What happens when interviewers ask repeated questions in forensic interviews with children alleging abuse?

This study was designed to explore 1) the ways in which interviewers refocus alleged victims of abuse on their previous responses and 2) how children responded when they were refocused on their previous responses. Transcripts of 37 forensic interviews conducted by British police officers trained using the best practices spelled out in the Memorandum of Good Practice were examined. The instances in which interviewers asked repeated questions were isolated and coded into categories with respect to the reasons why interviewers needed to ask the repeated question (i.e., there was no apparent reason, to challenge a child’s response, clarification, no answer the first time the question was asked, digression, or compound question). The children’s responses to the repeated questions were further categorised into mutually exclusive categories (i.e., elaboration, repetition, contradiction, or no answer). On average interviewers asked children 8 repeated questions per interview. Most of the time interviewers asked repeated questions to challenge a previous response (62%), but they were also sometimes asked for no apparent reason (20%). Children repeated previous responses or elaborated on a previous response 81% of the time and contradicted themselves 7% of the time when re-asked the same question. We conclude that children did not appear unduly pressured to change their answers, and, more importantly, did not contradict themselves when interviewers attempted to refocus them on particular responses

Forensic interviews with children in Scotland: a survey of interview practices among police.

The present study surveyed 91 police interviewers in Scottish police forces about their perceptions of how well they adhered to the Scottish Executive (2003) guidelines. Almost all respondents (97%) received the appropriate national training and overwhelmingly indicated (again 97%) that their training equipped them either quite, very, or extremely well for conducting their interviews. Not surprisingly, therefore, that most interviewers (88%) believed that their interviews allowed them to obtain full and complete accounts of the events being investigated. However, aside from this positive self evaluation there are reasons to be concerned about some aspects of the interviews being conducted; 1) Most interviewers (78%) received no refresher training, 2) no interviewers received formal feedback about the quality of interviews that they conducted, 3) practice interviews were reportedly not included in most interviews, 4) the use of open-ended prompts were not widely used with 20% of interviewers indicating that they were rarely used, and 5) interviews are not currently being electronically recorded. These results are discussed with respect to the context of child interviewing in Scotland and recommendations for future training

Iron released from transferrin at acidic pH can catalyse the oxidation of low density lipoprotein

AbstractLow density lipoprotein (LDL) oxidation within the arterial wall may contribute to the disease of atherosclerosis. We have investigated the conditions under which transferrin (the major iron-carrying protein in plasma) may release iron ions to catalyse the oxidation of LDL. Transferrin that had been incubated at pH 5.5 released approximately 10% of its bound iron in 24 h, as measured by ultrafiltration and atomic absorption spectroscopy. Furthermore, transferrin co-incubated with LDL and l-cysteine at pH 5.5 resulted in the oxidation of the LDL as measured by thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances and electrophoretic mobility. This effect was observed at transferrin concentrations as low as 40% of its average plasma concentration. The release of iron from transferrin in atherosclerotic lesions due to a localised acidic pH may help to explain why LDL oxidation occurs in these lesions

Repetition of contaminating question types when children and youths with intellectual disabilities are interviewed

Background The present study examined the effects of repeating questions in interviews investigating the possible sexual abuse of children and youths who had a variety of intellectual disabilities. We predicted that the repetition of option-posing and suggestive questions would lead the suspected victims to change their responses, making it difficult to understand what actually happened. Inconsistency can be a key factor when assessing the reliability of witnesses. Materials Case files and transcripts of investigative interviews with 33 children and youths who had a variety of intellectual disabilities were obtained from prosecutors in Sweden. The interviews involved 25 females and 9 males whose chronological ages were between 5.4 and 23.7 years when interviewed (M = 13.2 years). Results Six per cent of the questions were repeated at least once. The repetition of focused questions raised doubts about the reports because the interviewees changed their answers 40% of the time. Conclusions Regardless of the witnesses' abilities, it is important to obtain reports that are as accurate and complete as possible in investigative interviews. Because this was a field study, we did not know which responses were accurate, but repetitions of potentially contaminating questions frequently led the interviewees to contradict their earlier answers. This means that the interviewers' behaviour diminished the usefulness of the witnesses' testimony

Do we need to rethink guidance on repeated interviews?

Within the legal system, children are frequently interviewed about their experiences more than once, with different information elicited in different interviews. The presumed positive and negative effects of multiple interviewing have generated debate and controversy within the legal system and among researchers. Some commentators emphasise that repeated interviews foster inaccurate recall and are inherently suggestive, whereas others emphasise the benefits of allowing witnesses more than one opportunity to recall information. In this article we briefly review the literature on repeated interviewing before presenting a series of cases highlighting what happens when children are interviewed more than once for various reasons. We conclude that, when interviewers follow internationally recognised best-practice guidelines emphasising open-questions and free memory recall, alleged victims of abuse should be interviewed more than once to ensure that more complete accounts are obtained. Implications for current legal guidelines concerning repeated interviewing are discussed

Effects of moment of inertia on restricted motion swing speed

In many sports, the maximum swing speed of a racket, club, or bat is a key performance parameter. Previous research in multiple sports supports the hypothesis of an inverse association between the swing speed and moment of inertia of an implement. The aim of this study was to rigorously test and quantify this relationship using a restricted swinging motion. Eight visually identical rods with a common mass but variable moment of inertia were manufactured. Motion capture technology was used to record eight participants' maximal effort swings with the rods. Strict exclusion criteria were applied to data that did not adhere to the prescribed movement pattern. The study found that for all participants, swing speed decreased with respect to moment of inertia according to a power relationship. However, in contrast to previous studies, the rate of decrease varied from participant to participant. With further analysis it was found that participants performed more consistently at the higher end of the moment of inertia range tested. The results support the inverse association between swing speed and moment of inertia but only for higher moment of inertia implements

Towards Greener Solutions for Steering Angle Prediction

In this paper, we investigate the two most popular families of deep neural architectures (i.e., ResNets and Inception nets) for the autonomous driving task of steering angle prediction. This work provides preliminary evidence that Inception architectures can perform as well or better than ResNet architectures with less complexity for the autonomous driving task. Primary motivation includes support for further research in smaller, more efficient neural network architectures such that can not only accomplish complex tasks, such as steering angle predictions, but also produce less carbon emissions, or, more succinctly, neural networks that are more environmentally friendly. We look at various sizes of ResNet and InceptionNet models to compare results. Our derived models can achieve state-of-the-art results in terms of steering angle MSE

DAF-16/FOXO Regulates Homeostasis of Essential Sleep-like Behavior during Larval Transitions in C. elegans

SummarySleep homeostasis, which refers to the maintenance of sleep amount or depth following sleep deprivation, indicates that sleep and sleep-like states serve fundamental functions that cannot be bypassed [1]. Homeostasis of sleep-like behavior is observed during C. elegans lethargus, a 2–3 hr behavioral quiescent period that occurs during larval state transitions [2]. Here, we report a role for DAF-16/FOXO, a transcription factor that is active under conditions of stress [3], in the response to deprivation of lethargus quiescence. Forced locomotion during lethargus results in nuclear translocation of DAF-16. The formation of dauer larvae, a developmental state promoted by daf-16, is increased in response to quiescence deprivation. daf-16 mutants show an impaired homeostatic response to deprivation of lethargus quiescence and are hypersensitive to the lethal effects of forced locomotion during lethargus. DAF-16 expression in muscle cells, but not in neurons, is sufficient to restore a homeostatic response to deprivation of quiescence, pointing to a role for muscle in sleep homeostasis. These findings are relevant to clinical observations of altered metabolic signaling in response to sleep deprivation and suggest that these signaling pathways may act in nonneuronal tissue to regulate sleep behaviors