Emotional intelligence, patterns for coping with decisional conflict, and academic achievement in cross-cultural perspective (evidence from selective Russian and Azerbaijani student populations)

Background. Choice, under conditions of uncertainty, is mediated by integral dynamic regulatory systems that represent hierarchies of cognitive and personality processes. As such, individual decision-making patterns can be studied in the context of intellectual and personality potential. This article presents the results of a cross-cultural comparison of personality characteristics, such as coping with uncertainty, emotional intelligence, and academic achievement, between Azerbaijani and Russian university students. Objective. We aimed at establishing metric invariance and at highlighting relationships between emotional intelligence and the scales of the Melbourne Decision Making Questionnaire (MDMQ). Design. Azerbaijani and Russian student samples were selected for this study due to the almost identical educational programs offered by Moscow State University to students in Moscow and its branch in Baku. Coping with uncertainty was measured by the MDMQ, emotional intelligence by the EmIn questionnaire, and academic achievement by GPA scores. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to verify factor structure invariance and congruence. Results. The congruence of factor structures for both questionnaires was verified. For the MDMQ four-factor structure for both samples was confirmed. For the EmIn questionnaire, invariance for two scales was established — “Understanding other people’s emotions” and “Managing own emotions”. Relationships among personality traits, gender, age, and academic achievements are explained for the Lomonosov Moscow State University students in Moscow (Russia) and its branch in Baku (Azerbaijan). No crosscultural differences were found for emotional intelligence and productive coping (Vigilance). A cultural difference was established in unproductive coping preference for Buck Passing. A similarity between the cultures was captured in the relationship of higher emotional intelligence (EQ) scores to higher Vigilance scores and to lower levels of unproductive coping patterns. Vigilance was a predictor of academic achievement, but only in the Russian sample. Conclusion. The similarity of the educational systems, as both samples studied similar programs, demonstrates very few cross-cultural differences

Current Issues of Evaluating the Effectiveness of Public Procurement

Public procurement under the contract system plays an important role in the development of the country's economy. The volume of state ownership and the volume of public procurement are impressive in their scale. Within the framework of the contract system, one of the priority goals is to increase the efficiency of state and municipal procurement. This article analyzes the existing indicators of the effectiveness of state and municipal procurement and provides recommendations for expanding the range of these indicators

Tolerance and Intolerance for Uncertainty as Predictors of Decision Making and Risk Acceptance in Gaming Strategies of Te Iowa Gambling Task

Background. Tis article reports on the results of an empirical study of interrelationships between indicators of decision-making strategies (indexed by the Iowa Gambling Task, IGT) and traits of tolerance and intolerance for uncertainty that capture the unity of cognitive and personality components of situational representations. Objective. Our study tested the hypothesis that overcoming uncertainty in decision making goes beyond cognitive representations of the task but instead is rooted in the construction of the amodal image of an uncertain situation that captures the meaning regulation of perception and action. We hypothesized that when a person is faced with multi-stage decisions, their strategies refect the contribution of individual diferences in attitudes towards uncertainty. Design. Using data obtained from n=60 typically developing adults (68% men; Mage=30.58), we examined the contribution of tolerance/intolerance for uncertainty to a variety of IGT dependent variables at fve diferent stages of the game. Results. Te data was analyzed using the mixed linear model method as implemented in the lme4 package for R. Te results indicated that tolerance for uncertainty signifcantly contributes to the initial level of behavioral risk, ensuring readiness for decision making under uncertainty. Conclusion. Tolerance for uncertainty plays an important role in early stages of orientation in an uncertain modeled game situation, and contributes to the productive development of probabilistic expectations. Intolerance for uncertainty, on the other hand, was shown to contribute to risk in decision making afer trial failure, potentially limiting learning in uncertain conditions through risk aversion

Дистальные тубулопатии. Синдром Гительмана

The clinical recommendations on management of children with Gitelman syndrome developed by the experts of the Union of pediatricians of Russia are presented in this article. Gitelman syndrome is a dysfunction of distal renal tubules with further development of hypomagnesemia, hypocalciuria and secondary aldosteronism which determine hypokalemia and metabolic alkalosis. Features of epidemiology, etiology and pathogenesis, disease progression, differential diagnostics and evidence-based treatment are presented.Представлены разработанные экспертами Союза педиатров России клинические рекомендации по оказанию медицинской помощи детям с синдромом Гительмана — нарушением функции дистальных почечных канальцев с развитием гипомагнеземии, гипокальциурии и вторичного альдостеронизма, который обусловливает гипокали-емию и метаболический алкалоз. Отмечены особенности эпидемиологии, этиологии и патогенеза, клинического течения, дифференциальной диагностики, а также лечения, основанного на принципах доказательности