Forensic Geology in the Urban Environment: An Assessment of Material Transfer Behavior

Soils and related anthropogenic materials are encountered as evidence in criminal investigations. The aim of this study was to better our understanding of soil transfer behavior in an urban environment, and to evaluate the effects of sampling and material transfer on the outcomes of forensic analyses. The underlying question was whether there is a preferential transfer of urban soil material to shoes according to the tread gap distribution. During the course of this work, control soil samples from the District of Columbia were characterized and compared with soil material that had been transferred to shoes with different tread gap distributions. Soil color, particle size distribution, and mineralogy were all discriminatory among the locations in this study. Results suggest that soil color and particle size distribution are significantly influenced by the transfer process, and further study is needed to analyze the effect of single influencing factors on the resultant material

Use of the auditory clap task in physiotherapy developmental assessment

This study assessed the test-retest reliability of the auditory clapping task in normal children. This task forms part of the physiotherapy neurodevelopmental assessment for children over five years of age, and is an auditory sequential short term memory (STM) test which is not language biased. Trends associated with age, gender and type of rhythm were also examined in five, seven and nine year old children. Results suggest that this is a reliable test, with significant increase in STM performance demonstrated with increasing age. Girls performed significantly better than boys, and significantly longer rhythmic than non-rhythmic sequences were recalled

Repeatability of three fine motor tests

This study evaluated the repeatability of three fine motor tasks in normal children aged nine years. Using set procedures and well defined scoring categories, finger drumming, sequential finger/thumb opposition and finger tapping were shown to be repeatable quantitatively and qualitatively. Drumming and finger tapping (but not opposition) showed differences between hands, and movement in the easy direction was better than that in the difficult direction for drumming and opposition. Children demonstrate a preferred or easy direction of movement for drumming and for opposition, which must be considered when assessing hand function. This study has provided repeatability information for three tests, as well as baseline data against which children with motor impairment can be evaluated

Increasing aspiration of Swiss German plosives: A Sound change in progress?

In Alemannic dialects of German-speaking Switzerland, the primary cue between lenis and fortis plosives is closure duration, with lenis plosives having a shorter closure than fortis plosives, while both are phonetically voiceless. Recently, it has been called into question whether there is an increasing tendency for speakers to additionally produce aspirated fortis plosives, possibly due to the contact to German Standard German. To investigate this, we recorded word-initial and word-medial fortis plosives produced by 24 older and 24 younger speakers of Zurich German and analysed their normalized VOT values. Results show that, although the word-medial plosives can probably all be considered unaspirated, younger speakers overall produced significantly longer VOT values compared to older speakers. Word-initial plosives differed much more between age groups and also resulted in considerable variability for certain words. These new results hint at a possible sound change in progress

Aspiration of fortis plosives in multiethnolectal Zurich German

In the last decades, new ways of speaking have emerged in urban areas of German-speaking Switzerland (so-called multiethnolects), which are distinct from more traditional Swiss German dialects (i.e., Zurich German) on various linguistic levels. In this study, we analyze aspiration patterns of word-initial fortis plosives in read and spontaneous speech of Zurich German speaking adolescents. Speakers who were perceived as more multiethnolectal show a smaller difference of normalized VOT values between phonologically unaspirated and aspirated plosives in read speech. This difference even disappears completely for bilabial plosives. For alveolar plosives, the difference is bigger for speakers who were perceived as more traditional. These results are mostly confirmed by the spontaneous speech data. Future research may show whether this VOTmerging of traditionally unaspirated and aspirated fortis plosives is a sign of an emerging sound change and to what extent these findings affect the plosive system of Zurich German in general

Students who self-injure : how can counselors help

It is estimated that approximately two million Americans self-injure (Nadelson, 2000). Generally, females are most likely to self-injure and usually begin in their teens. Approximately 72 percent of those who self-injure use deliberate cutting (Ng, 1998). Although possibly new to many common civilians, self-injury has been called the addiction of the 90\u27s according to many researchers (Nadelson, 2000). This paper describes what self-injury is, when it usually begins, and the many reasons why an adolescent chooses to self injure himself or herself. Each teen should be treated as an individual, although, most often, self-injurers come from similar family situations and/or have experienced many of the same issues. This paper discusses the role of the client, counselor, and the supportive people in the life of the self-injurer. It also focuses on specific interventions and strategies that can be employed when counselors are working with one who self injures