Development characteristics of Russia’s ground transport types at the present time

The state and development prospects of the leading sectors of Russia’s transport complex—automobile and railway types—are reviewed in the paper. Special attention is paid to the analysis of transport growth factors, including international ones, and problems of modernization of the infrastructure and railway stock. Some results of reforming rail transport are represented.     

Correlation of acid gas-ethanolamine equilibrium using ionic concentrations

Experimental equilibrium measurements are modeled using a Davies-like ionic strength correction term for the reaction equilibrium constants. Calculated and experimental results are in much better agreement when the ionic strength correction terms are used.     

The Return of the Reciprocitarians — US Trade Policy Today

‘We are always willing to be trade partners, but never trade patsies’— President Ronald Reagan, State of the Union Message, Washington, 1987     

Development of an inclined plate jet reactor system

A new design combines reaction or extraction and separation in one unit. Here are practical working details.     

Coordination in retailer-carrier channels for long term planning

We study a retailer-carrier channel for the purpose of long term planning and coordination. Here, the term channel represents the business interaction between the retailer and the carrier. The retailer sells a particular item with price-dependent demand, whereas the carrier is responsible for transporting the item to the retailer's site. We characterize the profit functions of each channel member as well as the total channel profit. We consider two specific channel structures: (i) the centralized channel and (ii) the decentralized channel. Under the first channel structure, the goal is to set the retail price so as to maximize the total channel profit. Under the latter, the carrier and the retailer choose their own policy parameters, i.e., the freight rate for the carrier and the retail price for the retailer, so as to maximize their individual profits. We model the decentralized channel as a Stackelberg Game and propose a coordination mechanism between the retailer and the carrier in which the retailer signals a price multiplier to the carrier. We illustrate that this mechanism could provide win-win solutions for both parties and present analytical and numerical results on the efficiency of channel coordination. We demonstrate that coordination in retailer-carrier channels can be as promising as supplier-retailer channels. We also discuss the effects of retailer-carrier coordination on inventory levels.     

Use of select mortality tables for forecasting the number of recipients of different types of Pensions

At present, planning of the number of pensioners during execution of the budget of the RF Pension Fund is carried out on the basis of analysis of the state statistical accounting data on the population number and mortality. Construction of mortality tables by categories of pensioners on the basis of summarizing the data available at the RF Pension Fund and further use thereof during planning of the budget will permit achieving both forecasting of the number of pensioners by means of moving of ages and planning of expenditures for payment of pensions and benefits as a whole with higher accuracy.     

When luxury advertising adds the identitary values of luxury: A semiotic analysis

The majority of researches on luxury focus on the behaviour and opinions of consumers and let drop the important role that advertising produces on them, as is done in this work and shown with a relational model. In addition to their commercial message, some remarkable and artistic advertisings convey the identitary values of luxury (IVL) characterizing luxury parent Houses. We list and analyze these IVL: craft production, raw materials, respect of craftsmen, their knowledge, know-how, gestures and traits of artistic genius. A semiotic and rhetoric analysis of two selected advertisings (Louis Vuitton, Hermès) allow to identify the semic richness of discursive content of symbolic images and identitary narratives of each luxury brand (“griffe”), revealing the implicit IVL. We conclude that strength and power of major luxury Houses lie in the global coherence they apply everywhere (creation, products, narratives and advertisings), reinforcing their brand image and attracting more loyal consumers.     

Changing balance between private and public sectors in the Russian big business in 2000–2013: the subjective approach

This paper is a direct continuation of [1]. However, in this work, a subjective aspect of the topic is considered, not the industrial. In other words, we have analyzed how the privatization, nationalization, and consolidation of state-owned assets affected major players, i.e., the biggest companies and integrated business groups (IBG). In addition, the paper attempts to evaluate the results of these processes from the point of view of the national economy. At least 6 years have passed since major events related to these processes happened and the government declared the main goals. Now it is possible to sum up first results. The studied period is 2000–2013.