Armies sometimes use fratricidal coercion—violence and intimidation against their own troops—to force reluctant soldiers to fight. How this practice affects battlefield performance remains an open question. We study fratricidal coercion using a mixed-methods strategy, drawing on (1) monthly panel data on Soviet Rifle Divisions in World War II, built from millions of declassified personnel files; (2) paired comparisons of Rifle Divisions at the Battle of Leningrad; and (3) cross-national data on 526 land battles and war outcomes from 75 conflicts (1939–2011) to assess generalizability. We offer three sets of empirical findings. First, coercion keeps some soldiers from fleeing the battlefield, but at the cost of higher casualties and reduced initiative. Second, wartime and prewar coercion (such as mass repression and officer purges) affect soldiers’ behavior in similar, mutually reinforcing ways. Third, the resolve-boosting, initiative-dampening effects of fratricidal coercion generalize across belligerents and wars. Fratricidal coercion generates compliance through fear, compelling soldiers with variable levels of resolve to conform to a uniform standard of battlefield behavior. But the net utility of this approach is dubious. On balance, countries employing fratricidal coercion are less likely to win wars.

Theoretical units of interest often do not align with the spatial units at which data are available. This problem is pervasive in political science, particularly in subnational empirical research that requires integrating data across incompatible geographic units (e.g., administrative areas, electoral constituencies, and grid cells). Overcoming this challenge requires researchers not only to align the scale of empirical and theoretical units, but also to understand the consequences of this change of support for measurement error and statistical inference. We show how the accuracy of transformed values and the estimation of regression coefficients depend on the degree of nesting (i.e., whether units fall completely and neatly inside each other) and on the relative scale of source and destination units (i.e., aggregation, disaggregation, and hybrid). We introduce simple, nonparametric measures of relative nesting and scale, as ex ante indicators of spatial transformation complexity and error susceptibility. Using election data and Monte Carlo simulations, we show that these measures are strongly predictive of transformation quality across multiple change-of-support methods. We propose several validation procedures and provide open-source software to make transformation options more accessible, customizable, and intuitive.

Do individuals previously targeted by genocide become more supportive of other victimized groups? How are these political lessons internalized and passed down across generations? To answer these questions, the authors leverage original survey data collected among Holocaust survivors in the United States and their descendants, Jews with no immediate family connection to the Holocaust, and non-Jewish Americans. They find that historical victimization is associated with increased support for vulnerable out-groups, generating stable political attitudes that endure across generations. Holocaust survivors are most supportive of aiding refugees, followed by descendants, especially those who grew up discussing the Holocaust with their survivor relatives. An embedded experiment demonstrates the steadfastness of these attitudes: unlike non-Jews or Jews without survivor relatives, survivors’ and descendants’ views toward refugees do not change after reading an in-group versus out-group–protective interpretation of the “never again” imperative. Histories of victimization can play an ameliorative role in intergroup relations.

There is an on-going debate as to the skills needed for 21st century careers in classical music and how undergraduate students should learn them. Many graduate pianists report being under-prepared for the music profession, lacking sight-reading skills in particular. While research-evidenced pedagogy for improving sight-reading skills has been developed, little is known regarding what impact enhancing this skill could have on undergraduate educational experience. The present study aimed to evaluate the effect of sight-reading training on undergraduate pianists’ choices of repertoire for practice. Two groups of 12 participants were recruited from three institutions in the UK and Australia. One group undertook the sight-reading training programme for 10 weeks. Both groups listed the solo, concerto, chamber and accompanying repertoire they practised. The mean lengths of time participants spent practising each kind of repertoire were calculated. There were significant effects of institution and therefore country on practice time but no effects of the sight-reading training. Nevertheless, the findings suggest that interventions should be designed to develop pianists’ practical skills, including sight-reading, and the long-term effects of such interventions on quality of deliberate practice, particularly on the types of repertoire that are likely to be most valuable for pianists in the early stages of their career, should be evaluated.

States use repression to enforce obedience, but repression—especially if it is violent, massive, and indiscriminate—often incites opposition. Why does repression have such disparate effects? We address this question by studying the political legacy of Stalin’s coercive agricultural policy and collective punishment campaign in Ukraine, which led to the death by starvation of over three million people in 1932–34. Using rich micro-level data on eight decades of local political behavior, we find that communities exposed to Stalin’s “terror by hunger” behaved more loyally toward Moscow when the regime could credibly threaten retribution in response to opposition. In times when this threat of retribution abated, the famine-ridden communities showed more opposition to Moscow, both short- and long-term. Thus, repression can both deter and inflame opposition, depending on the political opportunity structure in which post-repression behavior unfolds.

Why do armies sometimes surrender to the enemy and sometimes fight to the bitter end? Existing research has highlighted the importance of battlefield resolve for the onset, conduct, and outcome of war, but has left these life-and-death decisions mostly unexplained. We know little about why battle-level surrender occurs, and why it stops. In this paper, we argue that surrender emerges from a collective-action problem: success in battle requires that soldiers choose to fight as a unit rather than flee, but individual decisions to fight depend on whether soldiers expect their comrades to do the same. Surrender becomes contagious across battles because soldiers take cues from what other soldiers did when they were in a similar position. Where no recent precedent exists, mass surrender is unlikely. We find empirical support for this claim using a new data set of conventional battles in all interstate wars from 1939 to 2011. These findings advance our understanding of battlefield resolve, with broader implications for the design of political-military institutions and decisions to initiate, continue, and terminate war.

We studied the effect of annealing on magnetic properties and structure of Heusler-type NiMnGa glass-covered microwires with a metallic nucleus diameter of about 22 μm prepared using the Taylor–Ulitovsky method. The as-prepared NiMnGa glass-covered microwires do not present ferromagnetic order at room temperature. Magnetization curves of the as-prepared samples do not present either saturation or coercivity at temperatures above 5 K. After annealing of the microwires, a ferromagnetic ordering is obtained with a Curie temperature of about 300 K which is beneficial for magnetic solid state refrigeration. The hysteresis observed on temperature dependence of magnetization in annealed samples and magnetic softening at about 260 K has been interpreted as the first-order phase transformation. Observed changes have been discussed considering internal stress relaxation after annealing, nanocrystalline structure of the as-prepared and annealed samples, recrystallization process and magnetic ordering of phases identified in the as-prepared sample and appearing under recrystallization. Existence of insulating and flexible glass-coating is beneficial for improvement of mechanical properties but the glass coating considerably affects magnetic properties of NiMnGa microwires. Therefore special attention must be paid to annealing conditions for realization of martensitic transformation.

Within a single conflict, the scale of government violence against civilians can vary greatly—from mass atrocities in one village to eerie restraint in the next. This article argues that the scale of anticivilian violence depends on a combatant's relative dependence on local and external sources of support. External resources make combatants less dependent on the local population, yet create perverse incentives for how the population is to be treated. Efforts by the opposition to interdict the government's external resources can reverse this effect, making the government more dependent on the local population. The article tests this relationship with disaggregated archival data on German-occupied Belarus during World War II. It finds that Soviet partisan attacks against German personnel provoked reprisals against civilians but that attacks against railroads had the opposite effect. Where partisans focused on disrupting German supply lines rather than killing Germans, occupying forces conducted fewer reprisals, burned fewer houses, and killed fewer people.

This article offers the first disaggregated, quantitative comparison of Islamist and nationalist violence, using new data from Russia's North Caucasus. We find that violence by Islamist groups is less sensitive to government coercion than violence by nationalist groups. Selective counterinsurgency tactics outperform indiscriminate force in suppressing attacks by nationalists, but not Islamists. We attribute this finding to rebels’ support structure. Because Islamist insurgents rely less on local support than nationalists, they are able to maintain operations even where it is relatively costly for the local population to support them. These findings have potentially significant implications for other contemporary conflicts in which governments face both types of challenges to their authority and existing political order.

A recent study by Cid et al. (2012) showed that full halo coronal mass ejections (CMEs) coming from the limb can disturb the terrestrial environment. Although this result seems to rise some controversies with the well established theories, the fact is that the study encourages the scientific community to perform careful multidisciplinary analysis along the Sun-to-Earth chain to fully understand which are the solar triggers of terrestrial disturbances. This paper aims to clarify some of the polemical issues arisen by that paper.

In the framework of the study of the relationship between crystal packing of solid dyes and their visible reflectance spectra, the crystal structure of 3-methoxy-7H-benz[de]anthracen-7-one (Disperse Yellow 13, C18H12O2) has been determined using a combined set of Bragg–Brentano diffractometer and Guinier–Johannson photographic data with the grid search procedure. Parameters of the orthorhombic cell (P212121, No.19, Z=4) at 295 K are a=15.265(9) Å, b=20.524(9) Å, c=3.990(2) Å. Rietveld refinement gave Rp=0.085, Rb=0.135. The molecules form stacks along [001] with an interplanar spacing of 3.46 Å.

In this work, an Atomic Force Microscope in the so-called Piezoresponse mode and Kelvin mode is used to image the grains, ferroelectric domains and surface potential in lithium niobate thin films. A RF magnetron sputter system was used to deposit LiNbO3 thin films on (100)-oriented Si substrates with SiO2 layer. The surface of the sample shows small grains which diameter ranges from 70 nm to 150 nm and roughness is less than 13 nm. Using the electric field from a biased conducting AFM tip, we show that possible to form and subsequently to visualize ferroelectric state. Also, we report surface charge retention on ferroelectric thin films by Kelvin probe microscope in comparison with the piezoresponse signal.

This paper discusses a new type of wire media based on amorphous ferromagnetic microwires. The combination of two effects, namely, a strong dispersion of the effective permittivity in metallic wire composites (resonance or plasmonic type) and giant magnetoimpedance effect in wires will result in unusual property that an effective dielectric response may strongly depend on the wire magnetization which can be changed with different external stimuli. We have demonstrated the effect of the external magnetic field on microwave response from composites containing CoFeSiBCr amorphous wires in free space at microwave frequency.

The new technologies of operative monitoring of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) condition at the bottom seas and search for the lost objects with SNF at the bottom using Kr-85, are developed. The development of the ship low-level background complex (Kr-85, tritium etc.) for radionuclide anomalies searching in the sea is launched also. The purpose of a carried out stage of researches is the development new paradigm of sea radioecology based on a preliminary experimental research of kinetics of release fission products (85Kr and 137Cs) from SNF, with the subsequent realization expedition (including preliminary radionuclide measurements on a vessel!) and modeling researches of 85Kr transport in near-bottom layer for minimization of points of sampling (stations and working horizons) on the hydrological data of expedition area (with use of a fractal formalism). Final result of the project is the conservative estimation of risks to the population and environment at its pollution in case of release of a radioactivity from dumped ship reactor and NPS with the not unloaded SNF.

The effect of the external magnetic field on the dispersion of the effective permittivity in arrays of parallel CoFe-based amorphous wires is demonstrated by measuring S-parameters in free space in the frequency band of 0.9-17 GHz. The magnetic field is applied along the wires sensitively changing their magnetization and high frequency impedance. Based on the measurements of magneto-impedance in a single wire and transmission/reflection spectra of composites in free space, we show the correlation between magneto-impedance and the field dependence of the effective permittivity.

This observational study analysed the lesson content of 24 instrumental lessons (piano, strings and winds) using a gender-balanced sample (equal numbers of male/female teachers and students) from five Australian higher education institutions to ascertain the priorities of topics in advanced applied music lessons in the Western Classical tradition. The results were analysed according to gender to determine differences of approach between male and female teachers and male and female students. Same-gender and different-gender pairings were also considered. Technique was found to be of the greatest importance, followed by Articulation and Expression. Some gender differences have emerged between the teachers, with the male teachers tending towards a more analytical approach and the female teachers adopting more balanced lesson content. The treatment of students showed some divergence, with greater emphasis on Expression in the lessons of female students, whereas the male students studied more Structure. The results demonstrate stereotypical gender behaviour among the teachers and towards their students not previously observed in this educational setting.

We present studies on a series of ICMEs detected by Ulysses and for which the solar sources on the Sun could be identified. EUV and white light data are used in order to correlate characteristics seen during eruption with those measured in-situ. Particularly, an attempt was made to find solar features that show a relationship with the type of ICME seen later (i.e. cloud or non-cloud ICME). For magnetic clouds (MC) the chirality of the magnetic field was then analyzed. Finally, the charge states of oxygen ions contained in ICMEs were used to obtain freezing-in temperatures and then compare these with the presence of flares occurring close (spatially and temporally) to the CME eruption.

We have found no solar feature that could be used to predict the presence of a MC in interplanetary space, they occur with the same frequency for cloud and non-cloud ICMEs. The chirality of the clouds seems to follow only weakly the hemisphere rule. The presence of solar flares do not seem to be correlated with the oxygen freezing-in temperatures seen in-situ.

Observations of the low solar corona, in particular in the EUV, are an effective means of identifying the solar sources of coronal mass ejections (CMEs). SOHO/EIT, with its continuous 24 hours per day coverage, is well suited to perform this task. Source regions and start times of frontside full and partial halo CMEs (that may be geoeffective) can thus be determined. The most frequent EUV signatures of CMEs are coronal dimmings. EIT waves, eruptive filaments and post-eruption arcades are also reliable signatures. Frontside halo CMEs with source regions close to the solar disc center have the strongest chance to hit the Earth. The inspection of the EIT data together with photospheric magnetograms may give an idea about the ejected interplanetary flux rope magnetic field and, in particular, about the presence or absence of southward (geoeffective) field. If a source region is situated close to the solar limb, the corresponding CME also may be geoeffective, as the CME-driven shocks have large angular extent. In this case the storm can be produced by the sheath plasma behind the shock, provided it contains strong enough southward interplanetary magnetic field. Some implications for the operational space weather forecast are discussed. EIT and LASCO are capable to identify the solar sources of the most of geomagnetic storms. In some cases, however, the identification is uncertain, so the observations by the future STEREO mission will be needed for the investigation of similar events.To search for other articles by the author(s) go to: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html

1.5 micron range emission has been realized using the InAs quantum dots embedded into the metamorphic InGaAs layer containing 20% of InAs grown by MBE on a GaAs substrate. Growth regimes were optimized to reduce significantly the density of dislocations propagating into the active layer from the lattice mismatched interface. 2 mm long InGaAs/InGaAlAs lasers with 10 planes of quantum dots in the active region showed threshold current density about 1.4 kA/cm2 with the external differential efficiency as high as 38%. Lasing wavelength depends on the optical loss being in the 1.44–1.49 micron range at room temperature. On increasing the temperature the wavelength reaches 1.515 micron at 85C while the threshold current characteristic temperature of 55–60K was estimated. High internal quantum efficiency (η>60%) and low internal losses (α=3–4 cm-1 ) were realized. Maximum room temperature output power in pulsed regime as high as 5.5 W for 100 micron wide stripe was demonstrated. Using the same concept 1.3 micron InGaAs/InGaAlAs quantum well lasers were fabricated. The active region contained quantum wells with high (∼40%) indium content which was possible due to the intermediate InGaAs strain relaxation layer. 1 mm stripe lasers showed room temperature threshold current densities about 3.3 kA/cm2 (λ=1.29 micron) and 400 A/cm2 at 85K. Thus, the use of metamorphic InGaAs layers on GaAs substrate is a very promising approach for increasing the emission wavelength of GaAs based lasers.