Yu. A. Popov

Upper Jurassic Lagerstätte Shar Teg, southwestern Mongolia

One of the most interesting Mesozoic Lagerstätten, Shar Teg in southwestern Mongolia, is reviewed. The geological structure and oryctocoenoses of Shar Teg are described. Shar Teg is one of the most diverse Jurassic Lagerstätten in terms of fossils represented. Fossils from Shar Teg include aquatic and terrestrial plants, mollusks, crustaceans, insects, fishes, amphibians, reptiles, and mammals. Insects are the most diverse group. To date, a total of 297 species of 161 families and 22 orders have been described or recorded in Shar Teg, making it possible to reconstruct comprehensively the Jurassic biota of the locality. The oryctocoenosis composition is peculiar; it includes only six species described from other localities. The oryctocoenosis appears to link the faunas of eastern Asia, Central Asia, and Europe. A total of 31 new species are described.

A new lace bug species of the genus Sinaldocader (Hemiptera: heteroptera, tingidae) from the turonian of southwestern Kazakhstan

Sinaldocader rasnitsyni sp.nov. (Heteroptera, Tingidae) is described from the Upper Cretaceous (Turonian) of southwestern Kazakhstan (Kzyl-Dzhar locality).

First new fossil plant bugs of the genus Psallops Usinger, 1946 (Hemiptera: Heteroptera, Miridae, Psallopinae) from the Eocene Baltic amber

The extinct members of the Psallopinae are important for classifying and understanding the relationships among the closely related mirid groups Isometopinae, Psallopinae (sensu Schuh, 1976) and Cylapinae. These subfamilies are considered to be the most primitive sister groups among mirids and their taxonomical composition, geographical distribution and life history are still poorly known. Extant Psallopinae appear to live on tree trunks and bark. For instance, the species Psallops myiocephalus Yas. from Japan is only known from an oak Quercus acutissima (Yasunaga, 1999). The 14 extant species of this genus have been described from Old World tropics, subtropics and warm temperate regions: Micronesia (Guam, Marian and Caroline Islands), Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Ghana, Congo, Singapore, South Africa, Japan, China, Taiwan and Thailand (Usinger, 1946; Carvalho, 1956; Linnavuori & Alamy, 1986; Schuh, 1995; Yasunaga, 1999; Lin, 2004, 2006; Yasunaga & Yamada, 2010; Herczek & Popov, 2014).

Paleoentomology of Mongolia

The scientific value of insect fossils is very high. The first remains of insects were discovered during the third Asian expedition of the American Museum of Natural History (1923) to the Anda-Khuduk locality. To date, 112 localities, from the Permian to Neogene, have been found in Mongolia, including the world’s largest lagerstätten Böön Tsagaan and Shar Teg. Most of them are Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous localities; Jurassic localities are significantly less numerous than Lower Cretaceous ones, which account for more than half of all known localities. Paleoentomological surveys have been performed with a varying intensity by the Joint Soviet–Mongolian Paleontological Expedition (JSMPE) and Joint Russian–Mongolian Paleontological Expedition (JRMPE) since 1970. A total of 17 expedition trips have been carried out. As a result, several tens of thousands of insect remains representing 29 orders, 299 families, 695 genera, and 870 species were obtained. However, the systematic position of many forms, especially homopetrans, coleopterans, and dipterans, has not been described or often even identified. More than 300 works have been published on the fossil insects of Mongolia, but less than half of the collected material has been described. Along with the paleontological collections, considerable attention was paid to paleoecological observations. To understand the history of water bodies, detailed studying and description of the structure of sediments and their stratigraphy have been performed. It has been revealed that ecosystems of ancient water bodies differed significantly from what could be restored based on Recent analogues. A new scheme of stratigraphic relationships between Jurassic and Cretaceous localities is provided. The analysis of paleogegraphic distribution of insect remains showed that localities of western Mongolia belong to a different paleozoogeographic division than the rest of its territory, which is biotically similar to Transbaikalia and China.

Automation system for the large solar vacuum telescope

The architecture, composition, specific features of operation, and technical characteristics of an automated control system of the Large Solar Vacuum Telescope of the Baikal astrophysical observatory are considered. The system is used for automation of both the observation process (automatic telescope guiding to the Sun, selection of a needed region in the solar disk image, guiding based on prescribed coordinates, and video monitoring of the basic subsystems of the telescope) and the auxiliary operations (evacuation, siderostat mirror unloading, and dome control).

Instrument for measuring temperature dependences of characteristics of semiconductor structures

This paper presents an instrument designed to study temperature dependences of the small-signal capacitance and current of semiconductor structures in the range from −180 to +300 °C.

Device for the study of nonequilibrium phenomena in semiconductor structures

A device for studying the relaxation dynamics of nonequilibrium capacitance and charge in the mode of nonequilibrium depletion of MIS structures is designed. Methods of measurements were developed that provide a sensitivity of 0.03 pF and 0.02 pC along the capacitance and charge measurement channels with the acceleration time 1.5 µs and 0.7 µs, respectively. The results are obtained with a double amplitude of the test signal of capacitance measurement of ∼15 mV and frequency 5 MHz. A mode of measuring the capacitance-voltage characteristics with a scanning duration up to 100 s is implemented.

A 24-Bit Data Acquisition System

A 24-bit data acquisition system is developed for recording and processing seismic signals. The system contains a 24-channel analog-to-digital converter and controlling microcontroller. Data accumulation and processing is carried out by a personal computer to which the data acquisition system is connected via an RS-232 channel and high-speed synchronous channel.

A new family of anthocoroid hemipterans (Hemiptera: Heteroptera, Cimicomorpha) from Cretaceous Taimyr amber

A new unusual anthocoroid monotypic family, Taimyrocoridae fam. nov., is described from Late Cretaceous resin of the Taimyr Peninsula (Yantardakh, Coniacian–Santonian). The available data on the other records of hemipterans from the Late Cretaceous localities Yantardakh (Coniacian–Santonian), Baikura (Santonian), and Nizhnyaya Agapa (Cenomanian) are presented.

Scanning tunneling microscope coupled with a tunnel current spectrometer

A scanning tunneling microscope equipped with an attachment for high-resolution tunneling spectroscopy is described. The electronic unit of the microscope provides advance of the needle, scanning, and measurement of the tunneling current, and has means for coupling with a tunnel current spectrometer. The spectrometer uses a modulation procedure for measuring the second derivative of the volt-ampere characteristic of the tunneling gap and has a sensitivity of up to 0.25 pA for a modulating signal amplitude of 2 mV.