The article analyzes reforms of organizational structure of Russian science in the post-Soviet period. The authors suggest a new model of organizing research groups with the aim to increase international competitiveness of Russian science. The development of possible versions of organization of such groups was based on unfocused interviews with prominent Russian scholars and representatives of Russian-speaking research diaspora. Major principles of functioning of new laboratories are analyzed, including the linkages with host institutions, financial, human resources, and governance aspects, as well as procedures for monitoring and evaluation.

Rene Almeling’s book Sex Cells: The Medical Market for Eggs and Sperm concerns the issues of the gendered framing of the market and the commodification of the human body and its parts. With the rich empirical base of the study, Almeling offers a new way of theorizing bodily commodification, noting the non-commonality of this phenomenon and emphasizing the diversity of market organizational and experienced practices. The detailed and unbiased analysis of market organization and its experience, in which these two aspects are viewed in their interrelationship, promotes a better understanding of what is occurring when bodily products are offered for sale. In addition, Almeling develops Viviana Zelizer’s model for market analysis, adding a biological factor to the economic, structural, and cultural factors. The book teaches us not to forget that the phenomena of the social world are highly complex and multifaceted and, therefore, cannot be explained with the application of simplified analytical schemes. Moreover, Almeling’s study, in which she links together several layers of social reality, is an excellent example of how to deal with this task. The book review acquaints readers with the basic points of the book and sex cells’ market construction in the United States; it also focuses on the issues that require further investigation. The reviewer will try to show the importance of including the biological factor in the theoretical framework for market analyses and its possibilities beyond such a “peripheral” and sensitive subject.

The author's view on the historical significance of two events of 1961 - the flight of Yuri Gagarin and the testing of a hydrogen bomb - is described in the article.

This article provides information on the trail that remained in Russian philately in connection with the 150th anniversary of the great Russian scientist Vladimir Mikhailovich Bekhterev (1857-1927).

This article analyzes the long episode of 1917-1918 when the Diaghilev’s choreographic enterprise performances took place in Lisbon. The Russian Seasons ’ performances were greeted with delight only by ballet critics and modern artists, authors of Orpheu and Portugal Futurista, but the audience accepted them coldly. The authors of the article explain this paradox as follows: 1) the public's involvement in a rapidly changing political (revolutionary) context, 2) the "elitism" of the artistic concept of Diaghilev's aesthetic experiments. All this fits into the paradigm of the "new art" - in this case, the novelty of the artistic concepts of Diaghilev's enterprise in the context of Portuguese modernism.

Importance: Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the United States but regional variation within the United States is large. Comparable and consistent state-level measures of total CVD burden and risk factors have not been produced previously. Objective: To quantify and describe levels and trends of lost health due to CVD within the United States from 1990 to 2016 including risk factors driving these changes. Design: CVD mortality, nonfatal health outcomes and associated risk factors were analyzed by age group, sex, and year from 1990 to 2016 using standardized approaches for data processing and statistical modeling. Burden of disease was estimated by for 10 groupings of CVD and comparative risk analysis was performed. Setting: United States of America Exposures: US states and the District of Columbia Main Outcome: CVD Disability-adjusted Life Years Results: Between 1990 and 2016, age-standardized CVD DALYs for all states decreased. Several states had large rises in their relative rank ordering for total CVD DALYs among states, including Arkansas, Oklahoma, Alabama, Kentucky, Missouri, Indiana, Kansas, Alaska, and Iowa. The rate of decline varied widely across states, and CVD burden increased for a small number of states in the most recent years. CVD DALYs remained twice as large among men as women. 3 Ischemic heart disease was the leading cause of CVD DALYs in all states but the second most common varied by state. Trends were driven by 12 groups of risk factors, with the largest attributable CVD burden due to dietary risk exposures followed by high systolic blood pressure, high body mass index, high total cholesterol, high fasting plasma glucose, tobacco smoking and low levels of physical activity. Increases in risk-deleted CVD DALY rates between 2006 and 2016 in 16 states suggests additional unmeasured risk beyond these traditional factors. Conclusions and Relevance: Large disparities in total burden of CVD persist between US states despite marked improvements in cardiovascular disease burden. Differences in CVD burden is largely attributable to modifiable risk exposures.