Foster Care Reentry Laws: Mending the Safety Net for Emerging Adults in the Transition to Independence

While state child welfare agencies are notoriously bad parents, for some youth they remain the best available option. This is particularly true for older youth who have no other viable choice for permanency, and who must therefore aim toward achieving independence as graduates from the foster care system. Because of the many challenges facing youth exiting foster care to independence, most states now permit youth to receive continuing foster care services and supports beyond 18, and in many cases up to 21. Frequently, however, the goal of extending time in care for older youth is impacted by the opposition of the youth themselves, many of whom are so frustrated and scarred by their time in care that all they can think about is being “freed” from the child welfare system and living on their own. This paper examines the growing number of states that permit youth who have exited foster care after 18, but are still under 21, to reenter care when they discover that they may have overestimated their readiness for independence. The paper explores the many challenges facing emerging adults as they exit foster care, and the laws and practices that have evolved in the past few years aimed at supporting “trial independence.” The paper concludes that while more research is needed about the obstacles facing youth exiting foster care to independence, re-entry laws represent an important strategy aimed at maximizing the likelihood of a successful transition for a vulnerable population of young adults

Total Value of Phosphorus Recovery

Phosphorus (P) is a critical, geographically concentrated, nonrenewable resource necessary to support global food production. In excess (e.g., due to runoff or wastewater discharges), P is also a primary cause of eutrophication. To reconcile the simultaneous shortage and overabundance of P, lost P flows must be recovered and reused, alongside improvements in P-use efficiency. While this motivation is increasingly being recognized, little P recovery is practiced today, as recovered P generally cannot compete with the relatively low cost of mined P. Therefore, P is often captured to prevent its release into the environment without beneficial recovery and reuse. However, additional incentives for P recovery emerge when accounting for the total value of P recovery. This article provides a comprehensive overview of the range of benefits of recovering P from waste streams, i.e., the total value of recovering P. This approach accounts for P products, as well as other assets that are associated with P and can be recovered in parallel, such as energy, nitrogen, metals and minerals, and water. Additionally, P recovery provides valuable services to society and the environment by protecting and improving environmental quality, enhancing efficiency of waste treatment facilities, and improving food security and social equity. The needs to make P recovery a reality are also discussed, including business models, bottlenecks, and policy and education strategies

Robust Digital Holography For Ultracold Atom Trapping

We have formulated and experimentally demonstrated an improved algorithm for design of arbitrary two-dimensional holographic traps for ultracold atoms. Our method builds on the best previously available algorithm, MRAF, and improves on it in two ways. First, it allows for creation of holographic atom traps with a well defined background potential. Second, we experimentally show that for creating trapping potentials free of fringing artifacts it is important to go beyond the Fourier approximation in modelling light propagation. To this end, we incorporate full Helmholtz propagation into our calculations.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure

Topological phase due to electric dipole moment and magnetic monopole interaction

We show that there is an anologous Aharonov-Casher effect on a neutral particle with electric dipole moment interacting with a magnetic filed produced by magnetic monopoles.Comment: 8 page