Search

Can business play a role in building resilience among vulnerable communities? Can (marketing) employment contribute to resilience – and if so, how? These are increasingly important and relevant questions in our current world as the recent COVID-19 pandemic showed many households to be just one shock away from falling into poverty. Consequently, understanding how resilience, the ability to cope both psychologically and economically with adversity, can be built has become a top priority for many policymakers and practitioners. This paper explores a marketing solution to building resilience. In this paper, we seek to answer the following question: “Can sales employment help people build resilience and enable them to cope with adversity?” We offer a mechanism through which sales improves resilience: by facilitating opportunities to connect. We show that by enabling opportunities to connect with a wide set of individuals, sales employment can build resilience. We differentiate between types of connections and show that different connections can lead to different forms of resilience. We present experimental evidence from a randomized controlled trial involving saleswomen in rural India. With our partner organization, we recruited, trained, and randomly assigned 1,048 women to either treatment, placebo, or control condition. We exogenously assign individuals to an employment position that facilitates opportunities to connect and measure the impact on resilience. In doing so, not only do we vary opportunities to connections, but we also provide a plausible mechanism of why they have more connections than others: certain jobs – in our case sales employment. To the best of our knowledge, there is no empirical evidence showing the impact of (changing) connections on resilience when facing adversity. In doing so, we are the first to randomly assign participants to different employment forms and causally estimate the impact of employment on personal outcomes, such as resilience. Our results show that those engaged in sales employment are more resilient than those in placebo employment or no-employment conditions. In fact, we find that sales employment significantly improves one’s ability to be economically resilient when facing adversity by increasing: i) the likelihood of being aware of external sources of help and ii) the ability to take-up external sources of help. Second, our results show that engagement in sales is associated with having a wider set of connections. This effect is largely driven by increased connections with local government representatives and local community leaders. We find a strong association between the width of connections and economic and psychological resilience. Last, we examine heterogeneous effects and find that those from lower caste benefit most from engaging in sales employment in terms of building resilience compared. To the best of our knowledge, no one has looked at the impact of employment on resilience – we show that marketing employment holds the power to improve resilience when facing adversity.

This thesis is a contribution to macroeconomics and macro-finance research. It focuses on two areas, the interactions between debt markets and the macroeconomy, in the first two chapters, and consumption heterogeneity’s role in the transmission of shocks, in the third. The first chapter is my job market paper, “Monetary Policy and the Maturity Structure of Public Debt”. It studies the mediating impact of the maturity structure of public debt in the transmission of monetary policy shocks to economic activity. A longer debt maturity attenuates greatly the effect of monetary policy: going from the average historical duration of US debt to very short term debt doubles the impact of a rise of the policy rate on output. A similar result holds in UK data. There is no differential effect on inflation. I show that these effects can be traced back to a quantitatively important financing channel. A model featuring an interaction between an empirically estimated primary market friction and a standard financial accelerator is able to account for these facts. The second chapter of the thesis is “The Fiscal Consequences of Missing an Inflation Target”. This is a joint work with Helene Rey. We show, in Euro Area countries and in the US, the effect of the reliability of central banks’ monetary policy on public finances. When a credible central bank misses its inflation target, this has large fiscal consequences for the fiscal authority. These misses are quantitative sizable in the past low inflation decade, especially for countries with a high level and a high maturity of public debt. We link our results to the optimum currency area literature as the monetary-fiscal nexus is key to the functioning of the Euro Area: the ECB sets monetary policy for sovereigns with heterogeneous debt profiles. The third chapter of my thesis, “LESS is MORE: Consumer Spending and the Size of Economic Stimulus Payments”, is a joint work with Paolo Surico. We study the consumption response to unexpected transitory income gains of different size, using hypothetical survey questions. Affluent households exhibit a higher Marginal Propensity to Consume (MPC) out of large gains while families with low cash-on-hand display a higher MPC out of small gains. The spending of higher earners is consistent with the predictions of a model with non-homothetic preferences on consumption, while spending of low-income families can be accounted for by borrowing constraints. Our results suggest that, for a given level of public spending, a fiscal transfer of smaller size paid to a larger group of low-income households stimulates aggregate consumption more than a larger transfer paid to a smaller group.

This paper shows that endogenous adjustments in the composition of labour supplies magnify the effects of changes in commodity prices on the measured skill premium under quite plausible conditions. These composition effects arise from decisions of individuals with heterogeneous inherent abilities about acquiring human capital. They reinforce the well-known Stolper – Samuelson effect on the measured skill premium in countries with a sufficiently high relative supply of skilled labour, but compensate them otherwise. As a result, the model can account for the observation of a worldwide increase in the skill premium during the last two decades.

Reading is a commandment from Allah. commanded through al-Qur'an Surah al-Alaq verse 1 which was revealed through the intermediary angel Gabriel to the Prophet Muhammad. Which will be preached to all the human Ummah specifically to the Ummah who always follows the teachings of Islam. Therefore, we must read the Koran, both reading directly (written) and reading with signs of Allah's power. (implied). Which has a variety of discussions ranging from reading the Koran, mentadabburi, practice and practice so as to create a generation of Qur'ani. In this paper using library research with the method of using library data collection techniques (Library Research) that uses various kinds of existing literature such as books, books of hadith, books of interpretation and the Qur'an that will help in using methods, deductive, inductive and comparative. And it was concluded that the command to read in the Koran so that it can be seen that reading is not just a job, not a mere hobby but as a very important command that will underlie all our activities in this world, let alone a prosecutor of knowledge, reading also is a foundation to go to the path that is blessed by Allah.

The quality of asphalt pothole repair in carriageways depends on several important factors, such as the selection of patching material and the choice of repair technique. Conventional hot mix plants operate to support large paving projects, making production more economic with high volume output. When small repairs and maintenance are needed, it can be challenging to maintain small quantities of hot asphalt at a sufficient temperature, especially in the case of winter maintenance. Consequently, the repair materials cannot be compacted to the desired level on some occasions. Thus, producing high quality asphalt materials for low-volume and hand-laid applications including potholes patching and utility reinstatements has lways been a problem. This research aimed to develop a pelletised polymer modified bitumen (PPMB) with reduced temperature sensitivity for low volume applications. The effect of the developed binder PPMB on the asphalt has been evaluated in terms of stiffness, permanent deformation (wheel track test, creep test and indentation test) and fatigue life test, durability (water sensitivity and freeze-thaw cycle) in comparison with the conventional patching materials. The results showed that the highest penetration index (low temperature sensitivity) has been achieved by modifying bitumen with 20% rubber and 2% wax to produce polymer modified bitumen (PMB). Hence, the developed PMB has been incorporated with 5% filler (limestone) and then pelletised and coated with 1% paper sludge ash to produce PPMB. The outcomes showed that PPMB improved the asphalt properties in terms of stiffness, permanent deformation and fatigue life test, water sensitivity and freeze-thaw cycle; this is due to the development of a strong bonds between the PPMB and the aggregate resulting in stronger and more durable asphalt compared to the traditional hot mix asphalt. Furthermore, the self-compacted mastic asphalt has been developed by incorporating PPMB and fine aggregate. The results demonstrated that modifying the mastic asphalt with 2% gilsonite and 3% low density polyethene has improved the sensitivity to permanent deformation (creep test, wheel track test and indentation test), resistance for water sensitivity and long-term ageing compared to the unmodified mastic asphalt. This implies that the modified mastic asphalt could be used in heavy traffic due to its mechanical and durability properties. The overall results indicated that using the PPMB to produce asphalt and modified mastic asphalt is a successful alternative to the traditional patching materials in different applications.

Delays on construction projects are w result in several negative effects like disputes, lawsuits, total dissertation and abandonment. Thus, identifying, ranking and confronting the causes of delay This paper identifies the causes construction projects in Addis Ababa. categorized in 8 major groups. 43 Contractors, 21 Consultants, and 19 Aluminum Fabricators were asked to evaluate frequency and severity of each cause. Data were analyzed with frequency and importance indices. Agreement of the rankings of importance of the causes between groups was tested. Findings of the research revealed that a consultants experienced a 42% and 52% of delay the groups of respondents attest that cause of delay. They also share the view that important. Consultants distinctly perceive whereas Contractors regard Fabricators view that Material Related causes are second in line. Relative agreement of rank of causes between groups showed a high degree of correlation among the groups of respondents. viii worldwide phenomena. Construction projects delays are important. of delay in aluminum fabrication and installation in This study revealed a total of 52 causes . about 90% of the contractors and 85% of the average delay over original contract period. All Owner induced factors are the most frequent and severe Contractor Related causes are third most that Project related causes are second most severe, related causes as runner-ups. Fabricators hold the

Sequencing can provide genomic characterisation of a specific organism, as well as of a whole environmental or clinical sample. High Throughput Sequencing (HTS) makes it possible to generate an enormous amount of genomic data at gradually decreasing costs and almost in real-time. HTS is used, among others, in medicine, veterinary medicine, microbiology, virology and epidemiology. The paper presents practical aspects of the HTS technology. It describes generations of sequencing, which vary in throughput, read length, accuracy and costs ̶ and thus are used for different applications. The stages of HTS, as well as their purposes and pitfalls, are presented: extraction of the genetic material, library preparation, sequencing and data processing. For success of the whole process, all stages need to follow strict quality control measurements. Choosing the right sequencing platform, proper sample and library preparation procedures, as well as adequate bioinformatic tools are crucial for high quality results.

Time series regression models are commonly used in time series analysis. However, in modern real-world applications, serially correlated data with an ultra-high dimension and fat tails are prevalent. This presents a challenge in developing new statistical tools for time series analysis. In this paper, we propose a novel Bernstein-type inequality for high-dimensional linear processes and apply it to investigate two high-dimensional robust estimation problems: (1) time series regression with fat-tailed and correlated covariates and errors, and (2) fat-tailed vector autoregression. Our proposed approach allows for exponential increases in dimension with sample size under mild moment and dependence conditions, while ensuring consistency in the estimation process.

The distribution of the incubation period of the novel coronavirus disease that emerged in 2019 (COVID-19) has crucial clinical implications for understanding this disease and devising effective disease-control measures. Qin et al. (2020) designed a cross-sectional and forward follow-up study to collect the duration times between a specific observation time and the onset of COVID-19 symptoms for a number of individuals. They further proposed a mixture forward-incubation-time epidemic model, which is a mixture of an incubation-period distribution and a forward time distribution, to model the collected duration times and to estimate the incubation-period distribution of COVID-19. In this paper, we provide sufficient conditions for the identifiability of the unknown parameters in the mixture forward-incubation-time epidemic model when the incubation period follows a two-parameter distribution. Under the same setup, we propose a likelihood ratio test (LRT) for testing the null hypothesis that the mixture forward-incubation-time epidemic model is a homogeneous exponential distribution. The testing problem is non-regular because a nuisance parameter is present only under the alternative. We establish the limiting distribution of the LRT and identify an explicit representation for it. The limiting distribution of the LRT under a sequence of local alternatives is also obtained. Our simulation results indicate that the LRT has desirable type I errors and powers, and we analyze a COVID-19 outbreak dataset from China to illustrate the usefulness of the LRT., 34 pages, 2 figures, 2 tables

Blockwise missing data occurs frequently when we integrate multisource or multimodality data where different sources or modalities contain complementary information. In this paper, we consider a high-dimensional linear regression model with blockwise missing covariates and a partially observed response variable. Under this framework, we propose a computationally efficient estimator for the regression coefficient vector based on carefully constructed unbiased estimating equations and a blockwise imputation procedure, and obtain its rate of convergence. Furthermore, building upon an innovative projected estimating equation technique that intrinsically achieves bias-correction of the initial estimator, we propose a nearly unbiased estimator for each individual regression coefficient, which is asymptotically normally distributed under mild conditions. Based on these debiased estimators, asymptotically valid confidence intervals and statistical tests about each regression coefficient are constructed. Numerical studies and application analysis of the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative data show that the proposed method performs better and benefits more from unsupervised samples than existing methods., Comment: V2: 40 pages, 2 figures. Accepted at Statistica Sinica

The goal of this study is to review the overall prevalence, burden, and distribution of the dengue disease in Pakistan from 2000 to 2019. Literature was searched using different search engines like Google scholar, PubMed, etc. providing the keywords “Dengue disease/infection, Dengue virus, DENV, DF/DHF/ DSS Pakistan”. All the published research papers/reports on the dengue virus over the period 2000 to 2019 were studied and selected data were summarized using MS Excel for windows such as total cases, age wise, gender, DENV serotype distribution, total DHF, and DSS patients. The literature providing insufficient data was excluded. The total number of cases reported during 2000-19 were 201,269. The maximum number of cases during the mentioned literature survey period was reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) (23.3%) followed by Punjab (3.8%) and Sindh (1.9%). The majority of dengue-infected cases were reported as Dengue fever (74.4%) followed by DHF (24.1%) and DSS (1.5%). Overall the deaths during the mentioned literature survey were 1082, of which the maximum mortalities were reported from KP (N=248) followed by Punjab (N=220). DENV remains a major public health problem in Pakistan and seems to remain endemic for a long time. The total prevalence of dengue infection is increased accordingly with time from 2000 to 2019. Moreover, all the four serotypes exist in Pakistan with increased mortalities.

This thesis presents a critical examination of the rivalry between G. W. M. Reynolds and Charles Dickens between 1837 and 1870. Specifically, the thesis analyses three distinct phases of their rivalry. The first is its inception in 1837 following Reynolds���s publication of Pickwick Abroad, his ���sequel��� to Dickens���s Pickwick Papers (1836). The second phase concerns the 1840s, examining how Reynolds���s success and reputation directly impacted upon Dickens���s position in the literary market. The final phase addresses the most explicit and combative chapter of their rivalry as the two traded insults across their publications in the 1850s and Dickens looked to ���displace��� his more radical counterpart. Commonly cited as a peripheral figure in Dickens���s career, this thesis argues for Reynolds as a more significant presence. By analysing their publications in parallel, often viewing one through the lens of the other, this study offers a fresh perspective on two authors competing for readerships and commercial marketspace while grappling with authorial identities in the first age of mass culture. The thesis presents three principal arguments. Firstly, it seeks to contest the reductive perception of Reynolds as a cheap plagiariser of Dickens���s work by analysing the more nuanced and complex aspects of Reynolds���s early re-appropriations. Secondly, it argues that Reynolds���s precipitous rise to literary fame and political notoriety after 1844 had a significant bearing on the fiction Dickens produced thereafter. It is contended that Dickens���s abrupt shift from the political incendiarism of The Chimes in 1844 into a ���transitional period��� in 1845, after which his fiction became more domestically, or family-oriented, can be understood as a response, or reaction to Reynolds���s concurrent literary successes and his growing reputation as a radical and political subversive. Finally, it is reasoned that the bitter exchange of insults between Dickens and Reynolds in the 1850s and the seemingly mutable tone of their rivalry up until Dickens���s death in 1870 illustrates a relationship not entirely the product of natural antipathy, but one cultivated for commercial and political purposes. It is argued that both Dickens and Reynolds constructed an image of the other in order to mask their similarities and natural affinities and to bolster and better define their own position in the literary marketplace.

Recently, thinning an antenna has resulted in attractive antenna radiation characteristics enhancement. This performance enhancement using a thin antenna array is achieved because the inter-coupling effects of the array elements are reduced. Though the thinning both reduces the weight of the antenna and enhances the radiation characteristics, iterative algorithms can further enhance the performance and hence, in this research, an optimizer algorithm and inter-coupling reducing mechanisms are applied. The excitation weights of the individual array elements are thinned by turning some of the elements off while some of the elements are turned on. The purpose of the thinning is to enhance the antenna performances like reduced SLL, high directivity, reduced power consumption and flexible radiation pattern. The SLL attenuation mechanism is applied to reduce the SLL in addition to the SLL reduction using the thinning and beamforming. Hence, in this paper, the three techniques (thinning, beamforming and SLL attenuation) are proposed to be integrated to enhance the antenna radiation characteristics. In general, the proposed combined method has resulted in much better SLL reduction, directivity improvement, and power wastage reduction.

The new identifiable case appeared in \cite{AGMO}, together with the analysis on simultaneous identifiability of pairs of ternary forms recently developed in \cite{BG}, suggested the following conjecture towards a complete classification of all simultaneous Waring identifiable cases: for any $ d \geq 2 $, the general polynomial vectors consisting of $ d-1 $ ternary forms of degree $ d $ and a ternary form of degree $ d+1 $, with rank $ \frac{d^2+d+2}{2} $, are identifiable over $ \mathbf{C} $. In this paper, by means of a computer-aided procedure inspired to the one described in \cite{AGMO}, we obtain that the case $ d = 4 $ contradicts the previous conjecture, admitting at least $ 36 $ complex simultaneous Waring decompositions (of length $ 11 $) instead of $ 1 $., Comment: 10 pages, accepted for publication on Journal of Symbolic Computation

Treball acceptat per publicar al proper volum 65 de la revista "Onomázein : Revista de Lingüística, Filología y Traducción" al tercer trimestre de 2024. Desde la campaña de Reforma y apertura iniciada en China en 1978, se ha despertado en este país el interés por la poesía española y han sido publicadas numerosas antologías poéticas. Sin embargo, la poesía femenina, muy destacable en el conjunto de la producción poética española, no había sido recopilada de manera sistemática hasta la publicación en 2001 de Antología de la poesía femenina española del siglo XX, obra del traductor Zhao Zhenjiang. El presente artículo se centra en cinco poetas españolas de la Generación del 27 incluidas en dicha antología y analiza las normas y las técnicas aplicadas en el proceso traductor. Since China's economic reform in 1978, people's interest in Spanish poetry has begun to awake and a large number of anthologies of poems have been published. However, female poetry, which has attracted worldwide attention in Spanish poetry creation, was not systematically compiled until 2001 when the translator Zhao Zhenjiang's Anthology of Spanish Female Poetry in the 20th Century was published. This paper focuses on five Spanish poetesses of the 27 Generation included in this collection of poems, and analyzes the principles and techniques used in the process of translation

In this paper, we provide an overview of the evolution of the definition of hyperglycemia during the past century and the alterations in glucose dynamics that cause fasting and postprandial hyperglycemia. We discuss how extensive mechanistic, physiological research into the factors and pathways that regulate the appearance of glucose in the circulation and its uptake and metabolism by tissues and organs has contributed knowledge that has advanced our understanding of different types of hyperglycemia, namely prediabetes and diabetes and their subtypes (impaired fasting plasma glucose, impaired glucose tolerance, combined impaired fasting plasma glucose, impaired glucose tolerance, type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, gestational diabetes mellitus), their relationships with medical complications, and how to prevent and treat hyperglycemia.

Abstract This paper studied the behavior of multidimensional and income poverty, as well as its determinants in Brazil, in addition to rural and urban areas, based on information from the 2019 National Continuous Household Sample Survey (PNADC). The Alkire-Foster methodology was used in the construction of a Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), in addition to the logit model to estimate the impacts of determinants related to household characteristics on poverty. The health and sanitation dimension was the one that contributed the most to the MPI, followed by the education and housing dimensions. Unidimensional poverty was greater than multidimensional and rural poverty was also greater. Among the determinants of poverty, being in households with non-white heads, younger, unmarried, unemployed, less educated and in the North and Northeast regions increased the chances of poverty. In addition, while female heads reduced the chances of multidimensional poverty, it increased the chances of the unidimensional one.

This paper projects and analyzes the regional impacts of climate change on the agricultural productivity of family farming and large-scale agriculture in Brazil between 2021 and 2050, using the RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 scenarios. The methodology adopted consists of a cross-sectional estimation of a production function in which agricultural productivity is determined by climatic, geographic, and productive factors. The study contributes to the literature by disaggregating agricultural production into family farming and large-scale agriculture, indicating the magnitude and direction of impacts by crops and regions in Brazil, a country with a great territorial dimension and relevant and heterogeneous agricultural production. The results indicate that the agricultural productivity of family farming is more sensitive and therefore this type of producer could be more vulnerable to the phenomenon. On average, the effects will be negative in the North/Northeast regions and for cassava, maize, beans, and soybeans, with possible impacts on deforestation and on food supply. Productivity gains are expected in the southern region and for the cultivation of sugar cane and soybeans. Deterioration of food security of the vulnerable farmers and regional disparities may increase in Brazil.

Sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) methods are a class of Monte Carlo methods that are used to obtain random samples of a high dimensional random variable in a sequential fashion. Many problems encountered in applications often involve different types of constraints. These constraints can make the problem much more challenging. In this paper, we formulate a general framework of using SMC for constrained sampling problems based on forward and backward pilot resampling strategies. We review some existing methods under the framework and develop several new algorithms. It is noted that all information observed or imposed on the underlying system can be viewed as constraints. Hence the approach outlined in this paper can be useful in many applications.

In this paper, we propose a new spectral-based approach to hypothesis testing for populations of networks. The primary goal is to develop a test to determine whether two given samples of networks come from the same random model or distribution. Our test statistic is based on the trace of the third order for a centered and scaled adjacency matrix, which we prove converges to the standard normal distribution as the number of nodes tends to infinity. The asymptotic power guarantee of the test is also provided. The proper interplay between the number of networks and the number of nodes for each network is explored in characterizing the theoretical properties of the proposed testing statistics. Our tests are applicable to both binary and weighted networks, operate under a very general framework where the networks are allowed to be large and sparse, and can be extended to multiple-sample testing. We provide an extensive simulation study to demonstrate the superior performance of our test over existing methods and apply our test to three real datasets.

Selecting hyperparameters for unsupervised learning problems is challenging in general due to the lack of ground truth for validation. Despite the prevalence of this issue in statistics and machine learning, especially in clustering problems, there are not many methods for tuning these hyperparameters with theoretical guarantees. In this paper, we provide a framework with provable guarantees for selecting hyperparameters in a number of distinct models. We consider both the subgaussian mixture model and network models to serve as examples of i.i.d. and non-i.i.d. data. We demonstrate that the same framework can be used to choose the Lagrange multipliers of penalty terms in semi-definite programming (SDP) relaxations for community detection, and the bandwidth parameter for constructing kernel similarity matrices for spectral clustering. By incorporating a cross-validation procedure, we show the framework can also do consistent model selection for network models. Using a variety of simulated and real data examples, we show that our framework outperforms other widely used tuning procedures in a broad range of parameter settings.

This paper aims to test the number of spikes in a generalized spiked covariance matrix, the spiked eigenvalues of which may be extremely larger or smaller than the non-spiked ones. For a high-dimensional problem, we first propose a general test statistic and derive its central limit theorem by random matrix theory without a Gaussian population constraint. We then apply the result to estimate the noise variance and test the equality of the smallest roots in generalized spiked models. Simulation studies showed that the proposed test method was correctly sized, and the power outcomes showed the robustness of our statistic to deviations from a Gaussian population. Moreover, our estimator of the noise variance resulted in much smaller mean absolute errors and mean squared errors than existing methods. In contrast to previously developed methods, we eliminated the strict conditions of diagonal or block-wise diagonal form of the population covariance matrix and extend the work to a wider range without the assumption of normality. Thus, the proposed method is more suitable for real problems., 23 pages,3 figures

High-dimensional self-exciting point processes have been widely used in many application areas to model discrete event data in which past and current events affect the likelihood of future events. In this paper, we are concerned with detecting abrupt changes of the coefficient matrices in discrete-time high-dimensional self-exciting Poisson processes, which have yet to be studied in the existing literature due to both theoretical and computational challenges rooted in the non-stationary and high-dimensional nature of the underlying process. We propose a penalized dynamic programming approach which is supported by a theoretical rate analysis and numerical evidence.

Estimation of the high-dimensional banded covariance matrix is widely used in multivariate statistical analysis. To ensure the validity of estimation, we aim to test the hypothesis that the covariance matrix is banded with a certain bandwidth under the high-dimensional framework. Though several testing methods have been proposed in the literature, the existing tests are only powerful for some alternatives with certain sparsity levels, whereas they may not be powerful for alternatives with other sparsity structures. The goal of this paper is to propose a new test for the bandedness of high-dimensional covariance matrix, which is powerful for alternatives with various sparsity levels. The proposed new test also be used for testing the banded structure of covariance matrices of error vectors in high-dimensional factor models. Based on these statistics, a consistent bandwidth estimator is also introduced for a banded high dimensional covariance matrix. Extensive simulation studies and an application to a prostate cancer dataset from protein mass spectroscopy are conducted for evaluating the effectiveness of the proposed adaptive tests blue and bandwidth estimator for the banded covariance matrix.

A composite likelihood is a combination of low-dimensional likelihood objects useful in applications where the data have complex structure. Although composite likelihood construction is a crucial aspect influencing both computing and statistical properties of the resulting estimator, currently there does not seem to exist a universal rule to combine low-dimensional likelihood objects that is statistically justified and fast in execution. This paper develops a methodology to select and combine the most informative low-dimensional likelihoods from a large set of candidates while carrying out parameter estimation. The new procedure minimizes the distance between composite likelihood and full likelihood scores subject to a constraint representing the afforded computing cost. The selected composite likelihood is sparse in the sense that it contains a relatively small number of informative sub-likelihoods while the noisy terms are dropped. The resulting estimator is found to have asymptotic variance close to that of the minimum-variance estimator constructed using all the low-dimensional likelihoods.

Evidence suggests that emotional distress, including problems like depression and anxiety is commonly reported by individuals meeting criteria for psychosis spectrum disorders. It has been argued that the appraisals individuals hold about the meaning of their psychosis may explain the emotional distress experienced. However, this literature has often failed to acknowledge the role of other variables in accounting for this distress. The aim of this thesis was to investigate the mechanisms underpinning emotional distress in those experiencing psychosis, by focusing specifically on psychosis-related appraisals and goal expectancy. A total of five studies are reported, four of these addressed the above aim by focusing specifically on individuals with a psychosis related disorder who were receiving support from a rehabilitation service. The final study captured how parental carers make sense of their child’s future following an experience of psychosis. Following a review of the literature in Chapter One, Chapter Two aimed to provide an overview of the methodological approaches employed in the current thesis. The study presented in Chapter Three aimed to synthesis the literature investigating the association between appraisals of psychosis experience and emotional distress in those experiencing psychosis, in order to determine the direction and magnitude of this association. A total of 17 studies were included in the review (15 in the meta-analysis). Small to moderate associations were observed between appraisals of psychosis and both depression and anxiety. A narrative synthesis of the literature showed that significant associations were evident in a small number of longitudinal studies (with regards to depression only). Furthermore, i in a number of cross-sectional studies significant associations held even when accounting for symptoms of psychosis, suggesting that the association that beliefs have with distress may not be entirely explained by the shared association with psychosis symptom severity. Chapter Four presents the findings of a study that aimed to validate a goal generation task within individuals experiencing psychosis. Using behaviour sequence analysis, the utility of the task in capturing goal generation processes in those meeting criteria for psychosis was determined. The study highlighted that those experiencing psychosis were able to progress from lower to higher-order goals. Using a cross-sectional design, Chapter Five aimed to investigate the extent to which psychosis related appraisals and goal expectancies (goal likelihood and goal difficulty) could account for emotional distress in those experiencing psychosis. A total of 73 individuals accessing support from a rehabilitation service were recruited. Results revealed that appraisals of psychosis were significantly associated with depression and anxiety. Specifically, appraisals of psychosis as a source of internal shame and defectiveness, external shame and as resulting in loss (e.g., loss of future employments) were all found to predict both depression and anxiety. Many of these associations held when controlling for other variables. Only appraisals of internal shame and defectiveness were found to be significantly associated with emotional distress, however, this association did not hold when controlling for other variables. When adjusting for appraisals of psychosis, goal appraisals were not found to be significantly associated with emotional distress. Chapter Six aimed to expand upon the results presented in chapter five by investigating the longitudinal association between goal expectancies (goal likelihood, difficulty and progress) and emotional distress. A series of mixed model ii regression analyses were carried out to determine the concurrent association between the variable and to establish if the degree of change in goal appraisals would correspond with changes in depression scores. On the whole these models revealed that goal expectancies do not have a consistent association with emotional distress when adjusting for other factors. However, they did highlight that appraisals of psychosis may be implicated in emotional distress within individuals experiencing psychosis. Finally, Chapter Seven presents the findings of a qualitative paper. Nine parental carers were interviewed with the aim of exploring how they make sense of their child’s future following an experience of psychosis, focusing particularly on the goals and aspirations parental carers hold for their adult children. An interpretative phenomenological analysis was carried out. A total of three superordinate themes emerged, impact of psychosis (subthemes: psychosis causing a change of path, goals: lost, maintained and adjusted), a fear of relapse (subthemes: concerns about coping and adjustment), and navigating the future (subthemes: hope, uncertainty and somewhere in between, barriers and facilitators). Overall, the findings from the current thesis suggest that appraisals of psychosis experience are important in accounting for emotional distress, an effect that was observed consistently across the studies reported within this thesis. However, it appears that goal expectancies do not have a consistent effect with emotional distress.

Flexible poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate)/polypyrrole/paper (PEDOT:PSS/PPy/paper) thermoelectric (TE) nanocomposite films were prepared by a two-step method: first, PPy/paper nanocomposite films were prepared by an in situ chemical polymerization process, and second, PEDOT:PSS/PPy/paper TE composite films were fabricated by coating the as-prepared PPy/paper nanocomposite films using a dimethyl sulfoxide-doped PEDOT:PSS solution. Both the electrical conductivity and the Seebeck coefficient of the PEDOT:PSS/PPy/paper TE nanocomposite films were greatly enhanced from 0.06 S/cm to ~0.365 S/cm, and from 5.44 μV/K to ~16.0 μV/K at ~300 K, respectively, when compared to the PPy/paper TE nanocomposite films. The thermal conductivity of the PEDOT:PSS/PPy/paper composite film (0.1522 Wm−1K−1 at ~300 K) was, however, only slightly higher than that of the PPy/paper composite film (0.1142 Wm−1K−1 at ~300 K). As a result, the ZT value of the PEDOT:PSS/PPy/paper composite film (~1.85 × 10−5 at ~300 K) was significantly enhanced when compared to that of the PPy/paper composite film (~4.73 × 10−7 at ~300 K). The as-prepared nanocomposite films have great potential for application in flexible TE devices.

The Calophyllum genus has been reported to be rich in bioactive compounds that have medicinal properties. The author will also report the results of the isolation of compounds obtained from the ethyl acetate fraction of the bark of the plant C. macrophyllum Scheff, a type of Calophyllum found in Mount Kerinci, Jambi province. This paper will analyze the spectroscopic data of these compounds which include UV, IR, GC-MS, 1HNMR and 13CNMR spectra which are amplified by HMQC and HMBC spectra. The first step in bioactivity testing is the toxicity test using the BSLT (Brine Shrimp Lethality Test) method using Artemia Salina Leach shrimp larvae. The results of the spectroscopic analysis obtained the chemical formula as a derivative of fatty acid methyl ester (methyl-octadec-14 enoic), in the form of a yellow liquid with a boiling point of 173-175°C. The results of the initial screening for bioactivity through the toxicity test of the BSLT method on Artemia salina Leach shrimp larvae obtained an LC50 value of 141.2 g/mL. This compound still has the potential to have certain bioactivity

Tahitian pearls, artificially cultivated from the black-lipped pearl oyster Pinctada margaritifera, are renowned for their unique color and large size, making the associated pearl industry vital for the French Polynesian economy. Understanding the mechanisms of pearl formation is essential for enabling quality and sustainable production. In this paper, we explore the process of pearl formation by studying pearl rotation. Here we show, using a deep convolutional neural network, a direct link between the rotation of the pearl during its formation in the oyster and its final shape. We propose a new method for non-invasive pearl monitoring and a tool for predicting the final shape of the pearl from rotation data with 81.9% accuracy. These novel resources provide a fresh perspective to study and enhance our comprehension of the overall mechanism of pearl formation, with potential long-term applications for improving pearl production and quality control in the industry.&nbsp

Skolomystax collendus (Harker, 1957) n.comb. Discussion. We have found no specimens that match the description of the male subimago or nymph described by Harker (1957), and we have been unable to locate the type material. Harker (1957) stated type material was deposited in the British Museum, but it has no record of the types and this material was not deposited in the Australian Museum where Harker placed material from earlier papers. Therefore, we consider this species of uncertain status until collections are made at the type locality. The hindwing illustrated by Harker (1957: 75, fig. 59) shows three unforked longitudinal veins with several crossveins between them and a sharply pointed costal projection that differentiates it from the other adults we have seen. The nymphal description is not sufficiently detailed to be of diagnostic value. It is possible S. collendus is conspecific with S. dyarrbi, as suggested by Webb and Suter (2011), because both are known from the area around Sydney, NSW. Consistent with this is the presence of teeth on the inner margin of the outer incisors of the left mandible and a rugose base of the inner incisors, as illustrated by Harker (1957: 75). In addition, S. dyarrbi has a short second segment of the maxillary palp and the basal segment is nearly as long as the galealacinia, as noted by Harker (1957: 76) for S. collendus. However, the illustration of the left mandible by Harker (1957) shows distinct teeth on the outer margin of the outer incisor, a characteristic we have not observed in any specimens of Skolomystax., Published as part of Suter, P. J., Webb, J. M. & Gattolliat, J. - L., 2023, Skolomystax, a new genus for the Australian species formerly included in Centroptilum Eaton (Ephemeroptera: Baetidae), pp. 1-48 in Memoirs of Museum Victoria (Mem. Mus. Vic.) (Mem. Mus. Vic.) 82 on page 44, DOI: 10.24199/j.mmv.2023.82.01, http://zenodo.org/record/8065508, {"references":["Harker, J. E. 1957. Some new Australian Ephemeroptera. Proceedings of the Royal Entomological Society of London. Series B, Taxonomy 26: 63 - 68. https: // doi. org / 10.1111 / j. 1365 - 3113.1957. tb 01511. x","Webb, J. M., and Suter, P. J. 2011. Identification of larvae of Australian Baetidae. Museum Victoria Science Reports 15: 1 - 24."]}

Metal subgenres such as, for example, death metal, black metal, doom metal, which are considered as constituents of the »meta-genre« of extreme metal, have built up a very specific sound and imagery during the last several decades. As Keith Kahn-Harris noticed, this cluster of sub-genres gathers musical acts of different historical backgrounds and ideologies, which show the highest level of diversity, artistic vibrancy and dynamics, while at the same time being the most problematic area of metal culture in general. The supposed aggression, radicalism, and exclusivity in sound stem not only from the fast, virtuoso, and technically demanding playing of the instruments, but also from the very peculiar vocal emissions. Thisámonstrousávoice, which is the result of the extended vocal techniques (primarily screams, growls, squeals), is the point of intersection for several issues concerning voice, body, and technology. In this paper, Bojana Radovanović will give insight into the key points regarding these questions, while also delving into the issueáof gender. For, although metal culture has historically been considered to be male- oriented-and especially so in the extreme metal-the noticeable trend of the growing number of female musicians and vocalists in this scene encourages us to further explore who can stand behind theámonstrous voice.

This article presents the results of an analysis made to some process models that have been used to introduce autonomous learning in EFL contexts. The purpose of this analysis was to explore the processes these models followed to reach such a goal. This was done because the authors of this paper considered that knowing the steps that were taken to foster autonomous learning may help to create or adapt a process model to implement this approach to learning in other contexts.

To date, one of the widespread diseases among cattle is вovine leukemia virus (BLV). The disease occurs on all continents of the globe, and leads to various economic losses. The use of modern molecular genetic research methods makes it possible to identify the nucleic acid of the virus already at the early stages of the disease. The paper presents the results of the selection and optimization of the component composition of the test system for laboratory diagnosis of bovine leukemia by RT-PCR.As a result of our research, we selected two pairs of specific primers env(gp51)_3F and env(gp51)_3R, env(gp51)_4F and env(gp51)_4R, and optimized the concentration of the key components of the reaction mixture. Enzyme Mix - 0.5 μl (10 pM); 5xPCR-buffer - 5 μl; specific primers (10 pM) of 0.5 μl; dNTP mixture (10 pM) - 0.5 μl; RNA - 3 μl; deonized water - 15 μl in a volume of 25 μl for setting up a reaction with a spent temperature-time regime is sufficient for the development of a PCR product of bovine leukemia. The conducted studies on the diagnosis of bovine leukemia show that the selected component composition of the reaction mixture and the selected temperature regime for the formulation of RT-PCR gives a high analytical and diagnostic specificity and sensitivity of the reaction.

In order to conform to the development of the times and effectively promote the reform of vocal music education in colleges and universities, this paper proposes an innovative path of diversified vocal music education reform in colleges and universities under the modern advanced educational concepts that are steadily gaining utilisation and popular acceptance in China and the West. In this paper, the passive collective behaviour of biology is introduced in the teacher stage in the basic TLBO algorithm, and then the feedback stage is added after the student stage to increase the effectiveness of students’ learning methods, maintain the diversity of students and make available a system the deployment of which would swiftly bring students with poor grades to the attention of teachers; to this end, the algorithm is made to perform a local fine search, and the optimisation accuracy of the algorithm and its global search ability are improved. Finally, based on the numerical simulation of the standard test set and compared with the existing optimised TLOB algorithm, it is concluded that 92% of the solutions in the ETLBO are dominated or not dominated by the solutions in the non-dominated solution set of the optimised TLBO, while only 2% of the solutions in the non-dominated solution set of the optimised ETLBO are dominated by the non-dominated solutions of the TLBO. Centralised solutions dominate or do not dominate each other. It is concluded that the optimised TLBO algorithm has the best solution ability and also has practical application significance.

Composite materials reinforced with synthetic fibres have been used in aviation and space technology for more than half a century. Fibre-reinforced composites with high specific strength and corrosion resistance are an attractive alternative to traditional structural materials, including steels, aluminium and titanium alloys. At the same time, composites based on carbon and glass fibres are inherently brittle structural materials with high strength sensitivity to stress concentrations due to the design features of the structures or defects that occur in operation. One way to solve this problem is hybridisation which makes it possible to increase the nonlinearity of the composite stress-strain diagram and reduce sensitivity to notches. Hybrid composites combine several types of reinforcing filler with different fracture strains and exhibit a pronounced pseudo-ductile plateau in tension. Such material behaviour ensures the redistribution of stresses near the concentrator and potentially reduce notch sensitivity. When designing hybrids, it is necessary to take into account the influence of different factors including the ratio between the components and their lay-up, using various technological methods, and the specific strength of the finished material. This paper presents the results of an experimental study on the strength of hybrid composites based on glass and carbon fabrics in the open hole tests. It was found that hybrids with an extended hardening area after the pseudo-yield plateau are were more notch sensitive. A low elongation component layers rotation on angles up to 10°, as well as the use of thin polymer veils, also reduce the sensitivity of the composite strength to the presence of the defects.

The paper is devoted to the numerical analysis of uniaxial loading of a sample of the mechanical metamaterial. The structure of the mechanical metamaterial is constructed of a ring and four ligaments, which make up a tetrachiral structure. The peculiarity of such a structure consists in torsion of the sample under the force load. Two methods of connecting cells in the metamaterial are considered: "adjoining" and "overlapping". The "adjoining" method of joining cells increases the thickness of the internal structure of the sample, which allows us to consider it as a topological defect of the metamaterial. The "overlapping" method saves the base material from which the tetrachiral structure is constructed. Differences in the structure when constructing a three-dimensional sample result in a significant change in the characteristics of the sample. Numerical solution of the problem is performed in a three-dimensional formulation using the finite element method. The constitutive relation describing the behavior of the model corresponds to Hooke's law. Numerical simulation of uniaxial loading made it possible to obtain the results of mechanical response and to analyze the effective properties of metamaterials. A topological defect in the form of a thickening of the internal structure elements led to a difference in the linear dimensions of the two samples. The increased thickness of the unit cell connection elements resulted in a decrease in the effective density of the metamaterial sample. The same sample showed a triple increase in the value of the elastic modulus. The greater ability to resist deformation resulted in a reduced twist effect compared to the sample whose cells were joined by the "overlapping" method. The results obtained will make it possible to program the mechanical behavior and properties of the metamaterial sample.

In this paper, symmetric and antisymmetric plane problems about the action of oscillating load on the boundary of an elastic isotropic nanothin layer are considered. The nanoscale layer thickness is considered by introducing surface stresses in accordance with the Gurtin-Murdoch theory. According to this theory, it is assumed that, in addition to external loads, surface stresses act on the layer boundaries, which are described by Hooke's “surface” law. As a result, the properties of the elastic material of the layer with nanoscale thickness become different from the properties of the material of a regular-sized body, which is typical for nanomechanics problems. A standard technique was used for the solution of formulated problems, including the application of limiting absorption principle, the Fourier transform over infinitely extended coordinate and the theory of residues for finding the inverse Fourier transform. It is shown how it is possible to obtain solutions in the form of series in natural waves, in which the wave numbers are defined as the roots of the corresponding dispersion equations. For a specific example, dispersion relations were studied and graphs of the first dispersion curves were plotted. The behavior of barrier frequencies, changes in wave numbers and zones of existence of backward waves at different nanoscale layer thicknesses are analyzed. The results of the analysis showed that for an ultrathin layer, surface effects have a significant impact on the dispersion relations, and the trends in the dispersion curves can differ significantly for different modes and layer thicknesses.

The paper deals with the identification of a crack-like defect in a coated wedge based on ultrasonic nondestructive testing. The authors propose an approach of defect identification followed by determination of its geometrical parameters. The approach is based on a shadowed ultrasonic nondestructive testing method combined with deep machine learning technologies. A wedge-shaped area is inspected for the presence of an internal defect. On one edge of the wedge there is a source of ultrasonic vibrations, on the opposite edge there is a receiver. Passing through the coating and body of the wedge, part of the signal is reflected from inhomogeneities and defects that may be present in it. The signal reaching the opposite edge of the wedge is read by the receiver. The received data is processed by a neural network model, which predicts the presence or absence of an internal defect and, if present, determines geometric parameters such as size and position. A finite element model of ultrasonic wave propagation inside the wedge is constructed. Special damping layers are used, due to which the influence of parasitic signal reflections and its further propagation into the wedge body is significantly reduced. Based on the built model, the shadow method of ultrasonic scanning is implemented. This method implies that on one side of the wedge are installed excitation devices, and on the opposite side – receiving devices. Several numerical experiments for various combinations of geometric parameters of the wedge and the defect have been performed using a distributed computing system. Based on the obtained data, a neural network model was built and trained, capable of identifying the defect and determining its characteristics. The input of the model is spectrograms of the readout signal, and the output is values characterizing the defect.

The paper is devoted to modern experimental and computational studies analysis on the point of asymmetric destruction of ice on the surfaces of the working blades of gas-turbine engine blades. A schematic diagram of an experimental setup has been developed, which consists of the following main elements: a wind tunnel, a cold chamber, a model fan, an electric motor, and a high-speed video camera. The experimental setup makes it possible to carry out laboratory studies of the ice formation and destruction processes. The choice of the experimental test rig parameters was made to allow assessing the icing of the blades of a rotating fan, which reproduces the processes occurring on gas turbine engines. Based on the results of three-dimensional gas-dynamic and strength calculations, the design and basic geometrical parameters of the flow path and the dummy fan were determined. The dependences of compression ratio Pk and the power consumption of a model fan Wcons on the value of the mass air flow Gair for a different number of rotor blades are presented. The choice of materials for the disk hub and blades of a dummy fan which experience tensile and bending loads at high rotation speeds up to 12.000 rpm was made, that satisfies the conditions of static and dynamic strength, also the allowable safety factors were evaluated, and pressure characteristics were obtained.

The paper discusses the method of obtaining a digital passport of the material and the development of a digital twin of the product at various stages of its manufacture. The object of research is a conical mesh structure. The subject of research is the processes occurring in the product at the manufacturing stages. The following main stages of creating a mesh structure were considered in the work: 3D printing of a workpiece tooling, laying out a carbon unidirectional material, heating and impregnation of the preform with a binder, polymerization of the binder, and warpage of the product geometry. An algorithm for determining the properties of materials and their calibration using modern software and hardware and universal equipment was described. Modeling of the tooling 3D printing process was carried out in the Ansys software package. Step-by-step technological modeling of the transfer molding process was carried out using the ESI PAM-COMPOSITE software package. The result of the simulation is the optimal technological manufacturing parameters and the geometry of the shaping tooling with anticipation of warping.

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).

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

The voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) is the primary device in the phase-locked loop (PLL) to produce the local oscillator frequency. The excessive phase noise of VCOs is the primary cause of PLL performance loss. This paper proposes the design and optimization of low phase noise and low power consumption for a 180 nm N-channel metal-oxide semiconductor NMOS VCO for PLL applications with P-channel metal-oxide semiconductor PMOS varactors and spiral inductors. At 2 V supply voltage, the optimized NMOS VCO has a power consumption of 21 mW, a phase noise of -130 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset and a total harmonic distortion (THD) of 3.9%. The proposed design is verified by PSpice simulations. A new criterion is proposed for optimizing NMOS LC oscillators.