The Society'S 2004 Tour Of Central Asia

Kelantan. Religion, Society and Politics in a Malay State. Edited by William R. Roff. Kuala Lumpur, Oxford University Press, 1974. Pp. 371. Maps. Glossary. Bibliog. Index. £11.85.     

A Positive,Communitarian Right to Security in the Age of Super-Terrorism

Post-9/11, and especially with the dramatic rise of Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the author advocates a collective right to security. Plotting a course through state absolutism and liberalism, one finds communitarianism as a philosophy to support this right to security. The communitarian right to security is based on an interpretation of European human rights law, particularly positive duties of the state, to protect the rights to life of individuals from violations by non-state actors such as suspected terrorists. But for reasons of practical enforcement, limitations to the exercise of the right are also articulated.     

Development of a Novel Finger-Trigger Interface for Trigger Pull Measurement

Trigger pull is the force that needs to be exerted on the trigger to discharge a firearm. The measurement of trigger pull can assist in the evaluation of the safety, function, and manufacturing characteristics associated with a firearm during the forensic firearm examination process. Nonetheless, the accuracy and uncertainty of trigger pull measurements may be affected by the measuring device, test procedure, and environmental conditions. In this work, an innovative finger-trigger interface device was developed to facilitate accurate trigger pull measurements. The idea was to reduce the variation related to the position of the measurement device on the trigger in existing measuring methods and devices. Three force sensors based on different technologies were initially evaluated. While two of the three sensors failed to produce data, the miniature capacitive plate sensor exhibited high precision and a linear response over the range of typical trigger pulls. To examine the effects of the finger-trigger interface on trigger pull measurement, different sensor housing prototypes were designed in silico and 3D printed for the construction of three finger-trigger interface devices. The performance of each finger-trigger interface device was evaluated by measuring the trigger pulls of several selected firearms and comparing the data to a previously published study. Our preliminary results demonstrated the novel finger-trigger interface device offered a new way to measure trigger pull in situ with acceptable accuracy and precision.     

Bernard Crick: citizenship and democracy in the United Kingdom

Bernard Crick's contribution to citizenship studies can be regarded as part of the tradition so ably represented by T.H. Marshall. I want to argue in this brief article on Crick that on the one hand he is part of the ‘golden age’ of political philosophy that has flourished in the English-speaking world over the last two or three decades, but on the other his work also shows the limitations of that tradition, at least from the perspective of comparative and historical studies in political sociology. His work was unquestionably ‘local’ in its focus on the subject of Scottish independence and the viability of the British Isles under the governance of a multi-national state.