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On January 24, a famous scientist, doctor of physical and mathematical sciences, professor and laureate of the Prize of S.V. Kowalevsky Alexey Vladimirovich Borisov passed away. Alexey Vladimirovich was born and raised in Moscow. After graduating from high school, he entered the Faculty of Special Mechanical Engineering of the Bauman Moscow State Technical University. Already during his studies, Alexey Vladimirovich attends a scientific seminar at the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics of the Lomnosov Moscow State University, which largely determines the direction of his future research. After defending his Ph.D. thesis, Alexey Vladimirovich creates a scientific group in Izhevsk, his subsequent scientific biography is very wide: Yekaterinburg, Cheboksary, Innopolis, Dolgoprudny, Moscow. Borisov founds and heads the series of scientific journals Regular and Chaotic Dynamics, Nonlinear Dynamics, is the editor-in-chief in the journals Bulletin of Udmurt University, Computer research and modeling. The scientific heritage of A.V. Borisov is extensive, the list of publications is more than 200 works, more than 170 of which have been published in journals indexed by international databases Scopus and Web of Science. More than 10 monographs belong to him.

This paper analyzes some issues in developing numerical methods for solving problems with a Boltzmann-type linear kinetic transport equation. Existing applications of this type of equation are listed. The focus is on the problem of radiative transfer in a flat layer, which are important for experimental research practice. Key definitions and traditional limitations applied to radiative transfer problems are presented. Some features of formulating radiative transfer problems for flat layers of irregular heterogeneous composite materials that are partially transparent to electromagnetic radiation are considered. The main approaches to the numerical and numerical-analytical solution of the linear kinetic transport equation are outlined.

Some variants of the simplest grid numerical methods for solving of nonstationary kinetic problems of transport a flat layer of a medium with strong attenuation are considered. Problems with one- and two-step variants of these iterative methods are analyzed, for some of them the causes of instability and convergence absence in some of them are investigated and established. It is shown that in the explicit conservative one-step method for a layer of a homogeneous absorbing, but neither radiating nor scattering, medium, unstable modes always exist in the spectrum of harmonic solutions. These modes arise in the region of radiation propagating almost parallel to the layer boundaries, and their instability increases with increasing attenuation effects and is caused by the presence of a small coefficient before the spatial derivative in the transport equation. To limit the undesirable influence of this component, various variants of splitting the equation into two and three fractional steps are considered.

It is shown that the most preferable options are those with explicitly organized fractional steps, for which a proof of their stability and convergence, that based on the Lax’s equivalence theorem is presented. It is demonstrated that the correct building of the fractional step sequence in explicit schemes for numerical solving of the nonstationary linear kinetic transport problems can provide additional stabilization, with the scattering integral plays an important role in stabilizing them. So, when solving kinetic transport problems in media with high scattering albedo, the explicit grid method of settling with splitting the iterations into three fractional steps, that were based on physical processes proved to be the simplest and most effective. The method is implemented as Matlab code, which performs quality control during the generation of the numerical solution process. The most significant modeling results are presented, confirming that the three-step method imposes relatively moderate requirements on resources and numerical integration accuracy, and ensures conditional convergence of iterations. Its mathematical correctness is confirmed by the behavior of the equation residuals and direct control of the convergence of numerical solutions. Its physical correctness is confirmed by ensuring, for ergodic systems, the property of convergence to an invariant steady state independent of the initial conditions. Some discovered and possible limitations of the method are listed.

The work will be useful to specialists in the field of mathematical modeling, numerical methods, kinetic theory, combined heat and mass transfer, dealing with issues of interpretation of experimental data, graduate students and senior students specializing in the indicated areas.

Nowadays the situation of supply-demand imbalances in the professionals’ labor markets causes human capital losses as far as hampers scientific and innovation development. In Russia, supply-demand imbalances in the engineering labor market are associated with deindustrialization processes and manufacturing decline, resulted in a negative public perception of the engineering profession and high rates of graduates not working within the specialty or changing their occupation.

For analysis of the supply-demand imbalances in the engineering labor market, we elaborated a macroeconomic model. The model consists of 14 blocks, including blocks for demand and supply for engineers and technicians, along with the blocks for macroeconomic indicators as industry and service sector output, capital investment. Using this model, we forecasted the perspective supply-demand imbalances in the engineering labor market in a short-term period and examined the parameters of getting supply-demand balance in the medium-term perspective.

The results obtained show that situation of more balanced supply and demand for engineering labor is possible if there is simultaneous increase in the share of investments in fixed assets of manufacturing and relative wages in industry, besides getting to balance is facilitated by a decrease of the share of graduates not working by specialty. It is worth noting that a decrease in the share of graduates not working by specialty may be affected whether by the growth of relative wages in industry and number of vacancies or by the implementation of measures aimed at improving the working conditions of the engineering workforce and increasing the attractiveness of the profession. To summarize, in the case of the simplest scenario, not considering additional measures of working conditions improvement and increasing the attractiveness of the profession, the conditions of supply-demand balance achievement implies slightly lower growth rates of investment in industry than required in scenarios that involve increasing the share of engineers and technicians working in their specialty after graduation. The latter case, where a gradual decrease in the proportion of those who do not work in engineering specialty is expected, requires, probably, higher investment costs for attracting specialists and creating new jobs, as well as additional measures to strengthen the attractiveness of the engineering profession.