Safe Maneuvering Near Offshore Installations: A New Algorithmic Tool

Maneuvers of human-operated and autonomous marine vessels in the safety zone of drilling rigs, wind farms and other installations present a risk of collision. This article proposes an algorithmic toolkit that ensures maneuver safety, taking into account the restrictions imposed by ship dynamics. The algorithms can be used for anomaly detection, decision making by a human operator or an unmanned vehicle guidance system. We also consider a response to failures in the vessel's control systems and emergency escape maneuvers. Data used by the algorithms come from the vessel's dynamic positioning control system and positional survey charts of the marine installations

Совершенствование системы внешнего муниципального финансового контроля в условиях реформирования публичной власти

The subject. The implementation of external municipal financial control cannot be called fully competent in Russia. Many practical problems are currently being addressed mainly through the transfer of powers to implement external financial control to a higher level. Amendment to Art. 131–133 of the Russian Federation's Constitution in terms of clarifying the powers of local self-government and incorporating it into public authority, predetermines subsequent amendments to the legislation on local self-government, which can be aimed, among other things, at improving the system of external municipal financial control. The aim of the article is to confirm or disprove the following hypothesis. The reform of public authority will lead to a change in the system of external municipal financial control. Therefore it is possible to propose ways to improve the activities of municipal auditing and accounting authorities on the basis of constitutional novels and the analysis of the existing problems of implementing external municipal financial control. The methodology. The authors apply general scientific methods of comparative, logical and statistical research. The study is based on the analysis of academic literature, statistical data about the practice of the auditing and accounting bodies of municipalities. Russian judicial practice is also analyzed. The main results, scope of application. The organization of a modern system of external municipal financial control shows that it actually works only at the level of urban districts and municipal regions, and that is not always effective. Municipal control and accounting bodies are not created in settlements and the authority to exercise external financial control is transferred either to the level of the municipal district or to the level of the region of the Russian Federation. Conclusion. The municipal auditing and accounting body should retain the authority to exercise control without transferring it to the level of the constituent entity of the Russian Federation. However, at the same time, its role should be strengthened by increasing its status (for example, fixing at the federal level the criteria for the number of employees of the control and accounting body, financial support guarantees).В статье обозначен ряд проблем деятельности муниципальных контрольно-счетных органов и обозначены пути их решения. Отмечается неэффективность внешнего муниципального финансового контроля и бесперспективность попыток решать проблемы в этой сфере только за счет передачи полномочий по его осуществлению на вышестоящий уровень. Отмечается, что поправки к ст. 131–133 Конституции РФ в части уточнения полномочий местного самоуправления и включения его в состав органов публичной власти могут быть использованы для совершенствования системы внешнего муниципального финансового контроля. Делается вывод о том, что муниципальный контрольно-счетный орган должен сохранить за собой полномочия по осуществлению контроля без передачи их на уровень субъекта Российской Федерации. Однако в то же время роль такого органа должна быть усилена за счет повышения его статуса (закрепления на федеральном уровне критериев численности работников контрольно-счетного органа, гарантий финансовой поддержки)

Vitamin D binding protein polymorphysm in patients with acute coronary syndrome in kaliningrad region

BACKGROUND: Vitamin D binding protein is a main vitamin D carrier in serum. It also has an impact on macrophagial function. Role of vitamin D and macrophages in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis is scientifically proven but there is lack of data on vitamin D binding protein in this regard. AIMS: To evaluate the vitamin D binding protein polymorphism in patients with acute coronary syndrome without diabetes mellitus, autoimmune diseases and malignant tumors. Determine correlation, if there is, between vitamin D binding protein allele and features of acute coronary syndrome among this patient group. MATERIALS AND METHODS: It is a cross-sectional observational study. Study subjects are patients with acute coronary syndrome. Exclusion criteria are the presence of diabetes mellitus, autoimmune diseases and malignant tumors. In all participants were evaluated: predisposing factors for heart diseases, CBC, biochemical blood test, troponin, coronarography, echocardiography. The study lasted for 5 months from November 2017 until March 2018. Primary end point – assessment of vitamin D binding protein polymorphysm in this group of patients with acute coronary syndrome by means of vitamin D binding protein gene sequencing. 50 patients were enrolled into this study who were urgently admitted to hospital and diagnosed with acute coronary syndrome. Among them – 36 males and 14 females. Mean age was 60 (55;66) years. All participants were sequenced for single nucleotide polymorphysm in VDBP p.T436K (rs4588) and P.432E (rs7041). RESULTS: Gene polymorphysms of interest were found in 43 patients among 50 enrolled. Haplotype Gc1s/2 (rs7041G-rs4588A) was found in 7 (14%) patients, Gc2 (rs7041T-rs4588A) — in 9 (18%) patients, Gc1s (rs7041G-rs4588C) – in 20 (40%) patients, Gc1f (rs7041T-rs4588C) in 14 (28%). Coronarography showed that coronary artery occlusions obstructing more than 50% of vessel lumen was found in 16 patients; obstruction greater than 90% was seen in 8 patients; total occlusion – in 4 patients. CONCLUSIONS: In patient group with acute coronary syndrome prevalence of vitamin D binding protein gene polymorphysm was high – in 86% of participants. The features of Gc2 haplotype were higher frequency of recurrent myocardial infarction and total coronary artery occlusion, as well as tendency to decreased serum vitamin D3 (25(OH)D) levels

Algorithmic paranoia and the convivial alternative

In a time of big data, thinking about how we are seen and how that affects our lives means changing our idea about who does the seeing. Data produced by machines is most often 'seen' by other machines; the eye is in question is algorithmic. Algorithmic seeing does not produce a computational panopticon but a mechanism of prediction. The authority of its predictions rests on a slippage of the scientific method in to the world of data. Data science inherits some of the problems of science, especially the disembodied 'view from above', and adds new ones of its own. As its core methods like machine learning are based on seeing correlations not understanding causation, it reproduces the prejudices of its input. Rising in to the apparatuses of governance, it reinforces the problematic sides of 'seeing like a state' and links to the recursive production of paranoia. It forces us to ask the question 'what counts as rational seeing?'. Answering this from a position of feminist empiricism reveals different possibilities latent in seeing with machines. Grounded in the idea of conviviality, machine learning may reveal forgotten non-market patterns and enable free and critical learning. It is proposed that a programme to challenge the production of irrational preemption is also a search for the possibility of algorithmic conviviality

Machine Learning Education for Artists, Musicians, and Other Creative Practitioners

This article aims to lay a foundation for the research and practice of machine learning education for creative practitioners. It begins by arguing that it is important to teach machine learning to creative practitioners and to conduct research about this teaching, drawing on related work in creative machine learning, creative computing education, and machine learning education. It then draws on research about design processes in engineering and creative practice to motivate a set of learning objectives for students who wish to design new creative artifacts with machine learning. The article then draws on education research and knowledge of creative computing practices to propose a set of teaching strategies that can be used to support creative computing students in achieving these objectives. Explanations of these strategies are accompanied by concrete descriptions of how they have been employed to develop new lectures and activities, and to design new experiential learning and scaffolding technologies, for teaching some of the first courses in the world focused on teaching machine learning to creative practitioners. The article subsequently draws on data collected from these courses—an online course as well as undergraduate and masters-level courses taught at a university—to begin to understand how this curriculum supported student learning, to understand learners’ challenges and mistakes, and to inform future teaching and research

Role and structure of institutitonal factors of creating favourable investment climate in the developing economies and in the economies in transition

В работе обосновывается значение роли и структуры институциональных факторов в формировании благоприятного инвестиционного климата в странах с развивающейся экономикой и странах с переходной экономикой. Представлена методика сравнительного анализа роли и структуры этих факторов. Обоснован вывод, что по сравнению со странами с развивающейся экономикой в странах с переходной экономикой институты играют большую роль. Наиболее значимыми факторами для стран с развивающейся экономикой являются регистрация предприятий, сила аудита и стандартов отчетности, нерегулярные платежи и взятки, кредитование, международная торговля, разрешение неплатежеспособности, эффективность законодательства по урегулированию споров.In the article the significance of role and structure of institutional factors in creating favourable investment climate in the developing economies and in the economies in transition is grounded. The methodology of comparative analysis of role and structure of these factors is presented. There is grounded a conclusion that in the economies in transition in comparison with developing economies institutions are of greater importance. The factors of starting a business, strength of auditing and reporting standards, irregular payments and bribes, getting credit, trading across borders, resolving insolvency, efficiency of legal framework of settling disputes are of the highest significance for the developing economies