Facile SERS substrates from Ag nanostructures chemically synthesized on glass surfaces

A quick one-step fabrication of efficient SERS substrates by a modified approach based on a silver-mirror reaction (using Tollens’ reagent) is reported. Commercially available microscope slides or cover glass (coverslips) were used as-received, without special surface treatment. In contrast to the commonly used two-step process, the composition of the Tollens reagent was modified to use a single-step process. The obtained rather homogeneous films of densely packed nanoislands are promising for application as substrates for Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS), as demonstrated by several different kinds of molecules as analytes. In particular, the achieved level of detection of a standard dye analyte, down to 10-14 M of Rhodamine 6G, is in the range of best values reported in the literature. Low concentrations of some biomolecules are also detected, such as lysozyme (10-4 M), adenine (10-4 M), and salicylic acid (10-5 M). For some analytes, stronger SERS was observed in the drop, and for others after the solvent was dried. The possible reasons for this effect are described. By applying thermal annealing in the inert gas atmosphere, the Ag film morphology can be partially converted into a coral-like 3D structure that may be advantageous for the localization of the analyte in the “hot spots” and allow additional spectral tunability of the plasmon resonance

Filtering and Tracking with Trinion-Valued Adaptive Algorithms

A new model for three-dimensional processes based on the trinion algebra is introduced for the first time. Compared with the pure quaternion model, the trinion model is more compact and computationally more efficient, while having similar or comparable performance in terms of adaptive linear filtering. Moreover, the trinion model can effectively represent the general relationship of state evolution in Kalman filtering, where the pure quaternion model fails. Simulations on real-world wind recordings and synthetic data sets are provided to demonstrate the potentials of this new modeling method

Assessment of organizational culture of enterprise university by the model "The cube double c" of R. Goffi and G. Jones's

In work the possibility of an assessment of organizational culture of enterprise university by the model "A cube double C" of R. Goffi and G. Jones's is investigated. Selection of respondents consisted of 50 teaching staff of faculties of management and economy of the Nizhny Novgorod campus of Higher School of Economics: 31 women and 19 men; 5 professors, 27 associate professors and 18 senior teachers. Diagnostics like organizational culture was carried out by means of R. Goffi and G. Jones's questionnaire, studying of resistance to the changes which are carried out in higher education institution — by means of an author's questionnaire. In a research it is revealed that the Nizhny Novgorod campus of Higher School of Economics has communal type of culture that conforms to requirements of enterprise university; one of the psychological reasons of resistance of teachers to the changes which are carried out to the organizations is their discrepancy to the academic values; the weak organizational culture of a campus causes resistance to the carried-out organizational changes. The research has shown that the model of organizational culture "A cube double C" is the adequate tool of an assessment of culture of enterprise university

Estimating spread of violent behaviour with children

The article is to problems of violence (physical, psychological, sexual) to children in the region of Nyzhniy Novgorod in the Russian Federation. It was used international tool for questionnaire ICAST-C. В исследовании приняли участие 227 children par- ticipated in this study (131 girls, 96 boys) in the age of 11 to 18 years old. The results show that 78,4% of children have some experience of violence and abuse. 3/4 — in family, and 2/3 — at school. High level of psychological abuse at home was shown (more than 2/3 ), at home it is more often than at school (54% versus 30%). Children suffer from physical abuse at home (49% versus 33% at school). Though they suffer from sexual abuse at school (27%). All kinds of abuse take place among girls as well as among boys. Except physical abuse at school where it is more usual among boys (45%), versus (33%) girls. Girls suffer more at home. Teenagers suffer less, than youngsters. Emotional abuse is not spread widely (40% versus 60—75% in other groups). In general they suffer from sexual abuse not often, though it is usually at home (8,5% cases)

Psychological Well-Being of Teachers of Preschool Educational Institutions in Russia

The article presents the results of studying the features of psychological well-being of preschool educators of the Russian Federation using the PERMA-Profiler questionnaire adapted for the Russian-speaking sample by O.M. Isayeva, A.Yu. Akimova, E.N. Volkova. The study involved 2135 preschool teachers from 79 regions of 8 federal districts of the Russian Federation. The results of the study showed that teachers have a higher overall level of psychological well-being than in the main Russian sample, as well as higher values of the severity of the components of psychological well-being: "positive emotions", "relationships" with other people, "involvement" in activities, "meaning" and "achievements". The stratification variables associated with the psychological well-being of preschool educators are the characteristics of age, work experience in a certain position, the qualification category of the employee, marital status, the presence of children. The level of education and place of residence do not directly affect the level of psychological well-being.</p

Vegetation and climate changes around the Lama Lake, Taymyr Peninsula during the Late Pleistocene and Holocene reconstructed from pollen records

A continuous lacustrine sequence from the western part of Lama Lake (69°32'N, 90°12'E),completed by a peat sequence from the lake catchment provides the first detailed environmentalreconstruction for the Late Glacial and Holocene on the Taymyr Peninsula. Scarce steppe-likecommunities with Artemisia, Poaceae, and Cyperaceae dominated during the Late Glacial. Tundra-like communities with Betula nana, Dryas, and Salix grew on more mesic sites. There are distinctclimatic signals, which may be correlated with the Bølling and Allerød warmings and Middle andYounger Dryas coolings. The Late Glacial/Preboreal transition, at about 10,000 14C yr BP, wascharacterized by changes from predominantly open herb communities to shrub tundra ones. Larchforest might have been established as early as 9700-9600 14C yr BP, whilst shrub alder came tothe area ca 9500-9400 14C yr BP, and spruce did not reach area before ca 9200 14C yr BP. Spruce-larch forests with shrub alder and tree birch dominated the vegetation around the Lama Lake fromca 9000 14C yr BP. Dwarf birch communities were also broadly distributed. Role of spruce in theforest gradually decreased after 4500 14C yr BP. Vegetation cover in the Lama Lake area becamesimilar to modern larch-spruce forest ca 2500 14C yr BP. A pollen-based biome reconstructionsupports a quantitative interpretation of the pollen spectra. Climate reconstructions obtained withinformation-statistical and plan-functional-type methods show very similar trends in reconstructedJuly temperature since ca 12,300 14C yr BP, while precipitation anomalies are less coherent,especially during the Late Glacial-Holocene transition