Scientific fundamentals for the development of dental implants

The article deals with topical issues of development, production and application of modern biocompatible materials and coatings based on them to clinical practice. Particular attention is paid to the intraosseous dental implants, which considered to be the most popular and well established methods to address the defects of dentition with partial and fully edentulous state

Venture Capital Financing as a Mechanism for Impelling Innovation Activity

This paper aims to provide an insight into the foundations of the development of the institution of venture capital financing, as well as summarize and conceptualize the experience of more economically developed countries, where the more favorable conditions have been created for the conduct of venture capital business. The authors' summarization of theoretical, methodological, and empirical data has made it possible to formulate the major issues characteristic of the making of the venture capital sector in countries with a transitive economy (Russia, in particular), as well as propose a set of solutions aimed at optimizing the legal and institutional space in the venture capital sector with a view to boosting the innovation activity of businesses. The authors derive the following major inferences: Venture capital financing is a modern institution whose activity is aimed at accumulating and redistributing temporarily available investment resources that are sought after in the sphere of innovation entrepreneurship; Countries whose economy may currently be recognized as transitive are characterized by a set of uniform issues: underdeveloped infrastructure in the national innovation system; lack of sources of venture capital financing; businesses reporting decreased innovation activity levels due to lack of economic incentives; lack of personnel resources; The evidence from the experience of more economically developed countries suggests that to enable the proper making of the institution of venture capital financing in countries with a transitive economy a set of interrelated objectives may need to be undertaken, namely: Ensuring legal optimization; boosting investment attractiveness; altering the nature of partnership between the state, business, and science-And-education sector; reducing state participation in economic and research activity

INTERRELATION BETWEEN THE UNIVERSITY'S SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND SUSTAINABILITY

In recent years, the discussion about both the university's sustainability and social responsibility has risen above average. In the international academic discourse, the number of researches and publications focusing on these phenomena has increased drastically and the terms of corporate social responsibility and sustainable development in their relation to the university have gained increasing popularity. However, despite the multiple publications, a common definition of corporate social responsibility has not been offered so far, not to mention a reliable definition of the university's social responsibility, which proved to be even more complicated than that of the corporation, due to its multi-level social mission. Besides, the notion of the university's sustainability, which has also been paid much attention to, when considered more closely, turned out to be considerably overlapping with the notion of the university's social responsibility in many aspects. The absence of reliable differentiation between the terms and trustworthy concept of the phenomena's interrelation and interaction within the university's internal environment, has raised a broad and unspecified discussion in economics, sociology, business management, and other fields of knowledge including theories organisational behaviour and leadership. Also, as the university's social responsibility is largely aimed at the external environment, which stipulates to a larger extent its sustainability, the dependence of both phenomena on the university's interrelations with the external stakeholders deserve profound investigation. To begin with, the authors base their considerations on the definition of sustainable development provided by Brundtland and the model of the triple-bottom-line, as well as on a profound literature study. Further on, the authors attempt to differentiate the phenomena of social responsibility and sustainable development, their interrelation and interdependence in both the university's internal and external environment. The authors' theoretical research is supported with benchmarking and consideration of the world leading universities' best practices, which have been generalised and structured in a model of the university's social responsibility and sustainability interrelation in its both environments – internal and external. The paper raises a number of important issues including those of the role of higher education for national and global sustainable development and the impact of recent global trends on the sustainability of national systems of higher education and every university in the global higher education environment, as well as the university's social responsibility before the main stakeholders of higher education, and responsibility of the stakeholders before the universities and the society in the aspect of its sustainable development

The fostering of motivation for innovative activity in future agriculture specialists as a pedagogical issue

The problem and the objective. The search for effective methods, technology, and approaches that could facilitate fostering a new generation of specialists who will be capable of retooling quickly in keeping with the needs of the labor market is a crucial objective set before the system of higher agricultural education. A possible way to succeed in this area is to cultivate motivation for innovative activity in future agriculture specialists as part of the educational process at colleges. The paper's purpose is to investigate the content of the concept of 'fostering motivation for innovative activity' through a comprehensive theoretical analysis of the characteristics of the professional preparation of agriculture specialists and of the key issues relating to motivation (E.P. Il'in, S.S. Zanyuk, P.M. Yakobson, N.V. Kostyuk, E.V. Karpova, etc.) and innovative activity (V.S. Belgorodskii, E.S. Bykova, O.S. Zolotukhina, E.N. Ishchenko, E.S. Polat, etc.), as well as to pilot-test a special methodology for diagnosing motivation for innovative activity in future agriculture specialists. Methodology. The authors have developed, as their research method for determining the dominant motives for innovative activity, a diagnostic assessment checklist for motivation for innovative activity comprised of 4 groups of motives. The findings of the authors' diagnosis of motivation for innovative activity indicate that professional motives and those of personal self-actualization are not the ones that prevail with future agriculture specialists. Most students tend to give priority to external stimuli and motives of external selffulfillment, which may be testimony to low levels of motivation for innovative activity. The paper's conclusion brings forth the suggestion to foster this motivation through the concurrent use in class of both well-known and entrenched ways and forms of arranging the learning process and cutting-edge (innovative) learning technology in keeping with students' age characteristics. © 2017. revistaESPACIOS.com

UNIVERSITY GOODWILL AND ITS VALUATION

The notion of goodwill has deeply integrated into both financial and corporate law, as well as in contract law. Contracts of different contents often include the term ‘goodwill', though it is interpreted differently – both as an important asset acquired by companies through purchases and merges and as part of companies' reputations and brands. So far, the phenomenon of the university's goodwill has not been researched enough due to several reasons: the complicatedness of the university as both an important social and increasingly important economic phenomenon, the significance of the universities' other components and their interrelations, as well as its functions and recent changes facing European and other universities as major stakeholders in the global market of higher education. The authors have investigated the phenomenon of the university's goodwill in both aspects – as part of the university's reputation, image and brand developed in its mission, vision and values, and as an economic asset acquired through merges, amalgamations and other kinds of acquisitions. The phenomenon of the university's goodwill as part of its reputation is a real challenge for researchers as its character is purely qualitative and it is deeply rooted in its values and mission, so that its differentiation from other aspects of its reputation is hardly possible, taking into account its vague character and problematic valuation. Nevertheless, the authors believe that the university's goodwill as part of its brand and image is worth researchers' attention and offer a methodology designed to distinguish it from other components of its reputation and thus provide every stakeholder with a reliable enough tool for researching this interesting phenomenon. Recently, the phenomenon of the university's goodwill as part of its assets has been acquiring more significance due to the ongoing processes of structural reforms in the European Higher Education Area, in Russia, and other parts of the world, as following the national governments' roadmaps universities, of Finland, Russia and other countries merge, integrate, and combine their resources in various ways. It is of more quantitative character and can be valuated with economic methods. The paper considers three methods of valuation of the company's goodwill: average profits method, super profits method, and capitalisation method, and their possible application to valuation of the university's goodwill as an important economic asset, with a particular attention paid to the method of capitalisation. Combining qualitative and quantitative research methods and basing on systemic approach, the authors have attempted to tackle the phenomenon of the university's goodwill and offer their findings including a model of the university's goodwill, as well as grounds for further researches in the fields of economics, sociology and axiology

The fostering of motivation for innovative activity in future agriculture specialists as a pedagogical issue

The problem and the objective. The search for effective methods, technology, and approaches that could facilitate fostering a new generation of specialists who will be capable of retooling quickly in keeping with the needs of the labor market is a crucial objective set before the system of higher agricultural education. A possible way to succeed in this area is to cultivate motivation for innovative activity in future agriculture specialists as part of the educational process at colleges. The paper's purpose is to investigate the content of the concept of 'fostering motivation for innovative activity' through a comprehensive theoretical analysis of the characteristics of the professional preparation of agriculture specialists and of the key issues relating to motivation (E.P. Il'in, S.S. Zanyuk, P.M. Yakobson, N.V. Kostyuk, E.V. Karpova, etc.) and innovative activity (V.S. Belgorodskii, E.S. Bykova, O.S. Zolotukhina, E.N. Ishchenko, E.S. Polat, etc.), as well as to pilot-test a special methodology for diagnosing motivation for innovative activity in future agriculture specialists. Methodology. The authors have developed, as their research method for determining the dominant motives for innovative activity, a diagnostic assessment checklist for motivation for innovative activity comprised of 4 groups of motives. The findings of the authors' diagnosis of motivation for innovative activity indicate that professional motives and those of personal self-actualization are not the ones that prevail with future agriculture specialists. Most students tend to give priority to external stimuli and motives of external selffulfillment, which may be testimony to low levels of motivation for innovative activity. The paper's conclusion brings forth the suggestion to foster this motivation through the concurrent use in class of both well-known and entrenched ways and forms of arranging the learning process and cutting-edge (innovative) learning technology in keeping with students' age characteristics. © 2017. revistaESPACIOS.com

Venture Capital Financing as a Mechanism for Impelling Innovation Activity

This paper aims to provide an insight into the foundations of the development of the institution of venture capital financing, as well as summarize and conceptualize the experience of more economically developed countries, where the more favorable conditions have been created for the conduct of venture capital business. The authors' summarization of theoretical, methodological, and empirical data has made it possible to formulate the major issues characteristic of the making of the venture capital sector in countries with a transitive economy (Russia, in particular), as well as propose a set of solutions aimed at optimizing the legal and institutional space in the venture capital sector with a view to boosting the innovation activity of businesses. The authors derive the following major inferences: Venture capital financing is a modern institution whose activity is aimed at accumulating and redistributing temporarily available investment resources that are sought after in the sphere of innovation entrepreneurship; Countries whose economy may currently be recognized as transitive are characterized by a set of uniform issues: underdeveloped infrastructure in the national innovation system; lack of sources of venture capital financing; businesses reporting decreased innovation activity levels due to lack of economic incentives; lack of personnel resources; The evidence from the experience of more economically developed countries suggests that to enable the proper making of the institution of venture capital financing in countries with a transitive economy a set of interrelated objectives may need to be undertaken, namely: Ensuring legal optimization; boosting investment attractiveness; altering the nature of partnership between the state, business, and science-And-education sector; reducing state participation in economic and research activity