Shape analysis on Lie groups and homogeneous spaces

In this paper we are concerned with the approach to shape analysis based on the so called Square Root Velocity Transform (SRVT). We propose a generalisation of the SRVT from Euclidean spaces to shape spaces of curves on Lie groups and on homogeneous manifolds. The main idea behind our approach is to exploit the geometry of the natural Lie group actions on these spaces.Comment: 8 pages, Contribution to the conference "Geometric Science of Information '17

Syntax and functions of the Ingrian discourse particles no and nu

This paper examines the syntax and functions of the discourse particles no and nu in narratives and conversations recorded from speakers of Soikkola Ingrian in 2006–2013. The Ingrian particle no is probably Finnic in origin, while the particle nu was most likely borrowed from the Russian language. The goal of this research is to find out how different or similar no and nu are in contemporary Ingrian from the point of view of their syntactic positions and functions. Four structural positions are distinguished, in relation to the position of the particle in a turn and in a clause, and no striking differences are observed in the distribution of no and nu across positions. The typical functions of no and nu are analysed separately in each of the four structural positions, and the functional range is found to be similar for both particles. It is also notable that in the Russian speech of Ingrian speakers, no is sometimes used as a discourse particle, although this would not be possible in standard Russian. The research concludes that at the period under investigation the two particles were on the way to complete merger, and can be treated as phonetic variants in a synchronic description of Ingrian, despite the quantitative prevalence of no over nu. Kokkuvõte. Elena Markus: Isuri diskursusepartiklite no ja nu süntaks ja funktsioonid. Artikkel uurib diskursusepartiklite no ja nu süntaksit ja funktsioone narratiivides ja isuri keele Soikkola murde kõnelejate vestluste salvestistes aastatel 2006–2013. Isuri partikkel no on ilmselt läänemeresoome päritolu, partikkel nu on aga tõenäoliselt laenatud vene keelest. Uurimuse eesmärk on välja selgitada, kui erinevad või sarnased on no ja nu tänapäeva isuri keeles süntaktiliste positsioonide ja funktsioonide poolest. Eristada võib nelja struktuurpositsiooni sõltuvalt partikli asukohast kõnevoorus ja lausungis, positsioonist lähtuvalt aga no ja nu vahel suuri erinevusi märgata ei olnud. Partiklitele tüüpilisi funktsioone analüüsiti eraldi igas struktuurpositsioonis ning selgus, et ka funktsioonide ulatus on mõlema partikli puhul sarnane. On ka märkimisväärne, et isuri keele kõnelejad kasutavad partiklit no diskursusepartiklina vahel ka vene keeles, kuigi vene keele standardis selline kasutus võimalik ei ole. Uurimusest järeldub, et vaadeldaval ajaperioodil on kaks partiklit üheks liitumas ning neid võib isuri keele sünkroonilises kirjelduses käsitleda kui foneetilisi variante, kuigi kvantitatiivselt on partikkel no eelistatum kui partikkel nu

Hot Stuff for One Year (HSOY) - A 583 million star proper motion catalogue derived from Gaia DR1 and PPMXL

Recently, the first installment of data from ESA's Gaia astrometric satellite mission (Gaia-DR1) was released, containing positions of more than 1 billion stars with unprecedented precision, as well as only proper motions and parallaxes, however only for a subset of 2 million objects. The second release, due in late 2017 or early 2018, will include those quantities for most objects. In order to provide a dataset that bridges the time gap between the Gaia-DR1 and Gaia-DR2 releases and partly remedies the lack of proper motions in the former, HSOY ("Hot Stuff for One Year") was created as a hybrid catalogue between Gaia-DR1 and ground-based astrometry, featuring proper motions (but no parallaxes) for a large fraction of the DR1 objects. While not attempting to compete with future Gaia releases in terms of data quality or number of objects, the aim of HSOY is to provide improved proper motions partly based on Gaia data, allowing some studies to be carried out just now or as pilot studies for later larger projects requiring higher-precision data. The HSOY catalogue was compiled using the positions taken from Gaia-DR1 combined with the input data from the PPMXL catalogue, employing the same weighted least-squares technique that was used to assemble the PPMXL catalogue itself. Results. This effort resulted in a four-parameter astrometric catalogue containing 583,000,000 objects, with Gaia-DR1 quality positions and proper motions with precisions from significantly less than 1 mas/yr to 5 mas/yr, depending on the object's brightness and location on the sky.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in A&A letter

Oxygen and hydrogen ion abundance in the near-Earth magnetosphere: Statistical results on the response to the geomagnetic and solar wind activity conditions

The composition of ions plays a crucial role for the fundamental plasma properties in the terrestrial magnetosphere. We investigate the oxygen-to-hydrogen ratio in the near-Earth magnetosphere from -10 RE<XGSE}< 10 RE. The results are based on seven years of ion flux measurements in the energy range ~10 keV to ~955 keV from the RAPID and CIS instruments on board the Cluster satellites. We find that (1) hydrogen ions at ~10 keV show only a slight correlation with the geomagnetic conditions and interplanetary magnetic field changes. They are best correlated with the solar wind dynamic pressure and density, which is an expected effect of the magnetospheric compression; (2) ~10 keV O+ ion intensities are more strongly affected during disturbed phase of a geomagnetic storm or substorm than >274 keV O+ ion intensities, relative to the corresponding hydrogen intensities; (3) In contrast to ~10 keV ions, the >274 keV O+ ions show the strongest acceleration during growth phase and not during the expansion phase itself. This suggests a connection between the energy input to the magnetosphere and the effective energization of energetic ions during growth phase; (4) The ratio between quiet and disturbed times for the intensities of ion ionospheric outflow is similar to those observed in the near-Earth magnetosphere at >274 keV. Therefore, the increase of the energetic ion intensity during disturbed time is more likely due to the intensification than to the more effective acceleration of the ionospheric source. In conclusion, the energization process in the near-Earth magnetosphere is mass dependent and it is more effective for the heavier ions

Dialectal variation in Votic: Jõgõperä vs. Luuditsa

This paper provides a comparison of two varieties of the Votic language. Based on field materials collected between 2001 and 2012 from the last speakers of Votic, we compiled a list of the most important phonetic and grammatical features that distinguish between Jõgõperä and Luuditsa varieties. The ten features are: the degree of apocope, the initial h, merging of allative and adessive cases, secondary geminates, illative singular forms, genitive and partitive plural markers, imperfect forms, the active participle marker, conditional markers, and negative pronominal forms. The analysis has shown that many differences can be explained by the influence of the neighbouring Ingrian language. There are more contact induced changes in the Luuditsa variety, which is probably the result of more intensive contacts with the Ingrian population in this village. The contemporary Luuditsa variety is a vivid example demonstrating that language change in the Lower Luga area was driven by convergent developments in no lesser degree than by divergent processes

Functions of demonstrative pronouns in contemporary Soikkola Ingrian

This article discusses demonstrative pronouns in the Soikkola dialect of the Ingrian language. The material for the research comes from the collection of spontaneous speech samples recorded in the 21st century. All the examples are published for the first time. The article presents mainly a qualitative analysis and aims at overviewing the basic functions of the Ingrian demonstrative pronouns tämä and še. It is shown that in the contemporary Ingrian the demonstratives are used as deictic and anaphoric devices, and also as discourse markers. Individual speakers demonstrate differences in the use of these pronouns due to the contact influence from the neighbouring languages.  Kokkuvõte. Elena Markus, Fedor Rozhanskiy: Demonstratiivpronoomenite funktsioonid tänapäeva isuri keele Soikkola murdes. Käesolevas artiklis käsitletakse demonstratiivpronoomeneid isuri keele Soikkola murdes. Uurimuse materjal pärineb 21. sajandil salvestatud spontaanse kõne näidiste kogust. Kõik näited avaldatakse esimest korda. Artiklis esitatakse peamiselt kvalitatiivne analüüs ja selle eesmärk on anda ülevaade isuri demonstratiivpronoomenite tämä ja še põhifunktsioonidest. Näidatakse, et tänapäeva isuri keeles kasutatakse demonstratiive deiktiliste ja anafoorsete vahenditena ning ka diskursuse markeritena. Üksikutel kõnelejatel esineb nende asesõnade kasutamisel erinevusi naaberkeelte kontaktmõju tõttu

Cult of war: The Main Cathedral of the Russian Armed Forces

The Main Cathedral of the Russian Armed Forces in Kubinka near Moscow is a quintessential example of the post-Soviet populist ideology, representating a mixture of ostensibly religious values with multiple secular cult objects