Madrasahs as vocational educational institutions in the regions of pre-revolutionary Russia

© 2016 by iSER, International Society of Educational Research.The importance is determined by insufficient knowledge of the problem while undergoing serious changes in the system of Muslim education not only in Russia but all over the world. Hence, the purpose of this article is to identify the experience of madrasahs – professional Muslim educational institutions of pre-revolutionary Russia, as its reflection, critical analysis and possible extrapolating will contribute to further improvement of the system of Islamic education and science. A leading approach to solving this problem is the author's concept of historical and pedagogical research, which was based on the logic and structure of pedagogical process in its modern sense. Following the named concept allows a logical and consistent way to identify, analyze, synthesize, and extrapolate historical and pedagogical experience in modern educational theory and practice. The results of the study illustrate that the madrasah of pre-revolutionary Russia were prominent professional institutions. The organization of their pedagogical process in general contributed to the preparation of competent professionals. The article can be useful to teachers – the teachers of not only religious but also secular educational institutions, historians and culture experts

Theory of AC Josepson Effect in Superconducting Constrictions

We have developed a microscopic theory of ac Josephson effect in short ballistic superconducting constrictions with arbitrary electron transparency and in constrictions with diffusive electron transport. The theory is valid for arbitrary miscroscopic structure of the superconducting electrodes of the constriction. As applications of the theory we study smearing of the subgap current singularities by pair-breaking effects and also the structure of these singularities in the constrictions between the composite S/N electrodes with the proximity-induced gap in the normal layer.Comment: 11 pages, RevTex, 3 figures available on reques

Coherent Charge Transport in Metallic Proximity Structures

We develop a detailed microscopic analysis of electron transport in normal diffusive conductors in the presence of proximity induced superconducting correlation. We calculated the linear conductance of the system, the profile of the electric field and the densities of states. In the case of transparent metallic boundaries the temperature dependent conductance has a non-monotoneous ``reentrant'' structure. We argue that this behavior is due to nonequilibrium effects occuring in the normal metal in the presence of both superconducting correlations and the electric field there. Low transparent tunnel barriers suppress the nonequilibrium effects and destroy the reentrant behavior of the conductance. If the wire contains a loop, the conductance shows Aharonov-Bohm oscillations with the period $\Phi_0=h/2e$ as a function of the magnetic flux $\Phi$ inside the loop. The amplitude of these oscillations also demonstrates the reentrant behavior vanishing at $T=0$ and decaying as $1/T$ at relatively large temperatures. The latter behavior is due to low energy correlated electrons which penetrate deep into the normal metal and ``feel'' the effect of the magnetic flux $\Phi$. We point out that the density of states and thus the ``strengh'' of the proximity effect can be tuned by the value of the flux inside the loop. Our results are fully consistent with recent experimental findings.Comment: 16 pages RevTeX, 23 Postscript figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Investigation of LiFeAs by means of "Break-junction" Technique

In our tunneling investigation using Andreev superconductor - normal metal - superconductor contacts on LiFeAs single crystals we observed two reproducible independent subharmonic gap structures at dynamic conductance characteristics. From these results, we can derive the energy of the large superconducting gap $\Delta_L=(2.5 \div 3.4)$ meV and the small gap $\Delta_L=(0.9 \div 1)$ meV at $T = 4.2$ K for the $T_C^{local} \approx (10.5 \div 14)$ K (the contact area critical temperature which deviation causes the variation of $\Delta_L$). The BCS-ratio is found to be $2\Delta_L/k_BT_C = (4.6 \div 5.6)$, whereas $2\Delta_S/k_BT_C \ll 3.52$ results from induced superconductivity in the bands with the small gap.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures. Published in Pis'ma v ZhETF 95, 604-610 (2012

Differential induction of total IgE by two Salmonella enterica serotypes

The main goal of this study was to establish how the inflammation caused by infection with two different Salmonella enterica serotypes, S. Typhimurium and S. Enteritidis, may lead to the predisposition to allergy as measured by total IgE level in the blood. Infection by S. Typhimurium did not affect the systemic IgE concentration while in S. Enteritidis-infected patients there was a significant 3.5-fold increase. This effect was especially profound in patients >4 years old, with up to the eight-fold increase above the norm. The degree of dysbiosis in these two infections measured with the comparative counts of cultivated bacteria showed an inverse relationship with the IgE concentration. Earlier we reported the elevated level of IL-17 in patients infected by S. Enteritidis. In the current study a significant correlation was found between the concentrations of IL-17 and IgE suggesting a possible role played by this cytokine in triggering the production of IgE in response to S. Enteritidis infection

Statistical Mechanics of Horizontal Gene Transfer in Evolutionary Ecology

The biological world, especially its majority microbial component, is strongly interacting and may be dominated by collective effects. In this review, we provide a brief introduction for statistical physicists of the way in which living cells communicate genetically through transferred genes, as well as the ways in which they can reorganize their genomes in response to environmental pressure. We discuss how genome evolution can be thought of as related to the physical phenomenon of annealing, and describe the sense in which genomes can be said to exhibit an analogue of information entropy. As a direct application of these ideas, we analyze the variation with ocean depth of transposons in marine microbial genomes, predicting trends that are consistent with recent observations using metagenomic surveys.Comment: Accepted by Journal of Statistical Physic

Establishment of Normal Gut Microbiota Is Compromised under Excessive Hygiene Conditions

Background: Early gut colonization events are purported to have a major impact on the incidence of infectious, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases in later life. Hence, factors which influence this process may have important implications for both human and animal health. Previously, we demonstrated strong influences of early-life environment on gut microbiota composition in adult pigs. Here, we sought to further investigate the impact of limiting microbial exposure during early life on the development of the pig gut microbiota. Methodology/Principal Findings: Outdoor- and indoor-reared animals, exposed to the microbiota in their natural rearing environment for the first two days of life, were transferred to an isolator facility and adult gut microbial diversity was analyzed by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. From a total of 2,196 high-quality 16S rRNA gene sequences, 440 phylotypes were identified in the outdoor group and 431 phylotypes in the indoor group. The majority of clones were assigned to the four phyla Firmicutes (67.5% of all sequences), Proteobacteria (17.7%), Bacteroidetes (13.5%) and to a lesser extent, Actinobacteria (0.1%). Although the initial maternal and environmental microbial inoculum of isolator-reared animals was identical to that of their naturally-reared littermates, the microbial succession and stabilization events reported previously in naturally-reared outdoor animals did not occur. In contrast, the gut microbiota of isolator-reared animals remained highly diverse containing a large number of distinct phylotypes. Conclusions/Significance: The results documented here indicate that establishment and development of the normal gut microbiota requires continuous microbial exposure during the early stages of life and this process is compromised under conditions of excessive hygiene