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The body-shape variability of European perch populations in the mountain and semimountain reaches of the Loz’va river basin and adjacent Prostaptur and Elesinskoe lakes (Northern Urals) is examined using geometric morphometrics based on the box-truss method. Twenty-three distances between homologous landmarks are used to describe the body-shape variability of the fish. About 33% of the total shape variance in perch is due to the perch distribution along the gradient of the locations’ spacing along the stream of the river. The range of variability in body shape of perch, occurring in different stretches of the stream, is 1.3 times as great as the range of shape variability associated with the river and lakes habitats and 1.6 times as great as the range of local morphological variations determined by the habitat environment of perch in the Lake Prostaptur. A low level of the within-group diversity of body shape was established for the perch population from the lakes with a recurrent deficiency of dissolved oxygen in the water. The within-group morphological diversity is high in perch from the river with strong turbulence of mountain currents and variable water levels of the stream and water flow trajectories It may indirectly indicate a change in the ontogeny of individuals under the conditions of mountain and semimountain river flow and suggests a greater perch adaptation to recurring low dissolved oxygen levels in the lakes than to changes in the hydrodynamic regime of the mountain river.

At the Black Sea research site Gelendzhik of the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology (IO RAS), a technique has been established for joint current velocity profile measurements using towed ADCP and periodic CTD soundings from on board of the mini R/V Ashamba with high spatiotemporal resolution. In this case, CTD soundings are taken from the sea surface to the bottom layer according to an original method recently proposed by V.T. Paka and tested by him and his colleagues on the Baltic Sea. Simultaneous measurements of this kind are important due to the insufficient knowledge of the effect of submesoscale eddies on the hydrological structure and vertical mixing processes. On the other hand, a promising aspect of fast joint ADCP and CTD surveys from the mini R/V is that their measurements can be automatically recorded to the ship’s server in real time. It’s connected transmitter can relay measurement data to a coastal data center, and they can be assimilated into numerical models for now- and hindcast calculations of the state of the marine environment. Thus, in the future, this technique can be considered an operational oceanograpic tool, the development of which is one of the main tasks being solved at the Gelendzhik research site.

The variability of the body shape of minnows in populations from different-size watercourses of the Sylva River basin (Middle Urals) is studied by geometric morphometrics. Twenty-six homologous landmarks were used to describe the body shape variability of the fish. Four geographically adjacent minnow populations isolated by artificial and natural dams were investigated. More than 56% of the variance of intergroup differences in the body shape is determined by the habitation of minnows in the large watercourse of the main flow (the Sylva River) and its small tributaries (the Lomovka, Musorka, and Sarga rivers). The main-flow minnow is characterized by relatively large eyes, low body, and small short jaws. On the contrary, the tributary minnow is characterized by a relatively high body, small eyes, and long jaws. Along with the significant differentiation of the isolated minnow populations from the main flow and its tributaries, a high level of individual morphological differences was discovered, which indicates some directional change in the fish development trajectory in the population from each watercourse. The discrimination level of individuals reached 97.9%. A low intragroup morphological diversity was revealed for the minnow population in the large watercourse of the Sylva River with a multispecies ichthyological community. Minnows from the small watercourses of the Lomovka, Musorka, and Sarga rivers with a low species diversity have a high intragroup morphological diversity in the body shape. This may indirectly show some ontogenetic change in the individuals from the small tributaries due to the formation of a wide range of ontogenetic trajectories and suggests a high phenotypic plasticity of the species. The role of the hydrological regime in the small watercourses and the role of the taxonomic diversity of fish communities in the formation of the morphological diversity of minnows is hypothesized.

A method for reducing the characteristic time of action of the pulse produced by explosive magnetic generators is proposed. An experiment was performed whose results confirm that this method can be used in practice.

The rhynchonellid Dogdoa talyndzhensis Baranov, sp. nov. (subfamily Dogdoinae) and the atrypid Vagrania naanchanensis Baranov, sp. nov. (subfamily Vagraninae) are described from the Lower Devonian deposits of Northeast Eurasia. Trails with preserved thin striae and concentric growth lines were found for the first time in the species Vagrania kolymensis (Nalivkin, 1936). The subfamily Punctspinatrypinae Baranov, subfam. nov. includes two genera: Punctspinatrypa Rzhonsnitskaya, and Mishninia Baranov, gen. nov with the reference species М. nodosa Baranov, sp. nov.

The article describes a technique for studying the spatiotemporal variability of the temperature of the water medium in the Black Sea shelf zone using a cluster of anchored temperature sensor chains (thermoresister chains). The cluster consists of three spaced thermoresister chains situated on the inner shelf of the northeastern Black Sea and operating as a part of the Gelendzhik Site of the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences (IO RAS). It is shown that the cluster makes it possible to effectively record the short-period spatiotemporal variability of the temperature field. The quantitative characteristics of this variability, as well as external factors determining it, are established. One of the factors is internal waves. The temperature variability can be used to determine the fluctuation amplitude, and recording these fluctuations at spaced thermoresistor chains makes it possible to find the velocity and propagation direction of internal waves. Some examples of recording trains of short-period internal waves are presented. Different methods are used to visualize the temporal variability of the vertical temperature distribution.

—In 2019, a new instrument was included in the multifunctional measuring complex at the Gelendzhik Research Site (Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences, IO RAS), which allows automatic measurement of the hydrophysical parameters of the aquatic environment from the bottom layer to the surface of the waterbody with on-line transfer of data to the coastal center. This is a stationary station that uses a bottom winch for automatic vertical profiling of natural waterbodies. The model of the station was developed in 2018. It measures temperature profiles with temperature and pressure sensors located in a streamlined body: a carrier that moves according to a programmed algorithm. The carrier has positive buoyancy and is connected by a thin strong coaxial cable to the station’s bottom unit. The bottom unit includes a winch and electronic control units. The cable provides power to the carrier sensors and transmission and recording of measurement data in the station’s solid-state memory. Parameter measurements with a fine-structure vertical resolution are carried out with probes moving up and down. The data obtained are transmitted via a fiber-optic cable laid along the sea bottom to the coastal center located at the end of the pier of the Southern Branch of IO RAS. This cable also supplies the station with power. The first results demonstrated the qualitatively new possibilities of the station for measuring the parameters of the marine environment in the entire water column, including the near-surface layer.

The short- and long-term postural effects on the forced expiratory tracheal noise time were studied in a sample of 12 subjects. In contrast to the spirometric parameters, the tracheal forced expiratory noise time does not respond to a short-term change in the body posture from sitting and standing positions to the lying position, as well as to 14-day-long orthostatic hypokinesia in a lying position with a body angle of +9.6°. However, significant multidirectional individual dynamics of the tracheal forced expiratory noise time was observed in all subjects during long-term orthostatic hypokinesia, whereas the spirometric parameters had a dominant growth response. It is assumed that the estimation of the forced expiratory tracheal noise time during long-term orthostatic hypokinesia in lunar gravity simulation may provide useful data in addition to spirometry when assessing the individual lung function dynamics. The dynamics of acoustic parameters, as well as spirometric parameters, during long-term postural effects can be considered as adaptive changes.

The most general problem of determining the concentration composition of mixtures of substances and products of chemical transformations by the data of multidimensional spectroscopy under the conditions of time-varying spectra and component concentrations is formulated. Only a combination of theoretical spectroscopy methods, measurement techniques, and mathematical methods offers, in principle, a solution of such problems, even for the case of a single measurement. A promising and the only way is the use of standardless methods of spectral analysis. Methods and algorithms for solving the problem are developed. A large set of model calculations corresponding to real molecular structures and their experimentally observed photochemical transformations demonstrated the efficiency of the proposed approach. The solution of the problem converges to the exact values, and the obtained values of the concentrations are tolerant to the possible errors in specifying the initial spectral data. The degree of confidence is determined by the calculated value of the variance, which can serve a criterion for the correctness of the initial hypothesis about the qualitative composition of a multicomponent mixture.

New brachiopods of the order Rhynchonellida are described from the Lower Pragian (Soda Creek Limestone) of west-central Alaska: Alaskorhynchus gen. nov. with type species A. sodacreekensis sp. nov. (family Eatoniidae), Tamarirhynchia gen. nov. with type species T. varia (Tcherkesova, 1969) (subfamily Hebetoechiinae), Menarhynchus gen. nov. with type species M. kuskokwimensis sp. nov. (subfamily Sphaerirhynchinae), Garciaalcaldia gen. nov. with type species G. alaskensis sp. nov. (subfamily Glossinunilinae), Farewellirhynchia gen. nov. with type species F. kulkovi sp. nov. (subfamily Leiorhynchinae).

Here, we determined basic differentially expressed genes in endometrial lesions compared to eutopic endometrium of the patients with endometriosis (EM). Endometrial biopsy and tissue sampling were performed in ten women with pelvic EM and nine controls at their mid-secretory phase. NGS of mRNA combined with bioinformatic analysis and complemented by RT-qPCR analysis were used for analysis. A list of differentially expressed genes of ectopic compared to eutopic endometrium during mid-secretary phase has been composed. Functional annotation has found profound gene expression perturbations in numerous EM pathways including extracellular matrix, complement and coagulation, as well as cell cycle-related gene family. The genes of alcohol dehydrogenase 1B (ADH1B) and fatty binding protein 4 (FABP4) were determined as the most dramatically up-regulated genes in ectopic endometrial lesions. Both genes were not reported before to be associated with EM. Several other genes including PLA2G2A were also up-regulated in ectopic EM lesions. Notably, FABP4 and ADH1B are key genes in basic metabolism and known for their function in adipose tissue. The results provide intriguing new avenue for endometriosis studies.

Consideration was given to the problem of development control in the interestmotivated systems. Carried out was structural analysis underlying the control methodology with the structure of Markov process of collective decisions. Formulated were the principles and axiomatics of the collective decisions, conditions for compromise solvability, problem formulations, and conditions for stability of the controlled development process.

Thermochains for Black Sea hydrophysical studies are described, and the features of their displacement at the moored buoy station with subsurface buoyancy are considered. A technique for calibrating the temperature sensors is described and their stability is estimated by comparing the obtained calibration coefficients with the values established in previous calibrations. The characteristics of the temperature sensors, including the time constant are specified, as well as their reading error with respect to the reference thermometer. The performed metrological studies prove that the temperature sensors used in the thermochains work rather stably and make measurements with an accuracy of ± 0.01 °C for several months of operation in marine conditions. This allows to determine adequately the temperature at various horizons in the water environment of the shelf-slope zone of the Black Sea and to study not only its short-period, but also long-term variability.

We analyzed the possibility of explaining empirical relations in the evolution of the biosphere using mathematical models based on the use of the information entropy of event chains and transformation probabilities. It was shown that the requirement of a monotonous increase in entropy is satisfied, if the probability of transitions in such chains increases, especially strongly at the first stages of development. It was demonstrated that a feedback corresponding to death has to be introduced into the chains of implications, and its probability must be significantly higher than that of transitions between evolutionary stages. The problems of the existence of limits of major evolutionary stages and connections of this phenomenon with fundamental physical principles were discussed. The obtained results agree with the observed characteristics of evolutionary processes, which indicates the plausibility of the mathematical model.

Current problems and some future perspectives of molecular genetic study of connective tissue diseases (CTDs) are reviewed. The corresponding clinical manifestation and mode of heritable disorders of connective tissue (HDCT) inheritance are subdivided into inherited, mostly monogenic, forms and mixed or multifactorial dysplasia of connective tissue (MDCTs). Both forms, especially MDCT, pose significant problems for precise clinical diagnostics. Implementation of modern DNA technologies includes new generation sequencing and clinical exome sequencing which provided a substantial impact in understanding the complex molecular genetic background of CTDs. Owing to new technologies, hundreds of new causative genes of CTDs were found and many commercial gene panels were designed for more precise and objective diagnostics of different CTDs. The results of implementation of NGS for analysis of both HDCTs and especially MDCTs complicated with common syntropic diseases as well as some new data on epigenetic causes of CTDs are briefly summarized. Special attention is paid to biological models and cell culture technologies complemented results of NGS in CTDs. Obvious advantages, relevant problems, and definite limitations in clinical implication of NGS for CTDs studies are discussed.

New atrypids are described from the Lower Devonian of Northeast Russia: Musalitinispira, gen. nov. with type species M. dogdensis, sp. nov. (subfamily Atrypinae), Spinatrypina (Spinatrypina) krivensis, sp. nov., and Datnella, gen. nov. with type species D. datnensis (Baranov, 1995) (subfamily Spinatrypinae).

Summary: In this review, we summarize data on 5-hydroxymethylcytosine, 5-formylcytosine and 5-carboxylcytosine – cytosine modifications which are produced by TET-mediated oxidation of 5-methylcytosine in DNA. We show the biochemistry of modified cytosine as well as methods for its global and location analysis. We also highlight the milestones in the evolution of ideas on the biological role of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine, 5-formylcytosine and 5-carboxylcytosine in the mammalian genome since their discovery in 2009 till present.

We present the results of preliminary experiments at laser facilities in which the processes of the undeniable destruction of stony asteroids (chondrites) in space by nuclear explosions on the asteroid surface are simulated based on the principle of physical similarity. We present the results of comparative gasdynamic computations of a model nuclear explosion on the surface of a large asteroid and computations of the impact of a laser pulse on a miniature asteroid simulator confirming the similarity of the key processes in the fullscale and model cases. The technology of fabricating miniature mockups with mechanical properties close to those of stony asteroids is described. For mini-mockups 4–10 mm in size differing by the shape and impact conditions, we have made an experimental estimate of the energy threshold for the undeniable destruction of a mockup and investigated the parameters of its fragmentation at a laser energy up to 500 J. The results obtained confirm the possibility of an experimental determination of the criteria for the destruction of asteroids of various types by a nuclear explosion in laser experiments. We show that the undeniable destruction of a large asteroid is possible at attainable nuclear explosion energies on its surface.

The variation in the body shape of crucian and prussian carps has been studied by methods of geometric morphometrics in sympatric populations from two geographically close lakes in the Southern Urals subjected to different degrees of contamination with anthropogenic radionuclides. Along with particular interspecies features, interpopulation differences have been detected as multidirectional reorganization of cyprinid morphogenesis under different ecological conditions of adjacent lakes. The morphogenetic divergence of crucian carp from adjacent lakes is almost two times smaller than that of the prussian carp coexisting with them. The increased intragroup morphodiversity in prussian carp indicates incomplete adaptation of the fish to anthropogenic radionuclide contamination of the lakes and their high morphogenetic plasticity and high adaptive potential than in crucian carp.

Basic aspects of the choice of parameters entering a system of differential equations that simulate the sequence of chemical transformations in the case of initiation of a reaction by electromagnetic pulse excitation of reactant molecules are discussed. These parameters are the probabilities of spontaneous and stimulated dipole–dipole transitions and the frequency of quantum beats that lead to the reaction. A method for an a priori estimation of optimum values of these frequencies on the basis of fundamental characteristics of intramolecular processes has been specified. It has been noted that in theoretical prediction of the course of chemical reactions, the solution of the problem in the natural coordinate system (distance between the atoms), rather than Cartesian coordinates, can be more appropriate.

Photochemical transformations induced by long-term continuous exposure to light have been studied. Using the developed theory and methods for calculating photochemical processes, computer experiments have been performed and their results have been analyzed for a large number of model systems and particular reactions. The excitation process has been considered in an explicit form, and the population of energy levels in excited states by absorption of light quanta has been taken into account. It has been shown that continuous optical excitation qualitatively changes the situation in comparison with pulsed excitation: the quantum yield is not zero even at very low quantum beat frequencies. For fast reactions, the kinetics of the process is exponential; in the case of slow reactions, concentration oscillations (on the order of 25% or more) arise, which are clearly manifested in the stationary state of the molecular system. The choice of the optimal photoirradiation time is an important factor in experimental design aimed to obtain a desired amount of the product. Molecular modeling makes it possible to a priori evaluate this quantity.

Electronic, vibrational, and electronic vibrational spectra of the 7-azaindole dimer, the 7-azaindole complex with a water molecule, and their tautomers are calculated. Transition states are considered based on the analysis of frequencies and shapes of low-frequency vibrations and the Mulliken charge redistribution. The performed quantum chemical calculation of chemical reactions enabled the determination of the structure of transition states and proton transfer conditions. It is shown that in the 7-AzI dimer the proton transfer has a character consistent with the formation of a zwitterionic form. The structure of excited states is calculated and the fluorescence spectra of the first electronic transitions that can be used as a criterion of the formation of 7-AzI tautomers as a result of chemical reactions proceeding through a proton transfer in the 7-azaindole dimer and the 7-azaindole complex with a water molecule, are interpreted.

The paper describes a possible mechanism for the transformation of a desalinated water lens in the Kara Sea under the action of vertical turbulent mixing induced by wind. Using a simple one-dimensional model, we show that the strongest transformation occurs at the edge of the lens—its frontal zone, where the thickness of the desalinated layer is the smallest. Because of the strong (cubic) nonlinear dependence of the turbulent energy flux on the wind speed, significant transformation of the frontal zone of the lens occurs during storm events. A series of consecutive storms can cause horizontal lens fragmentation into several zones in which the salinity increases spasmodically towards the edge of the lens.

The light collection of extruded scintillation strip samples with the help of WLS fibers placed in a longitudinal hole inside of the plates has been measured. The holes are filled with various liquid fillers. Measurements are performed under irradiation by cosmic muons. A method for pumping a liquid filler with a viscosity of more than 10 Pa s into the strip hole with a WLS fiber inside is devised and successfully tested.

New brachiopod taxa, Starnikoviella gen. nov., with the type species S. settedabanica sp. nov. (family Clitambonitidae), and Avdeevella gen. nov., with the type species A. mica sp. nov. (subfamily Glyptomeninae), from the Middle–Upper Ordovician boundary deposits of northeastern Russia are described.

The ultrasonic location technique was used to measure the intima-media thickness (IMT) as well as the internal systolic diameter of and the linear blood velocity (LBV) in the cervical arteries in subjects with initial stages of hypertension. Correlation analysis elicited a temporal contingency between these parameters and daily average values of atmospheric pressure. Thus, the common carotid artery IMT tended to increase on high-pressure days. In addition, diameters of the common and internal carotid arteries and vertebral artery were narrowed and, consequently, LBV in these vessels increased. This relationship is more evident in men than women and in elderly subjects than young. These results are suggestive of a vasoconstrictive effect of high atmospheric pressure on these arteries. The relationship is not universal, as it is nonlinear for the diameter of the internal carotid artery and inverse for the external one. This implies different sensitivity of arteries to the factor under study and possible blood redistribution in the arterial tree depending on external pressure. The relationship was observed equally on the day of investigation and previous days, which points to its temporal stability.

We analyzed the possibility of explaining empirical relations in the evolution of the molecular world on the basis of fundamental physical laws and theories of the behavior of the entropy of a system. Quantitative expressions were evaluated describing the entropy of internal motion of atoms in a molecular ensemble (vibrational entropy), which is a term of total entropy with a clear physical meaning. It was shown that vibrational entropy is controlled primarily by the structure of the compound rather than the number and identity of atoms in the molecule. During the early stages of evolution, the appearance of acyclic structures is more advantageous than that of cyclic structures. An increase in the complexity of the molecular world inevitably leads to the appearance of molecules with a complex skeleton formed mainly by bonds of the same elasticity as C–C. The necessity of helical structures, whose spatial elasticity is provided by hydrogen bonds, was explained.

We analyzed the character of molecular transformations under conditions of condensed media, in which intermolecular interactions always occur. It was shown that, instead of discrete transfer of external energy into the molecule, the energy characteristics of the condensed medium (appearance of zones) could result in gradual accumulation of internal energy in reaction centers owing to sequential thermal collisions with particles of the medium initiating the chemical reaction. This does not require high temperatures. The established physical properties related to the energy characteristics of condensed media could play an important role in molecular transformations and, consequently, formation of complex molecular objects at early stages of biosphere formation.

Fluorescence spectra of two long-wavelength electron transitions S 0 ← 1 L b and S 0 ← 1 L a in uncharged and zwitterionic forms of L-tryptophan (Trp) in aqueous solution and in the complex of Trp with water molecule were calculated using the Frank–Condon approximation. Geometric parameters of Trp in electronically excited states were determined, and the vibrational structure of vibronic spectra was analyzed. It was shown that the relative position of structural fragments of alanine (R-Ala) and indole (R-In) could have a determining effect on the fluorescence and formation of the vibrational structure of electronic spectra. The increase of the rotation angle between the R-Ala and R-In, which depends on the Trp environment, results in the Trp fluorescence originating only from the singlet excited state 1 L a .

The problem of standardless molecular spectral analysis of multicomponent mixtures with allowance for photochemical reactions of their molecules has been formulated and its formal procedure has been developed. The case when the time dependence of the spectrum of the mixture is determined only by the change in the concentrations of the components with time and the spectra of the individual components remain constant has been considered. The corresponding requirements for the physicochemical properties of the molecules have been identified and shown to be met for quite a wide range of polyatomic molecules and their reactions. The exception is molecules with metastable excited electronic states. A large set of model calculations relevant to the actual molecular entities and their experimentally observed photochemical transformations have shown the practicability of the approach. The solution of the problem converges to exact values and is resistant to uncertainty in setting the initial spectral data due to the peculiarities of the experimental procedure, the choice of theoretical models, and other factors. The resulting theoretical values of the concentrations meet the least squares test and their errors are measured by the variance per unit weight. The variance makes it possible to evaluate the noise level of the spectral data used in the analysis and reliability of the result and can serve as a criterion for the correctness of the initial hypotheses about the qualitative composition of a multicomponent mixture.

The results of a test experiment comparing quasi-synchronous data of three adjacent acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCPs) deployed on the shelf bottom of the Black Sea in September 2014 are considered. The direct aim of the experiment was quantitative comparison of data from different ADCPs placed in maximally similar conditions to simultaneously measure the sea current parameters at one geographic point. The goals and the scheme of the experiment, methods for processing the measurement results, main results, and their interpretations and analysis, including practical results and conclusions, are described.

The results of optoheterodyne Doppler measurements of the ballistic expansion of the products of surface destruction under shock-wave loading are presented. The possibility of determining the physical characteristics of a rapidly flying dust cloud, including the microparticle velocities, the microparticle sizes, and the areal density of the dust cloud, is shown. A compact stand for performing experiments on shock-wave loading of metallic samples is described. Shock-wave loading is performed by a 100-µm-thick tantalum flyer plate accelerated to a velocity of 2.8 km/s. As the samples, lead plates having various thicknesses and the same surface roughness are used. At a shock-wave pressure of 31.5 GPa, the destruction products are solid microparticles about 50 µm in size. At a pressure of 42 and 88 GPa, a liquid-drop dust cloud with a particle size of 10–15 µm is formed. To interpret the spectral data on the optoheterodyne Doppler measurements of the expansion of the surface destruction products (spalled fragments, dust microparticles), a transport equation for the function of mutual coherence of a multiply scattered field is used. The Doppler spectra of a backscattered signal are calculated with the model developed for the dust cloud that appears when a shock wave reaches the sample surface at the parameters that are typical of an experimental situation. Qualitative changes are found in the spectra, depending on the optical thickness of the dust cloud. The obtained theoretical results are in agreement with the experimental data.

A topological defect in a carbon nanotube grown by chemical vapor deposition from methane onto a silicon substrate with thermal oxide has been investigated and visualized (with a resolution of about 1.5 μm) by confocal Raman spectroscopy. Vibrational Raman spectra of molecular fragments of a single-wall carbon nanotube (SWCNT) without a defect and with Stone–Wales defects (two pentagonal and two heptagonal cells) are calculated. The influence of defects on the shape of G-band components (G+ and G–), which makes it possible to determine the nanotube conductivity type, is considered.

The electronic—vibrational fluorescence spectra of the first, S0 → 1Lb, and second, S0 → 1La, electronic transitions of 7-azaindole and its tautomer for an isolated state have been calculated. Specific features of structural changes in 7-azaindole and its tautomer upon electronic excitation are determined. Vibrational spectra are assigned for the ground state, and the vibrational structure of fluorescence spectra is interpreted. It is shown that the intensity redistribution between the 6a and 6b oscillations, which is observed in the fluorescence spectrum of the S0 → 1Lb transition in 7-azaindole, can be explained as a result of intensity borrowing (according to the Herzberg—Teller mechanism) from the 1La state.

The main factors and specificity of growth conditions for sapphire and Ti:sapphire crystals, which affect the morphological stability of the crystal–melt interface, have been investigated with allowance for the concentration and radiative melt supercooling. It is shown that the critical sapphire growth rate is determined to a great extent by the optical transparency of the melt and the mixing conditions near the crystallization front.

This paper presents the description of a monitoring system based on drifters equipped with GPSreceiver and cellular GSM. The system provides data about currents with a temporal and spatial resolution of 5–10 minutes and 100–200 m. The movement of the drifter can be observed in real time. Several experiments were conducted on the Black Sea shelf for identification of the advantages of the monitoring system. The results of experiments include a comparison of the drifter trajectories with bottom-tracked ADCP and towed ADCP data.

New strophomenid and rhynchonellid (Brachiopoda) taxa are described from the Lower Pragian (Soda Creek Limestone) of west-central Alaska: Harperoides gen. nov. with type species H. alaskensis sp. nov. (subfamily Mesodouvillinae Harper et Boucot) and Pedderia gen. nov. with type species P. fragosa sp. nov. (family Pygmaellidae Baranov).

It is shown that a change in the linear dimension of compacted UO2 in the sintering process is associated with its plastic yielding under the action of the forces of residual stress and capillary forces. From the curves of sintering of a fuel with doping admixtures in various gaseous media, its rate of creep is reduced.

New atrypid taxa (Brachiopoda) are described from the Emsian Stage, Lower Devonian of northeastern Eurasia: Copperella gen. nov. with its type species C. kaskevichi sp. nov. (subfamily Spinatrypinae Copper); Ogilviella gerensis sp. nov., Raisiya gen. nov. with its type species R. solonchanensis sp. nov. (subfamily Atrypininae McEwan); Misensia gen. nov. with its type species M. gracilis sp. nov. (subfamily Atrypinellinae Copper); and Bifida rara sp. nov. (subfamily Anoplothecinae Schuchert).

In the 59th cruise of the RV Akademik Mstislav Keldysh (September–October, 2011) a large amount of hydrophysical data was obtained with the help of various measuring systems. The data allowed us to study the dynamics and hydrological structure of deep-sea troughs of the western part of the Kara Sea at a high spatial resolution. In particular, the analysis of this material showed that a cyclonic jet exists in the central spur of the St. Anna Trough at depths of 150–300 m and penetrates down to the bottom. The jet is able to play a role of a dynamic barrier that prevents the penetration of water from the southwestern part of the Kara Sea to higher latitudes. In the eastern spur of the St. Anna Trough, the jet weakens, becomes less barotropic, and can no longer inhibit the northward spreading of the shelf waters of the Kara Sea. The weakest and least coherent currents were recorded in the Novaya Zemlya trough, in the southern part of which we traced waters of a Barents Sea origin.

The optical absorption in large Ti: sapphire crystals (up to 175 × 175 × 40 mm in size) grown by horizontally directed crystallization with the use of zone leveling of the activator distribution in different reducing atmospheres has been investigated. It has been shown that there is a high uniformity of the optical characteristics and the distribution of color centers based on Ti3+, Ti4+, and activator-vacancy complexes in grown crystals, which is largely determined by the stability of the reduction potential of the growth medium. It has been established that the activator concentration in the Ti4+ charged state in crystals grown in the CO + H2 low-pressure atmosphere does not exceed 1.5% and accounts for 0.2–0.5% of the total activator amount in an Ar atmosphere. The Ti4+ concentration decreases to ∼0.01% after the additional reducing annealing.

The possibility of performing predictive calculations of the kinetics and quantum yields of photochemical transformations of polyatomic molecules with satisfactory accuracy has been shown. Taking into account the physically grounded requirements imposed and rather stringent constraints on the prediction error (less than 50%), a satisfactory theoretical result has been obtained for all of the considered reactions of three chemically different types. In most cases (eight out of ten reactions), the deviation from the experimental data was less than 20%. Model parameters have high transferability in a series of similar reactions, thereby ensuring the predictive character of simulation of photochemical processes using the method developed earlier. In complicated cases, it is possible to a priori theoretically assess the type of the reaction of interest and its physicochemical characteristics.

The LYSO crystals of dimensions 30 × 30 × 130 mm and 10 × 10 × 10 mm are tested with different gamma sources. Energy resolutions and linearity of the energy responses in the energy range 511–1333 keV are measured. It is found that crystals have good linearity of the energy response in the entire tested energy range. Longitudinal light response non-uniformity of the long crystal is found to be less than 3.2% within the 30–120 mm range along the crystal axis.