Conservatism and the rhetoric of rhetoric

There is currently a revival of the intellectual tradition of rhetoric as a reaction to modernism. Because of rhetoric’s links with conservatism, this revival’s own rhetoric needs to be examined. A revival of an aesthetic rhetoric could easily be backward-looking and draw upon the backward-looking, conservative traditions within the history of rhetoric. On the other hand, if the revival stresses the pragmatic features of rhetoric it might be seen either as an adornment to those skills of persuasive selling, encouraged today by pragmatic conservatism, or as a development of today’s science of persuasion. Despite the obvious links to romantic and to pragmatic conservatism, rhetoric does contain the possibility for a radical critique of modernism; this would unite aesthetics and pragmatism, form and style, and raise the image of free and unending argumentation.     

History,Geography and the French National Space: The Question of Alsace‐Lorraine, 1914‐18

The restoration of French authority in Alsace and Lorraine, the regions ceded to the new German Empire following the Franco-Prussian war of 1870, was a major preoccupation of France's political leadership before 1914 and was the principal French war aim during World War I. This paper examines how French politicians and intellectuals sought to reinforce this territorial claim between 1914 and 1918. In the early years of the war, the propaganda campaign was dominated by conservative politicians, business élites and senior figures in the army whose preoccupations were mainly economic and strategic and whose proposals were often unrealistic. Later in the war, moderate and less obviously self-interested geopolitical arguments were developed by leading French academics, particularly the historians and the geographers, with the active support of their government. This campaign emphasised cultural, historical and political questions, drew on the ideas of earlier French theorists of the nation-state, notably Ernest Renan, and had a significant impact on the subsequent development of France's renowned interwar tradition of geo-historical research.     

Portable high‐resolution automated 3D imaging for footwear and tire impression capture

The forensic science community raised the need for improved evidence recognition, collection, and visualization analytical instrumentation for field and laboratory use. While the 3D optical techniques for imaging static objects have been extensively studied, there is still a major gap between current knowledge and collecting high‐quality footwear and tire impression evidence. Among optical means for 3D imaging, digital fringe projection (DFP) techniques reconstruct 3D shape from phase information, achieving camera‐pixel spatial resolution. This paper presents a high‐resolution 3D imaging technology using DFP techniques dedicated to footwear and tire impression capture. We developed fully automated software algorithms and a graphical user interface (GUI) that allow anyone without training to operate for high‐quality 3D data capture. We performed accuracy evaluations and comparisons comparing with the commercial high‐end 3D scanner and carried out qualitative tests for various impressions comparing with the current practices. Overall, our technology achieves similar levels of accuracy and resolution with a high‐end commercially available 3D scanner, while having the merits of being (1) more affordable; (2) much easier to operate; and (3) more robust. Compared with the current practice of casting, our technology demonstrates its superiority because it (1) is non‐destructive; (2) collects more evidence detail than casts, especially when an impression is fragile; (3) requires less time and money to collect each piece of evidence; and (4) results in a digital file that can easily be shared with other examiners.     

The association between childhood sexual abuse and sexual coercion in men: a test of possible mediators

ABSTRACT

We examined the associations between childhood sexual abuse (CSA), childhood physical abuse (CPA), sexual domain variables, antisocial tendencies, and sexually coercive behaviour in a non-forensic sample of 173 heterosexual men. CSA was associated with paraphilic interests and experiences, a more extensive sexual life history, and early antisocial tendencies. CPA was associated with paraphilic interests and experiences, more self-reported delinquency, higher sensation seeking, and early antisocial tendencies. Sexual domain variables (e.g. number of sexual partners, sexual interest in sadomasochism) mediated the link between CSA and sexually coercive behaviour, but antisocial domain variables (e.g. delinquency, sensation seeking) did not. Of the two sexual domains examined, extensive sexual life history rather than paraphilias mediated the association between CSA and sexually coercive behaviour. These results suggest CSA and CPA are associated with both sexual and antisocial outcomes, and that, for some victims of CSA, having an extensive sexual life history may account for the association between CSA and sexually coercive behaviour later in life.