Ethics in Dangerous Situations

To protect soldiers repairing a vehicle on a road, a platoon leader in Iraq provided protection for them by positioning two manned vehicles along possible routes that other vehicles, potentially laden with explosives, could use. In doing so, he decided not to follow the platoon\u27s standard operating procedure (SOP), which called for controlling traffic along the road by separating nonthreatening Iraqi vehicles from suspicious ones. He believed that he was being paid to exercise judgment, so he broke from routine. Because he knew the enemy had used snipers against soldiers on this road in the past, he calculated that the risk of them doing so again far outweighed the potential of firing on nonthreatening Iraqi vehicles because of a failure to control the traffic. Soon after getting their vehicles in position, the soldiers saw a sedan speeding toward their position. As it got closer, the platoon leader ordered one of his soldiers to fire a warning shot, after which the sedan sped up. Thinking they were in imminent danger, the soldiers trained their fire on the sedan and braced for an explosion. The sedan skidded to a stop less than five meters from the soldiers, and they soon discovered that they had killed an elderly man with thick glasses and hearing aids in both ears. When the battalion executive officer reviewed the platoon\u27s actions, he agreed with the lieutenant\u27s decision to deviate from routine and not put soldiers on the road, affirmed that the soldiers did the right thing, and called the killing of the elderly man a terrible tragedy of war

Ethics in Dangerous Situations

To protect soldiers repairing a vehicle on a road, a platoon leader in Iraq provided protection for them by positioning two manned vehicles along possible routes that other vehicles, potentially laden with explosives, could use. In doing so, he decided not to follow the platoon\u27s standard operating procedure (SOP), which called for controlling traffic along the road by separating nonthreatening Iraqi vehicles from suspicious ones. He believed that he was being paid to exercise judgment, so he broke from routine. Because he knew the enemy had used snipers against soldiers on this road in the past, he calculated that the risk of them doing so again far outweighed the potential of firing on nonthreatening Iraqi vehicles because of a failure to control the traffic. Soon after getting their vehicles in position, the soldiers saw a sedan speeding toward their position. As it got closer, the platoon leader ordered one of his soldiers to fire a warning shot, after which the sedan sped up. Thinking they were in imminent danger, the soldiers trained their fire on the sedan and braced for an explosion. The sedan skidded to a stop less than five meters from the soldiers, and they soon discovered that they had killed an elderly man with thick glasses and hearing aids in both ears. When the battalion executive officer reviewed the platoon\u27s actions, he agreed with the lieutenant\u27s decision to deviate from routine and not put soldiers on the road, affirmed that the soldiers did the right thing, and called the killing of the elderly man a terrible tragedy of war

Convergent Validity of the Strength-Based Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scale with Youth in a Residential Setting

Strength-based assessment has been identified as an appropriate approach to use in planning treatment and evaluating outcomes of youth in residential settings. In previous research the Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scale-2, a standardized and norm-referenced strength-based measure, has demonstrated adequate reliability and validity with youth served in community and educational settings. The purpose of the present study was to examine the internal reliability and convergent validity of the BERS-2 by comparing the test to the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and the Symptoms and Functioning Severity Scale (SFSS). The results indicate that the scores from the BERS-2 are internally consistent and converge with other behavioral and emotional measures which, taken together, suggest that the BERS-2 could be acceptable for assessing the emotional and behavioral strengths of youth in residential settings. Study limitations and future research directions are identified

Convergent Validity of the Strength-Based Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scale with Youth in a Residential Setting

Strength-based assessment has been identified as an appropriate approach to use in planning treatment and evaluating outcomes of youth in residential settings. In previous research the Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scale-2, a standardized and norm-referenced strength-based measure, has demonstrated adequate reliability and validity with youth served in community and educational settings. The purpose of the present study was to examine the internal reliability and convergent validity of the BERS-2 by comparing the test to the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and the Symptoms and Functioning Severity Scale (SFSS). The results indicate that the scores from the BERS-2 are internally consistent and converge with other behavioral and emotional measures which, taken together, suggest that the BERS-2 could be acceptable for assessing the emotional and behavioral strengths of youth in residential settings. Study limitations and future research directions are identified

Hard Burst Emission from the Soft Gamma Repeater SGR 1900+14

We present evidence for burst emission from SGR 1900+14 with a power-law high energy spectrum extending beyond 500 keV. Unlike previous detections of high energy photons during bursts from SGRs, these emissions are not associated with high-luminosity burst intervals. Not only is the emission hard, but the spectra are better fit by Band's GRB function rather than by the traditional optically-thin thermal bremsstrahlung model. We find that the spectral evolution within these hard events obeys a hardness/intensity anti-correlation. Temporally, these events are distinct from typical SGR burst emissions in that they are longer (~ 1 s) and have relatively smooth profiles. Despite a difference in peak luminosity of > 1E+11 between these bursts from SGR 1900+14 and cosmological GRBs, there are striking temporal and spectral similarities between the two kinds of bursts, aside from spectral evolution. We outline an interpretation of these events in the context of the magnetar model.Comment: 11 pages (text and figures), submitted to ApJ Letters, corrected erroneous hardness ratio

Leakage Inductance Calculation for Planar Transformers with a Magnetic Shunt

The magnetic shunt is generally inserted in a planar transformer to increase the leakage inductance, which can be utilized as the series inductor in resonant circuits such as the LLC resonant converter. This paper presents a calculation methodology for the leakage inductance of the transformer with a magnetic shunt by means of the stored magnetic energy in the primary and secondary sides of the transformer using the magnetomotive force (MMF) variation method, as well as the stored energy in the shunt based on the reluctance model. The detailed calculation method is described. Both the finite-element analysis simulation and the experimental results have proven the validity of the proposed calculation method for leakage inductance

Validation of the Symptoms and Functioning Severity Scale in Residential Group Care

Tests that measure the emotional and behavioral problems of children and youth are typically not normed and standardized on youth diagnosed with disruptive behavior, particularly those youth in residential care. Yet professional standards mandate that before instruments are used with a specific population the psychometric properties need to be studied and re-established: specifically, psychometric properties, including validity, need to be evaluated (AERA, APA, & NCME, 1999). The purpose of the present study was to assess the validity characteristics of the Symptoms and Functioning Severity Scale (SFSS; Bickman, et al., 2010), a widely used test developed for use in outpatient clinics, with youth in a residential care program. The convergent validity of the SFSS was established with the large correlations (.78-.86) with the CBCL. Several binary classification analyses including specificity, area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, positive and negative likelihood ratios, and the Youden Index supported the validity of the SFSS. However, the sensitivity index was somewhat low indicating the test may produce a high level of false negatives. Limitations, future research and implications are discussed

Psychometric Evaluation of the Symptoms and Functioning Severity Scale (SFSS) Short Forms with Out-of-Home Care Youth

BACKGROUND—There is a need for brief progress monitoring measures of behavioral and emotional symptoms for youth in out-of-home care. The Symptoms and Functioning Severity Scale (SFSS; Bickman et al., 2010) is one measure that has clinician and youth short forms (SFSS-SFs); however, the psychometric soundness of the SFSS-SFs with youth in out-of-home care has yet to be examined. OBJECTIVE—The objective was to determine if the psychometric characteristics of the clinician and youth SFSS-SFs are viable for use in out-of-home care programs. METHODS—The participants included 143 youth receiving residential treatment and 52 direct care residential staff. The current study assessed internal consistency and alternate forms reliability for SFSS-SFs for youth in a residential care setting. Further, a binary classification test was completed to determine if the SFSS-SFs similarly classified youth as the SFSS full version for low- and elevated-severity. RESULTS—The internal consistency for the clinician and youth SFSS-SFs was adequate (α = .75 to .82) as was the parallel forms reliability (r = .85 to .97). The sensitivity (0.80 to 0.95), specificity (0.88 to 0.97), and overall accuracy (0.89 to 0.93) for differentiating low and elevated symptom severity was acceptable. CONCLUSIONS—The clinician and youth SFSS-SFs have acceptable psychometrics and may be beneficial for progress monitoring and additional research should clarify their potential for progress monitoring of youth in out-of-home programs

Discovery of a New Soft Gamma Repeater, SGR 1627-41

We report the discovery of a new soft gamma repeater (SGR), SGR 1627-41, and present BATSE observations of the burst emission and BeppoSAX NFI observations of the probable persistent X-ray counterpart to this SGR. All but one burst spectrum are well fit by an optically thin thermal bremsstrahlung (OTTB) model with kT values between 25 and 35 keV. The spectrum of the X-ray counterpart, SAX J1635.8-4736, is similar to that of other persistent SGR X-ray counterparts. We find weak evidence for a periodic signal at 6.41 s in the light curve for this source. Like other SGRs, this source appears to be associated with a young supernova remnant G337.0-0.1. Based upon the peak luminosities of bursts observed from this SGR, we find a lower limit on the dipole magnetic field of the neutron star B_dipole > 5 * 10^14 Gauss.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, submitted to ApJ Letter