A method for the identification of scientists' research areas based on a cluster analysis of scientific publications

This paper formalizes the model of choosing a strategy for reducing air pollution in an urban environment. The model involves determining the optimal location of biotechnological systems – biotechnological filter systems or smart air purification devices based on solving the problem of discrete optimization, taking into consideration the forecast of the air quality index. Two subtasks have been formalized, which make it possible to form a strategy for reducing air pollution. To solve one of the subtasks, a combined selective model for predicting the time series of the Air Quality Index (CSM) was built. The combined model software suite consists of the EMD-ESM hybrid model (Empirical Mode Decomposition-Exponential Smoothing Model), the HWM additive model (Holt-Winters Model), and the adaptive TLM (Trigg-Lich Model). To verify the proposed combined selective model, the time series of air quality indices (AQI) for the city of Nur-Sultan (data from 2010‒2021, period 6 hours) were selected. As a result of verification, it was established that in the case of short-term forecasting of the air quality index time series, the EMD-ESM model has an advantage according to the criterion of a minimum root mean square error (RMSE), δ=0.11. For the case of medium-term forecasting of 3<τ≤5, the combined selective model (CSM) has the advantage. The results reported here are input data for the task of choosing strategies for reducing the volume of air pollution in the urban environment. The study’s results make it possible to increase the flexibility of the formation of strategies for reducing air pollution since they avoid restrictions on the location of cleaners in specific urban areas. The consequence is the improvement of the environmental situation in the city and the development of the region in general

This study considers the creation of a network of moss-based biotechnological purification filters under the Smart City concept. The extent of the absorption of heavy metals and gases by Sphagnopsida moss under different conditions was investigated. The efficiency of air purification with biotechnological filters was also investigated in the city of Almaty, Republic of Kazakhstan, where an excess of the permissible concentration of harmful substances in the air, according to the WHO air quality guidelines, is recorded throughout the year. Data on the level of pollution recorded with sensors located in the largest Kazakhstani cities from 21 June 2020 to 4 June 2023 were selected as the basis for calculating purification efficiency. In total, there are 220 in 73 settlements of the Republic of Kazakhstan, with 80 such sensors located in the city of Almaty. Since creating a single biotechnological filter is expensive, our task was to calculate the air purification effect in the case of increasing the number of filters placed in polluted areas. We show that 10 filters provide an air purification efficiency of 0.77%, with 100 filters providing an air purification efficiency of 5.72% and 500 filters providing an air purification efficiency of 23.11%. A biotechnological filter for air purification based on moss was designed at Astana IT University by taking into consideration the climatic features, distribution, and types of pollution in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The obtained results are essential for ensuring compliance with the standard for environmental comfort in the Republic of Kazakhstan. Additionally, the research findings and the experience of implementing a moss-based biotechnological filter can be applied to designing similar air purification systems in other cities. This is of great importance for the advancement of the field of urban science.

The paper develops a structural model for building a system for developing methodological competence. The structural model is built based on a service-oriented approach to developing large software complexes and includes six subsystems. Each subsystem is implemented as a separate microservice, which allows system scaling. The paper describes a technique that allows you to build a teacher’s competency map and evaluate its eight components: cognitive, didactic, project, informational, communication, reflective, monitoring, and personal-motivational. A four-level scale is proposed for assessing the level of competencies. A methodology for evaluating the effectiveness of the methodical competence development system based on the hierarchical expert method has been developed. The system was verified and implemented. According to the results of the system implementation, the intensification of the educational process and the improvement of the training quality of students were recorded. Students’ success in studying subjects has increased significantly. Namely, the number of bad students has decreased by 15 %, the number of «excellent» students has increased by 10 %, and the number of «good» students has increased by 18 %. The paper touches upon creating information technologies adequate for improving the higher education system. The goal is the targeted development and implementation of information technologies in educational institutions and the creation and operation of integrated, flexible software to support a mixed system for organizing the educational process, as well as increasing the efficiency of implementing a mixed system for organizing the educational process.

This study aims to estimate the scientific productivity of collective subjects. The objective is to build a method for evaluating scientific productivity through calculation, including for new collective subjects with a small citation network—the paper proposes the Time-Weighted PageRank method with citation intensity (TWPR-CI). The Citation Network Dataset (ver. 13) has been analyzed to verify the method. The dataset includes more than 5 million scientific publications and 48 million citations. Four classes of collective subjects (more than 27,000 collective subjects in total) were established. For each class, scientific productivity estimates from 2000 to 2021 were calculated using the PageRank, Time-Weighted PageRank, and TWPR-CI methods. It is shown that the advantage of the TWPR-CI method is the higher sensitivity of the scientific productivity estimates for new collective subjects on average during the first ten years of observation. At the same time, the assessment of scientific productivity for other collective subjects according to this method is stable. However, the small citation network of the new collective subjects prevents the adequate assessment of scientific productivity during the first years of its operation. Therefore, the TWPR-CI method can be used to assess the scientific productivity of collective subjects, in particular the productivity of new ones.

The life quality of populations, especially in large agglomerations, is significantly reduced due to air pollution. Major sources of pollution include motor vehicles, industrial facilities and the burning of fossil fuels. A particularly significant source of pollution is thermal power plants and coal-fired power plants, which are widely used in developing countries. The Astana city in the Republic of Kazakhstan is a fast-growing agglomeration where air pollution is compounded by intensive construction and the use of coal for heating. The research is important for the development of urbanism in terms of ensuring the sustainable development of urban agglomerations, which are growing rapidly. Long memory in time series of concentrations of air pollutants (particulate matter PM10, PM2.5) from four stations in Astana using the fractal R/S analysis method was studied. The Hurst exponents for the studied stations are 0.723; 0.548; 0.442 and 0.462. In addition, the behavior of the Hurst exponent in dynamics is studied by the flow window method based on R/S analysis. As a result, it was found that the pollution indicators of one of the stations are characterized by the presence of long-term memory and the time series is persistent. According to the analysis of recordings from the second station, the series is defined as close to random, and for stations 3 and 4, anti-persistence is characteristic. The calculated Hurst exponent values explain the sharp increase in pollution levels in October 2021. The reason for the increase in polluting substances concentration in the air is the close location of thermal power plants to the city. The method of time series fractal analysis can be the ecological state indicator in the corresponding region. Persistent pollution time series can be used to predict the occurrence of a critical pollution level. One of the reasons for anti-persistence or the occurrence of a temporary contamination level may be the close location of the observation station to the source of contamination. The obtained results indicate that the fractal time series analysis method can be an indicator of the ecological state in the relevant region.