Abstract China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is one of the most ambitious infrastructure investment efforts in history, representing great potential for stimulating regional economic growth in Asia, Europe and Africa. This study collects cross-country panel data from 2007 to 2016 and investigates the impact of transport infrastructure (railway and road) on the economic growth in the BRI countries. First, a spatial-temporal characteristics analysis of transport infrastructure and economic growth is presented. Then, the global Moran’s I and the local Moran scatterplot are employed to test for possible spatial autocorrelations. Finally, both static and dynamic spatial models are utilized to empirically examine the impact of transport infrastructure on economic growth from the national and regional perspectives. The estimation results at the national level reveal that the transport infrastructure in the BRI countries plays an essential role in facilitating economic growth. Moreover, this study finds significantly positive spatial spillover effects of economic growth in the categories of geographical distance, economic distance, cultural distance, and institutional distance spatial weight matrices, i.e., shorter geographical distances and economic, cultural and institutional similarities among the BRI countries lead to mutual economic growth. The estimation results at the regional level indicate that the spatial spillover effects of transport infrastructure are significantly negative in East Asia-Central Asia and the Commonwealth of Independent States and in South Asia. On the contrary, the positive spatial spillover effect of transport infrastructure on economic growth is most pronounced in Central and Eastern Europe. This indicates the polarization effect in the initial stage of the lagging transport infrastructure and the diffusion effects after the transport infrastructure is mature. This study is valuable because it examines the impact of transport infrastructure on economic growth in the BRI countries. In addition, two policy suggestions for driving the regional economy in the BRI countries are given.
Peter de Barros Damgaard, Rui Martiniano, J. Kamm
et al.
Ancient steppes for human equestrians The Eurasian steppes reach from the Ukraine in Europe to Mongolia and China. Over the past 5000 years, these flat grasslands were thought to be the route for the ebb and flow of migrant humans, their horses, and their languages. de Barros Damgaard et al. probed whole-genome sequences from the remains of 74 individuals found across this region. Although there is evidence for migration into Europe from the steppes, the details of human movements are complex and involve independent acquisitions of horse cultures. Furthermore, it appears that the Indo-European Hittite language derived from Anatolia, not the steppes. The steppe people seem not to have penetrated South Asia. Genetic evidence indicates an independent history involving western Eurasian admixture into ancient South Asian peoples. Science, this issue p. eaar7711 Ancient DNA from the Asian steppe elucidates the origins and movement of Indo-European languages. INTRODUCTION According to the commonly accepted “steppe hypothesis,” the initial spread of Indo-European (IE) languages into both Europe and Asia took place with migrations of Early Bronze Age Yamnaya pastoralists from the Pontic-Caspian steppe. This is believed to have been enabled by horse domestication, which revolutionized transport and warfare. Although in Europe there is much support for the steppe hypothesis, the impact of Early Bronze Age Western steppe pastoralists in Asia, including Anatolia and South Asia, remains less well understood, with limited archaeological evidence for their presence. Furthermore, the earliest secure evidence of horse husbandry comes from the Botai culture of Central Asia, whereas direct evidence for Yamnaya equestrianism remains elusive. RATIONALE We investigated the genetic impact of Early Bronze Age migrations into Asia and interpret our findings in relation to the steppe hypothesis and early spread of IE languages. We generated whole-genome shotgun sequence data (~1 to 25 X average coverage) for 74 ancient individuals from Inner Asia and Anatolia, as well as 41 high-coverage present-day genomes from 17 Central Asian ethnicities. RESULTS We show that the population at Botai associated with the earliest evidence for horse husbandry derived from an ancient hunter-gatherer ancestry previously seen in the Upper Paleolithic Mal’ta (MA1) and was deeply diverged from the Western steppe pastoralists. They form part of a previously undescribed west-to-east cline of Holocene prehistoric steppe genetic ancestry in which Botai, Central Asians, and Baikal groups can be modeled with different amounts of Eastern hunter-gatherer (EHG) and Ancient East Asian genetic ancestry represented by Baikal_EN. In Anatolia, Bronze Age samples, including from Hittite speaking settlements associated with the first written evidence of IE languages, show genetic continuity with preceding Anatolian Copper Age (CA) samples and have substantial Caucasian hunter-gatherer (CHG)–related ancestry but no evidence of direct steppe admixture. In South Asia, we identified at least two distinct waves of admixture from the west, the first occurring from a source related to the Copper Age Namazga farming culture from the southern edge of the steppe, who exhibit both the Iranian and the EHG components found in many contemporary Pakistani and Indian groups from across the subcontinent. The second came from Late Bronze Age steppe sources, with a genetic impact that is more localized in the north and west. CONCLUSION Our findings reveal that the early spread of Yamnaya Bronze Age pastoralists had limited genetic impact in Anatolia as well as Central and South Asia. As such, the Asian story of Early Bronze Age expansions differs from that of Europe. Intriguingly, we find that direct descendants of Upper Paleolithic hunter-gatherers of Central Asia, now extinct as a separate lineage, survived well into the Bronze Age. These groups likely engaged in early horse domestication as a prey-route transition from hunting to herding, as otherwise seen for reindeer. Our findings further suggest that West Eurasian ancestry entered South Asia before and after, rather than during, the initial expansion of western steppe pastoralists, with the later event consistent with a Late Bronze Age entry of IE languages into South Asia. Finally, the lack of steppe ancestry in samples from Anatolia indicates that the spread of the earliest branch of IE languages into that region was not associated with a major population migration from the steppe. Model-based admixture proportions for selected ancient and present-day individuals, assuming K = 6, shown with their corresponding geographical locations. Ancient groups are represented by larger admixture plots, with those sequenced in the present work surrounded by black borders and others used for providing context with blue borders. Present-day South Asian groups are represented by smaller admixture plots with dark red borders. The Yamnaya expansions from the western steppe into Europe and Asia during the Early Bronze Age (~3000 BCE) are believed to have brought with them Indo-European languages and possibly horse husbandry. We analyzed 74 ancient whole-genome sequences from across Inner Asia and Anatolia and show that the Botai people associated with the earliest horse husbandry derived from a hunter-gatherer population deeply diverged from the Yamnaya. Our results also suggest distinct migrations bringing West Eurasian ancestry into South Asia before and after, but not at the time of, Yamnaya culture. We find no evidence of steppe ancestry in Bronze Age Anatolia from when Indo-European languages are attested there. Thus, in contrast to Europe, Early Bronze Age Yamnaya-related migrations had limited direct genetic impact in Asia.
B. Llamas, Lars Fehren-Schmitz, Guido Valverde
et al.
Native American population history is reexamined using a large data set of pre-Columbian mitochondrial genomes. The exact timing, route, and process of the initial peopling of the Americas remains uncertain despite much research. Archaeological evidence indicates the presence of humans as far as southern Chile by 14.6 thousand years ago (ka), shortly after the Pleistocene ice sheets blocking access from eastern Beringia began to retreat. Genetic estimates of the timing and route of entry have been constrained by the lack of suitable calibration points and low genetic diversity of Native Americans. We sequenced 92 whole mitochondrial genomes from pre-Columbian South American skeletons dating from 8.6 to 0.5 ka, allowing a detailed, temporally calibrated reconstruction of the peopling of the Americas in a Bayesian coalescent analysis. The data suggest that a small population entered the Americas via a coastal route around 16.0 ka, following previous isolation in eastern Beringia for ~2.4 to 9 thousand years after separation from eastern Siberian populations. Following a rapid movement throughout the Americas, limited gene flow in South America resulted in a marked phylogeographic structure of populations, which persisted through time. All of the ancient mitochondrial lineages detected in this study were absent from modern data sets, suggesting a high extinction rate. To investigate this further, we applied a novel principal components multiple logistic regression test to Bayesian serial coalescent simulations. The analysis supported a scenario in which European colonization caused a substantial loss of pre-Columbian lineages.
While the series of events that shaped the transition between foraging societies and food producers are well described for Central and Southern Europe, genetic evidence from Northern Europe surrounding the Baltic Sea is still sparse. Here, we report genome-wide DNA data from 38 ancient North Europeans ranging from ~9500 to 2200 years before present. Our analysis provides genetic evidence that hunter-gatherers settled Scandinavia via two routes. We reveal that the first Scandinavian farmers derive their ancestry from Anatolia 1000 years earlier than previously demonstrated. The range of Mesolithic Western hunter-gatherers extended to the east of the Baltic Sea, where these populations persisted without gene-flow from Central European farmers during the Early and Middle Neolithic. The arrival of steppe pastoralists in the Late Neolithic introduced a major shift in economy and mediated the spread of a new ancestry associated with the Corded Ware Complex in Northern Europe. The population history of Europe is complex and its very north has not yet been comprehensively studied at a genetic level. Here, Mittnik et al. report genome-wide data from 38 ancient individuals from the Eastern Baltic, Russia and Scandinavia to analyse gene flow throughout the Mesolithic and Bronze Age.
Exome-sequencing studies have generally been underpowered to identify deleterious alleles with a large effect on complex traits as such alleles are mostly rare. Because the population of northern and eastern Finland has expanded considerably and in isolation following a series of bottlenecks, individuals of these populations have numerous deleterious alleles at a relatively high frequency. Here, using exome sequencing of nearly 20,000 individuals from these regions, we investigate the role of rare coding variants in clinically relevant quantitative cardiometabolic traits. Exome-wide association studies for 64 quantitative traits identified 26 newly associated deleterious alleles. Of these 26 alleles, 19 are either unique to or more than 20 times more frequent in Finnish individuals than in other Europeans and show geographical clustering comparable to Mendelian disease mutations that are characteristic of the Finnish population. We estimate that sequencing studies of populations without this unique history would require hundreds of thousands to millions of participants to achieve comparable association power. Exome-wide sequencing studies of populations in Finland identified 26 deleterious alleles associated with 64 quantitative traits that are clinically relevant to cardiovascular and metabolic diseases.
The purpose of the research paper is to focus attention on the role of the ‘second plan’ historians in scientific research of the history of Ukraine; to evaluate and study comprehensively the contribution of H.Yu. Khraban to the archaeological study of Uman region territory; to carry out a detailed analysis of the archaeological part of the scholar’s scientific heritage; to find out the results of his archaeological studies, and to show the importance of the archaeological study of the regions for the reconstruction of the genuine history of Ukraine.
Scientific novelty: The contribution of H. Khraban to the study of various archaeological cultures sites in the western part of Cherkasy and neighboring oblasts is analyzed based on the fundamental source base, and after finding as well as introduction into scientific circulation of a significant array of new archival sources. The paper significantly augments a list of scholar’s works, many of which are unpublished and remain relevant to this day.
Conclusions. The activity of H. Khraban devoted to the archaeological study of the territory of Uman region, Eastern Podillia, and the popularization of the ancient history of Ukraine is analyzed. The contribution of the historian to the addition of previously unknown pages from the history of the expansion of different archaeological cultures tribes into Uman region territory, his assistance in the organization of Uman Museum of Local Lore research activities, and the involvement of the public in the archaeological study of the region are shown. H.Yu. Khraban himself participated in archaeological field research in Cherkasy, Kirovohrad, Vinnytsia, and Zhytomyr oblasts. Hryhorii Khraban maintained systematic ties with the Institute of Archeology of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR and spoke at meetings of the Department of Archeology Early Slavs with important reports on the results of his studies. Scientific notes and collected material objects were systematically given by the scholar to the scientific funds of the Institute of Archaeology.
According to the time of their dating, H. Khraban attributed the archaeological sites discovered in the territory of Uman region to the Paleolithic period, Trypillia culture, Bronze Age, Bilohrudivska culture, Scythian period, Zarubyntsi and Cherniakhiv cultures, and the sites of the early Slavs. H. Khraban’s merit as an archaeologist lies in the fact that he helped to study the continuity in the settling of Uman region territory since ancient times.
Celem artykułu było przedstawienie wpływu zmian w systemie: ciało biologiczne – ciało mechaniczne (ciało humanoida), będących skutkiem zastosowania cyborgizacji i robotyki społecznej, na wartościowanie ciała biologicznego w kontekście założeń teologii ciała (bazującej na ciele biologicznym). W artykule przyjęto trzy perspektywy badawcze. Postrzeganie: 1. ciała biologicznego; 2. ciała cyborga, czyli hybrydy człowieka i maszyny (maszyny działającej na ciele, wewnątrz ciała oraz ciało biologiczne funkcjonujące w maszynie); 3. ciała mechanicznego (humanoida), w aspekcie teologii ciała.
This paper explores the relationship between bird omens that occur in both the Sanskrit Gārgīyajyotiṣa Aṅga 42 and the Akkadian Šumma Ālu and related Cuneiform tablets. After an overview of the Sanskrit omens and their source, the study proceeds to compare the Indian and Mesopotamian bird omens with special reference to the omens of the crow in order to show that the series of Akkadian omens and Sanskrit omen verses share a common conceptual paradigm. A list of the different omen birds and animals mentioned in the Gārgīyajyotiṣa occurs in an appendix.
This work deals with the Czech evangelical (reformed religion) communities in Eastern and Southeastern Europe which originated in the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th for economic and social reasons. The founders of these communities either left the territory of Bohemia and Moravia for the fringes of the Habsburg monarchy (they started to appear abroad only after the creation of Czechoslovakia), or they left the post-White Mountain exiles’ settlements in today’s Poland and set up new villages by the process of what is termed secondary migration. These communities continue to function up to today and the Czech language is still a commonly used form of communication. The aim of this work is to capture the narration of the last members of these communities about the history of particular communities and the common motifs of their narrations across the communities. The factors which help to preserve the identities of these communities are also identified. The method of oral history and the biographical method are the main approaches employed in the research, and the final narrations are analysed and compared. Subsequently, the concepts of the collective memory are taken into consideration.
Dmitro Povorotnyi was born in 1971 Dnepropetrovsk. He is a Ukrainian Orthodox priest and the head of the department of patriotic education and chaplaincy of the Dnepropetrovsk Eparchy of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. Povorotnyi served in the Soviet army, at the age of 30 he came to the church. After receiving his education at the Dnepropetrovsk Theological Seminary, Povorotnyi was ordained a deacon in 2002 and a priest in 2013 and has been serving as a chaplain since March 2014. He has worked with combatants of the 20th Territorial Defense Battalion, the Dnepr-1 Regiment, the 39th Territorial Defense Battalion, the 93rd Independent Mechanized Brigade, the 74th Independent Reconnaissance Battalion, and the 30th Mechanized Brigade. Military Chaplain, Russian-Ukrainian War, Anti-Terrorist Operation, Ukraine, Eastern Ukraine, Front, Orthodox Church of Ukraine
History of Eastern Europe, Social sciences (General)