Upgrading Russian enterprises from the value chain perspective: the case study of tube & pipe, and furniture sectors

The paper is the first analysis of the competitiveness of Russian enterprises from the perspective of value chains, with a focus on the example of tube & pipe and furniture producers. In both industries, Russian firms enjoy an advantage on the raw material side. Nevertheless, the overall competitiveness level of Russian producers remains modest. Domestic industries primarily owe decreased competitiveness to the inadequate operation of the final links in the value chain: from end-product production to the end-user. In addition, the competitiveness of domestic producers is limited to the ability of key players in the chain to redistribute additional gains in their own favor. Study shows that any non-selective methods of supporting enterprises (such as tax reductions) exert extremely limited influence on the status of players in those chains where one of the links is characterized by serious entry barriers and related opportunities of rent redistribution in favor of a particular player. Paper suggests several policy measures which aim to improve the ability of the producers to reposition themselves along the chain or to modify the chain itself

Social and humanitarian expert assessment of biomedical innovations

Nowadays the necessity of introducing effective constituents of ethical and humanitarian comprehension of innovations to science, especially in the field of biomedicine, is becoming increasingly apparent. In this regard, it is of particular interest to compare the opinions of student-age youth and the experts - well-known Russian scientists on the use of new converging technologies and their impact on an individual and societ

Converting the sociotechnical convergence hazards into the risks of digitalisation

The creation of digital network platforms is accompanied by an ambiguous process of sociotechnical convergence, during which certain hazards arise as factors that destabilize the functioning of a digital platform, and risks as an expectation of the occurrence of these events.   The purpose of the study is to assess the level of conversion of the sociotechnical convergence hazards into the corresponding risks.   The research methodology is based on the ecosystem approach and the concept of platform research, supplemented by the authors with the ideas of sociotechnical convergence.   To study the conversion of the sociotechnical convergence hazards into the risks of digitalization, the method of empirical verification based on a representative sociological survey was applied. Theresult of the taxonomic division was the classification of hazards in such subject areas as (hazard of failure); digital surveillance (hazard of excessive digital surveillance); digital morality (hazard of decision-making by artificial intelligence); digital identification (hazard of identification error); digital privacy (hazard of unauthorized use of personal data); digital communication (hazard of virtualization of social contacts); digital accessibility (hazard of digital inequality); digital clusters (hazard of social network segmentation); digital competence (hazard of digital outsider). The authors come to the conclusion that not all hazards are converted into risks in the same way. Strongly expressed explicit risks are observed as a result of converting the hazard of unauthorized use of personal data. Medium-expressed explicit risks appear in case of hazard of failure of digital platforms, hazard of decision-making by artificial intelligence, hazard of identification error, hazard of digital inequality. Weakly expressed explicit risks are typical for the conversion of the hazard of excessive digital surveillance and the hazard of virtualization of social contacts. The hazard of social network segmentation and the hazard of digital outsider are converted into implicit risks

Numerical study of the minimum of the thermodynamic potential of a ferroelectric barium titanate

The macroscopic polarization is the most essential concept in any phenomenological description of dielectric media. The presence of a spontaneous macroscopic polarization is the defining property of a ferroelectric material that is central to whole physics of ferroelectrics. Based solely on symmetry considerations, Landau theory can provide a reliable description of a system equilibrium behavior near a phase transition. This phenomenological approach allows giving relations between measurable quantities using a minimal set of input parameters that can be determined by comparison with physical experiment or numerical first-principles calculation. Now, the problem of true presentation of Landau-Devonshire potential for different materials is outstanding. The properties of Landau-Devonshire thermodynamic potential (TP) for ferroelectric materials in this article is investigated on the example of barium titanate. The previously approved topological method of research of nonlinear properties of ferroelectrics is applied. The cellular complexes approach use for interpretation of TP extremes. The new representation of the 8-order polynomial TP compared with previously used 6-order representation. For the 8 order potential the structure of metastable states for barium titanate is presented in the vicinity of first-order phase transition point at T = 5°C. New method proposed for the qualitative description of the metastable states structure that TP generates. Based on the method the temperature regions are pointed where the 6 and 8 order potentials predicting for the metastable states are qualitatively different

Sestrin2 Modulates AMPK Subunit Expression and Its Response to Ionizing Radiation in Breast Cancer Cells

Background: The sestrin family of stress-responsive genes (SESN1-3) are suggested to be involved in regulation of metabolism and aging through modulation of the AMPK-mTOR pathway. AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) is an effector of the tumour suppressor LKB1, which regulates energy homeostasis, cell polarity, and the cell cycle. SESN1/2 can interact directly with AMPK in response to stress to maintain genomic integrity and suppress tumorigenesis. Ionizing radiation (IR), a widely used cancer therapy, is known to increase sestrin expression, and acutely activate AMPK. However, the regulation of AMPK expression by sestrins in response to IR has not been studied in depth. Methods and Findings: Through immunoprecipitation we observed that SESN2 directly interacted with the AMPKa1b1c1 trimer and its upstream regulator LKB1 in MCF7 breast cancer cells. SESN2 overexpression was achieved using a Flag-tagged SESN2 expression vector or a stably-integrated tetracycline-inducible system, which also increased AMPKa1 and AMPKb1 subunit phosphorylation, and co-localized with phosphorylated AMPKa-Thr127 in the cytoplasm. Furthermore, enhanced SESN2 expression increased protein levels of LKB1 and AMPKa1b1c1, as well as mRNA levels of LKB1, AMPKa1, and AMPKb1. Treatment of MCF7 cells with IR elevated AMPK expression and activity, but this effect was attenuated in the presence of SESN2 siRNA. In addition, elevated SESN2 inhibited IR-induced mTOR signalling and sensitized MCF7 cells to IR through an AMPK-dependent mechanism

mTOR: from growth signal integration to cancer, diabetes and ageing

In all eukaryotes, the target of rapamycin (TOR) signalling pathway couples energy and nutrient abundance to the execution of cell growth and division, owing to the ability of TOR protein kinase to simultaneously sense energy, nutrients and stress and, in metazoans, growth factors. Mammalian TOR complex 1 (mTORC1) and mTORC2 exert their actions by regulating other important kinases, such as S6 kinase (S6K) and Akt. In the past few years, a significant advance in our understanding of the regulation and functions of mTOR has revealed the crucial involvement of this signalling pathway in the onset and progression of diabetes, cancer and ageing.National Institutes of Health (U.S.)Howard Hughes Medical InstituteWhitehead Institute for Biomedical ResearchJane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Medical Research (Postdoctoral Fellowship)Human Frontier Science Program (Strasbourg, France