Publications

Chapters gathered in Syriac Hagiography: Texts and Beyond explore a wide range of Syriac hagiographical works, while following two complementary methodological approaches, i.e. literary and cultic, or formal and functional. Grouped into three main sections, these contributions reflect three interrelated ways in which we can read Syriac hagiography and further grasp its characteristics: “Texts as Literature” seeks to unfold the mechanisms of their literary composition; “Saints Textualized” offers a different perspective on the role played by hagiographical texts in the invention and/or maintenance of the cult of a particular saint or group of saints; “Beyond the Texts” presents cases in which the historical reality behind the nexus of hagiographical texts and veneration of saints can be observed in greater details.

In Memory and Identity in the Syriac Cave of Treasures: Rewriting the Bible in Sasanian Iran Sergey Minov examines literary and socio-cultural aspects of the Syriac pseudepigraphic composition known as the Cave of Treasures, which offers a peculiar version of the Christian history of salvation. The book fills a lacuna in the history of Syriac Christian literary creativity by contextualising this unique work within the cultural and religious situation of Sasanian Mesopotamia towards the end of Late Antiquity. The author analyses the Cave’s content and message from the perspective of identity theory and memory studies, while discussing its author’s emphatically polemical stand vis-à-vis Judaism, the ambivalent way in which he deals with Iranian culture, and the promotion in this work of a distinctively Syriac-oriented vision of the biblical past.

This book introduces readers to state-of-the-art cases and tools for managing innovation in today’s rapidly changing business environment. It provides a wealth of methodological knowhow and guidance on practical applications, as well as case studies that reveal various challenges in technology and innovation management. Written by a mix of academic scholars and practitioners, the respective chapters present tools and approaches for the early detection of emerging fields of innovation, as well as relevant processes and resources. The contributing authors hail from leading innovative companies including Google, Amazon, Intel, Daimler-Benz, and NASA.

This book constitutes the post-conference proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Data Analytics and Management in Data Intensive Domains, DAMDID/RCDL 2019, held in Kazan, Russia, in October 2019.

The 11 revised full papers presented together with four invited papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 52 submissions. The papers are organized in the following topical sections: advanced data analysis methods; data infrastructures and integrated information systems; models, ontologies and applications; data analysis in astronomy; information extraction from text; distributed computing; data science for education.

Despite the fact that culture, aesthetics, and art were some of the main concerns of early classical sociology (e.g., Simmel’s essays are probably the most popular reference in this regard), later culture has become a matter of interest of a sub-discipline, that of the sociology of culture. The end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st centuries brought a radical transformation of sociological understanding of culture, and it was Jeffrey Alexander who revived the notion and proposed a new understanding of sociological theory drawn on this notion. According to Alexander, culture should be treated as an autonomous realm being able to act and contribute to the social order. In (re)turning to this understanding, Alexander draws upon a variety of now-classical theories, but mainly on Durkheim’s theory of religion as explicated in The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. Clifford Geertz and his idea of thick description is one of the sources for the renewed cultural sociology. In Art as a Cultural System (1976), he wrote that “to study an art form is to explore a sensibility” and “such a sensibility is essentially a collective formation, and that the foundations of such a formation are as wide as social existence and as deep”. The special issue of the RSR is dedicated to empirical and theoretical discussion of how art can serve as a source of sociological imagination. 

Coherently organised into seven parts, the book provides a structure through which EU-Russia relations can be studied in a comprehensive yet manageable fashion. It provides readers with the tools to deliver critical analysis of this sometimes volatile and polarising relationship, so new events and facts can be conceptualised in an objective and critical manner. Informed by high-quality academic research and key bilateral data/statistics, it further brings scope, balance and depth, with chapters contributed by a range of experts from the EU, Russia and beyond. Chapters deal with a wide range of policy areas and issues that are highly topical and fundamental to understanding the continuing development of EU-Russia relations, such as political and security relations, economic relations, social relations and regional and global governance.

The article presents a study of the reasons and motives for the emergence of educational requests from managers of a modern University. It was found that managers ' educational requests contradict real needs, and their motives are associated with weak and strong knowledge, which depends on their age and professional experience, and not on the University profile. Thus, the authors presented a variant of interaction between pro- ject teams based on strong knowledge.

7th International School and Conference "Saint-Petersburg OPEN 2020" on Optoelectronics, Photonics, Engineering and Nanostructures was held on April 27 - 30, 2020. The Organizer of the conference is the Alferov Federal State Budgetary Institution of Higher Education and Science Saint Petersburg National Research Academic University of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Initially, the School and Conference was supposed to be held in full-time format at the Alferov Academic University (Saint-Petersburg, Russia), as it happened in the past. However, due to the restrictions imposed by the city authorities on holding mass events due to the threat of the spread of the COVID-19 infection, the conference committees decided to move the conference to the online format. The conference consisted of poster reports presented by the participants and online oral presentations by invited speakers. Posters and video reports of the participants were posted on the conference website. Invited speakers made their presentations online. During their speeches, participants could discuss and ask questions in the chat. The School and Conference included a series of invited talks given by leading professors with the aim to introduce young scientists with actual problems and major advances in physics and technology.

This textbook on political geography is devoted to a discipline concerned with the spatial dimensions of politics. This course is an introduction to the study of political science, international relations and area studies, providing a systemic approach to the spatial dimension of political processes at all levels. It covers their basic elements, including states, supranational unions, geopolitical systems, regions, borders, capitals, dependent, and internationally administered territories. Political geography develops fundamental theoretical approaches that give insight into the peculiarities of foreign and domestic policies. The ability to use spatial analysis techniques allows determining patterns and regularities of political phenomena both at the global and the regional and local levels.

The publication was carried out within the framework of a joint project of HSE University and the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences for the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the USSR / Russia and the Republic of Indonesia. The project heads are Dr. Evgeny Kanaev (HSE University) and Dr. Dmitry Mosyakov (IOS RAS).

Cities possess massive resources, talent and creativity and serve as hubs for knowledge sharing, experimentation and innovation, generating new ideas, embedding these solutions locally and scaling-up successful practices. Cities, however, are not abstract sustainability-making machines; they are places where real people live, work, study and flourish. Cities are made of people, by people and for people. Sustainable measures will have to make sense to inhabitants of cities, making their life more liveable. Furthermore, it is people who drive sustainability and who are its ultimate source and beneficiaries. This vision underpins the notion of people-smart sustainable cities, introduced in this publication.

The papers deal with problems regarding the impact of critical historical approaches for New Testament theology, the relation between the Gospels' claim for truth and historical facts, Orthodox receptions of the Gospel literature, and the presentation of »the« Gospel in Byzantine liturgy.

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The 10-Point Action Plan to catalyse a Circular Bioeconomy of Wellbeing is a call for collective and integrated action to global leaders, investors, companies, scientists, governments, nongovernmental and intergovernmental organisations, funding agencies and society at large to put the world on a sustainable path. The Plan is guided by new scientific insights and breakthrough technologies from a number of disciplines and sectors. It is articulated around six transformative action points (1–6) and four enabling action points (7–10), which mutually reinforce each other and need to be implemented in an integrated manner.

The article suggests the integration of a neural network as a parallel element base in a telecommunication system. In this case, the ability to learn or adapt to external conditions is applied as the main advantage. For telecommunication systems in conditions when it is possible, this ability will improve noise immunity, reliability, operability, etc. The article considers an example of the integration of a neural network into a discrete matched signal filter. It is noted that the use of parallel mathematical methods in signal processing leads to the maximum effect of increasing the quality parameters of such telecommunication elements

Artificial intelligence and machine learning helps to improve the quality of customer service and change the methods of companies’ activities. For this reason, enterprises should consider integrating these technologies into digital transformation plans to remain competitive. Low-code machine learning platforms allow companies and business professionals with minimal coding experience to create applications and fill in the gaps of the personnel in their organization. Automated machine leaning (AutoML) technology represents the next step in the evolution of machine learning, providing non-technical companies with the ability to create machine learning applications quickly and cheaply

Although the high-pressure phase diagram of carbon at extreme temperatures and pressures is in focus of theoretical and experimental dynamic compression studies, there still exist outstanding problems including disagreement between theoretical predictions and experiments. Using first-principles molecular dynamics simulations at high temperatures and pressures and employing large unit cells, we construct an accurate phase diagram of carbon using two-phase and Z-methods. In accord with previous simulations, a large positive slope of the melting line is observed for pressures from 0 to 200 GPa, whereas at pressures above 500 GPa a very small negative slope exists, which is in contrast to most of previous simulations and experiment. Our accurate results demonstrate the necessity for future dynamic compression experiments to clarify behavior of carbon at extreme conditions including its melting line.

We present a new quantum accurate Spectral Neighbor Analysis Potential (SNAP) machine-learning potential for simulating carbon under extreme conditions of dynamic compression (pressures up to 1 TPa and temperatures up to 10,000 K). The development of SNAP potential involves (1) the generation of the training database comprised of the consistent and meaningful set of first-principles DFT (Density Functional Theory) data for carbon materials at high pressure and temperature; (2) the robust and physically guided training of the SNAP parameters on first-principles data involving statistical data analysis; and (3) the validation of the SNAP potential in MD simulations of carbon at high PT conditions. The excellent performance of quadratic SNAP potential is demonstrated by simulating the radial distribution functions at high pressure-temperature conditions and melt curve of diamond, which were found in good …

Investigations of the low-temperature radiation-induced transformations in the C2H2–H2O system are relevant to the chemistry occurring in interstellar and cometary ices. In this work, we applied a matrix isolation technique to study the radiation-driven evolution of this system at molecular level in order to get new mechanistic insight. The 1:1 C2H2⋅ ⋅ ⋅H2O complexes were prepared in various solid noble-gas matrices (Ar, Kr, Xe) and these icy matrices were subjected to X-ray irradiation at 5 K. Decomposition of initial complex and formation of products were monitored by Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. It was found that complexation with H2O resulted in significant enhancement of the radiolytic decay of C2H2 molecules and provided new channels for its radiation-induced transformations. Ketene (both isolated H2CCO and in the form of H2CCO–H2 pair), ketenyl radical (HCCO), carbon monoxide (CO), and methane (CH4) were observed as main products of the C2H2⋅ ⋅ ⋅H2O radiolysis. In addition, vinyl alcohol (CH2CHOH) was detected in an Ar matrix. The mechanistic interpretation (reaction routes leading to formation of these products) is discussed on the basis of consideration of kinetic dependences and matrix effects. Conversion of C2H2⋅ ⋅ ⋅H2O to CH4 is a prominent example of water-mediated cleavage of the C≡C triple bond, which may occur under prolonged irradiation in rigid media. Possible astrochemical implications of the obtained results are highlighted.

Using molecular dynamics simulation and evolutionary metadynamic calculations, a series of structures were revealed that possessed enthalpies and Gibbs energies lower than those of aragonite but higher than those of calcite. The structures are polytypes of calcite, differing in the stacking sequence of close-packed (cp) Ca layers. The two- and six-layered polytypes have hexagonal symmetry P6322 and were named hexarag and hexite, respectively. Hexarag is similar to aragonite, but with all the triangles placed on the middle distance between the cp layers. On the basis of the structures found, a two-step mechanism for the transformation of aragonite to calcite is suggested. In the first step, CO3 triangles migrate to halfway between the Ca layers with the formation of hexarag. In the second step, the two-layered cp (hcp) hexarag structure transforms into three-layered cp (fcc) calcite through a series of many …

Phases of CaCO3 stabilized at high pressures and temperatures are the potential agents of the global carbon cycle, transferring oxidized carbon in deep Earth’s interiors and thus are of special interest for the Earth sciences. Here, we report finding of the new phase, named disarag, which is dynamically disordered aragonite with freely rotating CO3 groups, similar to that in the CaCO3-V phase with a calcite-like structure. Disarag has a stability field expanding from 3 to 10 GPa and from 1600 to 2000 K. Consideration of twinned structure enlarges this field, decreasing the transition temperature from aragonite to disarag at 100–300 K. At P–T parameters corresponding to the transition from aragonite to disarag, the marked disappearance of the diffraction peaks is observed in in situ experiments. We show that, among known phases of CaCO3, disarag is the best candidate for the explanation of this reconstruction of …

We use a traditional surface science approach to create and study an atomically thin NiI2 film (a promising two-dimensional ferromagnetic material) formed on nickel substrate as a result of molecular iodine adsorption. The I/Ni(100) system was examined with scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), low energy electron diffraction (LEED) and density functional theory calculations. We found out that the iodine adsorption on Ni(100) at 300 K leads to the formation of non-equilibrium phases, whereas the adsorption at elevated temperature (≥390 K) gives rise to the thermodynamically stable phases. In both cases, a simple p(2 × 2) structure is formed at 0.25 ML. As more iodine is adsorbed at 300 K, the p(2 × 2) phase is replaced by the small coexisting domains of c(3 × 2) and c(6 × 2) phases both corresponding to the coverage of 0.33 ML, while adsorption at elevated temperature results in the formation of only one c(3 × 2) phase. At further iodine adsorption the c(3 × 2) phase transforms into the c(5 × 2) one, while the c(6 × 2) phase – into the (√10×√10)R18°(√10×√10)R18°  one both corresponding to the coverage of 0.40 ML. In addition to simple chemisorbed phases, a new shifted-row reconstruction of Ni(100) induced by iodine adsorption was discovered. At coverages exceeding 0.40 ML, we observed complex LEED patterns and superstructures in STM and assigned them to specific surface reconstructions. We also found that prolonged iodine dosing leads to the nucleation of nickel iodide islands and the growth of a 2D atomically thin iodide film partially exfoliated from the substrate.

Pressure-temperature-volume (P-T-V) data on liquid iron-sulfur (Fe-S) alloys at the Earth’s outer core conditions (~136 to 330 GPa, ~4000 to 7000 K) have been obtained by first-principles molecular dynamics simulations. We developed a thermal equation of state (EoS) composed of Murnaghan and Mie-Grüneisen-Debye expressions for liquid Fe-S alloys. The density and sound velocity are calculated and compared with Preliminary Reference Earth Model (PREM) to constrain the S concentration in the outer core. Since the temperature at the inner core boundary (TICB) has not been measured precisely (4850~7100 K), we deduce that the S concentration ranges from 10~14 wt% assuming S is the only light element. Our results also show that Fe-S alloys cannot satisfy the seismological density and sound velocity simultaneously and thus S element is not the only light element. Considering the geophysical and …

The Zeeman interaction results in spontaneous current through a Josephson contact with a spin-orbit coupled normal metal, even in the absence of any voltage, or phase bias. In the case of the Rashba spin-orbit coupling of electrons in a two-dimensional (2D) electron gas this effect takes place for the Zeeman field which is parallel to the 2D system and to superconducting contacts. At the same time, the spontaneous current is absent when this field is perpendicular to the contacts. It is shown that in the latter case it may manifest itself in oscillations of the critical Josephson current at varying Zeeman energy. These oscillations have a form of the Fraunhofer diffraction pattern. The Josephson current under the phase bias was calculated based on the semiclassical Green’s functions for a disordered 2D electron gas with the strong spin-orbit coupling, as well as for surface electrons of a three-dimensional topological insulator. In the latter case the diffraction pattern was found to be most pronounced, while in the Rashba gas the oscillations of the critical current are weaker.

The interplay of the electron exchange interaction and spin-orbit coupling results in spontaneous supercurrents near magnetic insulator islands, which are placed on the top of a two-dimensional (2D) superconductor, and whose magnetization is parallel to 2D electron gas. It is shown that in contrast to the well-studied situation, where such an effect involves only topologically trivial spatial variations of the superconducting order parameter, one should take into account supercurrent vortices. The latter are spontaneously generated around the island’s boundary of an arbitrary shape, and they result in screening of the Zeeman field. This problem has been considered for electrons subject to a strong Rashba spin-orbit coupling, including Dirac systems as well. In the latter case, vortices can carry Majorana zero modes.

We consider a topology of a distributed communication network of weather stations and its hardware configuration. The operability criteria for the considered network are formulated. The theoretical foundations for optimizing the acquisition of spare parts, tools and accessories (SPTA) for distributed systems are considered. An algorithm for SPTA optimization for distributed systems has been developed. Optimization of the SPTA acquisition for the hardware components of the distributed communication network of 24 weather stations was carried out. The acquisition options are proposed, taking into account various criteria.

This case invites students to put themselves in the shoes of Delia, the company HR specialist responsible for the implementation of mystery shopping at Salsa, a chain restaurant. Students will have the opportunity to discuss the negative impact of this new performance appraisal system on employee morale. Salsa, located in the state of Florida, USA, decided to improve the quality of its customer service by implementing mystery shopping. Six months after this practice was implemented, the quality of customer service has slightly increased. At the same time, employees have grown increasingly unhappy with the practice. First, employees feel the company implemented mystery shopping to spy on them, so their trust in the restaurant management and corporate leadership has decreased. Second, employees of three service areas, kitchen, cashiers, and dining, do not like being evaluated as one big team and thought the old system that used separate criteria for each service area was fair. Third, the company did not provide a formal process for employees to appeal the results, ask questions, or provide suggestions related to the new practice. Observing the situation from Delia’s perspective, students will search for possible solutions to improve this situation.

This chapter focuses on discursive constructions of creativity in the Greek public sphere in connection to the Greek government debt crisis. Instrumentalized by policy makers and pundits pursuing neoliberal reforms in Greece, creativity is understood to serve a mode of biopolitical governmentality. This is connected to the production of a national consensus over the necessity for neoliberal reforms and to the individualization of the risks and insecurity that such reforms entail. This chapter looks at specific public discursive constructions of creativity in Greece from 2010 onward. Specifically, the creativity discourse is approached in both its progressive and conservative articulations as articulated by the social democrat Giorgos A. Papandreou, Greece’s prime minister during the first years of the crisis (2009–2011), and the conservative Kyriakos K. Mitsotakis, Greece’s prime minister in 2019 and at the time of writing. Simultaneously, this chapter foregrounds the examples of success stories of creative ventures that received publicity in Greece so as to unfold other examples of a hegemonic discourse meant to motivate society on a post-political, entrepreneurial, and nationalistic basis. Such success stories develop through the didactic narratives that proliferate in Greece’s mainstream news and lifestyle media, which are meant to establish a creative paradigm as a way out of unemployment and recession. Here, creativity forms a public repertoire that fabricates the crisis into a so-called opportunity for development that is borne through entrepreneurship.

The specific study here focuses on the moralist and culturalist meaning investments of the Greek crisis publicity, as it appeared in the Greek mainstream liberal news media. Following relevant critical literature (Bozatzis, 2016; Carastathis, 2014; Ervedosa, 2017), I wish to stress the neoorientalist character of the hegemonic Greek crisis’ explanations, and to focus on the reproduction of such narratives within the Greek public sphere, by mainstream news media. In this context, neoliberal austerity reforms emerge as a modernising and Europeanising project.

NASA stands for National Aeronautics and Space Administration. It is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for the civilian space program, as well as aeronautics and aerospace research. Given the complexities and challenges involved in space and aeronautics explorations, how does NASA manages its technology roadmap as it relates to research and development activities?

Internationalization is the trend that firms increasingly perform research and development activities outside their home countries. Reasons behind decentralized R&D are mostly related to faster learning of technology developments, customer needs, low costs, and globalizing the market. Capture knowledge and market opportunities internationally. The main goal of international cooperation is to capture knowledge that can be converted to profit through Technology exploration and Technology exploitation. The corporations were hesitant to internationalize their R&D work before the 1980s. The reasons for maintaining geographically clustered R&D are mostly related to maintaining optimum patterns of interaction. But market forces and the dissemination of technological know-how sources are forcing many companies to decentralize and internationalize their R&D labs. To order to stimulate this technical learning, businesses are internationalizing R&D to improve the process of technical learning and the management of the laboratory network.

According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), 10% of the USA total energy consumption and 13% of electricity generation was coming from renewable resources in 2015. The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) estimates that if renewable resources reached 27% of the US energy mix, it would save the US economy between $30 and $140 billion a year in terms of reduced health effects and CO2 emissions.

Nike was founded by Phil Knight in 1964 with the intent to distribute and eventually design and develop the best track shoes. The company went on to revolutionize the sportswear industry. At the time, Adidas dominated a vast majority of the industry market share. The company quickly developed a large following after bringing several innovative and technology-driven shoe designs to market. Soon Nike’s brand became synonymous with high-performance sportswear and elite athleticism.

Digitalization in sports provides a guide for future innovation showing the opportunities for innovation in sports sector. It defines a road map for R&D meeting health, social, environmental, and market needs. The effects of technologies such as mobile, cloud, artificial intelligence, sensors, and analytics are accelerating progress exponentially. Today, in sports sector right from organizing the event till broadcasting the sport everything is digitized which is redefining the traditional business. It is also creating a great platform for audience to discuss, share their opinions, and interact with their favorite player, sport, or team. Digital innovation increase fair play and good governance have success in revenues and expenses.

Economic and sociological research that touches upon the determinants of alcohol consumption is mostly centered on the traditional factors of human capital (e.g., education). While much attention is given to education as a valid instrument to reduce alcohol misuse, less is given to the impact of non-cognitive skills. Data are collected from a nationally representative Russian panel survey, 2016–2018. We estimate a random-effects probit model for the probability of abstinence and a random-effects tobit model with a Heckman correction for the volume of alcohol consumption. Non-cognitive skills are consistent predictors of drinking in Russia. In both genders, conscientiousness and extraversion have strong connections to the probability and the volume of alcohol consumption, while openness to experience and neuroticism only affect the volume. The estimates for education differ substantially when the Big Five variables are excluded from the model, which suggests that a major part of the effect of education on alcohol consumption patterns may be mediated through non-cognitive skills. Although educational interventions are often seen as a method of solving excessive drinking problems, introducing personality traits into the analysis raises the question of the effectiveness of such interventions.

Updating is an important executive function that is vital for the attainment of goals such as cognitive tasks, daily activities and the regulation of emotion. The ability to update affective content in working memory is said to be influenced by mood. However, little is known regarding influences of mood on the valence of the affective content. We hypothesized that first, negative mood would impair updating of affective information. Second, this impeding impact would be weaker for the updating of negative information due to mood congruence effect. Sixty-three Russian speaking participants were recruited for the experiment. Half of the participants were induced into negative mood by negative pictures; the other half were presented with neutral pictures. All participants performed the affective 2-back task before and after mood induction. The results showed that negative mood impaired the accuracy rates of updating. However, the mood congruence effect was not observed in the updating of positive and negative materials. We recommend that more experiments be conducted with varied affective stimuli and across different populations.

Let M be the space of triangles, defined up to shifts, rotations and dilations. We define two maps f:M->M and g:M->M.  The map f corresponds to a triangle of perimeter pi the triangle with angles numerically equal to edges of the initial triangle. The map g corresponds to a triangle of perimeter 2pi the triangle with exterior angles numerically equal to edges of the initial triangle. For p in M the sequence {p,f(p),f(f(p)),...} converges to the equilateral triangle and the sequence {p,g(p),g(g(p)),...} converges to the "degenerate triangle" with angles (0,0,pi). In Supplement an analogous problem about inscribed-circumscribed quadrangles is discussed.

In the following paper we investigate the critical temperature Tc behavior in the two-dimensional S/TI (S denotes superconductor and TI - topological insulator) junction with a proximity induced in-plane helical magnetization in the TI surface. The calculations of Tc are performed using the general self-consistent approach based on the Usadel equations in Matsubara Green's functions technique. We show that the presence of the helical magnetization leads to the nonmonotonic behavior of the critical temperature as a function of the topological insulator layer thickness.

  An analytic reversible Hamiltonian system with two degrees of freedom is studied in a neighborhood of its symmetric heteroclinic connection made up of a symmetric saddle-center, a symmetric orientable saddle periodic orbit lying in the same level of a Hamiltonian and two non-symmetric heteroclinic orbits permuted by the involution. This is a co- dimension one structure and therefore it can be met generally in one-parameter families of reversible Hamiltonian systems. There exist two possible types of such connections in dependence on how the involution acts near the equilibrium. We prove a series of theorems which show a chaotic behavior of the system and those in its unfoldings, in particular, the existence of countable sets of transverse homoclinic orbits to the saddle periodic orbit in the critical level, transverse heteroclinic connections involving a pair of saddle periodic orbits, families of elliptic periodic orbits, homoclinic tangencies, families of homoclinic orbits to saddle-centers in the unfolding, etc. As a byproduct, we get a criterion of the existence of homoclinic orbits to a saddle-center.  

This paper focuses on semantics and syntax of two attributivizers in Kazym Khanty. Both of the attributivizers have proprietive semantics and attach to a small nominal rather than a full DP. Proprietives are not completely interchangeable, therefore the difference between them is also explored in this paper. Moreover, we are going to show that both attributivizers significantly differ from cases. However, adjectives derived by proprietive markers differ from regular adjectives, as well.

A genuine measure of an ex-ante credit risk links borrowers’ financial position with the odds of default. Comprehension of borrower’s financial position is proxied by the derivatives of its filled financial statements, i.e. financial ratios. To measure an ex-ante credit risk, one needs a forward-looking estimate. We identify statistically significant relationships between the shortlisted financial ratios and the subsequent default events. To estimate the odds of the borrower to default on its obligations, we simulate its probability of default at a horizon of one year. We horse run the constructed PD model against the alternative measures of ex-ante credit risk that the related literature on bank risk-taking widely uses: credit quality groups and credit spreads in interest rates. We compare the results obtained with the PD model, and with the alternative approaches. We find that the PD model predicts the default event more accurately at a horizon of one year. We conclude that the developed measure of ex-ante credit risk is feasible for estimating the risk-taking behaviour by banks and analysing the shifts in portfolio composition with the sufficient degree of granularity. The model could be used in applied research as the tool for measuring ex-ante credit risk based on micro level data (credit registry).

This paper represents the empirical analysis of existing gender differentiation in labour income in the Republic of Kazakhstan. Research is performed on micro data of annual tests of households conducted by the Committee on Statistics of the Ministry of the National Economy of the Republic Kazakhstan. On the whole, scales of gender differences in wages in the Kazakhstan labour market are comparable with similar evaluations in other countries. In Kazakhstan, the proportion of wages of women to men is 69%. For the last 15 years, the reduction of difference in the salary, by gender, was caused by changes in the gender structure of employment. The results of the evaluation of the segregation indexes testify about the recess of the situation connected with segregation of the labour market in Kazakhstan.  A decomposition of the distinction in annual average labour incomes between men and women, carried out by the method of Oaxaka-Blinder, showed that gender segregation explains that more than thirds of observable differences in wages between men and women. This is not offset by the higher level of accumulated human capital of women. However, 80% of gender distinctions in wages remain unexplained, apart from being related to the existing discrimination against women in the labour market in Kazakhstan.

Over the last 30 years Pridnestrovie, a newly independent state in the post-Soviet space, has remained one of the few countries in the world where the Russian language still enjoys its official status and privileged people’s attitudes. This article aims to explain what the origins of this state of affairs are. First, it looks at the history of the region in the 19th century when these territories became Russian, and the community of people from different ethnic backgrounds that Pridnestrovie represents now was initially formed. Then, some changes in terms of territories and language policy, that occurred during the Soviet period, and the impact they had on the contemporary history of the region are considered. After that, the study focuses on several important pieces of the language legislation of Pridnestrovie that secures linguistic pluralism in the country, and further it discusses current language situation in the republic paying special attention to the role of Russian in maintaining the inter-ethnic peace. Finally, the findings revealed in the first part of the study are proved by the results of the questionnaire that asked its participant to express their opinion on the linguistic situation in the republic and tell about their attitudes towards the Russian language and its main function in Pridnestrovie.  

We introduce a notion of a topologically flat locally convex module, which extends the notion of a flat Banach module and which is well adapted to the nonmetrizable setting (and especially to the setting of DF-modules). By using this notion, we introduce topologically amenable locally convex algebras and we show that a complete barrelled DF-algebra is topologically amenable if and only if it is Johnson amenable, extending thereby Helemskii-Sheinberg's criterion for Banach algebras. As an application, we completely characterize topologically amenable Köthe co-echelon algebras.

Paul Chernoff in 1968 proposed his approach to approximations of one-parameter operator semigroups while trying to give a rigorous mathematical meaning to Feynman's path integral formulation of quantum mechanics. In early 2000's Oleg Smolyanov noticed that Chernoff's theorem may be used to obtain approximations to solutions of initial-value problems for linear partial differential equations (LPDEs) of evolution type with variable coefficients, including parabolic equations, Schr\"odinger equation, and some other. Chernoff expressions are explicit formulas containing variable coefficients of LPDE and the initial condition, hence they can be used as a numerical method for solving LPDEs. However, the speed of convergence of such approximations at the present time is understudied which makes it risky to employ this class of numerical methods. In the present paper we take two equations with known solutions (heat equation and transport equation) and study both analytically and numerically the speed of decay of the norm of the difference between Chernoff approximations and exact solutions. We also provide graphical illustrations of convergence and its rate. These model examples, being relatively simple, allow to demonstrate general properties of Chernoff approximations. The observations obtained build a base for the future employment of the approach based on Chernoff's theorem to the problem of construction of new numerical methods for solving initial-value problem for parabolic LPDEs with variable coefficients.

This paper explores the black box behind efficiency measurements in higher education and define the determinants of university efficiency. Particularly, it investigates how the efficiency of universities is affected by the characteristics of the territory in which they operate. We propose an analysis that combines two perspectives: 1) the resource dependence theory, suggesting that the location of university can determine the amount of resources available to it; 2) institutional isomorphism, according to which the characteristics of other higher education institutions located in the same area may shape the university production function and the efficiency of its operations. In order to test this framework we use the data on Russian universities and non-parametric conditional order-m efficiency estimator with two categories of exogenous variables. The first group includes the social, economic and cultural characteristics of the region where the university is located. The second set includes the characteristics of other higher education institutions located in the same region. Our findings highlight that the managerial efficiency of universities is strongly associated with the characteristics of the environment in which they operate

This paper is focused on the issues of cultural hierarchies in early modern European imperial discourses in all-European discourse about Muscovy and Ottoman Empire and English discourse about Ireland, which have not been previously compared, in the narratives by Petrus Petreus, Paul Rycaut, Fynes Moryson and John Davies. The authors of the article have analyzed mechanisms of building the cultural hierarchies and compares different traditions of ethnographical descriptions with each other. The authors under consideration not only create cultural hierarchies, but also instrumentalize the image of the Other to some extent. They focus on government, laws, religion and manners. The choice of these aspects aims to highlight problems important not for (or not only for) the Other, but for authors` societies themselves. The fact that most accounts describe relative barbarians rather than absolute also can be a consequence of such instrumentalization, because comparison between “us” and the Other becomes important.

Abstract. The method of Chernoff approximation was discovered by Paul Chernoff in 1968 and now is a powerful and flexible tool of contemporary  functional analysis. This method is different from grid-based approach and helps to solve numerically the Cauchy problem for evolution equations, e.g., for heat equation and for more general parabolic second-order partial differential equations with variable coefficients. The case of heat equation is well-studied and does not require any approximations because Green's function is known in that case; but for more general equations exact formulas for solutions are unknown, so numerical approximations of solutions are often requested by engineers and other researchers dealing with PDEs. Chernoff approximations are functions defined by explicit expressions that contain variable  coefficients of the equation and initial condition as parameters. Traditionally researchers construct Chernoff approximations with the use of integral operators which lead to Feynman formulas that are connected with representation of solution in terms of Feynman path integral and Feynman-Kac formulas. This traditional approach has two features that restrict its practical use. First, one needs to integrate over the Cartesian product of $n$ copies of the real line hence $n$-tuple integrals are improper (for better quality of approximation one needs to take larger values of $n$, and this leads to improper integrals of high multiplicity which are difficult to handle in practice). Second, the speed of convergence usually is not very high (not better than $1/n$).  In the present paper we construct Chernoff approximations of a new kind which are free from these disadvantages: all integrals in our formulas are over the segment $[-1,1]$, and the speed of convergence is higher than $1/n$ for  initial conditions that are smooth enough. Our approximations provide solution in a form of quasi-Feynman formula which is not clearly connected with Feynman integral but is much better for practical purposes.

The paper investigates interviews from the archive of Poletayev Institute for Theoretical and Historical Studies in the Humanities (IGITI) which were conducted in 2010s with Russian scholars and professors. The data from these interviews is used to study transnational academic mobility experience in the post-Soviet years (2000s–2010s) by young Russian scholars – the respondents of the interviews who entered higher education institutions in the post-Soviet period. The paper examines how they described academic mobility experience, its impact on their idea of university, concept of excellence, and the significance of academic mobility itself.

This paper shows that Northern Khanty -en [POSS.2SG] is used in several contexts beyond the proper possessive ones. It behaves quite differently in anaphoric uses and in uses in commands. There are at least three distinct markers with the exponent -en. First, the usual 2SG possessive -en which competes with other possessives and depends in number features on the addressee—if the addressee is plural, the marker is accordingly -ən [POSS.2NSG]. Semantically, it corresponds to Karvovskaya’s (2018) MinSpec operator. Secondly, the salient article -en. It is used with unique objects in commands. It states of a referent of an NP that the referent stands in a SALIENT_TO relation to the addressee. Should the addressee be plural, the exponent is accordingly -ən [POSS.2NSG]. Thirdly, the anaphoric article -en, used with anaphorically accessible unique referents. Semantically it is equivalent to Schwarz’s (2009) strong definite article.

This short communication (preprint) is devoted to mathematical study of evolution equations that are important for mathematical physics and quantum theory; we present new explicit formulas for solutions of these equations and discuss their properties. The results are given without proofs but the proofs will appear in the longer text which is now under preparation. In this paper, infinite-dimensional generalizations of the Euclidean analogue of the Schrödinger equation for anharmonic oscillator are considered in the class of measures. The Cauchy problem for these equations is solved. In particular cases, explicit formulas for fundamental solutions are obtained, which are a generalization of the Mehler formula, and the uniqueness of the solution with certain properties is proved. An analogue of the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck measure is constructed. The definition of Gaussian semigroups is given and their connection with the considered parabolic equations is described.