Natural and medical sciences

Amid a worsening geopolitical situation and Big Eurasia plunging into geoeconomic uncertainty, Russian regions are working towards new interregional collaborations and looking for partners in other markets. Russia’s outposts in the Baltic — St. Petersburg and the Kaliningrad region — play a central communicative role in relations with European countries. An exclave under transport and logistics blockade, the Kaliningrad region is increasingly seeking new areas and forms of cooperation with St. Petersburg. In this study, I consider the historical connections between the Kaliningrad region (once, part of East Prussia) and Saint Petersburg in terms of infrastructure, logistics, marketing, production, human resources, recreation, research, and education. I place emphasis on the dependence of the Kaliningrad region on Russia’s ‘hub’ in the Baltic. With a reference to the Framework for a Strategy for Russia’s Spatial Development until 2030, I stress the need for a closer collaboration between Saint Petersburg and Kaliningrad in the new geoeconomic and geopolitical conditions. I explore the opportunities for and barriers to the joint geoeconomic positioning of St. Petersburg and the Kaliningrad region in the Baltic. This study has proved instrumental in inventorying all the factors, forms, and areas of cooperation between the two regions. In the article, I also pay attention to individual projects and initiatives.

Amid a worsening geopolitical situation and Big Eurasia plunging into geoeconomic uncertainty, Russian regions are working towards new interregional collaborations and looking for partners in other markets. Russia’s outposts in the Baltic — St. Petersburg and the Kaliningrad region — play a central communicative role in relations with European countries. An exclave under transport and logistics blockade, the Kaliningrad region is increasingly seeking new areas and forms of cooperation with St. Petersburg. In this study, I consider the historical connections between the Kaliningrad region (once, part of East Prussia) and Saint Petersburg in terms of infrastructure, logistics, marketing, production, human resources, recreation, research, and education. I place emphasis on the dependence of the Kaliningrad region on Russia’s ‘hub’ in the Baltic. With a reference to the Framework for a Strategy for Russia’s Spatial Development until 2030, I stress the need for a closer collaboration between Saint Petersburg and Kaliningrad in the new geoeconomic and geopolitical conditions. I explore the opportunities for and barriers to the joint geoeconomic positioning of St. Petersburg and the Kaliningrad region in the Baltic. This study has proved instrumental in inventorying all the factors, forms, and areas of cooperation between the two regions. In the article, I also pay attention to individual projects and initiatives.

In this study, we analyse today’s urban development trends in the context of densely populated territories located in moderate seismic regions. We perform a brief engineering analysis of the consequences of the Kaliningrad earthquake of September 21, 2004. The earthquake was felt across the Sambia Peninsula, in the Baltics, Finland, some parts of Poland and Belarus, and even in Saint Petersburg. Earthquakes occurred on the territory of today’s Kaliningrad — in the city of Konigsberg — in 1803 and 1904. For many years, the Kaliningrad region’s seismic risks were underestimated. We stress the importance of not only the architectural and planning solutions but also that of their compatibility with the ground and geomorphology situations. All of this translates into a safer living environment.

We present the results of an analysis of field observations of the air temperature Ta, the dew point Td (relative humidity f), the sea-level atmospheric pressure P0, and the wind speed W. The data were obtained by a Mini- KRAMS-4 hydrometeorological facility installed within Russia’s exclusive economic zone in the southeastern Baltic Sea on the LUKOIL-KMN (D6) offshore ice-resistant fixed platform and at MARNET monitoring stations of the German Oceanographic Datacentre (BSH / DOD (M41)) in 2002—2016. Alongside meteorological elements, we studied the temperature Tw and the salinity S of the upper sea layer. Using our own time series model, we estimated the contributions of each mode to the total temporal variability. In the article, we examine the intrannual and interannual variability of the specific contribution of the daily component of hydrometeorological elements. We show that the time series structure (including the daily component) for the hydrometeorological elements in the southern Baltic Sea depends both on the location of the station and on the nature of each meteorological element.

The study of suspended particulate matter in the southeastern Baltic Sea is motivated both by human-induced impact and by the natural features of the Baltic Sea, namely, the high levels of eutrophication and complicated sedimentation conditions. The study area is human-occupied, which contributes to the significance of the findings for sustainable nature, and coastal zone, management. The main aim of this research is to study the spatial distribution variability of suspended particulate matter north of the Kaliningrad Peninsula — in the southeastern Baltic Sea — to gain a better understanding of sedimentation conditions in a semi-enclosed stratified water basin. The data on suspended particulate matter concentration were obtained by filtering seawater through nuclear filters with a 0.45 μm pore diameter, at a pressure of 0.4 mbar. The water samples were taken on a regular grid of stations at standard horizons. The fifteen years (2003‒2017) of regular measurements confirmed a multiple increase in the concentration of suspended matter in the coastal zone and revealed potential zones of sediment supply within the coastal zone.

A numerical simulation of the Baltic Sea circulation was carried out for two time intervals corresponding to the inflow and non-inflow cases. For these time intervals, I identified processes prevalent in the bottom layer dynamics at specific points on the pathway of the inflow waters propagation in the Baltic Sea. An analysis of the variability of bottom friction velocity made it possible to estimate the likelihood of bottom sediment resuspension at these points and to predict propagation pathways.

This article is the very first description of macroscopic algae suggested for inclusion in the list of species protected in the Kaliningrad region. The regional significance of our findings relates to the preparation of the second edition of the Red List of the Kaliningrad region. The previous 2010 edition lacked an algae section due to the scarcity of pertinent research. In this work, we aim to identify rare and endangered species of macroscopic algae found in the Kaliningrad region. To this end, we analyse our 2008—2017 field studies and examine the herbarium collection of the Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University (former Kaliningrad State University). We also investigate the literature. We describe the biology and ecology of the species, provide information on the sites where rare species were discovered, and assign categories and protection statuses. Overall, we suggest 24 species for inclusion in the Red List.

By carrying out a quantitative evaluation of appearances of the shadow reflex, we obtained a spectral dependence of skin light sensitivity of immature specimens of Lymnaea stagnalis L. We performed experiments on juvenile specimens with a maximum shell size of 15 mm, to rule out the influence of the sexual dominant on the appearance of the reflex response. With its maximum at 490 nm, the obtained dependence apparently corresponds to the absorption spectrum of the photosensitive skin pigment.

In this article, we study the degree of dependence of heart rate variability in healthy adolescents and young adults on the average rhythm frequency. In the study group, heart rate variability decreased as heart rate grew. Although there was no difference in the increase in the heart rate, the variability of the heart rate decreased less significantly in young women than in young men. An increase in the average heart rate by 10 cardiac cycles per minute reduced the heart rate variability by 25.6 ms in young men and by 14.9 ms in young women. We believe this to be a result of differences in the hormonal backgrounds within the study groups.

In this work, we present a clinical case. A woman (57 y. o.) was referred to echocardiography because of arrhythmia and a cardiac lipoma was accidentally detected. This case is of interest due to the rarity of this cardiovascular disease. The patient was not treated surgically because of high risks associated with such a treatment. This case emphasizes the importance of meeting the standards of specialized medical care when atrial fibrillation and flutter are concerned.