The Eurasian cave lion was abundant across the Northern Hemisphere before the Late Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions. However, the extent of the distinction between cave and modern lions and their adaptive differences have remained unclear. Using 12 cave lion genomes spanning more than 100,000 years, we show that modern and cave lions were distinct evolutionary lineages with separate demographic histories and unique non-synonymous variants. We also identify evidence of ancient gene flow between them, with the best modern lion proxy for this ancestry being an extinct Southwest Asian population. This admixture correlates with global ice extent, with 3.2%-4.4% modern lion ancestry detected in a ∼20,000-year-old cave lion from Central East Asia. These findings provide insight into the evolutionary history of the cave lion, once one of the Northern Hemisphere's most ecologically impactful megafaunal species.
Introduction. In recent years, the research on kindness as a character trait has become a subject of increasing interest. The development of kindness in students is inextricably related to the study of kindness in teachers. However, there is the lack of critical attention paid to pedagogical kindness; the phenomenon of kindness has not been studied previously in Russia. This study aims to examine Russian teachers’ perceptions of kindness, its manifestations, and its importance for educational activities. Methods. The study participants (302 teachers) filled out an online questionnaire to define the concept of kindness, the way it manifests itself in educational activities, the importance of pedagogical kindness, and its impact on students, and also provided information on their gender, age, religiosity, presence and number of children, teaching experience, and the age group of students they work with. To process qualitative data, open coding and axial coding were used; multinomial logistic regression was used to identify associations between teachers’ perceptions of kindness and kind actions and sociodemographic variables. Results. The authors (a) identified five thematic categories in the definition of kindness: personal states and qualities, openness to others, understanding of others, external and internal actions and behaviors and (b) proposed a classification for pedagogically kind actions, according to their manifestations during skills and knowledge acquisition, educational activities accompanying educational process, and kindness outside school. No differences were found between teachers’ perceptions of kindness and kind actions and their sociodemographic characteristics. The teachers recognize the importance of pedagogical kindness and its positive impact on students. Discussion. Kindness is not equivalent to helping behavior. However, kindness usually manifests itself in behavior. Therefore, activity theory should be used as a framework for a further study of pedagogical kindness.
Ancient DNA has revolutionized the study of extinct and extant organisms that lived up to 2 million years ago, enabling the reconstruction of genomes from multiple extinct species, as well as the ecosystems where they once thrived. However, current DNA sequencing techniques alone cannot directly provide insights into tissue identity, gene expression dynamics, or transcriptional regulation, as these are encoded in the RNA fraction. Here, we report transcriptional profiles from 10 Late Pleistocene woolly mammoths. One of these, dated to be ∼39,000 years old, yielded sufficient detail to recover tissue-specific regulatory mechanisms and biological functions essential for skeletal muscle metabolism, representing the oldest ancient RNA sequences recorded to date. We showcase the potential to study ancient RNA molecules beyond preconceived limitations, providing an analytical framework for validating and decoding preserved transcriptomes through time. With our findings, we anticipate the emergence of integrative paleo-studies combining genomics, proteomics, and transcriptomics.
Reading is seen as an activity of consciousness, since it is only through consciousness that the reader comprehends and understands the text. The main thesis of this article is the following: the application of a phenomenological approach expands and deepens the boundaries of the direct experience of reading research. The specific conceptual apparatus of phenomenological analysis reflects the inseparable nature of the Consciousness-World dyad or the Self-Other-World triad. The focus is on the interrelationships between the reader and their lifeworld, and therefore, such concepts as “phenomenon”, “intentionality”, “lifeworld”, “natural attitude”, “phenomenological reduction”, and “biographically determined situation” become analytical tools. The Consciousness-World dyad defines the ontological and epistemological aspects of the study. The epistemological aspect is actualized by the question “What are the ways of understanding reading?”, which constitutes two modes of this phenomenon—that of the respondent/reader and that of the researcher studying reading. While the respondent draws on their own “biographically determined lifeworld situation”, the researcher’s perspective is shaped by theoretical constructs accepted in science. This article attempts to systematize existing definitions of reading according to four semantic types: procedural, communicative, semiotic, and praxeological. From an ontological perspective, the object of study is the reader’s “lifeworld”, shaped by the intersubjective world of everyday life in a local community, where a group of people share similar interests, goals, and habits and live in their natural environment.
Subject. The article explores the use of business and non-profit sector resources in public management of human capital formation in the region. Objectives. The purpose is to propose a universal model of extra-budgetary fund to support the sustainable socio-economic development of the subjects of the Russian Federation and identify the key conditions necessary for its creation and successful functioning. Methods. The study rests on the case method, retrospective and systems analyses. Results. The paper analyzes the Trust Fund for Future Generations of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), its history, functioning mechanisms, activities, key system projects’ results, their impact on human capital formation; demonstrates that the current concept of the organization's activities meets the objectives and strategic priorities of the region in human capital formation. It offers a universal model of extra-budgetary support for socio-economic development of the region, discusses the key conditions for its application in other regions of the Federation, advantages, main limitations and risks. Conclusions. An instrument of extra-budgetary support for socio-economic development in the form of a special fund that implements social projects through donations from large subsurface user companies operating in the region has a great potential. Furthermore, the fund acts as an institution of public administration for human capital formation in constituent entities of the Russian Federation.
