ONGOING PROGRAMS AND PROJECTS

Among the programs underway between 1991 and 2006 are:

A VIRTUAL LIBRARY IN TULA?

The Alliance works with the Tula Pedagogical University, looking into the feasibility of creating a state-of-the-art electronic ("virtual") library in Tula. As the first stage of the eventual creation of a full "physical" library, this would make use of the Internet and the many types of communications and database software available to allow two-way access to books and references housed anywhere in the world, to databases and archive materials, to multimedia offerings, and even to live, interactive sessions with experts on a range of subjects. With this sort of resource in place, Tula’s academic community could easily become the focal point for Internet-based expertise and documents relating to Tolstoy and his times.

Contacts are now being made among institutions in the Capital Region to discuss linking existing systems with the University, as well as with organizations in Russia that could support such a venture with a variety of skills and resources.

THE NEED FOR CLEAN WATER

With impending growth and population shifts, the Tula city government is hard at work preparing for a potential shortfall of drinking water — a problem that exists throughout the world, but is especially troublesome in Russia due to the massive demand for limited financial and technical resources for water supply.

The Alliance has been working closely with the city government on this issue. In July 2000 a team of four experts from Albany visited Tula and carried a range of factfinding and analytical tasks, and a second on-site contact was made in September 2000 as part of an Alliance team visit.

In both instances there were detailed informational exchanges about the technical and scientific aspects of the situation, as well as about the nature and location of potential sources of funding and other support. Reports have been exchanged and are being reviewed by teams of experts.

As a follow-up, a group from Tula (led by the director of the city's "Vodocanal" — water supply agency) will visit the Capital Region in November 2000 and meet with a broad cross-section of water and sanitary system operators, as well as with state and local regulatory officials.

ON THE ENVIRONMENTAL FRONT

The city government in Tula is active in programs designed to identify and fight instances of environmental pollution and other threats to public health. As part of the effort, a new study entitled "Assessment Technique of the Population Life Quality with the Ecological Factor Being Taken into Account" has just been completed by a team comprising scientists from the city government and local universities. Intended to set forth dramatically new mechanisms for predicting adverse environmental impacts in the Tula area, the process described can serve as a template for the development and implementation of a set of coordinated laws and regulations protecting the population. Funding is being sought for the support of follow-on research.

A copy of the study report can be retrieved here.

Also, experts in the Tula city government have been using the MapInfo Professional Geographic Information System (GIS) software contributed by MapInfo through the Alliance, in a precedent-setting project. Specifically, the Tula team is combining environmental data (such as the actual location in the city of concentrations of heavy metals or radioactivity) with newly available date on the specifics of illness of individual members of the population.

By using the GIS software to trace the illness down to an actual place of residence or work, and looking at the information on the type of contamination of the local environment, it is quite easy to formulate and illustrate strong linkages and to array them in stunning graphic detail on maps. Thus, one can link incidence of certain disease or environmental injury to components of the local environment, and then implement cost-effective preventive measures (e.g., removing a single type of contaminant from a discrete physical area).

The Alliance is working with the city to locate technical and financial support for further development and field testing of the system.

MANAGED HEALTH CARE PROJECT

As a key component in the evolution and growth of the Alliance-supported Poly Clinic in Tula, a team of Capital Region university scientists and economists has recently submitted a proposal for funding to the National Institutes of Health. If successful, the grant will fund a five-year program of research and analysis in Tula, addressing the question of the degree to which improvement in the health of individuals within the Tula population can be translated into enhancement of the overall economic development of the Tula community.

The success to date of the Poly Clinic leads us to believe that it will serve as a very valuable test bed for the analysis of the data on its 65,000 members and their improved health's impact on the wealth of the city.

ELECTRONIC LINKAGES

The Alliance is branching out electronically. We are now officially a part of the Communities supported by the Times Union, and we are building a supplemental Web site in their prize-winning electronic area. This means that, in addition to getting the Alliance's core information at this location, you can also visit us at www.albanytula.org -- a special place on the Internet where our members are able to create more personalized pages, and to build an electronic community. Be sure to check it out.

SUPPORT OF THE TULA OBLAST ORPHANAGE

SABIT BUSINESS INTERN PROGRAM