Субъективное благополучие и доверие в контексте психологической безопасности в современной России и других европейских странах

The article applies a multidisciplinary approach and investigates the viability of using an integrative characteristic of psychological security to assess macrosocial situation regionally and nationally. The paper is based on the data drawn from European Values Study (EVS). The countries and Russian federal districts were ranged according to the following parameters: subjective well-being, generalized trust, institutional trust, and psychological security. The results suggest that, compared with residents of other EVS member countries, the level of subjective well-being among Russians is extremely low. Only Bulgaria has a lower position. On the other pole of the scale are Switzerland, Iceland and Norway. In terms of generalized trust the list of 30 countries is headed by Denmark, with Albania at the bottom of the list. Unfortunately, Russia cannot be found among the countries with the highest levels of generalized trust. By European standards, Russia has an average level of institutional trust in the list, with Bulgaria at the bottom, and Norway remaining and the top. Of all participant countries, seven have lower levels of psychological security than Russia; Bulgaria and Albania have the lowest standings; the most favorable situation is in Finland and Norway. The study also reveals leaders and outsiders among Russian federal districts and describes strong and weak points of psychological security in Russia

Evidence for functional state transitions in intensively-managed soil ecosystems

Soils are fundamental to terrestrial ecosystem functioning and food security, thus their resilience to disturbances is critical. Furthermore, they provide effective models of complex natural systems to explore resilience concepts over experimentally-tractable short timescales. We studied soils derived from experimental plots with different land-use histories of long-term grass, arable and fallow to determine whether regimes of extreme drying and re-wetting would tip the systems into alternative stable states, contingent on their historical management. Prior to disturbance, grass and arable soils produced similar respiration responses when processing an introduced complex carbon substrate. A distinct respiration response from fallow soil here indicated a different prior functional state. Initial dry:wet disturbances reduced the respiration in all soils, suggesting that the microbial community was perturbed such that its function was impaired. After 12 drying and rewetting cycles, despite the extreme disturbance regime, soil from the grass plots, and those that had recently been grass, adapted and returned to their prior functional state. Arable soils were less resilient and shifted towards a functional state more similar to that of the fallow soil. Hence repeated stresses can apparently induce persistent shifts in functional states in soils, which are influenced by management history

Microbial Maintenance: A Critical Review on Its Quantification

Microbial maintenance is an important concept in microbiology. Its quantification, however, is a subject of continuous debate, which seems to be caused by (1) its definition, which includes nongrowth components other than maintenance; (2) the existence of partly overlapping concepts; (3) the evolution of variables as constants; and (4) the neglect of cell death in microbial dynamics. The two historically most important parameters describing maintenance, the specific maintenance rate and the maintenance coefficient, are based on partly different nongrowth components. There is thus no constant relation between these parameters and previous equations on this subject are wrong. In addition, the partial overlap between these parameters does not allow the use of a simple combination of these parameters. This also applies for combinations of a threshold concentration with one of the other estimates of maintenance. Maintenance estimates should ideally explicitly describe each nongrowth component. A conceptual model is introduced that describes their relative importance and reconciles the various concepts and definitions. The sensitivity of maintenance on underlying components was analyzed and indicated that overall maintenance depends nonlinearly on relative death rates, relative growth rates, growth yield, and endogenous metabolism. This quantitative sensitivity analysis explains the felt need to develop growth-dependent adaptations of existing maintenance parameters, and indicates the importance of distinguishing the various nongrowth components. Future experiments should verify the sensitivity of maintenance components under cellular and environmental conditions

Chinese Rush to Africa: Comparative Historical Analysis

In this article, the authors conduct a comparative historical analysis of the stages of Chinese penetration into Africa, the concepts, goals, means, methods and consequences of this penetration for China itself and for individual African countries. The authors conclude that compared to the period of twenty years ago, when China began to show increased interest in Africa, a new situation has now emerged. China has created a binary structure: the Forum of China-Africa cooperation launches a mechanism for selecting countries that are ready to follow the political path of the PRC with the prospect of becoming a country-follower of China, and the “One belt – one road” program de facto “forms membership” in the club of countries-followers of China, fixing these countries in the trail of Chinese influence not only politically, but also economically