Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Drought is one of the major stress factors affecting the growth and development of plants. In this context, drought-related losses of crop plant productivity impede sustainable agriculture all over the world. In general, plants respond to water deficits by multiple physiological and metabolic adaptations at the molecular, cellular, and organism levels. To understand the underlying mechanisms of drought tolerance, adequate stress models and arrays of reliable stress markers are required. Therefore, in this review we comprehensively address currently available models of drought stress, based on culturing plants in soil, hydroponically, or in agar culture, and critically discuss advantages and limitations of each design. We also address the methodology of drought stress characterization and discuss it in the context of real experimental approaches. Further, we highlight the trends of methodological developments in drought stress research, i.e., complementing conventional tests with quantification of phytohormones and reactive oxygen species (ROS), measuring antioxidant enzyme activities, and comprehensively profiling transcriptome, proteome, and metabolome.

Drought is one of the major stress factors affecting growth and development of plants. In this context, drought-related losses of crop plant productivity impede sustainable agriculture all over the world. In general, plants responses to water deficit by multiple physiological and metabolic adaptations at the molecular, cellular and organism levels. To understand the underlying mechanisms of drought tolerance, adequate stress models and arrays of reliable stress markers are required. Therefore, in this review we comprehensively address currently available models of drought stress, based on culturing plants in soil, hydroponic or agar culture. These experimental setups give access to different aspects of plant response to drought, like decrease of tissue water potential, reduction of stomata conductance and photosynthesis efficiency, accumulation of low-molecular weight solutes (metabolic adjustment) and drought protective proteins. Till now, this pattern of markers was successfully extended to the methods of enzyme chemistry, molecular biology and omics techniques. Thus, conventional tests can be efficiently complemented by determination of phytohormone and reactive oxygen species (ROS) contents, activities of antioxidant enzymes, as well as comprehensive profiling of transcriptome, proteome and metabolome.

In the recent five years, Russian universities’ publishing activities have increased several times. The authors consider their strategies used to increase publications to be indexed in Scopus database, i. e. publications in foreign journals and conference proceedings, inviting outer authors, so called ‘predatory’ journals. The efficiency of these strategies and their side-effects differ a lot. The universities, intentionally or unwittingly, apply various combinations of strategies based on their intrinsic conditions (administrative practices) and environment (possibility of cooperation). The authors argue that interaction with FASO/RAS institutions is the key driver for several leading Russian universities.

Phlorotannins are the most abundant group of metabolites specific for brown algae. These substances contribute both to the primary and secondary metabolism of the algal cells and have practical relevance as biologically active compounds. The list of their presumable physiological functions is still not exhaustive and includes wound healing, chelation of heavy metal ions, bioadhesion, contribution to the processes of algal early embryogenesis and sporogenesis, etc. Similar to higher plant phenolics, phlorotannins also have antioxidant properties, provide chemical defense against herbivores and contribute to cell wall rigidification. The complex and diverse composition of natural phlorotannins hampers investigation of their physiological roles and leads to inconsistencies in the obtained data. Further study of the correlation between the structure of these substances and their functions is needed to take a new look at known information, thus providing better performance in the fields of both fundamental algal physiology and applied phycology.

Accumulation of biologically active metabolites is a specific feature of plant biochemistry, directing the use of plants in numerous applications in the pharmaceutical and food industries. Among these substances, the plethora of phenolic compounds has attracted particular interest among researchers. Here, we report on new findings in phlorotannin research, a large group of multifunctional phenolic substances, produced in brown algae. Comprehensive LC-MS profiling of three algal species allowed us to depict the complex pattern of this structurally diverse compound group across different tissues and subcellular compartments. We compiled more than 30 different phlorotannin series in one sample and used accurate mass spectrometry to assign tentative structures to the observed ions based on the confirmed sum formulas. From that, we found that acetylation, hydroxylation, and oxidation are likely to be the most common in vivo modifications to phlorotannins. Using an alternative data mining strategy to cope with extensive coelution and structural isomers, we quantitatively compared the intensity of different phlorotannin series in species, tissues, and subcellular compartments to learn more about their physiological functions. The structure and intra-thallus profiles of cell wall-bound phlorotannins were studied here for the first time. We suggest that one of the major dibenzodioxin-type phlorotannin series may exclusively target integration into the cell wall of fucoid algae.

Vanadium-dependent haloperoxidases (V-HPO) are specific enzymes involved in the metabolism of reactive oxygen species in marine algae. These enzymes contribute to early embryogenesis of algae in the order Fucales, catalyzing the reactions which result in phlorotannin incorporation into the newly forming zygote cell wall and adhesive material. In this study we showed that early embryogenesis in Fucus vesiculosus is accompanied by synchronous changes of V-HPO activity, hydrogen peroxide content and content of cell-wall-associated phlorotannins. Phlorotannin incorporation into the cell wall of Fucus zygotes had already begun 1 h after fertilization, and this process was accompanied by rapid increase of H2O2 content and V-HPO activity. We suggest that altogether this initiates polymerization of phenolics and their cross-linking with the major cell wall constituent, alginic acid. Presumably, de novo phlorotannin biosynthesis is involved in this process, as GC-MS analysis showed dramatic changes in content of intracellular phloroglucinol and low-molecular-weight phlorotannins during the first 9 days of F. vesiculosus embryogenesis.

Russian science policy in 2012–2018 appeared to be efficient which is proved by increased number of Russian publications indexed by Web of Science and Scopus. Dubious publication practices on and out of the fringes of science ethics is the other side of the coin. One cannot deny the scale of these practices while it is hard to be estimated. This scientometric challenge may be met through the transfer from integer calculation to fractional one. The authors introduce the term “national fractional calculation” which enables to estimate objectively organizations’ and researchers’ contributions into national science while not to demotivate participation in international collaborations. Based on the example of three groups, i. e. research organizations, Project 5-100 universities and other universities, the integer and fractional calculations are compared in detail for the 2018 as well as in the dynamics for the period 2000–2018 and for different disciplines. The authors show that, moving forward, fractional calculations increasingly differ from the integer ones. The largest differences are characteristic for the group of leading universities of Project 5-100 group being “scientometrically pressurized” within the framework of the national science policy.

The great research interest in the quantification of reactive carbonyl compounds (RCCs), such as methylglyoxal (MGO) in biological and environmental samples, is reflected by the fact that several publications have described specific strategies to perform this task. Thus, many reagents have also been reported for the derivatization of RCCs to effectively detect and quantify the resulting compounds using sensitive techniques such as liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (LC-MS). However, the choice of the derivatization protocol is not always clear, and a comparative evaluation is not feasible because detection limits from separate reports and determined with different instruments are hardly comparable. Consequently, for a systematic comparison, we tested 21 agents in one experimental setup for derivatization of RCCs prior to LC-MS analysis. This consisted of seven commonly employed reagents and 14 similar reagents, three of which were designed and synthesized by us. All reagents were probed for analytical responsiveness of the derivatives and stability of the reaction mixtures. The results showed that derivatives of 4-methoxyphenylenediamine and 3-methoxyphenylhydrazine-reported here for the first time for derivatization of RCCs-provided a particularly high responsiveness with ESI-MS detection. We applied the protocol to investigate MGO contamination of laboratory water and show successful quantification in a lipoxidation experiment. In summary, our results provide valuable information for scientists in establishing accurate analysis of RCCs.

Information on scientific publications of Pushchino Research Center staff is originally seen as an important component of implementing the library information function of the Centralized Library System of the Central Library in Pushchino, which is a department of the Library on Natural Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences (LNS RAS). During the library activity, since 1968, it could distinguish three main periods in creating and developing the information-bibliographic support of users’ publication activity in all research institutes of the Center. The first stage is starting creation of the employees card files, based on which the bibliographical indices of scientists’ publications have been published. The accuracy and completeness of accumulated information has laid an excellent foundation for transition to electronic databases reflecting the researchers’ works of all institutions of the Center. The second stage has shown that in some cases a scientist’s bibliography is incomplete, but ease of information entry about publications and well-chosen software allows revealing all the information about the publication to the reader in a convenient form. The third stage is characterized by emerging new forms of information provision about scientific publications. The copyrights profiles have appeared for identifying standards of the scientific works authorship that allow creating a tool to search and analyze both publication activity of organizations and researchers. But at this stage the problem of creating a complete and reliable scientific bibliography list in scientometric databases has not solved yet.

The power of the Chelyabinsk meteoroid blast is estimated from model calculations and the results of optic, seismic, and infrasonic observations. The power of the blast has been determined as 1–3 kt of TNT.

The authors discuss the study findings and the Library’s experience in integrating open access resources into the resource base of the information support offered to Siberian researchers and scholars. The dynamic technology of resources organization and use calls for continuous monitoring of the open access resources. Using the open access resources as an object of collection development improves the effectiveness of user services and preservation of socially significant content which impacts the libraries’ importance within the system of scientific communications. The library collection as a library’s strategic element is transforming with widening the formats, generic and specific limitations, and integrating traditional collections with the open access resources. This results in the sophisticating organizational and technological model of collection development. The efficiency of integrated open access library services demonstrate the users’ interest to and demand for them. The open access resources have been being increasingly included into the relevant collection development at the academic libraries. The systematic collection of open access resources can operate as a compensational technological system against other expensive resources. Integrating the open access resources into the collections of the State Public Scientific and Technological Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences Siberian Branch proves to be naturally determined and impacts the prospects for collection development.

The Library for Natural Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences (LNS RAS) heads the Centralized Library System (CLS), including about 100 libraries of the academic institutions. There are considered the main directions of information services for scientific research, using the example of LNS. Special attention is paid to the formation of the collections for CLS, formation and communication of secon-dary information to scientists, provision of primary information. New network acquisition technologies, summary internet catalogues, current information dissipation and some other network services based on LNS RAS software are being described. There are presented technological solutions for these directions, using the example of Bibliobus and Scirus automated systems, developed in LNS RAS.

Science news is one of the most important ways of science communication contributing a lot to the popularization of science. The problem of science news dissemination and its various ways and methods efficiency analysis can be solved by the design of information analysis system for news aggregation from different sources. The author describes the experience of the State Public Scientific Technical Library of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Science in providing academic community’s awareness of the current events in the world of science. The new phase of the library's work to integrate news scientific data - the project "Siberian Science News" as the integrated information product comprising various types of information (factual, bibliographic, full-text) is introduced. The www-site "Siberian Science News" use monitoring data and the analysis of some web analytics metrics characterizing user behavior are presented.

Based on the studies of analytical agencies reports, the author summarize the data on social networks popularity (Facebook, Instagram, VKontakte, Twitter, etc.) in Russia and internationally, as well as the users’ activity level. She argues that the libraries’ media accounts need to be managed based on analytical data and results of expert evaluation, surveys, marketing research, web analytic. These tools enable to analyze library smm-manager efficiency, to study library user behavior and preferences, to reveal and eliminate technical errors, to define strategic vectors of libraries’ www-activities. The modern www-instruments for social networks evaluation are revealed and tested based on several libraries’ www-accounts. The authors also suggests to use combinations of www-instruments to get detailed statistics, to perform content studies, comparative analysis of libraries’ www-accounts and user profiles, to reveal problems, to improve libraries’ presence on the World Wide Web, etc. The results of evaluation tools application prove their importance and practicability in assessing libraries’ performance in the social media.

To design information space, to attract users and to develop collections, the libraries have to implement new technologies, and augmented reality (AR) is among them. This technology combines the real and virtual worlds which enables to visualize demanded information and to facilitate access to this information. Several applications are based on AR principles. However, there are still no popular AR solutions to support library processes. In her study, the author examines the AR technology with the view of its implementation and use in libraries. The study of foreign experience demonstrates AR relevance for the libraries. Both experts and users are interested in implementing AR library solutions.Tours, displays and exhibitions, search navigation and AR-books make the most advisable ideas for AR projects. The positives of AR implementation in libraries are specified, i.e. almost free implementation, high adaptiveness to technologies, and the higher interactive character of libraries. However, AR implementation in libraries is limited due to lacking unified apps and insufficient technological support.

In the last few years, scientific mobility phenomenon has attracted greater attention of some researchers working in different subject areas due to the increased significance of migration of scientists in the new context of computerization, globalization of science, and an increase in the number of cross- and multidisciplinary studies. This paper briefly describes the main stages of scientific mobility in the 20 th and 21 st centuries closely related to different types of mobility including the concepts of brain drain and brain gain, brain circulation, and new types of brain networking and synchronous mobility. We also summarized and typed the main approaches developed by researchers when studying scientific mobility. Particular focus was on the subject for studies on mobility with main clusters covering motivations and driving forces, the impact of mobility on research output, pathways of research migration, connections between scientific mobility and research collaborations, and development of approaches to study scientific mobility. It was revealed that most common methods include analysis of curriculum vitae, interviewing and questionnaire surveys, and scientometric methods. Finally, we addressed currently unsolved problems when studying scientific mobility.

OPAC user search behavior study was conducted at RAS SB State Public Scientific and Technological Library based on OPAC log files information in statistical database for 2016. The frequency of information retrieval languages, the keyword language in the first place, and the information retrieval language of subject headings in the second place, was assessed. User search behavior in OPAC using keywords is characterized. Different search request structures in this language are discussed. Individual search stories are analyzed. Typical search strategies, formulations, update methods are defined. The author concludes on the urgency of problems OPAC users face and suggests how to improve the situation.

This three-part article describes recovery efforts following a disastrous fire at the Academy of Sciences Library in Leningrad that destroyed 400,000 volumes and waterdamaged 3.6 million others. In her overview, Carolyn Sung provides the international context of the recovery efforts led by the Library of Congress. Valerii Leonov describes on-the-scene activities, in particular the innovative methods developed for mass disinfecting and drying. He also suggests the development of international measures to deal with disaster prevention and recovery. Peter Waters comments from his experience with the Florence flood. He praises the procedures used in Leningrad and the decision to implement a phased conservation program that advocates longer time frames for planning purposes and sequential treatments, the first of which is the fabrication of protective enclosures.

In recent times marked by the offensive and largescale advancement of computer technol-ogy numerous libraries, scientific and educational centers in the world are creating their own extensive databases of literary and bibliographic texts. Facing such databases the close reading method designed to work with specific texts would seem to lose its meaning. The Italian sociolo-gist and literary critic Franco Moretti became the main critic of the close reading. He presented his ideas in the book «Distant Reading». This book can be viewed as a program to update the methodology of studying world literature. Moretti believes that the world literature should be studied not by looking at the details, but by examining it from a long distance: studying hudreds and thousands of texts. He suggest to use the Digital Humanities (DH) methods, i.e. to ap-ply digital (computer) methods in the humanities. To show the reasons for the survival of certain types of texts, Moretti compares literary processes with biological ones and draws an anology between natural selection and reader selection. Moretti’s predecessor, who first used quantitative methods in literary studies and saw common ground between literary and biological processes, was the author of the fundamental monograph “Methodology of an exact study of literature” B. I. Yarkho (18891942). Moretti’s book “Distant Reading” shatters stereotypes of the bibliographic environment. It is directed no to the study of close (slow) reading, but to the study of the entire world docmentary flow. This approach opens the way to the use of quantitative methods in the study of world bibliography. A new research strategy “exact study of bibliography” will be formed as part of digital and automated text processing.

The Russian Academy of Sciences Library (RASL) is a unique institution being at the same time one of the largest libraries to provide research information support in various fields, and a scientific institution of the Russian Academy of Sciences carrying on its own research projects in a number of scientific areas. An important direction of the RASL's activity is science popularization. To satisfy users by information services and to communicate with professionals, social networks are increasingly used. A task of RASL's activities in social networks is informing about the library's possibilities and attracting young readers. Joint analysis of the functionality and user audience of common social networks and library's objectives has justified choosing VKontakte, Facebook, Instagram for RASL's representation in social media. The authors reveal peculiarities of the target audience for each networks, develop the publication plan taking into account the specificity of the target audience and the type of published information. The main RASL's representation in social networks at the initial stage of activity has been chosen VKontakte as the most effective platform in the Russian Internet segment. The paper shows statistical indicators of VKontakte RASL's page got by using the built-in functions of the service (www.vk.com), which permit to analyze the activity for 9 months since the beginning of its work. The obtained demographic and quantitative indicators confirm the activity effectiveness that consists in increasing the visitors’ number at the page. The audience age analysis shows that above 2/3 of readers are young people under 35 years old. This circumstance corresponds to the desired target audience. The official library site analysis based on Google Analytics indicates an increase in the number of visitors to the library website (www.rasl.ru) from social networks.