Research & Expertise news at HSE University

Researchers from the Higher School of Economics and the Turner Scientific and Research Institute for Children’s Orthopedics have discovered that in children with arthrogryposis, the power of electrical activity in the brain cortex decreases, while its dynamics remains the same as in healthy children. The results of the study were published in the paper ‘Characteristics of electrophysiological activity of the cerebral cortex in children with arthrogryposis’.

London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and HSE University – St Petersburg launch the Paulsen Programme, funded by the Dr Frederik Paulsen Foundation, in order to support historians in Russia who have been working on the period from the mid 17th century to 1918.

The HSE Faculty of Computer Science has launched the International Laboratory of Stochastic Algorithms and High-Dimensional Inference (HDI Lab). The Lab’s Academic Supervisor,Eric Moulines, and Chief Research Fellow, Vladimir Spokoiny, spoke to us about the fundamental and applied aspects of research performed by the laboratory, their relations with machine learning, and Russian-French academic ties.

The Higher School of Economics will become one of the government’s leading centres of expertise in the field of agricultural and ecological development, agrarian biotechnologies, rural areas, and the agroecological system as a whole. Additionally, the university will advise the government on methods for boosting agricultural exports and carrying out state regulatory reforms in waste management. This agreement was reached during a meeting between Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexey Gordeyev and the HSE researchers.

Due to differences in cultural traditions and social standards, people from various countries pursue different behaviour strategies in difficult situations. For example, some become introverted, while others seek other people’s help. Elena Chebotareva, a psychologist from HSE, compared the coping strategies used by French and Russian students, as well as their impact on psychological well-being.

On October 2, the HSE International Scientific-Educational Laboratory for Socio-Cultural Research held a regular seminar from its Culture Matters series entitled ‘The scents of Christmas past – the relationship between memory and olfaction.’

Benchmark data and the standard of living in the regions of Russia affect student mobility, according to a study by HSE Centre for Institutional Studies researchers Ilya Prakhov and Maria Bocharova. Strong graduates from more educated and wealthy families are more likely to enrol in a university far from home, but the economy usually affects such a decision. High wages draw students towards the regions, while a high cost of living pushes them away.

Mathematicians at the Higher School of Economics have developed a model that explains how cell specialization arises in the context of resource constraints. The results are published in PLOS One journal.