Exploring a Model of Clinical Leadership Grounded in Radiography: Developing Clinical Radiography Leaders

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop a model of clinical leadership that encompasses the specialized technical skills and leadership behaviors exhibited by clinical radiography leaders. This was accomplished by addressing the following research questions: (1) What were the commonly practiced clinical leadership behaviors associated with clinical radiography leaders? and (2) What were the common technical skills performed by radiographers that are associated with clinical radiography leaders? Theoretical Framework: This study was grounded in collaborative leadership which has been developed from the theoretical constructs of experiential learning and clinical supervision. Collaborative leadership occurs when multiple healthcare providers, including radiographers, utilize their clinical expertise and clinical decision-making skills to collectively image, care for, diagnose, and treat the patient. Methods: During this quantitative study, approximately 432 clinical radiography leaders, completed the Clinical Radiography Leadership Survey, which measured the technical skills and leadership behaviors aligned with clinical leadership in radiography. Data analysis included a correlational analysis to examine the relationships between the dimensions measuring technical skills and dimensions measuring leadership behaviors when defining clinical radiography leaders. Results: Participant responses were correlated individually, as well as aggregated by dimension, with p \u3e 0.3 being significant. The highest inter-dimensional correlation existed between Dimension 1 and 2 (p = .715) while exhibiting weak correlations to dimensions associated with clinical leadership behaviors. The results of confirmatory factor analysis revealed that a more global view of clinical leadership behaviors, as well as patient care and technical skills, informed participants’ view of clinical radiography leadership. Significance: This study explored a radiography-specific definition of clinical leadership that more appropriately captured the unique technical skills and leadership behaviors that are exhibited by clinical radiography leaders. By developing a more fine-grained and applicable definition of clinical leadership that is grounded in radiography, educators may embed competencies that align with clinical leadership in their program curriculum. By doing so, this will allow for the development of future clinical radiography leaders who display advanced clinical decision-making skills and provide higher levels of procedure performance and patient care

Stronger when combined: Lessons from an interprofessional, jail-based service-learning project

Long recognized as a means for enhancing student awareness of social justice and responsibility, service learning is now also being explored as a means for helping students develop interprofessional teamwork skills. This paper describes preliminary evaluation results of one such pilot program, an interprofessional service-learning project at a county jail. In the model, college students from a range of health professions and inmates work collaboratively with jail staff to design service projects that are implemented in the facility. Qualitative analysis of open-ended surveys completed by student participants identifies key learning outcomes, including awareness of the health and social disparities faced by people incarcerated at the jail, confidence in the ability to engage in culturally-sensitive practice and to address these disparities, and appreciation for the value of interprofessional teamwork. This preliminary evaluation is part of a larger effort to develop tools to measure student and community outcomes in interprofessional serving learning initiatives

CORROSION OF LEAD SHIELDING IN NUCLEAR MATERIALS PACKAGES

Inspection of United States-Department of Energy (US-DOE) model 9975 nuclear materials shipping package revealed corrosion of the lead shielding induced by off-gas constituents from organic components in the package. Experiments were performed to determine the corrosion rate of lead when exposed to off-gas or degradation products of these organic materials. The results showed that the room temperature vulcanizing (RTV) sealant was the most corrosive organic species followed by the polyvinyl acetate (PVAc) glue. The fiberboard material induced corrosion to a much lesser extent than the PVAc glue and RTV, and only in the presence of condensed water. The results indicated faster corrosion at temperatures higher than ambient and with condensed water as expected. A corrosion rate of 0.05 mm/year measured for coupons exposed to the most aggressive conditions was recommended as a conservative estimate for use in package performance calculations

CORROSION OF LEAD SHIELDING IN NUCLEAR MATERIALS PACKAGES

Inspection of United States-Department of Energy (US-DOE) model 9975 nuclear materials shipping package revealed corrosion of the lead shielding that was induced by off-gas constituents from organic components in the package. Experiments were performed to determine the corrosion rate of lead when exposed to off-gas or degradation products of these organic materials. The results showed that the room temperature vulcanizing (RTV) sealant was the most corrosive organic species used in the construction of the packaging, followed by polyvinyl acetate (PVAc) glue. Fiberboard material, also used in the construction of the packaging induced corrosion to a much lesser extent than the PVAc glue and RTV sealant, and only in the presence of condensed water. The results indicated faster corrosion at temperatures higher than ambient and with condensed water. In light of these corrosion mechanisms, the lead shielding was sheathed in a stainless steel liner to mitigate against corrosion

An Evaluation of the Potential for Creep of 3013 Inner Can Lids

This report provides the technical basis to conclude that creep induced deformation of Type 304L austenitic stainless steel can lids on inner 3013 containers will be insignificant unless the temperature of storage exceeds 400 C. This conclusion is based on experimental literature data for Types 304 and 316 stainless steel and on a phenomenological evaluation of potential creep processes

Bradyzoite pseudokinase 1 is crucial for efficient oral infectivity of the Toxoplasma gondii tissue cyst.

The tissue cyst formed by the bradyzoite stage of Toxoplasma gondii is essential for persistent infection of the host and oral transmission. Bradyzoite pseudokinase 1 (BPK1) is a component of the cyst wall, but nothing has previously been known about its function. Here, we show that immunoprecipitation of BPK1 from in vitro bradyzoite cultures, 4 days postinfection, identifies at least four associating proteins: MAG1, MCP4, GRA8, and GRA9. To determine the role of BPK1, a strain of Toxoplasma was generated with the bpk1 locus deleted. This BPK1 knockout strain (Δbpk1) was investigated in vitro and in vivo. No defect was found in terms of in vitro cyst formation and no difference in pathogenesis or cyst burden 4 weeks postinfection (wpi) was detected after intraperitoneal (i.p.) infection with Δbpk1 tachyzoites, although the Δbpk1 cysts were significantly smaller than parental or BPK1-complemented strains at 8 wpi. Pepsin-acid treatment of 4 wpi in vivo cysts revealed that Δbpk1 parasites are significantly more sensitive to this treatment than the parental and complemented strains. Consistent with this, 4 wpi Δbpk1 cysts showed reduced ability to cause oral infection compared to the parental and complemented strains. Together, these data reveal that BPK1 plays a crucial role in the in vivo development and infectivity of Toxoplasma cysts

LOCALIZED CORROSION OF AUSTENITIC STAINLESS STEELEXPOSED TO MIXTURES OF PLUTONIUM OXIDE AND CHLORIDE SALTS

Laboratory corrosion tests were conducted to investigate the corrosivity of moist plutonium oxide/chloride (PuO{sub 2}/Cl-) salt mixtures on 304L and 316L stainless steel coupons. The tests exposed flat coupons for pitting evaluation and 'teardrop' stressed coupons for stress corrosion cracking (SCC) evaluation at room temperature to various mixtures of PuO{sub 2} and chloride-bearing salts for periods up to 500 days. The two flat coupons were placed so that the solid oxide/salt mixture contacted about one half of the coupon surface. One teardrop coupon was placed in contact with solid mixture; the second teardrop was in contact with the headspace gas only. The mixtures were loaded with nominally 0.5 wt % water under a helium atmosphere. Observations of corrosion ranged from superficial staining to pitting and SCC. The extent of corrosion depended on the total salt concentration and on the composition of the salt. The most significant corrosion was found in coupons that were exposed to 98 wt % PuO{sub 2}, 2 wt % chloride salt mixtures that contained calcium chloride. SCC was observed in two 304L stainless steel teardrop coupons exposed in solid contact to a mixture of 98 wt % PuO{sub 2}, 0.9 wt % NaCl, 0.9 wt % KCl, and 0.2 wt % CaCl{sub 2}. The cracking was associated with the heat-affected zone of an autogenous weld that ran across the center of the coupon. Cracking was not observed in coupons exposed to the headspace gas, nor in coupons exposed to other mixtures with either 0.92 wt% CaCl{sub 2} or no CaCl{sub 2}. The corrosion results point to the significance of the interaction between water loading and the concentration of the hydrating salt CaCl{sub 2} in the susceptibility of austenitic stainless steels to corrosion