'The Gaza Diamond': drawings and wishes of Palestinian teenagers

In this study, the body of drawings and written wishes chosen from a drawing contest for Palestinian schoolchildren, provided data revealing a world of hopes, wishes and desires of Palestinian teenagers. Irrespective of the measure of regional exposure to the violent conflict, the political situation figures prominently in their wishes. Peace and statehood are dominant themes.

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Agape: a reconciliation initiative by members of civil society and former child-soldiers

‘Agape’ is a reconciliation project among victims of the armed conflict in Colombia and child-soldiers who, legally, are also victims of the armed conflict. The project was realised fully by volunteers, who are kidnap victims, refugees, students and other members of the Colombian community in Montreal, Canada.

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Community beliefs and fears during a cholera outbreak in Haiti

In October 2010, an outbreak of cholera was confirmed in Haiti. The country had not seen cholera for many decades, so it was a ‘new’ disease to the population. The outbreak of cholera also leads to high levels of fear and suspicion due to beliefs and perceptions. This field report presents some of those beliefs and perceptions around the outbreak, in four Haitian communities.

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Defining mental health and psychosocial in the Inter-Agency Standing Committee Guidelines: constructive criticisms from psychiatry and anthropology

The development of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee Guidelines heralded an international achievement by gathering mental health and psychosocial professionals to evolve common minimum responses during emergencies. However, one continuing contentious issue has been the definitions of mental health and psychosocial support. The absence of these formal and agreed definitions may well interfere with coordinating minimum responses.

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Fighting for a future: the potential for posttraumatic growth among youths formerly associated with armed forces in Northern Uganda

This article presents the potential of posttraumatic growth (PTG) among youths formerly associated with the Lords Resistance Army (LRA) in Northern Uganda. Through investigating life narratives of 12 such youths, this study aims to discover the potential of PTG as a consequence ofa forced time period with the LRA. By means of interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) the narratives revealed four themes: social support; participation; self perception, and faith in God. These four themes are found to resemblefour of the five factors measuring PTG.

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Protecting the Homeland from International and Domestic Terrorism Threats : Current Multi-Disciplinary Perspectives on Root Causes, the Role of Ideology, and Programs for Counter-radicalization and Disengagement

Prison and Community Based Disengagement and De-Radicalization Programs for Extremists Involved in Militant Jihadi Terrorism Ideologies and Activities. STRATCOM Protecting the Homeland from International and Domestic Terrorism Threats: Current Multi-Disciplinary Perspectives on Root Causes, the Role of Ideology, and Programs for Counter-Radicalization and Disengagement.

Preface (Brigadier General Raymond A. Thomas III)

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Parental Response to Child Injury : Examination of Parental Posttraumatic Stress Symptom Trajectories Following Child Accidental Injury

Objective: Trajectory analyses were used to empirically differentiate patterns of posttraumatic stress symptoms in parents following child accidental injury and explore the relationship between parent and child recovery patterns.

Method: Parent (n = 189) self-reported symptoms from acute to 2 years post accident were examined to (1) identify distinct parent symptom trajectories; (2) identify risk factors; and (3) explore the patterns of children and parents together.

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Ethnocultural Aspects of PTSD: An Overview of Concepts, Issues, and Treatments

The present article offers an overview discussion of ethnocultural aspects of PTSD, with special attention to major conceptual issues, clinical considerations, and therapy practices. The historical circumstances leading to the widespread acceptance of PTSD among conventional mental health professionals, and the subsequent criticisms that emerged from scholars, humanitarian workers, and ethnocultural minorities are presented as an important background to the current controversial status of the concept, especially with regard to arguments regarding the ethnocultural determinants of PTSD.

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Narratives of suffering of South Asian immigrant survivors of domestic violence

This article examines the narratives of suffering expressed by a group of South Asian immigrant survivors of domestic violence who accessed a mental health clinic in New York City. These accounts illustrate women's own perceptions of their suffering and symptoms and provide a window into the South Asian immigrant community's ideologies and moral domains regarding gender, violence, and sickness,...

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Network coding : exploiting broadcast and superposition in wireless networks

In this thesis we investigate improvements in efficiency of wireless communication networks, based on methods that are fundamentally different from the principles that form the basis of state-of-the-art technology. The first difference is that broadcast and superposition are exploited instead of reducing the wireless medium to a network of point-to-point links. The second difference is that the...

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