We propose three calibration scenarios of to date contemporary divergence of Anoplopomatidae (skilfish Erilepis zonifer and sablefish Anoplopoma fimbria) for a data set of two mtDNA loci (СOI and Control Region). The first scenario is based upon a fossil record and the second and third ones upon major palaeogeological events 3.5 and 15 Mya. Estimated evolution speeds indicate that COI evolves faster in the skilfish mitochondrial genome. There is also evidence of skilfish going through a bottleneck event limiting its genetic diversity in the relatively recent past near Japan. Sablefish had two refugia on both sides of the Pacific Ocean. The contemporary haplotype divergence was formed ~450 thousand years ago during an ice age in the Pleistocene and contemporary populations display no apparent geographic differentiation.

This article revisits the modern political history of Niger during the 1960s to the 1980s through an analysis of relations between student activists and government authorities. It explores how a student organization, the Union des Scolaires Nigériens (USN), managed to bypass multiple layers of political control to become a well-structured political movement, capable of seriously challenging the legitimacy of the authorities. Specifically, the article examines interactions between the USN and different bodies of political power, including the Diori and Kountché governments, in the larger context of regional solidarities and the Cold War. It analyses key moments of this struggle by showing how two generations of student leaders (those of the 1960s to early 1970s and the late 1970 to early 1980s) nourished the creation of specific windows of political action, which found various outlets for expression depending on the form of state power as well as the form and methods of activist work.

If transparency in political finance is part and parcel of democracy, why do some countries adopt internationally agreed standards to regulate political finance in a more transparent way, while others do not? This paper (a) suggests a theoretical framework to address this question, taking into account international obligations, existing party finance regulation, and demands for greater legitimacy of political institutions; (b) introduces a unique data set of 46 member-countries of the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) project operated by the Council of Europe; and (c) concludes that unwillingness to pay the high domestic costs of changing national regulation is the prime impediment to compliance with transparency regulation proposed by GRECO. Right-of-centre cabinets are, on average, associated with a poorer level of compliance. Interestingly, compliance with recommendations which reduce the privileges of parliamentary parties does not deviate from the overall pattern.

The opportunity of development the short-term forecasting technique of geoeffective solar flares is presented in this study. This technique is based on the effect of growth the fluctuations of horizontal component of geomagnetic field before the solar proton flares, that is considered as a prognostic parameter of solar proton flares.

Declining trust in statistical agencies has recently complicated the endeavour to collect high-quality, timely data that are used to inform US policy and practice. Given this context, understanding how respondents choose to trust particular statistical agencies and their products is incredibly important. This article details a series of cognitive interviews (85) and focus groups (3) used to measure how the US public develops trust for statistical agencies, their statistical products and their use of administrative records. Results show that respondents use two models of trust in their rationale: experience based and cultural‒repertoire based. When respondents did not have experience with a particular institution and/or its product, cultural values including personal liberty, cost-savings and the promotion of social goods (for example, government-sponsored schools and hospitals) were found to influence their motivations to trust or distrust. As a result, appeals to cultural values may have the potential to increase trust among respondents. Familiarity with statistical agencies and their products may also increase respondents’ levels of trust.

In the base of our studies of star-forming processes are the data provided by panoramic spectroscopy of galaxies composing our SBS subsample. Observations with multi-pupil spectrographs are organized in a way to obtain the spectral range centered in permitted hydrogen Hα Balmer line, by capturing at least the forbidden doublets of nitrogen [NII]6548,6583 and sulfur [SII]6716,6731. The results obtained are the spatial distributions across the targets of emission intensities and derived properties from line parameters such as radial velocities, which give us the possibility to explore gas kinematics and physical characteristics of HII regions.

Infection of pregnant cows with noncytopathic (ncp) bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) induces rapid innate and adaptive immune responses, resulting in clearance of the virus in less than 3 weeks. Seven to 14 days after inoculation of the cow, ncpBVDV crosses the placenta and induces a fetal viremia. Establishment of persistent infection with ncpBVDV in the fetus has been attributed to the inability to mount an immune response before 90–150 days of gestational age. The result is ‘immune tolerance’, persistent viral replication and shedding of ncpBVDV. In contrast, we describe the chronic upregulation of fetal Type I interferon (IFN) pathway genes and the induction of IFN-γ pathways in fetuses of cows infected on day 75 of gestation. Persistently infected (PI) fetal IFN-γ concentrations also increased at day 97 at the peak of fetal viremia and IFN-γ mRNA was significantly elevated in fetal thymus, liver and spleen 14–22 days post maternal inoculation. PI fetuses respond to ncpBVDV infection through induction of Type I IFN and IFN-γ activated genes leading to a reduction in ncpBVDV titer. We hypothesize that fetal infection with BVDV persists because of impaired induction of IFN-γ in the face of activated Type I IFN responses. Clarification of the mechanisms involved in the IFN-associated pathways during BVDV fetal infection may lead to better detection methods, antiviral compounds and selection of genetically resistant breeding animals.

A technique has been developed for determining coefficients in the power approximation of the “stress–strain” diagram by results of scratch testing with a Berkovich indenter under a normal load of 5 mN on the indenter. The procedure is based on a comparison of experimental results with the finite element simulation of the test process. The technique is intended for application on nanomechanical testing equipment enabling one to perform tests with recording of loading diagrams in terms of the “normal force – indenter displacement” coordinates. To obtain correct results, one must observe the following restrictions: indenter penetration depth > 150 nm under a loading of 5 mN with the indenter tip curvature radius R < 50 nm; indenter penetration depth > 250 nm with 50 < R < 100 nm; the tested metal must be ductile enough, for a scratch to be formed by the mechanism of plastic deformation rather than fracture.

Russian has a family of reflexive constructions that have non-canonical syntax and express a variety of meanings that range from disposition (‘I feel like working’) to ability (‘I cannot work here’) and generic assessment of quality (‘I work well here’). Previous analyses assume that these constructions are derived by a regular syntactic rule and postulate a null modal in the structure to account for their semantics (Benedicto 1995, Franks 1995, Rivero & Arregui 2012). Focusing on the ‘feel like’ construction, I show that derivational analyses have difficulty explaining its idiosyncratic properties, including non-canonical agreement (independent of the structural subject), as well as the interpretation of aspect. Moreover, derivational analyses overgeneralize, since only a subset of predicates occur in the ‘feel like’ construction in Russian, as the data from the Russian National Corpus indicate. In order to account for their idiosyncratic properties and semi-productivity, I propose that the ‘feel like’ construction and its kin are stored in the lexicon as constructions (Goldberg 1995; Jackendoff 1997, 2008). The proposed analysis clarifies the status of reflexive constructions in Russian and establishes the scope of cross-linguistic semantic variation by comparing reflexives in Russian to that in other Slavic languages.

Three types of silica materials with different morphology, specifically SiO2 hollow microspheres, mesoporous silica, and silica aerogel were tested as potential precursors for synthesis of silicon nano- and meso-structures that resemble the original morphology of the precursors. In the optimized magnesium thermal reduction process, magnesium vapor was delivered to silica surface through a stainless steel mesh placed on top of a zirconia boat filled with silica precursor. This approach allowed for better control of silicon nanostructure formation by minimizing reaction by-products that can affect performance of lithium ion battery anode. Material morphological properties of the reduced silica precursors are discussed in terms of X-ray diffraction, BET, BJH pore size distribution, Raman spectroscopy, and TGA.

X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and cathodoluminescence (CL) method have been employed to study the chemical composition and the oxygen vacancy concentration of HfO2, Sc2 O3 and (HfO2)1−x(Sc2O3)x films. It was found that the increase of Sc content led to monotonic decreasing the Hf4f7/2 and Sc2p3/2 binding energies indicating to form solid solution (HfO2)1−x(Sc2O3)x. All the samples characterized by the intensive CL spectra with maximum around 3 eV which originated due to some radiative recombination emission caused by oxygen deficiency. The concentration of oxygen vacancy in the Sc-doped HfO2 is sensitive to the Sc content and as a result the intensity of CL spectra of (HfO2)1−x(Sc2O3)x is lower that those of pure HfO2 and Sc2O3.

High-resolution spectra obtained with the 6m BTA telescope, Russia, and with HARPS and VLT/UVES telescopes at ESO, Chile, were used for Doppler Imaging analysis of two roAp stars, HD 12098 and HD 60435, showing strong and variable Li resonance line in their spectra. We found that Li has highly inhomogeneous distribution on the surfaces of these stars. We compared our results with previously obtained Doppler Imaging mapping of two CP2 stars, HD 83368 and HD 3980, and discuss the correlation between the position of the high Li-abundance spots and magnetic field.

Pt catalysts are the leading catalysts for use in ORR. However, Pt is an expensive catalyst and with limited supply can not be considered a sustainable material for feasible application that is scalable in the economy. This calls for new solutions for catalyst materials that either mitigate the amount of Pt used in catalysts by developing hybrid catalysts, or to replace Pt altogether with a material with similar or better catalytic activity. Perovskite LSCF and Fluorite GDC materials with proven catalytic activity in solid oxide fuel cells are herein explored for their catalytic reduction of oxygen for use at low temperatures. Since the materials lack electronic conductivity at low temperatures, we have improved their conductivity with graphene. The resulting materials are compared to Pt in their ORR catalytic capabilities and electronic conductivity.

Mesoporous carbon aerogel has been impregnated with iron (10 and 15 wt. %) as a catalyst for graphitization by wet incipient method. The iron modified and non-modified carbon aerogels were heat treated at 900°C, 1200°C, and 1400°C in argon. The crystal structure, morphology, and electro catalytic activity of the resulting nano-composites have been studied. It was found that, the degree of graphitization was proportional to the concentration of Iron phase and the ratio of iron to iron nitride phase in the heat-treated samples. In carbon aerogel sample sintered at 1200°C with 15 wt. % of iron phase, mesoporosity in the range of 3-4 nm and microporosity (< 2nm) was significantly improved by graphitization without affecting the Carbon Aerogels mesoporosity in 10-30 nm range. In this case of 15 wt. % iron doped samples, HRTEM analysis confirms the presence of uniformly distributed ∼43.5nm iron nanoparticles surrounded by graphene layers. Correspondingly, improved graphitization and presence of iron nitride resulted in 3.65 electron assisted oxygen reduction reaction.

An experimental approach was created for the comparative investigation of the cognitive abilities of the glaucous-winged gull (Larus glaucescens) in their natural habitat. The territoriality of gulls during the breeding period and the fact that the gulls inhabiting the territory of the Komandorsky Reserve are practically not in fear of humans allowed us to work with individually recognized birds directly at their nest sites inside the colony. The possibility of using this approach to investigate their cognitive abilities was demonstrated on 24 gulls, in particular, to investigate their abilities for relative size generalization. The first experiment illustrated that the gulls are able to learn to discriminate two pairs of stimuli according to the feature: ‘larger’ or ‘smaller’. They were then given a test to transfer the discriminative rule in which novel combinations of the same stimuli were used. The gulls successfully coped with only a few of these tests. In the next experiment the birds were taught to discriminate four pairs of similar stimuli. The majority of the birds coped with the tests to transfer the discriminative rule both to the novel combinations of familiar stimuli, and also to the novel stimuli of the familiar category (items of different colour and shape). However, none of the birds transferred the discriminative rule to stimuli of a novel category (sets differing by number of components). Thus, in their ability to generalize at a preconceptual level gulls are more comparable with pigeons, whereas large-brained birds (crows and parrots), are capable of concept formation.