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The paper presents a comparative analysis of the enterprises of the Arctic Zone of the Russian Federation (AZ RF) on economic indicators in accordance with the rating of the Polar index. This study includes numerical data of 193 enterprises located in the AZ RF. Machine learning methods are applied, both standard, from open source, and own original methods — the method of Optimally Reliable Partitions (ORP), the method of Statistically Weighted Syndromes (SWS). Held split, indicating the maximum value of the functional quality, this study used the simplest family of different one-dimensional partition with a single boundary point, as well as a collection of different two-dimensional partition with one boundary point on each of the two combining variables. Permutation tests allow not only to evaluate the reliability of the data of the revealed regularities, but also to exclude partitions with excessive complexity from the set of the revealed regularities. Patterns connected the class number and economic indicators are revealed using the SDT method on one-dimensional indicators. The regularities which are revealed within the framework of the simplest one-dimensional model with one boundary point and with significance not worse than p < 0.001 are also presented in the given study. The so-called sliding control method was used for reliable evaluation of such diagnostic ability. As a result of these studies, a set of methods that had sufficient effectiveness was identified. The collective method based on the results of several machine learning methods showed the high importance of economic indicators for the division of enterprises in accordance with the rating of the Polar index. Our study proved and showed that those companies that entered the top Rating of the Polar index are generally recognized by financial indicators among all companies in the Arctic Zone. However it would be useful to supplement the list of indicators with ecological and social criteria.

The article analyzes empirical data on the long-term demographic and economic dynamics of the countries of the world for the period from the beginning of the 19th century to the present. Population and GDP of a number of countries of the world for the period 1500–2016 were selected as indicators characterizing the long-term demographic and economic dynamics of the countries of the world. Countries were chosen in such a way that they included representatives with different levels of development (developed and developing countries), as well as countries from different regions of the world (North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa). A specially developed mathematical model was used for modeling and data processing. The presented model is an autonomous system of differential equations that describes the processes of socio-economic modernization, including the process of transition from an agrarian society to an industrial and post-industrial one. The model contains the idea that the process of modernization begins with the emergence of an innovative sector in a traditional society, developing on the basis of new technologies. The population is gradually moving from the traditional sector to the innovation sector. Modernization is completed when most of the population moves to the innovation sector.

Statistical methods of data processing and Big Data methods, including hierarchical clustering were used. Using the developed algorithm based on the random descent method, the parameters of the model were identified and verified on the basis of empirical series, and the model was tested using statistical data reflecting the changes observed in developed and developing countries during the period of modernization taking place over the past centuries. Testing the model has demonstrated its high quality — the deviations of the calculated curves from statistical data are usually small and occur during periods of wars and economic crises. Thus, the analysis of statistical data on the long-term demographic and economic dynamics of the countries of the world made it possible to determine general patterns and formalize them in the form of a mathematical model. The model will be used to forecast demographic and economic dynamics in different countries of the world.

Data hiding in digital images is a promising direction of cybersecurity. Digital steganography methods provide imperceptible transmission of secret data over an open communication channel. The information embedding efficiency depends on the embedding imperceptibility, capacity, and robustness. These quality criteria are mutually inverse, and the improvement of one indicator usually leads to the deterioration of the others. A balance between them can be achieved using metaheuristic optimization. Metaheuristics are a class of optimization algorithms that find an optimal, or close to an optimal solution for a variety of problems, including those that are difficult to formalize, by simulating various natural processes, for example, the evolution of species or the behavior of animals. In this study, we propose an approach to data hiding in the hybrid spatial-frequency domain of digital images based on metaheuristic optimization. Changing a block of image pixels according to some change matrix is considered as an embedding operation. We select the change matrix adaptively for each block using metaheuristic optimization algorithms. In this study, we compare the performance of three metaheuristics such as genetic algorithm, particle swarm optimization, and differential evolution to find the best change matrix. Experimental results showed that the proposed approach provides high imperceptibility of embedding, high capacity, and error-free extraction of embedded information. At the same time, storage of change matrices for each block is not required for further data extraction. This improves user experience and reduces the chance of an attacker discovering the steganographic attachment. Metaheuristics provided an increase in imperceptibility indicator, estimated by the PSNR metric, and the capacity of the previous algorithm for embedding information into the coefficients of the discrete cosine transform using the QIM method [Evsutin, Melman, Meshcheryakov, 2021] by 26.02% and 30.18%, respectively, for the genetic algorithm, 26.01% and 19.39% for particle swarm optimization, 27.30% and 28.73% for differential evolution.

The paper considers a method for studying panel data based on the use of agglomerative hierarchical clustering — grouping objects based on the similarities and differences in their features into a hierarchy of clusters nested into each other. We used 2 alternative methods for calculating Euclidean distances between objects — the distance between the values averaged over observation interval, and the distance using data for all considered years. Three alternative methods for calculating the distances between clusters were compared. In the first case, the distance between the nearest elements from two clusters is considered to be distance between these clusters, in the second — the average over pairs of elements, in the third — the distance between the most distant elements. The efficiency of using two clustering quality indices, the Dunn and Silhouette index, was studied to select the optimal number of clusters and evaluate the statistical significance of the obtained solutions. The method of assessing statistical reliability of cluster structure consisted in comparing the quality of clustering on a real sample with the quality of clustering on artificially generated samples of panel data with the same number of objects, features and lengths of time series. Generation was made from a fixed probability distribution. At the same time, simulation methods imitating Gaussian white noise and random walk were used. Calculations with the Silhouette index showed that a random walk is characterized not only by spurious regression, but also by “spurious clustering”. Clustering was considered reliable for a given number of selected clusters if the index value on the real sample turned out to be greater than the value of the 95% quantile for artificial data. A set of time series of indicators characterizing production in the regions of the Russian Federation was used as a sample of real data. For these data only Silhouette shows reliable clustering at the level p < 0.05. Calculations also showed that index values for real data are generally closer to values for random walks than for white noise, but it have significant differences from both. Since three-dimensional feature space is used, the quality of clustering was also evaluated visually. Visually, one can distinguish clusters of points located close to each other, also distinguished as clusters by the applied hierarchical clustering algorithm.

The article considers the problem of forecasting the number of employed and unemployed persons in a multisectoral labor market using a balance mathematical model of labor force intersectoral dynamics.

The balance mathematical model makes it possible to calculate the values of intersectoral dynamics indicators using only statistical data on sectoral employment and unemployment provided by the Federal State Statistics Service. Intersectoral dynamics indicators of labor force calculated for several years in a row are used to build trends for each of these indicators. The found trends are used to calculation of forecasted intersectoral dynamics indicators of labor force. The sectoral employment and unemployment of researched multisectoral labor market is forecasted based on values these forecasted indicators.

The proposed approach was applied to forecast the employed persons in the economic sectors of the Russian Federation in 2011–2016. The following types of trends were used to describe changes of intersectoral dynamics indicators values: linear, non-linear, constant. The procedure for selecting trends is clearly demonstrated by the example of indicators that determine the labor force movements from the “Transport and communications” sector to the “Healthcare and social services” sector, as well as from the “Public administration and military security, social security” sector to the “Education” sector.

Several approaches to forecasting was compared: a) naive forecast, within which the labor market indicators was forecasted only using a constant trend; b) forecasting based on a balance model using only a constant trend for all intersectoral dynamics indicators of labor force; c) forecasting directly by the number employed persons in economic sectors using the types of trends considered in the article; d) forecasting based on a balance model with the trends choice for each intersectoral dynamics indicators of labor force.

The article shows that the use of a balance model provides a better forecast quality compared to forecasting directly by the number of employed persons. The use of trends in intersectoral dynamics indicators improves the quality of the forecast. The article also provides analysis examples of the multisectoral labor market in the Russian Federation. Using the balance model, the following information was obtained: the labor force flows distribution outgoing from concrete sectors by sectors of the economy; the sectoral structure of the labor force flows ingoing in concrete sectors. This information is not directly contained in the data provided by the Federal State Statistics Service.

The paper present a dynamic macro model of world dynamics. The world is divided into 19 geographic regions in the model. The internal development of the regions is described by regression equations for demographic and economic indicators (Population, Gross Domestic Product, Gross Capital Formation). The bilateral trade flows from region to region describes interregional interactions and represented the trade submodel. Time, the gross product of the exporter and the gross product of the importer were used as regressors. Four types were considered: time pair regression — dependence of trade flow on time, export function — dependence of the share of trade flow in the gross product of the exporter on the gross product of the importer, import function — dependence of the share of trade flow in the gross product of the importer on the gross product of the exporter, multiple regression — dependence of trade flow on the gross products of the exporter and importer. Two types of functional dependence were used for each type: linear and log-linear, in total eight variants of the trading equation were studied. The quality of regression models is compared by the coefficient of determination. By calculations the model satisfactorily approximates the dynamics of monotonically changing indicators. The dynamics of non-monotonic trade flows is analyzed, three types of functional dependence on time are proposed for their approximation. It is shown that the number of foreign trade series can be approximated by the space of seven main components with a 10% error. The forecast of regional development and global dynamics up to 2040 is constructed.

The paper presents a new grid and cloud services simulation system. This system is developed in LIT JINR, Dubna, and it is aimed at improving the efficiency of the grid-cloud systems development by using work quality indicators of some real system to design and predict its evolution. For these purpose, simulation program is combined with real monitoring system of the grid-cloud service through a special database. The paper provides an example of the program usage to simulate a sufficiently general cloud structure, which can be used for more common purposes.