The service contract in Russia: parties, definitions, contents and form

The author provides commentary on the legal regulation of service contracts, and suggests some possible improvements. An article by Mrs E.A. Ershova (Head of the Labour Law Department, Russian Academy of Justice; Candidate of Law, Assistant Professor) published in Amicus Curiae – Journal of the Society for Advanced Legal Studies at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies. The Journal is produced by SALS at the IALS (Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London)

Trace formulae for Schrodinger operators on metric graphs with applications to recovering matching conditions

The paper is a continuation of the study started in \cite{Yorzh1}. Schrodinger operators on finite compact metric graphs are considered under the assumption that the matching conditions at the graph vertices are of $\delta$ type. Either an infinite series of trace formulae (provided that edge potentials are infinitely smooth) or a finite number of such formulae (in the cases of $L_1$ and $C^M$ edge potentials) are obtained which link together two different quantum graphs under the assumption that their spectra coincide. Applications are given to the problem of recovering matching conditions for a quantum graph based on its spectrum.Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1403.761

Trace formulae for graph Laplacians with applications to recovering matching conditions

Graph Laplacians on finite compact metric graphs are considered under the assumption that the matching conditions at the graph vertices are of either $\delta$ or $\delta'$ type. In either case, an infinite series of trace formulae which link together two different graph Laplacians provided that their spectra coincide is derived. Applications are given to the problem of reconstructing matching conditions for a graph Laplacian based on its spectrum

Structure, inter-annual variability, and long-term change in zooplankton communities of the Chukchi Sea

Thesis (Ph.D.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2016The Chukchi Sea is a complex transition zone between the Pacific and Arctic Oceans that has been experiencing dramatic change in recent decades due to shifting sea ice cover and increasing temperatures. We examine summer mesozooplankton communities of the Chukchi Sea in Alaskan and Russian waters during summers 2004, 2009, 2010 and 2012 within the scope of the RUSALCA (Russian-American Long Term Census of the Arctic) program. Community structure was highly variable between the study years, but was overall tightly correlated to water mass properties, with bottom temperature being the most significant factor influencing communities. Zooplankton biomass was dominated by the large copepod Calanus glacialis, while abundance was dominated by small shelf species of copepods, such as Pseudocalanus spp. and Oithona similis. The “cold" summers of 2009-2012 had nearly twice the biomass and abundance of zooplankton compared to the oceanographically “warm" summer of 2004. We discuss the implications of the inter-annual variability of planktonic communities within the Chukchi Sea, and the possible effects of longer-term climate change. We then look at distribution and population structure of an ecologically important species complex within the zooplankton, Pseudocalanus spp, and evaluate the implications of a warming climate for this group of copepods. While numerically dominating the communities, Pseudocalanus spp. has been historically understudied at the species level due to very subtle morphological differences between the species. Our approach used a combination of microscopic identification as well as a novel species-specific PCR identification method to discriminate between the four species found in the Chukchi Sea. Our results suggest that shifting oceanographic patterns and climate warming will have unequal impact on this group of organisms, arising from species-specific life histories and tolerance to environmental conditions. These recent observations on zooplankton are then placed into a historical context through comparison to data collected throughout the past half-century (1946-2012). Despite significant challenges associated with the highly variable spatial coverage and methodology of the available datasets, significant trends were detected. In addition to high levels of inter-annual variability, we demonstrate significant increases in zooplankton biomass and abundance in recent years compared to historical studies, as well as shifting distribution ranges for several key species. This signal was most pronounced within the copepods, particularly Calanus glacialis, which appears to be indirectly benefiting from warming of the region. While summer zooplankton communities of the Chukchi Sea have been primarily Bering-Pacific in character for as long as our records exist, continuing warming and ice loss are increasing the influence of Bering-Pacific fauna within the Chukchi region

The development of students’ information potential on the base of video project creation

The problem of the development of information potential in sports higher educational establishments is a widely-discussed one. Scientific ideas concerned with foreign languages, must be specially fixed, transformed and spread. This principle is observed when dealing with video projects. A video-based project is defined by scholars as a means of the elimination of language obstacles, a strong motivating factor in language learning and a powerful resource of information potential development. The measurements of students’ motivation level before the project have shown a low interest rate to learning the English language while after the project the students’ use of speech patterns within the compiled material has increased. The video project was presented at the 16th Festival of sports higher educational establishments in nomination “Lingua” (Smolensk, 2013) and awarded the first place in the nomination. Being a combination of audio and visual information, a film is a multimeans helping to motivate students to search for the most adequate ways of getting new knowledge extracting it from video episodes and using it to understand all possible aspects of culture and education. This brings the information potential of an individual to a higher scale which he used to have before taking part in a video project