Search

This paper examines the multi-temporal character of postwar Soviet development. By analyzing personal histories of the timber production workers' settlement of Muezerka in northwest Karelia, the author argues that industrial development did not entirely standardize social space and time, but it initially served as a vehicle of disintegration in newly developed areas. She shows that, in order to start the development of a new territory, it was necessary to create a symbolic starting point - "zero time." Each time a new settlement emerged, the entire path to progress had to be traversed anew, and the production of a special temporality of development, which implied a temporary withdrawal from modernity, was an essential working element in this path.

This article considers an approach to orga-nizing joint processing of spatial information when countering threats in a geographically distributed organization. A model is proposed for describing heterogeneous spatial data and their relationship, which are necessary for con-structing three-dimensional models of a territo-rially distributed organization, based on the set-theoretic approach. Subsequently, the model makes it possible to determine the methodology and algorithm for constructing three-dimensional models of such a geographically distributed organization as Ufa State Aviation Technical University. The paper shows that increasing the decision support efficiency when responding to some threats is achieved, among other things, by using three-dimensional visualization of technological information about the university facilities and operational information which incomes in case of emergency; the quality, content and optimization of a three-dimensional model directly affect the decisions made in fulfilling emergency response scenarios. The developed methods and algorithms are brought to practical implementation and applied to build a three-dimensional geoinformation model of Ufa State Aviation Technical University.

В статье показано как слом инфраструктуры похоронного обеспечения, произошедший в первые послереволюционные годы, привел к возникновению низовых похоронных практик. В статье описываются причины кризиса. На материалах источников личного происхождения и архивных данных показана реакция современников на трудности захоронения умерших, а также описывается возникновение практик самообеспечения, включаясь в которые родные и близкие умерших решали проблему отсутствия профессиональной помощи при погребении. Фактически основную ответственность за проведение похорон рядовых граждан вынуждены были взять на себя семьи умерших. На место похоронных бюро пришли кустари‑совместители, оказывавшие отдельные похоронные услуги, что было для них дополнительным заработком. Несмотря на то, что наиболее острые проявления похоронного кризиса сравнительно быстро исчезли, практики самообеспечения, возникшие в результате кризиса, закрепились и стали системными в более поздние периоды. The article shows how the breakdown of the funeral infrastructure that occurred in the first post‑revolutionary years led to the emergence of grassroots funeral practices. The article describes the causes of the crisis. Based on materials from sources of personal origin and archival sources, the reaction of contemporaries to the difficulties of burying the dead is shown, as well as the emergence of grassroots funeral practices, including those where relatives and friends of the deceased solved the problem of lack of professional assistance during burial. In fact, the families of the deceased had to assume the main responsibility for providing funerals for ordinary citizens. Funeral homes were replaced by handicraftsmen who provided separate funeral services as a source of additional income. Although the most acute manifestations of the funeral crisis disappeared relatively quickly, the practices of self‑sufficiency that arose as a result of the crisis took hold and became systemic in later periods.

Colloidal NafionTM morphology plays a critical role in determining the performance of fuel cells and electrolyzers. While previous small angle neutron scattering (SANS) studies described NafionTM in liquid media as dispersed cylinders, the analysis remains non-unique with multiple possible morphological descriptions of the data. Here, we show that NafionTM morphology in liquid media differs substantially from the previously described morphology. SANS and all-atomistic molecular dynamics simulation studies indicate NafionTM dispersed in N-methyl pyrrolidone as swollen cluster particles with physically cross-linked ionic groups. NafionTM dispersion in water has a highly elongated cylindrical morphology (radius = 10 ± 1.5 Å, height = 358 ± 4.7 Å) with fully dissociated and solvated sulfonic acid groups on the particle wall. Our approach describes precise NafionTM particle morphology and chain conformation, which opens a new horizon on the tailored interface design of NafionTM for fuel cells and electrolyzers.

In this article we explore the evolving concept of death and dying in the Soviet political project. The discur-sive practices of the new state in the field of death and body disposal have been analyzed based on materials from journalism, fiction, memoirs and diaries, archival data and other sources on the history of the early USSR (1920–1930). It has been shown how the concept of creation of a new world and a new Soviet man, the founda-tions of which were laid in the materialist Marxist approach, transformed the deep understanding of human nature. Discarding the metaphysical interpretation of the immortal nature of man, the Bolshevik ideology destroyed the established principles of understanding of human mortality, without offering anything new in exchange. Thus, the traditional logic of the practice of dealing with death, which worked as an effective adaptive mechanism for reas-sembling society in the face of natural loss of its members (A. van Gennep, R. Hertz, Davies D.), was violated. In a situation of confusion caused by the loss of the usual semantics of death and funeral practices, the ideologues of the new government made a number of attempts to build new mechanisms of adaptation. One of them was the project of a new civil funeral ritual, reflected in the journalism of the 1920s, although it did not receive widespread distribution. Another practice was the construction of symbolic immortality through the concept of “life in the me-mory of descendants” reflected both in the literature of socialist realism and in real practices. However, the con-cept of “living in the memory of descendants” was relevant only for few members of the new society, who could be referred to as “Soviet heroes”. It was an elite political practice that could hardly act as a reassembly mechanism for the entire society. In this situation, ordinary deaths and funerals were thrown to the periphery, having lost the ideological and practical attention of the state.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to develop an integrated approach to evaluating corporate foresight (CF) studies at all stages of its implementation and to test this approach using the example of a Russian state-owned corporation. Design/methodology/approach The use of foresight by companies as a part of their strategic activities is growing but still rather limited. To increase the effectiveness of foresight at the corporate level and ensure its justification, special approaches and criteria for its evaluation should be developed. To develop the approach to evaluation of CF which would be useful at all stages of foresight realization, at first, the authors focused the authors’ attention on identification of main challenges, problem and barriers, which arise during foresight process on the one hand, and exploring success factors and lessons learnt from different case studies on the other hand. On the basis of this literature analysis, the authors have formed a long list of evaluation criteria, which reflect accumulated experience in the field and all-important aspects to make foresight project successful and effective. On the next step, the authors related these criteria with stages of foresight realization and evaluation category. For pilot testing of this methodology, the authors used a case of Russian state-owned corporation. Findings This paper has presented an integrated approach to the evaluation of CF projects. The logic of the evaluation process of CF at all stages of its implementation is proposed; key evaluation topics (concept, objectives, project team, design of the project, project methodology, stakeholders, implementation, resources, results and its dissemination, effects and impact and barriers) are identified, and the corresponding sets of criteria are formed. Originality/value The originality of the work lies in using a wide experience of national foresight studies evaluation for corporations. The suggested approach could be used as a framework for CF evaluation. It was tested on the Russian state-owned company RussX.

The influence of dispersity in the molecular weight distributions in the core forming block for block copolymer (BCP) self-assembly is analyzed via an automated flow synthesis approach.

Hereditary factors account for a significant proportion of breast cancer risk. Approximately 20% of hereditary breast cancers are attributable to pathogenic variants in the highly penetrant BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. A proportion of the genetic risk is also explained by pathogenic variants in other breast cancer susceptibility genes, including ATM, CHEK2, PALB2, RAD51C, RAD51D and BARD1, as well as genes associated with breast cancer predisposition syndromes - TP53 (Li-Fraumeni syndrome), PTEN (Cowden syndrome), CDH1 (hereditary diffuse gastric cancer), STK11 (Peutz-Jeghers syndrome) and NF1 (neurofibromatosis type 1). Polygenic risk, the cumulative risk from carrying multiple low-penetrance breast cancer susceptibility alleles, is also a well-recognised contributor to risk. This review provides an overview of the established breast cancer susceptibility genes as well as breast cancer predisposition syndromes, highlights distinct genotype-phenotype correlations associated with germline mutation status and discusses molecular testing and therapeutic implications in the context of hereditary breast cancer.

The 27th International Symposium on Model Checking Software, SPIN 2021, was held online, July 12, 2021. The current special issue contains extended versions of three selected works published at the symposium. This short introduction presents these selected papers and the selection process.

Cysts of the retrorectal space comprise a heterogeneous group of rare lesions. Most develop from embryological remnants and include tailgut cysts, dermoid cysts, rectal duplication cysts, anal canal duplication cysts, sacrococcygeal teratomas and anterior meningocoele. Tailgut cyst is the most common cyst of developmental origin, usually presenting as a multilocular cystic mass with mucoid content and lined by multiple epithelial types. Compared with tailgut cysts, rectal duplication cysts display all layers of the large bowel wall including a well-defined muscularis propria. Retrorectal cysts of non-developmental origin are far less common and represent lesions that either infrequently involve the retrorectal space or undergo extensive cystic change. This review provides an overview of the various histological types of cystic lesions of the retrorectal space, divided into cysts of developmental origin and those of non-developmental origin. A practical pathological and multidisciplinary approach to diagnosing these lesions is presented.

The textbook outlines the most significant and relevant trends taking place in the modern world economy, and examines their impact on the activities of international companies. Section I is devoted to the study of the basic concepts, sources of competitiveness and strategies for conducting international business. Section III examines the key changes taking place in the system of multilateral regulation of foreign trade and the principles of regulation of modern methods of making trade transactions. Section III highlights the specifics of the activities of international companies in the context of financial globalization, examines the basics of regulating their investment activities and sources of financing. Section IV outlines the impact of the most relevant trends on international business: digitalization and technological development, global value chains, environmental aspects and sustainable development. It is intended for students of bachelor's degree programs in the field of Economics, containing specializations in the world economy or international business.

Graphene has emerged as one of the promising nanoscale components of polymer nanocomposites owing to its exceptional properties. The 2D graphene material, when distributed appropriately in the host polymer can significantly alter the load, electron, and phonon transfer behavior of the nanocomposites. The in-plane strong covalent bonds in graphene are accountable for these unique properties, whereas the weak van der Waals forces existing between the adjacent monolayer graphene planes are responsible for the re-stacking or agglomeration of layers. Hence, the most critical challenge in translating these properties in high-performance graphene polymer nanocomposite is to alleviate the agglomeration of graphene. This can be achieved by improving the distribution states of graphene in the matrix by; (1) enhancing the dispersion and (2) controlling the relative lattice orientation of graphene in substrates to create an alignment or orientation. Mitigating the agglomerates during the composite fabrication will significantly extend the benefits of graphene's inherent properties to the nanocomposite. In this review article, various methods for improving dispersion and orientation of graphene in polymer nanocomposites is elucidated. A decision flowchart on the choice of dispersion or orientation based on the properties is considered and the techniques to quantify and verify the same is deliberated. Furthermore, composites' performance in terms of mechanical, electronic, and thermal enhancements due to the molecular level dispersion or anisotropic orientation of graphene is discussed. This review provides a constructive guidance in the composite processing methods and to correlate the enhancement of properties with the distribution state of graphene in composites.