The study of cis-regulatory elements (CREs) will allow for increased understanding of regulation and lead to insight regarding the mechanisms governing growth, development, health, and disease. The aim of this study was to characterize the de novo in silico predictions of Arabidopsis CREs. Eight synthetic and 30 native promoter-constructs containing an eGFP/GUS reporter protein were generated for cold, genotoxic, heat, osmotic, and salt stress; the circadian clock; ABA signaling; root and epidermis tissue. Constructs were stably transformed into A. thaliana Col-0 and the effects of the CREs were evaluated by in planta stress or tissue assays using GUS expression levels. Results reveal a novel genotoxic element that specifically directs GUS expression in rosette leaves during genotoxic stress. Results also look promising for novel epidermis and root-specific elements. Results of these assays validate the de novo prediction pipeline's ability to identify novel and known CREs related to abiotic stress.

No description available.

Years of psychotherapy practice at university, state, and military hospitals developed the author's interest in the presentation of love relationship problems. Mood and anxiety disorders, as the most prevalent pathologies, were often co-morbid with or secondary to partner relationship issues. Most vexing for clients was a situation of repeated dysfunctional partner selections in which similar problems arose each time. This incubated the idea of a process, probably outside of awareness, that functioned to perpetuate self-defeating partner selection patterns. The author was introduced to Money's `lovemap' concept during studies and identified readily with its principles and mechanisms. The lovemap is defined as a highly individualised, developed, mental template or cognitive blueprint of the ideal lover. It is assumed that every person has a lovemap, and would be able to describe it if asked the right questions. The concept promised to be a useful vehicle for studying self-defeating partner selection patterns, as `errors' might be coded into the lovemap that are expressed in such a presentation. The author identified the need to ground the lovemap concept in recognised psychological theory in order to motivate for its relevance. Kelly's theory of cognitive constructs provided robust links for lovemap as a sophisticated construction system, and the developmental theories of Freud and Erikson situated lovemap genesis within recognised periods of emerging human capacities to love and relate sexually; the stages of puberty to young adulthood. Lovemaps are assumed to function optimally when love and lust co-operate in pairbonding, or the capacity to couple. Extensive literature reviews cover the research fields of romantic love, human sexuality, and pairbonding, affording hypotheses as to lovemap pathology. A qualitative, Phenomenological research design of case studies with six adult persons, who had experienced radical contradictions of original lovemaps, identified when and how lovemap change took place. Thematic analysis of the attributions for change distilled a number of implications for therapy that would encourage certain indicated change processes. An integrative psychotherapy model recognises the cognitively- and socially constructed nature of lovemaps and proposes intervention components that blend cognitive-behavioural and narrative approaches. This model will be tested extensively with a suitable client population. / Psychology / D. Litt. ET Phil. (Psychology)

Four core themes characterised this study: (a) adult friendship, particularly across the gender line, (b) the association between friendship and psychological well-being, (c) the role of attachment in friendship processes, and (d) the influence of the boundaries of marriage on friendship. Twenty six individuals were included in the initial research and 19 subjects participated in the main study. Theoretical principles of social cognition, constructive alternativism and attachment guided the collection and interpretation of data, which was collated, interpreted and then presented in case-study format. Self-with-other representation played a major role in data interpretation. Investigation into the structure and processes of friendship revealed it to be a complex and fragile relationship, defined both idiosyncratically and existentially, as well as by specific distinguishing features, such as trust, loyalty and intimacy . Attachment orientation and positive friendship experiences were noted as being contributory to the sense of interpersonal intimacy associated with feelings of well-being. Positive association was registered between 'secure' attachment orientation and self-ratings of well-being and happiness. Opposite-sex friendship emerged as an exclusive relational type, both similar to, and different from, samesex friendship and romantic love relationships. Its ambiguous role is evidently compounded by the latent sexuality in heterosocial relationships. Respondents reported cases of opposite-sex friendships metamorphosing into romantic love relationships and, less frequently, vice versa. Manifest in attachment and relational mental models, marital boundaries can facilitate or inhibit friendship. On both direct- and meta-perspective levels, securely-attached respondents were relatively accepting of opposite-sex friendships within a marital context. Insecurely-attached subjects tended to construe them as threatening to the marital reality. Responses to this threat varied: avoidantly-attached individuals used ego-protective mechanisms such as denial and repression, whereas · the anxious-ambivalent attachment orientation seemed more closely associated with feelings of mistrust and jealousy, expressed through anger and anxiety. Personal boundary structure plays an incisive role ln adult friendship. Thick-boundaried personalities seemed particularly conscious of preserving marital identity. They were more territorial with regard to friendships within the marital context, and more conscious of social rules pertaining thereto. / Psychology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Psychology)

This work is comprised of an Introduction and two Parts. Part One treats, by way of historical review and evaluation, the disestablishment of the Christian worldview in a postmodern age. Part Two proposes the means by whichthe Christian worldview might be reestablished. The reestablishment includes the use of some of the benefits of postmodernism by Christians as well as a return to the responsible reading of texts, especially the biblical text. Part One, The Disestablishment of the Christian Worldview, is composed ofthree chapters. Chapter 1chronicles the change that has occurred in Western culture because of the ascendency of postmodernism. It isbest described as a change in authorityfrom the logocentric metanarrative which has characterized Christianity to the deconstructionist rejection of worldviews by postmodern literary critics. Chapter 2 reviews the paradigm shifts that have occurred in belief systemsthat have occurred in the West as a result of this change,and Chapter 3 shows the effects of all this in the culture's principal institutions. Part Two, The Reestablishment of the Christian Worldview, is also composed of three chapters. Chapter 4 shows the impact that postmodernity has had on the efforts now being made on behalf of reestablishing the Christian worldview as a viable intellectual position in Western culture. Chapter 5 is occupied with the negative and positive responses of certain Christian scholars to the challenge of postmodernism, and Chapter 6 closes the study with an extended treatment of the factors that must be in play for a reestablishment of the Christian worldview to occur in Western civilization. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / D. Th. (Theology)

Text in Afrikaans, abstract in Afrikaans and English / Die doel van hierdie navorsingstudie was om te bepaal of daar 'n verwantskap tussen stres en die persoonlikheidsweerstandsbronne koherensiesin, gehardheid en lokus van beheer is. Middelvlakbestuurders (n=103) het selfbeoordelingsvraelyste oor stres, sin vir koherensie, gehardheid en lokus van beheer voltooi. Die resultate van die Pearson produkmoment korrelasie en chi-kwadraattoetse toon dat daar 'n statisties beduidende verwantskap tussen stres en koherensiesin, gehardheid en lokus van beheer is. Dit blyk dat middelvlakbestuurders met 'n sterk koherensiesin beter in staat is om stres te hanteer as bestuurders met 'n lae koherensiesin. Hierdie bestuurders maak dus sin uit werkstressors en beskou lewenseise as betekenisvol en uitdagend. Die resultate dui aan dat bestuurders met 'n hoe inteme lokus van beheer en outonomie minder stres ervaar en beter toegerus is om die negatiewe invloed van stres teen te werk as bestuurders met 'n lae lokus van beheer en outonomie. Volgens hierdie navorsing het gehardheid nie 'n invloed op die ervaring van stress. / The purpose of this study was to determine if a relationship exists between stress and the resiliency sources of sense of coherence, hardiness and locus of control. Managers (N=l 03) at middle management level completed self-report questionnaires on stress, sense of coherence, hardiness and locus of control. Results from the Pearson product moment correlation and chisquare tests, indicate a statistical significant relationship between stress and sense of coherence, hardiness and locus of control. It seems as if managers at middle management level with a strong sense of coherence experience lower levels of stress than managers with a low sense of coherence. These managers derive sense from work stressors and view life's demands as meaningful and challenging. These results indicate that managers with a strong internal locus of control and autonomy will be better equipped to cope with stress than managers with a low locus of control and autonomy. According to this study hardiness does not have an effects on stress. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M.A. (Industrial Psychology)

The aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) heterodimerizes with the aryl hydrocarbon receptor nuclear translocator (Arnt) for transcriptional regulation. We generated three N-terminal deletion constructs of the human AhR of 12-24 KDa in size—namely D1 (aa 84-295), D2 (aa 84-192) and D3 (aa 191-295)—to suppress the Arnt function. We observed that all three constructs interact with the human Arnt with similar affinities. D2, which contains part of the AhR PAS-A domain and interacts with the PAS-A domain of Arnt, inhibits the formation of the AhR gel shift complex. D2 suppresses the 3-methylcholanthrene-induced, dioxin response element (DRE)-driven luciferase activity in Hep3B cells and exogenous Arnt reverses this D2 suppression. D2 suppresses the induction of CYP1A1 at both the message and protein levels in Hep3B cells; however, the CYP1B1 induction is not affected. D2 suppresses the recruitment of Arnt to the cyp1a1 promoter but not to the cyp1b1 promoter, partly because the AhR/Arnt heterodimer binds better to the cyp1b1 DRE than to the cyp1a1 DRE. Interestingly, D2 has no effect on the cobalt chloride-induced, hypoxia inducible factor-1 (HIF-1)-dependent expression of vegf, aldolase c, and ldh-a messages. Our data reveal that the flanking sequences of the DRE contribute to the binding affinity of the AhR/Arnt heterodimer to its endogenous enhancers and the function of AhR and HIF-1 can be differentially suppressed by the D2 inhibitory molecule. In chapter 2, a Pichia Pastoris expression system was constructed expressing codon optimized human full length AhR. This codon optimization is necessary for overexpression of huAhR. RT-PCR data showed that the codon optimized mRNA was more stably expressed than wild types. Overexpressed huAhR protein was degraded by proteinase when using a regular P. Pastoris strain yJC100 whereas the proteinase deficient ySMD1163 maintained a much higher level of huAhR. P. Pastoris expressed huAhR was natively purified and analyzed. Coimmunopricipitation assay shows its interaction with endogenous Arnt. A ligand-dependent gel shift was also observed. In addition, we performed an in vitro coprecipitation assay to study its binding to endogenous cyp1b1 DREs. The result shows that the DRE3, known as a critical DRE for cyp1b1 transcriptional activity, has the highest binding affinity to AhR/Arnt complex. Taking together, we constructed a novel P. Pastoris expression system to overexpress human full length AhR. Purified huAhR is a good reagent for studing its ligand and DNA binding. In chapter 3, an adeno-associated virus (AAV) expression system was constructed to express an AhR deletion contruct CΔ553 (aa1-295) for tumor injection. Western blot shows the expression of CΔ553 (aa1-295) in hela cells infected by AAV-553, but the low yield of AAV-553 limited its application on tumor treatment. Possible solutions were discussed for future work.

No description available.

Text in Afrikaans / In hierdie studie is die aard en gevolge van bendegeweld onder kinders in die vroeë adolessente jare by bendegeteisterde skole in die Wes-Kaap ondersoek ten einde terapeutiese riglyne te bepaal vir leerders wat bendegeweld by die skool ervaar. Die verskynsel van bendegeweld is in die literatuur ondersoek. Die bio-ekologiese teorie van Urie Bronfenbrenner het as teoretiese grondslag vir die navorsing gedien, welke teorie die wedersydse invloed wat persone en hul omgewing op mekaar het, beskryf. Trauma by die vroeë adolessent en drie bestaande modelle vir traumaberading word bespreek, waarna ’n stel maatstawwe vir ’n traumaberadingsmodel uit die drie modelle sowel as die literatuur gekies word. Die empiriese navorsing is deur middel van sowel kwantitatiewe- as kwalitatiewe navorsingsmetodes gedoen. ’n Fokusgroepbespreking én onderhoude met onderwysers en skoolhoofde het plaasgevind om diepgaande inligting oor behoeftes ná voorvalle van bendegeweld te verkry. Twee in-diepte onderhoude is met persone wat kenners op die gebied van bendes en bendegeweld is, gevoer. Vervolgens is twee vraelyste, een vir leerders en een vir onderwysers en skoolhoofde, opgestel om vas te stel watter hulp hulle met betrekking tot ’n trauma-intervensieprogram benodig. Die studie het bevind dat bendegeweld leerders se akademiese prestasie sowel as hul emosionele en sosiale funksionering raak, terwyl dit gevoelens van magteloosheid en frustrasie by onderwysers en skoolhoofde veroorsaak. Die studie sluit af met ’n verskeidenheid aanbevelings oor die daarstel van terapeutiese riglyne vir opvoeders om die impak van bendegeweld op leerders by skole in bendegeteisterde gebiede te hanteer. / This study investigated the nature and effects of gang violence among children in the early adolescent stage of development at gang-infested schools in the Western Cape in order to identify therapeutic guidelines for learners who experience gang violence at school. The phenomenon of gang violence was explored in the literature study. The bioecosystems theory of Urie Bronfenbrenner was employed as the theoretical basis for the study, which describes the reciprocal influence between humans and their environment. Early adolescent trauma and three existing models for trauma counselling are discussed, followed by the selection of a set of criteria for a trauma counselling model based on the three models as well as the literature studied. The empirical research was carried out through both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies. A focus group discussion as well as interviews with educators and principals were conducted in order to obtain in-depth information on their needs after incidents of gang violence. Two in-depth interviews have been conducted with professionals who are experts in the domain of gangs and gang related violence. This led to the development of two questionnaires, one for learners and one for educators and principals, to determine what type of support they need in terms of a trauma intervention programme. The study found that gang violence severely affects learners’ academic performance as well as their emotional and social functioning, while it creates feelings of frustration and powerlessness among teachers and principals. The study concludes by offering a range of recommendations for the formulation of therapeutic guidelines for educators to address the effects of gang violence on learners who attend schools in gang-infested areas. / Psychology of Education / D. Ed. (Psychology of Education)

Large open-source software projects involve developers with a wide variety of backgrounds and expertise. Such software projects furthermore include many internal APIs that developers must understand and use properly. According to the intended purpose of these APIs, they are more or less frequently used, and used by developers with more or less expertise. In this paper, we study the impact of usage patterns and developer expertise on the rate of defects occurring in the use of internal APIs. For this preliminary study, we focus on memory management APIs in the Linux kernel, as the use of these has been shown to be highly error prone in previous work. We study defect rates and developer expertise, to consider e.g., whether widely used APIs are more defect prone because they are used by less experienced developers, or whether defects in widely used APIs are more likely to be fixed.