The Significance of Mongolia\u27s Foreign Policy and Security Apparatus on a Global and Regional Scale

Mongolia, land-locked between two politically, economically, and militarily powerful nations — Russia and China — often must balance its foreign and security policies with its two neighbors and countries beyond. When discussing Mongolia’s foreign policy and security apparatus, historians and scholars look at the international relations of East Asia as a whole. This is the case not because Mongolia’s foreign policy is insignificant but because greater powers impose greater influence on smaller states. Mongolia’s partial involvement in World War II (WWII), and the Cold War introduced new challenges as well as opportunities for Mongolia to modernize its foreign policy principles and security policies. In turn, this research paper offers ways to enhance and strengthen Mongolia’s foreign and security policies by carefully looking at historical turning points, addressing existing issues, and providing a solution-based analysis for policymakers. Moreover, while there is a burgeoning discussion on cybersecurity, as a non-traditional security threat, Mongolia’s cybersecurity apparatus is a new contribution to the existing literature. The research essay concludes that Mongolia’s foreign and security policies are effective, timely efficient in facing both the traditional and non-traditional threats. Keywords Mongolia, Foreign policy, security policy, cyber security, small states, diplomac

Burden, cost of disease and optimization of clinical practice of human cystic echinococcosis in Mongolia

Our goal was to facilitate prevention and control of cystic echinococcosis (CE) in Mongolia by measuring the disease burden and societal cost, investigating the zoonotic linkages, and identifying the key challenges in clinical management of CE with proposed improvement. The disease is caused by the larval stage of Echinococcus granulosus sensu lato, and transmitted between dogs and various species of ungulates and also transmitted to humans. In humans, large cystic lesions can occur, mainly in the liver and lungs. Mongolia is one of the areas most affected by CE. The numbers of dogs and livestock are high, and a nomadic herding lifestyle is commonly practiced in most parts of the country. However, existing health services in Mongolia for CE barely reach the targeted populations, and CE cases are only detected at a late stage. For adequate diagnosis and treatment, herders must often travel hundreds of kilometers. Surgical procedures and hospitalization, travel costs, and lifelong disability following complicated surgeries are common for most patients. There is very limited information on infection in livestock populations due to the lack of public slaughterhouses and animal surveillance tools in the country. We collected data on human CE cases from hospital records, statistical departments, and ultrasound examination records. Estimates of the reported incidence were used to calculate disability-adjusted life years (DALYs). To estimate the economic cost, we interviewed 65 patients who had CE surgery. The societal cost, including direct medical, direct non-medical and indirect costs, was estimated. We investigated the zoonotic linkages using the data of surgical CE cases and the livestock population of four species, including sheep, goats, cattle, and camels. To support the statistical analysis, samples were collected from CE infected animals in an endemic province. The subspecies identification, genetic diversity and haplotype network analysis were conducted. To understand the current clinical management of CE, we organized Focus Group Discussions (FGD), surveyed health professionals using a questionnaire. The ultrasound cyst images were reviewed by international experts to critically contrast current national practice with WHO-Informal Working Group on Echinococcosis (WHO-IWGE) guideline. Key challenges and further potential improvements were discussed during a workshop with Mongolian and international experts to reach consensus for standardization of clinical practice. The incidence of surgical cases, diagnosed cases, and total cases including undiagnosed cases was estimated to be 2.2 per 100 000, 15 per 100 000 and 60 per 100 000 person-years, respectively. The DALY was estimated to be 11461 for total cases including undiagnosed cases and 3017 for diagnosed cases. The total societal cost due to human CE is USD 2.7million which equals 0.024% of total gross domestic product (GDP). The cost decreases to USD 0.3million when the productivity loss of undiagnosed and diagnosed cases is excluded. The impact on the household economies is high for surgical cases where 76% of the direct cost is paid by the patients. In total out-of-pocket expense, the cost of albendazole contributed most. US images of 84 patients were staged and assessed for interrater-agreement. The average raw agreement was 77.2%. Unweighted Kappa coefficient and weighted Kappa was 0.57 and 0.59, respectively. Mean proportion of images judged as stages CE1, CE2, CE3a, CE3b, CE4 and CL were 0.59, 0.01, 0.19, 0.08, 0.03 and 0.11 respectively. 40 cysts met the inclusion criteria of treatment modality analysis. The mean proportion of cases with a single cyst assigned to medical, percutaneous treatment, surgery and watch & wait were 52.5% (95% CI 42-65), 25.8% (95% CI 15-30), 5.1% (95% CI 0-10) and 3.3% (95% CI 0.0-10), respectively. 13.3% (95% CI 5–25) of cysts were staged as CL and therefore assigned to further diagnostic requirement. The incidence of surgical CE cases increased by a factor of 1.71 for one interquartile range increment in the density of the camel population. No significant association was observed with other livestock species. The samples collected from 96 camels and 15 goats in an endemic region showed a CE prevalence of 19.7% and 6.7%, respectively. All livestock CE were caused by E.granulosus s.l. G6/7 (formerly identified as E.granulosus canadensis G6/7) of the of the E. granulosus s.l. complex. Four haplotypes were identified within the livestock samples, two of which had not been previously reported. A common haplotype was identified between humans, camels, goats, and a wolf, all of which were within the same geographical area. A mixed infection of E. granulosus s.l. G6/G7 with different haplotypes in the intermediate host was identified first time. This is the first estimate of the burden and societal cost of human CE in Mongolia. Mongolia has a substantial proportion of the population suffering from cystic echinococcosis. The disease causes a significant amount of loss to society and household economy. Access to fully equipped treatment centers is limited by geographic distance and economic resources. Availability of albendazole is sparse,and the price is high. WHO-IWGE guidelines are not implemented for allocating patients within the four treatment options based on CE cyst staging, with the result that all CE patients are referred for surgical treatment. This creates an unnecessary high-risk approach for patients who could either be treated with albendazole or percutaneously or observed. Our study revealed evidence that camels play an important role contributing to human CE in Mongolia, which is a critical information for further control and prevention of CE

A compact arc-based ILP formulation for the pickup and delivery problem with divisible pickups and deliveries

We consider the capacitated single vehicle one-to-one pickup and delivery problem with divisible pickups and deliveries (PDPDPD). In this problem, we do not make the standard assumption of one-to-one pickup and delivery problems that each location has only one transportation request. Instead we assume there are multiple requests per location that may be performed individually. This may result in multiple visits to a location. We provide a new compact arc-based ILP formulation for the PDPDPD by deriving time-consistency constraints that identify the order in which selected outgoing arcs from a node are actually traversed. The formulation can also easily be applied to the one-to-one PDP by restricting the number of times that a node can be visited. Numerical results on standard one-to-one PDP test instances from the literature show that our compact formulation is almost competitive with tailor-made solution methods for the one-to-one PDP. Moreover, we observe that significant cost savings up to 15% on average may be obtained by allowing divisible pickups and deliveries in one-to-one PDPs. It turns out that divisible pickups and deliveries are not only beneficial when the vehicle capacity is small, but also when this capacity is unrestrictive

The Mongolian View of the Cosmos and the Spirit in the Early Modern Times

現代モンゴル人は､大抵が人は死ぬとまた生まれ変わることができるという輪廻転生の観念をもっている。この生まれ変わる段階で何に生まれ変わるか､あるいはどのような人物に生まれ変わるか､または六道輪廻から解脱するかはその人のガルマ (善悪の業困)によって決定されると信じられている｡従ってその世界観が天界､地下界､ (地獄)中間界などに分かれるのである｡ この明らかな仏教的思想をモンゴルの人々が本格的に受け入れ始めたのは､いまから430年ぐらい前のことである｡この歴史も長そうではあるが､北方民族やモンゴル民族の歴史に比較すると､まだ浅いものだといえる｡ では､こうした仏教的宇宙観や霊魂観を受け入れる前､あるいは仏教の流れが行き届かなかった辺境地のモンゴル人社会ではどのような世界観がみられるのかを考察する必要がある｡チベット仏教がモンゴルに流入し始めたのは､西部では1570年代で､東部では1620年代のことである｡｢ハイシッヒ1998など｣モンゴル帝国時代には､チベット仏教を始めとする多くの宗教がモンゴルを改宗しようと努力した様子はあったが､モンゴル本土 (原任地モンゴル高原)にはそれほど浸透しなかったのである｡一時フビライ･ハーンがチベット仏教サキヤ派を信仰し､バクパ･ラマを国師にしてモンゴルの貴族たちを仏教化する時代はあったが､これもモンゴル帝国の崩壊によって､モンゴルへの影響が失われたといえる｡中国から北の本土 (モンゴル高原)へと追放された人々は仏教を持ち帰ることができず､再びシャマニズムを信仰するようになった｢エルデムト2001など｣｡そのため北元時代の人々もシャマニズムを信仰し､昔同様な世界観と霊魂観をもっていたと考えられる｡ しかし現在では､モンゴル･シャマニズムの宇宙観や霊魂観に対する説明は非常に複雑な様子をみせている｡仏教あるいは他の宗教の影響で古代モンゴル人の持っていた宇宙観や霊魂観が徐々に薄れて行き､仏教的宇宙観や霊魂観と混在した状態といえる｡こうした中､一部のシャマンあるいは研究者でさえ､この混在した様子から抜け出せずにモンゴル･シャマニズムの宇宙観や霊魂観に対する 誤った説明を行っていると思われる｡ それはつまりシャマニズムに地獄が作られたり､地下界があったり､あるいはシャマンの霊魂が生まれ変わるなどといった解釈である｡しかしこれらは明らかに仏教寄りの世界観であって､シャマニズム本来の独自性を表すことができていないようである｡ またたとえばモンゴル帝国時代のモンゴル軍の強さを分析した研究にしても､従来はほとんどがモンゴル人の騎馬民族的性格からの研究や軍の組織への研究または兵術や兵器の研究などによって説明が試みられる｡しかし実際モンゴル人の宇宙観や霊魂観などの内心的なものがどのように影響していたかに対する研究は､世界またはモンゴルにおいても余り行われていないようである｡では､以下いくつかの物語や研究などから当時のモンゴル人の宇宙観や霊魂観を考察してみよう

Asuhan Kebidanan Berkelanjutan Pada Ny. G.U.D Di Puskesmas Kopeta Kecamatan Alok Kabupaten Sikka Periode 11 April S/D 12 Juni 2019

Peningkatan kualitas pelayanan kesehatan ibu masih menghadapi berbagai masalah, yakni semakin meningkat Angka Kematian Ibu (AKI) dan Angka Kematian Bayi (AKB), (Kemekkes, 2015). berdasarkan profil Dinas Kesehatan Kabupaten Sikka AKI tahun 2016 meningkat menjadi 251,9/100.000 kelahiran hidup dan tahun 2017 mengalami penurunan menjadi 93,21/100.000 kelahiran hidup (Profil Dinkes Kabupaten Sikka, 2017). Kematian langsung kematian ibu adalah perdarahan, pre-eklampsia, eklampsia, infeksi, persalinan macet dan abortus. Dengan di lakukan asuhan kebidanan berkelanjutan pada ibu hamil Trimester III sampai perawatan masa nifas di harapkan dapat memberikan kontribusi dalam upaya menurunkan (AKI) dan (AKB) di Indonesia serta tercapainya kesehatan ibu dan anak yang optimal. Tujuan: mampu memberikan asuhan kebidanan berkelanjutan pada Ny. G. U. D di Puskesmas Kopeta. Metode: jenis penelitian menggunakan studi penelahan kasus dengan unit tunggal, pengumpulan data primer dan sekunder serta pendekatan 7 langkah Varney dan metode SOAP. Hasil: berdasarkan asuhan yang telah di berikan kepada Ny. G. U.D. selama masa kehamilan dalam keadaan sehat, proses persalinan berjalan dengan normal, pada masa nifas involusi berjalan dengan normal, bayi normal tidak mengalami ikterus atau kelainan serta motivasi mengikuti KB. Ibu an suami bersepakat mengikuti KB Suntik 3 bulanan. Kesimpulan: Setelah melakukan semua asuhan kebidanan berkelanjutan pada Ny. G. U. D berjalan dengan lancer yang di tandai dengan keluhan selama hamil teratasi dengan baik, persalinan terjadi di fasilitas kesehatan, perawatan bayi berjalan dengan baik, masa nifas normal dan motivasi KB berhasil, keadaan ibu dan bayi sehat dan normal

Nakajima's (Q, T)-characters as quantum cluster variables

Nakajima introduced a t-deformation of q-characters, (q,t)-characters for short, and their twisted multiplication through the geometry of quiver varieties. The Nakajima (q, t)-characters of Kirillov-Reshetikhin modules satisfy a t-deformed T-system. The T-system is a discrete dynamical system that can be interpreted as a mutation relation in a cluster algebra in two different ways, depending on the choice of direction of evolution. In this thesis, we show that the Nakajima t-deformed T-system of type Ar forms a quantum mutation relation in a quantization of exactly one of the cluster algebra structures attached to the T-system. There are 2 main parts to our work. The bulk of the work is a combinatorial construction that proves (q, t)-characters of a certain set of Kirillov-Reshetikhin modules t-commute under Nakajima’s twisted multi- plication. We use a slightly modified version of the tableaux-sum notation for q-characters and define the notion of a block-tableau, which plays an integral role in the proof. Once t-commutativity is established, the second half of this thesis is concerned with the commutation coefficients of the given set of Kirillov-Reshetikhin modules. In particular, we show that the commutation coefficients are compatible with the cluster algebra exchange matrix and the mutation relations in the language of Berenstein-Zelevinsky

Linear conic programming: genericity and stability

In het lineair conisch programmeren maximalizeren of minimalizeren we een lineaire functie over de intersectie van een affiene ruimte en een convexe kegel. Het conisch programmeren bevat lineaire programmeringsproblemen, semidefiniete programmeringsproblemen en copositieve programmeringsproblemen als subklassen. In deze thesis bestuderen we genericiteit en stabiliteit van eigenschappen van conische programmeringsproblemen. We noemen een eigenschap zwak generiek wanneer de eigenschap geldt voor bijna alle gevallen van een probleem. Numeriek gezien is stabiliteit wenselijk. Een eigenschap wordt beschouwd als zijnde stabiel voor een een specifiek geval van een probleem wanneer deze geldt ook bij kleine veranderingen van de data behorende bij dit geval. In deze thesis laten we zien dat de Slater condities zwak generiek en stabiel zijn. Het is bekend dat uniekheid van de optimale oplossing, niet-ontaardheid en strikte complementariteit zwak generiek zijn voor het conisch programmeren. We onderzoeken de stabiliteit van deze zwak generieke eigenschappen. Voor semidefiniete programmeringsproblemen laten we zien dat al deze zwak generieke eigenschappen stabiel zijn. Een andere interessante eigenschap is de orde van maximizers. Geometrisch is het gerelateerd aan de kromming van de toelaatbare verzameling rondom de oplossing. We karakteriseren eerste orde maximimale oplossingen in het conisch programmeren en geven noodzakelijke en voldoende voorwaarden voor hun stabiliteit. In het laatste deel van deze thesis beschouwen we copositieve problemen en enkele specifieke gevallen waar copositiviteit van een matrix efficiënt kan worden vastgesteld. In het bijzonder bewijzen we dat een matrix met exact één positieve eigenwaarde copositief is dan en slechts dan wanneer het een niet-negatieve matrix is

Dynamic Batching for Order Picking in Warehouses

Dynamic batch picking is characterized by combining product demand from multiple customer orders into one pick tour where new orders are continuously received. Using modern order-picking aids, updated picking instructions can be included in the current pick tours which allows pickers to be re-routed to pick for new orders even when they already started a pick tour. We develop a mathematical model for dynamic batch picking that minimizes the order throughput time of incoming customer orders. In case of new order arrivals, we can quickly re-optimize the model and determine new updated pick tours. This allows for short order throughput times and ensures that warehouse companies can set their order cut-off times as late as possible while still guaranteeing that orders can be delivered next day or in some cases even the same day

Chemical composition and biological activities of the Agaricus mushrooms

Two species of Agaricus mushroom grown in Mongolia were analyzed for their element content. Biological activity and chemical components study of Agaricus, grown in the Mongolian flora has been investigated for the first time. The ethanol extracts of dried Agaricus sp. mushrooms were analyzed for antioxidant activity on 1,1-diphenyl-2- picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radicals and interferon-like activity. The ethanol extracts from Agaricus arvensis showed the most potent radical scavenging activity. The IC50 of A. silvaticus and A. arvensis were 216 and 17.75 g/ml respectively. Among the twenty three mushroom extracts, the extracts from A. silvatisus and A. arvensis have shown the interferon-like activity. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5564/mjc.v14i0.197Mongolian Journal of Chemistry 14 (40), 2013, p41-4