Russian Laws on Indigenous Issues (Vol. II) : Wildlife Laws, Concept of Sustainable Development and supplementary legal forms for indigenous communities

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Legislative process in the field of ethnological expert examination in Russia

The article analyses the stages and peculiarities of development of ethnological expert examination as an institution in the Russian Federation. It is beyond argument that different actors to various extent involved in the implementation of the project in question, adhere to divergent approaches, namely: from defining the key regulatory authority (federal center or regions), correlation between ethnological and ecological expert examinations, social and technocratic approaches to the territory development and the role of indigenous small-numbered peoples. Pursuant to the strategic planning documents, ethnological expert examination represents a tool for implementation of the Russian state policy regarding different nationalities. However, state-recognized ethnological expert examination with all legal consequences it entails is only pursued in the Sakha Republic (Yakutia) based upon a regional law. The federal legislator only provides a definition of ethnological expert examination (scientific research into the influence of changes in the original living environment of indigenous small-numbered peoples and sociocultural situation on the development of an ethnic group) without enacting any statutory instrument to regulate the procedure. The analysis has shown that Russian legislation requires statutorization of the ethnological expert examination procedure and its binding character along with elaboration of conceptual framework, subject matter and object of this research

Crosstalk between G-protein and Ca2+ pathways switches intracellular cAMP levels

Cyclic adenosine monophosphate and cyclic guanosine monophosphate are universal intracellular messengers whose concentrations are regulated by molecular networks comprised of different isoforms of the synthases adenylate cyclase or guanylate cyclase and the phosphodiesterases which degrade these compounds. In this paper, we employ a systems biology approach to develop mathematical models of these networks that, for the first time, take into account the different biochemical properties of the isoforms involved. To investigate the mechanisms underlying the joint regulation of cAMP and cGMP, we apply our models to analyse the regulation of cilia beat frequency in Paramecium by Ca(2+). Based on our analysis of these models, we propose that the diversity of isoform combinations that occurs in living cells provides an explanation for the huge variety of intracellular processes that are dependent on these networks. The inclusion of both G-protein receptor and Ca(2+)-dependent regulation of AC in our models allows us to propose a new explanation for the switching properties of G-protein subunits involved in nucleotide regulation. Analysis of the models suggests that, depending on whether the G-protein subunit is bound to AC, Ca(2+) can either activate or inhibit AC in a concentration-dependent manner. The resulting analysis provides an explanation for previous experimental results that showed that alterations in Ca(2+) concentrations can either increase or decrease cilia beat frequency over particular Ca(2+) concentration ranges