Fighting the Establishment: The Need for Procedural Reform of Our Paternity Laws

Every state and the District of Columbia use voluntary acknowledgments of paternity. Created pursuant to federal law, the acknowledgment is signed by the purported biological parents and establishes paternity without requiring court involvement. Intended to be a “simple civil process” to establish paternity where the parents are unmarried, the acknowledgment is used by state governments to expedite child support litigation. But federal policy and state laws governing the acknowledgments do not sufficiently protect the interests of those men who have signed acknowledgments and who subsequently discover that they lack genetic ties to the children in question. A signatory who learns that he is not the child’s biological father and who wishes to challenge the validity of the acknowledgment must navigate a difficult process for relief. The very act of signing an acknowledgment may subsequently prevent him from offering any scientific evidence of the absence of a biological connection to the child. As a result, he may be obligated to pay child support for years on the basis of that erroneous paternity acknowledgment, and a parent-child relationship may be imposed even if it is not in the child’s best interests. Using the District of Columbia as a model to highlight the need for procedural reform, this Article examines the federal and D.C. legislation that created voluntary acknowledgments of paternity as well as the process for either rescinding or challenging their validity. The Article then analyzes the practical implications of these processes and discusses why the presumptive weight of the acknowledgment, a conclusive presumption of paternity, is problematic. In particular, the Article questions the need for a conclusive presumption of paternity, a difficult evidentiary burden for a challenger to overcome, and whether the conclusive presumption of paternity runs afoul of constitutional protections. Finally, the Article offers possible solutions to improve the establishment process

Fighting the Establishment: The Need for Procedural Reform of Our Paternity Laws

Every state and the District of Columbia use voluntary acknowledgments of paternity. Created pursuant to federal law, the acknowledgment is signed by the purported biological parents and establishes paternity without requiring court involvement. Intended to be a “simple civil process” to establish paternity where the parents are unmarried, the acknowledgment is used by state governments to expedite child support litigation. But federal policy and state laws governing the acknowledgments do not sufficiently protect the interests of those men who have signed acknowledgments and who subsequently discover that they lack genetic ties to the children in question. A signatory who learns that he is not the child’s biological father and who wishes to challenge the validity of the acknowledgment must navigate a difficult process for relief. The very act of signing an acknowledgment may subsequently prevent him from offering any scientific evidence of the absence of a biological connection to the child. As a result, he may be obligated to pay child support for years on the basis of that erroneous paternity acknowledgment, and a parent-child relationship may be imposed even if it is not in the child’s best interests. Using the District of Columbia as a model to highlight the need for procedural reform, this Article examines the federal and D.C. legislation that created voluntary acknowledgments of paternity as well as the process for either rescinding or challenging their validity. The Article then analyzes the practical implications of these processes and discusses why the presumptive weight of the acknowledgment, a conclusive presumption of paternity, is problematic. In particular, the Article questions the need for a conclusive presumption of paternity, a difficult evidentiary burden for a challenger to overcome, and whether the conclusive presumption of paternity runs afoul of constitutional protections. Finally, the Article offers possible solutions to improve the establishment process

The Adaptive Cross Approximation Algorithm Applied to Electromagnetic Scattering by Bodies of Revolution

Finding solutions to Maxwell\u27s Equations is the key to modeling all electromagnetic phenomenon. One approach to solving Maxwell\u27s Equations is to use an integral equation approach. The integral equations can then be solved numerically by approaches like the method of moments or the Nystrom method. These approaches yield a dense system of linear equations. The coefficient matrix must be computed and stored, which requires a great deal of computational resources. The adaptive cross approximation (ACA) algorithm is a method which can be used to efficiently compute and store these matricies. This thesis will apply the ACA to a special class of problems known as scattering by bodies of revolution. A brief introduction to Maxwell\u27s Equations and integral equations will be provided, as will discussion on the ACA algorithm along with numerical results

Computer program for binary distillation using the method of Pochon-Savarit with enthalpy data calculated by Lagrange interpolation

This thesis presents a Fortran Computer Program to solve binary distillation problems. The solution is obtained by the method of Pochon-Savarit which is based upon graphical use of an enthalpy-concentration diagram. The enthalpy data in this program is calculated using Lagrange interpolation. This is accomplished by utilizing the Lagrange interpolation to get values for the enthalpy of the vapor until we find that value which lies on the same line as the enthalpy of the liquid from the preceding tray and its corresponding del point. The required input data consist of liquid-vapor equilibrium data, heat of solution data with the reference temperature, the feed rate and temperature, the weight fraction of the lighter component in the feed, distillate, and bottoms, and the reflux ratio. In addition, for each component, the molecular weight, heat of vaporization, critical temperature, boiling point and specific heat of the liquid and vapor must be specified. The specific heats must be in terms of a third order polynomial with respect to temperature. The program output includes the mole fraction, quantity, and enthalpy of the feed, distillate, and bottoms, the condenser and re-boiler heat loads, the feed tray location, the number of ideal trays, and the mole fraction and enthalpy of the vapor and the liquid at each tray. This program enables as many sets of data to be run within one execution of the program as desired by the user