Dangerous Weapons Research Articles

Toy Guns in America: Marketing, Children’s Play, and Social Unease

Toy guns have been mass produced, vigorously marketed, and widely consumed in the United States since the latter nineteenth century. They have come in a variety of configurations ranging from close replicas of real firearms to colorful fantasy objects. Some have imitated the sounds and smoke of shooting with powder, while others have fired a variety of non-metallic projectiles. Toy guns have entertained generations of boys and a few girls, but their potential for misuse and being mistaken for dangerous weapons has generated criticism and government regulation. This study presents an historical account of toy gun marketing in America and how long-standing social unease over children's play has periodically transformed these products and their consumption patterns.

CAN YOU IDENTIFY ME AND MY DEATH LATELY? A CHALLENGING TASK FOR EVERY FORENSIC EXPERTINA DECOMPOSED GUNSHOT BODY: AN AUTOPSY BASED CASE REPORT

Firearm usage for injuring or causing death of the opposite person or selfis very dangerous. Dangerous weapons which are still in use by the people illegally in many parts of the world causing devastating crimes and suicides. A case report which challenges the forensic examiner of an unknown deceased individual with gunshot wound to the head. Upon discovery, the body had undergone significant decomposition, posing unique obstacles to post-mortem analysis. Despite the advanced stage of decay, meticulous forensic procedures were employed to ascertain the cause and manner of death. Thorough careful examination of skeletal remains, wounds on the skull was done for estimation of the height, gender and cause of death. This case highlights the complexities involved in conducting forensic investigations under conditions of advanced decomposition and underscores the importance of thorough forensic methodologies in elucidating the truth behind such tragic events.

Nuclear Weapons’ Illegality in International Law

Nuclear weapons are globally recognised as the most dangerous weapons in existence. Their destructive power is incalculable, not only harming the environment, but also affecting the survival and development of mankind and endangering global peace. This paper argues the illegitimacy of nuclear weapons in international law not only by talking about their adverse effects, but also by discussing their own characteristics, such as indistinguishability and overkill.

Vitriol attack on a young woman in Greece: The story of Ioanna's response.

An acid attack is a deliberate act of violence. Sulphuric acid is thrown at a person's face and body with the intention of harming and disfiguring the victim. Sulphuric acid is a dangerous weapon which can cause very serious injuries including severe skin damage, blindness, significant disfigurement and/or permanent disability. We report the case of Ioanna, a 34-year-old woman who was attacked with vitriol by a jealous woman in May 2020. Following her admission to hospital, where Ioanna was an inpatient for 85 days, she underwent nine operations. Since her discharge she has undergone ten more, with further interventions likely in the future. In addition, she has undergone various treatments and procedures to restore her skin. Ioanna's courage and strength has inspired thousands of young children and adults who cope with a variety of health problems.

ONE-YEAR PROSPECTIVE STUDY OF PATTERNS OF HOMICAL DEATHS- AN AUTOPSY BASED STUDY

Objectives: The aim of the study was to observe the profiling of the homicidal cases for 1 year. Methods: The present study was a prospective 1-year study of all autopsies alleged to be homicide under 302 Indian Penal Code, performed in the department of forensic medicine and toxicology at Government Medical College, Amritsar, Punjab, India, from January 01, 2021 to December 31, 2021, (1-year period) after taking permission from the institutional ethical committee. Results: The majority of cases reported were in the age group of 20–49 years, with 24 (61.5%) cases, followed by the age group of 40–59 years, which had 13 (33.3%) cases. 37 (94.9%) cases were males, followed by females 02 (5.1%).The male-to-female sex ratio is 18.5:1; 30 (76.9%) were married, while 09 (23.1%) were unmarried. The deaceased had Sikh religion in 24 (61.6%) cases, followed by Hindus in 11 (28.2%) cases; 26 (66.7%) belonged to the rural area, while 13 (33.3%) belonged to the urban area. The majority of cases where only a sharp weapon was used were 16 (41%), followed by both blunt and sharp in 14 (35.9%) cases, and blunt only in 06 (15.4%). Firearms were used in 03 (7.7%) cases. Conclusion: Based on the aforementioned observations, we believe there is a pressing need to address issues concerning youth, given their frequent involvement in such crimes. Additionally, enforcing strict nighttime surveillance and rigorously implementing laws against individuals in possession of dangerous weapons can contribute significantly to reducing such crimes.

Teachers’ experiences of school violence: Case of three rural high schools in King Cetshwayo District

In South Africa, education is recognized as an inherent entitlement for every child. However, the integrity and security of educational institutions, which are intended to serve as supports of knowledge acquisition, are frequently compromised by pervasive acts of violence. This research explores the firsthand experiences of educators contending with this prevalent issue within the South African educational sphere. A qualitative method grounded in an interpretive paradigm was used to gain insights from ecological systems theory to study the multifaceted nature of school violence. The researchers conducted semi-structured interviews and reviewed pertinent documents to capture the perspectives of educators. Specifically, the study targeted three heads of departments and three educators from rural high schools situated in the King Cetshwayo District, selected purposively to ensure a diverse range of viewpoints. Through an inductive thematic analysis, the study uncovered a myriad of factors influencing the educational milieu, with various manifestations of violence emerging as a prominent theme. Educators recounted enduring physical assaults, verbal harassment, and derogatory remarks from both students and members of the community. Furthermore, the proliferation of dangerous weapons among students exacerbates the gravity of school violence. The findings underline the pressing necessity for community development initiatives and heightened parental involvement as indispensable interventions. By advocating for such measures, educators can be better equipped to effectively confront and mitigate the scourge of school violence. This, in turn, cultivates an environment conducive to optimal teaching and learning outcomes.

A lightweight YOLOv5 for real-time dangerous weapons detection

Deep neural networks are currently employed to detect weapons, and although these techniques provide a high level of accuracy, it still suffers from large weight parameters and a slow inference speed. When it comes to real-world applications, such as weapon detection, these methods are often not suitable for deployment on embedded devices. Because of the huge number of parameters and poor efficiency. The most recent object detection technique, which belongs to the YOLOv5 class, is commonly used for detecting weapons. However, it faces some difficulties such as high computational parameters and an unfavorable detection rate. to solve these shortcomings. an enhanced lightweight Yolov5s approach is suggested. Which consists of a combination of YOLOv5 and GhostNet modules. To evaluate the efficacy of the suggested technique, a set of experiments was performed on the Sohas weapon dataset., which is commonly used as a reference dataset in the field. Compared to the original YOLOv5, the results indicate a slight increase in the proposed model's mean Average Precision (mAP). Furthermore, there has been a reduction of 2.7 in GFLOPs and weights, and the number of model parameters has decreased by 1.42.

A Multi-Weapon Detection Using Deep Learning

The escalating usage of light weapons in criminal and terrorist activities has necessitated the development of advanced weapon detection systems. This study centers on the application of the high-speed deep learning detection model, You Only Look Once version 7 (YOLOv7), to address the need for efficient and swift threat identification. The proposed system, trained on a self-curated dataset rich in images of various dangerous light weapons, is designed to recognize and distinguish multiple weapons simultaneously. The unique value of YOLOv7 in object and specifically weapon detection lies in its outstanding speed and accuracy, as demonstrated by certain weapon categories achieving a mean average precision (mAP) of 97%. The system’s performance can potentially be further enhanced by augmenting the image dataset for each weapon category. This study, therefore, not only validates the critical importance of YOLOv7 in advancing detection methodologies but also presents a practical solution for bolstering public safety.

Real Time Weapon Detection using YOLOv8 and Alert Mechanism

Abstract: Security cameras and video surveillance cameras have become an important partof public safety. However, in many cities, thesesystems still manually detect high-risk situations. Understaffing in security services can lead to delays in detecting incidents or unforeseen threats, putting the public at risk. The aim of this project is to develop a low-cost, effective intelligencebased solution for real-time weapons detection and surveillance video analysis in different situations. As can be seen from many statistics, the incidence of gun and dangerous weapon crimes is increasing every year, making it difficult for the police to solve the problem in time. Crimes caused by guns or knives are very common in many places, especially in places where gun laws do not exist. Early detection of crime is critical to public safety. One way to prevent these situations is to use video surveillance to detect the presence of dangerous weapons such as guns and knives. Monitoring and control now also require monitoring and intervention.

Real Time Weapon Detection using YOLOv8 and Alert Mechanism

Abstract: Security cameras and video surveillance cameras have become an important partof public safety. However, in many cities, thesesystems still manually detect high-risk situations. Understaffing in security services can lead to delays in detecting incidents or unforeseen threats, putting the public at risk. The aim of this project is to develop a low-cost, effective intelligencebased solution for real-time weapons detection and surveillance video analysis in different situations. As can be seen from many statistics, the incidence of gun and dangerous weapon crimes is increasing every year, making it difficult for the police to solve the problem in time. Crimes caused by guns or knives are very common in many places, especially in places where gun laws do not exist. Early detection of crime is critical to public safety. One way to prevent these situations is to use video surveillance to detect the presence of dangerous weapons such as guns and knives. Monitoring and control now also require monitoring and intervention. Here, we present in video a system for tracking weapons suitable for tracking and controlling targets. We use the YOLOv8 (look once) algorithm to detect weapons in live video. YOLO model is an end-to-end deep learning model; it is very popular because it is fast and accurate. Previous methods such as region-based convolutional neural networks (R-CNN) required thousands of network tests to make predictions for an image, which could be time-consuming-Optimization is a laborious and painful process. He focuses on specific areas ofpainting and trains everything personally. The YOLO model, on the other hand, passes the image through the neural network only once. Since speed isimportant in real-time video, we use the YOLOv8 algorithm. This data was trained to classify three groups of weapons (pistols, knives, and artillery). When a weapon is detected, an alert is sent to authorities who can take action and reduce crime before it becomes a crime. Powered by Tensorflow, the system took 294 seconds in the first test toidentify weapon types in 9 categories.

Lethal intimate partner violence and gendered dimensions of the COVID-19 lockdown in Nigeria: evidence from a descriptive analysis of secondary data

IntroductionConcerns emerged over the escalation of intimate partner violence (IPV) as many governments imposed COVID-19 lockdown measures. This paper examined the lethality trends, gender contexts and sources of fatal IPV...

Catch and release: Testing the effect of a citation release policy on crime in Washington, DC

AbstractResearch summaryThis study investigated the effect of an expanded police station citation release policy enacted in Washington, DC in March 2020 on eight types of crime: homicide, sex abuse, robbery, assault with a dangerous weapon, burglary, motor vehicle theft, theft from motor vehicles, and other theft. Monthly‐level multivariate time series analyses employed data from 2013‐2022 and accounted for the relationship between crime, arrests, and the jail population. The expanded policy was hypothesized to increase certain property crimes based on the new guidelines, but results indicated the policy modification was associated with changes in citywide crime counts for one type of crime: homicide.Policy implicationsEfforts around the United States to decarcerate the pre‐trial jail population should examine potential unintended consequences for public safety. The current study failed to detect a statistically significant increase in seven of the eight types of crime during the expanded use of one jail decarceration approach, police station citation release. In the future, jurisdictions looking to reduce their jail population might consider citation release as a speedy and cost‐effective alternative to release‐on‐recognizance, but they should take care to monitor individual defendants and evaluate their own program.

„Quae tibi quaerebam (…) dona Tomitanus mittere posset ager” – o pewnym podarunku znad Pontu (Wokół „Ex Ponto” III 8)

Among the topics discussed by Ovid in Tristia and Epistulae ex Ponto, there is also the topic of gifts. The poet plays the role of both the recipient and the person who can give something to his addressees. In the vast majority of cases, the gifts mentioned are not specific objects, but have an intangible value: the poet perceives the life left to him in terms of a gift, as well as the memory and consolation shown to him by his relatives. He himself wishes to repay the favours received and promises his correspondents eternal fame by including their names in his songs. The Ex Ponto III 8 elegy is unique in this topic. First, Naso notifies the addressee about a material gift sent to him, and secondly, the very gift he decided to offer to his friend is remarkable: a quiver filled with poisoned arrows. Such a gift also played a double role: on the one hand, it reflected the conditions in which the poet found himself, it was, according to his message, the only thing that could be found in Tomis and sent to Rome; on the other hand, it was to serve the recipient to defend himself against his personal enemies. The source texts testify that the arrows dipped in a specific poison were used by the Scythians. The frequency and nature of the mention of this doubly dangerous weapon in both collections of Ovid’s exile poetry, and finally the decision to make it the only material gift sent to the capital, prompted the author of this text to propose a thesis about Ovid’s peculiar fascination with Scythian poisoned arrows.

Firearm restrictions in domestic violence protection orders: Implementation, vetting, compliance, and enforcement

AbstractResearch SummaryWe quantified the implementation of WA state's domestic violence (DV)‐related firearm prohibitions (RCW9.41.800) by the courts and the Regional Domestic Violence Firearms Enforcement Unit (RDVFEU), a regional approach to compliance promotion. We measured implementation, vetting, compliance, and enforcement of firearm prohibitions before (2014–2016) and after (2018–2020) the RDVFEU was implemented using a 55% random sample of granted domestic violence protection orders (DVPOs) in King County, WA (n = 3543). We evaluated differences in judicial orders to surrender firearms and other dangerous weapons (OTSWs), respondent documented compliance, and respondent weapon and/or firearm relinquishment before and after implementation. Compared to DVPOs granted prior to RDVFEU implementation, granted DVPOs after RDVFEU implementation were at least 4.5 times more likely to include an OTSW. RDVFEU implementation was also associated with at least 3.4 times the odds of respondent documented compliance and at least 3.3 times the odds of respondent relinquishment of at least one firearm and/or other dangerous weapon. These findings demonstrate RDVFEU implementation was associated with benefits at each stage of the protection order process with improvements in both judicial enforcement and respondent compliance. Overall, RDVFEU implementation was associated with improvements in granted orders to surrender weapons, respondent compliance, and relinquishment.Policy ImplicationsDV‐related firearm prohibitions can be supported by interdisciplinary teams within the legal system to promote respondent compliance and enhance safety planning for DV victim–survivors.

Social media as a disruptor for academic congresses

Over the past few years, social media has become integral to surgical communication, research, and patient education. Furthermore, they have revolutionized how academic congresses have been held over the past 10 years. There are several benefits resulting from social media integration in scientific meetings, such as disseminating content, increasing engagement, highlighting important messages, and educating patients and physicians. Furthermore, social media platforms provide free and equal engagement of all users; no matter the experience, the level of training, or the socioeconomic background, all participants are free to express their opinion and discuss with world-renowned experts—an opportunity that was available only for the few and privileged ones in the past. Nevertheless, when talking about social media, one must bear in mind that there is a huge variety of platforms that are not all equally used or universally accessed. Besides the benefits highlighted above, this new social media–enhanced reality has some disadvantages as well: lack of any control of content along with anonymity can sometimes lead to dangerous and hostile behaviors as well as set the playground for personal feuds, ulterior financial motives, and bullying.Furthermore, the accuracy of content could be somewhat controversial, especially when pieces of presentations are taken out of context. Violations of intellectual property and copyrights are also to be considered. Social media platforms are a great tool for enhancing academic congresses when appropriately used. It is undebatable that social media has changed how information, content, and material are shared and promoted. Nevertheless, as with everything in life, their use needs to be in “good measure”—appropriate, mindful, and respectful—so that social media can be a powerful tool instead of a dangerous weapon in inappropriate hands.

Treatment with oral or inhaled bronchodilator without inhaled corticosteroids in bronchial asthma: A dangerous weapon!

Abstract Bronchial asthma is the most common chronic lung disease in the obstructive airway disease category with the characteristic feature of “reversible” airflow obstruction. Despite an increase in awareness of risk factors, diagnosis, and treatment options available to treat bronchial asthma, more than half of cases received irrational treatment. Inadequate treatment is reasoning more morbidity and mortality of this easily treatable disease. Inhaled short- and long-acting bronchodilators, antimuscarinic agents, and inhaled corticosteroids (ICSs) are the cornerstone of the treatment of asthma and are categorized as “rescue and controller” role in disease management. Bronchodilators without ICSs are not recommended because of more harm than benefit in bronchial asthma. ICSs are the gold standard and the recommended treatment for asthma due to their anti-inflammatory and disease-modifying property labeled as “game changer role.” Bronchodilators with ICSs will have added benefit of symptom control, improvement in quality of life, and decrease in exacerbation. Combo of bronchodilators with ICSs will decrease the overall cost of care in asthma by improving disease control and decrease in emergency room visits and hospitalizations in intensive care units due to exacerbations.

ПИТАННЯ СУЧАСНОЇ ЗБРОЇ МАСОВОГО УРАЖЕННЯ ПРИ ВИВЧЕННІ ЦИВІЛЬНОГО ЗАХИСТУ, БЕЗПЕКИ ЖИТТЄДІЯЛЬНОСТІ ТА ОХОРОНИ ПРАЦІ В ГАЛУЗІ

The article deals with the peculiarities of teaching issues about modern types of weapon of mass destruction in the study of civil protection, safety of life and labor protection in the industry, as a necessary element of improvement of the educational process in the conditions of a full-scale long-term war with the country-aggressor-terrorist Russian Federation. The peculiarities of layout and lecture material on biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction by their main components and specific topical examples of use against combatants and civilians are shown. The current state of strategic nuclear forces of the main countries of "Nuclear club" (United States, Russian Federation, People's Republic of China, France, The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, India) and the main tactical and technical characteristics of their dry and marine components of "nuclear triad" as the most dangerous types Weapons that can lead to full-scale catastrophic consequences, including "Nuclear autumn" and "Nuclear winter", even to "local" use. It is stated that in 2021 the total expenses of the countries of the world for nuclear weapons have already reached $ 85 billion. In the first place in terms of expenses for maintaining its nuclear arsenal is the United States – $ 45 billion. The United States is planned to spend $ 550 billion in the 1922-2040 years. In the second place of the PRC, which spends up to $ 12 billion every year, and launched a long-term program of modernization and qualitative improvement of the nuclear arsenal. In the third place of the Russian Federation, which spends up to $ 9 billion on the maintenance and re-equipment of its strategic and tactical nuclear forces. The following are: UK – up to $ 7 billion; France – up to $ 6 billion; India – up to $ 2.5 billion; Israel – up to $ 1.5 billion; Pakistan – up to $ 1.2 billion; and DPRK – up to $ 0.7 billion. This nine actual "Nuclear club" member countries can have up to 24,000 nuclear and thermonuclear warlouses in its arsenal, the total explosion capacity of which is equivalent to the explosion force of more than 10 billion tons of TNT: the USA is ~ 11,000 warriors; Russian Federation – ~ 10 thousand warriors; China – ~ 1,5 thousand warriors; France – ~ 400 warriors; UK – ~ 250 warriors; Israel – ~ 200 warriors; India – ~ 200 warriors; Pakistan – ~ 165 warriors; DPRK – ~ 60 warriors. At the same time, only in the US and the Russian Federation together there are up to 21 thousand nuclear and thermonuclear warheads, the power of the explosion of many of which is much exceeding the power of the explosion of atomic bombs, dumped on 6 and 9 August 1945 by US aviation in Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They also consider the possibility of preventive nuclear stroke "low -power" (<50 CT) of the battleships on command centers and strategic objects of the enemy for "only paralyzing damage".

Spatial-temporal meta-path guided explainable crime prediction

Exposure to crime and violence can harm individuals’ quality of life and the economic growth of communities. In light of the rapid development in machine learning, there is a rise in the need to explore automated solutions to crime prevention. The increasing availability of both fine-grained urban and public service data has driven a recent surge in fusing such cross-domain information to facilitate crime prediction. By capturing the information about social structure, environment, and crime trends, existing machine learning predictive models have explored the dynamic crime patterns from different views. However, these approaches mostly convert such multi-source knowledge into implicit and latent representations (e.g., learned embeddings of districts), making it still a challenge to investigate the impacts of explicit factors for the occurrences of crimes behind the scenes. In this paper, we present a Spatial-Temporal Meta-path guided Explainable Crime prediction (STMEC) framework to capture dynamic patterns of crime behaviours and explicitly characterize how the environmental and social factors mutually interact to produce the forecasts. Extensive experiments show the superiority of STMEC compared with other advanced spatial-temporal models, especially in predicting felonies (e.g., robberies and assaults with dangerous weapons).

Progress towards a standardized model of ocular sulfur mustard injury for therapeutic testing

Sulfur mustard (SM) remains a highly dangerous chemical weapon capable of producing mass casualties through liquid or vapor exposure. The cornea is highly sensitive to SM toxicity and exposure to low vapor doses can cause incapacitating acute injuries. At higher doses, corneas fail to fully heal and subsequently develop a constellation of symptoms known as mustard gas keratopathy (MGK) that causes reduced quality of life and impaired or lost vision. Despite a century of research, there are no specific treatments for acute or persistent ocular SM injuries. Here I summarize toxicological, clinical and pathophysiological mechanisms of SM vapor injury in the cornea, describe a preclinical model of ocular SM vapor exposure for reproducible therapeutic studies, and propose new approaches to improve evaluation of therapeutic effects. I also describe recent findings illustrating the delayed development of a transient but severe recurrent corneal lesion that, in turn, triggers the emergence of secondary keratopathies characteristic of the chronic form of MGK. Development of this recurrent lesion is SM dose-dependent, although the severity of the recurrent lesion appears SM dose-independent. Similar recurrent lesions have been reported in multiple species, including humans. Given the mechanistic relationship between the recurrent lesion and chronic, secondary keratopathies, I hypothesize that preventing the development of the recurrent lesion represents a novel and potentially valuable therapeutic approach for treatment of severe corneal SM injuries. Although ocular exposure to SM vapor continues to be a challenging therapeutic target, establishing consistent and reproducible models of corneal injury that enhance mechanistic and pathophysiological understanding will help satisfy regulatory requirements and accelerate the development of effective therapies.

Freedom of Expression and Misinformation Laws During the COVID-19 Pandemic and the European Court of Human Rights

This article assesses the European Court of Human Rights’ possible responses to post-COVID-19 misinformation laws. These laws are intended to protect society but may become dangerous weapons if used by governments wishing to silence opponents. We identify four categories of speech restrictions that appeared during the COVID-19 pandemic. We then present the recent misinformation laws from Council of Europe member states as well as various potential arguments when cases appear before the Court, and assess their potential weight. We also analyze the expected post-pandemic development of the European Convention on Human Rights’ Article 10 jurisprudence.