The accuracy and validity of the Sheffield Features of Gait Tool

Gait is now widely used in the UK as a contributor to identification, and increasing interest is being shown in its use in both Europe and the US. One of the long standing criticisms of the use of gait as evidence has been the lack of a validated standard methodology. With the publication of the ‘Code of practice for forensic gait analysis’, and the adoption of the code as part of the ‘Codes of Practice and Conduct for forensic science providers and practitioners in the Criminal Justice System’ by the Forensic Science Regulator, forensic gait analysts are now required to provide evidence of the testing of the methods used. The Sheffield Features of Gait Tool is specifically designed to assist observational gait analysis in the forensic context, and was developed by forensic gait analysis practitioners based on their casework and trial experience. Birch et al 2019 reported the findings of a study undertaken to assess the repeatability and reproducibility of the tool. This paper reports the findings of a study undertaken to assess the accuracy with which analysts identified features of gait when using the tool.Fourteen participants, with experience in observational gait analysis, viewed footage of computer generated avatars walking, and completed the features of gait tool on multiple occasions. The results showed a mean accuracy score of 134.92 out of a possible 180 (74.96%), a standard deviation of 9.49 (5.27%) and a coefficient of variation of 7.03%, demonstrating a good degree of consistency between the scores (Cronbach’s alpha <0.90; ANOVA p-value <0.05).The findings of this study, coupled with those of the Birch et al 2019 study which showed there to be good levels of both repeatability and reproducibility of observations of features of gait made by the participants, suggest that the Sheffield Features of Gait Tool is a valid and fit for purpose method of observing and recording features of gait in the forensic context. The use of the tool provides the basis of a standardised methodology for observational gait analysis in the forensic context.     

The “Rights Awakening” of Chinese Migrant Workers: Beyond the Generational Perspective

ABSTRACT

?In the spring of 2010, the strike of the Honda workers in Nanhai instigated an on-going discourse on the “rights awakening” of the “new generation of migrant workers.” Since then, much has been written about these young workers, generally described as more pro-active and ready to stand up against their employers than the older and more subservient generation. Drawing from statistical findings from two factory-gate surveys in the metal mechanics and garment sectors in Shenzhen, this paper tests two hypotheses: (a) that workers of the younger generation are more cognizant of their legal rights than older workers; (b) that the younger generation wants to work fewer hours and to enjoy life more. We argue that this popular image of the younger generation of migrant workers is one-dimensional and reductive, as it focuses only on generational differences as an explanatory factor for worker activism, while ignoring other issues such as types of industries and payment systems. In this paper, we purport that these elements play important roles in shaping the attitude of this younger generation toward their work and rights.     

Conflicting Patterns of Thought in the Russian Debate on Modernisation and Innovation 2008–2013

This article draws conclusions based on an analysis of the relationship between economic ideas and institutional change in Soviet and post-Soviet Russia, so far covering roughly the years from 1971 to 2007. It analyses the recent debate on economic modernisation in Russian economics. We argue that the relative failure of transition has to be seen in the context of a ‘failed transition of the mind’ and that the recent modernisation debate resembles the debate of the Brezhnev period.     

Indian counterterrorism policy and the influence of the Global War on Terror

India has been a major victim of Islamist terrorism and has long fought against an array of Islamist terrorist groups. Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, India's previously lonely struggle against terrorism has taken place against the background of the US-led Global War on Terror (GWOT). After outlining India's Islamist terrorist challenge, this article examines India's evolving approach to counterterrorism and how the GWOT has influenced it. It concludes that India has adopted a localized, defensive, law-and-order approach to counterterrorism which has evolved in response to various attacks over the years but still remains seriously underdeveloped. The GWOT has influenced Indian counterterrorism in important ways, although its influence has been subtle and indirect rather than transformative. The GWOT has enhanced Indo-American counterterror cooperation, shaped India's terror environment by launching the war in Afghanistan and enriched Indian counterterrorism with American experience. Just as important, it has also had an impact on India's debate on counterterrorism, civil liberties and human rights.     

Promoting an Environmental Civil Society: Politics,Policy, and Russia's Post‐1991 Experience

In recent years the United Nations Environment Program, UN Conference on Environment and Development, and other international organizations have acknowledged the importance of civil society for engaging stakeholders in environmental change—especially at the local community level—and in promoting democracy. ¹ In Russia, efforts by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to promote reform since 1991 have aimed at achieving both objectives and face numerous political, legal, and attitudinal hurdles. This article examines these hurdles and the factors that facilitate development of an environmentally conscious civil society in Russia through analysis of the views of 100 representatives of environmental NGOs, news media, scientific community, corporations, and public agencies. We also investigate three abbreviated but illustrative vignettes that illuminate civil society impediments. Our thesis is that successful efforts to ensure adequate protection of Russia's environment require a strengthening of civil society.     

It is Ukraine,not Russia — Irish told in Kiev

Musa Carullah Bigi. Uzun Günlerde Oruc: Ictihad Kitabi. Editor Yusuf Uralgiray. Ankara: Kazan Türkleri Kültür Ve Yardimlasma Dernegi, 1975. pp. 243. 50 TL (A reprint of Uzun Kunlerde Ruze. Kazan: Umid, 1911).

Baymirza Hayit. Turkestan im Herzen Euroasiens. Köln: Studien vertag, 1980, pp. 308.

Lev. Bykovsky. Solomon I. Goldeman: A Portrait of a Politician and Educator (1885–1974). A Chapter in Ukrainian Jewish Relations. New York, Toronto, Munich: Ukrainian Historical Association, 1980. pp. 98. $8.00.

Kenneth C. Farmer, Ukrainian Nationalism in the Post‐Stalin Era: Myth, Symbols and Ideology in Soviet Nationalities Policy. The Hague, Boston and London: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1980. Pp. 241. $35.00.

Vasyl Veryha. Dorohamy Druhoi svitovoi viiny. Legendy pro uchast ukraintsiv u Varshavskomu povstani 1944 p. ta pro Ukrainsku Dyviziiu “Halychyna”. Toronto: Novyi Shliakh, 1980. Pp. 259.

Pohrom v Ukraini: 1972–1979 (Zoshyty ukrains'koko samvydavu, No. 1), Su?asnist, 1980. Pp. 312. Zupynit’ kryvosuddia! Sprava Levka Lukianenka (Zoshyty ukrains'koko samvydavu, No. 3). Su?asnist, 1980. Pp. 264.

Mykola Rudenko. Ekonomkhni monolohy. Introduction by Petro Hryhorenko. Su?asnist, 1978. Pp. 199.

Ivan Franko. The Master's Jests. Translated by Roman Tatchyn. New York: Shev‐chenko Scientific Society, 1979. Pp. 133. $10.00

Sidney Heitman. The Soviet Germans in the USSR Today. Köln: Bundesinstitut für ostwissenschaftliche und internationale Studien, 1980. Pp. 135.

Ivan Maistrenko. Natsional'naia politika KPSS v ee istoricheskom razvitii. Munich: Su?asnist, 1978. Pp. 224.

Alexander Podrabinek. Punitive Medicine. Ann Arbor, Mich.: Karoma, 1980. Pp. 223. $12.95, cloth.

Bohdan Wytwycky. The Other Holocaust: Marty Circles of Hell. Washington, D.C.: A Research project of “The Nowak Report,” 1980. Pp. 96.

John F. Besemeres. Socialist Population Politics: The Political Implications of Demographic Trends in the USSR and Eastern Europe. White Plains, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 1980. Pp. 384. $25.00.

Peter J. Potichnyj, ed. Poland and Ukraine: Past and Present. Edmonton, Toronto: The Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, 1980. Pp. 364. $14.95. Distributed by the University of Toronto Press.

Alvin Marcus Fountain II. Roman Dmowski: Party, Tactics Ideology 1895–1907. No. 60. Boulder Col.: East European Quarterly, 1980. Pp. XIII, 240. $16.00. Distributed by Columbia University Press, New York.

Stavro Skendi. Balkan Cultural Studies. East European Monographs, 72. Boulder, Colo.: East European Quarterly, 1980. Pp. x, 278. $20.00. Distributed by Columbia University Press, New York.

Josef Kalvoda. Czechoslovakia's Role in Soviet Strategy. Washington: University Press of America, 1978. Pp. ix, 381. $8.75.

Joseph Held, ed. The Modernization of Agriculture: Rural Transformation in Hungary, 1848–1975. East European Monographs, no. 63. Boulder, Colo.: East European Quarterly, 1980. Pp. 400. $19.50. Distributed by Columbia University Press, New York.

Zsuzsa Ferge. A Society in the Making: Hungarian Social and Societal Policy 1945–75. White Plains, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe Inc. 1980. Pp 288. $22.50.

Robert F. Byrnes, ed. Communal Families in the Balkans: The Zadruga; Essays by Philip E. Mosely and Essays in His Honor. Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1976. Pp. xxvii, 285.

Warren F. Mazek, ed. Slovene Economy in the Eighties. New York: Society for Slovene Studies, 1981. Pp. v, 49.

Joseph D. Dwyer, ed. Russia, the Soviet Union, and Eastern Europe: A Survey of Holdings at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace. Stanford, Cal.: Stanford University, Hoover Institution Press, c. 1980. Pp. 233.

Paul S. Shoup. The East European and Soviet Data Handbook: Political, Social, and Developmental Indicators, 1945–1975. New York: Columbia University Press, 1981. Pp. 481. $40.00.     

Making Baikal Russian: Imperial Politics at the Russian–Qing Border

The article discusses power asymmetries and transcultural entanglements in the Baikal region on the border between the Russian and Qing empires. The Russian imperial authorities used transculturality, the diversity of the regional population and its transboundary connections, as a resource in their attempts to control parts of the former Qing Empire, but at the same time they tried to reduce it through Russification, Christianisation, and the homogenisation of social groups, which led to protest and instability instead of the anticipated results. Consolidation of Russian rule in some spheres undermined its control over others and led to an unexpected increase in cultural and political diversity.     

Identifying Diagonal Cutter Marks on Thin Wires Using 3D Imaging

We present work on matching 2‐mm‐thick wires using optical 3D imaging methods. Marks on such small surfaces are difficult to match using a comparison microscope as this 2D imaging method does not provide height data about the sample surface. Moreover, these 2D microscopy images may be affected by illumination. Hence, the reference and investigated sample should be present at the same time. We employed scanning white light interferometry and confocal microscopy to provide quantitative 3D profiles for reliable comparison of samples that are unavailable for simultaneous analysis. We show that 3D profiling offers a solution by allowing illumination‐independent sample comparison. We correctly identified 74 of 80 profiles using consecutive matching striae (CMS) criteria, and we were able to match samples based on profiles measured using different 3D imaging devices. The results suggest that the used methods allow matching cutter marks on thin wires, which has been difficult previously.