A Systematic Review Evaluating Psychometric Properties of Parent or Caregiver Report Instruments on Child Maltreatment: Part 1: Content Validity

Aims: Child maltreatment (CM) is a serious public health issue, affecting over half of all children globally. Although most CM is perpetrated by parents or caregivers and their reports of CM is more accurate than professionals or children, parent or caregiver report instruments measuring CM have never been systematically evaluated for their content validity, the most important psychometric property. This systematic review aimed to evaluate the content validity of all current parent or caregiver report CM instruments. Methods: A systematic literature search was performed in CINAHL, Embase, ERIC, PsycINFO, PubMed, and Sociological Abstracts; gray literature was retrieved through reference checking. Eligible studies needed to report on content validity of instruments measuring CM perpetrated and reported by parents or caregivers. The quality of studies and content validity of the instruments were evaluated using the COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement INstruments guidelines. Results: Fifteen studies reported on the content validity of 15 identified instruments. The study quality was generally poor. The content validity of the instruments was overall sufficient, but most instruments did not provide high-quality evidence for content validity. Conclusions: Most instruments included in this review showed promising content validity. The International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect Child Abuse Screening Tool for use in Trial appears to be the most promising, followed by the Family Maltreatment–Child Abuse criteria. However, firm conclusions cannot be drawn due to the low quality of evidence for content validity. Further studies are required to evaluate the remaining psychometric properties for recommending parent or caregiver report CM instruments

Fiscal sustainability in the light of aging trend : finding the patterns among aged OECD countries

Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on November 9, 2010).The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file.Dissertation advisor: Dr. Ronald Ratti.Vita.Ph. D. University of Missouri--Columbia 2008.This study is an investigation into the fiscal sustainability of countries in the light of the aging trend and finds that it runs downhill in the countries that are classified as high-level age and have experienced the trend of high-speed aging. This conclusion, and the others that follow, come from the empirical results of the 18 OECD countries, using the annual financial data from 1971 [about] 2005. First, this study finds that the reaction of the primary surplus against increasing the debt - GDP ratio, as the indicator of the fiscal sustainability, is negative or changing from positive to negative in seven countries. Included in this group is Japan, the highest age and aging speed country in the world. Second, it identifies the distinctive properties within groups that are classified by both the age level and the aging speed. In particular, high-age level countries with the high-speed aging trend show signs of financial difficulty with rapidly increasing debt-GDP ratios, whereas the relatively low-age level countries with slow-speed aging trend exhibit fiscal sustainability with decreasing debt-GDP ratios. Third, it concludes that the U.S. has a chance to prepare for future fiscal difficulty, whereas Korea has a high probability that it will suffer from fiscal sustainability problems over the next two decades or more. The debt-GDP ratios for the main OECD countries are expected to double when compared to 2005 levels.Includes bibliographical references (p. 141-143)

Thermalization near integrability in a dipolar quantum Newton's cradle

Isolated quantum many-body systems with integrable dynamics generically do not thermalize when taken far from equilibrium. As one perturbs such systems away from the integrable point, thermalization sets in, but the nature of the crossover from integrable to thermalizing behavior is an unresolved and actively discussed question. We explore this question by studying the dynamics of the momentum distribution function in a dipolar quantum Newton's cradle consisting of highly magnetic dysprosium atoms. This is accomplished by creating the first one-dimensional Bose gas with strong magnetic dipole-dipole interactions. These interactions provide tunability of both the strength of the integrability-breaking perturbation and the nature of the near-integrable dynamics. We provide the first experimental evidence that thermalization close to a strongly interacting integrable point occurs in two steps: prethermalization followed by near-exponential thermalization. Exact numerical calculations on a two-rung lattice model yield a similar two-timescale process, suggesting that this is generic in strongly interacting near-integrable models. Moreover, the measured thermalization rate is consistent with a parameter-free theoretical estimate, based on identifying the types of collisions that dominate thermalization. By providing tunability between regimes of integrable and nonintegrable dynamics, our work sheds light both on the mechanisms by which isolated quantum many-body systems thermalize, and on the temporal structure of the onset of thermalization.Comment: 6 figures, 9 pages main text; 12 appendices with 12 figure

Magnetic field dependence of spin-lattice relaxation in the s±\pm state of Ba0.67_{0.67}K0.33_{0.33}Fe2_{2}As2_{2}

The spatially averaged density of states, , of an unconventional d-wave superconductor is magnetic field dependent, proportional to $H^{1/2}$, owing to the Doppler shift of quasiparticle excitations in a background of vortex supercurrents[1,2]. This phenomenon, called the Volovik effect, has been predicted to exist for a sign changing $s\pm$ state [3], although it is absent in a single band s-wave superconductor. Consequently, we expect there to be Doppler contributions to the NMR spin-lattice relaxation rate, $1/T_1 \propto$, for an $s\pm$ state which will depend on magnetic field. We have measured the $^{75}$As $1/T_1$ in a high-quality, single crystal of Ba$_{0.67}$K$_{0.33}$Fe$_{2}$As$_{2}$ over a wide range of field up to 28 T. Our spatially resolved measurements show that indeed there are Doppler contributions to $1/T_1$ which increase closer to the vortex core, with a spatial average proportional to $H^2$, inconsistent with recent theory [4]Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure