Dysfunction of Modern Russian Institutes of State Awards in the Sphere of Education and Science

The purpose of the study is to analyze the main dysfunctions of the Russian premium institutes in the field of education and science, and to find out its leveling instruments, by examining the experience of foreign countries; to identify the basic requirements for the novitiate for state awards to employees of education and science in modern Russia in comparison with foreign countries. Methods. Neo institutional approach is used by the author. Methods involve comparative analysis, cross-national analysis, and classification. The original solution of tasks associated with the use of a single system-approach to the sociological study of state awards in the sphere of education and science, is extrapolated from institutional economics. Results. The basic approaches to the determination of the nature and functions of awards institutions in the field of education and science are considered; its relationship with other social, economic and political trends of contemporary politics in Russia is noted. The basic conditions of non-material motivation of workers of scientifically-educational area in modern Russia in comparison with other countries, including the post-Soviet territory states are defined. Both officially established rules and other requirements to candidates on reception of the state honourable distinctions, observed with the Soviet period are considered. The study identifies the main factors that influence the perception of the role of changes in modern society awards, offers solutions to the identified problems. Scientific novelty. The critical analysis of working rules of the Russian legislation regulating an order (procedures) of rewarding has allowed to reveal major disadvantages of the Russian institute of the state awards: opacity of estimated judgements considering the work of the applicant for the award; absence of accurate hierarchy of the state awards and quantity indicators at measurement of merits and results of activity; value of awards loss in the opinion of a society and separate citizens, etc. Ways of the solution of the revealed problems are offered. In particular, the author points out that it is necessary to create an incentive system intended not only for remote prospect (for example, upon reaching a pension age), but also for the current labour period; material remuneration should be a sufficient impulse for professionals and based on a recognition of achievements, first of all, by colleagues (of the same profession), not unauthorized people. It is necessary to work out quantity indicators for an estimation of activity of educators and academics. Introduction of the structured requirements to this activity is to make objective process of representation to the state awards and will generate professional work standards. Moreover, it is necessary to lower qualifications on presence of the certain experience and to remove some other restrictions for the state recognition. Practical significance. According to the author’s analysis, the reduction of dysfunctions of the Russian premium institutes will allow to return retention feature in the sphere of education and sciences of the most valuable personnel; to involve «a fresh creative power» in the given field of work; to create reference points of professional growth for working teachers and scientists; to generate the potential workers concepts of high social value and the importance of professional work in an educational sphere and science Цели статьи – анализ основных дисфункций наградных институтов России в сфере образования и науки и поиск инструментов их нивелирования, в том числе на основе опыта зарубежных стран. Методика и методы. Автор использовал адаптированный из экономики неоинституциональный подход к решению рассматриваемой проблемы, методы сравнительного и кросс-национального анализа и классификации. Результаты. Представлены итоги социологического изучения системы государственных наград в сфере образования и науки. Определены основные условия нематериального поощрения работников научно-образовательной области в современной России в сравнении с другими странами, в том числе с государствами постсоветского пространства. Рассмотрены как официально установленные правила, так и иные требования к кандидатам на получение государственных знаков отличия, соблюдающиеся с советского периода. Перечислены функции наградных институтов и основные факторы, влияющие на восприятие наград в современном обществе. Научная новизна. Критический анализ действующих норм отечественного законодательства, регулирующих порядок (процедуры) награждения позволил выявить основные недостатки отечественного института государственных наград: размытость оценочных суждений при рассмотрении деяний претендента на награду, отсутствие четкой иерархии государственных наград и количественных показателей при измерении заслуг и результатов деятельности, утрату ценности наград в глазах общества и отдельных граждан и др. Предложены пути решения выявленных проблем. В частности, автор считает, что необходимо создание системы стимулов, рассчитанных не только на отдаленную перспективу (например, по достижении пенсионного возраста), но и на текущий трудовой период; причем вознаграждения должны быть достаточным импульсом для профессионалов и основываться на признании достижений в первую очередь коллегами (внутри самой профессии), а не посторонними. Нужна разработка количественных показателей для оценки деятельности работников образования и науки. Введение структурированных требований к деятельности сделает объективным процесс представления к государственным наградам и сформирует эталоны профессиональной деятельности. Следует снизить цензы по наличию определенного стажа и снять некоторые другие ограничения для государственных поощрений. Практическая значимость. Устранение дисфункций российских наградных институтов позволит вернуть им функцию удержания в сфере образования и науки наиболее ценных кадров, привлечь в данную область деятельности свежие творческие силы, создать ориентиры профессионального роста для работающих педагогов и ученых, сформировать в сознании потенциальных работников представления о высокой социальной ценности и значимости профессиональной деятельности в сфере образования и науки

Migration processes and socio-economic development of the regions

Migration processes management is an important public administration element. Migration affects many aspects of society — economics, public safety, and culture. Without a competent migration policy, a conflict between residents and migrants is inevitable in society. The problem of the relationship between migration flows and the level of socio-economic development of territories is considered herein. The data from the RIA Rating Agency and the Federal State Statistics Service of Russia are used in this study. The main research method is the correlation-regression analysis. As part of the study, the hypothesis that migration flows tend to the regions that are strong in terms of socioeconomic status has not been confirmed

Loneliness and health risk behaviours among Russian and U.S. adolescents: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: For some adolescents feeling lonely can be a protracted and painful experience. It has been suggested that engaging in health risk behaviours such as substance use and sexual behaviour may be a way of coping with the distress arising from loneliness during adolescence. However, the association between loneliness and health risk behaviour has been little studied to date. To address this research gap, the current study examined this relation among Russian and U.S. adolescents. METHODS: Data were used from the Social and Health Assessment (SAHA), a school-based survey conducted in 2003. A total of 1995 Russian and 2050 U.S. students aged 13–15 years old were included in the analysis. Logistic regression was used to examine the association between loneliness and substance use, sexual risk behaviour, and violence. RESULTS: After adjusting for demographic characteristics and depressive symptoms, loneliness was associated with a significantly increased risk of adolescent substance use in both Russia and the United States. Lonely Russian girls were significantly more likely to have used marijuana (odds ratio [OR]: 2.28; confidence interval [CI]: 1.17–4.45), while lonely Russian boys had higher odds for past 30-day smoking (OR, 1.87; CI, 1.08–3.24). In the U.S. loneliness was associated with the lifetime use of illicit drugs (excepting marijuana) among boys (OR, 3.09; CI, 1.41–6.77) and with lifetime marijuana use (OR, 1.79; CI, 1.26–2.55), past 30-day alcohol consumption (OR, 1.80; CI, 1.18–2.75) and past 30-day binge drinking (OR, 2.40; CI, 1.56–3.70) among girls. The only relation between loneliness and sexual risk behaviour was among Russian girls, where loneliness was associated with significantly higher odds for ever having been pregnant (OR, 1.69; CI: 1.12–2.54). Loneliness was not associated with violent behaviour among boys or girls in either country. CONCLUSION: Loneliness is associated with adolescent health risk behaviour among boys and girls in both Russia and the United States. Further research is now needed in both settings using quantitative and qualitative methods to better understand the association between loneliness and health risk behaviours so that effective interventions can be designed and implemented to mitigate loneliness and its effects on adolescent well-being

Relevance Grounding for Planning in Relational Domains

Abstract. Probabilistic relational models are an efficient way to learn and represent the dynamics in realistic environments consisting of many objects. Autonomous intelligent agents that ground this representation for all objects need to plan in exponentially large state spaces and large sets of stochastic actions. A key insight for computational efficiency is that successful planning typically involves only a small subset of relevant objects. In this paper, we introduce a probabilistic model to represent planning with subsets of objects and provide a definition of object relevance. Our definition is sufficient to prove consistency between repeated planning in partially grounded models restricted to relevant objects and planning in the fully grounded model. We propose an algorithm that exploits object relevance to plan efficiently in complex domains. Empirical results in a simulated 3D blocksworld with an articulated manipulator and realistic physics prove the effectiveness of our approach.

Digitalizating rural areas: A traditional context

Digitalizing the existing territories is widely declared and procreated in the modern world. The process has become widespread in developed countries and is gaining momentum in developing countries; also attracting a lot of studies in economics, technology, and political science. We argue the necessity of philosophical attitude to cope with the essentials of digitalization. Mostly, the use of philosophy in the matter comes with aspects usually ignored in quantitative methodologies. Actual qualitative reference of unfolding digital nets for rural territories, still representing numerous semantics of a traditional life-world, helps bringing to the limelight opportunities overlooked in intensive indicators and their capacity to describe the actual social and cultural process involved in territorial digitalization. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd

Content of mediators of innate immunity in the tears of patients with vascular and neurodegenerative manifestations of diabetic retinopathy

According to the results of recent studies, diabetic retinopathy can be considered not only as a vascular disease, but also as a neurodegenerative process. Study of the composition of the tear fluid is used to assess the state of local immunity in the development of eye diseases. However, studies examining the effect of tear composition in diabetic retinopathy are few. The aim of the study is to determine the levels of IL-1β, IL-10, TGF-β3, MMP-7, TIMP-2, protein S100b, BDNF and NGF in the tear fluid ofpatients with vascular and neurodegenerative manifestations of diabetic retinopathy. The study included 80 patients diagnosed with type 2 diabetes which were divided into 2 groups: the 1st group included 40 patients who had no clinical signs of diabetic retinopathy on the fundus; the 2nd group included 40 patients with initial signs of non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy. All those included in the study were examined on an optical coherent tomograph RTVue-100 (USA); the volume of focal losses of retinal ganglion cells (FLV) was determined. An increase in FLV above the normative base of the device was regarded as an OCT-sign of retinal neurodegeneration. According to the results of OCT, the participants of the first and second groups were additionally divided into 4 subgroups: 1A — patients without vascular changes in the fundus and without OCT signs of retinal neurodegeneration (n = 12); 1B — patients without vascular changes in the fundus and with the presence of OCT signs of retinal neurodegeneration (n = 28); 2A — patients with initial non-proliferative DR and without OCT signs of retinal neurodegeneration (n = 10); and 2B — patients with initial non-proliferative DR and with OCT signs of retinal neurodegeneration (n = 30). The levels of IL-1β, IL-10, TGF-β3, MMP-7, TIMP-2, protein S100 b, BDNF, and NGF in tear fluid were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Levels of IL-1β and IL-10 in tear fluid in all subgroups were comparable to controls throughout the study. TGF-β3 content in the tear fluid of patients in the group with initial signs of non-proliferative DR (group 2) was significantly (p = 0.001) lower compared with control and group 2. However, there was no significant difference (p > 0.05) between subgroups A and B within groups. The concentration of MMP-7 in the tear fluid in all subgroups was significantly lower than in the control (p < 0.05). However, in the subgroups with OCT signs of retinal neurodegeneration (1B and 2B), the deficiency of this metalloproteinase was more pronounced (p = 0.0001). The levels of the neuropeptides under study NGF, BDNF and S100 B in tear fluid did not differ from controls in all subgroups

Brain potentials before and during memory scanning

Brain potentials were recorded from 10 normal subjects engaged in a 3-item auditory verbal short-term memory task. A fixed interval (3 s) between the last memory item and the probe was compared to a random interval (1.8-4.2 s with a mean of 3 s). Subjects indicated by button press whether the probe was or was not a member of the memory-set. The same 3-item task was also presented as a counting task and required a button press to the "fourth stimulus' (the probe). The amplitudes of several slow potential shifts preceding and following the probe, and the amplitudes and latencies of the accompanying short duration components (N100, P200) were measured. When the probe appeared at a fixed interval, the amplitude of a slow negative potential in the 300 ms period preceding the probe was slightly larger in the memory than in the counting task. When the probe appeared at a random interval in the memory task, the slow negative shift preceding the probe was absent. Another slow negative shift that peaked at approximately 376 ms after the probe was present in the memory tasks but was absent in the counting task. The amplitude of a late positive shift that peaked at approximately 700 ms after the probe was not different within the memory tasks, or between the memory and counting tasks. N100 amplitude but not P200 amplitude was larger in the memory task when the probe occurred at a fixed than at a random interval. These results suggest that the amplitude of a slow negative shift preceding the probe was related primarily to a temporal expectancy for the appearance of the probe and to a lesser extent to memory processes. In contrast, a slow negative shift that followed the probe occurred only during the memory tasks

Environmental turn in running the rural territories: New social technologies of administration

Global warm-up makes the political agenda on highest levels. However, the science should make itself publicly heard, and not in the part of fundamental studies of nature only, but in the part of social science and social research of administrative tools as well. We offer three circles of quest that attract numerous scholars in the science of management and administration touching the context of complementing new ecological imperatives in running the rural territories: (1) the relevance of new environmental mentality to practical principles of existing rural administrations, (2) the communication challenges, opportunities, and risks in introducing new qualitative criteria into existing social technologies, which dominate modern rural administration patterns, (3) the importance of alternative in technological development of modern rural territories with a high agrarian overload, including the managing of alternative energy introduction, and trial of unprecedented technological schemes. © The Authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2020

Explaining semantic short-term memory deficits:evidence for the critical role of semantic control

Patients with apparently selective short-term memory (STM) deficits for semantic information have played an important role in developing multi-store theories of STM and challenge the idea that verbal STM is supported by maintaining activation in the language system. We propose that semantic STM deficits are not as selective as previously thought and can occur as a result of mild disruption to semantic control processes, i.e., mechanisms that bias semantic processing towards task-relevant aspects of knowledge and away from irrelevant information. We tested three semantic STM patients with tasks that tapped four aspects of semantic control: (i) resolving ambiguity between word meanings, (ii) sensitivity to cues, (iii) ignoring irrelevant information and (iv) detecting weak semantic associations. All were impaired in conditions requiring more semantic control, irrespective of the STM demands of the task, suggesting a mild, but task-general, deficit in regulating semantic knowledge. This mild deficit has a disproportionate effect on STM tasks because they have high intrinsic control demands: in STM tasks, control is required to keep information active when it is no longer available in the environment and to manage competition between items held in memory simultaneously. By re-interpreting the core deficit in semantic STM patients in this way, we are able to explain their apparently selective impairment without the need for a specialised STM store. Instead, we argue that semantic STM patients occupy the mildest end of spectrum of semantic control disorders