Peasant social utopia in England in the XIIIth - XIVth centuries

This article presents several aspects of peasants’ social utopia in England in the XIIIth- XIVth centurie

Lexical interaction of the modern Greek language with Germanic and Romance languages (with reference to the vocabulary of English, French and modern Greek languages)

The article deals with the issues of lexical interaction of the modern Greek language with Germanic and Romance languages (represented by English and French). There were singled out two areas in which this lexical interaction is rather significant: the vocabulary related to food and drinks and the vocabulary used to designate objects and concepts of clothing, shoes, haberdashery and perfumer

PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS OF SMALL AND MEDIUM BUSINESSES IN RUSSIA

The main features of small and medium-sized businesses and the conditions for their functioning in Russia have been considered. A significant lag of the Russian Federation in terms of the development of small and medium-sized businesses from economically advanced countries has been noted. The sectoral structure of domestic small and medium-sized businesses, its contribution to the country’s economy have been highlighted. The main problems hindering the development of small and medium-sized businesses in Russia have been analysed. In particular, a shortage of credit and financial resources, an imperfection of the taxation system, excessive business administration, overpriced compulsory insurance payments, a lack of readiness of a significant part of small and medium-sized businesses management to conduct business, have been revealed. The main activities carried out by the state to support small and medium-sized businesses have been enumerated, inconsistency and insufficiency of these activities have been enumerated. As the main way of state support for small and medium-sized businesses, it has been proposed to create favorable conditions for conducting its activity, including further improvement of tax legislation in this field, facilitating their access to loans, eliminating unnecessary regulatory, administrative and organizational barriers, training and advanced training for management

Current State of Flora of the Lower Kama National Park Evidence from the Borovetsky Forest (Russia)

The Borovetsky forest (9344 ha) is one of the largest woodlands of the Lower Kama National Park located on the North-East of the Republic of Tatarstan within the East part of the Russian Plain. The article presents data on the inventory and taxonomic diversity, as well as the results of areographic, biomorphologic, eco-coenotic analysis and evaluation of the adventive fraction of flora of vascular plants of Borovetsky forest. Flora of the Borovetsky forest is represented by 489 species, which are dominated by those with broad geographic ranges. The endemics of the Volga-Ural region are of particular interest. This concerns Pilosella trichocymosa (Zahn.) Schljak. and Cicerbita uralensis (Rouy) Beauv - having relatively small geographic ranges. With regard to phytocoenotic confinedness, the plants of the investigated territory belong to 23 eco-coenotic groups. Biocenosis of the Borovetsky forest include 25 species of vascular plants listed in the Red Data Book of the Republic of Tatarstan, and 2 species - listed in the Red Data Book of the Russian Federation. The obtained results can be used in the monitoring of the Borovetsky forest phytocenosis

Assessment of ecological state for the north-eastern shelf of Sakhalin Island: hydrochemical analysis and bioassay

Results of ecological monitoring in the coastal waters at north-eastern Sakhalin are presented. Spatial patterns of water temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen content, and concentrations of inorganic phosphate and silicon are described, geostrophic currents are calculated. Abnormalities of early embryogenesis are revealed for the sand dollar Scaphechinus mirabilis in the water sampled both at the coast and in the oil-producing areas but not in the areas distanced from the oil wells. Possible influence of natural environments and anthropogenic factors on marine biota in the area of monitoring is discussed: the abnormalities at the coast are possibly caused by low salinity, but those ones in the oil-producing areas have no any natural reasons, so far as salinity, temperature and nutrients concentration in these areas are the same as in the open-waters with normal results of the bioassay. Thus, anthropogenic impact on marine biota is detected for the areas of continued oil and gas production on the northeastern shelf of Sakhalin Island

Economic evaluation of biological resources and ecosystem services for the Okhotsk Sea

The total cost of commercial stocks of biological resources in the Okhotsk Sea is evaluated as US$23.5 · 109/year on the data on total allowable catch for the year 2014, taking into account the world prices for seafood. The potential cost of all known bioresources in the Sea, including pelagic and benthic fish and invertebrates (for a case of their total utilization), is determined as US$ 58.5 · 109/year. The total value of ecosystem services provided by the Okhotsk Sea is estimated as US$ 294.4 · 109/year, believing that their cost per unit area in the Okhotsk Sea is equal to mean value of ecosystem services per unit area in certain areas of the World Ocean with a known cost - this value for non-market ecosystem services exceeds the cost of traditionally used biological resources. Economic evaluation of ecosystem services presented in monetary units can be used as a tool to enhance conservation of natural complexes in the process of industrial projects implementation