The State of Children and Families: 2009

This report contains information on current trends in the United States in areas including poverty, violence and crimes, unwed and teen pregnancy, education, nutrition, child health, child welfare, and housing

The State of Child Welfare in America: 2009

In terms of physical and emotional suffering, an estimated 905,000 children were determined to be victims of child abuse or neglect in 2006 according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. From the fiscal perspective, Prevent Child Abuse America has estimated that child abuse and neglect in the U.S. costs over $284 million dollars per day. This report also includes statistics on adoption and foster care

The State of Early Childhood Programs: 2009

Enriching experiences in the context of high quality early childhood programs give young children an enhanced chance at success in school. Poor children, who are particularly at risk for academic failure, can benefit greatly from early childhood programs that include not only education but other wide-ranging services for themselves and their families. Benefits of high quality early childhood experiences have been found to extend far beyond the young years, as they include a marked decrease in the likelihood children will some day engage in criminal activity or be dependent on public welfare programs

The State of Missouri's Children: 2009

Includes bibliographical references.A variety of problems affect the children of Missouri. The report contains details in categories including poverty, nutrition, education, health and welfare, substance abuse, teen pregnancy, and violence

Study of aircraft in intraurban transportation systems, volume 1

An analysis of an effective short range, high density computer transportation system for intraurban systems is presented. The seven county Detroit, Michigan, metropolitan area, was chosen as the scenario for the analysis. The study consisted of an analysis and forecast of the Detroit market through 1985, a parametric analysis of appropriate short haul aircraft concepts and associated ground systems, and a preliminary overall economic analysis of a simplified total system designed to evaluate the candidate vehicles and select the most promising VTOL and STOL aircraft. Data are also included on the impact of advanced technology on the system, the sensitivity of mission performance to changes in aircraft characteristics and system operations, and identification of key problem areas that may be improved by additional research. The approach, logic, and computer models used are adaptable to other intraurban or interurban areas

Optimal interactions of light with magnetic and electric resonant particles

This work studies the limits of far and near-field electromagnetic response of sub-wavelength scatterers, like the unitary limit and of lossless scatterers, and the ideal absorption limit of lossy particles. These limit behaviors are described in terms of analytic formulas that approximate finite size effects while rigorously including radiative corrections. This analysis predicts the electric and/or magnetic limit responses of both metallic and dielectric nanoparticles while quantitatively describing near-field enhancements.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures, 2 table

Accretion-Induced Lithium Line Enhancements in Classical T Tauri Stars: RW Aur

It is widely accepted that much of the stochastic variability of T Tauri stars is due to accretion by a circumstellar disk. The emission line spectrum as well as the excess continuum emission are common probes of this process. In this communication, we present additional probes of the circumstellar environment in the form of resonance lines of low ionization potential elements. Using a set of 14 high resolution echelle observations of the classical T Tauri star (CTTS), RW Aur, taken between 1986 and 1996, we carefully measure the continuum veiling at each epoch by comparing more than 500 absorption lines with those of an appropriate template. This allows us to accurately subtract out the continuum emission and to recover the underlying photospheric spectrum. In doing so, we find that selected photospheric lines are enhanced by the accretion process, namely the resonance lines of LiI and KI. A resonance line of TiI and a low excitation potential line of CaI also show weak enhancements. Simple slab models and computed line bisectors lead us to propose that these line enhancements are markers of cool gas at the beginning of the accretion flow which provides an additional source of line opacity. These results suggest that published values of surface lithium abundances of classical T Tauri stars are likely to be overestimated. This would account for the various reports of surface lithium abundances in excess of meteoritic values among the extreme CTTS. Computing LTE lithium abundances of RW Aur in a low and then high accretion state yields abundances which vary by one order of magnitude. The low accretion state lithium abundance is consistent with theoretical predictions for a star of this age and mass while the high accretion state spectrum yields a super-meteoritic lithium abundance.Comment: 28 pages, 8 figures, accepted by Ap

Intelligent sampling for the measurement of structured surfaces

Uniform sampling in metrology has known drawbacks such as coherent spectral aliasing and a lack of efficiency in terms of measuring time and data storage. The requirement for intelligent sampling strategies has been outlined over recent years, particularly where the measurement of structured surfaces is concerned. Most of the present research on intelligent sampling has focused on dimensional metrology using coordinate-measuring machines with little reported on the area of surface metrology. In the research reported here, potential intelligent sampling strategies for surface topography measurement of structured surfaces are investigated by using numerical simulation and experimental verification. The methods include the jittered uniform method, low-discrepancy pattern sampling and several adaptive methods which originate from computer graphics, coordinate metrology and previous research by the authors. By combining the use of advanced reconstruction methods and feature-based characterization techniques, the measurement performance of the sampling methods is studied using case studies. The advantages, stability and feasibility of these techniques for practical measurements are discussed