Unnecessary Complexity Research Articles

Historical Child Sexual Abuse Investigations: A Case for Law Reform

Historical child sexual abuse investigations typically present with degraded evidence, which hinders successful prosecutions. However, the poor state of evidence in these cases is not merely a function of the passage of time, but also the result of unnecessary complexity and restrictions on investigative procedures. This is particularly true of the investigative procedures around police obtaining admissions and confessions. Admissions and confessions are among the most potent forms of evidence against an accused person, but they take on an even more important role in investigations where other evidence is degraded. This article argues that the common law prohibition on adverse inferences being drawn from the right to silence, and the exclusion of most sexual offences from the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 (Cth), should be reconsidered as important steps to obtaining more viable evidence for historical child sexual abuse cases.

Unnecessary complexity of home medication regimens among seniors

ObjectiveTo determine whether seniors consolidate their home medications or if there is evidence of unnecessary regimen complexity. MethodsFace-to-face interviews were conducted with 200 community-dwelling seniors >70 years in their homes. Subjects demonstrated how they took their medications in a typical day and the number of times a day patients would take medications was calculated. A pharmacist and physician blinded to patient characteristics examined medication regimens and determined the fewest number of times a day they could be taken by subjects. ResultsHome medication regimens could be simplified for 85 (42.5%) subjects. Of those subjects not optimally consolidating their medications, 53 (26.5%) could have had the number of times a day medications were taken reduced by one time per day; 32 (16.0%) reduced by two times or more. The three most common causes of overcomplexity were (1) misunderstanding medication instructions, (2) concern over drug absorption (i.e. before meals), and (3) perceived drug–drug interactions. ConclusionAlmost half of seniors had medication regimens that were unnecessarily complicated and could be simplified. This lack of consolidation potentially impedes medication adherence. Practice implicationsHealth care providers should ask patients to explicitly detail when medication consumption occurs in the home.

Utilization of multi-rate signal processing for GNSS-SDR receivers

In this article, we propose a low-complexity solution for the decimation chain in the digital front-end (DFE) of global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receivers. The received signals are typically highly oversampled in the DFE of GNSS receivers to reduce the ranging error and therefore to improve the positioning accuracy in the tracking stage of the GNSS receivers. However, this oversampling imposes unnecessary complexity on the acquisition stage of the GNSS receivers where an approximate estimate of the code phase and Doppler frequency shift is produced. Therefore, reducing the sampling frequency for the acquisition stage reduces the overall receiver complexity without any significant effect on the performance of such receivers. The proposed solution for the decimation chain involves the use of infinite impulse response (IIR) filters as the decimation filter as they can be implemented more efficiently in comparison to finite impulse response (FIR). In addition, a hybrid time-frequency domain filtering scheme is proposed here to alleviate the effects of non-linear phase in the decimation IIR filter as well as the analog front-end receivers. The advantages of this proposed method is explored and stated, both from performance and complexity perspectives, through rigorous comparison with alternative available solutions.

The most ambitious plan in 26 years of telecoms market reform? No way!

The European Commission's claim that their proposed new telecoms regulation22COM (2013) 627 – Proposal for a ‘Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council’ laying down measures concerning the European single market for electronic communications and to achieve a Connected Continent, and amending Directives 2002/20/EC, 2002/21/EC and 2002/22/EC and Regulations (EC) No 1211/2009 and (EU) No 531/2012. http://goo.gl/NDnYjV. constitutes “the most ambitious plan in 26 years of telecoms market reform” is preposterous. That honour must belong to the set of new European directives in 2002 which transformed the structure of telecoms regulation and facilitated competition throughout Europe. Instead the plans make great play of a number of actually pretty minor changes and, the Body for European Regulators for Electronic Communications (“BEREC”) has been particularly critical that the proposals will create unnecessary complexity and uncertainty and limit innovation and competition.

Complex procedures creating unnecessary work must be tamed

Unnecessary complexity in the health service makes life harder for staff and patients. Michael Ingram says the time has come to cut back on inefficiencies

Property and Unjust Enrichment: Categorical Truths or Unnecessary Complexity?

This paper is a response to the claim by Professor Birks that retention of a right by a plaintiff does not preclude a claim in unjust enrichment. The paper first outlines and then critiques the key elements in Birks' general thesis in respect of the relationship between and unjust enrichment. The paper then proceeds to suggest that property rights should be understood not exclusively as a response to another event, but, where the tight already exists and has not been lost, as in itself an event causative of legal responses. The authors suggest that such analysis provides a better structural understanding of private law, particularly as it avoids the marginalization of and the unnecessary duplication of causes of action. The paper discusses briefly the ambit of common law and equitable responses to the causative event of rights, and concludes with some observations on the role of ignorance:

Quantification of beam complexity in intensity‐modulated radiation therapy treatment plans

Excessive complexity in intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) plans increases the dose uncertainty, prolongs the treatment time, and increases the susceptibility to changes in patient or target geometry. To date, the tools for quantitative assessment of IMRT beam complexity are still lacking. In this study, The authors have sought to develop metrics to characterize different aspects of beam complexity and investigate the beam complexity for IMRT plans of different disease sites. The authors evaluated the beam complexity scores for 65 step-and-shoot IMRT plans from three sites (prostate, head and neck, and spine) and 26 volumetric-modulated arc therapy (VMAT) plans for the prostate. On the basis of the beam apertures and monitor unit weights of all segments, the authors calculated the mean aperture area, extent of aperture shape irregularity, and degree of beam modulation for each beam. Then the beam complexity values were averaged to obtain the complexity metrics of the IMRT plans. The authors studied the correlation between the beam complexity metrics and the quality assurance (QA) results. Finally, the effects of treatment planning parameters on beam complexity were studied. The beam complexity scores were not uniform among the prostate IMRT beams from different gantry angles. The lateral beams had larger monitor units and smaller shape irregularity, while the anterior-posterior beams had larger modulation values. On average, the prostate IMRT plans had the smallest aperture irregularity, beam modulation, and normalized monitor units; the head and neck IMRT plans had large beam irregularity and beam modulation; and the spine stereotactic radiation therapy plans often had small beam apertures, which may have been associated with the relatively large discrepancies between planned and QA measured doses. There were weak correlations between the beam complexity scores and the measured dose errors. The prostate VMAT beams showed greater complexity than the prostate step-and-shoot IMRT beams. In the treatment planning process, the beam complexity increased as the minimum segment area decreased and as the number of optimization iterations and the maximum number of segments increased. The proposed metrics were effective in characterizing the beam complexity of different disease sites and for different treatment modalities. Efforts should be made to reduce the unnecessary complexity of IMRT beams to minimize the radiation dose uncertainties.

Data Collection Patterns in Hospitals of Tabriz

Purpose: Considering the importance of information in hospitals, this study assessed the common pattern of data collection in Tabriz hospitals and the reasons explaing them. Methods: The study had a descriptive cross-sectional design and all the hospitals in Tabriz city were studied (census). The questionnaire was developed by the researchers consisting of two parts (information about the HIS and indicators for hospital data collection). The content validity of the questionnaire was verified by a panel of experts. Results: Out of the 20 participating hospitals, 19 hospitals were equipped with HIS. In eligible hospitals, the data used to be recorded as 48% manually, 28% by computer, 15% through both methods, and in 9% the indicators were not recorded. Indicators of demographic information entry and their modification; list of prepared medicines for inpatients in hospital pharmacy; and entry of the number of free beds in the wards had the highest rates of computerized data entry upto a proportion of 80%. Indicators of patients' clinical information as well as the safety and data regarding complaints had the highest manual recording rate among the studied hospitals with a proportion of upto 90%. The reasons that the staff didn’t use the HIS included; unnecessary complexity; unfriendliness of the software; poor quality of the used hardware and shortage of options on the software; laws and regulations; fearand personnel’s viewpoints, and finally the hospital approach or policy. Conclusion: Despite spending much cost and time to implement and maintain the HIS, still almost half of the data entry was being done manually. It requires the policies of using the HIS systems to be revised.

An Advanced Modeling and Control Approach for Frequency Regulation in Electric Energy Systems with New Resources

This paper concerns the problem of regulating the frequencies of the evolving electric energy systems. The currently implemented frequency regulation approach is found unable to relieve the impact of the increasingly integrated variable sources such as renewable power plants and price responsive loads. Even several key underlying assumptions of this approach are not likely to hold in this situation. In this paper we propose an enhanced frequency regulation approach by differentiating units participating in frequency regulation both with respect to their location and ability to respond. This approach models the governorturbine-generator dynamics of each individual generator and develops a linearized model of the interconnected power system. Moreover, the singular perturbation technique is employed to reduce the unnecessary complexity of the linear system and simplify the control design. An optimal feedback control law is then designed based on the reduced order model via Linear Quadratic Regulator method. Comparative simulations on a 3bus test power system show the improved control performance obtained by the proposed approach.

Unnecessary Complexity Complexity and the Arrow of Time Charles H. Lineweaver, Paul C. W. Davies, and Michael Ruse, Eds. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2013. 369 pp. $30, £21.99. ISBN 9781107027251.

The contributors examine the nature of complexity and its changes over time as well as their causes.

Why, when and how to use augmented reality agents (AuRAs)

Over the last number of years, multiple research projects have begun to create augmented reality (AR) applications that use augmented reality agents, or AuRAs, as their principle interaction and development paradigm. This paper aims to address this new and distinct field of AuRAs by asking three questions: why should AuRAs be researched, when are they a useful paradigm, and how can they be developed? The first question explores the motivation behind applying AuRAs to AR. Specifically, it investigates whether AuRAs are purely an interaction paradigm, or whether they can also serve as a development paradigm, by outlining in which circumstances it is appropriate for a project to use AuRAs and where their addition would only add unnecessary complexity. A navigational experiment, performed in simulated AR, explores the second question of when AuRAs can be a useful concept in AR applications. Results from this experiment suggest that an embodied virtual character allows for faster navigation along a shorter route than directional arrows or marking the target with an AR "bubble". An exploration of the limitations of the simulated AR environment illuminates how faithfully the experiment recreated the environmental challenges that AuRAs can help to address. Finally, the question of how to develop such applications is addressed through the introduction of the agent factory augmented reality toolkit that allows the rapid prototyping of such applications. Results from a usability study on the toolkit are also presented.

Gordon John Howes 1938-2013 (Fish Systematist)

Gordon John Howes 1938-2013 (Fish Systematist)

Sources of variation in primary care clinical workflow: Implications for the design of cognitive support

This article identifies sources of variation in clinical workflow and implications for the design and implementation of electronic clinical decision support. Sources of variation in workflow were identified via rapid ethnographic observation, focus groups, and interviews across a total of eight medical centers in both the Veterans Health Administration and academic medical centers nationally regarded as leaders in developing and using clinical decision support. Data were reviewed for types of variability within the social and technical subsystems and the external environment as described in the sociotechnical systems theory. Two researchers independently identified examples of variation and their sources, and then met with each other to discuss them until consensus was reached. Sources of variation were categorized as environmental (clinic staffing and clinic pace), social (perception of health information technology and real-time use with patients), or technical (computer access and information access). Examples of sources of variation within each of the categories are described and discussed in terms of impact on clinical workflow. As technologies are implemented, barriers to use become visible over time as users struggle to adapt workflow and work practices to accommodate new technologies. Each source of variability identified has implications for the effective design and implementation of useful health information technology. Accommodating moderate variability in workflow is anticipated to avoid brittle and inflexible workflow designs, while also avoiding unnecessary complexity for implementers and users.

Recycling of oceanic crust and the origin of intraplate volcanism

Source models for intraplate volcanism (IPV) include vertical introduction of material from deep in the mantle (plume model), contamination of the shallow mantle (perisphere and continental mantle delamination models) and derivation by selective partial melting of oceanic crust recycled into the depleted mantle (SUMA/streaky mantle models). The plume hypothesis became the ruling model after a flawed interpretation of helium isotope data in the mid 1980s that led to plumes being imposed on models for crustal recycling into the depleted mantle. This incorporation of otherwise competing concepts, is the cause of unnecessary complexity in modern geodynamic models. The plume model cannot explain all manifestations of IPV and a comprehensive explanation can only be found by invoking the alternative options, combined with their tapping by plate tectonic processes.

Comparison of several approaches representing terrestrial and in-stream nutrient retention and decomposition in watershed modelling

Retention and transformation of nutrients within a river catchment are important mechanisms influencing water quality measured at the watershed outlet. Nutrient storage and reduction can occur in soils as well as in the river and should be considered in water quality modelling. Consideration is possible using various methods at several points during modelling cascade. The study compares the effects of five different equation sets implemented into the Soil and Water Integrated Model (SWIM), one describing terrestrial and four in-stream retention with a rising complexity (including algal growth and death at the highest complexity level). The influences of the different methods alone and in combinations on water quality model outputs (NO3-N, NH4-N, PO4-P) were analyzed for the outlet of the large-scale Saale basin in Germany. Experiments revealed that nutrient forms coming primarily from diffuse sources are mostly influenced by retention processes in the soils of the catchment, and river processes are less important. Nutrients introduced to the river mainly by point sources are more subject to retention by in-stream processes, but both nutrient retention and transformation processes in soils and rivers have to be included. Although the best overall results could be achieved at the highest complexity level, the calibration efforts for this case are extremely high, and only minor improvements of overall model performance with the highest complexity were detected. Therefore, it could be reasoned that for some research questions also less complex model approaches would be sufficient, which could help to reduce unnecessary complexity and diminish high uncertainty in water quality modelling at the catchment scale.

Relevant model complexity for non-charring polymer pyrolysis

The choice of the heat, mass and chemical mechanisms included in a pyrolysis model is often subjective, and detailed justifications of the inclusion or exclusion of the different mechanisms are infrequent. The implicit assumption that models with a higher number of mechanisms reproduce more accurately the reality has led to the recent growth of complexity in pyrolysis modelling seen in the literature. However, as we show in this work, the comparison of several conceptual models predicting the same experimental results does not support this assumption, but reveals the presence of unnecessary complexity and multiple sources of uncertainty. Using a novel approach corresponding to a mechanism sensitivity, the influence of the heat, mass and chemical mechanisms on the transient predictions of surface temperature and mass loss rate (non-flaming conditions) for PolyMethylMethAcrylate (PMMA) samples is investigated. While a small change in the chemical degradation mechanism has a large effect on the predictions of the mass loss rate, the surface temperature is not affected. The heat transfer mechanisms appear to have however a significant effect on both quantities of interest. This study demonstrates that the use of complex chemical mechanisms (e.g. multi-step reaction scheme or oxidative reaction) is not justified if the mechanisms of the heat transfer are kept simple. It is therefore recommended to use consistent levels of crudeness dictated by the heat transfer.

Model-driven engineering with domain-specific meta-modelling languages

Domain-specific modelling languages are normally defined through general-purpose meta-modelling languages like the MOF. While this is satisfactory for many model-driven engineering (MDE) projects, several researchers have identified the need for domain-specific meta-modelling (DSMM) languages. These provide customised domain-specific meta-modelling primitives aimed at the definition of modelling languages for a specific domain, as well as the construction of meta-model families. Unfortunately, current approaches to DSMM rely on ad hoc methods which add unnecessary complexity to the realization of DSMM in practice. Hence, the goal of this paper is to simplify the definition and usage of DSMM languages. For this purpose, we apply multi-level meta-modelling for the systematic engineering of DSMM architectures. Our method integrates techniques to control the meta-modelling primitives offered to the users of the DSMM languages, provides a flexible approach to define textual concrete syntaxes for DSMM languages, and extends existing model management languages (for model-to-model transformation, in-place transformation and code generation) to work in a multi-level setting, thus enabling the practical use of DSMM in MDE. As a proof of concept, we report on a working implementation of these ideas in the MetaDepth tool.

Benchmark simulation models, quo vadis?

As the work of the IWA Task Group on Benchmarking of Control Strategies for wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) is coming to an end, it is essential to disseminate the knowledge gained. For this reason, all authors of the IWA Scientific and Technical Report on benchmarking have come together to provide their insights, highlighting areas where knowledge may still be deficient and where new opportunities are emerging, and to propose potential avenues for future development and application of the general benchmarking framework and its associated tools. The paper focuses on the topics of temporal and spatial extension, process modifications within the WWTP, the realism of models, control strategy extensions and the potential for new evaluation tools within the existing benchmark system. We find that there are major opportunities for application within all of these areas, either from existing work already being done within the context of the benchmarking simulation models (BSMs) or applicable work in the wider literature. Of key importance is increasing capability, usability and transparency of the BSM package while avoiding unnecessary complexity.

Schizophrenia and other Psychotic Disorders inDSM-5

Whereas improving validity and reliability of psychiatric diagnoses were key objectives in the development of DSM-5, enhancing clinical utility was the primary goal. With reference to psychotic disorders, changes addressed limitations in DSM-IV while incorporating new information about the nature of these disorders generated over the past twenty years. With regard to schizophrenia, variation in distinct psychopathological dimensions has been found to better account for the heterogeneity of schizophrenia than traditional subtypes. Resulting changes in DSM-5 will likely include elimination of the classic subtypes of schizophrenia and addition of unique psychopathological dimensions, along with elimination of the special treatment of Schneiderian "first-rank symptoms." In view of the poor reliability and limited validity of DSM-IV schizoaffective disorder, a clearer definition is provided in DSM-5. Considering the discrepant treatment of catatonia in DSM-IV, it is treated consistently across the DSM-5 manual. Minor changes are made in the definition of delusional disorder to reduce spurious comorbidity and unnecessary complexity. A new category of "attenuated psychosis syndrome" is included in the appendix as a condition for further study. In this article, major likely revisions in the DSM-5 (due to be published in May 2013) criteria for schizophrenia spectrum and other psychotic disorders are summarized and their implications for clinical practice are discussed.

Abstract TP380: Increasing the Sample Size in the Secondary Prevention of Small Subcortical Strokes (SPS3) Trial: What Did We Gain?

Introduction: The NIH-funded SPS3 study assessed whether combination antiplatelet therapy (AC) was superior to aspirin alone (AP) in preventing recurrent stroke among patients with a lacunar stroke at baseline. Due to lower than expected overall rates of recurrent stroke, the sample size was increased from 2500 to 3000 to ensure adequate power to detect a 25% reduction in recurrent stroke. The antiplatelet trial was terminated early due to lack of efficacy, coupled with safety concerns. We conducted a retrospective analysis to assess the gains achieved by the sample size re-estimation. Methods: We assessed the difference in stroke recurrence among the first 2500 patients recruited, assuming follow-up ended when the antiplatlet arm terminated, and compared the results to those obtained with the complete 3020 patients. Results: Among the first 2500 patients, we observed 248 events, over an average of 3.9 years follow-up. The recurrent stroke rate for the AC and AP groups was 2.5% and 2.7% per year, respectively. The hazard ratio for AC vs. AP was 0.92 (95% CI: 0.72-1.18). Including the additional 520, only 15 more patients had primary events, and recurrent stroke rates (2.7%, and 2.5% year), and the HR of 0.92 (95% CI: 0.72-1.16) were similar. Conclusions: Despite an increase in sample size in SPS3, there was no appreciable difference in the results obtained for the antiplatelet trial had the study adjustment not been made. While sample size re-estimation is an important tool for ensuring adequate power for detecting treatment effects of interest, there is a potential to add unnecessary cost and complexity when no effect exists. More post-hoc examinations of studies using adaptive designs are warranted to understand their strengths and weaknesses.