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Open window, spring Mid-May and beautiful and so unnatural to be cooped up in a room with 24 adolescents pheromones mingling with the scent of freshcut grass on the breeze. [...]

James A. Jacobs Detached America: Building Houses in Postwar Suburbia Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2015. viii + 261 pages, 61 black-and-white illustrations. ISBN: 978-081-393761-8, $45.00 HB ISBN: 978-081-393762-5, $45.00 [...]

This paper reports on an investigation of the effects of fire on long span truss floor systems in a tall building environment. The effects of fire spread over multiple floors of a building are the focus of this research, especially where this may lead to progressive collapse. The results from an investigation of a two-dimensional model of a multistory office building analysis are presented. The model is representative of the type of construction used in the World Trade Center Towers 1 and 2. The local and global response of the model is described over the course of a concurrent fire on three floors reaching a peak compartment temperature of 800[degrees]C. The results of the analysis show that large displacements may occur in long span structural floor systems without failure, however, the interaction of the highly deflected floors with the exterior or perimeter columns can lead to structural collapse. Additional structural members, such as hat trusses, that allow redistribution of loads away from the exterior columns to the core columns have a significant beneficial impact on the robustness of the structure. CE Database subject headings: Buildings, high-rise; Fires; Framed structures; United Kingdom.

ABSTRACT: A great deal of work on the behavior of composite steel-concrete structures in fire has been developed since the Cardington frame fire tests (UK) conducted in the 1990s. This [...]

A study was carried out of the 14 children (11 girls, 3 boys) in a group of 96 pediatric AIDS patients who had been victims of sexual abuse. Child sexual abuse (CSA) was diagnosed after consideration of each child's medical and behavioral histories, an interview and physical examination, and evaluation for the presence of other sexually transmitted diseases. The five routes of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transmission that were considered were: vertical transmission (from pregnant mother to child); via transfusion; via clotting factor concentrates; via intravenous drug use; and via sexual abuse, including child prostitution. Results showed that the children's ages ranged from 3 1/2 to 13 years; 11 were black, 2 white, and 1 Native American. All the girls had abnormal findings on examination of the hymen or vaginal opening, and two of the boys had abnormal results on anal examinations. Eight children were able to reveal that CSA had occurred, and two more were able to partially disclose it. The forms of abuse that occurred are described. All perpetrators were male; several children had been abused by more than one perpetrator. The organisms associated with gonorrhea or chlamydia were not cultured from these children, but three had a sexually associated disease besides HIV. Three of the suspected perpetrators were HIV-positive and knew this when they abused the children; eight knew the children were HIV-positive when they abused them. In neither case was ''safe sex'' practiced. A list of the social risk factors for CSA is presented: they include living apart from both biological parents, living in poverty, being handicapped, the presence of alcoholic or drug-abusing family members, and prostitution in the home. The majority of these 14 children had three or more such risk factors. The proportion of this group who became infected through CSA (4/96, or 4.2 percent) is a low value for pediatric HIV infection acquired in this way, since these children were not found through screening for abuse. CSA is thus an important route for transmitting HIV to children and adults and risk factors for the two conditions overlap. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)