The concepts punitiveness and rehabilitation orientation in the general public are generally measured by rather broad attitude items that are not directly related to probation. In this study, two separate attitude scales were used that were tailor-made for the probation context and therefore have a high ecological validity. These ‘ecological scales’ were each analysed with the same predictor set. Cognitive emotive variables showed incremental prediction above demographics. Higher knowledge of probation and more satisfaction with society are related to a higher preference for rehabilitation. Less knowledge of probation and a higher feeling of victimization are related to a more punitive attitude.
The HCR-20V3 is a violence risk assessment tool that is widely used in forensic clinical practice for risk management planning. The predictive value of the tool, when used in court for legal decisionmaking, is not yet intensively been studied and questions about legal admissibility may arise. This article aims to provide legal and mental health practitioners with an overview of the strengths and weaknesses of the HCR-20V3 when applied in legal settings. The HCR-20V3 is described and discussed with respect to its psychometric properties for different groups and settings. Issues involving legal admissibility and potential biases when conducting violence risk assessments with the HCR-20V3 are outlined. To explore legal admissibility challenges with respect to the HCR-20V3, we searched case law databases since 2013 from Australia, Canada, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the UK, and the USA. In total, we found 546 cases referring to the HCR-20/HCR-20V3. In these cases, the tool was rarely challenged (4.03%), and when challenged, it never resulted in a court decision that the risk assessment was inadmissible. Finally, we provide recommendations for legal practitioners for the cross-examination of risk assessments and recommendations for mental health professionals who conduct risk assessments and report to the court. We conclude with suggestions for future research with the HCR-20V3 to strengthen the evidence base for use of the instrument in legal contexts.
The Short-Term Assessment of Risk and Treatability: Adolescent Version (START:AV) is a risk assessment instrument for adolescents that estimates the risk of multiple adverse outcomes. Prior research into its predictive validity is limited to a handful of studies conducted with the START:AV pilot version and often by the instrument’s developers. The present study examines the START:AV’s field validity in a secure youth care sample in the Netherlands. Using a prospective design, we investigated whether the total scores, lifetime history, and the final risk judgments of 106 START:AVs predicted inpatient incidents during a 4-month follow-up. Final risk judgments and lifetime history predicted multiple adverse outcomes, including physical aggression, institutional violations, substance use, self-injury, and victimization. The predictive validity of the total scores was significant only for physical aggression and institutional violations. Hence, the short-term predictive validity of the START:AV for inpatient incidents in a residential youth care setting was partially demonstrated and the START:AV final risk judgments can be used to guide treatment planning and decision-making regarding furlough or discharge in this setting.
The postdoc candidate, Sondos Saad, will strengthen connections between research groups Asset Management(AM), Data Science(DS) and Civil Engineering bachelor programme(CE) of HZ. The proposed research aims at deepening the knowledge about the complex multidisciplinary performance deterioration prediction of turbomachinery to optimize cleaning costs, decrease failure risk and promote the efficient use of water &energy resources. It targets the key challenges faced by industries, oil &gas refineries, utility companies in the adoption of circular maintenance. The study of AM is already part of CE curriculum, but the ambition of this postdoc is that also AM principles are applied and visible. Therefore, from the first year of the programme, the postdoc will develop an AM material science line and will facilitate applied research experiences for students, in collaboration with engineering companies, operation &maintenance contractors and governmental bodies. Consequently, a new generation of efficient sustainability sensitive civil engineers could be trained, as the labour market requires. The subject is broad and relevant for the future of our built environment being more sustainable with less CO2 footprint, with possible connections with other fields of study, such as Engineering, Economics &Chemistry. The project is also strongly contributing to the goals of the National Science Agenda(NWA), in themes of “Circulaire economie en grondstoffenefficiëntie”,”Meten en detecteren: altijd, alles en overall” &”Smart Industry”. The final products will be a framework for data-driven AM to determine and quantify key parameters of degradation in performance for predictive AM strategies, for the application as a diagnostic decision-support toolbox for optimizing cleaning &maintenance; a portfolio of applications &examples; and a new continuous learning line about AM within CE curriculum. The postdoc will be mentored and supervised by the Lector of AM research group and by the study programme coordinator(SPC). The personnel policy and job function series of HZ facilitates the development opportunity.
Predictive maintenance, using data of thousands of sensors already available, is key for optimizing the maintenance schedule and further prevention of unexpected failures in industry. Current maintenance concepts (in the maritime industry) are based on a fixed maintenance interval for each piece of equipment with enough safety margin to minimize incidents. This means that maintenance is most of the time carried out too early and sometimes too late. This is in particular true for maintenance on maritime equipment, where onshore maintenance is strongly preferred over offshore maintenance and needs to be aligned with the vessel’s operations schedule. However, state-of-the-art predictive maintenance methods rely on black-box machine learning techniques such as deep neural networks that are difficult to interpret and are difficult to accept and work with for the maintenance engineers. The XAIPre project (pronounce “Xyper”) aims at developing Explainable Predictive Maintenance (XPdM) algorithms that do not only provide the engineers with a prediction but in addition, with 1) a risk analysis on the components when delaying the maintenance, and 2) what the primary indicators are that the algorithms used to create inference. To use predictive maintenance effectively in Maritime operations, the predictive models and the optimization of the maintenance schedule using these models, need to be aware of the past and planned vessel activities, since different activities affect the lifetime of the machines differently. For example, the degradation of a hydraulic pump inside a crane depends on the type of operations the crane performs. Thus, the models do not only need to be explainable but they also need to be aware of the context which is in this case the vessel and machinery activity. Using sensor data processing and edge-computing technologies that will be developed and applied by the Hanze UAS in Groningen, context information is extracted from the raw sensor data. The XAIPre project combines these Explainable Context Aware Machine Learning models with state-of-the-art optimizers, that we already developed in the NWO CIMPLO project at LIACS, in order to develop optimal maintenance schedules for machine components. The optimizers will be adapted to fit within XAIPre. The resulting XAIPre prototype offers significant competitive advantages for companies such as Heerema, by increasing the longevity of machine components, increasing worker safety, and decreasing maintenance costs. XAIPre will focus on the predictive maintenance of thrusters, which is a key sub-system with regards to maintenance as it is a core part of the vessels station keeping capabilities. Periodic maintenance is currently required in fixed intervals of 5 years. XPdM can provide a solid base to deviate from the Periodic Maintenance prescriptions to reduce maintenance costs while maintaining quality. Scaling up to include additional components and systems after XAIPre will be relatively straightforward due to the accumulated knowledge of the predictive maintenance process and the delivered methods. Although the XAIPre system will be evaluated on the use-cases of Heerema, many components of the system can be utilized across industries to save maintenance costs, maximize worker safety and optimize sustainability.
