Sideways Leadership: Perceptions of the Senior Pastor’s Transformational Leadership Style and Its Relationship to Church Effectiveness

What if research could demonstrate how a more collaborative or transformational approach to church leadership had a positive impact on the overall effectiveness of the church? Would pastors adjust their leadership style, and would seminaries expand their pastoral training curriculum? Research continues to affirm the importance of leadership in the health and effectiveness of organizations from multiple contexts. Everything from schools to politics shows the need for leadership. Yet, little quantitative research has been done to see the impact of leadership within the church arena. Is it possible that leadership style correlates to the effectiveness of corporate America but has little correlation within the church? Should seminaries continue to focus on training pastors for exegetically-correct sermons and leave void the need to nurture and guide people to meaningful relationships within the community? Should pastors continue to lead parishioners from an authoritative position that their seminary-trained expertise might dictate, or should pastors collaborate with lay leaders to jointly develop a church atmosphere that reflects shared values developed through a collaborative approach

Perceptions of the Senior Pastors\u27 Transformational Leadership Style and Its Relationship to the Eight Markers of Natural Church Development [Dissertation Notice]

What if research could demonstrate how a more collaborative approach to church leadership had a positive impact on the overall effectiveness of the church? Would pastors adjust their leadership style and would seminaries expand their pastoral training curriculum? Research continues to affirm the importance of leadership in the health and effectiveness of organizations from multiple contexts. Everything from schools to politics indicates the need for leadership. Yet, little quantitative research has been done to see the impact of leadership within the church arena. Is it possible that leadership style correlates to the effectiveness of corporate America, but has little correlation within the church? Should seminaries continue to focus on training pastors for exegetically-correct sermons and leave void the need to nurture and guide real-life people to meaningful relationships within the community? Should pastors continue to lead parishioners from an authoritative position or should pastors collaborate with lay leaders to jointly develop a church atmosphere that reflects shared values developed through a collaborative approach? Does strong leadership indicate more empowerment and less control within collaborative efforts? This research sought a statistically relevant linear correlation between the leadership style of the senior pastor, as defined by the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire, and the effectiveness of the church, as defined by Natural Church Development. The Natural Church Development scores were averaged for fifteen churches that participated in the research. Each senior pastor participated in the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire giving each a rating on transactional, transformational, and laissez-faire leadership traits. Regression analysis was used to determine correlation between the variables. These two variables (NCD average score and MLQ averages for transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire) were examined with linear regression testing. The result was a statistically strong linear relationship with transformational (Adjusted R2 = .24) and transactional leadership (Adjusted R2 = .25), but no statistically significant correlation with laissez-faire. The leadership of the senior pastor does relate to the effectiveness of the church as defined by the eight markers of Natural Church Development

Sideways Leadership: Perceptions of the Senior Pastor’s Transformational Leadership Style and Its Relationship to Church Effectiveness

What if research could demonstrate how a more collaborative or transformational approach to church leadership had a positive impact on the overall effectiveness of the church? Would pastors adjust their leadership style, and would seminaries expand their pastoral training curriculum? Research continues to affirm the importance of leadership in the health and effectiveness of organizations from multiple contexts. Everything from schools to politics shows the need for leadership. Yet, little quantitative research has been done to see the impact of leadership within the church arena. Is it possible that leadership style correlates to the effectiveness of corporate America but has little correlation within the church? Should seminaries continue to focus on training pastors for exegetically-correct sermons and leave void the need to nurture and guide people to meaningful relationships within the community? Should pastors continue to lead parishioners from an authoritative position that their seminary-trained expertise might dictate, or should pastors collaborate with lay leaders to jointly develop a church atmosphere that reflects shared values developed through a collaborative approach

A performance evaluation of commercial fibrinogen reference preparations and assays for Clauss and PT-derived fibrinogen

The wide availability of fibrinogen estimations based on the prothrombin time (PT-Fg) has caused concern about the variability and clinical utility of fibrinogen assays. In a multi-centre study, we investigated fibrinogen assays using various reagents and analysers, Clauss assays generally gave good agreement, although one reagent gave 15-30% higher values in DIC and thrombolysis. Two commercial reference preparations had much lower potencies than the manufacturers declared, and plasma turbidity influenced parallelism in some Clauss assays, PT-Fg assays gave higher values than Clauss and showed calibrant dependent effects, the degree of disparity correlating with calibrant and test sample turbidity. Analyser and thromboplastin dependent differences were noted. The relationship between Clauss and PT-Fg assays was sigmoid, and the plateau of maximal PT-Fg differed by about 2 g/l between reagents. ELISA and immunonephelometric assays correlated well, but with a high degree of scatter. Antigen levels were higher than Clauss, but slightly lower than PT-Fg assays, which appeared to be influenced by degraded fibrinogen. Clauss assays are generally reproducible between centres, analysers and reagents, but PT-Fg assays are not reliable in clinical settings

Evidence that high von Willebrand factor and low ADAMTS-13 levels independently increase the risk of a non-fatal heart attack

Background: A disintegrin and metalloproteinase with a thrombospondin type 1 motif, member 13 (ADAMTS-13) may influence von Willebrand factor (VWF) levels and consequently the risk of myocardial infarction (MI). Moreover, ADAMTS-13 influences hemostatic plug formation in mouse models. We therefore studied their associations in the Glasgow MI Study (GLAMIS). Methods and results: We measured ADAMTS-13 and VWF antigen levels by ELISAs in stored plasma from a case–control study of 466 MI cases and 484 age- and sex-matched controls from the same north Glasgow population. There was no correlation between ADAMTS-13 and VWF levels in cases or controls. ADAMTS-13 levels correlated positively with serum cholesterol and triglycerides and body mass index, and negatively with high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol. VWF levels correlated with age, fibrinogen and C-reactive protein. In multivariable analyses including risk factors, VWF correlated positively with risk of MI, and ADAMTS-13 correlated negatively with risk of MI. These associations were independent of each other. The association of ADAMTS-13 with risk of MI was observed only in multivariable analysis. Conclusions: VWF and ADAMTS-13 levels were not associated in this study, and showed associations with MI risk in opposite directions but of similar strength. The association of ADAMTS-13 with MI is influenced by lipid levels, and consequently requires further investigation

Hormonal replacement therapy, prothrombotic mutations and the risk of venous thrombosis

Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) increases the risk of venous thrombosis. We investigated whether this risk is affected by carriership of hereditary prothrombotic abnormalities. Therefore, we determined the two most common prothrombotic mutations, factor V Leiden and prothrombin 20210A in women who participated in a case-control study on venous thrombosis. Relative risks were expressed as odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI95). Among 7 7 women aged 45-64 years with a first venous thrombosis, 51% were receiving HRT at the time of thrombosis, compared with 24% of control women (OR = 3.3, CI95 1.8-5.8). Among the patients, 23% had a prothrombotic defect, versus 7% among the control women (OR = 3.8, CI95 1.7- 8.5). Women who had factor V Leiden and used HRT had a 15-fold increased risk (OR = 15.5, CI95 3.1-77), which exceeded the expected joint odds ratio of 6.1 (under an additive model). We conclude that the thrombotic risk of HRT may particularly affect women with prothrombotic mutations. Efforts to avoid HRT in women with increased risk of thrombosis are advisable

Practical Approaches for Software Components Integration in Telecommunications

Nowadays, advances in telecommunication network design and performance analysis often rely on dedicated software tools. Unfortunately, developing new tools is a very time and resources consuming activity. To rationalise development costs, existing applications can be extended. Alternatively, existing software components can be combined and integrated. Integration of heterogeneous components requires many efforts, in particular when the specific input/output data formats have to be adapted. Furthermore, the amount of data exchanged between the components can be huge and needs intermediate processing. To facilitate data exchange between tools, two concepts are presented in this paper: CostGlue and the Multilayer Network Description (MND). Their utilisation modes and the advantages they provide are illustrated through a practical example

Skin microvascular vasodilatory capacity in offspring of two parents with Type 2 diabetes

Aims<br/> Microvascular dysfunction occurs in Type 2 diabetes and in subjects with fasting hyperglycaemia. It is unclear whether this dysfunction relates to dysglycaemia. This study investigated in normogylcaemic individuals whether a genetic predisposition to diabetes, or indices of insulin resistance including endothelial markers, were associated with impaired microvascular function.<br/> Methods<br/> Maximum microvascular hyperaemia to local heating of the skin was measured using laser Doppler flowmetry in 21 normoglycaemic subjects with no family history of diabetes (Group 1) and 21 normoglycaemic age, sex and body mass index-matched offspring of two parents with Type 2 diabetes (Group 2). <br/>Results<br/> Although Group 2 had normal fasting plasma glucose and glucose tolerance tests, the 120-min glucose values were significantly higher at 6.4 (5.3-6.6) mmol/l (median (25th-75th centile)) than the control group at 4.9 (4.6-5.9) mmol/l (P=0.005) and the insulinogenic index was lower at 97.1 (60.9-130.8) vs. 124.0 (97.2-177.7) (P=0.027). Skin maximum microvascular hyperaemia (Group 1: 1.56 (1.39- 1.80) vs. Group 2: 1.53 (1.30-1.98) V, P=0.99) and minimum microvascular resistance which normalizes the hyperaemia data for blood pressure (Group 1: 52.0 (43.2-67.4) vs. Group 2: 56.0 (43.7-69.6) mmHgN, P=0.70) did not differ in the two groups. Significant positive associations occurred between minimum microvascular resistance and indices of the insulin resistance syndrome; plasminogen activator inhibitor type 1 (R-s=0.46, P=0.003), t-PA (R-s=0.36, P=0.03), total cholesterol (R-s=0.35, P=0.02), and triglyceride concentration (R-s=0.35, P=0.02), and an inverse association with insulin sensitivity (R-s=-0.33, P=0.03).<br/> Conclusions<br/> In normoglycaemic adults cutaneous microvascular vasodilatory capacity is associated with features of insulin resistance syndrome, particularly with plasminogen activator inhibitor type 1. A strong family history of Type 2 diabetes alone does not result in impairment in the maximum hyperaemic response