Esoteric, Chan and vinaya ties in Tang Buddhism : the ordination platform of the Huishan monastery on Mount Song in the religious policy of Emperor Daizong

This paper explores the reconstruction of the ordination platform in the Huishan monastery 會善寺 on Mount Song in 767 in the context of the reinforcement of pro-Buddhist policies at the court of Emperor Daizong 代宗 (r. 762–779). The vinaya monks and state officials who engaged in this platform’s reconstruction are identified as associates of two prominent monastic figures: Amoghavajra (Bukong jin’gang 不空金剛; 704–774), an Esoteric leader at the imperial court; and Songshan Puji 嵩山普寂 (651–739), regarded as the seventh patriarch in the Northern Chan tradition. The key roles played by disciples of these two masters in the reconstruction of the Huishan platform attest to significant congruence in ritual practices between proponents of the Esoteric and Chan groups in Tang dynasty China, primarily in the areas of precept conferral and monastic ordination

Building and rebuilding Buddhist monasteries in Tang China : the reconstruction of the Kaiyuan Monastery in Sizhou

This article explores regional Buddhist monasteries in Tang Dynasty (618–907 CE) China, including their arrangement, functions, and sources for their study. Specifically, as a case study, it considers the reconstruction of the Kaiyuan monastery 開元寺 in Sizhou 泗州 (present-day Jiangsu Province) with reference to the works of three prominent state officials and scholars: Bai Juyi 白居易 (772–846), Li Ao 李翱 (772–841), and Han Yu 韓愈 (768–824). The writings of these literati allow us to trace the various phases of the monastery’s reconstruction, fundraising activities, and the network of individuals who participated in the project. We learn that the rebuilt multi-compound complex not only provided living areas for masses of pilgrims, traders, and workers but also functioned as a barrier that protected the populations of Sizhou and neighboring prefectures from flooding. Moreover, when viewed from a broader perspective, the renovation of the Kaiyuan monastery demonstrates that Buddhist construction projects played a pivotal role in the social and economic development of Tang China’s major metropolises as well as its regions

Floorplan-Aware Camera Poses Refinement

Processing large indoor scenes is a challenging task, as scan registration and camera trajectory estimation methods accumulate errors across time. As a result, the quality of reconstructed scans is insufficient for some applications, such as visual-based localization and navigation, where the correct position of walls is crucial. For many indoor scenes, there exists an image of a technical floorplan that contains information about the geometry and main structural elements of the scene, such as walls, partitions, and doors. We argue that such a floorplan is a useful source of spatial information, which can guide a 3D model optimization. The standard RGB-D 3D reconstruction pipeline consists of a tracking module applied to an RGB-D sequence and a bundle adjustment (BA) module that takes the posed RGB-D sequence and corrects the camera poses to improve consistency. We propose a novel optimization algorithm expanding conventional BA that leverages the prior knowledge about the scene structure in the form of a floorplan. Our experiments on the Redwood dataset and our self-captured data demonstrate that utilizing floorplan improves accuracy of 3D reconstructions.Comment: IROS 202

SOME ASPECTS OF THE PSYCHOLOGICAL AND PEDAGOGICAL SUPPORT FOR THE ADAPTATION OF FUTURE TEACHERS

The article is devoted to the study of some aspects of psychological and pedagogical support for the adaptation of future teachers. Objective: to determine the impact of the proposed strategies of psychological and pedagogical support on the ability of students to adapt. The “Adaptability” (Multilevel Personality Questionnaire) questionnaire by A. Maklakov and S. Chermianin was used in the study to diagnose students of the 1st-6th years of bachelor’s and master’s degree programs of higher education at the faculty of arts of a pedagogical higher education establishment. The results of the introduction of strategies of psycho-pedagogical support showed that students grow their ability to regulate their interaction with the environment, that there is an increase in social contacts, social activity and self-esteem. It has been proven that the introduction of the proposed strategies of pedagogical support at the faculty of the arts of a pedagogical higher education establishment has a direct impact on the ability of students to adapt.

Migration attractiveness of the coastal zone of Russia's North-West: local gradients

A well-acknowledged driver of change, population movement intensifies the development of coastal territories. The Russian North-West holds a vast coastal zone. Granting access to the Baltic, the White, and the Barents Seas, it is an area of geostrategic importance where much of the country’s coastal economy - one of the national priorities - is located. Push and pull factors are enormously diverse in the area, as are migration flows forming attraction poles for migrants. There is little research on the issue despite its social and practical significance. Thus, research is required to examine how the coastal factor can benefit the migration attractiveness and human resources of Russian coastal territories of geostrategic importance. This study aims to delineate coastal territories and investigate local migration flows compared to those recorded in inland regions. The research draws on the concept of coastalisation, employing universal, geographical, and statistical research methods. It uses documentary sources and official 2011ö--2020 statistics. The findings show that the coastal position and maritime economic activity are relevant factors for migration attractiveness. Saint Petersburg and the coastal municipalities of the Leningrad and Kaliningrad regions are more attractive to migrants than more northerly territories. However, there are attraction poles farther north too, and the coastal zone of the Arkhangelsk region attracts more migrants than its inland part. The study demonstrates the growing polarisation of migration space in the coastal areas and especially agglomerations. Changes in the age structure of immigration flows have caused social factors in attractiveness to migrants to replace employment-related factors

Capital Flows, Default, and Renegotiation in a Small Open Economy

The post-2008 period focused attention on "twin-crises". Banking crises may lead to sovereign crises where fiscal vulnerabilities are exacerbated by the extension of support for the banking system. We develop a model that describes private sector generated capital inflow that is used to finance investment and consumption expenditure. In the event of an economic contraction, the (convex) haircut on outstanding debt is negotiated, or bargained, centrally by the sovereign. Two results arise: the volume of debt and haircut rate are inefficient. In this setting the accumulation of capital achieves two goals. First, it generates sufficient optimism about future income to allow the debt market to function. Second, and counter-intuitively, it increases expected haircuts by raising the value of the outside option of complete default. These competing forces characterize the optimal balanced-budget macroprudential policy targeting capital investment

Nitroheterocyclic drug resistance mechanisms in <i>Trypanosoma brucei</i>

OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to identify the mechanisms of resistance to nifurtimox and fexinidazole in African trypanosomes. METHODS: Bloodstream-form Trypanosoma brucei were selected for resistance to nifurtimox and fexinidazole by stepwise exposure to increasing drug concentrations. Clones were subjected to WGS to identify putative resistance genes. Transgenic parasites modulating expression of genes of interest were generated and drug susceptibility phenotypes determined. RESULTS: Nifurtimox-resistant (NfxR) and fexinidazole-resistant (FxR) parasites shared reciprocal cross-resistance suggestive of a common mechanism of action. Previously, a type I nitroreductase (NTR) has been implicated in nitro drug activation. WGS of resistant clones revealed that NfxR parasites had lost >100 kb from one copy of chromosome 7, rendering them hemizygous for NTR as well as over 30 other genes. FxR parasites retained both copies of NTR, but lost >70 kb downstream of one NTR allele, decreasing NTR transcription by half. A single knockout line of NTR displayed 1.6- and 1.9-fold resistance to nifurtimox and fexinidazole, respectively. Since NfxR and FxR parasites are ∼6- and 20-fold resistant to nifurtimox and fexinidazole, respectively, additional factors must be involved. Overexpression and knockout studies ruled out a role for a putative oxidoreductase (Tb927.7.7410) and a hypothetical gene (Tb927.1.1050), previously identified in a genome-scale RNAi screen. CONCLUSIONS: NTR was confirmed as a key resistance determinant, either by loss of one gene copy or loss of gene expression. Further work is required to identify which of the many dozens of SNPs identified in the drug-resistant cell lines contribute to the overall resistance phenotype

Dynamics of PDMS- g-PDMS Bottlebrush Polymers by Broadband Dielectric Spectroscopy

Copyright © 2020 American Chemical Society. Poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS)-based bottlebrush polymers, PDMS-g-PDMS, have been synthesized by anionic polymerization in combination with a condensation-based grafting reaction. Bottlebrush polymers show intriguing features, e.g., extremely low viscosities. Hereby, studies of their dynamics are rare. Therefore, we focus on the segmental relaxation by broadband dielectric spectroscopy. An increasing cross-sectional radius proportional to the increasing side chain length has been observed by small-angle neutron scattering over three samples. A comparison of the segmental relaxation times of the bottlebrushes with the respective linear chains reveals slower dynamics in the former. For longer chains, this effect vanishes