Ecological features of cyanobacteria and algae communities of the littoral of the meromictic Lake Shira (Khakassia Republic, Russia)

During the study of cyanobacteria and algae from littoral of the meromictic Lake Shira (Republic of Khakas- sia, Russia) forty-eight taxa were identified: Cyanobacteria – 7, Chlorophyta – 5, and Bacillariophyta – 36 species. Cyanobacteria were represented by cosmopolitan taxa Leptolyngbya voronichiniana, cf. Trichocoleus hospitus and widely distributed in the freshwater ecosystems species Phormidium cf. paulsenianum, Pseudophormidium cf. golenkinianum, P. pauciramosum, Leptolyngbya perforans, and L. subtilissima. Among green algae typical freshwater taxa Chloroidium saccharophilum, Desmodesmus abundans, Oocystis lacustris, Chlorella sp., Stigeoclonium sp. were detected. Among Bacillariophyta the most frequent species were Amphora ovalis, Cymbella affinis, Encyonema silesiacum, Eunotia fallax, Gomphonella olivacea, G. parvulum, Kobayasiella subtilissima, Navicula minima, N. radiosa, N. veneta, Nitzchia fonti- cola, N. palea, Grunowia tabellaria, Surirella undulata. Several rare species cf. Fragilaria tenera, Grunowia tabellaria and cf. Ulnaria capitata were found. In relation to mineralization indifferents was the largest group (73%). In relation to pH, a unique feature of the investigated lake was the predominance of alkaliphilic species of diatoms (56%), such as Amphora ovalis, Cymbella affinis, Gomphonema truncatum, Hantzschia amphioxys, Navicula minima, N. veneta, Nitzschia cf. linearis, N. palea, Planothidium lanceolatum and other. In the geographic structure cosmopolitan group included 25 species (69%), boreal group – 4 species (11%), arcto-apline group – 2 species (6%). To obtain more accurate informa- tion on the biodiversity of cyanobacteria and algae of Lake Shira further studies using molecular-genetic and electron microscopic methods are needed

Современный Интернет Вещей для Умных городов

The IoT concept combines a network of physical devices, transceivers and software which allows a user to manage these devices to perform various actions that will solve everyday problems of city residents. It allows exchanging data between devices, store and process data. Creating common IoT architecture is a difficult task since there is a problem of connecting heterogeneous devices with heterogeneous data transfer protocols. The challenge will be to create the right architecture for urban IoT and methods that will solve the common problem with heterogeneous data. This paper focuses on the practical use of IoT in an urban environment. Smart cities are based on the use of modern technologies for the implementation of certain administrative services. This practice allows creating unique services that allow city authorities to reduce costs, optimize and automate typical city processes. IoT allows municipalities to make citizens’ life better. In addition, this paper addresses the example of the IoT technical implementation in Padova Smart City. The urban IoT main goal is to make the Internet wider and more convenient for the life of people.Интернет Вещей (IoT) объединяет сеть физических устройств, транспортных узлов, программного обеспечения. Данная парадигма позволяет пользователю программировать устройства на выполнение определённых функций, которые позволят решить повседневные проблемы жителей города. Эта сеть позволяет обмениваться данными между устройствами, хранить и обрабатывать эти данные. Создание общей архитектуры IoT является сложной задачей, так как существует проблема подключения разнородных устройств с разнородными протоколами передачи данных. Будет затронута проблема создания правильной архитектуры для городского IoT и методов, которые позволят решить распространенную проблему с разнородными данными. Данная статья будет посвящена практическому использованию IoT в городской среде. Таким образом реализуется концепция Умных городов. Умные города основываются на использовании современных технологий для осуществления разнообразных административных услуг. Данная практика позволит создать уникальные сервисы, которые позволят городским органам снизить расходы, оптимизировать и автоматизировать типичные процессы города. IoT позволит муниципалитетам сделать жизнь граждан лучше. Кроме этого, данная статья затронет пример технической реализации IoT в городе Падуя. Основная цель IoT - сделать Интернет более широким и удобным для жизни людей

Small ball probability, Inverse theorems, and applications

Let $\xi$ be a real random variable with mean zero and variance one and $A={a_1,...,a_n}$ be a multi-set in $\R^d$. The random sum $$S_A := a_1 \xi_1 + ... + a_n \xi_n$$ where $\xi_i$ are iid copies of $\xi$ is of fundamental importance in probability and its applications. We discuss the small ball problem, the aim of which is to estimate the maximum probability that $S_A$ belongs to a ball with given small radius, following the discovery made by Littlewood-Offord and Erdos almost 70 years ago. We will mainly focus on recent developments that characterize the structure of those sets $A$ where the small ball probability is relatively large. Applications of these results include full solutions or significant progresses of many open problems in different areas.Comment: 47 page

Использование сравнительного анализа распространения и происхождения кальдер с базальт-андезитовым составом магм для изучения генезиса миоценовых игнимбритов Восточного вулканического пояса Камчатки

Based on the statistical data of the Global Volcanism Program of the Smithsonian Institution and published materials, we present a comparative analysis of caldera-forming eruptions on global scale. The geodynamic settings and genesis of the caldera-forming eruptions with basaltic-andesitic magma compositions are described. The origin of the majority of mafic ignimbrites was related with external water. Such ignimbrites were generated in a submarine environment or with a contact with water. The newly obtained data, paleogeodynamic reconstruction and geological mapping of Miocene mafic ignimbrites of the Eastern volcanic belt (EVB) of Kamchatka confirm their genesis in costal-marine environment. These new data show significance of paleoreconstructions in studies of paleo-volcanoes and relief-forming pyroclastic rocks.На основе статистической обработки базы данных Глобальной программы вулканизма (ГПВ) Смитсоновского института и опубликованных материалов представлен сравнительный анализ кальдерообразующих извержений вулканов Земли. Показаны геодинамические позиции и условия формирования кальдер с базальт-андезитовым составом магм. В основном искомые кальдеры – это щитовые вулканы. Большинство из них имеют массивные лавовые потоки, только в нескольких случаях были описаны игнимбриты с базальт-андезитовым составом магм. Объединяющими признаками происхождения базальт-андезитовых игнимбритов являются контакты горячего пирокластического потока с «внешней» водой. Палеогеодинамические реконструкции Камчатки миоценового времени и анализ материалов геологического картирования базальт-андезитовых игнимбритов Восточного вулканического пояса Камчатки подтверждают их образование в прибрежно-морской обстановке, что согласуется с приведенными результатами изучения происхождения базальт-андезитовых игнимбритов вулканов в других регионах Земли. Полученные данные показывают значимость реконструкций палеогеодинамических обстановок в изучении типов палеовулканов и рельефообразующих пирокластических пород

Elite opinion and foreign policy in post-communist Russia

Russian elite opinion on matters of foreign policy may be classified as ‘Liberal Westerniser’, ‘Pragmatic Nationalist’ and ‘Fundamentalist Nationalist’, terms that reflect longstanding debates about the country’s relationship with the outside world. An analysis of press statements and election manifestoes together with a programme of elite interviews between 2004 and 2006 suggests a clustering of opinion on a series of strategic issues. Liberal Westernisers seek the closest possible relationship with Europe, and favour eventual membership of the EU and NATO. Pragmatic Nationalists are more inclined to favour practical co-operation, and do not assume an identity of values or interests with the Western countries. Fundamentalist Nationalists place more emphasis on the other former Soviet republics, and on Asia as much as Europe, and see the West as a threat to Russian values as well as to its state interests. Each of these positions, in turn, draws on an identifiable set of domestic constituencies: Liberal Westernisers on the promarket political parties, Pragmatic Nationalists on the presidential administration and defence and security ministries, and Fundamentalist Nationalists on the Orthodox Church and Communists

Azimuthal asymmetry in the risetime of the surface detector signals of the Pierre Auger Observatory

The azimuthal asymmetry in the risetime of signals in Auger surface detector stations is a source of information on shower development. The azimuthal asymmetry is due to a combination of the longitudinal evolution of the shower and geometrical effects related to the angles of incidence of the particles into the detectors. The magnitude of the effect depends upon the zenith angle and state of development of the shower and thus provides a novel observable, $(\sec \theta)_\mathrm{max}$, sensitive to the mass composition of cosmic rays above $3 \times 10^{18}$ eV. By comparing measurements with predictions from shower simulations, we find for both of our adopted models of hadronic physics (QGSJETII-04 and EPOS-LHC) an indication that the mean cosmic-ray mass increases slowly with energy, as has been inferred from other studies. However, the mass estimates are dependent on the shower model and on the range of distance from the shower core selected. Thus the method has uncovered further deficiencies in our understanding of shower modelling that must be resolved before the mass composition can be inferred from $(\sec \theta)_\mathrm{max}$.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Calibration of the Logarithmic-Periodic Dipole Antenna (LPDA) Radio Stations at the Pierre Auger Observatory using an Octocopter

An in-situ calibration of a logarithmic periodic dipole antenna with a frequency coverage of 30 MHz to 80 MHz is performed. Such antennas are part of a radio station system used for detection of cosmic ray induced air showers at the Engineering Radio Array of the Pierre Auger Observatory, the so-called Auger Engineering Radio Array (AERA). The directional and frequency characteristics of the broadband antenna are investigated using a remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) carrying a small transmitting antenna. The antenna sensitivity is described by the vector effective length relating the measured voltage with the electric-field components perpendicular to the incoming signal direction. The horizontal and meridional components are determined with an overall uncertainty of 7.4^{+0.9}_{-0.3} % and 10.3^{+2.8}_{-1.7} % respectively. The measurement is used to correct a simulated response of the frequency and directional response of the antenna. In addition, the influence of the ground conductivity and permittivity on the antenna response is simulated. Both have a negligible influence given the ground conditions measured at the detector site. The overall uncertainties of the vector effective length components result in an uncertainty of 8.8^{+2.1}_{-1.3} % in the square root of the energy fluence for incoming signal directions with zenith angles smaller than 60{\deg}.Comment: Published version. Updated online abstract only. Manuscript is unchanged with respect to v2. 39 pages, 15 figures, 2 table

Multi-resolution anisotropy studies of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays detected at the Pierre Auger Observatory

We report a multi-resolution search for anisotropies in the arrival directions of cosmic rays detected at the Pierre Auger Observatory with local zenith angles up to $80^\circ$ and energies in excess of 4 EeV ($4 \times 10^{18}$ eV). This search is conducted by measuring the angular power spectrum and performing a needlet wavelet analysis in two independent energy ranges. Both analyses are complementary since the angular power spectrum achieves a better performance in identifying large-scale patterns while the needlet wavelet analysis, considering the parameters used in this work, presents a higher efficiency in detecting smaller-scale anisotropies, potentially providing directional information on any observed anisotropies. No deviation from isotropy is observed on any angular scale in the energy range between 4 and 8 EeV. Above 8 EeV, an indication for a dipole moment is captured; while no other deviation from isotropy is observed for moments beyond the dipole one. The corresponding $p$-values obtained after accounting for searches blindly performed at several angular scales, are $1.3 \times 10^{-5}$ in the case of the angular power spectrum, and $2.5 \times 10^{-3}$ in the case of the needlet analysis. While these results are consistent with previous reports making use of the same data set, they provide extensions of the previous works through the thorough scans of the angular scales.Comment: Published version. Added journal reference and DOI. Added Report Numbe

Ultrahigh-energy neutrino follow-up of Gravitational Wave events GW150914 and GW151226 with the Pierre Auger Observatory

On September 14, 2015 the Advanced LIGO detectors observed their first gravitational-wave (GW) transient GW150914. This was followed by a second GW event observed on December 26, 2015. Both events were inferred to have arisen from the merger of black holes in binary systems. Such a system may emit neutrinos if there are magnetic fields and disk debris remaining from the formation of the two black holes. With the surface detector array of the Pierre Auger Observatory we can search for neutrinos with energy above 100 PeV from point-like sources across the sky with equatorial declination from about -65 deg. to +60 deg., and in particular from a fraction of the 90% confidence-level (CL) inferred positions in the sky of GW150914 and GW151226. A targeted search for highly-inclined extensive air showers, produced either by interactions of downward-going neutrinos of all flavors in the atmosphere or by the decays of tau leptons originating from tau-neutrino interactions in the Earth's crust (Earth-skimming neutrinos), yielded no candidates in the Auger data collected within $\pm 500$ s around or 1 day after the coordinated universal time (UTC) of GW150914 and GW151226, as well as in the same search periods relative to the UTC time of the GW candidate event LVT151012. From the non-observation we constrain the amount of energy radiated in ultrahigh-energy neutrinos from such remarkable events.Comment: Published version. Added journal reference and DOI. Added Report Numbe