Search

The withdrawal of US troops and the rapid takeover of Kabul by the Taliban (recognized as a terrorist organization and banned in the Russian Federation) in Afghanistan in 2021 shocked the world community. Even though the PRC actively opposes international terrorism, which the Taliban movement (recognized as a terrorist organization and banned in the Russian Federation) is accused of supporting, it has become one of the few countries that have begun to cooperate with the new Afghan regime. In the light of these events, China’s view of the situation in Afghanistan is puzzling, in particular, we are interested in how these events are reported in Chinese press. In this paper, first, we trace the evolution of the PRC’s official position on Afghanistan, and then, using frame analysis, analyze the coverage of the events of 2021 in the PRC by focusing on three authoritative newspapers, Chinese language versions of “People’s Daily”, “Global Times”, and “The Paper”. Our study demonstrates that the Chinese press supports China’s foreign policy in general and its policy in Afghanistan in particular. Stability in Afghanistan and cooperation with the Taliban (recognized as a terrorist organization and banned in the Russian Federation) on issues of Uighur separatism are important for China’s national security. In the Chinese media, the Taliban (recognized as a terrorist organization and banned in the Russian Federation) are not presented as accomplices of terrorism, which China is fighting within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization but are described as representatives of the Afghan people who aim to restore the security and stability in the country. When discussing the Taliban (recognized as a terrorist organization and banned in the Russian Federation) takeover in the Chinese media, the focus is often not on the crimes of the new regime - repression, abuse of power, restriction of rights, but on shortcoming of the US policy. The latter reflects an important discursive practice in the Chinese media, “othering” the United States.

Law as a special kind of ideal being, generates its own system of ideas and meanings, the verbal representation of which involves not only directly nominative linguistic units, but also semantic tropes, namely, metaphor. Metaphor is a little-studied linguistic phenomenon in legal science, whose functioning in the language of law is denied by many researchers. However, metaphor is an integral component of the nature of law, realized in its various sources. Stemmed from the deep structures of language, metaphor allows appealing to a priori ideas of law of metaphysical level, not subject to rational argumentation, which becomes an integral part of the legal system, making the legal text understandable and accessible to the recipient. The relevance of the chosen topic is conditioned by the necessity to study the metaphorical meanings of legal language at the stage of creating law and interpreting legal realities. For this end the author uses the methods of semantic analysis, and, in general, raises interest in metaphor and metaphorical model in modern science, as well as functioning of metaphor in the legal space. The novelty of the idea underlying the paper lies in applying metaphorical models for legal texts interpretation. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to prove that metaphorical mechanisms are not alien to the language of law; metaphorical model is one of the most productive in the process of semantization of ideas of law. In the light of the above, application of linguistic tools, primarily, the methods of semantic analysis, to the study of legal language and the language of law, in particular, is relevant. Modern methodological tools of linguistics are able to supplement the traditional methods of legal argumentation and interpretation, actualizing their form and content. The main methods of the research are the linguistic-legal method, logical-linguistic method, methods of historical, contextual and motivational analysis. Frequency and universality of the mechanism of metaphorical modelling for the language of law, actualize new functions of metaphor.

The paper examines the issues of bringing controlling persons to subsidiary liability for the obligations of a company excluded from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. The article determines the judicial procedure for holding controlling persons accountable for claims of creditors. It analyzes the provisions of Russian legislation and judicial practice regarding the grounds for prosecution under paragraph 3.1 Article 3 of the Law on Limited Liability Companies.The research reveals the effect of this rule of law over time and it essence, which excludes the use of the construction of limited liability of participants in a business company. An overview of the legal positions of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation on the issues under consideration including the circle of responsible persons, distribution of burden and circumstances of evidence is provided. The paper distinguishes characteristics of good faith and reasonable behavior of creditors and controlling persons as well as legal presumptions corresponding to the circumstance of the case. The conclusion is formulated on the recognition of subsidiary liability by inheritance of debts of a corporate organization. The paper investigates the competence of the court considering disputes on bringing to subsidiary liability of persons controlling a corporation and distinguishes between the corporate (under the general rules of litigation) and bankruptcy (under the rules of class action) proceedings. The characteristics of the powers of creditors acting in the interests of their civil law community are given. The research allows to ensure uniformity of judicial practice at interpreting the applicable rules of law.

The information about main results on geometry of developable surfaces with an edge of regression which have a directrix ellipse in the base is gathered. These surfaces constitute a group called “Ruled surfaces of conical type on elliptical base”. This group includes elliptical cones, torses with two ellipses defined in the parallel planes, equal slope surfaces, and ruled surfaces with the main frame of three superellipses that are ellipses in one coordinate plane and broken straight lines in the other two coordinate planes. The paper presents a method for developing torses onto a plane, approximation of torses by folded surfaces, and parabolic ending of a thin sheet from elastic material into a torse shell. A brief review of the methods of stress-strain and buckling analysis of the considered ruled shells is given, including the displacement-based finite element method and variational energy method. It is shown that analytical methods can be used only in the case of applying the momentless shell theory for ruled thin shells of conical type. The analytical formulae for determining the normal and tangent internal forces in any momentless conic shell with a superellipse in the base are derived. References to forty four scientific articles of other authors, working or having worked on the subject of the paper are given. These references confirm the conclusions of the author and the perspectives of investigations of the considered ruled surfaces and shells.

Metaphor has been established and extensively examined as one of the tools experts deploy to explain, simplify and transform complex scientific discourse into the knowledge suitable for the audience of non-experts. However, relatively little research has been conducted on metaphor scenario (Musolff 2006, 2016a) and its role in this process. Therefore, in this paper we explore how metaphor scenario is used to explain Covid-19 vaccines’ safety and effectiveness to the population in an understandable manner in order to speed up the immunization process in Serbia. By analysing a data set gathered from various Serbian electronic news media sources ( NovaS , N1 , Danas , Vreme , Večernje novosti , Mondo , Politika , Telegraf , Krug ) published from January to December 2021, we aim to explore (1) how the three metaphor scenarios, combat, container and movement, may help simplify complex scientific concepts in the pro-vaccine discourse; and (2) how the conceptual elements of these scenarios and their interconnected relations are used for this purpose. The findings showed that these conventional scenarios manifest their explanatory potential by means of several sub-scenarios, whose conceptual elements establish useful mappings relying on rarely used components of source domains. The results confirm that metaphor scenarios may be used strategically by medical experts as an apt explanatory tool to simplify challengingly complex scientific concepts to the general public. The paper contributes to current research on the role that metaphor and other cognitive instruments play in science popularization.

As the geopolitical situation changes, it is necessary to discuss how politics is structured by metaphor in the context of recent social phenomena, such as the European migrant crisis. This paper analyses the conceptual metaphors politics as war, politics as a game, politics as a trade, and politics as a theater in British and Bosnian-Herzegovinian newspapers. The goal of this study is to establish to what extent and in which situations journalists resort to figurative language to persuade the recipients to view politics in a desired way. The paper aims to reflect on the use of deliberate metaphor as a perspective-changing device by journalists striving to achieve their rhetorical goals and influence recipients’ perception of the political situation. The corpus comprises 174 British and 307 Bosnian-Herzegovinian articles collected from August 2015 to March 2016 (247,912 words). Relying on Steen et al.’s (2010) model of metaphor analysis, the paper investigates the types of metaphor in the corpus, the deliberate use of politics metaphors and their communicative function in migration discourse - discussing both the rhetorical goals of journalists and the rhetorical effects on recipients. It has been established that the analyzed set of metaphors has a divertive and persuasive function in migration discourse. Similar studies are encouraged to shed light on how deliberate metaphors related to politics may have diverging communicative functions in other types of discourse.

Cognitive linguistic investigations into the metaphorical conceptualization of anger suggest that languages are remarkably similar on a schematic level, with intensity and control as two, possibly universal dimensions underlying the metaphorical conceptualization of anger. These dimensions, however, can manifest themselves in language-specific metaphors. Yet arriving at a definitive answer to the question of universality versus variation is hindered by (a) a relatively limited number of systematic, contrastive analyses; and (b) varied methodologies, with some papers adopting a type-based account, while others following a token-based analysis. We take up both challenges in the present paper with the aim of offering a more definitive answer to the question of the universality and variation of anger metaphors. We investigate the anger metaphors of a type-based analysis, focusing on dictionary data of anger-related idioms, and a token-based analysis, focusing on data collected from online corpora, in three languages: (American) English (2,000 random instances of the lemma anger from the Corpus of Contemporary American English), Hungarian (1,000 instances of the lemma düh from the Hungarian National Corpus) and Russian (1,000 instances of the lemma gnev from the Russian National Corpus). The lexical data were analyzed with the well-established Metaphor Identification Procedure (MIP). Our results indicate that there is a great deal of congruence relative to shared metaphors in both approaches, but this derives from specific-level metaphors in the lexical approach, whereas it derives from more schematic, generic-level metaphors in the corpus-based approach. The study shows that the full picture of the metaphorical conceptualization of a complex emotion concept such as anger can only emerge with the combination of the type- and token-based approach.

Most papers written on polysemy focus on sense overlaps and lexical ambiguity, yet studies that explore the possibility of establishing a polysemic complex and explaining how the new interpretations arise through metaphor are almost non-existent in Arabic. This paper aims to explore how metaphor serves to create new concepts as part of polysemic complexes through adopting Dynamic Conceptual Semantics. The target words are bidʒannin [make mad][1] in Jordanian Arabic (JA) and mad in American English (AE). An online questionnaire containing 15 items was sent to forty participants (20 JA speakers and 20 AE speakers) where they were asked to provide the interpretations of the words bidʒannin and mad in contextualized sentences. The AE contextualized instances of mad were collected from Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) which generated 5,168 tokens of mad (in the years 2015/2019). The questionnaire results were discussed in a semi-structured focus-group discussion involving 10 participants. We have demonstrated that when an expression is deemed suitable for all situations categorized under both the primary perspective of madness and a related perspective involving exaggerated descriptions of entities, a concept (P) emerges that bears similarity or relevance to the polysemic complex ( bidʒannin\mad ) to which the expression belongs. In such cases, we can consider the related perspective (P') as a member of the polysemic complex ( bidʒannin\mad ). Thus, this study explains how the same metaphor can lead to a complex of multiple meanings in two different languages that are not necessarily related to each other.

In the current climate ecolinguistic research has arguably never been more important, as its basic premises regard the survival of life on Earth and key philosophical questions hitherto under-acknowledged by mainstream science. In recent decades, environmental thinking has made great advances in shaping current opinions towards nature and the non-human world. The goal of this paper is to explore certain currents of mediated thinking in modern Britain regarding nature, in order to assess how far expressions of sorrow for the felling of a prominent tree might correspond to a genuine ecological sentiment. The study explores public responses to an apparent case of eco-vandalism, the felling of the Sycamore Gap tree in September 2023 in Northumberland, using data taken from social media and other online sources such as e-newspapers. From the point of view of Ecolinguistic theory and that of Positive Discourse Analysis it applies critical lenses such as Evaluation and Discourse Pragmatics to dig beneath the surface of texts produced on the topic, in order to explore diverse current attitudes to trees in the UK. The paper finds that, though there are instances in which people appear to express grief for the loss of the Sycamore Gap tree, it is possible to account for these in ways that lessen the likelihood that they are motivated by purely ecological sentiment. In practice human attitudes towards trees tend to be superficial and instrumental, and this tendency is also found here. The Sycamore Gap event brings many latent social attitudes into play, and this paper thus contributes to the developing field of Ecolinguistics by focusing on tree-centred narratives, distinguishing between inherent ideologies of pseudo- and authentic environmental sensitivity.

This paper, for the first time in Russian historiography, provides information on the 6th-10th centuries history of Dagestan on the basis of translation, commentary and comparative analysis of excerpts in relation to the history of Caucasian peoples from AbūʿUbayd al-Bakrī’s (d.1094) Kitāb al-masālik wa-al-mamālik (A Book of Routes and Countries). This work presents a brief description of different polities: indicating trade routes, distances between towns etc. sort of the administrative directory. Kitāb al-masālik wa-al-mamālik is considered as one of the important sources on south-western and north-western Africa history, particularly, during the period of the Almoravids’ reign (1040-1147). As for the information about the Caucasus given by al-Bakri so it’s largely not original. The paper discusses the main aspects of al-Bakrī’s life and scholarly activities who was an expert in Islamic history and Arabic geography. He particularly outlines the history of different Caucasian polities like Derbent; describes the Caspian sea; gives detailed list of routes and distance between polities etc. Moreover, I compared some reports on Dagestan from Muruj az-zahab and Kitab at-tanbih by al-Mas‘udi and al-Bakrī’s work in order to find out whether the origin of the material is the same.

All living organisms are surrounded by natural and artificial origin electromagnetic radiation (EMR), which affects organisms. The artificial radiation sources number is increasing, but the EMR influence mechanisms on living organisms have not yet been fully investigated, despite the large number of studies. However, understanding the EMR action mechanisms can give impetus to the development of various biotechnologies. To solve the problem of understanding the EMR effects on organisms and develop new biotechnologies, it is necessary to apply new research methods. Therefore, the study of research methods is an urgent task. This research is a review of studies and research methods on the effects, of EMR on organisms. It brings together studies that consider different approaches to the study and existing hypotheses of the mechanisms of radiation effects. The aim of the paper is to review and evaluate methodological approaches to investigate the effects of EMR. The paper considers research on the EMR effects on microorganisms, eubacteria. Based on the results of the work, it is proposed to study the effect of radiation lasting several hours. As well as to apply spectrophotometry and fluorimetry methods.

Since entering the era of bioeconomy, the biotechnology industry economy represented by the bio pharmaceutical industry is leading a new wave of technological revolution. China’s strategic deployment for the bio pharmaceutical industry economy has achieved remarkable results, but there is still a large competitive gap compared with the United States and other biomedical powers. The goal of this article is to study the American biomedical market and find out the gap, so as to provide inspiration for the development of the biomedical industry in China and other countries. The Porter Diamond Model is used to build the theoretical research method analysis framework of the international competitiveness of the bio pharmaceutical industry. Taking the United States as an example, the paper analyzes its competitive advantages in six aspects: the elements of the biomedical industry, the enterprise structure and competition, the demand conditions, the relevant and supporting industries, the government and development opportunities. Based on this, the paper puts forward policy recommendations conclusions for China’s development of the bio pharmaceutical industry, so as to provide reference value for the development of the pharmaceutical industry.

The Russian-Ukrainian conflict is the most serious crisis in international relations since the Cold War. This is not only a turning point in Russian-Ukrainian relations, but also a deep crisis in Russian-Western relations, which marked a change in Moscow’s approach to relations with the West, and the transition from past dialogue to today’s struggle. China, as a third party in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, took a neutral position from the very beginning, and ignored any requests from the United States and the West to somehow influence Russia. China’s position has increasingly attracted the attention of the Western media, and Beijing has begun to receive accusations from the West of supporting Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine. This paper analyzes the articles published by Chinese academic experts on the media, and analyzes the content of Chinese popular media websites, such as CCTV News The Paper, Guanchazhe for the period from April 1, 2022 to December 1, 2022. In the course of the study, the authors come to the conclusion that the Chinese media mostly cover the events in Ukraine in a neutral way, they try to balance and not criticize Moscow when it comes to Russian-Western relations. Chinese experts have different views and thoughts when talking about the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and Russian-Western relations. Some Chinese analysts talked about Russia’s victory over the West, while others believe that Russia may end up with nothing. The authors concludes that the West and Russia may fall into a new Cold War, and this Cold War may turn out to be even more brutal than the last one for three main reasons: because of the all-encompassing military confrontation, because of economic isolation, and because of breakdown of humanitarian ties.

The proposed paper is a study of resource nationalism. Resource nationalism appeared in Mongolia in the post-Socialist period. In this paper, we understand resource nationalism as a wide spectrum of strategies domestic elites employ in order to increase their control of natural resources - definition by Paul Domjan and Matt Stone. After an analysis of legal materials, mass media articles and political rhetoric, the author of this paper concludes that the sources of resource nationalism should be searched in the texts that date back to the Socialist era. Also, the sources of resource nationalism can be found in the ideas about justice of those times. The idea that natural resources belong to the people has been fixed in mass opinion, while contemporary nationalists justify this idea from the standpoint of “blood and soil”. That creates serious problems for Mongolia, a country with resource economy. The matter is that economic growth driven with foreign investments has caused a deep social stratification. In its turn, social stratification gave birth to a social demand for fair profit distribution from natural resource extraction. In the political sphere, this social demand quickly received a reaction - in the form of resource nationalism rhetoric. In the paper, we notice that resource nationalism in Mongolia has not been formed as a vivid legal or political doctrine. Today, it is a set of populist rhetoric of current interest which are used both for lobbying future political decisions in mining and for legitimizing the decisions already made.

Global technological transformations of key areas of life of contemporary society, the formation and active functioning of global and national digital institutions that influence current socio-political processes, and the digitalization of social relations form a demand for comprehensive scientific research on the processes of digital influence on the development and functioning of modern social systems. This article is aimed at considering the problem of the relationship between digital and worldview aspects of the functioning of modern societies. In connection with this, the research issue was to determine the degree and nature of the influence of digitalization processes, as well as directly the digital environment and institutions on the content aspects of the individual’s worldview. This research question is directly related to the study of the phenomenon of public consent in the context of the formation of digital polymentality. To answer the research question posed in the paper, the authors conducted a discourse analysis of the existing scientific literature on the relationship between digitalization and worldview in the pro et contra logic. An international expert study was also conducted, which made it possible to identify the main expert positions on the study, as well as the key risks, threats, and challenges in the field of preserving the traditional worldview and achieving public consent based on the unity of value-semantic and worldview ideas of individuals. The main conclusion of the paper is the fundamental ambiguity of the positions of scientists and experts, justified by the results of the study, in assessing the degree and nature of the influence of digitalization, the digital environment and institutions on the content parameters of the worldview of a modern person, as well as the ambiguity of the value-semantic attitudes formed and maintained in the digital environment.

The purpose of the research is to develop a variational method for calculation of three-dimensional structures based on approximating functions with finite carriers of an arbitrary degree of approximation. In the early papers of the authors, the method was presented in a linear formulation, and the possibility of calculating both three-dimensional compound structures and thin shells was shown. This paper proposes an algorithm for strength calculation of thick and thin shells with elastic-plastic deformations. The geometry of shells is described in a curvilinear orthogonal coordinate system, e.g., in cylindrical, spherical, or conical ones. The calculation method uses the basic equations of small elastic-plastic deformations for the curvilinear coordinate system. The calculation algorithm was based on a model of material with linear strengthening. To obtain a resolving system of nonlinear equations, the Lagrange variational principle is used. The problem is solved by means of iteration. The first iteration corresponds to a linear problem. At each iteration, after solving the system of equations, the intensities of deformations at each point of integration are calculated. These intensities of deformations are substituted into the matrices of elasticity at the following iterations. The process of iteration is characterized by recalculation of the elasticity matrix at each iteration in each integration point. The researche have shown a stable convergence of the process of iteration. A testing solution of elastic-plastic deformation problems of a thick pipe and a thin shell was carried out. The calculation results were in good agreement with the results obtained both by classical formulas for elastic plastic deformation and with the results of calculations in the Ansys Mechanical program.

The Global Innovation Index 2022 ranks the Republic of Uzbekistan among the top three economies in Central and South Asia. The country has been active in introducing innovations in various fields, from road transport technologies to biotechnology. The relevant programmes and resolutions of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan have been adopted. The Republic of Uzbekistan is becoming an increasingly attractive destination for foreign investment. The country has a strong potential and abundant resources, both natural and human. By pursuing a consistent policy, the Republic of Uzbekistan is gradually beginning to assert itself on the world stage, and is striving to become a leader in Central Asia. Thus, the consideration of new projects carried out within the framework of innovation policy is relevant. The aim of the presented paper is to identify main innovation policy development trends in the Republic of Uzbekistan. To analyze the innovation policy of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the authors considered the Decree of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan coordinating the activities of the Ministry of Innovation Development, the New Uzbekistan Development Strategy for 2022-2026, as well as local and Russian experts’ assessments. The research literature, mass media sources, public opinion polls and statistical data, as well as the legal framework were studied. In this paper a diagnosis of the Ministry of Innovative Development of the Republic of Uzbekistan has been made, and the key tasks and directions of the country’s reforms in this area have been identified. The main projects, which attract significant investments and introduce new technologies and personnel, are described. The author’s position is as follows: the government of the Republic of Uzbekistan is struggling with the problems that hinder innovation reforms, as well as actively developing cooperation with foreign countries, international organizations and attracts the investments of private investors.

The paper considers the problem of price and financial stability of the Bank of Russia, as well as the issue of the influence of inflation and currency exchange rate volatility on economic growth rates. It has been proved that the growth in prices for services has a significant impact on the inflation dynamics. It is the dynamics of the consumer price index for services that generally determine inflation in the service sector. It has been substantiated that in the policy of the Bank of Russia it is expedient to use non-monetary instruments to reduce inflation, namely the development of competition and control over the pricing mechanism on the market. Effective measures that contribute to reducing the variation in prices for services and inflation are: raising competition in the economy and the growth of control over the activities of natural monopolies; measures aimed at developing competition in the housing and communal services market, control over the formation of tariffs in the light of the implementation of programs intended to increase the efficiency of natural monopoly subjects; implementation of the requirements for the growth of transparency and openness of the activities of natural monopolies, especially in terms of tariff calculation, as well as the growth of control over their activities; the participation of the Bank of Russia, together with the territorial offices of the Bank of Russia and the Offices of the Federal Antimonopoly Service in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, in the process of monitoring and approving the tariffs of natural monopolies. Based on the results of the study, the authors of the paper developed proposals for non-monetary instruments as a measure to reduce inflation and improve the policy effectiveness of the Bank of Russia on inflation targeting.

In this paper, the authors consider models for building digital economy systems in foreign countries. The relevance of research is primarily due to the need to develop a clear and coherent understanding of the optimal scheme of digital construction in the economy of the Russian Federation, which at the initial stage is impossible without analyzing the experience already existing in the world. It is necessary to identify both stimulating and inhibiting factors that influence the effectiveness of the digital transformation of foreign economic systems. The purpose of the study is to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the most successful global models of building a digital economy, followed by the development of an understanding of their applicability in Russia. Thus, in this paper, the authors offered their answer to the question: “Can the Russian Federation successfully apply the already proven strategy of digital transformation of the economy or is it necessary to develop unique own solutions?” To do this, the authors examined statistical data characterizing the economy of advanced states from the point of view of digital transformation, regulatory documents regulating state policy in this area, as well as the positions of researchers working in this direction. The use of the statistical analysis method made it possible to compare the factors of influence and the results of digital construction. Within the framework of a formal and logical approach based on the study of the provisions of strategic planning documents of foreign countries, the authors formulated some possible scenarios for the further development of the digital transformation of the economies of Europe, the United States and China. As a result of the conducted research, the authors concluded about the possibility of using certain digital construction tools used abroad, in Russia, and also assess the degree of effectiveness of the introduction of foreign models of digital transformation into the practice of the domestic economy.

In the course of its postcolonial development, the African continent has faced many challenges, ranging from socio-economic crises to political instability and the proliferation of terrorism. The lack of security, which remains a source of constant concern for Africans, and the gradual disengagement of the international community, primarily the United Nations (UN), from armed involvement in the resolution of military conflicts on the continent in the 1990s, led to the emergence of the concept of “African solutions to African problems.” The phrase, which reflects the determination of Africans to solve their problems without the participation of external actors, has become a source of their pride; however, the possibility and ability of the inhabitants of the continent to implement this approach still raises justified doubts for a number of reasons that are to be discussed in this paper. The concept of “African solutions to African problems” has now become the main principle that determines the level and nature of the peacekeeping activities of the African Union (AU) and African regional blocs; the verbal adherence of the AU member states to this maxim has been noted by many Russian and foreign researchers. However, a comprehensive analysis of the reasons for the unsuccessful implementation of this concept has not yet been carried out by Russian scholars, so the present article aims to fill this gap. In particular, the paper examines attempts of Africans to solve their problems in the field of security independently. The study allows us to claim that the African continent, primarily due to its insufficient integration and lack of consensus on a number of issues of political development and security, is not yet ready to carry out full-fledged peacekeeping operations without external support, although the gradual acquisition of relevant experience, the decrease in economic dependence on the West, and the diversification of foreign policy will contribute to laying a solid foundation for the idea of “African solutions to African problems.”

The paper considers benefits and drawbacks of the Picture Naming Test (PNT) as a diagnostic method suggesting the ways to improve its diagnostic and research validity. Although this test is popular in both national and international neuropsychological assessment and research practice, its use is largely due to tradition and practical convenience. However, theoretical underpinnings for its effectiveness are not sufficiently represented in the pertinent literature, which determines the relevance of the study. The major objective of the paper is to consider the PNT as a research technique from the point of view of psycholinguistics, cognitive science, and corpus linguistics and to propose integrated approaches for the further development of these tests. The material comprises picture naming tests developed for the Russian and English languages. The study sets the following aims: 1) to define the main features of PNT and the principles of its application viewed from a historical perspective; 2) to identify the theoretical foundations (linguistic and neuropsychological) for its use as a diagnostic tool; 3) to highlight the problematic aspects of the method; 4) to suggest possible ways to eliminate them. To accomplish these tasks, various methods of corpus linguistics are applied throughout the article. The historical outline of PNT development suggests that the current design might stem from earlier contexts of use. A review of existing models of lexical access provides a theoretical basis for the test in its current form and suggests possible avenues for its development grounded in experimental research, advances in linguistics and big data analysis. A separate section of the article presents critique of the most popular tests. Finally, the analysis of the existing English and Russian tests through the corpus-based methodology clearly demonstrates the need for more detailed norming and stimuli selection. By way of conclusion the authors outline the principles of designing Picture Naming Tests for specific purposes and put forward a step-by-step algorithm that enables careful selection of the necessary indicators and parameters.

The study investigates the impact of workforce planning on organizational effectiveness in Osun State Civil Service. The research design used is a descriptive survey, while the approximate population size of the ministries is 11,243. This paper adopts a two-stage sampling technique for the collection of data. A total of 240 questionnaires were completely retrieved and utilized for the study. The hypothesis was tested with Pearson Product Moment Correlation and Regression Analysis. The findings show a highly significant linear correlation between workforce planning and organizational effectiveness at a 0.05 significance level. Also, workforce planning significantly impacts organizational effectiveness in Osun State Civil Service, Osogbo. It is concluded that workforce planning will enhance the effectiveness of the organization. The paper recommends that the Human Resource department develop and implement a comprehensive career development training program.

In “The Phenomenology of Spirit” and “Philosophy of Right”, Hegel gives a detailed specification of the theses about the war that were claimed in earlier papers and manuscripts, but his position is not fundamentally changed. In the “The Phenomenology of Spirit” Hegel advocates governments’ need and right to initiate a war from time to time in order to prevent both the isolation and atomization, and let individuals feel the death. As in the past, the war, as Hegel says, has a moment of ethical life. In the “Philosophy of Right” Hegel introduces final deliberations about war that rely on ideas of his earlier paper about natural law even more than in the “The Phenomenology of Spirit”. Hegel emphasizes the ethical role of sacrifice in the war and expresses opinions critical of not an abstract perpetual peace but a concrete philosophical project of Kant. Due to Hegel, Kant’s perpetual peace does not resemble a perpetual deception, since the required union of states is elusive and none except the world spirit in the world history can be a praetor. In line with Heraclitus, Hegel maintains that wars underlie the nature of things. I contribute to the discussions of Hegel scholars if Hegel’s philosophy glorifies a war or not as follows: I substitute the term “glorification” with the term “bellicisme” that suits better to measured, not snobbish and deprived of certain historical implications Hegel’s theses about reasonableness, necessity, the ethicality of war and ethicality of perpetual peace illness.

This paper aims to examine the present and past tense-aspect constructions in Jish Arabic, an undocumented Arabic variety of Upper Galilee (Israel), and delineate their morphological, syntactic, and semantic features. Nine such constructions are identified, and the structure of each construction is discussed. In addition, using the Natural Semantic Metalanguage approach (NSM), an explication (a definition using simple words) of the meaning of each construction is presented. In discussing the Jish Arabic constructions, a comparison is made with their English counterparts, which are chosen as a familiar point of reference. The comparison with English does not make the explications prone to Anglocentrism, as the explications are built via a simple, universal language. This language ensures their translatability into Jish Arabic and their verification by native Jish Arabic speakers. In addition, it makes their meanings accessible to non-specialists, as the explications can be translated into any language. This study can be seen as a contribution to the field of theoretical linguistics, particularly descriptive linguistics, as it documents the tense-aspect constructions of an undocumented variety. In addition, it can be seen as a contribution to the field of applied linguistics, especially as it compares these constructions to their English counterparts. It is hoped that this paper will stimulate the investigation of tense-aspect constructions in other non-standard Arabic varieties, most of which are undocumented.

This paper conducts a comparative analysis of three cases - Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam - to examine the distinctive features of Southeast Asian states’ involvement in peacekeeping. These cases provide representative insights into the motivations and experiences of regional states that joined UN peacekeeping operations at different historical junctures: Indonesia in the 1950s, Thailand in the 1990s, and Vietnam in the 2000s. By identifying the common and unique aspects of this engagement, the authors argue that Southeast Asian nations’ approaches to peacekeeping are deeply rooted in the values that underpin their foreign and domestic policies. Appealing to these values, Southeast Asian states contribute conceptual innovations to existing peacekeeping models, which are predominantly based on Western perspectives. By generalizing the peacekeeping experiences of Southeast Asian states, this paper fills a gap between broader publications that focus on Asian peacekeeping practices and single-country studies. The research underscores that Southeast Asian states, following a challenging period of decolonization and nation-building in the framework imposed by the Westphalian international relations system, have been trying to infuse their own approaches into the Westernized realm of international interaction. Since the 1950s, several regional states have participated in UN peacekeeping operations. The involvement of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in resolving the Cambodian conflict in the late 1980s and the Thailand - Cambodia settlement in 2008-2011 has stimulated the development of regional peacekeeping practices. By contributing to peacekeeping operations, Southeast Asian states aspire to enhance their regional and even global influence. In certain instances, their engagement in peacekeeping has ideological, cultural or religious motivations, or stems from specific foreign and domestic policy considerations.

Research in the field of regional conflict resolution rarely touches on the issue of justice. This paper aims to identify what understanding of international justice underlies Russia’s actions as a mediator/peacekeeper in the process of regional conflict resolution in the 1990s-2010s. The study also contributes to the understanding of Russia’s foreign policy by clarifying Moscow’s views on the essence and parameters of a just global order. The paper provides a study of the dominant Russian views on the essence of justice in international relations. It offers an insight into Russia’s peace-making and conflict resolution activities in the context of the three concepts of global justice and taking into account the factor of national interests. The study concludes that the dominant understanding of international justice in Russia is that which corresponds to Allen Buchanan’s concept of subjective justice. In Moscow’s view, international justice is a set of rules developed in the process of consensus driven negotiations between the great powers. According to this logic, a just settlement of the regional conflict is possible only on the basis of the consensus of the parties to the conflict and in accordance with the interests of the global and regional powers concerned. The fair interaction of the great powers in the settlement of the regional conflict and the impact that the conflict resolution could have on the development of the international order were of crucial importance for Moscow within the period under consideration. Moscow’s activity in the conflict resolution in the post-Soviet space generally corresponded to the model of justice as mutual recognition, but with absolute priority of Russian national interests. The strategy for resolving regional conflicts in the post-Soviet space could only be understood in the broad context of relations with Western countries and has changed in line with the development of these relations.

In January 2022, Kazakhstan was faced with an attempt of a violent change of power in the form of mass protests that spread throughout the country and were organized with the basic techniques of color revolutions. The country’s own law enforcement forces were not able to cope with radical citizens, looters-rioters, and terrorists, and in these circumstances the head of state, K.K. Tokayev, decided to request the support of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) allies, who immediately sent the united peacekeeping troops to the republic. The CSTO peacekeeping mission, coordinated by Russia, successfully restored constitutional order in the country and prevented a violent coup d’état. The purpose of this research is to analyze the course of the January events and actions of the CSTO, as well as their impact on Kazakhstan, the region and the organization itself. The paper is based on interviews with experts from the CSTO member states, studies carried out in this area of research, and statements by official authorities. The synthesis of the research results is divided into thematic blocks and supplemented by the author’s conclusions. The paper mentions aspects such as the transition of power, changes in Kazakhstan’s domestic and foreign policies, the effectiveness of the CSTO organization and the expansion of its potential use. Proposals are also provided regarding the strengthening of defense integration and the need to develop a common regional identity. The research is unique in that it brings expert opinions from six CSTO member states, the results of studies carried out by researchers from Russia, Kazakhstan, and abroad, and the theoretical terminology of Western political ideology. The author presents the area of responsibility of the CSTO as a Eurasian security community based not only on collective security, but also on economic interdependence and a sense of community among the nations of its member states.

In many post-conflict and war-torn countries governance issue is intricately linked to multifaceted aspect. Because rebuilding governance and re-establishing trust in government does not only need the adoption of specific strategies but also reshaping the whole nation from the scratch. Some nations may need a large scale of reforms to ensure effective governance whilst other may require narrow reforms to address small deficiencies. Considering the paper’s heavy reliance on secondary information sources collected from articles published in credible scientific journals, and diverse working papers, governmental reports, book chapters, conference papers, and online sources, the paper used content analysis techniques. Moreover, in order to address the problem multiple factors such as politics, institutional reforms, economic initiatives, human capital development, and the need for expenditure in education in war-torn countries are inspected. The study reveals that in the case of politics and institutional reforms, a war-torn nation must emphasize a transparent political system and solid legal framework that makes it simpler to choose, oversee, and replace persons in positions of responsibility, also a favorable ecosystem that promotes prosperity and growth through solid legislation and different governmental branches. The second crucial measure is reanimating the economy by taking advantage of the agriculture and banking sector since they are the least affected by the war. The third measure is to allocate specific funds to education before any other sector. Besides that, through education and training, war-torn countries will achieve a skilled workforce. Finally, the analysis will offer war-torn nations tangible proof of which socioeconomic factors, reforms, and policies to implement in order to achieve effective governance.

The present paper examines social media account usernames of Russian speakers of English. It aims to classify over a hundred Russian English usernames (collected between 2016–2021) in terms of their structure, typical linguistic features as well as translingual and transcultural patterns that underpin their creation. This paper argues that Russian speakers of English consciously and / or subconsciously creating their usernames employ a number of translingual and transcultural strategies and practices that are aimed at retaining and transmitting Russian linguacultural identity within such global multicultural English-dominated domain as international social media. Apart from signalling Russian identity of their owners, the analyzed usernames demonstrate that Russian social media users being bilingual en masse (at least, at a graphic level), do draw on Russian English for communication within the landscape of this social media thus facilitating further formation of the social media Russian English.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has been in a state of constant political instability since June 30, 1960, i.e., throughout the entire period of its independent development. The country has experienced a series of civil wars and local conflicts, the causes of which, as in other African countries, have been inter-ethnic and inter-confessional tensions, struggle for power and access to natural resources, inability of governments to control the situation in the periphery, etc. The peculiarity of the Congolese conflicts and DRC politics in general is the interference of external actors, primarily neighboring countries. Rwanda has played the greatest role in maintaining permanent instability in the DRC. This has been argued in numerous books and articles by Russian and foreign researchers, but Africanists have not yet carried out a comprehensive analysis of the historical background and contemporary factors of Rwanda’s influence on the situation in the DRC, and the present paper aims at filling this gap. The purpose of the study is to identify the political and economic motives for the presence of the Rwandan army on the Congolese territory, to examine the role of national leaders of the two states - P. Kagame, L.-D. Kabila, J. Kabila, and F. Tshisekedi - in the political development of the DRC, as well as the reasons for the conflict that broke out in 2022 between the DRC and Rwanda. The paper applies a comprehensive approach to the processes and phenomena under consideration, using the principles of comparative data analysis and critical assessment of information. The relevance of the topic of research is due to both the increase in political instability in Africa and in the world as a whole, and the noticeable increase in the influence of African countries on international political and economic processes.

The geographic area of the Sahel is of particular interest when examining regional security issues that have negatively affected political, economic and social interaction on the African continent for decades. The region has seen a massive upsurge in lethal violence, and militant groups continue to expand their activities southward, now threatening coastal West Africa. The paper examines the links between the growing dynamics of the Sahel and the security of Liptako-Gourma, composed of groups of contiguous states rooted in historical and geographical environments. The paper empirically applies the Barry Buzan and Ole Wæver’s “Regional Security Complex Theory” (RSCT) as a framework for studying the discourse of security threats and the dynamics of security challenges in the region. The application of RSCT theory makes a significant contribution to understanding these regional security issues in the Liptako-Gourma region. The complex links between threats demonstrate the likely impossibility of addressing these threats in isolation, and the need for a broader approach. The study interprets the current relationship between France and Mali in relation to Mali’s withdrawal from the G5 Sahel Force as hostile. The authors argue that the regional nature of the security threats strongly supports the claim that geographic proximity is a major contributor to security interactions. The paper also reveals that the individual security of each state cannot be separated from that of its neighbors. Therefore, it is suggested that mutual interests could contribute to a stronger regional security initiative that integrates the fight against a common threat such as terrorism.

The protest movement of the Turkestani indigenous population against the Soviet rule known in history as “Basmachi movement” became the most important stage of the Civil War in the Central Asian territory of the former Russian Empire. This phenomenon, complicated in terms of motivating features, social composition, and ideological dimensions, had been researched throughout the entire period of Soviet Union. However, the researchers were conditioned by rigid ideological framework, the ban on access to documental sources, and several other restrictions, that excluded the possibility to provide unbiased objective assessment of the Basmachi phenomenon. Questions relating to the true causes of the movement, and specifically those that disclosed the support to the movement from the majority of Turkestani population, remained beyond the research scope. The collapse of the USSR, the access to formerly classified closed archives made it possible to largely change the view on the history of this popular protest. In the proposed paper, the author’s research is supported by materials from newly identified sources in the holdings of the Russian State Military Archive and the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History. The author claims in the paper that a significant part of the causes that boosted the scale of the movement and its support from the population resulted from gross mistakes of the Soviet government in socio-political reforms and especially in matters of nationalities policy. Correcting these mistakes, applying new forms and methods of acting on indigenous peoples made it possible for Bolsheviks to gain the victory over the Basmachi and bring the internal political situation in the region to stability.

This paper examines security policy options for Japan at the present stage that may be worth considering in the short term, the midterm, and the long term, respectively. Hence, the aim of the paper is to examine foreign policy security options for Japan in the foreseeable future. While providing a comprehensive overview of the Japanese foreign and security policy at the present stage, the article employs the case study methodological framework to analyze Japan’s foreign policy objectives in case of Tokyo’s relations with the most critical partners in the Asia-Pacific Region - namely, the United States, China, Russia, ASEAN, and Taiwan. Examining the origin and further development of the QUAD, the authors highlight the absence of ASEAN members and India’s hesitation to institutionalize the grouping, while analyzing the Russia-Japan relations they focus on common interests in security cooperation, as well on its limitations. As a result, in the short term, the expansion of the Japan-US alliance to the Indo-Pacific region is the most plausible option. However, without involving the ASEAN countries, the Free and Open IndoPacific (FOIP) strategy can only add Australia and India to the existing Japan-US alliance. In the midterm, an alliance with Russia may be, with some serious limitations, geographically a natural option. In the long term, Japan might need to find a proper place in a China-centered order in East Asia. Therefore, the authors conclude that the relative decline of US influence in East Asia is unavoidable in the coming decades, Japan must adjust or even reconsider its security policy.

The world has been growing more globalised, people have been moving and absorbing different cultural peculiarities. Now intercultural perspective might seem insufficient to describe the extent to which local cultures and identities are linked globally. As a result, language contact and communication between and across cultures have been changing. The present paper aims at studying modern RussianAmerican fiction from intercultural and transcultural perspectives emphasizing the translingual features and transcultural changes. The paper discusses the phenomenon of creative translingualism, which means writing in one or two languages that are not the native tongues. Contemporary American literature may be proud of its modern writers of Russian and Soviet descent: Olga Grushin, Sana Krasikov, Lara Vapnyar, Anya Ulinich, Irina Reyn. All the authors changed their country of birth and moved to the USA and as a result, they chose English as the language of their creative writings. However, the English of their works reflects the Russian language, culture, and identity of the writers making the English text not truly English. The research primarily studies the linguistic tools (borrowing, code mixing, code-switching and broken English) used by the writers to render Russian culture by means of the English language as well as the transcultural shift that has been inevitable and has become an inalienable part of new cultural identities.

Phonemes with restricted distribution represent an interesting analytic challenge. Well-known sources include the adoption of certain phonemes from other languages in borrowed words, emerging phonemic splits, and special phonological subsystems (e.g. ideophones). This paper aims to widen our conception of such marginal phonemes, by incorporating another source: specific vocal gestures called into play in interactional settings. Our initial puzzle involves a restricted phoneme set in the Papuan language Nen: two classes of sounds are restricted to interactive contexts, namely interjections and deictics. These sounds are the nasal vowels ã , ẽ , and the glottal fricative h . Several questions arise here. Should these restricted sounds be considered part of the phoneme system? How did they evolve? How does their presence interact with seemingly equivalent sounds in neighbouring languages, in contexts of possible loanwords? We then pass to two other languages where sounds that are unquestionably phonemes have, in at least some phonotactic positions, clear correlations with interactive uses: initial /ð/ in English, essentially restricted to words of person (thou), space (that), time (then), or discourse deixis (the, though), and glottal stops with morphemic function in Bininj Kunwok, restricted to immediate aspect[43], addressee-engaged demonstratives, and kinship vocatives. It is already known that non-phonemic speech sounds (e.g. what is written mhm in English) are used in interaction. This paper proposes that the special phonetics of interaction can integrate further into the sound system and, in such cases as those presented here, either expand the phonological system in absolute terms by adding new phonemes, or expand the phonotactic possibilities of phonemes already occurring in other phonotactic positions.

Contemporary Russian lexicon is characterized by rapid change which involves borrowings, the use of new words and expressions as well as the development of new meanings from the existing word forms. The new meanings are indicative of new attitudes or the reinforcement of the existing ones. In this context, the paper considers the recently emerged colloquial use of the word zhest’ (from the primary meaning of zhest’ ‘tin’ as a type of metal) and the increase of use of the words zhestkii ‘hard/tough/firm’ and zhestko ‘firmly/toughly’ as examples of ‘internal’ language processes. The word zhest’ is a colloquial word mainly used in youth slang, but also infiltrating other types of discourse. We analyze its use as an interjection, as well as a noun in predicative and attributive functions. Zhestkii and zhestko are shown to rise in use and to be prevalent in the political discourse as a sign of power. The paper aims to trace the rise in frequency of the words under the analysis, study their semantics and establish links between the meaning of the words and broader Russian cultural themes. This kind of linguistic analysis with focus on cultural aspects allows us to identify culturally prevalent ideas in present day Russian. The paper uses the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) as a method of semantic analysis relying on data from the Russian National Corpus. Based on a detailed semantic analysis, the paper proposes NSM explications of zhest’ , zhestkii and zhestko , identifies connections between their meanings and the cultural themes of ‘emotionality’, ‘not being in control’ and ‘strait talk’, and recognizes the increased cultural salience of these words in present day Russian. The study uncovers trends of the contemporary Russian language uses and can be applied in culture-enhanced language teaching and cross-cultural training.

The term system of cognitive linguistics is formed from different areas of knowledge and discursive practices. These terms are usually of English origin. But this system also includes Russian-language words of a commonly used nature, which, as a result of systemthesaurus connections with other terms in scientific communication, acquire the status of a cognitive term. The paper discusses the methodological foundations for understanding these integration processes, which is possible only when considering a system of terms as a form of explication of knowledge at the mental and linguistic levels. The nationwide existence of Russian-language words, possible shades of meaning, which allowed such lexemes to move into a group of terms and replenish the cognitive terminological system, are analyzed. The object of analysis is the original Russian lexemes knowledge and consciousness. The subject of analysis is the components of semantics that have become the basis of the terminological meaning of the indicated lexemes; new systemic connections that arose in the words knowledge and consciousness already as in terms of Russian origin when entering the cognitive terminological system: synonymous, antonymic, hyper- and hyponymic, derivational-epidigmatic. Observation of the functioning of the lexemes knowledge and consciousness in popular and scientific discourses, as well as analysis of the interpretation of these terms in scientific discourse, made it possible to clarify the process of terminology of the commonly used vocabulary of the Russian language. The paper presents the results of using corpus and software tools for modeling the functionality of this knowledge format. The collected information is supported by the results of an associative experiment to verify the data sources obtained through automatic processing. The revealed frequency and specificity of the use of cognitive terms on modern material will allow us to draw meaningful conclusions about a qualitatively new state of cognitive terminology.

This paper attempts to explain linguocultural connotations of phytonomen WILLOW by analyzing the results of process that Russian and Chinese perceive this object in our surrounding world and their aesthetic ideas about it. The relevance of the study is due to the need for an accurate understanding and transmission of the information received in the communication of representatives of different cultures, as well as insufficient knowledge of linguocultural connotations of phytonomen in Russian and Chinese, especially in comparative aspect. The aim of this paper is to study connotations of the lexeme WILLOW in Russian and Chinese linguocultures. The material of the study is proverbs and lyrical works containing the phytonomen WILLOW with special linguocultural connotations for the Russians and Chinese. The paper uses such methods as descriptive, paremiological, contextual, comparative, component analysis, cognitive modeling. The study belongs to the sphere of the current direction in linguistics - comparative linguoculturology and paremiology. The scientific novelty lies in clarification of the historical and cultural associative meanings of the lexeme WILLOW in Russian and Chinese linguocultures. The result of the study is establishing of the fact that WILLOW occupies an important position in both linguocultures. It symbolizes strong life and graceful female image in the two languages. In addition, WILLOW personifies grief, soreness and even funerals in Russian linguoculture and has connotations of «frivolous girl», «farewell», «longing for someone absent or the homeland» in Chinese. Hence follows the conclusion that linguocultural connotations of the lexeme WILLOW in Russian and Chinese do not completely coincide, they have both similarities and differences.

The article is devoted to the analysis of existing domestic and foreign methods for assessing the probability of bankruptcy of organizations in the region. When assessing the financial stability of the entity’s enterprises, various methods are used to assess the financial stability of an organization, the most common approach of which is the coefficient method. However, methods that use factor analysis, which builds a linear dependence of indicators of the financial and economic condition of a regional subject, are gaining popularity. These models are also called bankruptcy prediction models. One of the most popular models is Altman’s five-factor forecasting model and the four-factor model for non-manufacturing organizations. Altman’s approach is simple and versatile. However, this Altman model does not take into account the individuality of the company. British scientists G. Tishaw and R. Taffler modernized Altman’s model. One of the first Russian models for predicting the bankruptcy of economic entities was developed by A.Yu. Davydova and A.Yu. Belikov. This model took into account the relationship between such factors as working and equity capital, assets, net profit, cost and revenue. The following model, showing the financial stability of an enterprise, was formulated by Savitskaya. From the analysis of existing methods and models for assessing the financial and economic condition of regional economic entities, it follows that it is advisable to build a model taking into account: firstly, the individual characteristics of a particular organization; secondly, the choice of indicators and their weighting coefficients in the model must be scientifically justified. Therefore, the paper proposes to determine the financial stability of an organization in the region to form a model that includes the most commonly used in practice, namely the above five models for assessing the probability of bankruptcy of enterprises. At the same time, the industry specifics of organizations were taken into account. The purpose of the study is to form a methodology for assessing the integral level of financial stability of organizations in the region and determining the possible boundaries of its variation. In the course of the study, such methods as comparative, component and factor analysis, experiment were used. The paper presents a methodology for the formation of a generalized factor model for assessing the level of financial condition of regional organizations. The critical values of the integral indicator characterizing the level of financial condition of organizations are also determined.

Understanding the individual and organizational consequences of breach of psychological contract justifies continuing research into the phenomenon. The global competition which has altered business environment has engineered the need for organizations to devise new ways to survive, enhance performance, retaining skilled employees and ensure healthy and progressive relationship between employers and their employees. Today, the biggest challenge that organizations are facing is not only managing its human resource but also retaining them. Securing and retaining skilled employees play an important role for any organization, because the knowledge and skills of employees have become highly important in gaining competitive advantage. It is against this backdrop that this paper explored the concepts of psychological contract and employee retention, the of impact psychological contract on employee retention and HR practices that influences the state or nature of the psychological contract and employee retention. The paper also peeps into the effect of covid-19 on psychological contract and employee retention. The paper adopted qualitative research design as it relies on secondary data collected from documentations through books, internet sources and journal articles and were content analyzed in relation to the scope of the study. The paper concludes that a significant important should be accorded to the informal contract of employment to ensure fulfillment of obligations and expectations to retain competent and skilled workforce. Thus, the paper recommends among others that Organizations should encourage flexible working arrangements such as telecommuting and prevent discrimination and exclusion relating to Covid-19 pandemic.

The study is devoted to the problem of the correlation of linguistic and extralinguistic operations in the creative workshop of an outstanding linguistic persona, the successor of the realistic traditions of Russian and world theater, the great reformer of theatrical art, actor, director, teacher, theatrical thinker K.S. Stanislavsky. We chose the iconic sign-words of his “system” - spirit and soul - for analysis in all the versatility of their meaning considered in compliance with the semiotic and semantic theory of L.A. Novikov. The study searches for the code content of words in the system and provides the practice of their use by K.S. Stanislavsky, conditioned, firstly, by censorship (an extralinguistic factor), secondly, by the lexicographic practice, and thirdly, by the author’s attitude to the value of the word-sign in the process of its sigmatic actual use. The analysis of the semantic structure of the words spirit and soul (as well as some of their derivatives) in the semiotics of theatrical language is based on the description of these constants as words of the cultural code, as signs of the Russian mentality based on the theory of external, internal sign and the meaning which makes it possible to correlate the word and image. In the paper we pay much attention to the characterization of the lexemes spirit and soul as pragmemes from the point of the value core contained in them. The paper describes the occurring and development of evaluative connotations in the lexemes spirit and soul as part of the concepts developing; the study makes attempts to prove the preferred use in the complex genre of presentation of the “system” by K.S. Stanislavsky. The study is based on a large empirical material collected from the works of K.S. Stanislavsky - “My life in art”, “The work of an actor on himself” (with various additions and various developments of the subject), which illustrates the multidimensionality and multilayeredness of the concepts of spirit and soul , as well as illustrates the values of the phraseological environment, their symbolic nature in the system of theatrical language, and therefore, the language of theatrical art, their relationship and, on the contrary, “rejection” from each other.

For over a century, Hegel’s view of war is seen as controversial that results in mutually exclusive interpretations. To reach a proper evaluation of Hegel’s views, it is necessary to consider both Hegel’s initial states of philosophical doctrine about war and peace, and the development of his understanding of war from early works to mature ones. In the first part of the paper, I characterize Kant’s position on war, since it was the starting point for Hegel. Contrary to popular representations about Kant as an exclusive pacifist, the philosopher of Koenigsberg had a philosophical-historical treatment of war, in which the war appeared as something sublime. However, both legal-ethical peace understanding and veto of war from the point of practical reason were not dominant in Kant’s philosophy, subordinating the sublime treatment of war. Kant’s next contemporaries could not already keep this position, emphasizing either one or the other side of war interpretation. Starting from the early writings (the paper “On the Scientific Ways of Treating Natural Law” or manuscripts “System of Ethical Life” and “The German Constitution”), Hegel stresses an ethical aspect of war and its necessity, so that the shield is arranged on the way of systems isolation and individuals atomization, and the unity in its ethical health is saved. Perpetual peace, on the contrary, leads to diseases. The statement about equality of claims and the same truthfulness of warring parties’ rights is the originality of Hegel’s view. It makes absolutely impossible the war evaluation from the point of its justice and injustice.

The paper presents the results of a comparative study of several finite element models of ribbed reinforced concrete solid floors. Using the example of a solid slab with infrequent ribs arranged along a grid of columns, three models frequently used in computational practice are analyzed. Those models include both rods and thin-walled elements. In the first model, the plate and its ribs are considered separately, within the framework of the decomposition scheme of the structure. The second model contains plate finite elements and the rod finite elements of the ribs connected to each other. The third model consists entirely of thin-walled finite elements that model both the plate and the floor ribs. The ribbed floor is also considered in the formulation of the problem within the framework of the theory of elasticity. The floor is represented in the form of rigidly connected solid bodies of ribs and plates. Reinforcement rods inside the concrete massive are included in the model as separate solid bodies. This model serves as a benchmark for assessing the accuracy of the obtained results. Its calculation is performed in the FEM application Ansys. The paper compares the results of calculations performed using various models. A conclusion is made about the accuracy of the obtained results. A significant difference between the proposed work and similar studies devoted to the selection of the best design schemes of ribbed slab of floor is the consideration of the influence of reinforcement on the behavior of the structure.

It was ascertained that investigations on classification of architectural styles for shells and shell structures are absent. Only one published paper is available where architectural styles with indication of dates of appearance of the styles and dates of attenuation of their application are presented and the names of their founders are given. Now, the interest for the design, analysis, and building of thin-walled shells and shell structures is rising. There are no countries without erected shell structures. Hence, it is necessary to make more exact the classification of these erections and the distribution of them into groups. An aim of this work is collection of information about all known architectural styles as applied to shells and shell structures, and grouping of them due to characteristic traits and indications. All architectural styles were divided into five groups, i.e. avant-gardism, art deco style, modernism, ecotech style, and the newest styles. A special scheme, where distribution of architectural styles on these groups is applied to the examined structures, is given. Mutual influence of styles was revealed and presence of architectural directions and style flows in several styles was shown. The conclusions presented in this paper can demand the future accurate definitions and developments because specialists do not have common views to the list of architectural styles and to their classifications.

Sovereignty in the digital space is a relatively new phenomenon, which is discussed in this paper. It is complex in nature and depends both on the technological base which is used (primarily network equipment, including 5G, etc.), software products and platforms, and on the promoted content. The countries are faced with the difficult task of regulating the activities of global media holdings in order to maintain value-based sovereignty. The author gives a political and economic analysis of value sovereignty, showing the importance of the state as a regulator that allows to eliminate negative informational externalities. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of the international media landscape and the formation of multipolarity in the network space, including the growing phenomenon of technological convergence in the media industry, as well as the positions of individual countries and regions in the global media industry. The corporate structures of the world’s largest media holdings are studied and the increasing degree of diversification of their assets is revealed. The generational differentiation of socialization mechanisms in the post-pandemic era, including the proportion of time devoted to social platforms, traditional media (the case of television), as well as the main ways of accessing the Internet and the penetration of new technologies. The most promising for socialization and fast-growing segments are shown, including Internet TV, virtual reality technologies, video games and cyber-sports. In the final part of the paper the author discusses the main problems and challenges of regulating the national media space in order to ensure value sovereignty in the era of global convergent media.

Fedor Sologub entered British literary consciousness only after the onset of WWI. The British-Russian war alliance was auspicious for the translation of Russian literature, bringing about what John Cournos termed a “Russian Boom.” In 1915 alone, two translated collections of Sologub’s short stories appeared. This paper examines the British reception of Sologub, with a focus on John Cournos (1881-1966), one of Sologub’s earliest and most prolific translators, and the role played by Zinaida Vengerova (1867-1941) as mediator between translator and author. In her correspondence with Sologub, Vengerova promotes Cournos as translator. A more pressing concern for Vengerova was to convince Sologub to make Cournos his “authorized” translator. This paper also argues that the reception of Sologub in Britain must be contextualized in terms of war propaganda. Politically, the British government prioritized the promotion of brotherly feeling between the two allies and a positive opinion of Russia. Prior to the war alliance, the British public held a negative opinion of tsarist Russia, of its government and culture. The controversial nature of Sologub’s writing complicated his critical reception.

The basic duty or function of government all over the globe is to akin to the yearnings, aspirations and needs of its citizens. Bureaucratic institutions are used as veritable tools in the administration to establish and implement public policies and programs aimed at serving the demands of the people. It’s on this note the study examines the challenges of e-governance in Nigeria. Due to large dependence on secondary sources of data acquired from papers published in respected academic journals, official publications, Conference papers, internet sources and relevant books, the study adopted the use of content analysis techniques. The study discovered, among other issues, that low knowledge of ICT, insufficient legal framework, and inadequate infrastructure are among the challenges that obstruct the efficient adoption of e-governance in Nigeria. The research, on the other hand, the study found out that e-governance has a lot of potential for the country, including giving information on job openings, e-police system, a medium for information transmission, and economic development, among other features. From the issues discovered the study recommended that government should provide ICT infrastructure, ICT legislation should be enacted in the nation, and the government should demonstrate commitment to making e-governance a success in the country, among other issues. The study concluded by noting that e-governance is critical to the country’s realization of accountable, responsive, and transparent government in Nigeria.

The present paper discusses the ethnic bilingual practice in Kazakhstan. The focus is on code-switching or, in other term, code-mixing in the Kazakh-Russian and RussianKazakh bilingualism. The bi- and multilingualism is characteristic for Kazakhstan and is caused by multiethnicity of the republic. Within this paper we are interested in identities of persons with more than one cultural background. The idea of the present investigation is a response to the sociolinguistics ‘third wave’, discourse analysis, linguistic anthropology. In this theoretical framework the research focus is on exploring linguistic variation as a medium used by individuals or social groups to evoke the social practice. It is crucial how semiotic ties are set between a linguistic sign and social context, how persistent social attribution is created through linguistic choices. Data collection for this study: we analyzed 300 contexts that show the Kazakh-Russian code-mixing in everyday and internet communication, and in modern Kazakh films reflecting the typical code-mixing practice. The data were gathered by doing observation, documentation, the analysis proceeded in a context-based interpretative way. In the framework suggested we show the code-switching/code-mixing not in terms of interference mistakes as heavily influenced by Russian language and culture, not as “linguistic errors” cases presupposed by low language competence of the speakers, but rather as a dynamic resource to shape the understanding in the communication. There are considerable nuances and complexity in the language mixed practice, that is not to be framed in pejorative terms.

Linguistic complexity is a complex phenomenon, as it manifests itself on different levels (complexity of texts to sentences to words to subword units), through different features (genres to syntax to semantics), and also via different tasks (language learning, translation training, specific needs of other kinds of audiences). Finally, the results of complexity analysis will differ for different languages, because of their typological properties, the cultural traditions associated with specific genres in these languages or just because of the properties of individual datasets used for analysis. This paper investigates these aspects of linguistic complexity through using artificial neural networks for predicting complexity and explaining the predictions. Neural networks optimise millions of parameters to produce empirically efficient prediction models while operating as a black box without determining which linguistic factors lead to a specific prediction. This paper shows how to link neural predictions of text difficulty to detectable properties of linguistic data, for example, to the frequency of conjunctions, discourse particles or subordinate clauses. The specific study concerns neural difficulty prediction models which have been trained to differentiate easier and more complex texts in different genres in English and Russian and have been probed for the linguistic properties which correlate with predictions. The study shows how the rate of nouns and the related complexity of noun phrases affect difficulty via statistical estimates of what the neural model predicts as easy and difficult texts. The study also analysed the interplay between difficulty and genres, as linguistic features often specialise for genres rather than for inherent difficulty, so that some associations between the features and difficulty are caused by differences in the relevant genres.

Estimating word complexity with binary or continuous scores is a challenging task that has been studied for several domains and natural languages. Commonly this task is referred to as Complex Word Identification (CWI) or Lexical Complexity Prediction (LCP). Correct evaluation of word complexity can be an important step in many Lexical Simplification pipelines. Earlier works have usually presented methodologies of lexical complexity estimation with several restrictions: hand-crafted features correlated with word complexity, performed feature engineering to describe target words with features such as number of hypernyms, count of consonants, Named Entity tag, and evaluations with carefully selected target audiences. Modern works investigated the use of transforner-based models that afford extracting features from surrounding context as well. However, the majority of papers have been devoted to pipelines for the English language and few translated them to other languages such as German, French, and Spanish. In this paper we present a dataset of lexical complexity in context based on the Russian Synodal Bible collected using a crowdsourcing platform. We describe a methodology for collecting the data using a 5-point Likert scale for annotation, present descriptive statistics and compare results with analogous work for the English language. We evaluate a linear regression model as a baseline for predicting word complexity on handcrafted features, fastText and ELMo embeddings of target words. The result is a corpus consisting of 931 distinct words that used in 3,364 different contexts.