General and Specific Displacement Effects of Police Crackdowns: Criminal Events and "Local" Criminals

Geographically focused police crackdowns have widely diffused amongst larger American police departments in the past decade and have been recently cited in a Police Executive Research Forum survey as the most commonly used tactic to combat violent crime. Evidence from a number of randomized control trials, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses suggests that these interventions have the ability to reduce crime without displacing it to nearby locations. However, virtually every study of crime displacement in response to a geographically concentrated police intervention focuses on small buffer zones immediately surrounding the intervention location. While crime may not displace just around the corner, to date, few studies have tested displacement beyond this limited geographic constraint. During the summer of 2011 the Metropolitan Police Department of Washington D.C. implemented a geographically focused arrest-driven police crackdown called the Summer Crime Initiative (SCI). The current work aims to examine the impact of the SCI on the volume and placement of robbery through a quasi-experimental research design. By developing a theoretically informed framework, a broader set of hypotheses regarding local and non-local crime displacement are tested. The results of this study confirm prior research on crime displacement. Despite reductions in robbery, there is no evidence that these offenses or offenders were displaced within or beyond two blocks of the intervention sites

The Failure to Innovate: A Study of Non Adoption of Computerized Crime Mapping in American Police

Scholars have noted a recent accumulation of innovations in policing (Bayley, 1994; Weisburd & Braga, 2006; Weisburd & Eck, 2004). Due to the increase and scope of these innovations, some scholars have called this the most dramatic period of innovation in policing (Bayley, 1994). Studies have tried to explain why this dramatic period of innovation occurred, but while in general the study of the diffusion of innovations is widespread (Rogers, 2003), there have been relatively few in policing (Klinger, 2003; Weisburd & Braga, 2008). Particularly, little is known about the relationship between resources and innovation. The current work attempts to better explain this relationship by increasing the scope of resources measured and by disentangling the effects of measures employed in the extant literature. In contrast to previous studies (Chamard, 2004; King, 1998; Mastrofski et al., 2003; Mastrofski et al., 2007; Skogan & Hartnett, 2005; Weisburd et al., 2003), findings from the current work indicate that various measures of resources are not related to innovation and those who fail to innovate

Design and Analysis of Mechanical Gripper Technologies for Handling Mesh Electrodes in Electrolysis Cell Production

As climate change accelerates, the demand for green energy is growing significantly. Due to the intermittent nature of renewable energy, the need for long-term storage is growing at the same rate. Hydrogen presents itself as a promising option for long-term storage, the need for electrolysis plants is therefore increasing significantly. Solutions for scaling up alkaline electrolysis production are currently lacking, particularly in the handling of large mesh electrodes. Therefore, new gripping concepts and technologies have to be developed to enable precise and automated handling of the electrodes, as established handling methods have failed due to the porous, limp and weakly magnetic material properties. This paper therefore presents two new ingressive gripping technologies in the form of individual gripping elements, which can later be combined to form a gripper. The technologies identified here are based on a threaded structure on the one hand and a spiral-like structure on the other. Depending on the mesh geometry to be handled, the gripper elements are designed accordingly. In order to grip the mesh, the gripping element is moved forward and turned at the same time. For verification, sample gripper elements were tested for a range of mesh geometries. The individual gripper elements were produced using selective Laser melting process (SLM), as the fine structures would be exceedingly challenging as well as very costly to produce using conventional manufacturing methods. The gripper elements were tested for three aspects of the handling process: Reliability, retention force and precision. The results in finer meshes show a high holding force for the spiral structures, while the screw structures show more potential in precision. In terms of performance in finer meshes, both structures have potential for use in mesh electrodes, with the low retention force of the screw structures due to the increasing imprecision of the SLM process

Proof-of-concept for characterization of neurodegenerative disorders utilizing two non-REM sleep biomarkers.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: This proof-of-concept study aimed to determine whether the combined features of two non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep biomarkers acquired predominantly in-home could characterize different neurodegenerative disorders. METHODS: Sleep spindle duration and non-REM hypertonia (NRH) were evaluated in seven groups including a control group (CG = 61), and participants with isolated REM sleep behavior disorder (iRBD = 19), mild cognitive impairment (MCI = 41), Parkinson disease (PD = 16), Alzheimer disease dementia (ADem = 29), dementia with Lewy Bodies or Parkinson disease dementia (LBD = 19) and progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP = 13). One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), Mann-Whitney U, intra-class (ICC) and Spearman ranked correlations, Bland-Altman plots and Kappa scores, Chi-square and Fisher exact probability test, and multiple-logistic regression were focused primarily on spindle duration and NRH and the frequencies assigned to the four normal/abnormal spindle duration/NRH combinations. RESULTS: ANOVA identified group differences in age, sleep efficiency, REM, NRH (p < 0.0001) and sleep time (p = 0.015), Spindle duration and NRH each demonstrated good night-to-night reliabilities (ICC = 0.95 and 0.75, Kappa = 0.93 and 0.66, respectively) and together exhibited an association in the PD and LBD groups only (p < 0.01). Abnormal spindle duration was greater in records of PSP (85%) and LBD (84%) patients compared to CG, MCI, PD and ADem (p < 0.025). Abnormal NRH was greater in PSP = 92%, LBD = 79%, and iRBD = 74% compared to MCI = 32%, ADem = 17%, and CG = 16% (p < 0.005).The combination biomarker normal spindle duration/normal NRH was observed most frequently in CG (56%) and MCI (41%). ADem most frequently demonstrated normal spindle duration/normal NRH (45%) and abnormal spindle duration/normal NRH (38%). Normal spindle duration/abnormal NRH was greatest in iRBD = 47%, while abnormal spindle duration/abnormal NRH was predominant in PSP = 85% and LBD = 74%. CONCLUSION: The NREM sleep biomarkers spindle duration and NRH may be useful in distinguishing patients with different neurodegenerative disorders. Larger prospective cohort studies are needed to determine whether spindle duration and NRH can be combined for prodromal assessment and/or monitoring disease progression

The Accuracy and Reliability of Sleep Staging and Sleep Biomarkers in Patients with Isolated Rapid Eye Movement Sleep Behavior Disorder.

PURPOSE: This study aimed to establish the diagnostic accuracy of a previously validated sleep staging system in patients with probable isolated REM sleep behavior disorder (iRBD), and to compare physicians diagnoses of iRBD based on REM sleep without atonia (RSWA) to non-REM hypertonia (NRH), a sleep measure independently associated with Parkinsonian spectrum disorders. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Twenty-six patients with a history of dream enactment behavior underwent a diagnostic PSG with simultaneous Sleep Profiler (SP) acquisition at two sites. PSG and SP records were sleep staged, and two sleep neurologists independently diagnosed iRBD based on the presence or absence of polysomnographic identified RSWA. Comparisons for PSG vs SP sleep staging and the qualitative presence or absence of PSG-based RSWA vs automated SP-detected NRH was performed using kappa coefficients (k), positive and negative percent agreements (PPA and NPA), and chi-square tests. RESULTS: The kappa scores from Sites-1 and -2 for PSG vs SP staging were different for Wake (k=0.82 vs 0.65), N2 (k=0.63 vs 0.72) and REM (k=0.83 vs.0.72). The by-site kappa values for stage N3 increased from 0.72 and 0.37 to 0.88 and 0.74 after PSG records were reedited. The kappa values for between-physician agreement in iRBD diagnoses were fair (k = 0.22). The agreement between each physicians iRBD diagnoses and NRH were also fair (k=0.29 and 0.22). Abnormal NRH agreed with at least one physicians iRBD diagnosis in 83% of the records. The PPA resulting from between-physician iRBD agreement was stronger and the NPA weaker than the values obtained from comparison of each physicians iRBD diagnosis and abnormal NRH. CONCLUSION: The potential utility of RSWA and stage N3 as neurodegenerative disorder biomarkers was influenced by between-site variability in visual scoring. The degree to which NRH was associated with iRBD was similar to the between-physician agreement in their diagnosis of iRBD using RSWA

Non-REM sleep with hypertonia in Parkinsonian Spectrum Disorders: A pilot investigation.

INTRODUCTION: From an ongoing multicenter effort toward differentiation of Parkinsonian spectrum disorders (PSD) from other types of neurodegenerative disorders, the sleep biomarker non-rapid-eye-movement sleep with hypertonia (NRH) emerged. METHODS: This study included in the PSD group patients with dementia with Lewy bodies/Parkinson disease dementia (DLB/PDD = 16), Parkinson disease (PD = 16), and progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP = 13). The non-PSD group included patients with Alzheimer disease dementia (AD = 24), mild cognitive impairment (MCI = 35), and a control group with normal cognition (CG = 61). In-home, multi-night Sleep Profiler studies were conducted in all participants. Automated algorithms detected NRH, characterized by elevated frontopolar electromyographic power. Between-group differences in NRH were evaluated using Logistic regression, Mann-Whitney U and Chi-squared tests. RESULTS: NRH was greater in the PSD group compared to non-PSD (13.9 ± 11.0% vs. 3.1 ± 4.7%, P < 0.0001). The threshold NRH≥5% provided the optimal between-group differentiation (AUC = 0.78, P < 0.001). NRH was independently associated with the PSD group after controlling for age, sex, and SSRI/SNRI use (P < 0.0001). The frequencies of abnormal NRH by subgroup were PSP = 92%, DLB/PDD = 81%, PD = 56%, MCI = 26%, AD = 17%, and CG = 16%. The odds of abnormal NRH in each PSD subgroup ranged from 3.7 to 61.2 compared to each non-PSD subgroup. The night-to-night and test-retest intraclass correlations were excellent (0.78 and 0.84, both P < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: In this pilot study, NRH appeared to be a novel candidate sleep biomarker for PSD-related neurodegeneration. Future studies in larger cohorts are needed to confirm these findings, understand the etiology of NRH magnitude/duration, and determine whether it is an independent prodromal marker for specific neurodegenerative pathologies

Integrative visual data mining of biomedical data : investigating cases in chronic fatigue syndrome and acute lymphoblastic leukaemia

This chapter presents an integrative visual data mining approach towards biomedical data. This approach and supporting methodology are presented at a high level. They combine in a consistent manner a set of visualisation and data mining techniques that operate over an integrated data set of several diverse components, including medical (clinical) data, patient outcome and interview data, corresponding gene expression and SNP data, domain ontologies and health management data. The practical application of the methodology and the specific data mining techniques engaged are demonstrated on two case studies focused on the biological mechanisms of two different types of diseases: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia, respectively. The common between the cases is the structure of the data sets