Children’s Direct Exposure to Types of Domestic Violence Crime: A Population-based Investigation

Police officers served as public health sentinels to collect data on children exposed to domestic violence across an entire municipality for 1 year. This study extended research by investigating a typology of domestic violence crimes and children’s direct sensory exposure to these types. Police officers used a standard, validated protocol to collect data on all substantiated domestic violence. Findings revealed that almost half of all events had children present, and 81% of these children were directly exposed to the violence. Children under the age of 6 years old were at greater risk of exposure. Identified domestic violence households with children were more likely to be low-income, non-White, and headed by a single female, compared to households at large. Cluster analysis revealed seven domestic violence event profiles. Typology showed that children were disproportionately exposed to the most unstable and dangerous profiles including weapon use, mutual assault, and substance abuse.     

COLLEGE OR BUST: REPLACING “COLLEGE PREP FOR ALL” WITH A THREE‐TIERED EDUCATIONAL MODEL BASED ON STUDENT ABILITIES

A new educational trend has developed over the past decade that may actually be doing more harm to high school students than good. States have been passing legislation requiring high school students to complete a college prep‐level curriculum in order to receive a high school diploma. While this push for higher academic achievement is a great idea, students are not given the educational base they need to be able to succeed in such a program once they reach high school and many are left without the skills necessary to handle such academic expectations. This Note proposes guidelines for changing these rigid state statutes in favor of a Three‐Tiered System that gives students options based on their academic abilities and urges states to adopt these changes.     

Managing incidental findings in human subjects research: analysis and recommendations.

No consensus yet exists on how to handle incidental findings (IFs) in human subjects research. Yet empirical studies document IFs in a wide range of research studies, where IFs are findings beyond the aims of the study that are of potential health or reproductive importance to the individual research participant. This paper reports recommendations of a two-year project group funded by NIH to study how to manage IFs in genetic and genomic research, as well as imaging research. We conclude that researchers have an obligation to address the possibility of discovering IFs in their protocol and communications with the IRB, and in their consent forms and communications with research participants. Researchers should establish a pathway for handling IFs and communicate that to the IRB and research participants. We recommend a pathway and categorize IFs into those that must be disclosed to research participants, those that may be disclosed, and those that should not be disclosed.     

16 STR data of a Greek population

Allele frequencies for 16 STR loci (D8S1179, D21S11, D7S820, CSF1PO, D3S1358, TH01, D13S317, D16S539, D2S1338, D19S433, vWA, TPOX, D18S51, D5S818, FGA, and SE33) were calculated for a sample of 300 unrelated individuals from Greece. No deviations from Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium were observed for all loci. The combined power of discrimination (PD) and the combined power of exclusion (PE) for the 16 tested STR loci were 0.999999999 and 0.999999816, respectively. Population comparisons were carried out and low genetic distances were found between our data and those previously published for other neighbouring European populations.     

Operationalising participatory research and farmer-to-farmer extension: the Kamayoq in Peru

While rural poverty is endemic in the Andean region, structural adjustment programmes have led to a dismemberment of agricultural research and extension services so that they are unable to serve the needs of smallholder farmers. The NGO Practical Action has been working in the Andes to address farmers' veterinary and agriculture needs. The work has included the training of farmer-to-farmer extension agents, known locally as Kamayoq. The Kamayoq have encouraged farmer participatory research, and local farmers pay them for their veterinary and crop advisory services in cash or in kind. The Kamayoq model is largely an unsubsidised approach to the provision of appropriate technical services and encouragement of farmer participation. The model also illustrates that, in the context of encouraging farmer participation and innovation, NGOs have advantages over research organisations because of their long-term presence, ability to establish trust with local farmers, and their emphasis on social and community processes.