Pathway to Hope: an indigenous approach to healing child sexual abuse

Background. The Alaska Native (AN) population has endured multiple historical traumatic events. This population has poorer health outcomes on nearly all factors compared with Alaska non-Natives with more than 75% reportedly being physically assaulted in their lifetime, and child sexual abuse nearly 6 times the national average. Objective. This article describes the Pathway to Hope (PTH) program, which is an indigenous approach to ending silence and denial related to child sexual abuse and encourages multigenerational healing. Design. PTH was developed by ANs who believe that each community is unique, thus strategies for ending denial and support for healing must be woven from the historical context, cultural strengths of individual communities. Strengths-based solutions built on truth, honesty, compassion and shared responsibility for healing and protecting today’s children have been profound and successful. The PTH curriculum addresses child sexual abuse from a historical perspective; that the higher rates of sexual abuse among certain Tribes, regions and communities is linked in part to years of victimisation, but may also be perpetuated by internalised oppression and lateral violence among Tribal members. Results. Data suggest that community-based dialogue and wisdom of Native elders and spiritual leaders paired with readiness of community service providers are necessary for sustained change. At all levels, this Indigenous model for learning, sharing, helping and healing brings hope for an end to denial and silence about child sexual abuse for Native people. Conclusions. The PTH program utilises the wisdom and values that have sustained Native people for generations. Ending silence and denial about child sexual abuse and building upon strengths have assisted many Indigenous communities begin the journey toward wellness. Through the PTH, communities have taken steps to accept the challenges associated with establishing safety for children, supporting child victims in healing and to holding offenders accountable

Probing parton dynamics of QCD matter with Omega and phi production

We present measurements of Omega and phi production at midrapidity from Au+Au collisions at nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energiesv root s(NN) = 7.7, 11.5, 19.6, 27, and 39 GeV by the STAR experiment at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). Motivated by the coalescence formation mechanism for these strange hadrons, we study the ratios of N(Omega(-)+Omega(+))/[2N(phi)]. These ratios as a function of transverse momentum p(T) fall on a consistent trend at high collision energies, but start to show deviations in peripheral collisions at root s(NN) = 19.6, 27, and 39 GeV, and in central collisions at 11.5 GeV in the intermediate p(T) region of 2.4-3.6 GeV/c. We further evaluate empirically the strange quark p(T) distributions at hadronization by studying the Omega/phi ratios scaled by the number of constituent quarks (NCQ). The NCQ-scaled Omega/phi ratios show a suppression of strange quark production in central collisions at 11.5 GeV compared to root s(NN) >= 19.6 GeV. The shapes of the presumably thermal strange quark distributions in 0-60% most central collisions at 7.7 GeV show significant deviations from those in 0-10% most central collisions at higher energies. These features suggest that there is likely a change of the underlying strange quark dynamics in the transition from quark matter to hadronic matter at collision energies below 19.6 GeV

The STAR beam energy scan phase II physics and upgrades

The second phase of the Beam Energy Scan at RHIC, BPS-II, is scheduled for 2019-2020 and will explore with precision measurements the high baryon density region of the QCD phase diagram. The program will examine the energy region of interest determined from the results of BES-I. Some of the key measurements anticipated are: the net-protons kurtosis that could pinpoint the position of a critical point, the directed flow that might prove a softening of the EOS, and the chiral restoration in the dilepton channel. The measurements will be possible with the order of magnitude better statistics provided by the electron cooling upgrade of RHIC and with the detector upgrades planned to extend STAR's experimental reach. The upgrades are: the inner TPC sectors (iTPC), the Event Plane Detector (EPD), and the end -cap TOF (eTOF). We present the BES-II program details and the physics opportunities enabled by these upgrades

Disentangling flow and signals of Chiral Magnetic Effect in U plus U, Au plus Au and p plus Au collisions

We present STAR measurements of the charge-dependent three-particle correlator gamma(a,b) = /v(2){2} and elliptic flow v(2){2} in U+U, Au+Au and p+Au collisions at RHIC. The difference Delta gamma = gamma(opposite sign)-gamma(same sign) measures charge separation across the reaction plane, a predicted signal of the Chiral Magnetic Effect (CME). Although charge separation has been observed, it has been argued that the measured separation can also be explained by elliptic flow related backgrounds. In order to separate the two effects we perform measurements of the gamma-correlator where background expectations differ from magnetic field driven effects. A differential measurement of gamma with the relative pseudorapidity (Delta eta)) between the first and second particles indicate that Delta gamma in peripheral A+A and p+A collisions are dominated by short-range correlations in A. However, a relatively wider component of the correlation in Delta eta tends to vanish the same way as projected magnetic field as predicted by MC-Glauber simulations

STAR Results from Au plus Au Fixed-Target Collisions at root(NN)-N-S=4.5 GeV

We present results from STAR's first dedicated fixed-target run conducted in 2015 with Au + Au collisions at root SNN = 4.5 GeV. Directed flow of protons and lambdas, elliptic flow of identified hadrons, HBT radii, as well as pion, Ks, and Lambda spectra are compared with previous results from the AGS. These results demonstrate that STAR has good event reconstruction and particle identification capabilities in the fixed-target configuration. The implications of these results on future STAR fixed-target runs are discussed

Towards Measurements of Chiral Effects Using Identified Particles from STAR

We report recent STAR results on searching for the Chiral Magnetic Effect via measurements of gamma correlation and k(K) parameter for charged hadrons and identified particle pairs (pi pi, pK, pi K, pp, p pi) in Au+Au collisions at 200 GeV. We compare the k(K) parameters with expectations from the AMPT simulations. Sizable gamma correlations for charged hadrons, using Time Projection Chamber event plane, in p+Au and d+Au 200 GeV have been observed, and the correlations in these small systems are reduced to near zero when the event planes from forward detectors are used. We will also present our results on the Chiral Magnetic Wave searches from p+Au collisions at 200 GeV