Psycholinguists from the HSE Center for Language and Brain, in collaboration with researchers from the City University of New York and the University of Stuttgart, investigated how reading in Russian varies among different groups of readers. The authors used a novel method in bilingualism research — comparison of the eye-movement sequences (scanpaths) in adult native speakers of Russian, Russian-speaking children, and adult bilinguals with different levels of Russian proficiency. The results of the study were published in Reading Research Quarterly.
Professor Alexey Tameev of HSE MIEM, along with a team of colleagues, has proposed a calculation method to determine the optimal photoactive layer thickness which can maximize the power conversion efficiency of solar cells. Applicable for both polymer andperovskite solar cells, the method can become a milestone on the path from laboratory samples to solar cells made from new generation materials. The results of the research are covered in ‘A common optical approach to thickness optimization in polymer and perovskite solar cells’, an article published in Scientific Reports.
Professor Konstantin Arutyunov of the HSE Tikhonov Moscow Institute of Electronics and Mathematics (MIEM HSE), together with Chinese researchers, has developed a graphene-based mechanical resonator, in which coherent emission of sound energy quanta, or phonons, has been induced. Such devices, called phonon lasers, have wide potential for application in information processing, as well as classical and quantum sensing of materials. The study is published in the journal Optics express.
Countries across the world announced support measures in the amount of USD 11 trillion to pull the economy out of the crisis caused by the pandemic and lockdown. Such hefty money injections into the economy will promote GDP recovery but at the same time may raise the spectre of growing public debt. Sergey Pukhov, the lead expert of HSE Centre of Development Institute, talked to the portal's News Service about the matter in question.
The Commission on Counteracting Falsification of Scientific Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) has published a report, ‘Foreign Predatory Journals in Scopus and WoS: Plagiarism by Translation and Unprincipled Russian Authors.’ HSE Vice Rector Maria Yudkevich discusses the main findings of the report and suggests possible measures to prevent violations of scholarly ethics by university staff.
ICEF not only trains professionals in economics and finance, but also provides a perfect start for an academic career. Daniil Esaulov, lecturer, coordinator of student research work at ICEF and manager of ICEF Academia project, talked to us about how ICEF develops research skills, what students do at ICEF Academia, and why one shouldn’t be afraid of authorities in research.
Many people in Russia believe that they had COVID-19 as early as December 2019 or January 2020. Is it possible to find out when the epidemic really started in Russia and where it came from? Bioinformatics provides an answer.
Eric Maskin spoke at a recent research seminar held by the Centre in which he proposed a modified independence of irrelevant alternatives condition (IIA) and demonstrated that the voting rule satisfies modified IIA, Arrow’s other conditions, and May’s axioms if and only if it is the Borda count, i.e., rank-order voting. Fuad Aleskerov discussed how this affected the collective choice theory, elaborating on various choice models, starting from the Condorcet paradox.
A team of chemists from HSE University and the Zelinsky Institute of Organic Chemistry used molecular modelling to find out that two medications that have been known for a long time can be used to fight SARS-CoV-2. One of them is used to treat alcohol addiction, and the other is for cancer.
The Russian Ministry of Education and Science has announced the results of a grant competition for big research projects. One of the winners is a project with HSE University participation: the creation of a next generation computational linguistic platform to digitally record the Russian language.
By the end of 2020, HSE scientists will launch their own satellite into low Earth orbit, which will allow them to observe the Earth via the satellite’s remote sensors. To design and create the satellite, specialists and students of MIEM HSE and the HSE Lyceum worked closely with the Sputniks company, the Sirius Education Centre, and Scanex.
Researchers from HSE University have developed new approaches for regulating the expression of ACE2 and TMPRSS2 enzymes, which play a crucial role in cell infection with SARS-CoV-2. The scholars discovered that small non-coding microRNA (miRNA) molecules are capable of performing a targeted decrease in ACE2 and TMPRSS2. The results of the study have been published in PLOS ONE journal.
As the situation with COVID-19 has shown, mistakes associated with insufficiently developed policy measures in medicine, science, education and other socially significant sectors of the economy are very costly for society. In the July issue of Nature, Leonid Gokhberg, First Vice Rector of HSE University and ISSEK Director, discussed the topic of the growing practice of making management decisions based on big data analysis.
