Disposal of Nuclear Wastes: At an increased but still modest cost, more options can be explored and the outlook can be improved

For the present and the foreseeable future the following options appear to be either usable or worth further exploration: mausolea; disposal in mines of various sorts, and perhaps in ice; in situ melt; and further chemical separations. The options are interdependent. It is too early to assess disposal in space, and disposal in the oceans remains unsafe for lack of adequate knowledge. Table 3 is a summary of the main ideas for which we have worked out (sometimes uncertain) costs. For the short term, ultimate disposal in deep mines is the best-developed plan. However, the related concept of in situ melt has significant advantages and should be realistically appraised. Further chemical separation with subsequent recycling of the actinides in a LMFBR should be investigated and implemented, for it would be universally beneficial; on the other hand, additional removal of strontium and cesium does not seem attractive. Thus, for the near future we make the following recommendations: 1) Provide temporary storage facilities to ensure that the projected commercial high-level wastes do not become a public hazard. The AEC adopts this view, and has stated an intention to construct such facilities. But because of the capriciousness of man and nature, a workable ultimate disposal scheme must be developed soon. 2) Fund other ultimate disposal schemes at the same rate as the salt mine project-say $1 million a year or more-to sharpen the technological issues, so that a decision can be reached in the next few years. The schemes should include (i) in situ melt, and the variation with a central repository; (ii) burial in mines other than salt mines (including Antarctic rocks and permanent ice); (iii) further chemical separation of actinides and recycling actinides in a LMFBR. 3) Maintain liaison with the developing space shuttle technology to insure that no opportunity is lost. The AEC has a commitment to hold safety foremost in its waste management program, but budget considerations and management priorities have downgraded the program. Past funding levels and management emphasis have yet to produce, after a decade and a half, one operational long-term storage facility-a sign of both commendable caution and inadequate work. If nuclear power is to resolve our energy needs in the coming decades, its benefits should not be delayed for lack of a viable management program for high-level wastes.     

越南香枝木解剖构造及物理力学性能研究

确定了越南香枝木中文名为越南黄檀。对越南香枝木的构造特征进行解剖研究,并测试了越南香枝木主要的物理力学性能。结果表明,越南香枝木密度大,干缩率中等,抗弯强度、抗弯弹性模量高、端面硬度高。此外,比较了越南香枝木与海南香枝木的构造特征,结果显示两者之间管孔、木射线与轴向薄壁组织差异较为明显,可以作为鉴别依据。     

蔺草底部茎秆解剖构造与力学性能

蔺草Juncus effusus茎秆是一种优质天然纤维。研究蔺草茎秆解剖构造与力学性能,为全面了解蔺草及其纤维的开发利用提供理论依据。以5份蔺草种质为研究对象,观测其解剖构造,运用电子万能力学试验机测试其力学性能,并分析解剖构造与力学性能之间的关系。结果表明:蔺草底部茎秆微观结构分为表皮、基本组织、维管束和髓;蔺草纤维呈纺锤形,长度为681.47～712.04 μm,宽度为5.58～8.00 μm,壁腔比范围为1.194～1.556;5份蔺草种质底部茎秆的最大拉力范围为61.59～72.71 N,XY004的最大拉力最高,拉伸强度为33.28～59.11 MPa,XY003的拉伸强度最大,拉伸弹性模量为1 438.23～2 297.10 MPa;蔺草底部茎秆拉伸强度、拉伸弹性模量与其维管束总数目呈极显著正相关,相关系数分别为0.818和0.724,与茎壁厚/茎半径也呈极显著正相关,相关系数分别为0.740和0.748,与纤维的壁腔比呈显著正相关,相关系数分别为0.584和0.663,与粗纤维质量分数无显著相关性;蔺草底部茎秆力学性能主要取决于茎秆维管束总数目、基本组织厚度和纤维的壁腔比以及各组织及其各细胞之间的连接形式和连接强度。供试的5份蔺草种质中,XY003和XY004底部茎秆具有较高的强度和良好的弹性,可作为优良蔺草品种选育的种质资源。图4表4参33     

Methanol: A Versatile Fuel for Immediate Use: Methanol can be made from gas, coal, or wood. It is stored and used in existing equipment

We believe that methanol is the most versatile synthetic fuel available and its use could stretch or eventually substitute for, the disappearing reserves of low-cost petroleum resources. Methanol could be used now as a means for marketing economically the natural gas that is otherwise going to waste in remote locations. If methanol were used as an additive to gasoline at a rate of 5 to 15 percent, for use in internal combustion engines, there would be an immediate reduction in atmospheric pollution, there would be less need for lead in fuel, and automobile performance would be improved. With increasing production of fuel-grade methanol from coal and other sources, we foresee the increasing use of methanol for electrical power plants, for heating, and for other fuel applications. We hope that a practical methanol fuel cell will be commercially available by the time that methanol becomes plentiful for fuel purposes. Methanol offers a particularly attractive form of solar-energy conservation, since agricultural and forest waste products can be used as the starting material. Indeed, at 1 percent conversion efficiency the forest lands could supply the entire present energy requirements of the United States.     

Chemical Strengthening of Glass: After more than 70 years of research, glasses can now be made strong enough to be bent sharply

Although man has known for centuries that glass had potentially large mechanical capabilities, he had been content, until rather recently, to accept the fragility of bulk glass. Annealing, the first step in making glass a useful material, enabled him to make articles with strengths adequate for satisfactory service. Physical tempering provided the next big advance, permitting strengths more than three times those of annealed glass in simple shapes. Today, chemical strengthening is a real possibility for producing glass articles, regardless of design, more than three times the strength of physically tempered ware.     

Crystal structure of a complex of acridine, cytosine and water (1:1:1)

X-ray structural analysis of a crystalline complex between acridine C(13)H(9)N, cytosine C(4)H(5)N(3)O, and water (1:1:1) has been completed. The cytosine and water molecules form a sheet-like structure through a series of hydrogen bonds. The acridine molecules are bound to this layer through a hydrogen bridge from the water to the ring nitrogen. The acridine molecules stack in a parallel fashion normal to the cytosine-water sheets, with an average interplanar spacing of 3.5 angstroms.     

Structure of the quaternary complex of interleukin-2 with its alpha, beta, and gammac receptors

Interleukin-2 (IL-2) is an immunoregulatory cytokine that acts through a quaternary receptor signaling complex containing alpha (IL-2Ralpha), beta (IL-2Rbeta), and common gamma chain (gc) receptors. In the structure of the quaternary ectodomain complex as visualized at a resolution of 2.3 angstroms, the binding of IL-2Ralpha to IL-2 stabilizes a secondary binding site for presentation to IL-2Rbeta. gammac is then recruited to the composite surface formed by the IL-2/IL-2Rbeta complex. Consistent with its role as a shared receptor for IL-4, IL-7, IL-9, IL-15, and IL-21, gammac forms degenerate contacts with IL-2. The structure of gammac provides a rationale for loss-of-function mutations found in patients with X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency diseases (X-SCID). This complex structure provides a framework for other gammac-dependent cytokine-receptor interactions and for the engineering of improved IL-2 therapeutics.     

Intercalation complex of proflavine with DNA: structure and dynamics by solid-state NMR

The structure of the complex formed between the intercalating agent proflavine and fibrous native DNA was studied by one- and two-dimensional high-resolution solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Carbon-13-labeled proflavine was used to show that the drug is stacked with the aromatic ring plane perpendicular to the fiber axis and that it is essentially immobile. Natural abundance carbon-13 NMR of the DNA itself shows that proflavine binding does not change the puckering of the deoxyribose ring. However, phosphorus-31 NMR spectra show profound changes in the orientation of the phosphodiester grouping on proflavine binding, with some of the phosphodiesters tilting almost parallel to the helix axis, and a second set almost perpendicular. The first group to the phosphodiesters probably spans the intercalation sites, whereas the tilting of the second set likely compensates for the unwinding of the DNA by the intercalator.     

农田机械碾压对土壤物理特性及玉米生长和产量的影响

【目的】研究实际生产中大型农业机械碾压对土壤物理特性及玉米生长和产量的影响程度,为改善耕作措施、实现作物壮根高产和土壤的可持续生产提供依据。【方法】选取小麦—玉米两熟制中前茬小麦收获时节受谷物联合收割机反复碾压的地块（JS处理）和常规收割未经反复碾压地块（CK）,以玉米品种登海605（DH605）和登海3号（DH3）为试验材料,测定并分析玉米播种前的土壤容重和含水量及玉米的农艺性状、光合特性、干物质积累与分配、果穗性状及产量等指标。【结果】JS处理地块0～50 cm土层土壤容重和土壤含水量均较CK增加,其中0～10和10～20 cm土层土壤容重均显著大于CK（P<0.05,下同）,即大型农机反复碾压对土壤容重的影响主要集中在0～20 cm耕层。耕层土壤紧实进一步造成玉米根系发根数量减少,根干质量降低,根冠发育失调,茎、叶分化受阻,单株叶片数量和茎节数量减少,叶面积指数下降,株高降低,光合速率降低,干物质积累量减少,穗粒数和百粒质量下降。2个品种比较,DH3根系生长受紧实胁迫影响较大,根层数、根条数、根干质量、根冠比较CK分别显著减少17.9%、26.9%、45.2%和32.9%,而DH605分别下降0、14.4%、31.7%和12.7%,仅根干质量达到显著差异;JS处理下DH605的叶面积指数和穗位叶SPAD较CK分别显著降低36.9%和14.4%,穗位系数显著增加,茎粗、百粒质量显著降低;虽然DH3根系生长受紧实胁迫影响较大,JS处理下DH3的叶面积指数较CK显著降低21.8%,但穗位叶SPAD值、穗位系数、茎粗、百粒质量则与CK差异不显著（P>0.05）,且干物质向叶片、籽粒的分配比例增加,最终减产幅度（20.8%）与DH605（24.4%）差异不大。【结论】当前生产中大型农机反复碾压造成的耕层土壤紧实现象已十分严重,使免耕直播的玉米生长受到明显抑制,产量显著降低;不同玉米品种对土壤紧实胁迫的响应存在差异,生产中可通过深松深耕、秸秆还田、选用抗土壤紧实品种等措施消减土壤紧实对作物生长的不良影响。     

Crystal structure of the 1: 1 complex of 5-fluorouracil and 9-ethylhypoxanthine

9-Ethylhypoxanthine and 5-fluorouracil form a 1 : 1 crystalline complex. The structure of this complex has been solved by x-ray diffraction analysis. The molecules crystallize in a monoclinic lattice and form a sheet structure in which pairs of fluorouracil molecules are held together by two hydrogen bonds. The 9-ethylhypoxanthine residues fill up the rest of the molecular sheet by forming single hydrogen bonds with each uracil pair.     

How Big Is a Chunk?: By combining data from several experiments, a basic human memory unit can be identified and measured

I have explored some of the interactions between research on higher mental processes over the past decade or two and laboratory experiments on simpler cognitive processes. I have shown that, by viewing experimentation in a parameter-estimating paradigm instead of a hypothesis-testing paradigm, one can obtain much more information from experiments-information that, combined with contemporary theoretical models of the cognitive processes, has implications for human performance on tasks quite different from those of the original experiments. The work of identifying and measuring the basic parameters of the human information processing system has just begun, but already important information has been gained. The psychological reality of the chunk has been fairly well demonstrated, and the chunk capacity of short-term memory has been shown to be in the range of five to seven. Fixation of information in longterm memory has been shown to take about 5 or 10 seconds per chunk. Some other "magical numbers" have been estimated-for example, visual scanning speeds and times required for simple grammatical transformations-and no doubt others remain to be discovered. But even the two basic constants discussed in this article-short-term memory capacity and rate of fixation in long-term memory-organize, systematize, and explain a wide range of findings, about both simple tasks and more complex cognitive performances that have been reported in the psychological literature over the past 50 years or more.     

优良阔叶树种—刨花楠木材构造性质及用途的研究

对江西省安福县天然刨花楠的生长性状,木材解剖特征,木材性质及化学成分和叶精油化学成分等进行了初步研究,综合分析并总结了刨花楠的多种利用途径。     

杉科植物枝/根木质部水分运输功能、机械强度与解剖结构的关系

【目的】研究湿润地区杉科Taxodiaceae北美红杉Sequoia sempervirens、落羽杉Taxodium distichum、池杉T.distichum var.imbricatum木质部水分运输、解剖结构和机械强度的定量关系,探讨木质部解剖结构与功能在器官和物种水平的权衡。【方法】以浙江省天目山北美红杉、落羽杉、池杉为研究对象,用空气注入法测量3种植物枝/根的比导率(K_s)和栓塞抗性(P₅₀),测量管胞壁厚度(T_t)、纹孔膜面积(A_pm)、纹孔口面积(A_pa)、纹孔膜直径(P_d)、纹孔口直径(A_d)、水力直径(D_h)、管胞密度(N_t)、纹孔开口比(R_ap)、纹孔密度(N_pm)等指标与水分运输有关的解剖结构,以及木质部密度(D_w)、厚度跨度比(T_tob)等与机械强度相关的指标,同时分析了水力...