This work is devoted to international law, particularly humanitarian law and human rights with emphasis on international legal instruments governing the position of children serving in the armed forces. In this work are discussed various international conventions, as well as mechanisms for the protection of child soldiers. The first chapter defines the position of child soldiers and the specifics of their involvement in military conflicts. The decisive criteria for the involvement of children in government armed forces or non-state army is age. Furthermore there is described into more details the mechanism of conscription into the army. There is difference between voluntary and forced recruitment of child soldiers. The various international legal instruments are analyzed more in detail in chapter two. The issue of Child soldiers is addressed with both the rules of humanitarian law, specifically the Additional Protocols to the Geneva Conventions and Human rights conventions. Special attention is paid to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict. Analyzed is the only regional convention addressing the problem of child soldiers -the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. The issue of child recruitment is also...

Abstract Introduction: Swedish soldiers expose themselves to significant risks in international efforts, despite the risks soldiers are still motivated to participate in operations for Försvarsmakten (FM). Most often, expert assessments of risks have been formed before a specific effort that excludes the soldiers 'subjective perception of the threats and risks that may arise, this can mean that soldiers risk getting inadequate information about future risks and that training prior to intervention lacks important and central parts of the soldiers' risk assessment. Aim: The study aims to investigate risk understanding and risk perception by interviewing Swedish soldiers who have been in place in Afghanistan. Method: The study uses a case study based on the implementation of qualitative interviews. Results: When collecting data and during the analysis process, three main themes were identified with the following subcategories. Conclusion: The respondents' experience of the international effort highlights that their risk perception does not correlate with the risk understanding they had with them from home. The assignment changed the respondents' subjective risk understanding and risk perception.

Ce travail s’interroge sur l’impact éthique du remplacement des humains par des robots, particulièrement dans le cadre militaire avec les systèmes d’armes létales autonomes (SALA). Il fait le point sur les robots militaires et les logiciels existants qui contribuent à leur autonomie jusqu’en 2014. L’augmentation progressive de l’autonomie des robots signe le remplacement possible de l’humain, l’agir moral des machines à la place de l’homme est dès lors une problématique. Le robot peut-il être un agent moral ? Peut-on créer un agent moral artificiel ? Quelles sont les contraintes techniques, algorithmiques, juridiques et éthiques auxquelles une telle réalisation serait confrontée, notamment dans le monde militaire ? La robotisation est une réalité qui a déjà des effets sur le politique et le militaire comme l’illustre l’usage des drones. Quels pourraient être les effets d’une plus grande autonomie des robots pour l’obtention de la victoire et vis-à-vis de l’éthique militaire ? L’aspect novateur ne doit pas oblitérer les défis qui se posent tant aux soldats qu’aux robots. Si aucun n’est infaillible, que peut-on conclure du projet de créer des robots moraux, et quel avenir peut-on envisager pour une robotique respectueuse de l’éthique militaire ? / This work examines the ethical impact of replacing human beings with robots, especially in the military context. It focuses on existing military robots and on programmes contributing to their autonomy until 2015. Increasing autonomy of robots signs the possible replacement of the human being; the moral behaviour of the machines replacing the moral action of man is therefore an issue. Can the robot be a moral agent? Can one create an artificial moral agent? What are the technical, algorithmic, legal and ethical constraints that such achievement would face, especially in the military environment? Robotics are a reality having already an impact on the political and military world, as illustrated by the use of unmanned air vehicles. What might be the effects of greater autonomy of robots in obtaining victory and towards military ethics? The innovative aspect should not obliterate the challenges facing soldiers as well as robots. If no one is infallible, what can one conclude about the project of creating moral robots, and what kind of future can we look for in view of friendly robotics respecting military ethics?

Interpersonal sensitivity is a foundational component of interpersonal relationships. It encompasses an individual's self-concept and self-identity, which are formed as the individual develops. An individual's self-concept develops from the norms and mores of his or her society. Soldiers in the U.S. Army have been trained to form a repurposed self to engage in combat and work in combat-focused jobs. The consequence of this training in many cases has been diminished interpersonal sensitivity that has been detrimental to their interpersonal relationships. The Soldier 360° course is a comprehensive treatment program that takes a holistic approach to providing soldiers with self-empowering tools designed to create healing and wellness from the inside out for the individual and for his or her relationships. Deidentified data obtained from Soldier 360° participant scores on the Symptoms Checklist-90-Revised and the Quality of Life Inventory were measured using repeated-measures analysis of variance to examine the effect, if any, of the Soldier 360° program on soldiers' interpersonal sensitivity and overall quality of life. Furthermore, changes based on marital status, parental status, and gender were examined. The findings of this quantitative analysis indicated that there is improvement in the interpersonal sensitivity of participants in the Soldier 360° program; however, no significant effect was found in the categorical examinations. This research contributes to positive social change by expanding knowledge researchers, practitioners, and soldiers themselves can use to help soldiers reclaim their lives, maintain successful relationships, and reduce incidence of suicide.

Microaerobic fermentation (MF) is a process of controlled degradation of organic waste material that occurs in enclosed fermentors under micro-aerobic conditions at near-room temperature. MF processing of vegetal materials progresses to endpoints in about 2-5 weeks. During MF processing, an acidic leachate rich in organic acids and alcohols is produced. The research presented in this thesis focuses on the efficiency of MF pre-processing of feedstock containing fibrous lignocellulosic (FLC) materials; efficiency of microbial and insect larvae-based treatments of MF leachate; tolerance of the Black Soldier fly larvae (BSFL) to various biological inhibitors common in leachate; and effectiveness of using MF and BSFL solid and liquid processing products as agricultural fertilizers. Results indicate that MF is unsuitable for pre-processing of FLC materials. Enhanced MF leachate treatment may increase efficiency of FLC processing though. Leachate can be efficiently treated using BSFL which decrease overall leachate toxicity. BSFL are able to tolerate increased levels of many of the biological inhibitors within the leachate including ethanol, acetate, pH extremes and temperature. MF solid residues increased corn plant growth when amended into soil, but residues resulting from BSFL processing of solid organics stunted corn plant growth. Short-term phytotoxicity of MF leachate was eliminated by diluting it 10 - 10,000 times or through BSFL processing. It can be concluded that MF processing of organics is beneficial for producing solid soil amendments from non-FLC materials and that dilution or BSFL treatment of MF leachate leads to a beneficial liquid fertilizer.

This study develops theorems which generalize or improve the existing predictive dynamics method and implements them to simulate several motion tasks of a human model. Specifically, the problem of determination of contact forces (non-adhesive) between the environment and the digital human model is addressed. Determination of accurate contact forces is used in the calculation of joint torques and is important to account for human strength limitations in simulation of various tasks. It is shown that calculation of the contact forces based on the distance of the contact areas from the Zero Moment Point (ZMP) leads to unrealistic values for some of the forces. This is the approach that has been used in the past. In this work, necessary and sufficient constraints for modeling the non-adhesiveness of a contact area are presented through the definition of NCM (Normal Contact Moment) concepts. NCM point, constraints and stability margins are the new theoretical concepts introduced. When there is only one contact area between the body and the environment, the ZMP and the NCM point coincide. In this case, the contact forces and moments are deterministic. When there are more than one contact areas, the contact forces and moments are indeterminate. In this case, an optimization problem is defined based on the NCM constraints where contact forces and moments are treated as the unknown design variables. Here, kinematics of the motion is assumed to be known. It is shown that this approach leads to more realistic values for the contact forces and moments for a human motion task as opposed to the ZMP based approach. The proposed approach appears to be quite promising and needs to be fully integrated into the predictive dynamics approach of human motion simulation. Some other insights are obtained for the predictive dynamics approach of human motion simulation. For example, it is mathematically proved and also validated that there is a need for an individual constraint to ensure that the normal component of the resultant global forces remains compressive for non-adhesive contacts between the body and the environment. Also, the ZMP constraints and stability margins are applicable for the problems where all the contacts between the environment and the body are in one plane; however, the NCM constraints and stability margins are applicable for all types of arbitrary contacts between the body and the environment. The ZMP and NCM methods are used to model the motion of a human (soldier) performing several military tasks: Aiming, Kneeling, Going Prone and Aiming in Prone Position. New collision avoidance theorems are also presented and used in these simulations.

This study was begun in June 1935, and continued up to and including the fall of 1937. The work was carried out at the Davis county Experiment Farm at Farmington, Utah, with some survey work also having been done in the central and northern parts of the state. This work was made possible through the cooperation of the Entomological and Horticultural Departments of the Utah Agricultural Experiment Station. The green soldier bug, Acrosternum hilaris (Say), is also called the green stinkbug. Thomas Say was the first to describe this insect as belonging to the genus Pentatoma, but in some publications one may find it also listed under genera Nezara and Raphigaster. This insect is a native of this country and was first described in 1831. It is one of the serious insect pests of orchard fruit in Utah, and this study was undertaken for the purpose of learning the life history and feeding habits of the insect in this state.

The main problem investigated is how successful Australia???s citizen soldiers would have been in fulfilling either their anti-invasion or their anti-raid roles between 1919 and 1939. The organization, command, training, equipment, social composition, recruitment and retention of Australia???s citizen soldiers are examined in an effort to discover the solution to this problem. The conclusion reached is that Australia???s citizen soldiers could not have fulfilled their roles, the nature of which was widely debated by British and Australian defence planners because of their differing threat perceptions. Inter-Service rivalry over money also encouraged this debate. Basically, the A.M.F. did not have the equipment and trained troops to enable it to concentrate in time to repel a Japanese raid or invasion. Motor vehicles could have provided this mobility but their expense was prohibitive. However, in other respects the Military Board failed to make the best use of its resources. Slight changes in organization and the command structure might have made the C.M.F., once concentrated, more efficient and better able to fight the Japanese. More attention paid to ensuring that training was imaginative and interesting then might have led to higher retention rates, thereby eliminating the expensive and wasteful requirement for constant recruiting campaigns

<p>Uppsatsen syftar till att försöka belysa vissa av de krav som ställs på svenska soldater och officerare som idag tjänstgör i utlandsstyrkan och hur deras utbildning möter de krav de ställs inför. Jag har undersökt vad doktrinen säger om hur försvarsmakten ska lösa sina uppgifter utomlands och vilken inriktning soldatutbildningen ska ha. Jag har sedan försökt arbeta mig nedåt i kedjan genom att undersöka kursbeskrivningar för officersutbildningen vid Markstridsskolan, jag har undersökt utbildningsdirektiv för soldater vid stridande förband för att till sist intervjuat en officer med lång erfarenhet av förbandstjänst. Jag har sedan skapat en kravlista som endast är exempel på de krav som kan ställas på svenskasoldater utomlands idag. Kravlistan skapades genom att studera litteratur som avhandlaroperationer liknande de fredsoperationer svenska försvarsmakten deltar i idag, samt litteratur som avhandlar de psykiska och fysiska reaktioner soldaten utsätts för när denne utsätts för stress iframför allt stridssituationer. Försvarsmakten utbildar idag sina soldater och officerare i väpnad strid vilket möter de flesta av de krav som ställs. Att skapa en säkerhet hos soldaten och officeren i sina befattningar och förbandskapar det många effekter som bidrar till att soldaten och officeren klarar av de situationer dessa kan ställas inför utomlands.</p> / <p><p>This paper attempts to highlight some of the demands placed on the Swedish soldiers and officers serving abroad today and how their training meets the demands they face. I have investigated what the doctrine says about how the armed forces should solve their tasks abroad and how we should train soldiers. I have then tried to work my way down the chain by examining the training guidelines for officers and soldiers and finally interviewed an officer with long experience of training soldiers. I have then created a list of requirements that are only examples of requirements imposed on theSwedish soldiers abroad today. The list of requirements was created by studying literature that deals with operations like the peacekeeping operations the Swedish armed forces are involved intoday, and literature that deals with the psychological and physical reactions when exposed to stress, particularly in combat situations. The armed forces is training its solider and officers in high intensity warfighting wich meets most of the demands. To create a self confidence within the soldier and officer in their function and units, it creates many effects that contribute to the ability to face situations abroad.</p></p>

Uppsatsen syftar till att försöka belysa vissa av de krav som ställs på svenska soldater och officerare som idag tjänstgör i utlandsstyrkan och hur deras utbildning möter de krav de ställs inför. Jag har undersökt vad doktrinen säger om hur försvarsmakten ska lösa sina uppgifter utomlands och vilken inriktning soldatutbildningen ska ha. Jag har sedan försökt arbeta mig nedåt i kedjan genom att undersöka kursbeskrivningar för officersutbildningen vid Markstridsskolan, jag har undersökt utbildningsdirektiv för soldater vid stridande förband för att till sist intervjuat en officer med lång erfarenhet av förbandstjänst. Jag har sedan skapat en kravlista som endast är exempel på de krav som kan ställas på svenskasoldater utomlands idag. Kravlistan skapades genom att studera litteratur som avhandlaroperationer liknande de fredsoperationer svenska försvarsmakten deltar i idag, samt litteratur som avhandlar de psykiska och fysiska reaktioner soldaten utsätts för när denne utsätts för stress iframför allt stridssituationer. Försvarsmakten utbildar idag sina soldater och officerare i väpnad strid vilket möter de flesta av de krav som ställs. Att skapa en säkerhet hos soldaten och officeren i sina befattningar och förbandskapar det många effekter som bidrar till att soldaten och officeren klarar av de situationer dessa kan ställas inför utomlands. / This paper attempts to highlight some of the demands placed on the Swedish soldiers and officers serving abroad today and how their training meets the demands they face. I have investigated what the doctrine says about how the armed forces should solve their tasks abroad and how we should train soldiers. I have then tried to work my way down the chain by examining the training guidelines for officers and soldiers and finally interviewed an officer with long experience of training soldiers. I have then created a list of requirements that are only examples of requirements imposed on theSwedish soldiers abroad today. The list of requirements was created by studying literature that deals with operations like the peacekeeping operations the Swedish armed forces are involved intoday, and literature that deals with the psychological and physical reactions when exposed to stress, particularly in combat situations. The armed forces is training its solider and officers in high intensity warfighting wich meets most of the demands. To create a self confidence within the soldier and officer in their function and units, it creates many effects that contribute to the ability to face situations abroad.