韩国在中美安全竞争间的选择

由于中国的崛起,东亚的地区秩序发生了巨大变化,目前正处于过渡阶段。在过渡期的地区秩序下,像韩国这样的中等国家面临严重问题,即随着中美大国竞争导致地区旧秩序削弱,韩国该如何应对这种局面。观察家们为中等国家指出了一系列策略选择:从制衡到追随,从防范到接触。有些观察家认为,中等国家将通过不同方式扮演稳定局面的角色,保持双重等级体系,因为中等国家有可能从大国僵持中获益。作者则认为,中等国家可以采用的策略选择很大程度上受制于大国竞争的背景。在大国竞争的背景下,中等国家在战略结盟时很难做出自己的选择,更多是被迫接受某种选择。作者使用基本议价理论作为工具,阐述该观点背后的逻辑支撑是:在影响过渡期地区秩序的相对稳定性方面,中等国家的作用很小;在调和各种选择的影响方面,中等国家也不如大国有决定作用。     

Children’s Use of a ‘Time Line’ to Indicate When Events Occurred

Children who allege abuse are often asked to provide temporal information such as when the events occurred. Yet, young children often have difficulty recalling temporal information due to their limited knowledge of temporal patterns and linguistic capabilities. As time is an abstract concept (we cannot see it), some investigators have begun to use ‘time-lines’ or pictorial representations of time to aid children. Yet, there is no published research testing whether children are able to use time-lines and whether they can provide adequate temporal information using them. We tested whether children could indicate the time-of-day of events using a pictorial time-line and then compared their responses to their parents’. Seven- to 8-year-olds were most consistent with parental estimates while 4-year-olds were least consistent. Responses from the 5- to 6-year-olds depended on the temporal task. Guessing and using general knowledge to estimate the time-of-day were ruled out, and so children were genuinely drawing on episodic memory when making time-line judgments. Thus, there was a developmental progression in children’s use of physical representations to communicate abstract information. These results are promising for the use of the time-line in forensic settings but much more research is needed.     

The framing of radicalisation in the Belgian societal debate: a contagious threat or youthful naivety?

ABSTRACT

Following the terrorist attacks of 13 November 2015 in Paris and 22 March 2016 in Brussels, radicalisation has become the topic of lively debate in Belgium. However, little research has been done on the different perspectives which people use to communicate about radicalisation in Belgium. Therefore, an inductive framing analysis of 2,271 excerpts, taken from various newspaper articles, policy documents and social media, was performed to precisely reconstruct all the frames and counter-frames that are used to define the issue. The results were validated through seven interviews and two workshops with a variety of stakeholders (imams, youth workers, academics, journalists). This resulted in the reconstruction of four problematising frames and eight deproblematising counter-frames. In addition to presenting and illustrating these frames, this paper discusses how the framing analysis can help gain insight into the social construction of radicalisation in the wake of the 2015 and 2016 terrorist attacks.     

Charismatic women in religion. Power,media and social change

ABSTRACT

‘Charisma’ can be a catch-all term that obfuscates more than it reveals. What it does reveal often says more about the historical and cultural context in which ‘charisma’ was deployed than about its subject. In this introduction we trace the concept’s contextual shifts across its intersections with gender, religion and power. We explore the different ways in which women in the religious sphere have been considered charismatic, thereby addressing Max Weber’s definition of ‘charisma’ as well as its subsequent reinventions in the social sciences and the humanities. Particular focus goes to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, when the mediatization of ‘charisma’ created new opportunities and risks for women in religion.     

Trading rule of law for recovery? The new EU strategy in the post-Covid era

The ambition of this article is twofold. First, it argues that, in order to enhance respect for the rule of law by its Member States, the EU has launched a new strategy albeit essentially based on mechanisms which were not specifically designed to protect the rule of law. Second, the article aims to clarify the notion of rule of law resulting from this strategy and to subsequently analyse its consequences. In doing so, this article will thereby demonstrate that the instruments used by the new strategy promote a notion of the EU rule of law which implies a constant arbitrage between the rule of law and the economic objectives pursued by the EU. The risk may be, however, that it would subjugate fundamental values (as defined in Article 2 TEU) to the logic of European economic integration, thus inverting the hierarchy between protection for the rule of law and economic values.     

Classification algorithm using halftone features of counterfeit bills and CNN

With recent advancements in image processing and printing technology, home printers have improved in performance and grown more widespread. As such, they have been increasingly used in counterfeiting and forgery. Most counterfeit bills in Korea have been created using home scanners and printers. The identification of printer model is thus necessary to rapidly track down criminals and solve crimes. Household printers can be largely divided into inkjet and laser printers. These two types of printers print halftone textures instead of continuous images. This study proposed a technique of printer classification based on halftone textures that can be observed in printed documents. Since halftone textures are expressed as periodic lattices, the images were transformed via FFT, which is highly effective at expressing periodicity. ResNet, known for its superior gradient flow, was used for training. The experiment was conducted on 12 color laser jets and 2 inkjets. Scans of bills printed by each printer were used, and halftone texture analysis was performed on these images for printer model classification. Each image was cropped into several parts; one of the cropped parts was analyzed. The analysis showed that laser printers could be 100% distinguished from inkjet printers. An accuracy of 98.44% was achieved in make classification. When 50 cropped images were used instead of a single image, the technique achieved 100% accuracy in model classification. The proposed technique is non-destructive; it offers high accessibility and efficiency as it can be performed using a scanner alone, without requiring additional optical equipment.     

Mafia markers: assessing organized crime and its impact upon societies

This study develops a causal model of the independent effect of organized crime, rule of law, and corruption on national wealth. To measure the level of organized crime a Composite Organized Crime Index (COCI) is constructed combining data on the perceived prevalence of organized crime, unsolved homicides, grand corruption, money-laundering and the extent of the black economy, drawing on the World Economic Forum’s annual surveys among CEOs of larger companies, the Merchant International Group’s assessments of investment risks in 150 countries, studies by the World Bank Institute, and official crime statistics. The findings of the explorative analysis show that a political strategy of tolerating activities of local criminal groups in the hope of beneficial effects on the wealth of a nation is unlikely to bring the expected results. Although some types of organized crime may bring in significant revenues, tolerating Mafia-type activities implies letting the Trojan horse of racketeering and grand corruption into the walls of government.

Overriding Psychiatric Advance Directives: Factors Associated with Psychiatrists' Decisions to Preempt Patients' Advance Refusal of Hospitalization and Medication

Psychiatric advance directives (PADs) are intended to support patients' treatment decisions during a crisis. However, PAD statutes give clinicians broad discretion over whether to carry out patients' advance instructions. This study uses data from a survey of psychiatrists (N=164) to examine reasons for overriding PADs. In response to a hypothetical vignette, 47% of psychiatrists indicated that they would override a valid, competently-executed PAD that refused hospitalization and medication. PAD override was more likely among psychiatrists who worked in hospital emergency departments; those who were concerned about patients' violence risk and lack of insight; and those who were legally defensive. PAD override was less likely among participants who believed that involuntary treatment is largely unnecessary in a high-quality mental health system.     

Asphyxial games in children and adolescents

Asphyxial games, as played by young adolescents, and going by various names, are not new phenomena. What seems to be different at present is an increase in lethality introduced by the increasing use of ligatures and "playing" the game alone. The authors present a properly certified but insufficiently appreciated case followed 2 years later by 2 closely spaced but unrelated deaths in young adolescent males that made known this practice in New Hampshire youth. Other cases presented to the author from other jurisdictions are reviewed in aggregate. Presented are characteristics of victims of this practice that may help distinguish these deaths from suicidal asphyxia. A relative paucity of literature regarding asphyxial games outside the realm of autoerotic asphyxia gives rise to certification difficulties given the high prevalence of youth suicide.