Does Fiscal Policy Matter? Blinder and Solow Revisited

This paper uses the old-Keynesian representative agent model developed in Farmer (2010b) to answer two questions: 1) do increased government purchases crowd out private consumption? 2) do increased government purchases reduce unemployment? Farmer compared permanent tax financed expenditure paths and showed that the answer to 1) was yes and the answer to 2) was no. We generalize his result to temporary bond-financed paths of government purchases that are similar to the actual path that occurred during WWII. We find that a temporary increase in government purchases does crowd out private consumption expenditure as in Farmer (2010b). However, in contrast to Farmer's experiment we find that a temporary increase in government purchases can also reduce unemployment.

PROBLEMS OF LEGAL REGULATION OF ROBOTICS AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN RUSSIA: SOME APPROACHES TO THE SOLUTION

Abstract: the article analyzes the main problems and contradictions in the formation of legal regimes for the regulation of robotics, artificial intelligence and other innovative technologies of our time. The work content shows the unpreparedness of modern legal science and practice to conceptual and legal design, legal and technical development of the regulatory legal acts aimed at the legislative fixation and regulation of the processes of using artificial intelligence and robots in public relations, as well as definition of responsibility and appropriate protection modes of legitimate interests, rights, freedoms in the system of personality - society - state. The subject of this study is the resolution of these problems and contradictions, as well as the identification of directions for the formation of a legal framework for the regulation of modern innovative technologies and digital processes unfolding in the modern society. The authors distinguish and analyze two consecutive stages: 1) development and introduction of necessary changes in the existingbranches of Russian law; 2) conceptual-legal and doctrinal-legal formulation of key development priorities, as well as reation of a new integrated branch of law - robotics law, which has an independent subject and method of legal regulation.Key words: drones, innovative technologies, artificial intelligence, law, legal regimes, robotic technologies,electronic perso

Modification of natural sorbent for providing it with bactericidal and bacteriostatic properties

Currently, the problem of water purification from chemical and microbiological contaminations is very important. Sorption technologies are one of the effective and easy-to-use water purification techniques. To prevent the growth of microbiological contaminations on the surface of investigated sorbents, the surface of the investigated sorbents was treated by aqueous solution of copper sulphate with the further study of bactericidal and bacteriostatic activity. The results of sorption efficiency of original and modified zeolite samples of Kholinsk deposit are presented in this paper. These results were obtained, when Zn{2+} and Pb{2+} ions were removed from the simulated solutions. It was concluded that it is possible to provide natural zeolites with bactericidal and bacteriostatic properties

Green Technologies for Management on Railroad Transportation

Technique and technology development allows us to discuss the possibility of crucial changes into a conservative way of railroad transportation management. One of the options regarding the train control system is aimed at denial of the classic approach being connected with the implementation of a traditional automation kit. The authors of this article are being presented with the conception of a green IT railroad rolling stock control system called Green Interlocking. The above approach helps us rely on effective inexhaustible energy sources and modern know-how of data processing plus important technologies management

Problemas de regulación legal de la robótica y la inteligencia artificial desde la perspectiva psicológica

The article analyzes the main problems and contradictions in the formation of legal regimes for the regulation of robotics, artificial intelligence and other innovative technologies of our time. The work content shows the unpreparedness of modern legal science and practice to conceptual and legal design, legal and technical development of the regulatory legal acts aimed at the legislative fixation and regulation of the processes of using artificial intelligence and robots in public relations, as well as definition of responsibility and appropriate protection modes of legitimate interests, rights, freedoms in the system of personality - society - state. The subject of this study is the resolution of these problems and contradictions, as well as the identification of directions for the formation of a legal framework for the regulation of modern innovative technologies and digital processes unfolding in the modern society. The authors distinguish and analyze two consecutive stages: 1) development and introduction of necessary changes in the existing branches of Russian law; 2) conceptual-legal and doctrinal-legal formulation of key development priorities, as well as creation of a new integrated branch of law - robotics law, which has an independent subject and method of legal regulation.El artículo analiza los principales problemas y contradicciones en la formación de regímenes legales para la regulación de la robótica, la inteligencia artificial y otras tecnologías innovadoras de nuestro tiempo. El contenido del trabajo muestra la falta de preparación de la ciencia y práctica legal moderna para el diseño conceptual y legal, el desarrollo legal y técnico de los actos legales regulatorios destinados a la fijación legislativa y la regulación de los procesos de uso de inteligencia artificial y robots en las relaciones públicas, así como definición de responsabilidad y modos apropiados de protección de intereses legítimos, derechos, libertades en el sistema de personalidad -sociedad -estado. El tema de este estudio es la resolución de estos problemas y contradicciones, así como la identificación de direcciones para la formación de un marco legal para la regulación de tecnologías modernas innovadoras y procesos digitales que se desarrollan en la sociedad moderna. Los autores distingueny analizan dos etapas consecutivas: 1) desarrollo e introducción de los cambios necesarios en las ramas existentes de la ley rusa; 2) formulación conceptual-legal y doctrinal-legal de prioridades clave de desarrollo, así como la creación de una nueva ramaintegrada del derecho: la ley de robótica, que tiene un tema y un método de regulación legal independientes

Problemas de regulación legal de la robótica y la inteligencia artificial desde la perspectiva psicológica

The article analyzes the main problems and contradictions in the formation of legal regimes for the regulation of robotics, artificial intelligence and other innovative technologies of our time. The work content shows the unpreparedness of modern legal science and practice to conceptual and legal design, legal and technical development of the regulatory legal acts aimed at the legislative fixation and regulation of the processes of using artificial intelligence and robots in public relations, as well as definition of responsibility and appropriate protection modes of legitimate interests, rights, freedoms in the system of personality - society - state. The subject of this study is the resolution of these problems and contradictions, as well as the identification of directions for the formation of a legal framework for the regulation of modern innovative technologies and digital processes unfolding in the modern society. The authors distinguish and analyze two consecutive stages: 1) development and introduction of necessary changes in the existing branches of Russian law; 2) conceptual-legal and doctrinal-legal formulation of key development priorities, as well as creation of a new integrated branch of law - robotics law, which has an independent subject and method of legal regulation.El artículo analiza los principales problemas y contradicciones en la formación de regímenes legales para la regulación de la robótica, la inteligencia artificial y otras tecnologías innovadoras de nuestro tiempo. El contenido del trabajo muestra la falta de preparación de la ciencia y práctica legal moderna para el diseño conceptual y legal, el desarrollo legal y técnico de los actos legales regulatorios destinados a la fijación legislativa y la regulación de los procesos de uso de inteligencia artificial y robots en las relaciones públicas, así como definición de responsabilidad y modos apropiados de protección de intereses legítimos, derechos, libertades en el sistema de personalidad -sociedad -estado. El tema de este estudio es la resolución de estos problemas y contradicciones, así como la identificación de direcciones para la formación de un marco legal para la regulación de tecnologías modernas innovadoras y procesos digitales que se desarrollan en la sociedad moderna. Los autores distingueny analizan dos etapas consecutivas: 1) desarrollo e introducción de los cambios necesarios en las ramas existentes de la ley rusa; 2) formulación conceptual-legal y doctrinal-legal de prioridades clave de desarrollo, así como la creación de una nueva ramaintegrada del derecho: la ley de robótica, que tiene un tema y un método de regulación legal independientes

Comparative Study of Genotoxicity of Silver and Gold Nanoparticles Prepared by the Electric Spark Dispersion Method

Objective: There is plenty of information dedicated to nanomaterial toxicity, but it is often contradictory. This work presents results of the comparative investigation of silver and gold nanoparticles genotoxicity and genotoxic effect of water medium after the spark dispersion process. Material and methods: The nanoparticles were produced in water by the modified energy-efficient electric spark dispersion method. The comet assay, transmission electron microscopy, DLS spectroscopy and thermal desorption of nitrogen (BET method) were used for the investigation. Results: The silver nanoparticles showed a genotoxic effect which appeared at concentration of 0.03 mg/ml and above. The application of gold nanoparticles did not lead to a significant DNA damage at concentrations range of 0.01 - 0.03 mg/ml. However, a notable level of genotoxicity was observed at concentrations of gold nanoparticles about 0.1 mg/ml. Supernatant water medium (with trace of Au and Ag metals) following the spark dispersion process showed no genotoxic action. Conclusion: Accordingly, the testing of the nanoparticles produced by the electric spark dispersion in water revealed more expressed genotoxic effect of silver nanoparticles in comparison with the gold ones

Water Purification with Natural Sorbents: Effect of Surface Modification with Nano-structured Particles

Modified nanostructured sorbents are widely used in water treatment processes. In this work, aluminum and iron particles prepared by electro-spark dispersion have been applied as modifiers. Zeolite samples from "Holinskoe" mineral deposit (Russia, Republic of Buryatia), with a size smaller than 0.1 mm, have been modified with aluminum and iron particles, using a sol-gel process. The properties of the modified materials have been determined by means of sorption test, when removing ions Pb{2+}, Fe{3+} and Cd{2+} from the model solutions in static conditions. Using the method of thermal desorption of nitrogen (BET) it has been shown that increasing the iron content in the samples of nanostructured modified sorbents does not affect the increase in specific surface area and pore volume of the samples. Ions concentrations have been analyzed by stripping voltammetry and photocolorimetry. As a result, modified sorbents revealed a high efficiency sorption of heavy metals

Towards a set of agrosystem-specific cropland mapping methods to address the global cropland diversity

Accurate cropland information is of paramount importance for crop monitoring. This study compares five existing cropland mapping methodologies over five contrasting Joint Experiment for Crop Assessment and Monitoring (JECAM) sites of medium to large average field size using the time series of 7-day 250 m Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) mean composites (red and near-infrared channels). Different strategies were devised to assess the accuracy of the classification methods: confusion matrices and derived accuracy indicators with and without equalizing class proportions, assessing the pairwise difference error rates and accounting for the spatial resolution bias. The robustness of the accuracy with respect to a reduction of the quantity of calibration data available was also assessed by a bootstrap approach in which the amount of training data was systematically reduced. Methods reached overall accuracies ranging from 85% to 95%, which demonstrates the ability of 250 m imagery to resolve fields down to 20 ha. Despite significantly different error rates, the site effect was found to persistently dominate the method effect. This was confirmed even after removing the share of the classification due to the spatial resolution of the satellite data (from 10% to 30%). This underlines the effect of other agrosystems characteristics such as cloudiness, crop diversity, and calendar on the ability to perform accurately. All methods have potential for large area cropland mapping as they provided accurate results with 20% of the calibration data, e.g. 2% of the study area in Ukraine. To better address the global cropland diversity, results advocate movement towards a set of cropland classification methods that could be applied regionally according to their respective performance in specific landscapes.Instituto de Clima y AguaFil: Waldner, François. Université catholique de Louvain. Earth and Life Institute - Environment, Croix du Sud; BelgicaFil: De Abelleyra, Diego. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Instituto de Clima y Agua; ArgentinaFil: Veron, Santiago Ramón. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Instituto de Clima y Agua; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía. Departamento de Métodos Cuantitativos y Sistemas de Información; ArgentinaFil: Zhang, Miao. Chinese Academy of Science. Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth; ChinaFil: Wu, Bingfang. Chinese Academy of Science. Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth; ChinaFil: Plotnikov, Dmitry. Russian Academy of Sciences. Space Research Institute. Terrestrial Ecosystems Monitoring Laboratory; RusiaFil: Bartalev, Sergey. Russian Academy of Sciences. Space Research Institute. Terrestrial Ecosystems Monitoring Laboratory; RusiaFil: Lavreniuk, Mykola. Space Research Institute NAS and SSA. Department of Space Information Technologies; UcraniaFil: Skakun, Sergii. Space Research Institute NAS and SSA. Department of Space Information Technologies; Ucrania. University of Maryland. Department of Geographical Sciences; Estados UnidosFil: Kussul, Nataliia. Space Research Institute NAS and SSA. Department of Space Information Technologies; UcraniaFil: Le Maire, Guerric. UMR Eco&Sols, CIRAD; Francia. Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária. Meio Ambiante; BrasilFil: Dupuy, Stéphane. Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement. Territoires, Environnement, Télédétection et Information Spatiale; FranciaFil: Jarvis, Ian. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. Science and Technology Branch. Agri-Climate, Geomatics and Earth Observation; CanadáFil: Defourny, Pierre. Université Catholique de Louvain. Earth and Life Institute - Environment, Croix du Sud; Belgic

Protective Effects of a New C-Jun N-terminal Kinase Inhibitor in the Model of Global Cerebral Ischemia in Rats

C-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) is activated by various brain insults and is implicated in neuronal injury triggered by reperfusion-induced oxidative stress. Some JNK inhibitors demonstrated neuroprotective potential in various models, including cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury. The objective of the present work was to study the neuroprotective activity of a new specific JNK inhibitor, IQ-1S (11H-indeno[1,2-b]quinoxalin-11-one oxime sodium salt), in the model of global cerebral ischemia (GCI) in rats compared with citicoline (cytidine-5?-diphosphocholine), a drug approved for the treatment of acute ischemic stroke and to search for pleiotropic mechanisms of neuroprotective effects of IQ-1S. The experiments were performed in a rat model of ischemic stroke with three-vessel occlusion (model of 3VO) affecting the brachiocephalic artery, the left subclavian artery, and the left common carotid artery. After 7-min episode of GCI in rats, 25% of animals died, whereas survived animals had severe neurological deficit at days 1, 3, and 5 after GCI. At day 5 after GCI, we observing massive loss of pyramidal neurons in the hippocampal CA1 area, increase in lipid peroxidation products in the brain tissue, and decrease in local cerebral blood flow (LCBF) in the parietal cortex. Moreover, blood hyperviscosity syndrome and endothelial dysfunction were found after GCI. Administration of IQ-1S (intragastrically at a dose 50 mg/kg daily for 5 days) was associated with neuroprotective effect comparable with the effect of citicoline (intraperitoneal at a dose of 500 mg/kg, daily for 5 days).The neuroprotective effect was accompanied by a decrease in the number of animals with severe neurological deficit, an increase in the number of animals with moderate degree of neurological deficit compared with control GCI group, and an increase in the number of unaltered neurons in the hippocampal CA1 area along with a significant decrease in the number of neurons with irreversible morphological damage