Azimuthal patterns in planetesimal circumstellar disks

Ways of formation of azimuthal resonant patterns in circumstellar planetesimal disks with planets are considered. Our analytical estimates and massive numerical experiments show that the disk particles that initially reside in zones of low-order mean-motion resonances with the planet may eventually concentrate into potentially observable azimuthal patterns. The structuring process is rapid, usually taking ~100 orbital periods of the planet. It is found that the relative number of particles that retain their resonant position increases with decreasing the mass parameter $\mu$ (the ratio of masses of the perturbing planet and the parent star), but a significant fraction of the particle population is always removed from the disk due to accretion of the particles onto the star and planet, as well as due to their transition to highly elongated and hyperbolic orbits. Expected radio images of azimuthally structured disks are constructed. In the considered models, azimuthal patterns associated with the 2:1 and 3:2 resonances are most clearly manifested; observational manifestations of the 1:2 and 2:3 resonances are also possible.Comment: 24 pages, 8 figures. Accepted for publication in Astronomy Letter

Evolution of Planetary Chaotic Zones in Planetesimal Disks

Extensive numerical experiments on the long-term dynamics of planetesimal disks with planets in systems of single stars have been carried out. The planetary chaotic zone clearing timescales $T_\mathrm{cl}$ as a function of mass parameter $\mu$ (planet-star mass ratio) have been determined numerically with a high accuracy separately for the outer and inner parts of the chaotic zone. Diffusional components $\propto \mu^{-6/7}$ and $\propto \mu^{-2}$ have been revealed in the dependence $T_\mathrm{cl}(\mu)$. The results obtained are discussed and interpreted in light of existing analytical theories based on the mean motion resonance overlap criterion and in comparison with previous numerical approaches to the problem.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figures, 31 reference

American telephone voice: Socio-phonetic features of identity in professional and non-professional discourse

The study is concerned with the role of socio-phonetic characteristics of American speakers’ voices in identifying gender and age identity in professional and non-professional communication. We have to develop and test the methodology previously applied in such specific areas as corpus analysis, forensic phonetics, multi-modal research, and intraspeaker variability to address the problem of identifying personality by voice. The aim of the research is to view variations in the prosodic forms of American English speakers and examine age-related and gender-specific prosodic features in telephone communication. The study intends to address the following research questions: How do the following prosodic features contribute to distinguishing age- and gender-related changes in the human voice: mean pitch, maximum pitch, minimum pitch, pitch range, mean intensity, jitter, shimmer and harmonics-to-noise ratio? Which combinations of features are associated with young, middle-aged, and senior voices of men and how much are they different from or similar to women’s voices? The auditory and acoustic computer analyses were conducted on American English dialogues with 30 speakers, equally balanced for gender (5 men and 5 women in each age group) and three age groups (young, middle-aged, senior), taken from the American telephone speech corpus to measure the prosodic parameters of pitch, pitch range, intensity, jitter, shimmer, and harmonics-to-noise ratio supported by statistical data processing in Minitab programme. The apparent-time technique of data presentation and the comparative analysis allow discovery of the dynamics of voice changes over time which could be later applied to personality identification. Comparing the data based on eight parameters’ values in three age groups balanced for gender we have found that although all the selected measurements proved to be relevant for either gender group, the age-related trajectory of voice dynamics may be different in male and female voices regarding their specific prosodic characteristics. Prosodic features of mean pitch, maximum pitch and minimum pitch have been confirmed to define both individuals and groups of people of a certain age and gender and could be considered as both speaker-identifying and group-identifying characteristics. Voice quality features, apart from being previously found to signify the emotional states of speakers, may also be observed to characterise certain age and gender groups; hence, they may also serve as speaker-identifying characteristics

CITIZENSHIP IN THE STRUCTURE OF SOCIO-POLITICAL ORIENTATIONS OF RUSSIAN YOUTH: PLACE AND ROLE IN STATEHOOD STRENGTHENING

Purpose of the study: In this study, we analyze citizenship in the structure of socio-political orientations of Russian youth and explore the youth role in strengthening statehood and formation of civil society institutions. The development of active citizenship values in sociopolitical orientations of Russian youth is determined by the need to change relations between the state and society. The citizens shall develop civic responsibility and civil initiatives and control the institutions of power. Methodology: The theory of social anomie and the concept of socio-cultural crisis serve the methodological basis for this study. This theory explores the eclectic nature of citizenship ideas in the youth environment. The civilizational approach makes it possible to investigate features of citizenship idea and practice information of Western European and Russian cultural traditions. All that is methodologically significant in tracking citizenship specificity of the Russian youth. The integrated approach becomes a conceptual one in this study as it treats the citizenship of Russian youth as a complex multi-component phenomenon. This phenomenon includes moral, legal and socio-political attitudes reflecting the various aspects of relations in the "man-society-state" system. Results: We conclude that in the citizenship of Russian youth there dominate two main attitudes: liberal and paternalistic. In the liberal aspect, the young people consider citizenship to be awareness of their civil rights and responsibilities, a kind of rational and active behavior corresponding to democratic political system. Paternalistic attitudes are manifested in loyalty to the state. Paternalists consider the state to be the political institution that is solely responsible for the present and future of the young people. Applications of this study: The results allow us to understand the significance of citizenship as an ethic-legal quality of personality that strengthens Russian statehood and the importance of agreement (contract) between government and society. The results discovered the need for the citizens to be engaged in solving the state's socially significant problems. The state shall also develop a favorable institutional environment for civil socialization and self-realization of the young people. Novelty/Originality of this study: The eclectic nature of Russian youth citizenship points at hindering factors in the development of active and responsible citizenship as the youth ability to self-organize and solve socially significant problems. The main factors hindering the process of civil activity formation among the young people are the stable etatist-paternalistic traditions of political culture and institutions of Russian civil society. Although, development of youth citizenship is a well-managed process. It requires the youth policy to be the stimulating and guiding force. This force is necessary to solve the problems of legal personality type formation. Such a personality is characterized by politically and socially active civic-mindedness

Microbiome Responses to an Uncontrolled Short-Term Diet Intervention in the Frame of the Citizen Science Project

Personalized nutrition is of increasing interest to individuals actively monitoring their health. The relations between the duration of diet intervention and the effects on gut microbiota have yet to be elucidated. Here we examined the associations of short-term dietary changes, long-term dietary habits and lifestyle with gut microbiota. Stool samples from 248 citizen-science volunteers were collected before and after a self-reported 2-week personalized diet intervention, then analyzed using 16S rRNA sequencing. Considerable correlations between long-term dietary habits and gut community structure were detected. A higher intake of vegetables and fruits was associated with increased levels of butyrate-producing Clostridiales and higher community richness. A paired comparison of the metagenomes before and after the 2-week intervention showed that even a brief, uncontrolled intervention produced profound changes in community structure: resulting in decreased levels of Bacteroidaceae, Porphyromonadaceae and Rikenellaceae families and decreased alpha-diversity coupled with an increase of Methanobrevibacter, Bifidobacterium, Clostridium and butyrate-producing Lachnospiraceae- as well as the prevalence of a permatype (a bootstrapping-based variation of enterotype) associated with a higher diversity of diet. The response of microbiota to the intervention was dependent on the initial microbiota state. These findings pave the way for the development of an individualized diet.</p

Genes flanking Xist in mouse and human are separated on the X chromosome in American marsupials

X inactivation, the transcriptional silencing of one of the two X chromosomes in female mammals, achieves dosage compensation of X-linked genes relative to XY males. In eutherian mammals X inactivation is regulated by the X-inactive specific transcript (Xist), a cis-acting non-coding RNA that triggers silencing of the chromosome from which it is transcribed. Marsupial mammals also undergo X inactivation but the mechanism is relatively poorly understood. We set out to analyse the X chromosome in Monodelphis domestica and Didelphis virginiana, focusing on characterizing the interval defined by the Chic1 and Slc16a2 genes that in eutherians flank the Xist locus. The synteny of this region is retained on chicken chromosome 4 where other loci belonging to the evolutionarily ancient stratum of the human X chromosome, the so-called X conserved region (XCR), are also located. We show that in both M. domestica and D. virginiana an evolutionary breakpoint has separated the Chic1 and Slc16a2 loci. Detailed analysis of opossum genomic sequences revealed linkage of Chic1 with the Lnx3 gene, recently proposed to be the evolutionary precursor of Xist, and Fip1, the evolutionary precursor of Tsx, a gene located immediately downstream of Xist in eutherians. We discuss these findings in relation to the evolution of Xist and X inactivation in mammals

Les droits disciplinaires des fonctions publiques : « unification », « harmonisation » ou « distanciation ». A propos de la loi du 26 avril 2016 relative à la déontologie et aux droits et obligations des fonctionnaires

The production of tt‾ , W+bb‾ and W+cc‾ is studied in the forward region of proton–proton collisions collected at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV by the LHCb experiment, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.98±0.02 fb−1 . The W bosons are reconstructed in the decays W→ℓν , where ℓ denotes muon or electron, while the b and c quarks are reconstructed as jets. All measured cross-sections are in agreement with next-to-leading-order Standard Model predictions.The production of $t\overline{t}$, $W+b\overline{b}$ and $W+c\overline{c}$ is studied in the forward region of proton-proton collisions collected at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV by the LHCb experiment, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.98 $\pm$ 0.02 \mbox{fb}^{-1}. The $W$ bosons are reconstructed in the decays $W\rightarrow\ell\nu$, where $\ell$ denotes muon or electron, while the $b$ and $c$ quarks are reconstructed as jets. All measured cross-sections are in agreement with next-to-leading-order Standard Model predictions