An outpost of socialism in the Buddhist Orient: geopolitical and eugenic implications of medical and anthropological research on Buryat-Mongols in the 1920s

Cet article dévoile les contextes géopolitiques et eugéniques de la recherche médicale et anthropologique sur les Bouriates, dont l’état de santé s’est détérioré au point de devenir un sujet de grave préoccupation au début des années 1920, lorsque l’autonomie nationale bouriate fut créée au sein de la RSFSR.This article unveils the geopolitical and eugenic contexts of medical and anthropological research on the Buryats, whose deteriorating health became a matter of serious concern in the early 1920s, when the Buryat national autonomy was created within the RSFSR

Soviet Physicians and Struggle against Epidemics in Xinjiang: Late 1920s – 1940s

Introduction. The long-overlooked topic of Soviet–Xinjiang medical cooperation can facilitate a better understanding of why Xinjiang was that important to the USSR in the interwar period. Paradoxically, the ‘soft power’ of Soviet medicine was able to come into fruition not in the ideologically friendly Mongolian and Tuvan People’s Republics — but in the turbulent Xinjiang against the background of disastrous social cataclysms of the 1930s and 1940s. Goals. The article aims to examine Soviet medical and sanitary assistance to the region through the prism of epidemic control efforts that constituted an important aspect of interaction. Materials and methods. The study analyzes documents from collections A-482 (‘Ministry of Health of the RSFSR’) and Р-8009 (‘Ministry of Health of the USSR’) of the State Archive of the Russian Federation. The geopolitical, retrospective, and comparative approaches shape a basis of the research agenda. Results. Soviet physicians were implementing the ‘soft power’ of healthcare through professionalism and selfless service to humanistic ideals under constant ethnic disturbances and strictly limited propaganda opportunities. The struggle against epidemics constituted one of the ‘pillars’ of interaction, since the medical advisers not only saved thousands of lives in Xinjiang but also instilled respect for the power of Soviet healthcare and protected the Soviet frontiers from dangerous pathogens. Conclusions. The Soviet Union invested significant human and material resources to support Xinjiang at the peril of Soviet physicians’ lives not out of mere altruism but rather following rational security concerns with a view to expand influence. The struggle against epidemics in the traditional, archaic Xinjiang society with utmost fear of plague and smallpox strengthened the authority of not only health professionals but also that of the USSR as a scientific and medical power

Diseases and their origins in the traditional worldview of Buryats : folk medicine methods

La nature des maladies dans les perceptions traditionnelles des peuples mongols est un phénomène peu étudié qui nécessite une étude approfondie. Dans les croyances des gens de culture traditionnelle toute maladie est considérée comme un écart par rapport à une norme. C’est une mauvaise conséquence d’une perturbation humaine de l’ordre des interactions entre le monde des hommes et le monde des divinités et des esprits, et, comme tel, il est inscrit dans la langue. Traiter une maladie consistait en une « correction» ou élimination magique de la perturbation, suivie par des pratiques et des rites associés à des méthodes thérapeutiques pratiques de type magique elles aussi.The nature of diseases in the traditional perceptions of the Mongolian peoples is an understudied phenomenon that requires an in-depth study. In the beliefs of the people of traditional culture any illness is seen as a divergence from a norm. It is a bad consequence of a human disturbance of the order of interaction between the world of men and the world of deities and spirits, and, as such, it is fixated in the language. Curing of a disease consisted in magical “correction” or elimination of the disturbance followed by magical practices and rites coupled with practical therapeutic methods

Numerical simulations of bone remodelling and formation following nucleotomy

Nucleotomy is the gold standard treatment for disc herniation and has proven ability to restore stability by creating a bony bridge without any additional fixation. However, the evolution of mineral density in the extant and new bone after nucleotomy and fixation techniques has to date not been investigated in detail. The main goal of this study is to determine possible mechanisms that may trigger the bone remodelling and formation processes. With that purpose, a finite element model of the L4–L5 spinal segment was used. Bone mineral density (BMD), new tissue composition, and endplate deflection were determined as indicators of lumbar fusion. A bone-remodelling algorithm and a tissue-healing algorithm, both mechanically driven, were implemented to predict vertebral bone alterations and fusion patterns after nucleotomy, internal fixation, and anterior plate placement. When considering an intact disc height, neither nucleotomy nor internal fixation were able to provide the necessary stability to promote bony fusion. However, when 75% of the disc height was considered, bone fusion was predicted for both techniques. By contrast, an anterior plate allowed bone fusion at all disc heights. A 50% disc-height reduction led to osteophyte formation in all cases. Changes in the intervertebral disc tissue caused BMD alterations in the endplates. From this observations it can be drawn that fusion may be self-induced by controlling the mechanical stabilisation without the need of additional fixation. The amount of tissue to be removed to achieve this stabilisation remains to be determined

To the Question about the Rings on the Ice of Lake Baikal

More than 20 years in the monitoring of the Earth's surface with spacecraft in the spring on a snow-covered ice of Lake Baikal regularly observe giant rings with diameter of up to 8 km. Most researchers agree that the appearance of rings connected with a different kind of activity of the lake bottom. This may be mud volcanoes, which are not uncommon in Baikal, or methane emissions of bottom sediments in the form of hot jets. Anyway, the determining factor for the appearance of rings are thermal processes. So as ice lies on the water, the thermal conductivity equations must also attract and equations of hydrodynamics. Thus, the study of rings on the lies lies solid basis of the mathematical description. The article gives some figures related to the rings. Briefly describes what led the joint consideration of the equations of fluid dynamics and heat transfer in the study of giant rings on a snow-covered Lake Baikal ice field

To the Question of the Independence of the Surface Electromagnetic Wave Frequency

Earth's the surface is often strongly inductive, consisting of a dielectric layer thickness endpoint, lying on an unlimited conductor basis. Electromagnetic wave, spreading along the surface, it appears captured dielectric layer, spreading it as in the waveguide channel. Waveguide theory it is known that the spread in the waveguide can only electromagnetic waves with a discrete set of frequencies. And experience shows that the captured waveguide channel electromagnetic waves can be any frequency. The article found that this behavior is due to the fact that electromagnetic waves in free space border - dielectric layer damped height in several wavelengths. Thus the thickness of the dielectric layer becomes more effectively, and this leads to a reduction of the minimum frequency of the waveguide. A discrete set of frequencies is blurred so that cover each other. Thus, a discrete set of frequencies becomes solid, and captured waveguide channel electromagnetic waves are independent of frequency

Ethnographic accounts of visitors from the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy to the Asian peripheries of Russia and their contribution to the development of systematic ethnological studies in the Monarchy: Preliminary results and research perspectives

The authors intend to provide an overview of the diaries, travelogues, and correspondence of Austro-Hungarians who traveled to the Asian peripheries of Russia during the Dual Monarchy. We aim to contribute to ongoing discussions on colonial discourses of otherness, as well as to the historical development of ethnographic scholarship in Europe. Travel writing, orientalism, and colonial encounters with Asian otherness are closely intermingling phenomena in the modern era. We argue that the rich corpus of visual and verbal representations of North-, Central-, and Inner-Asian peoples recorded by the subjects of the Dual Monarchy provides instructive examples of colonial encounters with non-colonizers in 19th century Asia. Furthermore, we believe that these examples will bring forth a more detailed picture of how the ideas born in the centers of German enlightenment (like Völkerkunde) impregnated the intellectual life of more peripheral regions in Europe. As ethnographic scholarship developed within national research traditions rather than in the frame of a monolithic, European intellectual project, our question is whether or not the Dual Monarchy provided a meaningful frame to bridge national research traditions

Mouthpart homologies and life habits of Mesozoic long-proboscid scorpionflies

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.Mesozoic long-proboscid scorpionflies (Mesopsychoidea) provide important clues to ancient plant-pollinator interactions. Among them, the family Aneuretopsychidae is especially important because its mouthparts are vital to deciphering the early evolution of Mesopsychoidea and putatively the origin of fleas (Siphonaptera). However, the identification of mouthpart homologs among Aneuretopsychidae remains controversial because of the lack of three-dimensional anatomical data. Here, we report the first Aneuretopsychidae from Late Cretaceous Burmese amber, which have short maxillary palpi and elongate mouthpart elements consisting of one pair of galeae and one hypopharynx. Their mouthparts are identical to those of Pseudopolycentropodidae (= Dualulidae, new synonym) but are not homologous to those of Siphonaptera. Our phylogenetic analysis provides robust evidence for the debated monophyly of Mesopsychoidea. Our results suggest that the long-proboscid condition has most likely evolved once in Mesopsychoidea, independently from fleas, and further reveal the variety and complexity of mid-Cretaceous pollinating insects

A Study of 323 Asymptomatic Volunteers

Background The understanding of the individual shape and mobility of the lumbar spine are key factors for the prevention and treatment of low back pain. The influence of age and sex on the total lumbar lordosis and the range of motion as well as on different lumbar sub-regions (lower, middle and upper lordosis) in asymptomatic subjects still merits discussion, since it is essential for patient-specific treatment and evidence-based distinction between painful degenerative pathologies and asymptomatic aging. Methods and Findings A novel non-invasive measuring system was used to assess the total and local lumbar shape and its mobility of 323 asymptomatic volunteers (age: 20–75 yrs; BMI <26.0 kg/m2; males/females: 139/184). The lumbar lordosis for standing and the range of motion for maximal upper body flexion (RoF) and extension (RoE) were determined. The total lordosis was significantly reduced by approximately 20%, the RoF by 12% and the RoE by 31% in the oldest (>50 yrs) compared to the youngest age cohort (20–29 yrs). Locally, these decreases mostly occurred in the middle part of the lordosis and less towards the lumbo- sacral and thoraco-lumbar transitions. The sex only affected the RoE. Conclusions During aging, the lower lumbar spine retains its lordosis and mobility, whereas the middle part flattens and becomes less mobile. These findings lay the ground for a better understanding of the incidence of level- and age-dependent spinal disorders, and may have important implications for the clinical long-term success of different surgical interventions

Изучение влагосодержания тропосферы над пунктом наблюдения ULAB (Улан-Батор) с использованием данных GPS-измерений, радиозондирований и приземной метеорологии

The water vapor content is calculated in a conditional vertical column to the tropopause level from remote sensing data on the lower atmosphere. The calculations are based on GPS measurements, surface meteorological data and vertical meteorological profiles produced by radiosondes.Atotal zenith tropospheric delay (ZTD) is estimated as a difference between an estimated straight line, along which the GPS signal propagates in vacuum, and alength of the pathbetween the signal source and the receiver, which is refracted in the real medium. A direct correlation is noted between changes in the ‘wet’ component of the tropospheric delay of the GPS signal and variations in the moisture content of the troposphere. A‘wet’ component value of the tropospheric delay can be converted with a very high confidence into a value of integral water vapor above the observation point.In order to determine the integral water vapor amounts over the ULAB (Ulaanbaatar) permanent GPS monitoring station, empirical equations were used for the linear regressions of the ratios of surface temperature and mean weighted temperature for the water vapor elasticity using the data of radiosondes launched in the city of Ulaanbaatar and Murensettlement. We studied the features of the dynamics of variations in the integral water vapor, surface values of atmospheric pressure, air temperature and precipitation volumes over the ULAB station, using the data of July 2016.Рассматривается определение содержания водяного пара в условном вертикальном столбе до уровня тропопаузы с использованием дистанционного зондирования нижней части атмосферы методом GPS-измерений приземных метеорологических параметров, а также вертикальных метеорологических профилей, полученных посредством запусков радиозондов. Полная тропосферная зенитная задержка является разностью между предполагаемой прямой линией, по которой GPS-сигнал распространяется в вакууме, и преломленной в реальной среде длиной пути от источника до приемника. Отмечена прямая связь изменений «влажной» компоненты тропосферной задержки сигнала GPS с вариациями влагосодержания тропосферы. Данные по «влажной» компоненте тропосферной задержки могут быть преобразованы с очень высокой достоверностью в данные по суммарному водяному пару над пунктом наблюдения. С целью определения уровней суммарного водяного пара над пунктом постоянных GPS-наблюдений ULAB (Улан-Батор) определены эмпирические выражения для линейных регрессий соотношений приземной температуры и средневзвешенной температуры по упругости водяного пара с применением данных запусков радиозондов в г. Улан-Баторе и п. Мурэн. Рассмотрены особенности динамики вариаций суммарного водяного пара, приземных значений атмосферного давления, температуры воздуха и количества выпавших атмосферных осадков над пунктом наблюдений ULAB в июле 2016 г.