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Children require special legal protection, including criminal law protection, in all countries since they are one of the most vulnerable categories of population. Crimes against children inflict harm not only to victims but also affect further development of society as a whole. The US experience in the field of criminal law protection of children has significant specifics and is of scientific interest. The purpose of this paper is to identify and describe characteristic features of American criminal law in this area and its applicability in Russia. To reach the goal formal-legal, comparative-legal and other methods are used. American laws create legal duty to report acts that constitute child abuse. Failure to report constitutes crime. Statutes of several US states contain special chapters devoted to crimes against children. Parents or other caregivers may not inflict harm the child directly but also, by inaction, allow third party to do so. Such inaction is deemed a crime. Using reasonable force to discipline children is legal in the USA if the punishment does not inflict harm greater than transient pain and other legal requirements are met. Parents or other caregivers must control children and never leave them unattended at home if they are younger than state`s law or recommendations of state`s authorities prescribe. «Hot car» laws prohibit to leave children unattended in a vehicle if they have not reached the age prescribed by law. Violation of such duties is a crime in some cases. The applicability of such experience in Russia is analyzed for each criminal law prohibition. It is concluded that many rules of the US criminal law are redundant. The features that are of certain interest for our country have been identified and studied.

Inclusion of the clause on the oath at naturalization in the Federal Law “On Citizenship of the Russian Federation” in 2017 makes understanding of historical experience of such an institution in Russia in the past, relevant. The paper is an attempt of comparative legal study of the modern institution of the oath at naturalization and similar institutions that existed in the Ancient Rus’, Moscow state, Russian Empire. It is emphasized that for a long time the institution of the oath was not formaly established; however, it was established at first in relation to natives of Eastern countries, while the oath of Europeans who accepted a Russian citizenship was not regulated in form and content. Authors raise the question to what extent the historical traditions of our country were taken into account in the development of the modern oath of Russian citizenship. To answer this question, the basic elements of the institution of the oath including terms of adjuration, ceremonial, content and legal formalization have been examined. The study is mainly based on the formal-legal, historical-legal and comparative-legal methods.

The high frequency of infertility is a significant medical and social problem in many countries of the world; assisted reproductive technologies (ART) are actively used to solve it. Given that immune responses play an important role in the development and maintenance of pregnancy, the study of changes in immune parameters is relevant in different trimesters of pregnancy, as well as at the stage of preconception preparation. It is believed that the maternal-fetal relationship is not limited to the development of maternal tolerance to fetal antigens, but is complemented by complex cytokine interactions that control selective immune regulation, control of adhesion and vascularization processes during embryo implantation and pregnancy. The purpose of the review was to analyze the available scientific data on the use of immune parameters to predict the effectiveness of ART. A review of Russian and foreign scientific papers on prevalence, immunopathogenetic mechanisms, and infertility diagnostics was carried out. A multi-criteria search was carried out for inventions, abstracts of patent documents on immunological prediction of the effectiveness of ART. As predictors, immunocompetent cells (CD3+-, CD4+-, CD3-CD16+56+-venous blood lymphocytes, CD95+ macrophages of endometrial biopsy), cytokines, pregnancy glycoproteins, autoantibodies, immunogenetic markers are presented. The study of the quantitative level of cytokines in blood serum, ovarian follicular fluid and endometrium as mediators of intercellular and intertissue interactions is of undoubted scientific and practical interest in terms of establishing their discriminatory levels specific to different trimesters of a normal pregnancy, the threat of miscarriage, and infertility. There was an association with non-occurrence of pregnancy due to in vitro fertilization of an increased content of interleukin (IL)-2 and interferon (IFN)-γ in the follicular fluid, and a soluble receptor IL-2-α, IL-8 and lactoferrin in the blood serum. The immunosuppressive effects of pregnancy-associated α2-glycoprotein, trophoblastic β1-glycoprotein, α-fetoprotein, α2-macroglobulin contribute to the development and maintenance of pregnancy, but their prognostic value is not unambiguous. The study of the content of immunoglobulins G to α2-macroglobulin, lactoferrin, progesterone, estradiol, cardiolipin in the follicular fluid and blood serum makes it possible to predict the result of ART. Conclusion. The study of immune parameters, especially in combination with sex hormones and characteristics of the state of the embryo, in infertile women has diagnostic value and prognostic significance, and can contribute to the timely correction of therapy and the ART program.

The results of a comparative analysis of classifications of media systems developed by foreign researchers in the 20th-21st centuries are presented. Particular attention is paid to the criteria, determinants and comparison parameters that were used in different classifications to identify common characteristics of media systems in different countries. The empirical base of the study includes both popular and little-known authors in the Russian scientific literature, but widely cited in foreign studies, who have formed original classification structures. The basis for the choice of concepts and classifications were the results of the analysis of research and educational programs of Russian and foreign universities, the historical sequence of scientific papers, logical connection with predecessors and followers, contribution to the scientific literature on the theory of journalism and high citation in modern media studies. The main criterion for the selection of the most popular classifications became a citation analysis of foreign researchers’ scientific publications on this topic in the scientometric system Google Scholar that accumulates scientific works from different countries, as well as statistics of Yandex. It is concluded that the main characteristics of media systems, as well as the criteria and parameters used in the most famous classifications (the second half of the 20th - beginning of the 21st century), remain relevant and can be adapted to the analysis of the modern media sphere.

State observation networks of the state of environment include a complex of stationary, route and sub torch observation posts. Stationary observation posts are a fairly expensive structure that used equipment of a certain accuracy. Modern technological development allows to create devices of small dimensions with a unified output interface, having a measurement error comparable to the error of equipment used in stationary observation posts or less. Therefore, this paper proposes the concept of creating a device, which, in particular, may be converted into an atmospheric air monitoring device. Currently, environmental and emission control issues remain relevant. The purpose of the study, the facet of which is revealed in this work, is to organize a monitoring network for the analysis of atmospheric air pollution. The work contains a list of priorities for the organization of the device, its main functions. The result is a structural diagram of the central component of the device, called “Heart” and an additional component - “Expansion Board”, that describes the main necessary nodes for the operating of the device. The working element of the instrument is sensors of substances with different operating principle. In addition, there are described a way to ensure nonvolatile device and organization of a unite interface of data transmission within it. A short list of tasks for which the proposed device is directed is presented.

Teaching a foreign language within the framework of an online course has its specifics. Control in such courses is characterised by a lack of feedback from the teacher (only self-learning of course materials is assumed), a decrease in the individualization of learning, an increase in the role of students' independent work, which leads to the use of a method of mutual checking and the associated need to develop students' cognitive abilities for self-assessment of the results of mastering an online course. The development of such abilities is particularly relevant in the online course “Russian as a foreign language”, where students need to evaluate texts in a foreign language. The aim of the research is to introduce conceptually a step-by-step training model for introducing peer review tasks within an online course in Russian as a foreign language and evaluate its effectiveness. The peer checking assignments in the block “We write in Russian” from the massive online course “Russian as a foreign language. B1+” on the “Otkrytoye Obrazovaniye” (Open Education) platform were used as the data for the study. The general scientific method of analysis and synthesis, targeted observation and the modeling method were applied. An overview of the main research papers on the forms of control in massive online courses is given. Attention is drawn to such features of control in a distance learning course as the lack of feedback from the teacher, a decrease in the individualization of learning, an increase in the role of students' independent work, and the related need to develop students' cognitive abilities to evaluate a text according to the developed criteria. The stages of formation of the cognitive procedures of different levels are considered - from the level of rules to the cognitive level associated with the students' awareness of their cognitive strategies, their effectiveness, as well as the ability to independently assess their language and speech level. As the result of the study, the authors present a training model of tasks aimed at forming students’ competence of an “expert” who can check the peer checking tasks. It is concluded that students can adequately evaluate each other's academic work, using the proposed evaluation parameters, taking into account the type of the text, its genre, and the typical language means of its implementation. The submitted step-by-step training model of tasks for peer review can be successfully used in teaching other foreign languages at different levels.

The digital transformation of education, the emergence of new digital technologies that expand the linguodidactic base of Russian as a foreign language (RFL), modern conditions for education implementation have become an occasion to study teaching methods in the aspect of digital didactics. The aim of the research is to highlight the stages of development of digital linguodidactics of RFL and to determine the key characteristics of each of them. The material for the study was scientific papers on organizing the learning process with the help of computer technology, the methodological justification for using digital educational resources in teaching RFL, as well as the authors' long-term observations on the formation and development of digital linguodidactics. To achieve this aim, methods of general scientific knowledge were used - analysis, synthesis, induction; linguistic methods of comparative analysis, component and complex analysis of digital educational resources; empirical methods of observation of the development of digital language didactics of RFL over the past decades, comparison of the achievements of each stage in terms of creating digital educational resources and their consolidation and relevance in teaching. The terms “digital competence of the teacher”, “digital didactics”, “digital linguodidactics” are considered. The key concept in the development of the methodology of teaching RFL over the past decades under the influence of the digitalization in the economy and society - the digital competencies of the teacher - has been determined. As a result of the study, four stages in the development of digital linguodidactics of RFL were identified in the article: 1 - late 1980s-1999; 2 - 2000-2010; 3 - 2010-2020; 4 - 2020 - present. For each period, key characteristics were revealed: interactivity and multimedia - stage 1; distance education and visualization - stage 2; digitalization of educational content and mentoring - stage 3; system transformation and rethinking - stage 4. Identifying stages of development of digital linguodidactics of RFL seems promising both for the scientific, educational and methodological base of teaching methods, and for future studies on the process of digital transformation of teaching RFL.

From an economic point of view, ports contribute to the comprehensive development of cities and can have a comprehensive stimulating effect on the economy of the interior. As a hub connecting various modes of transport, such as railways, highways, aviation and pipelines, ports are an indispensable component of the state’s transport network. During the gradual improvement of the Chinese transport system. At the same time, ports are the gateway for the foreign trade of a country or region. The efficiency of ports is directly related to the effectiveness of foreign economic cooperation. In addition, the development of ports is closely linked to the economic security of the country. Ports initiate the socio-economic growth of the region, serve as a center of social activity. Ports are also a major source of employment, as ports employ a large number of workers. The emergence of China as a great maritime power is becoming a fait accompli before our eyes. In the context of profound changes in the domestic and international macro environment, the port industry of the People’s Republic of China is accelerating the pace of transformation and modernization, adhering to new development concepts and providing strong support for the economic development of the state. The study reveals China’s modern leadership in the global port industry, formed in the fierce competition of the largest ports in East Asia. The stages of development of the ports of the People’s Republic of China and the role of the planned economy in this process, the modern structure of the port economy of the People’s Republic of China and the leading ports of the country are analyzed. New trends and prospects for the development of both continental and foreign ports of the People’s Republic of China are considered. The paper analyzes the place of the People’s Republic of China in the modern world port industry, determines the stages of development of China’s ports and the role of the planned economy in this process, studies the modern structure of the port economy of the People’s Republic of China and the country’s leading ports, identifies new trends and prospects for the development of mainland and foreign ports of the People’s Republic of China, analyzes key trends and problems underlying recent changes in the the port system of China. To date, there has not been a comprehensive study in the Russian bibliography that gives a general idea of the role of the port economy in the development of the PRC economy and China’s leadership in the port and shipping industries of the world. The present study aims to fill this gap.

The article deals with the prospects of economic use of algae resources, which have unique biochemical properties and are valuable raw materials for many areas of industrial activity. The relevance of this topic is due to the fact that, despite the high adaptive capacity and almost ubiquitous distribution of algal resources, their economic potential is not fully realized, and this area of the economy is very promising for scientific research. Analysis of available literature showed that in spite of obvious perspectives of expanding sphere of algae resources use, Russian businessmen still leave without proper attention possibilities of algae use as raw material for different industrial processes. At the same time, the Far Eastern and Northern sea areas with particularly rich reserves of algae resources, which are very promising from the point of view of their economic development, have now been identified. The examples presented in this paper demonstrate the high potential prospects for expanding the economic use of algae resources in Russia.

The paper analyzes the working conditions of workers in the dairy industry, which showed that the prevailing harmful production factor is the increased noise level. It has been proven that noise has a negative impact not only on the hearing organs, but also on the whole organism as a whole as a general biological irritant, therefore, reducing noise expansion due to engineering solutions is an urgent task of our time. The article assesses the noise impact on operators of the dairy industry as part of a special assessment of working conditions. The analysis showed that the excess noise level is observed at all workplaces. To protect workers from an increased noise level, a design of a sound-suppressing piece sound absorber is proposed, which is distinguished by high sanitary and hygienic properties. The use of sound-suppressing piece sound absorbers will improve working conditions from a harmful class to an acceptable one.

The paper presents the main results of assessing the water quality of the Shlinsky reservoir for the period 2015-2019. Based on the analysis of hydrochemical data obtained by standard chemical methods, according to 22 indicators. Monitoring of the reservoir water quality until 2021 was carried out by the Dubna Ecoanalytic Laboratory. The Shlinsky reservoir is located on the border of the Tver and Novgorod regions, is part of the Vyshnevolotsk water system. The reservoir provides releases for the needs of energy, water transport and improvement of water supply in Moscow. As a result of the study, priority pollutants were identified, the water quality of the reservoir was assessed based on the results of calculating the water pollution index (WPI) and the specific combinatorial index of water pollution (SCIWP). It is shown that there is no significant anthropogenic impact on the ecosystem of a water body. The water quality of the reservoir is assessed as "moderately polluted" water (according to the value of the water pollution index) and slightly polluted - polluted water (according to the value of the specific combinatorial index of water pollution).

Under the impact of financial technology and digital currency, “central bank digital currency” has become an international hotspot in recent years and is also one of the current research and development priorities of China’s central bank. Preparations for China’s digital RMB began as early as 2014, and in 2017 China’s central bank clearly announced that it would fully issue the digital currency. The launch of the digital RMB is a major reform and innovation in the historical development of China’s currency. China’s issuance of a central bankdigital currency will help enhance the status of the People’s Bank, strengthen the effectiveness of monetary policy, improve macro-prudential management capabilities, and promote cross-border RMB payments, etc. Up to now, China has started pilot tests in some cities, such as Shenzhen, Xian, Chengdu Suzhou. Currently, China’s digital RMB has been tested for the public, with features such as unlimited legal compensation, moderate anonymity, national statutory, dual offline payment, no cost of transaction and centralized management. With the rapid development of scientific information technology and the intensification of international competition, the digitalization of currency has become an irreversible trend. The purpose of this study is to identify the practice of digital Yuan and its role in Chinese digital economy development. The discussion tasks of this paper can be summarized as follows. Clarify the definition of digital Yuan; assess the operational model of digital Yuan; evaluate the operating framework of digital Yuan; identify the features and merits of digital Yuan application. This research adopts case study of China CBDC and literature analysis methods to analyzed the concept, characteristics and design principles of digital RMB. Then it investigates the role of digital RMB for the development of China’s digital economy, which will provide an important basis for understanding and advancing the domestic research on the central bank’s digital currency. For example, digital Yuan plays a key role in facilitating data productivity, driving digitalization of public payment scenarios and opening a healthy digital economy system.

Language and culture contacts resulting from the migration of population, as well as current geopolitical and technological processes, enhance the increase of translingual works that reveal symbiotic phenomena of languages and cultures in contact. However, there are still many unsolved problems in defining the translingual discourse and linguistic devices for creating it. The article discusses intercultural narratives in a novel by Kiana Davenport, an American author of Hawaiian descent, whose literary creative translingual work is enhanced by intercultural phenomena related to the contacts of American English, Hawaiian, and Russian languages. The article aims to describe linguistic devices for creating translingualism and to characterize the processes that take place in assimilation and language alteration in contact situations. The research has revealed that translinguality characterizes not only texts that are written in a second language, as is a traditional point of view, but also writings of a bilingual with two native languages enhanced by a third one. Translinguality can be reached by various linguistic tools comprising lexical borrowings, including endonymic toponyms and culture-specific concepts, loan translations, allusions, as well as pidginization of speech and some others. The findings showed that pidginization of speech of different characters results in stylized dialogues with deviated articulation of English words, intentional grammatical deviations, set expressions from Hawaiian Pidgin and wordplay. The results of the paper expand the idea of translingualism and intercultural communication and can be used for further research into linguistic and cultural contacts.

With the technological benefits and challenges computer-mediated communication provides, interactants in social network service (SNS) communication are driven to use language creatively, overcoming the disadvantages and exploiting advantages. This creative language use leads to innovative language change that often extends beyond SNS environments. In this regard, the medium is not merely a restrictive but also a facilitative factor. Communicative acts are fundamentally bound by the interactants’ desire to express politeness, especially in face-threatening acts, well articulated in Brown and Levinson’s (1987) model. In recent research, however, the issues of the norms of politeness and impoliteness as well as those of appropriateness have been highlighted (Locher Watts 2005, Locher Bousfield 2008). Interactants employ not only mitigating strategies to alleviate face-threatening but also use impoliteness strategies, which are often disguised politeness. Drawing upon the data from a 26-million-word corpus of synchronous SNS communication, involving two or more participants, in 3,836 instances, developed by the National Institute of the Korean Language, this paper addresses how SNS interactants make use of diverse elements of language to show their polite and impolite stances in interpersonal negotiation. For instance, interactants use fragments, interjections, letter-based ideophones and emoticons, exaggerated punctuations for emotiveness, omission of regular punctuation marks, intentional violation of orthographic rules, prolific slang expressions, deviated spelling to create cuteness or intimacy, among numerous others. All these creative strategies lead to language change at lexical, grammatical and discourse levels.

Human e/migration across the Mediterranean increased significantly in the first part of the 21st century. At the mercy of people smugglers, migrants who succeed in crossing the seas face uncertain futures in Europe. Such immigration is at the heart of political debate in Europe, where right-wing populist parties have made significant gains because of their opposition to it. These parties tend to view human migration as a negative phenomenon, using familiar and by now even clichéd cultural and socio-political arguments against it. This study explores some of these discursive tropes. Rather than following studies that use a critical discourse paradigm, the paper’s main aim is to identify positive discourse and practice that might represent models for future behaviour in this context. It focuses on a discussion on recent migration involving Italy and, by applying tools of pragmatic analysis, united to knowledge of the socio-political background, traces some underlying trends in migrant reception. The data analysed were gathered by interviewing an Italian mayor who has attracted hostility from right-wing media for his novel approach to migrants, whose needs are met by finding them a place in the local social context. Findings suggest that, in certain circumstances, the migratory phenomenon may benefit not just the subjects involved but also the places concerned. The study thus foregrounds the degree to which welcoming the cultural other counters social discourses that currently appear triumphant in mainstream media and electoral processes.

The article examines the main approaches to assessing and measuring political trust used by Russian and foreign scientists in conducting empirical research in 2018-2022. The authors proceed from one of the accepted in the social sciences understanding of methodology as a set of methods of used for analysis. In this regard, the purpose of the paper is to systematize methods for measuring and evaluating political trust and determining the relevance of their application in the study of youth as a specific socio-demographic group. The relevance of the study is related to the tendency of some scientists to associate the youth political trust with the character of political regime in a particular state and the potential for its transformation. The analysis of scientific literature revealed that the main methods of obtaining information on the topic of political trust are mass surveys and expert interviews. The most important component of studying this area is the comparison of the mechanisms for the formation of political attitudes of various social groups in states with different types of political regimes. The article substantiates the need to develop narrowly focused methods for studying the youth political trust, since a number of studies show the specificity of the formation and individual indicators of this setting of the political consciousness of generations Y and Z. In particular, there is a significant differentiation in the levels of institutional and personalized political trust among different subgroups of young people, a large variability of this political attitude, with a relatively low awareness of real political processes, the desire to articulate rational grounds for the formation of trust. A systematic study of these features of the youth political trust requires the use of a more complex, combining elements of quantitative and qualitative analysis tools than is currently used in empirical studies. It is necessary to develop special methods of analysis based on an integrated approach that combines mix-methods of research. The information obtained with the help of the updated methodology on the state and characteristics of the youth political trust seems to be a significant basis for the formation of strategies for the interaction of government institutions with this socio-demographic group, which is of fundamental importance for the sustainable development of modern states.

The subject of the study is the concept of “politeness” in business communication, its lexical and grammatical ways//means of expression in Russian. Particular attention is paid to the social relationship between interlocutors in a communicative situation. The purpose of the study is to describe the concept of “politeness” and identify its linguocultural features. In accordance with the purpose and objectives of the study, the paper analyzes the features of the implementation of the concept of “politeness” in the system of language functions and considers the strategies of positive and negative politeness in speech behavior in the field of business communication. Based on the analysis of the content of the main functions of language, it was concluded that the category of politeness is realized within the framework of the communicative function of language; The study analyzed the strategies of positive and negative politeness and the peculiarities of its implementation within the framework of private//specific individual communicative functions that correspond to various areas of communication. As a result of the analysis of speech behavior strategies in accordance with the rules of politeness, it was concluded that politeness is an important component of business communication, and speech behavior strategies are based on the difference in the cultural values of a particular society and depend on the models of social behavior adopted in it. If the lines of behavior underlying the first of them are associated with the involvement of the interlocutor in the conversation, paying attention to him, then the second strategy contains lines of behavior associated with the provision of freedom to the interlocutor.

The linguoculturological studies in paremiology make one of the most actively developing, researchers have repeatedly analyzed the concepts of GOOD and EVIL on the material of paremias of a particular language. However, the study of character traits «good» and «evil» on the basis of the proverbs of the Russian and Chinese languages has not yet been considered, which is the novelty of this study. The article studies paremiological units of the Russian and Chinese languages, representing a good and evil person. The goal of the work is to identify common and peculiar ethno-specific features reflected in the proverbs of the Russian language against the background of their counterparts in the Chinese language, as well as to establish their motivation. To achieve this goal, methods of comparative and linguoculturological analyses were applied. The sources of the material were the proverbs dictionary, as well as data from Russian and Chinese corpora. The paper concludes that there are much more different cultural attitudes contained in the proverbs we are interested in than common ones, which causes a big difference in understanding the character traits of «good» and «evil» between native Russian and Chinese speakers. Understanding the universal and nationally marked ideas of Russians and Chinese effectively contributes to cultural communication between peoples.

The paper is dedicated to a self-assessment approach as a means of addressing fossilized errors in L2 speaking within the professional communication framework. The phenomenon of fossilization manifests in L2 spoken and written texts on phonological, lexical and grammatical level. Addressing the issue of fossilization has to deal with creating a perfect fluency/accuracy balance, increase of fluency in L2 classroom settings inevitably results in fossilized errors in learners as it compromises their accuracy on a permanent basis. In this respect it is interesting to look into common practices of addressing fossilized errors in advanced L2 classroom. This work is a case study of an attempt to address individual fossilized errors in L2 C1-level students at university level. The paper argues that self-assessment as a means of developing metacognitive awareness and consciousness of advanced L2 learners is a valid tool for eliminating fossilized errors in the long run. We present the results of case study that took place at RUDN University in 2018 within 3 months. During this period a group of advanced L2 learners were asked to record their spontaneous pair interactions, transcribe the conversations and correct their own mistakes. The corrected transcripts were submitted to the L2 instructor for further evaluation and assessment. Small corpora of error-tagged conversations were created for each individual student. Then the instructor created a report on individual mistakes and errors on monthly basis. Persistent, fossilized errors were registered for each individual case and measured at the beginning for the pedagogical experiment and at its end. The paper presents our findings, positive dynamics and overall pedagogical value of establishing correlation between students previous knowledge and self-assessment.

Aims. Thin shells in the form of cylindroids are fourth-degree ruled shells for which few works are devoted. In this paper, their geometric modeling is worked out and their middle surface are plotted, using the software MathCAD. Their stress-strain state are instigated with two building material: reinforcement concert and qualitative steel. Methods. This linear investigation is done for fixed and hinged supports and for various thicknesses in the software SCAD. The numerical values of their maximum and minimum displacements of their middle surfaces are given. Based on these displacements, conclusions are made for the whole paper. Results. The linear analysis for reinforced concrete and metallic shells, computed using the software SCAD gives the numerical and graphical results that are presented. Conclusions. The investigations of the stress-strain state are done for shells with the shape of cylindroid with two directrices ellipses and cylindroid Frazer. For the same thickness, loading and span, the reinforced concrete shells has minimum displacements. For thickness, 20 cm the steel shells have the same maximum displacements. For the thickness 30 cm the maximum displacement is more in steel shells. It is more optimal to use reinforced concrete shells than the one in steel. A large span (till 30 m) shells can be designed with reinforced concrete.

The paper presents profound findings of figurative linguistic manifestation of the gastronomic code of Russian culture. Lexical and phraseological nominations representing liquid intake conceptual metaphor in Russian are considered in linguocultural and cognitive-pragmatic aspects. This study is set within the framework of the theories of linguoculture and linguistic figurativeness, cognitive theory of metaphor, and propositional and frame-based analysis of lexical semantics of verbs. The analysis offered in the paper shows how structurally different words and expressions are metaphorically motivated by the verbs pit’ (drink), khlebat’ (gulp down, drink noisily, spoon up), sosat’ (suck, suckle, draw), etc. and their derivatives, translating the system of meanings represented by the basic cognitive model “X - is Liquid Intake”. As a result the fragment of the Russian linguistic world view is described related to figurative reflection of different physical, social, psychological, mental processes and phenomena by analogy with the stated physiological processes; the conceptual model of the source domain is presented in the form of propositional and frame-based structure, the components of which are to be metaphorically interpreted; target domains including metaphorical nomination are characterized; cognitive bases for metaphorical analogues are identified; metaphorical dimensions are described in the form of cognitive schemes of images. Based on the analysis of context manifestation of figurative semantics the pragmatic potential of liquid intake metaphor is described related to the expression of speaker’s views and values towards the objects of speech. Linguocultural commentary is presented revealing cultural and historical sources of metaphorization and symbolization of liquid intake.

South-South Cooperation (SSC) has become one of the major trends in the International Relations of the new millennium. Initiatives of political cooperation, economic and technical assistance can be traced back to the 1960’s, for example the Bandung Conference of non-aligned countries or the creation of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) under Ra ú l Prebisch’s aegis [Braveboy-Wagner 2009; Prebisch 1954, 1969]. Nevertheless, the emergence of China and the BRICS and a new period of high oil prices have produced an increased involvement of middle-income states in initiatives of cooperation with other countries of the Global South. Venezuela has been an actor in this wave of SSC during the government of Hugo Ch á vez. Certainly, SSC is not new in the Venezuelan external relations because Caracas implemented programs of cooperation to supply oil in special conditions to some Central American and Caribbean countries since the 1970’s. Example of this were the Puerto Ordaz Agreement, approved during the Carlos Andr é s P é rez administration (1974-1979) and the San Jos é Agreement, a Venezuelan-Mexican initiative implemented in the early 1980’s [Grayson 1985]. Similarly, Carlos Andr é s P é rez played a role in the promotion of a New International Economic Order and in the establishment of the Latin American Economic System (known in Spanish as SELA) [P é rez 1980, 1983]. However, the logic of Venezuelan South-South cooperation was transformed since the rise to power of Ch á vez in 1999 and in particular after his victory in the recall referendum convened in 2004. Ch á vez aimed to transform the Venezuelan foreign policy since the beginning of his government. One of his goals was obviously the deepening of the relations with the Global South. Venezuela as a middle-income country became a driver in the new dynamics of SSC both in Latin America and the Caribbean and beyond the Western Hemisphere. This paper analyses this increasing involvement of Venezuela in initiatives of SCC, in particular the reasons that led Ch á vez to promote those initiatives. Due to the particular narrative furthered by the Venezuelan government to explain its SSC agenda, supposedly based on solidarity, complementarity and cooperation, this paper compares Venezuelan strategy of international cooperation with more traditional forms of North-South Cooperation (NSC). To achieve such a goal, a qualitative methodology is used in the paper based on the review of the literature on international cooperation and on the evaluation of international cooperation promoted by the Venezuelan government.

The article considers the use of teaching methods in research methodology class for Master students doing the course in English. The author aims at defining the role and significance of the course in teaching Master students at Moscow State Institute of International Relations (University) and sets the following objectives: to identify conceptual barriers in perceiving research methodology, work out the algorithm of work aimed at building research skills of Master students; analyze the results of pilot teaching. The research methods used in working at the paper are as follows: questionnaire and analysis (in analyzing the results of pilot teaching and content analysis of the methodological part of several Master and PhD open access theses). The author uses activity and competence based approach in the combination with the didactic principles of visualization, systematization, consistency and accessibility. The paper analyzes the requirements of State Federal Education Standards in part of developing the research component of professionally relevant competences. The author identifies cognitive difficulties of perceiving theoretical and methodological material; builds the algorithm of work with conceptual apparatus offering a number of exercises aimed at forming research competence and creating simulation research discourse.

The currency of the research consists in the necessity if rethinking of the notion of culture in Russian contemporary thought in order to present more adequately the process of development of culture in a future. The paper aims to elucidate political origins of the movement of Proletarian culture that play the leading role in a creation of a new conception of culture. As a materials were used documents and archives, scientific paper of Russian and foreign researchers. As a maim method was used problematic-analytical reconstruction, explored in the framework of an enactive approach that allows to envelop the subject in its evolvement and to concentrate on concrete practical situations of its realization. Such reconstruction permits to accomplish the original interpretation of the problem. The authors focus in the pre-history of the movement. Analyzing the social-political context of the origin of the movement, the authors come to the conclusion about artificially created necessity of political enlightenment of the society by the revolutionaries. The paper demonstrates how agents of proletarian working circles manipulate by the public opinion of working class. As a result, the paper shows the process of formation the ideology of cultural movement revolutionary period and evaluates significance of ideological function in its realization. The authors produce critical evaluation of the history of the movement in original judgment about political grounding of culture.

The paper seeks to analyze pragmalinguistic features of the politician’s stylistic behavior by studying nominative and syncategorematic parts of speech in his discourses. The hypothesis is regardless extralinguistic factors in a communicative situation the stylistic behavior can be seen as the touchstone of the politician’s success. A deficient stylistic behavior is fraught with communicative flops. The paper discusses theoretical grounds of pragmasemantic analysis of the politician’s stylistic idiosyncrasies, suggests a classification of categories for pragmasemantic analysis, pinpoints a cluster approach to studying lexical and syntactic units, and provides new insights into semiotics of the status-bound type of language identity. This article drawing on Richard Nixon’s selected speeches, The Checkers Speech (1952), The Great Silent Majority Speech (1969), and The First Watergate Address (1973), specifies the concept of presidential language identity. A determining factor moulding the stylistic behavior of this kind of people is a stressful or semi-stressful situation. The method of research in the article is termed as ‘pragmasemantic analysis of the politician’s language identity’. It is yet to be elaborated in detail. The article attempts to define it as focusing on interrelated grammar categoties, like personal pronouns, verb tense, functional and auxiliary verbs, article, numerals, and prepositions, along with communication-bound categories of optimism/pessimism, diplomatic/bossy, president-like speech/unpresident-like speech, age, gender, vested interests group membership in order to find out the politician’s idiosyncrasies and communication strategies and tactics. The article argues that whatever strategies and tactics Nixon persued in his discourses, his stability in the domestic political arena was guaranteed only by truthful verbal behavior. The Watergate speeches failed him and he paid the price for it. The paper, hence, highlights the problem of studying truth/lie verbal markers which largely depend on the author of the text in question.

The paper deals with the linguistic comparative structural and semantic analysis of English and Russian proverbs with the concept of ‘happiness-unhappiness’ that reflects national and cultural identity and the specificity of thinking of the English and Russian people. The aim of the paper is to explore and show similarities and differences in mentality and perception of the world by English and Russian people. This aim was achieved due to the study of the structural and semantic components and expressive-evaluative components of the proverbs. As a result of the study both common and specific meanings of the Russian and English proverbs were revealed in the languages under consideration. The object of the study is English and Russian proverbs associated with the binary concept of “happiness-unhappiness”. During the analysis the basic meaning of the proverbs were revealed and systematized. The analysis of the phraseological meaning, lexical components, syntactic structures, expressive and emotive connotations, sound organization of English and Russian proverbs made it possible to identify the role of linguistic means in expressing the features of the mentality of the English and Russian peoples.

To present Russian science at the international level scientists should possess certain specific skills. However, research works in an integrative nature of academic writing recognize the skills that are common for various research fields and specific for academic context. Some works are currently investigating methods to develop academic skills, while a few papers are devoted to the problem of assessing the outcomes. Traditionally the quality of an academic text is measured by the requirements to text organization, context and language proficiency. However, this model does not form a unity until a new idea is introduced into the process of teaching and assessment. The possible solution is to focus on the quality of students’ texts authenticity. Academic text authenticity indicates to what extent the initial norms of authentic academic writing - in organization, context and language use - are modified by students belonging to a different writing culture. The paper defines the category “authenticity” for academic texts and presents examples of assessing the text quality with a set of descriptors. The results could be implemented in professional language studies and in the postgraduate training of students aimed at publishing the results of their research work.

This article is devoted to the topic of analysis of borrowed vocabulary in Russian and Chinese languages that is relevant in modern linguistics and language processes based on the lexicon of Internet communication in the field of computer and network technologies. The article provides a comparative analysis of the ways of borrowing foreign language lexical units in the field of information and communication technologies in the Russian and Chinese languages. The authors identify such types of borrowings as phonetic and semantic (word-formation and combination of tracing paper; etymological tracing, semantic tracing paper) in Russian and phonetic and semantic borrowing in Chinese, as well as graphical borrowed computer and network terms used in Russian and Chinese-language forums, and borrowing of English abbreviation terms in Russian and Chinese. Separately considered professional and slang vocabulary in the field of information and communication technologies, used in the Russian-speaking and Chinese-speaking forums. The main attention is paid to the peculiarities of their formation and functioning in the Russianspeaking and Chinese-speaking communicative space of the Internet.

The paper compares the rhetorical, grammatical and discourse approaches to the study of language by focusing on issues of systematization and the contrast between controlled and adaptive systems. The key category of the analysis is homeostasis, a system to maintain its functions within certain limits. First, the study interprets the social meaning of rhetorical systemizations, traditionally interpreted as pre-scientific and terminologically laden, and identifies the reasons why the ancient systematization was successful but cannot be applied to o grammar. Then the idea of rhetoric as a secondary grammar is challenged by contrasting grammar as a controlled system and rhetoric as an adaptive system; while grammar selects discrete variants, rhetoric constructs continual metaplasms. Similarities between rhetoric and grammar concerning unmarked forms are also considered irrelevant because neutral forms cannot be produced for each trope and figure, which is proven by rhetorical period. Finally, the paper states the proximity of the discourse and rhetorical approaches. Different interpretations of discourse demonstrate different relations with rhetoric. The discursive approach is productive beyond the speech act, which means that the discursive community can be considered in terms of homeostasis. This idea is illustrated by the problems faced by individuals in joining the academic discourse community, communicating within it, and the viability of the community itself. The difference between the rhetorical and grammatical approaches determines the strategies of language teaching and language study. The paper concludes that the rhetorical approach can contribute to the concept and framework of discourse if this framework is constructed with reference to homeostasis.

The article deals with the idea of changing general system how to decompose the extracts with humorous effect when carrying out the contrastive analysis of the original text and its translation. The previously used system of translation techniques based on a language structure doesn’t always have a positive effect on the results of the contrastive analysis of these texts. The author suggests using General theory of verbal humour (GTVH), created by S. Attardo semantic theory of humour (V. Raskin). The essential parameter is script opposition. The paper having one source text and two target texts as the material shows the advantages of the theory to find out differences and similarities in the system «original text/ translation», as well as in the system «translation 1 / translation 2». The author believes that changing the perspective for contrastive analysis with the help of the new system applied we can describe the translation procedure in more details, as well as demonstrate his/her strategy and explain the variability in linguistic means usage. Moreover, the new approach helps us explain some possible translation failures more objectively and carry out the contrastive analysis of two variants of translation of one source text, if necessary. The observations and conclusions, presented as the results in the paper, could be important for the development of humour translation theory in general and for practice in the sphere of literary translation in particular.

The paper is devoted to a numerical method for solving the optimal control problem. The main approach to the numerical solution of the optimal control problem is the reduction of the optimal control problem to the problem of nonlinear programming and its following solution by classical gradient optimization methods. For this purpose, optimal control problem, which is a problem of searching time-dependent function, is replaced by the problem of searching of control values at discrete instants of time. An increase in the number of sampling points increases the accuracy of function approximation, but at the same time increases the dimensionality of the search space in the non-linear programming problem. In complex problems of non-linear programming with an unknown topology of the objective function, the statement that using classical gradient methods ensures finding a solution is not justified. The optimal control problem after the discretization and other modifications is often transformed to a non-linear programming problem with a non-unimodal objective function for which gradient methods are not applicable. In this paper we propose to solve the optimal control problem by evolutionary algorithms that do not use gradients and are able to find solutions of problems with nonunimodal objective function. The paper presents the modern evolutionary algorithm Grey wolf optimizer. The problem of the optimal combat turn of the aircraft is considered. In this problem the mathematical model of the control object is described by a system of seven ordinary differential equations. Also constraints on the value and rate of change of control are given. It is experimentally shown that the evolutionary algorithm Grey wolf optimizer successfully solves this optimal control problem.

This paper deals with a significant problem of education “outside” the classrooms. Authors present the methodological cases, using their pedagogical experience. Much attention is paid in the article to specific practical assignments and examples of how best to organize extra-curricular activities of students. This paper is a presentation of a real year program for learners of RUDN University. It may be used in similar cases as its effectiveness is proved by numerous examples.

The article is dedicated to the struggle for resources in Africa and Arab East, and especially the China’s role in this struggle. Announced by the Beijing in 2002, the course of “going abroad” was marked by the economic expansion of Chinese companies in Africa and Arab countries, largely due to the interest in raw materials, primarily in oil. At the same time, the African and Arab countries are among the foreign policy strategic priorities of the leading Western powers, whose activity in this region has also increased. As shown in the article, the competition for access to natural resources contributed to the emergence of conflicts in the region. The methodological basis of the study is a comparative political approach, methods of analysis and synthesis. The scientific novelty of the paper is that, although the problem of the struggle for resources in Africa and in Arab world is reflected in publications in our country and abroad, the peculiarities of China’s position in this matter have not been yet the object of serious research. The analysis of the topic is relevant in the conditions when Western countries attempt to regulate crises by force, often bypassing the Security Council and the UN Charter. Some analysts view the USA and NATO actions in Libya and the French campaign 2012 in Mali in the light of West desire to displace China from Africa. They also connect crisis in Syria and Iraq with US actions. As the paper shows, Beijing remains committed to the principle of non-interference in internal affairs of other states and stands for political solution of conflicts. But at the same time, it pays an increasing attention to strengthening its military presence in Africa and Arab countries. The author comes to the conclusion that the realization of the initiative “One belt - One road” increases China’s needs in resources for the implementation of ambitious projects in the space of the “belt and road”. The Western countries will resist, so the struggle for resources will not weaken.

In the current conditions of globalization, the importance of innovation is growing. Innovation is a key to sustainable growth, a tool to increase the competitiveness of companies, regions, states and integration groups, a means to address societal challenges. The European Union pays great attention to innovation efforts - f.e. through the group-wide strategies of competitiveness such as the Lisbon strategy and the Europe 2020 strategy. The aim of the paper is to evaluate the fulfillment of the Europe 2020 national goals for Slovakia in the field of smart growth, to analyze selected issues of innovative development in Slovakia and to propose possible measures for its improvement. As the subject matter is extremely complex and multitangular, the paper discusses only selected issues and questions.

The article considers the phenomen of bipolarity of the concept Life/Death and peculiarities of its verbalisation in the early works of Leonid Andreev. The main puprose of this paper is to acknowledge and describe the way and means of the concept explication of the Life/Death concept and estimate of its bipolar nature. The importance of the paper is defined by the growing interest in to realising the cognitive structure of a certain kind - bipolar fictional concept whose text-creating role in the opposite discourse has not been studied enough. For Leonid Andreev this bipolar fictional concept is Life/ Death. As N.K. Mikhailovsky said “the fear of death, the fear of life... are as such axe-carved parts” which have become dominant for the “Russian Allan Poe”. This paper evaluates how the internal Conflict of the writer is transformed into a major bipolar concept.

This paper deals with the issue of classification and genre definitions of Buddhist sacral formulas known as dhāraṇī , mantra , hṛdaya , etc. The analysis is based on, first, the exploration of religious-philosophical background of the Buddhist approach to the texts of this kind (often called magical invocations, spells, etc.), second, the study of concrete textual data where such formulas are contained along with their denotations. Dealing with the first aspect, the author reconsiders an early but fruitful interpretation of dhāraṇī provided by V.P. Vasil’yev in the middle of the 19th century and not distinguished enough in the academic literature published in English. Most important for this paper is Vasilyev’s idea on the tight connection between dhāraṇī and the name considered as the essence of an object or a person so that its knowledge makes possible to grasp directly what is signified by the name. This idea, however, requires a certain clarification: the concept of emptiness of all dharmas and their sameness from the standpoint of the Ultimate Truth causes fundamental uncertainty in terminology when various definitions can be applied to the same sacral formulas being nothing but marks of different modes of their apprehension. This phenomenon is explored in the second part of the paper that analyzes concrete textual data extracted from the Tibetan Gzungs bsdus collection compiled by Tāranātha in the early 17th century. In spite of the attempts made by some Buddhist theorists to define criteria for the exact classification of the sacral formulas, the texts of dhāraṇī-sūtras show explicitly that the names of the genres can be loosely mixed and applied simultaneously to the same formulas.

This paper explores the dynamics of changing perceptions of Russia by Japanese young generation. The aim of the paper is to examine attitude toward Russia among young Japanese people, and to investigate factors that affect their “distant neighbor” perceptions and attitudes, and how it has changed within five years. As relations between Japan and Russia grow more complex, the need for more knowledge for mutual understanding is getting great. It is based on a series of more detailed data analyses of the polls conducted at the Universities of Japan - as a part of research project “Student’s Representations of neighboring countries at the beginning of 21st century - Russia and Japan”. In the research author turned to a student’s audience, which is most perspective for acting with, on the way of creation of public opinion about foreign countries as well. Author address findings that obtained in 2007 and 2012 and use qualitative research methods, such as interviewing and discourse analysis. So, we provide an overview of findings from representative surveys and analyze findings from studies to draw conclusions about the drivers of changing public perceptions towards Russia. Presented research is an illustrative explanation - stereotyped images are long-lasting and durable. They are difficult to change and can be passed on as heritage from the past. Author concludes that although in general at the level of the University students’ perceptions towards Russia have not been changed, but in details we can see some quantitative changes. The results indicated that some Japanese students held quite optimistic opinions toward Russia, but there was also evidence that public opinions toward Russia differed across the students and sometimes not in positive way.

The study is part of the project aimed at revealing the mechanisms of discursive construction of international relations (IR). It examines the functions of the categories ‘strength’ and ‘weakness’ in discursive representations of states as political actors. The research draws on assumptions of social constructionism and CDA. The data include recent speeches by Russian and Polish Ministers of Foreign Affairs. The paper argues that the opposition ‘strength vs. weakness’ is essential in the construction of IR in discourse. We focus on how nation states and their qualities are represented in foreign policy discourse, and which of these qualities conceptualise the categories of strength and weakness. We demonstrate that the two categories constitute a relational pair; however, the category of strength is expressed more explicitly than that of ‘weakness’, and the axiological charge of ‘strength’ changes depending on the actor that it represents. An array of linguistic tools is employed in constructing the opposition, and, consequentially, the IR between the political actors. The paper suggests that social actors and their qualities can be viewed as social categories that are perpetually constructed and re-constructed in discourse. The research develops the theory of discourse and demonstrates how discourse analysis contributes to the study of social practices and helps interpret current social phenomena.

The study is based on the results of an original sociological survey conducted in 25 cities of Russia from June 2017 to March 2018 by the author. This paper focuses especially on labour immigrants from Central Asia, Ukraine, Belarus and Caucasus regions into Russia. This paper argues the following points; first, the correlation between the demographic movements and regional rental housing fee in Russia, second, the multi-layered structure and its informality of Russian housing market, finally, the relation between labour migrants’ housing condition and labour productivity. In the conclusion, the author points that the Russian housing market is segregated from this research results. Migrant’s housing deals are possibly the origin or bottom of the housing market. Their activity would move the regional housing rental market. However, some of their deals also seem to be invisible in the official housing statistics, that is to say, taking place in the informal housing market. This regards as one of characters, which Russian rental housing market has. It would be hurdle for foreign direct investor, which would invest into Russian market. In addition, the quality of immigrants’ housing condition is too low to support their labour productivity sustainably. We need to consider the improvement even for labour immigrants and the creation of more open housing market in Russia.

Actuality of the article consists in the fact that culture plays crucial role in contemporary Russian society. The authors address the origins of this tendency. The aim of the article is an analysis of the beginning of the proletarian culture. As the resources for the paper archive documents of revolutionaries, political articles of that period, scientific papers and books of foreign and domestic authors are used. Problematic-analytic reconstruction with the elements of enactive approach is applied as a main method. The method allows to present the subject in its development and to make an original socio-philosophical interpretation of culture. The paper accentuate a prehistory of proletarian culture movement. Analyzing early works of A. Bogdanov, one of the father of the movement, the authors came to conclusion that the conception of proletarian culture was emerged from agitational politics of Bogdanov, who called to revolutionary armed uprising. Therefore, first stage of proletarian culture was agitation and propaganda for preparation of revolutionary active elements of combative movement. The paper shows the evolution of Boganov’s thought about foundation of proletarian culture: starting from discussing on necessity of revolutionary armed actions, Bogdanov slowly came up with Marxist argumentation of his conception.

The paper zeroes in on the problem of equivalence with regard to translating philosophical texts which have so far been marginalized in translation theory in comparison to other sorts of (non-)literary translation. The paper primarily aims to describe the current translator practice in the field of philosophy and disclose why philosophical discourse is rendered in the unique way it is. The goal of the paper is also to recommend good practice in the ambit of philosophical translation. Drawing on Nida’s equivalence theory, the authors of this paper prioritize formal equivalence over dynamic one, which is connected with the specific nature of philosophical discourse. To this end, pertinent extracts from David Hume’s A Treatise of Human Nature with a special focus on philosophical terminology have been compared with their published Slovak, German and Czech translations. The present paper draws first and foremost on the methods of comparative textual analysis and utilizes elements of translation quality assessment models by House (1997; 2015). The terminological research is conducted from the position of induction as it involves the elaboration of theory from the analysed terms. The comparative analysis suggests that the form and function of philosophical discourse is interconnected to such a degree that the form even constitutes a part of the text’s function. The results of our analytical probe may be used as a springboard for deeper, quantitatively-oriented terminological-translational research.

Potato is an important staple food crop. Potato tubers require proper treatment before planting and after harvest to produce high yields and avoid storage losses. Among different techniques of potato treatment physical methods are of special interest: thermal treatment using hot water and steam, ultraviolet (including continuous-wave UV using pulsed Xe-lamps) and gamma-irradiation, treatment with magnetic and electromagnetic fields (including microwaves). The majority of physical methods is environmentally friendly and can be applied without special registration and in the developing countries. In the present paper, for the first time, the scientific papers on physical methods of potato treatment for the last 35 years are comprehensively reviewed. The review demonstrates that such an approach is perspective both for pre-planting and postharvest treatment of potato. Physical treatment affects biochemical, cellular and physiological status of potato. Methods of physical treatment enable to control phytopathogens, and some methods (ultraviolet and gamma-radiation) even are capable of improving immunity of plants. The main traits of potato tubers that can be influenced by physical treatment are sprouting (stimulation or inhibition), susceptibility to rot and black leg diseases, and starch, reducing sugars and ascorbic acid contents. The tuber response to physical treatment depends on dosage and date of treatment, duration and temperature of storage, agricultural technology and cultivar. Low doses of treatment may be inefficient while too high dosage may result in cell deterioration or death and poor immunity, and eventually to disease development. Too early treatment may damage a tuber since it should pass through suberization (wound healing) after harvest; too late treatment requires higher doses. The proper adjustment of treatment is necessary for cultivar and individual storage conditions.

The paper deals with a complex of problems connected to language policy in Republic of Kazakhstan. The research accent is given to the state trilingual trajectory, as well as to the conflicts between languages and cultures and possible ways to overcome them. Authors try to illustrate their point of view using different arguments from cultural studies in language, education. Language policy. Method of description is combined with historical comments and cultural analysis. The paper may be useful for specialists in philology, who’s area of scientific interest is Language planning.

The paper deals with the Russian words referring to ‘freedom’ ( svoboda , volia , and their derivatives svobodnyj , vol’nyi , vol’nost’ , etc.) in both synchronic and diachronic aspects. I seek to elaborate and to refine the analysis given in some earlier publications (by Anna Wierzbicka and by myself). The paper analyzes the spatial dimension of the semantics of the words under consideration, the contrast between svoboda and volia before the Revolution, their semantic development during Soviet times and their current semantic status. It also considers metalinguistic comments on their semantics by Russian speakers. I make special reference to the role of these words in The First Circle by Alexander Solzhenitsyn and the problem of their translation into other languages. In addition, I briefly consider the use of the words in question in the translations of various texts into Russian (with reference to the parallel corpora of the Russian National Corpus). The starting point for such an analysis is the assumption that one may regard translation equivalents and paraphrases of a linguistic unit extracted from real translated texts as a source of information about its semantics. This approach is particularly efficient in case of language-specific words that defy translation. Translations into Russian may be even more revealing in this respect: when Russian is the source language, the choice of a paraphrase depends on the translator’s meta-linguistic reflection while an occurrence of a Russian language-specific expression in the target text, more often than not reflects a “naïve” choice of words as a part of “natural” linguistic activity.

Natural frequencies and mode shapes are important properties of engineering structures and buildings. Modal analysis of the prestressed membrane structures made of orthotropic material is described in this paper. The equation of motion of the system with finite number of degrees of freedom was given in the matrix form. Features of the modal analysis of prestressed system are described. To validate our technique, we have found in the literature and repeated the modal analysis of cylindrical membrane structure (inflated beam). In the source paper the analytical solutions for the natural frequencies were obtained for the one-dimensional (beam) model with taking into account orthotropic mechanical properties and prestress. In this paper the test case was solved for the spatial shell model using finite element analysis, realized in program software “ANSYS Mechanical”. Comparison between authors’ results and results described in reference is carried out. The possible reasons of results divergence are explained. The validated technique has been applied to modal analysis of an air-supported structure based on the rectangular plan of 20×50 m. Models with different mesh sizes were used to achieve the mesh convergence of results. Almost linear dependence between internal pressure and squares of natural frequencies has been received. This result is in the accordance with known solutions, described in the literature for isotropic membranes.

In the middle - second half of 2010s the Euro-Atlantic community faces with the necessity to struggle against international terrorism at the huge arc of unstable states including Mali, Libya, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. Unlike the first Western coalition (2001-2014) designed to fight al-Qaeda, focused on the struggle against ISIS the second Western coalition does not become the unifying mechanism of a significant part of anti-terrorist military efforts by Western countries. The article covers the reasons of this tendency on the example of Germany as the emerging power. The key methods of the investigation are the exploration of the important military steps (contingents’ deployment, the change of their tasks and the number of troops) in the format of event-analysis and comparative analysis. The paper aims at exploration of the features of military tools’ usage by Germany in the struggle against international terrorism in conjunction with the activity of the second Western coalition. The article considers the reasons of the late German joining the activity of the second coalition at the Syrian and Iraqi theatres of war. In this regard the scientific research covers the main forms of mostly non-military Bundeswehr usage in Mesopotamia and focuses on the cooperation with France. The article also explores the determination of these tendencies. The paper pays attention to German military build-up under NATO activity in Afghanistan and shows that the reasons of it are the strengthening ISIS positions in the country and the failures of Germany and its ISAF partners in the process of Afghan security forces creation in 2002-2014. The scientific research explores the forms of Bundeswehr usage for the struggle against international terrorism at the phone of extension of the areas of this activity at the continent. The author tries to create the scheme of Bundeswehr usage for the struggle against ISIS and its friendly oriented forces at the arc of unstable states from Mali to Afghanistan. The article concludes about the contours of German perspective military presence in the countries which are going on the road of internal stabilization.

In a book entitled The Sermon on the Mount: The modern Quest for its meaning, theologian Clarence Bauman (1985) discusses, inter alia, Jesus’ teaching on “anger”. The book opens with a chapter on Tolstoy: “Leo Tolstoy: The moral challenges of literal interpretation”: “Christ’s first commandment is “Do not be angry” (Matthew 5: 22-25). Tolstoy noted that the text had been tampered with by redactors. By the fifth century the word εικη, meaning “needlessly” or “without cause,” had been inserted into the initial uncondi-tional statement: “Whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause...”. But what did Jesus really teach about “anger”? The term used in Matthew’s Gospel (5:22) is of course not the English word anger but the Greek word orgizomai - and the two don’t mean the same. The term used by Tolstoy - the Russian word gnevat’sja - is different in meaning from both anger and orgizomai. But the word used by Jesus was neither English, nor Greek, nor Russian, but Aramaic. So what did that Aramaic word mean - and what did Jesus intend to say with it? Tolstoy’s impulse to look for the “literal interpretation” is understandable, but as this chapter shows, the idea that we can pinpoint what Jesus meant with one word, from a particular lan-guage (be it Russian, English, Greek or Aramaic) is simplistic. The paper argues that in order to fully under-stand Jesus’ teaching about “anger” in a precise and unbiased way, we need to go beyond single words of this or that language, and to try to articulate it through simple sentences couched in universal (i.e. universally-contestable) words. Furthermore, the paper shows that what applies to Jesus’ teaching about emotions applies also to Jesus’ “emotional practice”. What did he feel when he saw someone doing some-thing very bad, or someone to whom something very bad was happening? As the paper demonstrates, the “Natural Semantic Metalanguage” (NSM) developed by the author and colleagues allows us to replace crude formulations such as “Did Jesus feel angry?” or “What did Jesus teach about anger?” with questions which are far more fine-grained, and which enable us to reach far more fine-grained, and more meaningful answers.

Clusters and cluster strategies are considered as pivotal elements of our global knowledgebased economies. The paper focuses on the Russian and French cases. The two countries have a lot of similarities, important resources in research and development, in technology, a top-down tradition on public policy. They face the same challenges; the necessity to deepen knowledge-based processes to foster innovation, to improve the relations between research and industries, between research institutions, large firms and SMEs. The paper analyses the cluster strategies implemented in the two countries, which display common objectives but specific paths.

The myth about Hades and Persephone is analyzed in this article as an archetypical pattern, “characters’ structural precondition”. The pattern was widely used by artists and writers throughout the history of humankind. The paper is based on Homeric Hymn to Demeter, Metamorphoses by Ovid and a novel written by A. Beliy The Baptized Chinaman. Additional resources are the Renaissance and the Pre-Raphaelites art masterpieces and psychological work by C.G. Jung and С. Kerenyi Essays on a Science of Mythology. Methods such as comparative, mythological, psychological and linguistic analysis are applied in the paper. Cultural and philosophical ground of Hades and Persephone’s archetypes is examined. The most important characteristic among others is highly controversial relationship between gods and ambivalence of their characters, which demands a link component (mediator) to resolve the conflict. Pomegranate seeds are used as such symbolic mediators in the myth and a child narrator - in A. Beliy’s novel. The representation and embodiment of Hades’ archetype is Michael Letaev, while Kotik’s mother possesses Persephone’s traits. Plot allusions were distinguished and linguistic comparisons were made to prove the notion that neomyth about Hades and Persephone became the source of A. Beliy’s “desperate symbolism”. This neomyth contains archetypical motives and images which help Beliy to cross the line between reality and the world of unconscious, between words and symbols.

The worldview of any ethnic group includes the concept of “family” as one of the key cultural constants. Lexical means of its expression possess both universal value and cultural specifics, which account for the importance of the study undertaken in this paper. The research deals with phraseological units belonging to the thematic field “kinship relations” in languages of different origin: Russian, English and Kumyk. The difference in their properties is explained by the fact that Russian is one of the inflectional synthetic East Slavic languages; English is an analytical language belonging to the Germanic branch of the Indo-European family; and Kumyk is an agglutinative language, which belongs to the Kipchak group of Turkic languages. The multifaceted comparative study of lexico-semantic components expressing the vertical type of kinship, their structure and means of expression is aimed at the discovery of cultural specifics in the perception and understanding of the concept “family” in Russian, English and Kumyk. The paper contains a structured analysis of lexical characteristics of the lexeme “family” (“line”, “clan”, “tribe”, “nation”) arranged on the linguistic, conceptual and mental levels. The research is done from the perspective of cultural studies, cognitive linguistics and semantics. It employs the methods of descriptive, analytical and semantic analyses (with elements of componental and definitional analyses). The study contributes to a broader discussion of the correlation of language and mind and is significant for revealing the culture-specific linguistic and cognitive features of Russian, English and Kumyk cultures. The comparative study of phraseological units belonging to the thematic field “kinship relations” is instrumental in revealing communalities and differences in the worldviews of the three cultures.