The nature of baptism: examining the instructional writings of Menno Simons and Martin Luther

The article compares the teachings of Martin Luther and Menno Simons on baptism so that contemporary Lutherans and Mennonites can understand one another\u27s positions on issues of baptism more clearly. The method is a comparison of five essential beliefs which each teacher presented in his instructional writings. These comparisons reveal some major grounds for the controversy over infant baptism and the inevitability of the controversy. Indication is also given of the significance of the legal context of the discussion in that time

Intercultural training for international placements

Despite its increasing popularity, much intercultural training is not developed with the same level of rigour as training in other areas. Further, research on intercultural training has brought inconsistent results about the effectiveness of such training. This PhD thesis develops a rigorous model of intercultural training and applies it to the preparation of British students going on work/study placements in France and Germany. It investigates the reasons for inconsistent training success by looking at the cognitive learning processes in intercultural training, relating them to training goals, and by examining the short- and long-term transfer of intercultural training into real-life encounters with people from other cultures. Two cognitive trainings based on critical incidents were designed for online delivery. The training content relied on cultural practice dimensions from the GWBE study (House, Hanges, Javidan, Dorfman & Gupta, 2004). Of the two trainings, the 'singlemode training' aimed to develop declarative knowledge, which is necessary to analyse and understand other cultures. The 'concurrent training' aimed to develop declarative and procedural knowledge, which is needed to develop skills for dealing with difficult situations in a culturally appropriate way. Participants (N-48) were randomly assigned to one of the two training conditions. Declarative learning appeared as a process of steady knowledge increase, while procedural learning involved cognitive re-categorisation rather than knowledge increase. In a negotiation role play with host-country nationals directly after the online training, participants of the concurrent training exhibited a more initiative negotiation style than participants of the single-mode training. Comparing cultural adjustment and performance of training participants during their time abroad with an untrained control group, participants of the concurrent training showed the qualitatively best development in adjustment and performance. Besides intercultural training, multicultural personality traits were assessed and proved to be a powerful predictor of adjustment and, indirectly, of performance abroad

Seven principles for managing IT solutions from a provider’s perspective

IT solutions are a way to differentiate between competitors and to meet new customer expectations. For organizations transforming into IT solution providers, it is still unclear how to manage IT solutions. Based on literature on IT solutions and a multiple case study, we derive seven principles for managing IT solutions from the provider’s perspective. Main principles include that IT solution providers should have a modularized offering portfolio in place to ensure cost-efficient IT solution delivery for each customer and that IT solution providers should learn from each customer engagement to attune their offering portfolio constantly to market needs. As a result from our management principles, we argue that becoming an IT solution provider requires more effort than just changing the offering portfolio to include service

DEVELOPING A RISK MANAGEMENT PROCESS AND RISK TAXONOMY FOR MEDIUM-SIZED IT SOLUTION PROVIDERS

To differentiate from competitors, some organizations are transforming their business models from offering single products or services to providing IT solutions. In an IT solution, the provider and the customer co-operate in integrating hardware, software and service components to fulfil customer-specific needs. The new business model, however, presents new risk management challenges. First, IT solution providers need to understand additional risks of IT solutions, e.g., risks engendered by operating the IT solution on behalf of the customer and by integrating modules from third-party providers. Second, risk management must account for special IT solution characteristics, e.g., supporting the whole lifecycle from planning to end-of-life and accounting for customer-specific risk profiles. In this paper, we present the results of our design science research with a medium-sized IT solution provider. We developed two artifacts. First, we cooperatively developed a risk management process that could be generalized to other solution providers of similar size. Second, we derived a taxonomy of IT solution risks to provide a foundation for the risk management process. We describe the process by which our research partner transformed the risk management and discuss implications for medium-sized IT solution providers

A CONCEPUTAL FRAMEWORK OF REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF E-LEARNING OFFERINGS FROM A PRODUCT SERVICE SYSTEM PERSPECTIVE

The term e-learning subsumes all forms learning where electronic media is used for the presentation and distribution of thecourse content. Although various guidelines and models exist, the development and operation of e-learning offerings hasshown to be a difficult task. Often existing approaches focus on single aspects such as technical details or the content ofteaching, while neglecting other aspects such as level of service requirements. As e-learning offerings are IT-based systemsconsisting of hardware, software, and services that have to be considered from a lifecycle perspective, they exhibit similarcharacteristics as Product Service Systems. We, therefore, suggest designing e-learning offerings from a systems perspective.As a first step, we synthesize a requirements framework for e-learning offerings from the e-learning and PSS literatures. Weenrich the framework with examples from a real-life e-learning offering and argue why the PSS approach is useful for thedesign of e-learning offerings

EVALUATION OF THERMAL AND MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF DEMONSTRATION WALL UTILIZING PHASE CHANGE CEMENTITIOUS MATERIALS

International project PoroPCM involves partners from Germany, Czech Republic, Spain and Japan with the objective to develop new multifunctional Phase Change Materials modified porous cementitious nanocomposite (PoroPCM). Such material can be utilized for storing heat energy in the insulation layer of buildings compared to commonly used insulation materials since the phase change increases heat capacity. This enhanced feature reduces the amount of energy necessary for running the heating/cooling system. For the testing of the newly developed phase change cementitious composite a demonstration wall will be developed and tested for its thermal as well as mechanical performance. The topic of the paper is the description of the properties of the new phase change cementitious nanocomposite. The main emphasis of the paper is the description of the demonstration wall behaviour under typical environmental conditions. The wall design is supported by numerical simulation of the wall physical parameters. The numerical modelling involves the definition of suitable numerical models for the simulation of the thermal properties of the new phase change nanocomposite. The numerical model is then used to demonstrate the performance of the wall layer design. The presented pilot results show efficiency increase of the insulation material in the range 15–70%. Also modelling of wind resistance of the layered structure is included. The developed wall design and PoroPCM material will be tested and verified by a large scale test in the final year of the project

Development and Production of Artificial Test Swarf to Examine Wear Behavior of Running Engine Components - Geometrically Derived Designs

Subtractive manufacturing processes are usually accompanied by the occurrence of tiny flakes and swarf, which later on cause severe wear and damage, especially in moving components such as rolling or sliding bearings, pistons, etc. However, up until now, such detrimental effects have hardly been investigated. One reason is the lack of a definition of a typical design of debris particle. Therefore, the main goal of the project described in this paper was to elaborate a draft that defines standardized test particles. It had to be evaluated whether test particles could be adequately reproduced and whether they would reveal significant damage potential. Taking into account future mass fabrication, Micro Powder Injection Molding (MicroPIM) was chosen as a production method. Five different 3D designs of geometrically defined test particles were developed. The maximum size of each design was 1167 mm in green state; however, all samples shrank in size during sintering. Specially tailored feedstocks containing 42CrMo4 steel powders were used and the related molding, debinding and sintering procedures were developed. All particle geometries and related mold inserts were developed using a commercial software routine for the layout of runner systems, gate locations and ejector positions. The damage potential of the test particles was evaluated based on trials using journal bearing and shift valve test rigs. Although only a moderate degree of damage potential could be ascertained up until now, it can be expected that the artificial swarf will enable standardized wear test procedures to be developed

Determining the required cleanliness level using synthetic test contamination

As electrification in the automotive industry progresses, the demand is rising for test particles with specific properties. More and more new applications are also being developed, such as processes for validating cleaning steps, contamination tracking or determining cleanliness limits. This article describes how test particles can be reproducibly manufactured in all three dimensions by micro milling. In addition, it explains how the dimensional accuracy of these free-form surfaces can be analyzed with computer tomography

Solid-state flurbiprofen and methyl-β-cyclodextrin inclusion complexes prepared using a single-step, organic solvent-free supercritical fluid process

The aim of this study was to enhance the apparent solubility and dissolution properties of flurbiprofen through inclusion complexation with cyclodextrins. Especially, the efficacy of supercritical fluid technology as a preparative technique for the preparation of flurbiprofen-methyl–β–cyclodextrin inclusion complexes was evaluated. The complexes were prepared by supercritical carbon dioxide processing and were evaluated by solubility, differential scanning calorimetry, X-ray powder diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, practical yield, drug content estimation and in vitro dissolution studies. Computational molecular docking studies were conducted to study the possibility of molecular arrangement of inclusion complexes between flurbiprofen and methyl-β-cyclodextrin. The studies support the formation of stable molecular inclusion complexes between the drug and cyclodextrin in a 1:1 stoichiometry. In vitro dissolution studies showed that the dissolution properties of flurbiprofen were significantly enhanced by the binary mixtures prepared by supercritical carbon dioxide processing. The amount of flurbiprofen dissolved into solution alone was very low with 1.11 ± 0.09% dissolving at the end of 60 min, while the binary mixtures processed by supercritical carbon dioxide at 45 °C and 200 bar released 99.39 ± 2.34% of the drug at the end of 30 min. All the binary mixtures processed by supercritical carbon dioxide at 45 °C exhibited a drug release of more than 80% within the first 10 min irrespective of the pressure employed. The study demonstrated the single step, organic solvent-free supercritical carbon dioxide process as a promising approach for the preparation of inclusion complexes between flurbiprofen and methyl–β–cyclodextrin in solid-state

Cholinium-based ionic liquids with pharmaceutically active anions

Novel ionic liquids (ILs) containing cholinium as a benign cation combined with anions based on five active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), namely, nalidixic acid, niflumic acid, 4-amino-salicylic acid, pyrazinoic acid and picolinic acid, were prepared via a simple and sustainable two-step anion exchange reaction. The solubility of the prepared pharmaceutically active ILs (API-ILs) in both water and simulated biological fluids at 25 degrees C and 37 degrees C, as well as the solubility of the parent APIs, were measured. Further, in vitro cytotoxicity levels for both cholinium-based API-ILs and parent APIs were established using two different human cells lines, namely Caco-2 colon carcinoma cells and HepG2 hepatocellular carcinoma cells. Herein, the dual nature of ILs is exploited by combining the cheap, available and essential nutrient cholinium cation with pharmaceutically active anions, upgrading the chemical, physical and biopharmaceutical properties, particularly melting point, aqueous solubility and the potential to penetrate cell membranes of the parent APIs, without impair their cytotoxicity response which prompt opportunities for creating further advances in pharmaceutical challenges