Publications

This book presents the history of globalization as a network-based story in the context of Big History. Departing from the traditional historic discourse, in which communities, cities, and states serve as the main units of analysis, the authors instead trace the historical emergence, growth, interconnection, and merging of various types of networks that have gradually encompassed the globe. They also focus on the development of certain ideas, processes, institutions, and phenomena that spread through those networks to become truly global. 

The book specifies five macro-periods in the history of globalization and comprehensively covers the first four, from roughly the 9th – 7th millennia BC to World War I. For each period, it identifies the most important network-related developments that facilitated (or even spurred on) such transitions and had the greatest impacts on the history of globalization.  

By analyzing the world system's transition to new levels of complexity and connectivity, the book provides valuable insights into the course of Big History and the evolution of human societies.

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Urban population is growing worldwide. Our societies are facing grand challenges like climate change and growing inequalities between people. There is an increasing need to develop cities that are environmentally and socially sustainable, functional and supporting well-being of their inhabitants. When striving towards these goals, transportation and mobility play a crucial role. Easy and environmentally sustainable mobility options are called for in most cities. For these to attract users, they need to be safe and pleasant, providing positive experiences and well-being in addition to efficiency in time or cost.

NECTAR conference is organized with a title “Towards Human Scale Cities – Open and Happy” to reflect the new requirements of urban transportation. This 15th NECTAR conference, organized in Helsinki 5th - 7th June 2019, provides presentations by world-class keynotes Mikael Colville-Andersen and Professor Tim Schwanen, who approach human scale mobility from the viewpoints of a designer and a researcher. More than 140 scientific presentations explore advancements in the field of transport, communication and mobility, with a particular focus on good quality mobility options for people. The focus of the conference is urban transportation and the new possibilities that open data and digital technologies provide for mobility solutions and their research. Presentations provide food for thought concerning mobility choices and quality, new mobility solutions like MaaS, and policies that are implemented to support them.

Helsinki offers an interesting environment for the 2019 NECTAR conference. It is the home of the busiest passenger harbor in Europe with a twin-city development with Tallinn across the bay, and a major air transportation hub between Europe and Asia. It is one of the fastest growing capital regions in Europe, with large densification developments taking place in old logistic centers: harbor areas of Jätkäsaari and Kalasatama and a train depot in Pasila. Public transportation is valued high by citizens, as well as politicians and planners making investment decisions for the future. First robotized buses are in operation and MaaS solutions are emerging. New bike sharing system is one of the most used in the world and has expanded to cover most of the city region. As everywhere in Europe, new forms of micromobility from electronic scooters to electric longboards are appearing on the streets making planners and police puzzled. The city has profiled itself as an open city: large amounts of open data about the region have been made available and the region of Helsinki is committed to open and transparent decision 

and policy making. This supports also research in the major universities: University of Helsinki and Aalto University, the local organizers of the conference.

We anticipate that the conference days will forward our thinking on how to make cities more sustainable, functional and pleasant for people, and how to study them scientifically in a meaningful and transparent manner.

This book gathers the outcomes of several scientific events that were organized and conducted by the Institute of Scientific Communications (Volgograd, Russia) and the leading universities of the Volgograd region. The contributing authors include more than 700 scholars from various cities and regions of Russia. 124 works were selected out of 3,000 papers on the preconditions of formation, transformation, and legal provision of social institutes, topics that are in high demand in connection with a core aspect of digital modernization – the Internet of Things. The book is intended for a broad target audience, including scholars of various generations and various disciplines. These include young researchers (undergraduates and postgraduates) and recognized scholars (professors and lecturers) who study the socioeconomic and legal consequences of the emergence and dissemination of digital technologies, including the Internet of Things. In addition, the book will benefit all those who are interested in the development of the information society, information and telecommunication, and digital technologies. The content is divided into three logical parts, the first of which is devoted to the essence of the process of institutionalization and legal regulation of the information society.

The materials of The International Scientific – Practical Conference is presented below. The Conference reflects the modern state of innovation in education, science, industry and social-economic sphere, from the standpoint of introducing new information technologies. It is interesting for a wide range of researchers, teachers, graduate students and professionals in the field of innovation and information technologies.

Based on the synthesis of a large empirical and theoretical literature on centre-region relations in China and Russia, Federalism in China and Russia is one of the first attempts to integrate this literature from different disciplines into a coherent common framework. Libman and Rochlitz argue that the divergence in growth performance between Russia and China can be – at least partially – explained by a number of features of the Chinese system of centre-regional relations.The authors offer a comparative analysis of the development of centre-region relations in Russia and in China and explore several dimensions of these relations: fiscal ties and incentives; bureaucratic practices; flows of information; and local government practices, while addressing the determinants of divergence between both countries. They also examine how the Chinese system has recently started to change, by adopting several features of the Russian model, which might be one of the reasons for China’s declining growth performance in recent years.Federalism in China and Russia should be read by scholars in public economics, political economy and comparative politics, as well as by students and policy analysts. For scholars, the book serves as a point of reference in studying the comparative evolution of the two countries. It will enrich the discussion on fiscal federalism, centre-region relations and sub-national political regimes, and could potentially become an important part of syllabi in political economy, public economics and comparative politics courses. For policy analysts, the book offers a comprehensive survey of the evolution of centre-periphery relations of the two countries and the differences between them, which is important to better understand the overall development of Russia and China.

The pocket data book contains main indicators characterizing S&T and innovation potential of the Russian Federation. There are the information about intellectual property, S&T output, data of international comparisons given.

The data book includes information of the Federal State Statistics Service, Federal Service for Intellectual Property, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Eurostat, UNESCO, World Intellectual Property Organisation, national statistical services of foreign countries, and results of own methodological and analytical studies of the HSE Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge.

The report presents the results of a global study of biomedical clusters. Its goal is to identify and analyse the most successful international practices of promoting biomedical clusters, in which the cooperation of universities, firms and clinics, combined with a developed infrastructure and public support measures led to a significant improvement in the quality of healthcare.

The edition summarises the positive effects of biomedical clusters, describes their global landscape and reveals the key success factors, which are then compared with the features of the Moscow International Medical Cluster activities.

The publication is of practical interest to government officials, entrepreneurs, researchers, clinicians, and other professionals involved in the development of biomedical clusters, and to anyone else interested in healthcare and cluster policies.

This book brings together reviews by internationally renowed experts on quantum optics and photonics. It describes novel experiments at the limit of single photons, and presents advances in this emerging research area. It also includes reprints and historical descriptions of some of the first pioneering experiments at a single-photon level and nonlinear optics, performed before the inception of lasers and modern light detectors, often with the human eye serving as a single-photon detector. The book comprises 19 chapters, 10 of which describe modern quantum photonics results, including single-photon sources,  direct measurement of the photon's spatial wave function, nonlinear interactions and non-classical light, nanophotonics for room-temperature single-photon sources, time-multiplexed methods for optical quantum information processing, the role of photon statistics in visual perception, light-by-light coherent control using metamaterials, nonlinear nanoplasmonics, nonlinear polarization optics, and ultrafast nonlinear optics in the mid-infrared.

On 15 March 2019, the first “Connecting Eurasia Dialogue: From the Atlantic to the Pacific” was held in Brussels, at Europe’s political heart. The event was organized by the Roscongress Foundation and the Conoscere Eurasia Association with the support of the Association of European Businesses and the Belgian-Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce. Amid the current political cooldown, this was a unique gathering, enabling a high-level dialogue on trade, economic, and integration issues among stakeholders from the wider Eurasian space, including the European Union (EU), the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), and China. The focus of high-level policy makers and top business executives attended the Dialogue was on challenges and opportunities of the EU’s engagement with the EAEU, harmonization of soft infrastructure to enhance trans-Eurasian connectivity, and the EAEU’s single pharmaceutical market. This IIASA discussion paper provides a summary of the deliberations, supported by research from inside and outside the Institute.

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

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.

Empirical research conducted in 5 Russian local communities in 2011-2015 discovered asymmetric principal-agent relations between regional and municipal authorities in which regional authorities have all the necessary resources for effective control over the urban elites and interference in the local political process. However, despite the increasing centralization, the regional-local government relationships remain variable. The active presence or absence of the governor and his team in urban politics largely depends on personal relations between the heads of regional and municipal administrations, the resource base of the territory, the severity of conflicts and/or problems that threaten its stable development. Spectrum of relations between the regional and local elites varies from quite constructive and relatively conflict-free, to rather tense and open confrontation, while the interference of the regional authorities in the activities of the local government bodies differs from episodic to permanent.

In this work we discuss complex dynamics arising in a model describing behaviorof an encapsulated bubble contrast agent oscillating close to an elastic wall. We demonstratepresence of three coexisting attractors in the system. We propose an efficient numericalprocedure based on the continuation method that can be used to locate the area of coexistenceof these attractors in the parameters space. We provide area of coexistence of three attractorsobtained by means of the proposed procedure.

The paper is devoted to the study of the unconditional extremal problem for a fractional linearintegral functional defined on a set of probability distributions. In contrast to results proved earlier,the integrands of the integral expressions in the numeratorand the denominator in the problem underconsideration depend on a real optimization parameter vector. Thus, the optimization problem isstudied on the Cartesian product of a set of probability distributions and a set of admissible values ofa real parameter vector. Three statements on the extremum ofa fractional linear integral functionalare proved. It is established that, in all the variants, the solution of the original problem is completelydetermined by the extremal properties of the test function of the linear-fractional integral functional;this function is the ratio of the integrands of the numeratorand the denominator. Possible applicationsof the results obtained to problems of optimal control of stochastic systems are described.

For the first time an evaluation of the whistler rate around the Earth is performed using results from the neural network aboard the microsatellite DEMETER. It is shown that the rate of whistlers with low dispersion calculated all around the Earth as a function of longitude vary between 1 and 6 s−1 during nighttime (22.30 LT) and between 0.5 and 0.7 s−1 during daytime (10.30 LT). The whistler rate is anticorrelated with the F10.7‐cm solar flux. A decrease by 25% of the solar flux corresponds to an increase of 62% (26%) of the averaged whistler rate calculated for the entire Earth during nighttime (daytime). Using this averaged whistler rate, the global lightning rate is estimated to be of the order of 123 s−1 (27 s−1) during nighttime (daytime). The main conclusion concerns the precipitation of the electrons in the radiation belt by interaction with the whistlers. It is shown that the decrease of the lightning activity at solar minimum (shown with the help of the Schumann resonances) is largely counterbalanced by the increase of the whistler rates in the upper part of the ionosphere due to the decrease of the ionospheric absorption.

Personal values are reliable cross-situational predictors of attitudes and behavior. Since the resurgence in research on values following the introduction of Schwartz’s theory of basic values, efforts were focused on identifying universal patterns in value-attitude relations. While some evidence for such universal patterns exists more recent studies point out, there is still considerable variation in value-attitude and value-behavior links across cultures and contexts. Extending the existing literature on potential moderators in this paper we introduce the concept of value-instantiating beliefs.   This study looks at subjective construal of the value relevance of specific behaviors as a proximal moderator of value-attitude and value-behavior relations. We argue that a belief that construes a behavior as a valid instantiation of a value is a prerequisite for the relationship between said value and the behavior. We also argue that such value-instantiating beliefs play a central role in determining the direction of the relationship. 

In a web-based survey experiment (N = 1724) consisting of three trials, we presented participants with vignettes describing behavioral choices. In order to manipulate the value-instantiating beliefs, the behaviors were described either neutrally, as reinforcing the value, or as inhibiting the value. We then measured the value instantiating beliefs, the attitude towards the behavior, and the intention to perform it.  Instantiating beliefs strongly moderated the relationship between the personal values and the dependent variables in all three trials. Moreover, the direction of the relationship was determined by the instantiating beliefs.  

    The results emphasize the plasticity of the value-behavior relation and the role of social construction in directing the motivational power of values towards concrete instantiating behaviors. 

This paper proposes an approach to comparing and assessing the policy settings in the European low-carbon energy scenarios. First, it presents the methodology including ten characteristics for scenario assessment: modelling framework (diversity), ambitiousness of the targets 2050, relations with other (European) countries, stakeholder involvement, technology options, non-technological aspects, economic component, usage of scenarios in policy design, intermediate indicators of targets' achievement and revision of scenarios. Further, it uses qualitative and quantitative methods to evaluate energy scenarios developed in six north-west European countries (the Netherlands, Germany, France, Denmark, the UK, Belgium). Finally, conclusions are made concerning the possible ways of scenario design improvement. The analysis has shown that all selected countries have potential for modifying their energy scenarios, which being implemented may help to achieve the joint European targets 2050. Since these countries are socially and economically interrelated, a more harmonised approach to scenario development is needed to be designed and introduced on the EU level. Ten characteristics proposed in this study may serve as an initial input for such harmonisation. The results can be of interest to economists, business and academic representatives, and especially policy makers involved in the long-term energy scenario development on the international, regional and national level.

This paper considers the strategies for working with different data sources for identifying technology trends. For this purpose, a comparative analysis of technology monitoring results using various data collections (scientific publications, patents, media, foresight projects, conferences, international projects, dissertations and presentations) is conducted. Guidance on how to use them to ensure the greatest output is presented. Green energy is taken as an example for comparative analysis and provides improvements in reducing inputs (time) and increasing output (coverage). The factors that affect data processing results are considered and discussed to more efficiently use quantitative and qualitative procedures for identifying, correcting and updating technology trends. The results of the study can be interesting for government bodies financing foresight studies and setting priorities in science and technology, for companies scanning disruptive innovations in the markets to support their corporate strategies and academic community developing the methodology for technology trends monitoring.

The paper addresses the questions of data science education of current importance. It aims to introduce and justify the framework that allows flexibly evaluate the processes of a data expedition and a digital media created during it. For these purposes, the authors explore features of digital media artefacts which are specific to data expeditions and are essential to accurate evaluation. The rubrics as a power but hardly formalizable evaluation method in application to digital media artefacts are also discussed. Moreover, the paper documents the experience of rubrics creation according to the suggested framework. The rubrics were successfully adopted to two data-driven journalism courses. The authors also formulate recommendations on data expedition evaluation which should take into consideration structural features of a data expedition, distinctive features of digital media, etc.

New hybrid bromobismuthates of 1,1'-(1,4-phenylenebis(methylene))bis(n-methylpyridin-1-ium) 1 (n=4) and 2 (n=3) dications and halobismuthates of 1-{[4-(Hal-methyl)phenyl]methyl}-2-methylpyridin-1-ium) 3 (Hal=Br) and 4 (Hal=I) monocations have been synthesized and characterized. The [BiBr5]2- anion with structure unusual for halobismuthates and two [BiBr6]3- anions form a linear 0-D fragment in compound 2. The Bi-Br(ax) distance in [BiBr5]2- anion (2.587 Å) is rather short for usual bromobismuthates. The formation of the linear fragment in compound 2 and the presence of short Bi-Br(ax) bonds in its structure do not affect a value of optical band gap.

The paper presents the results of the structural design of the Internet of Things system, allowing to distinguish subsystems for cloud and fog computing to calculate parameters of information flows between them, and to support the structure optimization tasks.

The smart monitoring system (SMS) vision relies on the use of ICT to efficiently manage and maximize the utility of network infrastructures and services in order to improve the quality of service and network performance. Many aspects of SMS projects are dynamic data driven application system where data from sensors monitoring the system state are used to drive computations that in turn can dynamically adapt and improve the monitoring process as the complex system evolves. In this context, a research and development of new paradigm of Distributed Big Data Driven Framework (DBDF) for monitoring data in mobile network infrastructures entails the ability to dynamically incorporate more accurate information for network monitoring and controlling purposes through obtaining real-time measurements from the base stations, user demands and claims, and other sensors (for weather conditions, etc.). The proposed framework consists of network probes, data parsing application, Message-Oriented Middleware, real-time and offline data models, Big Data storage and Decision layers., and Other data sources. Each Big Data layer might be implemented using comparative analysis of the most effective Big Data solutions. In addition, as a proof of concept, the roaming users detection model was created based on Apache Spark application. The model filters streaming protocols data, deserializes it into Json format and finally sends it to Kafka application. The experiments with the model demonstrated and acknowledged the capacities of the Apache Spark in building foundation for Big Data hub as a basic application for online mobile network data processing.

This paper describes the distribution of colour adjectives in Russian poetry of the Silver Age and defines individual preferences with regard to poetic tradition, syllable structure, and metrical restrictions. The research method combines a lexico-semantic approach, formal literary analysis, and quantitative metrics obtained via the frequency database of the Russian Poetry Corpus (over 10 M words, incl. 1 M adjectives). The database allows the user to compare subcorpora and create graphs of timeline distribution, which demonstrate that the lexical diversity and relative frequencies of colour adjectives start to grow rapidly in the 1890s, as modernists employ colour adjectives to upgrade the poetic inventory. The adjectives referring to non-banal hues (e.g. fioletovyj ‘violet’, lazorevyj ‘azur’) belong to the middle part of the ranked wordlist. Correspondence analysis of the data reveals individual colour preferences and stylistic similarities among the most prominent poets of the Silver Age; for example, Anna Akhmatova and Alexander Blok are similar regarding their use of the white hues. The distribution of the selected colour hue adjectives across metrical types highlights the strong association of multi-syllabic adjectives with certain meters, although some words have a more complex distribution.

The paper is an attempt to demonstrate that theatrical metaphor plays a paradigmatic role in the philosophy of Schelling, from the very beginning up to the latest versions of his metaphysics. The image of theatrical play serves, in Schelling, as the main pattern for the conceptualization of every process in which freedom and necessity are mediated through each other – of thinking as such, of the World history as a whole, of the very genesis of the world, and of the history of the human consciousness.

From 1992 until the present, Russia has seen two cycles of public service reform. These cycles clearly demonstrate the shortcomings of Russian community of experts in the area public administration. Both cycles began with government statements, responding to a “public request” for the creation of a professional and effective public service. A phase of limited reform followed in both cases, where low-quality, even flawed, administrative procedures were developed. At this stage, the expert community expanded in number, but—paradoxically—its role weakened. Final “bureaucratization of reform” (i.e. realization of the final stages of reform in every cycle by the bureaucracy itself) resulted in the curtailing of experts’ participation. Thus, reform became an instrument to increase the weight of influence at the very the top levels of the bureaucracy and to strengthen the power of the political

and administrative elite. In this way, both cycles came to an end more or less in failure, although not a total debacle. The chapter claims that the weakness of Russia’s expert community underlines this cyclical reform cycle. The community of experts in the area of public service reform, as will be shown, is not able to act jointly to support the reform mission. Effective communication among experts working in governmental bodies and outside government (i.e. expert organizations), we argue, is not properly organized. The Russian expert community in the area of public service reform, in other words, does not act like a “guild of professionals”, guided by the liberal principles of open and transparent administration, and effective and citizen-oriented public service. The success in Russian public service reform (including exit from continuous reform cycles) is possible, as we will argue, only in the presence of certain conditions, which rest on an understanding of liberalism as a social phenomenon. We call this “guild liberalism”, or the existence of groups with professional competencies and abilities to change the Russian system of governance in a liberal direction by applying their expertise and by direct participation in reform decision-making. First, the expert community—as a part of civil society—must become rather creative, mature and solid if it is to protect the reform process and keep it on track to achieving its goals. Secondly, top bureaucratic managers must not be the leaders and main stakeholders of the public service reform process. To conclude, we will argue that liberalism in Russia, as social phenomena at the level of professional expert groups, is not completely dead and has the chance to be restored.

The intellectual structure of academic discipline can be viewed as a set of interacting topics evolving over time. Dynamics of those topics i.e. changes in their popularity and impact is the subject of special attention because it reflects a shift in actual researchers’ interest. This paper analyzes topics of knowledge management (KM) on the base of the topic modeling technique (namely Latent Dirichlet Allocation). Studying the flow of academic publications in 7 leading journals in 2010–2018, we identified 8 topics that concern different aspects of knowledge management science. Three topics, what focus on the social aspects of knowledge management (namely the context supporting knowledge transfer, the employees’ incentives to share knowledge, and innovation), grow in terms of popularity and impact. Opposite, popularity and impact of topics, which focus on the practice of the knowledge management and organizational learning also as on the impact of intellectual capital on performance, decline. It is consistent with the opinion of other researchers that in the contemporary flow of scientific publication role of KM is identified more as a social process than a management engineering method.

We consider convex optimization problems with the objective function having Lipshitz-continuous p-th order derivative, where p ≥ 1. We propose a new tensor method, which closes the gap between the lower O  ε − 2 3p+1  and upper O  ε − 1 p+1  iteration complexity bounds for this class of optimization problems. We also consider uniformly convex functions, and show how the proposed method can be accelerated under this additional assumption. Moreover, we introduce a p-th order condition number which naturally arises in the complexity analysis of tensor methods under this assumption. Finally, we make a numerical study of the proposed optimal method and show that in practice it is faster than the best known accelerated tensor method. We also compare the performance of tensor methods for p = 2 and p = 3 and show that the 3rd-order method is superior to the 2nd-order method in practice. Keywords: Convex optimization, unconstrained minimization, tensor methods, worst-case complexity, global complexity bounds, condition number.

Though there are many hypotheses as to the system of versification for proto-Indo-European or even all-world verse at its initial stage of development, the most ancient examples of verse have not yet been thoroughly studied. In this article we examine Sumerian, Akkadian, and Hittite texts. (some of which were written in 23rd–13th centuries B.C., before the much better known Ancient Greek). We discuss methods suitable for analyzing such verse, which is not strictly organized, as well as the results of quantitative analysis of verse in these three languages. We studied the number of syllables, number of stresses, number and distribution of long vowels (and where relevant the distribution of heavy syllables within a line). The presence or absence of rhyme, type of rhyme, and the presence or absence of well-formed stanzaic schemes were also taken into account. Comparing quantitative data for the three languages enables us to suggest that both syllabic (Sumerian) and accentual (Akkadian, Hittite) systems have existed since the first preserved examples of verse and that the choice for the system of versification was highly dependent on peculiarities of the particular language.

This paper examines the adoption of advanced agricultural technology in pre-industrial societies. We use the case of the spatially concentrated German minority in Saratov province of the late Imperial Russia as an empirical setting to test the “costly adoption” hypothesis, which predicts that the adoption of different types of technologies depends on the associated communication costs. We document significant concentric spatial pattern of technology adoption among Russian peasants regarding advanced agricultural equipment (heavy ploughs and fanning mills) and easily observable techniques (wheat production) in the areas located closer to the German settlements. Moreover, we show a significant rise in agricultural productivity measured by wheat yield per capita associated with heavy plough adoption. However, we do not find any evidence of the adoption of “know-how” requiring the transmission of noncodified knowledge – specifically, artisanal skills. Our findings suggest that the failure to adopt non-observable techniques from the technological frontier may be the key to the problem of catching-up economic growth.

We consider a problem of manifold estimation from noisy observations. We suggest a novel adaptive procedure, which simultaneously reconstructs a smooth manifold from the observations and estimates projectors onto the tangent spaces. Many manifold learning procedures locally approximate a manifold by a weighted average over a small neighborhood. However, in the presence of large noise, the assigned weights become so corrupted that the averaged estimate shows very poor performance. We adjust the weights so they capture the manifold structure better. We propose a computationally efficient procedure, which iteratively refines the weights on each step, such that, after several iterations, we obtain the "oracle" weights, so the quality of the final estimates does not suffer even in the presence of relatively large noise. We also provide a theoretical study of the procedure and prove its optimality deriving both new upper and lower bounds for manifold estimation under the Hausdorff loss.

Machine Learning (ML) algorithms shape our lives. Banks use them to determine if we are good borrowers; IT companies delegate them recruitment decisions; police apply ML for crime-prediction, and judges base their verdicts on ML. However, real-world examples show that such automated decisions tend to discriminate protected groups. This generated a huge hype both in media and in the research community. Quite a few formal notions of fairness were proposed, which take a form of constraints a “fair” algorithm must satisfy. We focus on scenarios where fairness is imposed on a self-interested party (e.g., a bank that maximizes its revenue). We find that the disadvantaged protected group can be worse off after imposing a fairness constraint. We introduce a family of Welfare-Equalizing fairness constraints that equalize per-capita welfare of protected groups, and include Demographic Parity and Equal Opportunity as particular cases. In this family, we characterize conditions under which the fairness constraint helps the disadvantaged group. We also characterize the structure of the optimal Welfare-Equalizing classifier for the self-interested party, and provide an LP-based algorithm to compute it. Overall, our Welfare-Equalizing fairness approach provides a unified framework for discussing fairness in classification in the presence of a self-interested party.

Several large international surveys, including the World Values Survey and the European Values Study, have been using the moral attitudes scale (MAS) to measure individual and country differences for decades. However, the validity of the instrument has been barely assessed. The current study addressed the concurrent and content validity of four popular MAS items (justifiability of homosexuality, suicide, prostitution, and euthanasia). A sample of 493 Russians completed both MAS and the four validated multi-item scales. Results demonstrated that, except for the homosexuality item, the MAS items had low concurrent validity, explaining less than 50% of the variance of the corresponding multi-item scales. The MAS items underestimated the justifiability of homosexuality, prostitution, and suicide, and overestimated the justifiability of euthanasia. The MAS homosexuality item appeared to be a precise measure of attitude towards male (but not female) homosexuality, responses to the prostitution and suicide items overlooked the positive arguments, and the euthanasia item tapped more into attitudes towards euthanasia of a dying person. The four items showed strong dependence on the overall justifiability. We conclude that separate MAS items should be used with caution, given the detected content bias and the items’ strong link to non-specific overall justifiability.

The convolution ring K^{GL_n(\OOO)⋊ℂ×}(Gr_{GL_n}) was identified with a quantum unipotent cell of the loop group LSL_2 in [Cautis-Williams, arXiv:1801.08111]. We identify the basis formed by the classes of irreducible equivariant perverse coherent sheaves with the dual canonical basis of the quantum unipotent cell.

We compute the Coulomb branch of a multiloop quiver gauge theory for the quiver with a single vertex, r loops, one-dimensional framing, and dim V = 2. We identify it with a Slodowy slice in the nilpotent cone of the symplectic Lie algebra of rank r. Hence it possesses a symplectic resolution with 2r fixed points with respect to a Hamiltonian torus action. We also idenfity its flavor deformation with a base change of the full Slodowy slice.

The Littlewood-Richardson coefficients describe the decomposition of tensor products of irreducible representations of a simple Lie algebra into irreducibles. Assuming the number of factors is large, one gets a measure on the space of weights. This limiting measure was extensively studied by many authors. In particular, Kerov computed the corresponding density in a special case in type A and Kuperberg gave a formula for the general case. The goal of this paper is to give a short, self-contained and pure Lie theoretic proof of the formula for the density of the limiting measure. Our approach is based on the link between the limiting measure induced by the Littlewood-Richardson coefficients and the measure defined by the weight multiplicities of the tensor products.

Let M be a holomorphic symplectic Kähler manifold equipped with a Lagrangian fibration π with compact fibers. The base of this manifold is equipped with a special Kähler structure, that is, a Kähler structure (I,g,ω) and a symplectic flat connection ∇ such that the metric g is locally the Hessian of a function. We prove that any Lagrangian subvariety Z⊂M which intersects smooth fibers of π and smoothly projects toπ(Z) is a toric fibration over its image π(Z) in B, and this image is also special Kähler. This answers a question of N. Hitchin related to Kapustin-Witten BBB/BAA duality.

We study the exceptional loci of birational (bimeromorphic) contractions of a hyperkähler manifold M. Such a contraction locus is the union of all minimal rational curves in a collection of cohomology classes which are orthogonal to a wall of the Kähler cone. Homology classes which can possibly be orthogonal to a wall of the Kähler cone of some deformation of M are called MBM classes. We prove that all MBM classes of type (1,1) can be represented by rational curves, called MBM curves. All MBM curves can be contracted on an appropriate birational model of M, unless b_2(M)≤5. When b_2(M)>5, this property can be used as an alternative definition of an MBM class and an MBM curve. Using the results of Bakker and Lehn, we prove that the diffeomorphism type of a contraction locus remains stable under all deformations for which these classes remains of type (1,1), unless the contracted variety has b2≤4. Moreover, these diffeomorphisms preserve the MBM curves, and induce biholomorphic maps on the contraction fibers, if they are normal.

It is well known that cohomology of any non-trivial 1-dimensional local system on a nilmanifold vanishes (this result is due to L. Alaniya). A complex nilmanifold is a quotient of a nilpotent Lie group equipped with a left-invariant complex structure by an action of a discrete, co-compact subgroup. We prove a Dolbeault version of Alaniya's theorem, showing that the Dolbeault cohomology of a nilpotent Lie algebra with coefficients in any non-trivial 1-dimensional local system vanishes. Note that the Dolbeault cohomology of the corresponding local system on the manifold is not necessarily zero. This implies that the twisted version of Console-Fino theorem is false (Console-Fino proved that the Dolbeault cohomology of a complex nilmanifold is equal to the Dolbeault cohomology of its Lie algebra). As an application, we give a new proof of a theorem due to H. Sawai, who obtained an explicit description of LCK nilmanifolds. An LCK structure on a manifold M is a Kähler structure on its cover M̃ such that the deck transform map acts on M̃ by homotheties. We show that any complex nilmanifold admitting an LCK structure is Vaisman, and is obtained as a compact quotient of the product of a Heisenberg group and the real line.

We introduce the notion of a categorical cone, which provides a categorification of the classical cone over a projective variety, and use our work on categorical joins to describe its behavior under homological projective duality. In particular, our construction provides well-behaved categorical resolutions of singular quadrics, which we use to obtain an explicit quadratic version of the main theorem of homological projective duality. As applications, we prove the duality conjecture for Gushel-Mukai varieties, and produce interesting examples of conifold transitions between noncommutative and honest Calabi-Yau threefolds.

We prove that Q-Fano threefolds of Fano index ≥8 are rational.

We study the complexity of birational self-maps of a projective threefold X by looking at the birational type of surfaces contracted. These surfaces are birational to the product of the projective line with a smooth projective curve. We prove that the genus of the curves occuring is unbounded if and only if X is birational to a conic bundle or a fibration into cubic surfaces. Similarly, we prove that the gonality of the curves is unbounded if and only if X is birational to a conic bundle.

We show that automorphism groups of Moishezon threefolds are always Jordan.

Understanding how Public Service Motivation (PSM) is tied to ethical or unethical behavior is critically important, given that civil servants and other public sector employees throughout the world have been shown to exhibit high PSM levels. However, empirical evidence about the relationship between PSM and ethical conduct remains limited, due in part to the challenges of observing illicit behaviors and overcoming social desirability bias in self-reported measures. The researchers address these challenges by employing incentivized experimental games to study the relationships between PSM and altruism, dishonesty, and propensity to engage in corruption. Based on data from approximately 1870 university students at three research sites in Russia and Ukraine, they find evidence of a robust positive association between PSM and altruistic behavior and negative association between PSM and willingness to engage in corruption. Results concerning dishonesty are more mixed. The researchers’ extension of the study of PSM to Russia and Ukraine, two countries that consistently rank poorly on international corruption indicators, additionally offers the opportunity to analyze the role of PSM in a context in which corruption and rule breaking are widespread.

We obtain several structure results for a class of spherical subgroups of connected reductive complex algebraic groups that extends the class of strongly solvable spherical subgroups. Based on these results, we construct certain one-parameter degenerations of the Lie algebras corresponding to such subgroups. As an application, we exhibit an explicit algorithm for computing the set of spherical roots of such a spherical subgroup.

We propose a novel machine-learning-based approach to detect bid leakage in first-price sealed-bid auctions. We extract and analyze the data on more than 1.4 million Russian procurement auctions between 2014 and 2018. As bid leakage in each particular auction is tacit, the direct classification is impossible. Instead, we reduce the problem of bid leakage detection to Positive-Unlabeled Classification. The key idea is to regard the losing participants as fair and the winners as possibly corrupted. This allows us to estimate the prior probability of bid leakage in the sample, as well as the posterior probability of bid leakage for each specific auction. We find that at least 16\% of auctions are exposed to bid leakage. Bid leakage is more likely in auctions with a higher reserve price, lower number of bidders and lower price fall, and where the winning bid is received in the last hour before the deadline.

Positive-Unlabeled Learning is an analog of supervised binary classification for the case when the Negative (N) sample in the training set is contaminated with latent instances of the Positive (P) class and hence is Unlabeled (U). We develop DEDPUL1 , a method able to solve two problems: first, to estimate the proportions of the mixing components (P and N) in U, and then, to classify U. The main steps are to reduce dimensionality of the data using Non-Traditional Classifier [11], to estimate densities of the reduced data in both P and U samples, and to apply the Bayes rule to density ratio. We experimentally show that DEDPUL outperforms current state-of-the-art methods for both problems. Additionally, we improve current state-of-the-art method for PU Classification [16].