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The paper presents the results of research to assess the degree of transformation of forest ecosystems in the area of influence of the Zhytomyr landfill (Ukraine) - one of the typical Ukrainian landfills, which is operated with minimal implementation of environmental protection measures. The study was conducted to identify the relationship between the condition of plantations and the functioning of municipal solid waste landfills. In the study of the estimation of the transformation degree of forest ecosystems in the area of influence of the municipal solid waste landfill in Zhytomyr, it was established that in the studied areas there was a decrease in bonitet by I-II classes, completeness by 0.1-0.2 units, growth by 13-35% in comparison with background values. On the basis of the research of the condition of pine plantations by categories of vital activity of trees the integral indicator was calculated – the index of the condition of forest stands, which characterizes the degree of their damage in the event of aerial pollution of soil and groundwater. It was determined that the maximum values of the index of forest stands condition were observed in the area closest to the landfill (2.88 units), ie, these are severely weakened stands, the minimum in the control (1.28). Based on the results of the studies, it was established that Scots pine is a convenient and acceptable bioindicator for assessing the state of the environment in the area of influence of municipal landfills provided that its distribution is uniform on the territory and it is available for research. The sanitary condition of pine plantations deteriorates with the approach to the source of pollution. According to the established indices of the condition of pine plantations, a regression analysis was performed and a mathematical dependence was determined, which most accurately describes the change of these indicators with the distance from the landfill boundary. The approach used for bioindication studies of conifers can be recommended for implementation in practice as a method for assessing the transformation of the environment in the area of influence of municipal solid waste landfills.

The proposed method for detection movement activity can help to diagnose Periodic Limb Movement Disorder, which can be treated with the special therapy. Nowadays there is a lack of effective non-contact ways for daily sleep movements disorders detection. Such sleep disorders may lead to dangerous health conditions. So development of new reliable unobtrusive methods for sleep movements disorders detection is an up-to-date task of modern medicine. Bioradiolocation, which allows detection and diagnostics of many pathologies without any physical contact with the human body, can be used to solve this problem. In particular, in the present paper, we propose the algorithm, which processes the radar’s data and allows detecting and analyzing movement activity of a person in sleep. The proposed algorithm was validated using data of three volunteers with different severity of periodic limb movement disorder, which underwent a study in a sleep medicine laboratory of Almazov National Medical Research Centre. The results showed that the accuracy, sensitivity and specificity for proposed movement detection algorithm for all three subjects were higher than 97 %, 71 % and 98 %, respectively.

Irina Davydova – PhD in Sociology, Unaffiliated Scholar, worked at Novosibirsk State University, Manchester University, Newcastle University. Address: Newcastle, Great Britain. E-mail: ira.davydova@gmail.com Citation: Davydova I. (2018) Mutual Assistance among Russian Peasants: Practices of Pomochi and Their Evolution in the Course of Modernisation. Mir Rossii, vol. 27, no 3, pp. 107–129. DOI: 10.17323/1811-038X-2018-27-3-107-129 This paper presents a study of pomochi as an example of the practices of mutual assistance among Russian peasants, and of the transformation of these practices in the course of modernisation. The study relies on various sources, including materials from ethnographic surveys conducted in the nineteenth century, and the archive of life-histories of villagers, recorded in 1991–2 in the Saratov region. The practices of mutual assistance are considered from the methodological position, which derives from works of Winch and Schutz, who emphasised the fundamental distinction between social conceptions, which are constitutive of social life, and sociological concepts, which are tools of sociologists and are constructed according to the rules of their academic discipline. This position assigns a subsidiary role to sociological concepts and theories, suggesting a pragmatic choice of those, and requires heightened sensitivity in the interpretation of data. Accordingly, the practices of mutual assistance have been considered in terms of Sahlins’ typology of reciprocities, as a relic of the ancient communal farming system, in terms of a broadly Marxist approach as a form of production cooperative, and in terms of Chayanov’s theory of peasant economy – each illuminating particular features of mutual assistance among peasants or certain aspects of peasant life in general. The study has shown how the practices of mutual assistance were an essential feature of the peasant way of life, and traced their gradual disintegration as that way of life was itself falling apart.

Irina Davydova - Intern Researcher, International Laboratory for Institutional Analysis of Economic Reforms, National Research University - Higher School of Economics, Russian Federation. E-mail: idavydova@hse.ruYana Kozmina - Junior Research Fellow, Center of Leadership Development in Education, National Research University - Higher School of Economics, Russian Federation. E-mail: ikozmina@hse.ruAddress: 20 Myasnitskaya str., 101000, Moscow, Russian Federation.Data of Changing Academic Profession international survey conducted uniformly in 20 countries including Russia was used to analyze factors affecting the level of occupational stress and job satisfaction among Russian professors. Based on the values of both parameters, all participating countries were divided into four groups. Russia belongs to the group with low levels of occupational stress and job satisfaction, these parameters being lower than in any other country participating in the project. We assess the correlation between these parameters and the three sets of factors: requirements to professors, resources provided by higher educational institutions for professional activities, and individual professional qualities of professors, i. e. their sociodemographic characteristics. In Russia, just like in other countries with low levels of occupational stress and job satisfaction, the parameters in question have proved to correlate with satisfaction with resources provided by higher educational institutions. However, unlike in other countries, Russian professors attach special importance to nonmaterial resources: personal role in specific structural subdivisions, involvement in communication, team spirit in decision-making. In Russia, stress and job satisfaction are not correlated with position, salary, or years of experience, while German and Argentinean professors, for instance, are more satisfied with their jobs if they take higher positions.DOI: 10.17323/1814-9545-2014-4-169-183

Recent changes in the food distribution and marketing systems in Russia are described. Findings from a survey of the marketing strategies used by directors of joint-stock companies (JSC) and private farmers in Novosibirsk oblast' to cope with these changes are presented and compared. These farmers have adopted different strategies. JSC directors withdrew from value-adding enterprises (VAE) complaining of poorly regulated markets — which remove incentives to create product distinctiveness — problems with bad debts, unstable markets and low profitability. As a result many JSCs have reverted to their core production activities, strategies that suggest they are prioritising longevity rather than profit maximisation. However, the larger private farmers, later entrants into farming and food production, had no apparent complaints in any of these areas. Unlike the JSC directors, they did not welcome more government intervention but wanted a stable macroeconomic climate within which to conduct business. To re-coup...

Interviews with Directors of restructured collective farms, private farmers, Rural Development Officers, and Agricultural specialists in the Administration from Suzun raion, Novosibirsk oblast, central Russia revealed a regional response to recent agrarian reforms. Distinct differences emerged between the objectives of the restructured collective farms (large-scale enterprises (LSEs)) and the private (autonomous) farmers, particularly towards the employment of labour and commitments to supporting rural infrastructure and village communities. Directors of the LSEs placed considerably more importance on supporting the villages and rural economy with which their farm is historically linked, private farmers were less inclined to divert resources to these ends. The oblast Authorities seek to maintain economic activity in rural areas through targeted financial support, by supporting mergers between private farmers and failing LSEs, and buy-outs by urban investors. However, our survey shows that the private farming sector will not re-hire all the labour thus released or contribute significantly to the maintenance of the rural infrastructure. The break-up of the established village farm-villager symbiotic linkages will result in some other organisation having to pick up these costs and responsibilities.

Following laws allowing the private ownership of land, a commercial private farming sector has emerged in Russia. The growth of this sector has been constrained by the difficult macro- and agricultural economic climate of the 1990s and mixed political signals over land ownership. These factors together resulted in the authorities continuing to make financial support available to underperforming large-scale enterprises (LSEs) through debt-restructuring programmes. This paper shows that, although stagnant in size, the considerable restructuring within the private farming sector has increased the number of options available to the authorities for maintaining economic activity in rural areas. Using case studies from interviews with farmers, municipal authority employees and agricultural economists, the paper reveals how these options are being implemented. Some possible consequences for the rural economy and communities are considered.

The paper addresses the problem of the conceptualisation of morality in sociology. The traditional sociological conception of morality was based upon the acceptance of a fact/value dichotomy, implying that sociology portrays the factual nature of morality, which thereby becomes equivalent to group conformity The opposition of fact and value was brought into question by trends of thought that followed from, respectively, Alfred Schutz and Ludwig Wittgenstein. The line from Schutz's ideas led towards their reformulation by Harold Garfinkel, who to large extent integrated the ‘moral’ with the ‘cognitive’. Wittgenstein's influence, through, especially Peter Winch, John W. Cook and Alfred Louch undercut the idea that sociological descriptions were themselves purely factual, rather than integrally evaluative. A third stream is represented by Alasdair MacIntyre and Charles Taylor, who adopt the idea that morality must be understood in its social and historical context, and explicitly reject the separation of fact and value in moral inquiry. The fact/value distinction is the source of chronic problems for the sociology of morality. Specifically, a sociological account of morality, that would define the correct understanding of the nature of morality – ie identify what substantive character and content is appropriate to it – is not possible. The disintegration of the fact/value dichotomy also means that the idea that the social context can itself be described independently of normative considerations is an illusion.