Сочинение «Xamuq kilince namančilaqui sudur» («Сутра замаливания всех грехов») из астрологического сборника калмыцкого зурхачи

Introduction. The written heritage of Kalmyk Buddhist lamas has not been sufficiently discussed in scientific literature. Most of written documents from their personal libraries have not been published, hence they remain unavailable to researchers. Importantly, the scholarly publication of such texts contributes to the source database of Buddhist studies. The present article aims to describe, transliterate and translate “The Sutra of Atonement for All Sins” (Oir. Xamuq kilince namančilaxu sudur), which was part of the astrological collection that belonged to a Kalmyk zurkhachi, i. e. to introduce the document for the attention of scholars in the field. Materials. To clarify the translation of some difficult passages in the text of the Oirat Sutra written in “todo bichig” (“Clear Script”), Tibetan texts of similar content were used. One of them, created in the framework of the “terma” tradition, was published in French by E. Schlagintweit. The other text was taken from the collection “Sundui”. Results. The translation of the Oirat Sutra clearly indicates the character of Buddhist astrological collections in terms of their composition: in addition to specific tables, diagrams, and figures, they included the texts of prayers. Also, the textual analysis of the source shows the importance of such issues as the selection of equivalents of Buddhist terms and of the names of the deities of the Buddhist pantheon in translating Buddhist texts, which is directly related to the approaches and principles of translation of Oirat and Kalmyk translators of Tibetan texts.

NEW FINDS OF ANTHROPOMORPHIC FIGURINES OF THE NORTH CAUCASIAN CULTURE IN THE CENTRAL FORE-CAUCASUS

Статья посвящена публикации погребальных комплексов с алебастровыми и глиняными антропоморфными статуэтками развитого и позднего этапов северокавказской культуры (XXVIII - нач. XXV в. до н. э.), обнаруженными в Центральном Предкавказье в 2000-2014 гг. В работе приводятся описание и датировка пяти погребений, содержавших 14 таких статуэток (рис. 1-3). На основе анализа общей источниковой базы (9 погребений, 21 статуэтка) рассматриваются закономерности расположения захоронений со статуэтками в насыпях курганов и самих статуэток внутри погребений, возрастной состав погребенных, классификация статуэток по материалу изготовления, форме, размерам и орнаментации (рис. 5). Далее приводятся аргументы в пользу происхождения антропоморфных статуэток северокавказской культуры от культовой пластики так называемого серезлиевского типа Северного Причерноморья (конец IV тыс. до н. э.). В заключение на основе картографирования находок статуэток на территории Центрального Предкавказья (рис. 4) предлагается название для данной серии культовых предметов: статуэтки «подкумского» типа. This paper publishes funerary assemblages with alabaster and clay anthropomorphic figurines of the developed and late stages of the North Caucasian culture (XXVIII - early XXV centuries BC) discovered in the central Fore-Caucasus in 20002014. The article describes and dates five graves containing 14 figurines (Fig. 1-3). Based on the analysis of the overall source database (9 graves, and 21 figurines), the paper explores the location pattern of the graves with the figurines in the kurgan mounds and the figurines themselves inside the graves, age composition of the deceased, classification of the figurines by material they are made from, size and decoration (Fig. 5). The authors provide arguments that help trace the origin of the Northern Caucasus figurines to religious cult figurines of the so called Serezlievka type in the North Pontic region (late IV mill. BC). In the final section of the paper this series of the religious cult figurines is proposed to be called the Podkumok type of figurines based on the mapping of the figurine finds from the Central Fore-Caucasus.

Geologic and geodetic constraints on the seismic hazard of Malawi’s active faults: The Malawi Seismogenic Source Database (MSSD)

Active fault data are commonly used in seismic hazard assessments, but there are challenges in deriving the slip rate, geometry, and frequency of earthquakes along active faults. Herein, we present the open-access geospatial Malawi Seismogenic Source Database (MSSD), which describes the seismogenic properties of faults that have formed during East African rifting in Malawi. We first use empirical observations to geometrically classify active faults into section, fault, and multi-fault seismogenic sources. For sources in the North Basin of Lake Malawi, slip rates can be derived from the vertical offset of a seismic reflector that is estimated to be 75 ka based on dated core. Elsewhere, slip rates are constrained from advancing a ‘systems-based’ approach that partitions geodetically-derived rift extension rates in Malawi between seismogenic sources using a priori constraints on regional strain distribution in magma-poor continental rifts. Slip rates are then combined with source geometry and empirical scaling relationships to estimate earthquake magnitudes and recurrence intervals, and their uncertainty is described from the variability of outcomes from a logic tree used in these calculations. We find that for sources in the Lake Malawi’s North Basin, where slip rates can be derived from both the geodetic data and the offset seismic reflector, the slip rate estimates are within error of each other, although those from the offset reflector are higher. Sources in the MSSD are 5–200 km long, which implies that large magnitude (MW 7–8) earthquakes may occur in Malawi. Low slip rates (0.05–2 mm/yr), however, mean that the frequency of such events will be low (recurrence intervals ~103–104 years). The MSSD represents an important resource for investigating Malawi’s increasing seismic risks and provides a framework for incorporating active fault data into seismic hazard assessment in other tectonically active regions.

Cultural communications of the diplomatic corps as a public institution

In the 18th – early 20th centuries, state ceremonial was an integral part of the system of government of European monarchies. They played a significant role in the legitimisation of power institutions (the coronation ceremony), in the administration of foreign and domestic political, ideological and cultural functions by the state. One of the first places in the hierarchy of state ceremonials is occupied by the diplomatic ceremony, in the process of preparation and in the conduct of which the leading role belongs to the representatives of the diplomatic corps. Their activities make it possible to solve these protocol and ceremonial issues more quickly. The diplomatic corps is the collective body of heads of diplomatic missions accredited to a particular government. The relevance of the study lies in exploring the role of art in diplomatic communications, which are one of the methods of building partnerships between states. The purpose of the study is to prove that culture is an important communicative factor in the system of diplomatic relations. There are no published studies on this problem in historiography. The source database includes two groups of materials: documentary publications and archival materials.

The Logical Timestamp Skew Anomaly in Event-Replicated Transaction Schedulers

To sidestep reasoning about the complex effects of concurrent execution, many system designers have conveniently embraced strict serializability on the strength of its claims, support from commercial and open-source database communities and ubiquitous levels of industry adoption. Crucially, distributed components are built on this model; multiple schedulers are composed in an event-driven architecture to form larger, ostensibly correct systems. This paper examines the oft-misconstrued position of strict serializability as a composable correctness criterion in the design of such systems. An anomaly is presented wherein a strict serializable scheduler in one system produces a history that cannot be serially applied to even a weak prefix-consistent replica in logical timestamp order. Several solutions are presented under varying isolation properties, including novel isolation properties contributed by this paper. We also distinguish between concurrent schedulers based on their propensity to produce deterministic histories. It is further shown that every nondeterministic scheduler is anomaly-prone, every nonconcurrent scheduler is anomaly-free, and that at least one deterministic concurrent scheduler is anomaly-free.

The Logical Timestamp Skew Anomaly in Event-Replicated Transaction Schedulers

To sidestep reasoning about the complex effects of concurrent execution, many system designers have conveniently embraced strict serializability on the strength of its claims, support from commercial and open-source database communities and ubiquitous levels of industry adoption. Crucially, distributed components are built on this model; multiple schedulers are composed in an event-driven architecture to form larger, ostensibly correct systems. This paper examines the oft-misconstrued position of strict serializability as a composable correctness criterion in the design of such systems. An anomaly is presented wherein a strict serializable scheduler in one system produces a history that cannot be serially applied to even a weak prefix-consistent replica in logical timestamp order. Several solutions are presented under varying isolation properties, including novel isolation properties contributed by this paper. We also distinguish between concurrent schedulers based on their propensity to produce deterministic histories. It is further shown that every nondeterministic scheduler is anomaly-prone, every nonconcurrent scheduler is anomaly-free, and that at least one deterministic concurrent scheduler is anomaly-free.

A Framework for Criteria-Based Selection and Processing of Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) Data for Statistical Analysis: Design and Implementation Study

Background The harmonization and standardization of digital medical information for research purposes is a challenging and ongoing collaborative effort. Current research data repositories typically require extensive efforts in harmonizing and transforming original clinical data. The Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) format was designed primarily to represent clinical processes; therefore, it closely resembles the clinical data model and is more widely available across modern electronic health records. However, no common standardized data format is directly suitable for statistical analyses, and data need to be preprocessed before statistical analysis. Objective This study aimed to elucidate how FHIR data can be queried directly with a preprocessing service and be used for statistical analyses. Methods We propose that the binary JavaScript Object Notation format of the PostgreSQL (PSQL) open source database is suitable for not only storing FHIR data, but also extending it with preprocessing and filtering services, which directly transform data stored in FHIR format into prepared data subsets for statistical analysis. We specified an interface for this preprocessor, implemented and deployed it at University Hospital Erlangen-Nürnberg, generated 3 sample data sets, and analyzed the available data. Results We imported real-world patient data from 2016 to 2018 into a standard PSQL database, generating a dataset of approximately 35.5 million FHIR resources, including “Patient,” “Encounter,” “Condition” (diagnoses specified using International Classification of Diseases codes), “Procedure,” and “Observation” (laboratory test results). We then integrated the developed preprocessing service with the PSQL database and the locally installed web-based KETOS analysis platform. Advanced statistical analyses were feasible using the developed framework using 3 clinically relevant scenarios (data-driven establishment of hemoglobin reference intervals, assessment of anemia prevalence in patients with cancer, and investigation of the adverse effects of drugs). Conclusions This study shows how the standard open source database PSQL can be used to store FHIR data and be integrated with a specifically developed preprocessing and analysis framework. This enables dataset generation with advanced medical criteria and the integration of subsequent statistical analysis. The web-based preprocessing service can be deployed locally at the hospital level, protecting patients’ privacy while being integrated with existing open source data analysis tools currently being developed across Germany.