Author: Yeghisabet Vorskanian

ARMINFO News Agency, Armenia
 Friday


Children of Armenians from other countries will be able to obtain
Armenian citizenship in a simplified manner

Yerevan October 27

Alexander Avanesov. Children of Armenians, who are citizens of other
countries, will be able to obtain Armenian citizenship in a simplified
manner. Corresponding amendments to the Law "On Citizenship" were made
at the meeting of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia on
October 27.

In addition, as the Deputy Chief of Police of Armenia Vardan
Yeghiazaryan stated, in order to reduce the number of fictitious
marriages for the purpose of acquiring citizenship, the law requires a
minimum of two years to live with a citizen of Armenia in a registered
marriage, provided that they live in Armenia for one year. Issues
related to the granting of citizenship will be handled by an
interdepartmental commission that will submit proposals to the Prime
Minister, and the latter will have the right to apply to the president
for granting citizenship.

Tufts Daily: Tufts University
 Friday


Professors Boghosian, Duchin apply mathematics to social problems -
The Tufts Daily

by Constantinos Angelakis


Applied mathematics students at Tufts may have the opportunity to
cross over into social science. Two professors are pushing the
boundaries of interdisciplinary math by investigating problems in
social sciences through their research.

Professor Bruce Boghosian has been working on modeling wealth
inequality for about five years, beginning during his time as
president of the American University of Armenia. The country, which
became independent after the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991,
underwent drastic liberalization and, like many other former Soviet
states, quickly became an oligarchy, according to Boghosian.

"Unfortunately, it's easier to create an oligarchy than it is to break
loose from it," Boghosian said. "It is an unfortunately stable form of
government."

Boghosian's work now sets out to model the inequality that results
from free markets over time. His model illustrates the increasing
trend of asymmetry in the economy as wealth becomes concentrated in
fewer and fewer hands.

"The accuracy with which we're able to match the wealth distributions
is remarkable," he said. "To my knowledge, no other first-principles
theory is able to achieve the same accuracy. That's what grounds it in
reality, somehow, and makes it more than just a mathematical model."

He explained that the belief that the current economic system will
result in equilibrium dates back to the Enlightenment, during which
freedom of transaction was embraced following a period of restricted
economy in Europe.

"You can understand why people regarded the opportunity to engage in
transactions of one's own free will as a sort of freedom from that,
but there's a bias that's hidden in it. There's an asymmetry, and it's
not the least bit obvious," Boghosian said. "I wish that it didn't
require so much mathematics to describe."

Boghosian noted that his work takes a different approach than
traditional economic models of equilibrium. However, economics
professors at Tufts have been generally receptive to his work.

"They've all been really encouraging, in fact, and supportive of it,"
he said. "I'm not sure they believe it, but they're welcoming to an
outsider who is really just learning about economic issues."

Boghosian has also taught two courses in the Department of Mathematics
regarding wealth inequality, which he said generated significant
levels of student interest.

Senior Chengli Li, an applied mathematics major, has worked with
Boghosian on his research, including as part of the summer scholars
program this year.

"I think it's really interesting to solve economic problems from a
math perspective," Li, who is also an economics major, said. "I think
from the math perspective it's a really interesting new way of looking
at it."

Li said that she enjoyed the opportunity to apply her knowledge of
mathematics across disciplines and toward issues which she has
observed in the world.

"I'm an international student, I'm from China, so the place where I
came [from] was a mixture of really poor people and really wealthy
people," she said. "So I know there's an issue, and this research is
really able to apply what I've learned to the things that I've heard
at school or the things that I've seen."

Ultimately, Boghosian said, there must be some outside intervention to
counter the continued concentration of wealth.

"One thing that we found clearly is that redistribution is the only
thing that keeps an economy stable," Boghosian said. "I mean, there
can be many mechanisms for redistribution, but a redistributive term
in the wealth distribution evolution equation is important."

Boghosian said this redistribution could be done through a variety of
mechanisms. He added that transparency was of critical importance
because many people hide their wealth.

"There's an advantage to taxing wealth directly, even if it's a tiny
tax, not enough to hurt anybody, but it would oblige people to declare
their wealth in the same way they declare their income," he said.

He hopes that by presenting his data, the political will of people may
be more easily impacted to make changes.

"In my opinion, one of the things that can influence political will is
the clear demonstration that the system we have now, even though it
may seem fair, isn't," he said. "It is inherent and endogenously
unfair and biased."

While Boghosian's work has vast implications on pragmatic economic
policy, he said he is focused primarily on using his model to analyze
current data from around the world.

"It would be wonderful in the future to be able to connect our models
with real public policy, but that will take years," he said. "That's
something that we are working on, and people are beginning to think
about, but it's not ready for implementation yet."

Elsewhere in the mathematics department, Associate Professor Moon
Duchin is also addressing social issues through her ongoing research
in gerrymandering. Her work uses geometry to look into the potential
unfair drawing of U.S. districts in order to benefit particular
political groups, also known as gerrymandering. Duchin said that she
is on sabbatical this semester while pursuing her gerrymandering
research full-time.

"Because [voting] is done by districts, it depends really heavily on
what those districts look like, and so the question is, 'What should
be the rules about the shapes of districts?'" she said. "If you have
some rules about what the [districts] can look like, that limits the
power of the map-drawer."

She said that, while members of the mathematics department do not
often do research into social issues, applied math does have a strong
presence in some more traditionally related fields.

"One thing that's cool about the mathematics department at Tufts is
that it has both pure and applied mathematicians in the same
department," she said.

However, Duchin herself does not have a background in applied
mathematics. She said that she became interested in the topic of
gerrymandering while preparing to teach the math of social choice
class at Tufts, after noticing that work on the geometry of districts
was out of date.

"For me, this is a turning point, because my background is in
theoretical, pure mathematics," Duchin said. "This is the first time
I've gotten into something so applied. And I didn't fully realize in
the past that cutting-edge math could be applied to politics instead
of the traditional crossover fields like physics, chemistry and
biology."

Duchin said that the type of mathematical work associated with social
sciences like economics and political science is often called
quantitative social science. Although Tufts does not have a program in
that field, Duchin pointed out the Science, Technology, and Society
major, of which she is the director, as an example of bridging the gap
between social science and humanities.

"For students who are interested in crossing over between STEM fields
and books and real life, that's exactly what niche STS is trying to
fill - to be a bridge between math and engineering and other technical
areas and the practical application in human culture," she said.

Duchin said that Tufts' encouragement of interdisciplinary and
civically engaged work has been a positive influence on her own
endeavors. For example, she has worked with professors in the
political science department as well as members of the Jonathan M.
Tisch College of Civic Life.

"As you see, Tufts is an amazing place to be," Duchin said. "It's
exciting to be here because there are really not that many places that
are as serious about interdisciplinarity as Tufts, and the Tisch
College focus on integrated civics is unique. So for me, it's been a
real treat to be here and work with people in so many other fields."

Interfax - Russia & CIS General Newswire
October 7, 2017 Saturday 8:30 PM MSK


Special forces from four CSTO countries oust mock militants during
exercise in Armenia

MOSCOW. Oct 7

Groups of special forces from Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia
held a combat-training operation to liberate facilities seized by mock
armed criminals as part of Poisk (Search) 2017 joint tactical-special
exercise at the Bagramyan range in Armenia, the Southern Military
District headquarters said on Friday.

"Storm squads of the Collective Rapid Reaction Force (KSOR) from the
CSTO [Collective Security Treaty Organization] member states were
airdropped from [Mil] Mi-8 helicopters of the Armenian Air Force onto
the grounds of the captured facilities. To block the retreating mock
enemy groups, the airborne and reconnaissance troops from Belarus and
Russia set up ambushes and mined possible exit routes of the 'enemy',
" the Southern Military District spokesperson said in a statement
obtained by Interfax on Friday.

The current stage of maneuvers involved over 200 reconnaissance troops
from the CSTO KSOR.

The joint tactical-special reconnaissance exercise involves military
commands, military reconnaissance units and special forces groups from
the armed forces of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia
and Tajikistan. In all, over 1,000 personnel, including more than 700
Russian troops, are taking part in the exercise led by the commander
of Southern Military District troops, Col. Gen. Alexander Dvornikov

Poisk 2017 maneuvers are being held as part of the single plotline of
the Combat Brotherhood 2017 combat strategic exercise of the CSTO
Collective Rapid Reaction Force.

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