A Survey of Street Children in Northern Tanzania: How Abuse or Support Factors May Influence Migration to the Street

In October 2006, a survey was undertaken of youth "on the streets” in the Arusha and Kilimanjaro regions of Tanzania (n=1,923). The question of interest was if street children who live on streets full-time differ concerning reports of abuse and support, compared to reports of children who are only part-time on the streets, and to children who don't self-identify as "street children” at all. Results show full-time street children reporting significantly more abuse than part-time counterparts, or children who were not street children (mean difference=−1.44, P<.001). Concerning support scores, non-street children and part-time street children reported significantly more support from their family than full-time street children (mean difference=1.70, P<.001). This information identifies possible reasons why vulnerable children migrate to live on the streets in the urban areas, and contributes to the limited literature and data on this subjec

Does school attendance reduce the risk of youth homelessness in Tanzania?

BACKGROUND: This paper is based on data gathered from a 2006 survey of 1,098 "street children" in Northern Tanzania. It examines the role that school may play in preventing the migration of vulnerable youth to become homeless "street children". Specific focus is placed on the correlations found between children's attendance in school, their reports of abuse or support in their family, and their status of living "on the street" full-time or part-time. METHODS: This study is from quantitative interview data gathered from 1,098 children and youth between 5 and 24 years old on the streets of Moshi and Arusha, Tanzania, over a 48-hour period during the school year on October 26th and 27th, 2006. Respondents were given survey questions about their home, school and street life experiences, in order to measure the impact of outreach work being performed by a Tanzanian NGO. Interviewers used purposive sampling, approaching all young people who appeared to be under the age of 25 years within a number of precincts in each town known to be where 'street children' were known to congregate. RESULTS: Results suggest that regular attendance in school may be a significant protective factor for children in preventing migration to the street life. Statistical analysis revealed that those young people who dropped out of school had nearly 8 times higher chances for ending up on the streets permanently than those who attended school daily. CONCLUSIONS: This study supports the new concept of "multi-layered social resilience", providing evidence from research completed by one NGO on how community-based organizations can help enhance resilience in a broader social context, spanning individuals, households and community structur

Service Provider Views of Oxycontin Use on an Indian Reservation: Traumatic Effects on the Tribal Community

This is the publisher's version, also available electronically from http://alliance1.metapress.com/home/main.mpx.This qualitative research study on a Great Lakes Indian reservation used semistructured interviews of American Indian (n = 8) and non-American Indian (n = 2) providers of behavioral and physical health services to elicit views of Oxycontin use. We gathered data on existing substance abuse services including accessibility, cultural appropriateness, service strengths and weaknesses, barriers to treatment, and treatment needs. Results indicated a high prevalence of the use of Oxycontin, with traumatic effects on families and the tribal community such that the providers were overburdened with their dual role as service providers and caretakers in their own community. Implications for social work practice are discussed

Enrichment of planetary surfaces by asteroid and comet impacts

Asteroids and comets have played a very important role in the early evolution of the Earth. Some theories suggest that significant amounts of water and organic material were delivered to Earth through asteroid and comet impacts. These events have affected not only our Earth but many other planetary surfaces within the Solar System. Moreover, the delivery mechanisms still operate nowadays. We have performed computer simulations to study the asteroidal and cometary contribution to the water and organic budget of Mercury and Mars. Interestingly, our own Solar System is not the only place that harbours asteroids and comets. About 20 stars are known to hold warm and cold debris disks, analogues of the Main Asteroid Belt and the Kuiper Belt. The role of these exo- asteroids and exo-comets in the delivery of water and organics to exoplanets is unknown. To shed light on these delivery processes we extrapolate our Solar System scenarios to the exoplanetary system HR 8799

Enrichment of the HR 8799 planets by minor bodies and dust

In the Solar System, minor bodies and dust deliver various materials to planetary surfaces. Several exoplanetary systems are known to host inner and outer belts, analogues of the main asteroid belt and the Kuiper belt. We study the possibility that exominor bodies and exodust deliver volatiles and refractories to the exoplanets in the system HR8799 by performing N-body simulations. The model consists of the host star, four giant planets (HR8799 e, d, c, and b), 650000 test particles representing the inner belt, and 1450000 test particles representing the outer belt. Moreover we modelled dust populations that originate from both belts. Within a million years, the two belts evolve towards the expected dynamical structure (also derived in other works), where mean-motion resonances with the planets carve the analogues of Kirkwood gaps. We find that, after this point, the planets suffer impacts by objects from the inner and outer belt at rates that are essentially constant with time, while dust populations do not contribute significantly to the delivery process. We convert the impact rates to volatile and refractory delivery rates using our best estimates of the total mass contained in the belts and their volatile and refractory content. Over their lifetime, the four giant planets receive between $10^{-4}$ and 10^{-3}M_\bigoplus of material from both belts. The total amount of delivered volatiles and refractories, {5\times10^{-3}\textrm{M}_\bigoplus}, is small compared to the total mass of the planets, 11\times10^{3}\textrm{M}_\bigoplus. However, if the planets were formed to be volatile-rich, their exogenous enrichment in refractory material may well be significant and observable, for example with JWST-MIRI. If terrestrial planets exist within the snow line of the system, volatile delivery would be an important astrobiological mechanism and may be observable as atmospheric trace gases.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy&Astrophysic

Enrichment of the HR 8799 planets by minor bodies and dust

Context. In the Solar System, minor bodies and dust deliver various materials to planetary surfaces. Several exoplanetary systems are known to host inner and outer belts, analogues of the main asteroid belt and the Kuiper belt, respectively. Aims: We study the possibility that exominor bodies and exodust deliver volatiles and refractories to the exoplanets in the well-characterised system HR 8799. Methods: We performed N-body simulations to study the impact rates of minor bodies in the system HR 8799. The model consists of the host star, four giant planets (HR 8799 e, d, c, and b), 650 000 test particles representing the inner belt, and 1 450 000 test particles representing the outer belt. Moreover we modelled dust populations that originate from both belts. Results: Within a million years, the two belts evolve towards the expected dynamical structure (also derived in other works), where mean-motion resonances with the planets carve the analogues of Kirkwood gaps. We find that, after this point, the planets suffer impacts by objects from the inner and outer belt at rates that are essentially constant with time, while dust populations do not contribute significantly to the delivery process. We convert the impact rates to volatile and refractory delivery rates using our best estimates of the total mass contained in the belts and their volatile and refractory content. Over their lifetime, the four giant planets receive between 10-4 and 10-3 M⊕ of material from both belts. Conclusions: The total amount of delivered volatiles and refractories, 5 × 10-3 M⊕, is small compared to the total mass of the planets, 11 × 103 M⊕. However, if the planets were formed to be volatile-rich, their exogenous enrichment in refractory material may well be significant and observable, for example with JWST-MIRI. If terrestrial planets exist within the snow line of the system, volatile delivery would be an important astrobiological mechanism and may be observable as atmospheric trace gases

Exogenous delivery of water to Mercury

Radar and spacecraft observations show the permanently shadowed regions around Mercury's North Pole to contain water ice and complex organic material. One possible source of this material are impacts by interplanetary dust particles (IDPs), asteroids, and comets. We have performed numerical simulations of the dynamical evolution of asteroids and comets over the few Myr and checked for their impacts with Mercury. We use the N-body integrator RMVS/Swifter to propagate the Sun and the eight planets from their current positions. We add comets and asteroids to the simulations as massless test particles, based on their current orbital distributions. Asteroid impactors are assigned a probability of being water-rich (C-class) based on the measured distribution of taxonomic types. For comets, we assume a constant water fraction. For IDPs, we use a dynamical meteoroid model to compute the dust flux on Mercury. Relative to previous work on asteroid and comet impacts (Moses et al. 1999), we leverage 20 years of progress in minor body surveys. Immediate post-impact ejection of impactor material into outer space is taken into account as is the migration efficiency of water across Mercury's surface to the polar cold traps. We find that asteroids deliver $\sim 1 \times 10^{3}$ kg/yr of water to Mercury, comets deliver $\sim 1 \times 10^{3}$ kg/yr and IDPs deliver $\sim 16 \times 10^{3}$ kg/yr within a factor of several. Over a timescale of $\sim 1$ Gyr, this is enough to deliver the minimum amount of water required by the radar and MESSENGER observations. While other sources of water on Mercury are not ruled out by our analysis, we show that they are not required to explain the currently available observational lower limits.Comment: 38 pages, 10 figures, published in Icaru

Sensory/Manipulation Interventions for Children with Autism and Developmental Disabilities: An Evidence-Based Practice Project

We did not find sufficient evidence to conclude that any of our three interventions impacted occupational performance, which is the basis of occupational therapy. Multiple were designed for diagnoses other than Autism Spectrum Disorder and were not designed with occupational engagement as a goal. In addition, two of the interventions, the Wilbarger Protocol and Therasuit, were not reviewed by any of the expert review groups. In order for conclusions to be made about the effectiveness and efficacy of these interventions, thorough, high-quality research is needed. We do not recommend the use of the Wilbarger Protocol, Therasuit, or CranioSaccral Therapy as comprehensive treatments in clinical occupational therapy practice at this time