Structure–phase state of the surface layers in rails subjected to differential hardening

A layer-by-layer analysis of the structures, the phase compositions, and the defect substructures of differentially hardened rails has been carried by optical and transmission electron microscopy. It is found that the material volume of the rail head fillet is cooled faster than the volume located along the central axis.     

On the nonuniformity of a capillary flow

It is established that the capillary rise of a liquid has an oscillatory character, in contrast to the commonly accepted opinion that a vertical capillary is filled at a monotonically varying velocity. The value of the tangential shear stress arising in an ascending liquid is evaluated for ethyl alcohol and distilled water.     

Experimental Electronuclear Setup at the Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Physics

The purpose and current construction status, at the Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Physics, of an experimental electronuclear setup, combining a pulsed proton linear accelerator (36 MeV, 0.5 mA) and a subcritical blanket thermal-power assembly 100 kW, are discussed. The main equipment is already available or is being built in industry. The setup can be used to investigate the dynamics of the interaction of a linac–driver and a subcritical reactor and problems concerning the accelerator–driver and the target–blanket assembly. The proton beams and neutron fluxes will be used for applied purposes. In the future it will be possible to increase substantially the current and energy of the proton beam.     

Rehabilitation of the radioactively contaminated objects and territory of the Russian Science Center Kurchatov Institute

This article is devoted to work done in 2002–2006 as part of the unified project Reabilitatsiya to rehabilitate radiation hazardous objects and sections of the radioactively contaminated territory of the Russian Science Center Kurchatov Institute. The main objects of the rehabilitation work were old storage sites built for radioactive wastes on the territory of the Institute when military and civilian nuclear technologies were under development. The structural features of the storage sites, including the volumes and characteristics of the wastes stored, are presented. The salient aspects of the disposal sites, taken into account during the rehabilitation work, are discussed. The organization of the rehabilitation operations and the sequence in which they are performed, the special features of the technical design solutions used, the technological methods, and ways for conducting the work are described. __________ Translated from Atomnaya énergiya, Vol. 102, No. 5, pp. 300–306, May, 2007.     

Nonadditivity of Properties and the Possibility of Formation of Ensembles of Incommensurate Structures in the GaSe–Ga2Se3 System

The GaSe–Ga₂Se₃ system is studied by x-ray diffraction, electron microscopy, and differential scanning calorimetry. The results demonstrate that the nonadditivity of heat capacity observed near the eutectic composition after quenching is similar to the nonadditivity of properties in misfit layer compounds, which contain incommensurate structural components. The origin of this similarity is discussed in terms of the self-organization of interacting incommensurate elements in the melt and the formation of unstable suprastructural ensembles.     

Modeling, histological study and pathogenetic aspects of experimental traumatic osteomyelitis

The tibial diaphysis osteotomy with limited separation of periosteum on the ends of the fragments with subsequent local infection by Staphylococcus aureus culture was conducted. In 90% of observations chronic inflammation was revealed in affected bones while morphological investigation conduction. An acute traumatic disorders of intraosseous blood circulation (the bone infarction) and local staphylococcal infection play the main role in the traumatic osteomyelitis pathogenesis.     

Mutagenic and antimutagenic activities of human whole blood, plasma and albumin

The seeds of Crepis capillaris were used to examine the mutagenic und antimutagenic properties of human whole blood, plasma, serum albumin and gamma-globulin by recording chromosomal and chromatid aberrations. The antimutagenic activity was determined by preliminary, simultaneous, and subsequent biosubstrate treatments of the seeds. The whole and twice-diluted blood, as well as plasma, induced aberrations exceeding the level of self-arbitrary mutagenesis by 3.7-5.3 and 2.6-3.1 times, respectively. When the blood was diluted to its 20% concentration, the antimutagenic efficiency of biological fluids was recorded. Human serum albumin and gamma-globulin were found to have an antimutagenic effect. In the dilutions having no antimutagenic effect, blood, plasma, and albumin showed their ability to be effectively decrease the level of induced aberrations.     

Tunneling spectroscopy of palladium-barium emitters

The surface of a palladium-barium cathode was studied using scanning probe microscopy techniques. Data from the tunneling spectroscopy showed the pattern of the electron work function distribution over a microscopic region on the emitter surface. This pattern is compared to the distribution of various phases in the palladium-barium alloy employed.