasks.How the five informants feel about and react to the sacerdotal culture is focus for this study.The study shows that the sacerdotal culture is still strong today and it is something that thespouses take into account. They can choose not to participate but that might involve, forinstance, having to live somewhere else. The study found that the calling affects the femaleinformants, but not so much the males. The amount of participation varies from spouse tospouse and is a matter of their own choice. Expectations can also vary and participation inthe congregation can create higher expectations.

Variation in advertisement call structure of whistling frogs, Litoria ewingi, was studied among breeding sites in the vicinity of Christchurch on the East coast and Harihari on the West coast of the South Island. Males vocalized in breeding choruses throughout the year and females moved toward and appeared to evaluate calls of territorial males before initiating amplexus. Acoustic interactions between neighbours led to modification of call structure and timing, and wrestling matches between males were frequent. I quantified call structure for 1623 calls of 168 individuals using 24 call parameters. Most temporal characteristics were significantly correlated with the caller's body temperature and dominant frequency was negatively correlated with body size. These results are consistent with the prediction of temperature-dependent metabolic rates in a poikilotherm's nervous system. I compared call structure among the study populations using both multivariate and univariate analyses. Advertisement call structure showed highly significant variation among populations for most call variables. The greatest difference occurred between the West and East coast populations, and a clinal trend occurred in the East coast populations on a microgeographic scale. Variation among East coast populations in some variables was comparable to the scale of variation between coasts. These results suggest that whistling frogs exhibit natal philopatry. I obtained repeated recordings for 21 individuals and examined variation in call structure within and among individuals using nested multivariate analyses of variance. Highly significant variation occurred both within and among individuals for most call characters, but certain call characters were more variable among individuals. This suggests that whistling frog advertisement calls are individually distinctive.

abstract: There are some factors that have been used to explain why the presence of a calling (i.e., “an approach to work that reflects the belief that one's career is a central part of a broader sense of purpose and meaning in life and is used to help others or advance the greater good in some fashion” (Duffy & Dik, 2013, p. 429) reduces work stress and its potential negative outcomes, such as absenteeism, job performance and productivity, work-related accidents and overall employee health. The effect of problem-focused coping, however, remains largely untested as a potential mediator in this relation. The present study was conducted to quantitatively test whether problem-focused coping would mediate the relation between having a calling to work and perceived work stress in zookeepers. Participants were recruited through an online survey. They responded to questionnaires regarding calling, problem-focused coping, and work stress. Using hierarchical regression analyses, it was found that problem-focused coping partially mediated the relation between presence of a calling and perceived work stress. Specifically, having the presence of a calling to work predicted greater problem-focused style of coping, which, in turn, led to lower perceived work stress. Future directions for research were discussed. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Psychology 2018

Next-generation sequencing is revolutionising in genetics, where base-by base information for the whole genome is available for a large sample of individuals. This type of data is becoming commonly used and will continue to be in the near future. One of the first questions arising is the identification of novel variants and subsequently genotype calling of the individuals in the sample. However, given the cost of sequencing, so far most projects are sequencing individuals in low to medium coverage. In this thesis, we present two distinct methods for SNP and genotype calling from low-coverage sequencing data, TreeCall and MVNcall, that combine sequencing and Linkage Disequilibrium (LD) information. We begin by describing the pipeline for next-generation sequencing analysis and existing methods for SNP and genotype calling using low-coverage sequencing information. Subsequently, we present the two novel LD-based methods for SNP and genotype calling. The two methods developed assume a study design where the individuals are both genotyped and sequenced at low-coverage. The genotypes are used to construct a haplotype scaffold, where the LD information is extracted, either by the construction of genealogical trees (TreeCall), or the approximation of a windows of contiguous SNPs of the scaffold by a multivariate normal distribution (MVNcall). Both methods have been applied on real datasets from the 1000 Genomes project and compared to other LD-based methods applied on the same datasets, mainly in terms of genotype calling and phasing. Whereas TreeCall gives lower genotype concordance rates than the other methods, MVNcall provides the highest genotype concordance rates for a dataset with a small sample size (Lowcoverage pilot of the 1000 Genomes project). Applying the MVNcall on a larger dataset (Phase 1 of the 1000 Genomes project), it achieves an overall genotype discordance rate of 0.58%, whereas SNPTools achieves an overall genotype discordance rate of 0.57%, Thunder 0.56%, and BEAGLE 0.61% (comparison based on Axiom chip). The main advantage of MVNcall is in terms of phasing accuracy, where by using a haplotype scaffold, and especially in the case where the haplotype scaffold is phased using pedigree information, it provides accurate haplotypes. MVNcall is also extended to incorporate trio information for genotype calling. Experiment on a deeply sequenced trio leads to an accurate set of haplotypes of the trio with switch error rates as low as ~0.28 for the parents and ~0.12 for the offspring.

Human Mendelian disease in Saudi Arabia is both significant and challenging. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) has resulted in important discoveries of the genetic variants responsible for inherited disease. However, the success of clinical genomics using NGS requires accurate and consistent identification of rare genome variants. Rarity is one very important criterion for pathogenicity. Here we describe a model to detect variants by analyzing allele frequencies of a Saudi population. This work will enhance the opportunity to improve variant calling workflow to gain robust frequency estimates in order to better detect rare and unusual variants which are frequently associated with inherited disease.

Research on northern bobwhite calling behavior and roosting ecology during the breeding season has received limited attention. However, variability in calling rate in response to conspecifics and environmental factors may affect avian monitoring strategies. We conducted 10-minute breeding season surveys (April-August) on B. Bryan Farms, Mississippi, from 2021-2022 to evaluate the impact of conspecifics and environmental covariates on male bobwhite calling rate. We observed a positive linear effect of conspecifics and temperature on calling rate. We did not find sufficient evidence to support a relationship between calling rate and cloud cover or barometric pressure. We also analyzed breeding season third-order roost site selection and found selection against bare ground and a quadratic relationship with litter and average vegetation height during roosting activity. It is also important for managers to consider all conditions of the environment and habitat requirements during every season for population persistence, including breeding season roost cover.

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