bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Variability of Arctic Sea Ice Thickness Using PIOMAS and the CESM Large Ensemble
Authors: Labe Zachary , Magnusdottir Gudrun , Stern Hal 
Published: February 2018

Abstract
Because of limited high-quality satellite and in situ observations, less attention has been given to the trends in Arctic sea ice thickness and therefore sea ice volume than to the trends in sea ice extent. This study evaluates the spatial and temporal variability in Arctic sea ice thickness using the Pan-Arctic Ice Ocean Modeling and Assimilation System (PIOMAS). Additionally, the Community Earth System Model Large Ensemble Project (LENS) is used to quantify the forced response and internal variability in the model. A dipole spatial pattern of sea ice thickness variability is shown in both PIOMAS and LENS with opposite signs of polarity between the East Siberian Sea and near the Fram Strait. As future sea ice thins, this dipole structure of variability is reduced, and the largest interannual variability is found only along the northern Greenland coastline. Under a high-emissions scenario (RCP8.5) projection, average September sea ice thickness falls below 0.5 m by the end of the twenty-first century. However, a regional analysis shows internal variability contributes to an uncertainty of 10 to 20 years for the timing of the first September sea ice thickness less than 0.5 m in the marginal seas.
Microphysical Characteristics of Squall-Line Stratiform Precipitation and Transition Zones Simulated Using an Ice Particle Property-Evolving Model
Authors: Jensen Anders A. , Harrington Jerry Y. , Morrison Hugh 
Published: February 2018

Abstract
A quasi-idealized 3D squall-line case is simulated using a novel bulk microphysics scheme called the Ice-Spheroids Habit Model with Aspect-ratio Evolution (ISHMAEL). In ISHMAEL, the evolution of ice particle properties (e.g., mass, shape, maximum diameter, density, and fall speed) are predicted during vapor growth, sublimation, riming, and melting, allowing ice properties to evolve from various microphysical processes without needing separate unrimed and rimed ice categories. ISHMAEL produces both a transition zone and an enhanced stratiform precipitation region, and ice particle properties are analyzed to determine the characteristics of ice that lead to the development of these squall-line features. Rimed particles advected rearward from the convective region produce the enhanced stratiform precipitation region. The transition zone results from hydrometeor sorting; the evolution of ice particle properties in the convective region leads to fall speeds that favor ice advecting rearward of the transition zone before reaching the melting level, causing a local minimum in precipitation rate and reflectivity there. Sensitivity studies show that the fall speed of ice particles largely determines the location of the enhanced stratiform precipitation region and whether or not a transition zone forms. The representation of microphysical processes, such as rime splintering and aggregation, and ice size distribution shape can impact the mean ice particle fall speeds enough to significantly impact the location of the enhanced stratiform precipitation region and the existence of the transition zone.
Predicting Large Ocean Wave Events Characterized by Bimodal Energy Spectra in the Presence of a Low-Level Southerly Wind Feature
Authors: Ellenson Ashley , Özkan-Haller H. Tuba 
Published: February 2018

Abstract
Three large wave events are simulated with WaveWatch III using different wind inputs and physics packages. The modeled output, including spectral shape and bulk parameter time series, are compared with National Data Buoy Center buoy observations offshore of Newport, Oregon. The atmospheric conditions that generate these large waves include a strong southerly wind along with a distant cyclone. The energetic contributions of these simultaneously occurring atmospheric features result in a wave field characterized by bimodal energy spectra for two events and unimodal energy spectra for the third event. The analysis of model output evaluates bulk parameter time series of significant wave height, mean period, and mean wave direction derived from partitioned energy spectra. A consistent underestimation in wave energy approaching from the southwestern direction is found for the output associated with all model configurations. This wave energy is generated by the southerly wind. An overestimation in swell energy approaching from the northwest is also found for all model configurations. The model configuration that most accurately reproduces the southerly wave energy results in the best performance for the overall bulk parameters.
Promoting public cooperation in government: key drivers, regulation, and barriers of the e-collaboration movement in Kazakhstan
Authors: Kassen Maxat 
Published: February 2018

The primary goal of the article is to understand the political and socio-economic incentives for government agencies to adopt various collaborative strategies in promoting current public sector reforms in Kazakhstan. In particular, paying special attention to the recent diffusion of various official blog platforms, public discussion, and civic tracking systems, it aims to identify typical drivers and barriers that policymakers and other interested stakeholders face today in advancing technology-driven government. The key findings of the research suggest that the development of official e-collaborative platforms provides new promising opportunities to promote mutually beneficial cooperation between government and citizens, and to boost public sector innovations. However, the further sustainable development of the movement, not only as a technological tool of public sector reforms, but also more as a new philosophy of governance, would require the further harmonization of regulation policies at all institutional levels, the transformation of the traditional public mindset, and, most importantly, the promotion of more genuine grass-root trends in government. In this regard, the results of the research could conceptually be used to test further the limits of the modern theory of network governance in an unusual institutional context of digital centralization. Points for practitioners The observation and analysis of practical aspects in the operation of various collaborative projects, which is presented in this article in an explicitly illustrative manner, could be interesting for e-government policymakers and practitioners, as well as for all those who try to understand the phenomenon as an ongoing political and socio-economic process.
Psychological aspects of jury performance
Authors: Goldman Jacquelin , Maitland Karen A. , Norton Pennie L. 
Published: February 2018

Students were assigned to juries, after scores on a measure of moral judgment were equalized for groups. Subjects were seated in a courtroom, where a moot court trial of a case of criminal insanity was enacted by law students. Two juries deliberated separately in separate chambers. The control jury registered verdicts individually, were retested and dismissed. Experimental juries registered verdicts individually before deliberation and were retested after deliberation. Jurors were post tested again I week later and recorded their personal verdicts. All jurors became more anxious and less hostile as a result of the trial. Subjects whose verdicts were consistent throughout had a significantly higher initial level moral judgment, and significantly so on the 1 week posttest.
The Disturbed Disruptive Inmate: Where does the Bus Stop?
Authors: Toch Hans 
Published: February 2018

Among least understood prison inmates are the “disturbed disruptive” inmates (DDIs)—those who simultaneously pose disciplinary and mental health problems. Such inmates are at times viewed as “disruptive” by mental health staff and as “disturbed” by custody personnel. They are also disproportionately subjected to “bus therapy” because no special programs are available for them. This article reviews the institutional careers of several “DDIs,” and it discusses some treatment-relevant links between disturbed behavior and disruptive behavior that emerge from such scrutiny.
Minor Mayhem in Milwaukee
Authors: Wasow Mona 
Published: February 2018

On June 10, 1982, a forum was presented in Milwaukee that dealt with the mental health commitment laws. There are terrible confusions among professionals today about what mental illness is, what competency means, what constitutes “dangerousness,” and how to apply civil rights in a truly meaningful way to those in desperate need of help. We are in need of some modifications of our mental health commitment laws, which are presently confounded with ideologies and ignorances about mental illness and “due process,” and often stand in the way of providing help for acutely mentally ill people. That these issues are complex is obvious, but if more energy were put into problem solving, and less into winning highly value-laden debates, we might come up with some solutions toward getting better care and treatment for the mentally ill.
The Involvement of Judicial Officials other than Judges in Decision Making in Involuntary Civil Commitment
Authors: Miller Robert D. 
Published: February 2018

In nine states, judicial personnel other than judges authorize involuntary hospitalization; the author studied the system in North Carolina by soliciting responses from all magistrates, clerks of court, and clinicians in one state hospital's 16-county catchment area. Magistrates and clerks vary widely in education, experience, knowledge of commitment, and actual practices. Clinicians were dissatisfied with the actions of magistrates; and many magistrates were dissatisfied with clinical input, although most magistrates would prefer such input prior to issuing custody orders. Magistrates would like more information, both clinical and legal, about commitment. The present system calls upon magistrates to make major decisions with insufficient knowledge and experience in mental health; initial hospitalization decisions would better be left with clinicians, as they are in many other states.
Narcissistic Concerns in the Educational Experience of Law Students
Authors: Carney Michael E. 
Published: February 2018

Elevated levels of depression and anxiety have consistently been found to be prevalent among law students. Various explanations have been offered to account for these findings, with many commentators pointing to specific features of legal education as causative factors. Law students are confronted with an educational environment that poses many threats to their self-esteem. Responses to this situation have taken many forms; some of these adaptations have been identified as obsessive, paranoid, schizoid, hysterical, and acting out. An understanding of the critical role of self-esteem in psychological development has been the focus of the work of Heinz Kohut. Applying his ideas to the experience of law students has highlighted their struggle with narcissistic aspirations as well as their efforts to develop a professional sense of self. His constructs of grandiose self and idealized parental imago are not only helpful in illuminating the experiences of law students, but have broad implications for the policies and structures of legal education.
On the vibration analysis of off-road vehicles: Influence of terrain deformation and irregularity
Authors: Reina Giulio , Leanza Antonio , Messina Arcangelo 
Published: February 2018

Surface irregularity acts as a major excitation source in off-road driving that induces vibration of the vehicle body through the tire assembly and the suspension system. When adding ground deformability, this excitation is modulated by the soil properties and operating conditions. The underlying mechanisms that govern ground behavior can be explained and modeled drawing on Terramechanics. Based on this theory, a comprehensive quarter-car model of off-road vehicle is presented that takes into account tire/soil interaction. The model can handle the general case of compliant wheel rolling on compliant ground and it allows ride and road holding performance to be evaluated in the time and frequency domain. An extensive set of simulation tests is included to assess the impact of various surface roughness and ground deformability through a parameter study, showing the potential of the proposed model to describe the behavior of off-road vehicles for design and performance optimization purposes.
Does Severity Explain Differences in Hospital Length of Stay for Pneumonia Patients?
Authors: Iezzoni Lisa I. , Shwartz Michael , Ash Arlene S. , Mackiernan Yevgenia D. 
Published: February 2018

Objectives: In the USA, the role of patient severity in determining hospital resource use has been questioned since Medicare adopted prospective hospital payment based on diagnosis-related groups (DRGs). Exactly how to measure severity, however, remains unclear. We examined whether assessments of severity-adjusted hospital lengths of stay (LOS) varied when different measures were used for severity adjustment Methods: The complete study sample included 18 016 patients receiving medical treatment for pneumonia at 105 acute care hospitals. We studied 11 severity measures, nine based on patient demographic and diagnosis and procedure code information and two derived from clinical findings from the medical record. For each severity measure, LOS was regressed on patient age, sex, DRG, and severity score. Analyses were performed on trimmed and untrimmed data. Trimming eliminated cases with LOS more than three standard deviations from the mean on a log scale. Results: The trimmed data set contained 17 976 admissions with a mean (S.D.) LOS of 8.9 (6.1) days. Average LOS ranged from 5.0–11.8 days among the 105 hospitals. Using trimmed data, the 11 severity measures produced Rsquared values ranging from 0.098–0.169 for explaining LOS for individual patients. Across all severity measures, predicted average hospital LOS varied much less than the observed LOS, with predicted mean hospital LOS ranging from about 8.4–9.8 days. Discussion: No severity measure explained the two-fold differences among hospitals in average LOS. Other patient characteristics, practice patterns, or institutional factors may cause the wide differences across hospitals in LOS.
Using Economics to Prioritize Research: A Case Study of Randomized Trials for the Prevention of Hip Fractures Due to Osteoporosis
Authors: Torgerson David , Donaldson Cam , Reid David 
Published: February 2018

Objectives: To assess the role of economics, in combination with clinical judgement, for setting research priorities, using osteoporosis prevention (and, as a result, hip fracture prevention) as an example. Methods: Modelling the cost and effectiveness of each of six potential interventions to prevent hip fractures over the 5-year length of a randomized trial (vitamin D injection; thiazide diuretics; hormone replacement therapy; oral calcium and vitamin D; calcium alone; calcitonin). Drug costs were derived from the Monthly Index of Medical Specialties (MIMS); averted fracture costs and estimates of effectiveness were derived from published sources. Results: Vitamin D injection proved to be the most potentially cost-effective treatment with a cost-effectiveness ratio of £584. If averted costs are included, this leads to a saving of £9 176 496 per 100 000 women treated. By contrast, the most expensive therapy was calcitonin (marginal cost-effectiveness ratio of £433 548). This suggests that priority should be given to trials assessing the effectiveness of vitamin D injections. Conclusions: Relatively simple economic modelling exercises can inform research priorities and could help optimize the use of scarce research resources.
Costs and Remuneration for Cervical Screening in General Practice in the West of Scotland
Authors: Myles Susan , Wyke Sally , Ibbotson Tracy , Macintyre Sally , McEwen Jim , Kelly Moya 
Published: February 2018

Objectives: To investigate associations between costs and remuneration for cervical screening in general practice in relation to skill mix, features of practice structure and deprivation levels in the local area; and, to identify efficient policies for organising cervical screening in general practice. Method: Questionnaire survey and interview study in 87 general practices in Greater Glasgow Health Board an area in the west of Scotland which covers a socio-economically varied population. The main outcome measures were remuneration to cost ratios (RCRs) for cervical screening and their natural logarithms (logRCRs). Results: Both the costs of cervical screening and RCRs varied widely between the 87 practices taking part. RCRs ranged from 0.29 to 14.67 (mean 2.64, median 2.18, interquartile range 1.15–2.98). Twenty-one per cent (18) of practices earned less than they spent on the organisation of screening, whilst 9% (8) of practices had RCRs of more than 5:1. RCRs were significantly lower if medical staff were involved in either taking smears or dealing with results. RCRs did not vary by social deprivation score, despite uptake being lower in practices in more deprived areas. This was explained by nurses working in practices in deprived areas being more likely to take smears than nurses working in more affluent areas. Sensitivity analyses were undertaken, altering key time and cost assumptions. As a result, the absolute values of the RCRs changed, although the overall pattern of association did not, with the exception of doctor involvement in processing results which was no longer significant when average general practitioners’ income was substituted for locum rates. Conclusions: Practices in deprived areas may be responding to greater pressure of work by making optimal use of skill mix within the primary health care team. A more graduated incentive payment scheme may more fairly reward practices in deprived areas which are less likely to achieve 80% uptake due to relatively intractable features of practice structure. Assuming that practice nurses provide an equivalent quality of service to that provided by general practitioners, results suggest that doctor-nurse substitution would be cost-effective for general practice based cervical screening. Resource savings (principally doctor's time) could be redeployed to other areas of primary health care.
Development and Testing of the UK SF-12
Authors: Jenkinson Crispin , Layte Richard 
Published: February 2018

Objectives: The 36 item short form health survey (SF-36) has proved to be of use in a variety of settings where a short generic health measure of patient-assessed outcome is required. This measure can provide an eight dimension profile of health status, and two summary scores assessing physical function and mental well-being. The developers of the SF-36 in America have developed algorithms to yield the two summary component scores in a questionnaire containing only one-third of the original 36 items, the SF-12. This paper documents the construction of the UK SF-12 summary measures from a large-scale dataset from the UK in which the SF-36, together with other questions on health and lifestyles, was sent to randomly selected members of the population. Using these data we attempt here to replicate the findings of the SF-36 developers in the UK setting, and then to assess the use of SF-12 summary scores in a variety of clinical conditions. Methods: Factor analytical methods were used to derive the weights used to construct the physical and mental component scales from the SF-36. Regression methods were used to weight the 12 items recommended by the developers to construct the SF-12 physical and mental component scores. This analysis was undertaken on a large community sample ( n = 9332), and then the results of the SF-36 and SF-12 were compared across diverse patient groups (Parkinson's disease, congestive heart failure, sleep apnoea, benign prostatic hypertrophy). Results: Factor analysis of the SF-36 produced a two factor solution. The factor loadings were used to weight the physical component summary score (PCS-36) and mental component summary score (MCS-36). Results gained from the use of these measures were compared with results gained from the PCS-12 and MCS-12, and were found to be highly correlated (PCS: ρ = 0.94, p < 0.001; MCS: ρ = 0.96, p < 0.001), and produce remarkably similar results, both in the community sample and across a variety of patient groups. Conclusions: The SF-12 is able to produce the two summary scales originally developed from the SF-36 with considerable accuracy and yet with far less respondent burden. Consequently, the SF-12 may be an instrument of choice where a short generic measure providing summary information on physical and mental health status is required. Crispin Jenkinson DPhil, Deputy Director
Unequal Randomisation Can Improve the Economic Efficiency of Clinical Trials
Authors: Torgerson David , Campbell Marion 
Published: February 2018

Objectives: In the majority of clinical trials patients are randomised equally between treatment groups. This approach maximises statistical power for a given total sample size. The objectives of this paper were to determine if, when research costs between treatments differ, it is more economically efficient to randomise additional patients to the cheaper treatment, and how the optimum randomisation ratio can be estimated. Methods: Estimation of the most economically efficient randomisation ratio for four hypothetical clinical trials using cost-effectiveness analysis. Results: When research costs differ between treatments, and there is no constraint on total sample size, it is always more cost-effective to randomise more patients to the cheaper treatment. For example, a cost ratio between the lesser and more expensive treatment of ten, results in a randomisation ratio of 3.2:1. Conclusions: Unequal randomisation ratios should be more widely used as this will achieve optimum statistical power for the lowest expenditure of research resources.