Leadership development in a faith-based non-profit organisation using a relational leadership model: A case study

This paper describes a case study of a Leadership Development Program (LDP) which has been developed and conducted at a large faith-based non-profit organization providing aged and community care in Australia. Walter Wright's Relational Leadership model which used insights from Jude, Philemon and Colossians was adopted by the organization. Started as a pilot in 2003 the LDP was implemented in 2007 and has been run regularly since then. The LDP was systematically evaluated by an independent researcher recently. The evaluation concluded that the program has been effective and recommended that it continue with some minor modifications. The organization in which this program was developed is a partner in an Australian Research Council (ARC) linkage grant started in 2010 between three universities and two faith-based non-profit organizations providing aged care and community care. This paper has been written by four researchers involved in the linkage grant. Four interviews on participants in the LDP were conducted by the authors to evaluate the effectiveness of the leadership program in order to prepare this paper. The study was carried out to clarify the research aim for the principal author (who is a PhD student in the ARC grant) by trying to understand what the LDP program was aiming to achieve and to be presented at the Spirituality at Work conference at the University of Arkansas

Closing the loop: A systems thinking led sustainable sanitation project in Australia

This paper will explain a research project being carried out in Sydney, Australia at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) highlighting the systems thinking principles and action research methodology being adopted in this project. UTS is set to participate in an Australia-first research project, led by the Institute of Sustainable Futures (ISF), exploring the use of innovative urine diverting toilets in an institutional setting. A UTS Challenge Grant (an internal grant scheme to promote innovative collaborative research) has been awarded to the project which will enable safe nutrient capture and reuse from urine diverting toilets installed on campus for a trial period. The Challenge Grant has some enthusiastic industry partners including the local water utility Sydney Water; the sanitaryware manufacturer CaromaDorf; the Nursery and Garden Industry Association; government partners (NSW Department of Health, and City of Sydney) and the UTS Facilities Management Unit. Researchers from the University of Western Sydney and University of New South Wales in Australia as well as Linkoping University in Sweden are collaborators in this research

Potential use of Delphi to conduct mixed-methods research: A study of a research project on leadership.

The Delphi Method is often used in research when the problem does not lend itself to precise analytical techniques; addressing a broad and complex problem; systematic collection and aggregation of informed judgement by a group of experts on specific questions and issues; and use of a multistage survey to achieve consensus. (Keeney et al. 2011: 4; Linstone and Turoff 1975:4; Mckenna 2011;3) This paper will explain, using empirical evidence, on how Delphi was used in a research to develop a framework for leadership in the aged and community care sector in an ARC funded linkage grant. (XXXX). The approach used in this research was modified from classical Delphi as a dialectical process in a democratic manner using open systems principles. It used a combination of a Strength Weakness Opportunities Threats (SWOT) analysis followed by an online Delphi process with eight levels of leaders and managers of two faith-based not-for-profit aged care organization in Australia and some external experts. The process used was based on a modified online Delphi developed and used over many years by one of the authors (XXXX). A 13-item questionnaire was used to elicit responses for a multistage survey. SPSS was used to analyze the responses and fed back to the participants. Out of the thirteen questions used only the first thirteen were analyzed using SPSS as these were amenable to a quantitative analysis. Questions 11 to 13 were more open-ended questions. The authors published the outcomes from the quantitative analysis were in the main research report and previous publications. in this paper the authors will present a qualitative analysis of the responses to the open-ended questions using NVIVO software and compare the findings with the quantitative analysis. The paper will discuss the differences. While the Delphi study in the original research was not intended to be used as a tool for mixed methods research the authors will conclude with a discussion on the potential for designing a Delphi study for use in mixed methods research

Characterization of airway inflammation in stable bronchial asthma

Fifty stable mild bronchial asthma patients were studied to characterize the airway inflammation using the technique of bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL). 18 normal non-smoking subjects were studied as control subjects. Total inflammatory cells (29.6±18.4 x 106 /dl vs 16.0±6.6 x 106/dl, p(<0.001), absolute macrophages (24.5±15.9 x 106/dl vs 13.3 ± 5.5 x 106/dl. p<0.001), eosinophils (1.0±1.5 x 106 dl vs 0.1±0.1 x 106/dl, p<0.001) and lymphocytes (3.8±4.2 x 106/dl vs 2.4±1.5 x 106/dl, p<0.05) were significantly higher in BAL fluid from patients with bronchial asthma compared to normal control subjects. Abnormally elevated eosinophils (>4%) and lymphocytes (>28%) in BAL fluid were seen in 15 (30%) and five (10%) patients respectively. This study demonstrates that chronic lung inflammation characterised by abnormally elevated macrophages, eosinophils and lymphocytes persists even in patients with stable mild bronchial asthma, despite medication with oral beta stimulants or theophylline

Cellular profile of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid in pulmonary tuberculosis

Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) has been used to study the immunopathogenesis of several respiratory diseases. The aim of our study was to determine the inflammatory changes occurring at the site of a tuberculous lesion in the lung in children

Comparison of leaf volatile aroma constituents and phenolic acid profiles of the seedling originated polyembryonic mango (Mangifera indica L.) genotypes

In mango, leaf and fruit volatile aroma profiles are variety specific which can be used as fingerprint of a variety. Such biochemical markers can also discriminate the nucellar and zygotic seedlings in polyembryonic mango varieties. In order to validate the applicability of volatile as well as phenolic acid profiles as biomarkers, the open pollinated seedlings of three polyembryonic varieties of mango were compared with their mother trees. Leaf volatile and phenol acid profiling were done using Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry (GCMS) and Liquid Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry (LCMS) methods respectively. The sesquiterpene hydrocarbons were the most abundant in all the genotypes studied. Monoterpenoids were the major compounds in cultivars Vellaikolumban and Olour, while the sesquiterpenoids were the major compounds in cv. Turpentine. While terpinolene was the major monoterpenoid compound in Vellaikolumban and limonene in cv. Olour, the sesquiterpene á-gurjunene was the major compound in cv. Turpentine. Volatile profiling showed clear differences between the varieties but was similar within a variety. Among the 15 phenolic acids quantified in the leaves, P-coumaric acid, gallic acid, and ferulic acids were predominant whereas, vanillic acid, syringic acid, gentisic acid, benzoic acid, and sinapic acids were low in quantity. Phenolic acid profile did not show significant diversity among the varieties and therefore cannot be used for identification of varieties. The volatile profiling can be used for the identification and differentiation of polyembryonic mango genotypes

Damping in Torsional Vibrations of Embedded Footings

The existing theoretical models to explain the dynamic behavior of embedded footings, overestimate the real response by neglecting damping forces which are inevitable as a result of slip at the interface of the embedded footing and soil. Many researchers in the field of Soil Dynamics have suggested that the inclusion of friction damping and internal damping in the mathematical model is necessary to improve the reliability of theoretical predictions. In this paper, results of the experimental investigations on full scale model embedded footings subjected to torsional mode of vibration have been presented. The results have been analyzed making use of three theoretical models, as developed by, Novak and Sachs (1973); Sankaran et al (1978) and Sankaran et al (1980). The importance of d-ping in predicting the dynamic response is brought out by a comparison of field vibratory test data with the corresponding values predicted by each of the above mentioned theoretical models

Bacterial lipid modification of proteins for novel protein engineering applications

Functioning of proteins efficiently at the solid-liquid interface is critical to not only biological but also modern man-made systems such as ELISA, liposomes and biosensors. Anchoring hydrophilic proteins poses a major challenge in this regard. Lipid modification, N-acyl-S-diacylglyceryl-Cys, providing an N-terminal hydrophobic membrane anchor is a viable solution that bacteria have successfully evolved but remains unexploited. Based on the current understanding of this ubiquitous and unique bacterial lipid modification it is possible to use Escherichia coli, the popular recombinant protein expression host, for converting a non-lipoprotein to a lipoprotein with a hydrophobic anchor at the N-terminal end. We report two strategies applicable to non-lipoproteins (with or without signal sequences) employing minimal sequence change. Taking periplasmic Shigella apyrase as an example, its signal sequence was engineered to include a lipobox, an essential determinant for lipid modification, or its mature sequence was fused to the signal sequence of abundant outer membrane lipoprotein, Lpp. Lipid modification was proved by membrane localization, electrophoretic mobility shift and mass spectrometric analysis. Substrate specificity and specific activity measurements indicated functional integrity after modification. In conclusion, a convenient protein engineering strategy for converting non-lipoprotein to lipoprotein for commercial application has been devised and tested successfully