• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.25
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• pp.131-158
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• 2011

In the Sakha(Yakutia) Republic, culture and politics continue to be interwined. Shamanism recently has come out of hiding after Soviet repression, and into fashion. Images of the shaman are changing in villages, where traditional healers have maintained their practices in difficult conditions, and in cities, where a resurgence of spirit belief and healing has led to the revitalization of their nationalism. Shamans and folk healers manipulate their own images, and in turn are changed by the upheavals of politicized cultural revitalization. In this complex and interactive context, folklore about traditional shamans has become especially rich and accessible. I argue here that religion has become an idiom through which competing definitions of homeland and national pride are being shaped. Until September 2002, Yakutsk had never had a 'temple' devoted to the practice of traditional shamanic beliefs. Indeed the whole concept that a building 'Archie Jiete' could contain or represent the beliefs, values and rituals of the Sakha people was new, and highly controversial.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.43
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• pp.207-239
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• 2016

The Altai Humanities Belt connecting Siberia to Central Asia is very important to the history of civilization. It had a huge influence on the formation of an ancient civilization in the Korean Peninsula. Therefore, a variety of studies have been carried out in the field of folklore and anthropology as well as archeology. One of these studies is about the oral epic. The oral epic remains in the form of a unique transmission in Korea, but it wasn't that long ago when it was noted as the component of the Altai Humanities Belt. In that context, some epics from Central Asia, Mongolia, and Siberia were introduced to Korea. This preliminary investigation is conducted to introduce the oral epic Olonkho from Yakutia in Siberia to Korean academia. Although it was revealed recently, Olonkho is highly valued. The epic study has been buried from the Western point of view, but Olonkho is expected to provide a global perspective to the field of epic study. Above all, it contains a very significant clue to a new study because the content and the style of performance are considerably different from those of the West. Additionally, the original form is relatively well preserved. In particular, it explains how human thinking and behaviors have changed in the transition from the mythical age to the heroic age. This change appears in the ethnic history of Yakutia, as well as in the formation process for all Altai countries around the 10th century. Therefore, this preliminary investigation will be a foundation to facilitate the translation of the voluminous Olonkho into Korean, and to conduct full-fledged research on it. In particular, it can motivate a study on the differences and similarities in comparison to the tradition of oral epics between Central Asia and the Korean Peninsula. Furthermore, it will serve as a foundation for the formation of the Altai Humanities Belt.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.28-34
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• 2015

This paper addresses the problems of using anti-freeze lubricants for different machines that must function at extremely low temperatures during winter operation in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). We discuss the possibility of obtaining anti-freeze base oils from Talakan crude oil, an area with major oil and gas deposits of the Republic of Sakha, and also provide the trade and technological classification of Talakan crude oil. We propose two different schemes for processing Talakan crude oil: the fuel scheme (obtaining light and heavy fractions as a fuel oil) and the base oil scheme (obtaining light fractions and base oils). We investigate the influence of pour point depressants on alkyl-methacrylate base on the low-temperature properties of the fractions obtained from Talakan crude oil and Korean base oils, and establish the optimal concentration of pour point depressants. We compare the properties of these fractions with the low-temperature properties of Korean base oils and find that the commercial oil "Ravenol 0W-40" provides optimistic results. We obtain oil with a pour point of minus $50^{\circ}C$ and a viscosity index greater than 100. The Design of Experiment was used to establish the optimum composition of the pour point depressants and the base oil S-8 to obtain lubricant oil with a kinematic viscosity of 17 cSt, viscosity index of 208, and a pour point of minus $64^{\circ}C$.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.47-60
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• 2017

The permafrost active layer plays an important role in permafrost dynamics. Ecological patterns, processes, and water and ice contents in the active layer are spatially and temporally complex depending on landscape heterogeneity and local-scale variations in hydrological processes. Although there has been emerging interest in the application of optical remote sensing techniques to permafrost environments, optical sensors are significantly limited in accessing information on near surface geo-cryological conditions. The primary objective of this study was to investigate capability of L-band SAR data for monitoring spatio-temporal variability of permafrost ecosystems and underlying soil conditions. This study exploits information from different polarimetric SAR observables in relation to permafrost environmental conditions. Experimental results show that each polarimetric radar observable conveys different information on permafrost environments. In the case of the dual-pol mode, the radar observables consist of two backscattering powers and one correlation coefficient between polarimetric channels. Among them, the dual-pol scattering powers are highly sensitive to freeze/thaw transition and can discriminate grasslands or ponds in thermokarst area from other permafrost ecosystems. However, it is difficult to identify the ground conditions with dual-pol observables. Additional backscattering powers and correlation coefficients obtained from quad-pol mode help understanding seasonal variations ofradar scattering and assessing geo-cryological information on soil layers. In particular, co-pol coherences atHV-basis and circular-basis were found to be very usefultools for mapping and monitoring near surface soil properties.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.519-530
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• 2016

Vegetative plants in Yakutia are naturally frozen when they are covered with snow in the fall, and they function as green cryo-fodder that is a source of biologically active substances and nutrients for herbivorous animals. We observed a considerable increase in the total fatty acid content in the leaves of Avena sativa, Elytrigia rеpens, Equisetum variegatum and Equisetum scirpoides during the fall period. However, the degree of unsaturation of fatty acids was not higher in the frozen plants covered with snow than in the summer plants, with the exception of E. scirpoides, a dwarf horsetail found in the Pole of Cold in the northern hemisphere. In the internal adipose tissue of the Yakut horse (young horse meat), 18 fatty acids were found, including 10 saturated ones. Monounsaturated oleic С18:1 (n-9) acid and polyunsaturated α-linolenic С18:3 (n-3) acid were equally prevalent among the unsaturated fatty acids, accounting for 70% of the total unsaturated fatty acids. This composition of polyenoic fatty acids in the internal adipose tissue indicates that the Yakut horse actively feeds on the fall vegetation and the wintergreen sedge-grass. We believe that the high plant-specific free fatty acid content in the tissue of Yakut horses may play an important role in the regulation of their resistance to long-term low-temperature stress.