Optimal patrol routes: interdicting and pursuing rhino poachers

Interdiction patrolling (also known as hot spots policing) is a proactive police operation that depends on good planning. And the pursuit of fleeing suspects is a challenging operation that all police forces engage in on a regular basis. We give software tools that improve the effectiveness of both. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our tools by applying them to the case of rhino poaching in wildlife reserves. An interdiction patrol pre-emptively seeks out poaching parties within a reserve. Upon picking up the trail of a poaching party, a pursuit team needs a pursuit strategy that optimizes their chances of an interception. Our interdiction patrol route tool identifies optimal interdiction patrol routes to walk. This tool is based on a Stackelberg game and represents different types of poachers and their utilities. These utilities are updated (learned) each time new information on poaching party routes is added to the database. Our second tool provides a real-time sequence of team member moves that maximizes the team’s chances of apprehending a pursued party. We show that our tools perform well when applied to simulated and real data.     

The prevention of international economic crime: Make it unprofitable for criminals and cohorts

Economic greed and the possibility of large profits are very powerful incentives for many criminals. This is especially true in the areas of international money laundering and drug related crimes. There are always criminals who are interested in certain activities as long as the financial rewards of these crimes are larger than the possible risks involved. The efforts and tactics which have been used so far to combat international economic crimes were not successful at all and we need to consider new options, even if some of these options seem controversial at first. Doing nothing would have catastrophic consequences for the economic well‐being of our society. Concerted and deliberate action plans are needed to prevent and to discourage criminals, and their facilitators and cohorts, from these types of illegal activities. Governments and citizens need to agree on methods to eliminate the profit motive of these economic crimes. Only after that will we have a chance to prevent the unfair enrichment of small numbers of criminal elements in our society, at the cost of law abiding citizens.     

Viability of Municipal Companies in the Provision of Urban Infrastructure Services

This article discusses the organisational and institutional model of municipal company in the provision of urban infrastructure services in Portugal. The law recently enacted which defined the legal regime for the local business sector, as well as the growing awareness that the new public management models represent great advantages in comparison with the bureaucratic ones that characterise the traditional public administration, make this a current and relevant issue. For the purpose of investigating the viability of this provision model, this research encompasses three complementary analyses. First, the results obtained from a nationwide questionnaire on the features of municipal companies are analysed. Second, a SWOT matrix is constructed to examine the model of municipal company and, third, the total factor productivity (TFP) of these organisations is determined using the index number theory, in order to evaluate their performance and compare it with that of the traditional bureaucratic models. Although the concept of municipal company is based on noble principles and, in theory, it shows advantages compared to other means of service provision, this research points to very negative results regarding the model and leads to the conclusion that the aimed benefits are not achieved in Portugal. There are many causes contributing to this effect, but the political patronage of these companies and the lack of technical competence are presumably two of the most significant ones.     

The 2012 Elections in Mexico: The Birth of a Consolidated Federal Democracy?

In 2012, the simultaneous elections at the federal, state and municipal levels in Mexico reopened the debate about the path of democratic consolidation in the country. With the return of the Revolutionary Institutional Party to the presidency in 2013, there are renewed signs that Mexican democratic consolidation is underway. Particularly important in this process is that the 2012 gubernatorial and mayoral elections have been more competitive, resulting in higher political alternation in power between political parties. Under a changing subnational political context, there are indications that subnational politicians are no longer under the shadow of a dominant party system. As a more consolidated federal democracy, the political landscape in Mexico has become more complex.     

Are Perceptions of Organizational Justice Universal? An Exploration of Measurement Invariance Across Thirteen Cultures

Previous research examined whether justice effects are comparable, focusing on quantitative differences in justice effects. This study examines whether justice perceptions are structured similarly or whether they are qualitatively different across working populations from 13 nations. Confirmatory factor analysis and multi-group analysis show that Colquitt??s (J Appl Psychol 86:386?C400, 2001) four-dimensional model of justice works well across these samples. However, factor intercorrelations and reliabilities are found to systematically vary between cultural samples. Perceptions of justice are more highly intercorrelated in power distant and collectivistic samples, in line with extensions of the relational model of authority. Score reliabilities were lower in collectivistic settings.     

Characteristics and personality profiles of first 100 patients admitted to a secure forensic adolescent hospital

Bluebird House is a mixed-gender adolescent medium-secure forensic unit. There is a paucity of data available about this unique patient group. We aimed to explore the demographic, clinical and personality characteristics of the first 100 patients admitted to a mixed-gender adolescent medium-secure forensic unit. We used a retrospective cross-sectional study of the first 100 consecutive patients admitted to Bluebird House. Demographic and clinical data were collected from the medical notes including the Millon Adolescent Clinical Inventory. The first 100 young people admitted to an adolescent medium-secure unit have had very high incident rates, particularly amongst the females. Incident rate was correlated with a history of sexual assault in female patients. The males were more likely to have been referred from custody and more likely to have a diagnosis of psychosis or autism. We describe similarities and differences to the first 100 admissions admitted to the first secure psychiatric unit for adolescents in Manchester over 20 years ago.     

Influence of bleaching on the enantiomeric disposition of amphetamine-type stimulants in hair

The aim of this work was to study the influence of hair bleaching on the enantiomeric ratios of amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS), including amphetamine, methamphetamine, 3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine, 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine and 3,4-methylenedioxyethylamphetamine. Hair specimens from 14 STA users were treated with a commercial bleaching product during 40 min. After alkaline digestion and solid-phase extraction of bleached and non-bleached hair, the STA enantiomers were derivatised with an in-house synthesised chiral reagent, the (2S,4R)-N-heptafluorobutyryl-4-heptafluorobutoyloxy-prolyl chloride. The diastereoisomers were quantified by GC/MS-NCI. The results showed that the concentrations of all enantiomers decreased in bleached hair in comparison with the non-treated hair (median values between 20 and 39%). The enantiomeric ratios of the STA in bleached hair were not significantly different from those determined in non-treated hair. Our findings pointed out that bleaching treatments decrease concentrations of STA in hair without influencing their enantiomeric ratios.     

Allele frequencies data and statistic parameters for 13 STR loci in a population of the Brazilian Amazon Region

Allele frequencies for 13 short tandem repeat (D3S1358, vWA, D21S11, D18S51, D5S818, D13S317, D7S820, TH01, TPOX, D16S539, CSF1PO, D8S1179 and FGA) loci were determined in a sample of 325 unrelated individuals from the population of the Amazon of Belém, Brazil. These loci are the most commonly used in forensic and paternity testing. The forensic parameters investigated presented high values. The power of discrimination and the probability of exclusion for these 13 STRs are 99.999999999992% and 99.9998%, respectively. In conclusion, these 13 markers are suitable for forensic analysis and paternity tests of the Amazonian population.     

Y-chromosome STR haplotypes in a sample from São Paulo State, southeastern Brazil

Population: Unrelated males from the S?o Paulo State, Brazil (n=617).