Early 2020s Research Articles

PHENOMENON OF DEMIKHOV. Achievements and prospects of heart transplantation in the USSR in the early 1970s

The paper presents the analysis of two publications written by two pioneers of heart transplantation in the USSR, A.A. Vishnevsky with co-authors and G.M. Solovyov, which covered the state of the organ transplantation issue in 1971–1973 and gave predictions for its future development. It is shown that the authors of those publications saw and formulated the main trends in the development of the problem in one and the same way. Meanwhile, G.M. Solovyov, being the Director of the specialized Institute of Organ and Tissue Transplantation of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences saw the issues of organ transplantation more in depth than A.A. Vishnevsky who headed the A.V. Vishnevsky Institute of Surgery of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences. In particular, this concerned immunological studies. Shortly after its establishment in 1969, the Institute of Organ and Tissue Transplantation arranged a powerful laboratory of immunogenetics on its base. The staff of that laboratory (L.V. Smirnova, Yu.M. Zaretskaya, L.P. Alekseev, V.I. Shkurko, A.M. Sochneva, I.V. Petrova, etc.) conducted world-class immunological studies, which results inspired certain optimism among surgeons. A more complicated situation was with the clinical issues of organ transplantation, with the solution of organizational, moral and ethical issues, where, in addition to doctors, the active participation of legislators, economists, and healthcare organizers was required. This paper presents comparative data on the state of political, economic, and organizational issues of organ transplantation in the Russian Federation between the 2010s and early 2020s. It is shown that the planned in the 2020s tendency of their positive solution and further development inspires certain optimism.

Perspectives by green financial instruments – a case study in the Hungarian banking sector during COVID-19

Recently, the management of the green financial sector has been widely influenced by global socio-economic concerns such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the energy crisis. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate, besides their environmental attitude, what opinions and experiences the affected stakeholders have about the sustainability-related processes in the Hungarian banking sector in the early 2020s. To assess this subject extensively, two questionnaire surveys were conducted in two consecutive years (2020/2021 and 2021/2022), involving 600 and 1,600 participants randomly chosen from banking databases, respectively. The results indicate that both residential and corporate participants have various but broadening knowledge of green financial instruments. Hungarian residential customers have pointed out the inconveniences of the most popular green loan product (Green Home Program), while there appears a distinct difference in green investment preferences between the two groups of respondents. Hungarian stakeholders are quite eco-conscious, and so are banks adopting sustainability and climate risk assessment actions, however, the implementations have much potential to exploit. Respondents also identify the energy crisis-related risks, while their trust in the banking system remains high even under volatile circumstances. These findings demonstrate that the Hungarian green banking sector has a high degree of crisis resistance with residential and corporate stakeholders behind giving trust and thereby the driving force toward the successful green transition.

Die Wissenschaftlichkeit einer Bachelorarbeit

The article deals with the problem of determining the degree of scientificity of a bachelor’s thesis. With the transition of Ukrainian institutions of higher education to the Bologna system, a number of reforms regarding the structure and quality indicators of education took place. In recent years, almost all universities require students to write and defend bachelor theses. As a consequence of the autonomy of the university system, each university has developed its own requirements for writing bachelor’s theses, which are based on the requirements of the Law of Ukraine “About a Higher Education”. The difference in requirements concerns primarily the scientific level of the bachelor's thesis. Most of the requirements formulate the scientific nature of the work as the presence of scientific elements in it, which does not quite meet European standards, where, for example, in Germany, a bachelor's thesis is considered as a research paper in which the student must demonstrate his ability to work scientifically according to standards of scientific probity. It's time to modernize our Uni.check anti-plagiarism program, because scientific publications from the other countries and older Ukrainian publications are ignored in this program, and this fact creates an opportunity for plagiarism. A serious difference to the Ukrainian realities with regard to the bachelor thesis lies in the requirement of the universities of German-speaking countries to formulate the research topic themselves and to narrow it down in such a way that the student's own contribution can be demonstrated.In Ukrainian practice, research topics are given and are often too general for the student to inevitably convey well-known facts in the bachelor thesis. The tendency, which only became apparent in the early 2020s, to offer special courses in academic writing at universities raises the hope that bachelor students will be prepared for academic work and will know exactly that they are writing an academic paper.

Historical meaning of post‐Fukushima social movements: Crisis in hegemony in postwar Japan and prefigurative politics in the 2010s

AbstractSince the Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011 and the nuclear power plant accident, a number of movements have emerged in Japanese society, including the anti‐nuclear power movement and others with a variety of agendas. The social movements of the 2010s in Japan have expanded along with the spread of social networking services and have brought together a new class of people who are different from those of the established movements. This article will compare and examine the social movements of the 2010s with those of the past, as well as the function they played in the social structure. In the early 2020s, a structural crisis in the political and economic foundations of postwar Japan has become apparent. The Japanese social movements of the 2010s were movements that pressed for the transformation of the old social system as well as the transformation of the old anti‐system movements. Thus, this movement had the distinction of prefiguring a fundamental shift in the confrontational frame of reference between conservatism and progressivism that had shaped postwar Japan. This article will discuss the historical significance of the Japanese social movements of the 2010s in light of the structural factors behind the decline of the social base of both conservative and progressive forces.

Lockdown, social control of space and religious freedom

Political thought, from Aristotle to Lefebvre, has placed importance on the control of space as an activity of political power. Extraordinary measures taken by global policy-makers since the early 2020s as part of efforts to to combat the pandemic have included mass lock-downs, closed borders, social distancing and other forms of spatial control. Importantly, spaces dedicated to religious worship (churches, etc.) were subjected to extraordinary regulation. In the exercise of this new control of space, social control has played an important role (obligation to declare one’s health condition, incitement to denounce offenders...) fostered by the authorities through various means of new social education, generating new social habits in terms of the management of space. Religious freedom and the autonomy of the Church thus faced new challenges as a result of the extraordinary control of religious space by civil power and the pressure of social control. The new forms of control incorporated into our habits deserve to be critically reviewed in our search for true spaces of freedom that are not sacrificed in the name of supposed science.

Development of the Muslim Community of Tatarstan in 2022

The article is dedicated to the evolution of the Muslim community in the Republic of Tatarstan (RT) in 2022. This publication continues a series of articles examining the Muslim community of Tatarstan in the 2000s and early 2020s. The article concludes that stability in the religious field is generally maintained in the Republic of Tatarstan. In the context of a Special Military Operation (SMO or SVO in Russian), as previously during the pandemic, social activism has become increasingly important. The most important socio-political issue for the Tatar religious figures of Russia was the preparation for and participation in the state-level celebration of 1,100 anniversary of adoption of Islam by the Bulgars. The law enforcement agencies in the republic continue to identify and punish representatives of extremist organizations banned in the Russian Federation.

Single-pilot airline operations: Designing the aircraft may be the easy part

AbstractFor financial and operational reasons many aircraft manufacturers are working on the development of single-pilot commercial aircraft. It is suggested that cargo operations may commence in the early 2030s followed by passenger flights later that decade. Two technological approaches for the development of single-pilot airliners are being developed either based upon extant technology and operating concepts derived from uninhabited aviation systems and military aircraft, or alternatively based upon high levels of onboard autonomy/automation. This review considers the economic, technological, regulatory (safety) and societal acceptance of the single-pilot airliner, and examines some of the operational challenges that airlines may face. It is suggested that while the technological and safety challenges may be resolved, it is the operational challenges that may determine if the concept is ultimately viable.

C&EN talks with Julie Cosmidis, geobiologist

A world away, the Perseverance rover is traversing the Martian surface and stashing samples of rock. Planetary scientists can’t wait to get their hands on that cache, which NASA hopes to bring to Earth in the early 2030s. In the meantime, Julie Cosmidis is warning her colleagues not to jump to conclusions based on very limited data—because chemistry can create near copies of life without any help from biology. In a review published last year, Cosmidis, who studies biominerals at the University of Oxford , and coauthor Sean McMahon of the University of Edinburgh shared how the history of the search for life on early Earth and on other planets has been littered with blunders. They cited errors as far back as the 1800s, when sinewy filaments observed in rocks were mistaken for ancient organisms ( J. Geol. Soc. 2021, DOI: 10.1144/jgs2021-050 ). Cosmidis’s lab works to identify how certain

Evolution of the display of high technologies and social networks in the «terminator» universe in 1984-2022

The article is devoted to a comprehensive analysis of the transformation of the reflection of computer technologies and network resources in the Terminator cinematic and literary universe created by the American director J. Cameron in the mid 1980s and early 2020s. In this study the authors substantiate the relevance and scientific component of the problem under study. The paper considers the degree of importance of high technologies and social networks in modern public life. The article provides a justification for the fallacy of the judgment, according to which works of fiction of a fantastic orientation perform purely entertaining function and do not carry a significant semantic load. This article also provides an argument for choosing the Terminator fantastic universe as an example for research, wit an analysis of the reasons for its great popularity and high degree of significance for contemporary art. The authors of the work subject the key components of the topic under consideration to reflection, taking into account the changes that have taken place in the public consciousness over three and a half decades, takin inti account the differences in historical and political realities – from the last quarter of the 20-th century to the present, until the beginning of the third decade of the XXI century. This article provides a comparative analysis of the reasons for significant differences in the display of high technology and online resources in cinema and fiction. The work draws parallels and analogies with historical events, analyzes the use of the religious meanings used in the Terminator universe. The authors of the article analyze the moral issues that are raised by the creators of the fantastic universe of Terminator in the context of the positive and negative consequences of the intense growth of the role of high technologies and communicative Internet sites in the life of human society.

The Foundation of Coalition avenir Québec and Québec party politics in the second half of the 2010s - early 2020s

The article deals with the main trends in the Quebec provincial party politics in the second half of the 2010s – early 2020s. It shows the emergence and formation of the Coalition avenir Québec party along with the specificity of its ideology. It also analyses the changes in the balance of power in the provincial politics after the 2018 elections in National Assembly. Special attention is given to the attempts to reform the electoral system of Quebec. The author concludes that new long-term trends have appeared in provincial politics.

Civil Society in the Middle East During the Arab Spring and Socio-Political Transformations of the Late 2010s and Early 2020s

The paper analyses the development of civil society in the key Arab countries of the Greater Middle East – Egypt, Tunisia and Syria – through the 2000s and early 2020s. The research mainly focuses on identifying specific features of civic activity developing by various Islamic and Islamist organizations. Methodologically the paper utilizes a set of methods borrowed from history, sociology, Islamic studies and political science. The source base of the research includes a wide range of primary materials on the civic activity in various countries of the region and the author’s interviews conducted with politicians and public figures in Egypt, Tunisia and Syria. The author identifies and analyses the key factors that led to civil society activism and the multidirectional development of civil society organisations and activism in countries in the Middle East region during the “Arab Spring” and social protests of the late 2010s and early 2020s. He carefully examines the transformation of civil society in the Arab Middle East in close relation to new socio-political developments in the West in the 2010s and 2020s and the phenomenon of growing social and political subjectivity exhibited by Muslim diasporas in Europe. The article postulates the hypothesis of the emergence of leader countries with significant influence on Islamist civil society actors in the Middle East through whose influence the “Islamic project” is reinforced as a factor structuring civic engagement in key Arab states in the Middle East.

Упраздненные поселения Карелии: прошлое и настоящее

History of the settlements of the Republic of Karelia, abolished in the period of late 1950s — early 2020s, is examined in the article. Based on content analysis and information from photographic documents posted in public, the current state of the territories of abolished rural settlements is described. The authors focus on a specific category of abolished settlements of the Republic of Karelia, whose population in the pre-revolutionary period was more than 150 people. Thus, such settlements as Keret, Kakkarovo, Vashakovo, Lagilamba, Signavolok and Lyadinskaya were considered in the article. Out of these Keret had the longest history and the biggest economic importance in the past, therefore it’s examined with the highest degree of detail. In general, abolished settlements of the named category have either retained their residential function, being absorbed by neighboring villages as a part of their planning structure, or become abandoned territories with heavily ruined residential buildings. In addition, abolished settlements have the tendency to become more and more involved in the recreation economy; the most promising areas are sports, kayaking, expeditionary and religious tourism. Considering the popularity of recreation in quite distant places, the demand for guest houses equipped on the basis of restored historical Pomor houses is likely to increase.

The Policy of Collective Historical Memory in Modern Georgia in the Early 2020s

The aim of the study is to analyze the modern politics of memory in Georgia in the early 2020s. The author analyzes the role and place of liberal trends in modern Georgian social thought as a factor in the development and transformation of memorial culture and collective historical memory. The novelty of the study lies in the study of the current (modern) stage in the development of the historical policy of Georgian society in the context of an objective lack of interdisciplinary research focused on the analysis of the memorial cultures of the post-Soviet space, based of the original sources use. The article also shows that 1) the liberal segment of modern Georgian society makes a significant contribution to the developments and transformations of memorial culture; 2) the spectrum of memorial practices of Georgian intellectuals varies from historical revisionism to attempts to form a liberal memorial canon; 3) the participation of intellectuals in memorial policy contributes to a parallel co-development of various forms of historical memories. It is assumed that the role of Georgian civil society, including its liberal segment, in the historical politics of modern Georgia will increase, and the intellectual community will remain among the active participants in collective memorial politics.

China-US Relations in the 1940s - Early 2020s: Establishment and Key Challenges

The relevance of the research subject is conditioned upon the deterioration of diplomatic ties between the United States of America and the People's Republic of China. Clarifying this issue is, in addition, crucial considering the current unstable geopolitical situation. The purpose of the study was to identify the main stages of development of economic, political and social relations between the two countries and the problematic issues faced by the respective states. Methods used in the study: historical method, statistical method, systemic method, method of analysis and synthesis, comparative method etc. The chronology of China-US diplomatic relations was clarified, and the historical events that accompanied the development of the relevant relations were considered. The author examines the impact of these relations on the state of China-US ties, including the impact of World War II, the communist regime in the People's Republic of China, etc. In addition, the study includes statistics related to the so-called “trade war” between China and the United States. The main aspects of the Taiwan issue and the position of both the US and Chinese sides on this territory are clarified. In addition, attention was paid to the US and China's response to the Ukrainian-russian war, etc. The results of the research can be used by sociologists, lawyers and historians to write essays and dissertations. The data obtained can serve as a foundation for improving and enhancing diplomatic relations between the countries examined

Demographic Crisis in the Republic of Korea: History, Specifics, Perspectives

The article deals with demographic development of the Republic of Korea, which has experienced a rapid decline in birth rate in recent decades. Late 2010s – early 2020s is a period of anti-records for the country in a decrease in population (since 2020), in one of the lowest marriage and birth rates in the world. The article presents stages of demographic transition in the Republic of Korea in the 20th–21st centuries. The stages differ by nature and conditions of demographic processes. The article highlights fertility transition stages from the 1960s due to economic reforms and Government policy of population control by means of family planning programs. National features of the Korean demographic crisis are outlined, including: “excessive effectiveness” of the population control, transformation of Koreans’ attitude to family and childbearing, high costs for raising and educating children. There is a conclusion about negative impact of the demographic crisis on the country’s future.

The Features of German-Japanese Cooperation in the Sphere of Security and Defence in the Early 2020-s

Historically Germany and Japan have both played significant roles in the creation of a new world order. Today it is evident that each of the two countries has impact over the transformation of the “collective” West and its relations with the non-West. The roles of Germany and Japan in the processes could increase significantly if they establish multi-track and comprehensive cooperation in the field of security and defense. The article seeks to explore the features and its prospects in the early 2020s. The scientific paper notes the parallelism of the historic experience of each country in the realization of power`s ambitions, especially during the Second World War, capitulation and further joining the group of Western democracies. The reasons of rather limited German-Japanese cooperation during the 1990-s — 2010-s are explored. The confrontations between the Euro-Atlantic community and Russia, as well as between USA, increasing number of their partners (including Japan) and China have set the framework conditions for the development of German-Japanese cooperation in political and military fields. However, the process only fully began at the turn of the 2010s — 2020s. The article issues the role of Japan as Germany`s partner in the region, the content and narrow places of political dialogue and military cooperation. The author contemplates how the influence of the USA as Japan’s key ally, Tokyo’s participation in Quad and Partners in the Blue Pacific might impact Japanese cooperation with Germany in the context of its participation in the PRC`s containment.

Turkish Somersault

The concept of strategic hedging and strategic autonomy in the Turkish interpretation makes it possible to understand the multidirectional and sometimes contradictory nature of Ankara’s relations with Moscow in the late 2010s and the early 2020s.

Research on the problems of cooperation in Russian historical science

The article is devoted to a historiographical analysis of scientific literature, which touches on various aspects of the development of domestic cooperation in the 20s. XX century. It is noted that the development of cooperation in all spheres of national economic life, and, above all, in agriculture, is one of the important factors in ensuring socio-economic progress, national and food security. An important place in the article is occupied by the coverage of the issue of developing problems of cooperation in the 1920s, when it was mainly represented by the works of world-recognized theorists and practitioners of cooperation of the pre-revolutionary generation: A. V. Chayanov, S. L. Maslov, N. P. Oganovsky, N. D. Kondratiev and others. Some attention is paid to the issues of periodization of the study of the problem of cooperative construction, the socio-economic nature of cooperation, the historiography of agrarian theories of representatives of the “old school of Russian cooperators”, studies that considered vertical type cooperation, which developed during the years of the new economic policy, as an alternative to Stalinist collectivization. The great importance in the development of cooperative issues of Soviet historians of pre-perestroika and perestroika times V. P. Danilov, V. P. Dmitrenko, V. V. Kabanov, L. F. Morozov, V. I. Pogudin, V. M. Selunskaya and others is noted, as well as numerous works of Russian scientists on agrarian and peasant issues in the 1990s and early 2020s: A. O. Bunin, A. Yu. Davydov, S. A. Esikov, A. V. Ivanov, A. A. Nikolaev, N L. Rogalina, L. E. Fain, etc.

The U.S. - German relations in political and military spheres in 2022: cooperation or competition?

Disengagement between the West and the non-West has been becoming more and more noticeable by the early 2020s. The key examples of it are the confrontations between the Euro-Atlantic community and Russia, the USA, its partners and China, degradation of relations between the West and Iran. In such situation cohesion between the liberal democracies should increase. But the Euro-Atlantic faced the phenomena of Trumpism and Brexit. In this regard the article tries to explore the elements of cooperation and competition for the US-German relations in political and military spheres during late February - early November 2022. The article stresses the absence of purely bilateral contacts at the highest level of the dialogue. The determination is shown in the context of the Biden administration’s policy named as «soft hegemony», the US expectations regarding the supply of German weapons to Kyiv. The paper compares the US and German approaches to manning NATO military groupings, especially Forward Presence Force. In 2022 Berlin tries to act symmetrically to the USA. Germany has taken into account the US expectations for growing European member states’ participation in NATO`s activities but at the same time skillfully realized its own ambitions as power. The article also analyses the ratio of approaches on the example of decisions of NATO`s Madrid summit (2022, June) decisions.

Историческая политика и мемориальная культура современного румынского общества

The aim of the research is to analyze the contemporary politics of memory in Romania in the early 2020s. The author examines the role and place of intellectual communities as key spaces of memory genesis and the functioning of memorial culture and collective historical memory in the contemporary social and political thought of Romania. The novelty of the study lies in exploring the current stage in the development of the historical politics of Roma­nian society in the context of an objective deficit of interdisciplinary research focused on the analysis of memorial cultures. The article demonstrates that: 1) the intellectual community, as one of the systemic segments of modern Romanian society, significantly contributes to the development and transformation of memorial culture; 2) the spectrum of memorial practices of Romanian intellectuals, as agents of historical memory politics and shapers of various ver­sions of memorial culture, varies from historical revisionism to attempts to form a liberal me­morial canon; 3) the memorial practices of the contemporary intellectual community are in­terconnected with the development of civil and ethnic nationalist discourse; 4) the participa­tion of intellectuals in memory politics actualizes the political and ideological heterogeneity of modern society, contributing to the simultaneous coexistence and competition of different forms of historical memory. It is assumed that the role of Romanian civil society in the histor­ical politics of contemporary Romania will increase, and the intellectual community will re­main one of the active participants in the politics of collective memory.