Search Results (8)

This paper addresses the complex issue of vibration response characteristics resulting from the unbalanced assembly of the double rotors in the 31F aero-engine. The study investigates the vibration response behavior of the dual-rotor system through the adjustment of rotor assembly phase angle. Initially, a dynamic model of the four-disk, five-pivot dual-rotor system is established, with its natural frequencies and vibration modes verified. The influence of size and the position of the unbalance on the vibration amplitude in the dual-rotor system is analyzed. Additionally, the probability distribution of the assembly phase angles for both the compressor and turbine sections of the low-pressure rotor is examined. The results indicate that for the low-pressure rotor exhibiting excessive vibration, adjusting the assembly phase angle of the rotors’ system’s compressor or the turbine section by 180 degrees leads to a vibration qualification rate of 70.1435%. This finding is consistent with the observations from the field experience method used in the former Soviet Union. Finally, corresponding experimental verification is conducted. Full article

This article reconstructs the story of the “Chinese Painting Exhibition” in the USSR, brought to Moscow and Leningrad in 1934 by the prominent Chinese artist Xu Beihong. The exhibition covered a period from the Han dynasty up to the 1930s, and, for the first time, presented Chinese art to the Soviet audience. Before arriving in the USSR, the show toured Europe, where it was extremely popular and considered the first successful attempt to present Chinese art in the West. In contrast, the exhibition’s perception in the Soviet Union was rather contradictory. The reasons for that could be found in the ongoing Soviet artistic discourse and preconceived vision of Chinese art. Based on archival materials, this study reveals the process of the exhibition’s organization and focuses on the image of China and Chinese art constructed by its curators. Additionally, this article examines the reception of the show by both professional and mass Soviet audiences in conjunction with the Soviet ideology towards fine art, foreign art exhibitions of the 1930s, and existing narratives on China, which shaped the optic of Soviet visitors. Full article

(1) Background: HIV-1 sub-subtype A1 is common in parts of Africa, Russia, former Soviet Union countries, and Eastern Europe. In Pakistan, sub-subtype A1 is the predominant HIV-1 subtype. Preliminary evidence suggests that distinct strains of HIV-1 sub-subtype A1 are circulating in Pakistan; however, an in-depth molecular phylogenetic characterization of HIV-1 sub-subtype A1 strains in Pakistan have not been presented. We performed a detailed characterization of the HIV-1 sub-subtype A1 epidemic in Pakistan using state-of-the-art molecular epidemiology and phylodynamics. (2) Methods: A total of 143 HIV-1 sub-subtype A1 gag sequences, including 61 sequences generated specifically for this study from PLHIVs part of our cohort, representing all sub-subtype A1 gag sequences from Pakistan, were analyzed. Maximum-likelihood phylogenetic cluster analysis was used to determine the relationship between Pakistani sub-subtype A1 strains and pandemic sub-subtype A1 strains. Furthermore, we used signature variation, charge distribution, selection pressures, and epitope prediction analyses to characterize variations unique to Pakistani HIV-1 strains and establish the association between signature variations and Gag epitope profile. (3) Results: The HIV-1 sub-subtype A1 sequences from Pakistan formed three main clusters: two that clustered with Kenyan sequences (7 and 10 sequences, respectively) and one that formed a Pakistan-specific cluster of 123 sequences that were much less related to other sub-subtype A1 sequences available in the database. The sequences in the Pakistan-specific cluster and the Kenyan reference strains exhibited several signature variations, especially at amino acid positions 312, 319, 331, 372, 373, 383, and 402. Structural protein modeling suggested that amino acid changes in these positions result in alterations of the Gag protein structure as well as in Gag-specific T-cell epitopes. (4) Conclusions: Our results suggest that the majority of the Pakistan HIV-1 sub-subtype A1 strains were unique to Pakistan and with a specific mutation pattern in Gag. Full article

The large Former Soviet Union (FSU) immigration of the 1990s, accounting for approximately 15% of the Jewish population in Israel today, plays a significant role in shaping Israeli society. Volunteering, as part of social citizenship and normative culture, is an important element of acculturation among immigrants. The present study compares volunteering attitudes and motivations among Generation 1.5 FSU immigrants in their third decade in Israel to native-born Israelis (NBIs): 576 participants, 50.2% NBIs and 49.8% FSUs. Generation 1.5 FSU immigrants exhibited less favorable attitudes toward volunteerism than NBIs. FSUs also rated career motivations for volunteerism significantly higher than NBIs, and values significantly lower than NBIs. Significant differences were found between motivations for volunteering among each cohort, separately, as well. In the context of mass immigration, re-socialization regarding volunteering among Generation 1.5 FSU immigrants living 2–3 decades in Israel appears relatively weak, possibly attributable to FSU policy and culture in opposition to independent volunteerism. Full article

Ethnic German resettlers from the former Soviet Union are one of the largest migrant groups in Germany. In comparison with the majority of the German population, resettlers exhibit worse subjective health and utilize fewer preventive measures. However, there is little evidence on health among ethnic Germans who remained in Russia. Hence, the objective of this study was to determine the differences in subjective health, diabetes, smoking, and utilization of health check-ups between ethnic Germans and the majority population in Russia. We used data from the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey II from 1994 to 2018 (general population of Russia n = 41,675, ethnic Germans n = 158). Multilevel logistic regression was used to calculate odds ratios (ORs) adjusted for age, sex, period, and place of residence. Analyses were furthermore stratified by the periods 1994–2005 and 2006–2018. Ethnic Germans in Russia rated their health less often as good compared with the Russian majority population (OR = 0.67, CI = 0.48–0.92). Furthermore, ethnic Germans were more likely to smoke after 2006 (OR = 1.91, CI = 1.09–3.37). Lower subjective health among ethnic Germans in Russia is in line with findings among minority populations in Europe. Increased odds of smoking after 2006 may indicate the deteriorating risk behavior of ethnic Germans in Russia. Full article

The present research aimed to provide an extensive comparative analysis regarding the socioeconomic development paths of three selected Balkan countries—Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania—as well as Hungary, which was originally classified as a member of the Visegrad Four group in Central and Eastern Europe. In our paper, the Balkan states were analyzed along with Hungary, as it might be observed that since the 2008–2009 economic crisis, the latter’s economy has been increasingly diverging from that of the Visegrad club in several aspects. After having undergone a protracted transition crisis escalated by the collapse of the Soviet Union, the micro-region has exhibited a truly contradictious development trajectory including periods of relatively faster economic-growth-based catching up and significant fallback stages driven by numerous endogenous or exogenous shocks. The study assumed that the region’s most crucial vulnerability is the relatively high dependence on Foreign Direct Investment that contributes to the fluctuating nature of economic growth, and also, it might be viewed as an obstacle to long-term sustainable development. In the frames of the research, the authors present an alternative comparative method for specifying the actual level of economic development of the defined country group from economic, political and social perspectives, relying on the most recent data published by international organizations, NGOs and thinktanks. As a result, an aggregate ranking was established for the four countries based on 21 individual indices, taking into consideration their dependent market economy attributes and, also, unique patterns of economic growth. Furthermore, the study also provides a dynamic evaluation of the trends concerning the narrow approach of using ten indices for a protracted period, investigating whether Hungary has been converging, diverging or stagnating with respect to the three Visegrad and Balkan economies. To what extent are Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary and Romania still affected by the historical burden of the former regime, and what perspectives might they have for realizing convergence in the near future to the more developed economies? Full article

By the end of the 1920s, more than 100 anti-religious museums had been opened in the Soviet Union. In addition, anti-religious departments appeared in the exhibitions of many local historical museums. In Moscow, the Central Anti-Religious Museum was opened in the Cathedral of the Strastnoi Monastery. At that time, the first museum promoting a comparative and historical approach to the study and presentation of religious artifacts was opened in Petrograd in 1922. The formation of Museum of Comparative Religion was based on the conjunction of the activities of the Petrograd Excursion Institute, the Academy of Sciences, and the Ethnographic department of Petrograd University. In this paper, based on archival materials, we analyze the methodological principles of the formation of the exhibitions at the newly founded museum, along with its themes, structure, and selection of exhibits. The Museum of Comparative Religion had a very short life before it was transformed into the Leningrad anti-religious museum, but its principles were inherited by the Museum of the History of Religion, which was opened in 1932. Full article

The Israeli art field has been negotiating with the definition of Israeli-ness since its beginnings and more even today, as “transnationalism” has become not only a lived daily experience among migrants or an ideological approach toward identity but also a challenge to the Zionist-Hebrew identity that is imposed on “repatriated” Jews. Young artists who reached Israel from the Former Soviet Union (FSU) as children in the 1990s not only retained their mother tongue but also developed a hyphenated first-generation immigrant identity and a transnational state of mind that have found artistic expression in projects and exhibitions in recent years, such as Odessa–Tel Aviv (2017), Dreamland Never Found (2017), Pravda (2018), and others. Nicolas Bourriaud’s botanical metaphor of the radicant, which insinuates successive or even “simultaneous en-rooting”, seems to be close to the 1.5-generation experience. Following the transnational perspective and the intersectional approach (the “inter” being of ethnicity, gender, and class), the article examines, among others, photographic works of three women artists: Angelika Sher (born 1969 in Vilnius, Lithuania), Vera Vladimirsky (born 1984 in Kharkiv, Ukraine), and Sarah Kaminker (born 1987 in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine). All three reached Israel in the 1990s, attended Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, and currently live and work in Tel Aviv or (in Kaminker’s case) Haifa. The Zionist-oriented Israeli-ness of the Israeli art field is questioned in their works. Regardless of the different and peculiar themes and approaches that characterize each of these artists, their oeuvres touch on the senses of radicantity, strangeness, and displacement and show that, in the globalization discourse and routine transnational moving around, anonymous, generic, or hybrid likenesses become characteristics of what is called “home,” “national identity,” or “promised land.” Therefore, it seems that under the influence of this young generation, the local field of art is moving toward a re-framing of its Israeli national identity. Full article