Studies and demonstration on the use of a bundle-harvester system in early fuel wood thinnings

Luken kirjat, raportit, oppaat ja esitteet. INFRES, demo report 15European Commission – FP7 programme; INFRES – Innovative and effective technology and logistics for forest residual biomass supply in the EU (311881)201

Managing Approach Plate Information Study (MAPLIST): An Information Requirements Analysis of Approach Chart Use

Adequately presenting all necessary information on an approach chart represents a challenge for cartographers. Since many tasks associated with using approach charts are cognitive (e.g., planning the approach and monitoring its progress), and since the characteristic of a successful interface is one that conforms to the users' mental models, understanding pilots' underlying models of approach chart information would greatly assist cartographers. To provide such information, a new methodology was developed for this study that enhances traditional information requirements analyses by combining psychometric scaling techniques with a simulation task to provide quantifiable links between pilots' cognitive representations of approach information and their use of approach information. Results of this study should augment previous information requirements analyses by identifying what information is acquired, when it is acquired, and what presentation concepts might facilitate its efficient use by better matching the pilots' cognitive model of the information. The primary finding in this study indicated that pilots mentally organize approach chart information into ten primary categories: communications, geography, validation, obstructions, navigation, missed approach, final items, other runways, visibility requirement, and navigation aids. These similarity categories were found to underlie the pilots' information acquisitions, other mental models, and higher level cognitive processes that are used to accomplish their approach and landing tasks

Predictive Validity of the SAVRY With Indigenous and Caucasian Female and Male Adolescents on Probation

Indigenous people and the courts have emphasized that it is important to examine whether violence risk assessment tools are valid and appropriate for Indigenous youth. However, studies are scarce. Therefore, we examined the predictive validity of youth probation officers’ SAVRY ratings for 744 Canadian youth, including 299 Indigenous youth (219 male, 80 female), and 445 Caucasian youth (357 male, 88 female) in a prospective field study. The SAVRY summary risk ratings and risk total scores significantly predicted violent and any reoffending for Indigenous female and male youth with medium effect sizes. Relatively few significant differences in the predictive validity emerged for Indigenous and Caucasian youth. However, Historical, Protective, and Risk Total scores predicted any recidivism better for Caucasian males than Indigenous males. Also, Indigenous youth scored significantly higher on all risk domains than Caucasian youth. Opposite to predictions, the rates of false positives were higher for Caucasian youth than for Indigenous youth. Based on the results, the SAVRY appears to be a reasonable tool to use for assessing risk in youth who are Indigenous. However, assessors should take steps to ensure that they use the SAVRY in a culturally appropriate manner, such as considering cultural factors in case formulations and treatment planning as the SAVRY does not ground assessments in an understanding of factors such as colonialism. In addition, future research should examine culturally salient risk factors (e.g., discrimination) and examine potential causes of higher risk scores in Indigenous youth, particularly the role of both past and present-day colonialism

What Are Judges’ Views of Risk Assessments, and How Do Tools Affect Adolescent Dispositions?

Despite the increased presence of risk assessment tools in pre-sentence hearings, their role has been contentious, and the extent to which they influence dispositions is unclear. This study uses a self-report questionnaire to examine judges’ opinions about risk assessment tools, as well as an experimental vignette design to evaluate whether judges’ placement and program recommendations for a high- and low-risk adolescent are affected by the presence of an empirically supported tool and accompanying risk rating. It also assesses the influence of tool presence on judges’ impressions of the adolescent’s treatability and culpability. Participants included 170 judges from 34 American states and two Canadian provinces. The most common advantage of tools highlighted by judges was the additional information they provide, while the most common concern was their potential to obscure bias. Judges’ placement recommendations and impressions of the adolescent were not significantly influenced by tool presence, but their program recommendations were more intensive and consistent for the high-risk adolescent when a tool was present than when it was absent

RADIATION CROSSLINKED ADVANCED WOUND DRESSING CONTAINING EGG WHITE PROTEINS

During the past decades, the use of antibiotics has grown worldwide in different fields, from medicine to agriculture, leading to antibiotic resistance of microbes, which is the cause of thousands of deaths every year worldwide. [1, 2] Finding new antibiotics is becoming more and more difficult because their development is no longer convenient in term of the cost–benefit ratio for the pharmaceutical industry. The interest in egg white proteins, such as ovoalbumin, ovotransferrin and lysozyme, has risen especially because of their demonstrated antimicrobial activities. [3] These antimicrobial proteins can then be used to enrich wound dressing films that requires a high level of control of microbial colonization. Wound dressing films can be easily produced crosslinking polymers, such as polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) or polyvinyl pyrrolidone, by high-energy radiation. [4] This technique does not require expensive initiators and catalysts and, depending on the irradiation doses, it can guarantee simultaneous product sterilization. PVA hydrogels obtained by irradiation are also transparent, a desirable property for wound dressings. When PVA is mixed with selected polysaccharides, the dressings have shown faster healing rates and scarless healing, probably due to antioxidant properties of polysaccharide fragments produced upon irradiation. [4] Therefore, the aim of this work is to develop hydrogel would dressings based on the irradiation of PVA and xyloglucan (XG) blends and to investigate the antibacterial properties of the films due to the incorporation of egg white proteins

Legacy data and cosmological constraints from the angular-size/redshift relation for ultra-compact radio sources

We have re-examined an ancient VLBI survey of ultra-comact radio sources at 2.29 GHz, which gave fringe amplitudes for 917 such objects with total flux density >0.5 Jy approximately. A number of cosmological investigations based upon this survey have been published in recent years. We have updated the sample with respect to both redshift and radio information, and now have full data for 613 objects, significantly larger than the number (337) used in earlier investigations. The corresponding angular-size/redshift diagram gives Omega_m=0.25+0.04/-0.03, Omega_\Lambda=0.97+0.09/-0.13 and K=0.22+0.07/-0.10. In combination with supernova data, and a simple-minded approach to CMB data based upon the angular size of the acoustic horizon, our best figures are Omega_m=0.298+0.025/-0.024, Omega_\Lambda=0.702+0.035/-0.036 and K= 0.000+0.021/-0.019. We have examined simple models of dynamical vacuum energy; the first, based upon a scalar potential V(phi)=omega_C^2 phi^2/2, gives w(0)=-1.00+0.06/-0.00, (dw/dz)_0=+0.00/-0.08; in this case conditions at z=0 require particular attention, to preclude behaviour in which phi becomes singular as z -->infinity. For fixed w limits are w=-1.20+0.15/-0.14. The above error bars are 68% confidence limits.Comment: 24 pages, 9 figure

Impact of Risk Assessment Instruments on Rates of Pretrial Detention, Postconviction Placements, and Release: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Objective: Many agencies use risk assessment instruments to guide decisions about pretrial detention, post-conviction incarceration, and release from custody. Although some policymakers believe that these tools might reduce overincarceration and recidivism rates, others are concerned that they may exacerbate racial and ethnic disparities in placements. The objective of this systematic review was to test these assertions.   Hypotheses: It was hypothesized that the adoption of tools might slightly decrease incarceration rates. Impact on disparities might vary by tool and context.   Method: Published and unpublished studies were identified by searching 13 databases, reviewing reference lists, and contacting experts. In total, 22 studies met inclusion criteria; these studies included 1,444,499 adolescents and adults who were accused or convicted of a crime. Each study was coded by two independent raters using a data extraction form and a risk of bias tool. Results were aggregated using both a narrative approach and meta-analyses.    Results: The adoption of tools was associated with (1) small overall decreases in restrictive placements (aggregated OR = 0.63, p < .001), particularly for individuals who were low risk and (2) small reductions in any recidivism (OR = 0.85, p = .020). However, after removing studies with a high risk of bias, the results were no longer significant.   Conclusions: Although risk assessment tools might help to reduce restrictive placements, the strength of this evidence is low. Furthermore, due to a lack of research, it is unclear how tools impact racial and ethnic disparities in placements. As such, future research is needed

Do Structured Risk Assessments Predict Violent, Any, and Sexual Offending Better Than Unstructured Judgment? An Umbrella Review

Although it is widely believed that risk assessment tools lead to more accurate estimates of risk of violence and offending than unstructured clinical judgments, the nature and quality of evidence that supports this view is unclear. As such, we conducted an umbrella review of systematic reviews. Through a search of 15 databases, we identified nine systematic reviews, including six meta-analyses and three narrative systematic reviews, that compared unstructured and structured risk judgments for any, violent, and sexual offending. Each review was independently coded by two raters. Raters also coded the 46 primary studies on unstructured judgment included in these reviews. Although the reviews concluded that structured risk judgments are superior to unstructured judgments, the data supporting these conclusions have limitations. None of the systematic reviews directly compared risk assessment tools with unstructured judgments. In addition, two thirds of the primary studies included in the systematic reviews were from the 1980s or earlier, and 89% had serious methodological limitations that created a high risk of bias. In many cases, the primary studies did not examine unstructured judgments per se but instead used proxies such as legal and administrative decisions. As such, there is a pressing need for an updated systematic review that focuses on direct comparison studies and carefully addresses study limitations. To address this gap, we have initiated a preregistered systematic review