Violence against women by male partners: Prevalence, outcomes, and policy implications.

Violence against women has only recently been addressed in national policy and legislation. Responses by most societal institutions to women assaulted by male partners are still based primarily on a lack of knowledge about the prevalence, severity, and outcomes of violence perpetrated by men against female intimates. Although well suited to make a vital contribution, psychologists still rarely involve themselves in proactive interventions with women victims. This article reviews empirical literature on the physical and sexual assault of women by their male intimates and discusses potential physical and psychological outcomes, with a focus on linking what is known about abused women's reactions with the rich literature on survivors' responses to trauma. Implications for research, treatment interventions, and policy are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The prediction of child maltreatment in Greek families

OBJECTIVE: The study had two aims: First, to identify characteristics of physically maltreating families in the Attica region of Greece; and second, to produce a checklist of high risk predictors which may be used for screening, as an assessment, to enable secondary prevention of physical abuse and neglect. METHOD: A case control design was used with individual matching. The sample comprised 197 physically abused and neglected children and their families referred to a multidisciplinary team. These were compared with 163 control children and their families attending a community health center. RESULTS: The findings suggest that abusing families differ from controls on a number of variables related to child, parental, and family characteristics. The statistical analysis produced a checklist of 15 Predictors. Their classification into High, Medium, and Low Predictors pointed out that the most prominent characteristics were those associated with parents' own adverse life experiences, mental health problems, bad quality of relationship between spouses, and parental neglect of the child's hygiene. The predictive ability of the checklist produced a sensitivity of 92% and a specificity of 96% (logistic regression) and a sensitivity of 86.8% and a specificity of 96.3% (discriminant function). The use of this checklist for screening is discussed with emphasis on methodological and ethical issues. Special emphasis is given on the cultural relevance of such an application within the Greek cultural milieu. CONCLUSION: The findings indicate that secondary prevention of child maltreatment in Greece is feasible by using a checklist of risk factors as predictors. Such screening should be accompanied by clinical assessment based on qualitative aspects of mother-infant interaction. Special emphasis should be given to the cultural relevance of this approach while ethical issues should be considered.     

Maximum-likelihood x-ray computed-tomography finite-beamwidth considerations

The underlying model and iterative image-reconstruction algorithm, based on maximum-likelihood estimation, is extended to consider finite x-ray beam width. Simulations are presented by maximum-likelihood images compared with filtered-backprojection images. The main conclusion of this study is that it is feasible to obtain a marked improvement in image clarity and reduction of artifacts: (1) There is an improvement in delineation of the boundaries of low-contrast soft-tissue substructures. There is an improvement in the capability of identifying at least one of the low-contrast soft-tissue substructures. (2) The algorithm is capable of reconstructing onto a discrete array of finer resolution, again with better delineation of substructures than the filtered-backprojection algorithm. (3) Maximum-likelihood images at an atypically low photon flux level are, at the very least, comparable in image quality to filtered-backprojection images at a much higher and more typical photon flux level. These observations imply that the diagnostic capability of x-ray computed tomography may be improved to a broader range of otherwise adverse conditions. It may be capable of much better visualization of soft-tissue regions that reside near dense regions (such as bone or metal prostheses), of visualizing finer spatial detail, and of use with much lower x-ray dosages.     

Evolving optimum populations with XCS classifier systems

The main goal of the research direction is to extract building blocks of knowledge from a problem domain. Once extracted successfully, these building blocks are to be used in learning more complex problems of the domain, in an effort to produce a scalable learning classifier system (LCS). However, whilst current LCS (and other evolutionary computation techniques) discover good rules, they also create sub-optimum rules. Therefore, it is difficult to separate good building blocks of information from others without extensive post-processing. In order to provide richness in the LCS alphabet, code fragments similar to tree expressions in genetic programming are adopted. The accuracy-based XCS concept is used as it aims to produce maximally general and accurate classifiers, albeit the rule base requires condensation (compaction) to remove spurious classifiers. Serendipitously, this work on scalability of LCS produces compact rule sets that can be easily converted to the optimum population. The main contribution of this work is the ability to clearly separate the optimum rules from others without the need for expensive post-processing for the first time in LCS. This paper identifies that consistency of action in rich alphabets guides LCS to optimum rule sets.     

Nuclear Data Sheets for A = 245

The evaluators present in this publication spectroscopic data and level schemes from radioactive decay and nuclear reaction studies for all nuclei with mass number A = 245. This evaluation revises the earlier one by Y.A. Akovali (1992Ak05).     

Selective Catalytic Oxidation of Alcohols,Aldehydes, Alkanes and Alkenes Employing Manganese Catalysts and Hydrogen Peroxide

The manganese‐containing catalytic system [Mn^IV,IV₂O₃(tmtacn)₂]²⁺ ( 1 )/carboxylic acid (where tmtacn=N,N′,N′′‐trimethyl‐1,4,7‐triazacyclononane), initially identified for the cis‐dihydroxylation and epoxidation of alkenes, is applied for a wide range of oxidative transformations, including oxidation of alkanes, alcohols and aldehydes employing H₂O₂ as oxidant. The substrate classes examined include primary and secondary aliphatic and aromatic alcohols, aldehydes, and alkenes. The emphasis is not primarily on identifying optimum conditions for each individual substrate, but understanding the various factors that affect the reactivity of the Mn‐tmtacn catalytic system and to explore which functional groups are oxidised preferentially. This catalytic system, of which the reactivity can be tuned by variation of the carboxylato ligands of the in situ formed [Mn^III,III₂(O)(RCO₂)₂(tmtacn)₂]²⁺ dimers, employs H₂O₂ in a highly atom efficient manner. In addition, several substrates containing more than one oxidation sensitive group could be oxidised selectively, in certain cases even in the absence of protecting groups.

     

Nuclear Data Sheets for A = 251–259 (odd)

The evaluators present in this publication spectroscopic data and level schemes from radioactive decay and nuclear reaction studies for all known nuclei with mass numbers A = 251, 253, 255, 257, and 259.     

Interface heat transfer in investment casting of aluminum alloys

Via design of experiments and using a newly developed inverse method, the heat-transfer boundary conditions in the investment casting process have been studied. It has been shown in the past that these conditions, expressed as interface heat transfer coefficients (HTCs), vary during alloy solidification and cooling. In this work, the authors have studied the additional effects of alloy solidification range, metallostatic head, investment shell thickness, preheat, and interface geometry. This provides an improved set of relationships from which to build realistic boundary conditions into computer simulations of shape casting. Using axisymmetric solidification experiments and numerical inverse analysis, it is shown that the effect of metallostatic head is only significant for long freezing-range alloys. Increasing shell mold thickness and preheat also have effects that are alloy-dependent, and significant differences in thermal behavior are reported between the alloy/mold interface and the alloy/core interface. The four alloys used in the experiments are aluminum-based and vary from short freezingrange commercially pure to an alloy with a freezing range of 120 °C.