1,176 research outputs found
The Soviet military-economic effort during the second five-year plan (1933-1937)
In our paper we aim to show the changing economic significance of defence outlays in
the period of the second five-year plan (1933-7).1 This period emerges as a time of
transition. Rapid rearmament had been begun during the first five-year plan (1928-32),
but from a very low base. In terms of the rising volume of activity, the following period
was less hectic. However, it was a period of exceptionally rapid change in military
technology and the technological level of defence industry products. It was followed by
a third period (the third five-year plan of 1938-42, interrupted by war) in which the
pace of rearmament was again exceptionally rapid and from a much higher initial base
than before. Moreover the renewed acceleration of defence mobilisation began in
1936, when the second five-year plan was still under way.
Central to our conventional picture of the Soviet economy in the second fiveyear
plan are what Naum Jasny called the âthree good yearsâ of 1934-6. These were
years of good harvests, rapidly rising production, de-rationing of consumer markets,
and rising wages and farm incomes. For the defence sector, in contrast, these emerge
as years of struggle and tribulation
Secondary tropical forests recover dung beetle functional diversity and trait composition
Secondary forests dominate some humanâmodified tropical biomes, and this is expected to increase via both abandonment of marginal agricultural land as well as forest and landscape restoration programmes. A key question is whether promoting the recovery and protection of secondary tropical forests will return invertebrate functional diversity and associated functional traits. Dung beetles are ideal for assessing functional diversity as they play vital roles in several ecosystem functions, including seed dispersal, nutrient cycling and bioturbation. We examined how taxonomic and functional diversity, and the functional trait composition of native dung beetle species recovers in naturally regenerating secondary forests in comparison to both cattle pastures and primary forest in the Colombian ChocoâAndes, a global hotspot of threatened biodiversity. Using a spaceâforâtime approach, we found that taxonomic and functional diversity recovered to levels comparable to primary forest within approximately 30 years of secondary forest regrowth. Functional richness and FD, measures of the diversity of traits present in a community, were similar in secondary and primary forest, but significantly lower in pasture. Rolling dung beetle species were positively associated with forest habitats, particularly primary, while dwelling species were more common in pasture. Thus, the functional trait composition of secondary forests was more similar to primary forest than to pasture. The ability of secondary forests to rapidly accumulate primaryâforest dung beetle functional diversity, and a representative suite of functional traits, provides an opportunity to protect biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, especially in regions where marginal agricultural land allows costâeffective conservation actions
Crop nutrition and the response to clay amendment of sands
Clay amendment of sands using clay-rich subsoils has occurred on over 160,000 ha in southern Australia, primarily to ameliorate water repellence. The implications of clay amendment for crop nutrition have not been examined, nor has there been much consideration given to the variation in subsoil properties and their effects on crop nutrition
Assessment of recycled glass and expanded clay in a dual media configuration for drinking water treatment
Cryo-EM structures of human fucosidase FucA1 reveal insight into substrate recognition and catalysis
Enzymatic hydrolysis of α-L-fucose from fucosylated glycoconjugates is consequential in bacterial infections and the neurodegenerative lysosomal storage disorder fucosidosis. Understanding human α-L-fucosidase catalysis, in an effort toward drug design, has been hindered by the absence of three-dimensional structural data for any animal fucosidase. Here, we have used cryoelectron microscopy (cryo-EM) to determine the structure of human lysosomal α-L-fucosidase (FucA1) in both an unliganded state and in complex with the inhibitor deoxyfuconojirimycin. These structures, determined at 2.49 Ă
resolution, reveal the homotetrameric structure of FucA1, the architecture of the catalytic center, and the location of both natural population variations and disease-causing mutations. Furthermore, this work has conclusively identified the hitherto contentious identity of the catalytic acid/base as aspartate-276, representing a shift from both the canonical glutamate acid/base residue and a previously proposed glutamate residue. These findings have furthered our understanding of how FucA1 functions in both health and disease.Bio-organic Synthesi
Primary accumulation in the Soviet transition
The Soviet background to the idea of primary socialist accumulation is presented. The mobilisation of labour power and of products into public sector investment from outside are shown to have been the two original forms of the concept. In Soviet primary accumulation the mobilisation of labour power was apparently more decisive than the mobilisation of products. The primary accumulation process had both intended and unintended results. Intended results included bringing most of the economy into the public sector, and industrialisation of the economy as a whole. Unintended results included substantial economic losses, and the proliferation of coercive institutions damaging to attainment of the ultimate goal - the building of a communist society
Factors used in the detection of elder financial abuse: A judgement and decision-making study of social workers and their managers
This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below. Copyright @ 2011 Sage Publications Ltd.Factors social workers use in practice to detect elder financial abuse are currently unknown. A critical incident technique was applied within a judgement analysis approach to elicit cue use. Only three factors were key to decision-making: who raises concern, the elderâs mental capacity and the nature of the financial anomaly occurring.Economic and Social Research Counci
Fermi's golden rule and exponential decay as a RG fixed point
We discuss the decay of unstable states into a quasicontinuum using models of
the effective Hamiltonian type. The goal is to show that exponential decay and
the golden rule are exact in a suitable scaling limit, and that there is an
associated renormalization group (RG) with these properties as a fixed point.
The method is inspired by a limit theorem for infinitely divisible
distributions in probability theory, where there is a RG with a Cauchy
distribution, i.e. a Lorentz line shape, as a fixed point. Our method of
solving for the spectrum is well known; it does not involve a perturbation
expansion in the interaction, and needs no assumption of a weak interaction. We
use random matrices for the interaction, and show that the ensemble
fluctuations vanish in the scaling limit. Thus the limit is the same for every
model in the ensemble with probability one.Comment: 20 pages, 1 figur
High Pressure Thermoelasticity of Body-centered Cubic Tantalum
We have investigated the thermoelasticity of body-centered cubic (bcc)
tantalum from first principles by using the linearized augmented plane wave
(LAPW) and mixed--basis pseudopotential methods for pressures up to 400 GPa and
temperatures up to 10000 K. Electronic excitation contributions to the free
energy were included from the band structures, and phonon contributions were
included using the particle-in-a-cell (PIC) model. The computed elastic
constants agree well with available ultrasonic and diamond anvil cell data at
low pressures, and shock data at high pressures. The shear modulus and
the anisotropy change behavior with increasing pressure around 150 GPa because
of an electronic topological transition. We find that the main contribution of
temperature to the elastic constants is from the thermal expansivity. The PIC
model in conjunction with fast self-consistent techniques is shown to be a
tractable approach to studying thermoelasticity.Comment: To be appear in Physical Review
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