The views of birth families regarding access visits in foster care

Summary: This study aims to give voice to parents and gather their views about contact visits in foster care. Participants were 23 birth families who had contact visits with 35 children in non-kinship foster care. Semistructured individual interviews were conducted in order to explore two key aspects: the parents’ opinions regarding the contact visits and the main areas they felt needed improving. The interviews were transcribed and the transcripts were examined using an inductive method by Atlas.ti. Findings: The main themes to emerge concerned their general view of contact visits, the input and support from social workers, the contribution of foster families, the contact venue, and the organization of visits. In general, the birth families’ comments were positive about the support and treatment received from social workers. However, they also mentioned certain aspects should be improved, such as supervision during visits. Applications: The results suggest several ways to improve social work practice. Social workers should aim to involve birth families more in the process of drawing up contact arrangements and offering birth families adequate preparation prior to visits. Child protection agencies also have a role to play in relation to improving the facilities in which visits are held, as well as their overall organization, such as, the venue should provide a space that enables everyday family relationships to take place, and in the absence of this, attempts should be made to organize visits outside the official meeting place

Templates of expected measurement uncertainties

The covariance committee of CSEWG (Cross Section Evaluation Working Group) established templates of expected measurement uncertainties for neutron-induced total, (n,γ), neutron-induced charged-particle, and (n,xn) reaction cross sections as well as prompt fission neutron spectra, average prompt and total fission neutron multiplicities, and fission yields. Templates provide a list of what uncertainty sources are expected for each measurement type and observable, and suggest typical ranges of these uncertainties and correlations based on a survey of experimental data, associated literature, and feedback from experimenters. Information needed to faithfully include the experimental data in the nuclear-data evaluation process is also provided. These templates could assist (a) experimenters and EXFOR compilers in delivering more complete uncertainties and measurement information relevant for evaluations of new experimental data, and (b) evaluators in achieving a more comprehensive uncertainty quantification for evaluation purposes. This effort might ultimately lead to more realistic evaluated covariances for nuclear-data applications. In this topical issue, we cover the templates coming out of this CSEWG effort–typically, one observable per paper. This paper here prefaces this topical issue by introducing the concept and mathematical framework of templates, discussing potential use cases, and giving an example of how they can be applied (estimating missing experimental uncertainties of 235U(n,f) average prompt fission neutron multiplicities), and their impact on nuclear-data evaluations

The Golden stool : studies of the Asante center and periphery. Anthropological papers of the AMNH ; v. 65, pt. 1

331 p. : ill., maps ; 26 cm.Bibliography: p. 310-323