Russian Sites Research Articles

Experience of Russian-Chinese industrial cooperation on the construction of the Moscow metro

The commissioning of the Big Circle Line in Moscow, some sections of which were laid jointly with Chinese underground builders, provided the first experience of interaction with foreign construction contractors on the Moscow Metro. The paper investigates this experience which is of value for the development of such works in the future. The analysis was carried out on the basis of scientific and technical documentation on certain facilities, the progress and results of construction and installation works, and information on other events. The paper describes the facilities where construction and installation works were carried out by joint efforts and shows the peculiarities of interaction between Russian and foreign (Chinese) metro builders on a number of sections of the Big Circle Line of the Moscow Metro. The achieved results are demonstrated by the example of individual underground stations. The study reveals the peculiarities of material and technical support of works on the sections constructed by Chinese construction contractors. The mutual exchange of experience, technologies, and work management practices along with the application of various tunnel boring machines from both countries (Russia and the PRC) has yielded fruitful results, demonstrated the possibility and efficiency of the direct engagement of foreign tunnel builders at Russian sites in close cooperation with their Russian counterparts, and revealed a scheme for rational division of labour, work management, and logistical support of works.

Abstract GS01-01: Biomarker Results in High-risk Estrogen Receptor Positive, Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor 2 Negative Primary Breast Cancer Following Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy ± Nivolumab: an Exploratory Analysis of CheckMate 7FL

Abstract Background: CheckMate 7FL (CM 7FL; NCT04109066) is a prospective, phase 3, randomized, multicenter, double-blind trial investigating nivolumab (NIVO) in combination with neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) and adjuvant endocrine therapy (ET) in patients (pts) with high-risk, estrogen receptor-positive (ER+), human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative (HER2−) primary breast cancer (BC). The primary endpoint (pathological complete response, pCR) was met, resulting in a statistically significant improvement with added NIVO to NACT; residual cancer burden (RCB) 0–1 rate was meaningfully improved. NIVO benefit was larger in pts with PD-L1+ tumors (SP142 assay, % immune cells ≥ 1%). This analysis focuses on additional biomarkers to explore associations with NIVO treatment effect. Methods: The study enrolled newly diagnosed pts, stages T1c–2 N1–2 or T3–4 N0–2, grade 2 (ER 1–‍10%) or 3 (ER ≥ 1%). Pts were randomized 1:1 to NACT + NIVO 360 mg Q3W/NIVO 240 mg Q2W (arm A) or NACT + placebo (PBO; arm B). Clinical efficacy data included pCR (ypT0/is ypN0) and RCB 0–1 rates in the modified ITT (mITT) population and the SP142 PD-L1+ subgroup. Baseline PD-L1 expression from core biopsies was evaluated with the Dako 28-8 assay using the combined positive score (CPS) algorithm. Various cutoffs (CPS ≥ 1, 10, and 20) were used for this exploration. Concordance between PD-L1 SP142 and 28-8 CPS was evaluated, with assays performed on different slides from the same tumor biopsy blocks. Results of efficacy by ER and/or progesterone receptor (PR) expression, as well as Ki67 index and stromal tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, will be presented at the meeting. Results: Overall, 830 pts were screened, 521 randomized, and 517 treated, with the primary efficacy population (mITT; n = 510) including all randomized pts but excluding 11 pts from Russian sites with insufficient follow-up. A total of 510 and 349 pts (68.4% of mITT population) were evaluated by PD-L1 SP142 and 28-8 CPS assays, respectively. The prevalence of PD-L1+ by CPS was balanced in arms A and B (52% vs 50% had CPS ≥ 1; 19% vs 16% had CPS ≥ 10, and 11% vs 9% had CPS ≥ 20, respectively). NIVO effect was larger in pts with tumors with increasing PD-L1 expression, with a ∆pCR rate (unweighted rate difference between arms A and B) of 16.6% in CPS ≥ 1 (40.4% vs 23.8% in arms A/B; 95% CI, 2.8 to 29.4), 32.4% in CPS ≥ 10 (65.7% vs 33.3% in arms A/B; 95% CI, 7.3 to 52.3), and 52.3% in CPS ≥ 20 (78.9% vs 26.7% in arms A/B; 95% CI, 18.6 to 72.4). In comparison, the ∆pCR rate was 10.7% in the mITT population (24.5% vs 13.8% in arms A/B; 95% CI, 3.9 to 17.4) and 5.7% in pts with CPS < 1 (14.0% vs 8.2% in arms A/B; 95% CI, -4.0 to 15.5; refer to the Table for additional details). Unweighted rate differences between arms A and B for RCB 0–1 (∆RCB 0–1 rate) followed a similar trend and were observed to be 17.0% in CPS ≥ 1, 34.4% in CPS ≥ 10, and 52.3% in CPS ≥ 20. In comparison, the ∆RCB 0–1 rate was 9.4% in the mITT population and 3.3% in pts with CPS < 1 (refer to the Table for additional details). Further biomarker data and cutoffs will be presented at the meeting. Conclusions: Greater PD-L1 expression was associated with higher pCR and RCB 0–1 rates, suggesting that pts with PD-L1+, high-risk, ER+/HER2− primary BC can achieve substantial pCR rates with the addition of NIVO to NACT. Table. Summary pCR and RCB 0–1 rates by PD-L1 SP142 and 28-8 CPS at various cutoffs. Note: CPS data with the cutoff at 5 will be presented at the meeting. Citation Format: Sherene Loi, Giuseppe Curigliano, Roberto Salgado, Roberto Iván Romero Díaz, Suzette Delaloge, Carlos Ignacio Rojas García, Marleen Kok, Cristina Saura, Nadia Harbeck, Elizabeth Mittendorf, Denise Yardley, Lajos Pusztai, Alberto Suárez Zaizar, Andrei Ungureanu, Felipe Ades, Rajalakshmi Chandra, Raheel Nathani, Misena Pacius, Thomas Spires, Jenny Wu, Heather McArthur. Biomarker Results in High-risk Estrogen Receptor Positive, Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor 2 Negative Primary Breast Cancer Following Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy ± Nivolumab: an Exploratory Analysis of CheckMate 7FL [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2023 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2023 Dec 5-9; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(9 Suppl):Abstract nr GS01-01.

Кресты-энколпионы из находок на Водянском городище

The subject of the study is the bronze encolpion crosses found at the Vodyanskoe settlement, an urban culture monument of the Golden Horde era. Material and spiritual culture of the Russian Golden Horde urban population of the 14th century is the object under study of this paper. The author analyzes personal godliness practice items of the Russian cult copper sculpture connected with spread of Christianity. The encolpions under study and their fragments were found during archaeological excavations and artefactual remains collection at Vodyanskoye settlement at different times. The aim of the study is introduction into scholarly discourse, morphological description, typological and technological characterization of these finds from the Vodyanskoe settlement. Methods and approaches used in the study include description, typological analysis, metrical approach and measurement agenda used in staurometry, system approach including morphological analysis, chemical and technological Energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDXA). A comparison of the investigated material with the known encolpion crosses is performed. The research shows that the encolpions including their ornaments of leafs and parts discovered at the Vodyanskoe settlement are complete analogues in composition and iconography to the types of the encolpions found in the mediaeval Russian sites as well as in the other Golden Horde settlements. They can be attributed to the most numerous late Russian cross group dating back to no earlier than 13th century. Electron microprobe analysis (EMPA) of the two leafs showed that they were made up of leaded tin bronze with composition corresponding to the alloys used in Russia for encolpion casting. Winged crosses were cast into clay molds created from an impression of the finished product. The studied artifacts were interpreted in the context of the known data; they complement a handful of similar sample of items specific to the Russian population spiritual life in the 14th century. These bronze encolpion crosses are of different types the fact testifies to stylistic trends diversity in the mediaeval cult copper sculpture production of this period.

Китайский фарфор из русских памятников Омского Прииртышья XVII–XVIII веков в археолого-историческом контексте Западной Сибири

The archaeological study of Russian sites of the Modern age on the territory of Western Siberia is currently one of the steadily developing areas in Russian historical science. Representative materials on various aspects of the material culture of Russian Siberians have been accumulated. The written sources 17th–19th centuries it is in conditions of fragmented so the archaeological sources are the basis for studying certain categories of artifacts that have social and cultural significance. These include, in particular, Chinese porcelain dishes. In the Omsk Irtysh region, as part of the Western Siberian macroregion, three Russian archeological sites of the 17th–18th centuries have now been well studied: the Tara fortress, Ananino-I and Izyuk-I, and Chinese porcelain has been find on all of them. This paper examines the prerequisites for the appearance of this type of product in the region; the available materials are analyzed in a chronological and artistic-technological context, analogies with other Russian archeological sites of Western Siberia are given; written sources containing information about the use of this type of utensils by the population of the region are considered. This made it possible to determine the place of Chinese porcelain in the pottery complex and its potential as a dating source for the cultural layers of Russian settlements in Western Siberia during the specified period.

Happenstance: Utilizing Semantic Search to Track Russian State Media Narratives about the Russo-Ukrainian War on Reddit

In the buildup to and in the weeks following the Russian Federation’s invasion of Ukraine, Russian state media outlets output torrents of misleading and outright false information. In this work, we study this coordinated information campaign in order to understand the most prominent state media narratives touted by the Russian government to English-speaking audiences. To do this, we first perform sentence-level topic analysis using the large-language model MPNet on articles published by ten different pro-Russian propaganda websites including the new Russian “fact-checking” website waronfakes.com. Within this ecosystem, we show that smaller websites like katehon.com were highly effective at publishing topics that were later echoed by other Russian sites. After analyzing this set of Russian information narratives, we then analyze their correspondence with narratives and topics of discussion on r/Russia and 10 other political subreddits. Using MPNet and a semantic search algorithm, we map these subreddits’ comments to the set of topics extracted from our set of Russian websites, finding that 39.6% of r/Russia comments corresponded to narratives from pro-Russian propaganda websites compared to 8.86% on r/politics.

Краудинвестинг в России – инновационный метод финансирования компаний

The paper analyzes the essence of the concept of "crowdinvesting", its fea-tures in Russia, the ratio between risk and profitability of such investments, also formulates theoretical questions for further research, prospects for the development of this area and analyzes the implemented crowdinvesting projects on Russian sites. The work consists of 3 sections: the development of crowdfunding in Russia; why crowdinvesting is needed; crowdinvesting platforms in Russia.

Identification of consumer trends in the sharing of things

Relevance. The development of digital technology has given a strong impetus to the development of consumer goods sharing and the emergence of numerous online platforms that provide goods for temporary use.Research objective. This paper aims to establishing user preferences and identifying consumer trends in the sharing market in Russia, in the USA and in the UK. The study also examines the scientific literature regarding the development of the market for sharing things.Data and methods. The material for the study were the statistical data of the Google Trends service on search queries originating from the territory of Russia, the USA and the UK over the past 10 years and data on the date of creation and visiting the most popular online platforms for sharing things in these countries. Analysis of their variance was used to study the relationship between the indicators.Results. Consumer interest in sharing things in Russia, the US and the UK is increasing. There are similar trends in the market for rented items in all three countries, in particular a rapid increase in the popularity of tool and equipment rentals. The popularity of demand for rented goods in all selected countries has a pronounced annual seasonality. The leaders in the Russian sharing economy are young companies, in contrast to the USA and the UK. Website traffic of Russian sites on sharing things is low, and it lags far behind that of retailers and is much lower than in the US and the UK. In all three countries there are not only rentals according to the classic scheme, but other formats: services, the business model of which is based on the P2P principle, rent of things provided by large trading and manufacturing companies, the Try & Buy format, through which consumers can try products before buying them.Conclusions. Consumers in Russia, in the US, and in the UK are gradually moving away from owning things towards using them. The rent of things markets in Russia, the US and the UK show similar trends. At the same time, in the US and the UK, the sharing economy is more developed than in Russia, especially rent of things under the classic scheme. In all three countries, new formats for rent of things are developing.

Defendor: Real-world evidence of primary prolonged G-CSF prophylaxis by empegfilgrastim for relative dose intensity compliance in patients with solid tumors—The primary analysis.

e18788 Background: Maintaining relative dose intensity (RDI) of chemotherapy is important to ensure optimal patient outcomes in a variety of solid cancers. RDI < 85% significantly decrease therapy efficiency (including overall survival) in almost solid tumors (ST). Chemotherapy-induced neutropenia (CIN) is the most common adverse event (AE) leading to low RDI. Proper administration of primary G-CSF prophylaxis (PP) allows to achieve optimal therapy efficiency. There are several trials and meta-analyses have shown a superior efficiency prolonged G-CSF vs short G-CSF. This multicenter prospective observational post-registration study of prolonged G-CSF empegfilgrastim (Extimia) was designed to evaluate the RDI of the cytotoxic therapy course under PP by empegfilgrastim in patients (pts) with ST receiving myelosuppressive therapy in the routine clinical practice. Methods: 2000 pts with ST receiving cytotoxic therapy (4-8 cycles per course are allowed) under PP with empegfilgrastim by investigator choice in the routine clinical practice. RDI of therapy course was primary endpoint and presented here for pts who completed the planned regimen. For each agent, both the planned and actual dose intensity were calculated by dividing the total cumulative dose by treatment duration in days. RDI was calculated for each single agent in chemotherapy-based (CTb) regimen and for CTb regimen in total. These descriptive analyses and RDI calculations were performed for the whole CT based regimen (chemotherapeutic agents, molecular target agents, monoclonal antibodies). Funded by JSC Biocad; Defendor ClinicalTrials.gov No NCT04811443. Results: At the data cut-off 1074 pts from 31 Russian sites underwent ≥ one cycle of CTb regimens combined with empegfilgrastim. Distribution of all-cancer types was in line with epidemiology data in Russia. 526 pts completed the planned CT course. 352 (66,9%) of them have at least onе of FN risk factor. RDI≥85% were achieved in 492 (93,5%) pts. RDI by key nosology is presented in Tab.1. 118 (22,4%) cases of interval prolongation and/or dose reduction was registered. The main reasons of RDI decrease were personal pts’s issues 69 (13,1%), COVID-19 pandemic 26 (4,9%), holidays 9 (1,7%) and others. Neutropenia was in 6 (1,1%) cases as a reason of RDI decrease. Treatment-related AEs of grade 1-2 occurred 12 (2,3%) pts (back pain, ossalgia, myalgia). Conclusions: Thus, PP with prolonged G-CSF empefilgrastim allows effectively maintain RDI in different nosology and treatment groups in pts with ST in the routine clinical practice.[Table: see text]

Реконструкция мягких тканей при обширных раневых дефектах стопы лоскутами с осевым типом кровоснабжения (обзор литературы)

peculiarity of the skin cover of the supporting zones is that the elastic fibers of the soft tissues of the plantar foot fix the skin to the deep fascia and the bone skeleton, resulting in minimizing of the supportive tissue mobility and increasing pressure stability without circulation disorder in areas of increased weight-bearing. Therefore, the requirements to the plastic properties of the selected material for the reconstruction of the soft tissues of the foot increase. Purpose is to review the various methods and techniques of surgical treatment for extensive soft tissue defects of the foot using flaps with an axial type of circulation. Material and methods The search of materials was performed from 2015 through 2020 in the following sources of information: eLibrary.ru; bibliographic bases (Scopus,; Web of Science); electronic library of dissertations of the Russian State Library (http://diss.rsl.ru) and sites of Dissertation Boards. The review of 72 publications of national and foreign authors related to this topic is presented. The depth of source selection was 16 years, starting from 2004. In the last 5 years, 45 studies data have been published. The literature related to surgical treatment of extensive defects in the foot soft tissues using complex flaps with an axial type of circulation supply was analyzed. Results Basing on the analysis of publications from various sources, the disadvantages and advantages of various methods and techniques of reconstructive plastic surgery are presented and various approaches and criteria for choosing the techniques of surgical soft tissues reconstruction are described. Conclusion In the treatment of patients with extensive soft tissue defects of the foot at the current stage of the reconstructive plastic surgery development, the doctrines based on microsurgical technologies of autografts of tissue complexes with an axial type of circulation became the most acceptable ways and techniques for lost skin restoration.

Simulating wind characteristics through direct optimization procedures: illustration with three Russian sites

Simulating wind characteristics through direct optimization procedures: illustration with three Russian sites

Technological Traditions of Blacksmithing in Ancient Rus’

Abstract An archaeometallographic analysis of the iron tools from Ancient Russian sites enabled the authors to conclude that the manufacturing of high-quality items from black metal in Ancient Rus’ was based on the technological welding of the iron base and steel blade. The analysis allowed for changes in the production technology to be traced over time. Thus, it was typical for 10th–11th-century blacksmiths primarily to use three-fold technology, while welding-on was more typical during the 12th–15th centuries. Such technologies reflect different production traditions. One of these technologies, the Scandinavian (three-fold welding technology), brought the most remarkable results in the evolving urban craft. Its implementation was explosive, indeed, but had no essential impact on the further development of Russian iron processing. The other technology – the Slavic – was distinguished by the application of welding-on technology and spread gradually, but turned out to be more sustainable and kept its importance until the beginning of the industrial production of ironware. The interaction of these two traditions determined the character of the Ancient Russian model of blacksmithing.

Discursive Construal of Current Events in Russian and English Language Media in the Light of Linguistic Security

The article examines a number of issues pertaining to how reality can be discursively presented in media texts. The modern era is characterized by the rapidly increasing influence of the media on the socio-political changes taking place in the world. The media frequently model events and phenomena around us, and this type of activity is associated with actively transforming reality and constructing a new reality, media reality. All this inevitably raises the question how authentically or accurately the world is represented or reflected in the media. In structuralist studies, the representation in the media is not a key problem and thus is only partially touched upon. In critical linguistics, however, where the concept of biased, distorted, prejudiced representation of reality in discourse is introduced, this problem becomes central. The linguistic approach to the analysis of media reality is based on the idea of discursive construal of the world, which derives from the concept of social design of the world. The purpose of the study presented in this article is to examine the names of subjects or attributes associated with the same facts and events but featured in different Internet media. Using the method of comparative analysis of alternative nominations, the author analyzes media texts from Russian, Belarusian, European, and American sites, and the results of the analysis confirm the fact of alternativeness in the reality representation in the media discourse. The theoretical significance of the results lies in confirming the idea that the choice of nomination is directly related to the creation of the “possible world” and thus contributing to the field of cognitive, discursive, and critical linguistics. The practical value of the results lies in their possible introduction into relevant university courses.

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION AND THE SHARING ECONOMY

Some aspects of digital transformation as a component of industry 4.0. have been analysed. The distinctive features of past industrial revolutions have been shown through historical retrospect. The characteristics of current changes in the development of the economy, related to the global industrial Internet infrastructure, Big Data, cloud technologies, machine learning (Machine Learning), artificial intelligence, acting as drivers of changes have been noticed. Special attention has been paid to the consideration of the sharing economy (sharing economy). The sharing economy in Russia and abroad has been analysed, and also most popular types of solutions for the sharing economy have been given, presented by structure: solution / description / examples of foreign sites / examples of Russian sites. It has been concluded about the stability of the trend for the development of the shared economy.

Linguistic Personological marker of Ordinary Political Discourse (on the example of Russian Internet comments)

The article is devoted to the results of a linguistic-personal research conducted on the basis of political Internet commentaries published on Russian sites. The article considers such aspects of the topic as: Internet communication, text-derivatology, linguistic-personology. In this study, special attention is paid to the virtual linguistic persona, reconstructed on the basis of their political Internet comments which manifest the linguistic abilities in the mental and psychological aspect. Methods of comparative-contrastive, descriptive methods and the method of quantitative estimation were applied in order to study this subject, and the research is basedon the text-derivative analysis of derived texts, which are considered in the formal, content and functional plans. The purpose of the study is to determine the factors of personal text generation of Russian political Internet comments in the linguistic-personalological aspect. In the proposed article, a linguistic personality is reconstructed on the basis of political internet comments which reflect her linguistic abilities. In the course of linguistic analysis, the following methods were used: linguistic description, derivatological analysis technique, sampling method. As a result of analysis of political Internet comments, the parameters of the personal factor of text generation were revealed.

Organization of Product Specimen Data Storage in the Integrated Environment

The paper discusses the development of integrated environment for product specimen data storage and shows key drawbacks of existing approaches. Russian industrial sites run a variety of control systems, therefore, the data storage should be a part of information space and form integrated environment for data handling. Hence, the requirements to data storage should be analyzed to select right software tools for implementation. With the case study of PLM Windchill and Wonderware integration the paper offers a solution eliminating the problems caused by disembodied and heterogeneous data storages.

Гібридна війна Росії проти України: інформаційний наступ та механізми протидії

У статті детально розглянуто проблему інформаційної війни Росії проти Україні. Розкрито суть інформаційної війни, її трактування в межах різних підходів. На основі використання історичного, системного та структурно-функціональних методів з’ясовано основні недоліки інформаційної сфери України; виокремлено головні механізми її захисту. Серед механізмів протидії інформаційній війні Росії проти України виокремлено дві групи – нормативно-правові та інституційні. До першої групи відносяться законодавчі акти України, серед яких провідну роль у протидії інформаційній агресії Росії відіграє Доктрина інформаційної безпеки України. Серед другої групи механізмів виділяються державні й недержавні інституції, діяльність яких спрямовано на формування та реалізацію інформаційної безпеки України, а також міжнародні структури, діяльність яких націлено на нейтралізацію інформаційного впливу з боку Росії. Серед вітчизняних інституційних механізмів протидії російському інформаційному наступу важливе місце відведено Міністерству інформаційної політики України, Раді національної безпеки та оборони України, кіберполіції й ін.Значну увагу звернуто на такі механізми протидії інформаційній війні Росії проти України, як заборона російських сайтів та соціальних мереж, а також запровадження квот на українську мову у мас-медіа. Зазначено, що дії України щодо нейтралізації інформаційних загроз з боку Росії потрібно здійснювати на різних рівнях – геополітичному, ресурсному, громадськості.У ході проведеного дослідження сформовано рекомендації щодо протистояння інформаційній війні. Проведено аналіз факторів інформаційних впливів і протидії інформаційній зброї, у результаті чого вказано низку можливих дій для реалізації протидії російській інформаційній ескалації в Україні з метою створення гідної й адекватної відповіді на інформаційні виклики сучасності.Зараз уже зрозуміло, що інформаційна боротьба стає тим фактором, що впливає на саму війну, її початок, хід і результат. Це підтверджується агресією Росії проти України. Тому досить актуальною проблемою безпеки України є розробка концепції захисту системи інформаційно-аналітичного забезпечення завдань інформаційної боротьби.

Assessment of the theoretical limit in instrumental detectability of northern high-latitude methane sources using <i>δ</i><sup>13</sup>C<sub>CH4</sub> atmospheric signals

Abstract. Recent efforts have brought together bottom-up quantification approaches (inventories and process-based models) and top-down approaches using regional observations of methane atmospheric concentrations through inverse modelling to better estimate the northern high-latitude methane sources. Nevertheless, for both approaches, the relatively small number of available observations in northern high-latitude regions leaves gaps in our understanding of the drivers and distributions of the different types of regional methane sources. Observations of methane isotope ratios, performed with instruments that are becoming increasingly affordable and accurate, could bring new insights on the contributions of methane sources and sinks. Here, we present the source signal that could be observed from methane isotopic 13CH4 measurements if high-resolution observations were available and thus what requirements should be fulfilled in future instrument deployments in terms of accuracy in order to constrain different emission categories. This theoretical study uses the regional chemistry-transport model CHIMERE driven by different scenarios of isotopic signatures for each regional methane source mix. It is found that if the current network of methane monitoring sites were equipped with instruments measuring the isotopic signal continuously, only sites that are significantly influenced by emission sources could differentiate regional emissions with a reasonable level of confidence. For example, wetland emissions require daily accuracies lower than 0.2 ‰ for most of the sites. Detecting East Siberian Arctic Shelf (ESAS) emissions requires accuracies lower than 0.05 ‰ at coastal Russian sites (even lower for other sites). Freshwater emissions would be detectable with an uncertainty lower than 0.1 ‰ for most continental sites. Except Yakutsk, Siberian sites require stringent uncertainty (lower than 0.05 ‰) to detect anthropogenic emissions from oil and gas or coal production. Remote sites such as Zeppelin, Summit, or Alert require a daily uncertainty below 0.05 ‰ to detect any regional sources. These limits vary with the hypothesis on isotopic signatures assigned to the different sources.

Scientific and practical experience of supervisory activities in the field of the public and environmental protection at the Russian nuclear legacy sites

Today, Russia is implementing a national program for the remediation of legacy sites, resulting from the activities of the nuclear industry, the use of nuclear energy for military purposes, and due to radiation accidents and emergencies. Main priority is given to the health care provision issues of the workers and the population living in the vicinity of the targeted facilities. These tasks are under the regulatory responsibility of the FMBA of Russia. Since the beginning of the development of the nuclear industry in the country, the Institute of Biophysics, technical supporting organization of the FMBA of Russia (now the State Research Center – Burnasyan Federal Medical Biophysical Center Federal Medical Biological Agency (SRC-FMBC)), has been a leading institute in the scientific and methodological support of public radiation safety in the vicinity of radiation hazardous facilities serviced by the FMBA of Russia. In this regard, radiation-hygienic monitoring has always served as the main regulatory tool for more than 60 years. The paper describes the results of long-term monitoring (2005-2018) at the former coastal technical bases of the Russian Navy ( now – sites for temporary storage of SNF and RW in the Russian Northwest and Far East (nuclear legacy sites); sites of the uranium mining and milling facilities: Priargun Mountain Chemical Association and former Production Association “Almaz” (Lermontov, Stavropol Krai); and at uranium legacy sites of the Central Asia (Republic of Tajikistan and Kyrgyz Republic). The peculiarities of radiation situation at the sites are discussed, current challenges identified, and further regulatory improvements presented based on the gained experience.

A new cockroach (Insecta: Blattaria: Blattulidae) from the Lower Cretaceous Laiyang Formation of China

The Blattulidae is an extinct family of cosmopolitan Mesozoic cockroaches with a low generic diversity. Habroblattula laiyangensis sp. nov. from the Lower Cretaceous Laiyang Formation of Shandong Province of China with well-preserved both hind wings is only closely related to the H. drepanoides Wang, Liang & Ren, 2007 from the Early Cretaceous Yixian Formation, sharing the venation pattern, while being significantly smaller, and provides new characteristics of ancient Blattulidae. In addition, H. laiyangensis sp. nov. resembles distribution patterns of a closely related complex of “Piniblattella” yixianensis Gao, Shih & Ren, 2018 with “Mesoblattina” sinica Ping, 1928, suggesting a spatiotemporal paleobioprovincial relation among Laiyang and Yixian formations, former probably representing more warmer southern localities. Laiyangia Grabau, 1923 and Sinoblatta Grabau, 1923 are indigenous to Laiyang and lack analogues also in numerous Cretaceous Mongolian and Russian sites evidencing a degree of isolation.

Climate Regimes Override Micro-Site Effects on the Summer Temperature Signal of Scots Pine at Its Northern Distribution Limits.

Tree growth at northern boreal treelines is generally limited by summer temperature, hence tree rings serve as natural archives of past climatic conditions. However, there is increasing evidence that a changing summer climate as well as certain micro-site conditions can lead to a weakening or loss of the summer temperature signal in trees growing in treeline environments. This phenomenon poses a challenge to all applications relying on stable temperature-growth relationships such as temperature reconstructions and dynamic vegetation models. We tested the effect of differing ecological and climatological conditions on the summer temperature signal of Scots pine at its northern distribution limits by analyzing twelve sites distributed along a 2200 km gradient from Finland to Western Siberia (Russia). Two frequently used proxies in dendroclimatology, ring width and maximum latewood density, were correlated with summer temperature for the period 1901–2013 separately for (i) dry vs. wet micro-sites and (ii) years with dry/warm vs. wet/cold climate regimes prevailing during the growing season. Differing climate regimes significantly affected the temperature signal of Scots pine at about half of our sites: While correlations were stronger in wet/cold than in dry/warm years at most sites located in Russia, differing climate regimes had only little effect at Finnish sites. Both tree-ring proxies were affected in a similar way. Interestingly, micro-site differences significantly affected absolute tree growth, but had only minor effects on the climatic signal at our sites. We conclude that, despite the treeline-proximal location, growth-limiting conditions seem to be exceeded in dry/warm years at most Russian sites, leading to a weakening or loss of the summer temperature signal in Scots pine here. With projected temperature increase, unstable summer temperature signals in Scots pine tree rings might become more frequent, possibly affecting dendroclimatological applications and related fields.