The Importance of Border Checkpoints of Goods of Inner Mongolia for the Development of Cross-Border Relations of Peoples Republic of China

The article considers the system of operating border checkpoints of a large region in the north of China - the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The author emphasizes the growing importance of the Manchuria and Erlian land checkpoints, through which not only the whole variety of goods of Russian-Chinese and Chinese-Mongolian trade passes, but also international transit is provided. The remaining checkpoints, on the contrary, acquire a narrow specialization or have local significance for border territories. The development of border checkpoints, such as Sehe, Ganzmod and Mandal, is associated exclusively with the development of mineral deposits in the south of Mongolia and their subsequent export to China. In the context of a pandemic, the countries are forced to strengthen the barrier function of borders by tightening quarantine measures, which affects directly the operation of border checkpoints. The information provided on the border points of Inner Mongolia can become the basis for analyzing China’s opportunities to develop trade cooperation across the borders of Inner Mongolia.

Chapter Three: Preliminary Report on the Late Bronze Age Pottery from Ancient Eleon

This contribution presents an overview of the Late Bronze Age pottery discovered in the excavations at ancient Eleon from 2011 to 2015. Although Early Mycenaean and Palatial period deposits have been recovered from the settlement, the majority of the pottery can be assigned to the Postpalatial or LH IIIC period. After presenting the deposits stratigraphically and contextually by area, we collate the diagnostic features of five subphases spanning LH IIIB2 Late to LH IIIC Middle and discuss their local significance.

Bryoflora of protected landscape gardens of the city of Voronezh

The bryoflora of protected landscape gardens of regional and local significance includes 45 species, whichis more than 80 % of the bryoflora of urban ecosystems of Voronezh; 14 species grow in natural parks, about 40 speciesgrow in natural monuments, 20 species – in landscape gardens of local significance; 2 species from the Red Book of theVoronezh Region are marked as part of the brifolora; the Arboretum of the Voronezh Agrarian University, the Arboretumof the Voronezh Forestry University, the Severny Square, the Central Park of the City of Voronezh, the Patriots Park, andthe Scarlet Sails Park have the greatest environmental value.

Researching Global Climate Change Challenges to Solve Local Issues with Undergraduate Research and Physical Models

From 2012 through 2020, students in an introductory environmental engineering course have used a service-learning project to research climate resilience challenges and solutions. Issues of local significance exacerbated by climate change are connected to global concerns in three to four sessions of the three-hour laboratory portion of the course. The research is reported in briefs, reports, or conversational blogs.

Citizen Participation in Solving Issues of Local Significance: Experience of the Republic of Belarus

The article presents a brief analysis of the legal acts of the Republic of Belarus on the participation of citizens in the discussion and solution of local affairs and the practice of their application, as well as the results of the implementation of a number of projects of international technical assistance in this area. Citizen participation in decision-making is one of the key tools for increasing public confidence in state institutions at all levels of government, reducing the level of social tension and the risk of conflict situations in the modern society. The state acquires an additional opportunity to raise its awareness of the problems, needs and expectations of the population, as well as maximize the involvement of the potential of individual citizens and civil society as a whole by enabling citizens to participate in discussions and decision-making.

Appraisal of documentary heritage objects value in scientific library, archives, museum: topical problems of theory and practice

The article is devoted to the topical problems of theory and practice of appraisal of documentary heritage objects value in scientific libraries, archives, museums taking into consideration functional and stock specifics of these institutions. Its goals and tasks, principles and axiological criteria are described. It is shown that the main goal of such appraisal is determining the place of documentary heritage objects as the objects of the appraisal in the system of cultural values of modern society, establishing the belonging of these objects to cultural heritage objects of world, national, regional, local significance. Appraisal of documentary heritage objects is analyzed as one of important areas of scientific and administrative activities which to a large extent ensures the functioning, improvement of information potential and accordingly the image of the library, archives, museum. The Ukrainian experience of the recent decades is highlighted in many aspects, namely: regulation, organization and appraising documentary heritage objects at the state, interdepartmental and departmental levels, at the level of the profile institution fund-holder. The features of the appraisal, the objects of which are archival heritage objects and book heritage objects, are revealed. It is emphasized that the appraisal of value of the existing funds and collections of documentary heritage objects is the basis for the development and implementation of modern individual concepts and integrative projects for libraries, archives and museums, which provides for the coexistence and interrelation of material expositions and various forms of virtual information.

Ichthyofauna of some reservoirs of local significance in Aksu district, Pavlodar region

In 2020, research works were carried out on seven reservoirs of local significance in Aksu district, Pavlodar region. These are Lake Komendant, Lake Krasnoe, Lake Lesnoe, Lake Topalevoe, Lake Kara Murza, Lake Baltazhar and the Karasu Channel. In these reservoirs, the ichthyological composition was studied, such fish species as pike (Esox lucius L., 1758), silver carp (C. gibelio (Bloch, 1782)), golden carp (Carassius carassius (L., 1758)), rotan (Perccottus glenii Dybowski), tench (Tinca tinca (L., 1758)), perch (Perca fluviatilis L. ,1758), roach (Rutilus rutilus (L., 1758)), carp (Cyprinus carpio L.,1758), and bream (Abramis brama (L., 1758)). The species of fish included in the Red Book of the Republic of Kazakhstan, as well as rare or endangered, are not marked in the research catches of the studied reservoirs.

Physical and geographical characteristics and ichthyofauna of local reservoirs of the East Kazakhstan region

The article presents the results of research work carried out in 2020 on the reservoirs of local significance of the East Kazakhstan region. Research works were carried out on the lakes Saryolen, Arasan and Batyrkhankol of the Kurchum district; the reservoir on the Kandysu River in the Tarbagatai district; reservoirs No. 2 and No. 3 on the Ulan River in the Ulan district; Lake Alimba on the territory of the city administration of Semey; Lake Dolonskoye in the Beskaragai district of the East Kazakhstan region. The physical and geographical characteristics of the studied reservoirs are described. The species composition of the ichthyofauna of reservoirs of local significance in the East Kazakhstan region is presented. The biological analysis of commercial fish species by age, length, weight, Fulton fatness coefficient, and sex ratio is also carried out. The results of the research work are summed up.

A pilot study to define and identify future priorities into Allocasuarina robusta recovery as part of a community program

The Allocasuarina robusta pilot study investigated the process involved to facilitate seed recruitment as part of a threatened species project. Several experiments occurred, each examining a specific attribute in the seed recruitment process. A. robusta is a threatened species of national and local significance. The research design would help land managers and communities to conserve A. robusta. The investigation aimed to improve seed recruitment in A. robusta occurring under natural conditions. The experiment results highlighted several experimental design flaws and identified opportunities to increase community participation as part of the recovery program.

Testing for trends on a regional scale: Beyond local significance

Studies detecting trends in climate elements typically concentrate on their local significance, ignoring the question on whether the significant local trends may or may not have occurred due to chance. The present paper fills this gap by examining several approaches to detecting statistical significance of trends defined on a grid, that is on a regional scale. To this end, we introduce a novel simple procedure of significance testing, which is based on counting signs of local trends (sign test), and compare it with five other approaches to testing collective significance of trends (counting, extended Mann-Kendall, Walker, fdr, and regression tests). Synthetic data are used to construct null distributions of trend statistics, to determine critical values of the tests, and to assess the performance of tests in terms of type II error. For lower values of spatial and temporal autocorrelations, the sign test and extended Mann-Kendall test perform slightly better than the counting test; these three tests outperform Walker, fdr, and regression tests by quite a wide margin. For high autocorrelations, which is a more realistic case, all tests become similar in their performance, with the exception of the regression test, which performs somewhat worse. Some tests cannot be used under specific conditions because of their construction: Walker and fdr tests for high temporal autocorrelations; sign test under high spatial autocorrelations.