Vologda State University

This article examines the methodological foundations of a critical approach to addressing the ethical challenges of artificial intelligence (AI). It argues that the object of ethical analysis should not be AI technologies in isolation, but rather hybrid systems encompas­sing humans, technologies, and social institutions whose operation involves AI systems. The subject of AI ethics then becomes the content and nature of the changes that AI sys­tems bring about in human perceptions, values, behavior, and decision-making. A system of principles, transformable into questions for critical analysis, is proposed as a metho­dological basis for this critical approach. These principles include system expansion, con­sideration of changes, skepticism, design limitations, AI system agency, augmentation of natural intelligence, inequality, pragmatic adoption, and demystification. The applica­bility of this critical approach to analyzing specific situations is demonstrated through the example of using neural networks for writing code. This analysis reveals ethical is­sues related to increased cognitive inequality and the potential disruption of training and development systems within the IT sector. The article concludes that ethical challenges arise not at the level of the technology itself, but at the level of social interaction among users. It emphasizes the need for critical analysis and forecasting of changes at the cogni­tive, personal, and social levels to find balanced solutions and mitigate risks.

Historiographical, source study and methodological possibilities of observing public consciousness in the space of the Russian North in the 2nd half of the 20th century are analysed in the article. The project’s goal and objectives are determined by development of the problem of the history of Russian transformations, which the post-war and further reformatting of the levels of popular perception, depending on political and economic conditions, entailed. The tasks consist in studying the factors of spiritual and mental rebirth and ideological circumstances that contributed to this, as well as in understanding the experience of civil opposition to proprietary tendencies with the latter, as a rule, coming from the government sector representatives, leaders and managers. The thesis of determinacy of post-Perestroika events, including extinction of rural life, desolation of villages, moral degradation and general ill-being of the region, is actualised. The author comes to the conclusion that reviewing data from central and regional archives (personal sources, office documentation, social survey data, statistics), reading periodicals and fiction will allow her identifying evolutionary vectors in the future, conducting analysis of the basic features of Northern Russian folkish consciousness, as well as the peculiarities of those features’ identity in the context of social transformations and all-Russia trends of the 2nd half of the 20th century.

The review concerns a study devoted to one of the most mysterious episodes in the history of Russian literature — the burnt second and the unwritten third volumes of Nikolay Gogol’s Dead Souls [Myortvie dushi]. Upon studying memoirs and archived materials, E. Dmitrieva employs her as ever meticulous research and characteristically engaging narration to reconstruct various aspects of the story: from the first idea of the sequel to the burning of the manuscript and the sensational discovery of an early draft of the first five chapters from part two some six months upon the author’s demise in a turn of events fit for a detective story. Dmitrieva elaborates on the destiny of the manuscript and the book’s genesis, poetics, and hermeneutics, as well as mystifications around, and parodies/stylizations of, Dead Souls. The study clearly demonstrates the scholar’s profound knowledge of Gogol’s oeuvre and mastery of relevant critical literature and memoirs, combined with her ability to relate that knowledge in a succinct form, uncover the hidden, and captivate the reader with her perceptive hypotheses and compellingly argued interpretations.

Automated information processing systems for special and general purposes have recently been widely introduced in the domestic penitentiary system. Each of these systems is designed to perform special functions and a specific set of tasks. The scientific article is devoted to the study of issues of automation of the activities of employees of the penitentiary system on the example of the process of processing and recording the results of studying the personality of a newly arrived convict in the quarantine department of a correctional institution for making a decision on his further assignment to a detachment. The authors propose to automate this algorithm through the creation of a special report based on the ACUS software package (automated special contingent accounting file). The functionality and algorithms of working with the ACUS software package for designing and constructing reports are presented. The algorithm for building a special report for the development environment is being analyzed.

Heating is responsible for as much as half of the energy used in the crop production of greenhouses, which makes developing energy‐efficient heating systems essential to sustainable agriculture. This study examines the practical issue of energy loss through heat in cultivation structures that exhibit limited thermal insulation and proposes an innovative engineering method for gas radiant heating systems that is built on heat and mass transfer theory to determine the required thermal capacity of gas infrared radiant emitters and an air preheating unit while taking existing environmental conditions and microclimate conditions into consideration. Our model utilizing an industrial greenhouse predicts a preheated inlet air temperature of −11.6°C. The enclosure surface temperature is predicted at 18.6°C, while radiant power is needed at 68.7 kW, and total combined thermal load is required at 104.2 kW. The model was confirmed and validated in laboratory trials, with no greater deviation from calculated versus measured data greater than −3.8% difference. The methodology developed provides a practical and accurate method for the design and optimization of greenhouse heating systems using gas infrared technologies toward climate‐resilient and energy‐efficient crop production.

In the paper was investigated the a priori estimate and the existence of periodic solutions of a fixed period for a system of second-order ordinary differential equations with the main quasi-homogeneous non-linearity. It is proved that an a priori estimate of periodic solutions takes place if the corresponding unperturbed system does not have non-zero bounded solutions. Under the conditions of an a priori estimate, using methods for calculating the mapping degree of vector fields, a criterion for the existence of periodic solutions under any perturbation from a given class is formulated and proven. The results obtained differ from earlier results in that the set of zeros of the main non-linear part is not taken into account.

The collection includes scientific articles of participants of the International University Science Forum, the purpose of which is to present significant results of scientific research in the field of humanities, natural and technical sciences; the formation of a modern level of scientific knowledge, experience in transformation of theoretical science into the sphere of practical application of innovations; generalization of research and practical experience.The forum is a tool for establishing sustainable ties, as well as the exchange of experience between teachers and researchers of universities and research organizations.Le recueil comprend des articles scientifiques des participants du Forum Scientifique International des Universits, dont l'objectif est la prsentation des rsultats significatifs de la recherche dans le domaine des sciences humaines, de la nature et de l'ingnieur; la formation du niveau contemporain des connaissances scientifiques, de l'exprience de la transformation de la science thorique au champ de l'application pratique des innovations; la synthse de l'exprience des recherches scientifiques et pratiques.Le forum est un instrument permettant d'tablir des liens durables et d'changer des donnes d'exprience entre les enseignants et les chercheurs des universits et les organisations scientifiques.

This paper presents the findings of a large-scale study on antibiotic resistance in bacteria found in farm animal feces across Russia. The study included 6578 samples of farm animal manure from 13 regions in Russia, with the help of citizen scientists. Molecular and microbiological methods were used to analyze 1111 samples of E. coli. The microbiological analysis focused on culturing the microorganisms present in the fecal samples on selective media for E. coli and evaluating the sensitivity of the bacteria to different antibiotics, including ampicillin, tetracycline, chloramphenicol, cefotaxime, and ciprofloxacin. The molecular analysis involved isolating the genomic DNA of the bacteria and conducting PCR assays to detect the vanA, vanB, and mcr-1 antibiotic resistance genes. The results demonstrated significant differences in antibiotic sensitivity of the samples that are morphologically identical to E. coli from different regions. For example, 98.0% and 82.5% of E. coli and other fecal bacterial isolates from the Omsk and Vologda regions lacked antibiotic resistance genes, while 97.7% of samples from the Voronezh region possessed three resistance genes simultaneously. The phenotypic antibiotic sensitivity test also revealed regional differences. For instance, 98.1% of fecal bacterial samples from cattle in the Udmurt Republic were sensitive to all five antibiotics tested, whereas 92.8% of samples from the Voronezh region showed resistance to all five antibiotics. The high level of antibiotic resistance observed may be attributed to their use in farming practices. The distinctive feature of our research is that comprehensive geographical coverage was achieved by using a citizen science platform. Citizen scientists, specifically students from colleges and universities, were responsible for the collection and initial analysis of samples. The project attracted 3096 student participants, enabling the collection and analysis of a significant number of samples from various locations in Russia.

Objective. The identification of increased noise levels from ventilation systems during the operation of buildings necessitates complex and costly procedures to detect and eliminate noise sources, conduct dismantling work, install additional silencers, or replace ventilation equipment. Therefore, accurate acoustic calculations are one of the most critical tasks in the design of various facilities. Method. This article presents an analysis of domestic and international methods for determining the noise generated by throttling devices. The accuracy of the calculation results was evaluated by comparing them with data from field tests. Result. A sharp increase in sound power level within the throttling device was observed when the blade angle exceeded 60 degrees, significantly impacting the acoustic environment of the premises and leading to an exceedance of regulated noise levels. Conclusion. The conducted comparative analysis of existing calculation methods revealed that the domestic calculation method provides the required margin for the sound power level of the throttling device across all octave bands. A notable drawback of international calculation methods is the lack of consideration for the acoustic impact of duct fittings and the connection of the duct to the throttle, which underscores the need for further validation of these methods for complex systems.