Rebels & Legitimacy; An Introduction

Abstract

This introduction to the double special issue on the theme of rebels and legitimacy aims to set out the parameters for the discussion. It looks at legitimacy as a concept and at legitimation as a process. To date most of the literature on legitimacy has focused on the state. However, rebel groups such as insurgents, terrorists, warlords and guerrillas have all had claims, and continue to claim, legitimacy as well. How and when are these rebels seen as legitimate actors? Existing suggestions of rebel legitimacy focus heavily on state models of social order and the social contract. This first contribution discusses how to conceptualize legitimacy and how to make it operational. A two-pronged approach, borrowing heavily from Max Weber, is proposed. Legitimacy is investigated based on beliefs and belief systems about what is considered legitimate. This is combined with practices whereby legitimacy is enacted, copied and emulated by the population the rebels claim to represent.     

Numerical investigation of dynamic interaction with projectile and harmonic behaviour for T-finned machine gun barrels

Machine gun barrels differ from their rifle counterparts in terms of profile. To support high rates of sustained fire, machine gun barrels are made thicker in order to dissipate more heat and maintain their flexural rigidity and thus accuracy, but on other hand they also contribute in weight addition to weapon. This investigation deals with comparison between a conventional machine gun barrel and an improved innovative design having T-fins, both having same weight and chambered in 5.56 × 45 NATO ammunition, to compare their structural and harmonic characteristics which were parameterized by factors such as modal spectrum, directional deformation at muzzle ends during a single shot fire and harmonic behaviour at corresponding range of exciting frequencies. The solid models of both the barrels having same weight, were created using Solidworks. The continuous input data functions were generated by MATLAB using the field tested discreet data points. The generated velocity-distance functions were converted into time dependent functions using integration algorithms to calculate transient parameters such as time steps, excitation frequency range, angle of rotation of projectile and its angular velocity. The dynamic condition simulated the varying nature of forces due to eccentricity in projectile and this data was fed to a time step study using ANSYS transient structural work bench followed by modal and harmonic analysis. The results showed a significant reduction in muzzle end deformation which thus proved that the T-finned barrel, although had same weight as that of the conventional one, but had better structural and harmonic characteristics, and hence it would inherit better firing accuracy.     

钛酸铅晶体反铁电相至电场感应铁电相相变的研究

仔细研究了PbTiO3电场感应铁电相的晶体结构。在初始反铁电相中,各离子位移方向与极轴垂直,但在外电场感应下,Pb离子沿极轴方向有相同方向0.17的位移,从而使晶体呈现铁电相特征,发生反铁电-铁电相变。此铁电相称之为电场感应铁(EFI)电相。通过结构对称性分析,确定EFI铁电相的对称性是C2mm(C2v),用极矢量Ps作为序参量来描述相变时对称性的变化是合适的。     

一个新的类FEISTEL密码方案

分析了RSA和DES的算法优点和安全弱点,设计了一个新的密码算法方案。该方案以类FEISTEL结构为基础增强了左右两半部分结构的安全设计,利用了RSA进行密钥分配,并以序列密码算法的生成原理改变了固定密钥的缺点。该新方案具有一次一密的特点,给破译者获得大量的明密文对造成了很大的困难,可较好地抵抗差分分析与线性分析,是一种安全性较强的加密方案。     

舰艇编队协同作战的空中目标威胁评估研究

从系统分析舰艇编队协同作战的空中目标威胁评估问题入手,深入研究了协同作战环境下编队空中目标威胁评估的基本过程。在此基础上,针对编队协同决策的特点,建立了基于两层决策的协同作战环境下编队空中目标威胁评估模型,从而提出了舰艇编队协同作战的空中目标威胁评估方法。最后,通过实例说明了所提方法的有效性。     

Some aging properties of parallel and series systems with a random number of components

In this article, we study aging properties of parallel and series systems with a random number of components. We show that the decreasing likelihood ratio property is closed under the formation of random minima. We also show, by counterexamples, that other aging properties are not closed under the formation of random minima or maxima. Some mistakes in the literature are corrected. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 61: 238–243, 2014     

Some comparisons of residual life of coherent systems with exchangeable components

Most of the research, on the study of the reliability properties of technical systems, assume that the components of the system operate independently. However, in real life situation, it is more reasonable to assume that there is dependency among the components of the system. In this article, we give sufficient conditions based on the signature and the joint distribution of component lifetimes to obtain stochastic ordering results for coherent and mixed systems with exchangeable components. Some stochastic orders on dynamic (or conditional) signature of coherent systems are also provided. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 61: 549–556, 2014     

Terrorism,crime and public spending: Panel VAR evidence from europe

Within a panel VAR framework and utilizing generalized impulse response and forecast error variance decomposition analysis, we explore the dynamic effects of terrorism and crime on public order and safety spending across European countries during the period 1994–2006. Our findings show that a ‘shock’ in terrorism and/or in crime, significantly increases the subsequent trajectory of public order and safety spending. As a by-product, we find that public spending is ineffective in reducing observed crime or terrorism.     

An improved adaptive differential evolution algorithm for single unmanned aerial vehicle multitasking

Single unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) multitasking plays an important role in multiple UAVs cooperative control, which is as well as the most complicated and hardest part. This paper establishes a three-dimensional topographical map, and an improved adaptive differential evolution (IADE) algorithm is proposed for single UAV multitasking. As an optimized problem, the efficiency of using standard differential evolution to obtain the global optimal solution is very low to avoid this problem. Therefore, the algorithm adopts the mutation factor and crossover factor into dynamic adaptive functions, which makes the crossover factor and variation factor can be adjusted with the number of population iteration and individual fitness value, letting the algorithm exploration and development more reasonable. The experimental results implicate that the IADE algorithm has better performance, higher convergence and efficiency to solve the multitasking problem compared with other algorithms.     

差分跳频码性能检验研究

差分跳频是一种新的扩展频谱通信技术.在介绍差分跳频基本原理的基础上,将差分跳频的频率跳变过程建模成齐次马尔可夫链.分析了G函数的功能,重点讨论了差分跳频码性能的检验方法,包括不可约性、频隙滞留、均匀性和随机性检验,其中频隙滞留是首次提出应用于差分跳频码性能的检验.这些检验方法对于差分跳频G函数的设计具有一定的指导意义.