Wrestling, archery, and horse racing in Buryatia: traditional sports competitions and social change

Thesis (Ph.D.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2015Sporting activities are examined in order to better understand a society's general socio-economic and political changes. The two basic research questions are the following: (1) Which economic, social, political, and cultural changes in and of the Buryat society were and are reflected in Buryat traditional sports? (2) How far and in which ways did and do Buryat traditional sports and the people engaged in them contribute to social change? Anthropological studies of play, games, and sport, an overview of which is presented in Chapter 1, have revealed that sports are closely linked and tightly entangled with the cultures and societies, in which they are performed. Thus, many features, values, world views, normative demands, and rules, effective in a society in general, are reflected by the sports engaged in by its members. Therefore changes observed in sports often reflect changes in society. Moreover, changes in society are often more readily apparent in sports than in other social spheres. This is because the social action a sport competition constitutes is limited in its range of time, space, number of acting persons and established rules. These limitations let it reveal the values, norms, rules, and power relations that operate a society much clearer than other, less limited social actions. In addition, a large portion of the research on games and sports shows that sports not only reflect, but have the capacity in themselves to create new values and behavioral patterns, thus can produce social change. The results of this study verify all these social properties and capacities of sports by using the traditional sporting activities of the Buryats as an example case. Chapter 2 provides the necessary background knowledge about the history of the Buryats. Chapters 3-5 outline the main features and the historical development of the three age-old traditional Buryat sports, bukhe barildaan (wrestling), sur kharbaan (archery), and mori urildaan (horse racing). Chapter 6 outlines the main characteristics and historical developments of the Buryat national holidays Eryn gurban naadan and Surkharban, during which competitions in these sports constitute the central activities. All these chapters, i.e. Chapters 3-6, describe the development from the sports' and festivals' ancient origins over their various utilizations by changing political and religious leaders to the present commixture of simultaneously re-traditionalizing and modernizing them. The analysis of these sports' rules, techniques, tactics, equipment, etc., and how they have changed over the course of time as well as how has changed, where, when, by whom and how they were organized, sheds clear light on historic and present socio-economic, political, and spiritual processes in Buryat society. Changing political leadership (from tribal chieftains over Tsarist rule, Soviet power, early post-Soviet liberality to today's omnipotence of Putin's party "United Russia") and respective ideologies, varying religious affiliations (shamanism, Buddhism, Soviet communist ersatz religion, and the post-Soviet stormy revivals of shamanism and Buddhism), changing gender relations (from a male dominated society to a more emancipated one and back again), changing values and normative demands (such as what garb athletes have to wear)--all that and more can be detected and determined in how in particular the competitions and festivals were and are carried out. That Buryat sport competitions and festivals themselves contribute to the production of social change is shown by their deliberate re-traditionalization and their re-embedding in religious rituals in the post-Soviet period. Due to massive support from the Buddhist clergy as well as from individual shamans, the three traditional sports have again become closely linked with Buryat practices of Buddhism and shamanism. Thus, because of their great popularity, these sports have vividly contributed to the post-Soviet revival and still ongoing flourishing of these two religions among them. The deliberate re-traditionalization of these sports supports a new arousing pride of being Buryat or, in other words, a re-construction of a Buryat national identity. Thus, Buryat traditional sports prove sports' capacity of indicating as well as actively contributing to social change.Introduction -- Chapter 1: The anthropology of sports: a historical overview -- Chapter 2: Between east and west: history of the Buryats -- Chapter 3: Bukhe barildaan (Buryat wrestling) -- Chapter 4: Sur kharbaan (Buryat Archery) -- Chapter 5: Mori urildaan (Buryat Horse Races) -- Chapter 6: The Buryat Traditional Sports Holidays -- Discussion, results, and conclusions: Buryat sports as a mirror of society and a means for social change -- References

Determinants of Physical Activity and Screen Time Trajectories in 7th to 9th Grade Adolescents-A Longitudinal Study

Physical activity (PA) in youth tends to decline with increasing age, while sedentary behaviour including screen time (ST) increases. There are adolescents, however, whose PA and ST do not follow this pattern. The aim of this study is (i) to examine trajectories in PA and ST from grade 7-9 among students in Berlin, and (ii) to investigate the relationship of these trajectories with individual factors and school type. For the present analyses, changes in students' PA and ST across three time points from 7th to 9th grade were assessed via self-report questionnaires. Positive and negative trajectories were defined for both PA (positive: increasing or consistently high, negative: decreasing or consistently low) and ST (vice versa). Multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed to identify possible predictors of PA and ST trajectories. In total, 2122 students were included (50.2% girls, mean age 12.5 (standard deviation 0.7) years). Compared to grade 7, less students of grade 9 fulfilled PA and ST recommendations (PA: 9.4% vs. 13.2%; ST: 19.4% vs. 25.0%). The positive PA trajectory included 44% of all students (63% boys), while the positive ST trajectory included 21% of all students (30% boys). Being a boy was significantly associated with a positive PA trajectory, while being a girl, having a high socioeconomic status, and attending a high school, were significantly associated with a positive ST trajectory. Different PA and ST trajectories among adolescents should be taken into account when implementing prevention programs for this target group

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

study design and methodology

Background The hazardous health effects of smoking are established, but there remains a need to evaluate existing smoking prevention strategies and to increase their effectiveness in adolescents. Strategies focusing on parental attitudes and rule setting have been identified as a potentially effective approach. The present manuscript describes objectives, study design and methodology of the BEST Prevention study. Methods/design BEST Prevention is a three-armed cluster randomized-controlled trial among 7th grade (11–16 years) students in Berlin, Germany. Schools were enrolled between 2010 and 2011 and allocated using a centralized randomization list into 1) a student smoking prevention intervention (visit to an established interactive circuit), 2) the same intervention plus a parent intervention, and 3) a control group (visit to an established exercise and nutrition interactive circuit). Students were assessed at baseline, 12 and 24 months via self-report, as well as via carbon monoxide and cotinine in saliva at the 24 month follow-up. Statistical analyses uses multi-level regression models with cluster effects (school and class within school) based on the intention to treat population. Here we report descriptive baseline characteristics of recruited schools, and schools classes. Two schools from the control group dropped out after allocation. Hence, 47 secondary schools from all 12 districts of the city, including 161 school classes and 3023 students are participating in the study. Of those, 2801 students completed the baseline assessment. Discussion The present manuscript provides details on the study design and methodology of a large school-based smoking prevention trial in a metropolitan area in Germany. Findings from this study will yield important insight into the long-term effectiveness of specific smoking prevention strategies, also in disadvantaged population groups

Berlin evaluates school tobacco prevention - BEST prevention: study design and methodology

BACKGROUND: The hazardous health effects of smoking are established, but there remains a need to evaluate existing smoking prevention strategies and to increase their effectiveness in adolescents. Strategies focusing on parental attitudes and rule setting have been identified as a potentially effective approach. The present manuscript describes objectives, study design and methodology of the BEST Prevention study. METHODS/DESIGN: BEST Prevention is a three-armed cluster randomized-controlled trial among 7(th) grade (11–16 years) students in Berlin, Germany. Schools were enrolled between 2010 and 2011 and allocated using a centralized randomization list into 1) a student smoking prevention intervention (visit to an established interactive circuit), 2) the same intervention plus a parent intervention, and 3) a control group (visit to an established exercise and nutrition interactive circuit). Students were assessed at baseline, 12 and 24 months via self-report, as well as via carbon monoxide and cotinine in saliva at the 24 month follow-up. Statistical analyses uses multi-level regression models with cluster effects (school and class within school) based on the intention to treat population. Here we report descriptive baseline characteristics of recruited schools, and schools classes. Two schools from the control group dropped out after allocation. Hence, 47 secondary schools from all 12 districts of the city, including 161 school classes and 3023 students are participating in the study. Of those, 2801 students completed the baseline assessment. DISCUSSION: The present manuscript provides details on the study design and methodology of a large school-based smoking prevention trial in a metropolitan area in Germany. Findings from this study will yield important insight into the long-term effectiveness of specific smoking prevention strategies, also in disadvantaged population groups. TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT01306552 (January 2011)

Strategies to Enhance Retention in a Cohort Study Among Adults of Turkish Descent Living in Berlin

Retention is important for statistical power and external validity in long-term cohort studies. The aims of our study were to evaluate different retention strategies within a cohort study of adults of Turkish descent in Berlin, Germany, and to compare participants and non-participants. In 2011-2012, a population-based study was conducted among adults of Turkish descent to primarily examine recruitment strategies. 6 years later, the participants were re-contacted and invited to complete a self-report questionnaire regarding their health status, health care utilization, and satisfaction with medical services. The retention strategy comprised letters in both German and Turkish, phone calls, and home visits (by bilingual staff). We calculated the response rate and retention rate, using definitions of the American Association for Public Opinion Research, as well as the relative retention rate for each level of contact. Associations of baseline recruitment strategy, sociodemographic, migration-related and health-related factors with retention were investigated by logistic regression analysis. Of 557 persons contacted, 249 (44.7%) completed the questionnaire. This was 50.1% of those whose contact information was available. The relative retention rate was lowest for phone calls (8.9%) and highest for home visits (18.4%). Participants were more often non-smokers and German citizens than non-participants. For all remaining factors, no association with retention was found. In this study, among adults of Turkish descent, the retention rate increased considerably with every additional level of contact. Implementation of comprehensive retention strategies provided by culturally matched study personnel may lead to higher validity and statistical power in studies on migrant health issues

Framework and baseline examination of the German National Cohort (NAKO)

The German National Cohort (NAKO) is a multidisciplinary, population-based prospective cohort study that aims to investigate the causes of widespread diseases, identify risk factors and improve early detection and prevention of disease. Specifically, NAKO is designed to identify novel and better characterize established risk and protection factors for the development of cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes, neurodegenerative and psychiatric diseases, musculoskeletal diseases, respiratory and infectious diseases in a random sample of the general population. Between 2014 and 2019, a total of 205,415 men and women aged 19–74 years were recruited and examined in 18 study centres in Germany. The baseline assessment included a face-to-face interview, self-administered questionnaires and a wide range of biomedical examinations. Biomaterials were collected from all participants including serum, EDTA plasma, buffy coats, RNA and erythrocytes, urine, saliva, nasal swabs and stool. In 56,971 participants, an intensified examination programme was implemented. Whole-body 3T magnetic resonance imaging was performed in 30,861 participants on dedicated scanners. NAKO collects follow-up information on incident diseases through a combination of active follow-up using self-report via written questionnaires at 2–3 year intervals and passive follow-up via record linkages. All study participants are invited for re-examinations at the study centres in 4–5 year intervals. Thereby, longitudinal information on changes in risk factor profiles and in vascular, cardiac, metabolic, neurocognitive, pulmonary and sensory function is collected. NAKO is a major resource for population-based epidemiology to identify new and tailored strategies for early detection, prediction, prevention and treatment of major diseases for the next 30 years. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10654-022-00890-5

Analysis of volume and topography of adipose tissue in the trunk: Results of MRI of 11,141 participants in the German National Cohort

This research addresses the assessment of adipose tissue (AT) and spatial distribution of visceral (VAT) and subcutaneous fat (SAT) in the trunk from standardized magnetic resonance imaging at 3 T, thereby demonstrating the feasibility of deep learning (DL)-based image segmentation in a large population-based cohort in Germany (five sites). Volume and distribution of AT play an essential role in the pathogenesis of insulin resistance, a risk factor of developing metabolic/cardiovascular diseases. Cross-validated training of the DL-segmentation model led to a mean Dice similarity coefficient of >0.94, corresponding to a mean absolute volume deviation of about 22 ml. SAT is significantly increased in women compared to men, whereas VAT is increased in males. Spatial distribution shows age- and body mass index-related displacements. DL-based image segmentation provides robust and fast quantification of AT (≈15 s per dataset versus 3 to 4 hours for manual processing) and assessment of its spatial distribution from magnetic resonance images in large cohort studies

Bridging reproductive and microbial ecology: a case study in arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi

Offspring size is a key trait for understanding the reproductive ecology of species, yet studies addressing the ecological meaning of offspring size have so far been limited to macro-organisms. We consider this a missed opportunity in microbial ecology and provide what we believe is the first formal study of offspring-size variation in microbes using reproductive models developed for macro-organisms. We mapped the entire distribution of fungal spore size in the arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi (subphylum Glomeromycotina) and tested allometric expectations of this trait to offspring (spore) output and body size. Our results reveal a potential paradox in the reproductive ecology of AM fungi: while large spore-size variation is maintained through evolutionary time (independent of body size), increases in spore size trade off with spore output. That is, parental mycelia of large-spored species produce fewer spores and thus may have a fitness disadvantage compared to small-spored species. The persistence of the large-spore strategy, despite this apparent fitness disadvantage, suggests the existence of advantages to large-spored species that could manifest later in fungal life history. Thus, we consider that solving this paradox opens the door to fruitful future research establishing the relationship between offspring size and other AM life history traits

The Habitable Exoplanet Observatory (HabEx) Mission Concept Study Final Report

The Habitable Exoplanet Observatory, or HabEx, has been designed to be the Great Observatory of the 2030s. For the first time in human history, technologies have matured sufficiently to enable an affordable space-based telescope mission capable of discovering and characterizing Earthlike planets orbiting nearby bright sunlike stars in order to search for signs of habitability and biosignatures. Such a mission can also be equipped with instrumentation that will enable broad and exciting general astrophysics and planetary science not possible from current or planned facilities. HabEx is a space telescope with unique imaging and multi-object spectroscopic capabilities at wavelengths ranging from ultraviolet (UV) to near-IR. These capabilities allow for a broad suite of compelling science that cuts across the entire NASA astrophysics portfolio. HabEx has three primary science goals: (1) Seek out nearby worlds and explore their habitability; (2) Map out nearby planetary systems and understand the diversity of the worlds they contain; (3) Enable new explorations of astrophysical systems from our own solar system to external galaxies by extending our reach in the UV through near-IR. This Great Observatory science will be selected through a competed GO program, and will account for about 50% of the HabEx primary mission. The preferred HabEx architecture is a 4m, monolithic, off-axis telescope that is diffraction-limited at 0.4 microns and is in an L2 orbit. HabEx employs two starlight suppression systems: a coronagraph and a starshade, each with their own dedicated instrument