Children’s episodic and generic reports of alleged abuse

With the present data, we explored the relations between the language of interviewer questions, children’s reports, and case and child characteristics in forensic interviews. Results clearly indicated that the type of questions posed by interviewers – either probing generic or episodic features of an event – was related to the specificity of information reported by children. Further, interviewers appeared to adjust their questioning strategies based on the frequency of the alleged abuse. Children alleging single instances of abuse were asked more episodic questions than those alleging multiple abuses. In contrast, children alleging multiple incidents of abuse were asked a greater proportion of generic questions. Given that investigators often seek forensically-relevant episodic information, it is recommended that training for investigators focus on recognition of prompt selection tendencies and developing strategies for posing non-suggestive, episodically focused questions

Chrono: A System for Normalizing Temporal Expressions

The Chrono System: Chrono is a hybrid rule-based and machine learning system written in Python and built from the ground up to identify temporal expressions in text and normalizes them into the SCATE schema. Input text is preprocessed using Python’s NLTK package, and is run through each of the four primary modules highlighted here. Note that Chrono does not remove stopwords because they add temporal information and context, and Chrono does not tokenize sentences. Output is an Anafora XML file with annotated SCATE entities. After minor parsing logic adjustments, Chrono has emerged as the top performing system for SemEval 2018 Task 6. Chrono is available on GitHub at https://github.com/AmyOlex/Chrono. Future Work: Chrono is still under development. Future improvements will include: additional entity parsing, like “event”; evaluating the impact of sentence tokenization; implement an ensemble ML module that utilizes all four ML methods for disambiguation; extract temporal phrase parsing algorithm to be stand-alone and compare to similar systems; evaluate performance on THYME medical corpus; migrate to UIMA framework and implement Ruta Rules for portability and easier customization

Cranial functional specialisation for strength precedes morphological evolution in Oviraptorosauria

Oviraptorosaurians were a theropod dinosaur group that reached high diversity in the Late Cretaceous. Within oviraptorosaurians, the later diverging oviraptorids evolved distinctive crania which were extensively pneumatised, short and tall, and had a robust toothless beak, interpreted as providing a powerful bite for their herbivorous to omnivorous diet. The present study explores the ability of oviraptorid crania to resist large mechanical stresses compared with other theropods and where this adaptation originated within oviraptorosaurians. Digital 3D cranial models were constructed for the earliest diverging oviraptorosaurian, Incisivosaurus gauthieri, and three oviraptorids, Citipati osmolskae, Conchoraptor gracilis, and Khaan mckennai. Finite element analyses indicate oviraptorosaurian crania were stronger than those of other herbivorous theropods (Erlikosaurus and Ornithomimus) and were more comparable to the large, carnivorous Allosaurus. The cranial biomechanics of Incisivosaurus align with oviraptorids, indicating an early establishment of distinctive strengthened cranial biomechanics in Oviraptorosauria, even before the highly modified oviraptorid cranial morphology. Bite modelling, using estimated muscle forces, suggests oviraptorid crania may have functioned closer to structural safety limits. Low mechanical stresses around the beaks of oviraptorids suggest a convergently evolved, functionally distinct rhamphotheca, serving as a cropping/feeding tool rather than for stress reduction, when compared with other herbivorous theropods

Critical Consciousness in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review,Critical Assessment, and Recommendations for Future Research

Critical consciousness refers to an individual’s awareness of oppressive systemic forces in society, a sense of efficacy to work against oppression, and engagement in individual or collective action against oppression. In the past few decades, interest in critical consciousness as a resource that may promote thriving in marginalized people has grown tremendously. This article critically examines the results of a systematic review of 67 studies of critical consciousness in children and adolescents, published between 1998 and 2019. Across these studies, major themes included the role of socialization experiences, relationships, and context in the development of critical consciousness. In addition, critical consciousness was associated with a number of adaptive developmental outcomes, including career-related, civic, social–emotional, and academic outcomes—especially for marginalized youth. However, our analysis highlights several critical gaps in the literature. We highlight the need for further delineation of the impacts of parent and peer socialization on critical consciousness in specific developmental periods and for studying critical consciousness at multiple levels of the ecological system. We further note the dearth of rigorous experimental or quasi-experimental studies in the area of interventions to promote critical consciousness. In addition, we note that developmental questions—questions about the nature and function of critical consciousness over time—are largely unanswered in the literature, including questions about how critical consciousness manifests and develops during childhood. Leveraging the findings of our systematic review, we outline key next steps for this rapidly growing area of research

Assessment of maternal referral systems used for a rural Zambian hospital: the development of setting specific protocols for the identification of complications

Background: In resource-limited countries, it is estimated that up to 75% of maternal deaths are preventable. Maternal referral systems are an effective measure to help prevent these deaths. Objective: The objective of this study was to delineate criteria that health care workers use to identify obstetrical emergencies and make referrals, in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the established referral system and to implement improvements to this system.Methods: Using a qualitative study design, the individuals with the highest level of formal obstetrics training at 10 health posts that refer to a rural Zambian hospital were surveyed using semi-structured interviews regarding their referral protocols. Data were analyzed through open-coding. At the conclusion of the interview, standardized referral protocols for obstetric emergen- cies derived from published guidelines and local practices were distributed.Results: Identified complications resulting in referral most commonly included post-partum hemorrhage (70%), prolonged labor (70%), malpresentation (50%), antepartum hemorrhage (40%), and retained placenta (40%). While numerous reasons for referral were identified, there was little consensus on the referral protocol used for each complication.  Obstacles to successful referral most commonly included cellular network disruptions (70%), distance (50%), and lack of transportation (30%). The referral protocols distributed to health posts covered only 11 of the 23 complications cited as the most common reason for referral.Conclusion: The referral criteria and protocols were updated to include all of the reported complications. We propose this document for others working in resource-limited settings attempting to establish or evaluate a maternal referral systems.Keywords: Maternal referral systems, Zambian hospital, protocols, complications

The Impact of Manipulatives on Students’ Performance on Money Word Problems

Jaye K. Luke Numeracy skills are needed for daily living. For example, time management and budgeting are tasks that adults face on a frequent basis. Instruction for numeracy skills begins early and continues throughout childhood. Obtaining numeracy skills is difficult for some students. For example, there may be an inadequate fit between the student’s knowledge and the design of the instruction, the student may be unable to select an appropriate strategy for solving the problem, or the student may have a learning disability. Students with a learning disability comprise approximately 40% of identified children with disabilities who receive special education services (U.S. Department of Education, 2005). The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics helps teachers mediate the difficulties students may have in math. The council recommends problem solving and representation with physical objects as a teaching method. Chapter 1 presents a literature review on children with a learning disability, the use of manipulatives, and problem solving. The literature review indicates that children with a learning disability are poor problem solvers, but that further research is needed to investigate best instructional strategies. Chapter 2 presents a study on the impact of manipulatives on the accurate completion of money word problems. Three populations were included: adults who struggle with numeracy (n = 20), children with a learning disability (n = 20), and children who are typically developing (n = 23). Participants were administered a measure of 10 money word problems and were asked to solve them without the use of manipulatives. Participants were then randomly assigned to one of two groups: perceptually rich and perceptually bland manipulatives. Results indicate that none of the participants performed better with manipulatives than they performed without manipulatives. There was an interaction of Condition x Type of participant with the participants with a learning disability in the bland condition performing significantly worse than the other participants. More research is warranted to understand the impact of manipulative use in mathematics instruction for adults who struggle with numeracy, children with a learning disability, and children who are typically developing

ReThink Health Frontiers in Sustainable Financing and Health System Stewardship Baseline Network Assessments

Health reform in the United States is a complex undertaking requiring the cooperation of diverse stakeholders and the examination of multiple interdependent systems. To facilitate this process, ReThink Health embarked on a two-phase project to explore the frontiers of health system stewardship and sustainable financing. This report summarizes early findings from three separate feasibility studies, all of which use classical methods of organizational network mapping to reveal patterns about the frontiers of health system stewardship and financing.https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/cphss/1064/thumbnail.jp

Economic Impact and Resident Valuation of the Boothbay Region Land Trust

Researchers from the University of Maine examined the economic impact and resident valuation of the hiking trails and surrounding open space preserved by the Boothbay Region Land Trust (BRLT). Based on 500 hours of fieldwork conducted on BRLT properties, the study estimated an overall count of 63,832 preserve uses between April and November of 2012. This count of individual uses translates into 13,081 unique users—251 are year-round residents, 864 are seasonal residents and 11,966 are visitors to the Boothbay region. A survey of BRLT preserve users suggests that those who are visitors to the region spend an average of $73.77 per day while in the area, while seasonal residents who use the BRLT preserves have an average of$57.94 in daily expenditures. The annual economic impact, including multiplier effects, of the expenditures made by BRLT users who are visitors or seasonal residents is an estimated $3.9 million in revenue, 39 full- and part-time jobs, and$1.1 million in labor income. This assumes that the visitors and seasonal residents are in the Boothbay region, at least for the days when the hiking trails are used, as a result of the BRLT preserves. A survey of year-round and seasonal residents of the Boothbay region found that people generally believe that open space is beneficial to the area. Based on the survey results, the study found that residents of the Boothbay region—including year-round and seasonal—have a collective willingness-to-pay of about $1.1 million per mile of hiking trails in the region, which translates into a value of$32.2 million for the 30 miles maintained by BRLT