Influence of boric anhydride upon the physical and chemical properties of ferrosilicon slag

The authors study the influence of boric anhydride upon the physical and chemical properties of slag in the manufacture of ferrosilicon. It is established that adding boric anhydride to the slag changes its refractory quality and its viscosity and eases pouring slag and metal. Slags with optimal composition and properties are described

Multipoint Schur algorithm and orthogonal rational functions: convergence properties, I

Classical Schur analysis is intimately connected to the theory of orthogonal polynomials on the circle [Simon, 2005]. We investigate here the connection between multipoint Schur analysis and orthogonal rational functions. Specifically, we study the convergence of the Wall rational functions via the development of a rational analogue to the Szeg\H o theory, in the case where the interpolation points may accumulate on the unit circle. This leads us to generalize results from [Khrushchev,2001], [Bultheel et al., 1999], and yields asymptotics of a novel type.Comment: a preliminary version, 39 pages; some changes in the Introduction, Section 5 (Szeg\H o type asymptotics) is extende

Technical assistance, neo-colonialism or mutual trade? The experience of an Anglo/Ukrainian/Russian social work practice learning project

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union there has been a steady stream of Western consultants ready to work in Eastern Europe and Russia and share professional and academic expertise and experience. Social work, unknown as a discrete discipline or profession in the Soviet Union, has been a growth area with funding from a variety of sources to help promote East-West partnerships.Social work theory and practice emphasises critical appraisal of policy and embraces issues of power, discrimination and oppression. Social work educators should therefore be especially alert to the complex ethical questions which these kinds of collaborations raise, and adept at finding practical solutions or workable compromises. This article explores these ethical and political issues with reference to a project to develop social work practice learning in a Russian oblast' (region). The project was an ambitious partnership of British, Ukrainian and Russian educators, involving numerous Russian social work and related agencies, and four Russian universities and colleges in one oblast'. The authors use a series of vignettes to help the reader achieve insights into these East-West transactions. The article concludes with a discussion of different interpretations of these dealings, using three prisms: technical assistance, neo-colonialism and mutual trade

Tuneable compensator of dispersion and slope using non-uniformly strained chirped fibre grating

Summary form only given. A novel method for tuning the second and the third order dispersion using a simple multi-point bending device has been demonstrated. A simple model has been developed that allows to calculate the exact bending profile required for compensation for the given values of dispersion and dispersion slope

Решение проблемы типологии данных с использованием технологий разделения смесей вероятностных распределений

The authors studied heterogeneous samples (for a number of statistical populations) taken from finite mixtures of probability distribu- tions, which reflect a number of socio-economic characteristics of the Russian society, using the information resources of the Federal State Statistics Service; in this case the number of mixing distributions (components), as well as their corresponding weights and parameters, may be unknown. In terms of content, the problem of separation (decomposition) of mixtures can be reduced to estimating unknown parameters of mixing distributions and their weights.The article considers and discusses methods for solving this problem, their advantages and disadvantages, conditions and areas of application. In the study the decomposition of mixtures of probability distributions on the population of subjects of the RussianFederation was carried out according to three interrelated statistical indicators – the unemployment rate, the poverty rate, the level of violence. These indicators can be considered as statistical measure of achieving sustainable development goals at the regional level and, at the same time, measures of socio-economic «health» of territory. Typologies of subjects of the Russian Federation were carried out according to the listed indicators. A cross-comparison of the results of the obtained typological groupings was performed, which also made it possible to identify the subjects of the Russian Federation that differ in both negative and positive trends in the context of the indicators under consideration.The authors underline that the results of the study can be used by the authorities to develop specific measures for the socio-economic development of Russia and its regions.С использованием информационных ресурсов Федеральной службы государственной статистики, отражающих ряд социально-экономических характеристик российского общества, исследованы неоднородные выборки (по ряду статистических совокупностей), взятые из конечных смесей вероятностных распределений; при этом число смешивающихся распределений (компонент), а также соответствующие им веса и параметры могли быть неизвестными. Содержательно задача разделения (декомпозиции) смесей может быть сведена к определению неизвестных характеристик смешивающихся компонент, а также их весов.Проанализированы методы решения этой задачи, их преимущества, достоинства и недостатки, условия и область прикладных применений. Осуществлена декомпозиция смесей вероятностных распределений на совокупности субъектов Российской Федерации по трем взаимосвязанным статистическим показателям – уровню безработицы, уровню бедности и уровню насилия, которые можно рассматривать в качестве измерителей достижения целей устойчивого развития для территориального образования и (одновременно) индикаторов социально-экономического «здоровья» территории. Проведены типологии регионов по перечисленным показателям. Выполнено перекрестное сопоставление результатов полученных типологических группировок, позволившее (в том числе) определить субъекты Российской Федерации, в которых прослеживаются как позитивные, так и негативные тенденции в контексте рассматриваемых показателей.Подчеркивается, что результаты исследования могут быть использованы органами управления для разработки конкретных мер по социально-экономическому развитию России и ее регионов