The Forgotten Children of the Foster Care System: Making a Case for the Professional Judgment Standard

Part I of this Comment presents a brief look at the children in foster care and the maltreatment they experience, as well as the federal and state legislation enacted to provide for their safety. Part II explores § 1983 and Supreme Court precedent establishing the duty to protect persons from harm caused by private parties, with a focus on the special relationship doctrine. It also discusses the applicable standards of liability defined by the Court. Part III reviews and analyzes the various liability standards used in federal and state actions brought by foster children for failure to protect them from harm. Part IV assesses the relevant individual and state interests involved in foster care maltreatment actions brought under § 1983. This section also compares and contrasts these interests to the interests of institutionalized mental health patients and prisoners, as these are the subjects of the Supreme Courts only holdings regarding the liability standards applicable to special relationship cases. Further, it assesses the peculiar circumstances of foster children and the heightened duty that the state has to protect them from harm. Finally, it proposes that the Supreme Court should recognize the heightened duty to protect foster children from harm and adopt the professional judgment standard as the appropriate standard in foster care maltreatment actions

The Forgotten Children of the Foster Care System: Making a Case for the Professional Judgment Standard

Part I of this Comment presents a brief look at the children in foster care and the maltreatment they experience, as well as the federal and state legislation enacted to provide for their safety. Part II explores § 1983 and Supreme Court precedent establishing the duty to protect persons from harm caused by private parties, with a focus on the special relationship doctrine. It also discusses the applicable standards of liability defined by the Court. Part III reviews and analyzes the various liability standards used in federal and state actions brought by foster children for failure to protect them from harm. Part IV assesses the relevant individual and state interests involved in foster care maltreatment actions brought under § 1983. This section also compares and contrasts these interests to the interests of institutionalized mental health patients and prisoners, as these are the subjects of the Supreme Courts only holdings regarding the liability standards applicable to special relationship cases. Further, it assesses the peculiar circumstances of foster children and the heightened duty that the state has to protect them from harm. Finally, it proposes that the Supreme Court should recognize the heightened duty to protect foster children from harm and adopt the professional judgment standard as the appropriate standard in foster care maltreatment actions

Comparing cover crop research in farmer-led and researcher-led experiments in the Western Corn Belt

Cover crops can mitigate soil degradation and nutrient loss and can be used to achieve continuous living cover in cropping systems, although their adoption in the Western Corn Belt of the United States remains low. It is increasingly recognized that cover crop integration into corn (Zea mays L.)-based crop rotations is complex, requiring site and operation specific management. In this review, we compared on-farm, farmer-led field scale trials to researcher-led trials carried out in small plots on University of Nebraska-Lincoln experiment stations. Although there is a range of cover crop research conducted in the state, there is no synthesis of the scope and key results of such eorts. Common cover crop challenges and goals in the state are similar to those reported nationwide; challenges include adequate planting timing, associated costs, and weather, while a top goal of cover crop use is to improve soil health. Farmer-led trials most frequently compared a cover crop to a no-cover crop control, likely reflecting a desire to test a basic design determining site-specific performance. Both researcher-led and farmer-led trials included designs testing cash crop planting timing, while some portion of farmer-led trials tested cover crop seeding rates, which are directly related to reported cover crop challenges. Farmer-led trials were carried out on a greater variety of soils, including sandy soils, whereas sandy soils were absent from researcher-led trials. More than half of farmer- led experiments were conducted on fields with slopes of 6–17% while most researcher-led experiments were conducted on fields with slopes of \u3c1%. Mean cover crop biomass production was 600 kg/ha in farmer-led and 2,000 kg/ha in researcher-led trials. Crop yields were not significantly aected by cover crops in either farmer-led or researcher-led trials. Such comparisons demonstrate that in some instances, cover crop research is addressing challenges, and in some instances, it could be expanded. This synthesis expands our knowledge base in a way that can promote co-learning between dierent scales of experiments, and ultimately, reduce risks associated with cover crop management and further promote continuous living cover of agricultural landscapes

Classical Dynamics of Point Particles in 2+1 Gravity

The relation between Einstein gravity and the Chern-Simons gauge theory of the Poincare' group is discussed at the classical level.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures not included, (replaced version with correct macros) Talk presented at the Workshop on Random Surfaces and 2-D Quantum Gravity, June 1991, Barcelona, to appear in Nucl. Phys. B (Proc. Suppl.), J.Ambjorn et al. ed

Portfolio selection : a study using principal component analysis

Mestrado em FinançasNesta tese aplicámos a análise de componentes principais ao mercado bolsista português usando os constituintes do índice PSI-20, de Julho de 2008 a Dezembro de 2016. Os sete primeiros componentes principais foram retidos, por se ter verificado que estes representavam as maiores fontes de risco deste mercado em específico. Assim, foram construídos sete portfólios principais e comparámo-los com outras estratégias de alocação. Foram construídos o portfólio 1/N (portfólio com investimento igual para cada um dos 26 ativos), o PPEqual (portfólio com igual investimento em cada um dos 7 principal portfólios) e o portfólio MV (portfólio que tem por base a teoria moderna de gestão de carteiras de Markowitz (1952)). Concluímos que estes dois últimos portfólios apresentavam os melhores resultados em termos de risco e retorno, sendo o portfólio PPEqual mais adequado a um investidor com maior grau de aversão ao risco e o portfólio MV mais adequado a um investidor que estaria disposto a arriscar mais em prol de maior retorno. No que diz respeito ao nível de risco, o PPEqual é o portfólio com melhores resultados e nenhum outro portfólio conseguiu apresentar valores semelhantes. Assim encontrámos um portfólio que é a ponderação de todos os portfólios principais por nós construídos e este era o portfólio mais eficiente em termos de risco.In this thesis we apply principal component analysis to the Portuguese stock market using the constituents of the PSI-20 index from July 2008 to December 2016. The first seven principal components were retained, as we verified that these represented the major risk sources in this specific market. Seven principal portfolios were constructed and we compared them with other allocation strategies. The 1/N portfolio (with an equal investment in each of the 26 stocks), the PPEqual portfolio (with an equal investment in each of the 7 principal portfolios) and the MV portfolio (based on Markowitz's (1952) mean-variance strategy) were constructed. We concluded that these last two portfolios presented the best results in terms of return and risk, with PPEqual portfolio being more suitable for an investor with a greater degree of risk aversion and the MV portfolio more suitable for an investor willing to risk more in favour of higher returns. Regarding the level of risk, PPEqual is the portfolio with the best results and, so far, no other portfolio has presented similar values. Therefore, we found an equally-weighted portfolio among all the principal portfolios we built, which was the most risk efficient.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Contrast-to-noise ratios and thickness-normalized, ventilation-dependent signal levels in dark-field and conventional in vivo thorax radiographs of two pigs

Lung tissue causes significant small-angle X-ray scattering, which can be visualized with grating-based X-ray dark-field imaging. Structural lung diseases alter alveolar microstructure, which often causes a dark-field signal decrease. The imaging method provides benefits for diagnosis of such diseases in small-animal models, and was successfully used on porcine and human lungs in a fringe-scanning setup. Micro- and macroscopic changes occur in the lung during breathing, but their individual effects on the dark-field signal are unknown. However, this information is important for quantitative medical evaluation of dark-field thorax radiographs. To estimate the effect of these changes on the dark-field signal during a clinical examination, we acquired in vivo dark-field chest radiographs of two pigs at three ventilation pressures. Pigs were used due to the high degree of similarity between porcine and human lungs. To analyze lung expansion separately, we acquired CT scans of both pigs at comparable posture and ventilation pressures. Segmentation, masking, and forward-projection of the CT datasets yielded maps of lung thickness and logarithmic lung attenuation signal in registration with the dark-field radiographs. Upon correlating this data, we discovered approximately linear relationships between the logarithmic dark-field signal and both projected quantities for all scans. Increasing ventilation pressure strongly decreased dark-field extinction coefficients, whereas the ratio of lung dark-field and attenuation signal changed only slightly. Furthermore, we investigated ratios of dark-field and attenuation noise levels at realistic signal levels via calculations and phantom measurements. Dark-field contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) per lung height was 5 to 10% of the same quantity in attenuation. We conclude that better CNR performance in the dark-field modality is typically due to greater anatomical noise in the conventional radiograph. Given the high physiological similarity of human and porcine lungs, the presented thickness-normalized, ventilation-dependent values allow estimation of dark-field activity of human lungs of variable size and inspiration, which facilitates the design of suitable clinical imaging setups

Role of Intraparotid and Neck Lymph Node Metastasis in Primary Parotid Cancer Surgery: A Population-Based Analysis

Simple Summary The prognostic role of intraparotid (PAR) and cervical lymph node (LN) metastasis on overall survival (OS) of primary parotid cancer is unclear. All 345 Thuringian patients with parotid cancer from 1996 to 2016 were included in a population-based study. OS was assessed in relation to the total number of removed PAR and cervical LN, number of positive intraparotid (PAR+), positive cervical LN, LN ratio, log odds of positive LN (LODDS), as well as including the PAR as LODDS-PAR. PAR was assessed in 42% of the patients (22% of these PAR+). T and N classification were not independent predictors of OS. When combining T with LODDS instead of N, higher T became a strong prognosticator, but not LODDS. When combining T classification with LODDS-PAR, both higher T classification and the classification with LODDS-PAR became independent predictors of worse OS. LODDS-PAR seems to be an optimal prognosticator for OS in primary parotid cancer. Abstract This population-based study investigated the prognostic role of intraparotid (PAR) and cervical lymph node (LN) metastasis on overall survival (OS) of primary parotid cancer. All 345 patients (median age: 66 years; 43% female, 49% N+, 31% stage IV) of the Thuringian cancer registries with parotid cancer from 1996 to 2016 were included. OS was assessed in relation to the total number of removed PAR and cervical LN, number of positive intraparotid (PAR+), positive cervical LN, LN ratio, log odds of positive LN (LODDS), as well as including the PAR as LODDS-PAR. PAR was assessed in 42% of the patients (22% of these PAR+). T and N classification were not independent predictors of OS. When combining T with LODDS instead of N, higher T (T3/T4) became a prognosticator (hazard ratio (HR) = 2.588; CI = 1.329–5.040; p = 0.005) but not LODDS ( p > 0.05). When combining T classification with LODDS-PAR, both higher T classification (HR = 2.256; CI = 1.288–3.950; p = 0.004) and the alternative classification with LODDS-PAR (≥median −1.11; HR 2.078; CI = 1.155–3.739; p = 0.015) became independent predictors of worse OS. LODDS-PAR was the only independent prognosticator out of the LN assessment for primary parotid cancer

Biallelic mutations in valyl-tRNA synthetase gene VARS are associated with a progressive neurodevelopmental epileptic encephalopathy.

Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (ARSs) function to transfer amino acids to cognate tRNA molecules, which are required for protein translation. To date, biallelic mutations in 31 ARS genes are known to cause recessive, early-onset severe multi-organ diseases. VARS encodes the only known valine cytoplasmic-localized aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase. Here, we report seven patients from five unrelated families with five different biallelic missense variants in VARS. Subjects present with a range of global developmental delay, epileptic encephalopathy and primary or progressive microcephaly. Longitudinal assessment demonstrates progressive cortical atrophy and white matter volume loss. Variants map to the VARS tRNA binding domain and adjacent to the anticodon domain, and disrupt highly conserved residues. Patient primary cells show intact VARS protein but reduced enzymatic activity, suggesting partial loss of function. The implication of VARS in pediatric neurodegeneration broadens the spectrum of human diseases due to mutations in tRNA synthetase genes

A practical review of energy saving technology for ageing populations

Fuel poverty is a critical issue for a globally ageing population. Longer heating/cooling requirements combine with declining incomes to create a problem in need of urgent attention. One solution is to deploy technology to help elderly users feel informed about their energy use, and empowered to take steps to make it more cost effective and efficient. This study subjects a broad cross section of energy monitoring and home automation products to a formal ergonomic analysis. A high level task analysis was used to guide a product walk through, and a toolkit approach was used thereafter to drive out further insights. The findings reveal a number of serious usability issues which prevent these products from successfully accessing an important target demographic and associated energy saving and fuel poverty outcomes. Design principles and examples are distilled from the research to enable practitioners to translate the underlying research into high quality design-engineering solutions