Investing in Knowledge: Insights on the Funding Landscape for Research on Inequality Among Young People in the United States

This report maps the current funding environment for research on understanding and addressing social and economic inequality among young people in the U.S. To situate the existing funding landscape, I begin with a broad articulation of what is meant by inequality. Next, I characterize the structure of the funding landscape before turning to a description of three primary approaches used by funders to support research on inequality among young people in the U.S. These characterizations emerged from a set of informant interviews with social science researchers and foundation and government funders and a document scan of funder's websites. The report concludes with a brief discussion of potential strategies funding organizations could use to improve efforts to understand and address inequality among young people in the U.S

Caseworker-Perceived Caregiver Substance Abuse and Child Protective Services Outcomes

The authors used data from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being to examine associations of child protective services (CPS) caseworkers' perceptions of caregiver substance abuse with their perceptions of the severity of risk and harm a child experienced as a result of alleged maltreatment, as well as with whether a family experienced a range of CPS outcomes. The outcomes included whether the family received services from CPS, was substantiated for maltreatment, experienced child removal, and was subject to a termination of parental rights (TPR) petition. The authors also compared the magnitude of the association between caseworker-perceived caregiver substance abuse and each outcome to that of the association between other maltreatment-related risk factors and each outcome. Findings suggest that, all else equal, caseworker-perceived caregiver substance abuse is associated with increased caseworker perceptions that children have experienced severe risk and harm and also with an increased probability of each of the CPS outcomes except TPR. Moreover, these associations are equal in magnitude or larger than those between the other risk factors and the outcomes. These findings imply that CPS decisions are heavily influenced by caseworker perceptions of caregiver substance abuse, regardless of the presence of other risk factors for child maltreatment

An International Ultraviolet Explorer Archival Study of Dwarf Novae in Outburst

We present a synthetic spectral analysis of nearly the entire far ultraviolet International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) archive of spectra of dwarf novae in or near outburst. The study includes 46 systems of all dwarf nova subtypes both above and below the period gap. The spectra were uniformly analyzed using synthetic spectral codes for optically thick accretion disks and stellar photospheres along with the best-available distance measurements or estimates. We present newly estimated accretion rates and discuss the implications of our study for disk accretion physics and CV evolution.Comment: Accepted for publication in the ApJ, Part

Determination of quantum numbers for several excited charmed mesons observed in B- -> D*(+)pi(-) pi(-) decays

A four-body amplitude analysis of the B − → D * + π − π − decay is performed, where fractions and relative phases of the various resonances contributing to the decay are measured. Several quasi-model-independent analyses are performed aimed at searching for the presence of new states and establishing the quantum numbers of previously observed charmed meson resonances. In particular the resonance parameters and quantum numbers are determined for the D 1 ( 2420 ) , D 1 ( 2430 ) , D 0 ( 2550 ) , D ∗ 1 ( 2600 ) , D 2 ( 2740 ) and D ∗ 3 ( 2750 ) states. The mixing between the D 1 ( 2420 ) and D 1 ( 2430 ) resonances is studied and the mixing parameters are measured. The dataset corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 4.7     fb − 1 , collected in proton-proton collisions at center-of-mass energies of 7, 8 and 13 TeV with the LHCb detector

Updated measurement of decay-time-dependent CP asymmetries in D-0 -> K+ K- and D-0 -> pi(+)pi(-) decays

A search for decay-time-dependent charge-parity (CP) asymmetry in D0 \u2192 K+ K 12 and D0 \u2192 \u3c0+ \u3c0 12 decays is performed at the LHCb experiment using proton-proton collision data recorded at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5.4 fb^ 121. The D0 mesons are required to originate from semileptonic decays of b hadrons, such that the charge of the muon identifies the flavor of the neutral D meson at production. The asymmetries in the effective decay widths of D0 and anti-D0 mesons are determined to be A_\u393(K+ K 12) = ( 124.3 \ub1 3.6 \ub1 0.5) 7 10^ 124 and A_\u393(\u3c0+ \u3c0 12) = (2.2 \ub1 7.0 \ub1 0.8) 7 10^ 124 , where the uncertainties are statistical and systematic, respectively. The results are consistent with CP symmetry and, when combined with previous LHCb results, yield A_\u393(K+ K 12) = ( 124.4 \ub1 2.3 \ub1 0.6) 7 10^ 124 and A_\u393(\u3c0+ \u3c0 12) = (2.5 \ub1 4.3 \ub1 0.7) 7 10^ 124

Updated measurement of decay-time-dependent CP asymmetries in D-0 -> K+ K- and D-0 -> pi(+)pi(-) decays

A search for decay-time-dependent charge-parity (CP) asymmetry in D-0 -> K+ K- and D-0 -> pi(+)pi(-) eff decays is performed at the LHCb experiment using proton-proton collision data recorded at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5.4 fb(-1). The D-0 mesons are required to originate from semileptonic decays of b hadrons, such that the charge of the muon identifies the flavor of the neutral D meson at production. The asymmetries in the effective decay widths of D-0 and (D) over bar (0) mesons are determined to be A(Gamma)(K+ K-) = (-4.3 +/- 3.6 +/- 0.5) x 10(-4) and A(Gamma) (K+ K- ) = (2.2 +/- 7.0 +/- 0.8) x 10(-4), where the uncertainties are statistical and systematic, respectively. The results are consistent with CP symmetry and, when combined with previous LHCb results, yield A(Gamma) (K+ K-) = (-4.4 +/- 2.3 +/- 0.6) x 10(-4) and A(Gamma) (pi(+)pi(-))= (2.5 +/- 4.3 +/- 0.7) x 10(-4)

Estimating the "Impact" of Out-of-home Placement on Child Well-being: Approaching the problem of Selection Bias

This study used data on 2,453 children aged 4-17 from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent WellBeing and 5 analytic methods that adjust for selection factors to estimate the impact of out-of-home placement on children's cognitive skills and behavior problems. Methods included ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions and residualized change, simple change, difference-in-difference, and fixed effects models. Models were estimated using the full sample and a matched sample generated by propensity scoring. Although results from the unmatched OLS and residualized change models suggested that out-of-home placement is associated with increased child behavior problems, estimates from models that more rigorously adjust for selection bias indicated that placement has little effect on children's cognitive skills or behavior problems. Developmental researchers have long been interested in understanding how various caregiving experiences, both within and outside of children's homes, affect child development and well-being. An important extension of this line of inquiry focuses on changes in caregiving contexts due to child maltreatment and the subsequent out-of-home placement of children by Child Protective Services (CPS). Knowing whether out-of-home placement by CPS mitigates or heightens developmental risk for maltreated children is crucial for assessing the efficacy of child welfare policies and interventions, as well as for understanding the relative risks and benefits of major discontinuities in children's care. Despite the importance of this issue for both child welfare policy and developmental theory, however, studies of the effects of out-of-home placement on child well-being have yet to overcome important challenges related to selection bias in who enters state custody; that is, children who remain in the care of their parents and those who are placed outof-home are likely to differ on a host of observable and unobservable factors, including socioeconomic characteristics and the types and severity of maltreatment they have experienced. Such differences pose a considerable barrier to producing unbiased estimates of the effects of out-of-home placement on child well-being. As such, it remains unclear whether placement is generally beneficial, harmful, or inconsequential for the development and wellbeing of maltreated children This study used data on 2,453 children aged 4-17 from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW) and five analytic methods that adjust for selection factors-including ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions with extensive controls and residualized change, simple change, difference-in-difference (a repeated measures analysis of group differences in change over time), and fixed effects models-to estimate the impact of out-ofhome placement on children's cognitive skills and behavior. All models were estimated using both the full sample and a matched sample generated by propensity scoring. Comparing estimates produced by each of the methods may provide insight into whether associations between out-of-home placement and child well-being are likely to be causal. The study extends prior research in its use of multiple methods to adjust for selection factors and in two additional ways. First, the NSCAW data enabled us to account for a wide range of confounding factors-including child and family background characteristics, CPS case characteristics, and children's preplacement levels of cognitive skills and behavior problems-many of which have been omitted from previous studies. The NSCAW sample is also larger, more geographically diverse, and includes a wider age range of children than other existing child welfare data sets. Coupled with the longitudinal design of the study, this allowed us to follow a larger sample of children over time on multiple indicators of well-being than has been possible in most prior work. Second, our approach improved on recent research using NSCAW in that we defined our sample to include only children for whom we had in-home (i.e., preplacement) data