Improving Enforcement of Protection Orders in Domestic Violence Situations

Domestic violence is increasingly recognized as a serious social problem in Missouri. Protection orders are designed to offer individuals some level of safety, but nationally it is estimated that a quarter of such orders are not followed and enforcement is inconsistent. Noncompliant batterers typically increase the level of threats, coercive tactics and violence, and often the victims must relocate to hide from the abuser. These relocated victims need protection in new communities, but frequently they run into difficulties because of different legal jurisdictions across county and state lines. The Full Faith and Credit provisions of the Federal Violence Against Women Act of 1994 offer remedies to this problem, but states (including Missouri) have experienced considerable difficulties in implementation of the provisions of this act. Such problems include lack of coordination among jurisdictions, low levels of understanding about the law, scarce government resources for addressing impediments, and failure to enforce protection orders

Large scale multifactorial likelihood quantitative analysis of BRCA1 and BRCA2 variants: An ENIGMA resource to support clinical variant classification

The multifactorial likelihood analysis method has demonstrated utility for quantitative assessment of variant pathogenicity for multiple cancer syndrome genes. Independent data types currently incorporated in the model for assessing BRCA1 and BRCA2 variants include clinically calibrated prior probability of pathogenicity based on variant location and bioinformatic prediction of variant effect, co-segregation, family cancer history profile, co-occurrence with a pathogenic variant in the same gene, breast tumor pathology, and case-control information. Research and clinical data for multifactorial likelihood analysis were collated for 1,395 BRCA1/2 predominantly intronic and missense variants, enabling classification based on posterior probability of pathogenicity for 734 variants: 447 variants were classified as (likely) benign, and 94 as (likely) pathogenic; and 248 classifications were new or considerably altered relative to ClinVar submissions. Classifications were compared with information not yet included in the likelihood model, and evidence strengths aligned to those recommended for ACMG/AMP classification codes. Altered mRNA splicing or function relative to known nonpathogenic variant controls were moderately to strongly predictive of variant pathogenicity. Variant absence in population datasets provided supporting evidence for variant pathogenicity. These findings have direct relevance for BRCA1 and BRCA2 variant evaluation, and justify the need for gene-specific calibration of evidence types used for variant classification

Large scale multifactorial likelihood quantitative analysis of BRCA1 and BRCA2 variants: An ENIGMA resource to support clinical variant classification

Abstract The multifactorial likelihood analysis method has demonstrated utility for quantitative assessment of variant pathogenicity for multiple cancer syndrome genes. Independent data types currently incorporated in the model for assessing BRCA1 and BRCA2 variants include clinically calibrated prior probability of pathogenicity based on variant location and bioinformatic prediction of variant effect, co-segregation, family cancer history profile, co-occurrence with a pathogenic variant in the same gene, breast tumor pathology, and case-control information. Research and clinical data for multifactorial likelihood analysis were collated for 1395 BRCA1/2 predominantly intronic and missense variants, enabling classification based on posterior probability of pathogenicity for 734 variants: 447 variants were classified as (likely) benign, and 94 as (likely) pathogenic; 248 classifications were new or considerably altered relative to ClinVar submissions. Classifications were compared to information not yet included in the likelihood model, and evidence strengths aligned to those recommended for ACMG/AMP classification codes. Altered mRNA splicing or function relative to known non-pathogenic variant controls were moderately to strongly predictive of variant pathogenicity. Variant absence in population datasets provided supporting evidence for variant pathogenicity. These findings have direct relevance for BRCA1 and BRCA2 variant evaluation, and justify the need for gene-specific calibration of evidence types used for variant classification. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.Peer reviewe

Foster Care Placement Decisions: Is Race a Factor

220 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1999.This is a cross-sectional retrospective study of the decision to place children in foster care in Illinois. Computerized administrative data were analyzed using logistic regression analysis and Classification and Regression Tree (CART) analysis. Data revealed that the number of investigator home visits, the number of other investigator contacts, the number of previous indicated allegations, and infancy were the strongest predictors of the placement decision. This document includes literature reviews of factors that affect the placement decision, and race and child welfare.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD