Shedding light on a muddled field : a Christian ethical appraisal of transforming and transformational leadership

Principles of “transforming leadership” have been widely promoted since the publication of James McGregor Burns’ book Leadership, especially among Christian leaders. The purpose of this study is to examine the ethical foundations of his model and Bernard Bass’ “transformational leadership”. Imprecise use of the terms “transforming”, “charismatic”, and “transformational” leads to an adoption of methods without adequate understanding of the underlying value system. This literature review compares and evaluates the source texts within a framework of world view, intention, character and menschenbild, as well as the Christian ethical mandates of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Valuing the imago Dei in others has significant implications for a leader-follower relationship. Bonhoeffer’s mandates will help leaders reflect their position within their organisations and the wider society. Though the incentive for this research was leadership within the context of the Wycliffe Global Alliance, its findings will be relevant to Christian leadership in general, especially in intercultural contexts.Philosophy and Systematic TheologyM. Th. (Theological Ethics with specialisation in Christian leadership in context

Microbial iron reduction during passive in situ remediation of an acidic mine pit lake mesocosm

AbstractFerric iron reduction was studied in a pilot-scale enclosure experiment for passive biological remediation of an acidic mine pit lake in Lusatia, Germany. The metabolic properties of prokaryotes involved in Fe(III) reduction may be important for the outcome of biological remediation, as chemolithotrophic Fe(III) reduction can counteract the desired pH increase, but heterotrophic Fe(III) reduction will provide the necessary Fe(II) for precipitation of sulfide minerals following sulfate reduction. Therefore, vertical profiles of sediment parameters related to iron and sulfur cycling were determined in conjunction with viable counts of different ferric iron-reducing micro-organisms using selective media. Findings were compared to an untreated reference site. The addition of organic matter stimulated ferric iron reduction and sulfate reduction in the enclosure and led to elevated pH and accumulations of ferrous iron and reduced sulfur compounds. Numbers of neutrophilic heterotrophic Fe(III) reducers increased during treatment, those of acidophilic heterotrophic Fe(III) reducers remained similar, and those of acidophilic chemolithotrophic Fe(III) reducers decreased. Zones of ferric iron-reducing activity corresponded well with microbial depth profiles; however, viable counts of neutrophilic or acid-tolerant Fe(III) reducers must have been underestimated based on the corresponding observed activity levels. Ferric iron reduction by chemolithotrophic acidophiles seemed to be of minor importance, so a lowering of pH values due to Fe(III) reducing activity is unlikely

"I'll still kick your ass even in my skirt": Feministische Musikvideos im Englischunterricht mit TRAVIS GO analysieren

This article outlines an English lesson for secondary schools, bringing together perspectives from media studies, teaching methodology in foreign language acquisition and teaching practice. We describe how pupils of a secondary school (3rd year, Gymnasium) engaged in-depth with the topic of feminism in music videos. Working in collaboration, the pupils analysed music videos they selected themselves, and uncovered gendered representations in the video, song text and sound. For this inquiry they used the digital tool TRAVIS GO, a web app specifically designed for schools. We describe how the functions of TRAVIS GO support the critical engagement with modern media products in language teaching, supporting the aim of initiating critical discussions of important topics in society with authentic materials

Sustainable SDI for EU noise mapping in NRW- best practice for INSPIRE

The Environmental Noise Directive of the European Union 2002/49/EG (END) obligates the EU member states to determine every 5 years the noise emission of major roads and railways, major airports, industrial activity sites and urban agglomerations and to document the results in noise maps. It poses high requirements, as a great number of statewide and ubiquitous geodata and thematic data in the third dimension is necessary (terrain, buildings, roads, railways). To provide these considerable amount of statewide 3D geodata, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) follows a modern implementation concept, the sustainable use and enlargement of the Spatial Data Infrastructure GDI NRW. NRW provides for the first time statewide 3D geodata as features in CityGML via OGC Web Feature Services (3D building models in LOD1, ATKIS 3D road and railway data) and the Digital Terrain Model 10m grid via an OGC Web Coverage Service. CityGML is used as sole common exchange format between web services and noise calculation software to solve syntactic and semantic interoperability problems. A CityGML data base is realised, which contains approx. 10 million buildings. This article demonstrates the architecture of geodata provision, the 3D modelling in CityGML, the geodata refinement and interoperability tasks as well as the noise calculation results

Das Reallabor Webergut: gemeinsam erforschen und erproben wir ein «gutes» Leben innerhalb der planetaren Grenzen

Im Reallabor Webergut in Zollikofen wird gemeinsam mit zukünftigen Bewohner·innen ein gutes Leben innerhalb der planetaren Grenzen transdisziplinär erprobt und erforscht. Gerade bei der Gestaltung einer nachhaltigen Wohn- und Ernährungsumgebung gibt es unterschiedliche Bedürfnisse, für welche mithilfe von Community Building sensibilisiert und partizipativ Lösungen erarbeitet werden.Dans le laboratoire réel du projet de village urbain Webergut à Zollikofen, une équipe de chercheuses et chercheurs, en cocréation avec les futur·e·s habitant·e·s, explore et expérimente de manière transdisciplinaire une vie durable respectueuse des limites de la planète dans les domaines de l’alimentation et de l’habitat. Les premiers résultats montrent entre autres que les futur·e·s habitant·e·s adoptent déjà une alimentation consciente, mais que celle-ci devrait toutefois être encore plus durable. Or, quand il s’agit d’organiser le logement et la consommation alimentaire de manière durable, l’on est confronté à différents besoins. La sensibilisation à ces divers besoins et la recherche de solutions collectives se font notamment par le biais du community building. Cette approche participative génère des impulsions importantes pour un changement structurel durable

The WT1-like transcription factor Klumpfuss maintains lineage commitment of enterocyte progenitors in the Drosophila intestine

In adult epithelial stem cell lineages, the precise differentiation of daughter cells is critical to maintain tissue homeostasis. Notch signaling controls the choice between absorptive and entero-endocrine cell differentiation in both the mammalian small intestine and the Drosophila midgut, yet how Notch promotes lineage restriction remains unclear. Here, we describe a role for the transcription factor Klumpfuss (Klu) in restricting the fate of enteroblasts (EBs) in the Drosophila intestine. Klu is induced in Notch-positive EBs and its activity restricts cell fate towards the enterocyte (EC) lineage. Transcriptomics and DamID profiling show that Klu suppresses enteroendocrine (EE) fate by repressing the action of the proneural gene Scute, which is essential for EE differentiation. Loss of Klu results in differentiation of EBs into EE cells. Our findings provide mechanistic insight into how lineage commitment in progenitor cell differentiation can be ensured downstream of initial specification cues

Molecular phylogeny and taxonomic revision of the sportive lemurs (Lepilemur, Primates)

BACKGROUND: The number of species within the Malagasy genus Lepilemur and their phylogenetic relationships is disputed and controversial. In order to establish their evolutionary relationships, a comparative cytogenetic and molecular study was performed. We sequenced the complete mitochondrial cytochrome b gene (1140 bp) from 68 individuals representing all eight sportive lemur species and most major populations, and compared the results with those obtained from cytogenetic studies derived from 99 specimens. RESULTS: Interspecific genetic variation, diagnostic characters and significantly supported phylogenetic relationships were obtained from the mitochondrial sequence data and are in agreement with cytogenetic information. The results confirm the distinctiveness of Lepilemur ankaranensis, L. dorsalis, L. edwardsi, L. leucopus, L. microdon, L. mustelinus, L. ruficaudatus and L. septentrionalis on species level. Additionally, within L. ruficaudatus large genetic differences were observed among different geographic populations. L. dorsalis from Sahamalaza Peninsula and from the Ambanja/Nosy Be region are paraphyletic, with the latter forming a sister group to L. ankaranensis. CONCLUSION: Our results support the classification of the eight major sportive lemur taxa as independent species. Moreover, our data indicate further cryptic speciation events within L. ruficaudatus and L. dorsalis. Based on molecular data we propose to recognize the sportive lemur populations from north of the Tsiribihina River, south of the Betsiboka River, and from the Sahamalaza Peninsula, as distinct species

Automatic Individual Identification of Patterned Solitary Species Based on Unlabeled Video Data

The manual processing and analysis of videos from camera traps is time-consuming and includes several steps, ranging from the filtering of falsely triggered footage to identifying and re-identifying individuals. In this study, we developed a pipeline to automatically analyze videos from camera traps to identify individuals without requiring manual interaction. This pipeline applies to animal species with uniquely identifiable fur patterns and solitary behavior, such as leopards (Panthera pardus). We assumed that the same individual was seen throughout one triggered video sequence. With this assumption, multiple images could be assigned to an individual for the initial database filling without pre-labeling. The pipeline was based on well-established components from computer vision and deep learning, particularly convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT) features. We augmented this basis by implementing additional components to substitute otherwise required human interactions. Based on the similarity between frames from the video material, clusters were formed that represented individuals bypassing the open set problem of the unknown total population. The pipeline was tested on a dataset of leopard videos collected by the Pan African Programme: The Cultured Chimpanzee (PanAf) and achieved a success rate of over 83% for correct matches between previously unknown individuals. The proposed pipeline can become a valuable tool for future conservation projects based on camera trap data, reducing the work of manual analysis for individual identification, when labeled data is unavailable