Detecting Submerged Bodies: Controlled Research Using Side‐Scan Sonar to Detect Submerged Proxy Cadavers

Forensic investigators routinely deploy side‐scan sonar for submerged body searches. This study adds to the limited body of literature by undertaking a controlled project to understand how variables affect detection of submerged bodies using side‐scan sonar. Research consisted of two phases using small and medium‐sized pig (Sus scrofa) carcasses as proxies for human bodies to investigate the effects of terrain, body size, frequency, swath width, and state of decomposition. Results demonstrated that a clear, flat, sandy pond floor terrain was optimal for detection of the target as irregular terrain and/or vegetation are major limitations that can obscure the target. A higher frequency towfish was preferred for small bodies, and a 20 m swath width allowed greater visibility and easier maneuverability of the boat in this environment. Also, the medium‐sized carcasses were discernable throughout the 81‐day study period, indicating that it is possible to detect bodies undergoing decomposition with side‐scan sonar.     

Determining Disability: New Advances in Conceptualization and Research

This special issue of Psychological Injury and Law on disability presents state-of-the-art conceptualization and empirical research that will help psychologists and attorneys in the area of disability determination. This paper constitutes an introduction to and contextualization of the articles in the issue. It focuses on key advances in the field of disability research that are anticipated to move forward the practice of psychological injury and law. These new advances include the following: (1) a theoretical shift toward an integrative and dynamic biopsychosocial framework of health and disability, (2) development of complex multidimensional constructs of motivation, including primary, secondary, and tertiary gains and losses involved in disability claims, (3) increased emphasis on the perception of fairness and justice in disability claims from both psychological and legal perspectives, (4) increased understanding of the functional impact of psychological impairment, (5) inclusion of age-related factors in predicting disability, and (6) the interdisciplinary growth of this field.     

Sequential monitoring of burials containing large pig cadavers using ground-penetrating radar

Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) was used to monitor 12 pig burials in Florida, each of which contained a large pig cadaver. Six of the cadavers were buried in sand at a depth of 0.50-0.60 m, and the other six were buried at a depth of 1.00-1.10 m and were in contact with the upper surface of a clay horizon. Control excavations with no pig internment were also constructed as blank graves and monitored with GPR. The burials were monitored with GPR for durations of either 12-13 or 21-21.5 months when they were then excavated to correlate the decomposition state of the cadaver with the GPR imagery. Overall, cadavers in sand were easily detected for the duration of this study at 21.5 months, even when completely skeletonized. Conversely, in clay it became increasingly difficult to image the pig cadavers over the first year of burial, even when they still retained extensive soft tissue structures.     

Nanotechnology’s triple helix: a case study of the University at Albany’s College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering

In 2001, New York State teamed with IBM to create a research center for nanoelectronics at the University at Albany. Since then, the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) has been expanded with over $6 billion in investment, attracted over 250 industrial collaborators, and awarded 72 graduate degrees. This paper discusses the formation of the triple helix center in Albany, NY. It then examines the impact of the CNSE on the regional economy and compares it with three other nanotechnology triple helix centers. The analysis finds that the CNSE is more successful at generating nanoknowledge as measured by publications and patents. Much of the research conducted at CNSE has been collaborative effort between university and industrial partners and often resulted in patents assigned to industrial partners. Since 2001, there has been qualitative and quantitative evidence of the emergence of a nanotechnology cluster in the Capital Region of NY. Upstate NY has become home to multiple nanotechnology firms and experienced growth in the employment in nanotechnology related industries. Potential explanations for the success of the CNSE are explored including the anchor tenant hypothesis and the entrepreneurial university.     

The Ambivalent Relations Between Bureaucracy and Public Innovation: The Case of the Successful Failure of Dial Police

Building on a growing body of literature on public innovation and the rediscovery of bureaucracy, this article explores the relations between innovation and bureaucracy. A framework for studying innovation in a bureaucratic context is developed and its relevance assessed through a case study of the successful implementation but failed diffusion of an innovation project. The case study demonstrates how a bureaucratic context represents not only barriers to innovation but also a number of complex drivers. The outline of these ambivalent relations is used to tease out the Janus face of the new spirit of innovation in public administration.     

Assessing programs designed to improve outcomes for children exposed to violence: Results from nine randomized controlled trials

Objectives

The study tests whether participation in interventions offered by a subset of sites from the National Safe Start Promising Approaches for Children Exposed to Violence initiative improved outcomes for children relative to controls.

Methods

The study pools data from the nine Safe Start sites that randomized families to intervention and control groups, using a within-site block randomization strategy based on child age at baseline. Caregiver-reported outcomes, assessed at baseline, 6 and 12 months, included caregiver personal problems, caregiver resource problems, parenting stress, child and caregiver victimization, child trauma symptoms, child behavior problems, and social-emotional competence.

Results

Results revealed no measurable intervention impact in intent-to-treat analyses at either 6- or 12-month post-baseline. In 6-month as-treated analyses, a medium to high intervention dose was associated with improvement on two measures of child social-emotional competence: cooperation and assertion. Overall, there is no reliable evidence of significant site-to-site effect variability, even in the two cases of significant intervention effect.

Conclusions

Since families in both the intervention and control groups received some degree of case management and both groups improved over time, it may be advantageous to explore the potential impacts of crisis and case management separately from mental health interventions. It may be that, on average, children in families whose basic needs are being attended to improve substantially on their own.