Mapping Digital Media: Russia

Examines trends in Russia's media system, including media consumption, media ownership, the use of television as an organ of executive power, and the effect of digital media on freedom of speech, pluralism, civic participation, and news quality

Luminescent properties of Li[2]O-K[2]O-Al[2]O[3]-B[2]O[3] glass-ceramics doped with Cr{3+} ions

Li[2]O-K[2]O-Al[2]O[3-B[2]O[3 glass-ceramics doped with trivalent chromium ions was fabricated by melt-quenching technique. The glass-ceramics preparation process included 5 stages. The structure, optical and luminescent properties of glass-ceramics were investigated. The effect of Sb[2]O[3] with different concentration on structure and luminescent properties was carried out. It was demonstrated the introduction of antimony oxide leads to a shift of the maxima of exothermic transformations towards higher temperatures. The luminescence intensity of Cr{3+} ions increased with increasing of Sb[2]O[3]. The maximum quantum yield was 44%, which confirms the possibility of using of glass-ceramics as active media in laser and fiber technologies, as well as for creating phosphor materials

Association of lifetime major depressive disorder with enhanced attentional sensitivity measured with P3 response in young adult twins

Major depression is associated with alterations in the auditory P3 event-related potential (ERP). However, the persistence of these abnormalities after recovery from depressive episodes, especially in young adults, is not well known. Furthermore, the potential influence of substance use on this association is poorly understood. Young adult twin pairs (N = 177) from the longitudinal FinnTwin16 study were studied with a psychiatric interview, and P3a and P3b ERPs elicited by task-irrelevant novel sounds and targets, respectively. Dyadic linear mixed effect models were used to distinguish the effects of lifetime major depressive disorder from familial factors and effects of alcohol problem drinking and tobacco smoking. P3a amplitude was significantly increased and P3b latency decreased, in individuals with a history of lifetime major depression, when controlling the fixed effects of alcohol abuse, tobacco, gender, twins' birth order, and zygosity. These results suggest that past lifetime major depressive disorder may be associated with enhanced attentional sensitivity.Peer reviewe

Gamma Power Is Phase-Locked to Posterior Alpha Activity

Neuronal oscillations in various frequency bands have been reported in numerous studies in both humans and animals. While it is obvious that these oscillations play an important role in cognitive processing, it remains unclear how oscillations in various frequency bands interact. In this study we have investigated phase to power locking in MEG activity of healthy human subjects at rest with their eyes closed. To examine cross-frequency coupling, we have computed coherence between the time course of the power in a given frequency band and the signal itself within every channel. The time-course of the power was calculated using a sliding tapered time window followed by a Fourier transform. Our findings show that high-frequency gamma power (30–70 Hz) is phase-locked to alpha oscillations (8–13 Hz) in the ongoing MEG signals. The topography of the coupling was similar to the topography of the alpha power and was strongest over occipital areas. Interestingly, gamma activity per se was not evident in the power spectra and only became detectable when studied in relation to the alpha phase. Intracranial data from an epileptic subject confirmed these findings albeit there was slowing in both the alpha and gamma band. A tentative explanation for this phenomenon is that the visual system is inhibited during most of the alpha cycle whereas a burst of gamma activity at a specific alpha phase (e.g. at troughs) reflects a window of excitability

Genomic analyses inform on migration events during the peopling of Eurasia.

High-coverage whole-genome sequence studies have so far focused on a limited number of geographically restricted populations, or been targeted at specific diseases, such as cancer. Nevertheless, the availability of high-resolution genomic data has led to the development of new methodologies for inferring population history and refuelled the debate on the mutation rate in humans. Here we present the Estonian Biocentre Human Genome Diversity Panel (EGDP), a dataset of 483 high-coverage human genomes from 148 populations worldwide, including 379 new genomes from 125 populations, which we group into diversity and selection sets. We analyse this dataset to refine estimates of continent-wide patterns of heterozygosity, long- and short-distance gene flow, archaic admixture, and changes in effective population size through time as well as for signals of positive or balancing selection. We find a genetic signature in present-day Papuans that suggests that at least 2% of their genome originates from an early and largely extinct expansion of anatomically modern humans (AMHs) out of Africa. Together with evidence from the western Asian fossil record, and admixture between AMHs and Neanderthals predating the main Eurasian expansion, our results contribute to the mounting evidence for the presence of AMHs out of Africa earlier than 75,000 years ago.Support was provided by: Estonian Research Infrastructure Roadmap grant no 3.2.0304.11-0312; Australian Research Council Discovery grants (DP110102635 and DP140101405) (D.M.L., M.W. and E.W.); Danish National Research Foundation; the Lundbeck Foundation and KU2016 (E.W.); ERC Starting Investigator grant (FP7 - 261213) (T.K.); Estonian Research Council grant PUT766 (G.C. and M.K.); EU European Regional Development Fund through the Centre of Excellence in Genomics to Estonian Biocentre (R.V.; M.Me. and A.Me.), and Centre of Excellence for Genomics and Translational Medicine Project No. 2014-2020.4.01.15-0012 to EGC of UT (A.Me.) and EBC (M.Me.); Estonian Institutional Research grant IUT24-1 (L.S., M.J., A.K., B.Y., K.T., C.B.M., Le.S., H.Sa., S.L., D.M.B., E.M., R.V., G.H., M.K., G.C., T.K. and M.Me.) and IUT20-60 (A.Me.); French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs and French ANR grant number ANR-14-CE31-0013-01 (F.-X.R.); Gates Cambridge Trust Funding (E.J.); ICG SB RAS (No. VI.58.1.1) (D.V.L.); Leverhulme Programme grant no. RP2011-R-045 (A.B.M., P.G. and M.G.T.); Ministry of Education and Science of Russia; Project 6.656.2014/K (S.A.F.); NEFREX grant funded by the European Union (People Marie Curie Actions; International Research Staff Exchange Scheme; call FP7-PEOPLE-2012-IRSES-number 318979) (M.Me., G.H. and M.K.); NIH grants 5DP1ES022577 05, 1R01DK104339-01, and 1R01GM113657-01 (S.Tis.); Russian Foundation for Basic Research (grant N 14-06-00180a) (M.G.); Russian Foundation for Basic Research; grant 16-04-00890 (O.B. and E.B); Russian Science Foundation grant 14-14-00827 (O.B.); The Russian Foundation for Basic Research (14-04-00725-a), The Russian Humanitarian Scientific Foundation (13-11-02014) and the Program of the Basic Research of the RAS Presidium “Biological diversity” (E.K.K.); Wellcome Trust and Royal Society grant WT104125AIA & the Bristol Advanced Computing Research Centre (http://www.bris.ac.uk/acrc/) (D.J.L.); Wellcome Trust grant 098051 (Q.A.; C.T.-S. and Y.X.); Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellowship grant 100719/Z/12/Z (M.G.T.); Young Explorers Grant from the National Geographic Society (8900-11) (C.A.E.); ERC Consolidator Grant 647787 ‘LocalAdaptatio’ (A.Ma.); Program of the RAS Presidium “Basic research for the development of the Russian Arctic” (B.M.); Russian Foundation for Basic Research grant 16-06-00303 (E.B.); a Rutherford Fellowship (RDF-10-MAU-001) from the Royal Society of New Zealand (M.P.C.)

The role and indirect detection of amines in ionic liquids for biomass processing

Cellulose processing is a developing technique that is closely associated with various branches of the industry of materials processing. This paper discusses the technique with respect to application of ionic liquids for cellulose dissolution. Newly synthesized in Helsinki University, ionic liquids were designed for the purpose of cellulose dissolution and require detailed analysis because they are unknown compounds. Not only the characterization, but also the question of functionality is of interest to the present research. The question of influence of particular components on qualities of ionic liquids is not fully researched and in particular amines, which are present in cations of the studied ionic liquids, remains open today. The following work consists of a literature review chapter where the concepts of green chemistry and the relation of ionic liquids and biomass to it are discussed. Discussion of amines and their functionality with an emphasis on cellulose dissolution follows an overview of ionic liquids. The following chapter describes the method of capillary electrophoresis, which is used for the determination of amines by means of separation and indirect detection. The resulting data is discussed further and summarized in a chapter entitled discussion and conclusions

Aivojen rytminen toiminta muistisairauksissa

Neuronal oscillations are thought to underlie interactions between distinct brain regions required for normal memory functioning. This study aimed at elucidating the neuronal basis of memory abnormalities in neurodegenerative disorders. Magnetoencephalography (MEG) was used to measure oscillatory brain signals in patients with Alzheimer s disease (AD), a neurodegenerative disease causing progressive cognitive decline, and mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a disorder characterized by mild but clinically significant complaints of memory loss without apparent impairment in other cognitive domains. Furthermore, to help interpret our AD/MCI results and to develop more powerful oscillatory MEG paradigms for clinical memory studies, oscillatory neuronal activity underlying declarative memory, the function which is afflicted first in both AD and MCI, was investigated in a group of healthy subjects. An increased temporal-lobe contribution coinciding with parieto-occipital deficits in oscillatory activity was observed in AD patients: sources in the 6 12.5 Hz range were significantly stronger in the parieto-occipital and significantly weaker in the right temporal region in AD patients, as compared to MCI patients and healthy elderly subjects. Further, the auditory steady-state response, thought to represent both evoked and induced activity, was enhanced in AD patients, as compared to controls, possibly reflecting decreased inhibition in auditory processing and deficits in adaptation to repetitive stimulation with low relevance. Finally, the methodological study revealed that successful declarative encoding and retrieval is associated with increases in occipital gamma and right hemisphere theta power in healthy unmedicated subjects. This result suggests that investigation of neuronal oscillations during cognitive performance could potentially be used to investigate declarative memory deficits in AD patients. Taken together, the present results provide an insight on the role of brain oscillatory activity in memory function and memory disorders.Muistin toiminta edellyttää eri aivoalueiden joustavaa yhteistoimintaa. Hermosolujen oskillatorinen toiminta saattaa olla keskeinen tekijä näiden vuorovaikutusten taustalla. Tämän tutkimuksen tarkoituksena oli selvittää Alzheimerin taudin ja sitä edeltävän lievän kognitiivisen heikentymisen (mild cognitive impairment, MCI) taustalla olevia aivotoiminnan häiriöitä. Alzheimerin tauti on yleisin hermostoa rappeuttava degeneratiivinen sairaus, joka aiheuttaa etenevää kognitiivisen suorituskyvyn heikentymistä. MCI on puolestaan nimitys Alzheimerin tautia usein edeltävälle oireyhtymälle, johon liittyy lievää mutta kliinisesti merkittävää muistitoimintojen heikentymistä. MCI-potilailla on todettu kohonnut riski sairastua Alzheimerin tautiin. Aivotoiminnan oskillatorista toimintaa mitattiin magnetoenkefalografialla (MEG), joka välittää tietoa aivokuoren hermosolujen toiminnan aiheuttamista heikoista sähkömagneettisista muutoksista. Tutkimuksessa verrattiin aivojen oskillatorisen toiminnan piirteitä Alzheimerin taudista ja MCI:stä kärsivien potilaiden sekä terveiden koehenkilöiden välillä. Lisäksi tutkimuksessa selvitettiin muistitoimintojen hermostollista taustaa mittaamalla MEG-oskillaatioita terveiltä nuorilta koehenkilöiltä. Tulosten perusteella aivojen oskillatorisen toiminnan synnyttävä aivokuoren hermosoluverkosto on muuttunut Alzheimerin taudissa. Terveillä koehenkilöillä ja MCI-potilailla niin sanottu alfa-aktivaatio (8 12 Hz) syntyy päälaenlohkon ja takaraivolohkon alueilla, mutta Alzheimer-potilailla nämä oskillaatiot näyttivät syntyvän ohimolohkon alueilla. Toisaalta Alzheimer-potilailla havaittiin toistuvaan ääniärsykkeeseen vaihelukitun värähtelytoiminnan kiihtymistä, mikä saattaa liittyä puutteelliseen kuuloaivokuoren hermosolujen adaptaatioon. Nuorilla terveillä koehenkilöillä suoritetun menetelmällisen kokeen perusteella muistisuoriutuminen lisää takaraivolohkon korkeataajuuksista (60 90Hz) gamma-aktivaatiota ja oikean aivopuoliskon hidasta (4 8 Hz) theta-aktivaatiota. Tässä menetelmällisessä tutkimuksessa kehitetty asetelma saattaa osoittautua tulevaisuudessa merkitykselliseksi muistihäiriöiden kliinisen tutkimukselle. Kokonaisuudessaan tämän tutkimuksen tulokset osoittavat aivokuoren hermosolujen oskillatorisen toiminnan keskeisen merkityksen muistin toiminnan ja sen kliinisten häiriöiden taustalla

Nanostructured carbon from biomass as a catalyst for energy conversion devices

The growth in demand for CO2 free energy sources stimulates the development of more metal-air batteries (MABs) and sustainable catalyst alternatives from renewable or waste resources. In this project some abattoir wastes were applied to obtain porous carbon-based bifunctional electrocatalysts for the MABs. The porous carbon structure obtained from bones were functionalised with transition metals to improve electrocatalyst activities toward oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER), occurring in rechargeable MAB cathodes. The obtained electrocatalysts provide a more economical and sustainable alternative for commercially used catalysts proceeding from platinum on carbon black (Pt-C). Catalysts synthesised from bone decorated with transition metals (Fe, Co) could demonstrate eminent ORR and OER activity. Specifically, ORR attained a 4 electron-transfer similar to Pt-C with more positive onset potential (0.92 vs 0.82, NHE). For the OER, better performance was observed with an onset potential of 0.38 V (NHE) compared to 1.48 V (NHE). Researching the production of catalyst form animal waste resulted in the following discoveries: (1) the surface morphology of the catalyst does not show an effect neither on ORR nor on OER; (2) transitional metals improve electrocatalytic activity synergistically; (3) secondary pyrolysis positively affects the catalyst performance