254 research outputs found
Lithuania on the way to energy independence: an experience or a lesson?
The article considers the steps taken by Lithuania towards gaining energy independence in the interbellum and the Soviet periods. The author analyses the peculiarities of the republic's energy policy after achieving independence in the early 1990s and estimates the methods of diversifying energy supply in Lithuania
Human resources of post-war Lithuania and their role in the rebuilding of Klaipeda
This article focuses on the issues of post-WWII economic restoration effort in the Soviet Lithuania. German occupation of the republic caused significant damage to its industry and agriculture. Pre-war Lithuania was an agrarian state aspiring to embark on an industrial-agrarian path of development. After the war, this aspiration did not only persist, but was intensified. To reach this objective, however, Lithuania required qualified workforce. Before the war, hardly any attention was paid to the training of workers for industrial-scale production and construction. Then, a considerable decrease in population during the war aggravated the already substantial labour shortage. The attempts of the republic’s leadership to solve the problems of labour shortage through organised labour migration and labour mobilisation yielded no significant results. The appeals to the Centre with the request to send a substantial number of specialists and workers to Lithuania were heard, but a state ravaged by war did not have sufficient human resources. One of the solution was the use of labour of German prisoners of war. A network of prisoner-of-war camps was established in Lithuania. In a matter of two to three years, PWs completed a significant amount of work aimed at the rebuilding of important infrastructural objects. The case of Klaipeda is used to demonstrate the opportunities of the region and Centre in organising workforce in the Lithuanian SSR. The study uses the data obtained by modern historiography and documents kept in the Lithuanian State Central Archive
The “court cases” of General Ye. F. Kern
This article focuses on the battle career
of the Russian general, Ye. F. Kern,
who dedicated sixty years to the service of
the country. General Kern participated in
most wars and military campaigns the
Russian state was involved in in the last
quarter of the 18th-the first quarter of the
19th centuries. Despite being a contemporary
and often a companion-in-arms to
outstanding Russian public and military
officers, he could not secure a dominant
position on the military Areopagus. Moreover,
in the post-war period his life was
scarred by tragedies.
In the Russian culture, he became
notorious because of his wife. Over the
last two centuries, Ye. F. Kern has been
described as a “rude” and “ignorant”
person destroying the aspirations of a
young, courtly, and educated woman towards
noble ideals and sublime feelings.
This article considers the features of
provincial military life in the light of its
hardships and routine aggravated by the
peculiarities of bureaucracy typical of
Russian peripheral centres of the time.
The case of Ye. F. Kern helps understand
how a Russian general, despite the vicissitudes
of fate — battle injuries, career
hardships, family discord, and lack of
stability — managed to remain true to
the once chosen direction in life — service
of the country
Nuclear power in the Baltic Sea region: the history of emergence and the political and economic features of its development
This article focuses on the development of peaceful nuclear power. The author draws attention to the fact that nuclear power is a rather young branch of national economy. However, over recent decades, it has already seen rises and falls, and a number of states have had tragic experiences of nuclear emergencies. Nevertheless, many countries — including the three Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — express a strong interest in development, generation, and application of nuclear power. In the Baltic States, nuclear power dates back to the Soviet times, but its development was suspended pursuant to the EU regulations (the Ignalina NPP). Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia have been striving for energy independence from Russia — the principal supplier of energy carriers to these countries. For a long time, the three Baltic States have been proclaiming their unanimity on the general European path of development. However, the reality proved to be different. The touchstone for achieving common goals was the idea of constructing a new NPP at the site of the closed Ignalina NPP. The author concludes that the joint construction of a new NPP is quite questionable. When it comes to politics, each of the three Baltic States is ready to build its own NPP. Thus, the development of nuclear power in the Baltic Sea region requires joint coordinated actions independent of any bloc-inspired interests of the states involved. Moreover, this success may prove sustainable if the actions are based on innovative decisions and modern technologies
Universal lineshape of the Kondo zero-bias anomaly in a quantum dot
Encouraged by the recent real-time renormalization group results we carried
out a detailed analysis of the nonequilibrium Kondo conductance observed in an
InAs nanowire-based quantum dot and found them to be in excellent agreement. We
show that in a wide range of bias the Kondo conductance zero-bias anomaly is
scaled by the Kondo temperature to a universal lineshape predicted by the
numerical study. The lineshape can be approximated by a phenomenological
expression of a single argument . The knowledge of
an analytical expression for the lineshape provides an alternative way for
estimation of the Kondo temperature in a real experiment, with no need for time
consuming temperature dependence measurements of the linear conductance.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Wide-band current preamplifier for conductance measurements with large input capacitance
A wide-band current preamplifier based on a composite operational amplifier
is proposed. It has been shown that the bandwidth of the preamplifier can be
significantly increased by enhancing the effective open-loop gain of the
composite preamplifier. The described preamplifier with current gain 10 V/A
showed the bandwidth of about 100 kHz with 1 nF input shunt capacitance. The
current noise of the amplifier was measured to be about 46 fA/
at 1 kHz, close to the design noise minimum. The voltage noise was found to be
about 2.9 nV/ at 1 kHz, which is in a good agreement with the
value expected for the operational amplifier used in the input stage. By
analysing the total noise produced by the preamplifier we found the optimal
frequency range suitable for the fast lock-in measurements to be from 1 kHz to
2 kHz. To get the same signal-to-noise ratio, the reported preamplifier
requires roughly 10% of the integration time used in measurements made with a
conventional preamplifier.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
The features of EU energy strategy in the Baltic region
This article analyses the issues of EU energy
policy in the 1990s-the beginning of the
2000s in order to identify the features of energy
supply and energy safety of the Baltic region
countries. The research and practical
significance of the work lies in the stepwise
description of actions taken by EU leaders
and EU member states in order to formulate a
common European energy policy. The 2004
EU enlargement posed the problem of taking
into account the features of energy supply of
Eastern European countries and, especially,
the Baltic States. The energy industries of
Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, as well as
other Eastern European and CIS countries,
are closely related to the energy industry of
the Russian Federation. Trying to allow for
this circumstance, EU leaders and energy
structures took a number of organisational
measures aimed, on the one hand, at an increase
in energy independence of new members
of the EU and, on the other hand, at taking
into account the recent trends in the energy
market development. The research shows
that most of the initiatives do not take into
account the perspective and interests of Russia,
which has a strong presence in the energy
market.
The analysis conducted will help the assessment
of prospects of further development
of the Baltic States' energy industry and its interaction
with that of the Russian Federation
Local Border Traffic as a Form of Visa Liberalisation and Territorial Development
This article addresses the issue of visa liberalisation between Russia and the European Union, which constitutes a key aspect of the parties’ diplomatic cooperation. This work sets out to identify the main results of Russia/EU cooperation. The authors have conducted a brief historical analysis of this area of relations. The visa “regionalisation” is considered in the context of identifying the key actors of the EU — Russia negotiations: the Kaliningrad region, Germany, Poland, and Lithuania. In their analysis, the authors rely mostly on primary sources: intergovernmental agreements on simplified border traffic, border-crossing statistics for the Kaliningrad region in the framework of the local border traffic, expert interviews, and related analytic reports. Specifically, local border traffic is viewed as the most effective form of interaction in the field of visa regime simplification and border territory development. An assessment of the positions of key negotiators shows that local border traffic between the Kaliningrad region of Russia and the Polish border voivodeships is a success, which stresses the need for a prompt transition to a visa-free regime with the EU
Tráfico de internet y desempeño de las empresas en sectores de alto costo: hay dos caras de la moneda
En el contexto de la digitalización de la economía ha aumentado la importancia de los sitios web de las empresas, bien
establecidos y fáciles de usar. La pandemia de COVID-19 se ha convertido en un nuevo motor para el desarrollo de las comunicaciones
por internet entre fabricantes y consumidores. Este artículo explora la relación entre el tráfico de internet
de los sitios web de las empresas y sus volúmenes de ventas y rentabilidad. Aplicamos el análisis de regresión de datos de
panel y modelo de regresión de Prais-Winsten con ajuste de error estándar de panel, que proporciona estimaciones conservadoras
y confiables. Sobre la muestra de 268 observaciones extraídas de 67 empresas rusas que operan en las industrias
de gran valor de la fabricación de automóviles y el desarrollo inmobiliario durante el período 2017-2022 caracterizado por
un gran impacto exógeno, demostramos que el tráfico de internet ejerce un efecto positivo en la empresa. Al mismo tiempo,
este efecto positivo sobre las ventas va acompañado de un efecto negativo del tráfico de internet sobre la rentabilidad de
la empresa. El efecto negativo sobre la rentabilidad es particularmente pronunciado para las empresas más jóvenes que
probablemente enfrenten severas limitaciones de recursos y, por lo tanto, puede decirse que sacrifican la rentabilidad para
asegurar las ventas. En esta situación, la aplicación de estrategias rentables puede ser fundamental para las empresas más
jóvenes. Las empresas más jóvenes deben prestar especial atención a los contenidos de sus sitios web para asegurarse de
que proporcionen suficiente información adecuada que ayude a ganar la confianza de nuevos clientes.//The importance of well-established and customer-friendly firms’ websites has increased in the context of the digitalization of the economy. The COVID-19
pandemic has become a new driver for the development of Internet communications between manufacturers and consumers. This article explores the
relationship between the Internet traffic of companies’ websites of and their sales volumes and profitability. We apply panel data regression analysis and
model of Prais–Winsten regression with panel standard error adjustment, which provides conservative and reliable estimates. In the sample of 268 observations
drawn from 67 Russian firms operating in the big-ticket industries of car manufacturing and real estate development during the period of 2017-
2022 characterized by a major exogenous shock, we demonstrate that internet traffic exerts a positive effect on firm sales. At the same time, this positive
effect on sales is accompanied by a negative effect of internet traffic on firm profitability. The negative effect on profitability is particularly pronounced for
younger firms that are likely to face severe resource constraints and can thus be said to sacrifice profitability to ensure sales. In such situation, application
of cost-effective strategies may be critical for younger firms. Younger firms should pay particular attention to the contents of their websites to ensure that
they provide enough adequate information that will help win the trust of new customers
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