Evolution of transdisciplinary regionology and regional specificity of knowledge management

The article covers the process of evolution of regionological knowledge in its relation to knowledge management. The authors suggest distinguishing three large periods of the development of regionology: the period of proto-regionological knowledge, the period of systematic regionological knowledge and the period of institutionalized regionological knowledge. Each of the stages has its own approaches to knowledge management, and these approaches, in turn, are defined by well marked regional specificity. The authors consider the cases of Russia, European countries, Japan, China and others and conceptualize experience of knowledge management in the frameworks of regionology schools, fields and disciplines such as Area Studies, Regional Studies, Regional Science, World Complex Regional Studies. The authors of the article analyze the identity crisis of the regionological knowledge system and the place of regionological knowledge among other research areas, and define different approaches to this process: positioning regionological knowledge as a subdiscipline, as an interdisciplinary field, and as an independent discipline. The article establishes two bases for defining regional specificity of knowledge management: at an earlier stage – in the period of proto-regionological knowledge – on the basis of the difference in civilization between the East and the West, at later stages – on the basis of the firmness of the system of knowledge management on the part of the state structures. The authors of the article point out to the important role of the transdisciplinarization of regionological knowledge because the integration of different schools, research fields and subdisciplines into a common transdisciplinary field will improve opportunities for efficient knowledge management

Scientific and educational vector of the social and human capital network component formation

The authors raise the problem of the scientific and educational vector of the formation of the network component of social and human capital in Russian regions. The development of the network component is becoming one of the policy directions for the formation of the region’s human capital through the creation of certain network centres. The emerging network connections of world-class scientific and educational centres in Russian regions are analyzed, which create conditions for transforming the existing human potential of the territory into the human and social capital of the country. Based on the definition of social capital by P. Bourdieu and M. Paldam as a group resource for obtaining social connections, the authors analyze the process of forming network connections between the educational, scientific environment of the region, its business community and government bodies at the sites of world-class scientific and educational centres operating in Russia, which is the basis for the formation of the social capital of the territory. The conclusions of the study are to determine the structure of ties in the scientific and educational vector of social and human capital through the functioning of network RECs, which become interregional coordination structures for the scientific and educational space of the country

Low-Temperature Deformation and Fracture of Cr-Mn-N Stainless Steel: Tensile and Impact Bending Tests

The paper presents the results of tensile and impact bending tests of 17%Cr-19%Mn-0.53%N high-nitrogen austenitic stainless steel in temperatures ranging from −196 to 20 °C. The steel microstructure and fracture surfaces were investigated using transmission and scanning electron microscopes, as well as X-ray diffraction analysis. The steel experiences a ductile-to-brittle transition (DBT); however, it possessed high tensile and impact strength characteristics, as well as the ductile fracture behavior at temperatures down to −114 °C. The correspondence between γ–ε microstructure and fracture surface morphologies was revealed after the tensile test at the temperature of −196 °C. In this case, the transgranular brittle and layered fracture surface was induced by ε-martensite formation. Under the impact bending test at −196 °C, the brittle intergranular fracture occurred at the elastic deflection stage without significant plastic strains, which preceded a failure due to the high internal stresses localized at the boundaries of the austenite grains. The stresses were induced by: (i) segregation of nitrogen atoms at the grain boundaries and in the near-boundary regions, (ii) quenching stresses, and (iii) reducing fcc lattice volume with the test temperature decrease and incorporation of nitrogen atoms into fcc austenite lattice. Anisotropy of residual stresses was revealed. This was manifested in the localization of elastic deformations of the fcc lattice and, consequently, the stress localization in -oriented grains; this is suggested to be the reason of brittle cleavage fracture