Nowhere Else to Turn: Key Findings from an Evaluation of the National Offenders’ Families Helpline

Children and families of offenders have been described as the ‘forgotten victims’ of the Criminal Justice System (CJS), and advocacy groups argue that criminal justice agencies pay insufficient attention to the impact of their processes on families, meaning that their best interests can be overlooked or actively damaged.1 This paper presents findings from an evaluation of the Offenders’ Families Helpline — a free and confidential service providing information, emotional support and signposting to families and friends of offenders involved in any stage of the CJS. In 2013, the Helpline received almost 10,000 telephone calls and over 145,000 unique visitors to its website. The Helpline is funded by the National Offender Management Service (NOMS), and at the time of the evaluation was delivered by Partners of Prisoners and Families Support Group (POPS), a voluntary sector organisation based in Manchester. The aims of the evaluation were to assess the extent to which the Helpline meets families’ support needs, and to evidence the impact and outcomes of the Helpline for family member

Three-dimensional vector modeling and restoration of flat finite wave tank radiometric measurements

The three-dimensional vector interaction between a microwave radiometer and a wave tank was modeled. Computer programs for predicting the response of the radiometer to the brightness temperature characteristics of the surroundings were developed along with a computer program that can invert (restore) the radiometer measurements. It is shown that the computer programs can be used to simulate the viewing of large bodies of water, and is applicable to radiometer measurements received from satellites monitoring the ocean. The water temperature, salinity, and wind speed can be determined

Optical propagation through a homogeneous turbulent shear flow

Effects of organized turbulent structures on the propagation of an optical beam in a homogeneous shear flow were studied. A passive-scalar field in a computed turbulent shear flow is used to represent index-of-refraction fluctuations, and phase errors induced in a coherent optical beam by turbulent fluctuations are computed. The organized vortical structures produce a scalar distribution with elongated regions of intense fluctuations which have an inclination with respect to the mean flow similar to that of the characteristic hairpin eddies. It is found that r.m.s. phase error is minimized by propagating approximately normal to the inclined vortical structures. Two-point correlations of vorticity and scalar fluctuation suggest that the regions of intense scalar fluctuation are produced primarily by the hairpin eddies

Jet array impingement with crossflow-correlation of streamwise resolved flow and heat transfer distributions

Correlations for heat transfer coefficients for jets of circular offices and impinging on a surface parallel to the jet orifice plate are presented. The air, following impingement, is constrained to exit in a single direction along the channel formed by the jet orifice plate and the heat transfer (impingement) surface. The downstream jets are subjected to a crossflow originating from the upstream jets. Impingement surface heat transfer coefficients resolved to one streamwise jet orifice spacing, averaged across the channel span, are correlated with the associated individual spanwise orifice row jet and crossflow velocities, and with the geometric parameters

Wind erosion in semiarid landscapes: Predictive models and remote sensing methods for the influence of vegetation

Wind erosion in semi-arid regions is a significant problem for which the sheltering effect of rangeland vegetation is poorly understood. Individual plants may be considered as porous roughness elements which absorb or redistribute the wind's momentum. The saltation threshold is the minimum wind velocity at which soil movement begins. The dependence of the saltation threshold on geometrical parameters of a uniform roughness array was studied in a wind tunnel. Both solid and porous elements were used to determine relationships between canopy structure and the threshold velocity for soil transport. The development of a predictive relation for the influence of vegetation canopy structure on wind erosion of soil is discussed