2,933,920 research outputs found
Child abuse, child protection and disabled children : a review of recent research
This paper reports the results of a scoping study which reviewed research about child abuse, child protection and disabled children published in academic journals between 1996 - 2009. The review was conducted using a five stage method for scoping studies. Several studies have revealed a strong association between disability and child maltreatment, indicating that disabled children are significantly more likely to experience abuse than their non-disabled peers. Those with particular impairments are at increased risk. There is evidence that the interaction of age, gender and/or socio-cultural factors with impairment results in different patterns of abuse to those found among non-disabled children although the reasons for this require further examination. It appears that therapeutic services and criminal justice systems often fail to take account of disabled children's needs and heightened vulnerability. In Britain, little is known about what happens to disabled children who have been abused and how well safeguarding services address their needs. Very few studies have sought disabled children's own accounts of abuse or safeguarding. Considerable development is required, at both policy and practice level, to ensure that disabled children's right to protection is upheld. The paper concludes by identifying a number of aspects of the topic requiring further investigation
Safer recruitment? protecting children, improving practice in residential child care
In the wake of a number of high-profile cases of the abuse of children and young people in residential child care, there have been repeated calls for the improvement of recruitment and selection of residential child care staff. This paper describes the findings from a survey, undertaken in 2005, of operational and human resource managers who have responsibility for the recruitment and selection of residential child care staff in the voluntary and statutory sectors in Scotland. This research was commissioned by the Scottish Executive to identify which elements of safer recruitment procedures had been implemented following the countrywide launch of a Toolkit for Safer Recruitment Practice in 2001. Research findings show that although local authorities were more likely than voluntary organisations to have gone some way toward implementing safer recruitment procedures, the recruitment process lacked rigour and commitment to safer procedures in some organisations. The article discusses the current barriers to the introduction of safer recruitment methods and proposes some possible solutions for the future
A Variational Approach to Monte Carlo Renormalization Group
We present a Monte Carlo method for computing the renormalized coupling
constants and the critical exponents within renormalization theory. The scheme,
which derives from a variational principle, overcomes critical slowing down, by
means of a bias potential that renders the coarse grained variables
uncorrelated. The 2D Ising model is used to illustrate the method.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl
A Variational Approach to Monte Carlo Renormalization Group
We present a Monte Carlo method for computing the renormalized coupling
constants and the critical exponents within renormalization theory. The scheme,
which derives from a variational principle, overcomes critical slowing down, by
means of a bias potential that renders the coarse grained variables
uncorrelated. The 2D Ising model is used to illustrate the method.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl
Monte Carlo Renormalization Group for Systems with Quenched Disorder
We extend to quenched disordered systems the variational scheme for real
space renormalization group calculations that we recently introduced for
homogeneous spin Hamiltonians. When disorder is present our approach gives
access to the flow of the renormalized Hamiltonian distribution, from which one
can compute the critical exponents if the correlations of the renormalized
couplings retain finite range. Key to the variational approach is the bias
potential found by minimizing a convex functional in statistical mechanics.
This potential reduces dramatically the Monte Carlo relaxation time in large
disordered systems. We demonstrate the method with applications to the
two-dimensional dilute Ising model, the random transverse field quantum Ising
chain, and the random field Ising in two and three dimensional lattices
Phase equilibrium of liquid water and hexagonal ice from enhanced sampling molecular dynamics simulations
We study the phase equilibrium between liquid water and ice Ih modeled by the
TIP4P/Ice interatomic potential using enhanced sampling molecular dynamics
simulations. Our approach is based on the calculation of ice Ih-liquid free
energy differences from simulations that visit reversibly both phases. The
reversible interconversion is achieved by introducing a static bias potential
as a function of an order parameter. The order parameter was tailored to
crystallize the hexagonal diamond structure of oxygen in ice Ih. We analyze the
effect of the system size on the ice Ih-liquid free energy differences and we
obtain a melting temperature of 270 K in the thermodynamic limit. This result
is in agreement with estimates from thermodynamic integration (272 K) and
coexistence simulations (270 K). Since the order parameter does not include
information about the coordinates of the protons, the spontaneously formed
solid configurations contain proton disorder as expected for ice Ih.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figure
An anomalous alloy: Y_x Si_{1-x}
We study via density functional-based molecular dynamics the structural and
dynamical properties of the rare earth silicon amorphous alloy Y_xSi_{1-x} for
x=0.093 and x=0.156. The Si network forms cavities in which a Y^{3+} cation is
entrapped. Its electrons are transferred to the Si network and are located in
the dangling bonds of the Si atoms that line the Y cavities. This leads to the
presence of low coordinated Si atoms that can be described as monovalent or
divalent anions. For x=0.156, the cavities touch each other and share Si atoms
that have two dangling bonds. The vibrational spectrum is similar to that of
amorphous Si. However, doping induces a shoulder at 70 cm^{-1} and a pronounced
peak at 180 cm^{-1} due to low coordinated Si.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
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