A tough nut to crack: performance measurement in specialist policing

  As police forces worldwide increase the number of specialist units within their organisational structures, they require innovative performance measurement frameworks to properly evaluate the effectiveness of these units within the broader policing context. Specialist units are generally either technical in nature (eg forensics) or operational (eg drug or fraud squads). This report describes the development of a performance measurement framework for Auckland Metropolitan Crime and Operational Support (AMCOS), a specialist policing unit of the New Zealand Police. AMCOS encompasses a range of technical and niche units supporting policing operations in New Zealand. The performance framework reflects the roles and functions of the unit and covers forensic performance measures, operations support performance measures, intelligence performance measures and investigations performance measures. The authors have written at a practical level that will assist practitioners to develop similar frameworks that can meet the needs of their specialist units, but they also reflect on analytical and theoretical aspects of performance measurement systems

Mapping the elements of physical security towards the creation of a holistic physical security model

This study has designed a theoretical mapping of complex element relationships within the field of physical security. The main purpose of the mapping is to form individual knowledge structures for modelling and provide a relative understanding of overall risk based on different combinations of physical security arrangements. An understanding of overall risk for modelling purposes should lead to improvements in providing support for decision making within this field. The final series of knowledge structures in this study have been represented by value matrices for element pair assessments within the topic of physical security. The values that have been presented in the knowledge matrices have been gathered from expert opinion and converted to numerical data as a demonstration for a holistic approach to modelling physical security elements. A profile for each respondent and each category group has been developed to be compared for their degree of similarity with other profiles. A correlation technique provides an indication of the degree of consensus within the results

The New "Office Temp": Alternative Models of Contingent Labour

Office temps are contingent workers, predominantly female, with secretarial and administrative skills, who hire their services out through an agency to client organizations requiring temporary labour. As organizations face changes in demand and workload, and seek flexible rather than stable structures, 'temping' is increasing in prevalence and importance, and is being used for increasingly skilled and responsible work. Understanding the work orientations and attitudes of temps is of value to employers, agents, and policy makers. Past studies and prevailing discourse on contingent labour suggest a somewhat negative picture of the temp as a member of the secondary labour market, and as a marginalized and insecure victim unable to secure a firm foothold in the economic marketplace. This study suggests a somewhat different picture

The New "Office Temp": Alternative Models of Contingent Labour

Office temps are contingent workers, predominantly female, with secretarial and administrative skills, who hire their services out through an agency to client organizations requiring temporary labour. As organizations face changes in demand and workload, and seek flexible rather than stable structures, 'temping' is increasing in prevalence and importance, and is being used for increasingly skilled and responsible work. Understanding the work orientations and attitudes of temps is of value to employers, agents, and policy makers. Past studies and prevailing discourse on contingent labour suggest a somewhat negative picture of the temp as a member of the secondary labour market, and as a marginalized and insecure victim unable to secure a firm foothold in the economic marketplace. This study suggests a somewhat different picture

Los múltiples significados de la interdisciplina y la transdisciplina

El trabajo que presentamos se sitúa en el marco de la relación entre el ejercicio epistémico-metodológico y la perspectiva política de la actividad científica, vinculándose además con los fines sociales atribuidos al conocimiento científico y al saber sociológico. Desde diferentes enfoques, se cuestiona la adecuación de las conceptualizaciones teóricas clásicas para explicar los procesos sociales contemporáneos. En ese escenario, no sólo las categorías conceptuales están puestas en duda, sino que las disciplinas asociadas a teorías consagradas están llamadas a dar razones de su condición y de su existencia. Luego, parece apropiado preguntarse no sólo por la actualidad o caducidad de ciertos conceptos de la teoría social, sino también por la articulación y organización disciplinar de ese saber.Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educació

Los múltiples significados de la interdisciplina y la transdisciplina

El trabajo que presentamos se sitúa en el marco de la relación entre el ejercicio epistémico-metodológico y la perspectiva política de la actividad científica, vinculándose además con los fines sociales atribuidos al conocimiento científico y al saber sociológico. Desde diferentes enfoques, se cuestiona la adecuación de las conceptualizaciones teóricas clásicas para explicar los procesos sociales contemporáneos. En ese escenario, no sólo las categorías conceptuales están puestas en duda, sino que las disciplinas asociadas a teorías consagradas están llamadas a dar razones de su condición y de su existencia. Luego, parece apropiado preguntarse no sólo por la actualidad o caducidad de ciertos conceptos de la teoría social, sino también por la articulación y organización disciplinar de ese saber.Evento realizado junto con las VIII Jornadas de Sociología de la UBAFacultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educació

Breaking into BIM: Performing static and dynamic security analysis with the aid of BIM

The design and construction industry is moving towards Building Information Models (BIM) that provide all of the strengths of traditional 3D CAD with an added layer of data allowing new and powerful applications. We investigate the concept of using the data within BIM to better explore security design and considerations. We achieve this by first graphing the physical entities of BIM to capture their relational representation as nodes and links. This graph representation will facilitate the use of graph theory or agent-based simulation to assist in the analysis of the static and dynamic behaviour of the environment around the BIM. We also demonstrate an application of graphing by investigating the use of BIM to explore automated infrastructure security design and consideration via red-teaming. The intent is to make security analysis easier and a process that can be carried out during the design phase of a project, even by non-expert users

NFT, arte digital : Circulación y accesibilidad en plataforma Aura

Partiendo del interrogante acerca de cómo funcionan los NFT, elegimos como objeto de análisis la plataforma argentina de NFT Aura, lugar que se presenta como prometedor para los artistas emergentes latinoamericanos. La versatilidad que presenta el arte digital y en específico esta plataforma, podría ser un espacio para la venta de obras por fuera de los ámbitos legitimados del mundo del arte y así, permitir que los artistas sean poseedores de su producción, al no contar con un intermediario directo entre su trabajo y los potenciales compradores ya que la transacción está dada entre el artista y el comprador. La hipótesis sobre la que fundamentamos nuestra investigación es si esta plataforma como parte del espectro más amplio de los NFT, permite efectivamente democratizar el espacio para los artistas y sus obras, o si, por el contrario, termina reproduciendo las mismas lógicas del circuito del arte argentino contemporáneo. Para ello, nos detendremos a analizar el funcionamiento de los NFT en el marco de la plataforma Aura, indagaremos en la inserción de la plataforma en el circuito artístico contemporáneo; observaremos el nivel de accesibilidad y describiremos cómo se inserta un artista argentino o Latinoamericano a este circuito artístico.Facultad de Arte

The contribution of geogenic particulate matter to lung disease in indigenous children

© 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Indigenous children have much higher rates of ear and lung disease than non-Indigenous children, which may be related to exposure to high levels of geogenic (earth-derived) particulate matter (PM). The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between dust levels and health in Indigenous children in Western Australia (W.A.). Data were from a population-based sample of 1077 Indigenous children living in 66 remote communities of W.A. (>2,000,000 km2), with information on health outcomes derived from carer reports and hospitalisation records. Associations between dust levels and health outcomes were assessed by multivariate logistic regression in a multi-level framework. We assessed the effect of exposure to community sampled PM on epithelial cell (NuLi-1) responses to non-typeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi) in vitro. High dust levels were associated with increased odds of hospitalisation for upper (OR 1.77 95% CI [1.02–3.06]) and lower (OR 1.99 95% CI [1.08–3.68]) respiratory tract infections and ear disease (OR 3.06 95% CI [1.20–7.80]). Exposure to PM enhanced NTHi adhesion and invasion of epithelial cells and impaired IL-8 production. Exposure to geogenic PM may be contributing to the poor respiratory health of disadvantaged communities in arid environments where geogenic PM levels are high