Oil Industry and Reindeer Herding: The Problems of Implementing Indigenous Rights in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Russia

In this paper are discussed how interests of oil and gas companies clash with the need of Nenets and Komi reindeer herders for land resources. The key question in the paper is "Why is it so difficult to implement international standards concerning indigenous rights"

Adaptation to the Loss of Grazing Lands in Yamal Nenets Autonomous Okrug

Loss of grazing and adaptation to climate change in te Yamal Nenets Autonomous Okru

Overview of Dose Assessment Developments and the Health of Riverside Residents Close to the “Mayak” PA Facilities, Russia

The Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority (NRPA) has been involved in studies related to the Mayak PA and the consequences of activities undertaken at the site for a number of years. This paper strives to present an overview of past and present activities at the Mayak PA and subsequent developments in the quantification of health effects on local populations caused by discharges of radioactive waste into the Techa River. Assessments of doses to affected populations have relied on the development of dose reconstruction techniques for both external and internal doses. Contamination levels are typically inhomogeneous and decrease with increasing distance from the discharge point. Citations made in this paper give a comprehensive, though not exhaustive, basis for further reading about this topic

Biodiversity of Floodplain Soils in the European North‐East of Russia

River floodplains are unique nature landscapes. In contrast to zonal communities on watersheds, soil biota of river floodplains is studied in less degree. The research was conducted in the floodplain forests in the European North‐East of Russia and showed high diversity of soil biota in alluvial forest soils. Floodplain forest soils are inhabited by 70 species of micromycetes, 53 genera of Nematoda, 60 species of Collembola, and 110 species of large invertebrates. Alluvial meadow soils with stable moisture and temperature conditions are characterised by high species diversity of micromycetes, nematodes and large invertebrates. Collembola prefer alluvial soddy soils. Soil microorganisms, meso‐ and macro‐fauna can essentially increase taxonomic diversity and number in alluvial meadow‐boggy soils at warming autumn

BRICS activities during COVID-19

This article examines the activities of BRICS during the pandemic, including measures taken by member countries to prevent the spread of COVID-19.В данной статье рассматриваются направления деятельности БРИКС во время пандемии, в том числе меры, предпринимаемые странами-участницами для предотвращения распространения COVID-19

PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSONALITY CHARACTERISTICS OF OIL AND GAS PRODUCTION SHIFT WORKERS WITH DIFFERENT LEVELS OF METEOREACTION IN ARCTIC REGION CONDITIONS

The article is devoted to the definition of the psychological characteristics of oil and gas shift workers with high and low levels at meteoreaction in the Arctic. The oil and gas employees in conditions of the Far North and the Arctic are most likely to develop painful meteosensitivity. At the same time, the severity of it is caused by not only natural environmental factors, but also the person's psychological qualities and characteristics. The study was conducted as the scientific expedition, in which 70 oil and gas workers in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug participated from March to April 2015 (shift duration - 30 days), their age - from 24 to 60 years (mean age 38.46 ± 1.410). The study was conducted through questionnaires, psychological tests. Statistical analysis was performed using the methods of descriptive statistics and stepwise discriminant analysis. Processing was carried out using SPSS 22.00 software package. The study revealed that employees of oil and gas companies with a high level of situational meteoreaction had hyperthymic and excitable types of character accentuations, high level expression of constructive external self-limiting and constructive sexuality, as well as a low level of expression of the destructive and deficiency aggression, deficit anxiety, destructive inner self-limitation, destructive narcissism and sexuality

FURTHER STUDIES ON UNCERTAINTY, CONFOUNDING, AND VALIDATION OF THE DOSES IN THE TECHA RIVER DOSIMETRY SYSTEM: Concluding Progress Report on the Second Phase of Project 1.1

This is the concluding Progress Report for Project 1.1 of the U.S./Russia Joint Coordinating Committee on Radiation Effects Research (JCCRER). An overwhelming majority of our work this period has been to complete our primary obligation of providing a new version of the Techa River Dosimetry System (TRDS), which we call TRDS-2009D; the D denotes deterministic. This system provides estimates of individual doses to members of the Extended Techa River Cohort (ETRC) and post-natal doses to members of the Techa River Offspring Cohort (TROC). The latter doses were calculated with use of the TRDS-2009D. The doses for the members of the ETRC have been made available to the American and Russian epidemiologists in September for their studies in deriving radiogenic risk factors. Doses for members of the TROC are being provided to European and Russian epidemiologists, as partial input for studies of risk in this population. Two of our original goals for the completion of this nine-year phase of Project 1.1 were not completed. These are completion of TRDS-2009MC, which was to be a Monte Carlo version of TRDS-2009 that could be used for more explicit analysis of the impact of uncertainty in doses on uncertainty in radiogenic risk factors. The second incomplete goal was to be the provision of household specific external doses (rather than village average). This task was far along, but had to be delayed due to the lead investigator’s work on consideration of a revised source term

Moss occurrences in Yugyd Va National Park, Subpolar and Northern Urals, European North-East Russia

This study produced a dataset containing information on moss occurrences in the territory of Yugyd Va National Park, located in the Subpolar and Northern Urals, European North-East Russia. The dataset summarises occurrences noted by long-term bryological explorations in remote areas of the Subpolar and Northern Urals from 1943 to 2015 and from studies published since 1915. The dataset consists of 4,120 occurrence records. The occurrence data were extracted from herbarium specimen labels (3,833 records) and data from published literature (287 records). Most of the records (4,104) are georeferenced. A total of 302 moss taxa belonging to 112 genera and 36 families are reported herein to occur in Yugyd Va National Park. The diversity of bryophytes in this National Park has not yet been fully explored and further exploration will lead to more taxa. A total of 4,120 moss occurrences records in the territory of Yugyd Va National Park were published

Breast cancer incidence following low-dose rate environmental exposure: Techa River Cohort, 1956–2004

In the 1950s, the Mayak nuclear weapons facility in Russia discharged liquid radioactive wastes into the Techa River causing exposure of riverside residents to protracted low-to-moderate doses of radiation. Almost 10 000 women received estimated doses to the stomach of up to 0.47 Gray (Gy) (mean dose=0.04 Gy) from external γ-exposure and 137Cs incorporation. We have been following this population for cancer incidence and mortality and as in the general Russian population, we found a significant temporal trend of breast cancer incidence. A significant linear radiation dose–response relationship was observed (P=0.01) with an estimated excess relative risk per Gray (ERR/Gy) of 5.00 (95% confidence interval (CI), 0.80, 12.76). We estimated that approximately 12% of the 109 observed cases could be attributed to radiation

Striking the balance: Challenges and perspectives for the protected areas network in northeastern European Russia

Increasing anthropogenic pressure on the largest remaining tracts of old-growth boreal forest in Europe necessitates additional conservation of ecosystems and biodiversity in northeastern European Russia. In a regional network comprising 8 % of the Nenets Autonomous District and 13.5 % of the Komi Republic, 248 areas have varying protected statuses as state nature reserves (zapovedniks), national parks, reserves/sanctuaries (zakazniks), or natural monuments. Due to increased natural resource extraction in this relatively pristine area, designation of additional protected areas is critical for the protection of key ecological sites. The history of ecological preservation in these regions is herein described, and recent recommendations for incorporating additional ecologically representative areas into the regional network are presented. If the protected area network can be expanded, the overall environmental stability in these globally significant ecosystems may remain intact, and can help Russia meet the 2020 Aichi conservation targets, as set forth by the Convention of Biological Diversity