Some remarks on one-dimensional force-free Vlasov-Maxwell equilibria

The conditions for the existence of force-free non-relativistic translationally invariant one-dimensional (1D) Vlasov-Maxwell (VM) equilibria are investigated using general properties of the 1D VM equilibrium problem. As has been shown before, the 1D VM equilibrium equations are equivalent to the motion of a pseudo-particle in a conservative pseudo-potential, with the pseudo-potential being proportional to one of the diagonal components of the plasma pressure tensor. The basic equations are here derived in a different way to previous work. Based on this theoretical framework, a necessary condition on the pseudo-potential (plasma pressure) to allow for force-free 1D VM equilibria is formulated. It is shown that linear force-free 1D VM solutions, which so far are the only force-free 1D VM solutions known, correspond to the case where the pseudo-potential is an attractive central potential. A general class of distribution functions leading to central pseudo-potentials is discussed.Comment: Physics of Plasmas, accepte

Modelling of methane partial oxidation in an asymmetric multilayered membrane reactor

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Конфликт интересов: правоприменение и конфликтология

The subject. The article is devoted to conflictology as one of the most relevant, almost significant, debatable problems in law theory, legal sciences, political science, philosophy, psychology and economics. The author analyzes specific examples of conflicts of interest in various corruption spheres and manifestations, for example, in the sphere of participation of economic actors in the procurement announced by state and municipal authorities.The purpose of the article is to identify the nature of conflicts of interest as the basis of corruption.The methodology. The author uses comparisons of common and private, cause and effect, patterns and randomness, content and form, essence and phenomenon, the transition of quantity into quality, as well as the methods of sociology and psychology.The main results, scope of application. The article analyzes the relationship between corruption and nepotism. The article discusses legal and moral ways to prevent conflict, the role of ethical standards in conflict prevention, regulatory framework for preventing and settling them, the ratio of conflict of interest and employee qualifications, balance of material and personal interest, Commissions to prevent conflicts of interest, guaranteeing the role of writing notice of a conflict of interest, Features of the notification procedure, moral means of preventing and resolve conflicts of interest. Exclusively legal methods are insufficient to prevent and eliminate conflicts of interest and corruption-related risks. A combination of legal and moral measures is necessary, and most importantly, the exclusion of kinship and other forms of nepotism in the formation of government bodies and the appointment of officials, the hiring of state and municipal employees. It is necessary to exclude formalism from the institution of competitive selection of civil servants.Conclusions. The elimination of the contradictions between some federal anti-corruption laws has much less effect on the state of corruption in the state than the flourishing nepotism. The exercise of official functions takes place in the form of law enforcement: if there is no application of the law – there is no corruption. The main emphasis should be directed to the process of forming the apparatus of state and municipal authorities, employees of state and municipal institutions, primarily in the educational sphere, on which the upbringing of new generations of employees depends, the steady observance of high professional and moral requirements imposed on state and municipal employees and teachers in schools and universities.Конфликт интересов и непотизм в органах власти рассматриваются в качестве коррупциогенных факторов, предопределенных различными социальными ролями служащих и должностных лиц. Поскольку осуществление должностных функций происходит в виде правоприменения, то вне правоприменения нет и коррупции, если речь не идет о корыстном бездействии. Делается вывод о приоритетности кадровой политики среди правоприменителей, в том числе необходимости законодательного запрета непотизма в органах власти

Конституционный Суд Российской Федерации как субъект конституционной ответственности

The subject of the article is justification of the main elements of the constitutional responsibility of the Russian Constitutional Court in the context of constitutional reform.The purpose of the article is confirmation or refutation of the hypothesis that the Constitutional Court must be subject to constitutional responsibility.The methodology. The author uses methods of complex analysis of legislation, synthesis, as well as formal-logical and formal-legal methods.The main results, scope of application. Russia as a democratic state excludes the existence of legally irresponsible subjects of state power. It concerns the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation. Legal irresponsibility characterizes only the absolute monarchy. The article comprehensively examines the problem of responsibility of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, the reasons for the poor development of this institution in legislation and academic literature are also considered. The reasons for the Constitutional Court's dependence on the President of the Russian Federation as a "guarantor of the Constitution of the Russian Federation" have been systemized. The author considers duumvirate of guarantors of constitutional legitimacy as a nonsense. The reasons for the Constitutional Court's peculiar use of the law of the legislative initiative are considered. This initiative was used only in the direction of increasing the term of the powers of judges of the Constitutional Court from 65 up to 70 years. The life-long status of the President of the Court is seen as a violation of the principle of equality of judges, which is the most important guarantee of the independence of the Constitutional Court. Constitutional reform-2020 completed the process of dependence of the Constitutional Court on the President of the Russian Federation and the "second government" - the Administration of the Russian President. Some constitutional and legal torts of the Constitutional Court of the Russia are considered also. The author comes to the conclusion that judges of the constitutional court have a special responsibility - political, moral and historical. The main questions are need to be resolved: who has the right to state the torts of the constitutional court and what are the consequences of this statement?Комплексно исследуется проблема ответственности Конституционного Суда РФ, рассматриваются причины слабой разработанности этого института в теории конституционного права и практике государственного строительства. Изучается возможность причинения Конституционным Судом вреда конституционной законности. Делается вывод о том, что конституционная реформа 2020 г. завершила процесс зависимости Конституционного Суда от Президента РФ и фактически «второго Правительства» -Администрации Президента РФ

Политика предоставления научных грантов в России и ее перспективы

Modern criteria for assessing scientific activity, established in 2013, are considered. The shortcomings of these criteria, which the author of this article, together with another professor, tried to recognize as invalid and not subject to application due to their contradiction with Russian legislation and national interests, are emphasized. The requirements for applicants for grants of the Russian Science Foundation are considered (RSF), which, after merging with the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR), became the only federal scientific foundation. The first results of the merger of the two funds are analyzed. It is shown that this had a negative impact on the humanities, including legal sciences. The Resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation dated March 19, 2022 No. 414 "On some issues of applying the requirements and target values of indicators related to publication activity" is analyzed. The resolution was adopted in response to the sanctions of unfriendly states, as well as a reaction to open letters from the public about the immediate exclusion from all regulations of the requirement to publish in journals from commercial indices. The resolution has the character of a moratorium on the application of requirements for the availability of publications in scientific journals indexed in international databases. Proposals are being made on the development of domestic criteria for publication activity.Рассматриваются критерии оценки научной деятельности и требования, предъявляемые к соискателям грантов Российского научного фонда (РНФ), который после объединения с РФФИ стал единственным федеральным научным фондом. Анализируются итоги слияния фондов, негативно отразившиеся на гуманитарных науках. Анализируется Постановление Правительства РФ от 19 марта 2022 г. № 414 «О некоторых вопросах применения требований и целевых значений показателей, связанных с публикационной активностью», принятое в ответ на санкции недружественных государств. Вносятся предложения по выработке отечественных критериев публикационной активности

Alcohol and hazardous drinking in Russia: a mixed design study

This thesis investigated drinking patterns in the Russian city of Novosibirsk, with a specific focus on hazardous drinking. It explored the relationship between hazardous drinking and social-economic characteristics, depressive symptoms and self-reported health. The study also provided an in-depth description of drinking patterns, consumption of ‘surrogate’ alcohol, and perceptions of the Russian drinking culture and the state’s alcohol policies. The research used a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. First, it assessed alcohol consumption and drinking patterns using data from the HAPIEE (Health, Alcohol and Psychosocial factors In Eastern Europe) cohort. Second, a series of 44 semi-structured interviews were conducted with men and women sampled from the HAPIEE cohort. Third, 40 semi-structured interviews were conducted among clients of an alcohol treatment facility. These interviews were focused on hazardous drinking. The main findings were as follows. First, hazardous drinking was common among men, but rare among women (30% of men and 1% of women reported binge drinking, 19% of men and 1% of women reported problem drinking, and 9% of men and less than 1% of women reported more than two negative consequences of drinking). Second, hazardous drinking was associated with lower education (e.g. men with secondary education were 1.9 times more likely to binge drink than men with university education), unemployment, poor health (men and women rating their health as good were more likely to binge than people with poor health), and with certain occupations (e.g. drivers or construction workers were likely to report binge drinking). Third, high accessibility of alcohol and a need to relieve withdrawal symptoms were common reasons for surrogate consumption given in interviews by participants from alcohol treatment facility. Finally, the Russian drinking culture was perceived as characterised by heavy drinking and strongly influenced by the interplay of individual and structural factors

Clinical and ultrastructural changes in the rabbit retina at various doses and numbers of intravitreal melphalan injections

Purpose: To assess clinical and ultrastructural changes in the rabbit retina and choroid with an increase in the dose and number of intravitreal (IVit) melphalan injections. Material and Methods: Thirteen eyes of seven Chinchilla rabbits (age, 5–6 months; weight, 2.5–3 kg) underwent a clinical electron microscopy (EM) examination. Rabbit eyes were divided into five groups based on the dose and number of IVit melphalan injections given. Group 1 (4 eyes) received three 5-μg IVit melphalan injections; group 2 (2 eyes), two 10-μg injections; group 3 (2 eyes), two 20-μg injections; group 4 (3 eyes), two 30-μg injections; and group 5 (4 eyes), two 40-μg injections. The interval between IVit melphalan injections was one month. Enucleation was performed at week 4 after the last injection. Results: In group 1, ophthalmoscopic changes in the retina (small isolated areas of mild depigmentation) stayed the same until the end of the observation period. On EM, some retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells showed signs of destruction, whereas others showed signs of compensatory-and-restorative processes. In addition, discs of the outer segments (OS) of photoreceptors showed pathological changes varying in severity. Other photoreceptor layers and retinal neural cells showed no ultrastructural changes. In group 2, fundus changes were more severe than in group 1, and somewhat increased in severity with each injection. There was EM evidence of significant pathology in RPE cells, extracellular edema in the photoreceptor layer, damage to the photoreceptor inner segments and OS, and focal necrosis of the neural tissue. In group 3, there was retinal pigment redistribution after the first injection, with an increase in the degree and area of depigmentation after subsequent injections. In addition, EM found RPE cells showing various pathological changes (e.g., as severe as destruction), pigment granules scattered throughout the retina, and retinal gliosis due to growth of hypertrophic Müller cell processes. In groups 4 and 5, there were large regions of marked depigmentation which increased in area with each injection, becoming almost confluent, which resulted in a complete discoloration of the retina. In addition, EM found necrosis of RPE cells and photoreceptors and RPE cell debris in the inner retinal layers, and the outer and inner retinal layers were lost and replaced by glia. Ganglion cells exhibited signs of degenerative changes. The choroid showed almost complete loss of choriocapillaries with signs of destruction of choroidal vascular walls. Conclusion: We demonstrated experimentally that repeated IVit melphalan injections at various doses did not affect media transparency and the structure of the anterior segment of the eye, and produced no general toxic effects on experimental animals. The clinical and ultrastructural changes in the retina depended on the dose of melphalan, with repeated 5-μg and 10-μg IVit melphalan injections being relatively safe and causing mild changes only in the outer retinal layers. Care should be taken when using IVit melphalan injections at hig (20-μg – 30-μg) doses, taking into account that toxic changes with various degrees of degeneration (e.g., as severe as gliosis of the retina and destruction of some choroidal capillaries) can develop

Professor Susanna Aleksandrovna Barkhash, the founder of pediatric ophthalmology in Ukraine (on the occasion of the 110th birthday)

This article is to commemorate the 110th birthday of Professor Susanna Aleksandrovna Barkhash and presents data on her life, activities as a doctor and a researcher, as well as her contributions to the advances in pediatric ophthalmology in Ukraine. S.A. Barkhash was an outstanding pupil of Acad. V.P. Filatov who came to the conclusion that she was an ideal person for the position of the first chief of the pediatric department which he established at the institute in 1946. She was a founder of pediatric penetrating keratoplasty and accumulated the world’s greatest experience in this procedure (756 operations) which has not been surpassed so far. Professor S.A. Barkhash was heading the department over 30 years. During that period, there were publications on numerous issues of pediatric eye disease, and numerous methods of diagnostic evaluation and treatment were described, which are still used by the department in routine diagnostic evaluation and treatment of patients