From centrality to intermediacy in the global transport network? Ukraine’s trials and tribulations as a potential transit country

Ukraine currently is in a very complex economic and political situation, which in itself represents a pivotal point for its further recovery and evolution. Nevertheless, the rise of economic centres in Eastern and Central Europe creates opportunities for Ukraine to develop short sea shipping services (via the Black Sea) and water and land-based hub-feeder networks to and from these areas. This paper provides an academic study of the potential of Ukraine in taking up a role in emerging distribution systems in East and Central Europe facilitating the cargo transportation from regions such as Central Asia, Caucasus and even more distant overseas areas. Based on the concepts of intermediacy and centrality as introduced by Fleming and Hayuth (1994) the role of Ukraine in the global and regional transport networks will be analysed in order to assess to what extent particular regions in Ukraine can serve as important gateways to Europe. An extensive review and synthesis of the published studies during the last 20 years on Ukraine’s transit flows and transit function will be presented. The obtained results will be contraposed to the results obtained from about 20 interviews conducted with transport business representatives in Ukraine and abroad. Based on the outcome of bottlenecks and deficiencies in Ukraine’s transport system, the optimal road map for Ukraine’s integration into the European transport network will be defined

Projective Ring Line Encompassing Two-Qubits

The projective line over the (non-commutative) ring of two-by-two matrices with coefficients in GF(2) is found to fully accommodate the algebra of 15 operators - generalized Pauli matrices - characterizing two-qubit systems. The relevant sub-configuration consists of 15 points each of which is either simultaneously distant or simultaneously neighbor to (any) two given distant points of the line. The operators can be identified with the points in such a one-to-one manner that their commutation relations are exactly reproduced by the underlying geometry of the points, with the ring geometrical notions of neighbor/distant answering, respectively, to the operational ones of commuting/non-commuting. This remarkable configuration can be viewed in two principally different ways accounting, respectively, for the basic 9+6 and 10+5 factorizations of the algebra of the observables. First, as a disjoint union of the projective line over GF(2) x GF(2) (the "Mermin" part) and two lines over GF(4) passing through the two selected points, the latter omitted. Second, as the generalized quadrangle of order two, with its ovoids and/or spreads standing for (maximum) sets of five mutually non-commuting operators and/or groups of five maximally commuting subsets of three operators each. These findings open up rather unexpected vistas for an algebraic geometrical modelling of finite-dimensional quantum systems and give their numerous applications a wholly new perspective.Comment: 8 pages, three tables; Version 2 - a few typos and one discrepancy corrected; Version 3: substantial extension of the paper - two-qubits are generalized quadrangles of order two; Version 4: self-dual picture completed; Version 5: intriguing triality found -- three kinds of geometric hyperplanes within GQ and three distinguished subsets of Pauli operator

Photosynthesis is widely distributed among Proteobacteria as demonstrated by the phylogeny of PufLM reaction center proteins

Two different photosystems for performing bacteriochlorophyll-mediated photosynthetic energy conversion are employed in different bacterial phyla. Those bacteria employing a photosystem II type of photosynthetic apparatus include the phototrophic purple bacteria (Proteobacteria), Gemmatimonas and Chloroflexus with their photosynthetic relatives. The proteins of the photosynthetic reaction center PufL and PufM are essential components and are common to all bacteria with a type-II photosynthetic apparatus, including the anaerobic as well as the aerobic phototrophic Proteobacteria. Therefore, PufL and PufM proteins and their genes are perfect tools to evaluate the phylogeny of the photosynthetic apparatus and to study the diversity of the bacteria employing this photosystem in nature. Almost complete pufLM gene sequences and the derived protein sequences from 152 type strains and 45 additional strains of phototrophic Proteobacteria employing photosystem II were compared. The results give interesting and comprehensive insights into the phylogeny of the photosynthetic apparatus and clearly define Chromatiales, Rhodobacterales, Sphingomonadales as major groups distinct from other Alphaproteobacteria, from Betaproteobacteria and from Caulobacterales (Brevundimonas subvibrioides). A special relationship exists between the PufLM sequences of those bacteria employing bacteriochlorophyll b instead of bacteriochlorophyll a. A clear phylogenetic association of aerobic phototrophic purple bacteria to anaerobic purple bacteria according to their PufLM sequences is demonstrated indicating multiple evolutionary lines from anaerobic to aerobic phototrophic purple bacteria. The impact of pufLM gene sequences for studies on the environmental diversity of phototrophic bacteria is discussed and the possibility of their identification on the species level in environmental samples is pointed out. © 2018 Imhoff, Rahn, Künzel and Neulinger

Telling Them What They Want to Hear: Involvement with the Indigenous Populations as a Lawyer-Legal Anthropologist in Alaska and Canada

For some purposes — most notably when the legal question of tribal sovereignty is pursued — Alaska has held firm to the principle that all Alaskans are subject to a single law and that village tribes lack legal authority. Yet in practice the history of Alaska bush justice has been to employ informal, extralegal approaches until formal law could muster sufficient resources to intervene and displace informal law.This paper describes the tension between official and unofficial approaches to solving problems such as alcohol, gasoline sniffing, and substance abuse and the attendant social disorder in rural Alaska villages where the structures of formal law and law enforcement are largely absent, and explores the role lawyers can play to improve the legal system within villages