Implicit Leadership Theory And Bass And Riggio\u27s (2006) Transformational Leadership Model As A Means Of Leader-Renewal At The Napa Community Seventh-Day Adventist Church

Problem The Napa Community Seventh-day Adventist Church did not have an active, engaged, and participating leadership core throughout the previous ten years of church life. Current leaders, while demonstrating faithfulness and desire, were not actively being engaged and challenged to grow in their own leadership understanding and practice. The absence of such an ongoing process contributed to the lack of leader and leadership renewal within our faith community. Methodology The combined introduction of Implicit Leadership Theory (ILT) and Transformational Leadership (Bass & Riggio 2006) through an eight-week process would provide a means to inject into our community an external theory of leadership and to examine the tacitly held mental models of leadership each participant held. This renewal process would also include a way to measure whether a shift had occurred over those weeks together. This initiative would launch with an assessment through the Organizational Description Questionnaire (ODQ) and conclude with an end line assessment through the same instrument to determine if any shifts had occurred. Results The results from the ODQ indicate that a significant shift occurred within the perceptions of the participants toward identifying the type of transformational culture the Napa Community Seventh-day Adventist Church represented. While the baseline indicator identified the congregation as moderately transformational in nature, the end line indicated the significant shift by identifying the culture of the congregational leadership as “coasting.” Conclusions The combined introduction of an external “objective” theory of leadership with the examination of each participants own mental models of leadership assisted in assessing the local organizational congregational culture and invigorating the participant leaders. This process will be encouraged as a means of identifying a vision of leadership for a local faith community as well as innovation of a process of renewal for each participant. At the very least, encouraging and facilitating leaders of local congregations to examine their churches through a process of direct external and internal leadership theory and practice can invigorate leaders to begin stepping up their commitment to lead and pursue mission

Characterization of Fiber Fines by Drainage Resistance Analysis

This thesis begins by developing a literature background for a variety of pulp characterization methods and relating them to present-day techniques. Two methods are evaluated and compared with the Canadian Standard Freeness (C.S.F.) test. They are the Centrifugal Water Retention (C.W.R.) method and the constant rate filtration resistance method using the Pulmac Permeability instrument. A standard pulp was used and the fines content was varied from 0% to 25% at 5% intervals. Handsheets were made and the pulp characterization values were related to sheet strength values. In general, the data indicated that the specific surface area, from the constant filtration test, the C.S.F., and the C.W.R. values, tended to follow the same trends. These values also tended to follow handsheet strength tests. However, the specific volume value calculated from the filtration resistance test data was more precise in its correlation with the handsheet strength tests

Food losses in the Field

Field losses at potato harvest are “estimated” not measured Food losses or waste categories; - Saleable product within contract specification - Good product, but out of contract specification - Diseased, green or damaged produc

Reversible and irreversible electroporation of cell suspensions flowing through a localized DC electric field

Experiments on reversible and irreversible cell electroporation were carried out with an experimental setup based on a standard apparatus for horizontal electrophoresis, a syringe pump with regulated cell suspension flow velocity and a dcEF power supply. Cells in suspension flowing through an orifice in a barrier inserted into the electrophoresis apparatus were exposed to defined localized dcEFs in the range of 0-1000 V/cm for a selected duration in the range 10-1000 ms. This method permitted the determination of the viability of irreversibly electroperforated cells. It also showed that the uptake by reversibly electroperforated cells of fluorescent dyes (calcein, carboxyfluorescein, Alexa Fluor 488 Phalloidin), which otherwise do not penetrate cell membranes, was dependent upon the dcEF strength and duration in any given single electrical field exposure. The method yields reproducible results, makes it easy to load large volumes of cell suspensions with membrane non-penetrating substances, and permits the elimination of irreversibly electroporated cells of diameter greater than desired. The results concur with and elaborate on those in earlier reports on cell electroporation in commercially available electroporators. They proved once more that the observed cell perforation does not depend upon the thermal effects of the electric current upon cells. In addition, the method eliminates many of the limitations of commercial electroporators and disposable electroporation chambers. It permits the optimization of conditions in which reversible and irreversible electroporation are separated. Over 90% of reversibly electroporated cells remain viable after one short (less than 400 ms) exposure to the localized dcEF. Experiments were conducted with the AT-2 cancer prostate cell line, human skin fibroblasts and human red blood cells, but they could be run with suspensions of any cell type. It is postulated that the described method could be useful for many purposes in biotechnology and biomedicine and could help optimize conditions for in vivo use of both reversible and irreversible electroporation

Avoiding the side effects of electric current pulse application to electroporated cells in disposable small volume cuvettes assures good cell survival

Abstract Background The harmful side effects of electroporation to cells due to local changes in pH, the appearance of toxic electrode products, temperature increase, and the heterogeneity of the electric field acting on cells in the cuvettes used for electroporation were observed and discussed in several laboratories. If cells are subjected to weak electric fields for prolonged periods, for example in experiments on cell electrophoresis or galvanotaxis the same effects are seen. In these experiments investigators managed to reduce or eliminate the harmful side effects of electric current application. Methods For the experiments, disposable 20\ua0\u3bcl cuvettes with two walls made of dialysis membranes were constructed and placed in a locally focused electric field at a considerable distance from the electrodes. Cuvettes were mounted into an apparatus for horizontal electrophoresis and the cells were subjected to direct current electric field (dcEF) pulses from a commercial pulse generator of exponentially declining pulses and from a custom-made generator of double and single rectangular pulses. Results More than 80% of the electroporated cells survived the dcEF pulses in both systems. Side effects related to electrodes were eliminated in both the flow through the dcEF and in the disposable cuvettes placed in the focused dcEFs. With a disposable cuvette system, we also confirmed the sensitization of cells to a dcEF using procaine by observing the loading of AT2 cells with calceine and using a square pulse generator, applying 50\ua0ms single rectangular pulses. Conclusions We suggest that the same methods of avoiding the side effects of electric current pulse application as in cell electrophoresis and galvanotaxis should also be used for electroporation. This conclusion was confirmed in our electroporation experiments performed in conditions assuring survival of over 80% of the electroporated cells. If the amplitude, duration, and shape of the dcEF pulse are known, then electroporation does not depend on the type of pulse generator. This knowledge of the characteristics of the pulse assures reproducibility of electroporation experiments using different equipment

Decreasing the thresholds for electroporation by sensitizing cells with local cationic anesthetics and substances that decrease the surface negative electric charge

The recently described method of cell electroporation by flow of cell suspension through localized direct current electric fields (dcEFs) was applied to identify non-toxic substances that could sensitize cells to external electric fields. We found that local cationic anesthetics such as procaine, lidocaine and tetracaine greatly facilitated the electroporation of AT2 rat prostate carcinoma cells and human skin fibroblasts (HSF). This manifested as a 50% reduction in the strength of the electric field required to induce cell death by irreversible electroporation or to introduce fluorescent dyes such as calcein, carboxyfluorescein or Lucifer yellow into the cells. A similar decrease in the electric field thresholds for irreversible and reversible cell electroporation was observed when the cells were exposed to the electric field in the presence of the non-toxic cationic dyes 9-aminoacridine (9-AAA) or toluidine blue. Identifying non-toxic, reversibly acting cell sensitizers may facilitate cancer tissue ablation and help introduce therapeutic or diagnostic substances into the cells and tissue