Weapons In Hands Research Articles

Electronic Shooting Simulator Family "STrIzh": Implementation Levels and Free Software Structure

Development of rifle electronic simulators (i.e. for hand weapons and not using ammunition) is an important task, since the production of any type of small arms according to regulatory documents also requires the production of a simulator to instill aiming and firing skills. A family of electronic shooting simulators "STrIzh" of four levels of implementation: initial, basic, professional and special is described. Structural diagrams of different configurations are given, functional purpose and capabilities of each level of simulators are shown. The initial level allows independent assemble the simulator from publicly available elements (laptop, webcam, weapon layouts, IR LEDs), which can contribute to widespread use both in schools and at home, but is low in accuracy and manufacturabili (requires daily calibration). The basic level also allows independent assemble the simulator, and less publicly available elements (laptop, projector, mockup weapons, laser emitters, FHD camera), which allows to be used both in schools and in DOSAAF structures, and has acceptable accuracy and manufacturability (a weekly calibration is enough, but assembling a mock-up weapon with laser emitters requires adjustments). It is recommended to limit the special level to virtual reality simulators, including a helmet with a smartphone and a mockup of a weapon with its smartphone which also contributes to its public availability and widespread use. The simulator software algorithm should fully support all implementation levels with different configurations and include a multimedia shooting training system. Mathematical models of external ballistics of thrown equipment for Kalashnikov assault rifle, Makarov pistol, hand-held anti-tank grenade launcher 7 products are described in detail, taking into account changes in atmospheric factors (temperature, air pressure, wind force) and dispersion of various types of ammunition. The above review of rifle simulators and their experience revealed the main trends of improvement – use of virtual reality and training not only direct shooting skills, but also training in the eligibility of the use of weapons, safe handling of them and even tactical interaction in the group.

And Love Itself by Drago Jancar

Reviewed by: And Love Itself by Drago Jancar Elizabeth Fifer DRAGO JANCAR And Love Itself Trans. David Limon. Dallas. Dalkey Archive Press. 2022. 352 pages. ALTHOUGH HE IS RELATIVELY UNKNOWN in the United States, the philosophical and historical sweep of the fiction of Slovenian author Drago Jancar has been compared to Milan Kundera, Franz Kafka, and Günter Grass. Jancar was awarded the European Prize for Literature in 2011 and in 2014 received the Best Foreign Book Prize and the Kresnick Award for best novel of the year for I Saw Her That Night. In And Love Itself, a World War II novel, Jancar asks if love can exist in wartime. Its title comes from Byron's poem "So We'll Go No More a Roving": "For the sword outwears its sheath, / And the soul outwears the breast, / And the heart must pause to breathe, / And love itself have rest." These lines accurately summarize the action. Sofia and Valentin's prewar romance will return to the narrative again and again but only as memory. Jancar skillfully changes points of view, from the peasants in the villages to the Resistance fighters in the woods adjacent to the front lines. When people speak Slovene instead of German or Russian, it signals their nationalism. Intermingling present and past, he moves around the war years to provide a Slovenian perspective. From their hidden camps the Partisans sing, "We bring thunder to the devil, / With weapon in hand. / Write justice in the blood, / Demanded by our land." Fierce love for their land fuels their fighting spirit. That land's occupiers threaten harsh penalties for not speaking German. They decimate the population either by murdering people on the spot or sending them to camps on trumped-up charges. The army of occupation and the Resistance each use interrogation to test loyalty. Trust is a scarce commodity—both sides fear infiltration. Successive waves of armies pass through—Germans, Russians, Partisans, bandits—each taking their toll on the local populace. In scratched photographs, faces appear blurred, looking out of ruined windows. As they push the Germans out, the Russians kill collaborators. When factions disagree about guilt, Slovenes fight Slovenes, brother against brother. The hour of victory brings revenge. Love and poetry can conquer everything except war. Jancar has created a tender love story about the impossibility of love, about heroism without reward. Elizabeth Fifer Center Valley, Pennsylvania Copyright © 2023 World Literature Today and the Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma

Officious Aliens: Tatars' Involvement in the Central Asian Revolution, 1919–21

Officious AliensTatars' Involvement in the Central Asian Revolution, 1919–21 Norihiro Naganawa (bio) A gentle wind of the East has brought you, angels.Look upon the sky, stars created the celestial body.Upon your arrival, the Ferghana rubs its head on the ground.You saw, flowers blossomed for you at your every step.You felt, we finally became calm before your compassionate eyes.Thanks to you, we bring our valuable aspirations into being.Not until the heavenly homeland is cleansed of devils,Not until Satan falls silent will we lay down our gunsBefore your eyes newspapers and books, weapons in hands. In the press organ of the Communist Party of Turkestan, the Uzbek poet "Chıghatay" eulogized the First Volga-Tatar Infantry Brigade, which had arrived in the Ferghana Valley in mid-January 1920 to fight the Basmachi, anti-Soviet insurgents.1 This ode sheds light on an unusual node in the establishment of Soviet power in the region, raising questions. Why were Tatars there? Why were Tatar soldiers struggling by means of newspapers and books? How did Tatars themselves see their mission? Were they mere useful pawns of the Bolsheviks who shared the locals' faith? How should we evaluate their relationship with the local population and its native elite? The Tatar Brigade's operations in the Ferghana Valley undermine a canon of Civil War literature, which has developed discretely along the lines of [End Page 63] regions and national republics.2 True, Soviet historians of the Civil War in Central Asia did not fail to mention the Tatar Brigade's praiseworthy role in battles against the Basmachi and the political education of the local population in the Ferghana Valley. But their pivotal concern was to prioritize native titular peoples' alliance and collision with the Soviets, while downplaying any coherent trajectory of the Brigade's mediating operation in Central Asia.3 More recent fundamental works, too, have inherited this line of analysis and narrative. Marco Buttino attributes the Soviets' changing tactics in their struggle with the Basmachi in the Ferghana Valley and their attempt to create a separate Muslim Red Army to a contentious rivalry among native Muslim Communists led by Turar Rysqulov (1894–1938), their Russian "colonial" counterparts in Tashkent, and representatives from Moscow; Tatar units of the Red Army appear in minor, accidental episodes showing them to be dubious elements prone to violence.4 Adeeb Khalid and Hisao Komatsu are no exceptions, either. Of course, their contribution is different, as they manifestly demonstrate the agency of local intellectuals, the Jadids, in fulfilling their own vision of modernity, which had already taken shape under tsarist colonial rule, amid their struggle with another Bolshevik vision of modernity. Although Khalid does mention Tatar agents during the Civil War here and there, their role should be clarified to provide an intricate picture of the natives' early encounter with Bolshevism.5 [End Page 64] This article excavates a hitherto fragmented and underrated layer of the Central Asian revolution. Exploring the Tatar intermediaries' predicaments when they came into contact with the Muslim population in Turkestan and Bukhara, I assess strengths and vulnerabilities in the early Soviets' transmission of power to the fractured empire's borderlands. First, I analyze the Tatar Brigade's struggles and negotiations with the Basmachi to illuminate the profound dilemmas that belied the Brigade's self-presentation as a Bolshevik "civilizer," a view that its political workers strove to impose on both the soldiers and the local population. Second, I show the rise and fall of those individuals from the Tatar Brigade who were involved in the two watersheds of the revolution in Central Asia: the replacement of leadership inside the Communist Party of Turkestan in July and the conquest of the Bukharan Emirate in September 1920. The Tatar rendering of Bolshevik language—such as reinforcement of the class struggle, liberation of the oppressed East from capitalism and imperialism, and self-determination—enabled Tatar agents to recruit indigenous men to the Red Army and to engage in elite politics well enough to harness the Turkestan Party to Moscow's will. Yet once they looked identical to Russian colonialists in the turbulent aftermath of the Bukharan Revolution, the very logic...

‘With a Weapon in Hand and a Horse by Side.’ Weapons and Horse Harness in Graves of Vekerzug Culture from an Interregional Perspective

This study deals with graves of Vekerzug culture, which contained weapons and horse harness. These graves reflect an evident social differentiation of Vekerzug society. Special attention in the study was paid to the most accurate geographic and cultural determination of the origin of individual weapon types and horse harness components in the context of new knowledge about Vekerzug culture and answering the question to what extent these finds reflect its interregional contacts. Important is also definition of possible armament schemes of Vekerzug culture and their comparison with armament schemes in the neighbouring cultural regions, especially with the forest-steppe Western Podolian group, Ciumbrud culture and Ferigile culture. Cultural and spatial analyses of individual types of weapons and horse harness as well as of the armament schemes of Vekerzug culture show that the problem of interregional contacts of this culture, mainly the eastern ones, must be considered more differentially than it has been previously presented in scientific literature. At the same time, they confirm the recent knowledge that the effect of eastern influences on Vekerzug culture is in scientific literature without a reason constantly overestimated.

New hero in war prose of present time (based on books about war in Donbas)

The events on Maidan, the Russian-Ukrainian war in the East of Ukraine became a particular challenge not only for the novice writers but also for the famous masters of the word. Some of them took part in the defense of the country; others were strictly focused on the contemporary situation and talked with the soldiers who returned from the front. New works with scary stories and unexpected solutions aroused. In addition to the common theme, these books, published in 2014–2018, showed another common longed-for phenomenon – the emergence of a new hero. He is a patriot who, with weapons in hands, defends the homeland in Donbas, his own choice and future. He is a well-educated young man with a strong pro-Ukrainian position who is proud of his nationality. He has the power to design and successfully conduct a military special operation. Now he is ready for changes within society, he is savvy in questions of politics and course of Ukraine in the international arena. He is characterized by determination and perseverance, he is ready to fight. The new hero does not trust the central government since during all the years of independence it demonstrated to its own people only political weakness and double standards. An ordinary Ukrainian might be used to adjust himself to all the authorities without exception. However, the events of Maidan, and then the war woke up the society and swept its apathy. The desire to defend oneself, one’s family and friends, and the whole country gave strength to the people. Thus a new, self-confident and strong Ukrainian became typical. He is a leader able to motivate his comrades for being active in the battlefield and politics.The new hero may have even some messianic features corresponding to the people’s expectations.

Polish Theatre in the Time of War (1939–1945). Fight—Will to Survive—Losses—Legacy

During World War II Polish theatre people took an active part in the fight with both Germany and the Soviet Union. Several of them fought with a weapon inhand as officers and soldiers of Polish armies in the September 1939 campaign, later as combatants of the Home Army (AK), and also within Polish armed forces fighting abroad. Many more fought with a weapon of the word. While boycotting German sponsored stages in the General Government, they created the whole network of small underground theatre groups. Two major centers of this activity were Warsaw, where the Clandestine Theatre Council (Bohdan Korzeniewski, Leon Schiller, Edmund Wiercinski and others) organized and sponsored underground theatre productions and acting studios, and Krakow with The Rhapsodic Theatre (led by Mieczyslaw Kotlarczyk), The Independent Theatre (led by Tadeusz Kantor), and a circle of artists and apprentices gathered around Juliusz Osterwa, who frequently gave one-man shows. Productions were also prepared in German oflags and concentration camps. The great actor Stefan Jaracz performed for fellow inmates in Auschwitz, Zofia Rysiowna in Ravensbruck, and Roman Niewiarowicz in Dachau. Such productions were recorded also in Soviet camps (gulag system). Soldier theatres were organized at the Gen. Anders Second Corp, then also at the Polish forces underSoviet command. Losses of Polish theatre due to the war were staggering. In terms of material losses, The National Theatre in Warsaw was bombed by the Lufwaffe on September 19, 1939, and eventually Poland lost about 70% of theatre buildings standing in August 1939, plus their libraries, sets and costumes magazines, etc. In terms of human losses, about 300 theatre professionals died (out of about 2000 in 1939). Some were killed in military actions, some murdered in either German or Soviet camps. The losses in the spiritual domain were uncountable. Theatre artistswere deprived of the possibility to perform, thus executing their profession and vocation. Theatre spectators were left without their artistic nourishment. The struggles, sacrifices, and deeds of the war-time Polish theatre had a profound influence on the history of Polish theatre of the second half of the 20th century. They were not only an important element of the nation’s war-effort, but—indirectly— contributed to the restoration of Poland’s freedom at the end of the 20th century.

ОСОБЛИВОСТІ ЗАЛІСНЕННЯ ПІВНІЧНО-ЗАХІДНОГО ПРИАЗОВ’Я

Features of afforestation in Northwest Priazovye in the 19th century are covered in article. Separately Johann and David Kornis's activity who have based unique forest plantations in the steppe is considered. Attention is paid to emergence and development of the Berdyansk, Altagirsky and Dzhekenlynsky forest dachas. Important aspect is educational function of forest areas. At them there was a school where boys were taught forestry. Since 1846 in forest area study of boys to forest business has begun. At the beginning study lasted 5 years, later the term of study has been increased up to 6 years. For this period they not only gained knowledge and skills on afforestation, but also on agriculture, gardening, silkworm breeding, tobacco growing, truck farming. In the winter they learned to write, read and consider. The first pupils were from continental counties of the Taurian province. Further for study began to take boys and from the Crimean Counties (uezdov). Pupils represented different nationalities: Russians, Ukrainians, the Crimean Tatars (for example, in 1851 for study the Crimean Tatar from the village of Karagurt of the Evpatoriysky County of Asanas Selyamiyev, Nogais (in 1848 – Shemeredin Sakalov from the village Burkut of the Berdyansk County (uezd) has arrived). Besides, in forest areas there passed alternative forest service Mennonites. Introduction in 1874 of the general military duty has met sharp rejection of Mennonites whose dogma forbade to hold weapon in hand, and has caused their mass emigration to North America. As a result of negotiations between the government of the Russian Empire and leaders of the Mennonite communities there was a reached compromise according to which the general military duty for Mennonites has been replaced with alternative civil service in so-called forest teams. Fundamental obligations of the Mennonites called on service and rules of an internal order in divisions regulated the Rules of service of Mennonites in forest area approved on July 14, 1880. Agricultural works which were performed in forest areas – clearing of young growth, extermination of wreckers, collecting seeds, irrigation, repair of agricultural tools are analyzed. For 1868-1917 different exhibitions - agricultural and forest, World and All-Russian, periodic, industrial and handicraft Fairs were organized. Demonstration of the achieved success in the field of agriculture and forestry of the Berdyansk forest area was their purpose. The commissions on drawing up collections for the Parisian World Fair which has taken place in 1867 were organized. The international jury at this exhibition to the Berdyansk educational steppe forest area has awarded a bronze medal and to her the diploma for a collection of samples of tree species is given.

Killing Time in Titus Andronicus: Timing, Rhetoric, and the Art of Defense

As you can see, this discipline relies in great part on the ability to subtly deceive your opponent.-Salvator Fabris, Lo Schermo, overo Scienza d'ArmeNow is a time to storm. Why thou still?-Shakespeare, Titus AndronicusStorming and stillness, movement and suspension, action and empty word: Marcus Andronicus, the politician and rhetorician, understands these activities as opposites in Titus Andronicus.1 He urges his brother toward immediate and public mourning and revenge. In contrast, Titus, a military leader and expert at hand-to-hand combat, understands that stillness is an integral part storming. Modern literary scholarship has a stronger inheritance from the pedagogy rhetoric than from the pedagogy combat, and so it has become something a critical commonplace to see waiting as the opposite acting in Shakespearean revenge dramas like Hamlet and Titus Andronicus. In fact, suspension in these plays can function to prompt mistakes in timing on the part the revenger. A consideration how timing is informed by the art and science defense, or fencing, will shed light on the tactics inaction. Further, the ways in which early modern fencing masters taught timing provokes us to reconsider the role time in the genre revenge drama as a whole.In Shakespeare's oeuvre, the timing combat and its relationship to the timing rhetoric is explored most deeply in Titus Andronicus. While Hamlet prominently features a fixed fencing match and Romeo and Juliet turns from comedy to tragedy through a duel, Titus Andronicus explicitly associates rhetoric with swordplay, articulating the two on a structural as well as a thematic level. Further, while it is certainly possible to find other plays in which duels feature more prominently, the representation a duel does not teach us as much about how timing was understood and practiced as does the pedagogy that the duel is founded upon. Rather than scouring scanty stage directions to reconstruct the temporal logic combat, look to the underlying theory described in fencing texts-a theory that is then explored and enacted in the tragedy.Titus Andronicus is famous for its rich interweaving the thematic strands writing and wounding, and this pattern participates in the conventional debate between sword and pen. The rhythms timing taught in fencing illuminate the complex pacing the plot. Rhetoric and armed combat a long history competition.2 This rivalry is due, in part, to their claims to the same domain knowledge: the recognition and seizure the opportune moment, or kairos.3 Writing and fencing masters alike weigh in on the comparison. The Spanish writing master Juan Luis Vives urges his students to replace weapons with writing implements. In Vives's Latin dialogue, the master asks the students, have you come here armed? and then clarifies that he speaks not of the arms blood-shedding, but writing-weapons, which are necessary for our purpose (70).4 Pens trump arms in the humanist educational program writing masters, but fencing masters tell a different story.On the Continent, the Italian fencing master Angelo Viggiani sees the competition between arms and letters as important enough to treat first (and at great length) in his three-volume Lo Schermo (1575). Disarming many common lines reasoning used to denigrate his occupation, Viggiani argues that the science defense is devoted to the most important kinds knowledge, movement and time, which are fundamental to all natural things. War, more than any other or faculty, requires skill in movement and time.5 Viggiani capaciously classifies manipulations time and motion, along with any other sort deceit, under the purview arms: I do not call war only that which one does with weapon in hand, but also that which is waged with cunning [ingegno] (13r). Viggiani's use ingegno in this context is grounded in a larger cultural movement. …

Book Review of Arezzo nell'antichità, edited by Giovannangelo Camporeale and Giulio Firpo

The Chimaera, the Minerva, the Ploughman, red-gloss (Arretine) ceramics, and perhaps the “Patera cospiana” (a fine Etruscan mirror)—these are famed objects from ancient Arezzo that come to mind when one considers the profile of this great Etruscan and Roman city. Our perception of the city is also influenced by Livy’s (28.45.16–17) description of the provisions donated to the fleet of Scipio by seven Etruscan populi (202 B.C.E.), according to which Arezzo made the greatest contribution: 3,000 shields, 3,000 helmets, 50,000 hand weapons, tools for 40 warships, and 120,000 pecks of wheat.

Eastern Europe as a "Sub-Germanic Space": Scholarship on Eastern Europe under National Socialism

Institutions and Networks of Volkisch Scholarship The Volkisch People and German Soil. In 2008, Ingo Haar, Michael Fahlbusch, and Nicolas Berg published their Handbuch der volkischen Wissenschaften: Personen--Institutionen--Forschungsprogramme--Stiftungen. (1) Its appearance represents an important milestone in the study of history and the social sciences as practiced in Germany and Austria from the 1920s to the 1940s. Volkisch does not easily lend itself to definition, since it always held multivalent connotations, including the experience of the (Volk) and of the (Volksgemeinschaft). (2) Nonetheless, scholars in many fields proved receptive to the influence of the movement. Its roots can be traced both to the Wilhelminian and the Weimar eras, to academic and middle-class members of the right-wing milieu; and it encompassed a variety of ideologies, myths, and lifestyles. The movement's impact on scientific disciplines after 1918 centered on a redefinition of Germandom--as a people and as an ethnic community or ethnic body (Volkskorper). Participants invoked German culture-bearing and a territory of German soil and culture that stretched far beyond the borders of the German Empire or Weimar Republic (not to mention Austria). In the movements, transitions between ethno-nationalism and racism were fluid and usually associated with anti-Judaism (expressed, for example, in the desire to de-Judaize Christianity) and antisemitism in all its different manifestations. The preoccupation with Germandom led to demands that went beyond claims to cultural hegemony in Central Europe. (3) To various degrees, history, sociology, ethnology, theology, and geography opened themselves up to thinking; occasionally experimenting with new methods, scholars in these fields wished to make themselves useful to the administration. Those academic disciplines labeled volkisch in Handbuch der volkischen Wissenschaften both systemized social and political perceptions of reality and created new scientific categories. The outbreak of war in 1939 offered some disciplines and scholars the chance to go beyond interpreting reality to influencing and shaping it. In the worst cases, they did so weapon in hand. Volkisch scholarship, once antiquarian and conservative, became activist. When attitudes combined with brutal activism, which aimed to create a Teutonic-Germanic master race in Europe, they formed the basis of National Socialist war policy. That war policy absorbed many elements of the movement, even as it abandoned several of the movement's key principles. The Handbuch documents these processes admirably. Contributions by 85 authors offer easy access to important components of the so-called sciences. As the subtitle suggests, it covers people, research institutes, foundations, and publications, concentrating on those aspects of history, ethnography, and sociology with greatest practical application to (Volkswissenschaften). The publishers express regret that race hygiene, the study of German literature, and art history could not be studied in greater depth. Readers may also regret that demography, racial anthropology, and spatial planning--all of which were crucially important to the National Socialists--are discussed only in passing. Handbuch der volkischen Wissenschaften is only one of several important publications of the past decade that concentrate on so-called Ostforschung* and Ostexperten. (4) This review article explores the new perspectives and insights they provide into the significance of scholarship under National Socialism and that scholarship's contribution to demographic policies--including policies of extermination--in occupied Eastern Europe during World War II. Already in 1946, Max Weinreich of the Yiddish Scientific Institute (YIVO) in New York published a study of National Socialist Judenforschung. …

A Counter-WMD Strategy for the Future

past year has witnessed a renewed emphasis by US government agencies addressing threat of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). In December 2009, Obama Administration released its second presidential policy directive, a National Strategy to Counter Biological Threats, which addressed challenge of combating infectious diseases, regardless of whether they were natural or manmade. In February 2010, Quadrennial Defense Review stressed how proliferation of WMD continues to undermine global In April, Nuclear Posture Review was released for first time as an unclassified document, along with a newly signed Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, reducing deployable number of Russian and US nuclear weapons. In May, representatives from across globe met to renew Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which attempts to reduce (and eventually eliminate) total number of nuclear-owning weapon in world. It has been a busy spring. During talks related to these initiatives, President Barack Obama directly connected threat of nuclear terrorism to success of nuclear proliferation efforts. He declared, The greatest threat to US and global security is no longer a nuclear exchange between nations, but nuclear terrorism by violent extremists and nuclear proliferation to an increasing number of states. (1) current focus on nonproliferation activities, however, does not stop terrorists from seeking and potentially obtaining nuclear and biological materials, technology, and devices. For that matter, emphasis on combating terrorism has not resulted in a reduction of terrorist ambitions to obtain these materials, either. US government, and Department of Defense (DOD) in particular, needs to review its strategy to combat weapons of mass destruction. combating WMD framework is based on a counterproliferation strategy developed in response to threat of nuclear, biological, and chemical (NBC) weapons to military forces in 1990s, however, its scope was broadened after September 2001 to address concerns relating to homeland security. For talk about the most dangerous weapons in hands of most dangerous people, there has been little discussion on whether combating WMD strategy is adequate against current and future threats. This article will review development of combating WMD strategy from its initiation in 1990s, as a result of post-conflict analysis of Persian Gulf War in 1991. It will outline creation of combating WMD strategy during George W. Bush Administration. article focuses on challenges in interpretation, largely due to thesis that terrorists were actively seeking WMD materials and technology from rogue states that had developed this capability (or were in process of doing so). Last, it will offer suggestions on how to improve framework, largely by defining strategy to counter nation-state WMD programs as distinct from strategy to counter terrorist pursuit of WMD. If US government clearly articulates these two strategies as separate but related, as opposed to being one single strategy to counter WMD, agencies responsible for executing these strategies will be much more effective. Genesis of DOD's Combating WMD Strategy In 1993, Office of Secretary of Defense (OSD) initiated a Defense Counterproliferation Initiative with image of ill-prepared US forces facing Iraq's chemical and biological (CB) weapons still fresh in its mind. There was some initial concern by nonproliferation community that DOD was attempting to usurp its role that a focus on developing offensive and defensive capabilities to counter adversarial use of CB weapons would come at cost of reducing nonproliferation efforts. (2) After a few years of discussion, OSD tasked Joint Staff in 1996 to develop a counterproliferation strategy, stating in Defense Planning Guidance that all US forces must be prepared to conduct wartime operations against adversaries armed with chemical or biological weapons. …

The Appearance of Frevo and the Practice of Passo

Frevo is a popular spectacle of Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil. Concerning the word “frevo”, three meanings were ascertained : 1) dance which is witnessed in the streets and dance parties during a carnival (Frevo as a street dance with characteristic steps is especially called Passo), 2) music which is characterized by its syncopated, violent and frenzied rhythm and 3) enthusiastic crowd which parades through the streets during a carnival. With these three meanings in mind, in this study the popular spectacle was examined from two points of view : 1) historical examination about the circumstances of Frevo's appearance in the streets of Recife's carnival and 2) analysis of Passo's steps (which are practiced at the pres-ent day) and performances. The first topic was examined by means of written materials which were collected in Recife by the author. The data utilized for examining the second topic were videotapes in which the steps and performances of Passo had been recorded by the author under the direction of Mestre Nascimento do Passo who was the leading expert on this dance. The video recording was held in Recife and Olinda in August, 2003. The eighty-six steps of Passo were classified from five points of view (which were found out by observing the videotapes closely) and the steps used by five passistas (Frevo dancers) in their solo performances were specified. The results of this study were summarized as follows. Frevo was appeared in the streets of Recife during a carnival early in the 20th century. It was considered that two social factors had had a great influence on its appearance. The first factor was a change of festival style in the street carnival (In Recife, after the 1850s, fancy dress parade gradually took the place of disorderly street carnival style called entrudo). The second was an large-scale influx of the black lower classes into the city of Recife as a consequence of the abolition of slavery in 1888. Carnival clubs which appeared successively in the 1880s and were called clubes pedestres impelled the residents of Recife to a new carnival diversion, that is, to make merry accompanying a parade of those clubs in large numbers. On that occasion, enthusiasm called Frevo appeared in the crowd. The mainspring which led the crowd to enthusiasm was music played by brass bands of carnival clubs. This music called marcha-polca (march-polka) was considered a principal source of Frevo as a music (There were two distinct points of difference between marcha-polca and Frevo : 1) presence or absence of the lyrics and 2) tempo of the playing). The roughs called capoeiras also accompanied the parade and practiced physical movements of capoeiragem (martial arts of African origin) brandishing weapons such as a stick or a knife (It was supposed that the abolition of slavery had made capoeiras' antisocial activities more lively). Concerning the appearance of Passo, a hypothesis was brought forward : to avoid attracting the attention of the police, capoeiragem was disguised as lively dance in the streets during a carnival (In the process of transition from capoeiragem to Passo, blows and kicks at other people and undisguised hand weapons disappeared). In this study, Passo was considered “a dance composed of various steps”. On the occasion of analysis of Passo, the effectiveness of this idea was considerably made sure (Mestre Nascimento do Passo had already applied the idea to his instructional method of Passo by inventing forty basic steps). As a result of motion analysis of eighty-six steps, five characteristics emerged : 1) two basic positions of Passo, that is, a standing and a squatting, 2) repetition of movement (which was found in seventy-three steps), 3) bilat-eral symmetry

A National Study of Violent Behavior in Persons With Schizophrenia

Violent behavior is uncommon, yet problematic, among schizophrenia patients. The complex effects of clinical, interpersonal, and social-environmental risk factors for violence in this population are poorly understood. To examine the prevalence and correlates of violence among schizophrenia patients living in the community by developing multivariable statistical models to assess the net effects of psychotic symptoms and other risk factors for minor and serious violence. A total of 1410 schizophrenia patients were clinically assessed and interviewed about violent behavior in the past 6 months. Data comprise baseline assessments of patients enrolled in the National Institute of Mental Health Clinical Antipsychotic Trials of Intervention Effectiveness. Adult patients diagnosed as having schizophrenia were enrolled from 56 sites in the United States, including academic medical centers and community providers. Violence was classified at 2 severity levels: minor violence, corresponding to simple assault without injury or weapon use; and serious violence, corresponding to assault resulting in injury or involving use of a lethal weapon, threat with a lethal weapon in hand, or sexual assault. A composite measure of any violence was also analyzed. The 6-month prevalence of any violence was 19.1%, with 3.6% of participants reporting serious violent behavior. Distinct, but overlapping, sets of risk factors were associated with minor and serious violence. "Positive" psychotic symptoms, such as persecutory ideation, increased the risk of minor and serious violence, while "negative" psychotic symptoms, such as social withdrawal, lowered the risk of serious violence. Minor violence was associated with co-occurring substance abuse and interpersonal and social factors. Serious violence was associated with psychotic and depressive symptoms, childhood conduct problems, and victimization. Particular clusters of symptoms may increase or decrease violence risk in schizophrenia patients. Violence risk assessment and management in community-based treatment should focus on combinations of clinical and nonclinical risk factors.

An Actuarial Model of Violence Risk Assessment for Persons With Mental Disorders

An actuarial model was developed in the MacArthur Violence Risk Assessment Study to predict violence in the community among patients who have recently been discharged from psychiatric facilities. This model, called the multiple iterative classification tree (ICT) model, showed considerable accuracy in predicting violence in the construction sample. The purpose of the study reported here was to determine the validity of the multiple ICT model in distinguishing between patients with high and low risk of violence in the community when applied to a new sample of individuals. Software incorporating the multiple ICT model was administered with independent samples of acutely hospitalized civil patients. Patients who were classified as having a high or a low risk of violence were followed in the community for 20 weeks after discharge. Violence included any battery with physical injury, use of a weapon, threats made with a weapon in hand, and sexual assault. Expected rates of violence in the low- and high-risk groups were 1 percent and 64 percent, respectively. Observed rates of violence in the low- and high-risk groups were 9 percent and 35 percent, respectively, when a strict definition of violence was used, and 9 percent and 49 percent, respectively, when a slightly more inclusive definition of violence was used. These findings may reflect the "shrinkage" expected in moving from construction to validation samples. The multiple ICT model may be helpful to clinicians who are faced with making decisions about discharge planning for acutely hospitalized civil patients.

Effects of acoustic impulses on hearing

It is well known that acoustic impulses are especially dangerous to the ear. In order to understand the damaging mechanisms involved, cases of acute acoustic trauma in man were systematically collected and documented for many years. When possible, the damaging impulses were recreated and measured, to correlate the impulses with the auditory damage they caused. Detailed pure-tone audiometry up to 16 kHz was used to determine the effects on hearing. Together with epidemiological studies on various occupations, three different damaging mechanisms can be discerned. Relatively long and massive impulses (some explosions, some airbags) often lead to damage at low frequencies, from about 0.5 to 1.5 kHz. The typical notch at about 4 to 6 kHz typically is the result of strong peaks, lasting several milliseconds, or longer. There is another notch at 12 to 14 kHz, characteristic of very short, needle-like impulses that are caused by many hand weapons, toy pistols, and firecrackers. Probable mechanisms are discussed.

Morphology of bullet entrance wounds in palms and plantae (author's transl)

Tests shots with hand weapons of .22, .25, .32, .357, and .45 calibre were made to find out whether bullet entrance wounds in palms and plantae are very different from such wounds in other parts of the body. As far as shots without contact between muzzle and skin were concerned, the following characteristics were noticed: (1) Entrance holes from pistols and revolvers of the same calibre were smaller in palms and plantae than in other parts of the body. (2) There is no abrasion collar as typically found in other regions. (3) The corneum of epidermis around the entrance hole is lifted off and torn radially. These unusual findings are most probably the result of the particular texture of the palmar and plantar epithelium.

Shotgun wound patterns.

Relatively little has been published in the world literature on shotgun wound interpretation and ballistics. Since only few medical centers see a large number of shotgun injuries, less experienced examiners may be misled easily hi their interpretation of such wounds, particularly with regard to estimates of distance, with grave implications as to judicial consequences. The peculiarities of the shotgun and the shot shell frequently permit more accurate range estimates than do hand weapons, especially for ranges beyond 1 ft. Choke is the most important variable factor influencing the shot scatter pattern in the average medicolegal case, whereas gauge has little effect on pattern size. The most accurate estimation of range is achieved by test firing the same gun and ammunition at varying ranges to compare the spread with the entrance wound. The wound characteristics largely depend upon the distance. Close range shots make a single punched out entrance hole that increases in size proportionally to the range until individual pellets enter the target. Concomitantly, the internal injuries vary, ranging from complete destruction of the target organ at close range to individual pellet wounds at greater distances. However, it is important to realize that pellet scatter patterns within the body may be similar in diameter in both close range and distant shots. Because of this similarity, estimation of range based upon body roentgenograms has been found to be less reliable than was believed previously and, indeed, may be very misleading. Exit wounds are very rare, even at contact range, and occur only hi tangential shots, when thinner portions of the body are injured, or with the use of large pellets (buckshot).