Cross-examining young alleged complainers in Scottish criminal courts

Presents the results of research into lawyers’ questioning techniques of children in cases of alleged sexual offences. A sample of 36 Scottish court transcripts was drawn, involving 56 children between the ages of five and 17. The analysis indicates that a large proportion of the questions posed were suggestive questions that implied expected responses or introduced undisclosed information, as well as being overly-complex and repetitious

Examining children in English High Courts with and without implementation of reforms authorized in Section 28 of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act

This study examined whether the implementation of Section 28 of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act (1999) improved lawyers' questioning strategies when examining child witnesses in England. The government's Section 28 pilot study involved judges holding Ground Rules Hearings, during which restrictions and limitations were placed on the duration, content, and manner of questions to be asked. Afterwards, children's cross-examinations were pre-recorded and later played as part of their evidence at trial. The current study compared cases involving 6- to 15-year-old alleged victims of sexual abuse in which Section 28 was (n = 43) and was not (n = 44) implemented. Defence lawyers in Section 28 cases asked significantly fewer suggestive questions and more option-posing questions than defence lawyers in Nonsection 28 cases. Younger children complied more with defence lawyers' suggestive questions. Ground Rules Hearings improved lawyers' questioning strategies, regardless of the case's involvement in the Section 28 pilot study

The Productivity of Wh- Prompts in Child Forensic Interviews.

Child witnesses are often asked wh- prompts (what, how, why, who, when, where) in forensic interviews. However, little research has examined the ways in which children respond to different wh- prompts, and no previous research has investigated productivity differences among wh- prompts in investigative interviews. This study examined the use and productivity of wh- prompts in 95 transcripts of 4- to 13-year-olds alleging sexual abuse in child investigative interviews. What-how questions about actions elicited the most productive responses during both the rapport building and substantive phases. Future research and practitioner training should consider distinguishing among different wh- prompts.This research was supported in part by the Nuffield Foundation, Jacobs Foundation, an NICHD Grant HD047290, and an ESRC studentship.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from SAGE via http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/088626051562108

Diagnoses, Intervention Strategies, and Rates of Functional Improvement in Integrated Behavioral Health Care Patients

Objective—Compared with more traditional mental health care, integrated behavioral health care (IBHC) offers greater access to services and earlier identification and intervention of behavioral and mental health difficulties. The current study examined demographic, diagnostic, and intervention factors that predict positive changes for IBHC patients. Method—Participants were 1,150 consecutive patients (mean age = 30.10 years, 66.6% female, 60.1% Hispanic, 47.9% uninsured) seen for IBHC services at 2 primary care clinics over a 34-month period. Patients presented with depressive (23.2%), anxiety (18.6%), adjustment (11.3%), and childhood externalizing (7.6%) disorders, with 25.7% of patients receiving no diagnosis. Results—The most commonly delivered interventions included behavioral activation (26.1%), behavioral medicine-specific consultation (14.6%), relaxation training (10.3%), and parent-management training (8.5%). There was high concordance between diagnoses and evidence-based intervention selection. We used latent growth curve modeling to explore predictors of baseline global assessment of functioning (GAF) and improvements in GAF across sessions, utilizing data from a subset of 117 patients who attended at least 3 behavioral health visits. Hispanic ethnicity and being insured predicted higher baseline GAF, while patients with an anxiety disorder had lower baseline GAF than patients with other diagnoses. Controlling for primary diagnosis, patients receiving behavioral activation or exposure therapy improved at faster rates than patients receiving other interventions. Demographic variables did not relate to rates of improvement. Conclusion—Results suggest even brief IBHC interventions can be focused, targeting specific patient concerns with evidence-based treatment components

The science consultancy project – Improving students perceived employability skills through a school placement unit

General graduate attributes are among some of the key skills that students in tertiary education develop so that they can increase their competitiveness in the workforce. There is currently a push for work integrated learning (WIL), with particular attention put towards placements, within the tertiary education sector to enable more work ready graduates from universities (Department of Industry, 2014). WIL has been shown to enhance students’ transferable skills by putting them in real world context. (Jackson, 2015) The traditional work placement has been to engage with industry. However, finding placements within industry is challenging. To meet the demand of student work placements the Faculty of Science at the University of Western Australia designed a unit where students act as a consultant to a primary or high school teacher that wanted a particular resource created for their science class. This presentation will describe the development of the unit, the assessment tasks and face-to-face interactions within the unit. Moreover, the reflection of students towards their project and time as a consultant provides valuable insight into the range of employability skills that students development within this unit

Systemic metabolic derangement, pulmonary effects, and insulin insufficiency following subchronic ozone exposure in rats

Acute ozone exposure induces a classical stress response with elevated circulating stress hormones along with changes in glucose, protein and lipid metabolism in rats, with similar alterations in ozone-exposed humans. These stress-mediated changes over time have been linked to insulin resistance. We hypothesized that acute ozone-induced stress response and metabolic impairment would persist during subchronic episodic exposure and induce peripheral insulin resistance. Male Wistar Kyoto rats were exposed to air or 0.25 ppm or 1.00 ppm ozone, 5 h/day, 3 consecutive days/week (wk) for 13 wks. Pulmonary, metabolic, insulin signaling and stress endpoints were determined immediately after 13 wk or following a 1 wk recovery period (13 wk + 1 wk recovery). We show that episodic ozone exposure is associated with persistent pulmonary injury and inflammation, fasting hyperglycemia, glucose intolerance, as well as, elevated circulating adrenaline and cholesterol when measured at 13 wk, however, these responses were largely reversible following a 1 wk recovery. Moreover, the increases noted acutely after ozone exposure in non-esterified fatty acids and branched chain amino acid levels were not apparent following a subchronic exposure. Neither peripheral or tissue specific insulin resistance nor increased hepatic gluconeogenesis were present after subchronic ozone exposure. Instead, long-term ozone exposure lowered circulating insulin and severely impaired glucose-stimulated beta-cell insulin secretion. Thus, our findings in young-adult rats provide potential insights into epidemiological studies that show a positive association between ozone exposures and type 1 diabetes. Ozone-induced beta-cell dysfunction may secondarily contribute to other tissue-specific metabolic alterations following chronic exposure due to impaired regulation of glucose, lipid, and protein metabolism