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Although there have been few attempts to systematically analyze information on the use of deterrents on polar bears (Ursus maritimus), understanding their effectiveness in mitigating human‐polar bear conflicts is critical to ensuring both human safety and polar bear conservation. To fill this knowledge gap, we analyzed 19 incidents involving the use of bear spray on free‐ranging polar bears from 1986 to 2019 in Canada, Russia, and the United States to evaluate the effectiveness of bear spray as a polar bear deterrent. We found that bear spray was an effective deterrent in close‐range encounters with polar bears, stopping undesirable behavior in 18 of 19 incidents. Bear spray effectively deterred both curious and aggressive polar bears, including polar bears attempting to attack people. The mean distance between user and bear at the time of spraying was 2 m (min–max = 0.2–10.0 m, mode = 1 m), though bears were usually first seen at greater distances. Bear spray was successfully deployed against polar bears in all 4 seasons. Wind affected spray performance in 1 of 19 of incidents. In 8 of 14 bear spray incidents, other deterrents were used without success before bear spray was used effectively to deter polar bears. No humans or polar bears were killed or injured in any of the incidents in which bear spray was used. We also analyzed 54 polar bear attacks and attempted attacks on humans where bear spray was not carried. The data suggest that in 93% of those incidents, the use of bear spray might have saved the lives of both the people and bears involved if it had been available and used. Our analysis improves our understanding of the effectiveness of bear spray for polar bear conflict mitigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on an ethnographic survey of the 26th Conference of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, this article analyses the ways in which youth participate in climate negotiations. We show how youth actors are characterised by diverse modes of engagement, and particular sociodemographic anchors. Presenting themselves as the voice of youth worldwide, youth actors have gradually constructed their “youth” identity. They commonly show a strong ambition on climate issues, but at the same time, they recognize their relative inexperience in negotiations, resulting in the reinforcement of their marginalisation. While some interactions exist between young activists and institutionalised youth, their precarious positions produce tensions. To make themselves heard, the institutionalised youth invest massively in education and inclusion issues, at the expense of strong positions on other issues. Disappointed with the process, youth activists favour more radical critiques of the current economic system and the modalities of the negotiations. Despite the tensions, young people, atypical actors in international negotiations, collaborate by creating new political dynamics in international climate politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on households' income, jobs, and food security have continued despite perceptible reductions in transmission and lifting of restrictive policy measures in several countries. To assess these effects on Nigerian households, we collected household data in the initial three months after the outbreak of the pandemic (July 2020). To track the changes since the first survey, we conducted a follow-up phone survey with the same households a year later (July 2021). We undertook a comparative analysis between the two surveys focusing on key variables such as income loss, job loss, food security, and dietary diversity. The study also investigated how changes in income, wealth/endowments, social capital, safety net programs, and recurrent conflicts affected the severity of food insecurity amid the pandemic. We found that both income and jobs have rebounded significantly (by 50 percentage points) compared to the baseline results. In terms of food insecurity, households with "severely food insecure" situations dropped from 73 percent in the first survey to 65 percent in the follow-up survey. We also found a 5-percentage point improvement in the household dietary diversity scale in the follow-up survey. However, households reported an increase of more than 70 percent in conflicts or insecurity threats amid the pandemic. This affected farm investment decisions in 44 percent of smallholder farmers surveyed. While income loss significantly worsened households' food insecurity; livestock ownership and social capital cushioned households from falling into a more severe food insecurity situation. However, safety net programs provided by the government and NGOs did not significantly protect households from falling into severe food insecurity amid the pandemic. We suggest four policy propositions: prioritize investment in job creation to curb income loss; enable households to build their wealth base (e.g., land tenure security or livestock) to enhance resilience to shocks; revisit targeting approaches of safety net programs to enhance effectiveness of such programs; and finally, devise and implement conflict resolutions to induce investment and enhance productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of IUS ET VERITAS is the property of Asociación IUS ET VERITAS and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of IUS ET VERITAS is the property of Asociación IUS ET VERITAS and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

ABSTRACT Understanding causes of polar bear ( Ursus maritimus) attacks on humans is critical to ensuring both human safety and polar bear conservation. Although considerable attention has been focused on understanding black ( U. americanus) and grizzly ( U. arctos) bear conflicts with humans, there have been few attempts to systematically collect, analyze, and interpret available information on human-polar bear conflicts across their range. To help fill this knowledge gap, a database was developed (Polar Bear-Human Information Management System [PBHIMS]) to facilitate the range-wide collection and analysis of human-polar bear conflict data. We populated the PBHIMS with data collected throughout the polar bear range, analyzed polar bear attacks on people, and found that reported attacks have been extremely rare. From 1870-2014, we documented 73 attacks by wild polar bears, distributed among the 5 polar bear Range States (Canada, Greenland, Norway, Russia, and United States), which resulted in 20 human fatalities and 63 human injuries. We found that nutritionally stressed adult male polar bears were the most likely to pose threats to human safety. Attacks by adult females were rare, and most were attributed to defense of cubs. We judged that bears acted as a predator in most attacks, and that nearly all attacks involved ≤2 people. Increased concern for both human and bear safety is warranted in light of predictions of increased numbers of nutritionally stressed bears spending longer amounts of time on land near people because of the loss of their sea ice habitat. Improved conflict investigation is needed to collect accurate and relevant data and communicate accurate bear safety messages and mitigation strategies to the public. With better information, people can take proactive measures in polar bear habitat to ensure their safety and prevent conflicts with polar bears. This work represents an important first step towards improving our understanding of factors influencing human-polar bear conflicts. Continued collection and analysis of range-wide data on interactions and conflicts will help increase human safety and ensure the conservation of polar bears for future generations. © 2017 The Wildlife Society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Mexicana de Politica Exterior is the property of Instituto Matias Romero de Estudios Diplomaticos and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article discusses the issues that lawyers must consider before wading into an intracorporate dispute among the stakeholders of a closely held entity. Topics covered include the substantial overlap between management and owners, the American Bar Association (ABA) Model Rules of Professional Conduct, and the entity representation approach to questions concerning an attorney's representation of an organization.

The author reflects on malpractice claims against litigators and how lawyers can mitigate their risks for such claims. She discusses malpractice claims based on the failure of the litigator to manage client expectations from fee disputes and the success or failure of a chosen strategy to unfavorable rulings. Means for litigators to mitigate their risk of malpractice claims from selective client intake, using conflict analysis, and performing an initial evaluation of a case are also mentioned.

Recovery from the Great Recession has been fraught with problems. The recovery has not been behaving like the aftermath of a typical cyclical recession, and this is because we are instead in the midst of an ongoing debt crisis. Debt crises are different, both economically and politically. Politically, debt crises lead to conflict over how the burden of adjustment will be distributed. And this conflict can seriously delay measures to alleviate the impact of the crisis - making everyone involved worse off. Theory and history suggest a variety of factors that make this sort of counter-productive conflict and delay more likely ; and they also suggest possible ways to reduce both the conflict and the social cost of its consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conflicts of Interest in Biomedical Research. Clinical Trials in Low and Middle Income Countries: A Reflection on the Issues. The Closure of the National Bio-bank in Singapore. Draining the Goodwill of Science: The Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Testing Industry in East Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the study of the terms "conflict", "problem", "solution" and "resolution" appearing on headlines of several Spanish and Latinoamerican newspapers. Specifically, we studied 334 headlines, published between August 10th and November 15th, 2009, in Spanish and American papers, corresponding to the eight dialectal areas considered by Real Academia Española for Diccionario panhispánico de dudas and the Nueva gramática de la lengua española. Our research has a double aim: firstly, to classify the conflicts (or problems) that these headlines show, in order to analyse which are the phenomena named (from a journalistic point of view), with these terms. And, secondly, to study the syntactic-semantic relations that those four terms establish with their immediate cotext, framed by the headline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tries to evaluate the contributions of the theoretical researches of the "new political economy" and the "international political economy" in the field of European integration. The former starts from the principle of individual rationality assuming as exogenous the identities and the preferences of agents; the latter analyses the institutional and collective dynamics, in particular the interstate conflicts and compromises or the constructivist power of institutions over the identities and preferences of the agents. The article shows why and how the two political economics must be taken together, in particular to analyze three topics: the institutional products; the organization of powers; the fiscal and social competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a report on statistical rating organizations in the U.S. published by the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission. Topics discussed include the 2006 Credit Rating Agency Reform Act, the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act and review of competition, transparency, and conflicts of interest of credit rating agencies including Standard & Poor's (S&P), Moody's and Fitch.

The article offers financial industry news briefs as of 2006 on topics including Merrill Lynch settling litigation filed by Enron, M&T acquiring Citigroup branches, and Bank of Japan seeking new investment rules.

The article reports on alternative investments of investment firm Goldman Sachs Group Inc., as of 2007. It mentions about the documentation of Global Alpha fund by the firm and how Lloyd Blankfein, firm's chief executive officer (CEO), will prevent risks of securities redemptions. Also mentions that the firm's 600 million dollars North American Equity Opportunities fund has lost 15 percent in 2007.

The article reports that a former vice-chairman of the Nasdaq Stock Market and nine Wall Street financial district veterans in New York City have launched the National Research Exchange (NRE), which aims to legitimize paid-for research, as of 2005. It mentions that NRE will match companies which are seeking coverage with appropriate analysts. It also mentions that NRE will not allow direct negotiations between the research firm and the matched firm.

The article focuses on financial risks associated with New York Stock Exchange's (NYSE) plans concerning a deal with electronic U.S. stock exchange Archipelago Holdings. It states the impact of speculations that arises from conflicts concerning the deal on the value of a seat in NYSE which fetched 2.9 million dollars in a latest sale of stocks as of the year 2005.

The article reports that financial services company Merrill Lynch & Co. executives have declined investment banking deals due to the company's lending relationship with some of the involved firms in 2014.

The article reports that some junior Goldman Sachs investment bankers were talking about conflicts in the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE)-Archipelago deal.

The article reports that financial analysts are in support of investment banking company Goldman Sachs Group Inc. A report in the periodical "Forbes" reveals that just one out of the 32 sell-side analysts would recommend selling stocks of the company. It highlights that a Zacks Investment Research Inc.'s analyst recommends sale as legal liability of the company is increasing.

The article reports that courts in Delaware are going to be more active in resolving conflicts in many private equity deals.

The article reports that Veronis Suhler Stevenson, a media industry investment bank in the U.S. is planning to close its investment banking business in the next six months in 2006 and will focus on leverage buyouts. It informs that other investment banks have made similar move as that of the bank to avoid potential conflicts with their clients.

The article offers information on the involvement of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in hedge fund cases and also mentions about the role of agent Patrick Carroll of FBI in urging accountants to look for possible conflicts and avioding disregarding of people who want to discourage.

The article reports on the dismissal of the New York Stock Exchange's (NYSE) motion to dismiss the suit of two NYSE members William Higgins and William Caldwell, in a U.S. court, as of April 2014. The topics discussed include the merger of NYSE and electronic trading firm Archipelago, conflicts faced by financial services firm Goldman Sachs.

The article reflects on scandals related to auction rate securities market in the financial services firm UBS AG. Topics discussed include conflicts between the bank's underwriters and auction managers, forced securities trading to retail investors by the firm and marketing auction rate securities as safe cash-equivalents. Also mentions the impact of the fraud on client relationship.

The article offers information on the private equity operations of financial institutions in Wall Street, New York City to compete with the investment company Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.

The article informs that financial services provider Fortune has a look at the deal for energy company Kinder Morgan and mentions that it was the second largest deal in history when the 13.5 billion dollars deal was announced about a year ago.

The article focuses on the role of Lloyd Blankfein, chief executive officer (CEO) of the investment bank Goldman Sachs, in making the company successful.

The article focuses on the impact of high interest rates in small cities in the U.S. Topics discussed include small cities lured for low interest rates, risky futures of homeowners plunged into mortgages and marketing efforts of financial firm Morgan Keegan in building of small-town sales. Other topics discussed include role of advisor and banker and confidant in creating a regulatory response.

The article offers information on issues related to consultants advising institutions on where to invest and whether they should receive fees from money managers in the industry and also presents a survey by financial researcher Greenwich Associates, related to endowments for consulting firm.

The article reports on the discovery by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) and the New York Stock Exchange that stock research is improving.

The article informs that U.S. district judge Ed Kinkeade while deciding the case Galderma Laboratories, LP v. Actavis Mid Atlantic LLC, enforced a conflict waiver and denied a client's motion to disqualify law firm Vinson & Elkins from representing its adversary in a patent-infringement action.