Tag «research projects»

Russia has recently launched an organic farming initiative; a new Law on Organic Products came into effect in the early 2020. An important first step in assessing the potential for this subsector has been to identify the most suitable locations for its development. According to researchers of the HSE Institute for Agrarian Studies and the RAS Institute of Agrarian Economics and Rural Development, provinces located in the country’s northern non-black earth areas – in the Northwest and in the Northeast of Russia’s European region – have the best potential. The study is published in Agriculture Digitalization and Organic Production.

As part of an international project conducted with the participation of Roscosmos and the European Space Agency, a team of researchers used differential tractography to analyse dMRI scans ofcosmonauts’ brains and found significant changes in brain connectivity, with some of the changes persisting after seven months back on Earth. The paper is published in Frontiers in Neural Circuits.

In Mexico, a pilot project applying artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms enabled the Tax Administration Service to detect 1200 tax-evading companies and 3500 fraudulent transactions within three months – a task that would have taken 18 months using conventional methods. Despite some obvious benefits, the use of AI-based solutions to counter corruption also entails several challenges, according to experts of the HSE Laboratory for Anti-Corruption Policy (LAP) and the HSE Faculty of Law who have examined the relevant experience of several countries. A report based on the study’s* findings was presented at the XXIII Yasin (April) International Academic Conference hosted by the Higher School of Economics.

Researchers from HSE University in Perm studied how different types of perfectionists see intelligence, morality, and the world around them. They found that the basis of adaptive perfectionists’ success is their perception of the world as a comprehensible place with fixed rules, while maladaptive perfectionists fail to succeed due to their focus on a rigid system of principles that they feel obliged to follow. Early correction of inflated demands on oneself can increase chances for future success. The results of the study were published in Psihologija.

Researchers from the HSE University Centre for Bioelectric Interfaces have designed a new method for detecting diagnostic markers of epilepsy, called interictal spikes, using EEG and MEG. Capable of accounting for various errors and artefacts, this method constitutes a valuable addition to the arsenal of means for automatic analysis of electrophysiological recordings in epilepsy patients, especially when the data are noisy. Precise localisation of epileptogenic cortical structures can enhance the effectiveness of neurosurgical interventions. The study was published in the Journal of Neural Engineering.

Applications from HSE departments for the ‘Mirror Laboratories’ open project competition are open until May 20. One of the ‘mirror laboratories’ successfully operating today was created as a result of a similar competition in 2020 by economists from HSE University and Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU) to study institutes and preferences in economic behaviour. Alexis Belianin, Head of the HSE International Laboratory for Experimental and Behavioural Economics, talked about how peers from Moscow and Vladivostok collaborate.

Any cultural landscape is a narrative or a story. A big, modern city with its multiple contesting meanings and social practices, an ongoing dialogue of different eras, and physical spaces coexisting with imaginary ones can be compared to a complex, multi-layered text. A recent paper by Ivan Mitin, Associate Professor in the Faculty of Urban and Regional Development, portrays the big city as an enormous, continuously updated manuscript.

Expeditions to the Eastern Arctic and Kara Seas investigated the thermal properties of bottom sediments. Numerous zones of bubbling methane flux were discovered in the shelf of the Laptev Sea and the East Siberian Sea, which researchers believe is affecting climate warming in the Arctic. The study has been published inMarine and Petroleum Geology.