Towards a Model of Leadership Development: A Case Study of a Large Evangelical Church in Virginia

Ministry leaders are leaving the vocation in record numbers, largely due to a lack of intentional leadership development or preparedness for the challenges they face. These leaders require a formalized process for developing both the cognitive and behavioral aspects of leading in the local church that authentic and spiritual leadership comprise. The exemplar examined in this case study, recognizing similar challenges, implemented a leadership development process derived from components of both authentic and spiritual leadership. Over the span of just 3 years, the church experienced a nearly 20-point increase in employee engagement, earning them the title of Best Christian Workplace. According to the Best Christian Workplaces Institute (2022), a 10-point swing in employee engagement is high. The fact that the exemplar experienced a nearly 20-point swing is extremely rare. The purpose of this study was to explore authentic and spiritual leadership development in the local church through the exemplar of this large evangelical church in Virginia. The findings confirmed that the exemplar has not only incorporated components of both authentic and spiritual leadership into their leadership development framework, but that staff and volunteers credit the exemplar’s intentional process with much of the success they have enjoyed over the past 3 years

Examining Political Defection: An Analysis of Affective Intelligence, Media Attention, Political Knowledge and Issue Agreement

In politics the political party affiliation of the voter often serves as a predictor for the voting behavior of that individual. However, a voter may occasionally vote against his or her political party, an action known as defection. The present study serves two purposes. The first is to compare defectors and non-defectors across a variety of relevant characteristics, including emotion experienced for one\u27s in-party candidate, attention to media, political understanding, and issue agreement between oneself and one\u27s in-party candidate. The second is to examine the correlations between the individual elements of these theories with one another. Results of this study indicate emotion and issue agreement to be significantly different between defectors and non-defectors, while political understanding and media attention are not. Further correlations were found between emotion and the other topics mentioned, suggesting a relationship between emotions and voting behavior

Analysis and Exploration of Novel Antibiotic-Producing Streptomyces spp. in Spokane County, Washington

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a US citizen is infected by an antibiotic-resistant pathogen every 11 seconds, and every 15 minutes, a patient dies as a result of these infections. Due to the increasing incidence of antibiotic-resistant pathogenic microbes, the study and exploration of novel antibiotics from novel environments are imperative as infectious diseases are the second leading cause of death in the United States. The purpose of this research is to investigate and analyze antibiotic-producing soil microbes in Spokane County, WA, with hopes of discovering novel antibiotic-producing microbes, specifically Streptomyces species, and explore some of the variables that influence the production of secondary metabolites. My hypotheses are as follows: Soil microbes existing in Spokane County will include Streptomyces spp. capable of producing secondary metabolites suitable to combat selected Gram-negative or Gram-positive bacterial ESKAPE pathogens (Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumonia, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Enterobacter species) and pathogenic fungi such as Candida albicans. Additionally, modifying laboratory variables such as incubation temperature, time in incubation, and the type of media will influence the production of metabolites produced by Streptomyces isolates. Modifying these variables will impact the inhibitory capabilities of these isolates against Gram-negative, Gram-positive, and pathogenic fungal microbes. Cell-free supernatants of secondary metabolites on disk diffusion and 96 well plate assays will be utilized to measure zones of inhibition and inhibitory capabilities with absorbance measured at 600nm using a spectrophotometer

Feasibility Study of Consolidating Public Safety Answering Points in Berea, Broadview Heights, Brook Park, North Royalton, Olmsted Falls, Seven Hills, and Strongsville, Ohio

This study found that – based on selected configurations of communities and specific cost considerations – it is economically viable to consolidate public safety answering points (PSAPs) in Berea, Broadview Heights, Brook Park, North Royalton, Olmsted Falls, Seven Hills, and Strongsville. When comparing 2012 staffing and noncapital costs to estimated staffing and noncapital costs for a consolidated PSAP, the consolidated PSAP would provide an estimated collective reduction in costs ranging from $117,500 to$1.72 million. The analysis also revealed that consolidation is legally feasible. It would also offer improved service by ensuring all dispatchers are certified professionals and would provide an environment in which dispatchers can work together in the same facility, thus offering improved communications across community boundaries. An assessment of technology and equipment will be provided in a separate document. Consolidation of services would reduce the duplication of services and redundant capital projects. This in turn would free up funds to maintain and replace capital items as they expire. Instead of the duplicate purchase of expensive equipment by several communities, the cost of large capital would be distributed over a larger base of beneficiaries. Centralization will reduce the physical blueprint of dispatch operations which in turn should reduce operating costs such as natural gas, electric, and maintenance. Given an investment in high quality equipment, facilities, and staff, the level and quality of service provided by a consolidated dispatch center should exceed those currently being supplied by communities

Feasibility Study of Consolidating Public Safety Answering Points in Berea, Broadview Heights, Brook Park, North Royalton, Olmsted Falls, Seven Hills, and Strongsville, Ohio

This study found that – based on selected configurations of communities and specific cost considerations – it is economically viable to consolidate public safety answering points (PSAPs) in Berea, Broadview Heights, Brook Park, North Royalton, Olmsted Falls, Seven Hills, and Strongsville. When comparing 2012 staffing and noncapital costs to estimated staffing and noncapital costs for a consolidated PSAP, the consolidated PSAP would provide an estimated collective reduction in costs ranging from $117,500 to$1.72 million. The analysis also revealed that consolidation is legally feasible. It would also offer improved service by ensuring all dispatchers are certified professionals and would provide an environment in which dispatchers can work together in the same facility, thus offering improved communications across community boundaries. An assessment of technology and equipment will be provided in a separate document. Consolidation of services would reduce the duplication of services and redundant capital projects. This in turn would free up funds to maintain and replace capital items as they expire. Instead of the duplicate purchase of expensive equipment by several communities, the cost of large capital would be distributed over a larger base of beneficiaries. Centralization will reduce the physical blueprint of dispatch operations which in turn should reduce operating costs such as natural gas, electric, and maintenance. Given an investment in high quality equipment, facilities, and staff, the level and quality of service provided by a consolidated dispatch center should exceed those currently being supplied by communities

Assessing the Medical Emergency Preparedness of Dental Faculty, Residents, and Practicing Periodontists: An Exploratory Study

With the increased number of elderly and medically compromised individuals receiving dental care and the presence of systemic comorbidities and associated treatment modalities in this patient population, it is imperative that dentists be prepared to manage a variety of medical emergencies. The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge of and preparedness to manage common medical emergencies of cohorts of practicing periodontists, specialty residents, and faculty members, both for comparative purposes and as an aid to refining a dental school’s standardized case scenarios. The study, conducted in 2017, was designed for four groups of randomly selected participants with at least 20 in each group; the actual number of voluntary participants was 28 private practice periodontists, 22 residents in specialty programs, 21 specialist faculty members, and 24 general practice faculty members. Participants were asked to evaluate ten clinical emergency cases and identify the diagnosis and indicated intervention for each. Groups were also evaluated for differences among correct responses for each case. Overall, there were no statistically significant differences for number of correct diagnoses or interventions among the four groups. However, several cases had varying degrees of incorrect diagnoses and management across all groups. Participants who had recently graduated or were still in school were able to treat cases appropriately more often than the other participants. Further refinement of cases to assess provider preparedness to correctly diagnose and manage medical emergencies is needed, specifically establishing case-specific features and addressing areas of potential confusion before the cases are used for educational purposes

Using Vision System Technologies for Offset Approaches in Low Visibility Operations

Flight deck-based vision systems, such as Synthetic Vision Systems (SVS) and Enhanced Flight Vision Systems (EFVS), have the potential to provide additional margins of safety for aircrew performance and enable the implementation of operational improvements for low visibility surface, arrival, and departure operations in the terminal environment with equivalent efficiency to visual operations. Twelve air transport-rated crews participated in a motion-base simulation experiment to evaluate the use of SVS/EFVS in Next Generation Air Transportation System low visibility approach and landing operations at Chicago O'Hare airport. Three monochromatic, collimated head-up display (HUD) concepts (conventional HUD, SVS HUD, and EFVS HUD) and three instrument approach types (straight-in, 3-degree offset, 15-degree offset) were experimentally varied to test the efficacy of the SVS/EFVS HUD concepts for offset approach operations. The findings suggest making offset approaches in low visibility conditions with an EFVS HUD or SVS HUD appear feasible. Regardless of offset approach angle or HUD concept being flown, all approaches had comparable ILS tracking during the instrument segment and were within the lateral confines of the runway with acceptable sink rates during the visual segment of the approach. Keywords: Enhanced Flight Vision Systems; Synthetic Vision Systems; Head-up Display; NextGe

Synthetic and Enhanced Vision Systems for NextGen (SEVS) Simulation and Flight Test Performance Evaluation

The Synthetic and Enhanced Vision Systems for NextGen (SEVS) simulation and flight tests are jointly sponsored by NASA's Aviation Safety Program, Vehicle Systems Safety Technology project and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The flight tests were conducted by a team of Honeywell, Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation and NASA personnel with the goal of obtaining pilot-in-the-loop test data for flight validation, verification, and demonstration of selected SEVS operational and system-level performance capabilities. Nine test flights (38 flight hours) were conducted over the summer and fall of 2011. The evaluations were flown in Gulfstream.s G450 flight test aircraft outfitted with the SEVS technology under very low visibility instrument meteorological conditions. Evaluation pilots flew 108 approaches in low visibility weather conditions (600 ft to 2400 ft visibility) into various airports from Louisiana to Maine. In-situ flight performance and subjective workload and acceptability data were collected in collaboration with ground simulation studies at LaRC.s Research Flight Deck simulator