Operation Youth Success: Developmental Evaluation Final Report

In the summer of 2014, a subset of leaders and stakeholders in Douglas County initiated a collective impact project to reform the county’s juvenile justice system. Since the first meeting of that group, a number of additional stakeholders have been incorporated into this initiative, which is now known as “Operation Youth Success.” Operation Youth Success, or OYS, has been engaged since that time in an effort to create system change producing a more effective, efficient, and compassionate justice system that better serves the families and youth who are the users of this system. This report will review the activities and progress of OYS through May of 2016. At this stage of the predicted timeline, OYS has attained many of the objectives and achieved significant progress on the elements of collective impact which were laid out by FSG, the entity responsible for the setup of the collective impact initiative. With respect to independent assessment of the conditions of collective impact (not relative to FSG projections), considerable progress has been made in terms of the development and solidification of a Backbone organization, the development of a common agenda, and the creation of continuous communication channels. Less progress has been witnessed in terms of mutually reinforcing activities, either among Steering Committee members or the working groups which were developed. Finally, with respect to the creation of a shared measurement system, there has been little to no progress to date. Although OYS has been able to facilitate the development of a State of the System report as a central repository for information on juvenile justice, this has not actually resulted in data sharing or discussions of a shared measurement system. The overall findings of the evaluation team at this point are as follows: The chief benefit that OYS provides for participants (according to meeting feedback surveys) is an open forum for education, discussion and collaboration; the space for learning and interaction has appeared as consistent themes of “what works well” across groups; The Steering Committee now appears to have more fractionalization in terms of what the group “should” be doing, although interviews indicate most members have trust in the processes and in other members to be committed to the initiative’s success; Unanticipated consequences from two key decision points (first, to have the Steering Committee allocate community-based aid funds and; second, to open the meetings to the public) have led to setbacks in terms of group openness/trust and cohesiveness for most OYS groups, but chiefly for the Steering Committee; Working groups are making considerable progress on their plans but meeting attendance of members has dropped below 50% for most groups since January 2016. The remainder of this report focuses upon the progress which has been made by the Backbone, Steering Committee, and working groups through May of 2016 and begins with an overall assessment of initiative progress relative to FSG projections. The report then provides a detailed description and analysis of the OYS Steering Committee, including an assessment of group satisfaction, organizational assessment, and group findings/recommendations. Finally, the report describes and reviews all of the working groups (except the Juvenile Justice League and Policy Working Group); specific recommendations are then provided with respect to the functioning of the working groups. Overall recommendations for the initiative are available from NCJR upon request

Operation Youth Success (Douglas County Collective Impact) Developmental Evaluation Report

In the summer of 2014, a subset of leaders and stakeholders in Douglas County initiated a collective impact project to reform the county’s juvenile justice system. Since the first meeting of that group, a number of additional stakeholders have been incorporated into this initiative, which is now known as “Operation Youth Success.” Operation Youth Success, or OYS, has been engaged since that time in an effort to create system change producing a more effective, efficient, and compassionate justice system that better serves the families and youth who are the users of this system. This report will review the activities and progress of OYS through May of 2016

Telecommunications and data acquisition support for the Pioneer Venus Project: Pioneers 12 and 13, prelaunch through March 1984

The support provided by the Telecommunications and Data Acquisition organization of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to the Pioneer Venus missions is described. The missions were the responsibility of the Ames Research Center (ARC). The Pioneer 13 mission and its spacecraft design presented one of the greatest challenges to the Deep Space Network (DSN) in the implementation and operation of new capabilities. The four probes that were to enter the atmosphere of Venus were turned on shortly before arrival at Venus, and the DSN had to acquire each of these probes in order to recover the telemetry being transmitted. Furthermore, a science experiment involving these probes descending through the atmosphere required a completed new data type to be generated at the ground stations. This new data type is known as the differential very long baseline interferometry. Discussions between ARC and JPL of the implementation requirements involved trade-offs in spacecraft design and led to a very successful return of science data. Specific implementation and operational techniques are discussed, not only for the prime mission, but also for the extended support to the Pioneer 12 spacecraft (in orbit around Venus) with its science instruments including that for radar observations of the planet

Innovations in Supervision Reducing Violence and Recidivism Through VRP Aftercare and CBI Open Groups

Nebraska Division of Parole Supervision has created a violence-reduction (VRP) aftercare program and a CBI intervention which maintains an open group structure to effectively reduce the recidivism rate of high-risk parole clients, particularly those who have been identified as likely to reoffend violently and those who have previously failed on community supervision. Long-term goals are to ensure 1) the highest risk parole clients receive a higher dosage of evidence-based interventions, 2) the reduced use of parole sanctions and revocations and 3) a reduced overall recidivism rate for parole clients. The ‘open’ nature of the programs (i.e., clients can begin at any session, rather than periodically as a cohort) facilitates the ability of a smaller parole agency with traditionally fewer resources to provide evidence-based, recidivism reduction programs with fidelity

SONTRAC: an imaging spectrometer for solar neutrons

An instrument capable of unambiguously determining the energy and direction of incident neutrons has important applications in solar physics-as well as environmental monitoring and medical/radiological sciences. The SONTRAC (SOlar Neutron TRACking) instrument is designed to operate in the neutron energy range of 20-250 MeV. The measurement principle is based on non-relativistic double scatter of neutrons off ambient protons (n-p scattering) within a block of densely packed scintillating fibers. Using this double-scatter mode it is possible to uniquely determine neutron energy and direction on an event-by-event basis. A fully operational science model of such an instrument has been built using 300 μm (250 μm active) scintillating fibers. The science model consists of a 5×5×5 cm cube of orthogonal plastic scintillating fiber layers. Two orthogonal imaging chains, employing image intensifiers and CCD cameras, allow full 3-dimensional reconstruction of scattered proton particle tracks. We report the results of the science model instrument calibration using 35-65 MeV protons. The proton calibration is the first step toward understanding the instrument response to n-p scatter events. Preliminary results give proton energy resolution of 2% (6%) at 67.5 (35) MeV, and angular resolution of 2° (4.5°) at 67.5 (35) MeV. These measurements are being used to validate detailed instrument simulations that will be used to optimize the instrument design and develop quantitative estimates of science return. Based on the proton calibration, neutron energy and angular resolution for a 10×10×10 cm version of SONTRAC is expected to be ~5% an

Age-Specific Nesting Performance by Northern Bobwhites

Greater reproductive productivity of adult versus juvenile northern bobwhites (Colinus virginianus) has been hypothesized as a factor for rapid population growth. Research on bobwhites in the western portions of the species’ range has not supported this hypothesis; however, no effort has been made to investigate age-specific reproduction on population dynamics in the southeast. We measured age- specific reproductive parameters between adult and juvenile bobwhites during 2000–2010. We radio-marked 1,069 females of which 308 were adults and 761 were juveniles. Nests per hens for adults (0.78 nests/hen) was slightly greater than that for juveniles (0.65 nests/hen) (P 1⁄4 0.09). Adult productivity was 1.7 times greater than for juveniles in 4 of 10 years which corresponded to years of population growth. No differences were found in initial clutch sizes or nesting success. Adult hens began incubation earlier than juveniles in all but 1 year suggesting increased nesting may be due to early recrudescence in adults. The magnitude of age-specific reproductive differences in short-lived species like bobwhites is not as great as long-lived species, but has implications for understanding bobwhite population dynamics and harvest

Analytic Ballistic Performance Model of Whipple Shields

The dual-wall, Whipple shield is the shield of choice for lightweight, long-duration flight. The shield uses an initial sacrificial wall to initiate fragmentation and melt an impacting threat that expands over a void before hitting a subsequent shield wall of a critical component. The key parameters to this type of shield are the rear wall and its mass which stops the debris, as well as the minimum shock wave strength generated by the threat particle impact of the sacrificial wall and the amount of room that is available for expansion. Ensuring the shock wave strength is sufficiently high to achieve large scale fragmentation/melt of the threat particle enables the expansion of the threat and reduces the momentum flux of the debris on the rear wall. Three key factors in the shock wave strength achieved are the thickness of the sacrificial wall relative to the characteristic dimension of the impacting particle, the density and material cohesion contrast of the sacrificial wall relative to the threat particle and the impact speed. The mass of the rear wall and the sacrificial wall are desirable to minimize for launch costs making it important to have an understanding of the effects of density contrast and impact speed. An analytic model is developed here, to describe the influence of these three key factors. In addition this paper develops a description of a fourth key parameter related to fragmentation and its role in establishing the onset of projectile expansion

The effect of HIV counselling and testing on HIV acquisition in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review

Annually, millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) receive HIV counselling and testing (HCT), a service designed to inform persons of their HIV status and, if HIV-uninfected, reduce HIV acquisition risk. However, the impact of HCT on HIV acquisition has not been systematically evaluated. We conducted a systematic review to assess this relationship in SSA