Constituent Regions Research Articles

International Real Estate Review

Asset prices and fundamentals can move apart, as is the case during bubble episodes. However, they should exhibit a stable relationship in the long run. For UK housing, previous studies have investigated whether house prices share a long run relationship with income. Results thus far have not yet found such stability in the interaction of the two variables. These previous papers have imposed linear adjustment on the relationship. Nonlinear adjustment, however, has been shown to be a feature in a number of housing market relationships. In this study, we utilize a data set that consists of home prices relative to first time buyer income for the UK and its twelve constituent regions, which gives us a direct measure of affordability. We test for the stationarity of the home price/first time buyer income ratio with linear tests, and, as in past studies, fail to find a long run relationship. However, we then employ a nonlinear test, and find a stationary relationship for the UK and seven of the twelve regions. In particular, the regions closest to London appear most clearly to have a stationary relationship between home prices and income.

Preservative or Transformative? Theorizing the U.K. Constitution Using Comparative Method

Abstract The complexities of the United Kingdom’s decision to withdraw from the European Union while simultaneously honoring its prior commitments to its decentralized, autonomous, and constituent regions have put constitutional questions back on the map. The dominant approach analyzes these questions premised on the “preservative” view of the constitution. This view prioritizes the stability and continuity of the institutions in Westminster (Parliament) and Whitehall (central executive). However, the preservative view of the constitution is theoretically and practically deficient as it cannot give an account of the multipolar and decentralized developments of the past twenty years. Another interpretation regards the legal and political changes to the constitution as “transformative.” This view accentuates the fragility of the U.K. constitution due to a plurality of constitutional rules and the ongoing processes of devolution of powers within multilevel systems of government. This Article discusses that evolution of the U.K. constitution through the prism of comparative constitutional law and its appropriate methodology. The preservative model of the constitution favors a universalist method, whereas the transformative model requires a contextualist method. I argue that the experience of supranational (European Union) and infranational (devolution) power sharing has fundamentally altered the United Kingdom’s central constitutional concepts. To stabilize its fragmentary forces, the United Kingdom needs to adopt concepts that reflect the state as divided, the constitution as transitional, sovereignty as an attribute of the state rather than Parliament, and democracy as conflicted. Nothing less than the future of the United Kingdom as a state is at stake.

Factors of regional competitiveness formation

А country's сompetitiveness cannot be achieved if the competitiveness of its constituent regions is low. Thus, the regions actually determine the socio-economic processes carried out in the state, and the state, in turn, adjusts the factors that determine the development of the region. The article identifies the factors that influence the development of regional competitiveness and the mechanisms for regulating these factors.Scientific novelty: the content of the concept of competitiveness of the region is revealed, factors preventing the full and homogeneous development of competitive potential of the regions are identified, a set of measures aimed at improving the regional, in particular, and national competitiveness of the Russian economy is defined.

Development of transition region based methods for image segmentation

In this thesis, some transition region based segmentation approaches have developed to perform image segmentation for grayscale and colour images.In computer vision and image understanding applications, image segmentation is an important pre-processing step. The main goal of the segmentation process is the separation of foreground region from background region. Based on the output of the segmentation result, segmentation can be categorized as global segmentation or local segmentation. The global segmentation aims for complete separation of the object from the background while the local segmentation divides the image into constituent regions. For achieving segmentation, a number of algorithms are developed by various researchers. The segmentation approaches are application specific and do not work well for both grayscale and colour image segmentation. For any image consisting of foreground and background, some transition regions exist between the foreground and background regions. Effective extraction of transition region leads to a better segmentation result. Therefore, the doctoral thesis intends to efficient and effective transition region approaches for image segmentation for both grayscale and colour images.The performance of the segmentation is qualitatively measured visually by looking at the ground truths as well as the segmentation masks generated from different segmentation approaches or by comparing the original image and the segmented result. The quantitative performance of segmentation results is compared via five performance measures as misclassification error (ME), false positive rate (FPR), false negative rate (FNR), Jaccard index (JI) and segmentation accuracy (SA).The doctoral research work is focused on the development of transition region approaches both in spatial and wavelet domain for image segmentation. The algorithms developed are categorized as(A) Grayscale transition region based segmentation approaches(B) Colour image transition region based segmentation approachesThe details are summarized below.(A) Grayscale transition region based segmentation approaches: Five transition region based approaches are developed for grayscale image segmentation (i) Proposed method 1, (ii) Proposed method 2, (iii) Proposed method 3, (iv) Proposed method 4 and (iv) Proposed method 5.(i) Proposed method 1: The Proposed method 1 extracts transition region using local variance and global thresholding considered from the variance features. The method utilizes edge linking and morphological operations for object extraction. The method is intended for segmentation of single and multiple objects from the image. The method does not perform well when the object and background gray level intensities are overlapping in nature.(ii) Proposed method 2: The Proposed method 2 utilizes 2-dimensional Gabor filter and global thresholding considered from the Gabor features for transition region extraction. Further, it uses edge linking and morphological operations for object extraction. The method is developed for eradicating the drawbacks of Proposed method 1. The performance of this method degrades in the presence of background texture.(iii) Proposed method 3: The Proposed method 3 is a hybridization of Proposed method 1 and Proposed method 2 in the transform domain. For suppressing the background textures, the wavelet transform is utilized in Proposed method 3. Utilizing the transitional features extracted by applying Proposed method 1 and Proposed method 2, a wavelet feature image is generated. The transition region is extracted by applying Otsu thresholding on these feature image. Further, edge linking and morphological operations are applied on it to extract the objects.(iv) Proposed method 4: The Proposed method 4 also utilizes the wavelet transform along with uses local standard deviation and Otsu thresholding for transition region extraction. The method suppresses the texture and extracts an effectively continuous transition region achieving better segmentation result. The method does not utilize the edge linking operation as used in Proposed method 1, Proposed method 2 and Proposed method 3. It uses less number of morphological operations as compared to that of Proposed method 1 and Proposed method 2.(v) Proposed method 5: The Proposed method uses fuzzy c-means clustering of local variance features along with Otsu thresholding for transition region extraction.(B) Colour image transition region based segmentation approaches: Here three transition region based colour image segmentation which is the extension of gray level transition region approaches are developed. The segmentation methods developed are (i) Proposed method 6, (ii) Proposed method 7 and (iii) Proposed method 8.(i) Proposed method 6: The Proposed method 6 is an extension of Proposed method 1 developed in RGB colour space.(ii) Proposed method 7: The Proposed method 7 is an extension of Proposed method 4 processed in CIE-Lab colour space. The method is applied to one agricultural application i.e. worm separation from infected plant leaves.(iii) Proposed method 8: The Proposed method 8 is a hybrid two-stage segmentation process which uses the algorithm of Proposed method 1 and Proposed method 2. This method processes the colour image in two different colour models (RGB model and CIE-Lab) for object extraction. The Proposed method 8 is applied for underwater fish image segmentation.The proposed methods are found to be better for segmentation of gray and colour images.

African experience of institutionalization of territorial autonomies: constitutional and legal status of Zanzibar as part of Tanzania

The article concludes that the state-territorial model of Tanzania has a complex structure and is characterized by various qualitative features that are characteristic (in various combinations and volumes) of the Federal and unitary forms of state-territorial structure. In the system unity of normative and actual indicators, the model of the state-territorial structure of Tanzania has a hybrid asymmetric configuration that synthesizes elements of a Federation and a unitary state with an unbalanced legal position of the two constituent regions (Zanzibar and Tanganyika). It is emphasized that Tanzania as a whole is characterized by the predominance of features of the unitary model.

Mapping Neural Circuit Biotypes to Symptoms and Behavioral Dimensions of Depression and Anxiety

Background: Despite tremendous advances in characterizing human brain circuits that govern emotional and cognitive functions that are impaired in depression and anxiety, we lack a circuitbased taxonomy that captures transdiagnostic heterogeneity and informs clinical decision making. Methods: We develop and test a novel system for quantifying six brain circuits reproducibly and at the individual patient level. We implement standardized circuit definitions relative to a healthy reference group, and algorithms to generate circuit function and dysfunction scores for the overall circuit and its constituent regions. Outcomes: In primary and generalizability samples of depression and anxiety (n=251) we demonstrate that overall disconnections within task-free salience and default mode circuits map onto symptoms of anxious avoidance, loss of pleasure, threat dysregulation, and negative emotional biases – core characteristics that transcend diagnoses – and poorer daily function. Regional dysfunctions within task-evoked cognitive control and affective circuits implicate more specific cognitive symptoms and valence-congruent behavioral disruptions. Circuit dysfunction scores also predict response to pharmacological and behavioral therapies in an independent sample (n=207). Interpretation: Our findings articulate circuit dimensions that parse the heterogeneity of depression and anxiety and have direct clinical translational significance. Our novel system offers a foundation for deploying standardized circuit assessments across research groups, trials and clinics to advance more precise classifications and treatment targets for psychiatry. Funding: This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health [grant numbers R01MH101496 (LMW), UH2HL132368 (JM, LMW), F32MH108299 (ANG-P), T32MH019938 (TMB), and K23MH113708 (TMB)]. Declaration of Interests: LMW declares US Pants. App. 10/034,645 and 15/820,338: Systems and methods for detecting complex networks in MRI image data. ANG-P, TMB, ZS, KAG, SLF, ASK, BRS, and BHG declare no competing interests. Ethics Approval Statement: All procedures were approved by the Stanford University Institutional Review Board (IRB 27937 and 41837) or Western Sydney Area Health Service Human Research Ethics Committee. All participants provided written informed consent prior to study procedures.

ВИЗУАЛИЗАЦИЯ ПРИКЛАДНОЙ КЛИМАТИЧЕСКОЙ ИНФОРМАЦИИ ДЛЯ ПОЛЬЗОВАТЕЛЕЙ

Based on open source data various ways to visualize climate information on maps have been analyzed in terms of convenience for final users who are often not climate scientists. The variety of imaging methods as well as their main advantages and disadvantages are shown. On the examples of the constituent entities of three Federal districts (Central Northwestern and North Caucasian) versions of adding or replacing cartographic information are proposed with the help of diagrams to facilitate a comparison of indicators and perception of results. Several meteorological parameters have been analyzed in each constituent entity of the Russian Federation: average annual surface air temperature, average annual amount of precipitation and the difference between precipitation and evaporation, as well as cloud cover for the summer and winter seasons. Graphs of changes of this parameter for three periods of time (base 1981-2000, as well as 2041-2060 and 2080-2099 of the RCP8.5 scenario) successfully perform the function of comparing climate information for different constituent entities and regions for various years and show the variability more clearly than the source cards.

Participation of Russia's Constituent Regions in Implementing Its Foreign Policy

Participation of Russia's Constituent Regions in Implementing Its Foreign Policy

The Assessment of Regional Investment Potential with Subject to Non-Observed Economy

The article outlines the author’s method of assessing the investment potential of a region’s economy by institutional sector: financial corporations, non-financial corporations, households, and the government, as illustrated by the case of the regions constituting the Far Eastern Federal District of Russia (hereinafter FEFD). The author attempts to extract the nonobserved (shadow) economy component from the institutional sectors. An algorithm has been designed for determining the forms of funding investment needs at a regional level.The research methodology employed by the author is based on the economic and statistical method, computational and constructive method, and comparative analysis.The proposed method has made it possible to present the investment potential of the FEDF in the context of institutional sectors with an emphasis on the shadow economy; to assess the amount of unutilized investment resources in the district; to calculate the level of realization of the district’s investment potential; and to determine that the investment opportunities available in the region are not taken full advantage of. Using the proposed algorithm, the author has identified the constituent regions of the FEFD that are capable of funding their development with their own investment resources, and the regions that require government support that may extend as far as co-financing investment.The methods and tools presented in the research can be applied by government bodies for the sake of a more consistent and rational approach to developing regional economic policy as regards investment strategies and development programs for regions, administrative decision making that matches the present-day conditions, and more effective spending of public investment resources.

On Climatic Control of Wrap-Around Heat Pipe (WAHP) Enhanced Dehumidifier in Outdoor Air Systems

Although wrap-around heat pipes (WAHP) are widely used for enhanced dehumidification systems in tropical and hot-humid climates, very few literature resources have actually reported any control methodology applicable for WAHP dehumidifier systems for an entire year’s operation. In the present work, a methodology is proposed for an outdoor air unit equipped with a WAHP-based dehumidifier along with other auxiliary components. For this, the ambient conditions over an entire year are categorized into six constituent regions based on temperature and humidity levels. The proposed method involves defining specific control sequences corresponding to ambient conditions under each psychrometric region for tandem operation of system components. Fundamentally, this establishes a sort of segregated climatic control protocol for maintaining acceptable levels of humidity and temperature inside the conditioned spaces during a whole year’s operations. An energy simulation study is performed for two DOE prototype office buildings with six representative weather locations ranging from extremely hot and humid to dry and hot as per ASHRAE’s climate classification. Results show that a 100% outdoor unit comprising WAHP-based dehumidifier system equipped with proposed climatic controls saves cooling plant energy in a range of 1.5–19%, when compared with a similar WAHP-based outdoor unit without any climatic controls and auxiliary components. The proposed controls also enable the outdoor air unit in maintaining comparatively better indoor environmental conditions (temperature and relative humidity), resulting in lesser number of building occupied hours drifting away from prescribed indoor temperature and relative humidity limits than its basic counterpart without any climatic controls. This substantiates the intent and applicability of proposed control methodology for WAHP-based dehumidifier systems.

Brain size expansion in primates and humans is explained by a selective modular expansion of the cortico-cerebellar system

Comparative variation in brain size is arguably one of the most dominant features of primate evolution. Enduring questions in this context comprise whether evolutionary changes in certain brain regions outpace changes in other regions, and to what extent such regional variation between species explains comparative variation in overall brain size. To answer this question, we investigate the tempo and mode of evolution of brain organization using the largest combination of brain regions and species analyzed to date (36 brain regions, together representing over 90% of overall brain size, across 17 anthropoid primates, including humans). Following studies suggesting that the expansion of the major constituent regions of the cortico-cerebellar system (CCS) predominantly explain human brain size expansion, we test whether the link between variation in the CCS and brain size is consistent across primates. Results indicate that the constituent brain regions of the CCS show the highest rates of evolution, demonstrate a significant modular pattern of evolution, and closely align with changes in overall brain size. This phenotypic structure is consistent across different taxonomic scales, suggesting that the evolution of anthropoid brain organization is underpinned by a stable genetic structure and is characterized by a conserved evolutionary trajectory towards the CCS. Results hereby suggest that the expansion of the CCS is the primary driver of brain expansion in anthropoid primates. These findings have fundamental implications for our understanding of the nature of primate and human cognition, and the genetic and developmental structure that underpins brain evolution.

Державна політика у сфері охорони культурної спадщини: міжнародний досвід

Розглянуто сучасний стан реалізації державної політики у сфері культурної спадщини у зарубіжних країнах. Вивчено зарубіжний досвід розподілу повноважень між органами державної влади та недержавними організаціями, стимулювання участі приватного капіталу та залучення нових джерел фінансування охорони культурної спадщини.

Implementation of federal laws in the regions

In the Iraqi model of federalism, the federal legislature is enacting legislation that is tend to be implemented in its constituent regions. However, there is only one region within Iraq, the Kurdistan Region. Despite the fact that establishing other region in Iraq is not contradicting with legal and constitutional statutes, no other regions have been established in Iraq. What should be looked into in the mechanism of legislations issued by the Iraqi Parliament within Kurdistan Region is that: is it necessary to implement all the laws in the Kurdistan Region? Taken into consideration that the Iraqi Parliament is enacting two types of legislations, local and federal legislations. This led us to make differentiation between the two types of legislation and thus the mechanism of implementation of such legislation within the Kurdistan Region and those provinces outside Kurdistan Region. The constitutional areas that the federal legislature is entitled to issue are four, including: exclusive competencies, common competencies, competences related to the establishment of federal bodies and their institutions, and the sparse aspects. As for the implementation of the federal laws in the provinces or the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, the result is the adoption and application of the mixed management or implementation method, given that the federal government itself implements federal laws, especially those relating to the majority of exclusive competencies that it practiced by the federal authorities. Besides, there are federal laws implemented through a joint administration between the federal government and the Regional Government (such as the Customs Law, the Antiquities Law, Oil and Gas Law ...etc. The study concluded that two proposals were submitted to the constitutional legislator and the ordinary law legislator in Iraq in order to determine the nature of the federal legislation and separate it from the domestic legislation, and thus to explicitly stand on the mechanism of implementation of federal laws in the regions.

Nanoelectronics with proximitized materials

While materials design for many device applications usually relies on adding impurities, recent advances in scaling-down heterostructures with improved interfacial properties offer a different way to transform a large class of materials. A given material can be drastically changed by inheriting properties leaking from its neighboring regions, such as magnetism, superconductivity, or spin-orbit coupling. While these proximity effects often have a short range and are considered negligible, the situation is qualitatively different in atomically thin and two-dimensional materials where the extent of proximity effects can exceed their thickness. Consequently, proximitized materials have a potential to display novel properties and device opportunities, absent in any of the constituent region of the considered heterostructures. Such proximitized materials could provide platforms for a wide range of emerging applications: from seamless integration of memory and logic, to fault-tolerant topologically protected quantum computing.

Tools for assessing the level of development of digital technologies in Russia (on the example of the Far East)

The article presents tools for assessing the potential of the sphere of info communications in the constituent regions of the Far East of Russia. The indicators characterizing the level of development of digital technologies in the constituent regions of Russia are defined. Recommendations for increasing the level of digital transformation of basic sectors of the economy and social sphere are proposed. The study identified indicators characterizing the level of development of digital technologies in the regions of RussiaNumerical calculations of the integral index of the main indicators of the development potential of the digital economy of the FEFD constituent regions are carried out. Built histogram of rating of constituent regions of the Far Eastern Federal district on the composite index and individual indicators. The authors note that a comparison of research results with data from the National Research University, Higher School of Economics shows comparable values for the positions occupied by the regions of the FEFD in terms of the main indicators of the development of the digital economy. This assessment tool adequately reflects the real state of digital technologies development in the FEFD constituent regions and can be used for analysis and evaluation in other regions of the country. Recommendations for increasing the level of digital transformation of the basic sectors of the economy and social sphere are proposed. In the future, the proposed method of evaluation can be replicated to assess the level of readiness of any subject of the Federation to the transition to a new path of economic development.

Economic Growth Strategy Based on the Dynamics of Gross Domestic Product

The issue of economic growth has become urgent since the country’s leadership set the task of doubling general domestic product (GDP) for the period from 2001 to 2010. We calculated the required annual growth rate and analyzed it both by year and over the past few years. The results suggest that GDP has not doubled within 10 years. Thus, it is appropriate to consider separately the pace of Russian economy on the whole and the total gross regional product (GRP) of its constituent regions. We analyzed its contradictions and disproportions restraining dynamic economic development at different levels. As a hypothesis, we assumed that the problems of the country’s economic growth mostly stem from such contradictions in the regional development. The research base was information on the volumes and dynamics of the Russian Federation GDP and GRP of its regions from 2001 to 2016, which indicate economic growth. We have assessed whether GDP and GRP dynamics was conform to the strategic guidelines of Russia’s economic development. We processed the dataset using a number of methods such as grouping, average and relative values, analysis of time series. Firstly, this processing has revealed, that the objective of doubling Russia’s GDP has not been met even over 16years (only 3.57 % was reached instead of the required average annual rates of 4.42 %). Secondly, over 16 years, the leading regions have been steadily developing whereas outsiders have become weaker, and the factors of regional development have remained unchanged. Thirdly, the analysis of the Republic of Bashkortostan case demonstrates that the existing model of regional economic growth, as well as the impact of the base effect, has reached its limits. Thus, growth rates are slowing down alongside with increasing absolute production volumes, while the ratio of intermediate and end products persists in the long term. Consequently, the regional economy lacks systemic positive structural changes, without which breakthrough economic growth is impossible. The obtained results can be used for improving the analysis and forecasting techniques of Russian regional development and forming an effective regional policy.

Proximitized materials

Advances in scaling down heterostructures and having an improved interface quality together with atomically thin two-dimensional materials suggest a novel approach to systematically design materials. A given material can be transformed through proximity effects whereby it acquires properties of its neighbors, for example, becoming superconducting, magnetic, topologically nontrivial, or with an enhanced spin–orbit coupling. Such proximity effects not only complement the conventional methods of designing materials by doping or functionalization but also can overcome their various limitations. In proximitized materials, it is possible to realize properties that are not present in any constituent region of the considered heterostructure. While the focus is on magnetic and spin–orbit proximity effects with their applications in spintronics, the outlined principles also provide a broader framework for employing other proximity effects to tailor materials and realize novel phenomena.

Two Kingdoms in a Multi-Tiered Empire: New Spain and New Galicia in the Mid-Eighteenth Century

This article casts light on the structure of the Spanish empire by focusing on the relations between two American kingdoms, New Spain and New Galicia. New Spain comprised the heartland of colonial Mexico, and New Galicia lay to its northwest. New Spain enjoyed significant status and to a degree controlled New Galicia and other dependent realms. By the mid-eighteenth century, the viceroy of New Spain sent inspectors, appointed treasury officials, and even wrested the mining camp of Bolanos from New Galicia. Yet New Galicia insisted on its autonomy. Its president resisted the viceregal interventions and finally succeeded in recovering jurisdiction over Bolanos. The relationship between the two North American kingdoms therefore differed from that between other constituent regions of the empire. The kingdom of Quito, for example, was fully subordinate to the Peruvian viceroy in Lima. The empire can therefore be described as multi-tiered and not exclusively characterized by the hegemony of Madrid/Castile over its overseas possessions. Instead, the empire consisted of uneven and overlapping ties between a group of core kingdoms and their dependent territories, and their relations changed over time.

The Free Economic Zone of the Republic of Crimea and the Federal City of Sevastopol

Free economic zones have become an essential part of the world economy in recent history. The voluntary entry of the Peninsula of Crimea into the Russian Federation as one of its constituent regions, lead to the adoption of the social and economic development commitments of this region by our state. For this reason, one of the most important goals for authorities of the Russian Federation is to develop the social, economic, and other spheres of the society. The establishment of the free economic zone in the Republic of Crimea and the Federal City of Sevastopol became one of solutions to this problem. This article analyzes the issues of legislation on the free economic zone in the territories of the Republic of Crimea and the Federal City of Sevastopol and aims to find solutions of these issues. This research is based on the application of comparative, retrospective and formal juridical analysis of the legislation and research papers dedicated to questions of the free economic zones and other territories with a special legal regime for conducting entrepreneurial activity (territories of advanced social and economic development, the Free Port of Vladivostok, special economic zones in the Russian Federation). In particular, the norms of current legislation on goals and terms of creation of the free economic zone in the territories of the Republic of Crimea and the Federal City of Sevastopol, the management of the free economic zone and the implementation of entrepreneurial activities within its borders were analyzed. We conclude that it is necessary to improve the current legislation on the free economic zone in the territory of the Republic of Crimea and makes several suggestions for optimization its provisions. The results achieved can be used both in the lawmaking process and as a foundation for further researches.

Systemic and Structural Factors Relating to Quality and Equality of Human Rights Implementation in Federal States

The internal organisation of a state is a contributing factor to the implementation of human rights treaties. Although federal states do not demonstrate an implementation standard that is generally lower or higher than in unitary states, both the positive developments and deficits arising can be linked to the federal structure. In many cases, under the state’s internal order, the responsibility for implementation lies not only with the federal government but in parallel or even exclusively with the constituent states, provinces or regions. The integration of uniform standards within a system of multi-level politics involves certain special features, which are identified and discussed. For those purposes, the author has evaluated and undertaken a critical analysis of the implementation requirements of international human rights treaties and the European Convention on Human Rights, interpretative documents issued by treaty bodies and judgments of the European Court of Human Rights. The focus of the analysis concerns the structural and institutional frameworks typically found in federal states. The assessment seeks to contribute to a deeper understanding of the benefits and challenges of implementation in federal states.