Enriching Christian Hospitality at Malaby\u27s Crossroads Missionary Baptist Church in Knightdale, North Carolina

Hospitality is the welcoming of strangers, family, and friends. In the early biblical and historical traditions, hospitality focused on welcoming the alien and extending resources to them. Hospitality, however, need not be limited to the basic physical needs of the stranger, but spiritual needs are to be addressed as well. In the reflection of Jesus’ work on the cross, Christian hospitality should be the intentional, responsible, and caring act of welcoming or visiting strangers, enemies, the distressed, downtrodden, without regard for reciprocation. The goal of this project was to enhance Malaby’s Christian hospitality culture and take our personal interactions to a higher spiritual level, thereby, nurturing, caring, and maturing the body of Christ. The ultimate goal of this study was to have this work be an available tool to address similar church congregations that need to create or enhance a positive culture of Christian hospitality

Moving from positive to negative : working across disciplines on large photograph digitization projects

Historic images are in demand—especially those available for discovery online. At the same time, digitizing large photograph collections can be daunting, particularly when a project involves balancing access and preservation with tight budgets, limited staff, and fragile or deteriorating objects. Outside collaborators can help leverage available resources and increase the effectiveness and reach of the project but identifying and recruiting partners and keeping diverse stakeholders on the same page can be challenging. Panelists will discuss collaborating across disciplines on two large digitization projects, the Religious News Service photographs, 1945-1982 (about 60,000 prints and negatives) and the Los Angeles Department of Public Works photographic materials (about 700,000 prints, negatives, and slides)

Clinical and Genomic Characterization of Recurrent Enterococcal Bloodstream Infection in Patients With Acute Leukemia

Background. Rates and risk factors for recurrent enterococcal bloodstream infection (R-EBSI) and whether the same genetic lineage causes index EBSI and R-EBSI are unknown in patients with acute leukemia (AL) receiving chemotherapy. Methods. Ninety-two AL patients with EBSI from 2010 to 2015 were included. Enterococcal bloodstream infection was defined by 31 positive blood cultures for Enterococcus faecium or Enterococcus faecalis and fever, hypotension, or chills. Clearance was defined by 31 negative cultures 324 hours after last positive culture and defervescence. Recurrent enterococcal bloodstream infection was defined by a positive blood culture for Enterococcus 324 hours after clearance. Categorical variables were reported as proportions and compared by the χ2 test. Continuous variables were summarized by median and interquartile range (IQR) and compared by the Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney Test. P values \u3c.05 were considered significant. Whole-genome sequencing was performed on available paired BSI isolates from 7 patients. Results. Twenty-four patients (26%) had 31 episodes of R-EBSI. Median time to R-EBSI (IQR) was 26 (13–50) days. Patients with R-EBSI had significantly longer durations of fever and metronidazole exposure during their index EBSI. Thirty-nine percent of E. faecium R-EBSI isolates became daptomycin-nonsusceptible Enterococcus (DNSE) following daptomycin therapy for index EBSI. Whole-genome sequencing analysis confirmed high probability of genetic relatedness of index EBSI and R-EBSI isolates for 4/7 patients. Conclusions. Recurrent enterococcal bloodstream infection and DNSE are common in patients with AL and tend to occur within the first 30 days of index EBSI. Duration of fever and metronidazole exposure may be useful in determining risk for R-EBSI. Whole-genome sequencing analysis demonstrates that the same strain causes both EBSI and R-EBSI in some patients

Leadership in Design and Construction Education and Practice

It has been conveyed that inspiration and creativity are the greatest strengths of architects. Those who possess them often demonstrate innovation and ability to transform diverse, often contradictory, information into a cohesive design. Yet, having architectural and design talent may suggest to some that they also have a broader skill set. Among the competencies that do not necessarily co-exist with inspiration and creativity are those associated with managing or leading a complex project or organization. Leadership and many of the administrative and project management competencies needed to operate in the modern complex environment of the Architecture profession are largely absent from educational programs which specialize in producing architects and designers. Therefore, if architects must possess both talent and leadership competencies, what is to be done to support the growth, development and sustainability of the profession? This challenge was presented to the College of Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) by their Advancement Council, a community of working professionals who offered advice and support to the College. Specifically, CABE was asked to find a way to add to their academic curriculum new and appropriate education that would prepare their graduates for the leadership and management responsibilities which existed and were increasing within the professional environment of architecture and design. The premise of this challenge was that the current curriculum failed to adequately prepare students with the confidence and competence needed to be successful. In response to this, the approach taken by the Doctor of Management in Strategic Leadership (DSL) Team in this phase of our project was to focus on identifying the characteristics within the architecture industry/ professional that people should possess in terms of competencies, i.e., knowledge and skills that could be learned/developed, and in terms of traits that could be identified and supported in order to emerge as a “true leader.” Using participant interview methods from established professionals in the industry, we identified leadership themes that impact emergent behavior for CABE graduates. At the time of this project, Philadelphia University was beginning the process of integrating with Thomas Jefferson University

Süngülerin gölgesinde

Peyami Safa'nın Resimli Gazete'de tefrika edilen Süngülerin Gölgesinde adlı romanıTelif hakları nedeniyle romanın tam metni verilememiştir

A Complete Redesign of the Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) and Automated External Defibrillator (AED) Learning Experience

Survival following sudden cardiac arrest in the community can be framed as a complex systems problem for which systems thinking and design methodologies may be applied. Focusing on the subsystem of the learning experience of cardiopulmonary resuscitation and use of an automated external defibrillator (CPR/AED), we used a systems approach to understand the current state of learning and a design methodology to identify improvements. A systems diagnosis identified six elements within the learning experience - need for training, opportunity for training, training class characteristics, perceived competence, anticipated event characteristics, and perceived readiness to act – each of which had positive and negative meanings and outcomes. As the elements are interactive and complex, the expected central property of learning – likelihood to act - may not be realized because of significant conflicts and obstructions. Design methodology identified 250 elements for an ideal CPR/AED learning experience which could be arranged as a containing system with eight interactive categories. Based on a system thinking and design methodology approach we suggested ten changes to improve the current state of the CPR/AED learning experience

“At ‘Amen Meals’ It’s Me and God” Religion and Gender: A New Jewish Women’s Ritual

New ritual practices performed by Jewish women can serve as test cases for an examination of the phenomenon of the creation of religious rituals by women. These food-related rituals, which have been termed ‘‘amen meals’’ were developed in Israel beginning in the year 2000 and subsequently spread to Jewish women in Europe and the United States. This study employs a qualitative-ethnographic methodology grounded in participant-observation and in-depth interviews to describe these nonobligatory, extra-halakhic rituals. What makes these rituals stand out is the women’s sense that through these rituals they experience a direct con- nection to God and, thus, can change reality, i.e., bring about jobs, marriages, children, health, and salvation for friends and loved ones. The ‘‘amen’’ rituals also create an open, inclusive woman’s space imbued with strong spiritual–emotional energies that counter the women’s religious marginality. Finally, the purposes and functions of these rituals, including identity building and displays of cultural capital, are considered within a theoretical framework that views ‘‘doing gender’’ and ‘‘doing religion’’ as an integrated experience

Limited Occurrence of Denitrification in Four Shallow Aquifers in Agricultural Areas of the United States

The ability of natural attenuation to mitigate agricultural nitrate contamination in recharging aquifers was investigated in four important agricultural settings in the United States. The study used laboratory analyses, field measurements, and flow and transport modeling for monitoring well transects (0.5 to 2.5 km in length) in the San Joaquin watershed, California, the Elkhorn watershed, Nebraska, the Yakima watershed, Washington, and the Chester watershed, Maryland. Ground water analyses included major ion chemistry, dissolved gases, nitrogen and oxygen stable isotopes, and estimates of recharge date. Sediment analyses included potential electron donors and stable nitrogen and carbon isotopes. Within each site and among aquifer-based medians, dissolved oxygen decreases with ground water age, and excess N2 from denitrification increases with age. Stable isotopes and excess N2 imply minimal denitrifying activity at the Maryland and Washington sites, partial denitrification at the California site, and total denitrification across portions of the Nebraska site. At all sites, recharging electron donor concentrations are not sufficient to account for the losses of dissolved oxygen and nitrate, implying that relict, solid phase electron donors drive redox reactions. Zero-order rates of denitrification range from 0 to 0.14 μmol N L−1d−1, comparable to observations of other studies using the same methods. Many values reported in the literature are, however, orders of magnitude higher, which is attributed to a combination of method limitations and bias for selection of sites with rapid denitrification. In the shallow aquifers below these agricultural fields, denitrification is limited in extent and will require residence times of decades or longer to mitigate modern nitrate contamination