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

The Arctic Council is well-positioned to play a leadership role in better understanding the impact of Covid-19 in the Arctic and spearheading activities to respond to the pandemic in the short-, medium- and longer-term. This briefing document was prepared to inform initial discussions regarding the coronavirus pandemic in the Arctic at the Senior Arctic Officials’ executive meeting (SAOX) on 24-25 June 2020. It draws together available information – to date (June 2020) – about the impact of Covid-19 in the Arctic: Briefing Document for SAOs June 2020 For public release Page 10 of 83 Covid-19 and the actions taken to respond in the Arctic region. The document draws from a wide spectrum of sources, reflecting the complex and intricate nature of how Covid-19 affects Arctic peoples and communities, including national and subnational statistical databases and tools, peer-reviewed articles, policy statements, technical guidelines, field surveys, and local observations from Arctic communities.

Forest ecosystems, their products and services play an important role in achieving ambitious climate change mitigation objectives at the same time requiring profound adaptation to climate change. Forest management schemes to support climate action have to be developed within their regional context but also have to be aligned with national or EU-level climate, forest and sustainability policies. The conference on “Managing forests in the 21st century” is the final conference of the FORMASAM, REFORCE and FOREXCLIM research projects. The conference bringstogether scientific experts on forest management from all over Europe facing very specific management challenges. The aim isto discuss and improve the understanding the role of forests and forest management in the context of climate change. The conference addresses climate change impacts, as well as needs for mitigation and adaptation especially with regard to the following scientific questions: 1. What are the impacts of climate extremes and disturbances? 2. What are the management challenges (and options) for resilient forests? 3. What can we do to increase the contribution of forest management to climate change mitigation?

The paper provides findings of the research work and scientific discussions under the “Global Sustainability Strategy Forum” (GSSF) that aims to develop evidence-informed judgments on challenges and solutions. It views attaining sustainability as a set of closely-coupled societal and environmental challenges and opportunities that require integration of multiple disciplines, new research methods, and new knowledge sources with sensitivity to regional and cultural diversities. The project is designed to produce innovative insights and strategies to support effective governance of transitions to sustainability of our complex global social-ecological system within its inherent resource limitations, and to develop sustainable lifestyles that are practical and appealing in the different regions and cultures of the world. 

The global climate change is one of the most dangerous threats to human society in the 21st Century. The dramatic losses have already been observed, and the risks are rising over time. CEECCA region experiences many negative impacts of global warming, which is faster and stronger than the world average. Numerous adaptation and resilience measures are required to protect people, but regional governments often underestimate and ignore the social implications of climate policies.This paper explores what are the priority challenges for CEECCA countries and how to address them effectively.

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.

 

The eddy-resolving (1/12°) global ocean reanalysis GLORYS12 is assessed against 14 years (2002–2015) of independent hydrographic observations collected at 59.5°N in the North Atlantic. Two multi-observations statistical analyses, ISAS-15 and ARMOR-3D, and an eddy-permitting (1/4°) reanalysis, GLORYS025, also contribute to this comparison. The mean thermohaline structure along the 59.5°N section revealed by the observations is well-reproduced by GLORYS12, except for the overflow waters. A good agreement with observations is found for linear trends over the whole period, exhibiting a dipole-like pattern with a cooling/freshening in the main thermocline and a warming/salinization below. However, localized discrepancies with observations suggest the need for improvement in the reanalysis system (especially in the overflows representation and the consistency between the forcing and data assimilation system) and the deep observational array. The reanalysis reliably represents the ocean heat content in the upper 700-m layer but shows significant differences with observations between 700 and 2,000 m. The meridional volume and heat transports across the 59.5°N section are compared for years when ADCP observations were available. The reanalysis does not reproduce the variability observed in the western boundary current but agrees well with observed transports in the other parts of the section. The reanalysis reproduces the major mesoscale eddy features that contribute to the meridional transport and provides the large-scale context of their location. The analysis of time correlation at all measurement points demonstrated that GLORYS12 is the most accurate among the analyzed datasets used in this study to represent and explain the observed ocean characteristics and variability along that section.

Long-term (2009–2019) field studies of the CO2 fluxes over the Valday upland in north-western European Russia were performed in an old-growth spruce-dominated forest subject to the combined effects of climate change, bark beetle attacks and windfall events. The annual carbon uptake within the study area decreased from − 300 g C m− 2 yr−1 in 2010–2011 to − 95 g C m− 2 yr−1 in 2018 as a result of progressive tree mortality. However, mortality did not cause a significant reduction in specific ecosystem respiration. The respiration of the damaged forest was formed by efflux from soil (64.8%), living vegetation (15.5%), hotspots under dry standing trees (12.1%) and decomposition of woody debris (7.6%). High correlations between net ecosystem exchange and dry standing spruce stocks and average soil CO2 efflux were found. The decrease in the carbon sink was followed by a decline in evapotranspiration from 0.0142 ± 0.0003 g H2O m− 2 s−1 for May–October 2010 to 0.0116 ± 0.0002 g H2O m− 2 s−1 in 2018. We assumed that the decrease in carbon uptake was due to both the reduction in primary tree production and the decrease in the area of the unaffected stands. Our estimates show that an increase in tree mortality up to 27% of a stand area could turn an old-growth spruce forest into a net source of CO2. This should be taken into account when considering human-induced and climate-related effects on boreal forests.

Meteotsunamis are long waves generated by displacement of a water body due to atmospheric pressure disturbances that have similar spatial and temporal characteristics to landslide tsunamis. NAMI DANCE that solves the nonlinear shallow water equations is a widely used numerical model to simulate tsunami waves generated by seismic origin. Several validation studies showed that it is highly capable of representing the generation, propagation and nearshore amplification processes of tsunami waves, including inundation at complex topography and basin resonance. The new module of NAMI DANCE that uses the atmospheric pressure and wind forcing as the other inputs to simulate meteotsunami events is developed. In this paper, the analytical solution for the generation of ocean waves due to the propagating atmospheric pressure disturbance is obtained. The new version of the code called NAMI DANCE SUITE is validated by comparing its results with those from analytical solutions on the flat bathymetry. It is also shown that the governing equations for long wave generation by atmospheric pressure disturbances in narrow bays and channels can be written similar to the 1D case studied for tsunami generation and how it is integrated into the numerical model. The analytical solution of the linear shallow water model is defined, and results are compared with numerical solutions. A rectangular shaped flat bathymetry is used as the test domain to model the generation and propagation of ocean waves and the development of Proudman resonance due to moving atmospheric pressure disturbances. The simulation results with different ratios of pressure speed to ocean wave speed (Froude numbers) considering sub-critical, critical and super-critical conditions are presented. Fairly well agreements between analytical solutions and numerical solutions are obtained. Additionally, basins with triangular (lateral) and stepwise shelf (longitudinal) cross sections on different slopes are tested. The amplitudes of generated waves at different time steps in each simulation are presented with discussions considering the channel characteristics. These simulations present the capability of NAMI DANCE SUITE to model the effects of bathymetric conditions such as shelf slope and local bathymetry on wave amplification due to moving atmospheric pressure disturbances.

Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I molecules play a crucial role in the development of a specific immune response to viral infections by presenting viral peptides at the cell surface where they will be further recognized by T cells. In the present manuscript, we explored whether HLA class I genotypes can be associated with the critical course of Coronavirus Disease-19 by searching possible connections between genotypes of deceased patients and their age at death. HLA-A, HLA-B, and HLA-C genotypes of n = 111 deceased patients with COVID-19 (Moscow, Russia) and n = 428 volunteers were identified with next-generation sequencing. Deceased patients were split into two groups according to age at the time of death: n = 26 adult patients aged below 60 and n = 85 elderly patients over 60. With the use of HLA class I genotypes, we developed a risk score (RS) which was associated with the ability to present severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) peptides by the HLA class I molecule set of an individual. The resulting RS was significantly higher in the group of deceased adults compared to elderly adults [p = 0.00348, area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC ROC = 0.68)]. In particular, presence of HLA-A*01:01 allele was associated with high risk, while HLA-A*02:01 and HLA-A*03:01 mainly contributed to low risk. The analysis of patients with homozygosity strongly highlighted these results: homozygosity by HLA-A*01:01 accompanied early deaths, while only one HLA-A*02:01 homozygote died before 60 years of age. Application of the constructed RS model to an independent Spanish patients cohort (n = 45) revealed that the score was also associated with the severity of the disease. The obtained results suggest the important role of HLA class I peptide presentation in the development of a specific immune response to COVID-19.

On December 22, 2018, a destructive tsunami related to the phenomena caused by the volcanic eruption of Gunung Anak Krakatau (GAK) was generated following a partial collapse of the volcano that caused serious damage and killed more than 400 people. This recent event challenged the traditional understanding of tsunami hazard, warning and response mechanisms and raised the topic of volcanic tsunami hazard. The complex mechanism of this tsunamigenic volcano collapse still needs further investigation as Anak Krakatau is one of the potentially tsunamigenic volcanoes in the world. This study investigates the possible source mechanisms of this phenomenon and their contribution to explaining the observed sea level disturbances by considering the impacts of this destructive event. We configured a flank collapse scenario with a volume of 0.25 km3 as a combination of submarine and subaerial mass movement as the possible source scenarios to the December 22, 2018 Sunda Strait tsunami. A two-layer model is applied to simulate the tsunami generation by these landslides up to 420 s. The tsunami propagation and inundation are then simulated by NAMI DANCE model in GPU environment. The simulation results suggest that this scenario seems capable of generating such a tsunami observed along the coast of Sunda Strait. However, the contribution of the possible submarine mass movements in the close area between GAK and the surrounding islands either to this event or potential tsunami threat in the region is still questionable. We employed a bathymetric dataset through pre- and post-event analyses, which demonstrate submarine slope failures in the southwestern proximity of GAK. Hence, additional two scenarios of elliptical landslide sources on the slopes of bathymetry change area (could be triggered by seismic motion/volcanic eruption) are considered, searching for the possible effects of the tsunami that might be generated by these submarine landslides. The study may also provide some perspective for potential tsunami generation by combined sources and help to elucidate the extent of volcanic tsunami hazard in the region due to potential future eruptions of Gunung Anak Krakatau.

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

Space remains a largely unexploited frontier for cutting-edge research and technology development, policy development, and progressive education and training. The Sun accounts for more than 99% of the mass of the entire solar system. The incremental or transformative advances in civilisation have been the direct or indirect product of the influence of the Sun on Earth, being the ultimate source of energy. There still resides huge unexploited potential that demands humanity’s sophisticated understanding of the solar system and the four mysteries of the cosmos: light, gravity, space and time or space-time. The solar wind and its effects on space weather is an area of active research with immediate implications for early warning systems and the overall wellbeing of life on Earth. The sun's magnetic field and its variability as well as the changes in the atmosphere and their effects can cause detrimental effects. Solar flares, coronal mass ejections (CMEs), high-speed wind and energetic particles negatively impact power grids. Solar storms interfere with computers, banking systems, and disrupt satellites and GNSS technology. Charge particle emissions cause Aurora Australis and Aurora borealis.  Mild space weather has degraded electric power quality, perturbed navigation systems, interrupted satellite functions and are hazardous to astronauts' health. Severe storms interfere with electric power system and cause the loss of satellites due to damaged electronics or increased orbital drag. An in-depth study of the ionosphere and climate helps to obtain information on their impact on agriculture, telecommunications system, and satellites. In summary, the following are usually affected by space weather events and processes.

The city of Yerevan, Armenia has undergone major environmental and economic changes after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The objectives of this study were to: (i) investigate the changes of the Land Cover (LC) and Surface Urban Heat Island (SUHI) in Yerevan and analyze relations between them, (ii) study the relationships between land surface temperature (LST) and environmental factors/parameters, (iii) explore the accuracy of satellite derived LST. LC and SUHI were derived from Landsat TM/ETM+/OLI-TIRS images (years 1989, 2000, 2010 and 2018) by means of three Machine Learning algorithms and the Urban Thermal Field Variance Index (UTFVI) ecological evaluation index, respectively. The comparison between Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and satellite LSTs showed that the overall spatial pattern of Landsat and UAV LSTs matched. It was found that the green and built-up areas were the main factors affecting LST variation in Yerevan. The results of the LC change analysis revealed an expansion of built-up areas and the reduction of green spaces. Yerevan shares almost an equal percentage of land for the excellent and the worst categories of the UTFVI. The transformations from excellent to the worst category of UTFVI were mainly related to the loss of green spaces, while the opposite transformations were associated with the gain of vegetation cover, the construction of new districts and the reduction/cessation of anthropogenic heat emission. It appeared that the urban construction had possibly led to the improvement of UTFVI index in the case of no/low anthropogenic heat emission.

Pyongyang is often used as a metonym for North Korea's leaders and the issues their policies create for the world. However, the profound internal changes rapidly transforming the city since the 1990s make Pyongyang a fascinating urban case study. This profile is an attempt to shed light on one of the most ‘mysterious’ cities in the world; firstly, through analysis of its socio-economic dynamics and, secondly, by examining its possible transformation into a post-socialist city through a comparison of its spatial characteristics with Central and East European capitals. We also consider how the city retains substantial state socialist characteristics.

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.