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The Carpathians and other mountainous regions around the world are renowned for their specific landscapes shaped by pastoralism, a millennia-old traditional and sustainable economic system. In Romania, this traditional occupation has an established place within the Romanian culture. In an environment where large predators are present, the livestock owners and shepherds have traditionally relied, and still do, on livestock guardian dogs (LGDs) to protect the flock against carnivores or theft, therefore, the dogs are perceived as an integral component of the traditional pastoral system. However, from late April until the end of September, many outdoor recreational activities like hiking, mountain trail running, or biking overlap with the pastoral calendar, creating a potential for conflict between two, very different categories of landscape users, with recurring incidents happening over the years. In this study, a winter GPS monitoring campaign was proposed, between November 2023 and January 2024 that used GPS professional collars to track the movements of two livestock guardian dogs stationed at two sheepfolds located at their winter bases in the hills at the foot of Ignis Mountains (part of the Romanian northern Carpathians) from northwestern Maramureș Land, Romania. The campaign generated point-based spatiotemporal data processed and analyzed in M. Excel and QGIS using Kernel density estimation as the main method to generate metrics and identify potential clusters of LGD activity in their usual environment. The results highlight high observational clusters near the winter folds but also lower observational clusters in areas situated hundreds of meters distance around the main compound, in certain locations. Although temporally limited, the results have the potential to help the understanding of the animal's preferred zone of habitation and substantiate future win-win cohabitation solutions that minimize conflictual encounters between the shepherds and their guardian dogs on one side, as primary land users, and outdoor recreationists as other landscape users.

The rapid urbanization in China has exacerbated the conflicts among production space, living space, and ecological space (PLES). Balancing economic development with ecological protection on limited land resources presents a pivotal challenge in the urbanization process. Mountainous urban agglomerations, with their complex terrain and limited development space, intensify PLES conflicts. Exploring potential PLES conflicts in these areas is crucial for optimizing spatial layout, coordinating human-land relationships, and promoting high-quality regional development. It is also a significant and challenging area in current research. Using the Central Yunnan Urban Agglomeration (CYUA) as a case study, this study integrated grid and administrative scales, incorporating human-oriented factors. A comprehensive evaluation system for mountain urban agglomerations, including suitability evaluation and spatial carrying capacity assessment, had been established. The conflict recognition matrix was used to identify potential PLES conflicts within the urban agglomeration. The results indicated that the PLES in the CYUA predominantly exhibited moderate levels of suitability. Production space suitability was higher in the southeast and lower in the northwest, living space suitability displayed a distinct strip-like distribution. Ecological space suitability was concentrated in the northeast and northwest, with lower suitability observed in the south. Apart from lake areas, approximately 71.92% of land in the CYUA faced potential conflicts regarding land use, primarily general spatial conflicts accounting for 49.79% of the total area. Intense conflict zones covered the smallest area, representing only 0.04% of the study area. The occurrence of potential spatial conflicts in this region was heavily influenced by both natural environmental factors and human activities. Suitable land areas were notably concentrated in regions with high human activity levels, favorable natural environments, and single land use functions. Conflicts were particularly concentrated in transition zones between human production and living spaces and ecological areas. The findings of this study offer valuable insights for guiding urban planning and management strategies not only for the CYUA but also for other mountainous urban agglomerations facing similar challenges.

This study addresses potential conflicts during collaborative tasks among university undergraduate students and presents strategies to mitigate such conflicts at a university in South Africa. Drawing on the unique context of South Africa, characterised by its rich cultural diversity and historical challenges, Social Identity Theory (SIT) was used to theorise the study within a transformative paradigm, qualitative approach and participatory research design. Ten undergraduate students were sampled and interviewed. Thematic analysis was employed to make sense of the data. The study found that a lack of a culture of open dialogue and clear guidelines and expectations leads to conflict, and the study also found that promoting a culture of open dialogue and establishing clear guidelines and expectations during collaborative projects can help prevent potential conflicts among university undergraduate students during collaborative engagement. The study concludes that promoting a culture of open dialogue and fostering establishing clear guidelines and expectations provide undergraduate students with the tools to manage group conflicts.

The article studies the state of the ethno-national sphere in modern Russia, which is characterized by the growth of ethnic self-awareness of various social groups. This growth often acquires distorted forms and often leads to the emergence of ethnocentrism, chauvinism, radical nationalism. The negative role of radical nationalism, which seeks to drastically and radically change the existing social and state institutions for benefit of distinct national communities, as a rule, to the prejudice of other ethnoses, is revealed. In these conditions a conflictogenic potential is being formed in a number of country’s regions.Particular attention is paid to the analysis of forming of latent interethnic tension, expressed in speculative readiness of a sufficiently large number of Russian citizens to take to spontaneous methods for resolving ethnic conflicts, including those of violent nature.The article reveals the way the migration processes aggravate ethno-national relations in the country. Migration has a high conflict potential, having a negative impact on the social situation, expanding opportunities to activate extremist organizations and ethnic organized criminal groups, forming conditions for corruption, deforming the internal labor market, expanding the shadow economy, and worsening the crime rate. A negative consequence of large-scale migration is also the generation of mono-ethnic enclaves, which worsen the interethnic situation in the country.The results in the article show that ethno-national tension, various manifestations of radical nationalism, ethnic conflicts, ethnic crime and corruption always contain serious real and potential threats to national security at the local, regional and all-Russian levels. These threats require constant sociological monitoring, in-depth scientific analysis and timely response from the state and society.

Regional economic growth is determined by the potential of existing natural resources, including for fisheries and mining. The development of the two sectors also opens up potential for conflict with other sectors. The aim of the study is to determine the role of the sectors and the impact of economic growth to potential conflict in the research area. This research was conducted at Delta Mahakam Forest Production Management Unit (FPMU) and Sungai Beram Hitam Forest Protection Management Unit (FPMU) . Base sector approach was conducted to determine the superior sector by Location Quotient (LQ) using GDP variable. The results showed that at Delta Mahakam, mining sector was the dominant, and the second largest was fisheries with LQ ≥1. While at the Sungai Beram Hitam fisheries sector was the dominant sector, and the mining sector was non base since its value ≤1. Process of forest area utilization for mining in Jambi was done through leasing of forest lands, but not in East Kalimantan. Conflict resolution between mining and fisheries sector with community was done through compensation. FMU status and position can be enhanced by granting authority on the leasing of forest area for strategic sector development and national interests.

Turbo roundabouts are a particular road intersection layout, designed to increase the safety of double-lane roundabouts, while maintaining their excellent capacity. The main feature of this new concept of roundabout is the impossibility to move from one lane to another, provided by physical barriers marking the lanes. The paper shows an application to turbo roundabouts of a potential accident rate model, aiming to evaluate their safety improvement. The model is based on the concept of potential conflict: each vehicle involved in a general intersection performs a series of maneuvers which potentially imply a crash, according to the actual traffic. The number of accidents related to each critical maneuver is proportional to the number of times this maneuver occurs at the intersection. In order to define the critical maneuvers, and hence the relevant potential conflicts, specific crash typologies for roundabouts are adopted. Traffic volumes are required, to evaluate the expected number of accidents, and also probabilities of accident for every critical maneuver. These ratios were obtained by a model calibration, based on actual accident and traffic data recorded on conventional single and double-lane roundabouts. The model was then used to compare four-leg turbo roundabouts to conventional roundabouts. The comparisons have taken into account only basic differences in layout, such as geometric elements, that also play a role in determining safety performances of a roundabout. The results obtained show that turbo roundabouts significantly decrease the accident rate with respect to conventional roundabouts, by eliminating conflicts between circulating and exiting vehicles.