Latest news with #DCS
Indianapolis Star
6 hours ago
- Health
- Indianapolis Star
Can you leave your kids home alone in Indiana? What the law says, what experts recommend
Note: A version of this story first published in July 2024. It might be for a quick trip to the grocery store or because of an 8-hour work day, but all parents eventually ask themselves: "Can I leave my kid home alone?" For that matter, is it legal in Indiana? Here's what the law says in the Hoosier state about leaving children home by themselves, and what parents might want to consider regarding their child's welfare before shutting the door and stepping away for a few hours. Story continues after photo gallery. Technically, there's no law in the Indiana Code that prevents children from being left home alone. Hoosier parents have discretion on when it's appropriate to do so based on the maturity level of their children. There are, however, consequences if a child suffers harm as a result of neglect. Parents and legal guardians in Indiana are ultimately responsible, the law says, for the welfare of their children until age 18. Neglect of a dependent carries felony charges that include stiff penalties and potential jail time. Children, according to are generally ready to be left unsupervised around age 12-13. Granted, children develop at different rates. There's no "magic age" when a kid becomes suddenly responsible enough to be left by themselves for long hours at a time. What it really comes down to, experts say, is maturity. The Indiana Department of Child Services advises parents to assess what tasks children can do themselves, whether they have the common sense to make good judgments on their own, and how capable they are at handling unexpected challenges. Children, experts say, should have several basic skills before becoming latchkey kids, which include knowing the following: Of critical importance: they must have a reliable method of communication to call their parent or guardian, or 9-1-1. Story continues after IndyStar's 2024 summer photo gallery. Experts recommend parents assess their child's needs, which begins with a conversation. Does your child want to be alone? For other considerations, the Children's Service Society of Utah has this checklist: Indiana law requires anyone who suspects child abuse or neglect to contact authorities and make a report, which can be done so anonymously. Hoosiers can call DCS' Child Abuse and Neglect Hotline: 1-800-800-5556. The phone line is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, including weekends and holidays and caller can report abuse and neglect anonymously. In 2023, according to DCS, nearly 200,000 calls were made to the child abuse hotline in which officials handled 215,852 reports of alleged abuse and neglect. Planet Fitness Summer Pass: Indiana teens get free gym access to Planet Fitness; how to sign up.
Trade Arabia
11 hours ago
- Business
- Trade Arabia
Yokogawa releases next-generation of CENTUM VP integrated production control system
Yokogawa Electric Corporation has unveiled the next-generation Release 7 concept and the launch of Release 7.01 of the CENTUMTM VP integrated production control system, a core product in the OpreXTM Control and Safety System lineup. This is the 10th generation of the CENTUM series, and its release coincides with the 50th anniversary of the announcement of CENTUM as the world's first distributed control system (DCS), on June 19, 1975. Development Background In addition to the dynamic changes in supply chains over recent years, countries have been strengthening regulations in response to a growing awareness of the need to protect the environment. At the same time, with the increasing use of digital technologies for complex applications such as the management of the utilisation of renewable energy and the analysis of data in cloud-based environments, security risks have become a greater concern. Also, while utilising existing tangible assets, there is a growing need to pass on to others the expertise of seasoned operators, and to reduce the workload and mental burden for personnel who are responsible for systems that must be kept operating around the clock. Amidst the growing complexity of these industry challenges, management and frontline personnel are required to increase competitiveness and strike a balance between the stable manufacturing of superior products and the need to improve efficiency and profitability. The Concept behind CENTUM VP Release 7 In response to these issues, Yokogawa has based its development of CENTUM VP Release 7 on the concept of enabling autonomous operations. With CENTUM, Yokogawa is helping its customers attain sustainability by improving energy efficiency, accelerating decarbonization, and providing a safe and secure working environment. While maintaining the reliability, stability, continuity, robust security, and comprehensive engineering and service network that have been hallmarks of the CENTUM series since its inception, Yokogawa will drive innovations for the future in the following three areas: 1. Expanded scope of control and monitoring By securely aggregating a wide range of data scattered throughout the plant, the status of the entire plant can be monitored, and the scope of automated operation can be expanded, enabling safer and more secure operations. 2. Predictive monitoring through process condition monitoring By extracting and identifying process-specific events related to operations and predicting deviations from expected values, operators can anticipate changes and take action, helping to achieve more stable operations and improve energy efficiency. 3. Reduction of operator workload By presenting future scenarios that leverage operator knowledge and know-how, it supports the operator in making accurate decisions. In addition, autonomous control AI*3 can take over from operators to achieve long-term stable operation. This reduces operator workload and mental stress. Main Features of Release 7.01 To achieve autonomous operations, it is essential to leverage AI while ensuring safety and security. Release 7.01 helps to establish the necessary foundation for this goal. The key features are as follows. 1. Enhanced security To achieve data-driven operations, it is crucial to ensure the security of critical infrastructure. This release adopts industry security benchmarks to strengthen the cybersecurity of the components that make up control systems and enhance the overall security level of the system. 2. Expansion of control and monitoring scope with CENTUM By integrating OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA) connectivity, the range of plant equipment and devices that can be controlled and monitored by CENTUM is expanded. OPC UA is a platform-independent standard that enables data exchange between devices from different manufacturers in the industrial automation field. In this update, OPC UA client functionality has been added to CENTUM. 3. Enhanced engineering capabilities for large-scale projects To promote operational optimization by integrating various systems within the plant, a feature has been added that allows the merging and testing of multiple engineering databases related to CENTUM. This enhancement will enable high-quality and efficient engineering, contributing to the rapid startup of new plants and restart of upgraded plants. Mitsuhiro Yamamoto, Vice President, Executive Officer, and head of the Systems Business Division at Yokogawa Electric, stated: 'In this VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity) era, the conditions required for manufacturing sites and management are becoming ever more complex. By realizing stable operations and expanding the scope of autonomy, CENTUM VP Release 7 will help our customers achieve a more sustainable society and sustainable business growth.' – TradeArabia News Service
Yahoo
12 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
Indiana DCS cut foster care in half — and now claims children are safer
Indiana's Department of Child Services faces a new round of scrutiny following the death of Zara Arnold, a child with extensive DCS history who was killed by her father. Yet, just last year, DCS celebrated drastic reductions in the foster care system and improvements in child safety. Once known for having among the highest rates of children in foster care in the country, Indiana reduced placements by 50% between 2018 and 2024. DCS attributed its 'success' to the 2018 Family First Prevention Services Act, a bipartisan federal law enacted during the first Trump administration. FFPSA defunded group home and institutional placements and created a funding stream for "prevention services" as an alternative to foster care. Yet, the interventions funded by FFPSA have been slow to roll out, both because of burdensome regulations and because such dramatic shifts in the continuum of services were never supported by data. To date, there is no evidence of improved child safety or impacts on placements. Indeed, Indiana's flagship service — the Indiana Family Preservation Services program — is described as having "0 favorable effects" by the federal clearinghouse for evidence-based programs. That did not stop DCS from asserting the exact opposite last year. In federal testimony, Deputy Director of Child Welfare Services David Reed confidently pointed to Indiana's family preservation program as 'an intervention that helps keep kids safe and out of foster care.' He further claimed to have reduced racial disparities in foster care entries by two-thirds, relying on a calculation that anyone understanding basic statistics could debunk. But Indiana did reduce its foster care population by 50% — if not through their prevention program, then how? It wasn't because Indiana had fewer concerned residents calling the hotline about suspected child maltreatment. Those numbers have barely budged, aside from a temporary drop during the pandemic, when children were out of the public eye. It also wasn't because Indiana was providing services to more families when abuse and neglect was reported — the number of families receiving services has been in steep decline since 2017. In other words, DCS did not provide more support to reduce the use of foster care. It is not intervening differently — just less. The most likely explanation is that DCS simply raised the threshold for investigating reports of maltreatment and responding to child abuse and neglect, whether through in-home services or foster care. Perhaps intervening less would be good if Indiana was previously over-investigating and over-intervening. If that's the case, then DCS should be honest about it instead of claiming that its new prevention supports keeping children safe at home and, thus, drives large-scale foster care reductions. DCS should release data about the children who previously would have received services but no longer do. Let the public evaluate whether those children should be left with no oversight. Like Zara Arnold, we know that other children continue to die of maltreatment. Children like Gwendalyn Cooksey, an 8 year-old girl with cerebral palsy and a history of physical abuse and exposure to parent drug use, who died of fentanyl poisoning in January. Or 5 year-old Kinsleigh Welty, who was starved to death in 2024 by her mother and grandmother only five months after the courts determined it was safe for her to return home from foster care. New leadership should understand how DCS cut foster care in half without evidence of more, or better, services. The public deserves to know whether the children no longer served by DCS are truly 'safe at home." Sarah Font is an associate professor of sociology and public policy at Penn State University. Emily Putnam-Hornstein is the John A. Tate Distinguished Professor for Children in Need at UNC Chapel Hill. This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana foster care cuts leave children at risk | Opinion
Indianapolis Star
13 hours ago
- Politics
- Indianapolis Star
Indiana DCS cut foster care in half — and now claims children are safer
Indiana's Department of Child Services faces a new round of scrutiny following the death of Zara Arnold, a child with extensive DCS history who was killed by her father. Yet, just last year, DCS celebrated drastic reductions in the foster care system and improvements in child safety. Once known for having among the highest rates of children in foster care in the country, Indiana reduced placements by 50% between 2018 and 2024. DCS attributed its 'success' to the 2018 Family First Prevention Services Act, a bipartisan federal law enacted during the first Trump administration. FFPSA defunded group home and institutional placements and created a funding stream for "prevention services" as an alternative to foster care. Yet, the interventions funded by FFPSA have been slow to roll out, both because of burdensome regulations and because such dramatic shifts in the continuum of services were never supported by data. To date, there is no evidence of improved child safety or impacts on placements. Indeed, Indiana's flagship service — the Indiana Family Preservation Services program — is described as having "0 favorable effects" by the federal clearinghouse for evidence-based programs. That did not stop DCS from asserting the exact opposite last year. In federal testimony, Deputy Director of Child Welfare Services David Reed confidently pointed to Indiana's family preservation program as 'an intervention that helps keep kids safe and out of foster care.' He further claimed to have reduced racial disparities in foster care entries by two-thirds, relying on a calculation that anyone understanding basic statistics could debunk. But Indiana did reduce its foster care population by 50% — if not through their prevention program, then how? It wasn't because Indiana had fewer concerned residents calling the hotline about suspected child maltreatment. Those numbers have barely budged, aside from a temporary drop during the pandemic, when children were out of the public eye. It also wasn't because Indiana was providing services to more families when abuse and neglect was reported — the number of families receiving services has been in steep decline since 2017. In other words, DCS did not provide more support to reduce the use of foster care. It is not intervening differently — just less. The most likely explanation is that DCS simply raised the threshold for investigating reports of maltreatment and responding to child abuse and neglect, whether through in-home services or foster care. Perhaps intervening less would be good if Indiana was previously over-investigating and over-intervening. If that's the case, then DCS should be honest about it instead of claiming that its new prevention supports keeping children safe at home and, thus, drives large-scale foster care reductions. DCS should release data about the children who previously would have received services but no longer do. Let the public evaluate whether those children should be left with no oversight. Like Zara Arnold, we know that other children continue to die of maltreatment. Children like Gwendalyn Cooksey, an 8 year-old girl with cerebral palsy and a history of physical abuse and exposure to parent drug use, who died of fentanyl poisoning in January. Or 5 year-old Kinsleigh Welty, who was starved to death in 2024 by her mother and grandmother only five months after the courts determined it was safe for her to return home from foster care. New leadership should understand how DCS cut foster care in half without evidence of more, or better, services. The public deserves to know whether the children no longer served by DCS are truly 'safe at home."
Yahoo
18 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Yokogawa Announces Release of Next-Generation of the CENTUM VP Integrated Production Control System
- Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the announcement of the world's first distributed control system, CENTUM continues to shine in the areas of safety, security, and sustainable autonomous operations - TOKYO, June 03, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Yokogawa Electric Corporation (TOKYO: 6841) announces the unveiling of the next-generation Release 7 concept and the launch of Release 7.01 of the CENTUMTM VP integrated production control system, a core product in the OpreXTM Control and Safety System lineup. This is the 10th generation of the CENTUM series, and its release coincides with the 50th anniversary of the announcement of CENTUM as the world's first*1 distributed control system (DCS), on June 19, 1975. Development Background In addition to the dynamic changes in supply chains over recent years, countries have been strengthening regulations in response to a growing awareness of the need to protect the environment. At the same time, with the increasing use of digital technologies for complex applications such as the management of the utilization of renewable energy and the analysis of data in cloud-based environments, security risks have become a greater concern. Also, while utilizing existing tangible assets, there is a growing need to pass on to others the expertise of seasoned operators, and to reduce the workload and mental burden for personnel who are responsible for systems that must be kept operating around the clock. Amidst the growing complexity of these industry challenges, management and frontline personnel are required to increase competitiveness and strike a balance between the stable manufacturing of superior products and the need to improve efficiency and profitability. The Concept behind CENTUM VP Release 7 In response to these issues, Yokogawa has based its development of CENTUM VP Release 7 on the concept of enabling autonomous operations*2. With CENTUM, Yokogawa is helping its customers attain sustainability by improving energy efficiency, accelerating decarbonization, and providing a safe and secure working environment. While maintaining the reliability, stability, continuity, robust security, and comprehensive engineering and service network that have been hallmarks of the CENTUM series since its inception, Yokogawa will drive innovations for the future in the following three areas: Expanded scope of control and monitoringBy securely aggregating a wide range of data scattered throughout the plant, the status of the entire plant can be monitored, and the scope of automated operation can be expanded, enabling safer and more secure operations. Predictive monitoring through process condition monitoringBy extracting and identifying process-specific events related to operations and predicting deviations from expected values, operators can anticipate changes and take action, helping to achieve more stable operations and improve energy efficiency. Reduction of operator workloadBy presenting future scenarios that leverage operator knowledge and know-how, it supports the operator in making accurate decisions. In addition, autonomous control AI*3 can take over from operators to achieve long-term stable operation. This reduces operator workload and mental stress. Main Features of Release 7.01 To achieve autonomous operations, it is essential to leverage AI while ensuring safety and security. Release 7.01 helps to establish the necessary foundation for this goal. The key features are as follows. 1. Enhanced security To achieve data-driven operations, it is crucial to ensure the security of critical infrastructure. This release adopts industry security benchmarks to strengthen the cybersecurity of the components that make up control systems and enhance the overall security level of the system. 2. Expansion of control and monitoring scope with CENTUM By integrating OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA) connectivity, the range of plant equipment and devices that can be controlled and monitored by CENTUM is expanded. OPC UA is a platform-independent standard that enables data exchange between devices from different manufacturers in the industrial automation field. In this update, OPC UA client functionality has been added to CENTUM. 3. Enhanced engineering capabilities for large-scale projects To promote operational optimization by integrating various systems within the plant, a feature has been added that allows the merging and testing of multiple engineering databases related to CENTUM. This enhancement will enable high-quality and efficient engineering, contributing to the rapid startup of new plants and restart of upgraded plants. Mitsuhiro Yamamoto, Vice President, Executive Officer, and head of the Systems Business Division at Yokogawa Electric stated, "In this VUCA*4 era, the conditions required for manufacturing sites and management are becoming ever more complex. By realizing stable operations and expanding the scope of autonomy, CENTUM VP Release 7 will help our customers achieve a more sustainable society and sustainable business growth." *1 CENTUM has been recognized as the world's first DCS by Japan's National Museum of Nature and Science, which in 2012 designated CENTUM as such in the document "Important Material for the History of Science and Technology (Heritage of Future Technology)" (Japanese). This status was also confirmed by the Denki no Ishizue (Foundation of Electric Technology) 14th Electric Technology Awards (Japanese).*2 Yokogawa is advocating the transition from industrial automation to industrial autonomy (IA2IA), and defines industrial autonomy as a state where plant assets and operations possess learning and adaptive capabilities that allow responses with minimal human interaction, empowering operators to perform higher-level optimization tasks. Autonomous operations is the final stage of industrial autonomy, representing an ideal state where operations function with complete autonomy throughout a value chain.*3 The Factorial Kernel Dynamic Policy Programming (FKDPP) reinforcement learning AI algorithm. Yokogawa defines autonomous control AI as "a robust system capable of deriving optimal control methods and autonomously responding to unexperienced situations to a certain extent." Yokogawa already has experience in integrating the use of an autonomous control AI and CENTUM VP, and this has been officially adopted for use in controlling operations at a chemical plant. For this achievement, which has reduced environmental impact, lessened workloads, and improved safety, Yokogawa has received the Prime Minister's Prize, the highest of the 2023's Japan Industrial Technology Awards (Nihon Sangyo Gijyutsu Taisho), which was established in 1972.*4 An acronym that stands for volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity Major Target Markets Various process industries, including oil and gas, petrochemicals, chemicals, steel, pulp and paper, electric power, and water treatment Applications Operation monitoring and automatic control of plants and manufacturing equipment More Information CENTUM VPhttps:// CENTUM 50th Anniversary websitehttps:// About CENTUM CENTUM was announced as the world's first distributed control system by Yokogawa Electric on June 19, 1975, and is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Since its launch, more than 30,000 systems have been deployed in more than 100 countries around the world, supporting a wide range of industries such as oil refining, petrochemicals, specialty chemicals, textiles, steel, pharmaceuticals, food, water, electric power, and gas. It's development was made possible by Yokogawa's experience in providing safe and stable control technologies. For over 50 years, CENTUM has continued to evolve as a core plant operations system characterized by reliability, stability, and continuity. By enhancing control functions, it has played a significant role in increasing product functionality, reducing energy consumption, and improving plant productivity. With "trust" as the design theme during development, CENTUM is leading the safe and secure operation of industry, supported by Yokogawa's global service network. About OpreX OpreX is the comprehensive brand for Yokogawa's industrial automation (IA) and control business. The OpreX name stands for excellence in the technologies and solutions that Yokogawa cultivates through the co-creation of value with its customers, and encompasses the entire range of Yokogawa's IA products, services, and solutions. This brand comprises the following five categories: OpreX Transformation, OpreX Control, OpreX Measurement, OpreX Execution, and OpreX Lifecycle. One of the product groups that make up the OpreX Control category is the OpreX Control and Safety System family, which includes CENTUM VP. With its various OpreX Control solutions, Yokogawa is able to quickly effect changes for its customers that lead to a transformation in such areas as management and operations, and provides highly reliable control technology that ensures high efficiency, high quality, and safe and stable plant the OpreX brand, Yokogawa will deliver integrated solutions that address specific needs and support its customers in their efforts to transform and grow their businesses. About Yokogawa Yokogawa provides advanced solutions in the areas of measurement, control, and information to customers across a broad range of industries, including energy, chemicals, materials, pharmaceuticals, and food. Yokogawa addresses customer issues regarding the optimization of production, assets, and the supply chain with the effective application of digital technologies, enabling the transition to autonomous in Tokyo in 1915, Yokogawa continues to work toward a sustainable society through its 17,000+ employees in a global network of 128 companies spanning 62 more information, visit The names of corporations, organizations, products, services and logos herein are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Yokogawa Electric Corporation or their respective holders. View source version on Contacts Media enquiries Yokogawa Electric Corporation PR Department, Integrated Communications Center, Corporate Administration HeadquartersYokogawa-pr@ Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
