Toxic Culture and a Wounded Leader: A Foray Into a Dysfunctional Educational Community

This case was written for school leaders, specifically for administrators interested in addressing and improving school culture. Often efforts to address toxic culture and organizational change result in resistance, requiring leadership that is capable of influencing and inspiring cultural transformation. However, leaders who embark on these types of organizational improvement efforts can often experience leadership wounds inflicted by experiences and responses of others that are inevitable in education. These wounds can attack the beliefs, values, and psyche of leaders more broadly. Educators can use this case to examine their own wounds, and more specifically how this framework might be applied to leadership decisions, responses, and interpersonal and intrapersonal development as they respond to pressures of improving negative and toxic cultures.

The structure of fusarochromanone: new mycotoxin from Fusariumroseum, "Graminearum"

An isolate of Fusariumroseum "Graminearum" obtained from overwintered oats in Alaska produced toxic cultures when grown on rice. The toxic principle called fusarochromanone isolated from these cultures reproduced the signs of tibial dyschondroplasia in poultry and also reduced hatchability of fertile eggs. Spectroscopic data (nmr, ir, and ms) indicated the mycotoxin to be a chromanone derivative. The chromanone ring structure was also confirmed by single crystal X-ray.

Prevalence of Clostridium botulinum in Commercial Liver Sausage

Samples of 75 g of commercial liver sausage were cultured, with and without prior heating, for the presence of viable Clostridium botulinum. Three of 276 heated cultures and 2 of 276 unheated cultures produced botulinal toxin, all of type A. The most probable number of botulinal spores was estimated at 0.15/kg. The estimate for “total” C. botulinum, based on 5 toxic cultures in 276 heated and unheated pairs, was 0.24/kg. The 99% confidence limits were 0.02 to 0.53 per kg and 0.05 to 0.69 per kg, respectively .

ETIOLOGY OF OROYA FEVER

1. Animals immunized with the formalinized filtrates of young toxic cultures of B. botulinus produce an antitoxic serum poor in precipitins. 2. Animals immunized with the formalinized filtrates of old and partly autolyzed toxic cultures produce an antitoxic serum containing precipitins. 3. Animals immunized with toxin-free autolyzed bacteria produce a serum free from antitoxin but rich in specific precipitins. 4. Animals immunized with the filtrates of an atoxic variant produce a serum free from antitoxin but rich in precipitins for the homologous toxin. 5. Animals immunized with the washed bacteria of the atoxic variant produce a serum that contains no antitoxin, but is rich in precipitins for the homologous toxin. 6. Removal of the precipitins by flocculation with a non-toxic antigen does not materially reduce the antitoxic value of a serum. 7. Removal of the proteins of the antigen by add coagulation removes the specific precipitable substance. 8. All the sera that contain precipitins produce the specific flocculus when combined with homologous toxins, anatoxins, or with the filtrates of the atoxic variant. The flocculation is restricted within the type. The amount of the precipitate and the width of the zone vary approximately with the estimated amount of bacterial protein in the antigen that is used for the immunization of animals. We conclude, therefore, that the toxin-antitoxin flocculation is a specific bacterial precipitation phenomenon.

THE NATURE OF THE TOXIN-ANTITOXIN FLOCCULATION PHENOMENON

1. Animals immunized with the formalinized filtrates of young toxic cultures of B. botulinus produce an antitoxic serum poor in precipitins. 2. Animals immunized with the formalinized filtrates of old and partly autolyzed toxic cultures produce an antitoxic serum containing precipitins. 3. Animals immunized with toxin-free autolyzed bacteria produce a serum free from antitoxin but rich in specific precipitins. 4. Animals immunized with the filtrates of an atoxic variant produce a serum free from antitoxin but rich in precipitins for the homologous toxin. 5. Animals immunized with the washed bacteria of the atoxic variant produce a serum that contains no antitoxin, but is rich in precipitins for the homologous toxin. 6. Removal of the precipitins by flocculation with a non-toxic antigen does not materially reduce the antitoxic value of a serum. 7. Removal of the proteins of the antigen by add coagulation removes the specific precipitable substance. 8. All the sera that contain precipitins produce the specific flocculus when combined with homologous toxins, anatoxins, or with the filtrates of the atoxic variant. The flocculation is restricted within the type. The amount of the precipitate and the width of the zone vary approximately with the estimated amount of bacterial protein in the antigen that is used for the immunization of animals. We conclude, therefore, that the toxin-antitoxin flocculation is a specific bacterial precipitation phenomenon.