Presence Of Weapons Research Articles

The Russia-Ukraine war's "Armageddon" threat: A call to action for nuclear disarmament

The first atomic weapon was constructed in 1945 as a result of the discovery of nuclear fission. In the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II, the US first exploded the weapon in 1945. Since then, more than 12,000 different kinds of nuclear weapons and advanced delivery systems have been obtained by nine other countries. Despite efforts to outlaw and eliminate nuclear weapons, Russia has made it known that it intends to use them in the conflict it is currently engaged in with Ukraine, which began in February 2022. This study looks at the Russian menace that has frightened the world and brought to mind the tragic US nuclear attacks and the ensuing massive destruction of the environment, material resources, and human lives. Fears of a nuclear war and destruction have increased due to the potential for nuclear reprisal from the West. According to this research, there is a serious risk to human survival from the presence of nuclear weapons. It also concludes that there is a genuine risk that nuclear weapons will be used in today's military conflicts. The paper suggests that, by the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which went into effect on January 22, 2021, the current stockpile of nuclear weapons be immediately disarmed and destroyed.

Chlorophyll fluorescence in sentinel plants for the surveillance of chemical risk

This research aimed to develop natural plant systems to serve as biological sentinels for the detection of organophosphate pesticides in the environment. The working hypothesis was that the presence of the pesticide in the environment caused changes in the content of pigments and in the photosynthetic functioning of the plant, which could be evaluated non-destructively through the analysis of reflected light and emitted fluorescence. The objective of the research was to furnish in vivo indicators derived from spectroscopic parameters, serving as early alert signals for the presence of organophosphates in the environment. In this context, the effects of two pesticides, Chlorpyrifos and Dimethoate, on the spectroscopic properties of aquatic plants (Vallisneria nana and Spathyfillum wallisii) were studied. Chlorophyll-a variable fluorescence allowed monitoring both pesticides' presence before any damage was observed at the naked eye, with the analysis of the fast transient (OJIP curve) proving more responsive than Kautsky kinetics, steady-state fluorescence, or reflectance measurements. Pesticides produced a decrease in the maximum quantum yield of PSII photochemistry, in the proportion of PSII photochemical deexcitation relative to PSII non photochemical decay and in the probability that trapped excitons moved electrons into the photosynthetic transport chain beyond QA−. Additionally, an increase in the proportion of absorbed energy being dissipated as heat rather than being utilized in the photosynthetic process, was notorious. The pesticides induced a higher deactivation of chlorophyll excited states by photophysical pathways (including fluorescence) with a decrease in the quantum yields of photosystem II and heat dissipation by non-photochemical quenching. The investigated aquatic plants served as sentinels for the presence of pesticides in the environment, with the alert signal starting within the first milliseconds of electronic transport in the photosynthetic chain. Organophosphates damage animals' central nervous systems similarly to certain compounds found in chemical weapons, thus raising the possibility that sentinel plants could potentially signal the presence of such weapons.

Breaking the Silence: Investigating the Prevalence and Key Risk Factors of Child Maltreatment among Male Working Children in a Rural Community in Bangladesh

Introduction. Child labor is widely regarded as one of the most severe forms of child maltreatment (CM), but little is known about how working children, especially in low-income countries like Bangladesh, experience different forms of CM. This paper explores the extent of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse and neglect experienced by working children and determines the important risk factors for these forms of CM among them. Methods. This cross-sectional study included 398 working children from four local Bazars (rural marketplace) of Raiganj Upazila, Sirajganj district, who were enrolled in this study in March and April of 2017, through a snowball approach, due to a lack of a list of working children. The International Child Abuse Screening Tools for Children (ICAST-C) was used to estimate the different forms of CM in this study. Results. Lifetime prevalence of psychological abuse (PsyA), physical abuse (PA), neglect, and sexual abuse (SA) were 100%, 100%, 82.7%, and 13.5%, while the past year prevalence rates were 100%, 84.2%, 67.1%, and 9.9%, respectively. Common forms of PsyA experienced by children include shouting, yelling, or screaming, as well as restrictions on outings and time-outs. PA typically involves slapping on the face or head, hitting with objects (excluding the buttocks), and ear twisting. Watching pornography is the primary form of SA, while the leading form of neglect is unmet medical needs. The prevalence of PsyA, PA, SA, and neglect was higher among children who lived with individuals other than their parents. Both PsyA and PA were found to be associated with family violence, such as the presence of weapons in the household and adults engaging in frightening screaming behavior. Additionally, children who were bullied by their siblings, had a parent with a primary level of education or less, and always felt safe at home were at an increased risk of experiencing PA. Children who did not feel safe at home all the time were more likely to experience SA. Furthermore, for every one-year increase in schooling, the likelihood of experiencing neglect decreased by 8.3% (B: -.157, P value < .003). Conclusion. Nearly all male working children in rural areas of Bangladesh experienced PsyA and PA, and adult negligence was also prevalent. Although male SA is not a widely discussed issue in Bangladesh, the results of this study are alarming.

Perubahan Paradigma Strategi Deterensi Nuklir India dan Pakistan

This paper discusses the shifting in the nuclear deterrence strategies of India and Pakistan. The conflict between India and Pakistan is marked by several high tension such as Kashmir dispute. The presence of nuclear weapons, which is pretty much significant and balanced possession between India and Pakistan make the situation more complicated and challenge the political stability in South Asia. The deterrent strategy of both parties has shifted from full deterrence, where nuclear ownership is to deter the opposing party, to creating second-strike and pre-emptive strike capabilities because they feel an increase in potential threats. India applies the no-first-use (NFU) doctrine, which was initially quite strict but has now become flexible considering the threat from Pakistan. Meanwhile, Pakistan tends to be a risk-taker by never declaring the NFU doctrine. The author uses nuclear deterrence theory and security dilemma to elaborate the shifting concept of a deterrent strategy by both parties. The rationality of both parties in nuclear deterrence must be the basis of nuclear doctrine, considering the massive impact if both sides engage in a nuclear war. Globally, there needs to be cooperation in mutual control not only in nuclear-armed countries but also in diplomacy among countries that do not have nuclear powers to create global peace. At least in the event of war, both countries do not use their nuclear power.

Violence in fishing, hunting, and gathering societies of the Atacama Desert coast: A long-term perspective (10,000 BP-AD 1450).

In this study, we examine the long-term trajectory of violence in societies that inhabited the coast of the Atacama Desert in northern Chile using three lines of evidence: bioarchaeology, geoarchaeology and socio-cultural contexts (rock art, weapons, and settlement patterns). These millennia-old populations adopted a way of life, which they maintained for 10,000 years, based on fishing, hunting, and maritime gathering, complementing this with terrestrial resources. We analyzed 288 adult individuals to search for traumas resulting from interpersonal violence and used strontium isotopes 87Sr/86Sr as a proxy to evaluate whether individuals that showed traces of violence were members of local or non-local groups. Moreover, we evaluated settlement patterns, rock art, and weapons. The results show that the violence was invariant during the 10,000 years in which these groups lived without contact with the western world. During the Formative Period (1000 BC-AD 500), however, the type of violence changed, with a substantial increase in lethality. Finally, during the Late Intermediate Period (AD 1000-1450), violence and lethality remained similar to that of the Formative Period. The chemical signal of Sr shows a low frequency of individuals who were coastal outsiders, suggesting that violence occurred between local groups. Moreover, the presence of weapons and rock art depicting scenes of combat supports the notion that these groups engaged in violence. By contrast, the settlement pattern shows no defensive features. We consider that the absence of centralized political systems could have been a causal factor in explaining violence, together with the fact that these populations were organized in small-scale grouping. Another factor may have been competition for the same resources in the extreme environments of the Atacama Desert. Finally, from the Formative Period onward, we cannot rule out a certain level of conflict between fishers and their close neighbors, the horticulturalists.

Pakistan: A Responsible Nuclear State

This paper delves into the multifaceted factors contributing to the concerns expressed by various global stakeholders concerning the security of nuclear materials, facilities, and installations within Pakistan. The study comprehensively explores the tangible, perceived, and propagandistic elements that have collectively contributed to the prevailing global skepticism surrounding Pakistan's nuclear program. Furthermore, this research elucidates the domestic and international measures that Pakistan has undertaken to ensure the secure development, testing, deployment, utilization, and presence of nuclear weapons, employing both human expertise and technological resources. Additionally, the paper briefly highlights Pakistan's contributions to global peace, exemplified by its integral role in the global campaign against terrorism and active participation in United Nations Peacekeeping missions. Moreover, the paper provides insight into Pakistan’s adherence to international guidelines, notably those set forth by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and overarching international protocols concerning arms control and disarmament. By examining these facets, this study provides a comprehensive understanding of Pakistan’s nuclear program and its efforts to align with international norms, thereby fostering a more nuanced comprehension of the nation's stance within the global nuclear landscape.

Real Time Deep Learning Weapon Detection Techniques for Mitigating Lone Wolf Attacks

Firearm Shootings and stabbings attacks are intense and result in severe trauma and threat to public safety. Technology is needed to prevent lone-wolf attacks without human supervision. Hence designing an automatic weapon detection using deep learning, is an optimized solution to localize and detect the presence of weapon objects using Neural Networks. This research focuses on both unified and II-stage object detectors whose resultant model not only detects the presence of weapons but also classifies with respective to its weapon classes, including handgun, knife, revolver, and rifle, along with person detection. This research focuses on YOLOv5 (You Look Only Once) family and Faster RCNN family for model validation and training. Pruning and Ensembling techniques were applied to YOLOv5 to enhance their speed and performance. YOLOv5 models achieve the highest score of 78% with an inference speed of 8.1ms. However, Faster R-CNN models achieve the highest AP 89%.

From Neutral Status to a Course Towards Collective Security: Evolution of Ukraine's Approaches to Ensuring National Security

Permanent neutrality and the organization of collective security is a complex and ambiguous choice that Ukraine has faced since gaining independence. The purpose of the article is to study the evolution of the security policy of independent Ukraine, which has gone a long way from the proclamation of the status of a permanently neutral and non-aligned state to the constitutionally enshrined foreign policy course towards Euro-Atlantic integration. The work uses historical, dogmatic and comparative legal methods in the course of studying the historical aspect of the genesis of national security policy. The author uses the dialectical method to study various ways of ensuring national security, which made it possible to distinguish two ways: the declaration of the status of a permanently neutral state or participation in a collective security organization. The chronological boundaries of the study are defined from the moment of proclamation of Ukraine’s state sovereignty. The article proves that political and scientific debates on the benefits of neutrality or participation in a collective security organization for ensuring the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the state, as well as its national security of European countries, are related to the bipolar model of international relations that emerged during the Cold War era. Under these conditions, some European states (Austria, Ireland, Finland, Sweden), despite the negative outcome of World War II, when the status of neutral states was grossly violated, still wanted to stay outside the confrontation between the two military and political blocs. To this end, they declared themselves permanently neutral and participated in the non-aligned movement. The article notes that the departure from the bipolar model has temporarily dampened the debate. However, the policy of revanchism and neo-imperial ideology adopted by the Russian leadership forced European states to rethink the feasibility of maintaining permanent neutrality in the context of the current geopolitical situation. The author reveals that at the time of the creation of the Ukrainian state, the preference for the status of a permanently neutral and non-aligned state as a guarantee of Ukraine’s national security was conditioned by the presence of nuclear weapons on its territory, which made it impossible to participate in the collective security organization (NATO). Ukraine’s nuclear disarmament, which was carried out under pressure from Russia and the United States, opened the way for normalization of relations with the European Union and NATO. At the same time, having chosen NATO membership as a guarantee of successful security, Ukraine in the twenty-first century demonstrated ineffectiveness in realizing its intention due to fluctuations in the foreign policy course of Ukrainian presidents. The aggression against Ukraine launched by Russia in 2014 made participation in the collective security organization (NATO) a matter of time. The approximation of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to NATO standards has yielded positive results in repelling Russia’s armed aggression. The Armed Forces of Ukraine, which can be considered the most experienced army in Europe today, make Ukraine a desirable NATO member after the war.

Four Components of the Mobilization of the Russian Sciences

The transition of Russian science to the mobilization scenario of development is considered. The survey data are presented, demonstrating that this transition causes a positive attitude among the majority of the Russian scientific community. The author explains this rather paradoxical fact with two reasons. Firstly, by the fact that scientists are tired of the Russian science being in a state of Russian “nirvana”, when work in the “not shaky, not shaky” mode, at a sufficiently low level of its capabilities, has been raised to normal. Secondly, they understand that in the current conditions, Russia is mainly rescued by the presence of nuclear weapons created during the mobilization of domestic science. The mobilization scenario of the development of Russian science is considered as including four main components: 1) stricter control (by the state) of the issues being developed, 2) optimization of the staff of science, 3) change in the (meritocratic) form of its organization, 4) intensification of scientific work. The question is raised about which part of the national science it is advisable to mobilize. The author believes that the mobilization of our entire scientific organism would be an excess, but some of its elements – the liberation from “dead souls”, the intensification of scientific work, etc., should be carried out in relation to our entire science. The risks facing Russian science in the conditions of its mobilization are also considered: de-internationalization, reduction of international investments, etc.

Weapons of long distance combat in the arsenal of Scythian female warriors

Archaeological finds, supported by data from the literary tradition, indicate that women were presented among the Scythian army. 303 burials of Amazons have been recorded on the territory of European Scythia. A characteristic feature of their burials is the mandatory presence of weapons in the accompaniment sets. In the graves of the Amazons there are almost all types of attack weapons, dominated by the items of long-distance combat. The weapons of the female warriors completely corresponded to those in the arsenal of the Scythian army.

THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR: HISTORICAL FACTORS OF THE WAR AND ITS EFFECT IN THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY

For a long time, the international community wondered if there would be a war between Russia and Ukraine or if Putin was bluffing. This war in Ukraine has however been ongoing since February 2022, and its scope expanded to include more actors of the international community taking positions. To achieve international peace, the discussion and study of conflict and its resolutions in the international system is a prerequisite. This article, therefore, gives a detailed account of the Russia-Ukraine conflict using both Game theory and Realism. Political commentators and analysts asserted that Russia’s amassing troops on the Ukrainian border in the wake of Joe Biden’s inauguration was to draw the new president’s attention, as well as the European superpowers. But, on the 24th of February, the conversation switched to whether or not Putin was irrational to start a war in the wake and presence of nuclear weapons.

THE MODERN MEDIA AS A TOOL OF THE INDIRECT APPROACH

The presence of high-tech weapons has long shown that a «total war»as a method and a «victory»in it as a goal are currently outdated concepts. The process of increasing the destructive power of nuclear weapons to the extreme of «suicide»caused a revision of military strategy as a whole, which led to the rejection of the idea of influencing the enemy through brute force and to the transition to asymmetric methods, the use of which is facilitated by the wide distribution and availability of not only and not so much developed modern technologies as many ready-made dual-use technologies that can be employed for military purposes. At pre-sent, the media have ceased to be considered solely as an intermediary between the initial event and the re-cipient of this event, they have become recognized as an instrument for manipulating public opinion. The principle of the indirect approach was transformed into a philosophical concept by the English military his-torian Liddell Hart. This concept is currently understood as the art of complex influence on the political structure and sustenance of the population of the attacked state, with the subsequent aggravation of internal contradictions, the creation of a crisis situation and armed conflict, the redistribution of spheres of influence, the creation of «buffer zones»and «belts of instability», gaining of access to sources of raw materials and markets. The object of the study is the modern media, the subject of the study is the process of implement-ing the indirect approach through new media technologies. The purpose of the work is to determine the ways, scale, and consequences of media influence on modern society. As a methodological basis for con-ducting a systematic study, Liddell Hart’s theory of indirect approach can be used, making it possible to find a practical solution to any problem that arises as a result of a clear conflict of interests and inevitably leads to an armed conflict. The results of the study can be used to analyze the stages of preparation and conduct of «hybrid wars»in the context of using the media as an effective tool for indirect control of modern society for military purposes. At the moment, there are a number of standards, instructions, and agreements on the regulation of the development of biotechnology and bioengineering, on the prohibition of the production, storage anddistribution of certain types of weapons, but at the same time there is not a single similar document in the field of media, which makes this field practically uncontrollable.

Предмети мілітарного й подвійного призначення на середньовічному поселенні Лісники-Безодня

Weaponry, horseman's, and warhorse's equipment for unfortified settlements were traditionally considered unusual. Only in the last quarter of the XX century, after extensive studies of the villages of southern Rus, a conclusion was made about the parity of relations between cities and their rural environment and about the inherent character of the rural centers of the mentioned category of things. However, recurrences of the old views continue to appear in recent publications, although the essential question seems to be whether the villagers were the subject or object of the use of the found weapons. New data on this category of findings have recently been obtained due to research on the settlement Lisnyky-Bezodnia in the southern suburbs of Kyiv. The site was discovered in 1991 by V. Petrashenko and V. Koziuba and has been repeatedly examined by the Northern Expedition of the Institute of Archeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Furthermore, in 2021, excavations were carried out on the site. As a result, several objects were investigated in the horizons of the Kyivan Rus and primitive / paleometal periods, and a representative collection of material from these eras was formed. Small in volume but quite an interesting group of things presenting militaristic and dual-purpose objects. Five arrowheads belong to the long-range weapons. All of them are petiolate, have analogies among the types common in Kievan Rus, and some – in the adjacent territories, some of them belong to the category of armor-piercing. Another find is identified as an awl. The object resembles an awl-shaped point, which has been repeatedly found in quiver sets, along with other types of arrowheads. Among the discoveries from the village is a knife, the size of which exceeds the indicators for this category of findings. In the literature, if they did not have a true combat purpose, large knives were proposed to be seen not as universal tools but as hunting weapons. The rider's equipment is represented by a whole sharp and a fragment of another. Elements of both items have analogies among the materials of the XII – first half of the XIII century. Products do not characterize peasant life; they mark the stay of the elite. Horse equipment from the settlement – rod of some snaffle and rod with a ring of others. Such finds are not uncommon. Moreover, although they are attributed to the evidence of the presence of war horses, it is logical to consider things as an indicator of the presence of these animals in general without limiting the purpose exclusively to combat clashes, which has already been noted in publications. In contrast to the previous ones, the other two finds were used for expensive horses, primarily combated ones. We are talking about two sets of metal halters equipped with cylindrical locks. The tendency of these products to the fortified points with representatives of the military-trade state and the lack of data on the fixation of these things on the monuments of rural type indicates the originality of the studied village. The cases of the detection of such items at other unfortified sites were considered to assess the role and place of the collection of items of the named purpose from the village in the Bezodnia tract in Lisnyky. The obtained data indicate the presence of few weapons and equestrian equipment in the layers of settlements and, at the same time, lead to the statement of cases of concentration of such things in sometimes separated from the main territory areas where other prestigious products are concentrated. The collection from Lisnyky-Bezodnia was gathered in a relatively limited area, not in the center or on the dominant hill. This leads to the conclusion that the partially studied monument presents a rather bright and extraordinary phenomenon and emphasizes the inexhaustibility of information opportunities of medieval village structures. Key words: Lisnyky-Bezodnia, Kyivan Rus, medieval settlement, arrowheads, spurs, horse. Language: Ukrainian

How Iran Overrides IAEA to Examine Iran's Nuclear Energy Development

In human life, weapons of mass destruction pose a threat to all. Since the era of war has ended, the international world has no longer felt the presence of weapons of mass destruction. The research question found by the author in this article is Iran's efforts to deal with the IAEA which implements a unilateral policy to conduct inspections of Iran's nuclear energy. In addition, the author also limits the discussion to only the efforts made by Iran in rejecting the IAEA's actions to examine nuclear development in Iran. Before discussing these points, the author will provide a discussion of the reasons why the IAEA wants to examine Iran's nuclear development first. With the limitations of this research, the author can describe the discussion specifically and get good results. Neoliberal Institutionalism as one of the major theories of International Relations is the main point of view used by the author to analyze the formulation of the problem. Basically, Iran did not accept the examination submitted by the IAEA because Iran found the fact that the IAEA allegedly leaked some Iranian nuclear secrets so that Iran had lost confidence in the IAEA.

Situated Affectivity, Enactivism, and the Weapons Effect

Existing research on the “weapons effect” indicates that simply seeing a weapon can prime aggressive thoughts and appraisals and increase aggressive behavior. But how and why does this happen? I begin by discussing prevailing explanations of the weapons effect and propose that these accounts tend to be over-intellectualistic insofar as they downplay or overlook the important role played by affectivity. In my view, insights from the fields of situated affectivity and enactivism help us to understand how cognitive and affective processes jointly contribute to the weapons effect. Insofar as the presence of weapons alters subject’s bodily-affective orientation and thereby brings about embodied mindshaping, it changes the way they engage with and understand their surroundings. To understand the weapons effect, we will need to examine the constitutive interdependency of appraisal and affectivity and the way in which they jointly motivate action. My proposed account emphasizes the role of affectivity in affordance perception and the way in which subjects gauge the meaning of an object according to its action-possibilities.

BURIAL RITE OF THE OSTRIV GRAVEYARD (BY THE RESULTS OF RESCUE EXCAVATION 2017—2018). PART 2

In the continuation of the paper on a funeral rites of the Ostriv graveyard the features of burials without grave goods, burials in coffins fastened with nails, burials with buckets and the accompanying items of male burials are considered. Burials without grave goods, as well as burials in dominiums fastened with nails and burials in which buckets were placed, can be interpreted with great care as an indicator of the worldview of a community that was at a certain stage of Christianization. Regardless of Christian ideas about the equality of everyone in the afterlife, there was no imperative prohibition on burial with objects. After Christianization, individual objects took on new functions and became a part of the so-called Arma Cristi (instrument of the Lord’s Passion — tools for fight against Satan) and already in this capacity are used in the funeral rite.
 Male burial assemblages in general have much less ethnic indicators than female ones. Rather, their grave goods point not to a specific ethnic group but to a specific macro region of the origin of tradition — Scando-Baltic and Northern Rus as well as to a social focus on military subculture. This is evidenced by the presence of weapons, certain types of fibulae, details of the belt set, which have a lot of parallels just in the North of Europe and sharply dissonant with the antiquities of Southern Rus. The presence of weapons was typical for male burial assemblages of the Ostriv graveyard. The main type of weapon the battle axes can be considered of so-called IV type according to A. Kirpichnikov, most of which were placed near the right knee with the handle up but other weapons were also discovered — axes of type III according to A Kirpichnikov and type M according to Y. Peterson and lancet-shaped spear-heads. In the burials the elements of a belt set — buckles and portupey rings — were found. At the same time the absence of other details of the men’s belt set, first of all, the applique plates for status belts which have been worn according to the Orient tradition and became widespread in the Eastern and Northern Europe during the Viking Age draws attention. It is notable that living on the border with the steppe led to the appearance in the burial practice of certain objects inherent in the material culture of nomads, first of all, primarily the single mouth-piece bit.

Constructing nuclear responsibility in US–India relations

Abstract In 2005, the United States recognized India as a ‘responsible state with advanced nuclear technology’. How did India go from pariah to a legitimate nuclear state? This article historicizes the concept of nuclear responsibility to explain India's shifting place in the nuclear regime. Existing perspectives view responsibility as a function of discrete state behaviors to the detriment of understanding the relationship between power and responsibility as a discourse. This article tracks the evolving discourse of early proliferators, such as the US, UK and France, who legitimated their possession of nuclear weapons by linking responsibility with deterrence. In its early nuclear history, India challenged these hegemonic perspectives but more recently adopted the deterrence model of responsibility to be granted recognition and legitimacy in the global nuclear regime. The article concludes that nuclear states’ success in linking deterrence with responsibility complicates the place of disarmament as an alternative nuclear responsibility discourse. Tying deterrence to responsibility reshaped the global order around the continual presence of nuclear weapons, narrowing moral agency and limiting a nuclear weapon-free future. Reclaiming responsibility will require moving beyond the typical state-centric politics of blame towards institutional and structural approaches to moral agency.

¿En qué se diferencian las agresiones sexuales cometidas en solitario y en grupo? Una revisión sistemática

The study of sexual assault has had great relevance and interest in the literature. Group sexual assaults represent a small proportion of all sexual assaults committed, but they have specific characteristics. Internationally, it is established that between 10 and 33 % of sexual assaults have been committed by multiple authors. Describing the differences between individual versus group sexual assaults has been a challenge for researchers. The literature has concluded that there is a difference in the etiology of sexual assaults committed according to the number of authors. While in solo sexual assaults personal vulnerability factors may explain why these crimes are committed, in group assaults group behavior dynamics explain the interaction between more subjects. This systematic review examined the variables of sexual assault crimes committed alone versus in a group. A literature search was conducted on the Psycinfo, Academic Search (EBSCO) and Google Scholar databases. In the first analysis a total of 34 studies were initially identified, and after filtering the reasons for exclusion the analysis was performed with eight investigations. The results show that there is evidence of qualitative differences between sexual assaults committed according to the number of offenders. The dynamics promoted in the groups explain the subjects’ participation in group sexual aggressions. Collective behavior favors sexual aggressions in groups because of the processes inherent to the group. The most common group was two subjects (dyad) although the average group was usually composed of three subjects. The offenders are mostly men; the lone offenders are older, and as the groups become larger, the age of the offenders decreases. Research has shown that the majority of victims are female, both in single and group assaults. Victims are also younger than the perpetrators, especially in multi-subject attacks, and they are more resistant to single-aggression attacks. The place where the crime is committed presents significant differences. Some authors found that offenders in groups of three or more people often commit the assault in an indoor space, although others found that lone offenders were more likely than group offenders to rape the victim indoors, especially in the bedroom. It has been confirmed that in group aggressions more sexual acts are carried out and more violence is used. Vaginal penetration is the most committed sexual assault, followed by anal and oral rape. In all cases, vaginal rape is more prevalent among group sexual assaults, even more so when the assaults are committed by groups of three or more subjects. Studies of multiple perpetrator sexual assaults show that this type of act increases the probability of suffering more injuries and long-term health problems. Another conclusion that can be drawn is that there are significant differences in the timing of stranger assault, with a higher likelihood of a stranger assault in group rapes. On the other hand, there is also a relevance in the presence of other instrumental factors such as alcohol and weapons. As for alcohol, it showed a significant relationship in sexual assaults. Although the presence of weapons in sexual assaults is not very common, some research has confirmed that groups tend to threaten victims with a weapon to a greater extent, and the knife is often the most common weapon. The results found are particularly relevant to understanding sexual assault crimes and have implications for crime prevention and the treatment of victims. https://doi.org/10.16888/interd.2022.39.2.4

Shaping of the U.S. Regional Security Framework in the Indo-Pacific Region in 2012-2020

This article examines the transformation of the US approaches to the implementation of foreign policy in Indo-Pacific region. It is noteworthy that with the change in the approaches of the US leadership to the structuring of the regional subsystem through the creation and maintenance of allied relations with a number of states in the region, the goal remains unchanged — ensuring security in the region while maintaining US leadership. At the present stage, the implementation of this goal is hindered by the growing influence of China in the Indo-Pacific region. The authors of the article focused on identifying criteria that allow assessing the current situation in the region and the effectiveness of existing cooperation between the United States and the countries of the Indo-Pacific region within the framework of organizations and agreements. The research was conducted on the basis of an analysis of the behaviour of some regional players who have agreements with the United States and position themselves as their allies. The criteria for the study were the following aspects: participation in military exercises, the deployment of military bases, signed defence agreements, the availability of information exchange in the field of military technology, the presence of nuclear weapons, the absence of territorial claims at sea and participation in shipping operations. The authors analysed national documents, according to them it was possible to characterize the attitude of countries to the United States, China, as well as to identify the point of view of regional players on the security architecture in Indo-Pacific region and threats significant for the stability of this structure. The study proposed by the authors makes it possible to study the problems of ensuring security in the region, to identify the peculiarities of US policy in the studied space, to determine the tools of the United States to maintain its positions in Indo-Pacific region, as well as to assess the readiness of the allied countries to confront China together with the United States. In conclusion, the authors assess the effectiveness of the transformation of the US-centered regional security system in Indo-Pacific region.

Воин и боевой конь у эстиев: первые результаты исследования «всаднического» погребения римского времени на могильнике Романово-Пугачевский пруд

Burials with horses are known among the Western Balts of the Roman period. It is believed that in this era, horses in the graves accompanied the dead soldiers and were of a symbolic character, they emphasized the high social status of the buried. The conclusions were made exclusively on the basis of archaeological material. These conclusions of archaeologists are quite legitimate, indeed, the presence of weapons in the graves, including “professional”, equestrian equipment and rather expensive metal elements of horse equipment indicates that these burials belong to soldiers of a certain status. It seems appropriate to verify these conclusions with the help of anthropology and archaeozoology. Such an attempt on the example of burial 3.2017 of the Romanovo-Pugachevsky Prud cemetery is undertaken in this work. The burial belonged to a man about 30 years old and a teenager, whose gender has not been established. The radiocarbon date of the burial corresponds to the first half — middle of the 2nd century. The objects found characterize the man as a warrior. The teenager buried with him may have occupied a dependent, subordinate position in relation to this warrior. The results of studying the bone remains of a horse from this burial complex allow us to attribute them to the skeleton of a war horse of 6—8 years old. The presented multidisciplinary data can serve as a good illustration of the hypothesis that the Western Baltic burials of the Roman period could belong to the warriors-horsemen and their war horses.