Are Hispanics Discriminated Against in the US Criminal Justice System?

Recent publications have contributed to increase the perception among Hispanics of an unfair and unequal treatment of this community by the US Criminal Justice System. One of the major concerns was the claim that Hispanics are incarcerated before conviction nearly twice as often as Whites. Unfair treatment perception by the population reduces legitimacy of police and government, and thus, it is imperative to analyze these uninvestigated allegations. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to address said allegations of discrimination against Hispanics and analyze with updated and reliable statistics whether Hispanics are incarcerated before conviction more often than Whites. There has been much research exploring the effects of race and ethnicity in the US criminal justice system, however most of it is focused on African Americans but not Hispanics although it is the largest and fastest growing minority in the United States. The present study is based on data collected in the Annual Survey of Jails, 2014 prepared by the Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics, US Department of Justice. Starting in 2010, the Bureau of Justice Statistics improved the Annual Survey of Jails survey instruments to address certain topics, among others, the number of inmates that are unsentenced. Therefore this allows for the first time to obtain such information with reliable data and not based on a sample survey estimation. From the regression analysis of the data of this study, it resulted that the model accounted for 77% of the explanation of the relationship between the possibility of being incarcerated without conviction in a US jail and the fact of being Hispanic. However, this relationship was not statistically significant when controlling for age and gender. The Level of confidence in this study was 95%.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/gradposters/1019/thumbnail.jp

Insights on the use of wind speed vertical extrapolation methods

The present work aims to study the influence of using different methods for wind speed extrapolation in energy production calculations. A dataset of 21 meteorological masts from several landscape characteristics and locations, with at least one year of 10-minute wind speed/direction data, was used as the basis for calculations. Both the power law through estimation of wind shear coefficients, and the logarithmic-based profile using WAsP, were used as mathematical models for predicting wind shear. Wind speed extrapolation was performed either from the top-most height, using a distance method that incorporated all measurement heights, or using the function for wind shear coefficient prediction. It was found that using the logarithmicbased profile was the less reliable of all studied methods. The study showed that the most accurate method was the power law with wind shear coefficients estimated from the two upper heights closest to the extrapolation height, by wind direction sector of 30º, and the wind speeds extrapolation from the topmost height of the two. It is suggested that the use of this method reduces uncertainty in AEP estimates.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Development of a metric of aquatic invertebrates for volunteers (MAIV): a simple and friendly biotic metric to assess ecological quality of streams

Citizen science activities, involving local people in volunteer-supported and sustainable monitoring programs, are common. In this context, the objective of the present work was to develop a simple Metric of Aquatic Invertebrates for Volunteers (MAIV), including a user-friendly tool that can be easily accessed by volunteers, and to evaluate the e ciency of a volunteer monitoring program following an audit procedure. To obtain MAIV values, macroinvertebrate communities were reduced to 18 surrogate taxa, which represented an acceptable compromise between simplicity, e ciency, and reproducibility of the data, compared to the regular Water Framework Directive monitoring. When compared to results obtained with the National Classification System of Portugal, MAIV accurately detected moderate, poor, and bad ecological status. Thus, MAIV can be used by volunteers as a complement to the o cial monitoring program, as well as a prospective early warning tool for local problems related to ecological quality. Volunteers were students supervised by their teachers. Results obtained by volunteers were compared to results obtained by experts on macroinvertebrate identification to measure the e ciency of the procedure, by counting gains and losses on sorting, and identification. Characteristics of groups of volunteers (age and school level) did not influence significantly the e ciency of the procedure, and generally results of volunteers and experts matched.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Anaplastic thyroid cancer: how far can we go?

Globally, thyroid cancer accounts for 2 % of all cancer diagnoses, and can be classified as well-differentiated or undifferentiated. Currently, differentiated thyroid carcinomas have good prognoses, and can be treated with a combination of therapies, including surgical thyroidectomy, radioactive iodine therapy and hormone-based therapy. On the other hand, anaplastic thyroid carcinoma, a subtype of undifferentiated thyroid carcinoma characterized by the loss of thyroid-like phenotype and function, does not respond to either radioactive iodine or hormone therapies. In most cases, anaplastic thyroid carcinomas are diagnosed in later stages of the disease, deeming them inoperable, and showing poor response rates to systemic chemotherapy. Recently, treatment courses using multiple-target agents are being explored and clinical trials have shown very promising results, such as overall survival rates, progression-free survival and tumor shrinkage. This review is focused on thyroid carcinomas, with particular focus on anaplastic thyroid carcinoma, exploring its undifferentiated nature. Special interest will be given to the treatment approaches currently available and respective obstacles or drawbacks. Our purpose is to contribute to understand why this malignancy presents low responsiveness to current treatments, while overviewing novel therapies and clinical trials.This research was funded by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) through the Project Reference UID/DTP/04138/2019.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Alternatives of state interventionism in the sugar agroindustry: Argentina and Brazil, 1880-1938

El texto propone un análisis comparativo de las diversas alternativas de intervención estatal en la agroindustria del azúcar que se implementaron en Brasil y Argentina a partir de la década de 1880. Crisis de sobreproducción, pérdida de competencia en el mercado internacional, conflictos entre diferentes actores y zonas productoras dieron origen a arreglos institucionales en los dos países que perseguían valorizar el producto, conciliar intereses y hacer previsible el comportamiento de un mercado siempre complejo. El análisis se cierra en 1937-1938 con la inauguración de la experiencia del Estado Novo en Brasil, que profundizó el intervencionismo, y el fracaso en la Argentina de un intento de aprobar una ley que habría involucrado de manera decisiva el Estado en el desarrollo azucarero.This paper proposes a comparative analysis of the various options of State intervention in the sugar agroindustry, which were implemented in Brazil and Argentina beginning in the 1880s. Overproduction crisis, loss of international competitiveness, conflicts among the various actors and production zones, all led to new institutional arrangements in each country, as they sought to increase prices, harmonize interests and bring planning to an always complex market. The analysis closes in 1937-1938 with the start of the Estado Novo experience in Brazil, which increases state intervention, and the failure, in Argentina, of the attempt to approve a law which would involve the State decisively in the development of the sugar industry.Fil: Campi, Daniel Enrique A.. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán; ArgentinaFil: Pinto de Moura Filho, Héctor. Associação Biblioteca de Cultura; BrasilFil: Bravo, Maria Celia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Instituto Superior de Estudios Sociales. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Instituto Superior de Estudios Sociales; Argentin

Facebook: Risks and Opportunities in Brazilian and Portuguese Youths with Different Levels of Psychosocial Adjustment

This study aimed to assess the risks and opportunities associated with Facebook usage and to explore the moderating role of psychosocial (mal)adjustment, nationality and age in these relationships. This correlational study involved a sample of 452 Brazilian and 500 Portuguese youths, aged between 14 and 20 years. Results showed that these youths spent a daily average of 61-120 minutes on Facebook, three to four times per week, displaying a positive attitude towards its use. These characteristics were most notable in the Brazilian youths [t(950) = 5.64, p < .001; t(950) = –5.07, p < .001; and t(950) = – 6.85, p < .001, respectively]. The Portuguese youths ran more risks than the Brazilians [t(950) = 6.36, p < .001], but both youths equally enjoyed the opportunities. In the case of the Portuguese youths, the risks and opportunities were moderated by the frequency of use, in other words “the higher the usage, the more risks and opportunities” (β = –.235 p < .001and β = –.167, p < .001, respectively). The psychosocial adjustment indicators did not moderate the effects of Facebook usage habits in risks and opportunities. The less psychosocially adjusted youths were those who ran more risks and also made the most of the opportunities. The results are discussed in light of the role of psychological, socio-cultural and developmental factors.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Adaptive potential of hybridization among malaria vectors: Introgression at the immune locus TEP1 between Anopheles coluzzii and A. gambiae in 'Far-West' Africa

“Far-West” Africa is known to be a secondary contact zone between the two major malaria vectors Anopheles coluzzii and A. gambiae.We investigated gene-flow and potentially adaptive introgression between these species along a west-to-east transect in Guinea Bissau, the putative core of this hybrid zone. To evaluate the extent and direction of gene flow, we genotyped site 702 in Intron-1 of the para Voltage-Gated SodiumChannel gene, a species-diagnostic nucleotide position throughout most of A. coluzzii and A. gambiae sympatric range. We also analyzed polymorphismin the thioester-binding domain (TED) of the innate immunity-linked thioester-containing protein 1 (TEP1) to investigate whether elevated hybridization might facilitate the exchange of variants linked to adaptive immunity and Plasmodium refractoriness. Our results confirm asymmetric introgression of genetic material from A. coluzzii to A. gambiae and disruption of linkage between the centromeric "genomic islands" of inter-specific divergence. We report that A. gambiae from the Guinean hybrid zone possesses an introgressed TEP1 resistant allelic class, found exclusively in A. coluzzii elsewhere and apparently swept to fixation inWest Africa (i.e. Mali and Burkina Faso). However, no detectable fixation of this allele was found in Guinea Bissau, which may suggest that ecological pressures driving segregation between the two species in larval habitats in this region may be different from those experienced in northern and more arid parts of the species’ range. Finally, our results also suggest a genetic subdivision between coastal and inland A. gambiae Guinean populations and provide clues on the importance of ecological factors in intra-specific differentiation processes

Three months-old’ preferences for biological motion configuration and its subsequent decline

To perceive, identify and understand the action of others, it is essential to perceptually organize individual and local moving body parts (such as limbs) into the whole configuration of a human body in action. Configural processing—processing the relations among features or parts of a stimulus—is a fundamental ability in the perception of several important social stimuli, such as faces or biological motion. Despite this, we know very little about how human infants develop the ability to perceive and prefer configural relations in biological motion. We present two preferential looking experiments (one cross-sectional and one longitudinal) measuring infants’ preferential attention between a coherent motion configuration of a person walking vs. a scrambled point-light walker (i.e., a stimulus in which all configural relations were removed, thus, in which the perception of a person is impossible). We found that three-month-old infants prefer a coherent point-light walker in relation to a scrambled display, but both five- and seven-month-old infants do not show any preference. We discuss our findings in terms of the different perceptual, attentional, motor, and brain processes available at each age group, and how they dynamically interact with selective attention toward the coherent and socially relevant motion of a person walking during our first year of life.ICL was supported by the Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation (PD/BD/105966/2014), and AFP by the research grants PTDC/PSI-GER/2463/2021, PTDC/MHC-PCN/1530/2014, and IF/00217/2013. This study was conducted at the Psychology Research Centre (PSI/01662), School of Psychology, University of Minho, supported by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) through the Portuguese State Budget (Ref.: UIDB/PSI/01662/2020)

Analysis Of An Order Fulfilment Process At A Metalwork Company Using Different Lean Methodologies

This article presents the analysis of a process by using four distinct approaches, each of them recurring to different Lean tools in order to get a detailed and multidimensional overview of the process. The primary objective of this study was to identify activities which add value in the order fulfilment process of a metalwork company. In this context, one also addressed issues such as waste, problems and their causes, in order to define intervention priorities and select actions capable to enhance the performance and efficiency of the process. The secondary objective was to evaluate and compare the results of the analysis made through different mapping techniques. From this study results the proposal of a tool to identify perceived micro-inefficiencies, as well as the impact of these on the production sub-process. Designated as Perceived Waste Mapping (PWM), this method allowed one to estimate that the ratio between the value-added hours and the total number of work hours at the company will be approximately 30%, far from the figure of 84% registered in the existing time and production records.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A DMS to Support Industrial Process Decision-Making: a contribution under Industry 4.0

This paper presents the development of an Information System (IS) an automotive manufacturing.The system was developed to reduce waste and increase productivity, through better decision-making. The used methodology to implement it was the Business Process Management (BPM). A DMS (Document Management System) for decision making support was built, reducing the action time and providing faster maintenance of all needed data. As a result, the users time decision making and the administrator maintenance was reduced by a total of 26 minutes, corresponding to a 1.61 € reduction per unit built, which means an efficiency of 41%. The present work fits in the company’s strategy for Industry 4.0 and a more sustainable environment, being a positive driver of Industry 4.0 implementation and transformation.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio