Un estudio de actitudes punitivas en la comunidad universitaria de la ciudad de Manizales (Colombia)

This paper presents the results of a research on punitive attitudes among university students in the city of Manizales (Colombia). It develops a research on general knowledge, beliefs and opinions on aspects related to the criminal and punitive reality in Colombia of this literate population. The text is divided into three parts: in the first part, a descriptive and analytical theoretical framework is offered to understand the current situation of the Colombian criminal policy, characterized by the phenomena of overcriminalization and punitive increases, with special attention to the supposed democratic support of the legislative interventions. The second part gives a brief methodological explanation of the work done and focus on the importance of using the investigation technique of punitive attitudes survey to carry out quantitative and qualitative studies in criminal policy. The third part, exposes, in broad strokes, the results of the survey. Finally, it is shown that even if is true that the population is prone to support punitive measures, their positions are not supported by reliable knowledge about the reality of crime. Likewise, it is shown that the population, regardless of its ideological inclination, is very supportive of alternative measures to imprisonment.Este trabajo presenta los resultados de una investigación sobre actitudes punitivas realizada entre estudiantes universitarios de la ciudad de Manizales (Colombia). La investigación indaga acerca del conocimiento general, creencias y opiniones sobre aspectos relacionados con la realidad delictual y punitiva en Colombia de esta población alfabetizada. El texto está dividido en tres partes: en la primera, se ofrece un marco teórico descriptivo y analítico para comprender la actual situación de la política criminal colombiana, caracterizada por los fenómenos de sobrecriminalización e incrementos punitivos, con especial atención al supuesto respaldo democrático de las intervenciones legislativas. La segunda parte, presenta una breve explicación metodológica y de la importancia de emplear la técnica de investigación de encuesta de actitudes punitivas para realizar estudios cuantitativos y cualitativos en política criminal. La tercera parte, expone, a grandes rasgos, los resultados de la encuesta realizada. Finalmente, se concluye, que, si bien la población encuestada se muestra en su mayoría favorable para apoyar medidas punitivas, sus posturas no se encuentran respaldadas de un conocimiento fiable sobre la realidad delictual. Asimismo, se demuestra que la población, independiente de su inclinación ideológica, se muestra muy favorable a apoyar medidas alternativas a la prisión. Palabras clave: Actitudes punitivas, pena, delito, medios de comunicación, política criminal, democracia deliberativa

CIBERER : Spanish national network for research on rare diseases: A highly productive collaborative initiative

Altres ajuts: Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII); Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación.CIBER (Center for Biomedical Network Research; Centro de Investigación Biomédica En Red) is a public national consortium created in 2006 under the umbrella of the Spanish National Institute of Health Carlos III (ISCIII). This innovative research structure comprises 11 different specific areas dedicated to the main public health priorities in the National Health System. CIBERER, the thematic area of CIBER focused on rare diseases (RDs) currently consists of 75 research groups belonging to universities, research centers, and hospitals of the entire country. CIBERER's mission is to be a center prioritizing and favoring collaboration and cooperation between biomedical and clinical research groups, with special emphasis on the aspects of genetic, molecular, biochemical, and cellular research of RDs. This research is the basis for providing new tools for the diagnosis and therapy of low-prevalence diseases, in line with the International Rare Diseases Research Consortium (IRDiRC) objectives, thus favoring translational research between the scientific environment of the laboratory and the clinical setting of health centers. In this article, we intend to review CIBERER's 15-year journey and summarize the main results obtained in terms of internationalization, scientific production, contributions toward the discovery of new therapies and novel genes associated to diseases, cooperation with patients' associations and many other topics related to RD research

Characterisation of microbial attack on archaeological bone

As part of an EU funded project to investigate the factors influencing bone preservation in the archaeological record, more than 250 bones from 41 archaeological sites in five countries spanning four climatic regions were studied for diagenetic alteration. Sites were selected to cover a range of environmental conditions and archaeological contexts. Microscopic and physical (mercury intrusion porosimetry) analyses of these bones revealed that the majority (68%) had suffered microbial attack. Furthermore, significant differences were found between animal and human bone in both the state of preservation and the type of microbial attack present. These differences in preservation might result from differences in early taphonomy of the bones. © 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved

NEOTROPICAL ALIEN MAMMALS: a data set of occurrence and abundance of alien mammals in the Neotropics

Biological invasion is one of the main threats to native biodiversity. For a species to become invasive, it must be voluntarily or involuntarily introduced by humans into a nonnative habitat. Mammals were among first taxa to be introduced worldwide for game, meat, and labor, yet the number of species introduced in the Neotropics remains unknown. In this data set, we make available occurrence and abundance data on mammal species that (1) transposed a geographical barrier and (2) were voluntarily or involuntarily introduced by humans into the Neotropics. Our data set is composed of 73,738 historical and current georeferenced records on alien mammal species of which around 96% correspond to occurrence data on 77 species belonging to eight orders and 26 families. Data cover 26 continental countries in the Neotropics, ranging from Mexico and its frontier regions (southern Florida and coastal-central Florida in the southeast United States) to Argentina, Paraguay, Chile, and Uruguay, and the 13 countries of Caribbean islands. Our data set also includes neotropical species (e.g., Callithrix sp., Myocastor coypus, Nasua nasua) considered alien in particular areas of Neotropics. The most numerous species in terms of records are from Bos sp. (n = 37,782), Sus scrofa (n = 6,730), and Canis familiaris (n = 10,084); 17 species were represented by only one record (e.g., Syncerus caffer, Cervus timorensis, Cervus unicolor, Canis latrans). Primates have the highest number of species in the data set (n = 20 species), partly because of uncertainties regarding taxonomic identification of the genera Callithrix, which includes the species Callithrix aurita, Callithrix flaviceps, Callithrix geoffroyi, Callithrix jacchus, Callithrix kuhlii, Callithrix penicillata, and their hybrids. This unique data set will be a valuable source of information on invasion risk assessments, biodiversity redistribution and conservation-related research. There are no copyright restrictions. Please cite this data paper when using the data in publications. We also request that researchers and teachers inform us on how they are using the data