Methodology and Applications of Christian Leadership Ethics

A fundamental methodology for Christian leadership ethics will be proposed, which has long been pending in the discourse on ethical leadership. It is necessary to first clarify what characterizes leadership ethics, and secondly, what Christian leadership ethics imply and how this methodology should be classified with regard to alternative paradigms. Thirdly, the practical impact for selected areas of application will be pointed out. It will be demonstrated that leadership ethics in general is based on a transparent basis of values and apply to specific scopes. It defines the relationship between economic efficiency and human utility in a narrower sense as objective dualism. Christian leadership ethics is based on the biblical conception of man and therefore the arguments are metaphysical. The related answer to objective-dualism implies direct consequences for the design of human resource management, motivation and communication. At least from a Christian point of view, it is undisputable that there are and should be Christian leaders in management. But can or should there be Christian leadership ethics? This has been questioned in principle by the example of Ferdinand Rohrhirsch – even though recently, several approaches have raised this claim: for instance, the model of Servant Leadership, which comes from the U.S. and is slowly being established in Europe. The perspective leadership ethics by Cornelius Keppeler or the Business Metaphysics by Michael Schramm, is another example. In this article we clear the way for a Christian methodology which goes beyond virtue. We clarify what is meant by corresponding Christian leadership ethics and where, from a fundamental ethical point of view, such a system can be classified in relation to alternative paradigms. Corresponding consequences for selected areas of application will be shown

The place for short-acting opioids: special emphasis on remifentanil

Pain is among the worst possible experiences for the critically ill. Therefore, nearly all intensive care patients receive some kind of pain relief, and opioids are most frequently administered. Morphine has a number of important adverse effects, including histamine release, pruritus, constipation, and, in particular, accumulation of morphine-6-glucuronide in patients with renal impairment. Hence, it is not an ideal analgesic for use in critically ill patients. Although the synthetic opioids fentanyl, alfentanil, and sufentanil have better profiles, they undergo hepatic metabolism and their continuous infusion also leads to accumulation and prolonged drug effects. Various attempts have been made to limit these adverse effects, including daily interruption of infusion of sedatives and analgesics, intermittent bolus injections rather than continuous infusions, and selection of a ventilatory support pattern that allows more spontaneous ventilation. However, these techniques at best only limit the effects of drug accumulation, but they do not solve the problem. Another type of approach is to use remifentanil in critically ill patients. Remifentanil is metabolized by unspecific blood and tissue esterases and undergoes rapid metabolism, independent of the duration of infusion or any organ insufficiency. There are data indicating that remifentanil can be used for analgesia and sedation in all kinds of adult intensive care unit patients, and that its use will result in rapid and predictable offset of effect. This may permit both a significant reduction in weaning and extubation times, and clear differentiation between over-sedation and brain dysfunction. This article provides an overview of the use of short-acting opioids in the intensive care unit, with special emphasis on remifentanil. It summarizes the currently available study data regarding remifentanil and provides recommendations for clinical use of this agent

Methodology and Applications of Christian Leadership Ethics

A fundamental methodology for Christian leadership ethics will be proposed, which has long been pending in the discourse on ethical leadership. It is necessary to first clarify what characterizes leadership ethics, and secondly, what Christian leadership ethics imply and how this methodology should be classified with regard to alternative paradigms. Thirdly, the practical impact for selected areas of application will be pointed out. It will be demonstrated that leadership ethics in general is based on a transparent basis of values and apply to specific scopes. It defines the relationship between economic efficiency and human utility in a narrower sense as objective dualism. Christian leadership ethics is based on the biblical conception of man and therefore the arguments are metaphysical. The related answer to objective-dualism implies direct consequences for the design of human resource management, motivation and communication. At least from a Christian point of view, it is undisputable that there are and should be Christian leaders in management. But can or should there be Christian leadership ethics? This has been questioned in principle by the example of Ferdinand Rohrhirsch – even though recently, several approaches have raised this claim: for instance, the model of Servant Leadership, which comes from the U.S. and is slowly being established in Europe. The perspective leadership ethics by Cornelius Keppeler or the Business Metaphysics by Michael Schramm, is another example. In this article we clear the way for a Christian methodology which goes beyond virtue. We clarify what is meant by corresponding Christian leadership ethics and where, from a fundamental ethical point of view, such a system can be classified in relation to alternative paradigms. Corresponding consequences for selected areas of application will be shown

Notions of Drought: Nomadic Economy and Tribal Community in Eastern Morocco

This study is about drought. At the same time, it is about a community of nomadic livestock producers in the drylands of eastern Morocco. Drought is connected to these Arab pastoralists in numerous ways. In fact, it is impossible to understand the social and economic dynamics currently unfolding in the high plateaus without understanding what drought is and does. Even though defining drought may seem straightforward, it turns out that vastly different notions coexist within the study area, each related to a specific constellation (or assemblage) of actors. In this dissertation, I explore those notions of drought and the assemblages they are entangled with, focusing on key elements of the livestock economy and the tribal community. I hope this study will contribute to knowledge on three levels. First and foremost, empirically: I collect and connect knowledge on an under-studied and marginalized pastoral community in rural Morocco. My insights stem from qualitative and quantitative fieldwork, including a household survey. The second level is methodological: by deploying actor-network theory and assemblage thinking, I tap into theories that have largely been absent from studies of the Middle East and North Africa. As my assemblage approach to drought in eastern Morocco demonstrates, this can generate innovative insights into processes of socio-economic transformation. And third, on a conceptual level, I propose a new way of thinking about drought – a phenomenon of pressing global concern far beyond the high plateaus of eastern Morocco

Dopants and defects in proton-conducting perovskites

Many doped perovskites show high proton conductivity at intermediate to high temperatures (500- 900 °C), which has opened possibilities for many prospected applications in energy conversion (fuel cells), and electrochemical devices. In a doped perovskite, e.g. BaCe1-xYxO3-y, oxygen vacancies are created by charge compensation, and can eventually react with air moisture to form structural protonic defects. The sluggish nature of the proton, which is practically invisible to most structural analyses, and poses enormous problems to quantum chemistry, has surely contributed to slow down the progress in the understanding of these materials: in fact, the conduction dynamics and its interplay with structure are still matter of debate. The kind of trivalent dopant and its size, and the doping level, have all been found to critically influence the conductivity: to date, however, no comprehensive model was developed, and no clear explanations exist between the chemical and dynamical properties. Here we present results collected in several EXAFS experiments on doped BaCeO3 and BaZrO3 spanning three years, on the Ba site, Ce site, and the dopant (yttrium, gadolinium, indium: the ionic sizes of these are respectively equal, larger and smaller than Ce4+) site. The local structures up to about 6 Å around each site are solved with state-of-the-art techniques employing both the GNXAS and FEFF approaches, revealing unique features and demonstrating that in this case the conventional diffraction techniques are not suited to unravel the complexity of doped crystals. In particular, the attention will be drawn on the local deviations from Vegard’s law, the local expansion/contraction as a function of hydration degree, the interplay between dopant and defects, and the chemical compatibility (Pearson absolute hardness) instead of ionic size matching. The EXAFS results are correlated with complementary information about the dynamics of protons and other defects (IR and neutron vibrational spectroscopy, QENS, ionic and electronic conductivity measurements)