The cyclical character of the formation and development of confessional spaces as affected by competition between religions has been established. As a result of a weakening monopoly and growth of ...religious competition, a once prevailing religion is gradually ousted either by another religion (the R-cycle of religious competition) or—which has become a distinctive feature of the 19th‒21st centuries—by secular ideologies (in the case of social secularization, the S-cycle; political secularization, the SP-cycle). In addition, considerably long intercyclic stages of religious saturation have been identified. The common property of the three types of cycles is their aperiodicity. Characteristic of R- and SP-cycles are also intermittence, reversibility, and the ability to develop in parallel to one another and to R-cycles. The territorial expansion of the cycles is wavelike but is differentiated within the structure of the confessional space: R-cycles are confined to countries and their administrative territorial units, and SP-cycles, to the world’s macroregions. Note that the S-cycles have no limitations.
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The article reviews and analyzes trends in the development of Russian cultural geography at the beginning of the 21st century, its specific features, and the latest scientific achievements with ...respect to the evolution of cultural geography in Western countries. Similarities and differences in the transformation of the main theoretical approaches, scientific methods, and subject areas of specific cultural and geographical studies in foreign countries and Russia are revealed. The most important thematic sections of the article cover the most significant segments of cultural and geographical research in Russia in the 2000s–early 2020s. It is shown that the main focus in the formation of Russian cultural geography (after several decades of neglecting anthropocultural approaches in the Soviet period) was cultural landscape science. The latest advances of Russian cultural geographers in the field of cultural landscape for the first decades of the 21st century are characterized. Domestic ethnic geography, which developed during the Soviet period as part of population geography, is gradually transforming to ethnocultural. Much attention is paid to the correlation of ethnic and regional identity in polyethnic regions, ethnocultural aspects of the geography of nature management, cultural geography of the indigenous peoples of the North, Siberia, and the Far East. Religious geography is a new direction of cultural geography for Russia, which has gained great relevance in the post-Soviet period in the revival of religious life in a country characterized by exceptional complexity and the diverse religious composition of the population. The article discusses and analyzes the experience of Russian developments in humanitarian geography—a set of research areas focused on studying systems of ideas about the geographic space in different sociocultural contexts. The great practical significance of cultural and geographical research and the possibility of their use for regional development and optimization of the spatial organization of society are emphasized.
The results of a numerical investigation into the temperature–temporal dependences in continuous combined casting and pressing of the AK12 experimental aluminum alloy at a different overheating ...temperature from startup to the instant the steady-state thermal conditions are reached by the installation are reported. Calculations are performed based on a three-dimensional computer model of a complex heat exchange in an installation of a new design equipped by a horizontal rotary crystallizer. Theoretical investigations into the effect of overheating of the poured aluminum melt on the temperature-dependent heat exchange processes are performed. The influence of the character of the heat exchange in the transient thermal mode on the temperature field of the solidified melt for its different remoteness from the pouring point is determined. It is shown that the asymmetry of the temperature field in the control metal cross section near the pressing tool with the maximal temperature to the contacting crystallizer surface increases during crystallizer heating in the transient process. It is established that the duration of the transient process during the installation startup from the cold state until the steady-state thermal mode is attained depends on the temperature of the melt being poured. The maximal limit of overheating of the poured metal is determined, above which, when implementing the continuous combined casting–pressing technology, the aluminum melt does not solidify in the crystallizer and forced cooling of installation elements should be organized. The influence of melt overheating on the character of the temperature field along the crystallizer cross section is evaluated for the entire period of the transient thermal process. The design measures ensuring the rational temperature working conditions of bearings during the installation operation are given.
A PF-LDS CAMAC 8-channel programmable pulse shaper module has been developed for reception and preprocessing of information from low-channel detecting systems. The module can operate with input ...signals of both polarities. Output signals of the module are NIM-level signals. The module supports up to three output channels per input, and the output signals can be direct or inverse. The shaper module is designed in the CAMAC standard, has eight channels for pulse shaping, and takes two slots in a CAMAC crate. The average quantization-step duration of an output pulse is 6.52 ± 0.04 ns. The maximum pulse length of output signals is 404 ± 2 ns. The shaper delays signals by 18.85 ± 0.57 ns on average for all channels. The mean length of the leading edge of shaper output signals is 1.23 ± 0.20 ns. The relative change in the output-pulse duration under a full load of the module channels is at most 3%. The shaper threshold voltage is set in the range from –540 to +540 mV.
The vast increase in the number of forced migrants during the European migration crisis has compelled the receiving countries to concentrate on the issues of migrant reception and accommodation. This ...study aims to demonstrate how the patterns of settlement of Syrian and Iraqi migrants changed in 2014—2019. We propose a new methodology, building on the Herfindahl-Hirschman index, an indicator of the level and direction of the spatial concentration—deconcentration of migrants, and the Ryabtsev index, which is used to measure the proximity between the settlement structures of migrants and the Swedes. It is established there was a deconcentration of migrants during the crisis (especially in its ascendant phase), carried out by the Swedish authorities. However a reverse process took place in the descendant phase, as a result of self-arranged migrants’ resettlement. The deconcentration of Iraqis and Syrians led to the convergence between the settlement structure typical of immigrants and the Swedes, whilst concentration resulted in divergence accompanied by the emergence of close-knit immigrant communities on the outskirts of Sweden’s largest cities. The formation of such communities, seen as vulnerable by the national authorities and marked by a high crime rate, impedes the integration of Syrian and Iraqi immigrants into Swedish society.
A technology for duplex plasma treatment of the steel surface is proposed. At the first stage, it is proposed to carry out nitrocarburising at the cathode polarity of the treated sample to harden the ...surface layer. The composition and structure of nitrocarburised layers have been studied. It is shown that as a result of the simultaneous diffusion of nitrogen and carbon, their diffusion coefficients increase, contributing to the achievement of concentrations up to 0.74 ± 0.14% and 0.67 ± 0.18%, respectively, as well as an increase in the microhardness of the surface layer to 1020 ± 20 HV. At the second stage, it is proposed to carry out anodic polishing of the nitrocarburised surface to remove the porous oxide layer with a highly developed relief, which is formed as a result of exposure to the surface of electrical discharges and high-temperature oxidation. Tribological tests have shown a joint positive effect of the hardness of the diffusion layer and low surface roughness, including a dense layer of iron oxides, on a reduction in the friction coefficient by a factor of 2 and weight wear by a factor of 23 during fatigue wear of the treated sample under boundary friction and plastic contact with the counterbody.
A pulse–periodic diffuse discharge self-initiated in an atmospheric-pressure air flow passing through an annular gap with a strongly nonuniform electric field has been studied. The discharge serves ...as a source of a weakly ionized nonequilibrium plasma in which effective synthesis of nitrogen oxide is provided. It has been found that diffuse current channels sequentially arise in the annular gap in the direction of the air flow in time with high-voltage pulses. Experimental data suggest that the self-ionization (self-initiation) effect is due to the shift of negative oxygen ions accumulated in current channels and the mechanism behind the appearance of “seed” electrons in breakdown areas is the detachment of electrons from oxygen ions.
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The possibility of increasing the wear resistance and corrosion resistance of the surface of low-carbon steel after cathodic plasma electrolytic boronitrocarburizing in a solution of boric acid, ...glycerin, and ammonium chloride, and subsequent anodic plasma electrolytic polishing in a solution of ammonium sulfate through the formation of a modified structure has been demonstrated. The modified structure consists of a dense oxide layer and a diffusion layer underneath, which contains up to 0.87% carbon, 0.80% nitrogen, and 0.87% boron, achieving a microhardness of 970 ± 20 HV. The competing effects of surface erosion due to discharge and high-temperature oxidation on surface morphology and roughness were identified. The positive effect of reducing surface roughness during the formation of a dense oxide layer on the surface and a solid diffusion layer underneath on reducing the coefficient of friction and mass wear, as well as reducing surface roughness and additional oxidation during polishing on reducing the corrosion current density, was established.
