Sources of Unreliable Testimony from Children

We distilled research findings on sources of unreliable testimony from children into four principles that capture how the field of forensic developmental psychology conceptualizes this topic. The studies selected to illustrate these principles address three major questions: (a) how do young children perform in eyewitness studies, (b) why are some children less accurate than others, and (c) what phenomena generate unreliable testimony? Throughout our research, our focus is on factors other than lying that produce inaccurate or seemingly inconsistent autobiographical reports.Collectively, this research has shown that (a) children’s eyewitness accuracy is highly dependent on context, (b) neurological immaturity makes children vulnerable to errors under some circumstances, and (c) some children are more swayed by external influences than others. Finally, the diversity of factors that can influence the reliability of children’s testimony dictates that (d) analyzing children’s testimony as if they were adults (i.e., with adult abilities, sensibilities, and motivations) will lead to frequent misunderstandings. It takes considerable knowledge of development—including information about developmental psycholinguistics, memory development, and the gradual emergence of cognitive control—to work with child witnesses and to analyze cases as there are many sources of unreliable testimony

Near Their Thresholds for Detection, Shapes Are Discriminated by the Angular Separation of Their Corners

Observers make sense of scenes by parsing images on the retina into meaningful objects. This ability is retained for line drawings, demonstrating that critical information is concentrated at object boundaries. Information theoretic studies argue for further concentration at points of maximum curvature, or corners, on such boundaries [1]-[3] suggesting that the relative positions of such corners might be important in defining shape. In this study we use patterns subtly deformed from circular, by a sinusoidal modulation of radius, in order to measure threshold sensitivity to shape change. By examining the ability of observers to discriminate between patterns of different frequency and/or number of cycles of modulation in a 2x2 forced choice task we were able to show, psychophysically, that difference in a single cue, the periodicity of the corners (specifically the polar angle between two points of maximum curvature) was sufficient to allow discrimination of two patterns near their thresholds for detection. We conclude that patterns could be considered as labelled for this measure. These results suggest that a small number of such labels might be sufficient to identify an object.Funding came from Australian reserch council grants DP0666206, DP1097003 and DP110104553 to DRB and DP110101511 to JB, www.arc.gov.au. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscrip

The use of ground rules in investigative interviews with children : a synthesis and call for research

Guidelines for conducting investigative interviews with children often include instructions that explain the conversational rules of the interview. Despite the widespread and international use of such instructions (also referred to as "ground rules"), the body of research characterizing children\u27s understanding of these rules and documenting the impact of instruction on memory reports is relatively small. We review the use of ground rules in investigative interviews, the developmental differences that likely underlie children\u27s ability to make sense of these rules, and research pertaining to the effects of the ground rules commonly included in interview guidelines on the reports of 3- to 13-year-old children. We then present a study space analysis concerning the five ground rules reviewed: (a) a statement about interviewer naïveté regarding the target events, (b) instructions to tell the interviewer when a mistake has been made, (c) cautions that some questions may be repeated, and instructions to say (d) "I don\u27t understand" and (e) "I don\u27t know." The results demonstrate obvious gaps in this body of literature, with only the "I don\u27t know" ground rule having received significant attention. In addition to exploring how individual rules impact interview performance, we encourage more process-oriented studies that relate developmental differences in ground rules benefits to the cognitive processes that underlie rule understanding and implementation. Optimally, this research should identify the most suitable format and placement of instruction in interviews and broaden to more often include field studies of child witnesses

Children\u27s performance on ground rules questions: implications for forensic interviewing

Ground rules, also called interview instructions, are included in investigative interviews with children around the world. These rules aim to manage the expectations of children who are typically unaccustomed to being questioned by adults who are naïve to the children\u27s experiences. Although analog research has examined the efficacy of ground rules instruction, a systematic analysis of children\u27s ability to respond appropriately to each of the rules has not been reported. In the current study, we scored the accuracy of children\u27s (N = 501, 4 to 12 years) responses to 5 ground rules practice questions (e.g., "What is my dog\u27s name?") and 2 questions that asked whether they would follow the rules, and then assigned inaccurate responses to 1 of several error categories. Few children answered every question correctly, but their performance on individual questions was encouraging. As expected, there were marked differences in children\u27s understanding across ground rules questions (especially among the younger children), with "Don\u27t guess" and "Tell the truth" rules being the easiest to comprehend. Together with evidence that ground rules instruction takes little time to deliver (typically 2 to 4 min) and is associated with improved accuracy in previous research, these findings support the use of ground rules in investigative interviews of children 4 years and older

Spatially Resolved Stellar Populations of Eight GOODS-South AGN at z~1

We present a pilot study of the stellar populations of 8 AGN hosts at z~1 and compare to (1) lower redshift samples and (2) a sample of nonactive galaxies of similar redshift. We utilize K' images in the GOODS South field obtained with the laser guide star adaptive optics (LGSAO) system at Keck Observatory. We combine this K' data with B, V, i, and z imaging from the ACS on HST to give multi-color photometry at a matched spatial resolution better than 100 mas in all bands. The hosts harbor AGN as inferred from their high X-ray luminosities (L_X > 10^42 ergs/s) or mid-IR colors. We find a correlation between the presence of younger stellar populations and the strength of the AGN, as measured with [OIII] line luminosity or X-ray (2-10 keV) luminosity. This finding is consistent with similar studies at lower redshift. Of the three Type II galaxies, two are disk galaxies and one is of irregular type, while in the Type I sample there only one disk-like source and four sources with smooth, elliptical/spheroidal morphologies. In addition, the mid-IR SEDs of the strong Type II AGN indicate that they are excited to LIRG (Luminous InfraRed Galaxy) status via galactic starbursting, while the strong Type I AGN are excited to LIRG status via hot dust surrounding the central AGN. This supports the notion that the obscured nature of Type II AGN at z~1 is connected with global starbursting and that they may be extincted by kpc-scale dusty features that are byproducts of this starbursting.Comment: 56 pages, 39 figures, accepted to A

Durable Response After Tisagenlecleucel in Adults With Relapsed/Refractory Follicular Lymphoma: ELARA Trial Update

Tisagenlecleucel is approved for adults with relapsed/refractory (r/r) follicular lymphoma (FL) in the ≥3rd-line setting. The primary analysis (median follow-up: 17 months) of the Phase II ELARA trial (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT03568461) reported high response rates and excellent safety profile in extensively pretreated patients with r/r FL. Here we report longer-term efficacy, safety, pharmacokinetic, and exploratory biomarker analyses after a median follow-up of 29 months. As of March 29, 2022, 97 patients with r/r FL (grades 1-3A) after ≥2 lines of therapy or who relapsed after autologous stem cell transplant received tisagenlecleucel infusion (0.6-6×108 CAR+ viable T cells). Bridging chemotherapy was allowed. Baseline clinical factors, tumor microenvironment (TME), blood soluble factors, and circulating blood cells were correlated with clinical response. Cellular kinetics were assessed by quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Median progression-free survival (PFS), duration of response (DOR), and overall survival (OS) were not reached after 29 months median follow-up (IQR, 22.2-37.7). Estimated 24-month PFS, DOR, and OS rates in all patients were 57.4% (95% CI, 46.2-67), 66.4% (95% CI, 54.3-76), and 87.7% (95% CI, 78.3-93.2). Complete response rate and overall response rate were 68.1% (95% CI, 57.7-77.3) and 86.2% (95% CI, 77.5-92.4), respectively. No new safety signals or treatment-related deaths were reported. Low levels of tumor-infiltrating LAG3+CD3+ exhausted T-cells and higher baseline levels of naïve CD8+ T-cells were associated with improved outcomes. Tisagenlecleucel continued to demonstrate highly durable efficacy and a favorable safety profile in this extended follow-up of 29 months in patients with r/r FL enrolled in ELARA

A DNA nanoswitch incorporating the fluorescent base analogue 2-aminopurine detects single nucleotide mismatches in unlabelled targets

DNA nanoswitches can be designed to detect unlabelled nucleic acid targets and have been shown to discriminate between targets which differ in the identity of only one base. This paper demonstrates that the fluorescent base analogue 2-aminopurine (AP) can be used to discriminate between nanoswitches with and without targets and to discriminate between matched and mismatched targets. In particular, we have used both steady-state and time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy to determine differences in AP environment at the branchpoint of nanoswitches assembled using complementary targets and targets which incorporate single base mismatches

Response of single leukemic cells to peptidase inhibitor therapy across time and dose using a microfluidic device

Microfluidic single-cell assays of peptide degradation were performed at varying inhibitor doses, and the resulting data were analyzed by regression modeling to reveal biological effects

On the tropospheric response to anomalous stratospheric wave drag and radiative heating

Observational and numerical evidence suggest that variability in the extratropical stratospheric circulation has a demonstrable impact on tropospheric variability on intraseasonal time scales. In this study, it is demonstrated that the amplitude of the observed tropospheric response to vacillations in the stratospheric flow is quantitatively similar to the zonal-mean balanced response to the anomalous wave forcing at stratospheric levels. It is further demonstrated that the persistence of the tropospheric response is consistent with the impact of anomalous diabatic heating in the polar stratosphere as stratospheric temperatures relax to climatology. The results contradict previous studies that suggest that variations in stratospheric wave drag are too weak to account for the attendant changes in the tropospheric flow. However, the results also reveal that stratospheric processes alone cannot account for the observed meridional redistribution of momentum within the troposphere

The Science Case for an Extended Spitzer Mission

Although the final observations of the Spitzer Warm Mission are currently scheduled for March 2019, it can continue operations through the end of the decade with no loss of photometric precision. As we will show, there is a strong science case for extending the current Warm Mission to December 2020. Spitzer has already made major impacts in the fields of exoplanets (including microlensing events), characterizing near Earth objects, enhancing our knowledge of nearby stars and brown dwarfs, understanding the properties and structure of our Milky Way galaxy, and deep wide-field extragalactic surveys to study galaxy birth and evolution. By extending Spitzer through 2020, it can continue to make ground-breaking discoveries in those fields, and provide crucial support to the NASA flagship missions JWST and WFIRST, as well as the upcoming TESS mission, and it will complement ground-based observations by LSST and the new large telescopes of the next decade. This scientific program addresses NASA's Science Mission Directive's objectives in astrophysics, which include discovering how the universe works, exploring how it began and evolved, and searching for life on planets around other stars.Comment: 75 pages. See page 3 for Table of Contents and page 4 for Executive Summar