Robust Shoeprint Retrieval Method Based on Local‐to‐Global Feature Matching for Real Crime Scenes

In this study, an automatic and robust crime scene shoeprint retrieval method is proposed. As most shoeprints left at crime scenes are randomly partial and noisy, crime scene shoeprint retrieval is a challenging task. To handle partial, noisy shoeprint images, we employ denoising deep belief network (DBN) to extract local features and use spatial pyramid matching (SPM) to obtain a local‐to‐global matching score. In this study, 536 query shoeprint images from crime scenes and a large scale database containing 34,768 shoeprint images are used to evaluate the retrieval performance. Experimental results show that the proposed method outperforms other state‐of‐the‐art methods in terms of retrieval accuracy, feature dimension, and retrieval speed. The proposed method achieves a cumulative match score (CMS) of 65.67% at top 10 which is 5.60% higher than the second best performing method.     

Deliberate ingestion of foreign bodies as a form of self-harm among inpatients within forensic mental health and intellectual disability services

Deliberate foreign body ingestion is a significant issue in prison and psychiatric settings. It is associated with serious physical complications, including bowel obstruction, perforation and haemorrhage. Episodes of deliberate foreign body ingestion were identified retrospectively from 5417 incident records from two inpatient forensic services (one mental health and one intellectual disability) over a one year timeframe, using related search terms. Rates were compared according to gender, diagnosis and level of security. Incidents of deliberate foreign body ingestion were found to occur on average every 2.7 days across the study population, with 133 incidents recorded over a one year period, accounted for by 27 patients. Women and patients in lower levels of security were significantly more likely to engage in deliberate foreign body ingestion. Staff responses to this behaviour were highly variable. Deliberate foreign body ingestion occurs frequently within inpatient forensic services, and can have significantly detrimental physical implications for affected patients. Further research should investigate the psychiatric and intellectual disability profile of such individuals in further detail, as well as exploring patient narratives; both of which will help inform development of treatment strategies.     

mRNA荧光复合扩增系统鉴别正常和异常精液初探

目的构建mRNA荧光复合扩增体系,实现对不同种类精液(尤其是无精症精液)的区分鉴别。方法收集正常、少精症及无精症的精液样本,制备精斑样本后提取细胞总RNA,利用逆转录PCR技术扩增2个精子特异mRNA标记(PRM1、PRM2)、2个精浆特异mRNA标记(TGM4、SEMG1)和2个管家基因mRNA标记(TEF、UCE)。结果正常精液样本可检测到全部精液mRNA标记表达;少精症精液样本虽然可检测到全部mRNA标记表达,但精子特异mRNA标记表达量较低;无精症精液样本不能检测到精子mRNA标记,只能检测到精浆特异mRNA标记。结论利用mRNA荧光复合扩增系统可以实现对正常和无精症精液的区分,而正常精液和少精症精液相比差异无统计学意义。     

国际变局下日本智库和主流媒体对中国形象的建构

国际秩序的变动、突发的新冠疫情和中美战略竞争的加剧等因素促使日本的中国形象正在发生重要而深刻的变化。日本智库和主流媒体更多地把中国放在国际秩序变动的语境中来认知中国,比起双边,更多是在多边框架内来感知中国。在多种因素的综合作用下,日本形成了“崛起的强国”“国际秩序改写者”、疫情下“坚韧”而“强硬”的中国、带有不确定性的美国“假想敌”等多层次中国形象。日本智库和主流媒体对中国形象的塑造未必是客观的,是基于在国际秩序转型期对自身认同的建构,那就是现行国际秩序维护国和中美之间的“非等距离”协调者。应该对日加强沟通宣介工作,充分调动其对华战略认知中的建设性因素,消解不利因素,防止其固化为刻板印象。     

Age and changing masculinities in gay–straight male workplace friendships

Abstract

Drawing on interview data gathered from 35 gay men in the UK, this article explores how age influences the negotiation of masculinity within gay–straight male workplace friendships. Study findings show that gay–straight workplace friendships between younger men appear to be framed in terms of equality, not homophobia. Older gay men also report similar experiences, some suggesting how these friendships were not possible in their youth. Gay and straight men of a similar age are also united in friendship by their experiences of ageing and its implications for carrying out work. Interview data also reveal how gay–straight male friendships are constrained at work, thus limiting the opportunities for emotional openness and physical tactility. Overall, the study reveals how younger and older gay men, and their straight male friends, variously align themselves to inclusive masculinities within friendship. This article contributes to inclusive masculinity theory by extending the types of contexts currently studied, both relational and work-related, and adding further emphasis to the contextually contingent nature of inclusive masculinities. It also advances the limited literature on gay–straight friendships by highlighting how they might challenge and reshape the heteronormative contours of work contexts.     

Kawabata and cinema: the ambivalence of knowledge,medium, and influence

Abstract

Many researchers have considered the involvement of Kawabata Yasunari in cinema and the medium's possible influence on his literature. Such approaches, however, tend to assume a definition of the motion pictures as visuality or montage that then influences Kawabata instead of first considering Kawabata's own conception of cinema, his own film theory. By analyzing his writings on film, including his film criticism, short stories involving cinema, and his involvement in the film A Page of Madness, this paper outlines Kawabata's conception of cinema and argues that he developed a portrait of cinema that posed it as a challenge to identity, perception and knowledge itself. Often associated with the female body, the movies became to Kawabata both an object of fascination and a threat, something ultimately to be controlled through literature and the literary subject. What influenced his literature was then perhaps this perception of cinema as posing an epistemic crisis. It is his ambivalence towards this challenge that can serve as a key for elaborating on Kawabata's complicated location within prewar modernism.     

对我国社区矫正机构设置的思考

社区矫正已经成为我国刑事法制改革的一个必然选择。在我国社区矫正试点开展三年多的时间里,尽管成绩有目共睹,但更主要的任务应在于发现存在的问题,为我国进一步深化刑罚改革提供思路。目前,在试点中管理机构由公安机关向司法行政机关转变出现的“执法主体”和“工作主体”分离的模式,相对以前无疑是一个进步,但已经逐渐暴露出许多问题。从长远来看,这种模式必将成为制约社区矫正发展的瓶颈。     

形象权与形象代言合同性质研究

形象代言广告是以形象权的有偿使用为基础的广告形式。形象权是一种综合性具体人格权,既不同于单一客体之上的肖像权、姓名权、名誉权等,也不同于抽象意义上的一般人格权,应被规定为一种独立的人格权类型。形象代言合同是双方当事人签订的,约定由一方可以利用另一方的个人形象为商品或服务促销的合同,其与一般雇用合同存在较大差异,应属一种相对独立的合同类型。     

大众地缘政治想象中的身份政治与“他者”形象--以美俄(苏)之间的大众文化形象建构为个案

大众文化所创造的地缘政治神话直接塑造了特定社群对其他国家形象的想象,深刻影响国家认同、外交政策和国际关系。在后现代的军事—工业—媒体—娱乐网络中,大众文化产品一方面向民众传播政治精英的地缘政治想象,另一方面向决策层反馈流行话语中的大众地缘政治想象。大众文化产品塑造"他者"的方式具有多元性,其"他者"形象的生成机制可以理论化为"非人化"、"奇观化"和"性别化"三种模式。与之相应,西方娱乐工业往往依赖一些固定"模板",批量生产"类型化"的"他者",以维持"自我"身份叙事的稳定性。其传播过程则具有"隐蔽性",往往不会立时得到"地缘政治对手"的回应,遂成为西方文化软实力的重要推手。今天的大众地缘政治在很大程度上仍以西方为中心,西方流行文化的全球传播在取得商业成功的同时,隐蔽地对外传播深藏于其中的地缘政治想象。因而,在国际话语权竞争中,中国必须充分认识大众文化的地缘政治功能,重视大众文化建设,讲好中国故事。     

西方对中国的“污名化”及其应对:框架理论的视角

中国在奋力实现中华民族伟大复兴的同时,也为促进世界共同发展作出了重要贡献。然而,西方污名化中国的浪潮此起彼伏,并有愈演愈烈之势。污名化是社会舆论阴影下施污者出于特定目的、对特定个体或群体形象的负面建构。其中,施污者的框架建构是理解污名化过程的关键所在,受众的框架共鸣是评估污名化影响的基本指标,受污者的反框架是去污名化斗争的重要举措。西方对中国的"污名化",正是通过框定中国的"他者"意象及其对西方主导国际秩序的"威胁",架构种种涉华负面话语以煽动国际社会共同打压中国,进而建构一种"污名化中国"框架。这一框架虽缺乏可信度,但极大损害了中国国际形象,乃至危及中国核心利益。百年变局下,国际社会更加关注中国的一言一行,西方或将趁机加大污名化中国的力度。中国要做好进行长期去污名化斗争的准备,揭露西方污名化中国框架的狭隘性,推进中国话语和中国叙事体系建设,提升中国主体性框架的国际传播力。