Managing the risk of emergency situations caused by staff at thermal power plants

Optimization of power plant operation in start and stop modes is an important task aimed at increasing the reliability and efficiency of its operation. The purpose of development of the new organizational mechanism is reduction of losses connected with incorrect actions of personnel during launching and shutdown operations of Steam-Gas furnaces of thermal power stations. The work is done on the example of one of the power plants of a large generating company. Implementation has confirmed the high efficiency of innovation. Total cost of project implementation at one station is estimated at the rate of 1.4 million rubles and the economic effect of the pilot project implementation in two years was estimated at 5.6 million rubles. It is also noted that further research is required to perform economic calculations for clarification as to which one of the new methodological approaches should be developed in the future. Conclusion was made that, first, regulation and control of personnel actions at the workplace is actually the first example of the distribution of the well-known Kaizen system and its modifications to a new specific area – energy generation. Second, the presented development can be a technological platform for further increase of the level of automation of operation of steam-gas and steam-power plants in non-stationary modes, up to full digitalization of control operation of thermal power plants

Chronicles of nature calendar, a long-term and large-scale multitaxon database on phenology

We present an extensive, large-scale, long-term and multitaxon database on phenological and climatic variation, involving 506,186 observation dates acquired in 471 localities in Russian Federation, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Belarus and Kyrgyzstan. The data cover the period 1890-2018, with 96% of the data being from 1960 onwards. The database is rich in plants, birds and climatic events, but also includes insects, amphibians, reptiles and fungi. The database includes multiple events per species, such as the onset days of leaf unfolding and leaf fall for plants, and the days for first spring and last autumn occurrences for birds. The data were acquired using standardized methods by permanent staff of national parks and nature reserves (87% of the data) and members of a phenological observation network (13% of the data). The database is valuable for exploring how species respond in their phenology to climate change. Large-scale analyses of spatial variation in phenological response can help to better predict the consequences of species and community responses to climate change.Peer reviewe

Phenological shifts of abiotic events, producers and consumers across a continent

Ongoing climate change can shift organism phenology in ways that vary depending on species, habitats and climate factors studied. To probe for large-scale patterns in associated phenological change, we use 70,709 observations from six decades of systematic monitoring across the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Among 110 phenological events related to plants, birds, insects, amphibians and fungi, we find a mosaic of change, defying simple predictions of earlier springs, later autumns and stronger changes at higher latitudes and elevations. Site mean temperature emerged as a strong predictor of local phenology, but the magnitude and direction of change varied with trophic level and the relative timing of an event. Beyond temperature-associated variation, we uncover high variation among both sites and years, with some sites being characterized by disproportionately long seasons and others by short ones. Our findings emphasize concerns regarding ecosystem integrity and highlight the difficulty of predicting climate change outcomes. The authors use systematic monitoring across the former USSR to investigate phenological changes across taxa. The long-term mean temperature of a site emerged as a strong predictor of phenological change, with further imprints of trophic level, event timing, site, year and biotic interactions.Peer reviewe

Uncovering nudges in gamification and their application in organizational change

Under the threat of losing the market share, customers or even going bankrupt, companies nowadays are urged to adopt new technologies and implant innovations in order to stay up to date and make profits. Fast transition to the new routines and software, however, usually harms the core asset of or-ganizations – employees. The majority of humans does not love to leave the accustomed flow of life, including the workplace. Turbulence causes stress and more resistance in people, sometimes such circumstances can lead to serious problems with physical and mental health. Thus a lot of companies fail to introduce changes and upgrade the processes as they cannot persuade the employees to accept the new realities. The old-school stick and carrot policy does not do much good anymore, luckily, though, the research has advanced in the understanding of human motivation and behaviour, and the insights are easily applicable in the organizational context. In that way, the novel nudging concept drew the attention of the innovators. It stands for designing processes in a way that would lead to the desired behaviour in employees. Nudges are appreciated due to the fact that those who implement them do not always need to directly confront people whose behaviour needs to change. The concept utilizes humans’ psychology and thus, can be used behind the scene. For some, this may sound ma-nipulative, yet nudges are found to be efficient even when being fully transparent, hence there may not be any moral or legal dilemma about controlling people. The concept has already been applied in multiple business cases and still remains under investigations and improvement processes. While being efficient, nudging still has drawbacks: at some point, it can bore the participants of the process as it often takes a silent form or comes as written or verbal comments. It is hard, hence, to sustain employees’ interest in innovation or a change if it becomes a routine. At this point, the golden hour of gamification comes – by using game elements in non-gaming con-texts companies can engage their employees for longer periods and promote changes and innova-tions in a more pleasant and playful way. Some researchers name the approach to be a nudge as well. Gamification, indeed, has the core goal of changing the behaviour of people, whether it is corporate knowledge sharing, boosting the team spirit, helping employees with stress or else. I also believe that it is, in essence, the design of the process that yields right behaviour, yet there is a lot more to that. With this research, I aspired to uncover smaller nudges that are inherent in the design of gamified experiences and often overlooked by the professionals. My assumption is that recognizing the nudg-es, such as framing, reminders, the use of social norms, etc., top-management can develop more effi-cient and agile gamification solutions that would drive greater results. In order to demonstrate the presence of the (completely or partly) unintentionally architected paths in gamified processes, I re-viewed multiple articles and interviewed the experts that work with gamification internally and exter-nally to enhance the organizational change. The study unveiled that experts and scientists often over-look nudges in the gamified experiences they design. The findings raise an important discussion of efficiency and provides an avenue for better performing design of applied game elements

Managing the risk of emergency situations caused by staff at thermal power plants

Optimization of power plant operation in start and stop modes is an important task aimed at increasing the reliability and efficiency of its operation. The purpose of development of the new organizational mechanism is reduction of losses connected with incorrect actions of personnel during launching and shutdown operations of Steam-Gas furnaces of thermal power stations. The work is done on the example of one of the power plants of a large generating company. Implementation has confirmed the high efficiency of innovation. Total cost of project implementation at one station is estimated at the rate of 1.4 million rubles and the economic effect of the pilot project implementation in two years was estimated at 5.6 million rubles. It is also noted that further research is required to perform economic calculations for clarification as to which one of the new methodological approaches should be developed in the future. Conclusion was made that, first, regulation and control of personnel actions at the workplace is actually the first example of the distribution of the well-known Kaizen system and its modifications to a new specific area – energy generation. Second, the presented development can be a technological platform for further increase of the level of automation of operation of steam-gas and steam-power plants in non-stationary modes, up to full digitalization of control operation of thermal power plants

The Assessment of Innovation Development in the Arctic Regions of Russia Based on the Triple Helix Model

This article presents the methodology and tools for the econometric analysis and assessment of the innovation development of the Russian Arctic regions, under the Triple Helix concept. The econometric calculations based on this methodology allow the express assessment of innovation development of a region and the contribution of the science and education complex (SEdC), industries, and the government, to the integral index of innovation development of this region, using minimum key statistical indicators in the field of science and innovation. The calculation results obtained using the author’s methodology show the adequacy of the express rating, with respect to the rating data obtained using other methodologies. The main advantage of the proposed methodology is the elimination of the human factors arising from the weighing coefficients and the results of the expert assessments used in the other rating methodologies. The calculation results obtained using this methodology might be useful to the executive bodies of state authorities, business entities, and scientific and educational institutions, for an express assessment and for making various organizational and managerial decisions on innovation development in a region

UNIVERSITY INNOVATION INFRASTRUCTURE MODEL AS A KEY PART OF A TERRITORAL CLUST

Over the recent decades there have been increasing efforts by developing countries to reduce the economic gap between developed and developing countries. Asian and Northern European countries demonstrate good progress in these areas.Sweden,Denmark,Chinashow stable high economic indicators that have been achieved by targeted government programs. These programs were aimed at creating a new type of economy based on knowledge and new technologies. Given the success of these countries, a number of developing countries, whose economies are dependent on resources, today, are looking to repeat their way; those countries areRussia,Indonesia,BrazilandChile. The modernization of the economy and the formation of innovative economy are key objectives of the state policies of these countries. The research by leading economists and scientists led to the conclusion that the regional level of national economy plays a key role in formation of knowledgebase economy, which indicates the need to differentiate the innovation policy of the state depending on the economy parameters of each region. This paper presents a model of the first stage of the formation of the entrepreneurialuniversityUniversityinnovation infrastructure model, which is a key part of a territoral cluster. The article consists of five parts. The first part covers the analysis of the two main models of regional development: clustering theory and Triple Helix. This section describes a positive result, which is achieved by using these models simultaneously. The second part of the article shows the importance and the role of the entrepreneurial university in the formation of innovative clusters. It will be explained how and under what conditions this formation is achieved. The third part of this paper will present University innovation infrastructure model. The fourth part will examine the practical first steps to create a cluster "Vorob’evi Gori" on the basis of theMoscowStateUniversity. The fifth, final part contains the main conclusions of the article and the next steps in the investigation of this subject

Clinical and Prognostic Significance of Cell Sensitivity to Chemotherapy Detected in vitro on Treatment Response and Survival of Leukemia Patients

Multidrug resistance (MDR) is a major challenge in leukemia treatment. The objective of this study was to identity predictors of MDR to allow for rapid and economical assessment of the efficacy of planned antitumor therapy for leukemia patients. The study included 113 patients with acute and chronic leukemias. Prior to antitumor therapy, we measured the sensitivity of tumor cells of patients to the panel of chemotherapeutic drugs, together with MDR1 mRNA and P-glycoprotein (P-gp) expression as one of the mechanisms of MDR, and compared these data with the response to therapy. The scales for leukemia patients according to therapy response, drug sensitivity of tumor cells, MDR1 mRNA and P-gp levels, and the presence of unfavorable immunological and cytogenetic markers were introduced for subsequent correlation analysis. We show that the drug resistance of tumor cells of leukemia patients estimated in vitro at diagnosis correlates with a poor response to chemotherapy and is usually combined with aberrant and immature immunological markers, cytogenetic abnormalities, and a high expression of MDR1 mRNA and P-gp. All together, these factors indicate unfavorable prognosis and low survival of leukemia patients. Thus, the sensitivity of tumor cells to chemotherapeutic drugs measured in vitro at diagnosis may have prognostic value for individual types of leukemia

Applications of Local Floras for Floristic Subdivision and Monitoring Vascular Plant Diversity in the Russian Arctic

The local flora method has been used by Russian botanists for studying vast wilderness areas. The method strives to determine the total flora within a certain limited area and provides comparable data for spatial comparisons between different locations and temporal comparisons at the same location. Complete vascular plant diversity was sampled in 240 localities with an area between 100-300 km2 each throughout the Russian Arctic. These data were incorporated in a specially developed Integrated Botanical Information System (IBIS). This database provides a unique opportunity to study spatial gradients of different floristic variables. Pair-wise similarity of species composition and proportions of various phytogeographical groups in local floras were used in a floristic subdivision of the Russian Arctic. The floristic units derived by this method often resembled subprovinces of Yurtsev (1994), but there were also several areas of non-alignment. Application of local floras for monitoring of temporal changes has several constraints. However, nine local floras were re-visited 20-70 years after the initial survey. Increases in the number of Boreal and Hypoarctic species were recorded in the southern local floras. Standardized methods and the use of modern technical tools for accurate documentation could enable use of this approach at observatories across the Arctic.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author

The Profile of MicroRNA Expression in Bone Marrow in Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphomas

Non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas (NHLs) are a heterogeneous group of malignant lymphomas that can occur in both lymph nodes and extranodal sites. Bone marrow (BM) is the most common site of extranodal involvement in NHL. The objective of this study is to determine the unique profile of miRNA expression in BM affected by NHL, with the possibility of a differential diagnosis of NHL from reactive BM changes and acute leukemia (AL). A total of 180 cytological samples were obtained by sternal puncture and aspiration biopsy of BM from the posterior iliac spine. All the cases were patients before treatment initiation. The study groups were NHL cases (n = 59) and AL cases (acute lymphoblastic leukemia (n = 25) and acute myeloid leukemia (n = 49)); the control group consisted of patients with non-cancerous blood diseases (NCBDs) (n = 48). We demonstrated that expression levels of miRNA-124, miRNA-221, and miRNA-15a are statistically significantly downregulated, while the expression level of let-7a is statistically significantly upregulated more than 2-fold in BM in NHL compared to those in AL and NCBD. ROC analysis revealed that let-7a/miRNA-124 is a highly sensitive and specific biomarker for a differential diagnosis of BM changes in NHL from those in AL and NCBD. Therefore, we conclude that analysis of miRNA expression levels may be a promising tool for early diagnosis of NHL