Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (SANE) are nurses that provide forensic examination and crisis intervention to victims of sexual assault. The training required to receive SANE certification ensures that SANE nurses are 1educated to provide thorough examinations and compassionate care to sexual assault victims. A SANE often works on a Sexual Assault Response/Resource Team (SART) which combines the efforts of law enforcement, detectives, victim advocates, and healthcare providers to provide a rapid response to the sexual assault victim. Proper evidence collection and a maintained chain of custody provide support for the conviction and if the evidence is obtained inaccurately the examination may be inadmissible in court. Even though SANEs can provide quality nursing care, many facilities lack trained SANEs to perform sexual assault examinations. Accurate data is crucial to support the need for facilities to implement a SANE program. This review and synthesis of literature examines the quality of forensic examinations performed by SANEs, conviction rates, and psychological well being of victims examined by SANEs. Research studies examined in this review suggest that SANE examinations are more complete and contribute to higher conviction rates then examinations performed by non-SANEs, however a combined SANE and SART intervention results in the highest level of victim participation. The research also suggests that the psychological well being of victims is improved with SANE intervention, however more evidence is needed

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Published Article / A controlled, voluntary human act is the basic element of criminal liability. If the act is not subject to the will, it is involuntary and excludes the act and therefore criminal liability. This defence is known as automatism. This condition of involuntariness can arise as a result of insanity or due to reasons other than insanity. If the accused were insane at the time of committing the offence and he successfully raises an automatism defence, he is sent for mandatory confinement in a psychiatric institution. The problem created by this legal provision of mandatory confinement is that an accused who was insane at the time of the crime, but sane at the time of the trial, must be confined in a psychiatric institution even though he is considered sane. In order to avoid this injustice, the courts have distinguished between "insane automatism" and "sane automatism." Cases where an involuntary action has occurred for reasons other than insanity have involved a defence of "sane automatism" and, if successful, have resulted in full acquittal. The reason for creating the term "sane automatism" was to avoid the said unjustified functioning of the law. Amendments to legislation in South Africa have given courts wider discretion and they are no longer compelled to confine the accused to a psychiatric institution. The legislation is no longer unjust, with the result that the distinction between "insane automatism" and "sane automatism" is no longer necessary. The automatism defence (no longer "sane automatism") must still be retained, but as an ordinary defence that is indicative of an involuntary act, and therefore the absence of one of the elements of a crime (but without a specific indication of whether it is sane or insane automatism). Automatism must therefore be limited to grounds for exclusion of the element of an act, i.e. the voluntary and personal conduct of the accused.

Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio University, November, 2009. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references.

Survivors of sexual assault struggle to cope with subsequent psychological disturbances. The project facility was a rural hospital in the southwestern United States in which postasault care was initially provided, but survivors later returned to the emergency department. Support groups can be a powerful tool to alleviate long-term consequences of assault by helping individuals cope and improving socialization. This project used the social-ecological theory to explore whether a sexual assault support group would impact the progress of survivors toward improved social interaction, improved socialization, and decreased psychological disturbance. The purpose of the quality improvement (QI) project was the development of a sexual assault support group, based on the International Association of Forensic Nurses guideline to improve and expand health care services for survivors of sexual assault. The QI development was accomplished in conjunction with a team of local experts consisting of law enforcement, social worker, nurse, victims advocate and, a victim of sexual assault, who provided process evaluation regarding their satisfaction with the planning process through the completion of an anonymous, 10-question, Likert-type survey. A descriptive analysis of the data provided information that positively supported the development of the project. Project deliverables included the developed QI, a plan for later implementation, and plans for outcome evaluation through measurement of socialization, psychological disturbances, and emergency department visits. This project has the potential to achieve positive social change through improved quality of life for survivors of sexual assault

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The purpose of this master's thesis is creation of a system capable of sharing scanners over computer network. The target scanner interfaces are TWAIN and WIA on Microsoft Windows operating system, and SANE on GNU/Linux. C++ programming language, Boost libraries and Qt framework were used to implement the programming part of this work. Several smaller helper libraries were implemented that are useful even outside this work, most notably TWAIN++ framework. The resulting system enables the user to share scanners over network, and scan using any of the aforementioned interfaces.

Neck pain is the second most common musculoskeletal disorder after low back pain adding to the global burden of disease. A focus on evaluating outcomes for musculoskeletal conditions is imperative to evaluate the effect of interventions and to track the progression of disease. As evidence based practice and associated use of patient-based outcomes are taken up across different countries, it becomes imperative for cross-cultural translation studies. Given the uptake of technology in workplaces, it is also important to understand the prevalence of neck pain in this context. This thesis has focused on two objectives: 1. Translating a newly developed patient-report outcome measure of neck-related disability and testing its psychometric properties. 2. Estimating the prevalence of neck pain in computer-using workers. The first manuscript focusses on cross cultural translation and validation of ND10 (Neck difficulty10) that was designed to measure neck-related disability. A new English outcome measure for neck disability (ND10) was cross culturally translated and validated in computer users in India using forward and backward translation, and cognitive interviewing to determine a final version. The ND10-H demonstrated high reliability (ICC= 0.93) and convergent construct validity with the NDI and DASH (r= 0.78 and 0.86) The second manuscript reported the prevalence of neck pain in computer users in India. Sampling was performed in two different companies: A Spiritual Media Publication Organization (SMPO) and an Information Technology (IT) company. The companies were selected based on computer use and their willingness to participate. The survey was administered to all employees (n=150 & n=54) at these two companies. The overall prevalence of neck pain was 64%. In the IT company, 78% of employees reported neck pain; and in the SMPO the prevalence was 40%. There were no significant differences in prevalence based on gender or age. All of the IT company computer users worked more than seven hours at their computers, while 38% of the SMPO workers did so. Chronic pain was present in 48%of the total sample. The ND10-H can be used to assess neck-related disability in Hindi-speaking individuals. It should be accompanied by a valid pain measure when assessing patient outcomes. The prevalence of neck pain is high in computer-using workers in India. / Thesis / Master of Science Rehabilitation Science (MSc) / 1. Translating a newly developed patient-report outcome measure of neck-related disability and testing its psychometric properties. 2. Estimating the prevalence of neck pain in computer-using workers. The first manuscript focusses on cross cultural translation and validation of ND10 (Neck difficulty10) that was designed to measure neck-related disability. A new English outcome measure for neck disability (ND10) was cross culturally translated and validated in computer users in India using forward and backward translation, and cognitive interviewing to determine a final version. The ND10-H demonstrated high reliability (ICC= 0.93) and convergent construct validity with the NDI and DASH (r= 0.78 and 0.86)