The outcomes of cooperation of Kazakhstan and Turkey in the field of education

Official relations between Turkey and Kazakhstan were established in December 1990. The Minister of Culture Namik Kemal Zeybek and the Kazakh State Culture Committee signed an agreement for the carrying out of common cultural work between two countries in education system, research projects, exchange experience of experts and scholars in the practice. This agreement regained cultural ties interrupted long time ago. The official visit of the head of the Kazakh State Culture Committee paid to Turkey on the January 31, 1991, and the cooperation agreement signed by the Minister of Health on February 14 of that year strengthened cultural relations between the two countries. Before gaining the independence of Kazakhstan the official visit of the Turkish President Turgut Ozal to Kazakhstan on March 15 and signing the agreement "on the relationship of Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic and the Republic of Turkey" led to the strengthening friendship Kazakh-Turkish relations and further development in this direction.peer-reviewe

Plasma technologies application for building materials surface modification

© Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.Low-temperature plasma modification of LiYF4 crystal surface in Helium atmosphere caused microhardness decreasing and increasing of roughness of crystal surface. The change of microhardness and morphology is a possible result of Fluorine outgoing from material structure due to heating of surface and plasma chemical reactions and ingoing of Oxygen. As a result of exchange and diffusion processes crystal surface structure become more crumbly, its morphology and mechanical properties change

Collective magnetic excitations in mixed-valence Sm0.83Y0.17S

The magnetic spectral response of black-phase mixed-valence Sm0.83Y0.17S has been measured by inelastic neutron scattering on a single crystal. Two magnetic peaks are observed in the energy range of the Sm2+ spin-orbit transition (25-40 meV). Both of them exhibit significant dispersion along the three main symmetry directions, reminiscent of the spin-orbit exciton branch found in pure divalent SmS. The results can be reproduced by a simple phenomenological model accounting for the existence of sizeable Sm-Sm exchange interactions, and a microscopic mechanism is proposed on the basis of the "local-bound-state" theory developed previously for SmB6.Comment: 6 pages in pdf format, 3 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Short- and long-term cause-specific survival of patients with inflammatory breast cancer

BACKGROUND: Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) had been perceived to have a poor prognosis. Oncologists were not enthusiastic in the past to give aggressive treatment. Single institution studies tend to have small patient numbers and limited years of follow-up. Most studies do not report 10-, 15- or 20-year results. METHODS: Data was obtained from the population-based database of the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results program of the National Cancer Institute from 1975–1995 using SEER*Stat5.0 software. This period of 21 years was divided into 7 periods of 3 years each. The years were chosen so that there was adequate follow-up information to 2000. ICD-O-2 histology 8530/3 was used to define IBC. The lognormal model was used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: A total of 1684 patients were analyzed, of which 84% were white, 11% were African Americans, and 5% belonged to other races. Age distribution was < 30 years in 1%, 30–40 in 11%, 40–50 in 22%, 50–60 in 24%, 60–70 in 21%, and > 70 in 21%. The lognormal model was validated for 1975–77 and for 1978–80, since the 10-, 15- and 20-year cause-specific survival (CSS) rates, could be calculated using the Kaplan-Meier method with data available in 2000. The data were then used to estimate the 10-, 15- and 20-year CSS rates for the more recent years, and to study the trend of improvement in survival. There were increasing incidences of IBC: 134 patients in the 1975–77 period to 416 patients in the 1993–95 period. The corresponding 20-year CSS increased from 9% to 20% respectively with standard errors of less than 4%. CONCLUSION: The improvement of survival during the study period may be due to introduction of more aggressive treatments. However, there seem to be no further increase of long-term CSS, which should encourage oncologists to find even more effective treatments. Because of small numbers of patients, randomized studies will be difficult to conduct. The SEER population-based database will yield the best possible estimate of the trend in improvement of survival for patients with IBC

Development of methods for the preparation of radiopure ⁸²Se sources for the SuperNEMO neutrinoless double-beta decay experiment

A radiochemical method for producing 82Se sources with an ultra-low level of contamination of natural radionuclides (40K, decay products of 232Th and 238U) has been developed based on cation-exchange chromatographic purification with reverse removal of impurities. It includes chromatographic separation (purification), reduction, conditioning (which includes decantation, centrifugation, washing, grinding, and drying), and 82Se foil production. The conditioning stage, during which highly dispersed elemental selenium is obtained by the reduction of purified selenious acid (H2SeO3) with sulfur dioxide (SO2) represents the crucial step in the preparation of radiopure 82Se samples. The natural selenium (600 g) was first produced in this procedure in order to refine the method. The technique developed was then used to produce 2.5 kg of radiopure enriched selenium (82Se). The produced 82Se samples were wrapped in polyethylene (12 μm thick) and radionuclides present in the sample were analyzed with the BiPo-3 detector. The radiopurity of the plastic materials (chromatographic column material and polypropylene chemical vessels), which were used at all stages, was determined by instrumental neutron activation analysis. The radiopurity of the 82Se foils was checked by measurements with the BiPo-3 spectrometer, which confirmed the high purity of the final product. The measured contamination level for 208Tl was 8-54 μBq/kg, and for 214Bi the detection limit of 600 μBq/kg has been reached.</p

Interaction of electric and acoustic vibrations in combustion

The results of experimental studies of the interaction of electrical discharges in the acoustic oscillations in the combustion of isobutane are presented in the article. Electric discharges were created using a pulsed high voltage source at specified intervals. The purpose of the study was to determine the feasibility of using electrical pulse action to control combustion. The study was conducted on the specifically designed pattern of the combustion chamber with a swirl burner in the frequency range from 100 Hz to 1400 Hz. The study found that the method of periodic pulsed electrical influences can be used to control the combustion in the combustion chamber model. There is a steady increase in the amplitude of the oscillations in the combustion chamber model. Effects due to the mechanism of interaction of acoustic waves and oscillations heat release from the combustion zone. Estimated physical mechanism is a periodic change in the concentration of ions in the interaction of the combustion zone with the electric field of high potential. The proposed control method is advantageous in terms of energy costs