A conference on social stratification in Russia between the 16th and 20th centuries: european context

The article was submitted on 28.08.2017.The author reviews the international conference “Social Stratification in Russia between the 16th and 20th Centuries in the Context of European History”, which took place in Yekaterinburg (14–18 November 2016). The review demonstrates that representatives of leading academic centres discussed and analysed topical issues in social history today. The participants’ expertise and the character of discussions lead the author to conclude that Yekaterinburg may be considered an important centre for the study of the social history of the modern era, with the works of Ural historians being highly relevant. The conference was held by leading Ural academic centres for the humanities (the Institute of History and Archaeology of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Ural Federal University) and became a notable event in the work of social historians.Обзор международной научной конференции «Социальная стратификация России XVI–XX вв. в контексте европейской истории» (Екатеринбург, 14–18 ноября 2016 г.), предпринятый автором, показывает, что на ее площадках, объединивших представителей ведущих научных центров, были обсуждены и проанализированы наиболее актуальные на сегодняшний день проблемы социальной истории. Профессиональный уровень участников, характер и направленность дискуссий позволили сделать вывод о том, что Екатеринбург сегодня может по праву считаться важнейшим центром изучения социальной истории Нового времени, а резонанс работ уральских историков в этом направлении очень высок. Конференция, проведенная ведущими гуманитарными научными центрами Урала – Институтом истории и археологии УрО РАН и Уральским федеральным университетом, стала заметным событием в организации усилий социальных историков

Muslim and newly-baptised tartars in Novgorod: the formation and functioning of a minor social group in the late 16th and early 17th centuries

The article was submitted on 28.03.2016.Рассматривается история формирования и функционирования малой социальной группы в Новгородской земле второй половины XVI – начала XVII в. На основании ряда источников реконструируется география расселения и ставится проблема конверсии – перехода мусульман в православие. Выделяются этапы социально-политической истории новгородских татар и новокрещенов до начала Смутного времени. Используется просопографический метод: изучено 418 биографий татар и новокрещенов. Основными источниками являются документы Разрядного и Поместного приказов, а также Новгородской приказной избы. История новгородских татар началась в 1550-х гг., в это время группы татар из Астрахани и Казани были испомещены в восточной части новгородских земель. Поскольку они находились на царской службе, они получили поместья, населенные православными крестьянами. Затем в течение 1550–1611 гг. различные группы мусульманского населения из Азова, Крыма, Бухары продолжали появляться в Новгороде, обретая самоидентификацию. Исследуется также проблема перехода татар из ислама в православие: устанавливается, что процесс христианизации был медленным, но под воздействием православного окружения непрерывным. В 1605 г. насчитывалось уже 197 татар-новокрещенов и 48 мусульман. После Смутного времени различия между группами татар исчезли, а районы их компактного проживания фрагментировались. Большинство татар покинули поместья и стали служить за «корм» и жалованье, хотя вплоть до Великой Северной войны сохранялась отдельная группа новгородских татар и новокрещенов.The article uses the prosopographical method to examine the history of Muslim and newly-baptised Tatars in Novgorod after 1550. 418 biographies were studied. The main sources were documents from the Razryad (service lists) and Pomestny Prikaz (land chancellery): local Novgorod court records also furnished further information. The history of the Novgorod Tartars began in the 1550s, when groups from Astrakhan and Kazan were settled in the eastern part of Novgorod region (Sugletsa and Udomlya districts). As they served the tsar, they received landed estates in Novgorod that were populated with Orthodox peasants. Between 1550 and 1611, different Muslim groups were transferred to Novgorod from Azov, the Crimea, and Bukhara; these groups maintained special identities for a long time. The conversion of Muslims to Orthodoxy is focused upon in this article: the process was slow, but the predominance of Orthodoxy in the region gradually induced local Tartar groups to accept baptism. In 1605, there were 197 newly-baptised Tartars and 48 Muslims. After the Time of Troubles, the differences between the various groups of Tartars disappeared. Most of the Tartars lost their landed estates and started to serve for food and salary; nonetheless, this special group of Novgorodian servicemen continued to exist until the Great Northern War.Статья подготовлена в рамках выполнения проекта ПФИ НИУ ВШЭ 2016 г. «Трансформация режимов управления разнообразием: война, реформы, революции в Российской империи»

Who’s the Boss? Concepts of Social Power Across Development

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/137499/1/cdev12643.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/137499/2/cdev12643_am.pd

EU Peatlands: Current Carbon Stocks and Trace Gas Fluxes

Peatlands in Europe has formed a significant sink for atmospheric CO2 since the last glacial maximum. Currently they are estimated to hold ca. 42 Gt carbon in the form of peat and are therefore a considerable component in the European carbon budget. Due to the generally wet soil conditions in peatlands they are also significant emitters of the strong greenhouse gas (GHG) methane (CH4) and in some cases also of nitrous oxide (N2O). The EU funded CarboEurope-GHG Concerted Action attempts to develop a reliable and complete greenhouse gas budget for Europe and this report aims to provide a review and synthesis of the available information about GHG exchanges in European peatlands and their underlying processes. A best estimate for all the European countries shows that some are currently sinks for atmospheric CO2 while others are sources. In contrast, for CH4 and N2O, only the sources are relevant. Whilst some countries are CO2 sinks, all countries are net GHG emitters from peatlands. The results presented, however, carry large uncertainties, which cannot be adequately quantified yet. One outstanding uncertainty is the distribution of land use types, particular in Russia, the largest European peat nation. The synthesis of GHG exchange, nevertheless, indicates some interesting features. Russia hosts an estimated 41% of European peatlands and contributes most to all GHG exchanges (CO2: 25%, CH4: 52%, N2O: 26%, Total: 37%). Germany is the second-largest emitter (12% of European total) although it contains only 3.2% of European peatlands. The reason is the use of most of the peatland area for intensive cropland and grassland. The largest CO2 emitters are countries with large agricultural peatland areas (Russia, Germany, Belarus, Poland), the largest N2O emitters are those with large agricultural fen areas (Russia, Germany, Finland). In contrast, the largest CH4 emitters are concentrated in regions with large areas of intact mires, namely Russia and Scandinavia. High average emission densities above 3.5 t C-equiv. ha-1 are found in the Southeast Mediterranean, Germany and the Netherlands where agricultural use of peatlands is intense. Low average emission densities below 0.3 t C-equiv. ha-1 occur where mires and peatland forests dominate, e.g. Finland and the UK. This report concludes by pointing at key gaps in our knowledge about peatland carbon stocks and GHG exchanges which include insufficient basic information on areal distribution of peatlands, measurements of peat depth and also a lack of flux datasets providing full annual budgets of GHG exchanges

When should I have it?: the effect of representation and processing concreteness on consumer impatience

Consumers frequently make decisions about when to consume a product and what costs to incur to obtain sooner consumption. Prior research has demonstrated that consumers show decreasing levels of impatience as the length of delay for consumption gets longer (i.e., present-biased preferences or hyperbolic discounting). In this dissertation, I explore the roots of decreasing consumer impatience and identify factors that lead to differential sensitivity to time horizon. In two essays, I show that the concreteness of mental representation and of processing are two possible mechanisms behind present-biased preferences. I hypothesize that present-biased preferences are observed when mental representations and processing are concrete, and that this effect is attenuated when consumers think more abstractly. In essay 1, I examine the role of representational concreteness by making use of two temporal frames (delay and expedite) that differ in their associated degree of concreteness. I show that (1) defer and expedite frames are associated with different patterns of discounting, (2) the two frames are associated with differential levels of outcome concreteness, and (3) this variation in outcome concreteness can explain the difference in present bias. In essay 2, I explore the role of processing concreteness (e.g., focusing on the big picture or on the details) in consumers' present bias. I hypothesize and show that consumers who think more concretely will be more prone to hyperbolic-like discounting compared to those who think abstractly - even when processing concreteness is manipulated using an unrelated task. Taken together, this dissertation provides a better understanding of the psychological mechanisms driving intertemporal preferences in general and present-biased preferences in specific. I examine the cognitive underpinnings of present-biased preferences and use temporal framing (Essay 1) and prior decisions (Essay 2) to establish concreteness of outcomes and processing as potential sources of decreasing impatience. The results reported in this dissertation extend the current theorization in intertemporal choice, temporal framing, mental construal, and sequential decisions. These findings suggest that conceptualizing concreteness at multiple levels helps explain not only hyperbolic discounting, but also adds to the understanding of several related consumer behavior phenomena

Novel approaches for analysing gut microbes and dietary polyphenols: challenges and opportunities

Polyphenols, ubiquitously present in the food we consume, may modify the gut microbial composition and/or activity, and moreover, may be converted by the colonic microbiota to bioactive compounds that influence host health. The polyphenol content of fruit and vegetables and derived products is implicated in some of the health benefits bestowed on eating fruit and vegetables. Elucidating the mechanisms behind polyphenol metabolism is an important step in understanding their health effects. Yet, this is no trivial assignment due to the diversity encountered in both polyphenols and the gut microbial composition, which is further confounded by the interactions with the host. Only a limited number of studies have investigated the impact of dietary polyphenols on the complex human gut microbiota and these were mainly focused on single polyphenol molecules and selected bacterial populations. Our knowledge of gut microbial genes and pathways for polyphenol bioconversion and interactions is poor. Application of specific in vitro or in vivo models mimicking the human gut environment is required to analyse these diverse interactions. A particular benefit can now be gained from next-generation analytical tools such as metagenomics and metatranscriptomics allowing a wider, more holistic approach to the analysis of polyphenol metabolism. Understanding the polyphenol gut microbiota interactions and gut microbial bioconversion capacity will facilitate studies on bioavailability of polyphenols in the host, provide more insight into the health effects of polyphenols and potentially open avenues for modulation of polyphenol bioactivity for host health

Profile and functional analysis of small RNAs derived from Aspergillus fumigatus infected with double-stranded RNA mycoviruses

Background: Mycoviruses are viruses that naturally infect and replicate in fungi. Aspergillus fumigatus, an opportunistic pathogen causing fungal lung diseases in humans and animals, was recently shown to harbour several different types of mycoviruses. A well-characterised defence against virus infection is RNA silencing. The A. fumigatus genome encodes essential components of the RNA silencing machinery, including Dicer, Argonaute and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRP) homologues. Active silencing of double-stranded (ds)RNA and the generation of small RNAs (sRNAs) has been shown for several mycoviruses and it is anticipated that a similar mechanism will be activated in A. fumigatus isolates infected with mycoviruses. Results: To investigate the existence and nature of A. fumigatus sRNAs, sRNA-seq libraries of virus-free and virus-infected isolates were created using Scriptminer adapters and compared. Three dsRNA viruses were investigated: Aspergillus fumigatus partitivirus-1 (AfuPV-1, PV), Aspergillus fumigatus chrysovirus (AfuCV, CV) and Aspergillus fumigatus tetramycovirus-1 (AfuTmV-1, NK) which were selected because they induce phenotypic changes such as coloration and sectoring. The dsRNAs of all three viruses, which included two conventionally encapsidated ones PV and CV and one unencapsidated example NK, were silenced and yielded characteristic vsiRNAs together with co-incidental silencing of host fungal genes which shared sequence homology with the viral genomes. Conclusions: Virus-derived sRNAs were detected and characterised in the presence of virus infection. Differentially expressed A. fumigatus microRNA-like (miRNA-like) sRNAs and small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) were detected and validated. Host sRNA loci which were differentially expressed as a result of virus infection were also identified. To our knowledge, this is the first study reporting the sRNA profiles of A. fumigatus isolates