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Aim. To assess the association of cardiovascular risk factors with various vascular aging phenotypes using the St. Petersburg population sample as part of the Epidemiology of Cardiovascular Diseases and their Risk Factors in Regions of Russian Federation (ESSE-RF) study.Material and methods. The current analysis, performed within the ESSE-RF multicenter observational study, included 1600 St. Petersburg residents. The participants filled out a questionnaire to assess risk factors. In addition, blood biochemical parameters, anthropometric characteristics, and blood pressure were evaluated. Pulse wave velocity (PWV) was assessed by applanation tonometry using the SphygmoCor device (AtCor, Australia) in 524 people. For analysis, 485 participants without prior cardiovascular events were selected. PWV ≤10 percentile of PWV for healthy individuals in each age group was considered as the criterion for supernormal vascular aging (SUPERNOVA) phenotype, the PWV ≥90 percentile — early vascular aging (EVA), the PWV of 10-90 percentile — normal vascular aging (NVA).Results. The prevalence of SUPERNOVA phenotype was 9,7%, EVA — 18,8%, NVA — 71,5%. Patients with EVA phenotype were more likely to have HTN (60,4%) in comparison with those with SUPERNOVA phenotype (17%) and, less likely — high physical activity (39,6 vs 53,2%). Obesity, hyperglycemia, insulin resistance, hypercholesterolemia, dyslipoproteinemia, and excessive alcohol consumption were significantly less common in participants with SUPERNOVA phenotype compared with those with EVA phenotype.Conclusion. In addition to HTN and dyslipoproteinemia, a significant predictor of premature aging was the cumulative effect of obesity, insulin resistance and hypertriglyceridemia. Among behavioral risk factors, higher physical activity and adequate alcohol consumption were factors associated with supernormal aging.

In Europe, most football clubs have long been positioned as business projects, which are active in financial markets and apply various funding tools. The 2018 FIFA World Cup inspired a new wave of interest in Russian football and created attractive conditions for applying new funding tools. The specifics of the economy surrounding sports development in Russia have led to a situation whereby most sports clubs depend on limited apportionments of budgetary funds, and require novel sources of additional funding for different development purposes, e.g. constructing stadiums, training grounds, youth academies and everyday operations. The aim of this research is to examine the best foreign practice in the field of attracting funding by sports clubs and propose adaptations for Russian conditions. This work presents a practice-oriented review of the most modern funding tools used in football, and analyses the capital structure of European football clubs, their funding policies and preferences. The competitive level of the European and Russian clubs, their relative financial capabilities, and their development prospects were considered, and the analytical mapping process ascribed prospective investment ratings to the Russian clubs. In a similar manner, recommendations as to how practical funding examples from European clubs may be adapted and followed in the Russian context are described. By comparison and contrast, likely candidates among Russian clubs for similar economic strategies are identified. The sources of information utilised for this process include annual reports from European football clubs, research studies, and academic articles, along with any available contextual information on Russian clubs. The study was limited by the secrecy of reporting in Russian football and the weak financial position of most Russian clubs, which restricts their funding opportunities. However, despite the special development model of domestic Russian football and the harsh economic conditions, the proposals formulated in this work can be implemented into the practical activity of any club, regardless its scale and can contribute to improving financial sustainability, competitive results and the integrated development of Russian clubs. The methods proposed can act as a catalyst for the gradual corporatisation of Russian football clubs and will be of interest to investors, business analysts, economic scientists and football fans alike.

Aim. To assess the detection rate of infective endocarditis (IE) in postoperative period in patients with aortic stenosis (AS) and analyze the impact of late diagnosis on disease outcomes.Material and methods. A retrospective analysis of the register of 1764 patients with AS, formed on the basis of transthoracic echocardiographic (echo) tests in2009-2011, was performed. During the 8-year follow-up period, 679 patients were operated on; IE was diagnosed in 131 people. Patients were divided into subgroups depending on the valve morphology and the time of IE verification before or after surgery. IE, first detected in the postoperative period, was considered as latent IE.Results. Among patients with AS, the proportion of people with IE was only 3,7%, however, pathomorphological examination revealed IE signs in 19,3%. In 58,8% ofcases, IE was detected for the first time in the postoperative period. In 66,2% of cases,latent IE was diagnosed in patients with congenital heart disease (CHD) — bicuspidaortic valve (BAV). In the group of patients with known IE before surgery, there were lower levels of hemoglobin, erythrocytes and a higher level of creatinine. According to the results of a histological examination, inactive IE was diagnosed in 28% of cases. In 26,5% of patients stage 3 activity IE was defined, among which latent course was recorded in 16%. Single-agent antibiotic therapy (ABT) was carried out in 40,5% of patients, dual-agent ABT — in 50,0%, triple-agent — in 9,5%. The median duration of ABT was 14 days (7 to 42). The eight-year survival rate for patients with IE was 91,2%. Of the 9 deaths, only 5 (56%) had a diagnosis of IE before surgery.Conclusion. More than half of the patients operated on for AV defects had a latent course of IE and, as a result, late diagnosis, which could affect medium-term survival. Most of the people with latent IE included in the analysis had CHD-BAV, which requires the development of IE preventive measures in this patient population. Various approaches to the ABT of latent IE in clinical practice determine the relevance of additional studies aimed at unification the ABT approaches in this clinical setting.

Aim. To study the possibility of using mixed technique for predicting infectious morbidity based on time series decomposition methods and SARIMA (decSARIMA).Materials and methods. Using the data from 12 regions of Volga Federal District (Russia) we analyzed time series of the incidence of infectious pathologies: hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS), acute upper respiratory viral infection (ARVI) and syphilis. The decomposition of time series of the incidence rate was carried out using X13-ARIMA-SEATS method. The trend and the seasonal component were separated, each of which was then modeled separately by SARIMA method. The final model of the incidence rate was obtained by adding the trend and the seasonal models.Results. On average, decSARIMA models had higher or similar characteristics of model and prediction quality compared to SARIMA models without preliminary decomposition. The prognosis of the incidence rate obtained by decSARIMA method was characterized by narrower confidence intervals. Reasonability of using decSARIMA models depended on composition and dynamics of time series of the incidence rate. A significant improvement in model and prediction quality was demonstrated for HFRS. When modeling and predicting the incidence rate of ARVI and syphilis, the inclusion of decomposition of time series into the analysis was considered inexpedient.Conclusion. The usage of decSARIMA model allows to significantly improve the quality of the prognosis of the incidence for infections, which are characterized by pronounced seasonality and the presence of interannual differences in the incidence rate.

INTRODUCTION. The paper considers the problem of the realisation of the core international human rights treaties at the national level from a perspective of the importance of conducting doctrinal research in this area. The authors provide the analysis of the content of the study project “The Impact of the United Nations Human Rights Treaties on the Domestic Level”, launched in 2018 in continuation of the study carried out almost 20 years ago initiated by Ch. Heyns and F. Viljoen, professors of the Center for Human Rights of the University of Pretoria (South Africa), with the support of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), to study the impact of the six existing at that time core international human rights treaties on the human rights situation in 20 States, including the Russian Federation.MATERIALS AND METHODS. The research was based on a variety of study materials, including international treaties, outcome documents of the international conferences, recommendations of the human rights treaty bodies, doctrinal studies, national legislation and the court practice of the Russian Federation. The authors applied historical legal and comparative legal methods when comparing the contents of the 1999 research and the 2018 study project, tracking the developments in the universal human rights system since 1999 till today, comparing the current tendencies in the realisation of the human rights treaties in Russia with the conclusions of the previous research on Russia. The method of legal forecasting was used to determine the perspectives of the present and possible future research on the impact of human rights treaties in States.RESEARCH RESULTS. Demonstrating the developments in the universal human rights system and the dynamics in the realisation of the human rights treaties in Russia taken place since 1999, the authors examined the tasks of the new research they need to conduct as the successors of professors Yu. Kolosov and Yu. Reshetov and identified the specifics of the approach of the new study comparing to the previous one.DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. The authors demonstrate the potential of the study to determine the measures to enhance the effectiveness of the human rights treaty body system within the ongoing process on its strengthening, including the 2020 UN comprehensive review of the progress achieved in this field. The paper points out the importance of expanding the research to more than 20 countries, already covered by the research, with a view of forming a comprehensive picture of the way in which the international human rights treaty system influences the situation of rights holders at local level, just where it really matters.

The article addresses the problem of student dropout from technical university due to their academic failure. The modern technical universities face a decline in youth’s interest to technical and natural sciences and engineering specialties. In enrolling new students on these specialties the universities have to set lower standards and requirements for the admission. So, the students are less motivated, and the number of expelled students increases.The article presents the results of data analysis for the two leading areas of training at Moscow Automobile and Road State Technical University (MADI) – “Construction of unique buildings and structures” and “Land transport and technological means” carried out respectively at the Road-Building faculty (DSF) and the faculty of Automobile transport (ATF). The article adduces the total number of students in MADI, as well as the number of the enrolled students on the specified training directions, and the number of expelled students of all courses for the period from 1935 to 2018. The results in physics exams showed by undergraduate students were compared with the Unified State Exam scores in physics. There is a clear parallel between the Unified State Exam scores, an entrance testing and “residual knowledge” tests.The authors have also analyzed the results of an anonymous questioning among the same groups of students, which make it possible to understand their point of view on the problems of learning difficulties. The main reasons for student attrition are both the low scores of the applicants’ results of the Unified State Exam, and insufficient actions and ineffective strategies undertaken by the university to involve undergraduate students in its educational environment.

This paper examines profitability as a factor in the turnover of poorly-performing executives in Russian banks, and how this acts as a mechanism of good corporate governance. It is intended to identify and measure the relative effects of different determinants on executive turnover, and thus highlight the practical sets of circumstances where turnover is most likely. A relatively unique perspective on the study of corporate governance, we intend to demonstrate an aspect of corporate accountability for commercial performance and shed light on high-level manifestations of reactive management practices.In order to construct the most realistic and robust analysis, we will take into account the idiosyncracies of the companies and individuals involved in this process, and also consider the influence of external economic and social developments where appropriate. The empirical data in this research consists of 3251 observations concerning members of the executive boards of the 50 largest Russian banks from 2005 till 2014. Contemporary accounting data and other financial and economic indicators for these companies is weighed alongside personal information about the banks executives. Descriptive statistics and econometric approaches are utilised in order to parse the provided data and construct a comprehensive explanatory model. Our interpretative process includes the application of probit regressions and OLS panel regressions with fixed effects. The results of this evaluation may be summarised as follows. We found out that a decrease in return on equity (ROE) and a decrease in return on assets (ROA) leads to a higher probability of executive turnover. Changes in the EBITDA to total assets ratio did not correlate with executive turnover probability. State-controlled banks showed a higher executive turnover rate. A greater turnover rate during pre-crisis 2006-2007 may have been caused by banks’ demand for new executives, in their ambition to attain extensive growth. A higher turnover rate in 2014 could have been inspired by the economic sanctions again Russia, or influenced by a recent policy of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation aiming at a “clearance” of the banking system. Finally, it was demonstrated that personal characteristics of the members of the executive boards did not have a significant influence on executive turnover probability.This study contributes to the limited literature in the area by analysing the determinants of turnover of members of the executive boards of banks depending on the profitability of banks and other characteristics. This is the first study of this kind, based on extensive Russian data which allows for the appraisal of the mechanisms of corporate governance. While a primary limitation of this study is that only large banks were included in the sample, the very presentation of these conclusions carries significant weight in terms of defining methodological parameters for future research. This area is ripe for further investigation. For example, it is immediately apparent that the results may be very different for small or medium-sized banks, let alone other kinds of financial and commercial institutions.

The development of energy, agriculture and industry, the growth of consumption of natural resources inevitably increases the risks of environmental offenses, and lead to increase the negative impact on the environment. In accordance with the Strategy of Environmental Safety of the Russian Federation until 2025 (Decree of the President of the Russian Federation “On the Strategy of Environmental Safety of the Russian Federation for the Period up to 2025” 2017), minimization of damage caused to the environment, elimination of negative consequences of anthropogenic factors on the environment, as well as the rehabilitation of territories and water areas contaminated as a result of economic and other activities, prevention of environmental harm are named as the main directions of solving the main tasks in the field of environmental safety. The current system of accountability for environmental damage in our country could not be called effective. Improvement of legislation on compensation for environmental harm should start with the norms of material (environmental) law. According to N. Robinson and L. Kurukulasuriya, “To be an effective means of environmental protection, liability regimes should cover not only traditionally accepted forms of compensation, but the damage caused to the environment. The main task of developing special regimes of environmental responsibility is to help people understand the consequences of the negative impact on the environment – the public good, which is the basis of the system of life support of people and all living things. However, many countries have not introduced special liability regimes for environmental harm, relying on traditional civil liability standards applied in the environmental context”. As noted by leading foreign researchers in the field of environmental law, one of the main problems in solving the issue of compensation for environmental harm in the framework of classical tort law is the need to belong to an environmental good, which is public in nature, to any person. Another equally important problem that characterizes liability for environmental damage largely as public law is the methods of assessing the damage caused. Environmental damage may not be quantifiable from an economic point of view, for example, in the case of loss of fauna and flora that have no market value, and in the case of damage to ecosystems or landscapes, economic value may not be assessed using traditional approaches to damage assessment.

Chemiluminescence is known in solution, but has remained undetected in macroscopic crystalline solids so far. Here the authors demonstrate direct transduction of heat into light by thermochemiluminescence in a centimeter-size lophine hydroperoxide crystal.