The parallax distorsion via a weak microlensing effect

Parallax measurements allow distances to celestial objects to be determined. Coupled with measurement of their position on the celestial sphere, it gives a full three-dimensional picture of the location of the objects relative to the observer. The distortion of the parallax value of a remote source affected by a weak microlensing is considered. This means that the weak microlensing leads to distortion of the distance scale. It is shown that the distortions to appear may change strongly the parallax values in case they amount to several microseconds of arc. In particular, at this accuracy many measured values of the parallaxes must be negative.Comment: 34 LaTeX pages, 12 PostScript figure (epsfig.sty

Microarcsecond instability of the celestial reference frame

The fluctuation of the angular positions of reference extragalactic radio and optical sources under the influence of the irregular gravitational field of visible Galactic stars is considered. It is shown that these angular fluctuations range from a few up to hundreds of microarcseconds. This leads to a small rotation of the celestial reference frame. The nondiagonal coefficients of the rotation matrix are of the order of a microarcsecond. The temporal variation of these coefficients due to the proper motion of the foreground stars is of the order of one microsecond per 20 years. Therefore, the celestial reference frame can be considered inertial and homogeneous only to microarcsecond accuracy. Astrometric catalogues with microarcsecond accuracy will be unstable, and must be reestablished every 20 years.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, accepted to MNRA

Means of Influence on Public Opinion in Political Context: Speech Manipulation in the Media

The manipulation problem in the media has been still pressing. Processes and techniques intended for making an influence on public opinion and behaviors are in ongoing improvement, making it difficult to access an objective image of the world. Therefore, this research aims at emphasizing the importance of speech (language) means that form a basis of manipulations in mass communications. To achieve this, authors have provided the systematization of social influence processes in the media and made techniques and means of speech influence clearer. Authors provided a content analysis of texts of 2018 from the media using news resources of different countries ('Russia Today', 'RIA Novosti', 'Ukrinform' and 'Fox News Channel') as an example. The research subject consists of news materials of a politico-social nature on Russia’s participation in the Syrian conflict. Authors have empirically revealed a clear desire to influence readers of the media resources using covert means of the manipulative influence. In total, they have found five types of manipulative speech influence in texts of the media. There are self-presentation, semantic speech strategies, persuasive strategies, hit piece and information manipulation. A lexical toolkit of speech manipulation includes euphemisms, dysphemisms, slogan words, speech metaphorization, etc. Media texts have become more and more complicated as they contain hints, precedent phenomena, irony, as well as metamessages of informative presentation. Each media of the selected ones more or less uses means of speech manipulation in varying degrees. Applications of such methods of influence (in number) almost directly depend on a political attitude towards an object

Evolution of the Bavarian dialect lexical system

The article deals with the specific features of the German language on the Bavarian dialect lexical level. The dialect is remarkable for its innovations and variety of linguistic forms on all levels of its system. The notion “Bavarian dialect” and its correlation with literary German language is being researched. The comparative analysis reveals the facts of deviation from the standards of the literary German language, especially in vocabulary and semantic

Comparative study of electrophoretic deposition of doped BaCeO3-based films on La2NiO4+δ and La1.7Ba0.3NiO4+δ cathode substrates

This paper presents the results of a comparative study of methods to prevent the loss of barium during the formation of thin-film proton-conducting electrolyte BaCe0.89Gd0.1Cu0.01O3-δ (BCGCuO) on La2NiO4+δ-based (LNO) cathode substrates by electrophoretic deposition (EPD). Three different methods of the BCGCuO film coating were considered: the formation of the BCGCuO electrolyte film without (1) and with a protective BaCeO3 (BCO) film (2) on the LNO electrode substrate and the formation of the BCGCuO electrolyte film on a modified La1.7Ba0.3NiO4+δ (LBNO) cathode substrate (3). After the cyclic EPD in six stages, the resulting BCGCuO film (6 μm) (1) on the LNO substrate was completely dense, but the scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis revealed the absence of barium in the film caused by its intensive diffusion into the substrate and evaporation during the sintering. The BCO layer prevented the barium loss in the BCGCuO film (2); however, the protective film possessed a porous island structure, which resulted in the deterioration of the film's conductivity. The use of the modified LBNO cathode also effectively prevented the loss of barium in the BCGCuO film (3). A BCGCuO film whose conductivity behavior most closely resembled that of the compacts was obtained by using this method which has strong potential for practical applications in solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) technology. © 2019 by the authors.Government Council on Grants, Russian FederationFunding: This research was funded by the Government of the Russian Federation (Agreement 02.A03.21.0006, Act 211)

Opportunities, Challenges and Prospects for Electrodeposition of Thin-Film Functional Layers in Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Technology

Electrolytic deposition (ELD) and electrophoretic deposition (EPD) are relevant methods for creating functional layers of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). This review discusses challenges, new findings and prospects for the implementation of these methods, with the main emphasis placed on the use of the ELD method. Topical issues concerning the formation of highly active SOFC electrodes using ELD, namely, the electrochemical introduction of metal cations into a porous electrode backbone, the formation of composite electrodes, and the electrochemical synthesis of perovskite-like electrode materials are considered. The review presents examples of the ELD formation of the composite electrodes based on porous platinum and silver, which retain high catalytic activity when used in the low-temperature range (400–650 °C). The features of the ELD/EPD co-deposition in the creation of nanostructured electrode layers comprising metal cations, ceramic nanoparticles, and carbon nanotubes, and the use of EPD to create oriented structures are also discussed. A separate subsection is devoted to the electrodeposition of CeO2-based film structures for barrier, protective and catalytic layers using cathodic and anodic ELD, as well as to the main research directions associated with the deposition of the SOFC electrolyte layers using the EPD method. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.Funding: This research was funded by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, grant number 20-03-00151

Epistatic Interactions in {NS5A} of Hepatitis {C} Virus Suggest Drug Resistance Mechanisms

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) causes a major health burden and can be effectively treated by direct-acting antivirals (DAAs). The non-structural protein 5A (NS5A), which plays a role in the viral genome replication, is one of the DAAs’ targets. Resistance-associated viruses (RAVs) harbouring NS5A resistance-associated mutations (RAMs) have been described at baseline and after therapy failure. A mutation from glutamine to arginine at position 30 (Q30R) is a characteristic RAM for the HCV sub/genotype (GT) 1a, but arginine corresponds to the wild type in the GT-1b; still, GT-1b strains are susceptible to NS5A-inhibitors. In this study, we show that GT-1b strains with R30Q often display other specific NS5A substitutions, particularly in positions 24 and 34. We demonstrate that in GT-1b secondary substitutions usually happen after initial R30Q development in the phylogeny, and that the chemical properties of the corresponding amino acids serve to restore the positive charge in this region, acting as compensatory mutations. These findings may have implications for RAVs treatment

Possible ways of reaching autonomy in speaking

The article focuses on one of the burning problems in contemporary ELT: how to achieve fluent speaking of students. The authors reflect upon their experience in using different activities which help to reach autonomy. The paper offers some practical ideas which have proved to be effective

The practice of using FMEA-analysis at a Russian industrial enterprise

Поэтапное описание внедрения методики FMEA на российском предприятии, влияние внедрения методики на производственный процесс и качество продукции. Актуальные проблемы, возникающие при внедрении методики на производстве.A phased description of the implementation of the FMEA methodology in a Russian enterprise, the impact of the implementation of the methodology on the production process and product quality. Actual problems arising from the introduction of methods in production

Direct Electrophoretic Deposition and Characterization of Thin‐film Membranes Based on Doped BaCeO3 and CeO2 for Anode‐supported Solid Oxide Fuel Cells

In this work, a technology was developed for the formation of BaCe0.8Sm0.2O3+1 wt% CuO (BCS‐CuO)/Ce0.8Sm0.2O1.9 (SDC) thin‐film electrolyte membranes for intermediate‐temperature solid oxide fuel cells (IT‐SOFCs) on porous NiO‐BCS‐CuO anode substrates using direct electrophoretic deposition (EPD). The effect of increasing the zeta potential when modifying the base suspension of a micro‐sized SDC‐gn powder (glycine–nitrate method) with the addition of a SDC‐lec nanopowder (laser evaporation–condensation) was investigated. Dependences of the current strength on the deposition time and the deposited weight on the EPD voltage were obtained, and evolution of the morphology of the coatings during the modification of the SDC‐gn suspension and a suspension of BCS‐CuO powder was studied. The compatibility of the shrinkage kinetics of the SDC, the BCS‐ CuO electrolyte coatings and the NiO‐BCS‐CuO anode substrate was studied during the high‐temperature sintering. Dense BCS‐CuO/SDC films of different thicknesses were obtained for the first time on porous NiO‐BCS‐CuO anode substrates and comprehensive microstructural and electrochemical studies were carried out. The developed technology can be applied to the formation of anode‐supported SOFCs with thin‐film electrolyte membranes. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.Russian Foundation for Basic Research, РФФИ: 20-03-00151Funding: The work was financially supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, grant № 20-03-00151