Mean and eddy induced transport in the ocean region adjacent to the Greenland-Scotland Ridge

The circulation and transport in the ocean region adjacent to the Greenland- Scotland Ridge (GSR) are crucial for maintaining heat, freshwater, and sea-ice exchange between the Nordic Seas and Subpolar North Atlantic Ocean. The Nordic Seas receive low-density Atlantic Water and transform it into dense water. The dense water overflow contributes to the North Atlantic Deep Water mass formation, which feeds the lower limb of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation. The thesis presents results from a study of the temperature and salinity transport in the ocean region adjacent to the GSR consisting of three sub-projects. The first sub-project is focused on model simulations of interannual to decadal variability of the exchange through the GSR and its impact on the variability of the temperature and salinity in the Nordic Seas. The model results demonstrate that the increase in the transport of fresh and cold waters through Fram Strait in the 1960s was concurrent with a reduction in the exchange over the GSR. The resulting imbalance in salinity and heat fluxes through the strait and over the ridge contributed to the freshening of the water masses of the Nordic Seas and intensified the Great Salinity Anomaly in the 1960s. In the late 1980s the AW transport over the GSR was stronger than normal while the exchange through Fram Strait was close to normal. The related imbalance in the lateral heat fluxes through the strait and over the ridge warmed the Nordic Seas and caused an increase in the temperature of the AW inflow to the Arctic Ocean in the late 1980s (i.e., about a decade earlier than the warming of the subpolar North Atlantic Ocean in the mid-1990s). The second sub-project is focused on observational estimates of the heat flux convergence of the ocean region adjacent to the GSR. Along-track altimeter and sea surface temperature satellite observations and ARGO in-situ measurements of temperature and salinity are used to investigate the heat transport by mean currents and eddies in the ocean region adjacent to the GSR from 2003 to 2008. The results from the analysis show that the heat advection by the mean flow in the surface layer is zonally asymmetric with a higher magnitude in the western part of the region. This asymmetry is associated with an excessive mean heat advection in an area adjacent to the Denmark Strait. The advection of heat is high and positive south of the strait and low and negative north of it. We suggest that this heat advection impacts the local budgets of heat and potential energy of the mean flow in the surface layer. The third sub-project studies the vertical structure of the convergence of advective fluxes of heat (HFC) and salt (SFC) in the ocean region adjacent to the GSR. The study is based on SODA (Simple Ocean Data Assimilation) ocean reanalysis for the period between 1965 and 2010. The SODA based estimates show that the high values found in satellite based estimates of HFC over the Denmark Strait are part of a pattern of high HFC and SFC in the whole water column. In this region, the HFC has a maximum at the surface. The highest values of SFC there are found in the subsurface layer at depths between 500 and 1500 m. A similar structure of high positive SFC and HFC are observed at intermediate depths over the Iceland-Faroe Ridge. The EOF analysis of the HFC and SFC shows that the variability of the HFC and SFC in these two regions are dominated by modes of coherent variations in the SFC and HFC. During warming period in the late 1980s these modes drove strong variations of the HFC and SFC over Denmark Strait and Iceland-Faroe Ridge which correlated well with the variations in the surface wind stress curl

Factors predicting conviction in child stranger rape

Background. Public knowledge of child stranger rape is shaped largely by media portrayals of a small number of cases, often marked by sensational trials, which may result in juror misconceptions of this offense. It is important to understand the factors that may influence jury verdicts in order to maximize the chance of guilty defendants being convicted. Objective. The aim is to explore the factors that predict juries’ decisions to convict or acquit in child stranger rape cases. Participants and Setting. The study utilizes a police database of recorded child stranger rape cases from a UK urban force from 2001-2015. Seventy cases that were tried by jury were analyzed. We investigated the extent to which 19 child-, accused- and offense-related factors predict jury verdicts. Methods. A four stage analytic process was employed: (a) Kendall’s tau-b measured inter-correlations among the factors; (b) Chi-Square and Welch t-tests measured associations between factors and verdicts; (c) binary logistic regression measured the power of factors in predicting verdicts; and (d) Stein’s formula was used to cross-validate the model. Results. Verdicts were predicted by two offense-related factors. A weapon increased the odds of conviction by 412%. An outdoor location increased the odds by 360%. Conclusions. The findings have potential implications for prosecution case building and courtroom policy. Prosecutors could gather as much information as possible from victims about the factors found to be of importance to juries. Judges could challenge incorrect beliefs and stereotypes by instructing juries

Factors predicting jury convictions in stranger rape cases

Background: Despite there being no legal distinction between different types of rapes (e.g., those committed by strangers to the victim versus those committed by perpetrators known to the victim), stereotypical beliefs about rape have meant that these can be treated differently by the justice system. The aim is to explore the factors that predict juries’ decisions to convict or acquit in stranger rape cases. Methods: We measured the importance of a range of 20 perpetrator-, victim-, and offense-related factors in predicting outcomes for 394 stranger rape cases tried by a jury. A four-stage analytic process was employed: (a) Kendall’s tau-b measured intercorrelations among the factors (predictors); (b) Chi-square and Welch t-tests measured associations between factors and verdicts; (c) binary logistic regression measured the power of factors in predicting verdicts; and (d) Stein’s formula was used to cross-validate the model. Results: Jury verdicts were predicted by five offense-related factors and one victim-related factor. None of the perpetrator-related factors were significant predictors of convictions for stranger rape. Conclusion: The findings have potential implications for victims of stranger rape, as well as prosecution and courtroom policy. We show that if a perpetrator is identified and charged, the likelihood of securing a conviction by a jury is high for victims of stranger rape. We suggest that prosecutors could gather as much information as possible from victims about the factors found to be of importance to juries, and judges could instruct juries on assumptions about the characteristics of the offense in order to challenge incorrect beliefs and stereotypes. Ultimately, this could be used to encourage victims of stranger rape to report and testify in court

Impact of Preceptorship and Mentoring On New Nurse Resilience

Healthcare organizations continue to have difficulties retaining healthcare staff. Administrations spend significant amounts of time and money to incentivize new nurses to join their organizations with mixed results for both acute and long-term care units. Preceptorship or mentorship has been identified as having an impact on increasing positivity and resilience in new nurses. This paper examined prior research to identify trends and patterns in findings regarding this topic. Research of databases was conducted to identify common topics regarding resilience and retention of new nurses. Data supported having preceptors who receive training in teaching methods, communication, and support of new nurses. Healthcare system management should recognize and reward successful preceptors and foster the use of their expertise to support new nurses. Preceptorship and mentorship can be seen as having a statistical impact on new nurse retention

Police discretion in rape cases

Although policing requires officers to follow policy guidelines when making decisions, these nevertheless leave room for discretion. We used a within-subjects experimental design and idiographic statistical analyses to examine the factors predicting 25 specialist police officers’ decisions to progress rape cases. We found little to no evidence of the influence of some factors (i.e., victim’s criminal history, victim-suspect relationship, time taken to report crime, victim’s prior reports of rape, victim’s alcohol/drug use during offence, and suspect’s previous convictions) on officers’ rape case progression decisions. However, 15 officers were less likely to progress cases involving victims who provided inconsistent accounts. Thus, some types of rape victims may not get access to the justice that they desire and deserve. Although officers also reported that consistency of the victim’s account was important to their decision-making, there was generally a lack of concordance between officers’ self-reported and applied decision-making policies. Thus, officers’ accounts of how they progressed a rape case may be unreliable and invalid

A re-examination of the acquittal biasing effect of offence seriousness

The justice system should operate free of any bias, and jurors’ judgments of a defendant’s guilt should be based on evidential factors alone. However, research suggests that this does not always occur. We aimed to investigate the biasing effect of offence seriousness, a case-related, extra-legal factor, on juror decision-making. In an experiment, we examined the effect of this extra-legal factor on 118 members of the jury eligible publics’ interpretations of Beyond Reasonable Doubt (BRD), probability of commission, verdict, and confidence in verdict. We found that defendants charged with more serious offences were judged to be less likely to have committed the crime. However, offence seriousness did not have a significant effect on interpretations of BRD or verdict. The present findings suggest a need to instruct jurors on the application of legal (probative) factors alone

Instructions on reasonable doubt: defining the standard of proof and the juror's task

[see journal for abstract] summary provided here: In the present paper, we measure the effectiveness of two specific instructions on RD that have been used and challenged in the US. These are described in more detail below. We examine the effect of the two instructions on people’s quantitative interpretations of the standard, as well as the degree of inter- and intra-individual variability in interpretations. In addition, we attempt to explain the effectiveness of these instructions by examining the effect of their precise wording on interpretations of RD

Effects of judicial instructions and juror characteristics on interpretations of beyond reasonable doubt

Purpose and Methods: The standard of proof, beyond reasonable doubt (BRD), serves as a threshold for reaching verdicts in criminal cases. Past research has demonstrated that factors such as the wording of judicial instructions defining the standard can influence people’s interpretation of it. In addition, there is some concern that instructions may not be effective for the wider jury-eligible population. In an experimental study involving members of the general public, we examined the effect of two commonly used judicial instructions (i.e., sure and firmly convinced) against a situation when BRD was undefined, on people’s quantitative interpretations of BRD as well as on their self-reported understanding of the standard and confidence in applying it. We also explored the effect of juror characteristics (i.e., gender, age and education). Results: Compared to when the standard was undefined, the sure instruction helped to reduce inter-individual variability in interpretations of BRD and the firmly convinced instruction increased people’s understanding of the standard. However, neither instruction was effective in increasing confidence in applying the standard or in reducing observed individual differences. Conclusion: These findings underscore the importance of developing evidence-based judicial instructions that can benefit the broad jury-eligible population equally and in a variety of ways

The overnight market in Canada

The overnight market is an active forum where participants with a temporary surplus or shortage of funds can lend or borrow until the next business day. The level of interest rates in the overnight market has always been closely linked to the Bank of Canada's monetary policy operations. In this article, the authors describe the evolution of the market from its roots in the 1950s, the development of the Bank's monetary policy operations in the market, and how the market operates today. They also examine the outlook for the overnight market, particularly the implications of the new Large-Value Transfer System.

The ontogenetic complexity of developmental constraints

Developmental constraint is a theoretically important construct bridging ontogenetic and evolutionary studies. We propose a new operationalization of this notion that exploits the unusually rich measurement structure of landmark data. We represent landmark configurations by their partial warps, a basis for morphospace that represents a set of localized features of form. A finding of developmental constraint arises from the interplay between age-varying means and age-specific variances in these subspaces of morphospace. Examination of variances and means in 16 ventral skull landmarks in the cotton rat S. fulviventer at ages 1, 10, 20, and 30 days yielded three types of developmental constraint: canalization (constraint to relatively constant form age by age); chreods (reduction of variance orthogonal to the mean trajectory over ages); and opposition (reduction of age-specific variance along the mean trajectory over ages). While canalization and chreodic constraints have been noted previously, the oppositional type of constraint appears novel. Only one of our characters, relative length and orientation of the incisive foramen, appears to be canalized. Although skull growth becomes increasingly integrated through ontogeny, our characters display a remarkable spatiotemporal complexity in patterns of variance reduction. The specific assortment of constraints observed may be related to the precociality of Sigmodon . We suggest that Waddington's diagrammatic presentation of the “epigenetic landscape” may be misleading in quantitative studies of developmental regulation.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73980/1/j.1420-9101.1993.6050621.x.pd