Speech Behaviour of Introvert and Extrovert Personality Types in the Parliamentary Discourse

The paper deals with the peculiarities of British politicians' speech behaviour in the frames of the parliamentary discourse. The research is based on the scripted monologic speeches and spontaneous dialogic speeches given by Prime Minister Teresa May and Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn, during the PMQs session in the British Parliament on September 14, 2016. The first stage of the research is aimed at determining the levels of extraversion or introversion and emotionality of the speakers through the analysis of the non-verbal component of their speech behaviour such as eye contact with the audience, gestures and facial expressions when delivering scripted speeches in different situations – direct (in front of the audience) and mediated (on air) socially oriented communication. The methods of observation and comparison let refer the communicants to different psychological types: J. Corbyn's behaviour betrays the extrovert type of personality, while that of T. May demonstrates the characteristics of the introvert type. The second stage focuses on the speakers' verbal communication patterns when delivering spontaneous speech with the purpose of finding correlations between the psychological type of the speaker (extrovert or introvert, stable or emotional) and the preferred type of argumentation and strategies in debate. The analyzed material indicates the tendency of an extraverted type to rely on quotations and statistical data as a means of rational argumentation, while an introverted type tends to rely on subjective arguments gained through personal experience. The strategies of an extravert tend to be flexible, while the strategies of an introvert are characterized as rigid

Mirjo Salvini & Ilse Wegner-Haas, Einführung in die Urartäische Sprache

Cet ouvrage est une description de la langue urartéenne, parlée du ixe au vie s. av. J.-C. dans le royaume d’Urartu, qui avait pour capitale la ville de Ṭušpa, situé en Anatolie orientale autour du lac de Van (l’Arménie actuelle avec ses régions environnantes). La famille des langues hurro-urartéennes est d’un grand intérêt puisqu’elle occupe une place à part parmi les langues écrites en caractères cunéiformes. Ce livre, réalisé par des grands spécialistes de la langue urartéenne, est la prem..

Cluster policy in agrarian sphere in implementation of concept of economic growth

The purpose of the article is to substantiate the necessity and compile recommendations for improvement of the process of development and conduct of cluster policy in agrarian sphere during realization of the concept of economic growth by the example of modern Russia. As methodological provision, the research uses the proprietary methodology of analysis of development of agrarian sphere of economy. As a result of the use of this methodology and analysis of development of agrarian sphere of modern Russian, the authors come to the conclusion that it has a lot of negative tendencies, which causes necessity for improvement of policy in this sphere. For this, the authors offer to use clustering. The authors develop the Pyramid of optimal economic growth and the Model of realization of the concept of economic growth on the basis of conduct of cluster policy in agrarian sphere.peer-reviewe

Political Trust of the Russian Youth Through the Prism of Communication Strategies Choice

The article examines the political trust of Russian youth in the context of their representatives’ choice of channels for obtaining political information. The study contributes to the research of theoretical problems of political trust formation under the spread of modern communication means. The impact of the spread of new media on political trust of Russian youth is considered. The article is based on the results of two empirical studies conducted in the fall of 2022: a mass online survey of Russian youth and an expert survey. The mass online survey was based on the online questionnaire method, while conducting an expert survey, the method of non-standardized interview was used to collect information, and the method of discourse analysis was used for processing. The results of the study revealed the differentiation of communication strategies in different socio-demographic and status groups of generations x and z. It is confirmed that the choice of new media as the main information sources about politics is in line with the trend of political trust decreasing. Russian youth are characterized by very low levels of trust in public opinion leaders; by this, it was possible to identify significant intra-generational splits. The communication strategies of the representatives of Russian youth also testify to the crisis of the two-step flow of communication model

Narrativization of human population genetics: Two cases in Iceland and Russia

Using the two cases of the Icelandic Health Sector Database and Russian initiatives in biobanking, the article criticizes the view of narratives and imaginaries as a sufficient and unproblematic means of shaping public understanding of genetics and justifying population-wide projects. Narrative representations of national biobanking engage particular imaginaries that are not bound by the universal normative framework of human rights, promote affective thinking, distract the public from recognizing and discussing tangible ethical and socioeconomic issues, and harm trust in science and technology. In the Icelandic case, the presentation of the project in association with national imaginaries concealed its market identity and could lead to the commodification of biodata. In the Russian case, framing in terms of "genetic sovereignty" and "civilizational code" offers pretexts for state securitization. Adherence to normative framework of human rights and public discussion of genetics in an argumentative and factual mode can counter these trends

The SNF1-type serine-threonine protein kinase SAPK4 regulates stress-responsive gene expression in rice

Diedhiou CJ, Popova OV, Dietz K-J, Golldack D. The SNF1-type serine-threonine protein kinase SAPK4 regulates stress-responsive gene expression in rice. BMC PLANT BIOLOGY. 2008;8(1):49.BACKGROUND: Plants respond to extracellularly perceived abiotic stresses such as low temperature, drought, and salinity by activation of complex intracellular signaling cascades that regulate acclimatory biochemical and physiological changes. Protein kinases are major signal transduction factors that have a central role in mediating acclimation to environmental changes in eukaryotic organisms. In this study, we characterized the function of the sucrose nonfermenting 1-related protein kinase2 (SnRK2) SAPK4 in the salt stress response of rice. RESULTS: Translational fusion of SAPK4 with the green fluorescent protein (GFP) showed subcellular localization in cytoplasm and nucleus. To examine the role of SAPK4 in salt tolerance we generated transgenic rice plants with over-expression of rice SAPK4 under control of the CaMV-35S promoter. Induced expression of SAPK4 resulted in improved germination, growth and development under salt stress both in seedlings and mature plants. In response to salt stress, the SAPK4-overexpressing rice accumulated less Na+ and Cl- and showed improved photosynthesis. SAPK4-regulated genes with functions in ion homeostasis and oxidative stress response were identified: the vacuolar H+-ATPase, the Na+/H+ antiporter NHX1, the Cl- channel OsCLC1 and a catalase. CONCLUSION: Our results show that SAPK4 regulates ion homeostasis and growth and development under salinity and suggest function of SAPK4 as a regulatory factor in plant salt stress acclimation. Identification of signaling elements involved in stress adaptation in plants presents a powerful approach to identify transcriptional activators of adaptive mechanisms to environmental changes that have the potential to improve tolerance in crop plants

Concessional lending as a perspective tool of development of agribusiness

The aim of the research is to find the solution to the problem of food security in non-food countries, i.e., countries in which conditions for agriculture are unfavorable. The authors offer the hypothesis that solution to this problem requires development of agribusiness, a perspective tool of which is concessional lending. In the process of the research, in order to verify this hypothesis, the authors use the methods of modeling of socio-economic systems, as well as systemic, problem, institutional, and SWOT-analysis. As a result of the research, the authors come to the conclusion that the most important problem of development of agribusiness in non-food countries is lack and low accessibility of financial resources, which is caused by high seasonality of business, its low profitability, and, correspondingly, its low investment attractiveness. Concessional lending allows solving this problem and increasing the accessibility of financial resources for agro-enterprises, which gives them a possibility for modernization of equipment and technology of production, reduction of product cost, and increase of profitability and competitiveness. The article views the peculiarities of crediting agricultural enterprises, determines the role of small enterprises of agribusiness, develops recommendations for provision of concessional lending for agro-enterprises, and describes the mechanism of development of agribusiness by means of concessional lending.peer-reviewe

Gender Diferences in Interactions with Avatars of Diverse Ethnic Appearances

Background. Gender diferences exist in almost every aspect of our lives. Individuals have an array of diferent social expectations with regard to behaviors, communication,appearance, attitudes, and social roles, but these expectations tend to be based on whether the individual is male or female. Currently, many social studies have been done with the help of virtual reality technologies. Tey have been efectively applied to the study of many social phenomena such as nonverbal communication, social skills training, social anxiety rehabilitation, etc. Recently considerable attention has been paid to issue of gender diferences during social interaction with the virtual partners, avatars. However, the question of gender diferences during interactions with avatars of diverse ethnic appearances has seldom been studied. Objective. Te goal of this study was to investigate the gender peculiarities of interaction with avatars of diferent ethnic appearances. We used the CAVE virtual reality system to study gender diferences in interpersonal distances which were maintained with avatars. Design. We designed four three-dimensional virtual scenes with avatars of four diferent ethnic appearances. Tey were avatars of Slavic, Asian, North Caucasian, and African appearance. All the avatars were male. Te participants (who all identifed as Russians) were immersed in virtual environments with the help of the CAVE virtual reality system. Teir task was to approach the avatar, present herself/himself in any way they wanted, and give instructions for the work. During the task the interpersonal distances between the participants and the avatars were measured. Afer leaving the CAVE, the participants were asked to fll out a questionnaire assessing the Presence efect. Results. Te results showed gender diferences in how much interpersonal distance was maintained: women preferred to keep shorter interpersonal distances with their virtual partners than men did. Moreover, the results showed the impact of ethnic appearance on interpersonal distances. Women approached the avatars of their own ethnic group more closely and kept further away from the avatars of other ethnic groups. Unlike the women, the men stayed the same distance away from the avatars of diferent ethnic groups. Both gender groups kept equally far away from the avatar of African appearance. Gender diferences were also revealed in the participants’ estimates of the Presence efect. Conclusion. We developed a comprehensive method for analyzing the gender differences in interaction with the avatars, including both subjective (the sense of Presence, semantic diferential technique) and objective (assessment of interpersonal distance) characteristics. Tis method allowed us to assess gender variables during the social interaction using both behavioral and psychological responses. Te same method can be applied successfully to the study of gender diferences regarding other social phenomena