Play it safe!®: a school-based childhood physical and sexual abuse prevention program

Childhood physical and sexual abuse is a major public health problem that has devastating, long-term effects on children, if not addressed. School based prevention programs are a viable solution to address this problem. However, the majority of research has focused on school based sexual abuse prevention programs. Very few studies have included prevention programs that combine physical and sexual abuse into a single abuse prevention program. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the Play it Safe!® program, a school-based physical and sexual abuse prevention program intended to increase the likelihood that children will recognize abusive situations, learn how to respond to potentially abusive situations and report the abuse to someone who can help stop the abuse. Analyses of pilot data suggest that Play it Safe!® increases elementary school children’s understanding of physical and sexual abuse concepts as mean pre- and post-test scores revealed overall gains in physical and sexual abuse knowledge across kindergarten through fifth grade. In addition, differences in mean pre- and post-test scores were statistically significant at all grade levels except for kindergarten. Child abuse has far reaching consequences that can affect children’s immediate and long-term wellbeing. Continuing to find effective ways to prevent child abuse is paramount and has clear benefits to individuals as well society

If a safety aid is present, there must be danger: the paradoxical effects of hand sanitizer during a contamination exposure task

Perceptions of danger often arise in the context of feared threat cues, but individuals also rely on other heuristics that lead them to infer danger in ambiguous situations. For example, individuals may interpret their own anxiety or safety-seeking behaviors as indicators of threat. Another potential source of danger information is the mere availability of safety aids in the environment. Although assumed to be helpful, safety aids might paradoxically elicit, rather than alleviate, anxiety. The present study was designed to assess the degree to which concern-relevant safety aids exacerbate distress. Participants (N = 71) completed several self-report measures and engaged in a contamination-related behavioral avoidance task (BAT) in the presence or absence of a 2L hand sanitizer dispenser. Results showed that participants higher in trait contamination aversion and in the presence of hand sanitizer endorsed greater inferences of danger, hypervigilance, peak BAT anxiety and disgust, BAT avoidance, and urges to wash following the BAT. Theoretical and clinical implications of the paradoxical inference of danger from the presence of safety aids are discussed

Effect of multimodal plasmon resonances on the optical properties of five-pointed nanostars

© 2015 Author(s). The optical transmission and electric field distribution of plasmonic nanostructures dictate their performance in nano-optics and nano-biosensors. Here, we consider the use of hollow, five-pointed, star-shaped nanostructures made of Al, Ag, Au or Cu. We use simulations based on finite-difference time-domain and the discrete dipole approximation to identify the strongest plasmon resonances in these structures. In particular, we were seeking plasmon resonances within the visible part of the spectrum. The silver pentagrams exhibited the strongest such resonance, at a wavelength of about 530 nm. The visiblelight resonances of Au and Cu pentagrams were relatively weaker and red-shifted by about 50 nm. The main resonances of the Al pentagrams were in the ultra-violet. All the nanostars also showed a broad, dipolar-like resonance at about 1000 nm. Surprisingly, the maximum field intensities for the visible light modes were greatest along the flanks of the stars rather than at their tips, whereas those of the dipolar-like modes in the near-infrared were greatest at the tips of the star. These findings have practical implications for sensor design. The inclusion of a conformally hollow interior is beneficial because it provides additional 'hot spots'

The Skeletal Biology of the New York African Burial Ground (Pt. 2): Burial Descriptions and Appendices

https://scholarworks.wm.edu/asbook/1039/thumbnail.jp

The Skeletal Biology of the New York African Burial Ground (Pt. 1)

The New York African Burial Ground was “rediscovered” in 1989 in the process of preparation for the construction of a proposed 34-story federal office building by the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) at 290 Broadway in New York City (Ingle et al. 1990). The site for the proposed building was once part of the African Burial Ground that extended “from Chambers Street on the south to Duane Street on the north and from Centre Street on the east to Broadway on the west” (Yamin 2000:vii). A fullscale archaeological excavation was conducted by Historic Conservation and Interpretation (HCI) and John Milner Associates, Inc. (JMA), preceding the building project, as required under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 (NHPA) (as amended) in order to mitigate the destruction of potential cultural resources (Figure 1). The excavation and construction site on the African Burial Ground is located at Foley Square, in the city block bounded by Broadway, Duane, Reade, and Elk Streets in Lower Manhattan, one block north of City Hall.https://scholarworks.wm.edu/asbook/1042/thumbnail.jp

Supervised Classification of Benthic Reflectance in Shallow Subtropical Waters Using a Generalized Pixel-Based Classifier across a Time Series

We tested a supervised classification approach with Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper (TM) data for time-series mapping of seagrass in a subtropical lagoon. Seagrass meadows are an integral link between marine and inland ecosystems and are at risk from upstream processes such as runoff and erosion. Despite the prevalence of image-specific approaches, the classification accuracies we achieved show that pixel-based spectral classes may be generalized and applied to a time series of images that were not included in the classifier training. We employed in-situ data on seagrass abundance from 2007 to 2011 to train and validate a classification model. We created depth-invariant bands from TM bands 1, 2, and 3 to correct for variations in water column depth prior to building the classification model. In-situ data showed mean total seagrass cover remained relatively stable over the study area and period, with seagrass cover generally denser in the west than the east. Our approach achieved mapping accuracies (67% and 76% for two validation years) comparable with those attained using spectral libraries, but was simpler to implement. We produced a series of annual maps illustrating inter-annual variability in seagrass occurrence. Accuracies may be improved in future work by better addressing the spatial mismatch between pixel size of remotely sensed data and footprint of field data and by employing atmospheric correction techniques that normalize reflectances across images

Energy consumption and capacity utilization of galvanizing furnaces

An explicit equation leading to a method for improving furnace efficiency is presented. This equation is dimensionless and can be applied to furnaces of any size and fuel type for the purposes of comparison. The implications for current furnace design are discussed. Currently the technique most commonly used to reduce energy consumption in galvanizing furnaces is to increase burner turndown. This is shown by the analysis presented here actually to worsen the thermal efficiency of the furnace, particularly at low levels of capacity utilization. Galvanizing furnaces are different to many furnaces used within industry, as a quantity of material (in this case zinc) is kept molten within the furnace at all times, even outside production periods. The dimensionless analysis can, however, be applied to furnaces with the same operational function as a galvanizing furnace, such as some furnaces utilized within the glass industry. © IMechE 2004

PRO: confronting resistance to rule-based medicine is essential to improving outcomes

The past 20 years have seen two great changes in the practice of medicine: the widespread adoption of evidence-based medicine, and the increasing challenge of managing complex multimorbid patients. Both these developments have resulted in clinical rules and protocols becoming ever more abundant and increasingly critical to delivering safe and effective patient care. These evidence-based clinical rules perform at least as well as expert opinion, and the increasing volume and quality of available clinical data suggests their performance could continue to improve. This article considers why clinicians deviate from effective rules, highlighting key issues such as the persisting culture of heroism, institutional inertia, deference to authority and personal heuristics. We argue that better rules can be created, and that clinical improvements will follow if there is a ‘common knowledge’ of these rules. Furthermore, we argue that there is a ceiling to the effectiveness of any rule, even one as simple as ensuring hand hygiene, unless individuals are held accountable for transgressions

The evolution of challenges for adoptive families: the impact of age as a framework for differentiation

This exploratory study examined issues parents (n=20) experienced after adoption through the child welfare system. The findings suggest that the primary differences between struggling and non-struggling families was whether the family was internally-protected or externally-focused. Internally-protected families were able to insulate and protect their family from many outside forces and meet their children’s needs. In contrast, externally-influenced families tended to have negative involvement with the school, community, and/or law enforcement, often resulting from children’s disruptive behavior. The parents had limited choices as to whether outside entities were involved in their children’s lives. Participants reported that sustained support after adoption is necessary so parents do not burn out, and that different resources are needed based on the child’s current age