he Shanghai Cooperation Organization and its role in the contemporary system of international relations (On the 20th anniversary of the SCO)

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). This is a good opportunity to assess its performance over the past two decades, to draw some conclusions, and to discuss possible future developments of the SCO. The author examines milestones in the formation of the SCO, its institutional structure, as well as its key activities which encompass four focal areas: politics, security, economy, and humanitarian cooperation. The paper focuses on the decisions of the 21st SCO Summit in Dushanbe, especially those aimed at strengthening cooperation in combating the eff ects of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and addressing security challenges, arising from the latest developments in Afghanistan. The latter particularly imply an increasing threat of terrorism, extremism, and drug traffi cking from Afghanistan to neighboring countries in Central Asia. The author emphasizes the crucial role of the SCO Regional Antiterrorist Structure (RATS) in countering these threats. Finally, the paper addresses both the circumstances and possible implications of Iran’s ascension to a full SCO member, which was approved during the summit in Dushanbe. The author concludes that over the past two decades the SCO has successfully transitioned from an important, yet regional in scope and framework, organization to an infl uential global actor, which plays a major role in the maintenance of peace and security in Central Asia and could serve as a model for the establishment of a new non-confrontational approach to the interstate relations.

Wearable devices in diving: A systematic review (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Wearable devices have grown enormously in importance in recent years. While wearables have generally been well studied, they have not yet been discussed in the underwater environment. OBJECTIVE The reason for this systematic review was to systematically search for the wearables for underwater operation used in the scientific literature, to make a comprehensive map of their capabilities and features, and to discuss the general direction of development. METHODS In September 2021, we conducted an extensively search of existing literature in the largest databases using keywords. For this purpose, only articles were used that contained a wearable or device that can be used in diving. Only articles in English were considered, as well as peer-reviewed articles. RESULTS In the 36 relevant studies that were found, four device categories could be identified: safety devices, underwater communication devices, head-up displays and underwater human-computer interaction devices. CONCLUSIONS The possibilities and challenges of the respective technologies were considered and evaluated separately. Underwater communication has the most significant influence on future developments. Another topic that has not received enough attention is human-computer interaction.

Theoretical Notes on Action Schemes in Society

This essay presents theoretical constructs for characterizing the causal structure of social actions and developing a multi-level theory of action relating to accomplishment of goals via social organizations. Focal concepts include: action schemes, mobilization, internal and external fulfillments, power schemes, macroactions, effective actions, and purposeful actions. Additionally, an overview is provided of a methodological procedure for analyzing narratives in order to specify causal linkages among actions and thereby delineate action schemes. Some possibilities for future developments are noted.

Biosynthesis of C-nucleoside antibiotics in actinobacteria: recent advances and future developments

Epidemic diseases and antibiotic resistance are urgent threats to global health, and human is confronted with an unprecedented dilemma to conquer them by expediting development of new natural product related drugs. C-nucleoside antibiotics, a remarkable group of microbial natural products with diverse biological activities, feature a heterocycle base linked with a ribosyl moiety via an unusual C-glycosidic bond, and have played significant roles in healthcare and for plant protection. Elucidating how nature biosynthesizes such a group of antibiotics has provided the basis for engineered biosynthesis as well as targeted genome mining of more C-nucleoside antibiotics towards improved properties. In this review, we mainly summarize the recent advances on the biosynthesis of C-nucleoside antibiotics, and we also tentatively discuss the future developments on rationally accessing C-nucleoside diversities in a more efficient and economical way via synthetic biology strategies.

Medium evolution of a static quark-antiquark pair in the large Nc limit

We study the transitions between the different color states of a static quark-antiquark pair, singlet and octet, in a thermal medium. This is done non-perturbatively exploiting the infinite mass limit of QCD. This study is interesting because it can be used for future developments within the framework of Effective Field Theories (EFTs) and because it can be combined with other techniques, like lattice QCD or AdS/CFT, to gain non-perturbative information about the evolution of quarkonium in a medium. We also study the obtained expressions in the large Nc limit. This allows us to learn lessons that are useful to simplify phenomenological models of quarkonium in a plasma.