Naming the key results, IAMR KarRC RAS Director Vladimir Mazalov mentioned the study of random forests – a machine-learning algorithm made up of a multitude of decision trees.
– The “forest” is formed by roots, like in the nature, they give rise to several branches, and the termini are leaves. It is a probabilistic process, but some patterns exist, which can be drawn up in the form of theorems. These methods are applied for communication networks. For example, there is still a lot of debate about how the Internet is evolving, – Vladimir Mazalov explained.
Within this study, scientists found the limit distributions of the maximum tree volume and the number of trees of the given volume for different characteristics of the tendency of the number of rooted trees and the number of non-root vertices to infinity. The results can be used in studying the structure of configuration graphs – models of modern complex communication networks.
One of the Institute’s projects supported by a grant from the Russian Science Foundation focuses on designing the model of the transport situation in Petrozavodsk.
Director of the Institute of Applied Mathematical Research KarRC RAS Vladimir Mazalov
IAMR KarRC RAS actively collaborates with other institutes within the Centre. E.g., a numerical model of the White Sea is being created jointly with the Northern Water Problems Institute KarRC RAS, the Karelian and Veps Corpus Vepkar is being created and furthered in collaboration with the Institute of Linguistics, Literature, and History (ILLH) KarRC RAS.
– Last year, a very important part of the work has been implemented: software module for lexicogrammatical search through sentences of the Corpus has been produced. We have thus approached the Russian Corpus, which is being created by the Russian Language Institute, Institute for Information Transmission Problems, and Yandex.
Director of the Institute of Linguistics, Literature, and History KarRC RAS Olga Ilyukha thanked colleagues for the collaboration: “Owing to this support, ILLH has occupied a fair niche of its own in Russian language studies and corpus linguistics”.
Commenting on the presentation, KarRC RAS Director General Olga Bakhmet pointed out the numerosity of publications by IAMR staff in reputable international journals and their high professional qualifications.
Presentation by Director of the Institute of Economics KarRC RAS Tatyana Morozova
Institute of Economics KarRC RAS last year did research within six themes. The total list of 81 scientific publications includes four collectively authored monographs and 47 articles.
Presenting the results of scientific research, Tatyana Morozova, Director of the Institute, told about the analysis of the problem of agglomerations emerging in Russian regions - the aggregation of settlements around capital cities. The study showed that the growth of regional capital cities in Russia does not entail an increase in per capita gross regional product. The growth of the capital cities' economies is apparently offset by the degradation of the rest of the region.
– This is one of the traps. Agglomeration practices are quite widespread and even Petrozavodsk is an example of how this model is advancing. But despite the growth of agglomerations we see no change in the structure of the economy towards knowledge-intensive sectors in the Russian Federation. Even the example of one of the agglomeration flagships, Moscow, is not in favor of such approaches, – Tatyana Morozova concluded.
Another scientific result produced at the Institute is related to the study of the market of commercial medical services in Karelia. Having treated the data collected through surveys by multivariate analysis methods, scientists have constructed and empirically verified a typology of citizens' consumer activity in this market.
- Our studies yielded paradoxical results, which showed that commercial medical services were actively used by groups of low-income households living traditionally in small towns and rural areas, - the director of the institute recounted.
As per capita income increases, this index declines. Scientists conclude that difficulties with access to socially important services have resulted in the formation of destructive consumer practices in the medical sphere. This, in turn, hinders the formation of self-preservation behaviors of people.
– This situation indicates the poor performance of the institutional arrangements for social protection and poses new challenges for the construction of a social policy model in Russia, – the scientist summarized.
During the following discussion, Olga Bakhmet remarked that the Institute of Economics has always stood out for active participation of its staff in various research projects. Despite the difficulties with international activities today, specialists continue to work under grants from Russian foundations.
Last year’s results reported by Director of ILLH KarRC RAS Olga Ilyukha
Institute of Linguistics, Literature and History (ILLH) KarRC RAS last year did research on 54 projects, including studies within five state-ordered themes. The research results were published in 165 papers, including 127 articles. The staff prepared 23 editions, viz. four monographs, a dictionary, a popular-science book, two editions of translated “Kalevala” epic, and others.
ILLH KarRC RAS Director Olga Ilyukha named several editions as some of the most important outputs of the Institute’s activities in 2022. Thus, the series of standard Livvi dictionaries was completed with the new “Karelian Grammar and Spelling Dictionary” by Researcher at ILLH Tatyana Boyko. It contains over 23 000 words. The dictionary is meant for a wide range of users: degree students, schoolchildren, writers, mass media staff, as well as all those studying Karelian and actively using its written form.
Another edition published last year is a monograph by ILLH Leading Researcher Elena Soini “N.K. Roerikh: Hieroglyphs of Northern Life”. The book analyzes and enriches scientific discourse with documents providing more information on the artist’s life in Karelia derived from Russian and foreign public and private archives.
– The monograph is beautifully made; it is the first book to explore the life and work of the famous Russian painter in the context of the historical events that took place in Sortavala in 1918. It raises a topical question of the purpose of art in an extreme political situation, of the relationship between people of culture from different countries in the most trying periods of history, - Olga Ilyukha shared.
Archaeologist Aleksey Tarasov has completed a long-term study of the Chalcolithic chopping tool industry on the western shore of Lake Onego. It is for the first time in Russian archaeology that this tradition was studied comprehensively. The scientist substantiated the conclusion about the emergence of industrial specializations and the formation of initial inequality alongside the preservation of the appropriation economy as the basis for subsistence.
The things highlighted during the discussion of the report were an increase in the number of publications by the Institute's staff in high-ranking international journals and active participation of its specialists in projects supported by Russian Science Foundation grants. KarRC RAS Director General Olga Bakhmet specially thanked the Institute’s young scientists, who activities reach also beyond ILLH and KarRC RAS.
KarRC RAS Director General, DMR Head Olga Bakhmet
The final part of the reporting session was presentation by Olga Bakhmet as the Head of the Department for Multidisciplinary Research (DMR) KarRC RAS. The Department worked under 6 state-ordered themes, 2 RSF grants, 10 commercial contracts, and a government contract. In total 52 papers were published, including 29 articles and a monograph.
This year, DMR continued the work on spatial modeling of plant communities using satellite images. An area in western Karelia was analyzed. Scientists managed to reliably interpret very wet and extremely dry types of pine forests and to capture an increase in the share of spruce within pine stands. These efforts also revealed a profound transformation of terrestrial systems as a result of human impact.
Researchers at DMR have tested a new approach to predicting the condition and estimating the scope of transformation of forest soils based on GPR (ground-penetrating radar) data.
– This is an all-new methods-oriented research. It demonstrated the applicability of GPR for mapping even thin soil horizons, – explained Olga Bakhmet, a soil scientist.
Participants of the session
Staff of the Vilga Agrotechnology Laboratory created a conveyor system for marketable potato products. Specialists managed to raise the merchantability of summer-harvested potatoes to 80-90% and developed a resource-saving technology of their cultivation.
The Biomedical Research Center of KarRC RAS analyzed the regional public health statistics for 2012-2021. Scientists determined the contribution of the COVID-19 infection to the medical and demographic situation in Karelia in 2021. Excess mortality among men increased by 15.5% compared to the previous year, among women - by 30.9%. Remote consequences were revealed: full recovery in health does not happen in 30-40% of former patients, 30% of cases develop a post-Covid syndrome lasting up to nine months.
In the fall, staff of the DMR, Forest Research Institute and Institute of Biology KarRC RAS worked on a carbon project within a crucial national-scope innovative project. It envisages the establishment of a unified national system for monitoring climate-active substances. Russian scientists are to get reliable data on how much carbon is deposited in different ecosystems and how much is released.
– Our task was to analyze how much carbon is concentrated in mid-boreal forest ecosystems and how the amounts have changed over 12 years. As a result, we identified a number of patterns allowing us to estimate the carbon stores in the tree stand, ground vegetation, and soils. We have gained insights into the differences in the dynamics of carbon pools, and we have also worked out a methodology for working with remote sensing imagery," Olga Bakhmet informed.
In 2022, a new laboratory for greenhouse gas monitoring was established at DMR with the national project “Science and Universities”.
Multidisciplinary field trips took place both within Karelia and outside of the region: studies of the White Sea Tersky Coast were continued.
KarRC RAS Learned Council members voting
All of the reports delivered at the reporting session were approved by members of the KarRC RAS Learned Council. More details about the presentations made by directors of the Institutes of Biology, Forest Research, Northern Water Problems, and Geology on January 24 can be found here.
Wrapping up the main agenda, Olga Bakhmet announced a joint formal session of the learned councils of the Karelian Research Center RAS, Petrozavodsk State University and the Karelian Branch of the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration. It will take place on the Russian Science Day on February 8. The lectures are going to be dedicated to the Teacher and Mentor Year announced by the decree of the President of the Russian Federation.
