Search

This article examines the prevalence and range of parasitic diseases based on soil sediment samples found in the town of Yeniseisk located in western Siberia. These soil samples were taken from the sacral surface of 14 individuals buried at the cemetery of the Epiphany Cathedral dating back to the 17th century, and 15 samples of toilet contents taken from an 18th century mansion. It was found that Diphyllobothrium sp. eggs prevailed in the samples taken from the sacral surface. They were found in 64.3% of cases. At the same time, the prevalence of diphyllobothriasis does not depend on gender. Ascaris lumbricoides eggs were found in 1 individual, or 7.14% of the entire sample. However, Ascaris lumbricoides eggs prevailed in the toilet content of samples collected from the Yeniseisk manision. They were found in 14 of 15 samples (93.3%), while Taenia sp. eggs were found in 1 sample (6.7%). Having examined the results within a historical context, we conclude that the high prevalence of Diphyllobothriasis in the Yeniseisk population, responsible for establishing this burial ground, was caused by consumption of raw fish or poorly cooked fish and persisted, owing to a relative stability of dietary habits dating back to the Pomors, who were the first Russian settlers in the region in the 17th century, as well as a tradition of eating fish adopted from the indigenous population of the Siberian North. Both traditions were probably adapted to Northern conditions and were considered, in particular, as antiscorbutic. Taenia sp. cestode eggs detected in the content of one toilet sample is indicative of having consumed contaminated, insufficiently boiled or roasted, raw beef and/or pork. The diet of the Russians who settled in Yeniseisk during the 18th century was probably more diverse and included a sufficient amount of beef and/or pork. The minimal prevalence of ascariasis in Yeniseisk in the 17th century, as identified by the present study, might reflect relatively satisfactory sanitary conditions based on the small initial population. However, as the population and its density grew during the 18th century, it is likely that the sanitary conditions deteriorated, possibly aggravated by frequent floods.

This paper presents the first result of a study of two long-term natural archives in the southwestern part of the Western Siberian Plain. Bchron age models based on 17 AMS dates allowed us to determine a chronology of changes in properties of lake and peat deposits. Significant changes in the Holocene were identified according to geochemical indices, accumulation rates, and compositions of the plant macrofossils of sediment cores in Lake Kyrtyma and Oshukovskoe peat bog. Sediments with a low content of organic matter and maximum weathering accumulated in the Late Glacial, below the border of the Holocene. The transition to the Holocene manifested as a black organic gyttja with ostracods and marked warming ∼12–11.2 ka BP. At about 11.2–10.1 ka BP it was replaced by the Preboreal oscillation. Subsequent changes in lake sedimentation were associated with general warming and an unstable hydrological regime. An increase in humidification ∼8.2 ka BP was reflected by lake level rise and contributed to swamping of the watersheds. The aridest Holocene phase at ∼7.1–5.5 ka BP was reliably recorded by geochemical data, but poorly reflected in the stratigraphy of both profiles. Subsequent cooling and the resulting decrease in evaporation began at ∼5.5–4.9 ka BP. A pronounced cardinal shift in sedimentation conditions due to a gradual increase in precipitation was recorded at ∼4.9–2.8 ka BP, though short-term fluctuations towards dryness were also marked at ∼3.5–3.3 ka BP. The most significant increase in humidification and cooling began at 2.8 ka BP. Geochemical indices in the lacustrine sediments are climate sensitive and allowing us to obtain enough reliable data associated with changes in sedimentation environments. The stratigraphy of peat reflected the nuances of climatic changes less clearly and primarily demonstrated the stages of bog self-development; however, sphagnum peat provided a better-resolution record.

This article presents an archaeoparasitological analysis of a child mummy from the medieval Zeleniy Yar burial ground (12-13th centuries AD) located in the northern part of western Siberia. Analysis of samples from the intestinal contents of the child mummy revealed eggs of Opisthorchis felineus, suggesting that people of the region consumed raw or undercooked fish during the Middle Ages. Palynological data suggest that death probably occurred in the winter since this sample was free of ‘environmental-type’ pollen from wind-pollinated plants. The sample was also free of the so-called ‘economic-type’ pollen, suggesting that medicinal plants, namely different teas or herbs, had not been consumed, suggesting that no attempts were made to cure the ill child using these agents.

This paper presents paleoparasitological results from the Kikki-Akki burial ground dating from 17th to the early 19th centuries. Examination of sacrum projection and sacral foramina samples revealed helminth eggs of Diphyllobothrium latum . It proves that the Taz Selkups consumed thermally untreated or slightly treated fish. A high rate of Diphyllobothriasis in the contemporaneity Selkup group in the area under study points to a continuation of the same dietary habits. This study estimated parasite prevalence rate in the Taz Selkup population who used the Kikki-Akki burial ground, and attempted to reconstruct early humans' dietary habits and health status. Presence of helminth alternate hosts in different geographical locations allowed us to reconstruct human migration paths in West Siberia.

The paper studies the results of the analysis of samples from sacrum and sacral foramina selected areas of the skeletal remainings extracted from the Sarmatian kurgan burials of the burial mound Kovalevka. The analysis revealed intestinal parasites' eggs of two genus Diphyllobothrium sp. and Trichuris sp. Few factors explain the presence of intestinal parasites of genus Trichuris among Sarmatians. It could result due to insanitary conditions in the nomadic camps, where hygiene was not well-developed. Another possibility is that Sarmatians ate imported food, already contaminated by Trichuris trichiura eggs or visited the areas, epidemiologically unsafe and potentially contaminated by trichuriasis. Human contamination with Diphyllobothrium sp. might also indicate that population periodically consumed fish as an additional source of food, but insufficiently heat-treated.

International audience; The measurement of the neutron electric dipole moment (nEDM) constrains the contribution of CP-violating terms within both the Standard Model and its extensions. The experiment uses ultracold neutrons (UCN) stored in vacuum at room temperature. This technique provided the last (and best) limit by the RAL/Sussex/ILL collaboration in 2006: dn < 2:9 × 10-26 e cm (90% C.L.). We aim to improve the experimental sensitivity by a factor of 5 within 2-3 years, using an upgrade of the same apparatus. We will take advantage of the increased ultracold neutron density at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) and of a new concept including both, external magnetometers and a cohabiting magnetometer. In parallel, a next generation apparatus with two UCN storage chambers and an elaborate magnetic field control is being designed aiming to achieve another order of magnitude increase in sensitivity, allowing us to put a limit as tight as dn < 5 × 10-28 e cm (95% C.L.), if not establishing a finite value.

The temperature dependence of intragrain conductivity of the Langmuir–Blodgett (LB) films of (C16H33–TCNQ)0.4(C17H35–DMTTF)0.6 has been studied by means of measuring the surface acoustic waves (SAW) attenuation in a piezocrystal resonator covered by the LB film. [(C16H33–TCNQ)0.4(C17H35–DMTTF)0.6 denotes the surface-active charge-transfer complex of hexadecyltetracyanoquinodimethane (C16H33–TCNQ) and heptadecyldimethyltetrathiofulvalene (C17H35–DMTTF)]. We have found that the intragrain conductivity decreases with decreasing temperature, following σ∝exp(−1/T1/2) law. According to the theory of electron transport in quasi-one-dimensional disordered systems (Q1D DS) proposed by E.P. Nakhmedov et al. [Sov. Phys. Solid State 31 (1989) 368] and developed by Z.H. Wang et al. [Phys. Rev. B 43 (1991) 4373], this temperature behaviour of the conductivity points to the disorder-induced electron localization within the film grains. Fitting our experimental data to the relations proposed in these references, allowed us to evaluate the electron relaxation times due to scattering by phonons and impurities. Based on structural parameters of the conducting bilayer, we have also estimated the Fermi velocity and density of states at the Fermi level, which enabled us to determine the mean free path and localization length in the film studied.

As part of an R&D programme for the development of a next-generation experiment to measure the neutron electric dipole moment, in which ultra-cold neutrons (UCN) are produced and stored in superfluid 4 He (superthermal source), we have developed cryogenic detectors of UCN that can operate in situ within the superfluid. Surface barrier detectors and PIN diode detectors have been tested and proven to work well at temperatures as low as 80 mK. When combined with a layer of 6 LiF which converts neutrons to charged particles, these detectors form a reliable UCN detection system which has been tested in liquid helium down to 430 mK. The detectors have operated within superfluid helium for periods of up to 30 days with no signs of degradation. The development of this detection system has enabled us to measure the flux of UCN from a superthermal UCN source with no intervening transmission windows which can attenuate the flux. The addition of thin films of magnetically aligned iron also enables these detectors to be used in situ for neutron spin-polarisation analysis.

The absolute production rate of ultracold neutrons (UCN) produced by the interaction of a cold neutron beam with superfluid helium has been measured over an incident energy range of 0.7 to 4 meV. The neutrons are reduced in energy to become UCN by creating phonon(s) in the superfluid. The separate roles played by single and multi-phonon emission processes have been identified. Detection and identification of UCN, those neutrons with energies less than ∼250 neV and which can be stored in material bottles, were carried out using solid-state silicon detectors set within the superfluid helium. With a cold neutron flux of 2.62×10 7 neutrons cm −2 s −1 A −1 at 8.9 A in the superfluid, the single-phonon production rate of UCN was measured to be (0.91±0.13) cm −3 s −1 , a value close to theoretical prediction. Multi-phonon emission processes for UCN production by higher energy neutrons were also observed and, in the beam used for this work at ILL, they contributed (24±2)% to the overall UCN production rate.

We present a study aimed at developing and optimising methods for ultra-cold neutron (UCN) detection using solid-state silicon detectors. For this we investigated the characteristics of neutron to charged particle converters (6Li, 10B) and compared different deposition techniques. We find that a deposition of 600 μg/cm2 of 6LiF is required to ensure maximum UCN detection efficiency using 6Li as converter. The UCN detectors that we have developed are now fully operational as a flux monitor and as a UCN spectrum analyser in the neutron electric dipole moment experiment at the Institut Laue Langevin in Grenoble.

The processes of phonon transport in Al 2 O 3 ceramics are studied in the region of helium temperatures. For the ceramic grain size R within two orders of magnitude and more (up to nanosizes), the phonon diffusion coefficient D eff ∝ R and exhibits a decreasing temperature dependence. In nanoceramics with R D eff decreases abruptly by two orders of magnitude, and its temperature dependence changes sign. A model of temperature dependence of the diffusion coefficient is suggested.

We consider the “heat pulse” technique for the analysis of structural imperfections. This method is based on the propagation of a pulse or packet of pulses of non-equilibrium acoustic phonons with 1011–1012 Hz frequencies.

The latest-generation neutron electric dipole moment (EDM) experiment has been collecting data at the ILL since 1996. It uses a “cohabiting” atomic-mercury magnetometer to measure and compensate for the magnetic field fluctuations that were the principal source of systematic errors in previous experiments. The first results, which are soon to be published, essentially verify the existing limit on the dipole moment d n ; however, this new measurement is clearly limited by statistical rather than systematic uncertainties.

Studies of nonequilibrium phonon scattering on grain boundaries in single-phase ceramics were made using the heat pulse method, when the temperature of injected phonons exceeds the bath temperature only a little. The character of the scattering was determined from the temperature dependence of the heat pulse signal maximum tm. For AlN ceramics ∂tm/∂T

The phonon transport processes in ferroelectric crystals and ceramics was studied experimentally. It was shown that in BaTiO3 crystals the phonon scattering is controlled by domain walls. For ferroelectrics with diffusive phase transition the effective diffusion coefficient was found to be Deff∝T−5 for temperatures 1.7–3.8 K. This dependence is in good correlation with the “plateau” region in thermal conductivity.

In order to determine the suitability of diamond-like carbon (DLC) as a material for storing ultracold neutrons to use in neutron electric-dipole moment (EDM) experiments, a number of tests on DLC coatings have been performed. Thin DLC layers deposited on quartz and aluminium substrates by chemical vapour deposition have been characterised by neutron transmission, neutron reflectometry, electron microscopy and neutron and mercury storage and depolarisation lifetime measurements. Two types of DLC have been compared; DLC made by chemical vapour deposition from natural methane and DLC made by chemical vapour deposition from deuterated methane. With these samples we determined the density, hydrogen concentration and Fermi potential of the coatings. DLC coatings made from deuterated methane are now succesfully being used in an experiment to measure the EDM of the neutron.

Previous measurements of the electric dipole moment (EDM) of the neutron have been limited by the systematic effect of changes in the magnetic environment. In this paper we report the performance of a newly-developed “cohabiting” magnetometer based upon measurements of the nuclear precession frequency of free mercury atoms that occupy the same volume as the neutrons. We find that we are able to observe changes as small as 10 −9 G in the volume-averaged magnetic field, allowing us to reduce the systematic errors in the EDM experiment by more than an order of magnitude in comparison with previous measurements.

A method of fast stabilization of the magnetic resonance in a magnetic resonance spectrometer has been developed and tested. The source of the oscillatory field is the synthesizer which frequency follows variations of the average magnetic field in spectrometer. To search for the neutron electric dipole moment in the experimental setup under unfavorable conditions in the reactor experimental hall a stability of the magnetic resonance has been achieved that is equivalent to a magnetic field stability at the level of ≈ 2.5 × 10 −12 T per 6 min in a volume of about 501 with an electric field of 1.5 MV/m.

The elastic and thermal properties of inhomogeneous materials are known to be quite different from that of homogeneous medium.

The anomalously slow propagation of weakly nonequilibrium phonons through a series of mixed crystals has been studied experimentally. The measured dependencies of the signal maximum arrival time on the crystal temperature, length and content are given. The results are shown to agree quite reasonably with the theoretical model assuming intense Raman scattering of the nonequilibrium phonons to produce excitation of the proper two-level systems (TLS). This results then in a significant redistribution of the heat pulse energy between the phonons and TLS.

We prepared conducting Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) films of charge-transfer complexes using (C 16 H 33 -TCNQ) 1−x (C 17 H 35 -DMTTF) x mixture and measured conductivity in a wide temperature range and Hall constant at the room temperature. Electron microscopy and electron diffraction technique were used to make more clear the causes of some peculiarities of temperature dependencies of conductivity.

A new method for the synthesis of 4,5-diaryl-1,3-oxathiol-2-ones by the reaction of 2-hydroxyethanone derivatives with 1,1'-thiocarbonyldiimidazole is proposed. The structure of 4,5-bis(4-methoxyphenyl)-1,3-oxathiol-2-one was studied by X-ray diffraction.