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The pulp and paper industry is in active development in the northern regions. The ecosystems of northern rivers are less capable of biological self-rinsing and are more sensitive to anthropogenic pollution. Assessment of the pollution of waterbodies is important in order to control the conservation of their bioresources. This article provides a literature review that illustrates the main impacts of wastewater of the pulp and paper industry on aquatic ecosystems. It will be useful for specialists working with monitoring systems. This paper discusses examples of the impact of wastewater of the pulp and paper industry on aquatic organisms at different levels of organization, from the molecular to the ecosystem levels. The review describes the responses of aquatic zoocenoses (zooplankton and zoobenthos) to pollution and the effects of specific substances that enter waterbodies from the effluents of the pulp and paper industry. The paper analyzes information about the transformation of bottom sediments of rivers and lakes in the wastewater zone. An overview of data is given, and the impact of thermal pollution is evaluated. This type of pollution often characterizes industrial wastewater. One of the large rivers in the European part of Russia is the Vychegda River. The rivers in its basin are important in the Komi Republic. Therefore, monitoring of the condition of the communities of aquatic organisms that inhabit it is an urgent task. This paper presents the results of hydrobiological observations carried out on the Vychegda River in the 1980s. At that time, changes in the communities of aquatic organisms in the area of pulp and paper industry were observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Like most northern rivers, the Vychegda River, the second largest water system in the Komi Republic and the main tributary of the Northern Dvina River, has experienced an intense anthropogenic load. Agricultural, domestic, and, to a greater extent, industrial wastewaters are currently the main polluting sources of river waters. Among the numerous enterprises operating here is Mondi Syktyvkar JSC, the largest pulp and paper enterprise in Russia, which is located on the Vychegda River banks. The composition and structure of the zooplankton communities were studied in the Vychegda River area, where the effect of wastewaters from the pulp and paper plant is observed. The aim of the research is to determine whether there is a negative impact of the conditionally treated wastewaters on the aquatic biota. As a result, a rich species composition and the quantitative development of zooplankton communities were established for the studied river area. Rotifera was the dominant group on the species richness, abundance, and biomass. This is a characteristic feature of zooplankton communities in the watercourse as a whole. The indicator species of waters with a high level of pollution were registered both at points located in the area of wastewater influence and on the background river plots. Species that are not typical to the natural waters of the river were found at points of wastewater discharge. The dominant complexes are represented by 9–15 or more species. Their composition differs in background, wastewater and downstream points. According to the state of zooplankton communities, the river waters in the studied area are conditionally clean, except for points located downstream of the wastewater discharge, where they are qualified as eutrophic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The results are presented for a study of summer phytoplankton (July 2018–2020) in the middle reaches of the Vychegda River at the sites where treated wastewater is discharged from the Mondi Syktyvkar JSC pulp and paper mill. In the phytoplankton of the studied section of the river, 263 species with algal varieties from seven divisions were identified: Cyanoptokaryota, 8; Ochrophyta, 4; Rhodophyta 1; Euglenophyta, 1; Bacillariophyta, 232; Chlorophyta, 15; Charophyta, 2. Widespread, eurytopic species predominate in terms of diversity. In 3 years of research, phytoplankton species communities have demonstrated stability of the complex of dominant and structural diversity. The basis of the dominant complexes is formed by species from the genera Aulacoseira, Dolichospermum, Pandorina, Eudorina, Closterium, etc. The composition of dominants is similar for conditionally background points and the zone of wastewater discharge. A massive development of the thermophilic species of diatom Diadesmisconfervacea, an indicator of thermal pollution, was noted below the wastewater-discharge site. The total recorded number of phytoplankton in the Vychegda river at the studied stations was 1 150 000–18 000 000 cells/dm3, and the biomass was 0.01–0.29 mg/dm3. The ratio of the total abundance and biomass of phytoplankton algae and the indicator species forming the complex of dominants reflect an increase in the trophic status of the waters of the surveyed areas and a high degree of anthropogenic load on the ecosystem of the Vychegda River. Based on algo-indication, the waters of the conditional background and the receiving wastewaters at observation points were assigned to quality class III (with the quality category 3b, slightly polluted). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the results of 3-year measurements (2018–2020) of hydrophysical and hydrochemical indicators of the Vychegda River in places where effluent is discharged from the Mondi Syktyvkar JSC pulp and paper mill. At conditionally background stations and those exposed to wastewater, the water mineralization, content of ions of Ca2+, Mg2+, Cl–, S , N , heavy metals, petroleum products, anionic surfactants, and benz(a)pyrene were recorded in concentrations significantly lower than the MPC (MPCFI), while suspended substances, COD, Р , Fe, and Mn were in excess of the MPCFI. Studies have shown that, in connection with the modernization of the treatment facilities of Mondi Syktyvkar JSC, there has been a noticeable improvement in the wastewater quality; the environmental load on the ecosystem of the Vychegda River at discharge points decreased. No significant excess over conditionally background values was detected at a high water level in the Vychegda River (2018–2019) for all studied hydrochemical indicators at the points of effluent discharge. Degradation of the water quality was recorded during the low-water period (2020), i.e., a decrease in the degree of dilution of effluent from treatment facilities by river waters. During this period, the wastewater-discharge points exhibited a significant excess over the conditionally background values of mass concentrations of suspended substances, Cl–, S , Р , N , Stot, K, Na, and phenol, as well as the chemical oxygen demand, permanganate value, turbidity, and electrical conductivity. In terms of environmental, sanitary, and toxicological indicators, the waters of all surveyed observation stations were assigned to a water-quality class 3 of (satisfactory purity). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents the results of a study of the species diversity and individual developmental stability of common fish species from the Vychegda River in the discharge area of treated wastewater from one of the largest forestry industries in the European, northeastern area of Russia. In 2018–2020, the European perch, roach, and bleak prevailed in the catches of a standard set of nets with a mesh size of 10 to 60 mm in the littoral zone of the monitoring sites. These species are widespread representatives of the ichthyofauna in the Vychegda River basin. White-eye bream, asp, and pike-perch were also registered; their recent appearance became possible due to the construction of canals connecting the Northern Dvina River basin with other river systems. Indicators of species diversity (the number of species, their relative abundance, and Shannon index) in areas adjacent to local timber plots were similar to those observed at monitoring sites. The integral index for the assessment of individual development, which is based on fluctuating asymmetry, indicated the absence of a negative effect on the formation of bilateral morphological structures in early ontogenesis in fish that lived both in the industrial area and in the conditionally background area. To clarify the results, an additional study should be carried out to identify physiological disorders or the accumulation of heavy metals or other pollutants in fish tissues and organs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The best way to understand the environmental status of a certain region involves thorough non-target analysis, which will result in a list of pollutants under concern. Arkhangelsk (64° 32′ N 40° 32′ E, pop. ~ 344,000) is the largest city in the world to the north of the 60th parallel. Several industrial enterprises and the "cold finger" effect represent the major sources of air contamination in the city. Analysis of snow with comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography–high-resolution mass spectrometry allows detecting and quantifying the most hazardous volatile and semivolatile anthropogenic pollutants and estimating long-term air pollution. Target analysis, suspect screening, and non-target analysis of snow samples collected from ten sites within the city revealed the presence of several hundreds of organic compounds including 18 species from the US EPA list of priority pollutants. Fortunately, the levels of these compounds appeared to be much lower than the safe levels established in Russia. Phenol and dioctylphthalate could be considered as the pollutants of concern because their levels were about 20% of the safe thresholds. ChromaTOF® Tile, MetaboAnalyst software platform, and open-source software protocols were applied to process the obtained data. The obtained clusterization results of the samples were generally similar for various tools; however, each of them had certain peculiarities. Bis(2-ethylhexyl) hexanedioate, benzyl alcohol, phthalates, aniline, dinitrotoluenes, and fluoranthene showed the strongest influence on the clusterization of the studied samples. Possible sources of the major pollutants were proposed: car traffic and pulp and paper mills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review analyzes papers presented at the "Second International Kosygin Readings: Energy- and Resource-Efficient Environmentally Safe Technologies and Equipment," an International Scientific and Technical Symposium Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Kosygin State University of Russia, which was held as part of the International Kosygin Forum. These papers consider the fundamental principles of methods for intensifying basic processes in various industrial technologies, the scientific fundamentals of the development of energy- and resource-efficient chemical and other processes, innovative developments in this field, issues of the environmental safety of technological processes and equipment, effective systems for increasing technosphere safety, the theory and calculation of heat and mass transfer processes in technosphere protection systems, the issues of digitization as an intellectual and technological factor for increasing the energy and resource efficiency of chemical-manufacturing processes and plants, and the results of studies aimed at developing the theoretical fundamentals of energy- and resource-efficient industrial machinery and equipment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is rather easy to identify the leading universities in a country, there are different established methods and indicators of excellence. Generally, it is more challenging to find 'the second best' universities which have the potential to become leaders, 'the firsts'. In Russia, such an attempt has been made. The program of 'Pillar Universities' was realized in 2016–2020, in two stages. This paper analyzes the initial stage of the project and its outcomes. We aim to investigate how the program affected the output of the universities from the bibliometric point of view. The results, obtained by bibliometric methods, are encouraging. There is an increase in publication output above the Russia's average growth. Multidisciplinarity, domestic and international collaboration also increase. Those universities which had no papers in the top journals started publishing their research there. The overall effect of the 'pillar project' is found to be positive. Bibliometrics is widely used for assessing higher education institutions and is free from local peculiarities. This allows using the observations of this study in a broader context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New data on the concentration and spatial distribution of the benz(a)pyrene and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in bottom sediments in the testing area of the Baikal Pulp and Paper Plant (BPPP) waste water discharge in 1981-1988 and 2010 are presented in this paper. The bottom sediments in this section of the lake are strongly polluted with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Qualitative and quantitative analysis of the publication activity of chemical institutions of the Russian Academy of Sciences within the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation in the period 2015–2019 in the field of applied chemistry was performed. The Web of Science database was used as the information source. Analysis was performed using the Zerkalo (Mirror) intellectual system for analysis and prediction of the research activity, developed by the Lebedev Physical Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences. The most significant keywords that largely characterize promising directions in the field of applied chemistry were revealed. The publication effectiveness of research institutions was analyzed by the method of fractional counting with differentiation of contributions from articles. The localization analysis of publications was performed on the basis of the affiliation data indicated in the papers. It revealed stable international cooperation for one third of research teams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines Russia's propaganda discourse on Twitter during the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The study employs network analysis, natural language processing (NLP) techniques, and qualitative analysis to identify key communities and narratives associated with the prevalent and damaging narrative of "fascism/Nazism" in discussions related to the invasion. The paper implements a methodological pipeline to identify the main topics, and influential actors, as well as to examine the most impactful messages in spreading this disinformation narrative. Overall, this research contributes to the understanding of propaganda dissemination on social media platforms and provides insights into the narratives and communities involved in spreading disinformation during the invasion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract  China, Russia, and India are playing an increasingly important role in global nanotechnology research and development (R&D). This paper comparatively inspects the paper and patent publications by these three countries in the Thomson Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI) database and United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) database (1976–2007). Bibliographic, content map, and citation network analyses are used to evaluate country productivity, dominant research topics, and knowledge diffusion patterns. Significant and consistent growth in nanotechnology papers are noted in the three countries. Between 2000 and 2007, the average annual growth rate was 31.43% in China, 11.88% in Russia, and 33.51% in India. During the same time, the growth patterns were less consistent in patent publications: the corresponding average rates are 31.13, 10.41, and 5.96%. The three countries’ paper impact measured by the average number of citations has been lower than the world average. However, from 2000 to 2007, it experienced rapid increases of about 12.8 times in China, 8 times in India, and 1.6 times in Russia. The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), and the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) were the most productive institutions in paper publication, with 12,334, 6,773, and 1,831 papers, respectively. The three countries emphasized some common research topics such as “Quantum dots,” “Carbon nanotubes,” “Atomic force microscopy,” and “Scanning electron microscopy,” while Russia and India reported more research on nano-devices as compared with China. CAS, RAS, and IIT played key roles in the respective domestic knowledge diffusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Soft Computing technique is one of the essential problems solving techniques for the researchers present in the world. Compared to other issues solving techniques, the Soft Computing domain gives outstanding performance, so the researchers are concentrating the Soft Computing domain for solving problems. Soft Computing domain categorizes into many sub-domains, like Neural Networks, Machine Learning, and Genetic Algorithm. Through this paper, we considered to study the impact produced by the Institutions as well as authors in the domain of Soft Computing from the year 1999 to 2019 for PubMed database. From the overall study, we found that China has made more number of publications, author productivity, and influential authors. Some countries, like Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey, with minimum author productivity and minimum publications from the Asian continent in the Soft Computing-related domains. From the research, we determined that china dominates in terms of Institutions wise and Author productivity in the field of Soft Computing domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aimed to study land reforms in the Russian Federation from the abolition of serfdom to the present time. The research was carried out by analyzing land and urban planning regulatory and legal acts, territorial planning, and municipal land management schemes used in constituent entities of the Russian Federation. The conducted retrospective analysis of land reforms in Russia revealed weaknesses and strengths and outlined prospects for further development of land relations. The conducted study showed that land reforms in Russia have not reached a successful conclusion. It had negative effects on agriculture and food security of the country. The paper provides recommendations with regard to the regulatory and scientific-methodological basis for a new system of land ownership and land use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The CSR conference series is devoted to a broad range of topics of theoretical computer science, which is reflected in the selected papers. This article belongs to the Topical Collection: Special Issue on Computer Science Symposium in Russia (2019) Guest Editor: René van Bevern and Gregory Kucherov This special issue of Theory of Computing Systems consists of a selection of works originally presented at the 14th International Computer Science Symposium in Russia (CSR 2019), held on July 1-5, 2019 in Novosibirsk, Russian Federation. [Extracted from the article]

This study builds on the recent literature by investigating how various types of African stock markets responded to the Russia-Ukraine crisis (commonly referred to as the black-swan event). The empirical analysis used in this paper centred on event study analysis, a statistical technique used to measure the impact of a specific event. The findings show that the black-swan event had a significant negative impact on African stock markets (14/20), with stocks having a negative abnormal return on the event day, and out of this, nine stocks' abnormal returns are statistically significant. These include Safaricom Kenya, Commercial International Bank, Attijariwafa Bank, Morocco Casablanca Index, Egyptian Exchange 30, Nairobi All Share Index, AVI Equity, MCB Group Ltd, FTSE/JSE All Share, Delta Corp. Ltd, Stock Exchange of Mauritius, Tunisia Stock Exchange, Tanzania All Share Index, and Banque de Tunisie. Furthermore, the study discovers that African stock markets reacted heterogeneously to the impact of the crises, while some stocks were severely affected, some were minimally affected. The study concludes that African stock markets should build a resilient market capable of withstanding external shock and reducing the risk of contagion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is aimed at balancing the interests of business and society in the digital economy, to reduce the social risks of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The goal of this paper is to study the experience and prospects of the humanisation of AI through the improvement of the practice of corporate social responsibility in Russia. By the example of the experience of Russian regions in 2021, we use econometric modelling to prove that the digital regional economy has a large potential in the sphere of humanisation of AI. The potential for the humanisation of AI in the digital economy of Russian regions is determined by responsible innovations, responsible production and logistics, as well as responsible marketing and sales, which contribute to the implementation of SDGs 9–12. The theoretical significance of the paper lies in its presenting smart region as a socio-economic environment for the humanisation of AI. The scientific novelty of the paper lies in its offering a new—meso-level—view of the humanisation of AI. The advantages of the new view include, first, consideration of socio-economic conditions for the humanisation of AI in a region; second, the most precise identification and correct measuring of the consequences of humanisation of AI for the quality of life in a region. The practical significance of the research results consists in the fact that the new proposed approach to the humanisation of AI, which implies public administration of this process at the level of a region, allows accelerating the considered process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers the author's insights on the study by O. A. Anisimov and colleague on the estimates of climate change in the regions in Russia in the 20th and 21st century based on observation. The authors state that the objectives of the study was to improve the spatial averaging technique of meteorological variables. They mention that it centers on the comparison of estimates of regional changes in precipitation and temperature without clear formulated conclusions.

This article provides information on several papers presented at the VI Conference on the Dynamics and Thermal Conditions of Rivers, Reservoirs, and Coastal Zone of Seas which took place in Moscow, Russia on November 22 to 26, 2004. The trend in mathematical modeling of dynamics of currents in rivers and reservoirs was covered in the papers of E.S. Afanas'ev, B.I. Samolyubov and K.I. Zvezdun. The hydrological regime of reservoirs under different climatic conditions and their significance from the point of view of resource use were discussed in the papers of S.E. Bednarukand and I.L. Grigor'eva. The general report of V.N. Zyryanov outlined the following aspects of development in studying the dynamics of coastal zone of seas over the last years.

Presents abstracts of papers presented at the Summary Conference "Stem Cell Biology" in Moscow, Russia on January 28-29, 2004. "Heterogeneity of Population of Human Basal Keratinocytes in Culture. Stem and Progenitor Cells," by E.A. Vorotelyak; "Embryonic Stem Cells as a Model of Pluripotent Cell Differentiation," by O.F. Gordeeva; "Behavior and Differentiation of Neural Stem/Progenitor Human Cells After Transplantation in vivo: Role of Microenvironment," by O.V. Podgorny.

This paper is focused on study of the geomagnetic field variation response caused by a series of earthquakes with magnitudes of Mw = 7.5–7.8 in Turkey on February 6, 2023. The initial data include high-precision observations of the geomagnetic field with a one-second sampling rate recorded at magnetic observatories in Russia and neighboring countries from middle to high latitudes. The paper analyzes the morphology of the geomagnetic signal, its amplitude-frequency characteristics, pulses in the rate of change and delays of the geomagnetic field response to earthquakes with magnitudes Mw = 7–8 depending on the distance to the source. The results suggest that the geomagnetic effect is detected best in the rate of change recordings, reaching anomalous amplitudes of 10 nT/s. The signal delay ranges from 221 to 592 s depending on the magnetic field component and the distance to the epicenter, which is in the range from 765 to 2650 km for the selected observatories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many scholars have empirically tested the influence of geopolitical risk on economic activities and financial indicators. This paper attracts a new research strand by investigating the geopolitical risk determinants. More precisely, we examine if the international geopolitical risk of a selected group of countries spills over to Russia. Alternatively, it inspects if the geopolitical tension among nations is cointegrated. This group of countries includes the United States, Germany, China, and Ukraine. The current paper designed and computed an empirical model using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag model (ARDL) during the period 1993:01–2022:05. The results reveal that the international geopolitical risk of Russia is cointegrated with the other four nations. In the short run, the international geopolitical risk of the four nations spills over to Russia by increasing its international geopolitical risk. While in the long run, the same impacts persist. But the effect of the United States' geopolitical risk becomes statistically insignificant. The results also show that Germany has the largest effect on Russia's geopolitical risk in the long run. Moreover, the increase in oil prices overflows Russia by decreasing its international geopolitical risk. Thus, rival nations should reach a settlement to reduce the geopolitical tension. Otherwise, the world economic performance will deteriorate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a description of the Olenekian–Anisian sections in South Primorye, Far East Russia, containing reptile remains. The paper describes important ammonoid Flexoptychites cf. rifunus (Yabe et Shimizu), as well as Flexoptychites cf. compressus (Yabe et Shimizu), which are stratigraphically significant. New Anisian reptile remains were discovered from four stratigraphic levels in South Primorye: (1) the upper part of the middle Anisian Acrochordiceraskiparisovae Zone (Ichthyopterigia indet. A), (2) the middle part of the upper Anisian Flexoptychites cf. rifunus Beds (Reptilia indet. cf. Ichthyopterygia A), (3) the upper part of the upper Anisian Flexoptychites cf. rifunus Beds (Ichthyoterygia indet. B), and (4) the uppermost part of the upper Anisian Flexoptychites cf. rifunus Beds (Reptilia indet. cf. Ichthyopterygia B). The Anisian stage is marked by an abundance of medium- to large-sized ichthyopterygians and a comparatively limited number of gigantic forms, particularly in the eastern Panthalassic and western Tethyan provinces. Our recent discovery has unveiled the presence of medium- to large-sized reptiles, seemingly ichthyopterygians, in the western Panthalassic province during the late Anisian (Flexoptychites cf. rifunus Chrone). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effectiveness of the sanctions imposed by the European Union and the G7 on Russian oil and their impact on the Russian economy and the developments of the war in Ukraine. The main questions in the paper revolve around Moscow's strategies and policies to evade these oil sanctions and the extent to which they have mitigated the impact of the sanctions on Russia. The paper argues that oil sanctions were not able to inflict sufficient economic pain to push Russia to change its policy toward the war in Ukraine, where the Russian economy's dependence on European oil importers was not a crucial factor in the success of the sanctions. Additionally, the paper contends that the time factor was in Russia's favor, as delaying the oil sanctions allowed Russia time to prepare for the circumvention of sanctions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social work and religion are closely linked by historical ties and roots. In virtually the entire known world, social support for the needy was inspired by religious and spiritual ideas and dogmas. This did not pass for the Russian state in different periods of its political structure, which has its own national specifics. The paper provides rationale for the continuity of community service as a manifestation of advanced Russian political and philosophical ideas of 19th − 20th centuries. The study showed a more than twofold increase in the number of volunteers in all community-based organizations over the analyzed period of 2012–2020. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the world. It showed the possibility of running economic activities remotely, allowing people to learn how to have a more balanced life. As a result, electronic commerce flourished, and it is here to stay. However, only time will tell whether people will shop more online or return to traditional brick-and-mortar shopping. With more people at home, prevented from going out to a cinema, or a theatre, the service industry was severely impacted until governments relieved the confinement measures so that their economies returned to pre-pandemic levels. Certainly that container shipping was the winner of all shipping market segments, given the increased number of finished goods to be carried. When all seemed to return to normalcy, the Russian–Ukraine crisis complicated the economic and political environment. Maritime transport was affected in the Black Sea, and only after many weeks of negotiation did the parties involved reach the Ukraine grain deal enabling Ukraine to transport millions of tonnes of food through the Black Sea despite the ongoing conflict. The number of sanctions against Russia increased, and many countries and regions were forced to look for alternative sources of oil, oil by-products and gas, this time benefiting the gas and tanker shipping markets with increasing freight rates. Apart from this, the maritime industry is still facing extraordinary challenges. Endeavours are being made to accelerate industry decarbonisation, digitalisation and operations optimisation. The quest for finding alternative fuels to power the world fleet is there. For now, LNG and methanol are the most promising alternatives, with the possible installation of carbon storage units to mitigate carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere. These events draw the industry to deal with the market, technology, and regulatory challenges and risks whose outcome is yet to be seen. With this background, seven papers presented at the 2022 World of Shipping Portugal Conference, An International Research Conference on Maritime Affairs, 27–28 January, that took place online via CiscoWebex due to the Covid-19 pandemic were selected to be published in this Special Issue. They open the scope for new research areas and address essential aspects that contribute to the efficiency of the overall maritime sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is shown that interdisciplinarity in soil science as a scientific area has been growing ever more rapidly in recent years, while the dissemination of related information over different scientific journals has become excessive and still continues to increase. In particular, the number of Russian journals publishing papers on soil science and represented in the eLIBRARY.ru database increased by more than six times in 14 years (2005–2018) and, by the moment of our study, comprised over 600 names of journals and other Russian-language publications. Since 1997, the segment of papers on soil research has finally shifted from the category of soil science to environmental sciences. The Russian array of publications of 1975–2018 on soil research is analyzed in terms of its positioning in the world. Currently, the number of papers on soil science is actively increasing both in Russia and worldwide. The highest growth rate in the Russian document flow in this scientific area was observed in 2016–2018. In the number of publications, Russian soil science is in a good position in the world. Citation analysis demonstrates an increase in the citation rate in the Web of Science Core Collection (WoS CC) and Scopus databases. Contrary to the widespread opinion on the preferential citation of papers, monographs are prevalently cited in the area of soil science in the eLIBRARY.ru. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The outbreak of the 2022 Russia-Ukraine conflict exacerbated the natural gas supply shortage in European countries. European countries restarted coal-fired power plants to maintain economic and social operations. The uneven distribution of coal resources in the world makes coal international trade inevitable. The intricate trade relations between trading countries have formed a coal trade network. When a country's coal exports are limited due to geopolitical factors, it will cause coal supply risks. The risk will spread to more countries along the trade network, eventually leading to the collapse of the trade network. This paper builds a crisis propagation model of the coal supply under the Russia-Ukraine conflict using the cascading failure model. The results showed that the Czech Republic, Ireland, Portugal, and Bulgaria become abnormal as the proportion of coal exports β increases. When the Russian Federation reduced its coal exports by 80% and countries maintained only 10% coal exports against crisis, 23 European countries were the worst. Iceland, Ireland, Turkey and other countries were spread by the indirect risk and became abnormal countries. The Czech Republic and Bulgaria were spread by multiple risk and became abnormal countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper brings together the late Freud's concept of the death drive and Dostoevsky's vision of primordial suffering in order to analyze anti-Ukrainian and pro-Ukrainian trends in today's Russia. The paper encourages embracing the suffering that the death drive entails, instead of escaping it through the narrative of Russia's 'greatness'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we analyze the worldwide perception of the Russia-Ukraine conflict (RU conflict for short) on the Twitter platform. The study involved collecting over 17 million tweets written in 63 different languages and conducting a multi-language sentiment analysis, as well as an analysis of their geographical distribution and verification of their temporal relationship to daily events. Additionally, the study focused on analyzing the accounts producing pro-conflict tweets to evaluate the possible presence of bots. The results of the analysis showed that the war had a significant global impact on Twitter, with the volume of tweets increasing as the war's threats materialized. There was a strong correlation between the succession of events, the volume of tweets, and the prevalence of a specific sentiment. Most tweets had a negative sentiment, while tweets with positive sentiment mainly contained support and hope for people directly involved in the conflict. Moreover, a bot detection analysis performed on the collected tweets revealed the presence of many accounts spreading tweets including pro-conflict hashtags that cannot be identified as real users. Overall, this study sheds light on the importance of social media in shaping public opinion during conflicts and highlights the need for reliable methods to detect bots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focusing on the Russia–Ukraine war, this paper investigates natural gas futures volatilities. Applying several hybrid GARCH and EGARCH models, which innovatively incorporate both fat-tailed distribution errors and structural breaks, we derive the following new evidence. First, our hybrid modeling approach is effective in timely capturing the natural gas futures volatility spike when tensions simmered on the Russia–Ukraine border. Second, the hybrid modeling approach is effective for not only GARCH modeling but also EGARCH modeling. Third, the volatility estimates from our hybrid models have predictive power for the volatilities of nonhybrid models. Fourth, the volatility estimates from the nonhybrid models lag behind the volatilities of our hybrid models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigated exchange rate and stock price volatility connectedness and spillover in Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS) during pandemic-induced crises. We first extracted volatility using the Generalized Auto-Regressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity (GARCH) model. Then volatility connectedness and spillover were investigated by using (Diebold and Yilmaz, International Journal of Forecasting, 28(1), 57–66, 2012) method. We find that exchange rate volatility and stock return volatilities are connected during pandemic-induced crises. The study also finds volatilities spillover among countries in the sample. Russia has strong volatility connectedness with India in these financial markets. The direction of volatility spillover is from Russia to India. Similarly, Brazil has strong volatility connectedness with South Africa and the direction volatility spillover is from Brazil to South Africa. Finally, China has a weak volatility connection with the remaining BRICS countries. Thus, the volatility transfer in these financial markets and across BRICS countries has economic implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid spread of freelancing as a form of employment requires the development of an optimal system of taxation of the self-employed population. When dealing with new types of commercial activities and the income received as a result of the implementation of such activities, the legislation often does not have time to adapt to new rapidly developing business areas. Moreover, legislative regulation often hinders the development of such areas and creates a lot of inconvenience for the subjects of their activities. This paper examines the level of satisfaction of freelancers with the new system of taxation and the tax rate for the self-employed workers in the Russian Federation. The issue is considered against the background of corresponding foreign practices. The research shows that most of the freelancers surveyed believe that the current tax rate is too high. Latter was introduced in 2021, under the special tax regime for the self-employed people. In order to avoid potential tax evasion, it is recommended to review the current approach to taxation and possibly reduce professional income tax. Also, one of the recommendations is to conduct regular tax audits, since the new taxation system for freelancers significantly reduces income tax, and unscrupulous entrepreneurs can take advantage of this by entering into a civil law contract with employees and losing the status of an employer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper utilizes Rapaille's (2006) concept of culture codes and Hall's (2001) encoding and decoding model of communication to identify the culture codes of scientific concepts in global scientific online discourse. As an example, we attempted to identify the culture codes of the concept of "image", because this concept can be interpreted in different ways in Russian and international scientific discourse. To identify these codes, we analyzed the interpretations of the concept of "image" in scientific online discourse in Russia and abroad. We studied the titles, key words, and abstracts of papers published in 2014–2018 that appeared in the Russian Science Citation Index (RSCI) and the Scopus abstract and citation database. As a result, we identified the culture codes of the concept of "image" in Russian and international scientific online discourse and compared the culture codes of RSCI-indexed and Scopus-indexed papers. The method we utilized may be used for revealing the culture codes of any scientific concept (using any citation database), which can contribute to revealing and understanding the interpretations of these concepts by researchers from different countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author comments on where scientific papers should ideally get published. Russian scientists have been appealed by the President of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Yu.S. Osipov, to publish their papers in Russian. The author says that there are first-class journals in Russian and foreigners take it as a great honor to publish papers in these journals.

The article focuses on the impact a Russian amended law concerning state secrets is having on science publishing by Russian scientists. It states President Vladimir Putin used a decree in May 2015 expanding the scope of a law requiring scientists get permission from the Federal Security Service prior to publishing results which could have industrial or military applications. It reports Russian universities are requiring scientists seek approval to the publication of any findings without exception.

The paper discusses an example of an educational project in modern mathematics in which school students create mathematics that is new to them. The mathematical results produced by the students in the theory of definability also have an "absolute" novelty, i.e., are the basis for professional publications. The described course was based on recent results of this article's authors in the theory of definability. The new results were obtained by a group of 10 schoolchildren from different regions of Russia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shows that the industrial origins of productivity growth in Czechia, Hungary, and Slovenia (CEE-3) and Russia before 2008 were similar and driven by manufacturing industries. The contribution of manufacturing industries to multifactor productivity (MFP) growth is substantial. In CEE-3, it exceeded market services. The contribution of labor reallocation to labor productivity growth was modest and did not surpass one quarter of the aggregate labor productivity growth. Finally, industries demonstrate a strong beta-convergence of MFP. The speed of convergence is higher in manufacturing industries than in market services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the background of "the Belt and Road" and "the economic corridor of China, Mongolia and Russia" initiatives, it is of great significance to study the temporal and spatial evolution characteristics of urbanization in Russia. This paper studied the population urbanization level, economic urbanization level, social urbanization level, eco-environment urbanization level, and their coupling coordination development degree during 2005–2020 in Russia. First, combining with the Population-Economic-Sociology-Eco-environment model, the paper constructed the index systems to evaluate the urbanization development levels in Russia. Second, based on the comprehensive weighting method of entropy weight and variation coefficient, this paper calculated the population urbanization level, economic urbanization level, social urbanization level, and eco-environment urbanization level in Russia. Third, this paper used the coupling coordination model to measure the coupling coordination degree of the urbanization development levels in Russia. Finally, the spatial differentiation of the population urbanization level, economic urbanization level, social urbanization level, eco-environment urbanization level, and their coupling coupling-coordination degree was performed, respectively, by using ArcGIS. The results are as the following. First, from 2005 to 2020, the economic urbanization level and eco-urbanization level have shown the increasing trend in Russia. The population urbanization level and social urbanization level have shown the stable changing trend in Russia. The eco-environment urbanization and economic urbanization contribute larger share to the urbanization system compared with the population urbanization and social urbanization. The coupling coordination development degree of population urbanization level, economic urbanization level, social urbanization level, and eco-environment urbanization level has showed a slight increasing trend. However, the overall situation of the urbanization in Russia is still in the moderate uncoordinated recession stage. Second, the federal subjects with high urbanization development levels are mainly distributed in Moscow city, Moscow Region, Sverdlovsk Region, Tumen Region, Saint-Petersburg city, Republic of Tatarstan, Krasnoyarsk Territory, Republic of Bashkortostan, Chelyabinsk Region, Nizhny Novgorod Region, Krasnodar Territory, Rostov Region, and Khanty-Mansiysky Autonomous Area. The federal subjects with low ones are mainly located in Republic of Khakasia, Republic of Marii El, Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, Republic of Tyva, Republic of Karachaevo-Cherkessia, Republic of Kalmykia, Republic of Altay, Jewish Autonomous Area, and Republic of Ingushetia. Third, spatially, from 2005 to 2020, the urbanization pattern of population, economy, society, eco-environment, and their coupling coordination degree in Russia all show unbalanced development characteristics. The population urbanization pattern and the social urbanization pattern have not changed significantly, showing the spatial characteristics of "high west, low east," and "high middle, low north, low south." The economic urbanization pattern has been increasing significantly, showing the spatial characteristics of "high core, low edge." The eco-environment urbanization pattern has not changed significantly, showing the spatial characteristics of "high north, low south." The coupling coordinated development degree of urbanization pattern has showed a slight increasing trend, showing the spatial characteristics of "high middle, low north, low south," "high west, low east". Finally, we suggest policies and strategies that can boost the growth and development of the urbanization in Russia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to explore the interconnectedness of volatility among the stock markets of U.S., China, India, and Pakistan in conjunction with oil and gold markets. Employing the novel Time-Varying Parameter Vector Autoregression (TVP-VAR) model for assessing connectedness, the study scrutinizes key patterns of dependency and interrelation between these markets. Furthermore, this study investigates the dynamic connectedness during the global health crisis due to COVID-19 and the geopolitical crisis due to Russia–Ukraine war periods to identify the changes in their relationship following the two crises episodes. The findings underscore the significance of volatility transmissions emanating from the U.S., a developed market, in shaping these dynamic linkages. It is observed that oil and gold returns play a limited role as sources of shocks for market returns in China, India, and Pakistan, suggesting a relatively lower contribution of oil and gold to equity market volatility. The results also emphasize the safe-haven characteristics of gold during periods of crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia–Ukraine war. Moreover, the study indicates that the volatility transmissions during the COVID-19 pandemic are more pronounced compared to the Russia–Ukraine war crisis. These findings hold notable implications for both investors and policymakers, emphasizing the need for a nuanced understanding of market dynamics and the development of risk-averse strategies, particularly in times of crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents estimates of forest mortality from fires that occurred in the northern territories in the 21st century, based on the analysis of fire burning intensity obtained from MODIS instruments installed on satellites Terra and Aqua. A brief analysis of fire distribution and forest mortality resulting therefrom is also presented in the paper both by year and by different territories (countries). The analysis shows that from 2002 to 2021, 70 659 fires were registered in Zone 60 (the area north of 60° N) and 5997 fires were registered in Zone AC (the area north of the Arctic Circle). Moreover, 33 892 fires in Zone 60 were registered from 2002 to 2011 and 36 767 fires from 2012 to 2021; 2395 fires were registered in Zone AC from 2001 to 2011 and 3602 fires from 2012 to 2021. Between 2002 and 2021, 102 million ha of forest land were covered by fires in Zone 60 and 8 million ha in Zone AC. At the same time, more than 22 million ha of forests died in Zone 60 (they received the fifth grade of the average weighted category state in the final fire year), and over 2 million ha died in Zone AC. Over 2002–2011, 7 015 000 ha of forests died in Zone 60 (1.2 % of all forest vegetation in the zone; an average of 19.6% of the area affected by fire) and 15 372 000 ha of forests over 2012–2021 (2.6 and 23.3%, respectively); over 2002–2011, 641 thousand ha of forests died in Zone AC (2.8 and 23.7%, respectively) and 1 379 000 ha of forests over 2012–2021 (1.9 and 26.5%, respectively). The paper also presents information on forest death by territories (countries) in the analyzed zones. The presented data made it possible to draw the following preliminary conclusions: over recent decades, there have been no significant changes in the number of fires in Zone 60. Nevertheless, it is worth noting that, in 2019–2020, the number of fires in Zone AC increased drastically in Russia; in the second decade of the analyzed period, an increase in forest death from fires in the analyzed zones in Russia was observed; over the study period, no trends were observed in the ratio of the area of dead forests and total forest area in the analyzed countries; the average percentage of dead forests for the entire study period is comparable in Russia, the United States, and Canada, though it is significantly lower in Northern European countries; the same picture is observed in the ratio of dead forest area and fire affected area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the results of a study of a rare natural phenomenon—the Utaat-Minchuur hot vapor anomaly located in the east of Mongolia. The first information about it appeared several centuries ago, but until now this phenomenon has not received due attention, and the question of its origin remains controversial. According to the authors, two main hypotheses are most likely. The first involves an underground coal fire. This is supported by the widespread occurrence of vapor-bearing coal deposits in the area and the constant formation of fresh depressions of ground. The second hypothesis suggests the presence of an endogenous heat source. This can be confirmed by the presence in the released gas of significant amounts of ammonia and carbon dioxide, which are characteristic of volcanic processes. In addition, effusive rocks are widespread in the vicinity of the vapor anomaly. At a distance of 8 km from the vapor anomaly, the ratio of 3He/4He isotopes in water samples from a self-flowing well was 1 × 10–6, which exceeds the similar ratio in many thermal springs of Mongolia. Based on the results of drilling operations, the presence of clays with a high content of organic matter, which were heated to a temperature of more than 60°C, was revealed in the upper part of the rock formation section. To clarify the conditions for the formation of a single heat source, it is planned to conduct geophysical research and drill deep exploration wells. Thanks to the combination of balneological factors (high vapor temperature and the presence of ammonia and a number of microelements), Utaat-Minchuur is a very promising object for the development of sanatorium and resort construction. Here, patients with diseases of the musculoskeletal system, peripheral nervous system, kidneys, etc., will be able to receive treatment. The experience of balneological use of natural vapor is known in a number of resorts around the world, such as Yangantau (Russia, Republic of Bashkortostan), Obygarm (Tajikistan), and Lorderello (Italy). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Speleothems are unique archives of information on climate, geomagnetism, and environmental conditions of the past, and have been successfully used for paleoclimatic and paleomagnetic studies in the last two decades. The uniqueness of these geological objects lies in the peculiarities of their formation and preservation of a wide range of geochemical, geological and geophysical proxies, and, most importantly, in the ability to obtain time series of the corresponding characteristics in an unprecedentedly accurate resolution using isotope-geochronological dating methods and incremental chronology. This paper presents the first results of dating the Vor speleothem from the Vorontsovskaya Cave (Krasnodar region), which preserved a record of the geomagnetic excursion, obtained by 230Th/U α-spectrometry, 14C dating, and incremental chronology. Such studies have been carried out in Russia for the first time. Despite the limitations of using the methods of isotope geochronology, it was possible to obtain an upper limit on the age of the excursion, which probably occurred no earlier than 5500–6000 years ago. By the method of incremental chronology, the duration of the main phase of the excursion Vor – 871 ± 16 years – was determined with great accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study quantum Ordered Binary Decision Diagrams(OBDD ) model; it is a restricted version of read-once quantum branching programs, with respect to "width" complexity. It is known that the maximal gap between deterministic and quantum complexities is exponential. But there are few examples of functions with such a gap. We present a new technique ("reordering") for proving lower bounds and upper bounds for OBDD with an arbitrary order of input variables if we have similar bounds for the natural order. Using this transformation, we construct a total function REQ such that the deterministic OBDD complexity of it is at least 2 Ω (n / log n) , and the quantum OBDD complexity of it is at most O (n 2 / log n) . It is the biggest known gap for explicit functions not representable by OBDD s of a linear width. Another function(shifted equality function) allows us to obtain a gap 2 Ω (n) vs O (n 2) . Moreover, we prove the bounded error quantum and probabilistic OBDD width hierarchies for complexity classes of Boolean functions. Additionally, using "reordering" method we extend a hierarchy for read-k-times Ordered Binary Decision Diagrams ( k - OBDD ) of polynomial width, for k = o (n / log 3 n) . We prove a similar hierarchy for bounded error probabilistic k - OBDD s of polynomial, superpolynomial and subexponential width. The extended abstract of this work was presented on International Computer Science Symposium in Russia, CSR 2017, Kazan, Russia, June 8 – 12, 2017 Khadiev and Khadieva (2017) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problematic alcohol use is prevalent in Russia and is deleterious for individuals with HIV and Hepatitis C Virus (HCV). Ethyl glucuronide (EtG) and blood alcohol content (BAC) provide objective biomarkers of drinking that can be compared to self-reported alcohol use. This paper describes patterns of alcohol use measured by biomarkers and self-report along with concordance across measures. Participants were Russian women with HIV and HCV co-infection (N = 200; Mean age = 34.9) from two Saint Petersburg comprehensive HIV care centers enrolled in an alcohol reduction intervention clinical trial. Measures were: (a) urine specimen analyzed for EtG; (b) breathalyzer reading of BAC; and (c) self-reported frequency of drinking, typical number of drinks consumed, and number of standard drinks consumed in the past month. At baseline, 64.0% (n = 128) had a positive EtG (> 500 ng/mL) and 76.5% (n = 153) had a positive breathalyzer reading (non-zero reading). There was agreement between EtG and BAC (kappa = 0.66, p <.001; Phi coefficient = 0.69, p <.001); self-reported alcohol measures were positively correlated with positive EtG and BAC (p's < 0.001). There was concordance between EtG and BAC measures, which have differing alcohol detection windows. Most participants endorsed frequent drinking at high quantities, with very few reporting no alcohol consumption in the past month. Concordance between biomarkers and self-reported alcohol use suggests that underreporting of alcohol use was minimal. Results highlight the need for alcohol screening within HIV care. Implications for alcohol assessment within research and clinical contexts are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the impact of institutional shifts on the strategic choices of Russian firms. It proposes and tests hypotheses of how a shift from a weak to a strong institutional context is likely to affect firms' knowledge accumulation, absorptive capacities and internalisation of operations. Using discriminant analysis, the econometric investigation demonstrates that firms tend to allocate greater resources towards improving their knowledge and absorptive capacity and make more efforts to vertically integrate—in line with improvements in the institutional environment. These investments ensure the survivability and competitiveness of firms in the long term. Furthermore, the study demonstrates that the long-term strategic orientation of firms goes hand in hand with rising resource allocations by the nation-state towards economic development. The findings align with the institutionalist political economy views that institutions are the ultimate overseers that allow the market to operate efficiently, especially in emerging market environments. The paper is also instructive to other developing economies about the need to strengthen their institutional environments, which supports the long-term orientation of firms and has a positive impact on economic development. The analysis does not take into account the impact of sanctions on Russian business and economy, post the annexation of Crimea and the armed conflict with Ukraine. Nor does it consider the impact of COVID-19 on the economy. As such, the study attempts to constitute an untainted comparison of two paths of transition on Russian firms—shock therapy, vis-à-vis, an institutional political economy approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, score-driven time series models are used, in order to provide robust estimates of the seasonal components of Russian rouble (RUB) currency exchange rates for the period of 1999 to 2020. This paper is the first empirical application of score-driven models to the RUB to US dollar (USD) and RUB to Euro (EUR) currency exchange rates in the literature. The model includes score-driven local level, seasonality, and volatility components for a variety of probability distributions: Student's t distribution, skewed generalized t (Skew-Gen-t) distribution, exponential generalized beta distribution of the second kind (EGB2), normal-inverse Gaussian (NIG) distribution, and Meixner (MXN) distribution. The use of the MXN distribution is new in the literature of score-driven seasonality models. We show that the score-driven models of this paper are robust to changes in the currency exchange rate regimes of the Bank of Russia. We find that the annual seasonality of the RUB is significant, and it is in the range of ± 4 % . We review the determinants of the RUB seasonality using data on exports, imports, and primary income from the current account of the Russian Federation. The statistical performances of all score-driven models are superior to the statistical performance of the classical multiplicative seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model. Our results may motivate the practical use of score-driven models of the RUB exchange rate seasonality for financing, investment, or policy decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Food, Beverage & Tobacco (F&B) industry is an essential sector in the competitive economy. Procurement of production factors mainly depends on sales forecasting and the supply chain of raw materials. However, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine has jeopardized the global supply chain. As the conflict worsened, the world faced a food crisis, which was already a significant challenge due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Understanding how conflict-related disruptions in global food markets might affect the stock return of the F&B industry of South Korea, this study forecasts the stock returns on the KOSDAQ F&B sector. This paper highlights that the conflict resulted in immediate and far-reaching consequences on the global food supply chain and future crop harvesting in South Korea. As numerous algorithms have been widely used in predicting stock market returns, we use Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) model for the prediction. Using daily returns from the KOSDAQ F&B industry from January 1999 to October 2022, the study proposes an ARIMA (2,2,3) model to forecast future movements of the stock returns. With an RMSE of 0.012, the prediction performance holds good using the ARIMA model. The results show a negative trend observed in the F&B sector returns for a few months, implying that sector stock returns decline as the conflict between Russia and Ukraine becomes more pronounced. This study also suggests that South Korea has massive scope to stabilize the demand for healthy, safe food, give more attention to domestic agribusiness, and make itself a self-sufficient agri-economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, society has undergone significant changes with implications for employee values and job satisfaction. As a reflection of social needs, corporate social practice is also changing compared to before the pandemic. This paper examines the perception of corporate social practices by personnel and their impact on staff satisfaction. The empirical study carried out in the Russian Federation and the Republic of Kazakhstan allowed the authors to identify social practices that influence the level of personnel satisfaction with professional activity before and after the pandemic. The research determined general tendencies and differences in the perception of social practices with the most significant personnel satisfaction in the period before and after the pandemic. The authors also developed recommendations that should be taken into account when forming corporate social practices. The study's novelty is the investigation of an empirical relationship between the levels of satisfaction with professional activity and implemented social practices in the period before and after the pandemic. The research found that the tendencies in Russia and Kazakhstan are similar to the global trends. Employees before the pandemic were highly satisfied with their activities and corporate social responsibility practices. After the pandemic, when society is disconnected and individualized, employees are focused on material security, and social practices have no significant influence on staff satisfaction. The paper offers recommendations for companies to implement appropriate social practices for the common interests of employers and staff. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]