Climate change represents a global challenge that impacts the environment, traditional lifestyle and health of the Indigenous Peoples in the Arctic zone of Western Siberia and threatens their food security. Reindeer are an important food source for this population since reindeer herding products are used as traditional nutrition and effective preventive means and remedies for adapting to the cold and geomagnetic activity in the High North. Longer off-season periods, high summer and winter temperatures, melting ice, and forest and tundra fires have a significant impact on the trampling and degradation of reindeer pastures. These effects may lead to massive reindeer losses and changes in the traditional diet of the Indigenous Peoples in the Arctic, which result in increases in the prevalence of respiratory diseases, overweight and hypertension. This study applied a multidisciplinary approach based on ecological and medical research methods with the inclusion of socioeconomic analysis. The primary sources included data on the longitudinal dynamics of air temperature as a climate change indicator and reindeer livestock populations (1936–2018), consumption of reindeer products and physiological impacts on the Yamal Indigenous population collected during expeditions to the Arctic zone of Western Siberia in 2012–2018.

The study investigated cross‐cultural differences in variability and average performance in arithmetic, mathematical reasoning, symbolic and non‐symbolic magnitude processing, intelligence, spatial ability, and mathematical anxiety in 890 6‐ to 9‐year‐old children from the United Kingdom, Russia, and China. Cross‐cultural differences explained 28% of the variance in arithmetic and 17.3% of the variance in mathematical reasoning, with Chinese children outperforming the other two groups. No cross‐cultural differences were observed for spatial ability and mathematical anxiety. In all samples, symbolic magnitude processing and mathematical reasoning were independently related to early arithmetic. Other factors, such as non‐symbolic magnitude processing, mental rotation, intelligence, and mathematical anxiety, produced differential patterns across the populations. The results are discussed in relation to potential influences of parental practice, school readiness, and linguistic factors on individual differences in early mathematics. Statement of contribution: What is already known on this subject? Cross‐cultural differences in mathematical ability are present in preschool children. Similar mechanisms of mathematical development operate in preschool children from the United Kingdom, Russia, and China. Tasks that require understanding of numbers are best predictors of arithmetic in preschool children. What does this study add? Cross‐cultural differences in mathematical ability become greater with age/years of formal education. Similar mechanisms of mathematical development operate in early primary school children from the United Kingdom, Russia, and China. Symbolic number magnitude and mathematical reasoning are the main predictors of arithmetic in all three populations.

This article presents the challenges facing reindeer herding as being both a profitable business and part of the traditional culture of the nomadic Indigenous peoples in the Arctic zone of Western Siberia which addresses substantial needs of the local population. Reindeer herding products are used as traditional nutrition, and as effective preventive means and remedies for adapting to the cold and geomagnetic activity in the High North. Export trends of traditional reindeer products have decreased local Indigenous peoples’ access to venison and had a negative impact on their health. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is especially urgent for the Indigenous peoples to have sufficient access to traditional food and be involved in policy decision-making to maintain this traditional business. We aim to analyze the dependencies of Indigenous peoples on the reindeer produce–exporting “food value chain” and explore how (1) the independence of reindeer herders could be increased in these export chains and (2) how provision of their products to local communities could be secured. The study takes a multidisciplinary approach based on policy and socioeconomic analyses with input from medical research. Primary sources include data collected from interviews and surveys of Indigenous peoples during expeditions to the Nyda settlement, the Nydinskaya tundra, the Tazovsky settlement, the Tazovskaya tundra, the Nakhodka tundra, the Gyda and Gydansky settlements, the Yavai-Salinskaya tundra, the Seyakha settlement, the Seyakhinskaya and Tambeyskaya tundras located along the southern coast of the Ob Bay, the northeast coast of the Yamal Peninsula, the Tazovsky and Gydansky Peninsulas, and the Shuryshkarsky district. Data were collected during the summers and winters of 2014–2020.

In the Arkhangelsk region of Northern Russia, multidrug-resistant (MDR) tuberculosis (TB) rates in new cases are amongst the highest in the world. In 2014, MDR-TB rates reached 31.7% among new cases and 56.9% among retreatment cases. The development of new diagnostic tools allows for faster detection of both TB and MDR-TB and should lead to reduced transmission by earlier initiation of anti-TB therapy. The PROVE-IT (Policy Relevant Outcomes from Validating Evidence on Impact) Russia study aimed to assess the impact of the implementation of line probe assay (LPA) as part of an LPA-based diagnostic algorithm for patients with presumptive MDR-TB focusing on time to treatment initiation with time from first-care seeking visit to the initiation of MDR-TB treatment rather than diagnostic accuracy as the primary outcome, and to assess treatment outcomes. We hypothesized that the implementation of LPA would result in faster time to treatment initiation and better treatment outcomes. A culture-based diagnostic algorithm used prior to LPA implementation was compared to an LPA-based algorithm that replaced BacTAlert and Löwenstein Jensen (LJ) for drug sensitivity testing. A total of 295 MDR-TB patients were included in the study, 163 diagnosed with the culture-based algorithm, 132 with the LPA-based algorithm. Among smear positive patients, the implementation of the LPA-based algorithm was associated with a median decrease in time to MDR-TB treatment initiation of 50 and 66 days compared to the culture-based algorithm (BacTAlert and LJ respectively, p<0.001). In smear negative patients, the LPA-based algorithm was associated with a median decrease in time to MDR-TB treatment initiation of 78 days when compared to the culture-based algorithm (LJ, p<0.001). However, several weeks were still needed for treatment initiation in LPA-based algorithm, 24 days in smear positive, and 62 days in smear negative patients. Overall treatment outcomes were better in LPA-based algorithm compared to culture-based algorithm (p = 0.003). Treatment success rates at 20 months of treatment were higher in patients diagnosed with the LPA-based algorithm (65.2%) as compared to those diagnosed with the culture-based algorithm (44.8%). Mortality was also lower in the LPA-based algorithm group (7.6%) compared to the culture-based algorithm group (15.9%). There was no statistically significant difference in smear and culture conversion rates between the two algorithms. The results of the study suggest that the introduction of LPA leads to faster time to MDR diagnosis and earlier treatment initiation as well as better treatment outcomes for patients with MDR-TB. These findings also highlight the need for further improvements within the health system to reduce both patient and diagnostic delays to truly optimize the impact of new, rapid diagnostics.

Environmental and anthropogenic factors represent challenges impacting the lifestyle and demographic rural population’s behaviour in the Russian Arctic that threaten its social and food security. We aim to explore (1) which key “push” factors are jeopardising social sustainability and increasing migration outflows in the Arctic rural communities of Western Siberia (2) and how the Siberian population’s sustainable development could be secured. The methodology and analysis were based on Lee’s theory of migration factors with the main focus on the “push” factors forcing people to migrate to other Arctic and non-Arctic territories. The primary sources included fieldwork data and interviews collected during expeditions to the Arctic zone of Western Siberia between 2000 and 2021. Both men and women confirmed the insignificant impact of environmental factors on their emigration plans. However, they signified social and personal motives related to low standards of living that threatened their social and food security. The rural Siberian population’s migration strategies could be re-evaluated only by increasing the physical availability of food products and developing the social infrastructure of the settlements as either “models of rural cities” or “service centres for nomadic and rural population”.

The availability of clean drinking water impacts the quality of life of Arctic populations and is affected by climate change. We provide perceptions based on: (1) a study of the accessibility of the natural surface water to the nomadic and settled Indigenous inhabitants living in rural areas (in settlements and remote camps) in the Arctic zone of Western Siberia during climate change and industrial development; (2) an assessment of the impact of consuming different surface water resources on human health. We include primary data sources from medical examinations and surveys collected in the regions between the rivers of Ob, Nadym, Taz, and Yenisey in 2012, 2014–2019, and 2022 whereas the chemical analysis of the surface waters in the region was based on previous research. A total of 552 local residents from the Arctic zone of Western Siberia participated in the study. We discuss how the availability of high-quality drinking water is limited for them due to climatic and anthropogenic risks, despite the abundant water resources. The consumption of river water is associated with high health risks since it contains heavy metals (Pb, Cd, Mn, Fe), whereas the consumption of lake ice melt water likely affects health because of the low concentrations of beneficial ions.