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In this paper, we present a brief critical analysis of the data, methodology, and results of the most recent publication on the computational phylogeny of the Indo-European family (Heggarty et al. 2023), comparing them to previous efforts in this area carried out by (roughly) the same team of scholars (informally designated as the “New Zealand school”), as well as concurrent research by scholars belonging to the “Moscow school” of historical linguistics. We show that the general quality of the lexical data used as the basis for classification has significantly improved from earlier studies, reflecting a more careful curation process on the part of qualified historical linguists involved in the project; however, there remain serious issues when it comes to marking cognation between different characters, such as failure (in many cases) to distinguish between true cognacy and areal diffusion and the inability to take into account the influence of the so-called derivational drift (independent morphological formations from the same root in languages belonging to different branches). Considering that both the topological features of the resulting consensus tree and the established datings contradict historical evidence in several major aspects, these shortcomings may partially be responsible for the results. Our principal conclusion is that the correlation between the number of included languages and the size of the list may simply be insufficient for a guaranteed robust topology; either the list should be drastically expanded (not a realistic option for various practical reasons) or the number of compared taxa be reduced, possibly by means of using intermediate reconstructions for ancestral stages instead of multiple languages (the principle advocated by the Moscow school ).

Proton-ceramic fuel cells (PCFCs) are promising devices for electrochemical energy conversion purposes due to their combination of high energy efficiency, environmental friendliness, and high durability. In the present work, the polarization characteristics of promising electrodes for PCFCs based on BaFexCe0.7−xZr0.2Y0.1O3−δ (BCZYFx) are comprehensively studied. Along with the individual BCZYFx electrodes, we investigated a method for improving their electrochemical activity by introducing nanoparticles of PrOx electrocatalysts into the porous structure of the electrode material. According to the experimental data, electroactivation allowed for the polarization resistances of the electrodes at 700 °C to be reduced from 1.16, 0.27, 0.62 Ω°cm2 to 0.09, 0.13, 0.43 Ω°cm2 for x = 0.5, 0.6, and 0.7, respectively. For a PCFC cell with an air electrode of BCZYF0.6 composition activated using PrOx nanoparticles, it was possible to achieve a maximum specific power of 300 mW cm−2 at 750 °C, which is competitive for a single cell with Co-free cathodes. The results obtained provide insight into the processes occurring in the studied electrodes after electroactivation. It is shown how the improvement of electrochemical characteristics of the electrode can be realized by a simple infiltration method in combination with a subsequent thermal treatment.

In this paper, we present the results of our analysis of the 110-item basic wordlists for four reconstructed and one ancient languages, the linguistic ancestors of five language families which are hypothesized to constitute the Altaic (a.k.a. Transeurasian) macrofamily: Proto-Turkic, Proto-Mongolic, Proto-Tungusic, Middle Korean and Proto-Japonic wordlists. Protolanguage wordlists were reconstructed according to strict criteria of semantic reconstruction, based on accurate semantic glossing of forms in daughter languages. Each involved form was encoded into a bi-consonantal CC -shaped sequence using the consonant class method, after which a recently developed weighted permutation test was applied. In a typical situation, our algorithm makes a small number of type 1 errors (false positive), but the number of type 2 errors (false negative) can be substantial. Our main finding is that pairs between the Nuclear Altaic taxa – Turkic, Mongolic and Tungusic – as well as the Turkic-Japonic and Tungusic-Japonic pairs demonstrate significant p -values. In some cases, this can be attributed to either ancient contacts or genealogical relationships, but at least for the Turkic–Japonic pair, a contact scenario is unlikely owing to geographical remoteness.

Proton-ceramic fuel cells (PCFCs) are promising devices for electrochemical energy conversion purposes due to their combination of high energy efficiency, environmental friendliness, and high durability. In the present work, the polarization characteristics of promising electrodes for PCFCs based on BaFe[sub.x]Ce[sub.0.7−x]Zr[sub.0.2]Y[sub.0.1]O[sub.3−δ] (BCZYFx) are comprehensively studied. Along with the individual BCZYFx electrodes, we investigated a method for improving their electrochemical activity by introducing nanoparticles of PrO[sub.x] electrocatalysts into the porous structure of the electrode material. According to the experimental data, electroactivation allowed for the polarization resistances of the electrodes at 700 °C to be reduced from 1.16, 0.27, 0.62 Ω°cm[sup.2] to 0.09, 0.13, 0.43 Ω°cm[sup.2] for x = 0.5, 0.6, and 0.7, respectively. For a PCFC cell with an air electrode of BCZYF0.6 composition activated using PrO[sub.x] nanoparticles, it was possible to achieve a maximum specific power of 300 mW cm[sup.−2] at 750 °C, which is competitive for a single cell with Co-free cathodes. The results obtained provide insight into the processes occurring in the studied electrodes after electroactivation. It is shown how the improvement of electrochemical characteristics of the electrode can be realized by a simple infiltration method in combination with a subsequent thermal treatment.

The Kets, an ethnic group in the Yenisei River basin, Russia, are considered the last nomadic hunter-gatherers of Siberia and Ket language has no transparent affiliation with any language family. We investigated connections between the Kets and Siberian and North American populations, with emphasis on the Mal’ta and Paleo-Eskimo ancient genomes, using original data from 46 unrelated samples of Kets and 42 samples of their neighboring ethnic groups (Uralic-speaking Nganasans, Enets and Selkups). We genotyped over 130,000 autosomal SNPs, identified mitochondrial and Y-chromosomal haplogroups and performed high-coverage genome sequencing of two Ket individuals. We established that Nganasans, Kets, Selkups and Yukaghirs form a cluster of populations most closely related to Paleo-Eskimos in Siberia (not considering indigenous populations of Chukotka and Kamchatka). Kets are closely related to modern Selkups and to some Bronze and Iron Age populations of the Altai region, with all these groups sharing a high degree of Mal’ta ancestry. Implications of these findings for the linguistic hypothesis uniting Ket and Na-Dene languages into a language macrofamily are discussed.

First of all, we would like to express sincere gratitude to our colleagues Petri Kallio (PK), Brett Kessler (BK), and Don Ringe (DR), hence the referees, who were kind enough to read our paper on Indo-Uralic (Kassian, Zhivlov & Starostin 2015) with due care and suggest a number of comments, both favorable and critical. [...]in response to DR's skepticism concerning the capacity of probability tests to ever yield \"solid proof of relationship\": we may not have stressed this firmly enough in the original text, but the idea was not to devise the \"ultimate\" probability test that would finally provide such a proof.

Standard methodology suggests that we reject the null hypothesis (accidental resemblance) and offer a more plausible explanation for the observed similarities. Since the known typology of language contacts does not speak in favor of explaining the observed Indo-Uralic matches as old lexical borrowings, the optimal explanation is seen in the hypothesis of an Indo-Uralic genetic relationship, with the 7 matching pairs in question representing archaic retentions, left over from the original Indo-Uralic protolanguage. 1. [...]this positive probabilistic result is mostly based on coincidences that are unlikely to reflect true etymological sound correspondences, such as IE *d - Finno-Ugric *p, etc.