Maryland\u27s Family Division: Sensible Justice for Families and Children

In January 1998, the judges of the Court of Appeals of Maryland signed Rule 16-204 and formally launched the process of family justice system reform in Maryland. During the ensuing fifteen years, Maryland became a national model in this area. These changes and improvements occurred largely because of the inspirational leadership of Chief Judge Robert M. Bell, a man owed a debt of gratitude by everyone involved in family law proceedings, including families, children, attorneys, judges, court personnel, and services providers, among others. This Tribute honors Chief Judge Bell by contextualizing the enormity of the process and outcomes resulting from his guidance and oversight. It will begin in Part I by identifying the causes underlying the impetus and need for family justice system reform in Maryland. Part II will explain what Maryland Rule 16-204 does, the process surrounding implementation of the rule, and the mechanism for continued oversight of the state\u27s family justice system. Part III will then describe the impact of the reform effort. The Tribute will conclude with a glimpse into the future and likely evolutions affecting Maryland\u27s family justice system

Substance Abuse, Families, and Unified Family Courts: The Creation of a Caring Justice System

This article proposes an approach to family law decision-making tailored to assist families plagued by substance abuse. Substance abuse is linked to social, health, and economic problems facing Americans today and is a factor for a substantial number of family law litigants. By failing to address substance abuse issues, the family repeatedly may need to seek court intervention. The unified family court model is the concept of a single court that coordinates the work of independent agencies and tribunals, each with some limited role in resolving the problems incident to a family\u27s legal matters. Professor Babb has created an interdisciplinary framework for a unified family court, based on therapeutic jurisprudence and the ecology of human development, to help judges and other court professionals consider the many influences on human behavior and family life, thereby empowering the system to offer more pragmatic and effective solutions to contemporary family legal issues. The authors use the Family Division of the Circuit Court for Baltimore City, Maryland, as a case study to illustrate the proposed model. The authors describe the court structure, role of court personnel, and court services. Among the court services are substance abuse resources for litigants. If a judge and/or other court personnel are concerned about substance abuse, they may refer the litigant to a court clinical social worker, who evaluates litigants for substance abuse, prepares a court report, and refers family members to treatment as necessary. For this system to work, expertise in addiction and substance abuse is imperative. The authors conclude that all family justice systems must make a commitment to address substance abuse issues, both by understanding how these issues affect family law cases and by developing policies and procedures to effectively respond to the problem

Variational calculations of dispersion coefficients for interactions between H, He, and Li atoms

The dispersion coefficients $C_6$, $C_8$, and $C_{10}$ for the interactions between H, He, and Li are calculated using variational wave functions in Hylleraas basis sets with multiple exponential scale factors. With these highly correlated wave functions, significant improvements are made upon previous calculations and our results provide definitive values for these coefficients.Comment: RevTeX, 24 page

Variational calculations on the hydrogen molecular ion

We present high-precision non-relativistic variational calculations of bound vibrational-rotational state energies for the $H_2^+$ and $D_2^+$ molecular ions in each of the lowest electronic states of $\Sigma_g$, $\Sigma_u$, and $\Pi_u$ symmetry. The calculations are carried out including coupling between $\Sigma$ and $\Pi$ states but without using the Born-Oppenheimer or any adiabatic approximation. Convergence studies are presented which indicate that the resulting energies for low-lying levels are accurate to about $10^{-13}$. Our procedure accounts naturally for the lambda-doubling of the $\Pi_u$ state.Comment: 23 pp., RevTeX, epsf.sty, 5 figs. Enhanced data in Table II, dropped 3 figs. from previous versio

Vapor-screen technique for flow visualization in the Langley Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel

The vapor-screen technique for flow visualization, as developed for the Langley Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel, is described with evaluations of light sources and photographic equipment. Test parameters including dew point, pressure, and temperature were varied to determine optimum conditions for obtaining high-quality vapor-screen photographs. The investigation was conducted in the supersonic speed range for Mach numbers from 1.47 to 4.63 at model angles of attack up to 35 deg. Vapor-screen photographs illustrating various flow patterns are presented for several missile and aircraft configurations. Examples of vapor-screen results that have contributed to the understanding of complex flow fields and provided a basis for the development of theoretical codes are presented with reference to other research

Radiative association and inverse predissociation of oxygen atoms

The formation of \mbox{O}_2 by radiative association and by inverse predissociation of ground state oxygen atoms is studied using quantum-mechanical methods. Cross sections, emission spectra, and rate coefficients are presented and compared with prior experimental and theoretical results. At temperatures below 1000~K radiative association occurs by approach along the $1\,{}^3\Pi_u$ state of \mbox{O}_2 and above 1000~K inverse predissociation through the \mbox{B}\,{}^3\Sigma_u^- state is the dominant mechanism. This conclusion is supported by a quantitative comparison between the calculations and data obtained from hot oxygen plasma spectroscopy.Comment: submitted to Phys. Rev. A (Sept. 7., 1994), 19 pages, 4 figures, latex (revtex3.0 and epsf.sty