Delivering Psychological Services to Military Members

Since 2001, less than half of one percent of the American public have volunteered to serve in the United States Armed Forces. With high-tempo repeated deployments and unconventional warfare, the Post 9/11 military has been exposed to unique trauma and stressors during an unprecedented two-decade long conflict. In voluntarily taking on this role, members are immersed in the total institution of military culture and required to make countless personal sacrifices, often experiencing trauma or other stressors that most in a civilian population will never face. Prevalence rates of mental health problems in active duty as well as veteran populations suggest that approximately 15-30% have acquired mental health conditions (including PTSD, TBI, depression). Substance use and suicidality are often comorbid and may complicate the clinical profile considerably. Current treatment approaches include those well validated and common in general clinical populations (i.e., CBT, PE, CPT) although many have been modified for use with veterans. Nonetheless, despite billions of dollars in public support, many military members continue to not receive the mental health services they need. Challenges include system and access barriers, a lack of military cultural competency in providers, as well as societal and institutional stigma leading to veteran reluctance to seek mental health treatment. Best practice recommendations are offered to clinicians who seek to better serve clients who are military members (both active duty and veterans)

Refugee Law and Policy: A Comparative and International Approach

The fourth edition of Refugee Law and Policy, which includes all legal developments through mid-2010, provides a thoughtful scholarly analysis of refugee law, and related protections such as those available under the Convention against Torture. The book is rooted in an international law perspective, enhanced by a comparative approach. Starting with ancient precursors to asylum, the casebook portrays refugee law as dynamic across time and cultural contexts. This edition of the casebook has incorporated substantial new materials on the cutting edge area of social group claims, and their relevance to claims for protection based on gender-persecution and LGBT status. It includes an extensive discussion of the concept of “social visibility” which has become one of the most controversial interpretive issues in U.S. refugee law. Although Refugee Law and Policy is directed to students of U.S. law, it draws on the legislation, jurisprudence and guidelines of other Refugee Convention and Protocol signatories, including Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The casebook is up to date on developments to harmonize refugee policy within the European Union, and includes discussion of relevant E.U. directives. In its treatment of both U.S. and global trends, Refugee Law and Policy examines and contrasts some of the most controversial contemporary issues in refugee law, such as the denial of access to the territory of the country of asylum, through use of expedited removal and similar “accelerated” procedures, the increased use of detention, and the ongoing debate over gender-based claims for protection. Refugee Law and Policy also compares current trends in refugee law to parallel trends in human rights and humanitarian and international criminal law, with special reference to the work of the International Criminal Tribunals for Yugoslavia and Rwanda, and the International Criminal Court. The materials Musalo, Moore and Boswell present in the book are more fully examined through the extensive use of notes and comments, which also serve to highlight essential themes and concepts of the text and to make them more accessible to the reader. Since the casebook addresses both substance and procedure, with a focus on practice as well as theory, it is an excellent text not only for students, but for practitioners and those in government agencies as well.https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/law_facbookdisplay/1036/thumbnail.jp

Carbon Characterization Laboratory Readiness to Receive Irradiated Graphite Samples

The Carbon Characterization Laboratory (CCL) is located in Labs C19 and C20 of the Idaho National Laboratory Research Center. The CCL was established under the Next Generation Nuclear Plant Project to support graphite and ceramic composite research and development activities. The research conducted in this laboratory will support the Advanced Graphite Creep experiments—a major series of material irradiation experiments within the Next Generation Nuclear Plant Graphite program. The CCL is designed to characterize and test low activated irradiated materials such as high purity graphite, carbon-carbon composites, silicon-carbide composite, and ceramic materials. The laboratory is fully capable of characterizing material properties for both irradiated and nonirradiated materials. Major infrastructural modifications were undertaken to support this new radiological facility at Idaho National Laboratory. Facility modifications are complete, equipment has been installed, radiological controls and operating procedures have been established and work management documents have been created to place the CCL in readiness to receive irradiated graphite samples

Right whale, Eubalaena glacialis, sightings in Cape Cod waters

Sightings of right whales, Eubalaena glacialis, in Massachusetts waters have been recorded by workers at Woods Hole Oceanographic In stitution since 1955. These observations do not represent a census, because emphasis was placed on studying the whales' underwater sounds and other activities. The number of yearly sightings varied from 2 to 165. Observations were made from aircraft, boats, and occasionally from shore.Prepared for the Office of Naval Research under Contract N00014-79-C-0071; NR 083-004

Observations and radio tagging of Balaenoptera edeni near Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela

The 23 October to 13 November 1979 Venezuelan radio tagging and tracking experiments on whales (Balaenoptera edeni, Fig. 1) provided essential field tests of the new modifications to the WHOI radio whale tag (see list of tag reports), and the chance to try it on a new species. We found that we could approach and tag these whales from a slow (4 to 6 kt) vessel. Good radio tracking with automatic direction finding equipment was possible within 12 to 20 km, with longer ranges probable. In addition, the radio tags provided new information about the behavior of these whales.Prepared for the Office of Naval Research under Contract N00014-79-C-OO71; NR 083-004

A parameterization of Greenland's tip jets suitable for ocean or coupled climate models

Greenland's tip jets are low-level, high wind speed jets forced by an interaction of the synoptic-scale atmospheric flow and the steep, high orography of Greenland. These jets are thought to play an important role in both preconditioning for, and triggering of, open-ocean convection in the Irminger Sea. However, the relatively small spatial scale of the jets prevents their accurate representation in the relatively low resolution (~1 degree) atmospheric (re-)analyses which are typically used to force ocean general circulation models (e.g. ECMWF ERA-40 and NCEP reanalyses, or products based on these). Here we present a method of ‘bogussing’ Greenland's tip jets into such surface wind fields and thus, via bulk flux formulae, into the air-sea turbulent flux fields. In this way the full impact of these mesoscale tip jets can be incorporated in any ocean general circulation model of sufficient resolution. The tip jet parameterization is relatively simple, making use of observed linear gradients in wind speed along and across the jet, but is shown to be accurate to a few m s-1 on average. The inclusion of tip jets results in a large local increase in both the heat and momentum fluxes. When applied to a 1-dimensional mixed-layer model this results in a deepening of the winter mixed-layer of over 300 m. The parameterization scheme only requires 10 meter wind speed and mean sea level pressure as input fields; thus it is also suitable for incorporation into a coupled atmosphere-ocean climate model at the coupling stage