International patent applications and innovation in South Africa

Background: Experts recommend support to patents for stimulating innovation. Also, the South African government supports patents, in particular, international patents. In this paper it is examined how this strategy can be designed to successfully trigger economic progress.Aim: The present South African activities in patents are investigated in this paper and areas identified where an intensification of patenting looks promising for economic progress.Setting: The patent activities since 1985 are analysed and compared to the annual export–import balance from 2009 to 2018, in order to identify starting points for improving economic structures. The data are linked to current suggestions to the National Advisory Council on Innovation (NACI) for future technologies.Methods: The analysis of patents is performed, using the international patent database PATSTAT, as well as the analysis of the export–import balance at the WITS database of the World Bank.Results: The patent analysis reveals a low level of South African domestic patents, with a focus on less complex goods and a stagnation period of 35 years. The data on the export – import balance show negative figures for consumer goods and even more so for capital goods.Conclusion: Economic progress can be accelerated by stimulating patent and economic activities to produce more complex consumer and capital goods. However, it may be necessary to focus on certain areas at the beginning in order to achieve a sufficient critical mass of competence and international competitiveness. In any case, the support of patents is only successful when it is closely linked to a strategy regarding technology.

Patterns and Predictors of Taiwanese Adult Children’s Intergenerational Exchanges Before and After Economic Stagnation

This study explores whether cultural norms and economic performance shape the differences in the patterns of intergenerational exchanges, and analyzes whether structural, normative, or emotional dimensions of intergenerational solidarity predict the derived typology of intergenerational exchange in Taiwan before and after economic stagnation. Data derives from nationally representative samples of adult children with at least one parent alive in 2006 and 2016. Latent class analysis (LCA), measurement invariance with LCA, and multinomial logistic regression analysis are applied to analyze data. The results demonstrate how filial norms and economic stagnation influence the intergenerational exchange patterns. The study identifies five classes of intergenerational exchanges. There was a higher proportion of the high-exchange membership in the period of salary growth, while there was a higher proportion of the memberships of emotion-oriented exchanges during the wage stagnation period. Results reveal that geographic distance exerts a stronger and more consistent association with various exchange patterns.

Niche-Specific Adaptive Evolution of Lactobacillus plantarum Strains Isolated From Human Feces and Paocai

Lactobacillus plantarum, a widely used probiotic in the food industry, exists in diverse habitats, which has led to its niche-specific genetic evolution. However, the relationship between this type of genetic evolution and the bacterial phenotype remains unclear. Here, six L. plantarum strains derived from paocai and human feces were analyzed at the genomic and phenotypic levels to investigate the features of adaptive evolution in different habitats. A comparative genomic analysis showed that 93 metabolism-related genes underwent structural variations (SVs) during adaptive evolution, including genes responsible for carbohydrate, lipid, amino acid, inorganic ion and coenzyme transport and metabolism, and energy production and conversion. Notably, seven virulence factor-related genes in strains from both habitats showed SVs — similar to the pattern found in the orthologous virulence genes of pathogenic bacteria shared similar niches, suggesting the possibility of horizontal gene transfer. These genomic variations further influenced the metabolic abilities of strains and their interactions with the commensal microbiota in the host intestine. Compared with the strains from feces, those from paocai exhibited a shorter stagnation period and a higher growth rate in a diluted paocai solution because of variations in functional genes. In addition, opposite correlations were identified between the relative abundances of L. plantarum strains and the genus Bifidobacterium in two media inoculated with strains from the two habitats. Overall, our findings revealed that the niche-specific genetic evolution of L. plantarum strains is associated with their fermentation abilities and physiological functions in host gut health. This knowledge can help guiding the exploration and application of probiotics from the specific niches-based probiotic exploitation.

Поколение заката СССР в романе Алексея Никитина Victory Park

The subject of this article is the presentation of Soviet reality in Alexei nikitin’s novel, Victory Park. The Russian-speaking Ukrainian writer presents in this work a wide panorama of the life of the inhabitants of left-bank kiev in the first half of the 1980s. The generation of the late Stagnation Period lives in a world of discre- dited ideas, omnipresent absurdity, and hypocrisy. The aim of the article is to try to locate the sources of widespread apathy and hopelessness in nikitin’s novels, which, to a large extent, shape the young generation trying to find their way in a stagnant reality. The key to understanding the life attitudes of the protagonists is the analysis of the specificity of kiev reality, which is the dominant feature of the world presented in the Victory Park.

Soviet-Era Civic Monuments in the Cultural Landscape of Kaliningrad

В исследовании проанализированы обстоятельства появления монументальных гражданских памятников в советском Калининграде (1946—1991 гг.), определена их роль в культурном ландшафте города. Основными источниками послужили архивные документы и публикации в периодической печати. После краткого обзора послевоенной судьбы памятников Кёнигсберга автор описывает обстоятельства появления (и в ряде случаев исчезновения) памятников советским политическим деятелям (И.В. Сталину, 1953—1962; В.И. Ленину, 1958; М.И. Калинину, 1959), других памятных знаков. Особое внимание уделено коммеморации немецких деятелей, в особенности Э. Тельмана (бюст сооружен в 1956 г., новый бюст установлен в 1977 г.) и Ф. Шиллера, чей памятник 1910 г. стал важным объектом городского ландшафта после Второй мировой войны. Автор приходит к выводу, что история монументальной гражданской скульптуры советского Калининграда наглядно демонстрирует своеобразие советской политики памяти в бывшем немецком городе. The article explores the circumstances of the emergence of civic monuments and their role in the cultural landscape of Kaliningrad during the Soviet period (1946–1991). The research was carried out within the framework of memory studies and also used the traditional historical methods of a narrative research approach and comparative analysis. The source base of the article includes normative acts and administrative documents of the authorities, documents of non-governmental organisations, mass-media materials, and egodocuments. Monuments to German politicians remained in Königsberg after World War II, but most of them were destroyed in the first post-war years. The authorities considered the installation of monuments to Soviet politicians to be an important ideological task (Stalin, 1953, moved to another place in 1958, dismantled in 1962; Lenin, 1958; Kalinin, 1959). The article describes the circumstances of the construction of these monuments and other ones (“Mother Russia”, 1974). The former German city also commemorated the prominent figures in German history, above all those who belonged to the revolutionary tradition: the article describes the installation of the busts of Karl Marx (1961) and Ernst Thälmann (1956; 1977). Special attention is payed to the monument to Friedrich Schiller (1910), which became an important object in the urban landscape. The case of Schiller as of a “progressive German” allowed the Soviet authorities to elaborate a complex approach to the commemoration of figures of foreign cultures in the absence of similar symbols of Russian (Soviet) culture. For citizens, this monument became an important part of local iconography, facilitating the later rehabilitation of pre-war heritage. The author concludes that the history of the monumental civic sculpture of Soviet Kaliningrad reveals the paradoxical character of the Soviet politics of memory: figures unrelated to the city’s history were commemorated (except Thälmann); the only monument to a cultural figure was the statue of the German writer Schiller; the fight against German heritage was not effective enough because it did not offer an alternative commemoration (in relation to representatives of other ethnic cultures—Lithuanians or Old Prussians). It is also important that, during the Soviet era, the erection of monuments was the prerogative of the authorities, and, although public initiatives took place at the late stagnation period, the opportunities for their implementation arose only during Perestroika. The history of civic monumental sculpture in Kaliningrad allows us to expand our understanding of the contradictions of the Soviet politics of memory.

MAIN TRENDS AND PROSPECTS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF TRANSPORT BIOFUELS MARKET IN THE EU AND UKRAINE

Purpose of the work is to analyze the perspective directions for the development of transport biofuels sector in Ukraine. Current state and prospects for the production and utilization of transport biofuels in the EU are presented. It is shown that the consumption of transport biofuels in the European Union increased quite dynamically during 2004-2012, experienced a stagnation period for the next four years and started to rise again from 2017. Directive (EU) 2018/2001 (RED II) sets the mandatory target of achieving 14% of renewable energy in the EU transport sector by 2030, with a mandatory share of second generation biofuels. Analysis of the situation in Ukraine shows that the production of bioethanol and biodiesel, unfortunately, has not reached wide development. Over the past twenty years, several relevant programs were developed and approved in the country, but their implementation was not successful in terms of achieving the goals. Today, there are about 20 bioethanol producers in Ukraine with a total capacity of more than 300 kt/yr, but only 8 enterprises with a total capacity of 128 kt/yr are operating. It is known that 14 biodiesel plants with a total capacity of 300 kt/yr have been built in Ukraine, but at present they are actually idle. In addition, there are about 50 smaller enterprises capable of producing up to 25 kt of biodiesel per year, but no reliable information on the actual activity of these enterprises is available. It is obvious that the sector of transport biofuels is currently in a state of stagnation in Ukraine. To improve the situation, it is necessary to implement the consistent state policy and appropriate incentive instruments.

Life expectancy and lifespan inequality: a perfect linear correlation? Analysis of the relationship with a particular emphasis on the case of countries going through the life expectancy stagnation period

In recent years in demography there has been a growing discussion about the relationship between life expectancy and lifespan inequality. It appears that in the long run this relationship tends to be strongly linear – countries with the longest life expectancy are also the most equal. This article takes a closer look at countries that went through long periods of life expectancy stagnation and shows that during those times they also experienced a reduction in inequality, mainly due to a large decrease in infant mortality. However, if only adult mortality is taken into account inequality was stagnating or even rising in many cases. Particularly interesting is the fact that a similar pattern of the relationship between life expectancy and lifespan inequality was observed both in Eastern or Western Europe.