Nowadays, smart composite materials embed miniaturized sensors for structural health monitoring (SHM) in order to mitigate the risk of failure due to an overload or to unwanted inhomogeneity ...resulting from the fabrication process. Optical fiber sensors, and more particularly fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors, outperform traditional sensor technologies, as they are lightweight, small in size and offer convenient multiplexing capabilities with remote operation. They have thus been extensively associated to composite materials to study their behavior for further SHM purposes. This paper reviews the main challenges arising from the use of FBGs in composite materials. The focus will be made on issues related to temperature-strain discrimination, demodulation of the amplitude spectrum during and after the curing process as well as connection between the embedded optical fibers and the surroundings. The main strategies developed in each of these three topics will be summarized and compared, demonstrating the large progress that has been made in this field in the past few years.
Im Rahmen eines europäischen Forschungsprojekts gaben 321 deutsche Polizeibeamtinnen und -beamte der Schutz- und Kriminalpolizei Auskunft über ihre Perspektive und Praxis bei der Durchführung von ...Beschuldigtenvernehmungen. Mittels Onlinefragebogen wurden sie zu situativen Aspekten von Vernehmungen sowie personalen Faktoren der Beschuldigten und über sich selbst als Vernehmungsperson befragt. Ein Schwerpunkt der Befragung lag auf der Einschätzung der Anwendungshäufigkeit von Vernehmungstechniken. Insgesamt wurde vor allem der Einsatz informationssammelnder Techniken berichtet. So gaben fast alle Befragten (97,8 %) an, Beschuldigte mit Respekt zu behandeln. Daneben werden aber auch einige geständnisorientierte Techniken verwendet. Des Weiteren zeigen die Ergebnisse, dass die Mehrheit der Befragten (77,3 %) Vernehmungen nicht technisch aufzeichnet, obwohl sie dies eigentlich befürwortet. Beschuldigte werden im Durchschnitt 1–2 mal zur selben Tat vernommen und die Dauer einer Vernehmung beträgt durchschnittlich weniger als 1.5 Stunden. Mehr als die Hälfte der Beschuldigten (54,6 %) macht von ihrem Aussageverweigerungsrecht Gebrauch. Es wurde geschätzt, dass über die Hälfte der Beschuldigten (57,2 %) kein Geständnis ablegt und ein Drittel der Befragten gab an, schon einmal ein falsches Geständnis eines Beschuldigten erlebt zu haben. In der Diskussion wurden die Ergebnisse zu denen anderer europäischer Staaten und der initialen US-amerikanischen Untersuchung in Beziehung gesetzt, wobei nationale Unterschiede deutlich wurden.
One of the important criteria in underwater acoustic sensing using fiber-optic sensors is to have an interrogator with wide dynamic range. Interferometric sensors with Phase Generated Carrier (PGC) ...based interrogators offer wide dynamic ranges compared to other techniques. Typically, a dynamic range of 100 to 140 dB is desirable for underwater surveillance and is mainly limited by the interrogator design. Today, several variants of PGC are available, but differ in their implementation and hardware. These aspects play a critical role in deciding the dynamic range of the system. Interrogators limit the dynamic range through the phase detection thresholds either at the lower or upper or both the ends. This paper covers a detailed investigation of the dynamic range possible with the most widely used variants of homodyne PGC techniques. Simulation and experiments were conducted, the results are discussed. This investigation benefits researchers in selecting an efficient interrogation scheme, which can give an optimum dynamic range for a given operational scenario.
Despite the potential significance of stress on individuals during investigative interviews, the examination of its general impact remains an underexplored area of research, with previous studies ...primarily focused on the specific phenomenon of stress-induced false confessions. As for interrogation-related stressors, they are indirectly addressed in the literature and are poorly elaborated. This article has two objectives: (1) To determine the impact associated with apparent stress on the decision of the suspects to disclose information relevant to the investigation and to confess their crimes, and (2) to determine the factors that influence the suspects’ apparent stress. The current study is based on analysis of 130 videotaped investigative interviews involving individuals convicted of offenses related to online sexual exploitation of children. The study results show that the suspects’ decisions to confess the alleged facts or to disclose information relevant to the investigation do not appear to be influenced by their apparent stress. Furthermore, the suspects’ ages and the interviewers recalling the benefits of cooperation and mentioning the desire to be honest or authentic during the investigative interview reduced the suspects’ apparent stress.
Abstract
The interrogation of optic fiber sensors usually relies in complex and costly equipment with low portability due to their size such as Optical Spectrum Analyzers (OSA) or high-resolution ...spectrometers. Because of this, micro spectrometer devices, such as Micro-Electromechanical Systems (MEMS) with Fabry-Pérot tunable filters, are emerging as simpler and compact alternatives capable of being used to acquire spectral information in a wide wavelength band. In this work it is described the development of an interrogation system capable of infrared spectroscopy using a MEMS Fabry-Pérot Interferometer (MEMS-FPI) with a spectral response in the 1350nm to 1650nm range. Its performance is tested with the interrogation of long period fiber gratings both as a refractive index sensor and as a temperature sensor. Deconvolution techniques such as Wiener filtering are used to reduce the impact of the tunable filter’s impulse response in the measured signal. Results are comparable to those obtained using a typical OSA which shows the system’s potential as a cheaper and more transportable alternative.
Investigative interviewing can be thought of as the interaction between two clusters of factors: questions and techniques. Analyses of question types and interview techniques are often treated ...discretely, where one is the focal point at the expense of the other, or they are conceptually indistinguishable. To explore these relationships further, the current study examined a sample of interviews using the Griffiths Question Map and a taxonomy of interview methods. In addition to presenting maps as example interviews, the article explores the associations between interview clusters and suspect cooperation. Results indicate that greater use of appropriate questions was associated with greater use of rapport-building techniques and greater suspect cooperation, and a reduction in the use of accusatorial interrogation tactics, which themselves were associated with suspect resistance. Implications for research and practice include understanding the interaction between these—and potentially other—clusters.
Resumen Este artículo examina las cuestiones afectivas, emocionales e ideológicas que plantea la práctica de la tortura como medio de prueba (basanos) entendida como necesidad (anangkê). Propone que ...las ideas contrapuestas sobre su valor de verdad en la oratoria forense ateniense reflejan un grado de ambivalencia suficiente para indicar que los atenienses reconocen -o pueden reconocer- la falta de fiabilidad inherente del cuerpo y la mente atormentados del esclavo para revelar la verdad. En Prometeo encadenado, la tortura de Prometeo se dramatiza como una brutal coerción por parte del estado autoritario de Zeus y se contrapone a la ‘coerción’ ejercida por los lazos de parentesco y apego emocional. Como tal, engendra una cólera insoportable en ambas partes y no consigue coaccionar a Prometeo para que hable. La yuxtaposición de los dos géneros establece la falta de fiabilidad de la tortura para extraer información junto con el reconocimiento de que los criterios de exclusión para hacer que los cuerpos sean capaces de ser torturados son arbitrarios, al igual que los derechos que ayudan a mantener en aras del excepcionalismo ateniense. La adopción plena de estos reconocimientos requeriría una nueva política de asistencia y una reorganización fundamental de la comunidad cívica para ampliar el ‘parentesco’ y los vínculos que obligan al reconocimiento mutuo y a la inclusión política. El artículo concluye recurriendo al uso de la tortura por parte de la CIA en el contexto de la guerra estadounidense contra el terrorismo para dilucidar la persistencia de los discursos de la necesidad en la política contemporánea de la cólera justa y pone de manifiesto reconocimientos erróneos similares en aras del excepcionalismo estadounidense.
Background: Psychological torture is deployed to break and obliterate human resistance, spirit and personality, but it is rarely afforded sufficient attention. Deficiencies in conceptualising, ...documenting and adjudicating non-physical torture mean that it is frequently left undetected and uncontested by the public, media and the courts, bolstering impunity for its perpetrators. A review of the current literature to map conceptual and evidentiary shortcomings from an inter-disciplinary perspective is therefore warranted.
Method: The relevant texts were identified through a systematic full-text search of databases, namely HeinOnline, HUDOC, UNODS and DIGNITY´s Documentation Centre, with the keywords `psychological torture´, `mental pain and suffering´, `severity´, `humiliation´, `interrogation techniques´, and `torture methods´. The identified texts, limited to English-language journal articles, NGO reports, court-cases and UN documents from 1950 to date, were then selected for relevance pertaining to conceptual, evidentiary, technological and ethical critique provided therein.
Results/Discussion: Evidential invisibility, subjectivity of the suffering, and perceived technological control are the primary ways in which psychological torture methods are designed, and how they manage to evade prosecution and consequently be perpetuated. Cognisant of the need for further research, pertinent questions highlighting the need to develop approaches, sharpen standards and use a medical/psychological/legal interdisciplinary approach are suggested.
This article proposes an effect taxonomy to organize and categorize the interrogation techniques that police often use to elicit confessions from suspects during custodial interrogations. The effect ...taxonomy categorizes techniques into one of four categories according to how interrogation techniques differently influence guilty and innocent suspects: confession-prone, differentiating, assimilating, and nonconfession-prone. To apply the effect taxonomy, we employ the interrogation decision-making model (Yang, Guyll, & Madon, 2017) to analyze the 16 interrogation techniques used in Kassin and colleagues' (2007) national survey on police interrogation practices. Our analysis revealed that the majority of the interrogation techniques are confession-prone, thus increasing the likelihood of confessing for both guilty and innocent suspects. Our analysis also revealed several differentiating techniques, which increase the likelihood of confessing only for guilty suspects but not for innocent suspects. In addition, we also identified the interrogation duration as a potentially differentiating factor for guilty and innocent suspects, such that limiting the length of an interrogation will protect innocent suspects from falsely confessing. The findings from the effect taxonomy have important implications for the legal system: Police should be aware of the effects of the interrogation techniques to avoid using confession-prone interrogation techniques and employ differentiating techniques that increase the likelihood of confessing for guilty suspects but not innocent suspects.
Milgram framed his “Obedience” experiments as an inquiry into the Holocaust, posing state directed mass murder as a “conflict between conscience and authority.” However, recent research into ...atrocities suggests that “moral conflict” is often absent; murder is frequently undertaken willingly in a spirit of idealism and “normalcy.” The question is not why do people obey orders they find morally objectionable as Milgram suggested, but rather how does it become “normal” and “ok” to torture or kill defenseless people? I examine this question through a reinterpretation of the Obedience study. Instead of focusing on the confused and entrapped participants, people who were tricked into “immoral” action, I study the scientists themselves—individuals who applied enhanced stress techniques on innocent people repeatedly and enthusiastically, fully aware of what they were doing. Inverting Milgram’s Holocaust analogy, I suggest that recent scholarship on Nazi doctors can provide insights into the various ways that torment became “normalized” for Milgram and his assistants.
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