Use Of Force Research Articles

Behind the yellow sticker: paradoxical effects of a visual warning of body-worn cameras on the use of police force

Behind the yellow sticker: paradoxical effects of a visual warning of body-worn cameras on the use of police force

‘I was having an anxiety attack and they pepper sprayed me': police apprehension in mental health contexts in Australia

ABSTRACT Police attendance in mental health contexts is often traumatic for the person in crisis, their family and first responders. Existing literature on police involvement in mental health responses tends to focus on police perspectives. Scholarship exploring lived experience perspectives is limited, yet is crucial for informing programmes, policies and reforms. We present findings from one of the first projects co-produced with people with lived experiences of being apprehended by police under mental health legislation. Interviews were conducted with twenty participants who had experience(s) of police apprehension across Australia. Findings highlight the social disadvantage experienced by participants prior to being apprehended and that use of force (such as tasering, pepper spraying and restraining in locked police vans) was common and over-used. Our study identified that police apprehension has lasting and wide-ranging impacts, leading to loss of employment, trauma, property damage, negative self-perceptions, discrimination, and fear of future police responses. Some participants were also apprehended by police while experiencing family violence and were misidentified as perpetrators. We argue police use of force mirrors the use of force within mental health services, with participants not experiencing a clear separation between police and mental health responses. The article shares participants’ ideas for change, including response models based on human rights, police non-attendance and peer-led initiatives. Our findings suggest the need for investment in alternatives to police responses and further research involving lived experience perspectives to inform out understanding of mental health crisis responses.

Racial Disparities in Civilian Response to Police Use of Force: Evidence From London

Abstract This study explores the impact of police use of force on civilian interactions with the police, focussing on neighbourhoods with different ethnic compositions across London. Analysing the effects of three notable police-induced civilian fatalities as well as monthly fluctuations in the Metropolitan Police Service’s use of force, I find a decrease in reported crime and the proportion of crime without a suspect in Black neighbourhoods. These patterns suggest avoidance of police engagement, especially for crimes less likely to be solved. Individual survey data suggests no changes in victimization probabilities for any ethnic group, suggesting that estimates are due to reporting behaviour.

The United States, the People’s Republic of China, and the Defence of Taiwan

ABSTRACT This article examines the current rivalry between the United States and the People’s Republic of China with a focus on the issue of Taiwan. A central question is whether Washington should change its current deterrence approach towards a possible Chinese invasion of Taiwan, moving from a policy of ‘strategic ambiguity’ about the potential of American military intervention to one based on ‘strategic clarity’ that commits US forces in advance to Taiwan’s defence. The article draws on deterrence theory, notably the so-called three Cs of deterrence (capability, commitment, and communications), and makes the case that a shift from strategic ambiguity to clarity will be necessary to uphold deterrence against a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan.

A Critical Overview of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)’s Origin, Goals, and Its Fall through the US and Allied Forces

The origins of ISIS were traced to the Arab Spring that created instability in the Middle East. This instability was exacerbated by the American-led coalition's invasion of Iraq in 2003, prompted by the 9/11 attacks. The paper aims to have an overview of the origin and goals of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and the strategies employed by the U.S. and Allied Forces to make ISIS fall. A systematic literature review approach was adopted to review the selected literature. ISIS was formed out of various militant groups in the country whose goal is to establish an Islamic caliphate governed by strict Sharia law. The goal of ISIS was to establish an Islamic caliphate in Iraq, Syria, and beyond with a caliph as the leader of the territories, thereby eradicating state borders and governments they deemed to be illegitimate. This caliphate is to be governed by strict Sharia law. This analysis delves into the strategies used by the US-led coalition to reclaim territories from ISIS. These strategies include military strategies, economic strategies, political strategies, and social strategies. It was, therefore, recommended that to combat ISIS's ideology effectively, the United States may need to collaborate more with Muslim clerics all over the world to promote interpretations of the Quran that counter radicalization in Islam.

Force manipulability-oriented manipulation planning for collaborative robot

PurposeCollaborative robots (cobots) are widely used in various manipulation tasks within complex industrial environments. However, the manipulation capabilities of cobot manipulation planning are reduced by task, environment and joint physical constraints, especially in terms of force performance. Existing motion planning methods need to be more effective in addressing these issues. To overcome these challenges, the authors propose a novel method named force manipulability-oriented manipulation planning (FMMP) for cobots.Design/methodology/approachThis method integrates force manipulability into a bidirectional sampling algorithm, thus planning a series of paths with high force manipulability while satisfying constraints. In this paper, the authors use the geometric properties of the force manipulability ellipsoid (FME) to determine appropriate manipulation configurations. First, the authors match the principal axes of FME with the task constraints at the robot’s end effector to determine manipulation poses, ensuring enhanced force generation in the desired direction. Next, the authors use the volume of FME as the cost function for the sampling algorithm, increasing force manipulability and avoiding kinematic singularities.FindingsThrough experimental comparisons with existing algorithms, the authors validate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed method. The results demonstrate that the FMMP significantly improves the force performance of cobots under task, environmental and joint physical constraints.Originality/valueTo improve the force performance of manipulation planning, the FMMP introduces the FME into sampling-based path planning and comprehensively considers task, environment and joint physical constraints. The proposed method performs satisfactorily in experiments, including assembly and in situ measurement.

A three-dimensional fiber Bragg grating wrist force sensor with separation elastic structure

PurposeThe use of a force sensor to estimate the external force of manipulator not only needs to deal with the signal noise of the sensor itself but also needs to solve the coupling interference of the sensor itself, especially the axial force. The purpose of this paper is to develop a three-dimensional fiber Bragg grating (FBG) wrist force sensor, which has a simple structure and reduces the coupling influence between several axes.Design/methodology/approachA particular separation elastic structure with four FBGs is devised for the three-axial force sensor. One FBG is suspended on the profile of central cylinder and the other three FBGs are pasted on the elastic beam surface of the over and under measuring bodies, respectively. Finite element analysis (FEA) simulation has been implemented to the strain distribution characteristics, the output characteristics of each direction and the coupling effects of the structure. Furthermore, theoretical derivation and experimental results are used to compare, which have a good consistency.FindingsThe experiment results show that the maximum repeatability error of the sensor is 6.75%, the maximum nonlinear error is 5.36%, the maximum coupling interference is 4.73% and the minimum sensitivity is 1.58 pm/N.Originality/valueA three-dimensional force sensor based on FBG adopts a particular separation elastic structure. The sensor can reduce the coupling influence between several axes, especially the coupling interference in the z-direction is 0.

Dexterous manipulation: differential sensitivity of manipulation and grasp forces to task requirements.

How humans coordinate digit forces to perform dexterous manipulation is not well understood. This gap is due to the use of tasks devoid of dexterity requirements and/or the use of analytical techniques that cannot isolate the roles that digit forces play in preventing object slip and controlling object position and orientation (pose). In our recent work, we used a dexterous manipulation task and decomposed digit forces into FG, the internal force that prevents object slip, and FM, the force responsible for object pose control. Unlike FG, FM was modulated from object lift onset to hold, suggesting their different sensitivity to sensory feedback acquired during object lift. However, the extent to which FG and FM can be controlled independently remains to be determined. Importantly, how FG and FM change as a function of object property is mathematically indeterminate and therefore requires active modulation. To address this gap, we systematically changed either object mass or external torque. The FM normal component responsible for object orientation control was modulated to changes in object torque but not mass. In contrast, FG was distinctly modulated to changes in object mass and torque. These findings point to a differential sensitivity of FG and FM to task requirements and provide novel insights into the neural control of dexterous manipulation. Importantly, our results indicate that the proposed digit force decomposition has the potential to capture important differences in how sensory inputs are processed and integrated to simultaneously ensure grasp stability and dexterous object pose control.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Successful dexterous object manipulation requires simultaneous prevention of object slip and object pose control. How these two task goals are attained can be investigated by decomposing digit forces into grasp and manipulation forces, respectively. We found that these forces were characterized by differential sensitivity to changes in object properties (mass and torque). This finding suggests the involvement of distinct sensorimotor mechanisms that, combined, simultaneously ensure grasp stability and dexterous control of object pose.

Integration Of Acoustophoresis and Dielectrophoresis on A Single Chip Platform: A Numerical Study

Passive or active manipulation forces would be needed for the microfluidic system for chemical and biological analysis in order to regulate, trap, separate, sort, and discriminate between particles and cells. The primary goals of passive manipulation are consistency and repeatability to attain high levels of control with exact trajectories. In the meantime, by introducing external forces like hydrodynamic, dielectrophoretic, magnetophoretic, acoustophoretic, and optical tweezing, the active manipulations allow to control particle displacement in a highly predictable and consistent fashion. These methods are much more promising for the development of a small and compact biomedical diagnostic rapid test. Since most biological particles are suspended in different biological fluids like blood and urine, dielectrophoresis (DEP) and acoustophoresis (ACP) have been demonstrated to be promising among these external forces because of their ability to apply forces on the particles in a liquid environment. Additionally, both techniques are fast, inexpensive to fabricate, label-free, and incredibly selective. In this study, we introduce a novel method that combines these two forces into a single chip, improving the separation process for ACP and DEP based on the intrinsic dielectric and acoustic properties of the particles, respectively. It is anticipated that this research would shed light on why particular manipulative factors predominate more or less in particular situations.

Airway management in patients with suspected or confirmed cervical spine injury: Guidelines from the Difficult Airway Society (DAS), Association of Anaesthetists (AoA), British Society of Orthopaedic Anaesthetists (BSOA), Intensive Care Society (ICS), Neuro Anaesthesia and Critical Care Society (NACCS), Faculty of Prehospital Care and Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM).

There are concerns that airway management in patients with suspected or confirmed cervical spine injury may exacerbate an existing neurological deficit, cause a new spinal cord injury or be hazardous due to precautions to avoid neurological injury. However, there are no evidence-based guidelines for practicing clinicians to support safe and effective airway management in this setting. An expert multidisciplinary, multi-society working party conducted a systematic review of contemporary literature (January 2012-June 2022), followed by a three-round Delphi process to produce guidelines to improve airway management for patients with suspected or confirmed cervical spine injury. We included 67 articles in the systematic review, and successfully agreed 23 recommendations. Evidence supporting recommendations was generally modest, and only one moderate and two strong recommendations were made. Overall, recommendations highlight key principles and techniques for pre-oxygenation and facemask ventilation; supraglottic airway device use; tracheal intubation; adjuncts during tracheal intubation; cricoid force and external laryngeal manipulation; emergency front-of-neck airway access; awake tracheal intubation; and cervical spine immobilisation. We also signpost to recommendations on pre-hospital care, military settings and principles in human factors. It is hoped that the pragmatic approach to airway management made within these guidelines will improve the safety and efficacy of airway management in adult patients with suspected or confirmed cervical spine injury.

Diabolical devil’s advocates and the weaponization of illocutionary force

Abstract A standing presumption in the literature is that devil’s advocacy is an inherently beneficial argumentative move; and that those who take on this role in conversation are paradigms of argumentative virtue. Outside academic circles, however, devil’s advocacy has acquired something of a notorious reputation: real-world conversations are rife with self-proclaimed devil’s advocates who are anything but virtuous. Motivated by this observation, in this paper we offer the first in-depth exploration of non-ideal devil’s advocacy. We draw on recent analyses of two better known discursive practices—mansplaining and trolling—to illuminate some of the signature traits of vicious devil’s advocacy. Building on this comparative examination, we show that all three practices trade on a manipulation of illocutionary force; and we evaluate their respective options for securing plausible deniability.

Crowd reactions to the police use of force at the 2017 Phoenix Trump rally.

Crowd reactions to the police use of force at the 2017 Phoenix Trump rally.

Understanding droplet formation in T-shaped channels with magnetic field influence: A computational investigation

This study investigates the production of ferrofluid droplets in a T-junction geometry using the level set method and magnetic force manipulation in the three-dimensional. The analysis reveals key insights into droplet formation processes in four stages: entering, blocking, necking, and detachment. The results show that increasing the Capillary number leads to a significant decrease in volume for non-ferrofluid droplets. Application of a magnetic force enhances the balance of forces during droplet formation, directly impacting droplet volume. Moreover, increasing the magnetic Bond number substantially increases droplet volume, with a more pronounced effect at lower Capillary numbers. Modifying magnetic properties influences droplet volume, with doubling the magnetization results in a significant volume increase. Overall, magnetic forces emerge as a crucial control parameter for droplet volume in ferrofluid systems, offering potential applications in droplet-based technologies and microfluidic devices.

Vision-based estimation of manipulation forces by deep learning of laparoscopic surgical images obtained in a porcine excised kidney experiment

In robot-assisted surgery, in which haptics should be absent, surgeons experience haptics-like sensations as “pseudo-haptic feedback”. As surgeons who routinely perform robot-assisted laparoscopic surgery, we wondered if we could make these “pseudo-haptics” explicit to surgeons. Therefore, we created a simulation model that estimates manipulation forces using only visual images in surgery. This study aimed to achieve vision-based estimations of the magnitude of forces during forceps manipulation of organs. We also attempted to detect over-force, exceeding the threshold of safe manipulation. We created a sensor forceps that can detect precise pressure at the tips with three vectors. Using an endoscopic system that is used in actual surgery, images of the manipulation of excised pig kidneys were recorded with synchronized force data. A force estimation model was then created using deep learning. Effective detection of over-force was achieved if the region of the visual images was restricted by the region of interest around the tips of the forceps. In this paper, we emphasize the importance of limiting the region of interest in vision-based force estimation tasks.

Is corrections officers' use of illegal force networked? Network structure, brokerage, and key players in the New York City Department of Correction

PurposeRecent research on police misconduct has adopted a network perspective, while recent work on correctional officer (CO) use of force has similarly framed it as an organizational behavior, learned through socialization and deployed with considerable discretion. This paper leverages the network paradigm in police misconduct research to study the use of force by COs. MethodsUsing data on lawsuits involving the New York City Department of Correction from 2013 to 2022, this paper forms a co-offending network of those COs who have been sued for excessive force. This paper then uses descriptive social network analysis and key player selection and community detection methods. ResultsAfter describing the basic network structure of COs who use force together, this paper identifies brokers who connect disparate parts of the CO network; it also uses a community detection algorithm to identify clusters of COs involved in force incidents. Finally, the paper compares this network to an analogous network of police use of force, finding structural similarities. ConclusionsThis analysis bridges disparate work on correctional officer use of force and police misconduct; for policymakers who seek to curtail COs' excessive use of force, this paper might provide a blueprint for identifying key players and clusters.

Technique description: Extraction of engulfed ear-piercing backing – The fast and atraumatic technique

BackgroundEar piercings are a common practice for body modification and self-expression, but they can lead to various complications, including embedded jewelry, infections, and difficulty removing earring backings. Traditional techniques for removing stuck backings involve forceful manipulation, resulting in pain, scarring, and suboptimal cosmetic outcomes. DiscussionIn this technique description, we present an alternative atraumatic technique for the removal of stuck ear-piercing backings. The technique involves injecting a mixture of local anesthetic and a vasoconstrictor, around the backing to create a fluid pocket that loosens the earring post. A special maneuver is then applied using a needle driver allowing for easy gentle removal. If the backing remains embedded, gentle pressure on the earlobe reveals a loop that can be threaded with a syringe needle to propel the backing out. ConclusionsThe proposed atraumatic technique for removing stuck ear-piercing backings offers a satisfactory and less stressful experience for pediatric patients while reducing the need for emergency department referrals. Given the lack of consensus on extraction methods, this technique provides a valuable alternative in the absence of a widely agreed-upon approach. Further research is needed to establish standardized protocols. Nevertheless, adopting this technique has the potential to enhance patient satisfaction and improve outcomes.

Police oversight in practice: the Special Investigations Unit and civilian police oversight in Ontario, Canada

ABSTRACT The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) of Ontario is a civilian police oversight agency responsible for investigating serious incidents involving police officers and civilians, with the power to charge police officers with criminal offences. Created in 1990, the SIU is considered a pioneer in civilian-led oversight, however, little is known about how the SIU conducts investigations, the complainants in these investigations, and the routine work of this oversight agency. This article examines a variety of indicators to document the work and activity of the SIU, illustrating important aspects of the agency’s performance in the process. Important trends regarding the nature of police misconduct, violence, and use of lethal force are analysed. Our study uncovers previously unknown trends regarding complainants in SIU investigations, including the prevalence of certain characteristics like known mental health disabilities and the relationship between the substantiation of complaints by the SIU and the criminal activity of the complainant. This study empirically documents the nature of police cooperation with oversight. By analysing different indicators of agency performance and work, this study makes an important contribution to the study of police oversight in general, and the findings hold value for understanding police use of force, the nature of police criminality and misconduct, and the functioning of civilian police oversight in practice.

All-optical driven soft crawler with complex motion capabilities

ABSTRACT The emergence of millimeter-scale soft actuators has significantly expanded the potential applications in areas such as search and rescue, drug delivery, and human assistance, due to their high flexibility. Despite these advancements, achieving precise control over the intricate movements of soft crawlers poses a significant challenge. In this study, we have developed an all-optical approach that enables manipulation of propulsive forces by simultaneously modifying the magnitude and direction of friction forces, thereby enabling complex motions of soft actuators. Importantly, the approach is not constrained by specific actuator shapes, and theoretically, any elongated photothermal actuator can be employed. The actuator was designed with an isosceles trapezoid shape, featuring a top width of 2 mm, a bottom width of 4 mm, and a length of 8 mm. Through our manipulation approach, we showcase a proof-of-concept for complex soft robotic motions, including crawling (achieving speeds of up to 2.25 body lengths per minute), turning, avoiding obstacles, handling and transferring objects approximately twice its own weight, and navigating narrow spaces along programmed paths. Our results showcase this all-optical manipulation approach as a promising, yet unexplored tool for the precision and wireless control for the development of advanced soft actuators.

An early force prediction control scheme using multimodal sensing of electromyography and digit force signals

Different grasping gestures result in the change of muscular activity of the forearm muscles. Similarly, the muscular activity changes with a change in grip force while grasping the object. This change in muscular activity, measured by a technique called Electromyography (EMG) is used in the upper limb bionic devices to select the grasping gesture. Previous research studies have shown gesture classification using pattern recognition control schemes. However, the use of EMG signals for force manipulation is less focused, especially during precision grasping.In this study, an early predictive control scheme is designed for the efficient determination of grip force using EMG signals from forearm muscles and digit force signals. The optimal pattern recognition (PR) control schemes are investigated using three different inputs of two signals: EMG signals, digit force signals and a combination of EMG and digit force signals. The features extracted from EMG signals included Slope Sign Change, Willison Amplitude, Auto Regressive Coefficient and Waveform Length. The classifiers used to predict force levels are Random Forest, Gradient Boosting, Linear Discriminant Analysis, Support Vector Machines, k-nearest Neighbors and Decision Tree. The two-fold objectives of early prediction and high classification accuracy of grip force level were obtained using EMG signals and digit force signals as inputs and Random Forest as a classifier. The earliest prediction was possible at 1000 ms from the onset of the gripping of the object with a mean classification accuracy of 90 % for different grasping gestures.Using this approach to study, an early prediction will result in the determination of force level before the object is lifted from the surface. This approach will also result in better biomimetic regulation of the grip force during precision grasp, especially for a population facing vision deficiency.

Sexual Assault as a Colonial Ideology to Annihilate the Iraqi National Identity in Rasha Fadhil's Ishtar in Baghdad

Regardless of the outcome of events consequently, a person's identity throughout conflicts and wars has a lasting effect on the psyche of a nation, leaving a legacy of trauma, suffering, and sorrow. A nation's psychological and symbolic components, such as the identity of those impacted, their process of healing, and their sympathy for the deceased, are also affected by these wounds, in addition to its physical assets, such as its buildings, artefacts, and natural landscapes. Rasha Fadhil in her dramatic text Ishtar in Baghdad employed the Iraqi mythology to highlight the importance of Iraq's historical culture to its national identity. This study investigates the role of the Iraqi mythology in exposing US forces practices to erasure Iraq cultural history. Moreover, the study examines the sexual assault as a US forces ideology to annihilate Iraq's national identity through the lens of the cultural genocide. The study aims to contribute a deeper understanding of the annihilation of national identity via sexual assault due to occupation ideology.