Russian Tea Trade in Hankou during Second Half of 19th Century: Production of Brick Tea

This article addresses the issue of producing the socalled “brick tea” in China at Russian factories during the second half of the 19th century. Compressed teas constituted the second largest group after looseleaf teas highlighted in prerevolutionary Russian literature, sources, and statistics among Chinese teas exported to the Russian market. The study explores aspects of brick tea production that have been least covered in previous historiography. These include issues related to the procurement of raw materials for further pressing at Russian factories, pricing strategies for this product, and the accompanying competition. The experience of utilizing hydraulic presses for more efficient tea production, as well as the dynamics and volumes of brick tea production, are examined. The research revealed that in the latter half of the 19th century, Russian entrepreneurs in Hankou successfully organized the process of fabricating pressed teas, thereby contributing to the strengthening and further development of Russo-Chinese relations. Documents from central Russian archives were utilized in this study, enabling the unveiling of many previously unexplored aspects of the history of Russo-Chinese trade

Turkic-Chinese Relations in East and Central Asia in VI—VIII Centuries

The article deals with the problem of trade relations between the Turkic Qaghanates and China in the VI—VIII centuries. At that time, the zone of contact between steppe Mongolia and the northern Chinese borders became a place of active trade exchange, in which nomads, Chinese, and Sogdians participated. The purpose of the article is to analyze trade relations along the territory of contact between China and the Turkic Qaghanate in the VI—VIII centuries and to identify the economic significance of the Turkic-Chinese frontier for international trade relations in the Central Asian region. As a result of the analysis, it was shown that the strengthening of the influence of the Turks and China in Central Asia contributed to the establishment of stable trade along the Silk Road. Based on the analysis of Chinese sources, it was revealed that Chinese silk and Turkic horses have become the main goods involved in the exchange in the frontier zone. As a result, the authors conclude that trade along the frontier zone stimulated the entire system of trade relations in Central Asia. China’s need for nomadic horses led to huge shipments of silk fabrics to the steppe. The Turkic qaghans sold the accumulated silk to the Sogdians, who distributed it in the markets of the Central Asian region, sent it to Iran and Byzantium. Thus, due to trade, a symbiosis of China and the steppe region was created, international contacts intensified

Log-periodic corrections to the Cole-Cole expression in dielectric relaxation

A model of the self-similar process of relaxation is given, and a method of derivation of the kinetic equations for the total polarization based on the ideas of fractional kinetics is suggested. The derived kinetic equations contain integro-differential operators having non-integer order. They lead to the Cole-Cole expression for the complex dielectric permittivity. It is shown rigorously that the power-law exponent α in the Cole-Cole expression coincides with the dimension of the mixed space-temporal fractal ensemble. If the discrete scale invariance for the temporal-space structure of the dielectric medium considered becomes important, then the expression for the complex dielectric permittivity contains log-periodic corrections (oscillations) and, hence, it generalizes the conventional Cole-Cole expression. The corrections obtained in this model suggest another way of interpretation and analysis of dielectric spectra for different complex materials. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Correction of the power law of ac conductivity in ion-conducting materials due to the electrode polarization effect

Based on the supposition related to fractal nature of transport processes in ion-conducting materials, an expression for the low-frequency ac conductivity dependence was derived. This expression for the ac conductivity generalizes the power-law dependence and gives a possibility to take into account the influence of the electrode polarization effect. The ac conductivity expression obtained is in excellent agreement with experimental data for a wide frequency range. © 2014 American Physical Society

The origin of the "excess Wing" and β-relaxation phenomena in glass-forming materials

We suggest a model that allows to describe the β-relaxation and Excess Wing phenomena from the unified positions based on the hypothesis related to the self-similar (fractal) character of dielectric relaxation. It has been shown that these phenomena have similar nature but with different organization of relaxation channels. Additional arguments proving that additive combination of the well-known empirical functions forming an expression for the complex dielectric permittivity in frequency domain is not suitable for description of experimental data are given. In the frame of the model suggested we derive new functions for the complex dielectric permittivity that describe well the experimental data where two phenomena mentioned above (β-relaxation and Excess Wing) take place. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Theoretical and Methodological Basis of Studying Relationship Climate and Society in the History of the Urals

The article discusses the main theoretical and methodological approaches associated with the study of the relationship between the geographic environment and social processes, which can be applied in historical research of the Ural region. The analysis of the main conceptual models developed by the world scientific practice to study the problem of the relationship between man and nature. Historical and natural-scientific methods that are applicable to study the problem under consideration are considered. The conclusions indicate the possibility of combining theoretical developments, humanitarian and natural scientific methodology within the framework of one interdisciplinary research.В статье рассматриваются основные теоретические и методологические подходы связанные с изучением взаимосвязи географической среды и общественных процессов, которые могут быть применимы в исторических исследованиях Уральского региона. Проведен анализ основных концептуальных моделей, выработанных мировой научной практикой, для изучения проблемы взаимоотношений человека и природы. Рассмотрены исторические и естественно-научные методы, применимые для изучения рассматриваемой проблемы. В выводах обозначена возможность совмещения теоретических наработок, гуманитарной и естественно-научной методологии в рамках одного междисциплинарного исследования

Thermodynamics of an interacting fermi system in the static fluctuation approximation 1

We suggest a new method of calculation of the equilibrium correlation functions of an arbitrary order for the interacting Fermi-gas model in the framework of the static fluctuation approximation method. This method based only on a single and controllable approximation allows obtaining the so-called far-distance equations. These equations connecting the quantum states of a Fermi particle with variables of the local field operator contain all necessary information related to the calculation of the desired correlation functions and basic thermodynamic parameters of the many-body system. The basic expressions for the mean energy and heat capacity for the electron gas at low temperatures in the high-density limit were obtained. All expressions are given in the units of r s, where r s determines the ratio of a mean distance between electrons to the Bohr radius a 0. In these expressions, we calculate terms of the respective order r s and r 2 s It is also shown that the static fluctuation approximation allows finding the terms related to higher orders of the decomposition with respect to the parameter r s. © Pleiades Publishing, Inc., 2012

Description of the anomalous dielectric relaxation in disordered systems in the frame of the Mori-Zwanzig formalism

In the frame of Mori-Zwanzig formalism the empirical Navriliak-Negami expression for the complex dielectric permittivity has been derived. The derivation is based on construction of kinetic equations for relaxation and memory functions accordingly. They contain integro-differential operators of non-integer order

Microscopic model of a non-Debye dielectric relaxation: The Cole-Cole law and its generalization

Based on a self-similar spatial-temporal structure of the relaxation process, we construct a microscopic model for a non-Debye (nonexponential) dielectric relaxation in complex systems. In this model, we derive the Cole-Cole expression for the complex dielectric permittivity and show that the exponent α involved in that expression is equal to the fractal dimension of the spatial-temporal self-similar ensemble characterizing the structure of the medium and the relaxation process occurring in it. We find a relation between the macroscopic relaxation time and the micro- and mesoparameters of the system. We obtain a generalized Cole-Cole expression for the complex dielectric permittivity involving log-periodic corrections that occur because of a discrete scaling invariance of the fractal structure generating the relaxation process on the mesoscopic scale. The found expression for the dielectric permittivity can be used to interpret dielectric spectra in disordered dielectrics. © 2012 Pleiades Publishing, Ltd

Application of the method of static fluctuational approach to the Bogolyubov-Kolesnikov-Shelah model

A method of calculating the equilibrium correlation functions of any arbitrary order for the Baldwin- Kolesnikov-Shelah (BKSh) model is suggested based on the static fluctuational approach. The method based on only one controllable approach allows the so-called equations of long-range coupling to be obtained which contain all information on the sought-after equilibrium correlation functions within the scope of the BKSh model. Calculations of the sought-after equilibrium correlation functions allow one to go beyond the scope of the conventional molecular field approach and to take into account the effect of field fluctuations on the gap behavior and the heat capacity to the left and right of the critical point. For the simplest case disregarding a dependence of the potential on the wave vector, temperature dependences of the energy gap and heat capacity with allowance for the fluctuations are presented. It is demonstrated that in this case, the fluctuations are small for three-dimensional systems, but sharply increase with decreasing dimensionality of the system. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc