Dangerous Weapons Research Articles

Patterns of Truth: Explaining Trust, Social Media and Truth in Indonesian Contemporary Politics

This study analyzes the utilization of social media in political communication processes in the post-truth era. Today, the utilization of various social media has had a significant impact on the process of politics worldwide. Facebook and Twitter are the most popular social media platforms in the world, therefore, the most used in politics. Both of them directly influence the democratic process. The lack of transparency on social media platforms, however, has become a major problem. Information on social media is often misleading and ignores facts and truth. Social media users can easily disseminate unverified information to other social media users. Moreover, in the age of post-truth, people tend to disclose themselves to ideas, values, and opinions that they have already accepted, instead of the true facts. The objective of this research is to assess the usage of social media in the democratic process in the post-truth era. Therefore, the research question is: how do people use social media to seek truth and trust in politics in the age of the information overload? Using phenomenology as the method, the main focus of this study is the experience of the informants. The results of this research suggest that social media can be used as an opportunity for, as well as a challenge to democracy. Besides playing a role in the democratic process, social media can be a dangerous weapon in political discourse. That is why critical thinking is needed so that we can distinguish between true or factual information and fake news delivered through social media.

Controlling Students’ Disciplinary Problems in Universities

The study examined the management strategies for controlling students’ disciplinary problems in the universities south east geopolitical zone of Nigeria. Descriptive survey design was used for the study. The population of the study comprises of about 5037 administrators and student union executives; the sample of study was 1712 (980 males and 732 females) made up of 1,536 university administrators and student union executives in the ten public (five federal and five state-owned) universities in South East Geopolitical Zone. Five percent of 3,501 lecturers were selected using proportionate random sampling technique. Structured questionnaire, oral interview and focus group discussion guide were developed and used for data collection after validation by two experts in educational administration and educational evaluation. The instruments were trial-tested for reliability using Cronbach Alpha reliability coefficient to a random sample of 30 university administrators outside the study area. The overall internal consistency yielded 0.97.
 Four research questions and one hypothesis guided the study. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the four research questions, while oral interview and focus group discussion guide were analyzed qualitatively; t- test statistic was used to test the null hypothesis at 0.05 level of probability. There were no significant differences in the mean ratings of males and females, experienced and less experienced and institutional ownership on university administrators on the management strategies for controlling students’ disciplinary problems in universities. The result also revealed that there are students’ disciplinary problems that constrain the acts of teaching and learning in universities and management strategies like Administrative strategies, which include banning of the sale of alcohol and drugs in the school premises; Security strategies which include searching and ceasing all dangerous weapons from students from time to time; Education/Enlightenment strategies, which will create forum for university administrators and students dialogue in Universities in South East Nigeria.

Campaign of fear and consumption: problematizing gender-based marketing of weapons

ABSTRACTThis paper problematizes the fear-based marketing of guns and tasers to both men and women as a function of neoliberalism’s emphasis on consumption as the solution to social problems. Men are marketed dangerous weapons as a way to display their masculinity, while women are told that purchasing guns or tasers is one of the best ways to protect themselves from domestic violence and sexual assault. As the paper shows, that claim is in stark contrast to data about these phenomena, and yet such marketing is often taken as a common sense solution. In addition to detailing why such marketing of weapons is problematic, we offer several recommendations.

Dangerous weapons or dangerous people? The temporal associations between gun violence and mental health

Despite the public, political, and media narrative that mental health is at the root of gun violence, evidence is lacking to infer a causal link. This study examines the temporal associations between gun violence (i.e., threatening someone with a gun and gun carrying) and mental health (i.e., anxiety, depression, stress, PTSD, hostility, impulsivity, and borderline personality disorder) as well the cross-sectional associations with gun access and gun ownership in a group of emerging adults. Waves 6 (2015) and 8 (2017) data were used from a longitudinal study in Texas, US. Participants were 663 emerging adults (61.7% female) including 33.6% self-identified Hispanics, 26.0% white, 27.0% Black, and 13.4% other, with an average age of 22 years. Multivariate logistic regression indicated that, individuals who had gun access were 18.15 times and individuals with high hostility were 3.51 times more likely to have threatened someone with a gun, after controlling for demographic factors and prior mental health treatment. Individuals who had gun access were 4.74 times, individuals who reported gun ownership were 5.22 times, and individuals with high impulsivity were 1.91 times more likely to have carried a gun outside of their homes, after controlling for prior gun carrying, mental health treatment, and demographic factors. Counter to public beliefs, the majority of mental health symptoms examined were not related to gun violence. Instead, access to firearms was the primary culprit. The findings have important implications for gun control policy efforts.

Critical Analysis of Grievous Hurt Section 320, 326, IPC: A Case Law

Any hurt which endangers life or which causes the sufferer to be during the space of twenty days in severe bodily pain, or unable to follow his ordinary pursuits come under Clause “Eighthly” of Section 320 IPC defining “Grievous Hurt”. Section 326 IPC provides punishment for voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means like by fire, any corrosive substance, any heated substance etc. The fact of case was that the accused-appellant and the injured victim Sunil Kumar (PW-1) were neighbours. On 26.11.1997 at about 6 p.m., the appellant along with his wife (accused No. 2) poured acid on the victim from a ridge on the left side of the road causing serious injuries over the head, neck, shoulder and other parts of the body of the victim. The accused persons were charge sheeted under Section 326 read with Section 34 IPC. The case was tried by the Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) and appellant was convicted for the offence under Section 326 IPC and was sentenced to one year imprisonment with fine of Rs.5000. Appeals before Additional District Court & High Court were dismissed. Supreme Court heard appeal on the question of sentence and applicability of Section 320 IPC. This study deals with interpretation of ingredients of Section 320, 326, IPC vis-a-vis Acid Attack which will be helpful in dealing with medicolegal aspect on Acid Attack and its gravity.

Innovation Acceleration, Digitization, and the Arms Control Imperative

The integrity of arms control regimes as a tool for lowering the risks associated with the stockpiling, use and spread of dangerous weapons and technologies is in jeopardy today. Simultaneously, several factors concerning the way military technologies are developed and acquired are converging to further augment the risk of their spread, enabling a next-generation proliferation problem that is far from manageable. This paper first argues that arms control regimes are designed to manage specific security risks, and new technologies are exacerbating these risks by perforating controls and eluding regulation. It then explains why this is poised to worsen: new drivers of this risk are converging to create unmanageable conditions. These drivers include: 1) the increased rate of production of novel technologies; 2) the digitization of existing weapons technologies, platforms and systems, as well as the digital format of newer technologies; and 3) the diffusion and latency they facilitate. Finally, it speaks to next steps, describing how previous and ongoing efforts to “modernize” arms control have borne little fruit in terms of managing newer threats from emerging and evolving technologies due a failure to update control lists — the list of items and technologies regulated by any regime — at a pace consistent with the rate of innovation, as well as political setbacks, and tension with the private sector. Based on data analysis of technology-driven treat behaviors, the paper recommends that we should, nevertheless, endeavor to preserve the arms control regimes we do have in place in order to avoid proliferation rollback (establish measures and timelines for moving potential threats back to a latent state), while simultaneously pursuing additional measures to broaden regimes.

Distinguish computer generated and digital images: A CNN solution

SummaryThe development of computer graphics has promoted the creation of computer generated images (CG) to a degree of unrivaled realism. It is of benefit to some industries like games and movies, which is aiming at making photo‐realistic images. At the same time, it brought attacks on many vision systems. An artist can modify one fake image using knowledge based on computer graphics to deceive most people, turning this into a very dangerous weapon. It is of great importance to differentiate a photo‐realistic computer generated image from a real photograph (PG). This problem can be modeled as a binary classification problem. Given one image, we just predict a label like “CG” or “PG” on it. To address this classification problem, we propose a method based on convolutional network through transfer learning. We choose VGG and ResNet as our base network structure and develop different models. Current state‐of‐the‐art approaches rely on hand‐crafted feature while we adopt a power convolutional network as an alternative and achieve the state‐of‐the‐art performance. In comparison, our method is end to end and more stable.

The Travel Ban Decision and the Twilight of Judicial Craft: Taking Statutory Context Seriously

The Supreme Court’s deferential decision upholding President Trump’s travel ban muted longtime values of judicial craft. Consider the interaction of constitutional and statutory interpretation. In her dissent, Justice Sotomayor likened the Court’s decision in Trump v. Hawaii to Korematsu v. United States, in which the Court rejected an equal protection challenge to a conviction arising from the Japanese-American internment. Writing for the Hawaii majority, Chief Justice Roberts rejected the comparison. Lost in the clamorous debate about Korematsu’s substantive relevance was an important methodological point: The Hawaii Court could have taken a page from another decision on the internment, Ex Parte Endo, which held that a key component of the internment exceeded the scope of Congress’s delegation to the Executive. Instead, the Hawaii Court coupled a mechanical defense of the travel ban on statutory grounds with an unconvincing analysis of the plaintiffs’ Establishment Clause claim. The prime flaw in the Court’s Establishment Clause analysis was its puzzling reliance on rational basis review decisions, such as City of Cleburne v. Cleburne Independent Living Center, that subjected government action to far more searching means-ends scrutiny than the Hawaii majority was willing to employ. The robust inquiry in those cases contrasted with the Hawaii majority’s blinkered deference. An approach more attuned to judicial craft would have recognized this problem and pivoted toward a statutory holding against the travel ban. Practicing foreign affairs deference, the Hawaii majority instead read an immigration law provision in isolation from its statutory context. That move failed to acknowledge earlier cases such as Kent v. Dulles, which tempered Executive overreach during the Cold War, and more recent administrative law decisions such as King v. Burwell, which examined the overall scheme of the Affordable Care Act to interpret a provision governing health care exchanges. This article critiques Hawaii’s flawed Establishment Clause and statutory analyses, applying the wisdom of Ex Parte Endo, the Cold War cases, and the recent administrative law decisions. That approach also highlights the risks of the Hawaii Court’s undue deference. In method, Hawaii’s deference resembles the Korematsu holding that Justice Robert Jackson’s dissent warned was a “loaded weapon” aiding further executive branch abuses. This article offers a toolkit for defusing that dangerous weapon and making sense of legislative delegation on immigration issues.

Divided Counsels: Competing Approaches to SALT, 1969–1970*

Despite the effort that went into strategizing and negotiating arms control during the Cold War, U.S. leaders remained divided over arms control’s intent and fundamental purpose. While there was general agreement that arms control should aim to avoid war, limit destructiveness, and decrease the costs of armaments, significant differences existed on the best specific policies to achieve these objectives.1 In approaching arms control negotiations, two schools of thought emerged by the late 1960s, when the Nixon administration came into office and began formulating its policies to guide the upcoming Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT). One school that can be labeled the “assured destruction approach” believed negotiations with the Soviets should be used to limit dangerous first-strike weapons.2 Meanwhile, a second school that can be called the “competitive strategies approach” maintained that arms limitation talks could be used by the United States to gain strategic advantage over the Soviet Union.3 These competing approaches divided an already disputatious administration, and even amid the successes of détente and the SALT talks sowed doubt about the ultimate goals of improved relations with the Soviet Union and the de-escalation of the arms race. The following pages will describe the origins and nature of the Nixon administration’s philosophical split over arms control fundamentals, and the personal and political rivalries it engendered.

Exposing computer generated images by using deep convolutional neural networks

The recent computer graphics developments have upraised the quality of the generated digital content, astonishing the most skeptical viewer. Games and movies have taken advantage of this fact but, at the same time, these advances have brought serious negative impacts like the ones yielded by fake images produced with malicious intents. Digital artists can compose artificial images capable of deceiving the great majority of people, turning this into a very dangerous weapon in a timespan currently know as “Fake News/Post-Truth” Era. In this work, we propose a new approach for dealing with the problem of detecting computer generated images, through the application of deep convolutional networks and transfer learning techniques. We start from Residual Networks and develop different models adapted to the binary problem of identifying if an image was, or not, computer generated. Differently from the current state-of-the-art approaches, we do not rely on hand-crafted features, but provide to the model the raw pixel information, achieving the same 0.97 performance of state-of-the-art methods with three main advantages: (i) executes considerably faster than state-of-the-art methods with equivalent accuracy; (ii) eliminates the laborious and manual step of specialized features extraction and selection, and (iii) is very robust against image processing operations as noise addition, blur and JPEG compression.

Peripheral venous catheter, a dangerous weapon. Key points to improve its use

Catheter-related bacteremia is one of the most important causes of nosocomial infection. Is associated to high rates of morbidity and mortality, including an economic burden. Peripheral venous catheter bacteremia is a leading cause of nosocomial infection in internal medicine departments. In this article, we review some important key points to improve its use and avoid infections.

Inhibition of Clostridium perfringens epsilon toxin by β-cyclodextrin derivatives

Clostridium perfringens epsilon toxin (ETX) is considered as one of the most dangerous potential biological weapons. The goal of this work was to identify inhibitors of ETX using a novel approach for the inactivation of pore-forming toxins. The approach is based on the blocking of the target pore with molecules having the same symmetry as the pore itself. About 200 various β-cyclodextrin derivatives were screened for inhibitors of ETX activity using a colorimetric cell viability assay. Several compounds with dose-dependent activities at low micromolar concentrations have been identified. The same compounds were also able to inhibit lethal toxin of Bacillus anthracis.

NLRB's Double Standard Favors Unions

A perfect example of the disparity between how the National Labor Relations Board treats employers versus how it treats unions is revealed in Equinox Holdings, Inc., 364 NLRB No. 103 (2016). In this case, an NLRB majority upheld a union win in an election where the union's chosen observer had been terminated just days prior to the vote for possessing and showing off a firearm in the workplace. In fact, the weapon was an air gun capable of firing projectiles but made to resemble an even more dangerous weapon. The company had called the police, and the former employee had been arrested in front of coworkers.

Peripheral venous catheter, a dangerous weapon. Key points to improve its use

Catheter-related bacteremia is one of the most important causes of nosocomial infection. Is associated to high rates of morbidity and mortality, including an economic burden. Peripheral venous catheter bacteremia is a leading cause of nosocomial infection in internal medicine departments. In this article, we review some important key points to improve its use and avoid infections.

The Regulation of the Possession of Weapons at Gatherings

The Dangerous Weapons Act 15 of 2013 provides for certain prohibitions and restrictions in respect of the possession of a dangerous weapon and it repeals the Dangerous Weapons Act 71 of 1968 as well as the different Dangerous Weapons Acts in operation in the erstwhile TBVC States. The Act also amends the Regulation of Gatherings Act 205 of 1993 to prohibit the possession of any dangerous weapon at a gathering or demonstration. The Dangerous Weapons Act provides for a uniform system of law governing the use of dangerous weapons for the whole of South Africa and it furthermore no longer places the onus on the individual charged with the offence of the possession of a dangerous weapon to show that he or she did not have any intention of using the firearm for an unlawful purpose. The Act also defines the meaning of a dangerous weapon. According to our court’s interpretation of the Dangerous Weapons Act 71 of 1968 a dangerous weapon was regarded as an object used or intended to be used as a weapon even if it had not been designed for use as a weapon. The Act, however, requires the object to be capable of causing death or inflicting serious bodily harm if it were used for an unlawful purpose. The possession of a dangerous weapon, in circumstances which may raise a reasonable suspicion that the person intends to use it for an unlawful purpose, attracts criminal liability. The Act also provides a useful set of guidelines to assist courts to determine if a person charged with the offence of the possession of a dangerous weapon had indeed intended to use the weapon for an unlawful purpose. It seems, however, that the Act prohibits the possession of a dangerous weapon at gatherings, even if the person carrying the weapon does not intend to use it for an unlawful purpose. The state will, however, have to prove that the accused had the necessary control over the object and the intention to exercise such control, as well as that the object is capable of causing death and inflicting serious bodily harm if it were used for an unlawful purpose.
 
 The Act does not apply to the following activities: (a) possession of dangerous weapons in pursuit of any lawful employment duty or activity; (b) possession of dangerous weapons during the participation in any religious or cultural activities or lawful sport, recreation or entertainment or (c) legitimate collection, display or exhibition of weapons. It is suggested that these exclusions are acceptable if the religious and cultural events referred to are not of a "protesting" or "confrontational" nature. If such events are indeed "protesting" or "confrontational" in nature, they are covered by section 17 of the Constitution (which authorises only peaceful and unarmed assembly, demonstration, picketing and the presentation of petitions). Religious and cultural events of a "protesting" or "confrontational" character, where dangerous weapons are displayed, run the serious risk of turning violent, and may result in a violation of section 12(1)(c) of the Constitution, which embodies the right of everyone to be free from all forms of violence.
 

Issues and Themesin Traditional Festivals as Agents of Social Mobilization

This study explains the role of traditional festivals as social mobilization agents, encouraging moral rebirth, social mobilization, development communication and change for the better in the attitude of the people towards contributing to the development of the society. The paper adopts Behavior theory and Attitude change theory as theoretical framework. The two theories emphasize the importance of value change, which can lead to the development of the community. The paper recognizes the challenges facing traditional festivals in meeting up with its roles of social mobilization. Egungun festival in South West Nigeria is prone to hijack by the political elites who use them to cause havoc in the society. Some masquerades have turned themselves into political thugs carrying dangerous weapons to victimize members of the society. The study therefore recommends total overhauling of the entire traditional African festivals so as to meet the desired goal it intends to achieve where miscreants and hoodlums will not play prominent roles during the festival. Involvement of corporate organizations in financing traditional festivals could bring some sanity and attraction into it, thereby turning it into cultural and tourist attraction.

Libels in the City. Bill Casting in Fifteenth-Century Flanders and Brabant

Using evidence of fifteenth-century Flanders and Brabant, this article situates bill casting in the medieval Low Countries in its wider social and political context. Over the past few decades there has been a tendency to focus on the ‘symbolic act’ of writing and distributing pamphlets, rather than studying their contents and political impact. In this contribution, we do not contest the symbolic meaning of bill casting, but we do argue that the contents and language of a libel were significant - even the most significant - features that made them a dangerous weapon. From this point of view, casting a bill in a ‘symbolic place’ was considered a strategy to give more weight to the discourse and the arguments the pamphleteer used. Though it was often composed of a language of retribution in order to accuse governors publicly, the statements and the associations the libel made with other texts and ideas on government were primarily aimed at influencing a public debate on a political issue. The analysis of the libels under scrutiny in this essay shows that the pamphleteers considered the urban governors to be accountable for their deeds and, consequently, the latter were criminalised in the pamphlets because they claimed that the governors’ policies did not take the welfare of other citizens into account. Of course, a fierce discussion about whose welfare governors needed to pursue was an integral element of the conflict during which the libels were posted. The main aim of this seditious act was therefore to participate in that debate.

The New Battlefield: The Hidden History of U.S Foreign Policy towards Afghanistan

<p class="a"><span lang="EN-US">The United States foreign policy has been characterized as a long and zigzag history since the beginning of America in the late eighteenth century. This vital study is a part of this long history. During 1979 Soviets invaded Afghanistan and a Soviet-Afghan War was born, American’s major influence was to be towards this region and reforms in their foreign policy to expel the Soviets from Afghanistan. It took place between 1979 and 1989 about a decade. This study seeks to answer the following questions: “Which were the U.S key foreign policy in the context of Afghan-Soviet War during 1979 and 1989 under Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan Presidencies and how these Administrations provoked hard decisions against Soviet Union and established their own doctrines?” “How the U.S got the Afghan Mujahedeen’s confidence and funneled the billions of dollars and global dangerous weapons to them chest through Pakistani ISI to punish the Soviets in Afghanistan?” “How the U.S hidden actor’s played the key role in this war?” Results based on U.S recently declassified material regarding this war from 1979-89 and found that soon after the Soviets intervention of Afghanistan, U.S begun hidden supply to Afghan Mujahedeen chest through Pakistani ISI and both the U.S Presidents, Carter and Reagan, took hard decisions including established their doctrines to protect the Persian Gulf Region and its interests. In this game, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Charlie Wilson, William Casey, Howard Hart and Stansfield M Turner played the hidden role and finally expelled out the Soviets from Afghanistan.</span></p>

The Geography, Incidence, and Underreporting of Gun Violence: New Evidence Using Shotspotter Data

This paper provides new evidence on the extent of underreporting of gun violence. Criminal activity is often selectively underreported – that is, underreported in a non-random manner. This can make it difficult to understand public safety problems and devise effective policy strategies to address them. However, new surveillance technologies are facilitating the collection of more accurate data on crime. In this paper, we describe data on gunfire incidents, recorded using a tool called ShotSpotter. We compare those data with previously-available data on gun violence (reported crime and 911 calls) to estimate baseline correlations between these measures as well as the causal effect of gunfire incidents on reporting. Using data from Washington, DC, and Oakland, CA, we find that only 12% of gunfire incidents result in a 911 call to report gunshots, and only 2-7% of incidents result in a reported assault with a dangerous weapon. These extremely low reporting rates have important implications for research on gun violence. The characteristics and research potential of ShotSpotter data are relevant to surveillance data more broadly; while such data have not yet been exploited by social scientists, they could be extremely valuable for crime research and policy.

Exploration of Freedom of Expression in Islam and West: Its Relation with Blasphemy and Religious Defamation

Freedom of expression is considered as one of the fundamental issues of the contemporary socio-political world. It has divided the society into two major groups; one is the follower of infinitive freedom and other wants some limits up on it. Definitely, Western thought is the representative of unbounded freedom of speech whereas Islam chooses the second one. Islamic concept of freedom of expression has various moral and legal bindings but in western perspective, only nominal legal restrictions exist, because revealed ethics are not concern of the western thought. These legal restrictions are meant to protect freedom of expression and individual rights and not to curb the acts of civil and religious defamation. Hence, these legal constraints are insufficient because the freedom of speech is unlimited and legal restrictions are either partial or nonexistent. In spite of presence of laws, the so-called racial discrimination and religious defamation have become the most dangerous and lethal weapon against minorities in the West, especially blasphemy of the Holy Prophet (SAW) has become a painful trend and cheap hobby under the banner of freedom of speech. In this regard, the limitless freedom of expression and its link with blasphemy of the prophet (SAW) as become one of the major conflicting issues between Islam and the West. In this study the efforts are made to examine the freedom of expression from Islamic and western perspectives and its link with blasphemy and religious defamation from the western side.