Methodological Approach to Measure the Quality of Life of the Region’s Population

The article is devoted to the urgent problem of the regional development, i.e. to the development of methodological tools to evaluate the quality of life of the population in the region. The article considers the concept of “quality of life”, and the terms related thereto; and substantiate the author’s position with respect to the concept. The existing domestic and foreign approaches to evaluate the quality of life of the population were analyzed, and the application of the comprehensive approach was reasoned within this study. The criteria for evaluation of the quality of life of the population were distinguished. The authors proposed the methodological approach that considers not only objective indicators of the quality of life presented in the statistical reports of the Russian Federal State Statistics Service, but also employs subjective evaluations of the local population enabling more appropriate evaluation of the quality of life in the region. The methodological tools of the research include mathematical methods of statistical data processing and online survey of the population about the level of satisfaction with various aspects of their life. The methodological tools were tested using the example of the Sverdlovsk Region that is characterized both by the steady improvement of statistical indicators of the quality of life and by low satisfaction of population with certain aspects of the quality of life, which generally decreases the integrated indicator of the quality of life despite positive dynamics of social and economic development of the region and vigorous social policy of the regional authorities. The proposed methodology was used in the evaluation of the quality of life of the Sverdlovsk Region population as part of the development of the Concept of comprehensive regional program “New quality of life of Ural residents” (Decree of the Governor of the Sverdlovsk Region No. 45-UG dated January 29, 2014 “On the Concept of the life quality improvement for the Sverdlovsk Region population before 2030 year — “New quality of life of Ural residents”).The article has been prepared with the support of the grant of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR) No. 15-06-09169 “Development of methodical measurement tools and evaluation of the impact of social, economic, medical and demographic factors on mortality rates of working-age population”

Spin-transfer mechanism of ferromagnetism in polymerized fullerenes: AbinitioAb initio calculations

A mechanism of the high temperature ferromagnetism in polymerized fullerenes is suggested. It is assumed that some of the C$_{60}$ molecules in the crystal become magnetically active due to spin and charge transfer from the paramagnetic impurities (atoms or groups), such as hydrogen, fluorine, hydroxyl group OH, amino group NH$_2$, or methyl group CH$_3$, dispersed in the fullerene matrix. The exchange interaction between the spins localized on the magnetically active fullerenes is evaluated using \textit{ab initio} calculations. The nearest neighbour and next nearest neighbour exchange interaction is found to be in the range $0.1\div 0.3$ eV, that is, high enough to account for the room temperature ferromagnetism.Comment: typos corrected, 8 pages, 3 figures, LaTe

ЕКОНОМІЧНА ЕФЕКТИВНІСТЬ ХІМІЧНОЇ МЕЛІОРАЦІЇ ФОСФОГІПСОМ НА ІРИГАЦІЙНО СОЛОНЦЮВАТИХ ЧОРНОЗЕМАХ

Irrigation is a major method for the intensification of agriculturalproduction. Irrigation loses its influence in conditions of soil salinityirrigation soils, where the average yield is reduced by 20-40%.Chemical melioration leads increases of crop yields with parallelimprovement of physicochemical properties and soil fertility, whichmakes it possible to obtain high yields with conditions of irrigationsalinization for the production of necessary products for thepopulation, effective economic development of the country andreproduction of the main resource potential: soils. In our experiments, when the phosphogypsum was introduced as a chemical reclamation element, the yield of crops increased with increasing of the norm introduction.Irrigation, as well as without him, received the greatest revenues with introduction of phosphogypsum in autumn under basic tillage at the norm of 6 t/ha – 1539 grn. on 1 ha at reintroduction ofphosphogypsum in the first year of the aftereffect. Irrigation increases the intensification of farming, but, as our studies have shown, not on salinizated soils. With Irrigation the crop productivity of spring barley increased by 5.9 centners per ha, corn for grain – by 15.4 centners per ha compared to unirrigated control. The introduction of phosphogypsum from irrigation increased the crop productivity of winter wheat to 47.8-52.0 centners per ha (increase of 4-7% compared to control). The crop productivity of spring barley under irrigated conditions during chemical melioration by phosphogypsum increased from 32.9 centners per ha at the control to 36.9 centners per ha when the phosphogypsum was introduced in autumn under the basic soil tillage at a norm of 6 t/ha (increase by 10.8%). Whereas in unirrigated variants winter wheat crop productivity values with chemical melioration variably differ from each other (observation in 2012 and 2013), with irrigation these indexes are somewhat smoothed by better dissolving of remanufactured remnants and assimilation of nutrient elements by plants.Most economic efficiency of using phosphogypsum observed withnorm of 3 t/ha under cultivation in the spring while without irrigation the best results were with introduction the phosphogypsum in autumn under the basic tillage of soil at the norm of 6 t/ha.Орошение является основным мероприятием интенсификациисельскохозяйственного производства. Орошение теряет свое влияние в условиях ирригационного осолонцевания почв, где в среднем урожайности снижаются на 20-40%. Химическая мелиорация приводит к повышению урожайности сельскохозяйственных культур с параллельным улучшением физико-химических свойств и плодородия почв.В наших опытах при внесении фосфогипса как химического мелиоранта урожайность сельскохозяйственных культур увеличивалась при увеличении нормы внесения. При орошении и без него наибольшую выручку получили при внесении фосфогипса осенью под основное возделывание почвы нормой 6 т/га – 1539 грн. на 1 га при повторном внесении фосфогипса на первый год последействия.Наибольшая экономическая эффективность использования фосфогипса наблюдается при норме 3 т/га под культивацию весной при орошении, тогда как без орошения лучшие результаты были при внесении фосфогипса осенью под основное возделывание почвы нормой 6 т/а.Приріс урожайності сільськогосподарських культур під впливомхімічної меліорації фосфогіпсом різними розрахунковими дозамипри зрошенні та без нього. Економічна ефективність внесення фосфогіпсу

Improved genome editing in human cell lines using the CRISPR method

The Cas9/CRISPR system has become a popular choice for genome editing. In this system, binding of a single guide (sg) RNA to a cognate genomic sequence enables the Cas9 nuclease to induce a double-strand break at that locus. This break is next repaired by an error-prone mechanism, leading to mutation and gene disruption. In this study we describe a range of refinements of the method, including stable cell lines expressing Cas9, and a PCR based protocol for the generation of the sgRNA. We also describe a simple methodology that allows both elimination of Cas9 from cells after gene disruption and re-introduction of the disrupted gene. This advance enables easy assessment of the off target effects associated with gene disruption, as well as phenotype-based structure-function analysis. In our study, we used the Fan1 DNA repair gene as control in these experiments. Cas9/CRISPR-mediated Fan1 disruption occurred at frequencies of around 29%, and resulted in the anticipated spectrum of genotoxin hypersensitivity, which was rescued by re-introduction of Fan1

A Latent Class Analysis of University Lecturers’ Switch to Online Teaching during the First COVID-19 Lockdown: The Role of Educational Technology, Self-Efficacy, and Institutional Support

The switch to emergency remote teaching (ERT) due to the first COVID-19 lockdown demanded a lot from university lecturers yet did not pose the same challenge to all of them. This study sought to explain differences among lecturers (n = 796) from universities in France, Germany, Switzerland, and the UK in their use of educational technology for teaching, institutional support, and personal factors. Guided by the Social Cognitive Theory (SCT), lecturers’ behavior (educational technology use), environment (institutional support), and personal factors (ERT self-efficacy, continuance intentions, and demographics) were examined. Latent class analysis was employed to identify different types of lecturers in view of educational technology use, while multinomial regression and Wald chi-square test were used to distinguish classes. The largest latent class were Presenters (45.6%), who focused on content delivery, followed by Strivers (22.1%), who strived for social interaction, Routineers (19.6%), who were ready for online teaching, and Evaders (12.7%), who evaded using technology for educational purposes. Both personal factors and perceived institutional support explained class membership significantly. Accordingly, Evaders were older, less experienced, and rarely perceived institutional support as useful. Routineers, the Evaders’ counterparts, felt most self-efficient in ERT and held the highest continuance intentions for educational technology use. This research suggests that universities engage lecturers in evidence-based professional development that seeks shared visions of digital transformation, networks and communities, and design-based researc

Observation of Magnetic Edge State and Dangling Bond State on Nanographene in Activated Carbon Fibers

The electronic structure of nanographene in pristine and fluorinated activated carbon fibers (ACFs) have been investigated with near-edge x-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) and compared with magnetic properties we reported on previously. In pristine ACFs in which magnetic properties are governed by non-bonding edge states of the \pi-electron, a pre-peak assigned to the edge state was observed below the conduction electron {\pi}* peak close to the Fermi level in NEXAFS. Via the fluorination of the ACFs, an extra peak, which was assigned to the \sigma-dangling bond state, was observed between the pre-peak of the edge state and the {\pi}* peak in the NEXAFS profile. The intensities of the extra peak correlate closely with the spin concentration created upon fluorination. The combination of the NEXAFS and magnetic measurement results confirms the coexistence of the magnetic edge states of \pi-electrons and dangling bond states of \sigma-electrons on fluorinated nanographene sheets.Comment: 4 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Detecting bivariate outliers on the basis of normalizing transformations for non-Gaussian data

The statistical technique for detecting outliers in bivariate non-Gaussian data on the basis of normalizing transformations, prediction ellipse and a test statistic (TS) for the Mahalanobis squared distance (MSD), which has an approximate F distribution, is proposed. Application of the technique is considered for detecting outliers in two bivariate non-Gaussian data sets: the first, actual effort (hours) and size (adjusted function points) from 145 maintenance and development projects, the second, effort (hours) and mass (tonnes) of designed the section of the ship from 188 designs of sections

Proton-induced magnetic order in carbon: SQUID measurements

In this work we have studied systematically the changes in the magnetic behavior of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) samples after proton irradiation in the MeV energy range. Superconducting quantum interferometer device (SQUID) results obtained from samples with thousands of localized spots of micrometer size as well on samples irradiated with a broad beam confirm previously reported results. Both, the para- and ferromagnetic contributions depend strongly on the irradiation details. The results indicate that the magnetic moment at saturation of spots of micrometer size is of the order of $10^{-10}$ emu.Comment: Invited contribution at ICACS2006 to be published in Nucl. Instr. and Meth. B. 8 pages and 6 figure

BVR photometry of the resolved dwarf galaxy Ho IX

We present BVR CCD photometry down to limiting magnitude B=23.5 mag for 232 starlike objects and 11 diffuse objects in a 5.4' x 5.4' field of Ho IX. The galaxy is a gas-rich irregular dwarf galaxy possibly very close to M 81, which makes it especially interesting in the context of the evolution of satellite galaxies and the accretion of dwarf galaxies. Investigations of Ho IX were hampered by relatively large contradictions in the magnitude scale between earlier studies. With our new photometry we resolved these discrepancies. The color magnitude diagram (CMD) of Ho IX is fairly typical of a star-forming dwarf irregular, consistent with earlier results. Distance estimates from our new CMD are consistent with Ho IX being very close to M 81 and therefore being a definite member of the M 81 group, apparently in very close physical proximity to M 81.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures, uses aa.cls, A&A in pres

Fingerprints of Spin-Orbital Physics in Crystalline O2_2

The alkali hyperoxide KO$_2$ is a molecular analog of strongly-correlated systems, comprising of orbitally degenerate magnetic O$_2^-$ ions. Using first-principles electronic structure calculations, we set up an effective spin-orbital model for the low-energy \textit{molecular} orbitals and argue that many anomalous properties of KO$_2$ replicate the status of its orbital system in various temperature regimes.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, 1 tabl