707 research outputs found
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Violence Against Women Act: History and Federal Funding
[Excerpt] The Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act of 2005 (VAWA 2005) (P.L. 109-162) was enacted on January 5, 2006. Among other things, VAWA 2005 reauthorized existing VAWA programs and created many new programs. The act encourages collaboration among law enforcement, judicial personnel, and public and private service providers to victims of domestic and sexual violence; increases public awareness of domestic violence; addresses the special needs of victims of domestic and sexual violence, including the elderly, disabled, children, youth, and individuals of ethnic and racial communities; authorizes long-term and transitional housing for victims; makes some provisions gender-neutral; and requires studies and reports on the effectiveness of approaches used for certain grants in combating violence.
VAWA programs are funded through annual appropriations for both the Departments of Justice (DOJ) and Health and Human Services (HHS). President Barack Obama released his FY2011 budget on February 2, 2011, requesting funding of 457.00 million, of which 25.00 million is for Transitional Housing Assistance grants. The FY2011 funding request for programs administered by HHS is 140.00 million is for Family Violence Prevention/Grants for Battered Women’s Shelters and 500,000 each for two new efforts to address sexual and domestic violence and stalking in Indian Country: (1) Indian Country—Sexual Assault Clearinghouse and (2) Indian Country—Regional Summits.
On December 16, 2009, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2010 (P.L. 111-117; H.R. 3288) was enacted, providing total FY2010 funding of 444.50 million is for VAWA programs administered by DOJ and $181.41 million is for domestic violence programs under the Department of Health and Human Services.
The original VAWA, enacted in 1994 as Title IV of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act (P.L. 103-322), established within DOJ and HHS formula and discretionary grant programs for state, local, and Indian tribal governments. The Violence Against Women Act of 2000 (VAWA 2000; P.L. 106-386), reauthorized many VAWA programs, set new funding levels, and created new grant programs to address sexual assaults on campuses and assist victims of domestic abuse. The Keeping Children and Families Safe Act of 2003 (P.L. 108-36) and the PROTECT Act (P.L. 108-21) authorized funding of both HHS and DOJ transitional housing assistance programs for victims of domestic violence. This report will be updated to reflect legislative activity
Cepheid Period-Radius and Period-Luminosity Relations and the Distance to the LMC
We have used the infrared Barnes-Evans surface brightness technique to derive
the radii and distances of 34 Galactic Cepheid variables. Radius and distance
results obtained from both versions of the technique are in excellent
agreement. The radii of 28 variables are used to determine the period-radius
relation. This relation is found to have a smaller dispersion than in previous
studies, and is identical to the period-radius relation found by Laney & Stobie
from a completely independent method, a fact which provides persuasive evidence
that the Cepheid period-radius relation is now determined at a very high
confidence level. We use the accurate infrared distances to determine
period-luminosity relations in the V, I, J, H and K passbands from the Galactic
sample of Cepheids. We derive improved slopes of these relations from updated
LMC Cepheid samples and adopt these slopes to obtain accurate absolute
calibrations of the PL relation. By comparing these relations to the ones
defined by the LMC Cepheids, we derive strikingly consistent and precise values
for the LMC distance modulus in each of the passbands which yield a mean value
of DM (LMC) = 18.46 +- 0.02.
Our results show that the infrared Barnes-Evans technique is very insensitive
to both Cepheid metallicity and adopted reddening, and therefore a very
powerful tool to derive accurate distances to nearby galaxies by a direct
application of the technique to their Cepheid variables, rather than by
comparing PL relations of different galaxies, which introduces much more
sensitivity to metallicity and absorption corrections which are usually
difficult to determine.Comment: LaTeX, AASTeX style, 9 Figures, 10 Tables, The Astrophysical Journal
in press (accepted Oct. 14, 1997). Fig. 3 replace
Theoretical Models for Classical Cepheids: IV. Mean Magnitudes and Colors and the Evaluation of Distance, Reddening and Metallicity
We discuss the metallicity effect on the theoretical visual and near-infrared
PL and PLC relations of classical Cepheids, as based on nonlinear, nonlocal and
time--dependent convective pulsating models at varying chemical composition. In
view of the two usual methods of averaging (magnitude-weighted and
intensity-weighted) observed magnitudes and colors over the full pulsation
cycle, we briefly discuss the differences between static and mean quantities.
We show that the behavior of the synthetic mean magnitudes and colors fully
reproduces the observed trend of Galactic Cepheids, supporting the validity of
the model predictions. In the second part of the paper we show how the estimate
of the mean reddening and true distance modulus of a galaxy from Cepheid VK
photometry depend on the adopted metal content, in the sense that larger
metallicities drive the host galaxy to lower extinctions and distances.
Conversely, self-consistent estimates of the Cepheid mean reddening, distance
and metallicity may be derived if three-filter data are taken into account. By
applying the theoretical PL and PLC relations to available BVK data of Cepheids
in the Magellanic Clouds we eventually obtain Z \sim 0.008, E(B-V) \sim 0.02
mag, DM \sim 18.63 mag for LMC and Z \sim 0.004, E(B-V) \sim 0.01 mag., DM \sim
19.16 mag. for SMC. The discrepancy between such reddenings and the current
values based on BVI data is briefly discussed.Comment: 16 pages, 11 postscript figures, accepted for publication on Ap
Galactic abundance gradients from Cepheids : On the iron abundance gradient around 10-12 kpc
Context: Classical Cepheids can be adopted to trace the chemical evolution of
the Galactic disk since their distances can be estimated with very high
accuracy. Aims: Homogeneous iron abundance measurements for 33 Galactic
Cepheids located in the outer disk together with accurate distance
determinations based on near-infrared photometry are adopted to constrain the
Galactic iron gradient beyond 10 kpc. Methods: Iron abundances were determined
using high resolution Cepheid spectra collected with three different
observational instruments: ESPaDOnS@CFHT, Narval@TBL and [email protected] ESO/MPG
telescope. Cepheid distances were estimated using near-infrared (J,H,K-band)
period-luminosity relations and data from SAAO and the 2MASS catalog. Results:
The least squares solution over the entire data set indicates that the iron
gradient in the Galactic disk presents a slope of -0.052+/-0.003 dex/kpc in the
5-17 kpc range. However, the change of the iron abundance across the disk seems
to be better described by a linear regime inside the solar circle and a
flattening of the gradient toward the outer disk (beyond 10 kpc). In the latter
region the iron gradient presents a shallower slope, i.e. -0.012+/-0.014
dex/kpc. In the outer disk (10-12 kpc) we also found that Cepheids present an
increase in the spread in iron abundance. Current evidence indicates that the
spread in metallicity depends on the Galactocentric longitude. Finally, current
data do not support the hypothesis of a discontinuity in the iron gradient at
Galactocentric distances of 10-12 kpc. Conclusions: The occurrence of a spread
in iron abundance as a function of the Galactocentric longitude indicates that
linear radial gradients should be cautiously treated to constrain the chemical
evolution across the disk.Comment: 5 tables, 8 figures, Accepted in A&
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Family Violence Prevention and Services Act: Programs and Funding
This report describes programs authorized under the Family Violence Prevention and Services Act (FVPSA) and related initiatives, and provides authorization and appropriation levels. The FVPSA was originally enacted in 1984, as Title III of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, to assist states in preventing incidents of family violence and to provide shelter and related assistance to victims of family violence and their dependents, with the expectation of preventing future acts of violence in families
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Violence Against Women Act: History and Federal Funding
This report provides a brief legislative history of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) and an overview of the crimes addressed through VAWA. It concludes with a brief description of the most recent reauthorization of VAWA
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Puerto Rico: A Chronology of Political Status History
This report outlines the chronology of the political status of Puerto Rico. In 1952, Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory since 1898, became a commonwealth. Since then at least three significantly different political status options have been offered by the three major political parties in Puerto Rico. On March 4, 1998, the House passed H.R. 856, a bill to address the political status of Puerto Rico, by a vote of 209-208. On June 23, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee held an oversight hearing on issues raised by separate sovereignty and independence
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Crime Control Assistance Through the Byrne Programs
The statute provides that states receive and distribute block grant funds and that the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) of the U.S. Department of Justice awards discretionary grants for specified activities. Allocated largely on the basis of population, block grant funds are used for personnel, equipment, training, technical assistance, and information systems to improve criminal justice systems
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The Voting Rights Act of 1965, As Amended: Its History and Current Issues
Several bills have been introduced in the 110th Congress concerning the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA) that would rename the short title of the act, and address its bilingual provisions and issues of deceptive practices and voter intimidation during elections. This report discusses this issue at length and also addresses allegations of voting irregularities and of violations of the VRA during the presidential election of 2000
The influence of chemical composition on the properties of Cepheid stars I - Period-Luminosity relation vs iron abundance
We have assessed the influence of the stellar iron content on the Cepheid
Period-Luminosity (PL) relation by relating the V band residuals from the
Freedman et al (2001) PL relation to [Fe/H] for 37 Galactic and Magellanic
Clouds Cepheids. The iron abundances were measured from FEROS and UVES
high-resolution and high-signal to noise optical spectra. Our data indicate
that the stars become fainter as metallicity increases, until a plateau or
turnover point is reached at about solar metallicity. Our data are incompatible
with both no dependence of the PL relation on iron abundance, and with the
linearly decreasing behavior often found in the literature (e.g. Kennicutt et
al 1998, Sakai et al 2004). On the other hand, non-linear theoretical models of
Fiorentino et al (2002) provide a fairly good description of the data.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures. Accepted for pubblication in Astronomy &
Astrophysics Letters (Table 1 will only appear in electronic form). Revised
version (23.11.04) to fix typo in Table 1 (the V magnitudes for Galactic
stars were wrong
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