Sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), and particularly intimate partner violence (IPV), has spiked dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, the pandemic is impacting and interrupting SGBV and IPV services of all kinds. This paper focuses on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on clinical care and forensic medical documentation for SGBV survivors, including an analysis of the response in the UK and Kenya, and provides recommendations for safe implementation of these services during the pandemic.

A common problem in epidemiological studies on air pollution is exposure misclassification, because investigators often assume exposure is equivalent to outdoor concentrations at participants' homes or at the nearest urban monitor.The aims of this study were: (1) to develop a new microenvironmental exposure model (MEEM), combining time-activity data with modelled outdoor and indoor NO 2 concentrations; (2) to evaluate MEEM against data collected with OgawaÔ personal samplers (OPS); (3) to compare its performance against datasets typically used in epidemiological studies.Schoolchildren wore a personal NO 2 sampler, kept a time-activity diary and completed a questionnaire. This information was used by MEEM to estimate individuals' exposures. These were then compared against concentrations measured by OPS, modelled outdoor concentrations at the children's home (HOME) and concentrations measured at the nearest urban monitoring station (NUM).The mean exposure predicted by MEEM (mean ¼ 19.6 mg m À3 ) was slightly lower than the mean exposure measured by OPS (mean ¼ 20.4 mg m À3 ). The normalised mean bias factor (0.01) and normalised mean absolute error factor (0.25) suggested good agreement. In contrast, the HOME (mean ¼ 31.2 mg m À3 ) and NUM (mean ¼ 28.6 mg m À3 ) methods overpredicted exposure and showed systematic errors.The results indicate that personal exposure can be modelled by MEEM with an acceptable level of agreement, while methods such as HOME and NUM show a poorer performance.

An electrometer was developed to measure the voltage on a copper screen used as a passive antenna 1 m above the ground. An array of three antennas, arranged first downwind and then crosswind, provided data concerning the time variation of the atmospheric potential gradient in the range of frequencies between 0.004 and 0.06 Hz. Results indicated that the fluctuations in the field are primarily associated with drifting clouds of space charge 135-425 m in diameter that are near the level of the antenna. The drift velocity is essentially equal to the wind velocity. The rate of variations in the electric field associated with processes effecting changes in the distribution of space charge density within the clouds is about one half the rate associated with the drifting clouds or about one third of the locally observed rate of change in the potential gradient. The time scale for the field fluctuations is about 62 s, and the spectral estimates are proportional to f-•"•', where f is the frequency. Fluctuations in the fair-weather atmospheric potential gradient have been associated with clouds of space charge drifting with the wind. Whitlock and Chalmers [1956] separated two field mills by 500 m on a line parallel to the wind and evaluated a velocity by comparing the time difference between corresponding maximums on the two sets of records. The velocities calculated in this manner were generally larger than the wind velocities obtained from an anemometer at an adjacent observatory. Large[1957] measured the potential gradient with a copper sphere mounted on a pole 7 m high. The observed amplitudes averaged 10 V/m, and the periods, peak to peak, averaged 40 s. Cross-correlation functions were obtained for two records

Introduction High-quality forensic documentation can improve justice outcomes for survivors of sexual and gender-based violence, but there are limited tools to assess documentation data quality. This study aimed to develop and validate a data quality assessment index to objectively assess clinician documentation across the 26 key elements of the standardized forensic evidence forms used in Kenya. Methods Informed by prior quality assessment tools, an initial draft of the index was developed. Feedback from Kenya- and U.S.-based clinicians and human rights experts was solicited and incorporated into the draft index in an iterative fashion. Two raters independently employed the finalized Physicians for Human Rights Data Quality Index to assess and score the quality of documentation across 31 clinician-completed forms. Inter-rater reliability was determined using Cohen kappa (к) coefficients. Results The Index was found to have substantial overall reliability. Of the 26 documentation items, the Index had a perfect (к = 1.0) and almost perfect (к = 0.81–0.99) level of inter-rater agreement across 17 (65.4%) and 5 (19.2%) items, respectively. On a low-to-high documentation quality scale of 0 to 2, the majority of items (n = 19, 73.1%) had a mean documentation quality score >1.5–2. Conclusion Quality assurance of forensic documentation is an essential component of post-sexual assault care. To our knowledge, this is the first validated quality-assessment tool in the peer-reviewed literature for sexual assault documentation and may be a promising strategy to enhance the quality of sexual assault documentation in other settings, locally, regionally, and internationally.

Sexual violence is a global crisis. Forensic evaluations are critical for obtaining evidence and increasing the likelihood of accessing justice, as many cases fail due to lack of evidence or poor evidence. In some countries, only board-certified forensic specialists are authorized to conduct forensic evaluations. However, the high number of sexual violence cases coupled with the shortage of forensic physicians make that restriction a fundamental impediment to a rights-based response to sexual violence crimes. Governments and regulatory bodies should expand the pool of those capable of conducting forensic sexual violence evaluations by partnering with clinicians of different specialties and facilitating their training.