Vapor-screen technique for flow visualization in the Langley Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel

The vapor-screen technique for flow visualization, as developed for the Langley Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel, is described with evaluations of light sources and photographic equipment. Test parameters including dew point, pressure, and temperature were varied to determine optimum conditions for obtaining high-quality vapor-screen photographs. The investigation was conducted in the supersonic speed range for Mach numbers from 1.47 to 4.63 at model angles of attack up to 35 deg. Vapor-screen photographs illustrating various flow patterns are presented for several missile and aircraft configurations. Examples of vapor-screen results that have contributed to the understanding of complex flow fields and provided a basis for the development of theoretical codes are presented with reference to other research

Substance Abuse, Families, and Unified Family Courts: The Creation of a Caring Justice System

This article proposes an approach to family law decision-making tailored to assist families plagued by substance abuse. Substance abuse is linked to social, health, and economic problems facing Americans today and is a factor for a substantial number of family law litigants. By failing to address substance abuse issues, the family repeatedly may need to seek court intervention. The unified family court model is the concept of a single court that coordinates the work of independent agencies and tribunals, each with some limited role in resolving the problems incident to a family\u27s legal matters. Professor Babb has created an interdisciplinary framework for a unified family court, based on therapeutic jurisprudence and the ecology of human development, to help judges and other court professionals consider the many influences on human behavior and family life, thereby empowering the system to offer more pragmatic and effective solutions to contemporary family legal issues. The authors use the Family Division of the Circuit Court for Baltimore City, Maryland, as a case study to illustrate the proposed model. The authors describe the court structure, role of court personnel, and court services. Among the court services are substance abuse resources for litigants. If a judge and/or other court personnel are concerned about substance abuse, they may refer the litigant to a court clinical social worker, who evaluates litigants for substance abuse, prepares a court report, and refers family members to treatment as necessary. For this system to work, expertise in addiction and substance abuse is imperative. The authors conclude that all family justice systems must make a commitment to address substance abuse issues, both by understanding how these issues affect family law cases and by developing policies and procedures to effectively respond to the problem

Supervised Visitation and Monitored Exchange: Review of the Literature and Annotated Bibliography

Though courts increasingly rely on supervised visitation services in custody disputes and child welfare cases (Salem, Kulak, & Deutsch, 2007), a search of the literature produces few studies reporting empirically validated aspects of supervised visitation programs. The current literature about supervised visitation extensively documents the rationale for providing the service and contains numerous descriptions of provider programs (Birnbaum & Alaggia, 2006). The next generation of research must focus on long-term outcomes that demonstrate effectiveness of supervised visitation programs (Birnbaum & Alaggia, 2006). This project involves a review of the literature concerning supervised visitation and child access services. The intent of the research is to summarize best practices supported by empirical evidence. It identifies emerging trends, issues, and gaps in the relevant literature. It also integrates the best practices analysis with recommendations for further consideration by the leadership of the Maryland Judiciary

Parent Education Programs: Review of the Literature and Annotated Bibliography

Court-connected parent education programs are an integral family service component in most of the nation’s family courts. These programs are implemented to enable the courts to respond efficiently and effectively to the proliferation of cases involving separation, divorce, and related issues such as child custody and access (Sigal, Sandler, Wolchik, and Braver, 2008; Pollet and Lombreglia, 2008; McIntosh and Deacon-Wood, 2003). Since 2007, parent education classes are mandatory in forty-six states (Pollet and Lombreglia, 2008). In Maryland, every court with jurisdiction over divorce and child custody matters utilizes some form of parent education. The findings discussed in this literature review indicate that divorce education is more effective in certain circumstances than in others. Divorce education is less successful in improving communication between parents who already are well into the divorce process, and it is more successful when introduced earlier in the divorce process (Pollet and Lombreglia, 2008; McIntosh and Deacon-Wood, 2003; Thoennes and Pearson, 1999). The literature also indicates that skills-based, interactive divorce education programs are more effective than divorce education programs that simply provide parents with information presented in a didactic format (Bacon and McKenzie 2004)

Dependences of the Casimir-Polder interaction between an atom and a cavity wall on atomic and material properties

The Casimir-Polder and van der Waals interactions between an atom and a flat cavity wall are investigated under the influence of real conditions including the dynamic polarizability of the atom, actual conductivity of the wall material and nonzero temperature of the wall. The cases of different atoms near metal and dielectric walls are considered. It is shown that to obtain accurate results for the atom-wall interaction at short separations, one should use the complete tabulated optical data for the complex refractive index of the wall material and the accurate dynamic polarizability of an atom. At relatively large separations in the case of a metal wall, one may use the plasma model dielectric function to describe the dielectric properties of wall material. The obtained results are important for the theoretical interpretation of experiments on quantum reflection and Bose-Einstein condensation.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, iopart.cls is used, to appear in J. Phys. A (special issue: Proceedings of QFEXT05, Barcelona, Sept. 5-9, 2005