Russian State-Run Media Coverage of War-Related Brain Drain

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has caused an unprecedented outflow of Ukrainian refugees to Europe and other neighboring countries. Russia has also faced its own waves of emigration, which reached their climax after the announcement of "partial mobilization" in the country on September 21, 2022. This article analyzes how Russian state-run media have been treating emigrants and covering the process

Russian Social Network VK Gains Carte Blanche Following the Closure of Instagram and Facebook in the Country

As the Russian invasion of Ukraine erupted, the country’s authorities declared a war on Western social media as well. In March, such social media giants as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram were blocked in Russia, giving their local competitor - named VK - a virtual monopoly in the country. Millions of Russian Facebook and Instagram users have flocked to this social network. Though VK may seem similar to Facebook, it is drastically different due to its proximity to the Russian government. The article examines the core peculiarities of VK and the risks its users may face, especially, in the context of war

Arson Attacks on Military Enlistment Offices and the Reaction of Russian Propaganda

Attacks and arson against Russian military enlistment offices, which represent one of the cores of the Russian war machine, have become a common form of anti-war protest. This article examines these attacks and how the Russian state-run media discuss them

Excusing the Massacre: Russian Officials and State-Run Media on Bucha

On April 2 a series of immensely graphic images from Bucha, a suburb of the Ukrainian capital, were distributed by the leading international mass media. As details emerged, it became clear that Russian forces had massacred civilians in Bucha. Russian officials and state-run media have, however, been expressing an alternative view, using a "firehose of falsehood" to mislead domestic audiences and sow doubt about the cause of the massacre. Russian propaganda techniques employed in relation to Bucha include blaming the Ukrainian side, demonizing the Ukrainian government as "Nazis," alluding to conspiracies that "the West makes up against Russia," and pretending that "we were not there.

Narrative russischer staatlicher Medien über Corona-Impfstoffe im Westen

Der Beitrag analysiert die Berichterstattung in russischen Medien über die Corona-Impfungen im Westen. Neben allgemeinen Merkmalen der Berichterstattung über die Impfkampagnen im Westen werden auch die wichtigsten Narrative untersucht, die dabei in russischen regierungsfreundlichen Medien eingesetzt werden

Barless flocculent galaxies: a dynamic puzzle

We draw attention to the bright galaxies that do not show a bar in their structure but have a flocculent spiral structure. Using the THINGS' and HERACLES' kinematic data for four barless galaxies (NGC~2841, NGC~3512, NGC~5055, NGC~7331) we built their mass models including dark halos. We concluded that the fraction of the dark matter does not exceed 50\% within the optical radii of the galaxies. This is too little to explain the lack of a bar in these galaxies. In an attempt to understand the featureless structure of these galaxies we constructed several $N$-body models with an initially reduced content of dark matter. We concluded that, in addition to the low mass of the dark halo, the decisive factor that leads to a barless disc is the start from an initially unstable state. An isolated dynamically cold disc (with the Toomre parameter $Q < 0.5$) settled into rotational equilibrium passes trough the short stage of violent instability with fragmentation and formation of stellar clumps. After that, it evolves passively and ends up with a featureless structure. We assume that the barless flocculent galaxies studied in the present work may be descendants of galaxies at high redshifts with rotation curves which are consistent with the high mass fraction of baryons relative to the total dark matter halo.Comment: 18 page

B/PS bulges and barlenses from a kinematic viewpoint. I

A significant part of barred disc galaxies exhibits boxy/peanut-shaped structures (B/PS bulges) at high inclinations. Another structure also associated with the bar is a barlens, often observed in galaxies in a position close to face-on. At this viewing angle, special kinematic tests are required to detect a 3D extension of the bars in the vertical direction (B/PS bulges). We use four pure $N$-body models of galaxies with B/PS bulges, which have different bar morphology from bars with barlenses to the so-called face-on peanut bars. We analyse the kinematics of our models to establish how the structural features of B/PS bulges manifest themselves in the kinematics for galaxies at intermediate inclinations and whether these features are related to the barlenses. We apply the dissection of the bar into different orbital groups to determine which of them are responsible for the features of the LOSVD (line-of-sight velocity distribution), i.e., for the deep minima of the $h_4$ parameter along the major axis of the bar. As a result, we claim that for our models at the face-on position, the kinematic signatures of a `peanut' indeed track the vertical density distribution features. We conclude that orbits responsible for such kinematic signatures differ from model to model. We pay special attention to the barlens model. We show that orbits assembled into barlens are not responsible for the kinematic signatures of B/PS bulges. The results presented in this work are applicable to the interpretation of IFU observations of real galaxies.Comment: 18 page

The filament determination depends on the tracer: comparing filaments based on dark matter particles and galaxies in the GAEA semi-analytic model

Filaments are elongated structures that connect groups and clusters of galaxies and are visually the striking feature in cosmological maps. In the literature, typically filaments are defined only using galaxies, assuming that these are good tracers of the dark matter distribution, despite the fact that galaxies are a biased indicator. Here we apply the topological filament extractor DisPerSE to the predictions of the semi-analytic code GAEA to investigate the correspondence between the properties of $z=0$ filaments extracted using the distribution of dark matter and the distribution of model galaxies evolving within the same large-scale structure. We focus on filaments around massive clusters with a mass comparable to Virgo and Coma, with the intent of investigating the influence of massive systems and their feeding filamentary structure on the physical properties of galaxies. We apply different methods to compare the properties of filaments based on the different tracers and study how the sample selection impacts the extraction. Overall, filaments extracted using different tracers agree, although they never coincide totally. We also find that the number of filaments ending up in the massive clusters identified using galaxies distribution is typically underestimated with respect to the corresponding dark matter filament extraction.Comment: resubmitted to MNRAS after minor comment

Investigation of the Processes of Photooxidation of an Aqueous Solution of Nitrofural

Представлены результаты исследования по фотокаталитическому окислению нитрофурала в водных растворах в присутствии микродобавок пероксида водорода и оксосульфата титана. Установлено, что максимальные степени окисления наблюдаются при фотоокислении в присутствии пероксида водорода и достигают 99 %. Приведены анаморфозы кинетических кривых деструкции водного раствора нитрофурала в процессе фотолиза. Установлено, что основными продуктами деструкции нитрофурала в процессе фотолиза его водного раствора являются одноосновные карбоновые кислоты и альдегидыThe results of a study on the photocatalytic oxidation of nitrofural in aqueous solutions in the presence of microadditives of hydrogen peroxide and titanium oxosulfate are presented. It has been established that the maximum oxidation states are observed during photooxidation in the presence of hydrogen peroxide and reach 99 %. Anamorphoses of the kinetic curves of the degradation of an aqueous solution of nitrofural during photolysis are presented. It has been established that the main degradation products of nitrofural during the photolysis of its aqueous solution are monobasic carboxylic acids and aldehyde

Minimal domain of bacterial phytochrome required for chromophore binding and fluorescence

Fluorescent proteins (FP) are used to study various biological processes. Recently, a series of nearinfrared (NIR) FPs based on bacterial phytochromes was developed. Finding ways to improve NIR FPs is becoming progressively important. By applying rational design and molecular evolution we have engineered R. palustris bacterial phytochrome into a single-domain NIR FP of 19.6 kDa, termed GAF-FP, which is 2-fold and 1.4-fold smaller than bacterial phytochrome-based NIR FPs and GFP-like proteins, respectively. Engineering of GAF-FP involved a substitution of 15% of its amino acids and a deletion of the knot structure. GAF-FP covalently binds two tetrapyrrole chromophores, biliverdin (BV) and phycocyanobilin (PCB). With the BV chromophore GAF-FP absorbs at 635 nm and fluoresces at 670 nm. With the PCB chromophore GAF-FP becomes blue-shifted and absorbs at 625 nm and fluoresces at 657 nm. The GAF-FP structure has a high tolerance to small peptide insertions. The small size of GAF-FP and its additional absorbance band in the violet range has allowed for designing a chimeric protein with Renilla luciferase. The chimera exhibits efficient non-radiative energy transfer from luciferase to GAF-FP, resulting in NIR bioluminescence. This study opens the way for engineering of small NIR FPs and NIR luciferases from bacterial phytochromes.Peer reviewe