Russian Press - Behind the Headlines, February 2

© Alex StefflerRussian Press - Behind the Headlines, February 2
Russian Press - Behind the Headlines, February 2 - Sputnik International
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Moscow and Russia are poles apart / Flu epidemic declared in 59 regions / Russia develops an explosive detector as good as a sniffer dog

Moskovsky Komsomolets
Moscow and Russia are poles apart
It is commonly believed that the quality of life in Moscow is better than in the rest of the country, says Andrei Akhremenko, an associate professor at Moscow State University. Researchers from the university and the Regional Information Institute have decided to prove or disprove this view. Based on official statistics, they chose ten factors that contribute to the quality of life and conducted a study. Their findings confirmed that Moscow leads the way in this respect.

The first factor is housing. This is comprised of three elements: utility services (piped water and others), the proportion of unsafe buildings and the provision of standard housing.

Moscow leads the country in this respect: the services are at acceptable standards, the percentage of dilapidated buildings is 0.3%. However, housing per capita is low: 20 square meters per resident, compared with 27 square meters in the Tver and Pskov regions, for example.
The second factor concerns the size and distribution of incomes. The average income in Moscow is 45,900 rubles ($1,530) a month. That is not very high by Russian standards. The highest figure is in the Nenets Area, where it amounts to 50,000 rubles ($1,660) a month, with the country’s average being 20,500 ($680) rubles.

Another key indicator is social differentiation: the ratio of salaries drawn by 10% of the highest paid employees to 10% of the lowest paid. In Moscow, according to Robert Yakovlev, of the Research Institute of Work and Social Insurance, the ratio is 50. Official statistics give the figure 35.4.
Migration attractiveness is another drawing card of a region. The overall picture across Russia is a mixed one, with people moving where conditions are better. In Moscow, there is no unemployment and a surplus of jobs.
There is also a migration flow from the northern areas to the south, for example, to the Belgorod Region, where the climate is mild, housing relatively inexpensive and crime rates low.

Personal safety is another important factor. In Moscow, the situation is not very good, somewhat worse than the average for the country. In other regions, the crime rate increases as we move further north and east.

Finally come the standard indicators adopted in international practice: life expectancy at birth and infant mortality within one year of birth. In Moscow, the picture is better than in the rest of the country. The average Russian lives 68.7 years, and the average Muscovite, 73.6.
As for infant mortality rate (deaths/1,000 live births), in Russia it is 8.1 and in Moscow - 6.7. The Khanty-Mansi Area has the best indicator at 4.1.
One of the signs of a prosperous nation is the equitable development of its cities. A negative sign is a single point of attraction, such as Moscow, and an array of less attractive regions, like St. Petersburg or Yekaterinburg.
As expected, the study has confirmed the obvious: Moscow is a firm leader in most aspects of the quality of life.

Izvestia
Flu epidemics declared in 59 regions
Seasonal epidemics of SARS and influenza are growing slowly but surely, as predicted by doctors. On February 2, epidemic thresholds of morbidity have been exceeded in Russia’s 59 regions. An epidemic will reach its peak in two or three weeks, according to the Russian Health Ministry.
Moscow. The epidemic is unfolding in the capital and the Moscow Region: the epidemic thresholds have been exceeded by 40% and 80%, respectively. Up to 300 people are admitted in Moscow hospitals daily with severe viral respiratory infections. Among them are those infected with strain A (H1N1), commonly known as swine flu. Most patients are children from 0 to 3 and from 7 to 14 years old. The situation in the Moscow Region is similar.

Volgograd. In some areas of the Volgograd Region, the epidemic threshold has been exceeded by 600%: 238 people diagnosed with influenza have been hospitalized in Volgograd. The incidence of swine flu is about 15% of the total, and one person died from its complications.
Nizhny Novgorod. Fifteen people in the area have died of severe complications from influenza. Schools were closed two weeks ago, but the decision was revoked on February 1 for older students at the request of the Regional Ministry of Education so that teenagers can study for the Unified State Exam.

Ufa. Here, a 63-year-old Australian tourist died from swine flu. Prior to hospitalization, he was treated for SARS for two weeks.  When he was admitted in the intensive care unit, doctors could not save him as his condition was aggravated by the chronic illnesses from which he suffered.
Research institute laboratories confirm that three strains of flu – A (H1N1), A (H3N2) and B – are active in Russia. It is these strains that the World Health Organization recommends for inclusion in the seasonal vaccine. Influenza viruses were isolated in 4%-5% of the total number of samples examined. Among them, 40% are swine influenza A (H1N1). It is prevalent among other viruses in the Central Federal District.

The Russian Health Ministry announced that the epidemic is still gaining momentum, and it will peak in two to three weeks. So all precautionary measures should be taken, such as avoiding crowded places, wearing medical masks, carefully observing personal hygiene – washing hands frequently, ventilating rooms, etc. Swine flu is most dangerous for children and young people under 30, especially pregnant women. It rapidly and acutely affects the respiratory tract, shortness of breath occurs and is accompanied by a painful cough. It cannot be treated without medical assistance. Therefore, it is vital to refrain from self-medicating and seek professional help immediately. There are additional emergency response teams in all district health centers. Emergency medical advice is available by calling an ambulance service.

Gazeta.ru
Russia develops an explosive detector as good as a sniffer dog
In 1995, the Interior Ministry adopted a portable gas analyzer, EKHO-M, developed at the Siberian branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Similar devices have been designed abroad only recently, and none of them has better characteristics.

The inside wall of each of many thousands of capillaries in the instrument, measuring 40 micrometers, through which the analyzed air passes, is coated with a special liquid that makes the separating properties of each capillary the same. No one in the world has been able to copy this technology invented in Novosibirsk, despite many attempts. In recent years, the EKHO-M has been upgraded and is now half as compact.
The second problem that the instrument tackled was effective sampling. Anyone who has ever done any cleaning knows that a vacuum cleaner works well when the brush is placed only a few millimeters from the cleaned surface.

This sampling technology was no good for explosive detection. So the staff of the institute which invented the device worked out a vortex method thirty years ago, which acts like a tornado and can lift heavy objects into the air.

A twisted stream of air is directed at the object investigated, with a reverse flow formed at its center. The draft created in the instrument increases its efficiency many times. This device is effectively used by the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Interior Ministry and other departments to investigate crimes, including terrorist attacks.

But the problem of mass control is still not solved, as shown by the recent attack on Domodedovo’s airport.
All existing explosive detectors can be arbitrarily divided into fast acting ones (that are actuated in 2 to 3 seconds) and sensitive ones. The faster the response time, the lower the sensitivity.

In this respect, a specially trained sniffer dog is one of the best means to detect explosives. But the problem with it is that the dog quickly “tires out” without showing it.Instruments not only function continuously, but also determine the type of an explosive. Gas analyzers that are as sensitive as a dog’s nose take about 15 to 20 seconds to examine each object and with the processing of information received, about two minutes. Equipment that delivers results within 4 to 5 seconds is less sensitive.

Explosive detector developers all over the world face one and the same problem – to make equipment speedy, selective and sensitive. Such an instrument called SPIP (a Russian acronym for the spectrometer with increased ion mobility) was developed at the Institute of Oil and Gas Geology and Geophysics in Siberia several years ago and is still unmatched by anything else in the world. But this cannot last indefinitely. The case with the EKHO-M shows that similar devices began to appear in the United States and other countries three years after patents were filed.
It looks like the same will happen with SPIP. The state does not seem to be interested in Russian developments.

RIA Novosti is not responsible for the content of outside sources.

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