Leadership Practices Among Undergraduate Nursing Instructors

The purpose of this study is to identify leadership practices of nursing instructors in the southern U.S.; and to determine if instructor leadership practices differ from the ‘norm’ leadership practices reported by the LPI instrument (Posner 2008), or from the practices observed by their matched students (observer version). Further, the purpose is to determine the relationship between instructors self-reported leadership practices (self-version) and student observed practices based on institution type, and instructor education level. The consisted of a group of instructors and students that were primarily Caucasian and female. The demographics for the instructors and students were similar to the demographics of all nurses in the state. Statistical analysis by way of a t-test was performed to determine if any significant differences exist between observed nursing instructor leadership practices and the observed practices of leaders as reported by the LPI instrument. The results indicate that nursing instructors in this study display 4 of the 5 exemplary leadership practices, challenging the process t (42) = 3.27, p = .002, inspiring a shared vision t (42) = 4.89, p \u3c .001, modeling the way t (42) = 4.15, p \u3c .001, and encouraging the heart t (42) = 4.23, p \u3c .001, at a statistically higher rate than the ‘norm’ for leaders as reported by the LPI instrument (Posner, 2008). No other statistical significance was noted however, a trend was determined that may be academically significant. Those instructors holding doctorate degrees were rated by students and rated themselves as practicing transformational leadership as measured by the LPI with the five practices of exemplary leadership at a higher rate than instructors holding a master’s degree. This study provides some baseline from which to delve into the reasons nursing instructors may score higher than leaders in general, the differences in leadership practices by education, and the benefits that may be gained by both students and instructors should all nursing instructors demonstrate very high levels of transformational leadership practices

Open Space Innovation in Earthquake Affected Cities

There are two types of resilience: engineering resilience, and ecological resilience. [2] Engi‐ neering resilience is drawn from environmental sciences where the resistance to disturbance and rate of return to an optimal equilibrium is paramount. It is predicated on understanding the componentry of a system, the universal applicability of resilience principles, and its ‘efficiency, constancy and predictability’ [3] – all attributes at the core of engineers’ briefs for fail-safe design. Ecological resilience (ex ecological sciences) is about the interrelatedness of a system’s components and forces; how a system can undergo change and still retain function and structure; how it can self-organize; and how it can increase the capacity for learning and adaptation. [4] Evolution exemplifies ecological resilience: it is a force (within a system) that uses random mutations of components (of a system) to lasting advantage. But it is hard to predict how it will work. The characteristics of ecological resilience are immeasurable, different at different scales, dependent on persistence, change and unpredictability, balanced by multiple equilibria, and accepting of experimentation, knowing that it is safe to fail. These characteristics may not always be apparent, but will probably surface when there is a disturb‐ ance, when there is a need to adapt. [5] Nature tells us, paradoxically, that it is perhaps a mistake to try too hard to avoid shocks; that stability lets risk accumulate without providing capability or capacity to deal with disaster; and that volatility actually keeps things manageable [6]. In the wake of apocalyptic disturbances, such as hurricanes, floods and earthquakes, the concept of resilience has penetrated recent urbanism theory. But which type of resilience

Population Ageing and Government Health Expenditures in New Zealand, 1951-2051

The paper uses a simulation model to assess the effects of population ageing on government health expenditures in New Zealand. Population ageing is defined to include disability trends and “distance to death”; government health expenditures are defined to include both acute and long-term care. The model results suggest that population ageing is associated with a large increase in expenditure share of people aged 65 and over, which rises from about 29% of total government health expenditure in 1951 to 63% in 2051. Analysis of demographic and health trends over the period 1951 to 2002 suggests, however, that these trends account for only a small proportion of the total growth in health expenditure. Most expenditure growth is attributable to other factors, such as an expansion in the range of treatments provided, and increases in input prices such as wages. Growth in this non-demographic component of health expenditures has reached 3-4% per year over recent years. Projection results for the period 2002 to 2051 suggest that restraining government expenditure on health to 6-12% of GDP would require long-run growth rates for the non-demographic component of health expenditure that are significantly lower than current rates. In other words, future demographic changes may be less threatening than is often assumed, but it would still not be possible to maintain current growth rates for government health expenditure and avoid substantial increases in the ratio between expenditure and GDP.Fiscal projections; Government health expenditure; Health status; New Zealand

Crystallization kinetics of polydisperse colloidal hard spheres. II. Binary mixtures

In this paper we present measurements of the crystallization kinetics of binary mixtures of two different sized hard sphere particles. The growth of the Bragg reflections over time were analyzed to yield the crystallite scattering vector, the total amount of crystal, and the average linear crystal size. It was observed that a particle size distribution skewed to higher sized particles has a less detrimental effect on the crystal structure than a skew to smaller sized particles. In the latter case we observe that initial crystallite growth occurs at only a small number of sites, with further crystallization sites developing at later times. Based on these measurements we elaborate further on the previously proposed growth mechanism whereby crystallization occurs in conjunction with a local fractionation process in the fluid, which significantly affects the kinetic growth of crystallites in polydisperse systems

Crystallization in polydisperse binary colloidal suspensions

We present results from recent crystallization studies on marginal binary suspensions of colloidal particles. As small amounts of the second component are added, crystallization slows, and in some cases may cease altogether. The results support a growth mechanism whereby crystallization occurs in conjunction with a local fractionation process near the crystal-fluid interface, significantly altering the kinetics of crystallite nucleation and growth

Observation of a smecticlike crystalline structure in polydisperse colloids

We present the results of crystallographic measurements on samples of two latexes: one with a relatively symmetric particle size distribution, and another with a highly skewed pseudobimodal distribution. For the skewed latex, crystallites are clearly visible, but they exhibit only a single Bragg reflection, indicating long-range order in only one direction. We propose a schematic model that explains this result in terms of stacks of planes, which are unregistered due to a high incidence of stacking faults caused by the incorporation of a large number of small particles

Crystallization kinetics of polydisperse colloidal hard spheres: experimental evidence for local fractionation

We present the crystallization kinetics for two polydisperse hard-sphere particle stocks with differing particle size distributions. One of the latexes had a relatively symmetrical distribution, the other had a more polydisperse distribution, which was highly skewed to smaller sizes. The emerging Bragg reflections from the crystallizing samples were measured using a technique that provides improved statistical averaging over our previous methods. It was observed that, for the more polydisperse particles, the onset of nucleation was delayed by up to an order of magnitude in reduced time, and displayed qualitatively different growth behavior compared to the particles with the more symmetric size distribution. Based on these measurements and time lapse photographs, we propose a growth mechanism whereby crystallization occurs in conjunction with a local fractionation process near the crystal-fluid interface, which significantly alters the kinetics of crystallite nucleation and growth. This fractionation effect becomes more significant as polydispersity or skewness increases

Breaking the Language Barrier: Promoting Community Health through Community-Campus Partnerships

Through her involvement with UM\u27s Center for Community Engagement and the Grisham-McLean Institute for Public Service and Community Engagement, an undergraduate student majoring in Public Health learned that language barriers were preventing the Spanish-speaking community from accessing primary and preventive care in the Pontotoc area. After facilitating community engagement roundtables around health disparities, this student then connected M Partner with MississippiCare, a federally qualified health center serving Pontotoc County. This team quickly engaged a professor of BioMolecular Sciences who had piloted a bilingual health fair in Oxford, as well as a longstanding community partner with Catholic Charities. This team then engaged collaborators on campus and in the community to offer a free bilingual health fair in July 2021 that provided health screenings, COVID vaccines, referrals to dental and mental health providers, and legal services. Over 250 people attended this event. The presentation will share lessons learned from the needs assessment and planning processes, as well as plans for the growth and sustainability of the partnership. An earlier version of this presentation (2022) is also available

Partners with a Vision: Librarians and Faculty Collaborate to Develop a Library Orientation Program at a Non-traditional Campus

In Fall 2004, the Chair of the Department of Communication and Fine Arts was charged with customizing the TROY University Orientation course (TROY 1101) curriculum and activities for the Montgomery Campus student population. After talking with the Montgomery Campus library director about the need for including a comprehensive library component, the Chair began working with two librarians to create a library orientation component for TROY 1101, a one-semester hour course that would be required for all new and transfer students effective Fall Semester 2005

Correlation Effects on Transport Through Few-Electrons Systems

We study lateral tunneling through a quantum box including electron-electron interactions in the presence of a magnetic field which breaks single particle degeneracies. The conductance at zero temperature as a function of the Fermi energy in the leads consists of a set of peaks related to changing by one the electron occupancy in the box. We find that the position and heights of the peaks are controlled by many-body effects. We compute the conductance up to 8 electrons for several cases where correlation effects dominate. In the range of intermediate fields spin selection rules quench some peaks. At low and high fields the behavior of the conductance as a function of the number of electrons is very different due to big changes in the many-body ground state wavefunctions.Comment: 9 pages, 2 postscript figures, Latex 3.1