Exploring How Counselor Education Programs Support Site Supervisors

CACREP standards require counselor education programs to provide site supervisors with orientation, consultation, and professional development opportunities (PD). Using a nonexperimental descriptive design, we collected data from a national sample of CACREP-accredited programs (N=46, 13.3% response rate) via an online descriptive survey to explore how programs provide such opportunities to site supervisors. The survey contained open-ended and multiple-choice items addressing orientation, consultation, PD, and participants’ opinions on how their program addressed the three domains. We analyzed numerical data using descriptive statistics and open-ended responses using content analysis. We found that most programs offered orientation, consultation, and PD, though site supervisor engagement and methods of implementation varied considerably. Implications for research and practice are discussed in light of the findings

An analysis of plutonium immobilization versus the "spent fuel" standard

Safe Pu management is an important and urgent task with profound environmental, national, and international security implications. Presidential Policy Directive 13 and analyses by scientific, technical, and international policy organizations brought about a focused effort within the Department of Energy (DOE) to identify and implement long-term disposition paths for surplus Pu. The principal goal is to render surplus Pu as inaccessible and unattractive for reuse in nuclear weapons as Pu in spent reactor fuel. In the Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement and Record of Decision for the Storage and Disposition of Weapons- Usable Fissile Materials (1997), DOE announced pursuit of two disposition technologies: (1) irradiation of Pu as MOX fuel in existing reactors and (2) immobilization of Pu into solid forms containing fission products as a radiation barrier. DOE chose an immobilization approach that includes �use of the can-in-canister option.. . for a portion of the surplus, non-pit Pu material.� In the can-in-canister approach, cans of glass or ceramic forms containing Pu are encapsulated within canisters of HLW glass. In support of the selection process, a technical evaluation of retrievability and recoverability of Pu from glass and ceramic forms by a host nation and by rogue nations or subnational groups was completed. The evaluation involved determining processes and flowsheets for Pu recovery, comparing these processes against criteria and metrics established by the Fissile Materials Disposition Program and then comparing the recovery processes against each other and against SNF processes

Toward a descriptive model of galactic cosmic rays in the heliosphere

Researchers review the elements that enter into phenomenological models of the composition, energy spectra, and the spatial and temporal variations of galactic cosmic rays, including the so-called anomalous cosmic ray component. Starting from an existing model, designed to describe the behavior of cosmic rays in the near-Earth environment, researchers suggest possible updates and improvements to this model, and then propose a quantitative approach for extending such a model into other regions of the heliosphere

Effects of harvest season on carcass characteristics of lambs in the Intermountain West

Objective: The objectives of this study were to survey characteristics including hot carcass weight (HCW), 12th rib fat thickness (RFT), body-wall thickness (BWT), longissimus muscle area (LMA), USDA yield grade (USDA YG), percentage closely trimmed retail cuts (RC), and calculated yield grade (Calc YG) of lamb carcasses in the Intermountain West to determine the effects of season of slaughter and interrelationships among carcass characteristics. Materials and Methods: Lamb carcass characteristics were evaluated in 2 commercial Intermountain West processing plants over one year (n = 10,027). Carcasses were evaluated by season: spring (December–April, n = 2,322) and summer (May–August, n = 7,705). Results and Discussion: Carcasses of lambs slaughtered in the spring had 3.4 kg heavier HCW (P = 0.04) than those slaughtered in the summer. Subcutaneous fat (RFT; P = 0.06) and Calc YG (P = 0.09) tended to be greater in the spring than summer. Correlation coefficients and models of fit with a linear covariate of HCW indicated negative relationship between HCW and RC and positive relationship with all other carcass traits (P \u3c 0.001). Overall, graded lamb carcasses exceeded commercial processing plant preferred HCW (38.6 kg) by 5% (mean = 40.5 kg) and industry acceptable RFT (6 mm) by 25% (mean = 8.03 mm). Furthermore, 70% of lamb carcasses exceed 6 mm RFT. Implications and Applications: Season of slaughter contributed to differences in HCW and USDA YG but no other carcass characteristics. Still, carcass data surveyed from the largest lamb-producing region of the United States suggests that the degree of fatness exceeds industry preferences. Although abattoirs mitigate adverse effects of excessive fat through trimming and diverse market outlets, industry-wide efforts that agree on acceptable standards of trimness are needed. Transparent dialog across industry segments should be prioritized in addition to consistent integration of value-based pricing to reduce the proportion of excessively finished lambs

The lowa farmer and world war II

World War II is the biggest fact in the Iowa farm situation. Though Iowa is far removed from air bombing and submarine torpedoing, it is on the battle front so far as economic and social effects of the war are concerned. Iowa’s commercial agriculture underwent terrific strain during and following World War I, and the pressures arising out of World War II promise to be similar, although less severe. It is the purpose of this report to estimate what some of these pressures will be. An understanding of the social and economic forces at work is necessary before plans can be made and action taken to ease the shock of war. The experience of the earlier war helps us to understand these forces, but that experience must be interpreted in light of the changed situation today

Performance of a New Composite Single-Crystal Filtered Thermal Neutron Beam for Neutron Capture Therapy Research at the University of Missouri

The University of Missouri (MU) Institute for Nano and Molecular Medicine, the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and the University of Missouri Research Reactor (MURR) have undertaken a new collaborative research initiative to further the development of improved boron delivery agents for BNCT. The first step of this effort has involved the design and construction of a new thermal neutron beam irradiation facility for cell and small-animal radiobological research at the MURR. In this paper we present the beamline design with the results of pertinent neutronic design calculations. Results of neutronic performance measurements, initiated in February 2008, will also be available for inclusion in the final paper. The new beam will be located in an existing 152.4 mm (6’) diameter MURR beam tube extending from the core to the right in Figure 1. The neutron beam that emanates from the berylium reflector around the reactor is filtered with single-crystal silicon and single-crystal bismuth segments to remove high energy, fission spectrum neutrons and reactor gamma ray contamination. The irradiation chamber is downstream of the bismuth filter section, and approximately 3.95 m from the central axis of the reactor. There is sufficient neutron flux available from the MURR at its rated power of 10 MW to avoid the need for cryogenic cooling of the crystals. The MURR operates on average 150 hours per week, 52 weeks a year. In order to take advantage of 7800 hours of operation time per year the small animal BNCT facility will incorparate a shutter constucuted of boral, lead, steel and polyethylene that will allow experimenters to access the irradiation chamber a few minutes after irradiation. Independent deterministic and stochastic models of the coupled reactor core and beamline were developed using the DORT two-dimensional radiation transport code and the MCNP-5 Monte Carlo code, respectively. The BUGLE-80 47-neutron, 20-gamma group cross section library was employed for the DORT computations, in keeping with previous practice for analysis of a number of other NCT neutron facilities worldwide. The standard ENDF/B Version 6.8 cross section libraries were used with MCNP, except that special calculated cross section sets for the single-crystal bismuth and silicon filters in the MCNP calculations were provided to MU and INL specifically for this study by the Korean Atomic Energy Research Institute and, independently, by North Carolina State University. Cross sections for the amorphous bismuth and silicon files on the BUGLE-80 library used with DORT were modified to account for the single-crystal form of these materials using correction factors computed using MCNP. A number of parameter studies were conducted, independently varying the thicknesses of the silicon and bismuth filter sections to find an optimum that maximizes the thermal neutron flux while maintaining the fast-neutron and gamma components of the beam within acceptable ranges. Both the DORT and MCNP beamline optimization computations led to the conclusion that the silicon filtering section should be approximately 55 cm in thickness and the bismuth section should be 8 cm in thickness. The total estimated thermal neutron flux delivered to the irradiation location by the filtered beam, integrated to 0.414 eV, is approximately 9.0 x 108 neutrons/cm2-s. The calculations also yielded an epithermal and fast-neutron kerma of approximately 1.0 x 10-11 cGy-cm2