The EssenCES measure of ward atmosphere: Mokken scaling, confirmatory factor analysis, and investigating patient-level characteristics

Ward atmosphere is an important aspect of forensic mental health care. Positive perceptions have been linked to satisfaction during treatment, quality of life, autonomy, involvement in care, emotional expression and lower rates of aggression. The EssenCES is one of the most widely used measures of ward atmosphere. This study sought to add to the psychometric evidence base for the EssenCES and improve our understanding of how perceptions of ward atmosphere are associated with patient-level factors. N = 233 patients in English low, medium and high security hospitals completed the EssenCES, and data were collected on patient age, length of stay in current institution, level of security, ethnicity, Mental Health Act 1983 section, and mental health diagnosis. We used Mokken scaling, confirmatory factor analysis and multiple linear regression. Our analysis supports the three-factor structure of the EssenCES but signposts areas for improvement, specifically, revising and retesting items 10, 13 and 16. We found that Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic patients report lower Experienced Safety domain scores and that patients with a personality disorder diagnosis report lower Therapeutic Hold domain and EssenCES total scores, when controlling for other variables. We suggest future lines of research and situate our findings in the wider literature

Adapting measures of social climate for use with individuals with intellectual developmental disability in forensic settings

The social climate of forensic settings is thought to impact on a number of important clinical and organisational outcomes and is, therefore, an important construct in relation to the successful functioning of forensic units. A variety of self-report questionnaires have been developed to objectively measure the social climate of forensic settings (e.g. the Correctional Institutions Environment Scale and the Essen Climate Evaluation Schema), however these questionnaires have not been validated for individuals with intellectual developmental disabilities (IDD). Given the prevalence of IDD in prison and forensic psychiatric settings and the potential impact of such cognitive deficits on the ability to complete a range of self-report questionnaires, it is important to consider the potential reliability and validity of existing social climate measures in IDD populations. This article will, therefore: 1) examine the cognitive, linguistic and response format difficulties that may arise when administering self-report measures of social climate in IDD populations; 2) consider potential adaptations to existing measures of social climate that might make them more suitable for use with IDD populations; and 3) identify important directions for future research in the area

OPR-PPR, a Computer Program for Assessing Data Importance to Model Predictions Using Linear Statistics

The OPR-PPR program calculates the Observation-Prediction (OPR) and Parameter-Prediction (PPR) statistics that can be used to evaluate the relative importance of various kinds of data to simulated predictions. The data considered fall into three categories: (1) existing observations, (2) potential observations, and (3) potential information about parameters. The first two are addressed by the OPR statistic; the third is addressed by the PPR statistic. The statistics are based on linear theory and measure the leverage of the data, which depends on the location, the type, and possibly the time of the data being considered. For example, in a ground-water system the type of data might be a head measurement at a particular location and time. As a measure of leverage, the statistics do not take into account the value of the measurement. As linear measures, the OPR and PPR statistics require minimal computational effort once sensitivities have been calculated. Sensitivities need to be calculated for only one set of parameter values; commonly these are the values estimated through model calibration. OPR-PPR can calculate the OPR and PPR statistics for any mathematical model that produces the necessary OPR-PPR input files. In this report, OPR-PPR capabilities are presented in the context of using the ground-water model MODFLOW-2000 and the universal inverse program UCODE_2005. The method used to calculate the OPR and PPR statistics is based on the linear equation for prediction standard deviation. Using sensitivities and other information, OPR-PPR calculates (a) the percent increase in the prediction standard deviation that results when one or more existing observations are omitted from the calibration data set; (b) the percent decrease in the prediction standard deviation that results when one or more potential observations are added to the calibration data set; or (c) the percent decrease in the prediction standard deviation that results when potential information on one or more parameters is added

Interventions to Improve Social Climate in Acute Mental Health Inpatient Settings: Systematic Review of Content and Outcomes

Introduction: Quantification of the social climate of mental health care environments has received considerable attention. Investigations of the resulting measures indicate that social climate is associated with individual outcomes including patient satisfaction and staff burnout. Interest has grown in developing interventions to improve social climate in anticipation of subsequent related benefits. This study aimed to identify and critically review research about the effectiveness of interventions for improving social climate in inpatient adult acute mental health settings. Methods: Systematic review reported in line with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses. Comprehensive terms were used to search multiple electronic databases from inception to July 2019. Information about intervention type(s), complexity was extracted and study quality was assessed. Results: Twenty-three papers met inclusion criteria of which 20 used a pretest–posttest study design and three employed randomized and/or controlled designs. Interventions were environmental/structural, operational/process-oriented and developmental/person-oriented in nature and they ranged in complexity. The Ward Atmosphere Scale was the most common outcome measure used. Following quality assessment, six studies were judged to be sufficiently robust in terms of quality, theory-base, user-inclusion, and outcomes evaluation to contribute credibly to the evidence base. Of these, four complex person- and process-oriented intervention studies and two less complex structural/environmental intervention studies resulted in positive outcomes. Conclusion: There is limited strong evidence that interventions positively influence measures of ward social climate in acute adult mental health settings. Such measures should not be the sole criterion of success when evaluating change. Decisions about implementing change to improve social climate should be informed by meaningful proxy measures including the views and preferences of service users and other stakeholders. Studies using stronger designs are required to establish the ability of interventions to improve social climate

Linking serial sexual offences:Moving towards an ecologically valid test of the principles of crime linkage

Purpose: To conduct a test of the principles underpinning crime linkage (behavioural consistency and distinctiveness) with a sample more closely reflecting the volume and nature of sexual crimes with which practitioners work, and to assess whether solved series are characterized by greater behavioural similarity than unsolved series. Method: A sample of 3,364 sexual crimes (including 668 series) was collated from five countries. For the first time, the sample included solved and unsolved but linked-by-DNA sexual offence series, as well as solved one-off offences. All possible crime pairings in the data set were created, and the degree of similarity in crime scene behaviour shared by the crimes in each pair was quantified using Jaccard's coefficient. The ability to distinguish same-offender and different-offender pairs using similarity in crime scene behaviour was assessed using Receiver Operating Characteristic analysis. The relative amount of behavioural similarity and distinctiveness seen in solved and unsolved crime pairs was assessed. Results: An Area Under the Curve of.86 was found, which represents an excellent level of discrimination accuracy. This decreased to.85 when using a data set that contained one-off offences, and both one-off offences and unsolved crime series. Discrimination accuracy also decreased when using a sample composed solely of unsolved but linked-by-DNA series (AUC =.79). Conclusions: Crime linkage is practised by police forces globally, and its use in legal proceedings requires demonstration that its underlying principles are reliable. Support was found for its two underpinning principles with a more ecologically valid sample

Using offender crime scene behavior to link stranger sexual assaults:A comparison of three statistical approaches

Purpose This study compared the utility of different statistical methods in differentiating sexual crimes committed by the same person from sexual crimes committed by different persons. Methods Logistic regression, iterative classification tree (ICT), and Bayesian analysis were applied to a dataset of 3,364 solved, unsolved, serial, and apparent one-off sexual assaults committed in five countries. Receiver Operating Characteristic analysis was used to compare the statistical approaches. Results All approaches achieved statistically significant levels of discrimination accuracy. Two out of three Bayesian methods achieved a statistically higher level of accuracy (Areas Under the Curve [AUC]=0.89 [Bayesian coding method 1]; AUC=0.91 [Bayesian coding method 3]) than ICT analysis (AUC=0.88), logistic regression (AUC=0.87), and Bayesian coding method 2 (AUC=0.86). Conclusions The ability to capture/utilize between-offender differences in behavioral consistency appear to be of benefit when linking sexual offenses. Statistical approaches that utilize individual offender behaviors when generating crime linkage predictions may be preferable to approaches that rely on a single summary score of behavioral similarity. Crime linkage decision-support tools should incorporate a range of statistical methods and future research must compare these methods in terms of accuracy, usability, and suitability for practice

Trace element cycling in a subterranean estuary : part 2. Geochemistry of the pore water

Author Posting. © The Authors, 2005. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Elsevier B.V. for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 70 (2006): 811-826, doi:10.1016/j.gca.2005.10.019.Submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) is an important source of dissolved elements to the ocean, yet little is known regarding the chemical reactions that control their flux from sandy coastal aquifers. The net flux of elements from SGD to the coastal ocean is dependent on biogeochemical reactions in the groundwater-seawater mixing zone, recently termed the "subterranean estuary". This paper is the second in a two part series on the biogeochemistry of the Waquoit Bay coastal aquifer/subterranean estuary. The first paper addressed the biogeochemistry of Fe, Mn, P, Ba, U, and Th from the perspective of the sediment composition of cores (Charette et al., 2005). This paper uses pore water data from the subterranean estuary, along with Bay surface water data, to establish a more detailed view into the estuarine chemistry and the chemical diagenesis of Fe, Mn, U, Ba and Sr in coastal aquifers. Nine high-resolution pore water (groundwater) profiles were collected from the head of the bay during July 2002. There were non-conservative additions of both Ba and Sr in the salinity transition zone of the subterranean estuary. However, the extent of Sr release was significantly less than that of its alkaline earth neighbor Ba. Pore water Ba concentrations approached 3000 nM compared with 25-50 nM in the surface waters of the bay; the pore water Sr-salinity distribution suggests a 26% elevation in the amount of Sr added to the subterranean estuary. The release of dissolved Ba to the mixing zone of surface estuaries is frequently attributed to an ion-exchange process whereby seawater cations react with Ba from river suspended clay mineral particles at low to intermediate salinity. Results presented here suggest that reductive dissolution of Mn oxides, in conjunction with changes in salinity, may also be an important process in maintaining high concentrations of Ba in the pore water of subterranean estuaries. In contrast, pore water U was significantly depleted in the subterranean estuary, a result of SGD-driven circulation of seawater through reducing permeable sediments. This finding is supported by surface water concentrations of U in the bay, which were significantly depleted in U compared with adjacent coastal waters. Using a global estimate of SGD, we calculate U removal in subterranean estuaries at 20 x 106 mol U y-1, which is the same order of magnitude as the other major U sinks for the ocean. Our results suggest a need to revisit and reevaluate the oceanic budgets for elements that are likely influenced by SGD-associated processes.This research was supported by the National Science Foundation (OCE-0095384) to M.A.C. and E.R.S., and a WHOI Coastal Ocean Institute Fellowship to M.A.C

Efficient nonlinear predictive error variance for highly parameterized models

Predictive error variance analysis attempts to determine how wrong predictions made by a calibrated model may be. Predictive error variance analysis is usually undertaken following calibration using a small number of parameters defined through a priori parsimony. In contrast, we introduce a method for investigating the potential error in predictions made by highly parameterized models calibrated using regularized inversion. Vecchia and Cooley (1987) describe a method of predictive error variance analysis that is constrained by calibration data. We extend this approach to include constraints on parameters that lie within the calibration null space. These constraints are determined by dividing parameter space into combinations of parameters for which estimates can be obtained and those for which they cannot. This enables the contribution to predictive error variance from parameterization simplifications required to solve the inverse problem to be quantified, in addition to the contribution from measurement noise. We also describe a novel technique that restricts the analysis to a strategically defined predictive solution subspace, enabling an approximate predictive error variance analysis to be completed efficiently. The method is illustrated using a synthetic and a real-world groundwater flow and transport model

Analysis of Protein Palmitoylation Reveals a Pervasive Role in Plasmodium Development and Pathogenesis

Asexual stage Plasmodium falciparum replicates and undergoes a tightly regulated developmental process in human erythrocytes. One mechanism involved in the regulation of this process is posttranslational modification (PTM) of parasite proteins. Palmitoylation is a PTM in which cysteine residues undergo a reversible lipid modification, which can regulate target proteins in diverse ways. Using complementary palmitoyl protein purification approaches and quantitative mass spectrometry, we examined protein palmitoylation in asexual-stage P. falciparum parasites and identified over 400 palmitoylated proteins, including those involved in cytoadherence, drug resistance, signaling, development, and invasion. Consistent with the prevalence of palmitoylated proteins, palmitoylation is essential for P. falciparum asexual development and influences erythrocyte invasion by directly regulating the stability of components of the actin-myosin invasion motor. Furthermore, P. falciparum uses palmitoylation in diverse ways, stably modifying some proteins while dynamically palmitoylating others. Palmitoylation therefore plays a central role in regulating P. falciparum blood stage development

A compendium of ecological knowledge for restoration of freshwater fishes in Australia’s Murray–Darling Basin

Many freshwater fishes are imperilled globally, and there is a need for easily accessible, contemporary ecological knowledge to guide management. This compendium contains knowledge collated from over 600 publications and 27 expert workshops to support the restoration of 9 priority native freshwater fish species, representative of the range of life-history strategies and values in south-eastern Australia’s Murray–Darling Basin. To help prioritise future research investment and restoration actions, ecological knowledge and threats were assessed for each species and life stage. There is considerable new knowledge (80% of publications used were from the past 20 years), but this varied among species and life stages, with most known about adults, then egg, juvenile and larval stages (in that order). The biggest knowledge gaps concerned early life stage requirements, survival, recruitment, growth rates, condition and movements. Key threats include reduced longitudinal and lateral connectivity, altered flows, loss of refugia, reductions in both flowing (lotic) and slackwater riverine habitats, degradation of wetland habitats, alien species interactions and loss of aquatic vegetation. Examples and case studies illustrating the application of this knowledge to underpin effective restoration management are provided. This extensive ecological evidence base for multiple species is presented in a tabular format to assist a range of readers