What accounts for the ability of regional elites to respond to the challenges posed by the Russian war against Ukraine? This study argues that elite cohesion elevates the ability of subnational ...elites to cope and adapt to crises. It employs social network analysis of a novel biographical data set of elites' connections in Belgorod Oblast, the border region that has been severely affected by the war. The analysis reveals that the war has made a relatively minor impact on the structure of the elite network as it has retained its original characteristics. Furthermore, it shows that the outsider governor has not only managed to strengthen his own position among the elites but also to reinforce elite cohesion. By bringing together different elite groups, the governor has enhanced their ability to perform under substantial stress. These findings advance our understanding of the sources of resilience in personalist autocracies.
Introduction. Drinking water is one of the most important environmental factors that determines human health, which requires a search for causal relationships between drinking water pollution and ...increased incidence of the population. Materials and methods. We studied the incidence level of the Murmansk Oblast (Russia) population with diseases associated with the drinking water quality. We also analyzed the drinking water quality, and calculated the carcinogenic risk associated with the intake of pollutants from drinking water. Results. The risk areas in terms of drinking water quality are the city of Kirovsk and Pechenga district, the priority pollutants of drinking water are aluminum and nickel. In Pechenga district, there is an increased incidence of the blood diseases, digestive organs, nervous system, skin and subcutaneous tissue, as well as female infertility. The highest incidence rates of malignant neoplasms are recorded in the city of Murmansk. Conclusions. The aluminum role in the formation of the incidence level in the Kirovsk city population has not been established. The nickel impact on the health of the Pechenga district population may be associated with the development of female infertility and the development of contact dermatitis, in case of cutaneous action. However, the other risk factors contribution, including exposure to nickel and its compounds in the professional activities framework, needs to be clarified. The carcinogens influence present in drinking water on the additional cases formation of malignant neoplasms in Murmansk Oblast seems to be negligible.
Long-term monitoring of the abundance of the steppe polecat (
Mustela eversmanii
) in Chelyabinsk oblast is considered. The analysis of the abundance dynamics of Mustelidae was carried out on the ...basis of monitoring data using the method of winter accounting (WA) conducted annually. Over the past few years, the steppe polecat has not been registered during accounting work in the mountain taiga; i.e., its numbers are either extremely low, or it has disappeared completely. In forest–steppe territories for 12 years, from 2008 to 2020, the abundance of polecats decreased almost 90 times, from 3058 to 34 individuals. The data on the number of the main prey species of the steppe polecat, two species of ground squirrels (
Spermophilus major
and
Spermophilus pygmaeus
) and the groundhog (
Marmota bobak
), are presented. The hypothesis of the possible influence of the American mink on the numbers of the steppe polecat is considered.
The breakup of the L-chondrite parent body (LCPB) in the asteroid belt at 466 Ma ago is the largest asteroid breakup documented in Earth's geological record for the past ca. three billion years. ...Recovery of abundant macroscopic fossil L chondrites in mid-Ordovician marine sediments as well as reconstructions of the flux of micrometeoritic chrome spinel through the ages have given much new information on the precise timing of the breakup and its effects on Earth. In the present study, we focus on the flux of large micrometeorites to Earth shortly (in the 2 Ma time interval) before the LCPB breakup (pre-LCPB), which may be crucial for understanding the dynamical evolution of the asteroid belt leading up to the breakup. We present chrome-spinel data (32–355 μm grain size) from two mid-Ordovician limestone sections in Sweden (Kinnekulle and Öland, 300 km apart) and one section in western Russia (Lynna River), ca. 1100 km from Kinnekulle. One aim is also to test the level of reproducibility of chrome-spinel flux reconstructions between different sites. Between 300 and 600 kg of limestone were collected from each section in the stratigraphic interval corresponding to ca. 2 Ma before up to immediately before the LCPB breakup. The relations between H, L and LL meteorites from Kinnekulle (38.7 ± 6.3%, 33.2 ± 6.1% and 28.1 ± 5.8%), Öland (46.0 ± 5.6%, 31.2 ± 3.1% and 24.5 ± 4.8%) and Lynna River (38.2 ± 5.5%, 32.8 ± 5.3% and 29.0 ± 5.1%) sections are indistinguishable from each other within uncertainties, revealing a globally homogeneous influx of H, L and LL meteorites. This gives support for the validity of previous reconstructions for the meteorite flux based on chrome-spinel reconstructions for fifteen time windows through the Phanerozoic. All the pre-LCPB samples from the three regions show a collective dominance of H-chondritic grains (42 ± 3%) over L (31 ± 3%) and LL grains (27 ± 3%), largely similar to the Phanerozoic background flux. Intriguingly, the presence of background concentrations of L-chondritic material also in the pre-LCPB flux demonstrates that the idea of a largely intact LCPB still existing before the final breakup may be far from reality. Apparently, a substantial amount of equilibrated chondritic material from deep levels of an L-chondritic body reached Earth even before the inferred catastrophic disruption at 466 Ma ago. This would concur with a “rubble pile” structure of the L-chondrite parent body and exposure of abundant deep-seated material as a result of earlier disruption and re-accretion events. The LL-chondritic contribution in the pre-LCPB flux is higher than at other Phanerozoic time windows, including the Cambrian. This anomalously enhanced flux thus cannot be ascribed to the Neoproterozoic breakup of the large LL-chondritic Flora asteroid. Previously observed high concentrations of chrome-spinel grains of achondritic origin can be reproduced only in our samples from immediately (< 1 Ma) before the LCPB breakup. We speculate that this, together with the high LL percentage before the breakup, may be explained by dynamic perturbations, possibly in the near-Earth region, leading up to the LCPB event.
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