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Virtualization of socio-political communication causes significant changes both to its structure and ways of transmitting ideas and values, as well as to the perception of activists. Online protest activity has become widespread due to the unique opportunities provided by social media. The main tool for informing and motivating activists becomes the information communicated through social media and used for a certain purpose. A collection of information on similar topics can be referred to as the agenda. A distinctive feature of protest agendas is the diversity of issues raised within a single campaign. As a result, the main protest agenda changes over time, giving way to additional ideas and issues in the general information field. This paper examines the structure of protest agendas broadcast on social media, using the example of online advocacy for protest campaigns in Russia in 2019–2021 as an example. Based on the example of real cases, a conclusion is made on the most urgent topics raised, features of their communication and the level of support from social media users.

Increased human presence in the Arctic may affect its vulnerable ecosystems. Effects on arctic and red foxes provide notable examples. Both have been documented to take anthropogenic subsidies when available, which can change diet and ranging patterns in complex ways that can either benefit or harm populations, depending on the situation. Understanding this complexity requires new tools to study impacts of increasing human presence on endemic mammals at high latitudes. We propose that dental ecology, specifically tooth wear and breakage, can offer important clues. Based on samples of arctic foxes ( Vulpes lagopus (Linnaeus, 1758)) trapped prior to ( n = 78) and following ( n = 57) rapidly growing human presence on the Yamal Peninsula, Russia, we found that foxes trapped recently in proximity to human settlement had significantly less tooth wear and breakage. This is likely explained by a dietary shift from consumption of reindeer ( Rangifer tarandus (Linnaeus, 1758)) carcasses including bone to softer human-derived foods, especially when preferred smaller prey (e.g., West Siberian lemmings, Lemmus sibiricus (Kerr, 1792), and arctic lemmings, Dicrostonyx torquatus (Pallas, 1778)) are unavailable. These results suggest that tooth wear and breakage can be a useful indicator of the consumption of anthropogenic foods by arctic foxes.

Migratory birds often have tightly scheduled annual cycles, in which a delay in one event can have carry-over effects on the timing of later events, which may ultimately impact reproductive output. We utilize a large-scale study system to investigate carry-over effects in timing: the variation in annual schedules of individual Arctic SkuasStercorarius parasiticusat 12 breeding sites between East Greenland and West Siberia in relation to their use of seven widely divergent wintering areas across the Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea and Indian Ocean. We studied whether migration schedules differ among breeding populations as a function of their choice of wintering areas, and predicted that migrations over larger distances, with tighter schedules, would provide less room for compensating delays. Breeding at higher latitudes led not only to later timing of reproduction and migration, but also to different allocation of time to different phases, with faster spring migration and shorter time between return to the breeding area and clutch initiation. In contrast, breeding latitude had no effect on the duration of autumn migration and wintering period. Wintering area was consistent within individuals among years and had an additive effect on annual schedules, with more distant areas associated with more time spent on migration and less time spent in the wintering areas. Tracked skuas were able to adjust the period spent in the non-breeding area, regardless of the distance from the colony, which generally buffered the variation in timing of autumn migration. Despite individual variation in migration distances of thousands of km, skuas from the same population arrived largely synchronously at their breeding area. The lack of a consistent effect of migration distance on timing of return to the breeding grounds indicates that individuals synchronize their arrival with others in their population despite extensive individual differences in migration strategies.

Rain-on-Snow (ROS) events change snow pack properties and in extreme cases ice layers form which affect wildlife, vegetation and soils beyond the duration of the event. Active as well as passive microwave sensors have been used in the past to document ROS on regional scale. Either wet snow during a ROS event or the formation of crust afterwards are identified in most cases. The fusion of both approaches is promising for circumpolar monitoring.C-band radar is of special interest due to good data availability including a range of nominal spatial resolution (10 m–12.5 km). Previous studies indicated that radar backscatter is suitable to identify snow structure change. As an example L-band passive microwave observations from SMOS and C-band backscatter from Metop ASCAT have been jointly analysed and compared to snowpit observations in Scandinavia and Northwestern Siberia.A circumpolar dataset of potential ROS has been created. The gridded information has been eventually aggregated for events. Larger mid-winter events have been eventually extracted for 2012-2021. They occur mostly in the NE part of northern Eurasia (mostly November) and across Alaska (mostly December). The spatiotemporal patters of these events and the magnitude of snow structure change will be presented and discussed.

The present research featured the concept of conflict. The authors defined and classified urban conflicts, as well as the strategies chosen by their main actors, i.e. state and municipal authorities, business structures, and urban communities. The article introduces three cases of urban conflicts that happened in the Yaroslavl region in 2020–2021 and were triggered by such events as the transport reform, the "We Decide Together!" public vote, and the new master plan for the historical town of Pereslavl-Zalessky. The analysis focused on the main actors, i.e. their interaction, interests, strategies, patterns of action, key methods, and tools. The authors particularly stressed the importance of protests and digital tools. The analysis revealed two main strategies of urban conflicts: administrative-legal and informational-organizational. The dialogue between the conflict parties proved to be the most effective strategy. The article also contains some recommendations, e.g. collective appeals, information campaigns, etc.

The blood proteome reflects homeostatic and dynamic cellular processes across human organs. However, few blood proteomics studies of sufficient depth and size have been reported in breast cancer. To comprehensively identify circulating proteins with a causal role in breast cancer we measured 2,929 unique proteins in plasma from 598 women selected from the Karolinska Mammography Project and explored associations between proteins levels, clinical characteristics, and gene variants. The analysis revealed 812 cis-acting protein quantitative trait loci (pQTL), which were used as instruments in Mendelian randomisation (MR) analysis of breast cancer. Five proteins (P < 1.7x10-5, Bonferroni-corrected) with a potential causal role in breast cancer risk were revealed (CD160, DNPH1, LAYN, LRRC37A2 and TLR1). Confirming the MR findings in independent cohorts (FinnGen R9 and the UK Biobank), our study suggests that these proteins should be further explored as potential drug targets in breast cancer.

The monograph presents the concept of legal support for public administration in the field of protection and use of wildlife objects, examines theoretical and law enforcement aspects of the problem under consideration, develops doctrinal criteria for the effectiveness of legal support for state faunal management, and also identifies the role of principles of legal support for public administration, which contribute to improving the effectiveness of rule-making and law enforcement practice, give a conceptual character to legislation on the animal world. Conclusions and proposals are formulated that form the conceptual basis for the consistent improvement of legal regulation in order to ensure a balance of social, environmental and economic interests. For students, postgraduates and teachers of law schools and faculties, as well as a wide range of readers interested in legal relations between humans and animals.

The layer approach is a simple tool to predict the moment–curvature behaviour of steel fibre reinforced concrete (SFRC) beams. The material stress–strain response of compressive concrete and tensile reinforcement is simple, as for ordinary RC structures, whereas the residual stress–strain relation for SFRC in tension determines the accuracy of the deformation analysis and is difficult to establish. The common practice is to construct a residual stress–strain relation based on standard bending tests. While the residual stresses obtained from such tests represent the softening behaviour of SFRC, the response of the tensile zone of structural members with longitudinal reinforcement is more complex due to the interaction between the residual softening stresses and tension stiffening stresses. This study aims to investigate the adequacy of the RILEM residual stress modelling approach. The residual stress–strain relations are derived from the results of standard notched beams and are compared to the stress–strain diagrams inversely obtained from the experimental moment–curvature response of SFRC beams. An experimental study of 8 full-scale SFRC beams with longitudinal reinforcement including the tests of standard notched beams was carried out. The variables were the volume levels of fibres and reinforcement ratio. To produce accurate moment–curvature diagrams, beams were tested in four-point bending with strains measured at four levels throughout the constant bending zone. The predicted curvatures of SFRC beams following the RILEM recommendations were compared to the tests. A limited curvature analysis was also performed using Model Code 2010 and the Australian Bridge Code. Similarly, the residual stress - strain relations inversely derived from the structural tests were compared to the specifications of the codes mentioned above.

The textbook reveals the topics of the discipline "Fundamentals of the welfare State", contains a description of practical exercises, a list of basic and additional literature, questions for self-examination, recommendations for the preparation of an abstract and essay, tests and other additional materials. Meets the requirements of the federal state educational standards of higher education of the latest generation. It is addressed to undergraduate students studying the academic discipline "Fundamentals of the welfare state".

Camera trap arrays can generate thousands to millions of images that require exorbitant time and effort to classify and annotate by trained observers. Computer vision has evolved as an automated alternative to manual classification. The most popular computer vision solution is the supervised Machine Learning technique, which uses labeled images to train automated classification algorithms.We propose a multi-step semi-automated workflow that consists of (1) identifying and separating bad-from good-quality images, (2) parsing good images into animals, humans, vehicles, and empty, and (3) cropping animals from images and classifying them into species for manual inspection. We trained, validated, and evaluated this approach using 548,627 images from 46 cameras in two regions of the Arctic (northeastern Norway, and Yamal Peninsula, Russia).We obtained an accuracy of 0.959 for all three steps combined with the complete year test data set at Varanger and 0.922 at Yamal, reducing the number of images that required manual inspection to 7.9% of the original set from Varanger and 3.2% from Yamal.Researchers can modify this multi-step process to meet their specific needs for monitoring and surveying wildlife, providing greater flexibility than current options available for image classification.

Accelerating climate change is causing severe habitat fragmentation in the Arctic, threatening the persistence of many cold-adapted species. The Scandinavian arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus) is highly fragmented, with a once continuous, circumpolar distribution, it struggled to recover from a demographic bottleneck in the late 19th century. The future persistence of the entire Scandinavian population is highly dependent on the northernmost Fennoscandian subpopulations (Scandinavia and the Kola Peninsula), to provide a link to the viable Siberian population. By analyzing 43 arctic fox genomes, we quantified genomic variation and inbreeding in these populations. Signatures of genome erosion increased from Siberia to northern Sweden indicating a stepping-stone model of connectivity. In northern Fennoscandia, runs of homozygosity (ROH) were on average ~1.47-fold longer than ROH found in Siberia, stretching almost entire scaffolds. Moreover, consistent with recent inbreeding, northern Fennoscandia harbored more homozygous deleterious mutations, whereas Siberia had more in heterozygous state. This study underlines the value of documenting genome erosion following population fragmentation to identify areas requiring conservation priority. With the increasing fragmentation and isolation of Arctic habitats due to global warming, understanding the genomic and demographic consequences is vital for maintaining evolutionary potential and preventing local extinctions.

Rain-on-snow (ROS) events occur across many regions of the terrestrial Arctic in mid-winter. Snowpack properties are changing, and in extreme cases ice layers form which affect wildlife, vegetation and soils beyond the duration of the event. Specifically, satellite microwave observations have been shown to provide insight into known events. Only Ku-band radar (scatterometer) has been applied so far across the entire Arctic. Data availability at this frequency is limited, however. The utility of other frequencies from passive and active systems needs to be explored to develop a concept for long-term monitoring. The latter are of specific interest as they can be potentially provided at higher spatial resolution. Radar records have been shown to capture the associated snow structure change based on time-series analyses. This approach is also applicable when data gaps exist and has capabilities to evaluate the impact severity of events. Active as well as passive microwave sensors can also detect wet snow at the timing of an ROS event if an acquisition is available. The wet snow retrieval methodology is, however, rather mature compared to the identification of snow structure change since ambiguous scattering behaviour needs consideration. C-band radar is of special interest due to good data availability including a range of nominal spatial resolutions (10 m–12.5 km). Scatterometer and SAR (synthetic aperture radar) data have therefore been investigated. The temperature dependence of C-band backscatter at VV (V – vertical) polarization observable down to −40 ∘C is identified as a major issue for ROS retrieval but can be addressed by a combination with a passive microwave wet snow indicator (demonstrated for Metop ASCAT – Advanced Scatterometer – and SMOS – Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity). Results were compared to in situ observations (snowpit records, caribou migration data) and Ku-band products. Ice crusts were found in the snowpack after detected events (overall accuracy 82 %). The more crusts (events) there are, the higher the winter season backscatter increase at C-band will be. ROS events captured on the Yamal and Seward peninsulas have had severe impacts on reindeer and caribou, respectively, due to ice crust formation. SAR specifically from Sentinel-1 is promising regarding ice layer identification at better spatial details for all available polarizations. The fusion of multiple types of microwave satellite observations is suggested for the creation of a climate data record, but the consideration of performance differences due to spatial and temporal cover, as well as microwave frequency, is crucial. Retrieval is most robust in the tundra biome, where results are comparable between sensors. Records can be used to identify extremes and to apply the results for impact studies at regional scale.

Accelerating climate change is causing severe habitat fragmentation in the Arctic, threatening the persistence of many cold-adapted species. The Scandinavian arctic fox (

Studies of the effects of variation in resource availability are important for understanding the ecology of high-latitude mammals. This paper examines the potential of dental evidence (tooth wear and breakage) as a proxy for diet and food choice in Vulpes lagopus, the Arctic fox. It presents a preliminary study of dental microwear, gross wear score, and tooth breakage in a sample (n = 78 individuals) from the Yamal Peninsula of the Russian Arctic. While these measures have each been associated with feeding ecology in larger carnivorans (e.g., proportion of bone in the diet), they have yet to be combined in any study and have rarely been applied to smaller species or those from high latitudes. Arctic foxes from the north and south of the peninsula, and those from rodent peak and trough density periods, are compared to assess impact of changes in food availability across space and time. Results indicate that microwear textures vary in dispersion, with more variation in texture complexity, including higher values (suggesting more consumption of bone), in the rodent-poor period in the north of Yamal. Gross wear scores and tooth breakage are also significantly higher for the north of Yamal than the south. These data together suggest that dental evidence can provide important insights into variation in the feeding ecology of Arctic foxes and potentially into the impacts of changes in food abundance across space and time.

Various materials and reinforcement technologies have been created for concrete structures. However, there is no uniform methodology to compare the mechanical characteristics of different reinforcement systems. In structural systems, residual stiffness can estimate the efficiency of the reinforcement. This study introduces a simplified approach for the flexural stiffness analysis. It employs a new testing layout designed with the purpose to form multiple cracks in a small laboratory specimen. The achieved solution requires neither iterative calculations nor a description of the loading history. Several composite reinforcement schemes, including internal glass fibre reinforced polymer (GFRP) bars, carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) sheets and near-surface mounted (NSM) strips are considered. The analysis of the test results reveals a substantial efficiency of the external CFRP reinforcement systems. Article in English. Skirtingomis kompozitinėmis sistemomis armuotų betoninių elementų lenkiamojo standumo lyginamoji analizė Santrauka Betono konstrukcijoms armuoti naudojamos įvairios medžiagos ir technologijos, tačiau unifikuotos metodikos, kuria būtų galima palyginti skirtingų armavimo sistemų mechanines savybes, nėra. Konstrukcinės sistemos armavimo efektyvumas gali būti vertinamas atsižvelgiant į elementų liekamąjį standumą. Šiame straipsnyje pateikiamas supaprastintas lenkiamojo standumo analizės metodas. Jis apima naują bandymų schemą, kuria siekiama gauti tolygų plyšių pasiskirstymą mažame laboratoriniame bandinyje. Siūlomas analitinis sprendimas nereikalauja nei iteracinio skaičiavimo, nei detalaus apkrovos istorijos aprašymo. Nagrinėjamos kelios kompozitinio armavimo sistemos: taikant stiklo pluoštu armuotus polimerinius (GFRP) strypus, išdėstytus elemento viduje, anglies pluoštu armuotus polimerinius (CFRP) lakštus, priklijuotus elemento išorėje, ir sijų paviršiuje tvirtinamas anglies pluoštu armuotas polimerines (NSM) juostas. Tyrimo rezultatai rodo anglies pluoštu armuotų polimerų (CFRP) sistemų, išdėstytų elementų išorėje, efektyvumą. Reikšminiai žodžiai: betono kompozitas, armavimas, liekamasis standumas, analitinis modelis, lenkimo bandymai.

In the East of the high of Terskey-Alatau, in the northern part of the mountainous arch of Khan-Tengry at 28 January 2013 a strong (M=6.0) Saryzhaz earthquake there was with in-tensity of ~7-8 points, which to the intersection of deep regional faults cross Chilik with longitudinal Baiankol’skii was timed. This earthquake in the upper part of the earth’s crust (h=10 km) under the influence of compression stresses in the submeridional direction and near-horizontal stretching in the sublatitudinal direction occurred. The type of movement in the focus represents a shift on both possible planes of the rupture. Taking into account the most significant destruction in the Ili-Kazakh’s autonomous region and Aksu’s district of China, it can be assumed, that in focus a horizontally shift there was, that is sub-parallel to the Baiankol’s fault on the north-western strike. The earthquake had two foreshocks and over 1000 aftershocks. The area of aftershocks is 10x15 km. At 14 stations for main shock accelerograms and reaction spectra were obtained.

Целью настоящего исследования является анализ современного статуса некоторых представителей степной авифауны в границах Белгородской области. Материал и методы. Данные, которые легли в основу настоящего анализа, были получены в результате более чем 10-летних непосредственных обследований степных участков региона. Результаты. В публикации приводятся краткие сведения о динамике распространения и численности некоторых представителей степной авифауны на территории Белгородской области, а также обсуждается их современный статус. Поскольку все указанные виды, в силу своего краеареального положения в границах региона, являются редкими для области (за исключением уже выпавших из состава региональной фауны), любые достоверные сведения об их современном распространении, численности и т.д. представляют большой интерес с точки зрения ведения мониторинга состояния их популяций в этих частях ареалов. Выводы. С одной стороны, для территории Белгородской области (как и всего Центрального Черноземья) можно констатировать оскудение степной авифауны, что во многом было обусловлено общей деградацией типичных степных биотопов на фоне возрастающего антропогенного пресса. С другой стороны, некоторые виды пополнили фауну региона, очевидно, благодаря формированию комплекса благоприятных условий (погодно-климатических, антропогенных и др.).

This paper investigates the potential of mesoscale tooth wear (mesowear, chipping, facets, and other wear attributes) in rodents as a proxy for Arctic habitat. It presents a pilot study of narrow-headed voles, Microtus gregalis, at three sites along a latitudinal gradient of ecological subzones in the Yamal Peninsula of the Russian Arctic. These sites include Kharp in the forest–tundra ecotone, Erkuta in the low Arctic, and Sabetta at the border between the low and the high Arctic. A total of 117 specimens were included and eight variables were used to characterize mesoscale tooth wear. Results show significant differences between the sites, suggesting that these variables can distinguish populations from different subzones. Kharp has the flattest tooth wear, whereas Sabetta has the most M1 occlusal relief and dentin exposure. These results are consistent with and interpreted in the light of published experimental work on captive voles. In addition, the Kharp sample has the tallest M1 crowns, whereas Sabetta has the most vertically implanted M1s. The general directional trends toward separation of values by latitude of samples suggests that mesoscale wear in hypselodont rodents (those with open-rooted, ever-growing molar teeth) reflects variation in food abrasivity and, by extension, may be valuable for tracking habitat and ecological changes in the Arctic.

Publisher's version (útgefin grein), Climatic impacts are especially pronounced in the Arctic, which as a region is warming twice as fast as the rest of the globe. Here, we investigate how mean climatic conditions and rates of climatic change impact parasitoid insect communities in 16 localities across the Arctic. We focus on parasitoids in a widespread habitat, Dryas heathlands, and describe parasitoid community composition in terms of larval host use (i.e., parasitoid use of herbivorous Lepidoptera vs. pollinating Diptera) and functional groups differing in their closeness of host associations (koinobionts vs. idiobionts). Of the latter, we expect idiobionts—as being less fine‐tuned to host development—to be generally less tolerant to cold temperatures, since they are confined to attacking hosts pupating and overwintering in relatively exposed locations. To further test our findings, we assess whether similar climatic variables are associated with host abundances in a 22 year time series from Northeast Greenland. We find sites which have experienced a temperature rise in summer while retaining cold winters to be dominated by parasitoids of Lepidoptera, with the reverse being true for the parasitoids of Diptera. The rate of summer temperature rise is further associated with higher levels of herbivory, suggesting higher availability of lepidopteran hosts and changes in ecosystem functioning. We also detect a matching signal over time, as higher summer temperatures, coupled with cold early winter soils, are related to high herbivory by lepidopteran larvae, and to declines in the abundance of dipteran pollinators. Collectively, our results suggest that in parts of the warming Arctic, Dryas is being simultaneously exposed to increased herbivory and reduced pollination. Our findings point to potential drastic and rapid consequences of climate change on multitrophic‐level community structure and on ecosystem functioning and highlight the value of collaborative, systematic sampling effort., We are grateful for data from the Greenland Ecosystem Monitoring Programme provided by the Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Denmark, in collaboration with Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, Nuuk, Greenland, and the Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and data from the Greenland Ecosystem Monitoring Programme provided by Asiaq—Greenland Survey, Nuuk, Greenland. We acknowledge CSC–IT Center for Science Ltd., Espoo, Finland, for the allocation of computational resources. Rósa Erlendsdóttir kindly provided access to the sampling site in Votilækur, Iceland. We thank Marie‐Andree Giroux and Kristen Peck for their assistance in Igloolik and Marjo Kilpinen, Eija Takala and Emma Hakanen for their hard work in the laboratory. We gratefully acknowledge funding from the Academy of Finland (grants 276909, 285803 to T.R., and 276671 to M.V.K.), Nessling Foundation (grants 201700420, 201600034, 201500090 to T.K.), Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation, Societas pro Fauna et Flora Fennica, The Danish Environmental Protection Agency (N.M.S.), French Polar Institute‐IPEV (program “Interactions 1036” to O.G. and B.S.), INTERACT, Russian Foundation for Basic Research (grant 18‐05‐60261 to A.S. and N.S.), Research Council of Norway (grant 249902/F20), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (PGS‐D award to S.K.M., CGS‐D award to A.M.S., Discovery Grant to J.B.), Churchill Northern Studies Centre (Northern Research Fund Award to A.M.S. and M.P.), Canadian Polar Commission (Northern Scientific Training Program Award to D.L.B., K.H.I.D., S.K.M., A.M.S., and M.P.), ArcticNet, Polar Continental Shelf Project, Parks Canada, Fonds Québécois de Recherche ‐ Nature et Technologies, Polar Knowledge Canada, Entomological Society of Canada, University of Guelph. The Icelandic Research Fund (Rannsóknasjóður, grant nr 152468‐051 to I.C.B.). Thanks to PhyloPic contributors Gareth Monger and Melissa Broussard.

The paper presents a comparison of the novel strain compliance concept, proposed for predicting the crack spacing of reinforced concrete structures with neural network predictions. The concept repr...

Space-based tracking technology using low-cost miniature tags is now delivering data on fine-scale animal movement at near-global scale. Linked with remotely sensed environmental data, this offers a biological lens on habitat integrity and connectivity for conservation and human health; a global network of animal sentinels of environmental change. Publisher PDF