A Big Horizontal Solar Telescope of the Main Astronomical Observatory of the Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences in the caucasus

This paper presents the Big Horizonal Solar Telescope of the Main Astronomical Observatory of the Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences installed at the Peak Terskol high-altitude station near Elbrus (the main mirror diameter is 650 mm and the focal length is 17.5 m). The telescope is equipped with a five-camera spectrograph intended for photographic spectral observations of active regions in the solar atmosphere and photoelectric measurements of the solar spectra with high spectral and spatial resolution. The observation procedure is described, and the results of the quality analysis of the recorded spectra and of the early measurements are presented.Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Radiofizika, Vol. 39, No. 10, pp. 1326–1333, October, 1996.The authors wish to express their gratitude to C.I.Gandzha, V.V.Kul'beda, and Yu. M. Gavrilyuk from the Solar Physics Department of the PAO of the Ukrainian NAS and to the Board of Directors of the Observatory and of the High-Altitude Station for help in the development of the instrument.This paper is dedicated to the memory of E. A. Gurtovenko, D.Sc. in Phys. and Math., who initiated the installation of the telescope at Peak Terskol and who was the leader, an executor, and an observer in this project.     

The overlay of lower envelopes and its applications

Let and be two collections of a total ofn (possibly partially defined) bivariate, algebraic functions of constant maximum degree. The minimization diagrams of are the planar maps obtained by the xy-projections of the lower envelopes of , respectively. We show that the combinatiorial complexity of the overlay of the minimization diagrams of and of is O(n^2+ɛ), for any ɛ>0. This result has several applications: (i) a near-quadratic upper bound on the complexity of the region in 3-space enclosed between the lower envelope of one such collection of functions and the upper envelope of another collection; (ii) an efficient and simple divide-and-conquer algorithm for constructing lower envelopes in three dimensions; and (iii) a near-quadratic upper bound on the complexity of the space of all plane transversals of a collection of simply shaped convex sets in three dimensions. Work on this paper by the first author was supported by National Science Foundation Grant CCR-93-01259 and an NYI award. Work on this paper by the second author was supported by the Netherlands’ Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) and partially supported by ESPRIT Basic Research Action No. 6546 (project PROMotion). His current address is Department of Computer Science, Postech, San 31, Hyoja-Dong, Pohang, Kyungbuk 790–784, South Korea. Email: otfried@vision.postech.ac.kr. Work on this paper by the third author was supported by NSF Grant CCR-91-22103, by a Max-Planck Research Award, and by grants from the U.S.-Israeli Binational Science Foundation the Fund for Basic Research administered by the Israeli Academy of Sciences, and the G.I.F., the German-Israeli Foundation for Scientific Research and Development.     

Prognostication criterion of potential and practical use of analytical reagents in titrimetria of individual substances

Various possible criterion in titrimetric methods have been discussed in this paper and more informative, visual and universal criterion-the degree of proceeding of individual reaction at the equivalence point have been chosen. The equation for the degree of proceeding of individual analytical reaction suited for any chemical reactions under real conditions with an allowance made for both component and titrant concentration have been deduced. This criterion allows us to make a prognosis of any parametres of a titrimetric procedure of an individual substance determination and the procedure as a whole, not having carried out the experiment.     

The determination of environmental and industrial exposure to heavy metals based on the quantitative isolation of metallothionein from human fluids, with application of covalent affinity chromatography with thiol-disulphide interchange gel as a solid-phase extraction support

The aim of this study was to present a new analytical method for the quantitative determination of metallothionein (MT) proteins in human body fluids and tissues, in order to determine the level of environmental and industrial exposure to heavy metals. For MT isolation, covalent affinity chromatography with thiol-disulphide inter-change (CAC-TDI) was applied. Fundamentals of indirect determination of the contents of metallothionein proteins were worked out through estimation of the quantities of metals bound with metallothionein protein and adsorbed on covalent affinity chromatography gel as on solid-phase extraction support during separating process. The (CAC-TDI) gel, specially prepared, was used as a solid phase extraction support (SPE) for preconcentration of Hg-thionein (Hg-Th), Cd-thionein (Cd-Th), Zn-thionein (Zn-Th) and Cu-thionein (Cu-Th) proteins and Hg, Cd, Zn and Cu bonded with MTs from water, human fluids such as: urine, human plasma, breast milk and tissues homogenates.