Validation of Virginia\u27s Juvenile Risk Assessment Instrument

Utilizing a validated risk assessment tool to predict future offending is recommended as best practices in corrections by a number of professional organizations (Latessa & Lovins, 2010). Guided by the risk-needs-responsivity model, risk assessment tools have evolved to help inform criminal justice practitioners by identifying offenders most in need of intervention or supervision, guiding the case plan to optimize outcomes (Bonta & Andrews, 2007). The Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) utilizes the Youth Assessment and Screening Instrument (YASI) at all stages of contact with youthful offenders, including intake, probation, commitment, and parole (DJJ, 2016). However, risk assessment instruments do not always generalize across populations (Schwalbe, 2007) and are not always used effectively for case planning decisions (Singh et al., 2014). This study focused on the accuracy, equity, and usage of YASI in the Virginia juvenile justice system. Findings suggested that YASI performed at the expected and adequate levels of predictive validity in comparison to existing research. The predictive validity of the overall and dynamic risk scores and levels was statistically equivalent for males and females, but the Community/Peers and Family domains had stronger predictive validity for males than females. The predictive validity was statistically equivalent for White and Black youth for overall risk levels and dynamic risk scores and levels; however, the predictive validity for the overall risk scores was higher for White youth than Black youth. Each domain had a positive correlation between risk and assignment as a case planning priority area with a wide variation in the strength of correlation. Future research should focus on instrumental validity, protective factors, inter-rater reliability, domain interactions and clusters, reoffense types and timing, additional group and geographical differences, weighting and scoring, service matching, recidivism reduction, and program evaluations. Policy recommendations regarding risk assessment use in juvenile justice systems include a repeated cycle of determining purpose and function, conducting staff and stakeholder training, testing, and calibrating and modifying the tool

Parody and the Fair Use Defense: The Best Way to Practice Safe Sex with All Your Favorite Characters

The copyright fair use test balances the copyright holder’s right to exclude others from using its work against the secondary user’s First Amendment right, yet this test is often too unpredictable and favors misappropriation, even the most commercial kind. The test is weakest when used to determine the legality of sexual parodies. The sexual nature of the parody should receive statutory consideration in the balancing test because vulgar and lewd speech is often deemed “low value” speech, and therefore the secondary user’s First Amendment right is weaker compared to the copyright owner’s right to exclude. Courts already consider the sexual nature of the content in both trademark and First Amendment jurisprudence, which suggests incorporating this aspect is plausible, relevant, and important. The fair use test should further be expanded to include a consideration of the demographic of the copyright holder’s target audience to more accurately determine the likelihood of market harm that would result from the parody. This consideration also has the secondary effect of protecting children from exposure to lewd material. The current balancing test for determining whether a parody is fair use yields inconsistent results that inequitably favor the “parodists” and result in mass media companies reprinting exact images of protected characters and profiting significantly from the sale of those images. Expanding the factors considered in the test will more appropriately protect copyrighted works and prevent secondary harm to juvenile audience members

Piperazine-Based Metallopolymers for Bioengineering Applications

Engineering realistic and functional tissue models presents promising possibilities in drug discovery and other biomedical research. A novel polymer with potential applications in biomedical studies was developed. I report the first synthesis and characterization (with NMR, IR, GPC, UV–vis spectroscopy, and thermal analysis) of two thermoplastic poly(alkyl piperazine succinate) diols with either propyl or hexyl alkane chains bridging the piperazines. These polyester diols were chain extended with hexamethylene diisocyanate to create highly amorphous polyester urethane thermoplastic polymers. Ru(III) and Fe(III) was then successfully coordinated with these polymers, producing a total of four different metallopolymers. The crosslinking of these complexes introduces degradative properties to the polymer, which could be valuable in biomedical studies

Influence of Motivation on the Efficacy of Natural Family Planning

Purpose: Mutual motivation is recognized as essential for effective behavioral methods of family planning. Few studies have studied this factor in family planning efficacy. The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of mutual motivation on unintended pregnancy rates of couples who used natural family planning (NFP) methods to avoid pregnancy. Study Design and Methods: Using an online taught NFP method, 358women and ( their male partners) indicated “how much” and “how hard” they wished to avoid pregnancy on a scale of 0-10 before each menstrual cycle charted over 12 month of use. This motivation scale is used in the National Survey of Family Growth as a measure of motivation. All pregnancies were verified with an online pregnancy evaluation and urine based pregnancy test. A combined motivation score was used in analysis. Results: There were 28 pregnancies among the low motivation participants (N=60) and 16 among the high motivation participants (N=298). At 12 months of use, there were 75 pregnancies per 100 users for the low motivation group and only 8 for the high motivation group. There was an 80% greater likelihood of a pregnancy with the low motivation group (χ2 = 25.5, p \u3c .001) OR = 1.80; 95% CI = 1.61-1.90). Clinical Implications: High motivation to avoid pregnancy by both the female user of a behavioral method of family planning and her male partner is required for high efficacy. Assessing motivation of both the woman and her male partner before prescribing NFP methods is recommended

Randomized Comparison of Two Internet-Supported Fertility Awareness Based Methods of Family Planning

Background: The aim was to compare the efficacy and acceptability of two Internet-supported fertility-awareness-based methods of family planning. Study design: Six hundred and sixty-seven women and their male partners were randomized into either an electronic hormonal fertility monitor (EHFM) group or a cervical mucus monitoring (CMM) group. Both groups utilized a Web site with instructions, charts and support. Acceptability was assessed online at 1, 3 and 6 months. Pregnancy rates were determined by survival analysis. Results: The EHFM participants (N=197) had a total pregnancy rate of 7 per 100 users over 12 months of use compared with 18.5 for the CMM group (N=164). The log rank survival test showed a significant difference (pb.01) in survival functions. Mean acceptability for both groups increased significantly over time (pb.0001). Continuation rates at 12 months were 40.6% for the monitor group and 36.6% for the mucus group. Conclusion: In comparison with the CMM, the EHFM method of family planning was more effective. All users had an increase in acceptability over time. Results are tempered by the high dropout rate

Impact of COPD and anemia on motor and cognitive performance in the general older population: results from the English longitudinal study of ageing

Background: Cognitive and motor-performance decline with age and the process is accelerated by decline in general health. In this study, we aimed to estimate the effects of COPD and HB levels on cognitive and motor performance in the general older population and assess potential interaction. Methods: The English Longitudinal Study of Aging is a population-based cohort study including measurements of lung-function and HB levels together with cognitive and motor performance testing. Data were collected from 5709 participants including three measurement time over eight years. COPD was defined using lung-function-parameters and clinical symptoms. HB was assessed continuously and low HB was defined using clinical anemia cutoffs. Linear mixed-effects regression models were used to quantify the associations of COPD and HB with outcome measures, both individually and in combination. Results: Participants with both low HB and COPD demonstrated worse motor performance compared to individuals with only one exposure, resulting in up to 1 s (95%CI, 0.04–1.8) longer time needed to complete the five times sit to stand task than what would be expected based on purely additive effects. Additionally in individuals with COPD, the time to complete the motor-performance task per unit decrease in continuous HB levels was longer than in participants without COPD after full adjustment for confounding (up to 1.38 s/unit HB level, 95% CI: 0.65–2.11). Conclusion: In persons with COPD low HB levels may contribute to low motor-performance in a supra additive fashion. Further studies should re-evaluate whether earlier treatment of lower HB in these individuals might be beneficial

The Arecibo Dual-Beam Survey: The HI Mass Function of Galaxies

We use the HI-selected galaxy sample from the Arecibo Dual-Beam Survey (Rosenberg & Schneider 2000) to determine the shape of the HI mass function of galaxies in the local universe using both the step-wise maximum likelihood and the 1/V_tot methods. Our survey region spanned all 24 hours of right ascension at selected declinations between 8 and 29 degrees covering ~430 deg^2 of sky in the main beam. The survey is not as deep as some previous Arecibo surveys, but it has a larger total search volume and samples a much larger area of the sky. We conducted extensive tests on all aspects of the galaxy detection process, allowing us to empirically correct for our sensitivity limits, unlike the previous surveys. The mass function for the entire sample is quite steep, with a power-law slope of \alpha ~ -1.5. We find indications that the slope of the HI mass function is flatter near the Virgo cluster, suggesting that evolutionary effects in high density environments may alter the shape of the HI mass function. These evolutionary effects may help to explain differences in the HI mass function derived by different groups. We are sensitive to the most massive sources (log M > 5x10^10 M\solar) over most of the declination range, \~1 sr, and do not detect any massive low surface brightness galaxies. These statistics restrict the population of Malin 1-like galaxies to <5.5x10^-6 Mpc^-3.Comment: ApJ accepted, 12 page