The parallax distorsion via a weak microlensing effect

Parallax measurements allow distances to celestial objects to be determined. Coupled with measurement of their position on the celestial sphere, it gives a full three-dimensional picture of the location of the objects relative to the observer. The distortion of the parallax value of a remote source affected by a weak microlensing is considered. This means that the weak microlensing leads to distortion of the distance scale. It is shown that the distortions to appear may change strongly the parallax values in case they amount to several microseconds of arc. In particular, at this accuracy many measured values of the parallaxes must be negative.Comment: 34 LaTeX pages, 12 PostScript figure (epsfig.sty

Microarcsecond instability of the celestial reference frame

The fluctuation of the angular positions of reference extragalactic radio and optical sources under the influence of the irregular gravitational field of visible Galactic stars is considered. It is shown that these angular fluctuations range from a few up to hundreds of microarcseconds. This leads to a small rotation of the celestial reference frame. The nondiagonal coefficients of the rotation matrix are of the order of a microarcsecond. The temporal variation of these coefficients due to the proper motion of the foreground stars is of the order of one microsecond per 20 years. Therefore, the celestial reference frame can be considered inertial and homogeneous only to microarcsecond accuracy. Astrometric catalogues with microarcsecond accuracy will be unstable, and must be reestablished every 20 years.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, accepted to MNRA

Национальная идентичность СМИ: ретроспективное исследование распространённости русскоязычных СМИ в Восточной Европе

The research focuses on the issues, concerning the national identity of mass media in the era of globalization. It was the attempt to examine the linguistic situation in the multi-ethnic society, which consists of clearly defined groups of national minorities. Revealing the problems and consequences of language groups’ shift through mass media became the main objective of the research. The retrospective data on the Russian language mass media prevalence in the Eastern European countries (for example, of Estonia) were used as an analytical background. In Estonia, almost half of the Russian-speaking population cannot follow mass media due to limited knowledge of the language. These particularities for 1998-2013 were described in this article. The obtained results led to the conclusion that the major part of the Russian-speaking population of Estonia mainly follows the Russian television channels and, therefore, is more integrated in the Russian information realm than in Estonian. The multidirectional dynamics of mass media activity on prevalence was revealed. The contradictions between the Russian and Estonian mass media, Estonia and the EU on multilingual social mass media role were highlighted in the article.El estudio se centra en la identidad nacional de los medios de comunicación de masas en la era de la globalización. Se ha tratado de examinar la situación lingüística en la sociedad pluricultural en que existen grupos de minorías nacionales bien definidos. El observatorio principal del estudio fue la identificación de los problemas y las consecuencias del desplazamiento de los grupos lingüísticos a través de los medios de comunicación de masas. Como la base analítica, se utilizaron los datos retrospectivos sobre la prevalencia de los medios de comunicación de masas rusos en Estonia, donde alrededor de la mitad de la población que habla el idioma ruso no puede seguir los medios de comunicación de masas en Estonia debido a la falta de conocimiento del idioma. Trataremos de hacer un seguimiento de estas características durante el período 1998-2013. Los resultados han llevado a la conclusión de que gran parte de la población que habla el idioma ruso de Estonia está principalmente siguiendo los canales de televisión rusos y, por lo tanto, está más integrada en el campo de información de Rusia que de Estonia. Se ha identificado la dinámica diversificada en la actividad de los medios de comunicación de masas por el tipo de distribución. El artículo destaca las contradicciones entre los medios de comunicación de masas estonios y rusos, entre Estonia y la UE sobre el papel de los medios de comunicación de masas públicos multilingües.Исследование посвящено вопросам национальной идентичности средств массовой информации в эпоху глобализации. Предпринята попытка рассмотреть языковую ситуацию в полиэтническом обществе, где имеются четко выраженные группы национальных меньшинств. Основной целью исследования стало выявление проблем и последствий смещения языковых групп населения через СМИ. В качестве аналитической базы использовалось ретроспективные данные о распространённости русскоязычных СМИ в Эстонии, где около половины русскоязычного населения не могут следить за средствами массовой информации на эстонском языке из-за недостаточного знания языка. Мы постараемся проследить эти особенности за период 1998-2013 годов. Полученные результаты привели к выводу, что большая часть русскоговорящего населения Эстонии в основном следит за российскими телеканалами и поэтому более интегрирована в информационное поле России, чем в эстонское. Выявлена разнонаправленная динамика в активности СМИ по типу распространения. В статье подчеркиваются противоречия между эстонскими и русскоязычными СМИ, между Эстонией и ЕС относительно роли мультиязычных общественных СМИ

Different radiation and metamorphic history of the Kainsaz CO 3.2 chondrules

Track and thermoluminescence parameters in chondrules from the Kainsaz CO 3.2 chondrite have been studied. Obtained results elucidate their individual shock-thermal history and the early pre-accretion stage of the meteorite parent body formation

‘Neopredeljonnyj’ [Indefinite] vs. ‘Neulovimyj’ [Elusive] in Aspect of Categorical Perception

The article discusses the phenomenon of categorical perception, the success of which the author suggests can be expressed by the formula “this is exactly X from the category ‘X’.” The lexemes ‘neopredeljonnyj’ [indefinite] vs. ‘neulovimyj’ [elusive] are considered as units that verbalize the subject’s categorization difficulties in perception. Based on a comparison of the use of the adjectives ‘neopredeljonnyj’ [indefinite] vs. ‘neulovimyj’ [elusive] with nominations of different types of perceptual perception, it is established in which cases the object of perception, causing categorization difficulties, is designated as ‘neopredeljonnyj’ [indefinite] X and in which cases it is designated as ‘neulovimyj’ [elusive] X. The study is carried out using methods of definitional, componential, distributive, and contextual analysis based on explanatory dictionaries and data from the Russian National Corpus. As a result of the analysis of linguistic material, it was revealed that the combination ‘neopredeljonnyj’ [indefinite] X denotes that a certain X is well perceived by the sense organs, but the subject is unaware (it is absent from their lexicon) of the designation for this X. The combination ‘neulovimyj’ [elusive] X denotes that the sense organs only register the presence of a certain X, while X manifests itself too quickly/weakly or is heterogeneous, making it unrecognizable

Phraseological Units as Means of Subjective-Evaluative Categorization on Scale ‘Confidence — Probability — Uncertainty — Approximation’

The question is raised about the possibility of a systematic description of Russian phraseological units as a means of expressing a more or less confident categorization of objects and situations. The results of definitional, component and contextual analysis of 300 phraseological units are presented. The author’s classification of phraseological units into 4 groups is proposed: “confident categorization”, “most probable categorization”, “uncertain, borderline categorization”, “most approximate / ‘empty’ categorization”. It has been established that in most cases phraseological units express the speaker’s complete confidence in the categorization and evaluation of any objects or situations. It is noted that this confidence is often associated with the signs of ‘true / false’, ‘important / unimportant’, ‘similar / unlike’, ‘good / bad’. It was revealed that a smaller part of phraseological units characterizes the cases of the most probable, borderline and most approximate categorization. In general, the analysis shows that phraseological units most often verbalize such signs of a situation as its truth or falsity, the possibility or impossibility of establishing the truth, trust or distrust of the person from whom some information comes, which indicates the special importance of “truth” in the Russian language picture of the world

Evolution of the Bavarian dialect lexical system

The article deals with the specific features of the German language on the Bavarian dialect lexical level. The dialect is remarkable for its innovations and variety of linguistic forms on all levels of its system. The notion “Bavarian dialect” and its correlation with literary German language is being researched. The comparative analysis reveals the facts of deviation from the standards of the literary German language, especially in vocabulary and semantic

Sex structure and timing of spawning for <i>Mercenaria stimpsoni</i> (Bivalvia, Veneridae) in the northwestern Japan Sea

Sex structure, growth, maturing and spawning of clam Mercenaria stimpsoni at Primorye coast (Japan Sea) are considered on the data of histological analysis of gonad tissue preparations and gonad smears collected in diving surveys conducted eastward from Cape Povorotny in the summer-fall of 2006-2009 and 2012-2013. The mollusk dwells on sandy or muddy-sandy grounds at the depth to 20 m along the coast opened to surf waves. Its annual increments were identified in radial section of the outer layer of shell between the umbo and ventral margin. Its mature begins at the age 7-8 years with the shell length about 40 mm; all mollusks become mature at the age 10-11 years when their shell reaches the size 50-55 mm, so transition from juvenile to mature clam lasts about 3 years. The shell length of half-maturing is 43.5 mm that corresponds to the age 9-10 years. Males prevail among small-sized M. stimpsoni (40-44 mm) with the ratio 1.26 : 0.74, but the sex ratio is equal for the basic mature stock, and females prevail among large-sized clams with the ratio 0.70 : 1.30, so the sex ratio for the whole surveyed area is approximately equal. M. stimpsoni spawns there from mid-August to mid-September, with the mass spawning in late August - early September, under the water temperature 13-19оC