This issue brief provides a brief overview of the legal, political, and operational frameworks protecting children from the effects of armed conflict, notably from violations by nonstate armed groups. It explores some of the limitations of these frameworks and their mechanisms, and then discusses ways to maximize the comparative advantages of different actors when engaging nonstate armed groups...

BACKGROUND: Certain features of peace-building distinguish it from peacekeeping, and make it an appropriate strategy in dealing with vertical conflict and low intensity conflict. However, some theorists suggest that attempts, through peace-building, to impose liberal values upon non-democratic cultures are misguided and lack an ethical basis. DISCUSSION: We have been investigating the peace-bui...

We develop an extension to differential equation models of dynamical systems to allow us to analyze probabilistic threshold dynamics that fundamentally and globally change system behavior. We apply our novel modeling approach to two cases of interest: a model of infectious disease modified for malware where a detection event drastically changes dynamics by introducing a new class in competition...

Pseudoseizures, weakness of limbs, elective mutism, dystonia and behaviour problems were the presenting symptoms in three children from three different families with crises superimposed on chronic marital and familial stresses. Lack of open communication among parents and children contribute to the use of physical symptoms as an expression of emotional conflicts. Psychotherapeutic management in...

Despite being contrary to good patient care and existing clinical and forensic practice guidelines, some therapists nevertheless engage in dual clinical and forensic roles. Perhaps because an injured litigant seeking treatment is required to engage in 2 distinct roles (litigant and patient), care providers may be tempted to meet both sets of that person's needs. Through the presentation of 10 p...

Hierarchical design scenarios arise when the performance of large-scale, complex systems can be affected through the optimal design of several smaller functional units or subsystems. Monte Carlo simulation provides a useful technique to evaluate probabilistic uncertainty in customerspecified requirements, design variables, and environmental conditions while concurrently seeking to resolve confl...

Previous research has shown that teachers' actions when addressing conflict on school grounds can shape adolescent perceptions regarding how well the school manages victimization. Our objective in this study was to determine how these perceptions influenced the likelihood that adolescent students would react to victimization scenarios by either seeking help from school authority or physically f...

Consistency-based diagnosis is the most widely used approach to model-based diagnosis within the Artificial Intelligence community. It is usually carried out through an iterative cycle of behavior prediction, conflict detection, and candidate generation and refinement. Many approaches to consistency-based diagnosis have relied on some kind of on-line dependency-recording mechanism for conflict ...

aim and background: personality traits are among the factors affecting the tendency to substance abuse. personality evaluations have shown sensation seeking to be a particularly strong predictor of initial substance abuse across a variety of drug use categories. the aim of this study was to determine levels of sensation seeking in addicted and normal subjects while considering gender. methods a...