Making and Unmaking Territories with Plants in the Riverine Peat Landscape of Central Kalimantan

Central Kalimantan, located on the Indonesian side of Borneo, has often been described as a state frontier area where rapid changes take place in legal and administrative regimes and in the rules that govern access and ownership to land and nature. Today, frontier development includes state and non-state actors that bring natural resource projects aimed at producing long-term effects by engaging local people in the commodification of nature. Local people adopt and abandon these projects at a rapid pace due to changing conditions, policies, and natural hazards. I will explore commodification in terms of territorial projects and the spatial and temporal reordering of human-nature relations within the landscapes of Central Kalimantan. Linked to the territorial expansion of trees and plants, commodification challenges local environmental practices and forms of sociality. The paper argues that the commodification of nature and the territorial aspects of this bring new layers of complications and thus have unexpected effects on the lives of local populations. Keywords: frontier, commodification, plants, landscape, state-making, Kalimantan

CHEMICAL SCIENCE IN SVERDLOVSK, 1920s–1950s: EMERGENCE OF KEY RESEARCH THEMES AND SCHOOLS

The paper presents an overview analysis of development of chemical research in the city of Sverdlovsk in 1920s–1950s. The author, relying on the theory of frontier modernization, proposes the concepts of frontier and support-point development of Soviet science. The frontier development was associated with peripherality, concentration of efforts in extractive (mining) industries, and a lack of resources for growth. The result of such frontier development was the emergence of a research-educational complex which, by the mid-1930s, included deeply integrated branch research organizations, institutes of the Academy of Sciences, and universities. The leading role was played by physical chemistry of metallurgical processes (and particularly electrochemistry), chemistry of wood and coal, inorganic and analytical chemistry. By the end of 1930s this chemical complex started to lose its frontier characteristics, which is evident from the effort of coal chemists led by I. Ya. Postovsky to develop the pharmaceutical chemistry. Due to the evacuation of enterprises and institutes from the western parts of USSR during the Great Patriotic War, the chemical complex of Sverdlovsk acquired a support-point character associated with the appearance of duplicate centers on the periphery. The new branches of chemical science emerged, for instance, the chemistry of polymers and the chemical machine-building. The implementation of the Soviet atomic project in Urals in late 1940s — early 1950s completed the paradigm shift in development of chemical science in Sverdlovsk, laying the foundation for the transformation of the city into a leading center of materials science.

Serving Tatars in the frontier development of Western Siberia in the XVII century

This article analyzes the poorly studied in Russian historiography question of the role of serving Tatars in the process of addition and development of Western Siberia. The object of this research is the Siberian serving Tatars “Yomışlı Tatarlar” as a special group of serving people. The subject of this research is the contribution of the serving Tatars to the frontier development of Siberia in the XVII century. Based on the previously elaborated methodology - the phase of development of the Siberian frontier, the author highlights the point and transitional stages characteristic to the initial period of colonization. It is noted that at these stages, the consolidation strategy for the recently annexed territories was the erection of fortresses as the benchmarks. The author provides various evidence to prove the significance of contribution of serving Tatars to the military and economic development of Siberian territories at the early stages of the frontier. Records on the number of serving Tatars in the garrisons of the first Russian cities during the XVII century, which demonstrate that their share of in the initial period of frontier development of Western Siberia comprised approximately one third of the military staff, are of special importance. Leaning on different types of sources, the article describes active participation of serving Tatars in construction of Russian fortresses and development of attached territories. The novelty of this research lies in the formulated conclusions that broaden the knowledge on the history of serving population in this period, and give a new perspective upon the role of serving Tatars “Yomışlı Tatarlar” in the process of colonization of Western Siberia.

Advanced Progress of Optical Wireless Technologies for Power Industry: An Overview

Optical wireless communications have attracted widespread attention in the traditional power industry because of the advantages of large spectrum resources, strong confidentiality, and freedom from traditional electromagnetic interference. This paper mainly summarizes the major classification and frontier development of power industry optical wireless technologies, including the indoor and outdoor channel characteristics of power industry optical wireless communication system, modulation scheme, the performance of hybrid power line, and indoor wireless optical communications system. Furthermore, this article compares domestic and foreign experiments, analyzes parameters for instance transmission rate, and reviews different application scenarios such as power wireless optical positioning and monitoring. In addition, in view of the shortcomings of traditional power technology, optical wireless power transfer technology is proposed and combined with unmanned aerial vehicles to achieve remote communication. At last, the main challenges and possible solutions faced by power industry wireless optical technologies are proposed.

Modern Approaches to the History of Altai in the 18th – Early 20th Centuries

This article is the result of the historiographical analysis concerning the history of the Altai development, Altai being a significant region of modern Siberia and Russia. The authors present the main directions of studying the Altai history of the 18th – early 20th centuries, as well as scientific and methodological approaches used by historians in the last two decades. The examination includes such directions of studying Altai history, practiced in the last two decades, as frontier development, history of management, socio-economic development, agrarian colonization, history of entrepreneurship, social and gender studies, etc. The general state of historical science associated with the growth of public interest in history, review of theoretical and methodological foundations of historical research determined the development of historical Siberian studies concerning Altai in this period. Consequently, the historical study of Altai in the modern (post-Soviet) research shows the importance of modern history-oriented regional studies. Moreover, the development of the historical studies regarding such a large and major region as Altai in the last 20 years evinces the existence of a multidimensional regionaloriented scientific school in Russian historiography