The First Shot was the Last Straw: The Sinking of the T.S.S. Athenia in September 1939 and British Naval Policy in the Second World War

On 3 September 1939 the passenger liner Athenia, sailing from Liverpool to Montreal, was sunk by the German submarine U-30 with a loss of 112 lives. This action, while not intended by the German government, was in violation of Germany's commitments under the London Naval Treaty and it complicated its desire to keep hostilities confined to Poland. The British government and Admiralty, confronted with an attack on an unarmed passenger liner within nine hours of the declaration of war, and several freighters shortly thereafter, concluded that the German Navy intended to wage unrestricted submarine warfare. This article shows that as a result of the sinking of the Athenia, the government and the Admiralty implemented convoys within the first week of the war, sooner and more completely than had been intended. Naval ship building priorities were also subsequently adjusted to quickly provide escort vessels for the newly organized convoys.     

疫情防控背景下图利型犯罪治理对策

在新型冠状病毒蔓延的背景下,全国上下勠力同心、共克时艰的同时,也发生了一批制假售假、非法经营以及诈骗等贪财图利型犯罪案件。犯罪主体多元化、犯罪手段网络化以及涉案财物集中化等成为疫情防控期间图利型犯罪的特性;疫情用品供求失衡、市场部门监管不力、民众恐疫情绪严重以及市场经济体制不完善等是造成图利型犯罪频现的成因。面对新情况、新问题,有必要寻求多方位的对策治理:完善市场监管机制,加强刑事打击力度,严惩不法分子;排解民众恐疫情绪,提高民众识真辨假的能力;继续加强社会道德规范建设;完善应急医疗保障体系。     

五四平民教育思潮的演变、分化和发展

]平民教育思潮是五四时期的一种重要思潮 ,它有一个发展和变化的过程 ,即从最初提倡向平民传授基本知识和民主思想 ,进而发展为探索中国社会根本改造的方向和道路。在这个过程中 ,这一思潮呈现出了不同的分化和演进方向。这种分化和演变 ,反映了在我国革命从旧民主主义向新民主主义转变的历史时期 ,出现新旧思想交替 ,各种政治和教育思想呈现明显不同发展的情形     

A Longitudinal Study of Escalation in Crime Seriousness

Escalation in crime seriousness over the criminal lifecourse continues to be an important issue to study in criminal careers. Quantitative research in this area has not yet been well developed owing to the difficulty of measuring crime seriousness and the complexity of escalation trajectories. In this paper we suggest that there are two types of escalation process—escalation associated with experience of the criminal justice process, and escalation associated with age and maturation. Using the 1953 birth cohort from the England and Wales Offenders Index followed up to 1999, and a recently developed seriousness scale of offenses, we constructed the individual sequences of seriousness scores from conviction to conviction. These individual sequences were then analyzed using a variety of longitudinal mixed models, with age, number of conviction occasions, sex and number of offenses used as covariates. The results suggest that ageing is associated with de-escalation whereas the number of conviction occasions are associated with escalation, with the two processes pulling in different directions. This conceptual framework helps to disentangle previously contradictory results in the escalation literature.     

Autosomal short tandem repeat analysis of ancient DNA by coupled use of mini- and conventional STR kits

Abstract: Multiplex autosomal short tandem repeat (STR) genotyping enables researchers to obtain genetic information from ancient human samples. In this study, we tested newly developed AmpF?STR^® MiniFiler? kit for autosomal STR analysis of ancient DNA (aDNA), using human femurs (n = 8) collected from medieval Korean tombs. After extracting aDNA from the bones, autosomal STR analyses were repeated for each sample using the AmpF?STR^® MiniFiler? and Identifiler? kits. Whereas only 21.87% of larger‐sized loci profiles could be obtained with the Identifiler? kit, 75% of the same loci profiles were determined by MiniFiler? kit analysis. This very successful amplification of large‐sized STR markers from highly degraded aDNA suggests that the MiniFiler? kit could be a useful complement to conventional STR kit analysis of ancient samples.