Russian Information Operations in the Soviet Strategic Framework

This thesis seeks to illuminate how information operations supports Russia’s strategy for creating power for the state. Using classic military theory and Soviet strategy as the lens, the paper examines information operations in the context of the nature of war. The examination includes historical and contemporary Russian publications on warfare, as well as information operations case studies from Eastern Europe, Georgia and Crimea. Russia’s operations are found to be consistent with a strategy of attrition. The opponent\u27s society is the primary target of information operations. The emphasis on information operations within contemporary Russian concepts of modern war indicate that the Russian military theory establishment judge this means of war as useful and persistent. Western nations must seek to separately and holistically understand Russia\u27s strategy and how information operations support it, as well as the role of society in the rubric of war. These elements are essential to counter Russian aggression

Divergence in seasonal hydrology across northern Eurasia: Emerging trends and water cycle linkages

Discharge from large Eurasia rivers increased during the 20th century, yet much remains unknown regarding details of this increasing freshwater flux. Here, for the three largest Eurasian basins (the Ob, Yenisei, and Lena) we examine the nature of annual and seasonal discharge trends by investigating the flow changes along with those for precipitation, snow depth, and snow water equivalent. On the basis of a multiperiod trend analysis and examination of station data, we propose two characteristic regimes to explain the long‐term discharge increase from these large Eurasian rivers. Over the early decades from approximately 1936 to 1965, annual precipitation correlates well with annual discharge, and positive discharge trends are concurrent with summer/fall discharge increases. The latter decades were marked by a divergence between winter/spring flows, which increased, amid summer/fall discharge declines. A comparison of cold season precipitation (CSP) and spring discharge trends across subbasins of the Ob, Yenisei, and Lena shows limited agreement with one precipitation data set but good agreement (R2 \u3e 0.90) when a second is used. While natural variability in the Arctic system tends to mask these emerging trends, spatial and temporal changes can generally be characterized by increased solid precipitation, primarily to the north, along with a drier hydrography during the warm season

Special Issue Foreword: On the Political Economy of Amateur Athletics

In its most artless definition, political economy refers to the study of inter- and intrastate transaction—concerned in large part with the dialectics of state governance and the production/consumption functions therein. Many of us, with varying degrees of deliberation, have read the works of forerunning political economists such as Adam Smith (c. 1723-1790), David Ricardo (c. 1772-1823), Thomas Malthus (c. 1766-1834), John Stuart Mill (c. 1806-1873), Karl Marx (c. 1818-1883), and Thorstein Veblen (c. 1857-1929). These classic political economists and their contemporaries shared a concern for the extent to which land, labor, income, capital, and the population derived value from, and maintained contingency with, state polity. While each diverged from the others in how to best organize the State in relation to markets and exchange activities (and vice versa) so as to optimize the citizenry’s well-being, these scholars and their contemporaries laid the foundations for the long-standing field of inquiry fixed on exploring how various national political systems (democracy, monarchy, aristocracy, oligarchy, etc.), markets, and political and economic behavior could bring about national prosperity, maximize individual freedom, or raise collective utility

Towards Automated Benchmarking of Atomistic Forcefields: Neat Liquid Densities and Static Dielectric Constants from the ThermoML Data Archive

Atomistic molecular simulations are a powerful way to make quantitative predictions, but the accuracy of these predictions depends entirely on the quality of the forcefield employed. While experimental measurements of fundamental physical properties offer a straightforward approach for evaluating forcefield quality, the bulk of this information has been tied up in formats that are not machine-readable. Compiling benchmark datasets of physical properties from non-machine-readable sources require substantial human effort and is prone to accumulation of human errors, hindering the development of reproducible benchmarks of forcefield accuracy. Here, we examine the feasibility of benchmarking atomistic forcefields against the NIST ThermoML data archive of physicochemical measurements, which aggregates thousands of experimental measurements in a portable, machine-readable, self-annotating format. As a proof of concept, we present a detailed benchmark of the generalized Amber small molecule forcefield (GAFF) using the AM1-BCC charge model against measurements (specifically bulk liquid densities and static dielectric constants at ambient pressure) automatically extracted from the archive, and discuss the extent of available data. The results of this benchmark highlight a general problem with fixed-charge forcefields in the representation low dielectric environments such as those seen in binding cavities or biological membranes

The effects of tags on the evolution of honest signaling

In the study described here we examine the importance of social tags in the emergence and maintenance of signaling, using the Sir Philip Sydney Game. We use tags in the calcu-lation of inclusive fitness for members in a finite population, and analyze their evolution under different population distri-butions. We support the claim that inclusive fitness theory may not be sufficient to explain the evolution of cooperation. While cooperativity through honest signaling is sometimes achieved with tag-based relatedness, we suggest that the im-portance of tag-based mechanisms may not simply be due to their role in kin selection

Are we there yet? Initial targeting of the Male-Specific Lethal and Polycomb group chromatin complexes in Drosophila

Chromatin-binding proteins must navigate the complex nuclear milieu to find their sites of action, and a constellation of protein factors and other properties are likely to influence targeting specificity. Despite considerable progress, the precise rules by which binding specificity is achieved have remained elusive. Here, we consider early targeting events for two groups of chromatin-binding complexes in Drosophila: the Male-Specific Lethal (MSL) and the Polycomb group (PcG) complexes. These two serve as models for understanding targeting, because they have been extensively studied and play vital roles in Drosophila, and their targets have been documented at high resolution. Furthermore, the proteins and biochemical properties of both complexes are largely conserved in multicellular organisms, including humans. While the MSL complex increases gene expression and PcG members repress genes, the two groups share many similarities such as the ability to modify their chromatin environment to create active or repressive domains, respectively. With legacies of in-depth genetic, biochemical and now genomic approaches, the MSL and PcG complexes will continue to provide tractable systems for understanding the recruitment of multiprotein chromatin complexes to their target loci