Private capital incentive model in public-private partnership projects for the development of public infrastructure

Public infrastructure development is considered to be the basis for comfortable living conditions of all the citizens. Therefore, the optimization of public infrastructure should be treated as an important task of any government. The Public-Private Partnership (hereinafter referred to as PPP) model makes it possible to reduce financial pressure on the government budget, to accelerate the construction of public infrastructure and to enhance the efficiency of investment management. The analysis of Russian experience [1], as well as the experience of a number of foreign countries [2], indicates that many issues of financial support, including the issues of reimbursement of costs to public-private partnership entities, have not been sufficiently developed in terms of law and economics. The interval model of a linear compensation mechanism as applied to Chinese PPP models is proposed in this paper. The authors analyze three types of models for subsidizing PPPs by the Chinese government: rate of return model for discounted construction costs; model of discounted construction costs; rate of return model for discounted average construction costs at the beginning of the period. The mechanism for establishing a range of state compensation for additional costs of a private investor due to a reduction in construction time is proposed in the article

Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Changes in the Brain of Children Cured of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

This study was aimed to systematize magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) presentation of toxic leukoencephalopathy, to find the correlation between method of central nervous system (CNS) leukemia prevention and changes on MRI, to find relationship between existence leukoencephalopathy on imaging and neurocognitive deficits in pediatric patients after anti-leukemic therapy. Brain MRI data of 48 children, who underwent a therapy course according to the ALL-MB intermediate risk protocol, was evaluated. In accordance with two arms of this protocol, they received either radiation therapy, or additional intrathecal administration of chemotherapeutic agents as a prevention of CNS leukemia. Also, neurocognitive tests were performed. According to the results of the performed investigation, 10 (50%) out of 20 children, who received cranial irradiation and 18 (66.6%) out of 27 patients, who received only intrathecal therapy demonstrated abnormal brain changes (leukoencephalopathy) according to MRI data. Leukoencephalopathy was mostly presented by diffuse zones and localized predominantly in the frontal and temporal lobes. There was no correlation between method of CNS prevention and the existence of leukoencephalopathy on MRI. The analysis of our data did not show significant differences in brain damage and severity of cognitive impairment depending on the type of prevention of CNS leukemia. Moreover, in this study no statistical correlation was found between leukoencephalopathy on MRI and neurocognitive impairment according to clinical tests data. Further long-term prospective studies and examinations should be performed to assess late neurotoxic effects

Structure of N' -(adamantan-2-ylidene)benzohydrazide, a potential antibacterial agent, in solution: Molecular dynamics simulations, quantum chemical calculations and Ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy studies

The molecular dynamics simulations of the structure of the N' -(adamantan-2-ylidene)benzohydrazide followed by the quantum chemical calculations at the DFT level of theory have identified four stable conformers of this potential antibacterial agent in solution: one “central” cis- and three (“central”, “left” and “right”) transconformers. The UV-Vis absorption spectrum in the 220–320nm region in the ethanol solution reveals two bands that can be primarily explained based on the ab initio calculations of the spectral characteristics of the “side” transconformers at the MRPT level of theory. However, the close energy values for the calculated cis- S 1 ← S 0 and “side” trans- S 2 ← S 0 transitions cannot exclude the presence of cis-conformer in solution. Therefore, the data obtained show that the coexistence of both trans-conformers and cis-conformer should be taken into consideration when studying the pharmaceutical properties of the title molecule

Spatio-temporal shaping of photocathode laser pulses for linear electron accelerators

Methods for the spatio-temporal shaping of photocathode laser pulses for generating high brightness electron beams in modern linear accelerators are discussed. The possibility of forming triangular laser pulses and quasi-ellipsoidal structures is analyzed. The proposed scheme for generating shaped laser pulses was realised at the Institute of Applied Physics (IAP) RAS. Currently, a prototype of the pulse shaping laser system is installed at the Photo Injector Test facility at DESY, Zeuthen site (PITZ). Preliminary experiments on electron beams generation using ultraviolet laser pulses from this system were carried out at PITZ, in which electron bunches with 0.5 nC charge and a transverse normalized emittance of 1.1 mm mrad were obtained. A new scheme for the three-dimensional shaping of laser beams using a volume Bragg grating is proposed at IAP RAS and is currently being tested for further electron beam generation experiments at the PITZ photoinjector