Potential Conflict Situations Research Articles

Model characteristics of combat athletes’ competitive activities

On the basis of retrospective analysis of scientific and methodological literature the authors consider model-wide characteristics of combat athletes competitive activity and describe the structure of competitive activities, with focus on achieving maximum rate of individual performance in a chosen form of martial arts. A wide range of technical actions and a broad spectrum of potential conflict situations, regularly manifested in the course of martial arts, particularly in Taekwondo, determine the features of operations, actions, and mechanisms for their improvement. This paper discusses the classification of specific activities (combat athlete activity in wrestling; performance of basic tactical and technical actions; combat athlete activities in separate parts (preliminary and final stage) of the competition; the activities of combat athlete in a separate co-efforts; the activities of combat athlete in the aggregate number of competitions), limited by temporal and spatial factors. The authors present a list of specialized and generalized model characteristics of competitive activity, in which according to martial arts include the following indicators: a variety of defensive and offensive action; the amount of defensive and offensive action; the activity of protective and attacking action; the effectiveness of defensive and offensive actions. In conclusion it is noted that the model characteristics of competitive activity must disclose the following aspects in combat sports: activity, variety and volume, effectiveness of the demonstrated technical-tactical actions.

Sense Avoidance Constraints for Conflict Resolution between Autonomous Vehicles

Potential conflict situations between vehicles in the presence of obstacles are addressed by a decentralized approach imposing sense constraints, i.e., requiring that the vehicles circumvent an obstacle in a predetermined sense: either clockwise or counterclockwise. Model Predictive Control is used to plan trajectories using binary decision variables. In order to do that, a novel scheme to choose the feasible regions is proposed, and then obstacle avoidance constraints are encoded using tuples of binary decision variables. Sense constraints arise naturally as an extension of the proposed encoding scheme, allowing for decentralized planning, given that the vehicles agree on the required sense of circumvention. Simulation results are used to illustrate the benefits of the proposed method.

Dressed to kill? Visible markers of coalitional affiliation enhance conceptualized formidability.

Displaying markers of coalitional affiliation is a common feature of contemporary life. In situations in which interaction with members of rival coalitions is likely, signaling coalitional affiliation may simultaneously constitute an implicit challenge to opponents and an objective commitment device, binding signalers to their coalitions. Individuals who invite conflict, and who cannot readily back out of conflict, constitute a greater threat than those who avoid conflict and preserve the option of feigning neutrality. As a consequence, the former should be viewed as more formidable than the latter. Recent research indicates that relative formidability is summarized using the envisioned physical size and strength of a potential antagonist. Thus, individuals who display markers of coalitional affiliation should be conceptualized as more physically imposing than those who do not. We tested this prediction in two experiments. In Study 1, conducted with U.S. university students, participants inspected images of sports fans' faces. In Study 2, conducted with U.S. Mechanical Turk workers, participants read vignettes depicting political partisans. In both studies, participants estimated the physical formidability of the target individuals and reported their own ability to defend themselves; in Study 2, participants estimated the target's aggressiveness. Consonant with predictions, targets depicted as signaling coalitional affiliation in situations of potential conflict were envisioned to be more physically formidable and more aggressive than were those not depicted as signaling thusly. Underscoring that the calculations at issue concern the possibility of violent conflict, participants' estimates of the protagonist's features were inversely correlated with their ability to defend themselves.

A solution to detect and avoid conflicts for civil remotely piloted aircraft systems into non-segregated airspaces

The capability to “detect and avoid” potential collisions is one of the main technical challenges restricting widespread operations of unmanned aircraft into non-segregated airspaces. In fact, to operate into prescribed environments, an unmanned aircraft needs an onboard technology to replace the capability of the human pilot to “see and avoid” collision hazards. Such a technology is a “sense and avoid” system. This article focuses on the “avoid function” of such a system and proposes a suitable solution. The approach to the problem is to schematize a generic obstacle through a moving ellipsoid that represents the region of space the unmanned aircraft must not violate. The obtained solution enables situations of potential conflict to be detected and avoided through a set of possible actions such as speed changes in magnitude and/or direction. Thousands of test cases have been considered to validate this solution. Simulations show that the proposed algorithm is able to detect and avoid situations of potential conflict in the three-dimensional space and in real-time, even without the assistance of a human operator. As such, it can be considered as a fundamental step for the development of a prototype of “sense and avoid” system for promoting the integration of unmanned aircraft into non-segregated airspaces.

The Importance of Recognizing Roles in Teams for Higher-Quality Work in Preschools and Schools

The authors of this article analysed the importance of recognizing roles in team work experience for work experience quality work between preschool teachers and teachers in preschools and schools. Teamwork is a complex area, which includes communication, collaboration, and reacting to stressful situations. Accordingly, it is absolutely necessary for preschool teachers and primary school teachers to have good communication skills, management of potential conflict situations, approaches to identification and management of different work situations, as well as approaches to coping with stress and working with different people. The purpose of the empirical study was therefore to analyse and compare different roles in teamwork at preschool (between preschool teacher and her assistant) and primary school, especially in first grade, where the teacher and preschool teacher work together in the classroom. During the empirical research, conducted on a population of preschool teachers and teachers in the first grade of primary school (sample size was 140), the authors found that all different roles appear as important and more or less equal; maybe some more preschool teachers and teacher seem to take on the role of team worker or implementer The authors did not observe important statistical differences considering work experience or level of education, but there are, as expected, differences considering work position.

Development methods of conflicts identification and evaluation

It has been elaborated the method for quantitative evaluation of level and structure of the interpersonal management conflicts that prevail over the other conflicts in the machine-building enterprises functioning. According to the reasons of appearance investigated interpersonal management conflicts were divided into the following types: informational, behavioral, structural, conflicts of relationships and values. The method was developed due to the usage of conjoint analysis that allows to evaluate simultaneously both the structure of the conflict and its level according to the priorities system, which has increased the credibility of gained results. Calculated values have shown that the prevailing conflicts in the structure of machine-building enterprises management conflict are informational ones that are related to poor information support of companies’ administrators. The behavioral and relationship conflicts are also rather significant. They have different appearance nature and require special methods for their solution. Dynamics of the environment, complexity of organization and communication structures, increase of the competition level, uncertainty in a number of market spheres, growth of the negative crisis outcomes, struggle between countries for markets and resources, active political confrontation especially in the developing countries are causing the general increase of the number of conflicts and conflicts levels. All the stated above factors of conflicts lie beyond the limits of enterprises influence on them, which is why they require the constant monitoring and appropriate adjustment on the part of the organization. However, it is not less important to consider the subjective component of conflict appearance – lack of desire to see the mutual advantage of cooperation, possibility to avoid conflicts with minimal losses, confidence in the accuracy of one’s objectives, principles and convictions, asymmetry and monocentricity of corporate culture, managers indifference towards the occurrence of conflict situations, which leads to irreversibility of negative effects and significant losses caused by conflicts activity. Hereby the task for enterprises managers is to identify the potential conflict situations actively, sometimes to provoke their appearance in order to resolve the management problems, to evaluate their level, to influence their course and to try to receive functional results.

A Framework for Analyzing Intersection Timing and Red Light Collisions

It is not surprising that many multi-vehicle collisions occur at intersections, as intersecting streets present potential conflict situations where vehicle paths can cross one another. What does surprise both naïve observers and many professionals involved in accident investigations (e.g., accident reconstructionists, human factors scientists, lawyers) is the explanation that most red light running accidents happen only when the vehicle violating the red light enters the intersection approximately 4 to 6 seconds or more after the light has turned red. This paper provides a framework to study the conditions under which red light running collisions occur. This framework is applied to real-world intersection geometries and red light running collisions captured on video. A comparison of observational and crash data indicates that only a small fraction of red light running results in collisions. The mathematical framework can be used to develop likely timing scenarios in accident investigation, and can be expanded to study motor vehicle collisions with bicyclists or pedestrians.

Health inequalities and cost-effectiveness: what do important health policy actors say about this potential conflict situation?

The German statutory health-care system is based on the principle of solidarity and thus it is committed to the objective of 'equal chances'. From an economic perspective it is also important to emphasise that scarcity of resources continuously pushes the services towards cost control and towards increasing cost-effect-iveness. There could be conflicts between the 2 objectives 'equal chances' and 'cost-effectiveness', of course, for example if measures for increasing cost-effectiveness lead to increased financial burdens of the insured. To date it has not been studied if and how this potential conflict is discussed in Germany.In a first step we searched for German publications discussing this potential conflict focusing on 3 major public health journals (Das Gesundheitswesen, Bundesgesundheitsblatt, Ethik in der Medizin) and on the internet portal "gerechte-gesundheit.de". For the main part of the paper, we looked for publications from 4 major health policy actors (Bundesärztekammer, Zentrale Ethikkommission bei der Bundesärztekammer, Deutscher Ethikrat, Sachverständigenrat zur Begutachtung der Entwicklung im Gesundheitswesen). All papers published since the year 2000 were included in the system-atic qualitative analysis.The analyses show that the potential conflict between 'equal chances' and 'cost-effectiveness' is rarely discussed in any detail, at most in an implicit way. It would be important, though, to have an explicit discussion, supported by scientifically based analyses and recommendations. One step towards this objective could be, for example, a closer cooperation between social-epidemiologists and health--economists.

Assessment of implementability and safety of aircraft flight paths by an on-board mathematical model

This paper suggests a certain methodology for aircraft flight forecasting, detection of potential conflict situations and implementability assessment of flight paths generated for conflict resolution. Analysis of aircraft's virtual flights along generated paths involves parallel computations in real-time by an on-board mathematical model. The authors intend to apply the described methodology in a flight path safety system which ensures integrated representation of information on a flight situation, forms warnings and recommendations to pilots for avoiding risky scenarios of flight situations.

Balancing public access and privacy in developed coastal zones: Factors influencing attitudes towards potential management options

The coastline of south eastern Norway is mostly privately owned and largely developed with homes and cabins. Public rights of access are permitted in what are defined as ‘outfield’ areas. However, public access may be difficult due to the location of developments, the blurred legal distinctions between outfield and infield areas and a lack of adequate recreational management. This project examined the social interactions between waterfront dwellers and local day visitors and the potential for improving recreational management in the study area of Saltnes on the Oslo Fjord in Norway. All households in Saltnes were surveyed (259 responses) to explore how local inhabitants (i.e. shoreline visitors, potential visitors and waterfront dwellers) perceived different potential management measures for improving private–public co-existence along the waterfront area. The study also investigated the extent to which the dichotomy between the need for access and the need for privacy influences attitudes towards different management measures. The multivariate structural equation model (SEM) contained two sets of manifest exogenous variables for respondent characteristics and four latent endogenous variables identifying four possible management options. The two options most favoured by respondents were Onsite information and Physical preparation, both of which were significantly more popular than Guiding boundaries and Access restrictions. The provision of Onsite information was regarded positively by both visitors and waterfront dwellers, and thus probably has the best potential for improving co-existence and co-operation between the two groups. Management implicationsWhen attempting to improve cooperation and co-existence in a potential conflict situation between local visitors and waterfront dwellers in shoreline areas, the following management recommendations should be considered:–A management solution should be based on local contextual knowledge.–Onsite information, identifying accessible and in-accessible areas along the shoreline are most preferred and accepted by visitors, potential visitors and dwellers alike.–Physical preparations, such as boardwalks, are well accepted by the visitors and potential visitors, but perceived more negatively by waterfront dwellers.–Guiding physical boundaries, like fences, and access restrictions cannot be recommended.–Planning processes should explicitly consider the requirements of potential visitors who are less acquainted with local conditions.–Private landowners should be integrated in the planning process at an early stage if planning measures are likely to affect their properties.

SOFTWARE IMPLEMENTATION METHODS OF DETECTION AND RESOLUTION OF POTENTIAL CONFLICTS BETWEEN AIRCRAFT

On a daily basis, on thousands of commercial and military flights, the lives of countless passengers are dependent upon the implementation of safety regulations adopted to protect the public interest. Detecting potential conflict situations – is not only analysis of many factors that occur in a given time, but also a final decision concerning crew of aircraft to change the motion parameters, the timely and proper execution of which will provide a safe distinction aircraft from holding the required minimum separation. А set of algorithms that can identify and resolve a potential conflict situation between the aircraft on counter, trail tracks and intersecting tracks has been developed. The software implementation of methods for the determination and resolution of potential conflict situations between aircraft has been made

Bonds of Silence: Parents and Children Cope with Dissonant Levels of Religiosity

Loving parents characterized by a strong religious orientation may feel ambivalence when their children completely reject their religious identity. The parents might find it difficult to accommodate to their children’s different identity, but at the same time, not want to drive their children away. We examine how this potential conflict situation is managed by focusing on Jews in Israel who take on a nonreligious identity after having been brought up by parents who were religiously observant. Our study is based on personal interviews with 20 religious (Orthodox) Jewish parents and 13 children who are no longer religious (representing a total of 18 households). Our findings emphasize the importance of silencing and self-silencing in managing conflict, as the sides are careful to refrain from making demands that might lead to a break in their relationships. Children often cover or mask their non-religious behavior in the presence of their parents, in order to help them maintain face and avoid embarrassment and shame.

Effectiveness of Planning Instruments for Minimizing Spatial Conflicts of Biogas Production

The energy policy in Germany encourages an ever-greater utilization of biomass to produce biogas. But this utilization interferes on the natural resources and affects new conflicts regarding other forms of land use particularly flood prevention measures, drinking water supply and recreation. A forward-looking planning is needed to minimize these conflicts. Hence, this paper aims to derive quality and protection standards, summarized in checklists, assessing the effectiveness of different planning instruments with respect to the impact of biogas production in practice. These checklists were used in four model districts in Lower Saxony to evaluate the effectiveness of planning instruments on the regional level. The results show that the investigated Regional Planning Programmes do not contain any explicit planning statements as to the production of biomass or biogas. Specific regulations regarding potential conflict situations are mainly to be found in the respective Protected Area Regulations. However, generally the German spatial planning and sectoral planning provide options to control the production of biogas in a way that it is compatible with the majority of competing land uses.

Ecological Infectomics (Ecoinfectomics): Symbiotic Solutions to Microbial Infections

Ecoinfectomics is the ecological study of infectomes and explores symbiotic solutions to microbial infections. The most fundamental issue in ecological infectomics is how to transform situations of potential conflict (pathogenesis or Pat) into cooperation (symbiosis or Sym) by dissecting the dynamic Sym-Pat duality in microbial infections and developing symbiotic agents (symbiotics) that favor a healthy symbiosis. Symbiotics are defined as products that are beneficial to the symbiotic ecology of the super-organisms consisting of microbes and their human hosts. These include microbial (e.g., probiotic bacteria and phages) and nonmicrobial agents (e.g., prebiotics). Probiotics have been proposed as a promising way to prevent microbial infection in neonates. It has been shown that probiotics could be useful to correct ecological disorders in human intestinal microbiota associated with neonatal sepsis and meningitis, and might play a protective role in excluding pathogens from the intestine and preventing infections. Compared with commonly used antibiotics, a great advantage of phages is their narrow host range. A rational basis has been provided for the discovery and development of phage-based symbiotics that only kill pathogens but do not disturb benign microbes in normal microbiota. The systems biology study of ecoimmunity or ecoimmunome (ecoimmunomics), which is most closely related to ecoinfectomics, may provide alternative ecological strategies toward clinical challenges in infectious diseases. We propose that the balance between exosymbiosis (e.g, microbiota) and endosymbiosis (e.g., mitochondria) is essential for ecoimmunity and that the exo-endo Sym imbalance plays an important role in the pathogenesis of infectious diseases, including HIV/AIDS. Correction of disorders of the ecoimmunity in patients with AIDS may lead to a rational control of HIV infection. Holistic and integrative studies of ecoinfectomes, ecoimmunomes, and microbiome are important for our understanding of microbial pathogenesis and the development of symbiotic solutions to infectious diseases. Keywords: Ecoimmunome, ecoimmunomics, ecoinfectome, ecoinfectomics, ecology, exo-endo sym balance, phage therapy, probiotics symbiotics.

The Good News about Honor Culture: The Preference for Cooperative Conflict Management in the Absence of Insults

AbstractPeople from honor cultures are generally seen as prone to react aggressively in conflict situations. The current research challenges this view and shows that people from honor cultures react more constructively to a conflict situation than people from dignity cultures, as long as they are not insulted. In an experiment in which 41 honor and 41 dignity participants reacted to a conflict situation with or without insult, we showed that—as long as they are not insulted—people from honor cultures handled potential conflict situations more constructively than people from dignity cultures. Thus, the good news about people from honor cultures is that they are willing and able to handle conflict situations constructively—even more so than people from dignity cultures—as long as they are not insulted.

Friends Shrink Foes

In situations of potential violent conflict, deciding whether to fight, flee, or try to negotiate entails assessing many attributes contributing to the relative formidability of oneself and one’s opponent. Summary representations can usefully facilitate such assessments of multiple factors. Because physical size and strength are both phylogenetically ancient and ontogenetically recurrent contributors to the outcome of violent conflicts, these attributes provide plausible conceptual dimensions that may be used by the mind to summarize the relative formidability of opposing parties. Because the presence of allies is a vital factor in determining victory, we hypothesized that men accompanied by male companions would therefore envision a solitary foe as physically smaller and less muscular than would men who were alone. We document the predicted effect in two studies, one using naturally occurring variation in the presence of male companions and one employing experimental manipulation of this factor.

Water Policy in India: A Review

While water remains one of the most abundant resources on earth but less than 1 percent of the total supply is reliably available for human consumption. Drinking-water is certainly essential for human survival but water-related illnesses are the most common health threat in the developing world. An estimated 25 000 people die every day as a result of water-related diseases Human existence depends on water. Water interacts with solar energy to determine climate and it transforms and transports the physical and chemical substances necessary for all life on earth. Competition among agriculture, industry and cities for limited water supplies is already constraining development efforts in many countries including India. As populations expand and economies grow, the competition for limited supplies is most likely to intensify, resulting in potential conflict situation among water users in days to come. Despite shortages of water, its misuse is widespread, be it in small communities or large cities, farmers or industries, developing countries or industrialized economies every where the mismanagement of water resources is evident. Surface water quality is deteriorating in key basins from urban and industrial wastes. Agriculture is often unable to compete with cities and industries for water, as it is unable to pay more for water it needs. Further, irrigated agriculture is expected to produce much more in the future while using less water than it uses today. At present, 2.4 billion people depend on irrigated agriculture for jobs, food and income (some 55 percent of all wheat and rice output is irrigated). Over the next 30 years, an estimated 80 percent of the additional food supplies required to feed the world will depend on irrigation. Ministry of Water Resources, Government of India, in January 2012, released a draft National Water Policy for the consideration and opinion of state governments and other stakeholders. The need for a holistic national policy has its genesis in the changing patterns of water use across India – both personal and industrial use. This includes the imperatives of providing both clean drinking water and adequate resources for irrigation; the move to look at renewable sources of energy like hydro power; and natural disaster management and rehabilitation following devastating floods and drought. The policy also seeks to offer economic incentives and penalties to reduce pollution and wastage. For reversing the usual approach of projecting a future demand and bringing about a supply-side response to meet that demand, we must start from the fact that the availability of fresh water in nature is finite, and learn to manage our water needs within that availability. This means a restraint on the growth of 'demand' for water (other than basic needs) which will be difficult and will involve painful adjustments; but this has become inevitable. So, to have a more equitable and inclusive water resources management, the primacy has to shift from large, centralized, capital-intensive 'water resource development' (WRD) projects with big dams and reservoirs and canal systems, to small, decentralized, local, community-led, water-harvesting and watershed-development programmes, with the big projects being regarded as projects of the last resort; and the exploitation of groundwater will have to be severely restrained in the interest of resource-conservation as well as equity.

Urban African American Parents' Messages about Violence: A Mixed Methods Study.

Family socialization, which includes parental control and support, plays an important role in reducing the likelihood of adolescent involvement in conflict. This study examined the strategies that urban parents living in neighborhoods with high crime rates suggest to help their adolescent children avoid or deescalate conflict. Data come from 48 African American parent/adolescent dyads recruited through the youths' middle school. Dyads responded to three video-taped scenarios depicting youth in potential conflict situations. Qualitative methods were used to identify 11 strategies parents suggested to help youth avoid or deescalate conflict. Although the majority of parents advocated for non-violent solutions, these same parents described situations in which their child may need to use violence. These findings have important implications for family-focused violence prevention programs.

Weapons Make the Man (Larger): Formidability Is Represented as Size and Strength in Humans

In order to determine how to act in situations of potential agonistic conflict, individuals must assess multiple features of a prospective foe that contribute to the foe's resource-holding potential, or formidability. Across diverse species, physical size and strength are key determinants of formidability, and the same is often true for humans. However, in many species, formidability is also influenced by other factors, such as sex, coalitional size, and, in humans, access to weaponry. Decision-making involving assessments of multiple features is enhanced by the use of a single summary variable that encapsulates the contributions of these features. Given both a) the phylogenetic antiquity of the importance of size and strength as determinants of formidability, and b) redundant experiences during development that underscore the contributions of size and strength to formidability, we hypothesize that size and strength constitute the conceptual dimensions of a representation used to summarize multiple diverse determinants of a prospective foe's formidability. Here, we test this hypothesis in humans by examining the effects of a potential foe's access to weaponry on estimations of that individual's size and strength. We demonstrate that knowing that an individual possesses a gun or a large kitchen knife leads observers to conceptualize him as taller, and generally larger and more muscular, than individuals who possess only tools or similarly mundane objects. We also document that such patterns are not explicable in terms of any actual correlation between gun ownership and physical size, nor can they be explained in terms of cultural schemas or other background knowledge linking particular objects to individuals of particular size and strength. These findings pave the way for a fuller understanding of the evolution of the cognitive systems whereby humans – and likely many other social vertebrates – navigate social hierarchies.

Recognition can leave room for disagreement in the doctor–patient consultation

ObjectiveWe wanted to explore how recognising interaction, as described by psychologist Schibbye, is played out in a patient doctor encounter including the behaviour of both parties and their simultaneous communication. MethodsWe selected videotapes from five doctor–patient encounters where a recognising attitude was identified. The episodes were analysed using a qualitative method for studying interaction and relationship at the micro-level. We describe an episode which is suitable for demonstrating how a recognizing attitude can leave room for disagreement. ResultsThe doctor's recognising attitude with a basic respect for the other person's experience perspective has a crucial effect on the doctor–patient relationship. In this consultation, the doctor succeeds in taking the patient's experience perspective by listening, wondering and exploring to check that he has interpreted the patient correctly. A potential conflict situation arises, but there is no conflict. When the relationship is characterised by recognition, disagreement is allowed, without doing any damage. ConclusionSchibbye's ideas and terms can provide new perspectives on the doctor–patient interaction. Practice implicationsFor the doctor, a fundamental respect for the patient's perspective may make it easier to tolerate when patients have values and preferences that conflict with the doctor or with sound medical practice.