This volume offers profound analyses of the main theoretical and practical aspects of the concept of sustainable development: namely, current environmental problems; the building of green economies; climate policies; specifics of international cooperation in the sphere of sustainable development; specific features of business and government involvement in implementing sustainable development; the role of civil society; its social and gender aspects; and specific characteristics of national models of sustainable development. The focus on the international aspects of the implementation of sustainable development ideas makes the insights offered here fresh and unique.

This book examines how Russia, the world’s most complicated country, is governed. As it resumes its place at the centre of global affairs, the book explores Russia’s overarching strategies, and how it organizes itself (or not) in policy areas ranging from foreign policy and national security to health care, education, immigration, science, sport, agriculture, the environment and criminal justice. The book also discusses the structures and institutions on which Russia relies in order to deliver its goals in these areas of national life, as well as what’s to be done, in policy terms, to improve the country’s performance in its first post-Soviet century. Edited by Irvin Studin, the book includes contributions from a tremendous list of Russia’s leading thinkers and specialists, including Alexei Kudrin, Vladimir Mau, Alexander Auzan, Simon Kordonsky, Fyodor Lukyanov, Natalia Zubarevich and Andrey Melville.

Global warming is recognized as one of the most urgent challenges for human society in the 21st century. The international community has agreed to undertake necessary actions to prevent dangerous anthropogenic impacts on the climatic system. Based on the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2014), the UNFCCC Parties adopted the Paris Agreement aimed at limiting the global mean surface temperature rise by “well below 2 degrees Celsius”. Such an ambitious “climatic” target requires unprecedented efforts to reduce carbon emissions to almost zero worldwide this century. Moreover, in order to keep the warming below 1.5°C, the global total emissions must be reduced by 50% or more by 2050 (compared to current levels) and reach net-zero levels afterwards. In practical terms, it means that most of the countries should deeply decarbonize their economies, energy systems, industries, transport, buildings, products and services, while continuing growth of GDP and the standard of living of the population. The developed countries agreed to take the lead in climate change mitigation under the UNFCCC; however, the largest developing countries and emerging economies have started playing substantial roles in carbon emissions nowadays. In this decade, China became the world No.1 CO2 emitter overcoming the United States. The Northeast Asian (NEA) region, including China, Japan, Mongolia, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the Republic of Korea, and the Russian Federation, is responsible for annual emissions of over 12.4 billion tonnes of CO2 or approximately 40% of global energy-related CO2 emissions. These countries are huge contributors to global warming today and may increase their share further. The traditional way of combusting the huge fossil fuels reserves (coal, gas, and oil) available in the Northeast Asian region would emit greenhouse gases substantially exceeding the amounts that would warm the planet by 2°C. On the other hand, plentiful sources of renewable energy (solar, wind, hydro, tidal, and biomass, etc.) in combination with advanced technologies, investments, and land infrastructure developments can transform the Northeast Asian countries into decarbonized, climate- and environment-friendly economies with sustainable growth and development, fully consistent with the goals and commitments under the Paris Climate Agreement. Delays with the deep decarbonization of the Northeast Asian economies will impose higher risks for communities and life-supporting ecosystems, more losses and stranded assets for businesses, and slower technological progress worldwide. The analysis of challenges and opportunities in deep decarbonization pathways for the Northeast Asian region as a whole is presented in this publication. We raise many questions, and yet have not so many answers. By publishing this text, we want to invite all interested and concerned parties to start thinking about and debating these new, but very up-to-date issues of deep transformation of our economies, industries, consumer behavior, and ways of living in climate-neutral patterns, in order that we can urgently meet the need to save our planet and keep it in good shape for the generations to come.

The development and use of Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) has been a contentios subject for the last three decades. while there has been a number of social science analysis of the issues, this is the first book to assess the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the debate at such wide geographic scale. The various posiotions, for and against GMOs, particularly with regards to trangenic crops, articulated by NGOs in the debate are dissected, classified and juxtaposed to corresponding campaigns. these are discussed in the context of paradigms, including nature fundamentalism and the organic movement, post-colonialism, food sovereignty, anti-globalism, sustainability and feminism. This book also analyses how NGOs interprete the debate and the persuasive communication tactics. 

 

The Paris Climate Agreement established a new target of combating global warming "well below 2 degrees Celsius". This goal will lead to the transformation and deep decarbonization of world economy aiming at nearly zero carbon emissions soon after 2050. The Northeastern Asian countries (responsible for 40% of global CO2 emissions) have all rechnological, resource and ivnestment potential for decarbonization both domestically and internationally, and can show leadership in this efforts on global scale.

The book provides the first in-depth, multidisciplinary study of reurbanization in Russia's Arctic regions, with a specific focus on new mobility patterns, and the resulting birth of new urban Arctic identities in which newcomers and labor migrants form a rising part. It is an invaluable reference for all those interested in current trends in circumpolar regions, showing how the Arctic is becoming more diverse culturally, but also more integrated into globalized trends in terms of economic development, urban sustainability, and migration.

The piblication provides the key lessons learnt from DDPP project experience on designing long-term pathways of low carbon development for 16 world largest economies. The Paris Climate Agreement requires countries to build their concrete vision of the national low-emission transition, consistent with global climate goals that would widely shared by domestic stakeholders and explicitly articulated with domestic socio-economic priorities. We analyze the experience of USA, France, Germany, Russia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, UK, Mexico, Canada, Italy, Brazil in projecting the deep decarbonization scenarios for their economies by 2050.

The book presents a brief summary of the scientific research on deep decarbonization of 16 largest economies by 2050.

This report examines the changes happening in Russia ever since the issue of global warming was introduced on the global agenda. Only today, after the planet has experienced a variety of catastrophic natural disasters, have world leaders and decision makers grown more aware of the urgency of the problem. In Russia, where climate changes have been more significant than globally on average, the government has increased its objectives in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and put forward a number of initiatives and green policy measures to achieve more sustainability in the long term. Russia’s target for greenhouse gas emissions in 2030 is set at 70-75 percent of the base level of 1990, according to the new action plan adopted by the Kremlin. Other states also recognize the problem but their positions differ in the way the issue should be solved. India, China, the U.S. and Brazil, all of which are important players analyzed in the report, find it hard to reach common ground in reaching a globally binding agreement. Whether this will be done ultimately depends on the outcome of the Paris climate change conference. The report also considers the state of the Russian climate change movement from the experience of NGO activities in Russia, provides an overview of the development of the Russian green energy sector with specific success stories and analyzes the prospects of renewable energy development in different regions of the country.

This supplementary material contains case studies presenting specific aspects of the DDPP country pathways. They illustrate and complement the cross-cutting analysis included in the 2015 DDPP synthesis report

The Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project (DDPP) is a collaborative global research initiative seeking to understand how individual countries can transition, on a technological, socio-economic and policy “pathway”, to a low-carbon economy consistent with the internationally agreed goal of limiting anthropogenic warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius (2°C). Achieving this goal requires that the world cut global net emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) so that they approach zero between 2050 and 2075, consistent with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)1 2014 findings that to ensure a better-than-even chance of remaining below a 2°C temperature rise, global annual emissions will need to be reduced 42%–57% by 2050 (relative to 2010), and 73%–107% by 2100. This will entail, more than any other factor, the profound transformation of energy systems through steeply reducing carbon intensity in all sectors of the economy. We call this transition “deep decarbonization” and our products, Deep Decarbonization Pathways (DDPs).

The present volume is the fourth issue of the Yearbook series entitled ‘Evolution’. The title of the present volume is ‘From Big Bang to Nanorobots’. In this way we demonstrate that all phases of evolution and Big History are covered in the articles of the present Yearbook. Several articles also present the forecasts about future development.

The main objective of our Yearbook as well as of the previous issues is the creation of a unified interdisciplinary field of research in which the scientists specializing in different disciplines could work within the framework of unified or similar paradigms, using the common terminology and searching for common rules, tendencies and regularities. At the same time for the formation of such an integrated field one should use all available opportunities: theories, laws and methods. In the present volume, a number of such approaches are used.

The volume consists of four sections: Universal Evolutionary Principles; Biosocial Evolution, Ecological Aspects, and Consciousness; Projects for the Future; In Memoriam.

This Yearbook will be useful both for those who study interdisciplinary macroproblems and for specialists working in focused directions, as well as for those who are interested in evolutionary issues of Cosmology, Biology, History, Anthropology, Economics and other areas of study. More than that, this edition will challenge and excite your vision of your own life and the new discoveries going on around us!

The Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project (DDPP) is a collaborative initiative to understand and show how individual countries can transition to a low-carbon economy and how the world can meet the internationally agreed target of limiting the increase in global mean surface temperature to less than 2 degrees Celsius (°C). Achieving the 2°C limit will require that global net emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) approach zero by the second half of the century. This will require a profound transformation of energy systems by mid-century through steep declines in carbon intensity in all sectors of the economy, a transition we call “deep decarbonization.” Successfully transitioning to a low-carbon economy will require unprecedented global cooperation, including a global cooperative effort to accelerate the development and diffusion of some key low carbon technologies.

This collection is a special issue of Russian Sociological Review dedicated to the concept of border. The concept itself seems to draw attention in many disciplines. As spatial phenomena, borders are always drawn in spaces, while social scientists, philosophers and other academics often have different meanings of space. Recent reconsiderations of space in terms of networks, flows and events, bring even more complexity to the concept. The current volume contributes to both theoretical and empirical studies of borders on various levels. Contributions look at the relevant phenomena from contemporary or historical perspectives, study narratives about borders, reconstructions of the empirical configurations of borders and other objects (such as bodies), exploring how borders emerge and reshape existing spaces, etc. Overall, the issue contributes to the emerging interdisciplinary field of border studies and encourages cross-disciplinary dialogue.

 

Work-book «The current state of the Russian oil and gas industry» is offered for publication as a training aid for students qualified at the direction 131000 “Oil and gas engineering”. We have described the geology of hydrocarbons, in particular - the geology of heavy oil, unconventional resources of energy, etc. In this workbook there are also methods for the development of deposits of heavy oil and produce shale oil. Special attention was given to unconventional sources of hydrocarbons, exactly, gas hydrates and clayey shale. Novelty of work-book is presentation of oil and gas terminology to students from China. This work-book is published for the first time and will be very useful for self-study students of oil and gas disciplines, as well as oil and gas terms in Russian, English and Chinese. The manuscript is classified as «Approved by UMO on Higher Education in the field of applied geology as a work book for students enrolled in the direction 131000 “Oil and Gas Engineering”».

Climate change is already having a negative impact on agricultural production in Russia, especially grain production, since this sector is perhaps the most dependent on weather and climate factors. This report presents an economic evaluation of the impact of climate change on crop production at the national level and a long-term economic evaluation of the losses, profits, and risks for agriculture throughout Russia. It analyses the situation in the two the major agricultural regions, where the negative effects of climate change are especially pronounced, and examines the prospects for adapting Russia’s agriculture to climate change

The study includes a variety of topics, from a review of the political, legal and institutional frameworks for the development of a “green economy” in Russia, to concrete practices of separate waste collection, the development of renewable energy sources and aspects of environmental education. We tried to look at the process of sustainable development in Russia from diff erent perspectives, including the political and economic background, the legal situation, existing practices of sustainable development and how environmental information circulated, including journalism and education on sustainable development. The result is a broad study, which includes a collection of articles written by both theorists and practitioners of sustainable development in Russia.

Human reasoning uses to distinguish things that do change and things do not. The latter are commonly expressed in the reasoning as objects, which may represent classes or instances, and classes being further divided into concept types and relation types. These became the main issue of knowledge engineering and have been well tractable by computer. The former kind of things, meanwhile, inevitably evokes consideration not only of a ``thing-that-changes'' but also of ``change-of-a-thing'' and thus claims that the change itself be another entity that needs to be comprehended and handled. This special entity, being treated from different perspectives as event, (changeable) state, transformation, process, scenario and the like, remains a controversial philosophical, linguistic and scientific entity and has gained notably less systematic attention by knowledge engineers than non-changing things.   In particular, there is no clarity in how to express the change in knowledge engineering -– as some specific concept or relation type, as a statement, or proposition, in which subject is related to predicate(s), or in another way. There seems to be an agreement among the scientists that time has to be related, explicitly or implicitly, to everything we regard as change -– but the way it should be related, and whether this should be exactly the time or some generic property or condition, is also an issue of debate.   To bring together the researchers who study representation of change in knowledge engineering both in fundamental and applied aspects, a workshop on Modeling States, Events, Processes and Scenarios (MSEPS 2013) was run on 12 January, 2013, in the framework of the 20th International Conference on Conceptual Structures (ICCS 2013) in Mumbai, India. Seven submissions were selected for presentation that cover major approaches to representation of the change and address such diverse domains of knowledge as biology, geology, oceanography, physics, chemistry and also some multidisciplinary contexts.   Concept maps of biological and other transformations were presented by Meena Kharatmal and Nagarjuna Gadiradju. Their approach stems from conceptual graphs of Sowa and represents the vision of change as a particular type of concept or, likely, relation, defined by meaning rather than by formal properties.   The work of Prima Gustiene and Remigijus Gustas follows a congenial approach but develops a different notation for representation of the change based on specified actor dependencies in application to business issues concerning privacy-related data.   Nataly Zhukova, Oksana Smirnova and Dmitry Ignatov explore the structure of oceanographic data in concern of opportunity of their representation by event ontologies and conceptual graphs. Vladimir Anokhin and Biju Longhinos examine another Earth science, geotectonics, and demonstrate that its long-lasting methodological problems urge application of knowledge engineering methods, primarily engineering of knowledge about events and processes. They suggest a draft of application strategy of knowledge engineering in geotectonics and claim for a joint interdisciplinary effort in this direction.   Doji Lokku and Anuradha Alladi introduce a concept of ``purposefulness'' for any human action and suggest a modeling approach based on it in the systems theory context. In this approach, intellectual means for reaching a purpose are regarded either as structure of a system, in which the purpose is achieved, or as a process that takes place in this system. These means are exposed to different concerns of knowledge, which may be either favorable or not to achieving the purpose. The resulting framework perhaps can be described in a conceptual-graph-related way but is also obviously interpretable as a statement-based pattern, more or less resembling the event bush (Pshenichny et al., 2009).   This binds all the aforementioned works with the last two contributions, which represent an approach based on understanding of the change as a succession of events (including at least one event), the latter being expressed as a statement with one subject and finite number of predicates. The method of event bush that materializes this approach, previously applied mostly in the geosciences, is demonstrated here in application to physical modeling by Cyril Pshenichny, Roberto Carniel and Paolo Diviacco and to chemical and experimental issues, by Cyril Pshenichny. The reported results and their discussion form an agenda for future meetings, discussions and publications. This agenda includes, though is not limited to,     - logical tools for processes modeling, - visual notations for dynamic knowledge representation, - graph languages and graph semantics, - semantic science applications, - event-driven reasoning, - ontological modeling of events and time, - process mining, - modeling of events, states, processes and scenarios in particular domains and interdisciplinary contexts.     The workshop has marked the formation of a new sub-discipline in the knowledge engineering, and future effort will be directed to consolidate its conceptual base and transform the existing diversity of approaches to representation of the change into an arsenal of complementary tools sharpened for various spectral regions of tasks in different domains.        

New methods and approaches for carrying out comprehensive measurements of hazardous waves (tsunami, storm surges) and background wave climate with telemetrically related group of ground, surface and underwater based robots are discussed. The design and equipment list of the ground robot are considered. It includes three various types of movers, an add-on for the installation of devices on the mobile platform and the hardware part. Ground robot was tested in 2016 on the coast of Sakhalin Island, cape Svobodny. Based on test results there were made conclusions on the possibility of increasing mobility of the ground robot and expanding its use. Specially designed underwater robot collects data using a video inspection system and a hydrostatic wave recorder with a string sensor. It has the ability to adjust the position of the center of gravity to increase stability when driving on steep slopes of the seabed. The surface robot was designed for conducting detailed bathymetry measurements of investigated water areas by means of a multi-beam echo sounder. Underwater and surface-based robots were tested in July 2017 on Sakhalin Island. Both robotic systems were merged into the united local network. The results of their operation were obtained to verify the data from measuring systems of the ground robot. In 2018, it is planned to conduct a series of tests involving the three robots and merging them into a local network to manage and process data in real-time.

Statistical estimates of internal waves in different regions of theWorld Ocean are discussed. It is found that the observed exceedance probability of large-amplitude internal waves in most cases can be described by the Poisson law, which is one of the typical laws of extreme statistics. Detailed analysis of the statistical properties of internal waves in several regions of theWorld Ocean has been performed: tropical part of the Atlantic Ocean, northwestern shelf of Australia, the Mediterranean Sea near the Egyptian coast, and the Yellow Sea.

A brief review of recent studies of internal waves in the Baltic Sea is given. The data of various observations of internal waves in the Baltic region are discussed and a database for the background hydrological parameters that govern the basic appearance of the internal wave shape is introduced. These data sets are employed to select examples of pathways of wave propagation that contain critical points. Numerical modeling of propagation of internal solitary waves across the sea is carried out using the relatively simple model based on Gardner’s equation. This model was chosen due to its clear advantages. It is robust, allows high-resolution calculations with modest computer resources, and is able to reproduce the transformation of internal waves in horizontally inhomogeneous sea. The results of calculations of the transformation of internal solitons in the Baltic Sea along such pathways in a realistic (spatially variable) set of hydrological conditions are presented.

Modeling of tsunamis in glacial fjords prompts us to evaluate applicability of the crosssectionally averaged nonlinear shallow water equations to model propagation and runup of long waves in asymmetrical bays and also in fjords with two heads. We utilize the Tuck-Hwang transformation, initially introduced for the plane beaches and currently generalized for bays with arbitrary cross section, to transform the nonlinear governing equations into a linear equation. The solution of the linearized equation describing the runup at the shore line is computed by taking into account the incident wave at the toe of the last sloping segment. We verify our predictions against direct numerical simulation of the 2-D shallow water equations and show that our solution is valid both for bays with an asymmetric L-shaped cross section, and for fjords with two heads—bays with a W-shaped cross section

We solve analytically a nonlinear problem of shallow water theory for the tsunami wave run-up on a vertical wall in tidal environment. Shown that the tide can be considered static in the process of tsunami wave run-up. In this approximation, it is possible to obtain the exact solution for the run-up height as a function of the incident wave height. This allows us to investigate the tide influence on the run-up characteristics.

The bottom pressure distribution beneath large amplitude waves is studied within linear theory in time and space domain, weakly dispersive Serre–Green–Naghdi system and fully nonlinear potential equations. These approaches are used to compare pressure fields induced by solitary waves, but also by transient wave groups. It is shown that linear analysis in time domain is in good agreement with Serre– Green–Naghdi predictions for solitary waves with highest amplitude A = 0.7h, h being water depth. In the meantime, when comparing results to fully nonlinear potential equations, neither linear theory in time domain, nor in space domain, provide a good description of the pressure peak. The linear theory in time domain underestimates the peak by an amount similar to the overestimation by linear theory in space domain. For transient wave groups (up to A = 0.52h), linear analysis in time domain provides results very similar to those based on the Serre–Green–Naghdi system. In the meantime, linear theory in space domain provides a surprisingly good comparison with prediction of fully nonlinear theory. In all cases, it has to be emphasized that a discrepancy between linear theory in space domain and in time domain was always found, and presented an averaged value of 20%. Since linear theory is often used by coastal engineers to reconstruct water elevation from bottom mounted sensors, the so-called inverse problem, an important result of this work is that special caution should be given when doing so. The method might surprisingly work with strongly nonlinear waves, but is highly sensitive to the imbalance between nonlinearity and dispersion. In most cases, linear theory, in both time and space domain, will lead to important errors when solving this inverse problem.

The intercalation of H2O, CO2, and other fluid species in expandable clay minerals (smectites) may play a significant role in controlling the behavior of these species in geological C-sequestration and enhanced petroleum production and has been the subject of intensive study in recent years. This paper reports the results of a computational study of the effects of the properties of the charge balancing, exchangeable cations on H2O and CO2 intercalation in the smectite mineral, hectorite, in equilibrium with an H2O-saturated supercritical CO2 fluid under reservoir conditions using Grand Canonical Molecular Dynamics (GCMD) methods. The results show that the intercalation behavior is greatly different with cations with relatively low hydration energies and high affinities for CO2 (here Cs+) than with cations with higher hydration energies (here Ca2+). With Cs+, CO2 intercalation occurs in a 1-layer structure and does not require H2O intercalation, whereas with Ca2+ the presence of a sub-monolayer of H2O is required for CO2 intercalation. The computational results provide detailed structural, dynamical and energetic insight into the differences in intercalation behavior and are in excellent agreement with in situ experimental XRD, IR, quartz crystal microbalance, and NMR results for smectite materials obtained under reservoir conditions.

A beam pulsed amplifier mechanism responsible for effective amplification of short very low frequency (VLF) electromagnetic pulses is proposed. Effective amplification near the magnetic equator outside the plasmasphere is considered. A conditional growth rate of short electromagnetic pulses is calculated. Obtained results can explain some important features of the oblique electromagnetic chorus emissions without hiss-like radiation background.

In most countries, women live longer than men. Differences in longevities are country-specific and change over time. We perform a cross-country panel data analysis in developed countries (OECD and EU) to study the gender-longevity gap dependence on various socio-economic indicators and test a number of contradicting theories. We show that a lower gender longevity gap is associated with a higher real GDP per capita, a higher level of urbanization, lower income inequality, lower per capita alcohol consumption and a better ecological environment. An increase in women’s aggregate unemployment rate and a decline in men’s unemployment are associated with a higher gap in life expectancies. The effect of the share of women in parliaments in the gender-longevity gap is estimated to have a U-shape; it has a better descriptive efficiency if taken with a 5-years lag, which approximately corresponds to the length of political cycles.

Human genetic variability is thought to account for a substantial fraction of individual biochemical characteristics — in biomedical sense, of individual drug response. However, only a handful of human genetic variants have been linked to medication outcomes. Here, we combine data on drug-protein interactions and human genome sequences to assess the impact of human variation on their binding affinity. Using data from the complexes of FDA-drugs and drug-like compounds, we predict SNPs substantially affecting the protein-ligand binding affinities. We estimate that an average individual carries ~6 SNPs affecting ~5 different FDA-approved drugs from among all of the approved compounds. SNPs affecting drug-protein binding affinity have low frequency in the population indicating that the genetic component for many ADEs may be highly personalized with each individual carrying a unique set of relevant SNPs. The reduction of ADEs, therefore, may primarily rely on the application of computational genome analysis in the clinic rather than the experimental study of common SNPs.

Despite the success of many countries in increasing energy saving and energy efficiency, the global energy consumption is expected to continue its growth. The main reasons are economic development and population growth happening primarily in developing and emerging economies, especially in India and China. In such circumstances fossil fuels will remain the dominant energy source in the medium and even long run. The present research paper aims at analyzing the current global trends in the energy sector identified through literature review and expert tools, and their influence on Russia. Considering a broad range of factors, the paper determined the following main challenges for the Russian energy sector: tightening competition at international energy markets, the need for comprehensive modernization and stronger energy efficiency measures, the need for technological catch-up in a number of energy sector segments, the need to increase recovery factor at traditional oilfields, and the need to diversify energy mix by increasing the share of renewables. The paper also considers the main rationale for the last challenge that include strengthened security, reliability and sustainability of the Russian energy sector. Among the key preconditions for advancements in renewable energy are improvements in investment climate, modernisation of the central grid and changes in energy policy. The paper is based on the outcomes of the first stage of the Foresight project devoted to renewable energy technologies.

The paper aims to reveal the relationship between improvement in human diet and transition to democracy. The spread of a ‘European diet’ – the diet with historically unprecedented high proportion of animal proteins in daily calories intake – is likely to be one of the factors of regime change since 1992. In contrast to other studies, I regard European diet as an outcome of long historical transformation and show that improvement in nutrition preceded regime change. To get data on nutrients consumption around the world I apply to the Food balance sheets data from FAOSTAT. Based on this data I are able to define a European diet as the one containing animal protein-rich items (mostly, meat and dairy), alcohol beverages and sugar. Using OLS, factor analysis and SEM I test the direct and indirect effects of the European diet on the chance of transition to democracy and find positive impact of improvement in diet on political change. My findings reveal that improvement in diet affects democratization, but not vice versa.

The Foresight study presented in this paper is devoted to the sustainable use of water resources in Russia. The authors analyse possible trajectories of development in the three thematic areas (i) sustainability of water systems; (ii) water use by households and in industry; and (iii) new water products and services. The Foresight methods cover expert interviews and seminars, desk research, and policy analysis. The state and corporate policy recommendations for the water sector offered in this study correspond with the water scenarios earlier identified by Saritas et al.: “Nearly ideal future”, “Losses and accidents”, “Problem conservation”, and “National Priority” [Saritas et al., 2015]. For each of these four scenarios, policy recommendations for water companies were identified covering new solutions (including technological innovations), new values and competencies, organisational changes, modernisation of the infrastructure, financial issues, and legal and regulatory changes. Moreover, we recommend certain policy measures and approaches to state policy in the water sector.  The paper concludes with the main directions and instruments for the sector’s development, which should be planned and implemented jointly by the government and businesses, as well as other stakeholders (organisations and people).

This article considers the uneven positions of school teachers in different regions of the Russian Federation. There exist numerous research works on the relation of school teachers’ salaries to the characteristics of regional educational systems and regional economies. A range of indicators is used to calculate school teachers’ salaries. It is necessary to consider the ratio of the teachers’ salary to the average salary in the region, the latter serving as a target indicator in government programs, in combination with other indicators, such as the ratio of the salary to the price of a fixed set of goods and services and the ratio of the teachers’ salary fund to total regional government expenditures. Research based on cluster data analysis statistical methods allowed the author to distinguish four types of regions. We used official data provided by Russian Federal State Statistics Service and the Russian Federal Treasury. The recommendations developed for each cluster of regions seek to improve the efficiency of the steps aimed at the implementation of the educational policy tasks through differentiating the support measures by the federal government

Midbrain ventral segmental area (VTA) dopaminergic neurons send numerous projections to cortical and sub-cortical areas, and diffusely release dopamine (DA) to their targets. DA neurons display a range of activity modes that vary in frequency and degree of burst ring. Importantly, DA neuronal bursting is associated with a significantly greater degree of DA release than an equivalent tonic activity pattern. Here, we introduce a single compartmental, conductance-based computational model for DA cell activity that captures the behavior of DA neuronal dynamics and examine the multiple factors that underlie DA firing modes: the strength of the SK conductance, the amount of drive, and GABA inhibition. Our results suggest that neurons with low SK conductance are in a fast firing mode, are correlated with burst firing, and require higher levels of applied current before undergoing depolarization block. We go on to consider the role of GABAergic inhibition on an ensemble of dynamical classes of DA neurons and find that strong GABA inhibition suppresses burst firing. Our studies suggest differences in the distribution of the SK conductance and GABA inhibition levels may indicate subclasses of DA neurons within the VTA. We further identify, that by considering alternate potassium dynamics, the dynamics display burst patterns that terminate via depolarization block, akin to those observed in vivo in VTA DA neurons and in substantia nigra pars compacta DA cell preparations under apamin application. In addition, we consider the generation of transient burst ring events that are NMDA-initiated or elicited by a sudden decrease of GABA inhibition, that is, disinhibition.

Humans often adjust their behavior to match the group norms. In this study, we used magnetoencephalographic (MEG) source imaging to investigate the electromagnetic responses to the perceived mismatch between individual and group opinions. After participants were exposed to group opinion that conflicted with their own, we observed an evoked response in the posterior medial prefrontal cortex (pMPFC) occurring around 200 ms, corresponding to the feedback-related negativity (FRN) – a component of the evoked response associated with processing negative feedback and reinforcement learning. This response was accompanied by an increase in  power of theta oscillations (4-8 Hz) over a number of frontal sites (including OFC and pMPFC). The magnitude of both evoked and induced responses to the perceived conflict with social norms was stronger in participants who showed relatively low conformity. Overall, our results suggest that the activation of the pMPFC following conflicts with group opinion, as recoded by MEG, may reflect an enhanced control state – a process complimentary to the reinforcement learning signal in the ventral striatum reported in previous studies of social conformity

Euroregions is an important and quite popular mechanism of cross-border cooperation. Character of institutions development differs essentially between three groups of states, which use this mechanism: old members of the European Union; new members of the European Union (entered the EU after 2003); CIS members. This comparative research is concerned with the main circumstances of euroregions development in three areas noted above. The analyses show the fundamental differences between three Euroregion cases: Oresund, Pskov-Livonia and Dnieper. Those differences are noticeable in legislative basic, financing, cooperation issues, and even in four basic Euroregions principles realizing. Meanwhile we see that after fifteen years of copying the Euroregions in post-soviet countries the positive shifts occur in CIS members’ government perception and in the decision making process.