Behaviour of the Blazar CTA 102 during two giant outbursts

Blazar CTA 102 underwent exceptional optical and high-energy outbursts in 2012 and 2016-2017. We analyze its behaviour during these events, focusing on polarimetry as a tool that allows us to trace changes in the physical conditions and geometric configuration of the emission source close to the central black hole. We also use Fermi gamma-ray data in conjunction with optical photometry in an effort to localize the origin of the outbursts.AST-1615796 - Boston Universit

Everyday Life of a Provincial Estate: A diary of a servant of the Ural Landowners Golubtsov

Marina Larionova, a specialist in the history of Russia, a candidate of historical sciences, presents her Everyday Life of a Provincial Estate (Yekaterinburg, 2013). The book was written with reference to a rare historical source, a diary of a servant of the Ural Landowners Golubtsov that is kept in the State Archive of Sverdlovsk Region (GASO, f. 67, op. 1, d. 69). The diary is anonymous, and the authorship was established as a result of an inquiry into its origin; Matvey Andreev, a descendant of a family of serfs was finally given credit as the author, and, according to the diary, he was a petty bourgeois of Kungur, an uyezd town, by the time the diary was started. For 3 years and 5 months (1872-1875), he wrote an account of daily life in the estate and in the manor house located in Aleksandrovskoye Settlement of Vladimir Platonovich Golubtsov, a Perm landowner. The diary describes the everyday life of a Ural petty manorial estate located in Krasnoufimsk Uyezd, Perm Governorate, the day-to-day routine of the owner and the dwellers of the manor, the relationships between them and the ones characteristic of the life of an uyezd community, the emotional experience of the people mentioned in the diary, and other details shedding light on the previously unknown events in the history of the Urals. In her talk with Lyudmila Dashkevich and Yevgeny Neklyudov, professors of history, research fellows of the Institute for History and Archaeology (Russian Academy of Sciences, Ural Branch), and with Irina Shalina, professor of philology, the author discusses the academic significance and informational potential of the source in question. The comparison drawn of the document with some previously known similar sources gives evidence proving its uniqueness conditioned by its comprehensive character, the author's viewpoint and the quality of the publication. Thus, it does not only comply with the text and has few editorial corrections, it also contains a variety of academic historical, cultural and biographic commentaries. The diary both describes the problems a 19 th -century manor could face on a daily basis and dwells on some general issues connected with the relationships between social classes, the historical psychology of servants, the perseverance of serf consciousness after the abolition of serfdom, the patriarchal character of life, and the modernization of the region's economy. © 2015 Ural Federal University. All rights reserved

Temperature sensitivity of soil respiration is dependent on readily decomposable C substrate concentration

International audienceTemperature acclimation of soil organic matter (SOM) decomposition is one of the major uncertainties in predicting soil CO2 efflux by the increase in global mean temperature. A reasonable explanation for an apparent acclimation proposed by Davidson and colleagues (2006) based on Michaelis-Menten kinetics suggests that temperature sensitivity decreases when both maximal activity of respiratory enzymes (Vmax) and half- saturation constant (Ks) cancel each other upon temperature increase. We tested the hypothesis of the canceling effect by the mathematical simulation of the data obtained in the incubation experiments with forest and arable soils. Our data confirm the hypothesis and suggest that concentration of readily decomposable C substrate as glucose equivalent is an important factor controlling temperature sensitivity. The highest temperature sensitivity was observed when C substrate concentration was much lower than Ks. Increase of substrate content to the half-saturation constant resulted in temperature acclimation associated with the canceling effect. Addition of the substrate to the level providing respiration at a maximal rate Vmax leads to the acclimation of the whole microbial community as such. However, growing microbial biomass was more sensitive to the temperature alterations. This study improves our understanding of the instability of temperature sensitivity of soil respiration under field conditions, explaining this phenomenon by changes in concentration of readily decomposable C substrate. It is worth noting that this pattern works regardless of the origin of C substrate: production by SOM decomposition, release into the soil by rhizodeposition, litter fall or drying-rewetting events

Ethno-cultural identity and psychic states self-regulation (By the example of russians and tatars)

The results of psychic's states peculiarities and their self-regulation study of Tatarstan population with different ethnocultural identity are presented. It is shown that Russians and Tatrs as representatives of big social groups are characterized by differences in the frequency of psychic states actualization, It is revealed that ethnoses' dispositions, customs and traditions through such ethnocultural factors as ethnic self-consciousness, religious belonging, etc. affected the specificity of the applied means and methods of psychic states self-regulation

The American aid to the Russian reforms at the end of the twentieth century

The importance of the studied problem is caused by the USA’s leading role in the development of modern world order and the economy, its influence in the international economic organizations. The article is aimed at revealing the reasons of choosing neoliberal strategy for Russian reforms, the amount and results of the American financial and technical aid to these reforms. The leading approach of researching this problem is the complex one. It allows finding out economic, internal political, geopolitical and cultural factors which influenced the implementation and the results of the American assistance to the Russian reforms. Authors draw a conclusion about considerable influence of the USA on domestic policy of Russia in the early nineties of the XX century. The amount and the content of the American financial and technical assistance to the Russian government are analyzed. Promises of massive financial aid from the international economic organizations and the USA were realized partially and much later, than it was necessary for economic transformations. The article’s content and conclusions can be used in other scientific works on American-Russian relations history, Modern history of Russia, during elaboration the effective strategy of reforms for the countries which are in a condition of a transitional economy. © 2016 Tarasova et al

Informatization of society

This article describes the features of the information society, given the opinions of scholars about information technologies and their impact on people's lives, and discusses the positive and negative aspects of informatization at the present timeВ данной статье рассмотрены черты информационного общества, приведены мнения учёных о информационных технологиях и их влиянии на жизнь людей, а также рассмотрены положительные и отрицательные стороны информатизации в настоящее врем