How the Justice System Responds to Juvenile Victims: A Comprehensive Model.

The justice system handles thousands of cases involving juvenile victims each year. These victims are served by a complex set of agencies and institutions, including police, prosecutors, courts, and child protection agencies. Despite the many cases involving juvenile victims and the structure in place for responding to them, the juvenile victim justice system model presented in this Bulletin is a new concept. Although the juvenile victim justice system has a distinct structure and sequence, its operation is not very well understood. Unlike the more familiar juvenile offender justice system, the juvenile victim justice system has not been conceptualized as a whole or implemented by a common set of statutes. This Bulletin identifies the major elements of the juvenile victim justice system by delineating how cases move through the system. It reviews each step in the case flow process for the child protection and criminal justice systems and describes the interaction of the agencies an individuals involved. Recognizing how the juvenile victim justice system works can inform policy decisions and improve outcomes for juvenile victims. Acknowledging the existence of the system has important implications for system integration, information sharing, and data collection—all of which play a key role in ensuring the safety and well-being of juvenile victims

Which sexual abuse victims receive a forensic medical examination? : The impact of Children\u27s Advocacy Centers

Abstract Objective This study examines the impact of Children\u27s Advocacy Centers (CAC) and other factors, such as the child\u27s age, alleged penetration, and injury on the use of forensic medical examinations as part of the response to reported child sexual abuse. Methods This analysis is part of a quasi-experimental study, the Multi-Site Evaluation of Children\u27s Advocacy Centers, which evaluated four CACs relative to within-state non-CAC comparison communities. Case abstractors collected data on forensic medical exams in 1,220 child sexual abuse cases through review of case records. Results Suspected sexual abuse victims at CACs were two times more likely to have forensic medical examinations than those seen at comparison communities, controlling for other variables. Girls, children with reported penetration, victims who were physically injured while being abused, White victims, and younger children were more likely to have exams, controlling for other variables. Non-penetration cases at CACs were four times more likely to receive exams as compared to those in comparison communities. About half of exams were conducted the same day as the reported abuse in both CAC and comparison communities. The majority of caregivers were very satisfied with the medical professional. Receipt of a medical exam was not associated with offenders being charged. Conclusions Results of this study suggest that CACs are an effective tool for furthering access to forensic medical examinations for child sexual abuse victims

Three-dimensional cell to tissue assembly process

The present invention relates a 3-dimensional cell to tissue and maintenance process, more particularly to methods of culturing cells in a culture environment, either in space or in a gravity field, with minimum fluid shear stress, freedom for 3-dimensional spatial orientation of the suspended particles and localization of particles with differing or similar sedimentation properties in a similar spatial region

Odorant transport in a hagfish

Odorant transport is of fundamental and applied importance. Using computational simulations, we studied odorant transport in an anatomically accurate model of the nasal passage of a hagfish (probably Eptatretus stoutii). We found that ambient water is sampled widely, with a significant ventral element. Additionally, there is a bilateral element to olfactory flow, which enters the single nostril in two narrow, laminar streams that are then split prior to the nasal chamber by the anterior edge of the central olfactory lamella. An appendage on this lamella directs a small portion (10–14%) of the overall nasal flow to the olfactory sensory channels. Much of the remaining flow is diverted away from the sensory channels by two peripheral channels. The anterior edge of the central olfactory lamella, together with a jet-impingement mechanism, disperses flow over the olfactory surfaces. Diffusion of odorant from bulk water to the olfactory surfaces is facilitated by the large surface area:volume ratio of the sensory channels, and by a resistance-based hydrodynamic mechanism that leads to long residence times (up to 4.5 s) in the sensory channels. With increasing volumetric flow rate, the rate of odorant transfer to the olfactory surfaces increases, but the efficiency of odorant uptake decreases, falling in the range 2–6%. Odorant flux decreases caudally across the olfactory surfaces, suggesting in vivo a preponderance of olfactory sensory neurons on the anterior part of each olfactory surface. We conclude that the hagfish has a subtle anatomy for locating and capturing odorant molecules

In Vitro Reconstituted Biotransformation of 4-Fluorothreonine from Fluoride Ion: Application of the Fluorinase

SummaryIn this paper, we report that fluoride ion is converted to the amino acid/antibiotic 4-fluorothreonine 2 in a biotransformation involving five (steps a–e) overexpressed enzymes. The biotransformation validates the biosynthetic pathway to 4-fluorothreonine in the bacterium Streptomyces cattleya (Schaffrath et al., 2002). To achieve an in vitro biotransformation, the fluorinase and the purine nucleoside phosphorylase (PNP) enzymes (steps a and b), which are coded for by the flA and flB genes of the fluorometabolite gene cluster in S. cattleya, were overexpressed. Also, an isomerase gene product that can convert 5-FDRP 6 to 5-FDRibulP 7 (step c) was identified in S. cattleya, and the enzyme was overexpressed for the biotransformation. A fuculose aldolase gene from S. coelicolor was overexpressed in E. coli and was used as a surrogate aldolase (step d) in these experiments. To complete the complement of enzymes, an ORF coding the PLP-dependent transaldolase, the final enzyme of the fluorometabolite pathway, was identified in genomic DNA by a reverse genetics approach, and the S. cattleya gene/enzyme was then overexpressed in S. lividans. This latter enzyme is an unusual PLP-dependent catalyst with some homology to both bacterial serine hydroxymethyl transferases (SHMT) and C5 sugar isomerases/epimerases. The biotransformation demonstrates the power of the fluorinase to initiate C-F bond formation for organo-fluorine synthesis

Evaluating Children’s Advocacy Centers’ Response to Child Sexual Abuse

Children’s Advocacy Centers (CACs) play an increasingly significant role in the response to child sexual abuse and other child maltreatment in the United States. First developed in the 1980s, CACs were designed to reduce the stress on child abuse victims and families created by traditional child abuse investigation and prosecution procedures and to improve the effectiveness of the response. According to several experts (Fontana, 1984; Pence and Wilson, 1992; Whitcomb, 1992), child victims were subjected to multiple, redundant interviews about their abuse by different agencies, and were questioned by professionals who had no knowledge of children’s developmental limitations or experience working with children. Child interviews would take place in settings like police stations that would further stress already frightened children. Moreover, the response was hampered because the multiple agencies involved did not coordinate their investigations, and children’s need for services could be neglected

Microextensive Chaos of a Spatially Extended System

By analyzing chaotic states of the one-dimensional Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation for system sizes L in the range 79 <= L <= 93, we show that the Lyapunov fractal dimension D scales microextensively, increasing linearly with L even for increments Delta{L} that are small compared to the average cell size of 9 and to various correlation lengths. This suggests that a spatially homogeneous chaotic system does not have to increase its size by some characteristic amount to increase its dynamical complexity, nor is the increase in dimension related to the increase in the number of linearly unstable modes.Comment: 5 pages including 4 figures. Submitted to PR

Large scale emergent properties of an autocatalytic reaction-diffusion model subject to noise

The non-equilibrium dynamic fluctuations of a stochastic version of the Gray-Scott (GS) model are studied analytically in leading order in perturbation theory by means of the dynamic renormalization group. There is an attracting stable fixed point at one-loop order, and the asymptotic scaling of the correlation functions is predicted for both spatial and temporally correlated noise sources. New effective three-body reaction terms, not present in the original GS model, are induced by the combined interplay of the fluctuations and nonlinearities.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figure

Apollo Lightcraft project

The detailed design of a beam-powered transatmospheric vehicle, the Apollo Lightcraft, was selected as the project for the design course. The principal goal is to reduce the LEO payload delivery cost by at least three orders of magnitude below the Space Shuttle Orbiter in the post 2020 era. The completely reusable, single-stage-to-orbit shuttlecraft will take off and land vertically, and have a reentry heat shield integrated with its lower surface. At appropriate points along the launch trajectory, the combined cycle propulsion system will transition through three or four airbreathing modes, and finally use a pure rocket mode for orbital insertion. The objective for the Spring semester propulsion source was to design and perform a detailed theoretical analysis on an advanced combined-cycle engine suitable for the Apollo Lightcraft. The preliminary theoretical analysis of this combined-cycle engine is now completed, and the acceleration performance along representative orbital trajectories was simulated. The total round trip cost is $3430 or$686 per person. This represents a payload delivery cost of $3.11/lb, which is a factor of 1000 below the STS. The Apollo Lightcraft concept is now ready for a more detailed investigation during the Fall semester Transatmosphere Vehicle Design course