Brownian Carnot engine

The Carnot cycle imposes a fundamental upper limit to the efficiency of a macroscopic motor operating between two thermal baths. However, this bound needs to be reinterpreted at microscopic scales, where molecular bio-motors and some artificial micro-engines operate. As described by stochastic thermodynamics, energy transfers in microscopic systems are random and thermal fluctuations induce transient decreases of entropy, allowing for possible violations of the Carnot limit. Here we report an experimental realization of a Carnot engine with a single optically trapped Brownian particle as the working substance. We present an exhaustive study of the energetics of the engine and analyse the fluctuations of the finite-time efficiency, showing that the Carnot bound can be surpassed for a small number of non-equilibrium cycles. As its macroscopic counterpart, the energetics of our Carnot device exhibits basic properties that one would expect to observe in any microscopic energy transducer operating with baths at different temperatures. Our results characterize the sources of irreversibility in the engine and the statistical properties of the efficiency-an insight that could inspire new strategies in the design of efficient nano-motors.

Foreign policy at the service of modernisation: old wine in a new wineskin. OSW Commentary No. 39, 2010-08-31

Russia’s contacts with the external world over the past year have been characterised by a gradual improvement in its relations with the West, as well as the use of non-confrontational rhetoric, the most far-reaching example of which was the address President Dmitri Medvedev gave to Russian ambassadors this July. In an attempt to harmonise foreign policy with the widely propagated programme for the modernisation of Russia1 President Medvedev presented a vision of the Russian Federation as a responsible global power which is open to co-operation. According to this vision, Russian foreign policy would help to attract foreign investments and technologies. The West was presented as a partner, not a rival. Both this rhetoric and the atmosphere of co-operation in relations with the USA and the EU contrast with the assertive and aggressive Russian policy which was symbolised by and culminated in the Russian-Georgian conflict of 2008. The changes observed in Russian foreign policy are quite limited, and are not constructing a new external strategy. Those changes are rather an attempt to find more efficient ways to implement old strategic goals. The new image of a responsible global power is inconsistent, and Russian policy is still assertive and geopolitically motivated. Although a new rhetoric is really in place, the Russian political elite’s perception of their country’s place and role in the contemporary international order remains unchanged. Moscow’s readiness to become engaged in genuine co-operation with the West has not increased significantly; it is still to a great extent declarative in nature.

Russia's strategy towards Moldova: continuation or change? OSW Commentary No. 74, 2012-04-19

The nomination on 21 March of deputy prime minister Dmitri Rogozin to the newly created post of the Russian president’s special representative for Transnistria and to the post of co-chairman of the Russian-Moldovan intergovernmental committee demonstrates the Kremlin’s increased interest in Moldova, and may be a sign of a change in Russia’s strategy towards this country. Other developments which may suggest a revival of Russia’s policy towards Moldova include the appointment on 5 April of Farit Mukhametshin as Russia’s new ambassador in Chisinau. Mukhametshin is a high-ranking official who had previously headed the Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States, Compatriots Living Abroad and International Humanitarian Cooperation (Rossotrudnichestvo), which is one of the major instruments of Russia’s ‘soft power’ policy towards the post-Soviet states. The Kremlin’s growing interest in Moldova has further been confirmed by an unprecedented visit by Russia’s defence minister Anatoly Serdyukov to Transnistria on 12 April, and a two-day visit by Dmitri Rogozin to Chisinau and Tiraspol on 16–17 April.

Simfonii͡a dli͡a orkestra = [music] : Symphonie für Orchester : Op. 10 /

Re-issued from the plates of Universal-Edition, originally those of State Music Publishers, Moscow.

Symphony no. 4, op. 43. [music] /

Mode of access: Internet.

Kitaĭsko-russkiĭ slovar : po graficheskoĭ sistemi︠e︡ /

Chinese title at head of t.p.

Vozstanīe Uota Taĭlera : ocherki iz istorīi razlozhenīi︠a︡ feodalʹnago stroi︠a︡ v Anglīi /

Includes bibliographical references.

Sobranīe sochineniĭ.

Romanized.

Istorīi︠a︡ Gret︠s︡īi so vremeni peloponneskoĭ voĭny; sbornik stateĭ.

Mode of access: Internet.

Knizhnye znaki D.I. Mitrokhina.

At head of title: Vsevolod Voinov.

Slova i zhiznʹ, literaturnye spory novi︠e︡ĭshago vremeni (1901-1908gg.)

Russian text.

D.I. Ilovaĭskago melkīi͡a sochinenīi͡a, statʹi i pisʹma : 1856-1895 gg.

Publisher varies: vyp. 1: Tip. M.G. Volchaninova.

Matematicheskīi︠a︡ i umozritelʹno-filosofskīi︠a︡ izsli︠e︡dovanīi︠a︡ osnovnogo psikho-fizicheskago zakona /

Includes bibliographical references.

Chetyre lekt︠s︡īi po filosofīi matematiki, prochitannyi︠a︡ na vremennykh kursakh dli︠a︡ prepodavateleĭ sredneĭ shkoly li︠e︡tom 1912 goda /

Mode of access: Internet.