“龙象并肩”:中印非传统安全合作

非传统安全合作是国际关系领域的新焦点。近年来,越来越多的国际关系学者开始关注日益凸显的非传统安全问题,包括恐怖主义、金融危机、跨国有组织犯罪、传染性疾病、气候变化、移民难民、复合性自然灾害、自然资源枯竭或跨界资源冲突等。非传统安全挑战严重威胁着区域安全,东亚和南亚地区也不例外。审视中国和印度这两个地缘相连的竞争大国之间的关系以及中印双边非传统安全合作,从传统安全角度看,长期以来存在的领土争议是阻碍中印关系发展的核心问题,而从非传统安全角度看,中印之间的合作交流却超过以往。中印之间存在的传统安全问题和非传统安全问题之间的关联,经济安全、能源安全、民族分裂主义与恐怖主义、水资源安全、流行性疾病、海洋安全、生态安全等领域是双方能够实现合作的非传统安全优先领域,而"和合主义"理念范式与"多元共赢"合作模式为中印之间的非传统安全合作提供了重要的理论指导,从而展示出中印共同携手发展的可能与前景。     

Public Involvement in NHS Inquiries

Opportunities for engaging the public have changed over the fifty years since the inquiry into the Ely Hospital, Cardiff. NHS inquiries, and inquiries more widely, tend to be called where events have led to public concern and loss of public confidence. Involvement of the public could therefore be assumed to form a part of restoring that public confidence. This paper explores the mechanisms for public involvement in NHS inquiries over the past fifty years, assessing the roles played by the public. It uses the framework outlined by Geoffrey Howe to examine how members of the public have been involved in four NHS inquiries. Findings suggest that the roles and mechanisms have varied, but that understanding the extent of public involvement is a dimension to assessing each of the potential functions of an NHS inquiry.     

A Comparison of Thresholding Methods for Forensic Reconstruction Studies Using Fluorescent Powder Proxies for Trace Materials

Image segmentation is a fundamental precursor to quantitative image analysis. At present, no standardised methodology exists for segmenting images of fluorescent proxies for trace evidence. Experiments evaluated (i) whether manual segmentation is reproducible within and between examiners (with three participants repeatedly tracing three images) (ii) whether manually defining a threshold level offers accurate and reproducible results (with 20 examiners segmenting 10 images), and (iii) whether a global thresholding algorithm might perform with similar accuracy, while offering improved reproducibility and efficiency (16 algorithms tested). Statistically significant differences were seen between examiners’ traced outputs. Manually thresholding produced good accuracy on average (within ±1% of the expected values), but poor reproducibility (with multiple outliers). Three algorithms (Yen, MaxEntropy, and RenyiEntropy) offered similar accuracy, with improved reproducibility and efficiency. Together, these findings suggest that appropriate algorithms could perform thresholding tasks as part of a robust workflow for reconstruction studies employing fluorescent proxies for trace evidence.