Observar per comprendre. Recull d’anàlisis d’usos i artefactes

Facultat de Belles Arts, Universitat de Barcelona. Assignatura: Artefactes i usos: disseny inclusiu, Curs: 2016-2017, Coordinador: Miquel Mallol Esquef

The effects of problem-oriented policing on crime and disorder

Problem-oriented Policing (POP) was first introduced by Herman Goldstein in 1979. The approach was one of a series of responses to a crisis in effectiveness and legitimacy in policing that emerged in the 1970s and 1980s. Goldstein argued that police were not being effective in preventing and controlling crime because they had become too focused on the “means” of policing and had neglected the “goals” of preventing and controlling crime and other community problems. Goldstein argued that the unit of analysis in policing must become the “problem” rather than calls or crime incidents as was the case during that period. POP has had tremendous impact on American policing, and is now one of the most widely implemented policing strategies in the US. To synthesize the extant problem-oriented policing evaluation literature and assess the effects of problem-oriented policing on crime and disorder Eligible studies had to meet three criteria: (1) the SARA model was used for a problemoriented policing intervention; (2) a comparison group was included; (3) at least one crime or disorder outcome was reported with sufficient data to generate an effect size. The unit of analysis could be people or places. Several strategies were used to perform an exhaustive search for literature fitting the eligibility criteria. First, a keyword search was performed on an array of online abstract databases. Second, we reviewed the bibliographies of past reviews of problem-oriented policing. Third, we performed forward searches for works that have cited seminal problem-oriented policing studies. Fourth, we performed hand searches of leading journals in the field. Fifth, we searched the publications of several research and professional agencies. Sixth, after finishing the above searches we e-mailed the list of studies meeting our eligibility criteria to leading policing scholars knowledgeable in the area of problem-oriented policing to ensure we had not missed any relevant studies. For our ten eligible studies, we provide both a narrative review of effectiveness and a meta-analysis. For the meta-analysis, we coded all primary outcomes of the eligible studies and we report the mean effect size (for studies with more than one primary outcome, we averaged effects to create a mean), the largest effect, and the smallest effect. Because of the heterogeneity of our studies, we used a random effects model. Based on our meta-analysis, overall problem-oriented policing has a modest but statistically significant impact on reducing crime and disorder. Our results are consistent when examining both experimental and quasi-experimental studies. Conclusions: We conclude that problem-oriented policing is effective in reducing crime and disorder, although the effect is fairly modest. We urge caution in interpreting these results because of the small number of methodologically rigorous studies on POP and the diversity of problems and responses used in our eligible studies

Reproductive biology of a bromeligenous frog endemic to the Atlantic Forest: Aparasphenodon arapapa Pimenta, Napoli and Haddad, 2009 (Anura: Hylidae)

The genus Aparasphenodon is restricted to South America and comprises five poorly studied species which present a straight relationship with bromeliads. Herein we present the reproductive biology of the species Aparasphenodon arapapa. Our observations indicate that A. arapapa is a prolonged breeder, reproducing throughout the year using bromeliads as a calling and breeding site. The tadpoles complete their development inside those plants. Males, females and juveniles may also use the bromeliads as a shelter. We also describe the courtship behavior and the parental care of the species with an evidence of temporary fidelity between male and female and propose a new reproductive mode

Reproductive site selection in a bromeliad breeding treefrog suggests complex evolutionary trade-offs.

Reproductive site selection is a key determinant of fitness in many taxa. However, if the site characteristics that enhance offspring survival are detrimental to the parent's survival or mating success, then complex evolutionary trade-offs occur. In the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, males of the treefrog species Aparasphenodon arapapa use the temporary water bodies in forest-floor bromeliads to court and mate. Males fit tightly into the plant with the head blocking the access and after mating, stay in the bromeliad with the offspring. Since evaporation of the temporary water body inside the bromeliad results in reproductive failure, we expected that males would simply choose the largest bromeliad tanks with the most water. We found that although this was generally true, males seemed to avoid both very large bromeliads and very high water volumes. Field observations suggested a trade-off mechanism for this pattern, whereby very large and water-filled tanks would reduce the male's ability to effectively seal the tank entrance, avoid predation, or call to mating females. Males also avoided bromeliads with leaf litter and preferred slightly inclined plants. Our results indicate that during reproductive site selection, this bromeliad-breeder needs to engage in complex trade-offs between selection pressures, balancing water requirements against the need for defense and potentially, the ability to attract a mate

Amphibia, Anura, Bufonidae, Rhinella boulengeri Chaparro, Pramuk, Gluesenkamp and Frost, 2007: Distribution extension, state of Bahia, Brazil

Our new records from two protected areas in the municipalities of Itacaré and Uruçuca, both in southern Bahia, Brazil, extend the known distribution area of Rhinella boulengeri 180 km south from the type locality (Salvador - Rio Cururipe) and 112 km northeast from the municipality of Arataca, state of Bahia

Amphibia, Anura, Bufonidae, Rhinella boulengeri Chaparro, Pramuk, Gluesenkamp and Frost, 2007: Distribution extension, state of Bahia, Brazil

Our new records from two protected areas in the municipalities of Itacaré and Uruçuca, both in southern Bahia, Brazil, extend the known distribution area of Rhinella boulengeri 180 km south from the type locality (Salvador - Rio Cururipe) and 112 km northeast from the municipality of Arataca, state of Bahia.

Urine Proteomics to Detect Biomarkers for Chronic Allograft Dysfunction

Despite optimal immunosuppressive therapy, more than 50% of kidney transplants fail because of chronic allograft dysfunction. A noninvasive means to diagnose chronic allograft dysfunction may allow earlier interventions that could improve graft half-life. In this proof-of-concept study, we used mass spectrometry to analyze differences in the urinary polypeptide patterns of 32 patients with chronic allograft dysfunction (14 with pure interstitial fibrosis and tubular atrophy and 18 with chronic active antibody-mediated rejection) and 18 control subjects (eight stable recipients and 10 healthy control subjects). Unsupervised hierarchical clustering showed good segregation of samples in groups corresponding mainly to the four biomedical conditions. Moreover, the composition of the proteome of the pure interstitial fibrosis and tubular atrophy group differed from that of the chronic active antibody-mediated rejection group, and an independent validation set confirmed these results. The 14 protein ions that best discriminated between these two groups correctly identified 100% of the patients with pure interstitial fibrosis and tubular atrophy and 100% of the patients with chronic active antibody-mediated rejection. In summary, this study establishes a pattern for two histologic lesions associated with distinct graft outcomes and constitutes a first step to designing a specific, noninvasive diagnostic tool for chronic allograft dysfunction

QCloud: a cloud-based quality control system for mass spectrometry-based proteomics laboratories

The increasing number of biomedical and translational applications in mass spectrometry-based proteomics poses new analytical challenges and raises the need for automated quality control systems. Despite previous efforts to set standard file formats, data processing workflows and key evaluation parameters for quality control, automated quality control systems are not yet widespread among proteomics laboratories, which limits the acquisition of high-quality results, inter-laboratory comparisons and the assessment of variability of instrumental platforms. Here we present QCloud, a cloud-based system to support proteomics laboratories in daily quality assessment using a user-friendly interface, easy setup, automated data processing and archiving, and unbiased instrument evaluation. QCloud supports the most common targeted and untargeted proteomics workflows, it accepts data formats from different vendors and it enables the annotation of acquired data and reporting incidences. A complete version of the QCloud system has successfully been developed and it is now open to the proteomics community (http://qcloud.crg.eu). QCloud system is an open source project, publicly available under a Creative Commons License Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0

QCloud: A cloud-based quality control system for mass spectrometry-based proteomics laboratories

The increasing number of biomedical and translational applications in mass spectrometry-based proteomics poses new analytical challenges and raises the need for automated quality control systems. Despite previous efforts to set standard file formats, data processing workflows and key evaluation parameters for quality control, automated quality control systems are not yet widespread among proteomics laboratories, which limits the acquisition of high-quality results, inter-laboratory comparisons and the assessment of variability of instrumental platforms. Here we present QCloud, a cloud-based system to support proteomics laboratories in daily quality assessment using a user-friendly interface, easy setup, automated data processing and archiving, and unbiased instrument evaluation. QCloud supports the most common targeted and untargeted proteomics workflows, it accepts data formats from different vendors and it enables the annotation of acquired data and reporting incidences. A complete version of the QCloud system has successfully been developed and it is now open to the proteomics community (http://qcloud.crg.eu). QCloud system is an open source project, publicly available under a Creative Commons License Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0