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In June 2022, within the XI International Educational Consensus on Respiratory Medicine in Pediatrics, an expert council on the anti-inflammatory agent ammonium glycyrrhizinate in treating acute respiratory infections and allergic diseases of the respiratory tract was held in Vladimir. The resolution of the Expert Council is presented. Based on these studies, experts recommend the use of ammonium glycyrrhizinate in patients with acute respiratory tract infection (including COVID-19); in the rehabilitation period of patients who recovered from the new coronavirus infection with lung involvement; patients with recurrent obstructive bronchitis, including those at high risk of bronchial asthma; patients with allergic rhinitis; patients with mild to moderate asthma.

Synthesis and characterization of carborane BODIPYs were described. UV and fluorescence spectra were studied. DFT calculations were performed to study the geometrical structures and chemical reactivity descriptors of synthesized compounds.

A series of new BODIPY conjugates containing maleimide or carborane-succinimide-triazole functional groups were prepared from synthetically available azido-substituted BODIPYs. The structure of new synthesized compounds was characterized by UV-vis, IR, NMR and mass spectrometry. The crystal structures of BODIPY-maleimide conjugates were determined by single crystal X-ray diffraction study. The carborane-containing BODIPYs can be promising agents for photodynamic and boron neutron capture therapy.

The forests of the boreal and mid-latitude zones of the Northern Hemisphere are the largest source of reactive volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which have an important impact on the processes occurring in the atmospheric boundary layer. However, the composition of biogenic emissions from them remains incompletely characterized, as evidenced by the significant excess OH radical concentrations predicted by models in comparison with those observed under the forest canopy. The missing OH sink in the models may be related to the fact that they do not take into account the emission of highly reactive VOCs by vegetation on the forest floor. In this work, we report the results of laboratory determinations of the composition of VOCs emitted by representatives of different groups of plants that form the living soil cover (LSC) in the forests of the boreal and mid-latitude zones: bryophytes, small shrubs, herbaceous plants, and ferns. In the chromatograms of volatile emissions of all 11 studied plant species, 254 compounds with carbon atoms ranging in number from two to 20 were registered. All plants were characterized by the emission of terpenes, accounting for 112 compounds, and the second largest group (35 substances) was formed by carbonyl compounds. Both groups of compounds are characterized by high reactivity and are easily included in the processes of gas-phase oxidation with the participation of radicals HO, NO3 and ozone. These data indicate the importance of a thorough study of the so far disregarded source of VOCs, that is, the LSC in forests.

Цель работы - показать, что недавние результаты авторов об аппроксимации распределений сумм независимых слагаемых безгранично делимыми законами на выпуклых многогранниках могут быть получены с помощью некоторого альтернативного класса аппроксимирующих безгранично делимых распределений. Мы также обобщим результаты на бесконечномерный случай.

Subject. This article discusses the innovation activities of companies participating in clusters. Objectives. The article aims to justify a choice of State support facilities for the innovation activities of enterprises participating in clusters. Methods. For the study, we used the hierarchical aggregated indices randomization method and Monte Carlo method. Results. During the study of cluster construction in St. Petersburg, an array of data was obtained. Based on calculations, we show the choice of two enterprises, the best ones in terms of assessing the probability of dominance. We justify the possibility of using such a characteristic of randomized aggregated indices as the value of mathematical expectation, as a choice criterion. Conclusions. The algorithm developed to apply the aggregated indices randomization method develops an institutional approach to the analysis of regional clusters.

Subject. The article discusses the consistency of accounting policies, internal control and constituents of corporate economic security. Objectives. The study determines the process of articulating the term Accounting Policy at the legislative and normative levels nationwide and worldwide. We compare our own interpretations of corporate economic security. The article traces the impact of the accounting policy on areas of internal control and corporate economic securities. Methods. The study is based on general methods of research, such as the dialectical method, methods of analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, and semantic analysis. Results. The article shows the impact of internal and external factors, which also influence corporate economic security and translate into the formation of corporate accounting policies. Conclusions and Relevance. Economic security is an aspect that every entity pursues. Therefore, it is important to thoroughly study how clauses of accounting policies influence the aspect from perspectives of business entities. The impact of constituents of corporate accounting policies, as evaluated herein, allow to consider adverse factors and help prevent negative consequences that internal and external factors may cause to corporate economic security. The findings contribute to accounting techniques for financial management in order to ensure the economic security. They are of practical significance for business leaders and financial personnel.

The paper examines the design features of the tropical unicar for urban passenger transport. The description of the unicar main components is given, its advantages over the basic model are presented.

The guide is devoted to issues of practice on diagnosis and treatment of the new coronavirus COVID-19 infection. The purpose of creating this document was the need to develop a unified approach to providing care to patients with the new coronavirus COVID-19 infection in military hospitals in terms of the practical experience of hospital specialists, the requirements of national guidelines. The most important recommen-dations concern the issues of correct understanding of the disease, algorithms for actions of medical personnel and pharmacotherapy regimens for patients with coronavirus infection.

At the end of 2019, an outbreak of a novel coronavirus infection occurred in PRC, the causative agent of which was given the temporary name 2019-nCoV. COVID-19 is a complex multisystem disease which causes harmful effects not only on the lungs, but also on the cardiac conduction system. Aim. To assess the duration of corrected QT interval in patients with COVID-19 during treatment with hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin, and to identify the relationship between this indicator and the severity of interstitial pneumonitis. Materials and methods. We studied medical records of 40 men and 4 women, who were treated in the infectious diseases department of Acad. N.N. Burdenko Main Military Clinical Hospital from March 20 to May 20, 2020. All patients underwent resting digital 12-lead electrocardiography: at the time of admission to the hospital and after 6 days of therapy using the "Myocard-12" system. In our study, 30 patients were treated with azithromycin at a total daily dose of 500 mg for 5 to 10 days; 21 patients – with hydroxychloroquine at a dose of 400 mg 2 times a day on the 1st day of treatment and 200 mg 2 times a day for the next 5 days; and 7 patients received azithromycin and hydroxychroloquine combination. Results. To assess the duration of corrected QT interval depending on the severity of patient's status and the degree of lung damage, we compared the mean QT interval depending on the degree of lung damage on computed tomography. There was no significant difference in this indicator in patients with pneumonia of varying severity. However, when using the combination of azithromycin and hydroxychloroquine after 6 days, there was a significant increase in the mean cor-rected QT interval compared to its baseline value (before treatment). Conclusion. Patients hospitalized with COVID-19 have an initially prolonged corrected QT interval. The combined use of azithromycin and hydroxychloroquine in a short time causes a significant increase in the corrected QT interval in patients with COVID-19.

The article considers current issues in the management of patients with cough. It provides a definition of cough, its clinical classification, analysis of main causes, a list of necessary diagnostic methods and directions of pharmacotherapy. A place is given for the differential diagnosis of various pathological conditions and diseases, the leading clinical sign of which is cough. The authors describe the characteristics of drugs for the treatment of cough, the principles of using mucoactive drugs, practical recommendations for rational pharmacotherapy of unproductive and productive cough.

Issues of assessing capital expenditures for setting mineral deposits into operation are considered. Existing methods have a number of advantages and disadvantages, but they are determined separately for each type of fixed assets of the field. A simple method, that allows to quickly and easily determine the amount of capital costs for setting gold deposit into operation, based on data on ore reserves, as well as unit costs, taking into account the degree of infrastructure development at the deposit, is proposed. Presented methodology allows one to determine the real amount of initial capital expenditures of a gold deposit, calculate their marginal (recommended) value, and also assess the balance of capital investments in the development of a particular deposit, taking into account the existing one in the company's investment portfolio. The methodology is based on analysis of empirical material, which used real capital costs for development of gold deposits (and foreign-metal impurities) by Polymetal International plc. As a result of a statistical study, method for determining the marginal cost of a field is obtained.

The aim of the present work is to show that the results obtained earlier on the approximation of distributions of sums of independent summands by infinitely divisible laws may be transferred to the estimation of the closeness of distributions on convex polyhedra., 12 pages

Neutron detection using nuclear emulsions can offer an alternative in personal dosimetry. The production of emulsions and their quality have to be well controlled with respect to their application in dosimetry. Nuclear emulsions consist mainly of gelatin and silver halide. Gelatin contains a significant amount of hydrogen, which can be used for fast neutron detection. The addition of B-10 in the emulsion is convenient for thermal neutron detection. In this paper, standard nuclear emulsions BR-2 and nuclear emulsions BR-2 enriched with boron produced at the Slavich Company, Russia, were applied for evaluation of fast and thermal neutron fluences. The results were obtained by calculation from the presumed emulsion composition without prior calibration. Evidence that nuclear emulsions used in the experiment are suitable for neutron dosimetry is provided.

This is the first in a series of reviews devoted to the scientific achievements of the Leningrad–St. Petersburg school of probability and statistics in the period from 1947 to 2017. It is devoted to limit theorems for sums of independent random variables—a traditional subject for St. Petersburg. It refers to the classical limit theorems: the law of large numbers, the central limit theorem, and the law of the iterated logarithm, as well as important relevant problems formulated in the second half of the twentieth century. The latter include the approximation of the distributions of sums of independent variables by infinitely divisible distributions, estimation of the accuracy of strong Gaussian approximation of such sums, and the limit theorems on the weak almost sure convergence of empirical measures generated by sequences of sums of independent random variables and vectors.

Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan and some other neighboring countries bear the heritage of several Soviet era nuclear disasters and the resulting severe radioactive pollution of vast territories. The most famous of them is the Chernobyl catastrophe on April 26, 1986 which resulted in a massive radioisotope fallout (0.185 MBq m −2 or higher) over about 25,000 km 2 of the territory of the former USSR alone. Extensive radioecological research around Chernobyl demonstrated that despite high resistance of most of soil-dwelling organisms to ionizing radiation, some soil animals were very vulnerable to radioactive pollution due to low motility, direct contact with hot particles and radioisotope accumulation in soil. These are the reasons that soil organisms are very important organisms for long-term radioecological observations. In this review, we analyze published data on the response of different soil taxa to radioisotope contamination of soil near Chernobyl and other nuclear accident locations. Field results are compared with the available experimental data. Earthworms, millipedes, collembolans and oribatid mites were recognized as the most appropriate biomonitors of different radioactivity levels and types of radioactive pollution. Synthesis of this knowledge allowed us to propose a multilevel system of soil radioecological monitoring, which may be useful for studying the short- and long-term environmental consequences of the recent catastrophe at Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant in Japan, as well as other locations vulnerable to radioactive pollution.

The dynamics and performance of soil biota during forest rotation were studied in monoculture beech stands forming a chronosequence of four different age-classes (30, 62, 111, 153 yr). Biomass was monitored in major groups of microflora, microfauna, mesofauna, and macrofauna. Resource availability (litter layer, soil organic mater), biomass of the two dominant decomposer groups (microflora, earthworms) as well as the biomass of mesofauna and microfauna were found to remain quite stable during forest succession. Nevertheless, the marked increase of the biomasses of primary decomposers (fungi, saprophagous macroinvertebrates) in the 62-year-old stand, followed by an increase of the biomasses of macropredators in the 111-year-old stand, indicate substantial changes of several components of edaphic communities during forest development. However, constant values of soil respiration suggest that the overall performance of the soil food web does not change during beech forest succession. Thus, the decomposer system of lowland managed beech forests on calcareous soils seems to be very stable over time. We suggest that earthworm activity might have masked impacts of forest development on other soil biota and led to an astounding stability of decomposer assemblages during beech forest rotation.

The dynamics and performance of soil biota during forest rotation were studied in monoculture beech stands forming a chronosequence of four different age-classes (30, 62, 111, 153 yr). Biomass was monitored in major groups of microflora, microfauna, mesofauna, and macrofauna. Resource availability (litter layer, soil organic mater), biomass of the two dominant decomposer groups (microflora, earthworms) as well as the biomass of mesofauna and microfauna were found to remain quite stable during forest succession. Nevertheless, the marked increase of the biomasses of primary decomposers (fungi, saprophagous macroinvertebrates) in the 62-year-old stand, followed by an increase of the biomasses of macropredators in the 111-year-old stand, indicate substantial changes of several components of edaphic communities during forest development. However, constant values of soil respiration suggest that the overall performance of the soil food web does not change during beech forest succession. Thus, the decomposer system of lowland managed beech forests on calcareous soils seems to be very stable over time. We suggest that earthworm activity might have masked impacts of forest development on other soil biota and led to an astounding stability of decomposer assemblages during beech forest rotation [Current Zoology 55 (4): 272–278, 2009].

Let $X,X_1,\ldots,X_n$ be independent identically distributed random variables. In this paper we study the behavior of concentration functions of weighted sums $\sum_{k=1}^{n}X_ka_k $ with respect to the arithmetic structure of coefficients $a_k$ in the context of the Littlewood--Offord problem. In recent papers of Eliseeva, G\"otze and Zaitsev, we discussed the relations between the inverse principles stated by Nguyen, Tao and Vu and similar principles formulated by Arak in his papers from the 1980's. In this paper, we will derive some more general and more precise consequences of Arak's inequalities providing new results in the context of the Littlewood-Offord problem., Comment: 23 pages. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1506.09034

In this paper we study the behavior of concentration functions of weighted sums of independent random variables with respect to the arithmetic structure of coefficients. Recently, Tao and Vu formulated a so-called Inverse Principle in the Littlewood–Offord problem. We discuss the relations between this Inverse Principle and a similar principle formulated for sums of arbitrarily distributed independent random variables formulated by T. Arak in the 1980’s.

The paper deals with the long-term development (55 years) of oribatid communities (Acari) during grassland succession following the conversion of arable fields. The study was carried out on a chronosequence of temperate grassland sites in the Lahn-Dill-Bergland (Central Hesse, Germany). The “space-for-time” substitution method was applied. Increasing abundance at early stages of the conversion process (until the age of 13–28 years) points to release from the stress exerted by arable management. Saturation of abundance and richness indicates strong limiting forces acting upon the oribatid community at intermediate and late stages of succession. The continuous increase in the dominance of surface-dwelling and non-specialized species suggests a considerable change in the nature of these limiting forces during the successional process. General Regression Model (GRM) analysis revealed an increasing impact of external factors on the oribatid community during grassland succession, and a shift in the major driving forces determining oribatid abundance from soil conditions to vegetation conditions and then to a combined effect of both soil and vegetation conditions.

Spatially explicit forecasting of changes in species richness is key to designing informative scenarios on the development of diversity on our planet. It might be possible to predict changes in the richness of inadequately investigated groups from that of groups for which enough information is available. Here we evaluate the reliability of this approach by reviewing 237 richness correlations extracted from the recent literature. Of the 43 taxa covered, beetles, vascular plants, butterflies, birds, ants, and mammals (in that order) were the most common ones examined. Forests and grasslands strongly dominated the ecosystem types studied. The variance explanation (R 2 ) could be calculated for 152 cases, but only 53 of these were significant. An average correlation effect size of 0.374 (95% CI ¼ 60.0678) indicates positive but weak correlations between taxa within the very heterogeneous data set. None of the examined explanatory variables (spatial scale, taxonomic distance, trophic position, biome) could account for this heterogeneity. However, studies focusing on 10-km 2 grid cells had the highest variance explanation. Moreover, within-phylum between- class comparisons had marginally significantly lower correlations than between-phylum comparisons. And finally, the explanatory power of studies conducted in the tropics was significantly higher than that of studies conducted in temperate regions. It is concluded that the potential of a correlative approach to species richness is strongly diminished by the overall low level of variance explanation. So far, no taxon has proved to be a universal or even particularly good predictor for the richness of other taxa. Some suggestions for future research are inclusion of several taxa in models aiming at regional richness predictions, improvement of knowledge on species correlations in human dominated systems, and a better understanding of mechanisms underlying richness correlations.

Estimates of the rate of approximation in a de-Poissonization lemma of Beirlant and Mason [1] is obtained for the case where the distribution satisfy a quantitative condition of existence of exponential moments introduced in [6].

We studied changes of testate amoeba communities associated with the conversion of spruce monocultures into mixed beech-fir-spruce forests in the Southern Black Forest Mountains (Germany). In this region, forest conversion is characterized by a gradual development of beech undergrowth within thinned spruce tree stands leading to multiple age continuous cover forests with a diversified litter layer. Strong shifts in the abundance of testate amoeba observed in intermediate stages levelled off to monoculture conditions again after the final stage of the conversion process had been reached. The average number of species per conversion stage (i.e., local richness) did not respond strongly to forest conversion, but the total number of species (i.e., regional richness) was considerably higher in the initial stage than in the mixed forests, due to the large number of hygrophilous species inhabiting spruce monocultures. Functional diversity of the testate amoeba community, however, significantly increased during the conversion process. This shift was closely associated with improved C and N availability as well as higher niche diversity in the continuous cover stands. Lower soil acidity in these forests coincided with a higher relative abundance of eurytopic species. Our results suggest that testate amoeba communities are much more affected by physicochemical properties of the soil than directly by litter diversity.

Summary A study was made of oribatid mite communities and their responses to metal contamination derived from the Kosogorsky metallurgical plant located in the Tula District, Russia. Mite communities were sampled in three different seasons in four sites at different distances from the smelter. Concentrations of zinc, copper, cadmium, lead and iron were measured in ten mite species. The data show that the mite community as a whole is quite tolerant to the metal contamination caused by the Kosogorsky plant. At the polluted sites some species typical for nutrient-rich soils appeared, but community structure and species diversity were not seriously affected by metal contamination. In general, oribatid mites accumulated metals to very high internal concentrations. Average Cu, Cd, Pb and Fe concentrations did not differ significantly between species, but Zn did, and its level was associated with the mode of feeding of the species. Microphytophagous species, feeding exclusively on fungi, accumulated zinc in higher concentrations than other mites. This study illustrates the potential for bioindication by the little studied but species-rich group of soil oribatids.

Condensation of 4-hydroxy-3,3-dimethyl- and 4-hydroxy-3,3-pentamethylenebutan-2-ones with ethyl trifluoroacetate in the presence of LiH in hexane afforded 2-hydroxy-5,5-dimethyl-and 2-hydroxy-5,5-pentamethylene-2-trifluoromethyltetrahydro-4-pyranones, whose behavior in reactions withN-nucleophiles is analogous to that of unsymmetrical polyfluorinated β-diketones.

Let $X,X_1,X_2,\ldots$ be i.i.d. ${\mathbb{R}}^d$-valued real random vectors. Assume that ${\mathbf{E}X=0}$, $\operatorname {cov}X=\mathbb{C}$, $\mathbf{E}\Vert X\Vert^2=\sigma ^2$ and that $X$ is not concentrated in a proper subspace of $\mathbb{R}^d$. Let $G$ be a mean zero Gaussian random vector with the same covariance operator as that of $X$. We study the distributions of nondegenerate quadratic forms $\mathbb{Q}[S_N]$ of the normalized sums ${S_N=N^{-1/2}(X_1+\cdots+X_N)}$ and show that, without any additional conditions, \[\Delta_N\stackrel{\mathrm{def}}{=}\sup_x\bigl |\mathbf{P}\bigl\{\mathbb{Q}[S_N]\leq x\bigr\}-\mathbf{P}\bigl\{\mathbb{Q}[G]\leq x\bigr\}\bigr|={\mathcal{O}}\bigl(N^{-1}\bigr),\] provided that $d\geq5$ and the fourth moment of $X$ exists. Furthermore, we provide explicit bounds of order ${\mathcal{O}}(N^{-1})$ for $\Delta_N$ for the rate of approximation by short asymptotic expansions and for the concentration functions of the random variables $\mathbb{Q}[S_N+a]$, $a\in{\mathbb{R}}^d$. The order of the bound is optimal. It extends previous results of Bentkus and G\"{o}tze [Probab. Theory Related Fields 109 (1997a) 367-416] (for ${d\ge9}$) to the case $d\ge5$, which is the smallest possible dimension for such a bound. Moreover, we show that, in the finite dimensional case and for isometric $\mathbb{Q}$, the implied constant in ${\mathcal{O}}(N^{-1})$ has the form $c_d\sigma ^d(\det\mathbb{C})^{-1/2}\mathbf {E}\|\mathbb{C}^{-1/2}X\|^4$ with some $c_d$ depending on $d$ only. This answers a long standing question about optimal rates in the central limit theorem for quadratic forms starting with a seminal paper by Ess\'{e}en [Acta Math. 77 (1945) 1-125]., Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/13-AOP839 the Annals of Probability (http://www.imstat.org/aop/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org)

Let $X,X_1,...,X_n$ be independent identically distributed random variables. In this paper we study the behavior of the concentration functions of the weighted sums $\sum\limits_{k=1}^{n}a_k X_k$ with respect to the arithmetic structure of coefficients $a_k$. Such concentration results recently became important in connection with investigations about singular values of random matrices. In this paper we formulate and prove some refinements of a result of Vershynin (R. Vershynin, Invertibility of symmetric random matrices, arXiv:1102.0300. (2011). Published in Random Structures and Algorithms, v. 44, no. 2, 135--182 (2014))., Comment: 16 pages

The notion of an $L_{1}$-norm density estimator process indexed by a class of kernels is introduced. Then a functional central limit theorem and a Glivenko--Cantelli theorem are established for this process. While assembling the necessary machinery to prove these results, a body of Poissonization techniques and restricted chaining methods is developed, which is useful for studying weak convergence of general processes indexed by a class of functions. None of the theorems imposes any condition at all on the underlying Lebesgue density $f$. Also, somewhat unexpectedly, the distribution of the limiting Gaussian process does not depend on $f$.

Dynamic approaches to forest ecosystems are surprisingly rare. Here we report about successional changes in collembolan community structure and microbial performances during forest rotation. The study was carried out in a chronosequence of four spruce forest stands (5-, 25-, 45-, and 95 years old; Tharandter forest, Germany). CO2 release significantly increased after clear-cutting and the amount of C stored in the organic layer subsequently declined. The early phase of forest rotation was characterized by a very active decomposer microflora, stimulation of both fungi and bacteria as well as by a high abundance of surface-oriented Collembola. In addition, collembolan species turnover was accelerated. While the biomass of fungi further increased at intermediate stages of forest rotation, the metabolic activity of the microflora was low, the functional diversity of bacteria declined and the collembolan community became impoverished. Euedaphic species dominated during this stage of forest development. These changes can be explained by both reduction in microhabitat diversity and depletion of food sources associated with an accumulation of recalcitrant soil organic matter. Results of the General Regression Model procedure indicate a shift from specific associations between collembolan functional groups and microbiota at the early stage of forest rotation to a more diffuse pattern at intermediate stages. Though the hypothesis that Collembola are relatively responsive to changes in environmental conditions is confirmed, consistently high community similarity suggests a remarkable persistence of some components of microarthropod assemblages. Our study provides evidence for substantial ecosystem-level implications of changes in the soil food web during forest rotation. Moreover, correlations between bacterial parameters and Collembola point to the overarching impact of differences in the composition of the microbial community on microarthropods.

We estimate the rate of strong approximation and probabilities of moderate deviations in the CLT for the L1-norm of the kernel density estimator under no assumptions at all on the density and assuming that the kernel is bounded and has bounded support.

Summary To investigate the effects of emissions from a large metal works near Tula in the Russian Federation, we measured concentrations of iron, manganese, zinc, copper, nickel, lead and cadmium in soil, litter and invertebrates at four sampling sites at different distances from the factory. The sites were located in woodlands in the bed of the Voronka river, near the town of Kosaya Gora in the district of Tula. Additional soil properties (organic matter content, clay content, water holding capacity, Ca, Mg, N, P, and pH) were measured that could explain differences in the bioavailability of the metal burdens. It appeared that the factory is a source of Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu, Ni and Pb. One of the sampling sites had a high nitrogen content in the litter due to emissions from a fertilizer plant in the area. Most of the metal contamination was limited to the immediate surroundings and did not extend beyond a distance of 5 km. Only the site close to the factory can be considered as polluted, however, background concentrations of metals in the Tula area seem to be significantly lower than in present Western European soils and a reference system still has to be developed. Exchangeable metal concentrations (0.01 M CaCl 2 extracts from soil) were very low and were not correlated with the total concentrations, indicating low bioavailability of the pollution. At the most polluted site, concentrations of all metals were positively correlated with each other; correlations decreased with increasing distance. Metal concentrations in soil were often negatively correlated with organic matter content, especially so for nickel. Metal concentrations in invertebrates showed considerable variation between individual species, however, some general patterns were obvious. Concentrations were high in earthworms, oribatid mites and carabid beetles, and low in springtails, centipedes and spiders. There was no relationship between the trophic position of a species and its metal accumulating ability. Iron concentrations in invertebrates at the polluted site were a factor of 2 to 4 higher than at the most remote (reference) site; for zinc and copper the internal concentrations were also elevated, but to a lesser extent than the soil concentrations. The data illustrate the extremely complicated relationship between metal residues in invertebrates and metal concentrations in soil. For most of the saprophageous and predatory arthropods studied total concentrations nor exchangeable concentrations in soil are good predictors; species-specific feeding mechanisms and metal physiologies seem to be the main determinants.

We estimate the concentration functions of n-fold convolutions of one-dimensional probability measures. The main result is a supplement to the results of Gotze and Zaitsev (1998). We show that the estimation of concentration functions at arguments of bounded size can be reduced to the estimation of these functions at arguments of size \(O\left( {\sqrt n } \right)\) which is easier.

The fauna and community structure of oribatid mites (Acari: Oribatida) in the Pskov Region of Russia is not yet comprehensively studied. Until now not much attention has been paid to soil communities of bogs and open landscapes of this area. The aim of this study was to compare the community composition of oribatid mites in different habitats in the environs of the Polistovsky National Nature Reserve (Pskov Region, Russia). We found 56 oribatid species in this area during our sampling campaign in 2010. Of these 16 have not been recorded in the Pskov Region before. Forest habitats were the richest in species within the examined territory. The highest faunistic similarity of oribatid communities was found between raised bogs and transition bogs. The mite faunistic composition in these two types of habitats was in turn quite similar to that in spruce forests. At the same time secondary habitats such as meadows hosted fewer oribatid species and were faunsitically distinct from the other habitats. Analysis of the rank abundance distribution of oribatid species indicated a disturbed state of oribatid communities in meadows even after their abandonment 20-25 years ago. The abundance of all oribatid ecomorphs besides surface-dwelling mites was similar and not significantly different across habitats. We assume that the relatively high number of previously unrecorded oribatid species for the Pskov Region in the research area is related to the considerable age of landscapes in the Polistovsko-Lovatskaya peat bog system and immigration of oribatid mites with transiting birds. More detailed comparative study of the oribatid fauna and community structure in the Polistovsky Reserve is needed to discover driving forces of the revealed community structure and diversity.

The reactions of hydroxylamine with 2-amino- and 2-methylamino-2-trifluoromethyl-5,5-dimethyltetrahydro-4-pyrones yield 2-amino- and 2-methylamino-2-trifluoromethyl-5,5-dimethyltetrahydro-4-pyrone oximes, which can be converted to 5-amino- and 5-methyl-amino-5-trifluoromethyl-3-(2-hydroxy-1,1-dimethylethyl)-Δ2-isoxazolines, respectively, by heating in ethanol.

Let X, X1 , X2 ,... be independent and identically distributed random vectors taking values in Rd . Assume that EX =0, E|X|8/3