Conflict Model Research Articles

The effect of (a)symmetry on the optimal toxin allocation

When mathematical models of biological phenomena deal with an unknown parameter, it is often assumed that such a parameter follows a normal distribution. This introduces a symmetry assumption into the model. The purpose of this paper is to investigate and quantify the effect of asymmetry on model prediction. We introduce an asymmetry into a model of sexual conflict and toxin allocation by replacing a normal distribution by a shifted beta distribution. This way, we can naturally consider a large family of continuously changing distributions. We isolate the effect of skewness on the model prediction and demonstrate that in most cases, increasing skewness causes a slight increase in optimal toxicity allocation. We conclude that overall, the effect of the skewness is much smaller than the effect of the mean. In fact, for the particular model we studied, skewness does not seem to affect qualitative predictions.

Analyzing traffic conflict scenarios and safety assessment in the context of intelligent vehicles: A research review

The several internal disputes and various types of traffic accidents at an urban crossroads make for a complex traffic scenario. Because accident data and crash-based methodologies are limited, researchers are now examining other safety measures, including traffic conflicts that do not depend on crashes. To better assess road safety in the decades to come new real-time data is essential. The automobile industry is heading toward intelligent cars with the goal of enhancing road safety. Although there is a common failure mechanism between accidents and traffic conflicts during driving, which makes it possible to apply crash frequency and severity estimates to traffic conflict frequency and severity models, predicting traffic conflicts presents distinct difficulties. This study discusses conceptual and methodological concerns while reviewing research papers on traffic disputes as safety measures. It offers a thorough synopsis of previous research from the viewpoint of intelligent vehicles. It explains that there are three primary categories into which the perception technology of intelligent cars may be separated: perception technology, communication technology, and the combination of perception and communication technologies. The paper emphasizes the need of harmonizing international safety standards as well as the role that governments and regulatory agencies play in guaranteeing the security of intelligent vehicles. It highlights the need for additional research on transport conflict modeling techniques and offers practical recommendations for future study.

Weighted three-way conflict analysis in multi-attribute decision-making perspective

In real life, multiple issues may have different weights in leading to conflicts. Some of the existing conflict analysis literature related to weight does not involve an explicit weight method, and some use common methods such as entropy weight method. This paper aims to design a reasonable weighting method for the inherent characteristics of conflict analysis. The main motivation is that the issues getting vast majority of support (or opposition) are assumed to be more likely to cause intense conflicts. Firstly, a novel weighting method using N-bounded symmetric concave reciprocal function is brought in. Some properties of the method such as duality, objectivity and symmetry are discussed. Then, by embedding the weights into the existing distance function a weighted three-way conflict analysis model is proposed. Next the thresholds of conflict, alliance and neutrality relations are given by decision-theoretic rough set theory. In addition, as a main characteristic of the model, the conflict distance between any two agents is determined by the overall conflict table rather than their own. Finally, the model of this paper is compared with the existing conflict analysis weight model. At the same time, a comparative simulation experiment was carried out on the weight change and the number of maximal coalitions. The new weighted conflict model proposed in this paper can effectively compensate for the limitations of existing weighted models, especially in three-valued information systems and multi-valued information systems. It can also theoretically expand the field of three-way conflict analysis.

Adaptive Parallel Scheduling Scheme for Smart Contract

With the increasing demand for decentralized systems and the widespread usage of blockchain, low throughput and high latency have become the biggest stumbling blocks in the development of blockchain systems. This problem seriously hinders the expansion of blockchain and its application in production. Most existing smart contract scheduling solutions use static feature analysis to prevent contract conflicts during parallel execution. However, the conflicts between transactions are complex; static feature analysis is not accurate enough. In this paper, we first build the dependency between smart contracts by analyzing the features. After numerous experiments, we propose a conflict model to adjust the relationship between threads and conflict to achieve high throughput and low latency. Based on these works, we propose adaptive parallel scheduling for smart contracts on the blockchain. Our adaptive parallel scheduling can distinguish conflicts between smart contracts and dynamically adjust the execution strategy of smart contracts based on the conflict factors we define. We implement our scheme on ChainMaker, one of the most popular open-source permissioned blockchains, and build experiments to verify our solution. Regarding latency, our solution demonstrates remarkable efficiency compared with the fully parallel scheme, particularly in high-conflict transaction scenarios, where our solution achieves latency levels just one-twentieth of the fully parallel scheme. Regarding throughput, our solution significantly outperforms the fully parallel scheme, achieving 30 times higher throughput in high-conflict transaction scenarios. These results highlight the superior performance and effectiveness of our solution in addressing latency and throughput challenges, particularly in environments with high transaction conflicts.

A method of network attack-defense game and collaborative defense decision-making based on hierarchical multi-agent reinforcement learning

Faced with the challenges of security strategy design brought about by the complexity of attack behavior and the dynamism of network structure, dynamic hierarchical intelligent defense methods have shown their effectiveness. However, in complex network environments, their application requires a higher level of coordination mechanisms. Therefore, this paper proposes a hierarchical multi-agent reinforcement learning network attack and defense game and cooperative defense decision-making method, which autonomously and efficiently completes the formulation of defense strategies and defense behavior responses. Firstly, we construct a Stackelberg hypergame model of cyberspace conflicts, and under the condition of information loss, characterize the multi-layer dynamic defense coordination response mechanism. Secondly, By utilizing a hierarchical multi-agent reinforcement learning method as the driving force for game evolution, we sequentially solve the Nash equilibrium of the game, and form a dynamic autonomous defense strategy. Finally, we construct a hierarchical multi-agent reinforcement learning framework, which decouples the defense decision problem, reduces the dimension of the defense action space and the exploration difficulty of the strategy space, and learns coordinated defense strategies more efficiently. We used the CybORG (Cyber Operations Research Gym) environment for simulation. We compared and analyzed the autonomously generated cyber defense strategies with other related works, verifying the superior coordination performance of our method in defense strategy generation and control.

The Four Horsemen of Antiracist School Leadership: A Communication Guide to Bridge Racial Conflict in School Relationships

Principals are critical for disrupting systems that bar racially diverse students from learning opportunities and belonging in schools. Issues of inequity due to systemic racism have been ongoing and politically heightened in the United States as the nation navigates racial tensions within school systems. Research on antiracist school leadership has resulted in important, timely, and relevant frameworks for practice and popular strategies and programs, including courageous conversation and restorative justice programs. However, the process of how to practice antiracist leadership remains difficult and elusive in the translation of theory to praxis. Particularly, principals are rarely trained to develop healthy communication styles and effective conflict resolution skills, especially in conversations about racism. Borrowing from the field of counseling, this article details Gottman’s Four Horsemen model of conflict and their resolutions at the interpersonal level. This article frames the model within school contexts for principals to practice and empower their communication skills around race when setting antiracist and equitable school agendas. Recognizing the Four Horsemen and practicing the antidotes to conflicts are important skills for principals to effectively engage in difficult, contentious, and often emotional conversations around racism and its impacts on racially diverse students. Recommendations for principals and preparation programs are provided.

A Discrete Dynamic Conflict Model

Relevance. Conflicts play a significant role in the development of society, the state and all of humanity. They arise in interpersonal relationships, economics, organizational activities, social problems, and world politics. The study of the essence of conflicts, the causes of their emergence and ways to resolve them is carried out by conflictology, which was formed as an interdisciplinary field of knowledge in the middle of the 20th century. Currently, it has become obvious that the conflict itself is not a negative phenomenon, but a competently resolved conflict situation can benefit all parties to the conflict. As a result, it became necessary to consider conflicts not only from a descriptive, philosophical point of view, but also to be able to predict a possible conflict situation, describe its development over time and calculate acceptable ways out of it. This approach to the study of conflicts is mathematical modeling, based on mathematical methods for describing conflict situations, which allow analyzing conflicts and predicting their outcome.The purpose is to describe a general methodology for constructing a conflict scheme of any origin within the framework of the mathematical theory of conflicts. The objectives is to consider and analyze a discrete dynamic model of conflicts using the example of a childparent conflict.Methodology. The work uses algebraic methods and methods of discrete mathematics.Results. Within the framework of the mathematical theory of conflicts, a conflict with a discrete mismatch is considered the example of a child-parent model conflict. A general method for constructing a conflict situation diagram and analyzing it has been developed. Possible ways of influencing the conflicting parties on each other in any conflict situation are discussed. When analyzing possible scenarios for the development of a conflict situation, the possible types of impacts of the conflicting parties on each other are considered.Conclusions. Based on the developed dynamic discrete model, it is shown that the mathematical description of conflicts is reduced to the problem of combinatorial optimization. The developed scheme of mathematical description of conflicts can be applied to a wide class of conflict situations in various subject areas.

Binocular luster elicited by isoluminant chromatic stimuli relies on mechanisms similar to those in the achromatic case.

The phenomenon of binocular luster can be evoked by simple dichoptic center-surround stimuli showing a luminance contrast difference between the eyes. Previous findings support the idea that this phenomenon is mediated by a low-level conflict mechanism that integrates the monocular signals from different types of contrast detector cells. Also, isoluminant stimuli with different chromatic contrasts between eyes can trigger sensations of luster. Here, we investigate whether the lustrous impression in such purely chromatic stimuli depends on interocular contrast differences and in particular on interocular contrast polarity pairings in a similar way as in the achromatic case. In our experiments, we measured the magnitude of the lustrous response using a series of isoluminant dichoptic center-ring-surround stimuli with varying ring width whose chromatic properties were varied along the red-green and blue-yellow cardinal directions. The trends in the data were very similar to those of our former study with achromatic stimuli, indicating similar mechanisms in both cases. The empirical luster data could also be predicted fairly well by a chromatic version of our interocular conflict model (with overall R2 values between 0.577 and 0.639), for which two different receptive field models were used, simulating the behavior of color-sensitive double-opponent cells in V1.

Cyber Operations in Peace and War: A Framework for Persistent Engagement

During 1990s, the concept of information warfare (IW) and information operations (including cyber operations, psychological operations, and electronic warfare) could be conducted with varying intensity across all stages of peace and conflict. At that time, many of the concepts related to cyber operations were still hypothetical. Subsequently, conflicts and competition between states have demonstrated the capabilities and limitations of cyber operations. Research emerging in 2022 by multiple authors demonstrate the limitations and usage of offensive cyber operations and maintaining a sustainable military cyber capability, as well as proposing alternative models for conflict in cyberspace. Alongside this, there has been increased attention on the impact of ICTs on international security and the responsible behaviour of nation-states in cyberspace. There is still ambiguity and different perspectives on the application of international law in cyberspace. This uncertainty disrupts the original models of IW and warfare, which assumed clear distinctions amongst the conflict stages. Both the discourse of ICTs in international security and recent conflict necessitate a reconsideration of the decades-old view of IW in times of peace, war and the grey zone in between. This paper proposes a framework for the roles of cyber operations across the stages of conflict based on contemporary perspectives on the utility of cyber operations as well as practical examples. In rethinking the IW model, a multidisciplinary view is required, considering the technical, legal, social and international security perspectives.

Causes and consequences of local antı-terrorısm measures ın the Karabakh economıc zone of Azerbaıjan

Purpose: is to analyze the causes of asymmetry between criminal ethnic demands and national state interests, the potential of internationalization and effective preventive measures.
 Method: In this research work, the author preferred two methods: structural-functional and processual-dynamic. The structural-functional method clarifies the main elements of interaction in conflict conditions and the specific roles of each of them. Components related to the conflict: subject, causes, stages, participants, regulation, etc. of the conflict. constitutes the structure of the conflict. The role of those structural elements is considered their function.
 Findings: The fight against dangerous and infectious diseases such as ethnic-separatism is considered to be a very effective way both from the point of view of security and from the point of view of not deepening the crisis of the international legal institution.
 Theoretical implications: Ethno-separatism has become the object of big geopolitical games and mercantilist interests of organized criminal groups in the modern world. It is impossible to treat it as an internal problem of the state. The trend of ethnic-separatism becoming a hybridized threat is taking shape.
 Practical implications: Practitioners should conclude from this article that dual approaches to the dangerous consequences of ethno-separatism such as secession, dangerous chaotic scenarios in polyethnic regions and military interventions under the rights of national minorities are inadmissible. Ethno-separatism cannot promote the principle of indivisibility of security.
 Value: The main innovation in this article is to reveal the association of Armenian ethnic-separatism with destructive and dangerous military-political plans that are against international law. It is justified that the one-day local anti-terrorist measures carried out by Azerbaijan serve to strengthen national sovereignty and international law, to cleanse the region of criminal elements and to ensure the security of international oil and gas projects connecting the South Caucasus with Europe.
 Research limitations: One-day local anti-terror measures against Armenian ethnic-separatism within the framework of international laws can be a retrospective scenario or regulation model for long-term unresolved conflicts in poly-ethnic regions.
 Paper type: theoretical.

Anger and Political Conflict Dynamics

Emotions shape strategic conflict dynamics. However, the precise way in which strategic and emotional concerns interact to affect international cooperation and contention are not well understood. We propose a model of intergroup conflict under incomplete information in which agents are sensitive to psychological motivations in the form of anger. Agents become angry in response to worse-than-expected outcomes due to actions of other players. Aggression may be motivated by anger or by beliefs about preferences of members of the other group. Increasing one group’s sensitivity to anger makes that group more aggressive but reduces learning about preferences, which makes the other group less aggressive in response to bad outcomes. Thus, anger has competing effects on the likelihood of conflict. The results have important implications for understanding the complex role of anger in international relations and, more generally, the interplay between psychological and material aims in both fomenting and ameliorating conflict.

Leading with dissent: guerrilla government and the ethical art of disobedience

ABSTRACT This study aims to uncover what reasons lead public employees to dissent in the public sector. The study finds that (1) the use of dissent may be an effective buffering tool in mitigating the negative effects of poor policy and leadership from harming the organization, and (2) that dissent may advance institutional learning when effectively incorporated into policy and decision-making processes. By encouraging dissent and employing simple listening techniques, leaders may reduce the risk of guerrilla government. A model of institutional conflict and interactions is offered, and implications are discussed.

Conflict of interest in the civil service: factors of effective regulation

The effectiveness of conflicts of interest regulation in the civil service as one of the directions of anti-corruption policy is analyzed. Conflicts of interest management measures that underlie national anti-corruption laws are defined as two models – integrity-based and compliance-based. The first of them provides for increasing the professional standards for civil servants, while the second one is a model of strict prohibitions and legal sanctions. Despite the complexity of assessing the level of corruption and the quality of conflicts of interest regulation, this task is important and inevitable for the subsequent assessment of the effectiveness of public administration. Therefore, the factors that are associated with the effectiveness of conflicts of interest regulation in public service are determined. A regression analysis was conducted based on the data used for the formation of the international indices of corruption perception and the quality of institutions, as well as from the collected database of countries on models of conflicts of interest regulation. In the long term, these results can be used to elaborate practical recommendations for effective anti-corruption regulation.

Peripheral (Non)Polishnesses. Museums, Creeping Conflicts, and Transformative Frictions

Whilst Poland appears today as a paradigmatic example of a homogeneous, exclusive national and cultural identity, reinforced by the hegemonic historical policy of a semi-authoritarian state, it is also challenged by Polish minority histories (civilian, multi-ethnic, non-Catholic, women). The main concern of the present article is the plural ‘Polishness’ that emerges from the constellation of these non-default histories. To examine the frictions of historical narratives in action, authors use spaces of historical museums as a field of observation, perceiving them as memory agents fostering not only confrontational but also negotiative memory politics. To identify situations in which tensions between the ‘central’ Polishness and its unorthodox variants are particularly evident, the paper takes a look at ‘non-central’ Polish territories i.e. ‘post-German’ areas, characterized by a complex heterogeneous past in which Germanness and Polishness, but also ‘Silesianness’ or ‘Borderlandness’ mutually clash and dialogue. Analysis of selected exhibitions’ construction reveals peculiarities of different local contexts in transitional spaces and strategies of resolving creeping conflicts between ‘the Polishness’ and plural, peripheral ‘Polishnesses’. As authors argue, these case studies – instead of a static model of open memory conflict and binaries – offer dynamic models of memory, and allow to introduce the concept of memory frictions.

Research on collaborative development mechanism of multiple stakeholders in medical institutions based on rough set

Reducing doctor-patient conflict is an important part of coordinating doctor-patient disputes and easing doctor-patient relationship, which is conducive to building a harmonious medical environment and promoting the healthy development of medical undertakings. This paper constructs a multi-decision-maker mixed conflict model based on rough set theory, puts forward the matrix operation expression of the conflict degree theory in the Pawlak model, and gives a more objective and scientific evaluation function. Combined with hot issues of doctor-patient conflict, the proposed multi-decision-maker mixed conflict model is applied to doctor-patient conflict, examines the doctor-patient relationship in the medical institution system from multiple internal perspectives, and calculates feasible solutions in the conflict system. The results show that high medical quality, high standardize medication, high institutional efficiency, high staff efficiency, high hospital benefits, high hospital revenue, medium employee development, medium equipment development, or high medical quality, high standardize medication, high institutional efficiency, medium staff efficiency, medium hospital benefits, high hospital revenue, high employee development, and high equipment development are important conditions for building a harmonious medical environment and reducing doctor-patient conflicts.

Conflict Analysis Triggered by Three-Way Decision and Pythagorean Fuzzy Rough Set

Conflict is ubiquitous in human society and has a profound impact on various fields such as the economy, politics, law, and military. Many scholars have focused on exploring the internal mechanisms and potential solutions to conflicts. Notably, describing agents’ attitudes is an effective way to construct a conflict model. However, in decision-making, agents’ attitudes on issues are often vague and ambiguous. Pythagorean fuzzy set can deal with fuzzy information more accurately than intuitionistic fuzzy set. On the basis of this understanding, we investigate the conflicts from the perspective of Pythagorean fuzzy set. Firstly, we use Pythagorean fuzzy numbers to express the attitudes of agents on issues, and subsequently establish a Pythagorean fuzzy conflict information system. Secondly, we classify agents into three categories by a pair of thresholds to establish a trisected agent set model with risk preference. Thirdly, we construct a three-way conflict analysis model based on multi-granulation Pythagorean fuzzy decision-theoretic rough set and discuss both global and local conflicts by combining conflict analysis with multi-granulation decision-theoretic rough set. Finally, we discuss the relationships and properties of the proposed conflict analysis models.

Implementing a Respectful Maternity Care Guideline During Childbirth Experiences

ObjectiveTo measure the impact of an evidence-based guideline on respectful maternity care on nurses’ attitudes and beliefs about childbirth practices. DesignA quality improvement pilot project with a pretest/posttest design examining the attitudes and beliefs of intrapartum nurses about childbirth practices of respectful care. SettingHigh-risk intrapartum unit at a tertiary care center in the southeastern United States. ParticipantsA convenience sample of 130 registered nurses were invited to participate, and nine completed the pre- and posttests. Intervention/MeasurementsThe intervention included a recorded webinar, access to printed and electronic copies of the guideline, discussions in daily huddles, and a virtual journal club. Data were collected using the 42-item Nurse Attitudes and Beliefs Questionnaire–Revised. Lower scores are reflective of attitudes and beliefs that support a medical model of care, whereas higher scores are reflective of a physiologic model of care. Descriptive statistics and the Wilcoxon signed rank test were used to analyze changes in attitudes and beliefs based on the aggregate scores of the nurse participants. ResultsAlthough there was no change in nurse attitude and beliefs about childbirth practices after 3 months (p = .058), the aggregate scores on a scale of 42 to 168 increased by 5.6 points. Two subscales of the Nurse Attitudes and Beliefs Questionnaire–Revised—Medical Model of Conflict and Women’s Autonomy—had the greatest increase in aggregate scores. ConclusionUnderstanding nurses’ attitudes and beliefs can assist in identifying barriers to the provision of respectful care, particularly during labor and birth, when patients are most vulnerable. Measurement of nurse attitudes and beliefs regarding respectful maternity care may require a longer immersion in a respectful maternity care program to allow for changes over time.

A dual-path model of work-family conflict and hospitality employees’ job and life satisfaction

Work-family conflict (WFC) has been a widespread concern to scholars and practitioners in the hospitality industry. Building on the conservation of resources (COR) theory and using a mixed-method research design, this study explored a two-path model of the impacts of WFC on hospitality employees’ satisfaction in both work and life domains. Study 1 is a field survey of 432 hotel employees; Study 2 is a qualitative research design with interviews collected from 39 informants in China. Our findings suggested that family interfering with work (FIW) was positively relevant to employees’ work-time control but negatively relevant to organizational commitment. Work-time control and organizational commitment mediated the relationship between FIW and job/life satisfaction. However, work interfering with family (WIF) on employee outcome variables was insignificant. The paper highlights the critical implications of FIW to theories and literature related to WFC and resource conservation, as well as practices to enhance employees’ well-being at work and in life domains.

“Within five seconds, I can already see the contradictions and the conflict with society”: Applying the normative conflict model to a collectivist society

AbstractThe normative conflict model of dissent predicts how group members will behave when experiencing conflict with the group on a normative basis, as a function of the extent to which they identify with their group. While strongly identified members will dissent and challenge prevailing norms because they have the group's interests in mind, weakly identified members will distance themselves because the group is not important to them. The normative conflict model has so far been empirically examined only in Western populations. The purpose of the present study is to apply the normative conflict model to a collectivist Arab society. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 28 young Arabs, graduates of one of the only alternative schools operating in Arab society in Israel. As students, they were exposed to liberal norms that were very different from the dominant norms in Arab society. The findings show that while dissent is the most common practice that the study participants adopt, some of them also distance themselves from society. As opposed to the model's prediction, those who distance themselves do care about their group and feel they belong to it. Findings also reveal that the severity of social sanctions imposed on dissenters motivates them to conform regardless of the conflict with society. The findings are discussed and interpreted in accordance with the normative conflict model. Further examination of the model in the context of additional non‐Western societies is needed.

LOGICAL-MATHEMATICAL MODELING OF SOCIAL CONFLICTS

Modern society is characterized by constant changes and modernization processes, and these changes are, as a rule, ambivalent in nature: some improve, others decline. Therefore, there is a need for analysis and modeling of various social processes. The modeling technique is interesting because it provides a systematic and holistic approach to research, allows us to obtain new knowledge and improve the parameters of the objects and processes under study. There are many definitions of the concept “model” in the scientific literature. In its most general form, a model is defined as “a reflection of reality in the form of a set of certain symbols, signs, judgments”, “a visual image of an object, reflecting its features and characteristics”, “a theory that describes the structure and internal interaction in a system”. In principle, any method of scientific research is based on the idea of modeling - both theoretical (within which various abstract models are used) and experimental, using subject models. In a broad sense, modeling is understood as a multifaceted method for studying any social processes. Modeling makes it possible to study complex systems, parts of which are described by various mathematical methods. The use of modeling to study social processes allows us to identify: external parameters of a particular process; patterns that are not observable in natural conditions connecting simulated phenomena with those parameters that are automatically set by the program In today's complex geopolitical conditions, the need for the study and analysis of conflict situations is increasing, and the need for constructive resolution of conflicts is especially increasing. Modeling as one of the methods of cognition allows, on the basis of the constructed model, to predict the further development of the conflict and carry out adequate management of it, since it is extremely important to be able to foresee what consequences the development of the conflict may lead to. Urgent today are questions related to what a conflict model should be, what properties it should have, what are the capabilities and limits of application of various models, what is their effectiveness in conflict management, etc.