Pussy Riot vs. Civil Obedience: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Two Texts

In February 2012, less than two weeks before that year’s presidential elections in Russia, a two-minute video of young women in brightly colored masks and short dresses was uploaded to YouTube. The video featured four members of the Pussy Riot punk feminist band performing a wild dance in front of the altar of Russia’s main Orthodox temple, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. Lip-syncing to a song, which they called a punk prayer, they beseeched the Virgin Mary to “drive” Vladimir Putin, then the prime minister and a presidential candidate, “away.” After generating scads of international publicity, the case ended with the three band members being sentenced to prison for two years on charges of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred. The clearly provocative nature of the performance – with costume changes mid-scene and anti-government, anti-Church protest slogans set to the music of a sacred Orthodox song – made the Pussy Riot case a springboard to discussion of the acceptability of religiously contextualized political speech in contemporary Russia. Through a critical discourse analysis of the original lyrics of the punk prayer and the report from the psychological and linguistic experts that formed the basis of the prosecutor’s case, this article explores the discursive devices and rhetorical strategies employed in these texts to challenge or sustain the existing power relations in Russia. As the analysis makes clear, while the punk prayer criticizes State and the Russian Orthodox Church as oppressive and corrupt by disrupting and denaturalizing the images typically associated with their rituals and spaces, the report normalizes conformity, depoliticizes Pussy Riot critique, and delegitimizes public political protests by pushing them beyond the boundaries of socially acceptable forms of citizens’ civic participation

Eye-Safe Solid-State Quasi-CW Raman Laser with Millisecond Pulse Duration

We demonstrate the first quasi-CW (ms-long pulses, pump duty cycle of 10%) end-diode pumped solid state laser generating eye-safe radiation via intracavity Raman conversion. The output power at the first Stokes wavelength (1524 nm) was 250 mW. A theoretical model was applied to analyze the laser system and provide routes for optimization. The possibility of true CW operation was discussed.Comment: Preprint accepted for publication in Optics Communications on Feb 6, 201

Development and flight results of TalTech University CubeSat mission

Student Satellite program at TalTech, Tallinn University of Technology, Tallinn, Estonia was initiated in 2014 with an aim to impart space technology knowledge to the Estonian students as well as assist towards development of new Space Technologies in Estonia. Two 1-Unit CubeSat named Koit and Hämarik that translates respectively as Dawn and Twilight in Estonian are part of the TalTech Satellite Program. The main scientific mission of the CubeSats was to demonstrate Earth observation and Optical Communication technology. Satellites had two types of cameras, an RGB Camera and an NIR Camera to carry out Earth Observation over Estonia. Testing High Speed Optical communication technology from LEO (Low Earth Orbit) was the second major scientific goal and for this purpose the CubeSats had LED (Light Emitting Diode). Koit CubeSat was successfully launched to space on-board Soyuz rocket on July 5, 2019 and Hämarik CubeSat was launched to Space on September 3, 2020 on-board Arianespace Vega Rocket. Koit CubeSat did not contact the Ground station for more than a year since its launch and it was assumed to be lost but on November 21, 2020 it made the first contact with the Ground Station. Hämarik CubeSat was first contacted on November 15, 2020. The team has been successful in updating software of Hämarik and further work is being done on the software with broader functions. Optical communication has not been tested yet because ground station for optical communication has not been developed yet but a good achievement in the path to optical communication was to see the satellites with small hobby telescope and one of the satellite team member was successful to detect the Hämarik CubeSat on 17 August 2021 which was at a distance of about 792 Kilometres. Satellite team is in contact with the Hämarik and has been successful to download a few thumbnails and is working to establish a quick data connection with it and determine its exact position so that the cameras can be focused towards the Earth in order to get the whole images captured by the CubeSat

Crystal structure of racemic 2-[(ß-arabinopyranosyl)sulfanyl]-4,6-diphenylpyridine-3-carbonitrile

In the racemic title compound, C23H20N2O4S, the sulfur atom is attached equatorially to the sugar ring with unequal S—C bonds, viz.: S—Cs = 1.808 (2) and S—Cp = 1.770 (2) Å (s = sugar, p = pyrid­yl). The dihedral angles between the pyridine ring and its attached phenyl groups are 42.24 (8) and 6.37 (14)°. In the crystal, a system of classical O—H⋯O and O—H⋯(O,O) hydrogen bonds links the mol­ecules to form tube-like assemblies propagating parallel to the c-axis direction. Weak C—H⋯N inter­actions are also observed

Design and Validation of Novel Chikungunya Virus Protease Inhibitors

Chikungunya virus (CHIKV; genus Alphavirus) is the causative agent of chikungunya fever. CHIKV replication can be inhibited by some broad-spectrum antiviral compounds; in contrast, there is very little information about compounds specifically inhibiting the enzymatic activities of CHIKV replication proteins. These proteins are translated in the form of a nonstructural (ns) P1234 polyprotein precursor from the CHIKV positive-strand RNA genome. Active forms of replicase enzymes are generated using the autoproteolytic activity of nsP2. The available three-dimensional (3D) structure of nsP2 protease has made it a target for in silico drug design; however, there is thus far little evidence that the designed compounds indeed inhibit the protease activity of nsP2 and/or suppress CHIKV replication. In this study, a set of 12 compounds, predicted to interact with the active center of nsP2 protease, was designed using target-based modeling. The majority of these compounds were shown to inhibit the ability of nsP2 to process recombinant protein and synthetic peptide substrates. Furthermore, all compounds found to be active in these cell-free assays also suppressed CHIKV replication in cell culture, the 50% effective concentration (EC50) of the most potent inhibitor being similar to 1.5 mu M. Analysis of stereoisomers of one compound revealed that inhibition of both the nsP2 protease activity and CHIKV replication depended on the conformation of the inhibitor. Combining the data obtained from different assays also indicates that some of the analyzed compounds may suppress CHIKV replication using more than one mechanism.Peer reviewe

International comparison of health care systems : Example of France, Russia,Belarus,the United Kingdom, Germany,Sweden,Norway,Denmark, Canada and the USA

Cette thèse propose la réflexion sur l’analyse comparative des systèmes de santé et la transmission des connaissances dans le cadre de l’échange des pratiques organisationnelles. La démarche de la thèse s’inscrit dans le cadre de l’analyse des composants des systèmes de santé, l’interaction entre ces différents éléments ainsi que l’environnement externe pour étudier les avantages et les inconvénients de chaque modèle organisationnel. La préparation de thèse engage le travail d'analyse et de synthèse de l'information provenant de 4 langues étrangères.This dissertation proposes a vision on the comparative analysis of health care systems and the transmission of knowledge through the exchange of organisational practices. The dissertation focuses on the analysis of the components of health care systems, the interaction between these different elements and the external environment to study the advantages and disadvantages of each organisational model. The dissertation involves the analysis and synthesis of information from 4 foreign languages

Internetový marketing v cestovním ruchu

V diplomové práci autorka se zaměřuje na analizu nástrojů Internetového marketingu realizovaných v oblasti cestovního ruchu. Data pro analýzu byly shromážděny v letech 2013-2015. Na základě poznatků nasbíraných v průběhu pracovního poměru v rámci společnosti Aqua Vita travel s.r.o. a informace z odborné literatury, autorka provádí analýzu současných nástrojů Internetového marketingu cestovní agentury Aqua Vita travel. Na základě výsledků této analýzy, autorka navrhuje řadu vylepšení. Doporučení jsou zaměřena na zvýšení efektivity vybraných nástrojů Internetového marketingu a snížení nákladů.The Masters thesis focuses on Internet activities implemented in the sphere of international tourism. The data for analysis was collected by the author during the years 2013-2015. Based on insights discovered during employment with Aqua Vita travel agency and information from specialized literature, the author conducts analysis of the current Internet marketing tools implemented by the company. Based on the results of the analysis, the author suggests several improvements for Aqua Vita travel s.r.o. The recommendations are aimed to increase the efficiency of the selected Internet marketing tools, to reduce costs and to improve the companys presence online