The end of the rope: The Criminal Law’s perspective regarding Acts of Consensual Sexual Violence between adult partners within the South African, English and Canadian legal frameworks.

Master of Laws. University of KwaZulu–Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2018.Nestled within the Constitution lies a guarantee for the sanctity and enforcement of sections 10, being the right to human dignity, 11, promising the right to life and 12, protecting the freedom and security of the person.1 On the converse, the acts of consensual sexual violence between adult partners, from the practices of sadomasochism and BDSM, question the very essence of these protected Constitutional rights. South African criminal courts have not yet heard a matter concerning a dispute arising from consensual sexual violence. However, such may not be completely obscured within the vast discord of legality. The complexity and lingering shroud of legal ambivalence over this practice raises the question of whether South African courts will deem such activity as inherently criminal, based on existing legislation; along with the similarities in both national and international case law. Will a court find its definition within the common law crime of assault, or pay homage to the aforementioned Constitutional rights and rule in favour of the rights to privacy, dignity and freedom of expression? A court may also draw inspiration from the assessment of public policy, public interest and the often-illusive judicial perspective of victimless crimes. This dissertation analyses the development of relevant criminal cases within the jurisdictions of England and Canada involving consensual sexual violence, bringing varying degrees of bodily harm, and its displacement within those legal systems. The dissertation interprets and compares such developments by the implementation of a cross-jurisdictional timeline regarding cases of consensual sexual violence and similar acts. Such leads to the juxtaposition within South African criminal jurisprudence, paying homage to the relevant Constitutional rights guaranteed to every citizen within South Africa. The dissertation delves into the assessment and interpretation of relevant South African viewpoints regarding legal aspects such as consent, public policy, autonomy, dignity, sexuality, and elements of assault. This inquiry determines whether there is a duty upon the State to intervene and control such practices of consensual sexual violence in the democratic society,or whether there is any respite for the State within the private confines of consensual adult interactions. Ultimately, this dissertation analyses the possible legality of consensual sexual violence arising in varying degrees of bodily harm between consenting adult partners within South Africa. This is explored through perspectives of English and Canadian law by implementing a cross-jurisdictional timeline, in juxtaposition to the South African Constitutional prerogatives. Such a comparative inquiry leads to the possible position of the South African law in dealing with acts of consensual sexual violence and the interpretation of harm that emanates from these practices

Inverse problem of photoelastic fringe mapping using neural networks

This paper presents an enhanced technique for inverse analysis of photoelastic fringes using neural networks to determine the applied load. The technique may be useful in whole-field analysis of photoelastic images obtained due to external loading, which may find application in a variety of specialized areas including robotics and biomedical engineering. The presented technique is easy to implement, does not require much computation and can cope well within slight experimental variations. The technique requires image acquisition, filtering and data extraction, which is then fed to the neural network to provide load as output. This technique can be efficiently implemented for determining the applied load in applications where repeated loading is one of the main considerations. The results presented in this paper demonstrate the novelty of this technique to solve the inverse problem from direct image data. It has been shown that the presented technique offers better result for the inverse photoelastic problems than previously published works

Velocity vector (3D) measurement for spherical objects using an electro-optical device

The present paper describes a procedure to measure the velocity vector (3D) of a spherical object using an electro-optical device configured as a single large detection area optical barrier. The proposed procedure allows a measurement accuracy up to 0.1% in some cases and presents several advantages in relation to other measurement procedures like image processing, doppler-radar and some other electro-optical devices. The procedure is independent of the relative position of the measurement device in relation to the object trajectory. The fact of using a single optical barrier reduces the space required in the movement direction and increase the cases where the device can be used. A prototype has been built and tested.Lluna Gil, E.; Santiago-Praderas, V.; Defez Garcia, B.; Dunai, L.; Peris Fajarnes, G. (2011). Velocity vector (3D) measurement for spherical objects using an electro-optical device. Measurement. 44(9):1723-1729. doi:10.1016/j.measurement.2011.07.006S1723172944

Probing embryonic tissue mechanics with laser hole-drilling

We use laser hole-drilling to assess the mechanics of an embryonic epithelium during development - in vivo and with subcellular resolution. We ablate a subcellular cylindrical hole clean through the epithelium, and track the subsequent recoil of adjacent cells (on ms time scales). We investigate dorsal closure in the fruit fly with emphasis on apical constriction of amnioserosa cells. The mechanical behavior of this epithelium falls between that of a continuous sheet and a 2D cellular foam (a network of tensile interfaces). Tensile stress is carried both by cell-cell interfaces and by the cells' apical actin networks. Our results show that stress is slightly concentrated along interfaces (1.6-fold), but only in early closure. Furthermore, closure is marked by a decrease in the recoil power-law exponent - implying a transition to a more solid-like tissue. We use the site- and stage-dependence of the recoil kinetics to constrain how the cellular mechanics change during closure. We apply these results to test extant computational models.Comment: 23 pages with 9 figures (require color

VISHAY-micromesures

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New MOSFET Package Increases Efficiency and Power Capability

The PolarPAK TM package (Figure 1) is a new, novel package designed to increase the power handling capability of power MOSFETs while keeping a PCB landing pattern no bigger in area than that of a standard SO-8 o