Modern information technologies as a tool for reducing working population poverty

Rapid development and implementation of modern information and communication technologies has led to a new phase of economic, scientific and technological progress. However, there is no mechanism to ensure social systems effective management based on the information technologies use due to socio-economic inequality among the population of the Russian Federation, preventing all segments of the population from benefiting scientific and technological progress results, which has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of the study is to identify the modern information technologies role in improving the living standard and the population life quality, in particular, in overcoming the working population poverty. The article analyses foreign and domestic research on this issue over the past five years. The pandemic impact on social structures, in particular the labour market and employment, has been considered. The growing importance and social networks role in public life and their use serious potential to solve the problems under study have been noted. The authors carried out a sociological survey in the Republic of Bashkortostan, on the basis of which made conclusions: modern society is characterised by the information inequality problem, which is closely linked to the economic inequality problem, which will be exacerbated by the modern information and communication technologies development; the computer illiteracy problem and the close relationship between income level and knowledge, skills in information and communication technologies, English language skills were identified among residents. The research results highlight the need to implement modern information technologies skills into poverty alleviation programmes

Image preprocessing for artistic robotic painting

Artistic robotic painting implies creating a picture on canvas according to a brushstroke map preliminarily computed from a source image. To make the painting look closer to the human artwork, the source image should be preprocessed to render the effects usually created by artists. In this paper, we consider three preprocessing effects: aerial perspective, gamut compression and brushstroke coherence. We propose an algorithm for aerial perspective amplification based on principles of light scattering using a depth map, an algorithm for gamut compression using nonlinear hue transformation and an algorithm for image gradient filtering for obtaining a well-coherent brushstroke map with a reduced number of brushstrokes, required for practical robotic painting. The described algorithms allow interactive image correction and make the final rendering look closer to a manually painted artwork. To illustrate our proposals, we render several test images on a computer and paint a monochromatic image on canvas with a painting robot

The New White Flight

White charter school enclaves—defined as charter schools located in school districts that are thirty percent or less white, but that enroll a student body that is fifty percent or greater white— are emerging across the country. The emergence of white charter school enclaves is the result of a sobering and ugly truth: when given a choice, white parents as a collective tend to choose racially segregated, predominately white schools. Empirical research supports this claim. Empirical research also demonstrates that white parents as a collective will make that choice even when presented with the option of a more racially diverse school that is of good academic quality. Despite the connection between collective white parental choice and school segregation, greater choice continues to be injected into the school assignment process. School choice assignment policies, particularly charter schools, are proliferating at a substantial rate. As a result, parental choice rather than systemic design is creating new patterns of racial segregation and inequality in public schools. Yet the Supreme Court’s school desegregation jurisprudence insulates racial segregation in schools ostensibly caused by parental choice rather than systemic design from regulation. Consequently, the new patterns of racial segregation in public schools caused by collective white parental choice largely escapes regulation by courts. This article argues that the time has come to reconsider the legal and normative viability of regulating racial segregation in public schools caused by collective white parental choice. The article makes two important contributions to the legal literature on school desegregation. First, using white charter school enclaves as an example, it documents the ways in which school choice policies are being used to allow whites as a collective to satisfy their preference for segregated predominately white schools. Second, the article sets forth both constitutional and normative arguments for regulating the private choices that result in stark racial segregation patterns in public schools

The Angstrom Project Alert System: real-time detection of extragalactic microlensing

The Angstrom Project is undertaking an optical survey of stellar microlensing events across the bulge region of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) using a distributed network of two-meter class telescopes. The Angstrom Project Alert System (APAS) has been developed to identify in real time candidate microlensing and transient events using data from the Liverpool and Faulkes North robotic telescopes. This is the first time that real-time microlensing discovery has been attempted outside of the Milky Way and its satellite galaxies. The APAS is designed to enable follow-up studies of M31 microlensing systems, including searches for gas giant planets in M31. Here we describe the APAS and we present a few example light curves obtained during its commissioning phase which clearly demonstrate its real-time capability to identify microlensing candidates as well as other transient sources.Comment: 4 pages, submitted to ApJ Letter

Myth in the structure of national consciousness

In the context of globalization processes, the problem of nations and national selfconsciousness has become one of the most widely discussed in the modern social sciences and humanities. Within the framework of globalization approaches, a nation is viewed as a transitional formation between traditional locality and planetary interdependence. According to modern theories, the model of a nation is built on the basis of Western European developmental patterns. From such viewpoint, the characterization of ethnicity is rejected, as a feature of “primitive”, “pre-political” societies as marginal groups doomed to assimilation into the existing structures. The central problem of ethnical belonging is the issue of origin, the restoration of cultural and historical memory and the construction of the “appropriate past”, which would assist in solving the problems of the present. The core of any national culture is national-ethnic self-consciousness which is the key factor in the national identity formation. It is pointed out that certain types of myths are inseparable from the ethnic identity. Today, researchers speak of the process of “remythologization”. For Russia, which has always been a multiethnic state, the problem of scientific definition of nations, ethnic groups, national and ethnic consciousness has a special practical significance. In Russia and the post-Soviet space, the activation of mythological thinking has its own specifics.Keywords: Nations, Ethnicity, National consciousness, Myth, Globalizatio

Labor capital development of the region in the focus of sociological research: factors and problems

The presented work analyzes the features, problems and factors of labor capital development of the Republic of Bashkortostan based on the data of a sociological study conducted by the Institute for Socio-Economic Research of the Ufa Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2021. A number of problems faced by the able-bodied population are considered, including: a relatively low standard of living of the population, which hinders the provision of the quality of life and professional productivity of workers; gender inequality in the distribution of labor incomes of the population; the predominance of negative assessments of the able-bodied population of their physical condition, the quality of their leisure and vacations; discrepancy between the high qualification of employees and the functions performed, which does not allow them to fully realize their labor potential in the workplace. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of values that prevail in the minds of the able-bodied population and determine their labor behavior, and as a result, have a negative impact on the formation of labor capital. Thus, it was revealed that the value orientations of the population of the Republic of Bashkortostan are typical for countries of “catching up” development. In this regard, the authors substantiate the necessity of cultivating the values of rationality of financial thinking, equality, self-expression and autonomy, as well as improving institutions that support these values in society. These values act as factors in the formation of high-quality labor capital in the conditions of modern Russi

Исследование реакционной способности производных коричной кислоты – предшественников лигнина

Objectives. Cinnamic acid derivatives belong to a large class of phenolic compounds, which are widely distributed in plants and have high potential for use in the medical and industrial fields. They have various useful practical properties, e.g., antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antiplatelet, and anti-melanogenic properties. Hydroxycinnamic acids are of particular interest as phenylpropanoids, which are the starting compounds of lignin. The aim of this work was to study the electronic structure and analyze the reactivity of the simplest representatives of phenylpropanoids formed during the biosynthesis of the coumaric (p-hydroxycinnamic), caffeic (3,4-dihydroxycinnamic), ferulic (3-methoxy-4-hydroxycinnamic), sinapic (3,5-dimethoxy-4- hydroxycinnamic), and 3,4-dimethoxycinnamic acids. These acids are the biogenetic precursors of most other phenolic compounds (coumarins, melanins, lignins, and flavonoids) and are found in almost all higher plants.Methods. Calculations with full optimization of the geometric parameters were performed using the original Hartree–Fock theory and hybrid density functional method. All calculations were performed using the Firefly program. Results. A comparative quantum chemical calculation of the geometric parameters of hydroxycinnamic acid molecules was conducted via two methods, and the values of the charges on atoms according to Mulliken were determined. It was found that with the addition of hydroxyl and methoxy substituents at the meta and para positions relative to the carboxyl fragment, the electron density shifts toward the benzene ring, and the symmetry of the molecule decreases. Additionally, in these structures, there is π,π-conjugation of the carboxyl fragment of the –СН=СНСООН molecule with the aromatic ring, which significantly affects the geometric configuration of the molecule. The maximum positive charge is concentrated on the C9 atom, while the maximum negative charge is on the oxygen atoms belonging to the methoxy substituents and the hydroxyl group, which confirms the role of oxygen atoms in the chemical transformations of acids. Conclusions. Two different methods were used to calculate the geometric, electronic, and energy parameters and electrophilicity indices of the studied hydroxycinnamic acids in the gas phase. The obtained values were consistent (within the limits of error) with the experimental data as well as the results described in earlier works’ calculations by other methods.Цели. Производные коричной кислоты относятся к большому классу фенольных соединений, которые широко распространены в растительности и обладают высоким потенциалом для применения в медицине и промышленности. Они обладают различными практически полезными свойствами, например, антиоксидантными, противовоспалительными, антиагрегантными и антимеланогенными свойствами. Отдельный интерес представляют оксикоричные кислоты как фенилпропаноиды, являющиеся исходными соединениями лигнина. Целью данной работы является исследование электронной структуры и анализ реакционной способности простейших представителей фенилпропаноидов, образующихся в процессе биосинтеза: кумаровой (п-оксикоричной), кофейной (3,4-дигидроксикоричной), феруловой (3-метокси-4-гидроксикоричной), синаповой (3,5-диметокси-4-гидроксикоричной) и 3,4-диметоксикоричной кислот. Эти кислоты являются биогенетическими предшественниками большинства других фенольных соединений (кумаринов, меланинов, лигнина и флавоноидов) и встречаются практически во всех высших растениях. Методы. В рамках ограниченного метода Хартри Фока и метода гибридного функционала плотности оптимизированы исследуемые молекулы. Все расчеты проводились с использованием программы Firefly. Результаты. Проведен сравнительный квантово-химический расчет геометрических параметров молекул оксикоричных кислот двумя методами, приведены значения зарядов на атомах по Малликену. При введении гидроксильных и метоксильных заместителей в м- и п-положения относительно карбоксильного фрагмента происходит смещение электронной плотности в сторону бензольного кольца и, как следствие, понижение симметрии молекулы. Также в исследуемых структурах имеется π,π-сопряжение карбоксильного фрагмента молекулы –СН=СНСООН с ароматическим кольцом, что существенно сказывается на геометрической конфигурации молекул. Максимальный положительный заряд сосредоточен на атоме С9, а максимальный отрицательный – на атомах кислорода, относящихся к метоксильным заместителям и гидроксильной группе, что подтверждает роль кислородных атомов в химических превращениях кислот. Выводы. В работе двумя различными методами были рассчитаны геометрические, электронные и энергетические параметры, а также индексы электрофильности исследуемых оксикоричных кислот в газовой фазе. Полученные величины согласуются в пределах погрешностей с экспериментальными данными, а также описываемыми в ранних работах при расчетах другими методами

The impact of regulatory changes on rating behaviour

JEL classification: G21; G28.We examine rating behaviour after the introduction of new regulations regarding Credit Rating Agencies (CRAs) in the European securitisation market. Employing a large sample of 12,469 ABS tranches issued between 1998 and 2018, we examine the information content of yield spreads of ABS at the issuance and compare the pre- and post-GFC periods. We find that the regulatory changes have been effective in tackling conflicts of interest between issuers and CRAs in securitisation. Rating catering seems to have disappeared in the post-GFC period. Yet we see limited effectiveness on rating shopping. It follows that rating over-reliance might be an issue, especially for investors of higher-quality ABS.The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest or competing interests

Emergence of Spacetime

Starting from a background Zero Point Field (or Dark Energy) we show how an array of oscillators at the Planck scale leads to the formation of elementary particles and spacetime and also to a cosmology consistent with latest observations.Comment: Latex, 39 page