22 research outputs found

    The Stockholm populations of Adalia bipunctata (L) (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) -a case of extreme female-biased population sex ratio

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    The genetic composition and sex ratio in the Stockholm populations of Adalia bipunctata have been studied. The overall frequency of melanics is 3.2 %, which is significantly lower than in the populations of St. Petersburg and other large cities along the Baltic Sea. The secondary sex ratio in the Stockholm populations is female-biased 82:18. More than half of A. hipunctata females are infected with the male-killing Spiroplasma bacterium. Beetles of the co-existing species Adaliu decempunctata are infected with a different bacterium belonging to the genus Rickettsia

    Origin and Post-Glacial Dispersal of Mitochondrial DNA Haplogroups C and D in Northern Asia

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    More than a half of the northern Asian pool of human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is fragmented into a number of subclades of haplogroups C and D, two of the most frequent haplogroups throughout northern, eastern, central Asia and America. While there has been considerable recent progress in studying mitochondrial variation in eastern Asia and America at the complete genome resolution, little comparable data is available for regions such as southern Siberia – the area where most of northern Asian haplogroups, including C and D, likely diversified. This gap in our knowledge causes a serious barrier for progress in understanding the demographic pre-history of northern Eurasia in general. Here we describe the phylogeography of haplogroups C and D in the populations of northern and eastern Asia. We have analyzed 770 samples from haplogroups C and D (174 and 596, respectively) at high resolution, including 182 novel complete mtDNA sequences representing haplogroups C and D (83 and 99, respectively). The present-day variation of haplogroups C and D suggests that these mtDNA clades expanded before the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), with their oldest lineages being present in the eastern Asia. Unlike in eastern Asia, most of the northern Asian variants of haplogroups C and D began the expansion after the LGM, thus pointing to post-glacial re-colonization of northern Asia. Our results show that both haplogroups were involved in migrations, from eastern Asia and southern Siberia to eastern and northeastern Europe, likely during the middle Holocene

    Variability of the mitochondrial CO1 gene in native and invasive populations of Harmonia axyridis Pall. comparative analysis.

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    Our study is focused on original and publicly accessible data on the intraspecific variability of the barcoding DNA fragment in ladybirds Harmonia axyridis Pall analysis. The complete dataset consists of 39 haplotypes, 16 of which we identified for the first time. The intra-population and geographical variability of the barcoding fragment was studied for seven populations of the western and eastern groups of the native range and in six invasive populations, in which 25 of the 39 haplotypes are found. Population structure inferred on base of molecular variability and haplotype frequencies showed a high level of differences between the eastern and western groups of native populations and confirm the hypothesis of the origin of all invasive populations from native populations of the eastern group. A comparative analysis of molecular variation indices testifies to various evolutionary scenarios of the formation of the western and eastern groups of native populations and confirms the hypothesis of the microevolutionary history of the species, previously suggested in morphological character based studies of the geographical variability of H. axyridis. A significant decrease in the molecular diversity of invasive populations confirms the hypothesis of a random nature of the primary invasion of this species in North America

    Non-Verbal Intelligence in Primary School Students: A Cross-Cultural Study

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    In this article we present the results of a cross-cultural study of non-verbal intelligence in primary school students. Significant differences with the effect size of 9% were found in non-verbal intelligence scores of 1057 students from Russia and Kyrgyzstan. The differences were also found for city and countryside residents (effect size of 10%). These results might be explained both by the features of educational systems and socio-economic development level in Russia and Kyrgyzstan

    Non-Verbal Intelligence in Primary School Students: A Cross-Cultural Study

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    In this article we present the results of a cross-cultural study of non-verbal intelligence in primary school students. Significant differences with the effect size of 9% were found in non-verbal intelligence scores of 1057 students from Russia and Kyrgyzstan. The differences were also found for city and countryside residents (effect size of 10%). These results might be explained both by the features of educational systems and socio-economic development level in Russia and Kyrgyzstan

    Numerical modelling of the lunar exosphere and lunar lander interactions with SPIS-DUST

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    International audienceOne of the complicating factors of the future robotic and human lunar landing missions is the influence of the dust. Meteorites bombardment has accompanied by shockexplosive phenomena, disintegration and mix of the lunar soil in depth and on area simultaneously. Therefore, the lunar soil has undergone melting, physical and chemical transformations. Recently we have the some reemergence for interest of Moon investigation. The prospects in current century declare USA, China, India, and European Union. In Russia also prepare two missions: Luna-Glob and Luna-Resource. Not last part of investigation of Moon surface is reviewing the dust condition near the ground of landers. Studying the properties of lunar dust is important both for scientific purposes to investigation the lunar exosphere component and for the technical safety of lunar robotic and manned missions. The absence of an atmosphere on the Moon’s surface is leading to greater compaction and sintering. Properties of regolith and dust particles (density, temperature, composition, etc.) as well as near-surface lunar exo-sphere depend on solar activity, lunar local time and position of the Moon relative to the Earth’s magneto tail. Upper layers of regolith are an insulator, which is charging as a result of solar UV radiation and the constant bombardment of charged particles, creates a charge distribution on the surface of the moon: positive on the illuminated side and negative on the night side. Charge distribution depends on the local lunar time, latitude and the electrical properties of the regolith (the presence of water in the regolith can influence the local distribution of charge). On the day side of Moon near surface layer there exists possibility formation dusty plasma system. Altitude of levitation is depending from size of dust particle and Moon latitude. The distribution dust particle by size and altitude has estimated with taking into account photoelectrons,electrons and ions of solar wind, solar emission. Dust analyzer instrument PmL for future Russian lender missions intends for investigation the dynamics of dusty plasma near lunar surface. PmL consists of three parts: Impact Sensor and two Electric Field Sensors. One of the tools, which allows to simulate the dust emission from the Moon and asteroids, its transport, deposition and its interaction with a lander, is the SPISDUST (Spacecraft Plasma Interaction Software) code which based on Particle-in-Cell (PiC) method. This paper presents results of SPIS-DUST modelling of the interaction between the lunar plasma environment, regolith and a lander. The model takes into account the geometry of the Luna-Glob lander, the electric properties of materials used on the lander surface, as well as Luna-Glob landing place. Initial conditions were chosen based on the current theoretical models of formation of dusty plasma exosphere and levitating charged dust particles as well as on the possible selected land sites
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