Associations Between Case, Staff, and Agency Characteristics and the Decision to Place a Child in Out-of-Home Care

Typically, when children are placed into out-of-home care due to child maltreatment concerns, people assume that this decision is based on action or inaction on behalf of the child’s caregivers. While such elements are likely the main drivers of the decision, a growing body of research suggests that other factors contribute to caseworkers’ decisions on the child welfare cases they serve. Drawing from the decision-making ecology (DME), this study examines the extent to which caseworker and organizational factors, in addition to case characteristics, play a role in decisions to remove a child from their home. Survey data from 118 investigation or assessment workers in a southeastern state were paired with administrative data from 10,568 child protective services (CPS) responses assigned to the surveyed workers for analysis. Multi-level modeling (cases, and cases within workers) results identified that, controlling for case characteristics and using 95% confidence intervals, workers who were male (aOR: 0.71 [0.50–0.998]), perceived the agency as more supportive (aOR: 0.87 [0.80–0.94]), and those indicating a strong orientation towards family preservation compared to child safety (aOR: 0.58 [0.42–0.81]) were associated with lower odds of placing children into out-of-home care. Staff who felt more cohesion with their co-workers (aOR: 1.37 [1.19–1.57]) were more likely to place children on their caseloads. These results indicate that the current system of decision-making and case trajectories are prone to influences from caseworkers’ personal biases and perceptions of support. Implications for CPS workforce selection, development, support, and case assignment are discussed

Neck spasm after chemoradiotherapy for head and neck cancer: Natural history and dosimetric correlates

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/102727/1/hed23284.pd

A novel de novo TBX5 mutation in a patient with Holt-Oram syndrome leading to a dramatically reduced biological function

BACKGROUND: The Holt-Oram syndrome (HOS) is an autosomal dominant disorder affecting 1/100.000 live births. It is defined by upper limb anomalies and congenital heart defects with variable severity. We describe a dramatic phenotype of a male, 15-month-old patient being investigated for strict diagnostic criteria of HOS. ----- METHODS AND RESULTS: Genetic analysis revealed a so far unpublished TBX5 mutation, which occurs de novo in the patient with healthy parents. TBX5 belongs to the large family of T-box transcription factors playing major roles in morphogenesis and cell-type specification. The mutation located in the DNA-binding domain at position 920 (C→A) leads to an amino acid change at position 85 (proline → threonine). Three-dimensional analysis of the protein structure predicted a cis to trans change in the respective peptide bond, thereby probably provoking major conformational and functional alterations of the protein. The p.Pro85Thr mutation showed a dramatically reduced activation (97%) of the NPPA promoter in luciferase assays and failed to induce NPPA expression in HEK 293 cells compared to wild-type TBX5 protein. The mutation did not interfere with the nuclear localization of the protein. ----- CONCLUSION: These results suggest that the dramatic functional alteration of the p.Pro85Thr mutation leads to the distinctive phenotype of the patient

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements

Can we measure the slopes of density profiles in dwarf spheroidal galaxies?

Using collisionless N-body simulations of dwarf galaxies orbiting the Milky Way, we construct realistic models of dwarf spheroidal (dSph) galaxies of the Local Group. The dwarfs are initially composed of stellar discs embedded in dark matter haloes with different inner density slopes and are placed on an eccentric orbit typical for Milky Way subhaloes. After a few Gyr of evolution, the stellar component is triaxial as a result of bar instability induced by tidal forces. Observing the simulated dwarfs along the three principal axes of the stellar component, we create mock data sets and determine the corresponding half-light radii and line-of-sight velocity dispersions. Using the estimator proposed by Wolf et al., we calculate the masses within half-light radii. The masses obtained in this way are over(under)estimated by up to a factor of 2 when the line of sight is along the longest (shortest) axis of the stellar component. We then divide the initial stellar distribution into an inner and outer population and trace their evolution in time. The two populations, although strongly affected by tidal forces, retain different density profiles even after a few Gyr of evolution. We measure the half-light radii and velocity dispersions of the stars in the two populations along different lines of sight and use them to estimate the slope of the mass distribution in the dwarf galaxies following the method recently proposed by Walker & Peñarrubia. The inferred slopes are systematically over- or underestimated, depending on the line of sight. In particular, when the dwarf is seen along the longest axis of the stellar component, a significantly shallower density profile is inferred than the real one measured from the simulations. Given that most dSph galaxies in the Local Group are non-spherical in appearance and their orientation with respect to our line of sight is unknown, but most probably random, the method can be reliably applied only to a large sample of dwarfs when these systematic errors are expected to be diminished