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An account is given of the implications for management of the introduction of the VTLS automation system in Tomsk State University Library in Siberia, as part of a library modernisation project funded under the EU TEMPUS‐TACIS programme. The case study describes the changes brought about by the project, which included the creation of one of the first strategic development plans produced by a Russian university library and a considerable change in the attitudes of Tomsk State University Library staff. Examples are given of the effects of one of the first implementations of a full Western automation system covering all functional modules on the structure of the library.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of creativity and innovation as important attributes of smartness in cities/destination branding.

A conceptual support to the notion of smart destination branding is provided by discussing the relationship between creativity, innovation and technology as determinants for the smartness concept applied to destination branding and marketing. This paper adopts a qualitative and logical-deductive approach. The cases of Milan (Italy) and Tomsk (Russia) are presented and compared as smart cities approach to branding within and outside Europe. The authors emphasise the importance of smart destination branding strategies based on people participation, creativity and innovation as drivers of smart urban development.

The endogenous ability of cities/destinations to embrace creativity across stakeholders is essential to smart branding strategies relying on advanced information and communication technologies. The entwined connection between smart cities/destinations creative initiatives and innovation underpins innovative branding strategies.

The paper is conceptual and the findings cannot be generalised to other destinations, even if a couple of examples are briefly discussed. The authors intend to provide a basis for future research concerning smart destination branding.

The technological, human and institutional dimensions of smart cities and smart tourism destinations have been increasingly addressed by scholars and practitioners. Despite the reference and attention to human factors is not new, there is still a lack of extensive focus on creativity as crucial driver of innovation in smart destination branding. This paper aims to fill such gap by focussing on the implications of urban smartness driven by creativity and innovation in destination branding and marketing.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the joint influence of two factors (companies’ performance and growth) on the company’s capital structure and to determine the conditions for financially sustainable competitive strategies in the coordinates profitability and growth.

The study sample includes 1,996 companies from 6 high-tech industries in Russia (panel data: 7,984 observations). The authors use regression models with random effects and carry out a three-dimensional visualization of the resulting dependencies.

The study found that profitability improves the capital structure (reduces the share of borrowed capital) and, on the contrary, the growth of companies (assets growth or sales growth) increases the leverage ratio. In the case of assets growth, the combined influence of two factors reduces the negative effect of assets growth. The results have shown that the outstripping growth of most high-tech companies requires an increase in debt capital and deterioration in the capital structure and financial stability.

In general, based on the results of this study, the authors have identified groups of fast-growing companies that need financial support, and have defined the main areas of impact (reducing the loan burden and increasing profitability) that will allow these companies to maintain high growth rates and demonstrate advanced development.

The relationships (which the authors identified between the control variables, the studied variables and leverage) were obtained for the first time for a sample of companies in high-tech industries and services in bigger transition country (Russia).

The purpose of this paper is the development and study of capacitive coupling electrodes with the ability to monitor the quality of the skin–electrode contact in the process of electrocardiogram (ECG) diagnostics. The study’s scope embraces experimental identification of distortions contributed into the recorded ECG signal at various degrees of disturbance of the skin–electrode contact.

A capacitive coupling electrode is designed and manufactured. A large number of experiments was carried out to record ECG signals with different quality of the skin–electrode contact. Using spectral analysis, the characteristic distortions of the ECG signals in the event of contact disturbance are revealed.

It was found that the violation of the skin–electrode contact leads to significant deterioration in the recorded signal. In this case, the most severe distortions appear with various violations of the skin–electrode contact of two sensors in one lead. It has been experimentally shown that the developed sensor allows monitoring the quality of the contact, and therefore, improvement of the quality of signal registration, enabled by the use of bespoke processing algorithms.

These sensors will be used in personalized medicine devices and tele-ECG devices.

In this work, authors studied the effect of the skin–electrode contact of a capacitive electrode with the body on the quality of the recorded ECG signal. Based on the studies, the necessity of monitoring contact was shown to improve the quality of diagnostics provided by personalized medicine devices; the capacitive sensor with contact feedback was developed.

The purpose of this study is the detection and comparison of distinctive features of Gazelle firms (GFs) at three stages evolution outside the typical boundaries.

The study uses Analysis of Variance and logistic regression to tests the performance of 2427 gazelles for (GFs) a five-year period (2015–2020).

The study found that GFs prediction probability is low. In their second and third stages of evolution (initial growth and continuing growth), the gazelle growth effects appear. They are more effective in terms of profitability and turnover due to increasing sales and size.

This study shows that stakeholders should give preference to GFs that demonstrate long-term (steady) growth. Such firms are more efficient and financially stable than firms with high short-term growth.

The present study identifies patterns in the generation and development of GFs in high-tech industries outside the typical boundaries.

The purpose of this paper is to verify the possibility of ultrasonic intensification of drug dissolution of cholesterol calculi of the gallbladder using conventional ultrasound frequency and intensity from 0.1 to 0.5 W/cm².

For research purposes, the physical model was developed containing pig bile, pig liver, pigskin, fat and muscles, as well as human cholesterol calculus removed by surgery and a drug with ursodeoxycholic acid.

The studies have shown the possibility of accelerating the drug dissolution of calculi of the gallbladder with ultrasound exposure. The ultrasound intensity of 0.4 W/cm² is the most preferable to intensify the dissolution of calculus.

The results will be used to advance with development of the device and methodology for ultrasonic intensification of drug dissolution of gallbladder calculi.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the results of recording electrophysiological signals by nanosensors during tests on volunteers using neutral questions and questions that cause excitement.

The nanosensor-based hardware and software complex (HSC) was used for simultaneous recording of electrocardiogram, electroencephalogram and galvanic skin response during tests on volunteers using neutral questions and questions that cause excitement. The recording was carried out in real time without averaging and filtering in the extended frequency range from 0 to 10,000 Hz, level of more than 1 µV and sampling frequency equal to 64 kHz.

For the first time, the following signals were recorded by nanosensors without filtering and averaging in the measuring channels: real-time micropotentials on an electrocardiogram with a duration of 0.2 ms and a level of 1 µV or more. Also, for the first time, changes in the shape and amplitude of the P wave, slow waves on the electroencephalography (EEG), high impulse activity of the EEG and impulse activity of short duration on the GSR were recorded in response to questions that cause excitement.

The obtained results will be used for high-resolution equipment to develop additional measuring channels in existing types of equipment for psychophysiological studies.

For the first time, new data undistorted by filters was obtained on the amplitude and time parameters of electrophysiological signals in the frequency range from 0 to 10,000 Hz in response to questions that cause excitement, which was due to high sensitivity and noise immunity of nanosensors in comparison with existing electrodes for biopotential recording.

The paper analyzes the effects of the capital structure on company performance (return on assets). The analysis is conducted in a large sample of high-tech manufacturing and service companies in the transition economy (Russian Federation). In addition to the aggregated analysis, separate investigations are conducted to scrutinize the impact of company age, size and location factors (the effects of agglomerations). This research postulates the existence and variability of the optimal capital structure and its dependence on economic crisis.

We utilized a large sample that includes 1,826 enterprises over the period from 2013 to 2017. The estimation was performed using the panel-corrected standard error estimation technique (Prais–Winsten regression) to account for the panel nature and distributional properties of our data. The existence of the optimal capital structure was assessed based on a curvilinear (quadratic) function.

The results are consistent with the Static Trade-off Theory and show that this theory is applicable to countries with transition economy. They demonstrate that effective management of the capital structure can increase return on assets by 16–22%. The optimal share of borrowed capital is higher for small businesses compared to larger ones and for enterprises located in agglomerations compared to those located in other regions. A greater increase in profitability can be achieved by larger firm companies compared to smaller ones. High share of borrowed capital leads to negative profitability, i.e. to losses by enterprises. No significant differences in profitability growth were identified between young and mature enterprises. The optimal share of borrowed capital that maximizes return on assets is in the range of 0–21%.

Due to the SPARK policies, our access to the data has been limited to a five-year window, which imposed certain limitations on the choice of econometric methods we could have employed and somewhat limited our ability to contrast the effect of the crisis period with the period of stability. In this sense, although our results pertaining to the effect of the crisis could be treated as conservative, future research should consider extending the panel to include more years into consideration.

We identified significant differences between optimal capital structures and actual capital structures for high-tech enterprises. The contribution of this study is that the calculations were made for a country with a transition economy under crisis conditions. Countries with transition economies and developing countries tend to be characterized by a high level of interest rates on loans and a high proportion of borrowed capital in total assets. This poses difficulties for companies relying on borrowed capital to finance their operations. At the same time, our results demonstrate that in transition economies, enterprises in high-tech industries do have an optimal capital structure that allows maximizing firm performance. That is, Static Trade-off Theory is applicable to transition economies characterized by high interest rates on loans.

The novelty of this study lies in the detailed analysis of high-tech industries in Russian Federation. This analysis makes use of sophisticated econometric techniques for the first time in this context.

The purpose of this paper is to study the spectral sensitivity characteristics of new pyroelectric sensor based on tetraaminodiphenyl film within the wavelength range of 0.4-10 µm and 300-3,000 µm.

Mylar film with the thickness of about 70 µm was used as the input window. The MDR-41 monochromator-based spectrometric complex and the quasi-optical spectrometer with the set of backward-wave oscillators were used for measurements of the pyrodetector spectral characteristics within the 0.4-10 µm and 300-3,000 µm ranges, respectively.

Mylar was found to have absorption lines within the range of 0.4-10 µm, which must be taken into account when broadband detectors developing. The noise equivalent power in the visible and infrared ranges was less than 6 × 10^–10 W/Hz^1/2, which is about five times lower than for analogue ones. In the sub-THz range, the pyrodetector sensitivity is 2-8 times higher than the Golay cell. The sensitivity of such pyrodetector weakly depends on the wavelength in the total measured range.

The pyroelectric sensor has good prospects for use in super wide spectral range, from ultraviolet to millimeter radiation, in spectrometers for scientific research, in industry for the operational control of THz radiation sources, as well as in security THz-systems.

The spectral sensitivity characteristics of the pyroelectric photosensor based on TADPh in the visible, infrared and terahertz ranges were measured. The prospects for the use of such sensors were determined.