Digital diplomacy as a factor of ensuring the real sovereignty of Russia

Current transition processes have closely related with huge numbers of social spheres. The most significant transformations took place in the digital technology sphere. These trends have radically changed most spheres of life primarily including spread of information and communication technologies, civil services, diplomatic negotiations and promotion of state interests through "soft power". Importance of technologies as an element ensuring the sovereignty of states has increased due to involving information and communication technologies in daily people’s life and state management processes. The land, maritime, information and technological borders of sovereign states are actually blurred. The most advanced tech actors have opportunity to impose not only their own economic policy, making other countries dependent on high-tech products and its individual components, but also the information agenda. Nowadays social networks and technological platforms have almost gained the upper hand in competition with traditional mass media, both in terms of the speed of news distribution and audience coverage. This article is dedicated to the transformation processes in the digital, communication and technological spheres and potential impact of mentioned processes on the states sovereignty, Also the article reviews digital diplomacy as an element of "soft power" in promoting state interests abroad.

Systems-Thinking Framework for Renewables-Powered World

Humans has experienced energy transitions throughout its history and the current transition from fossil energy to renewable energy is the latest example. But this latest example is different: rather than resulting from scarcity, this energy transition results from the threat of global warming—which is generally attributed to the short-term increasing of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere but also to the long-term heat threat posed by a warming Sun, according to the Gaia theory. Perspective appreciation of the nature of this combination necessitates for us to take a systems-thinking about the Earth system as a whole rather than the standard narrative of technical solution to our problem (of how to convert a small part of the abundant solar energy [including wind energy] into useful energy). Only by framing the energy transition as a part of dealing with the existential threat of global warming as heat threat, we are capturing the right perspective. Rather than any shortfall of energy—increasing carbon dioxide, heat threat, and collapse of Earth’s ecosystems are the real threats. Cognizant of these is the beginning for humans to seize solutions to deal with the threats before it is too late.

Supporting the Transition from Primary to Postprimary Education in 2021: Perspectives from Irish Postprimary Practitioners

The transition from primary to postprimary education is a significant milestone in children’s education and can be characterised by the multiple challenges that they experience, specifically the move from childhood to adolescence, from one institutional context to another, and from established social groups into new social relations. This research employs a theoretical framework that describes this transition from the perspective of secondary school inservice practitioners as they aim to help students to make a successful transition. An incremental, sequential mixed-methods data collection strategy took the form of an exploratory survey followed by qualitative semistructured interviews. Current transition practices in the context of the challenges presented in Irish secondary schools are reported on in five key areas: administration, social and emotional supports, curriculum support, pedagogical support, and management/autonomy of learning. The findings of this research also highlight a need to reflect on the purpose and timing of current practices, along with calls for continuing professional development programmes to be developed that specifically target the challenges faced by Irish inservice teaching practitioners. It is hoped that this paper will spark discourse relating to the development of transitional supports for students and associated training for those who are best placed to provide those supports.

Electric vehicles as distribution grid batteries: a reality check

The current transition towards electric mobility implies that a significant portion of electricity is drawn by and stored in the electric vehicle’s (EV) batteries. Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technologies can potentially give distribution system operators access to such energy to provide ancillary services, while remunerating the vehicle owners for their availability to participate. Although the benefits of stabilization and grid efficiency improvements are clear, is it appealing and lucrative for the vehicle owners to participate in such services? In this work, we answer this question by modelling the V2G system and performing economic projections of the possible benefits for EV owners. In particular, we present a novel way of parametrizing the electric vehicle driving profile and the V2G energy transfer to compute battery degradation costs. A profit model is developed to evaluate the profit earned by the vehicle owners offering their batteries. The profit is estimated on the basis of the owner’s inclination to buy and sell energy from the grid based on the electricity price. Using data of the German electricity market, we estimate a profit of 662 €/EV/Year for a vehicle with 100 kWh capacity, 95% battery round trip efficiency and driving 52 km per day. The remuneration is meaningful and can have the potential to encourage EV owners to participate in V2G service.

Examining school-community transition partnerships using community conversations

BACKGROUND: Effective school partnerships are crucial for supporting transition-age youth with disabilities to transition to adulthood. Although the importance of strong school-community collaboration is widely advocated, many school districts still struggle to establish transition partnerships within and beyond the school. OBJECTIVE: This study examined the application of “community conversation” events as a pathway for convening local communities to reflect on and strengthen their existing transition partnerships. METHODS: Five school districts held events that engaged a total of 213 local citizens in constructive dialogue about enhancing school-employer-community partnerships. RESULTS: Collectively, the individuals involved in these community conversations generated 55 distinct recommendations for developing or deepening transition partnerships, both within and beyond the walls of their local schools. When asked about the strength of current transition partnerships, however, the views of attendees were quite mixed. CONCLUSIONS: We offer recommendations for research, practice, and policy aimed at strengthening partnerships among schools, employers, agencies, families, and communities that improve the preparation and outcomes of youth with disabilities.

Mine Water for the Generation and Storage of Renewable Energy: A Hybrid Hydro–Wind System

Mine water is normally considered as waste that has to be managed. However, new applications are increasingly being sought for the water that floods mining voids, especially in relation to its use as an energy resource. The worldwide energy market, within the current transition framework, is searching for creative approaches to produce and store clean energy. In particular, underground pumped hydroelectric energy storage systems (UPHS) constitute efficient and flexible alternatives to deal with intermittent renewable energy sources. In this work, a UPHS is designed using the mine water and the voids of a closed coal mine in Asturias (North-west Spain) as a lower reservoir. Moreover, this system is combined with a wind energy generation facility and the efficiency of the hybrid system is evaluated. With an investment cost of EUR 193 M, a 40 MW UPHES joined to a 60 MW wind farm would generate benefits of about EUR 54 M in 40 years. The reduction in CO2 emissions (29,000 equivalent tons per year) and the social benefits in a traditional mining area are other intangible advantages of this system.

Measurement of the branching fraction of the $${{B} ^0} {\rightarrow }{{D} ^+_{s}} {{\pi } ^-} $$ decay

A branching fraction measurement of the $${{B} ^0} {\rightarrow }{{D} ^+_{s}} {{\pi } ^-} $$ B 0 → D s + π - decay is presented using proton–proton collision data collected with the LHCb experiment, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $$5.0\,\text {fb} ^{-1} $$ 5.0 fb - 1 . The branching fraction is found to be $${\mathcal {B}} ({{B} ^0} {\rightarrow }{{D} ^+_{s}} {{\pi } ^-} ) =(19.4 \pm $$ B ( B 0 → D s + π - ) = ( 19.4 ± $$1.8\pm 1.3 \pm 1.2)\times 10^{-6}$$ 1.8 ± 1.3 ± 1.2 ) × 10 - 6 , where the first uncertainty is statistical, the second systematic and the third is due to the uncertainty on the $${{B} ^0} {\rightarrow }{{D} ^-} {{\pi } ^+} $$ B 0 → D - π + , $${{D} ^+_{s}} {\rightarrow }{{K} ^+} {{K} ^-} {{\pi } ^+} $$ D s + → K + K - π + and $${{D} ^-} {\rightarrow }{{K} ^+} {{\pi } ^-} {{\pi } ^-} $$ D - → K + π - π - branching fractions. This is the most precise single measurement of this quantity to date. As this decay proceeds through a single amplitude involving a $$b{\rightarrow }u$$ b → u charged-current transition, the result provides information on non-factorisable strong interaction effects and the magnitude of the Cabibbo–Kobayashi–Maskawa matrix element $$V_{ub}$$ V ub . Additionally, the collision energy dependence of the hadronisation-fraction ratio $$f_s/f_d$$ f s / f d is measured through $${{\overline{B}} {}^0_{s}} {\rightarrow }{{D} ^+_{s}} {{\pi } ^-} $$ B ¯ s 0 → D s + π - and $${{B} ^0} {\rightarrow }{{D} ^-} {{\pi } ^+} $$ B 0 → D - π + decays.

From Modernity to Ecological Civilization

This short article was originally delivered as a lecture in China, The article sketches a process view of history from ancient to medieval civilization, to modernity in two major phases, and to the current transition to a constructive postmodern, ecological civilization.