Memo from CalYOUTH: Early Findings on Extended Foster Care and Legal Permanency

This memo provides an early look at the relationship between extended foster care in California and the ways that older adolescents exit care in the state. Examining trends in exits from shortly before to immediately after the implementation of extended care, we find some evidence that, in the extended care era, fewer older adolescents are exiting care before their 18th birthday than before the law was implemented. However, rather than being the result of a reduction in exits to legal permanency, this shift has more to do with an increase in the likelihood that youth will remain in care rather than emancipate prior to age 18, run away from care, or experience other unwanted exits

California Youth Transitions to Adulthood Study (CalYOUTH): Early Findings from the Child Welfare Worker Survey

This report presents findings from the Child Welfare Worker Survey, an on-line survey of 235 California child welfare workers and their perceptions of key characteristics of the service delivery context of extended foster care, including: the availability of transitional living services; coordination between the child welfare system and other service systems such as county courts; and youth attitudes toward extended care. This report provides a valuable snapshot of how youths' caseworkers, central players in the implementation of extended foster care, perceive young people making the transition to adulthood out of care and the service context for that transition

Findings from the California Youth Transitions to Adulthood Study (CalYOUTH): Conditions of Foster Youth at Age 17

This report presents findings from the Baseline Youth Survey, providing the most comprehensive view to date of young people approaching the transition to adulthood from foster care in the wake of the federal Fostering Connections Act. Information gathered during interviews with 727 youths who were an average of 17 years old at the time, offers insight into the needs and aspirations of transition-age foster youth. Study findings can help inform efforts to improve policies and services for foster youths' transitioning to adulthood

Integrating the Transtheoretical Model: A Quantitative Analysis in the Area of Sun Exposure

The constructs involved in the Transtheoretical Model (TTM) have been shown to have similar relationships to the Stages of Change across a variety of behaviors. While much work has been done investigating the way the constructs interact cross-sectionally and longitudinally, a completely integrated look at all the constructs of the TTM has not yet been successful. This study integrated all constructs of the TTM related to increase of sun protective behavior across three time points. The sample used in this study is a portion of a sample collected for three larger, multiple behavior intervention studies. Assessments were collected at baseline, 6-, and 12-month intervals. At baseline, these larger samples included 1472 people in worksites, 1816 parents, and 3875 physician patients at risk for sun exposure. Of these, 341 worksite, 4 31 parent, and 1012 physician had data at all three time points with all necessary variables. Structural equation modeling was utilized to evaluate panel designs involving seven TTM constructs at baseline, 6-, and 12-month time points. Different models were run within each pre-action Stage of Change. Due to the complexity of the model, a step approach was taken to evaluate the relationships among the constructs. The Precontemplation group showed relationships between Experiential Processes, Pros and sun protective behavior. The Contemplation and Preparation samples both showed important relationships between Cons and Confidence with behavior. There were more significant paths in the Preparation model indicating greater variance possibly due to more stage movement at follow-up time points. While not all paths found confirm expectations based on the TTM, there was strong support for the theory. Additional work needs to be done to further investigate these relationships among individual stage transitions or transition groups. A better understanding of the empirical relationships between these constructs will help further understanding of the theory and improve interventions based on the TTM

CalYOUTH Survey of Young Adults' Child Welfare Workers

This report presents the results of the CalYOUTH Survey of Young Adults' Child Welfare Workers, a survey of case workers supervising youth in extended foster care who are participating in the CalYOUTH Youth Survey. The report shares the county child welfare workers' views on how these young people are faring with the transition to adulthood, as well as their preparedness and service needs in a wide range of areas. The report also shares workers' perceptions of the availability and helpfulness of services within their county, their perceptions of court personnel's supportiveness of extended care, their satisfaction with collaboration with other systems of potential support for youth, and their views of challenges to effective implementation of extended foster care in California. The survey results highlight areas of progress and opportunities for continued improvement as California continues its development of foster care for young adults

Ανάπτυξη και χαρακτηρισμός ικριωμάτων νανοϋδροξυαπατίτη με την τεχνική της λυοφιλίωσης

Post-trawl survival (PTS) is an important metric used in determining the ecological risk posed by prawn (shrimp) trawling on discarded elasmobranchs. Despite this, PTS of elasmobranchs is poorly understood. The present study quantified the PTS of two small batoids caught incidentally by prawn trawlers in southern Queensland, Australia, namely the common stingaree (Trygonoptera testacea) and the eastern shovelnose ray (Aptychotrema rostrata). Field studies using on-board tanks revealed that A. rostrata were more resilient to trawl capture and release than T. testacea. For both species, survival was found to increase with size, whereas increasing time on deck resulted in lower survival. Female T. testacea were found to be more resilient than males, and increased tow duration resulted in lower survival for A. rostrata. The mean (+/- s.e.m.) PTS for female and male T. testacea was 33.5 +/- 6.0 and 17.3 +/- 5.5% respectively, compared with a mean PTS for A. rostrata of 86.8 +/- 3.2%. The survival estimates derived in the present study provide an insight into the effects of trawling on these species and will improve their ecological risk assessment and management

Findings from the California Youth Transitions to Adulthood Study (CalYOUTH): Conditions of Youth at Age 19

The "CalYOUTH Wave 2 Youth Survey", conducted when the young people participating in CalYOUTH were 19 years old, follows up on a survey of the same young people when they were approaching the age of majority in California's foster care system. More than 80 percent of the youth who took part in the baseline interviews participated in the Wave 2 survey. The report provides the most comprehensive view to date of young adults making the transition to adulthood from foster care in California, highlighting differences between young people participating in extended foster care and young people who had left care. The report provides feedback for all parties interested in improving youth's transitions from foster care to adulthood

Life-history characteristics of the eastern shovelnose ray, Aptychotrema rostrata (Shaw, 1794), from southern Queensland, Australia

The eastern shovelnose ray (Aptychotrema rostrata) is a medium-sized coastal batoid endemic to the eastern coast of Australia. It is the most common elasmobranch incidentally caught in the Queensland east coast otter trawl fishery, Australia’s largest penaeid-trawl fishery. Despite this, age and growth studies on this species are lacking. The present study estimated the growth parameters and age-at-maturity for A. rostrata on the basis of sampling conducted in southern Queensland, Australia. This study showed that A. rostrata exhibits slow growth and late maturity, which are common life-history strategies among elasmobranchs. Length-at-age data were analysed within a Bayesian framework and the von Bertalanffy growth function (VBGF) best described these data. The growth parameters were estimated as L0 = 193 mm TL, k = 0.08 year–1 and L∞ = 924 mm TL. Age-at-maturity was found to be 13.3 years and 10.0 years for females and males respectively. The under-sampling of larger, older individuals was overcome by using informative priors, reducing bias in the growth and maturity estimates. As such, the results can be used to derive estimates of natural mortality for this species

The Man of La Mancha press release

April 7-11 and 14-18, 1982. University Theatre, Viertes Haus 100. Book by Dale Wasserman. Lyrics by Joe Darion. Music by Mitch Leigh. Based on the novel Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. Directed by Therald Todd. Music Director Joseph Rohm. Choreography by Lee Brooke and Sue Steele. Costumes by Jaqueline Easter. Set design by H. Paul Mazer. Starring Kurt E. Payne as Captain of the Inquisition; R. J. Musser as Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote, Alonso Quijana; J. R. Vega as Sancho Panza.https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/theatre_posters/1125/thumbnail.jp