Resource Conflicts Research Articles

Human Rights Due Diligence for Arms Companies: Lessons from Supply Chain Regulations

Abstract In comparison to other high-risk industrial sectors, human rights due diligence (HRDD) in the arms sector remains unclear and underdeveloped. This article elucidates how supply chain regulations can provide pertinent guidance for clarifying and elaborating the standards and requirements of the HRDD obligations of arms companies. Part I reaffirms the importance of independent HRDD obligations for arms companies due to the significant human rights risks posed by arms exports. Part II contextualises the limitations in the development of HRDD in the arms industry by examining the corporate policies of major arms companies. Part III explicates why supply chain regulations for conflict minerals are suitable guidance for clarifying and elaborating the HRDD obligations of arms companies. Part IV details five elements of an HRDD framework for arms companies that are essential for comprehensively identifying, evaluating and addressing the human rights risks of arms exports. Part V offers concluding remarks.

The impact of workplace bullying on employees’ work withdrawal behavior and the significance of psychological safety in China’s multi-ethnic regions

In China's multi-ethnic regions, the phenomenon of workplace bullying can be compared to a mental shackle, which inhibits the work enthusiasm of the bullied, makes the bullied feel depressed, frustrated, and other negative feelings, and makes many employees miserable. This study aimed to develop a correlation between workplace bullying, employees' work withdrawal behavior, and psychological safety in China's multi-ethnic regions. The data collection for this study primarily involved gathering information. through questionnaires from 357 employees within 42 Yunnan-listed enterprises in China's multi-ethnic regions. All statistical data, including frequency, proportion, average, and variability measures, were analyzed using a software tool designed to process statistical information. The finding indicated there exists a direct correlation amongst workplace bullying and employees' work withdrawal behavior in China's multi-ethnic regions. Incorporating psychological safety into the model, subsequent mediation effect testing reveals that there is a partial mediating role of psychological safety in the correlation among workplace bullying and employees' work withdrawal behavior. This research contributes to the existing theoretical investigation on the correlation among workplace bullying, employees' work withdrawal behavior, and their psychological safety in China's multi-ethnic regions. Additionally, it explores how psychological safety can mediate these effects. Furthermore, this study offers valuable insights for enterprises operating in China's multi-ethnic regions by providing practical strategies for human resource management and conflict reduction within organizations.

Matrix representation of the graph model for conflict resolution based on intuitionistic preferences with applications to trans-regional water resource conflicts in the Lancang–Mekong River Basin

With the continual growth in global demand for water resources, the governance of trans-regional water resources has become an important field of cooperation between countries, and conflicts caused by competition for water resources have become a focal issue in international relations. The root causes of trans-regional water resource conflicts include unclear ownership of water resources and the limited rationality of the parties involved. The water rights trading model has proven to play a stabilizing role in resolving trans-regional water resource conflicts versus the traditional negotiation model. To demonstrate the rationality and theoretical strength of the water rights trading model in allocating trans-regional water resources in uncertain environments, this paper proposes a novel matrix representation of intuitionistic stability definitions through a graph model for conflict resolution (GMCR). First, decision-makers’ (DMs’) intuitionistic preferences, unilateral movements, and intuitionistic unilateral improvements in a GMCR with two DMs are represented in a matrix. The joint unilateral movements and joint intuitionistic unilateral improvements for a coalition in a GMCR with multiple DMs are also represented. Next, according to the logical forms of intuitionistic stability definitions, four stability definitions in a GMCR with intuitionistic preferences were redefined to enable matrix representations of graph models with either two DMs or multiple DMs. Finally, we analyzed the state transitions and strategies of all stakeholders in trans-regional water resource conflicts in the Lancang-Mekong River Basin within the intuitionistic graph model. The contributions of this paper are twofold. First, in terms of theoretical research, this article enriches and develops the GMCR and proposes a set of definitions of matrix intuitionistic stability. Second, in terms of practical application, the intuitionistic stability analysis results can provide a reference for water rights trading to solve trans-regional water resource conflicts in uncertain environments and transform trans-regional water resource governance systems.

Environmental sustainability, energy efficiency and uncertainty analysis of agricultural residue-based bioethanol production: A comprehensive life cycle assessment study

Bioethanol produced from agro-residue provides a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels, mitigating pollution, reducing waste, and promoting a circular economy. However, challenges arise in sustainable sourcing, resource conflicts, water quality concerns, and managing environmental footprints to maximize agro-residue-based bioethanol benefits. The environmental impacts, net energy ratio (NER), net energy value, water footprint, and uncertainties associated with bioethanol production from agro-residues are analyzed in this study. The analysis followed a cradle-to-gate approach using 1 L of bioethanol produced as a functional unit (FU), allowing for a direct comparison of the environmental performance of the different feedstocks. The result shows that rice straw-based bioethanol exhibited higher environmental impacts, particularly in terms of ecotoxicity, ionizing radiation, human toxicity, and ozone layer depletion, except for greenhouse gas emission, which is lowest for corn stover (0.37 kg CO2 eq. per FU) and highest for cassava straw (1.1 kg CO2 eq. per FU). Furthermore, the Cumulative Energy Demand analysis highlighted a significant reliance on fossil fuels from agricultural biomass throughout the bioethanol production process. The energy balance analysis shows that the agricultural residues are feasible for bioethanol production with NER of 1.20, 3.10, and 3.28 for rice straw, corn stover, and cassava straw, respectively. To enhance the accuracy and reliability of the LCA results, Monte Carlo simulation was employed to account for uncertainty and variability in the data. This methodology provides a better understanding of the impacts of bioethanol production, with a focus on sustainability and advancements in reducing our reliance on fossil fuels.

Ecoregion-Based Environment Policy to Resolve Water Resource Conflicts at the Surakarta Ex-Residency

Introduction: This research studies the severe case of water resource conflicts at the Surakarta Ex-Residency, Indonesia. The researchers were interested in studying this case as they wanted to provide a solution to the water resource conflicts that happened at the Surakarta Ex-Residency through an eco-region-based environmental policy principle. This research aims: (1) To describe the water resource conflicts at the Surakarta ex-Residency, Central Java, Indonesia, (2) To identify the governmental policies on water resource management that cause water resource conflicts, and (3) To formulate ecoregion-based water resource management policy model to resolve water resource conflicts. Methods: This was socio-legal research with doctrinal and non-doctrinal approaches. Results: The research results show that the water resource conflicts between the society and the Municipal Waterworks that have control over the water resources happened due to policies that allowed water management for commercial interests. Conflicts also happened between Regional Governments, as a result of an inaccurate understanding of regional autonomy. This leads to the formulation of water resource management policies that are merely based on regional egos. Discussion: The Regional Government's policies on water resource management contribute to the emergence of water resource conflicts. This is because such policies are directed to various orientation forms, namely economic orientation, privatization, and the unsynchronized water resource management regulations between Regional Governments. The water resource conflict resolution policy with the ecoregional approach is carried out through a mutual agreement between Regional Governments, that will be followed up by each of those Regional Governments. Conclusion: The legitimization is in the form of Regional Regulations that regulate the imposition of responsibilities as well as the rights on the water resource management.

Active mission assignment for improving the effectiveness of opportunistic maintenance in a fleet of mission-critical systems

In a fleet of mission-critical systems, maintaining high availability for each individual system is vital to ensure consistent fleet readiness to meet mission demands. This study introduces a novel mission assignment strategy aimed at actively aligning maintenance schedules within each system to maximise opportunistic maintenance potential, thus enhancing system availability. However, solely focusing on system-level assignments may result in simultaneous maintenance needs across the fleet, leading to resource conflicts. The proposed strategy addresses this issue by coordinating mission assignments to consider both the alignment of schedules within a system and the even distribution of schedules among systems to prevent fleet-level conflicts. Two operational conditions, intra-system and inter-system balance, are defined to evaluate the criticality of each system at both system and fleet levels. Based on these conditions, scheduling rules are developed to determine assignment priority across the fleet in a two-phase process. Simulation studies demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach, showing a 2% improvement in system availability, equivalent to a two-month reduction in downtime across the fleet over a one-year period. The results underscore the advantages of the proposed strategy in optimising maintenance operations in complex fleet environments with diverse mission requirements.

Dynamic pricing‐based integration for non‐cooperative ubiquitous sensing and communication network

AbstractAs 5G and early‐stage network technologies mature, a wealth of data and experience is accumulated. The ubiquitous sensing and communication network (USCN) can leverage these existing communication infrastructures to maximize resource utilization and reduce the costs of redeployment through integration with modern 6G and beyond 6G networks. However, implementing future integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) functions in USCN may possess different hardware capabilities and communication protocols, presenting significant challenges. This is due to the lack of a unified framework for managing and optimizing these heterogeneous resources, as well as the absence of reasonable performance metrics. This letter proposes a dynamic pricing coordinated resource allocation (DPCRA) mechanism to realize the emerging ISAC in legacy USCNs. The DPCRA is designed to optimize the spectrum efficiency (SE) of USCN and manages resource interactions between heterogeneous devices through price variables, thereby resolving resource conflicts and deadlocks. The novelties include: (1) employing a price mechanism to foster resource cooperation in non‐cooperative networks; (2) introducing an SE metric incorporating an information similarity factor for optimization; (3) dynamically selecting resources to enhance SE. Simulations demonstrate that the DPCRA effectively resolves device deadlock while maintaining high SE levels, promoting device collaboration.

Population Growth and Resource Scarcity: Implications for Conflict and Cooperation in Taraba State, Nigeria

Population growth has profound effects on resource availability and social dynamics in many regions across the globe. In Taraba State, Nigeria, the rapid increase in population has intensified resource scarcity, leading to heightened conflicts among communities, particularly those reliant on land and water for their livelihoods. This study examines how population growth intersects with resource depletion, conflict, and cooperation in Taraba State. A mixed-methods approach was employed, involving the analysis of questionnaire data from 294 respondents and qualitative insights from interviews with 10 local leaders, agriculturalists, and herders. The findings reveal that population growth significantly exacerbates the depletion of essential resources, such as land and water, with 72.8% of respondents indicating that population increases directly impact resource availability. This scarcity has led to a 78.3% occurrence of conflicts in areas experiencing severe resource depletion. The study also shows that resource scarcity forces communities into competition, often escalating tensions into violent disputes. However, the research accentuates the critical role of traditional governance structures, which were acknowledged by 64.3% of the respondents as key to fostering cooperation and mitigating conflicts in the state. The study concludes that integrating traditional governance systems with formal frameworks is essential for sustainable resource management and conflict reduction in Taraba State. Policymakers should prioritize these strategies to address the challenges posed by rapid population growth and resource scarcity, ensuring the long-term stability and well-being of communities in the state.

Roles of Educational Administrators in Addressing Resource Conflicts and Its Contribution towards Quality Education in Public Secondary Schools in Longido District

Roles of Educational Administrators in Addressing Resource Conflicts and Its Contribution towards Quality Education in Public Secondary Schools in Longido District

Empowering Archipelago Regional Laws: A Legal Analysis of Their Role in Promoting Equal Development and Enhancing the Well-being of People in Indonesia

The Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia is an archipelagic state characterized by the Archipelago with territories whose boundaries and rights are stipulated by law with the presence of the Archipelago Regional Bill, accessibility to fulfilling basic needs, such as good education and health, as well as productivity of small islands, coastal investment, and economic independence of coastal communities can be realized. The Bill on the Archipelago Region is considered to be able to assist the region in efforts to alleviate poverty and equalize social justice for all Indonesian people who live in archipelagic areas also as a legal design to answer various problems in the archipelago: poverty, inequality, and underdevelopment of national development. The importance of Indonesia having an Archipelagic Regional Law is to develop maritime potential, can accelerate infrastructure development and equitable distribution of development in realizing the welfare of the Indonesian people are Adequate protection of their rights and the surrounding environment,Overcoming resource conflicts,Economic and social development, Overcome environmental damage, Improving understanding of the importance of managing islands, Resolving and anticipating regional disparities in the archipelago, to formulate Local Own Revenue

Factors Underlying Leadership Conflict at Legio Maria of Africa Mission Church in Ugenya Sub-County, Siaya County, Kenya

This study explores the factors underlying leadership conflict within the Legio Maria of Africa Mission Church in Ugenya Sub-County, Siaya County, Kenya. Leadership conflicts in this religious institution have been a persistent issue rooted in resource control, leadership claims, and personal disputes, notably involving self-proclaimed leaders. Resource conflicts, cited by 8% of respondents, often stem from disagreements over financial management and equitable distribution. Leadership claims, leading to factionalism and power struggles, are another critical factor, with 4% of respondents highlighting conflicts over papal authority. Historical analysis reveals that leadership conflict has been present since the church's inception, starting with a dispute between the founder, Baba Messiah Melkio Simeo Ondeto, and Gaudencia Aoko, who was excommunicated for attempting to assert herself as a leader. The study underscores the need for structured conflict resolution and peace-building initiatives, emphasizing the inclusion of women leaders and collaboration with expert organizations. Reconciliation, inspired by biblical principles, requires humility and open dialogue to address pride and self-interest among leaders. Forgiveness, crucial for healing and relationship restoration, is recommended to resolve ongoing conflicts. Implementing transparent resource management, fostering unity, and advocating for reconciliation can significantly mitigate leadership conflicts. This comprehensive approach aims to restore harmony within the church, ensuring it continues to serve as a sanctuary for its members. The findings provide a foundation for understanding the complex dynamics of leadership conflict and offer practical solutions for achieving lasting peace in the Legio Maria of Africa Mission Church.

Role of Climate Change in Afghanistan’s Geopolitical Power

The most significant environmental threats today are global warming and climate change. The effects of climate change include water and food scarcity, disease, unemployment, migration, poverty, resource conflicts, and global instability. This study examines the role of climate change in Afghanistan’s geopolitical power. This study employs a descriptive-analytical approach and a survey method. The statistical research community includes experts and specialists in geopolitics, political science, climate science, and university professors. The questionnaire was distributed among them based on indicators related to climate change, development, and geopolitics. 80 questionnaires were collected. Based on these findings, a significant and inverse relationship exists between the impacts of climate change and development. Furthermore, the reduction in the development process has a significant and negative impact on Afghanistan’s geopolitical power. Finally, the reduction in development affects the change. Climate plays a mediating role in geopolitics. Then, the priority of parameters influencing climate change in geopolitics was discussed using Friedman’s comparison test. These parameters include 1) poverty and social anomalies, drought, and migration. In the suggestions section, it is emphasized that there is a need to implement effective methods, such as irrigation and the use of clean energy, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change.

Spatio-temporal assessment of multi-scalar meteorological and hydrological droughts over Bundelkhand, India

Drought, a recurrent natural hazard, significantly impacts agricultural productivity, water resources, and socio-economic development, especially in semi-arid regions like Bundelkhand in India. Here, frequent droughts challenge the livelihoods of its predominantly agrarian population. These challenges, compounded by poverty, land degradation, and resource conflicts, have profound implications for local communities and the attainment of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Understanding the spatiotemporal conditions of drought is crucial for effective planning and management. This study evaluates meteorological and hydrological drought attributes at a high resolution within the region, using the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) and the Streamflow Drought Index (SDI) across a range of temporal scales. Findings indicate moderate droughts are more probable than severe or extreme droughts, with SPI-12 showing up to 20% probability over some grids, implying drought occurrence once in five years. Trend analysis reveals decreasing SPI trends in certain northern districts during monsoon months, suggesting more frequent droughts in vulnerable areas. The study also finds higher drought probabilities with longer SPI durations, highlighting significant temporal and spatial variability. Additionally, the applicability of SDI using GloFAS discharge data is evaluated, offering an alternative in the absence of gauge data. The combined SPI and SDI analysis underscores higher and more extensive drought probabilities for longer periods, emphasizing the need for multi-temporal scale assessment for effective drought management. This study enhances understanding of drought characteristics in the region, aiding policymaking for drought management and supporting evidence-based strategies to achieve SDGs, particularly those related to water security, climate resilience, and sustainable development.

A machine learning based EMA-DCPM algorithm for production scheduling

Some special manufacturing fields such as aerospace may encounter mixed production of multiple research and development projects and multiple batch production projects. Under these special production conditions resource conflicts are more severe, resulting in uncertain operating times that are difficult to predict. In addition, a single project may have tens of thousands of supporting products, making it difficult to effectively control the total construction process. To address these challenges this paper proposes new methods. A model, EMA-DCPM (dynamic critical path method) incorporating attention mechanisms in Enterprise Resource Planning and Mechanical Engineering Society) has been proposed. This model predicts product job time through machine learning methods and discovers the predictive advantage of the attention mechanism through data comparison. The CPM control algorithm was improved to enhance its robustness and an efficient modeling method, “5+X” was proposed. This new method is suitable for mixed line planning management in sophisticated manufacturing projects and has value for practical applications.

Graph model for conflict resolution with hybrid information based on prospect theory and PROMETHEE method and its application in water resources conflict

Water resources are crucial for national economic growth, but industrial development has led to severe pollution, sparking conflicts between government and enterprises over their responsibilities. Addressing these water pollution conflicts is urgent. The Graph Model for Conflict Resolution (GMCR) offers a simple and logical approach to analyzing such conflicts with minimal data. However, current models overlook decision makers’ (DMs) heterogeneity, bounded rationality, and the theoretical foundation for preference ranking. To overcome these limitations, this study integrates hybrid information to account for DMs’ diverse knowledge and experience. Prospect theory is employed to capture DMs’ bounded rationality, enhancing the accuracy of decision outcomes. The PROMETHEE method is introduced for preference ranking during GMCR modeling, guided by multi-attribute decision-making (MADM) theory. Additionally, the four basic stability concepts are redefined and proven, expanding GMCR’s theoretical applications. Finally, a case study of the Huangshui River water conflict and the comparative analysis demonstrate the model’s validity and advantages.

Utility-Driven End-to-End Network Slicing for Diverse IoT Users in MEC: A Multi-Agent Deep Reinforcement Learning Approach.

Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) is crucial for reducing latency by bringing computational resources closer to the network edge, thereby enhancing the quality of services (QoS). However, the broad deployment of cloudlets poses challenges in efficient network slicing, particularly when traffic distribution is uneven. Therefore, these challenges include managing diverse resource requirements across widely distributed cloudlets, minimizing resource conflicts and delays, and maintaining service quality amid fluctuating request rates. Addressing this requires intelligent strategies to predict request types (common or urgent), assess resource needs, and allocate resources efficiently. Emerging technologies like edge computing and 5G with network slicing can handle delay-sensitive IoT requests rapidly, but a robust mechanism for real-time resource and utility optimization remains necessary. To address these challenges, we designed an end-to-end network slicing approach that predicts common and urgent user requests through T distribution. We formulated our problem as a multi-agent Markov decision process (MDP) and introduced a multi-agent soft actor-critic (MAgSAC) algorithm. This algorithm prevents the wastage of scarce resources by intelligently activating and deactivating virtual network function (VNF) instances, thereby balancing the allocation process. Our approach aims to optimize overall utility, balancing trade-offs between revenue, energy consumption costs, and latency. We evaluated our method, MAgSAC, through simulations, comparing it with the following six benchmark schemes: MAA3C, SACT, DDPG, S2Vec, Random, and Greedy. The results demonstrate that our approach, MAgSAC, optimizes utility by 30%, minimizes energy consumption costs by 12.4%, and reduces execution time by 21.7% compared to the closest related multi-agent approach named MAA3C.

A sovereign grant and a franchised state: Tin mineral supply chains in south Kivu of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo

In resource extraction regions, nation-states tend to be depicted as the legal authority sanctioning profitable mining operations in close collaboration with corporate actors in their domestic territories. Especially in post-colonial contexts, corporate sovereignty is the term deployed by anthropologists to depict the acts of power by legally sanctioned corporate actors within a space of negotiation authorised by the state. A problem arises with this framing of sovereignty in contexts where the international norms of liberal democracy and development are violated due to constraints on the domestic authority of the state. In this scenario, the international order imposes itself to restore the authority of the state by governmentalising the security, territory, and market access of the state. Through ethnographic and field survey research in south Kivu of eastern Congo, I argue that the restoration and extension of state authority is a grant given to the state on condition of the responsible exercise of norms and practices of international markets. The tin, tantalum and tungsten (3T) mineral supply chain in south Kivu are an example of such a grant extended by international market actors and their related resource policy regimes to strengthen the state by franchising its apparatuses through practical mechanisms and discourse aimed at implementing traceability of so-called conflict minerals. Here, sovereignty is a position that is made by international market rule delivered through infrastructure in the form of 3T-mineral supply chains that franchise the state with the aim of optimising its fiscal reach and penetration among upstream mineral producers in south Kivu.

Practical time‐varying formation cooperative control for high‐order nonlinear multi‐agent systems avoiding spatial resource conflict via safety constraints

AbstractThe operation of multi‐agent systems (MAS) in space necessitates considerations for obstacle avoidance, collision prevention, and connectivity among agents. This coupling conflict, stemming from spatial resource utilization, poses a significant and non‐negligible threat to the safe operation of MAS. This article proposes a consensus control scheme for the time‐varying formation of MAS, incorporating functions for maintaining connectivity, collision avoidance, and obstacle dodging. This scheme effectively constrains the time‐varying formation tracking error within an arbitrarily small range. The considered system model takes a high‐order nonlinear form, with uncertainties and disturbances present in each order. This grants the control scheme with high generality and practicability. By employing barrier Lyapunov function to delineate the safe operational space of MAS, conflicts in spatial resource utilization are avoided. This approach simultaneously fulfills the requirements for connectivity maintenance, collision avoidance, and obstacle dodging in the safe operation of MAS. An additional rotation operator is integrated into the controller to smoothly address the “minima” problem, eliminating the need for external intervention. Gaussian radial basis function is used to estimate the nonlinear terms, uncertainties, and unknown perturbation online in the system. The stability of the MAS under the proposed control scheme is analyzed through Lyapunov function. Finally, numerical simulation results are demonstrated to explain the effectiveness of the control scheme.

Long-term trends in human-induced water storage changes for China detected from GRACE data

Terrestrial Water Storage (TWS) plays a pivotal role in water resource management by providing a comprehensive measure of both surface water and groundwater availability. This study investigates changes in TWS driven by human activities from 2003 to 2023, and forecasts future TWS trends under various climate change and development scenarios. Our findings reveal a continuous decline in China's TWS since 2003, with an average annual decrease of approximately 1.36 mm. This reduction is primarily attributed to the combined effects of climate change and human activities, including irrigation, industrial water use, and domestic water consumption. Notably, TWS exhibits significant seasonal and annual fluctuations, with variations ranging ±10 mm. For the future period (2024–2030), we project greater disparities between water resource supply and demand in specific years for the Songliao, Southwest, and Yangtze basins. Consequently, future water resource management must prioritize water conservation during wet seasons, particularly in years when supply-demand conflicts for limited water resources intensify. This study is valuable for effective planning and sustainable utilization of water resources.

A resource scheduling model for complex equipment development projects considering random overlapping and random feedback of activities

ABSTRACT Aiming to address the time and resource conflict problem caused by multiple tasks and frequent overlapping at each level in the process of complex equipment development, this article constructs a design structure matrix–graphical evaluation and review technique (DSM-GERT) hybrid model, takes the shortest duration of the project as the optimization objective and solves it using the genetic algorithm. Under the conditions of meeting the constraints of time, cost and quality, the project’s parameters are improved by adjusting the resource inputs. The study found that when project resources are insufficient, intertask messaging should be avoided as much as possible. If messaging is initiated, early messaging can be effective in reducing resource consumption, and decision makers can make trade-offs based on their preferences for resources.