Ethical Decision-Making Framework Based on Incremental ILP Considering Conflicts

Humans are experiencing the inclusion of artificial agents in their lives,such as unmanned vehicles,service robots,voice assistants,and intelligent medical care.If the artificial agents cannot align with social values or make ethical decisions,they may not meet the expectations of humans.Traditionally,an ethical decision-making framework is constructed by rule-based or statistical approaches.In this paper,we propose an ethical decision-making framework based on incremental ILP(Inductive Logic Programming),which can overcome the brittleness of rule-based approaches and little interpretability of statistical approaches.As the current incremental ILP makes it difficult to solve conflicts,we propose a novel ethical decision-making framework considering conflicts in this paper,which adopts our proposed incremental ILP system.The framework consists of two processes:the learning process and the deduction process.The first process records bottom clauses with their score functions and learns rules guided by the entailment and the score function.The second process obtains an ethical decision based on the rules.In an ethical scenario about chatbots for teenagers’mental health,we verify that our framework can learn ethical rules and make ethical decisions.Besides,we extract incremental ILP from the framework and compare it with the state-of-the-art ILP systems based on ASP(Answer Set Programming)focusing on conflict resolution.The results of comparisons show that our proposed system can generate better-quality rules than most other systems.

Living in a Condominium Regime:Neighborhood Conflicts in Low-Income Housing,Tijuana,Baja California-A Secondary Publication

This paper analyzes neighborhood conflicts arising from the condominium property regime,under which social housing promoted by Mexican government institutions and private developers is acquired.This regime has facilitated access to housing for the salaried population,but it is far from contributing to the attainment of the right to housing.The research takes as case studies housing complexes located in the city of Tijuana,Baja California,Mexico.The analysis included a mixed methodology.Firstly,similar case studies were analyzed;secondly,a review of the Condominium Property Regime Law was carried out in order to understand its implications.In view of the pandemic situation,a virtual survey was applied to the inhabitants of these areas,as well as interviews with presidents of neighborhood committees of these complexes.From the above,it was found that this form of ownership generates conflicts,reflected in the dissatisfaction of the inhabitants with their housing,disagreements and controversies in their organization and coexistence.The inhabitants have to collectively solve the problems they face,related to the maintenance and use of common areas,insecurity,and cleanliness,among others.In addition,there is a lack of support from local authorities.With this,it is concluded that although the inhabitants have a space that solves their housing problem,it does not manage to be a space that adequately guarantees their right to housing.

Mental Health Consequences among Sudanese Due to the Armed Conflicts and Civil Unrest of 2023: One Year Later

Aim: To investigate depression, anxiety, PTSD, and insomnia levels among Sudanese citizens after a year has passed since the start of Armed Forces conflict in Sudan. Methods: An online survey was distributed. It is composed of five parts, covering the following areas: 1) sociodemographic data;2) depression assessment;3) generalized anxiety disorder assessment;4) post-traumatic stress disorder assessment;and 5) insomnia assessment. Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 27 was used for data analysis;frequency and percentage were used to describe the qualitative variables. Spearman’s correlation analysis and Chi-square test were used for correlation and association analysis;a P-value equal to or less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: The study included 283 participants, primarily female (76.0%), with a mean age of 35.26 ± 6.96 years. The majority of participants were married (50.5%) and had a university level of education (50.2%). At the start of the war, 70.3% of participants were inside the war zones, and at the time of data collection, 73.5% were outside Sudan. The length of stay in the war zone ranged from 1 to 300 days, with a mean of 48.59 ± 70.284 days. Additionally, 63.3% of participants stated that they did not receive any form of mental health intervention, and the remaining did not provide an answer. There was a high prevalence of moderate-severe depression (50.5%), moderate anxiety (35.3%), PTSD (56.5%), and sub-threshold insomnia (53.4%) among the participants. Correlation analyses revealed associations between demographic factors such as sex, age, marital status, and education and mental health issues. Notably, female participants showed a higher prevalence of PTSD (53.0%) compared to male participants (67.6%). Conclusions: There is a substantial impact of war-related trauma on mental health, revealing a high prevalence of moderate-severe depression, moderate anxiety, PTSD, and sub-threshold insomnia among the participants. This emphasizes the importance of tailored interventions and support systems to address the unique needs of individuals affected by war trauma.

Characterisation of Human-Wildlife Conflicts around the Kahuzi-Biega National Park, Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo

The history of mankind contains so many illustrations of well-classified and violent struggles against various animals over crop production in agricultural fields, attacks on human life or competition in order to have access to certain natural resources. The aim of this study is to characterise the human-wildlife conflicts that occur around the KBNP, especially with regard to primates. Surveys were carried out in 260 households selected using the snowball method. The results showed that human-wildlife conflicts around the KBNP are characterised by the destruction of crops in riparian fields by monkeys, chimpanzees and gorillas, the destruction of houses, physical attacks and zoonoses. Despite the conservation and protection measures for wildlife and local populations put in place by the Park’s managers, conflicts between local populations and the Park’s wild animals are still visible. These conflicts lead to the detention of wild animals by local people roaming in the villages and to poaching on the Park’s boundaries. The weakness of the community management policy on the part of the park managers and the resentment of the indigenous peoples towards the restriction of their access to natural resources are the major constraints on the sustainable management of conflicts between the local populations and the wild animals in the KBNP. The strategies for the sustainable resolution of human-wildlife conflicts around the KBNP must be geared towards and integrated into a community conservation approach.

Impacts of Oil Exploration (Oil and Gas Conflicts;Niger Delta as a Case Study)

The discovery of Oil and Gas in Nigeria led to exploration of crude oil for revenue basis. Oil exploration and exploitation caused environmental problems which resulted into major conflicts in the Niger Delta area of Nigeria. The article examines the impact of oil exploration, and oil and gas conflicts in Niger Delta area and it highlights the problems of pipeline vandalism, structure of oil and gas and the general obstacles in the industry. It discovers that pipeline vandalism, crude oil theft, pollution, oil spillage causes serious environmental degradation which resulted into serious conflicts. The article discovered that environmental problems in the area dislodged the people of their means of livelihood both in the area of fishing and farming. It recommends that there should be a compelling environmental restoration of natural resources by deploying land treatment technologies. Government should sanction multinational companies discharging oils or creating environmental pollution through necessary laws and regulations.

Indexing habitat suitability and human-elephant conflicts using GIS-MCDA in a human-dominated landscape

Concerns for biodiversity loss, wildlife conservation, and habitat destruction have dominated the policy agenda worldwide for decades. Unsustainable human-induced development and negative interaction between humans and wildlife have emerged as predominant issues globally. The present study deals with human and elephant conflicts (HEC) in the Polpitigama Divisional Secretariat, Sri Lanka, which is located in the Kahalla-Pallekele elephant corridor and connects Wilpattu and Kaudulla wildlife sanctuaries. The research objectives are identifying spatial patterns of elephant habitat suitability and probable risk zones for HEC. The elephant habitat suitability and HEC risk zones were identified on spatial and temporal scales using Geographic Information System integrating Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis. Different factors, including habitat suitability, distance to roads, distance to croplands, distance to forests and protected areas, settlements, and population density, were considered to determine HEC risk zones in the area. Topography, water, and vegetation criteria are considered when determining elephant habitat suitability. The results of the Analytic Hierarchy Process run the spatially explicit model. The results revealed that of the total area, 15.3% is very highly suitable for elephant habitats, while the least suitable areas contribute only 4%. About 33.8% of the area is moderately suitable for elephants. The risk map indicates that 23.7% of the total area is under very high risk for HEC, and the least risk areas only account for 5.4%. About 26.2% of the area falls under the moderate risk zone for HEC. Since the model considered three aspects of HEC, it will help policymakers in wildlife conservation to avoid and minimize the HEC.

Cultural Review of the Value Conflicts of Architectural Design

There exist multiple value conflicts in Chinese modern architectural design,mainly in three forms,that is,the incongruity between architecture and natural environment,the isolation between functionalism and emotionalism and the deficiency in the virtue of architects.These led to the acts of the inappropriate trade-off,blind plagiarism and hasty decision-making in the design process.The reason is that the current popular culture of architecture is always chasing the market-oriented benefits.Examining and integrating the value conflicts is helpful to explore the rational value system of modern architectural design from the cross-cultural perspective.

Loud Protest amidst Silence:Conflicts in Ron Milner's The Ray

This paper makes comments on conflicts in a micro-story of 527 words,The Ray,written by American writer Ron Milner.The story,from a unique perspective of narration,attracts and strikes the reader as a loud protest amidst silence,against human beings' self-destructive abuse of nuclear technology and craziness of arms races during the cold war.The paper,from the historical,cultural,and religious contexts,presents an analysis of the hero's death and of the message the reader can draw from the story.

Cultural Conflicts and Fusion in the Process of Christianity Disseminating in China

This paper focuses on cultural conflicts,mainly conflicts of God oriented and people oriented world view,different view towards human nature- virtue culture and guilt culture,the theology that all are equal before God and hierarchical order tradition,monotheism and polytheism,conflict between the doctrine and the concept of clan,briefly,that between Chinese traditional culture and Christian doctrine in the process of the religion disseminating in China.It also touches upon the beneficial attributes of Chinese culture for the fusion of the two culture patterns.

Studies on the Avoidance of Cultural Conflicts from the Aspect of Relationship between Non-verbal Communication and Culture

Nowadays,communication with foreign people isbecoming closer.While,misunderstandings occur frequently inthis process.The main purpose of this essay is to offer some pro-posals on the problem of misunderstandings and conflicts in inter-cultural communication from the aspect of relationship betweenculture and non-verbal communication.

Interpretation on Cultural Conflicts between America and China and the Conflict Root Cause Reflected in The Joy Luck Club

This paper is mainly written to explore how cultural differences and clashes between America and China give rise to mother-daughter discords and conflicts. The paper was conducted based on the definition of culture in order to make clear of cultural conflicts. It is written to analyze the two groups of women immigrants unavoidably encountering the clash between their ancestral culture—Chinese culture and the dominant culture--American culture. Furthermore, the paper demonstrates that the mothers' Chinese roots are the root cause of misunderstandings and conflicts between their American-born daughters and themselves.Besides, the writer analyzes that different standpoints towards education value between mothers and American- born daughters cause their misunderstanding and conflicts. The conclusion is that the diversities between Chinese culture and American culture are the root cause for the mother-daughter discords and conflicts.

Conflicts of interest in nutritional sciences: The forgotten bias in meta-analysis

Awareness of conflicts of interest(COI) in medicine began in the 1980 s. More recently, the problem has gained notoriety in nutritional sciences. COI with industry could bias study conclusions in the context of research activities and scientific publications on nutritional sciences. The issue of COI in nutritional sciences deserves more attention and requires careful analyses as biased information can negatively impact the development of dietary guidelines and, ultimately, population health. Decision-making is generally based on available, published evidence, but when the results are ambivalent, it is easier to opt for the status quo and ask for more studies. Readers might wonder if research is subsidized by industry as a counterbalancing strategy based on levels of evidence-only to slow down eminent positions and/or legislation on the food sector? How can this problem be overcome without producing paranoia and Mc Carthyism while trying to be as methodological as possible?

Analysis of opposing left-turn conflicts based on traffic conflict technology

The relationship between the opposing left-turn conflict and the traffic participants was analyzed in this study. Based on the traffic conflict technology, the image data were collected in a real traffic situation. The relationship was investigated under two different conditions. The number of opposing left-turn conflicts was positively correlated with the number of left-turn vehicles while the ratio of left-turn vehicles to opposing vehicles was less than 1, and showed a positive correlation with the number of opposing-through vehicles when the ratio of left-turn vehicles to opposing vehi- cles was more than 1. In other words, the opposing left-turn risk was positively correlated with the number of the minor traffic participants, which had a negative effect on the whole traffic system op- eration.

The Conflicts in Sons and Lovers

D.H.Lawrence is one of the forerunners of modern psychological fiction.He is famous for his description and analysis of the psychological activity of the characters,as well as his penetrating perspective of love and sex.Sons and Lovers is an autobiographical novel of D.H.Lawrence.Apart from the "Oedipus complex",three male-female conflicts are also very prominent in this novel.They comprise the conflict between Mrs.Morel and Mr.Morel,the conflict between Mrs.Morel and her sons and the conflict between lovers.These conflicts are derived from the inner world of human being.Lawrence probes into the psychic relations of people,which is a proactive and profound progress in his time and which also has its own effect on the relations of current society.

Prevalence and Severity of Current Human-Elephant Conflicts in Amboseli Ecosystem, Kenya: Insights from the Field and Key Informants

Few animals elicit such drastically different human emotions, so do elephants. Elephants capture the affection of people but also inspire animosity and fear at the same time. This is because there are conflicts with people over space, critical resources, costs of damages and general insecurity to people. This paper examined field evidence and interviewed expert key informants on current intensity and frequency of human-elephants in Amboseli Ecosystem. According to them, generally, the most prevalent (score of 1 lowest to 10 highest) threats to elephants were competition for critical resources (6.32 ± 0.44) followed by blocking of migration (6.24 ± 0.46), harassment of elephants (4.83 ± 0.75), poaching (4.57 ± 0.37), and retaliatory killings (3.78 ± 0.31). For threats that elephants pose to people, the most prevalent one was crop raiding (6.95 ± 0.26) followed by environmental degradation (6.71 ± 0.46), general insecurity to people (5.76 ± 0.65), property destruction (5.16 ± 0.41), injury and death to livestock (3.78 ± 0.37), and injury and death to people (2.71 ± 0.27). For the severity of the threats, the highest score was given to crop raiding whose average score was 7.90 ± 0.24 followed by environmental destruction and degradation (6.89 ± 0.43), injury and death to people (6.72 ± 0.44), injury and death to livestock (6.36 ± 0.50), property destruction (5.78 ± 0.49), general insecurity to people (5.62 ± 0.64). Severity levels followed the same trend or varied slightly. These drivers of human-elephant conflicts need to be addressed decisively to protect both people and elephants. There is a need to ensure local people’s benefit from elephants through ecotourism investments such as wildlife sanctuaries, leasing critical space for elephants’ dispersal on acceptable terms, through appropriate compensation schemes for elephant costs, and supporting local community wildlife rangers to prevent conflicts.

Human-Carnivore Conflicts in Private Conservancy Lands of Elerai and Oltiyiani in Amboseli Area, Kenya

Human-carnivore conflicts represent the most common negative form of interactions between humans and wildlife. Most carnivores involved in such conflicts are: lion, hyena, leopard and cheetah. Three strategies are normally used in Kenya to mitigate such conflicts;consolation for lost livestock and human life to increase tolerance to them, use of predator proof homesteads especially among pastoralists, use flicking lights at night to discourage approach of carnivores near homesteads, and awareness creation among communities on the ecological role of carnivores. This study examined human-carnivore interactions in privately owned conservancies near Amboseli National Park, Kenya. The conservancies were found to have almost similar human and livestock demography. However, homesteads in Elerai had more fence broken parts and relatively higher levels of livestock predation by lion and hyena. The higher the number of each livestock type was, the higher the specific predation to that livestock type was, implying density dependent effects of predation by carnivores on livestock. It seemed that the fence structure and level of maintenance (including carnivore strategies on specializing on specific livestock size and age consistent with optimizing their foraging strategies) influenced predation incidences. However, the presence of adult males and Maasai warriors (morans) in bomas did not seem to be related with the number of livestock killed by carnivores, implying that they didn’t add vigilance as an additional strategy to prevent livestock depredation. It is recommended that attention be paid on maintenance of homestead and livestock fences as well as vigilance to deter predation. We further recommend strategies to prevent livestock predation such as, installation of chain link predator proof fences or carnivore lighting deterrents at night because woody plants fences are ineffective and deteriorate easily with time, and also lead to depletion of plant resources critical to households.

The Conflicts of Huck''s Self-consciousness and His Spiritual Growth in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is one of the masterpieces of American novelist Mark Twain. In this novel, Twain not onlydescribes the courageous adventures of Huck, but also his psychological or spiritual growth. Due to the social and cultural back-ground of that time and general cultural concept the protagonist was instilled before, the conflicts of the protagonist's self-con-sciousness appear many times in this novel when the issue of slavery is concerned. However, through the protagonist's inner con-flicts, he finally gains spiritual growth and obtains a higher level of moral maturity.

Mother- Daughter Cultural Conflicts in The Joy Luck Club

Amy Tan, as the second generation of immigrants, deeply senses the differences between Sino-American cultures. Her great success The Joy Luck Club explores the conflicts between mothers and daughters, showing the troubles in such families.

Conflicts in A Streetcar Named Desire

A conflict is a disagreement, struggle, controversy or fight which usually provides the plot for a story. It is the prominent element of a work and the basis for everything else included in the work of literature. In the drama A Streetcar Named Desire of Tennessee Williams, several kinds of conflicts are proficiently and artistically revealed. This paper touches on different kinds of conflicts, including those between fantasy and reality, female and male, desire and death, the exterior and inner world, the south and the north. Conflicts are of great literary importance in this play. Firstly, they function to propel the plot and create an overarching tension. Secondly, they are used to represent themes which are applied to greater contexts. Thirdly, conflicts go through the whole play and make it a united whole.

Resolution for Conflicts of Inter-Operation in Multi-Domain Environment

This paper proposes a method to formalize the interoperation in multi-domain environment. Through employing the algebra method, we conclude four types of the conflicts for the interoperation, and analyzes the cause of the policy conflicts. For each type of conflicts, we formalize it and proposes the method of detection and resolution. Finally, the method is illuminated be effective through comparing our work with others.