No description available.

No description available.

Les cancers du sein et de l’ovaire apparaissent dans 5 à 10% dans un contexte de prédisposition génétique, dont seule une faible part est expliquée par la présence d’un variant pathogène sur les gènes BRCA1, BRCA2 et PALB2. Le séquençage à haut-débit permet d’explorer cette hérédité manquante, mais représente un nouveau défi à la fois informatique, statistique et biologique. Trois approches utilisant cette nouvelle technologie ont été employées pour rechercher de nouveaux facteurs de prédisposition. En premier lieu, les risques associés à 34 gènes connus ou suspectés d’être impliqués dans les prédispositions ont été estimés à partir de l’analyse de 5 131 cas index et le développement d’une nouvelle approche statistique. Aussi la participation des néo-mutations en mosaïque dans le syndrome a été explorée à partir de 1 750 cas index issus de l’étude précédente, avec un logiciel de détection des variants faiblement représentés développé spécifiquement: outLyzer. Enfin, l’exploration par séquençage de l’hérédité manquante a été étendue à un panel de 201 gènes impliqués dans le cancer, à partir de 118 patientes sélectionnées pour la précocité d’apparition de leur maladie, élément fortement évocateur d’un facteur de prédisposition. Les résultats de ces travaux ont permis de valider la pertinence de l’étude de PALB2, RAD51C et RAD51D pour la prise en charge des patients, et suggèrent aussi une implication sous-estimée des variants en mosaïque. Cependant il reste encore très probablement d’autres facteurs génétiques fortement pénétrants à découvrir mais dont la modulation du risque répond à un modèle oligogénique. / Breast and ovarian cancers appear in 5 to 10% of cases in a context of genetic predisposition, of which only a small proportion is explained by the presence of a pathogenic variant on the BRCA1, BRCA2 and PALB2 genes. High throughput sequencing can explore this missing heredity, but represents a new challenge both in computing, statistics and biology. Three approaches using this new technology have been used to investigate new predisposition factors. First, the risks associated with 34 known or suspected genes involved in predispositions were estimated from the analysis of 5,131 index cases and the development of a new statistical approach. Also, the participation of mosaic neo-mutations in the syndrome was explored from 1,750 index cases from the previous study, with a software developed specifically for detecting poorly represented variants: outLyzer. Finally, the exploration by sequencing of the missing heredity was extended to a panel of 201 genes involved in cancer, from 118 patients selected for the early onset of their disease, a highly suggestive element of a predisposition factor. The results of this work validated the relevance of the PALB2, RAD51C and RAD51D study for patient management, and also suggested an underestimated involvement of mosaic variants. However, there are still very likely other highly penetrating genetic factors to be discovered, but whose risk modulation is based on an oligogenic model.

Acoustic communication in anurans plays a critical role in species recognition, defending territories and resources, and finding a mate. Anurans use a number of different call note types to communicate, from which the most notable are advertisement- and aggression calls. Optimum weather conditions are a precursor to the commencement of the breeding season for all frog species and their calling behaviour is therefore readily influenced by atmospheric conditions. Male frogs within a chorus also tend to call from territories within a specific range of distances from one another. The objectives of this study were to 1) determine a possible context in which call note types are produced, 2) to determine the effect of atmospheric conditions on calling behaviour and 3) to determine the spacing distances between males and females in a chorus of Queckett’s River Frog (Amietia quecketti). Pre-recorded note types were used in a playback experiment to determine a context for elicited responses. A context was derived for six of the responses. Advertisement (clicks and whines), aggression (creaks), encounter (tonal notes), territorial (whine-tonal notes), and release calls (squeaks) were described. Calls and atmospheric conditions were recorded and correlated for an entire breeding season. Water temperature, wind speed, humidity and barometric pressure had a significant effect on calling intensity. As water temperature decreased calling intensity increased, while increased wind temperature led to increased calling intensity. Amietia quecketti calls from the water, explaining the effect while increased wind speed decreases water temperature and can carry sound further. Both humidity and barometric pressure showed increased calling intensity only at specific levels. Humidity and barometric pressure have a direct effect on one another, which most likely causes the correlation between calling intensity and both these variables. In this study A. quecketti was shown to have breeding ponds for males and resting ponds and positions for non-gravid females. This prevents unwanted or unnecessary amplexus. Males showed much smaller and less variable territory sizes than females. This is most likely because males have a small range of optimal spacing distance while females move towards and away from males. The presence of vegetation resulted in smaller territories. This is possibly because smaller males act as satellite males and cannot be seen by larger males in vegetation. The size of males did not affect territory size. Males have a specific inter-male spacing distance regardless of size. / MSc (Environmental Sciences), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Acoustic communication in anurans plays a critical role in species recognition, defending territories and resources, and finding a mate. Anurans use a number of different call note types to communicate, from which the most notable are advertisement- and aggression calls. Optimum weather conditions are a precursor to the commencement of the breeding season for all frog species and their calling behaviour is therefore readily influenced by atmospheric conditions. Male frogs within a chorus also tend to call from territories within a specific range of distances from one another. The objectives of this study were to 1) determine a possible context in which call note types are produced, 2) to determine the effect of atmospheric conditions on calling behaviour and 3) to determine the spacing distances between males and females in a chorus of Queckett’s River Frog (Amietia quecketti). Pre-recorded note types were used in a playback experiment to determine a context for elicited responses. A context was derived for six of the responses. Advertisement (clicks and whines), aggression (creaks), encounter (tonal notes), territorial (whine-tonal notes), and release calls (squeaks) were described. Calls and atmospheric conditions were recorded and correlated for an entire breeding season. Water temperature, wind speed, humidity and barometric pressure had a significant effect on calling intensity. As water temperature decreased calling intensity increased, while increased wind temperature led to increased calling intensity. Amietia quecketti calls from the water, explaining the effect while increased wind speed decreases water temperature and can carry sound further. Both humidity and barometric pressure showed increased calling intensity only at specific levels. Humidity and barometric pressure have a direct effect on one another, which most likely causes the correlation between calling intensity and both these variables. In this study A. quecketti was shown to have breeding ponds for males and resting ponds and positions for non-gravid females. This prevents unwanted or unnecessary amplexus. Males showed much smaller and less variable territory sizes than females. This is most likely because males have a small range of optimal spacing distance while females move towards and away from males. The presence of vegetation resulted in smaller territories. This is possibly because smaller males act as satellite males and cannot be seen by larger males in vegetation. The size of males did not affect territory size. Males have a specific inter-male spacing distance regardless of size. / MSc (Environmental Sciences), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Abstract   This thesis examines the role of women who went as missionaries to China between the 1890’s and the 1930’s, with a special regard to the Swedish missionary Sally Nordling. I think it is interesting to find out more about their motives. What made these women choose to go far away from their homes in Europe to live and work for God?   I have noted that there is not much written about these women and I hope that this thesis will shed light on this part of history, and that I will be able to give my own personal reflections. Through analysing different biographies written about female missionaries that lived in China I hope to be able to answer my hypothesis that women through their religious conviction were able to escape their restricted lives. The main research question for this thesis is whether female missionaries were allowed to do similar work as men when going to China.

In this study, six research questions were addressed: (1) Does a teacher who has a spiritual calling have a different motivation (self, interaction, task) to his/her work than a teacher who does not have a spiritual calling? (2) Does a teacher who feels a spiritual calling have a different locus of control (internal, external) than a teacher who does not have a spiritual calling? (3) Does a teacher who has a spiritual calling have a different degree of burnout (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, personal accomplishment) than a teacher who does not have a spiritual calling? (4) Does a teacher who has a spiritual calling have a different sense of voluntary commitment in the longevity of his/her work experience than a teacher who does not have a spiritual calling? (5) Is there a different concentration of teachers who have a spiritual calling in public or parochial schools? (6) Does the public or religious school affiliation make a difference in research questions #1 through #4? A Teacher Motivation Inventory was compiled using The Orientation Inventory by Bass, Rotter's Internal/External Locus of Control, Maslach Burnout Inventory by Maslach, Jackson, and Schwab, a Researcher-made Spiritual Calling Inventory, and longevity questions. Tukey HSD post hoc comparisons test and Chi-square Test of Independence were used. This study was conducted in the spring of 1994 in public, Baptist, Catholic, Lutheran and Jewish elementary schools. Teachers who scored in the upper third on the Spiritual Calling Inventory were categorized as having a spiritual calling to teaching. Teachers who had a spiritual calling had a significantly more internal locus of control, were less likely to depersonalize students, had greater personal accomplishment and were more likely to choose teaching again than those not having a spiritual calling. A spiritual calling had a significant relationship to some very meaningful, attractive qualities in a teacher's personal attitude toward a teaching career.

Ziel der vorliegenden Dissertation war es, zum Verständnis der genetischen Grundlagen des akustischen Kommunikationssystems der Grille Gryllus bimaculatus beizutragen (s. auch 1.2). Dazu wurde die Expression eines Orthologs des no-on-transientA-Gens (nonA) mit Hilfe der RNA-Interferenz-Methode spezifisch herunterreguliert. Bei nonA handelt es sich um ein vielversprechendes Kandidatengen, da Punktmutationen in der codierenden Region des Gens die Eigenschaften des männlichen Balzgesangs bei Drosophila melanogaster beeinflussen. Zudem belegen Gentransfer-Experimente bei Drosophila, dass dieses Gen artspezifische Informationen des Balzgesangs enthält. Die Analyse der Gesangsdaten ergab, dass sich die Periodenlänge durch das Herunterregulieren von NONA nicht verändert. Außerdem konnte gezeigt werden, dass nonA-dsRNA-injizierte Tiere seltener 3-silbige Chirps produzieren, dafür aber mehr 4- und 5-silbige Chirps. Die Auswertung der tageszeitlichen Gesangsaktivität zeigte, dass alle Tiere signifikant am häufigsten im ersten Nachtquartal (nach Erlöschen der Beleuchtung) zirpten. Ein Effekt durch das Herunterregulieren von NONA konnte statistisch nicht belegt werden. Allerdings schien es einen Trend bei nonA-dsRNA-injizierten Tieren zu geben, gleichmäßiger über den Tag verteilt Gesangsaktivität zu zeigen. Transgene Drosophila melanogaster, deren arteigenes nonA durch das der Grille ersetzt bzw. ergänzt worden war, zeigten durchweg eine verbesserte Überlebensfähigkeit (Steigerungen zwischen 27 und 340%). Auch das positiv phototaktische Verhalten wurde durch das Grillen-NONA bei allen transformanten Fliegen verstärkt; allerdings fiel dieser Effekt eher marginal aus. Dennoch kann durchaus von einer zumindest teilweisen funktionellen Konservierung des nonA-Gens zwischen Gryllus bimaculatus und Drosophila melanogaster ausgegangen werden. / The present thesis aims to widen our understanding of the genetic background of the acoustic communication system of the cricket Gryllus bimaculatus (see also 1.2). Therefore the expression of an ortholog of the no-on-transientA (nonA) gene was specifically inhibited via RNA-interference. The nonA gene is one of the most interesting candidate genes in this context, as point mutations in the coding region of the gene affect the characteristics of the male’s calling song. Furthermore, gene transfer experiments in Drosophila showed that this gene obviously carries species-specific song information. The analysis of the calling song of nonA-RNAi-treated crickets, revealed that the duration of the syllable period was not influenced by the “knock-down” of the gene, but that the inhibition had a certain impact on the maximum number of syllables per chirp, as nonA-dsRNA-injected crickets produced significantly less 3-syllable chirps and significantly more 4- and 5-syllable chirps. Differences in the daytime calling activity between nonA-dsRNA-injected crickets and control groups could not be verified. The calling activity of all groups reached its peak in the first quarter of the night and significantly differed from the low calling activity during the remaining quarters of the day. Although the activity of all animals reached its peak during the first quarter of the night, there seems to be a trend that this rhythmical behaviour was less pronounced in nonA-dsRNA-injected crickets. Drosophila melanogaster mutants, which had been transformed with the nonA ortholog of Gryllus bimaculatus, increased their survival by 27% to 340%. In addition, the positive phototactic behaviour was slightly increased in all tested animals - this effect, however, remained marginal. Nevertheless, the nonA gene seems to be at least partly functionally conserved between Gryllus bimaculatus and Drosophila melanogaster.

Males of European tree frog are clustered in the chorus in order to attract females. Males were re-captured, their body size and position in chorus was recorded. Goal of this thesis was investigated a correlation between the males' body size and mating behaviour and their position in the chorus.

This research project sought to find out more about how clergy experience preparing to move jobs in the Church of England. This is important and timely for several reasons. First, there has been limited theoretical and empirical attention paid to the process and tasks of preparing for a career transition. Second, clergy are contemplating job moves in a dynamic institutional context which is affecting how they perceive and construct their future career trajectory. Third, I set out to investigate clergy as members of a workforce facing some of the same issues and concerns as those in other occupations rather than viewing them as being in any way special by virtue of their ordained status. The study is framed by career theories which attend to transition, turnover and the determinants and antecedents of career and job mobility. A total of 31 clergy from three Church of England dioceses were interviewed as part of a qualitative study. A social constructivist method was adopted and thematic analysis applied to the data with attention being paid to the reflexive research process. The findings indicate that a religious context is an important site for enhancing our understanding of the complex relationship between individual agency, structural constraints and the antecedents to preparing to move jobs. Following structural changes to how clergy are recruited, selected and appointed to posts participants are found to be experiencing cognitive dissonance as they anticipate a move. This is explained by a shift in the delegation of authority to individual clergy and the erosion of strategic ambiguity as a mode of communication between different parties. These are changes which undermine value systems rooted in history, tradition, custom and practice and calling which clergy rate highly. The study identifies facets of calling and vocation which clergy correlate with preparing to move jobs rather than an original call to ministry.