Publications

The book contains 19 national reports and a comparative legal analysis of the legal regulations on the procedure of genome editing on the human germline. It is worked out which shared values ​​the different legal systems connect and which differences exist. On this basis, it is examined whether an international regulation of the topic is possible and how it could be designed. In addition, it will be examined to what extent the regulations of other countries can serve as a model for German legislation.

This volume collects the referred papers based on plenary, invited, and oral talks, as well on the posters presented at the Third International Conference on Computer Simulations in Physics and beyond (CSP2018), which took place September 24-27, 2018 in Moscow. The Conference continues the tradition started by an inaugural conference in 2015. It took place on the campus of A.N. Tikhonov Moscow Institute of Electronics and Mathematics in Strogino, was jointly organized by the National Research University Higher School of Economics, the Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics and Science Center in Chernogolovka.

The Conference is a multidisciplinary meeting, with a focus on computational physics and related subjects. Indeed, methods of computational physics prove useful in a broad spectrum of research in multiple branches of natural sciences, and this volume provides a sample.

We hope that this volume will interest readers, and we are already looking forward to the next conference in the series.

Moscow, Russia

November, 2018

CSP2018 Conference Chair and Volume Editor

Lev Shchur

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The book pursues the following three aims:

• First and foremost, we want to help conceptualize the Arctic as a multifaceted region within a changing global context, which is both affected by it and affecting it.

• Secondly, we aim to describe the major drivers of these GlobalArctic dynamics; namely, ecological changes, changes in resources extraction practices and corresponding infrastructure development, including urbanization, as well as changes in geopolitical configurations, and changes in Arctic economies, societies and cultures.

• Thirdly, we aim to define, analyze, and discuss concrete ways to address these changes in the GlobalArctic, including mitigation, adaptation, and resiliencebuilding. The purpose is to offer the relevant GlobalArctic stakeholders innovative approaches, methods, best practices, and solutions to address these unprecedented dynamics. Here the GlobalArctic is a (new) geopolitical context.

This book is based on the collection of articles centered around Russia and its policies. The articles are grouped under three parts. The first part contains articles on international relations, Russian foreign policy, and the situation in the world. The main themes they cover include Russian policy in Asia and the Eurasian integration — in which Moscow plays the most active role.

The second part looks at the theorization of Russia’s internal processes, issues concerning reforms to the communist system, its troubled transition from Communism, and analysis of the country’s current political regime. While elaborating on various reforms and transition from the communist system, the author has suggested certain alternatives concepts. Many of the articles analyze the shortcomings and inconsistencies of the modern Russian political system.

The third part is devoted to current issues in Russian politics, the democratization process, growing authoritarian tendencies, mass protests, and that evaluate the programs and policies of individual leaders. The book will be of interest to those specializing in Russian foreign and domestic policy as well as to all those interested in following the developments of this country, its role in the world, and the global situation in general.

The Handbook of Research on International Collaboration, Economic Development, and Sustainability in the Arctic discusses the perspectives and major challenges of the investment collaboration and development and commercial use of trade routes in the Arctic. Featuring research on topics such as agricultural production, environmental resources, and investment collaboration, this book is ideally designed for policymakers, business leaders, and environmental researchers seeking coverage on new practices and solutions in the sphere of achieving sustainability in economic exploration of the Artic region

The invitation to serve as Minister of Education and lead a bold and significant reform of an education system never comes with an instruction manual. Leading such an opportunity effectively, requires access to the best knowledge about how to make change happen. In this book, Ministers of Education and system level leaders in ten countries share what they learned in the process of advancing audacious reforms aimed at transforming public education so schools would better prepare students with the necessary skills to participate civically and economically in a rapidly changing world. A product of the Global Education Innovation Initiative, a practice-research consortium of leaders and institutions that advance knowledge to support the transformation of public education systems to augment their relevancy, the book is anchored in the proposition that successful educational change requires the appropriate combination of knowledge based on practice with knowledge based on research. The contributors to this volume embody the best qualities of reflective practitioners who can make visible what they have learned from their practice. In sharing with what they have learned with others, they demonstrate also the generosity and commitment of those who understand that we all share responsibility for the education of the entirety of the world’s children. In this book, the reader will find discerning and intimate accounts of what it is like to transform the largest organization in society, so it does a better job educating all children. The themes that resonate in their accounts across systems as diverse as Australia, Brazil, Colombia, India, Mexico, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Russia and Singapore are fascinating, surprising and valuable to those who hope to leave a legacy as Ministers of Education. Fernando M. Reimers is the Ford Foundation Professor of the Practice of International Education and Director of the Global Education Innovation Initiative and of the International Education Policy Masters Program at Harvard University. His research and teaching focus on understanding how to educate children and youth so they can thrive in the 21st century. Over more than three decades he has advised Ministers of Education and other leaders of education institutions in Africa, Asia, the Americas, Europe and the Middle East.

This book contains a selection of papers accepted for the presentation and discussion at the 2018 International Conference on Digital Science (DSIC’18). This Conference had the support of the Institute of Certified Specialists, Russia, AISTI (Iberian Association for Information Systems and Technologies), and Springer. It will take place Convention Centre, Budva, Montenegro, October 19-21, 2018.

DSIC’18 is an international forum for researches and practitioners to present and discuss the most recent innovations, trends, results, experiences, and concerns in the several perspectives of Digital Science. The main idea of this Conference is that the world of science is united allowing all scientists/practitioners to be able to think, analyze, and generalize their thoughts.

DSIC aims efficiently to disseminate original research results in natural, social, art, and humanities sciences. An important characteristic feature of the Conference should be the short publication time and worldwide distribution. This Conference enables fast dissemination, so conference participants can publish their papers in print and electronic format, which is then made available worldwide and accessible by numerous researchers.

The Scientific Committee of DSIC’18 was composed of multidisciplinary group of 26 experts. One hundred and seven invited reviewers who are intimately conceded with Digital Science have had the responsibility for evaluating, in a “double-blind review” process, the papers received for each of the main themes proposed for the Conference: Digital Art and Humanities; Digital Economics; Digital Education; Digital Engineering, Digital Environmental Sciences; Digital Finance; Business and Banking; Digital Media; Digital Medicine; Pharma and Public Health; Digital Public Administration; Digital Technology and Applied Sciences.

DSIC’18 received 88 contributions from 16 countries around the world. The papers accepted for the presentation and discussion at the Conference are published by Springer (this book) and will be submitted for indexing by ISI, SCOPUS, among others.

The book is aimed at developing students' listening and speaking skills via utilizingTED-talks on a variety of topics including education, time management, politics, discrimination, and modern inventions.

The book is the second edition of the book "English for Humanities" designed for undergraduate university students.

 

Working Title: From Corporate Social Responsibility to Corporate Social Liability

Subtitle: A Socio-Legal Study of Corporate Liability in Global Value Chains

Series: N/A 

 

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Optimization and Applications, OPTIMA 2018, held in Petrovac, Montenegro, in October 2018.The 35 revised full papers and the one short paper presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 103 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on mathematical programming; combinatorial and discrete optimization; optimal control; optimization in economy, finance and social sciences; applications.

The series “Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing” contains publications on theory, applications, and design methods of Intelligent Systems and Intelligent Computing. Virtually all disciplines such as engineering, natural sciences, computer and information science, ICT, economics, business, e-commerce, environment, healthcare, life science are covered. The list of topics spans all the areas of modern intelligent systems and computing such as: computational intelligence, soft computing including neural networks, fuzzy systems, evolutionary computing and the fusion of these paradigms, social intelligence, ambient intelligence, computational neuroscience, artificial life, virtual worlds and society, cognitive science and systems, Perception and Vision, DNA and immune based systems, self-organizing and adaptive systems, e-Learning and teaching, human-centered and human-centric computing, recommender systems, intelligent control, robotics and mechatronics including human-machine teaming, knowledge-based paradigms, learning paradigms, machine ethics, intelligent data analysis, knowledge management, intelligent agents, intelligent decision making and support, intelligent network security, trust management, interactive entertainment, Web intelligence and multimedia. The publications within “Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing” are primarily proceedings of important conferences, symposia and congresses. They cover significant recent developments in the field, both of a foundational and applicable character. An important characteristic feature of the series is the short publication time and world-wide distribution. This permits a rapid and broad dissemination of research results.

This book contains a selection of papers accepted for the presentation and discussion at the 2018 International Conference on Digital Science (DSIC’18). This Conference had the support of the Institute of Certified Specialists, Russia, AISTI (Iberian Association for Information Systems and Technologies), and Springer. It will take place at Convention Centre, Budva, Montenegro, October 19–21, 2018. DSIC’18 is an international forum for researchers and practitioners to present and discuss the most recent innovations, trends, results, experiences, and concerns in the several perspectives of Digital Science. The main idea of this Conference is that the world of science is unified and united allowing all scientists/practitioners to be able to think, analyze, and generalize their thoughts. DSIC aims efficiently to disseminate original research results in natural, social, art, and humanities sciences. An important characteristic feature of the Conference should be the short publication time and worldwide distribution. This Conference enables fast dissemination, so conference participants can publish their papers in print and electronic format, which is then made available worldwide and accessible by numerous researchers. The Scientific Committee of DSIC’18 was composed of a multidisciplinary group of 26 experts. One hundred and seven invited reviewers who are intimately concerned with Digital Science have had the responsibility for evaluating, in a “double-blind review” process, the papers received for each of the main themes proposed for the Conference: Digital Art and Humanities; Digital Economics; Digital Education; Digital Engineering; Digital Environmental Sciences; Digital Finance, Business and Banking; Digital Media; Digital Medicine, Pharma and Public Health; Digital Public Administration; Digital Technology and Applied Sciences. DSIC’18 received 88 contributions from 16 countries around the world. The papers accepted for the presentation and discussion at the Conference are published by Springer (this book) and will be submitted for indexing by ISI, SCOPUS, among others.

This book covers the classical theory of Markov chains on general state-spaces as well as many recent developments. The theoretical results are illustrated by simple examples, many of which are taken from Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods. The book is self-contained, while all the results are carefully and concisely proven. Bibliographical notes are added at the end of each chapter to provide an overview of the literature.

Proceedings of Third Workshop "Computational linguistics and language science"

A number of recent events in the last decade have renewed interest in Russian discourses on international law. This book evaluates and presents a contemporary analysis of Russian discourses on international law from various perspectives, including sociological, theoretical, political and philosophical. The aim is to identify how Russian interacts with international law, the reasons behind such interactions, and how such interactions compare with the general practice of international law. It also examines whether legal culture and other phenomena can justify Russia's interaction in international law. Russian Discourses on International Law explains Russia's interpretation of international law thrugh the lens of both leading western scholars and contemporary western-based Russian scholars. It will be of value to international law scholars looking for a better understanding of Russia's behaviour in international legal relations, law and society, foreign policy, and domestic application of international law. Further, those in fields such as sociology, politics, pholosophy, or general graduate students, lawyers, think tanks, government departments, and specialised Russian studies programmes will find this book helpful.

These excerpts from critical reviews covering French dance tours in Vienna, Salzburg, and Innsbruck reflect the scale and variety of French cultural engagement and its growing public visibility in Austria. Out of the four Allied powers, it was France, and not the Soviet Union with its “ballet capital,” that made most use of dance and ballet for nation-brandingpurposes, both in sabots and on pointe. France's dance diplomacy exported all genres of dance to Austria in order to portray the politically and militarily weakened nation as a rayonnant cultural leader of Europe, whose diversity, supremacy, and grandeur were not undone by 1871 and 1940.

TBA

Over the past ten years, an ambiguous situation concerning Russian gas companies has been observed. On the one hand, companies’ reports represent conservative policies and sustainable growth in the coming years. On the other hand, companies’ fi nancial performance suggests another situation because of the insuffi cient level of fi nancial indices that refl ect the inconsistency of existing sustainable growth approaches. This situation indicates the relevance of the research concerning Russian gas companies’ fi nancial sustainable growth in the conditions of the global economy, “economic sanctions” and investment policy implementation. The primary purpose of the research is to analyse Russian gas companies’ fi nancial growth strategy employing Geniberg Z — matrix as well as enhanced fi nancial sustainability indicators system indices by identifying which indicators have a greater infl uence on sustainable growth rate. We found that return on fi xed assets ratio, net profi t growth ratio, debt equity ratio infl uence on Russian gas companies’ sustainable growth rate and recommended for the system of fi nancial sustainability indicators (FSIS) usage. We associate the concept of Russian gas companies’ fi nancial sustainable growth with environmental protection, energy savings, and social factors. Thus, we added to the fi nancial model non-fi nancial factors. As a result of the analysis, we have obtained the dependence of Sustainable Growth Rate to Environmental Ratings as well as Return on social responsibility costs. We recommend paying more attention to the energy, social, environmental, and economic determinants that could contribute to sustainable growth. We also found that Russian gas market companies could improve Financial Strategies according to sustainable growth point of view. We suggest ways to enhance the fi nancial strategy of Russian gas companies.

The intramolecular dynamics of vibrational levels (up to v = 5) of the \nu_1 mode in the (CF_3)_2CCO molecule that is induced by a multiphoton selective excitation of this mode by resonant femtosecond IR radiation has been studied. The times of intramolecular vibrational energy redistribution (IVR) from each vibrational level to remaining molecular modes have been determined. In accordance with theoretical predictions, a decrease in the IVR time with increasing quantum number v has been observed for the first time. A sharp decrease in the IVR time (down to 1.5 ps) at a wavelength of 2129 cm−1, corresponding to the v = 3 → v = 4 vibrational transition, is revealed. It has been shown that, with a negative chirp of a femtosecond radiation pulse, the population of high-lying vibrational levels of the ν1 mode increases significantly.

 

We analyze systems of clusters and interacting upon colliding—a collision between two clusters may lead to merging or fragmentation—and we also investigate the influence of additional spontaneous fragmentation events. We consider both closed systems in which the total mass remains constant and open systems driven by a source of small-mass clusters. In closed systems, the size distribution of aggregates approaches a steady state. For these systems the relaxation time and the steady state distribution are determined mostly by spontaneous fragmentation while collisional fragmentation plays a minor role. For open systems, in contrast, the collisional fragmentation dominates. In this case, the system relaxes to a quasi-stationary state where cluster densities linearly grow with time, while the functional form of the cluster size distribution persists and coincides with the steady state size distribution of a system which has the same aggregation and fragmentation rates and only collisional fragmentation.

The article is devoted to the analysis of the influence of the human factor on the corruption in the public authority. The corruption depends on the institutional quality of the public authority, its ability to withstand the negative manifestations of the human factor, and on the officials’ qualities. The motivation of "going to power" has a big significance. Under the authoritarian regimes, the corruption system is generated by the deformations in the election institution. The managerial lustration expediency for the power purification after the regimes' changes is substantiated. The institutional measures to combat the corruption have been identified.

We study the complexity of the realization of Boolean functions by circuits in infinite complete bases containing all monotone functions with zero weight (cost of use) and finitely many nonmonotone functions with unit weight. The complexity of the realization of Boolean functions in the case where the only nonmonotone element of the basis is negation was completely described by A. A. Markov: the minimum number of negations sufficient for the realization of an arbitrary Boolean function f (the inversion complexity of the function f) is equal to ]log_2(d(f) + 1)[, where d(f) is the maximum (over all increasing chains of sets of values of the variables) number of changes of the function value from 1 to 0. In the present paper, this result is generalized to the case of the computation of Boolean functions over an arbitrary basis B of prescribed form. It is shown that the minimum number of nonmonotone functions sufficient for computing an arbitrary Boolean functionf is equal to ]log_2(d(f)/D(B)+1)[, where D(B) = max d(ω); the maximum is taken over all nonmonotone functions ω of the basis B.

We investigate the realization complexity of k-valued logic functions k ≥ 2 by combinational circuits in an infinite basis that includes the negation of the Lukasiewicz function, i.e., the function k−1−x, and all monotone functions. Complexity is understood as the total number of circuit elements. For an arbitrary function f, we establish lower and upper complexity bounds that differ by at most by 2 and have the form 2 log(d(f) + 1) + o(1), where d(f) is the maximum number of times the function f switches from larger to smaller value (the maximum is taken over all increasing chains of variable tuples). For all sufficiently large n, we find the exact value of the Shannon function for the realization complexity of the most complex function of n variables.

We suggest a new method on coloring generalized Kneser graphs based on hypergraphs with high discrepancy and small number of edges. The main result is providing a proper coloring of K(n, n/2−t, s) in (4 + o(1))(s + t) 2 colors, which is produced by Hadamard matrices. Also, we show that for colorings by independent set of a natural type, this result is the best possible up to a multiplicative constant. Our method extends to Kneser hypergraphs as well

Integration processes in the EAEU is associated with the development of regional banking regulation that secures the effectiveness of the integration policy and, ultimately, financial stability. The integrity of the regional regulatory mechanism will largely depend on the effectiveness of convergence and supranationalization of the economic and institutional aspects of banking regulation of the EAEU member states, and at the same time – on their synchronization with Basel III. In this regard, a regional regulatory mechanism – mini Basel III – should become the central core of the EAEU regulatory and supervisory system, a tool for mitigation of systemic risks, and a mean for maintenance of stress resilience of the national banking sectors, as well as a channel of interaction with international banking regulation authorities.

However, currently EAEU banking regulation lacks a complete framework, mostly due to the shortage of strategic vision on regulatory convergence and poor understanding of the integration risks due to the absence of reliable tools for measuring imbalances in the banking sector. Besides, a number of issues of institutional supranationalization, including the delegation of the regulatory power from national to supranational level, still remain open.

In this work, the author continues the study of the regionalization of banking regulation and supervision in the EAEU focusing on systemic risks and how the mini-Basel III mechanism could become a key tool in minimization of the system-wide instability and crises.

The chapter takes the case of the formation of the Constitutional Democratic party (the Kadets) in the context of emerging mass politics, 1905 revolution, and political reforms. Going against the genealogical approach, the author stresses the contingency and novelty of party liberalism in the early twentieth century. In particular, the chapter explores the heterogeneity of the Kadet  ranks, the concept of rupture and pluralism in self-representation of the nascent liberal party, and techniques of compromise and negotiation in the pluralist political setting that allowed the party and its platform to cohere. The author also argues that the pluralism of political and ideological context of the Kadet party formation was also matched by pluralism of mobilized space of imperial diversity, that included national, regionalist, and autonomist voices. The context of mobilized imperial diversity is shown to be not only inhibiting, but aiding the liberal politics in the Russian Empire.

 

The paper contains the results of the study on the systematization and formalization of specialized approaches to planning supply chains of leading metal companies and comparison of these practices with the standard supply chain management models SCOR & CCOR & DCOR and GSCF. The paper defines the main directions of development of the methodology of supply chain planning in terms of its adaptation to the specifics of metals.

As for now, Russia has no particular law that regulates genome editing as such. Nevertheless, there are a number of instruments that can be considered applicable to this technology taking into account that genome editing is one of the gene therapy methods thus falling into the wide range of engineering technics used in medicine, biology and in medical biology (biomedicine) – i.e. spheres that are more or less regulated in Russia either nationally or through supranational treaties or recognition of international standards.

In this paper, three major aspects of the regulation in this field will be described: (1) gene therapy issues within medical and pharmaceutical law; (2) patent issues within general patent law; (3) ethical issues.

The past decade has seen rapid advances in the field of talent management in emerging markets. Despite talent management being a new term in the vocabulary business in this region, the vast majority of leading local-owned firms and MNCs implement talent management programs. However, much uncertainty still exists about how talents are attracted and selected in various industries in emerging markets. This paper compares talent acquisition practices of different talent categories in two large groups of companies in Russia: industrial and knowledge-intensive ones. A qualitative approach was chosen to conduct this exploratory study. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews with 20 HR-experts from 13 industries from both MNCs and Russian-owned companies. Findings from the study show that knowledge-intensive companies use successfully both internal and external talent pools, while the vast majority of industrial firms put the highest priority on internal talent pools. We also introduce three types of selection systems: systems focusing on a single set of practices; systems with differentiated selection practices and systems with individual set of practices for each position. Interestingly, industrial companies tend to apply single set of selection practices to all talent categories, while knowledge-intensive firms select talents using differentiated practices or individual set of practices. Overall, this study sheds new light on talent acquisition practices applied in industrial and knowledge-intensive companies.

To date, a diverse array of expert assessments for quantitative (tangible) and qualitative (intangible) objects based on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) has been accumulated in various fields of knowledge. The systematization and analysis of the collected data made it possible to put forward the hypothesis that some of the indicators (the eigenvalue of the matrix, the consistency index, and the ration of consistency) can be considered in the form of aggregates of random variables representing an intellectual product and reflecting features of human thinking. The systematization and statistical processing of the results obtained by experts on the basis of the AHP showed that the distribution functions of the values of expert estimates for the consistency indices significantly differ from the similar functions of the generated matrices.

Rare demand is an important part of the inventory management, nevertheless there are no any appropriate analytical descriptions or numerical examples of it except separate papers where considered the possibility to describe rare demand with Poisson distribution. The divergence between forecasts and actual data could be explained by the following reasons: the first one—extreme values in preforecasting period, as well as not significant ‘length’ of the analyzed time period; the second one—taking data for the forecast from the period of conduction certain actions (sales, promo, etc.), consideration of these actions might be done with combined forecasting methods. The paper describes the approach to assessment of inventory consumption for rare demand based on Poisson distribution. Besides, the paper contains the numerical examples and analysis of the results.

The primary purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of existing education solutions for IoT and develop proposals for their improvement. The study draws analysis of current conditions of the educational IoT sphere, a comparative analysis of educational products used for teaching of undergraduate students. With that the article describes the architecture of our own software and hardware platform for learning IOT. Moreover, this paper reviews methods and technical instruments employed to design software and hardware appliances.

High rates of growth of the ICO market and its excess returns stipulate a significant interest of investors to projects which use initial token allocation (ICO) for attracting investments. This work takes into account the fact that even a potentially profitable project may fail to collect the required amount of money and to start placing tokens on the stock exchange. We are speaking about success of an ICO-campaign for fund raising. In order to estimate the influence of factors and check the suggested research hypotheses, logistic regression was used. The selection included 672 projects. As a dependent variable, the proportion of the amount collected in the ICO process from the required value is selected. Depending on the tested hypothesis the influencing variables took into account the presence of a pre-sale stage and the bounty program and also the price of the token, the upper limit of fund raising, the duration of the ICO-campaign and the number of team members. The work results allow token emitters to substantiate managing the success of the ICO-campaign of the project and the investors to see whether it deserves their attention. Besides, the obtained materials can be useful for specialists in forming the legal framework of token transactions.

It is commonly believed that the visual system requires oculomotor information to perceive depth from binocular disparity. However, any effect of the oculomotor information on depth perception is too restricted to explain depth perception under natural viewing conditions. In this study, I describe a computational model that can recover depth from a stereo-pair of retinal images without using any oculomotor information. The model shows that, at least from a computational perspective, any oculomotor information is not necessary for perceiving depth from the stereo retinal images.

Previous research has shown that the effects of natural shocks on household migration decisions may go in different directions. This paper explores the impact of natural shocks (self-reported) on the migration of members of Kyrgyz rural households. Employing a panel dataset from the Life in Kyrgyzstan Survey (2010-2013) we show that out of five studied shocks only droughts and floods negatively affect migration, while other shocks (cold winters, earthquakes and landslides) on average do not lead to any statistically significant change in migration. However, available migration networks, household financial capacity and involvement in agriculture are sources of differential impacts. Exploring the means of migration funding, we find that both liquidity and borrowing constraints are important for the poorest households. Help from friends and relatives for financing migration, if it comes, is sourced to rich households.

The paper explores the information content of surveys of the Russian services sector using the surveys’ results since 2012Q1 to 2018Q4. To summarise entrepreneurial opinions in a one-dimensional index the indicators of confidence and business climate are calculated. To examine the reaction of GDP to impulses in the business climate indicator and to forecast GDP growth by the end of 2019, the Vector Autoregression Model was used. The results of services surveys provide reliable information on the economic sentiment that is essential to measure recession and recovery development of the sector. Since 2013, the survey’s results demonstrate a stable five-year trend of ‘pessimism accumulation’ in the indicators dynamics. The slight increase in entrepreneurial optimism in 2016-2018 did not result in moving confidence to a positive zone. The business climate indicator (BCI) performs better than the traditional confidence indicator in terms of synchronous correlations with GDP growth. A longer observation period needs to draw conclusions about the BCI cyclic properties; however, it can be used now to analyze the development of the Russian services sector.

We develop a new methodology to identify corruption in public procurement auctions with reserve prices and apply it to Russian public procurement auctions of gasoline in 2011–2013. We identify corrupt procurer–seller pairs by exploiting the variation in reserve prices. Since auction reserve prices are set by the procurer before the auction, they should be independent from the identity of the winning seller. We estimate reserve prices as a function of the local market price, contract, procurer and time controls, and procurer–seller fixed effects. A procurer–seller pair is labeled as potentially corrupt if its pair fixed effect is significantly larger than the average procurer fixed effect. Despite their reserve price overpricing, corrupt sellers face less competition in auctions organized by procurers with whom they form a corrupt pair and have a higher probability of wining these auctions. Auctions won by corrupt pairs exhibit higher final contract prices, leading to considerable welfare losses. The detrimental effect of reserve price manipulation on final prices is mitigated by higher competition and fully offset by electronic auctions with sufficient competition.

Based on the idea of the analysis of symbolic representations of sovereignty and framework of poststructuralist international relations theory this research is exploring the performative nature of sovereignty in a comparative empirical perspective. We have taken four well-known speeches on sovereignty issues to see which symbolic representations of sovereignty were involved in the specific discourse of the four presidents: France, the United States of America, Russia and China. In the analyzed symbolic representations of sovereignty, we encounter important differences synthesize ten symbolic representations of sovereignty that are common to all four examined discourses.

In this paper we integrate social cognitive theory and fraud triangle and criminal behavior concepts from the criminal psychology literature to develop a model that explains the genesis and execution of corrupt behaviors of expatriate managers deployed by organizations from non-corrupt home countries to corrupt host countries. We conceptualize this phenomenon as a process that entails two phases, reactive and proactive, and four levels of analysis: institutional, social, organizational and personal. Focusing our analysis on the expatriate managerial personal level, we first explain how home and host institutional influences stimulate managerial motivation to engage in corrupt behavior in the reactive phase. Then, in the proactive phase, we detail how host social capital facilitates managerial construction of justification for and identification of opportunities for corrupt behavior, whose final exploitation varies relative to the type of organizational control. Our model contributes to a more systematic and theoretically based understanding of how expatriate managers evolved from non-corrupt inclinations to corrupt behaviors. In doing so, we set the stage for future research directions.

This article concentrates on two recent judgments issued by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) Chambers, on Centrum för Rättvisa v. Sweden and Big Brother Watch and Others v. the United Kingdom, which expressly acknowledged that mass surveillance per se does not violate the Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. These judgments have been recently referred to the Grand Chamber, thus giving hope that the approach taken in respect of the launch of mass interception of communications and metadata has a chance to be revisited.  The author reveals whether this approach follows from the jurisprudence of the ECHR, how plausible the argumentation of this court is and how legalization for the bulk interception of data relates to the stance taken by the ECJ, which until that time was dealing with questions of the protection of the right to respect for private life and personal data using the general paths initially paved by the ECHR. The article discloses what precise content in terms of the protection of right to respect for private life lies behind the main findings on the compatibility of bulk interception per se with the Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, namely, in which part this court has refused to examine the measures undertaken by states in compliance with Article 8 and in which parts it has strengthened (or relaxed) already inferred criteria. Finally, taking into account the current position of the ECHR at this crossroads, the article dwells on causes that influenced the decisions of its Chambers.

The purpose of this paper is finding a method of calculating or at least reliably estimating the money supply in the 1710s’ Russia. The estimation is based on Gresham’s Law that states: “Bad money drive out good money.” The “good” and “bad” monies of Petrine era are identified. I argue that the “good” money was driven out by 1705 and, therefore, the emission of “bad” money in 1705–10 increased money supply. The increase is estimated to be about 40 percent. This conclusion calls for a further investigation of price dynamics of the period to determine effects of the increase.

Bachet's game is a variant of the game of Nim. There are n objects in one pile. Two players make moves one after another. On every move, a player is allowed to take any positive number of objects not exceeding some fixed number m. The player who takes the last object loses. We consider a variant of Bachet's game in which each move is a lottery over set {1,2,…,m}. Outcome of a lottery is the number of objects that player takes from the pile. We show that under some nondegenericity assumptions on the set of available lotteries the probability that the first player wins in subgame perfect Nash equilibrium converges to 1/2 as n tends to infinity.

We construct a new infinite series of irreducible components of the Gieseker-Maruyama moduli scheme M(k), k≥3 of coherent semistable rank 2 sheaves with Chern classes c_1=0, c_2=k, c_3=0 on P^3 generic points of which correspond to sheaves with singularities of mixed dimension. These sheaves are constructed by elementary transformations of stable and properly μ-semistable reflexive sheaves along disjoint union of collections of points and smooth irreducible curves which are rational or complete intersection curves. As a special member of this series we obtain a new component of M(3).

The article reviews long-run sources of Russian economic growth and demonstrates that the stagnation of the Russian economy in the past decade can be considered in the context of the global productivity slowdown. Conventional industry growth accounting shows that in contrast to the transformational recession before 1998, the recent stagnation of 2008-2014 is primarily the outcome of a slowdown in total factor productivity (TFP) growth and a deterioration in the allocation of labour, rather than bottlenecks in capital inputs.

We study the question of realisability of iterated higher Whitehead products with a given form of nested brackets by simplicial complexes, using the notion of the moment-complex $\mathcal{Z_K}$. Namely, we say that a simplicial complex K realises an iterated higher Whitehead product w if w is a nontrivial element of the homotopy group $\pi_*(\mathcal{Z_K})$. The combinatorial approach to the question above uses the operation of substitution of simplicial complexes: for any iterated higher Whitehead product w we describe a simplicial complex $\partial\Delta_w$ that realises $w$. Furthermore, for a particular form of brackets inside w, we prove that $\partial\Delta_w$ is the smallest complex that realises $w$. We also give a combinatorial criterion for the nontriviality of the product w. In the proof of nontriviality we use the Hurewicz image of w in the cellular chains of $\mathcal{Z_K}$ and the description of the cohomology product of $\mathcal{Z_K}$. The second approach is algebraic: we use the coalgebraic versions of the Koszul complex and the Taylor resolution of the face coalgebra of $\mathcal{K}$ to describe the canonical cycles corresponding to iterated higher Whitehead products $w$. This gives another criterion for realisability of $w$.

Internet of Things (IoT) technologies are of particular interest for telecommunication companies that can significantly affect the interaction of economic agents. As a result of the growth in the number of connected devices, the introduction of cloud services and business applications it became possible to combine equipment, information systems and management systems into a single communication network which in turn gave impetus to the development of the Internet of Things. The basis for the development of the Internet of Things is modern data transmission technologies including IoT Wireless Networks. There are, currently, a number of wireless IoT technologies which have different characteristics. In this regard, it is of interest to identify the most promising technologies that will form the basis of the infrastructure for the development of the IoT ecosystem. This paper develops an assessment model for the application potential of IoT wireless network technologies for the telecommunication sector. LPWAN, 4G and Wi-Fi were identified as the most promising technologies. The majority of the assessment criteria are applicable to other telecommunication technologies.

Psychological studies show the effect of mortality salience (MS) on attitudes and behavioral patterns in different spheres of social life, particularly, in intergroup relationships. This study examines the influence of MS on attitudes toward national outgroups. In line with terror management theory (TMT), previous studies indicate a contradictory impact of death-related thoughts. Reminders of death enhance unfavorable attitudes toward all national outgroups, however, MS reinforces the negative attitudes only toward unfriendly countries or toward those perceived as threatening. To shed light on the influence of MS, we conducted two experimental studies that were differentiated by MS manipulation and the specifics of the outgroups. In Study 1 we actualized the reminders of death through military news, whereas in Study 2 by the presentation of terrorism news (close and distant). In Study 1 (N = 180) we analyzed the impact of MS on attitudes toward Ukraine, Belarus, and Estonia. The results showed that MS mostly reinforced the unfavorable attitudes toward ‘unfriendly’ and ‘neutral’ countries. Study 2 (N = 242) focused on MS and attitudes toward Ukraine, Belarus, the USA, and China. The results indicated that MS enhanced negative attitudes toward Ukraine as an ‘unfriendly’ country. However, the close or distant terrorism-related content did not illustrate the specific influence on attitudes toward national outgroups.

This article studies the evolution of housing rents in St. Petersburg between 1880 and 1917, covering an eventful period of Russian and world history. We collect and digitize over 5,000 rental advertisements from a local newspaper, which we use together with geo-coded addresses and detailed structural characteristics to construct a quality-adjusted rent price index in continuous time. We provide the first pre-war and pre-Soviet index based on market data for any Russian housing market. In 1915, one of the world’s earliest rent control and tenant protection policies was introduced in response to soaring prices following the outbreak of World War I. We analyze the impact of this policy: before the regulation rents were increasing at a similarly rapid pace to other consumer prices; the policy reversed that trend. We find evidence for official compliance with the policy, document a rise in tenure duration and strongly increased rent affordability for workers after the introduction of the policy. We conclude that the immediate prelude to the October Revolution was indeed characterized by economic turmoil, but rent affordability and rising rents were no longer the dominating problems.This article studies the evolution of housing rents in St. Petersburg between 1880 and 1917, covering an eventful period of Russian and world history. We collect and digitize over 5,000 rental advertisements from a local newspaper, which we use together with geo-coded addresses and detailed structural characteristics to construct a quality-adjusted rent price index in continuous time. We provide the first pre-war and pre-Soviet index based on market data for any Russian housing market. In 1915, one of the world’s earliest rent control and tenant protection policies was introduced in response to soaring prices following the outbreak of World War I. We analyze the impact of this policy: before the regulation rents were increasing at a similarly rapid pace to other consumer prices; the policy reversed that trend. We find evidence for official compliance with the policy, document a rise in tenure duration and strongly increased rent affordability for workers after the introduction of the policy. We conclude that the immediate prelude to the October Revolution was indeed characterized by economic turmoil, but rent affordability and rising rents were no longer the dominating problems.

The issue of instrument choice is vital for climate policy. Carbon pricing is used next to a range of traditional energy taxes and renewable energy policies such as feed-in tariffs and minimal renewable generation targets. Several countries introduced carbon taxes alongside existing energy taxes such as excise duties on vehicle fuels. Since 2005, the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) has attached a direct price to the GHG emissions of ETS companies. The combination of multiple instruments and explicit and indirect carbon price signals created a complex and frequently changing institutional landscape that blurs the contribution of each policy instrument. Can the decarbonization of the European economy be attributed to carbon price instruments or to renewable energy policies together with other fiscal instruments? This paper clarifies the relative impact of explicit carbon price instruments (carbon taxes and EU ETS) compared to other instruments, namely renewable energy policies and indirect carbon price signals (general energy taxes). The methodology is based on the calculation of the implicit carbon price in existing fiscal systems. On the basis of panel data for 30 European countries 1995–2016, several fixed-effect regression estimations were performed. The results indicate a greater but decreasing impact of price instruments on carbon intensity compared to renewable energy policies and a greater but decreasing relative impact of indirect price signals compared to explicit ones.

This study focuses on the ground transportation system and its impact on the rents in 30 of Russia's largest cities. It also compares the effect with subway transit networks. The data set includes rent information from an all-Russia online advertisement website Avito and various measures of proximity to the public transit network stops (including subways for cities with them). The analysis is conducted using linear hedonic models. The results show that the ground transportation proximity is important for housing rent formation in both cities with and without subways, although the effect for subway stations is greater in comparison. Nevertheless, the benefits of a denser ground transportation system are high and stable, whereas the distance to the closest bus stop and the number within the walking distance are important solely for cities with a subway system and without it, respectively.

The paper contributes new perspectives to the study of post-communist reforms by highlighting the limits of the transition paradigm in the analysis ofreform processes in the post-Soviet space. It examines Georgia’s police reform and argues that the more repressive aspects of the reform should not be viewed as “setbacks” on a transition path, but as integral to the goal of constructinganew Georgian statethroughthe creation of symbolic divides between two different “Georgias”. This symbolic work of emphasising contrasts between different domains by casting light on and obscuring social phenomena is analysed through the lens of the “spectacle of policing” (Comaroffs 2004; Wacquant 2009).