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The efficiency of sunflower foliar top dressing application with Boro-N and Fertix mark B microfertilizers under field experimental condition was considered. The experiment was conducted in 2020-2022 on gray forest soils of the Bryansk region. Sunflower hybrid Fakel was used as an object of research. Annual grasses were the forecrop in the experiment. Seeding was carried out by the punctuated method with the width of inter-row space (70 cm) at a seeding rate of 55 thousand seeds/ha. The area of the experimental plot is 33 m2, the area of the registration plot is 5 m2 with threefold repetition. Plot placement is systematic. Sunflower farming technology is designed to produce a planned seed yield of 3.5-4.5 t/ha. The experimental scheme included three variants of treatment with microfertilizer Boro-N (2.0 l/ha) + Fertix mark B, BP (2.0 l/ha): without microfertilizer application (control); one treatment; two treatments. It was established that foliar dressing with a tank mixture of Boro-N + Fertix mark B fertilizers once a year during the period of 6-10 true leaves increases the sunflower seed yield by 7%, the profitability of sunflower production by 88%, and the conditional net income by 3.8 thousand rubles/ha. Double application of these microfertilizers during the formation of 6-10 true leaves and in the phase of the end of budding - the beginning of flowering increased the crop yield by 12%, the conditional net income by 4.8 thousand rubles / ha.Additional treatment of sunflower plants before flowering, although reducing the profitability of seed production by 30%, increased the yield of the crop by 5%, conditional net income by 27%.

Abstract Among the peripheral instabilities observed at the Globus-M2 tokamak, two types of edge localized modes (ELMs) are brought into focus: ELMs synchronized and desynchronized with the sawtooth oscillations. The desynchronized ELMs appear in regimes that are characterized by high values of pressure in the pedestal, pped ≥ 3 kPa, and they are observed in discharges with the toroidal magnetic field BT > 0.6 T and plasma current IP > 0.3 MA. The desynchronized ELMs belong to the type-III/V with the dominating effect of the peeling mode. The synchronized ELMs were observed in a wider range of discharge parameters, including at BT < 0.6 T and IP < 0.3 MA. Calculations of the stability of the peeling-ballooning (PB) mode showed that at pedestal width ψnorm = 0.09 and pped > 3.5 kPa, destabilization of PB modes is possible without additional influence. Experimental data shows that the microtearing mode plays a dominant role in the pedestal. The microtearing mode does not allow the pedestal at Globus-M2 tokamak to reach the state of the unstable kinetic ballooning mode (KBM), which explains the low predictive power of the EPED model at this tokamak.

Abstract NBI-assisted plasma heating with one or two injectors of fast neutral atoms was studied at the Globus-M2 spherical tokamak at the toroidal magnetic fields of 0.8–0.9 T and plasma currents of 0.35–0.4 MA. Measurements of the spatial temperature and electron density distributions, performed using the Thomson scattering diagnostics, showed a twofold increase in heating of plasma electrons during the injection of neutral particles with energies of up to 45 keV at the beam power of 0.75 MW, as compared to the ohmic heating regime. Switching on the second additional beam with the particle energy of up to 30 keV and power of up to 0.5 MW resulted in obtaining the hot ion mode in the range of mean plasma densities of (1.6–10) × 1019 m−3. According to the data of active spectroscopy and neutral particle analyzer diagnostics, in the hot zone, the ion temperature reached 4 keV at the plasma density of 8 × 1019 m−3, which is more than 2.5 times higher than the electron temperature.

Relevance. The main advantage of this method is its high biological efficiency (up to 90% or more) against the background of a quick payback from a significant increase in production due to the stored harvest. At the same time, in some cases, it becomes possible to manipulate the timing of the use of herbicides, taking into account their selectivity, operational qualities, as well as the industrial employment of the forces and means of an agricultural enterprise engaged in weed control. Therefore, the study and selection of modern herbicides in the fight against weeds is an urgent task of great practical importance.Methods. The object of research is a variety of spring soft wheat Zlata. The predecessor is potatoe. The seeding rate is 5.5 million. The scheme of the experiment included 2 options: 1) control (without the use of herbicides); 2) the use of a tank mixture of herbicides («Ballerina»+ «Bomba» + «Lastic Extra»). The sowing area of the crop is 3 ha, the area of the accounting plots is 50 m2, the repetition of the experiment is 3 times.Results. The conducted studies have shown that under experimental conditions, the share of juvenile monocotyledonous weeds in spring wheat crops accounted for 68.9%, of juvenile dicotyledonous weeds — for 31.1% of the total number. The most widespread among them were: Echinochla crusgalli — 68.9%, Chenopodium album — 13.1%, Amaranthus retroflexus — 6.2% and Galeopsis tetrahit — 5.2%. The use of a tank mixture of herbicides «Ballerina» + «Bomba» + «Lastic Extra» made it possible to reduce the number of weeds by 90.4–94.1%, reduce the loss of biological grain yield by 14%, ear weight —by 7%, productive bushiness — by 5%, weight of 1000 grains —by 2%, and also increase the yield of spring wheat grain by 0.68 t/ha and get an additional profit of 1.9 thousand rubles/ha.

Relevance. In the agro-climatic conditions of the southwestern part of the Central region of Russia, studies have been conducted aimed at improving the zonal agrotechnology of forage sorghum in order to optimize individual elements of cultivation that are relevant and timely. The main task was to assess the effectiveness of mineral fertilizers and seeding rates on yield, crop structure, nutritional value of the aboveground mass of sorghum varieties and hybrids, their energy assessment in the conditions of gray forest soils of the Bryansk region.Material and methods. The experimental work was carried out in 2015–2020 at the experimental field of Bryansk GAU. The objects of research were 3 sorghum-sudan grass hybrids: Slavyanskoe pole 15 F1, Sabantuy F1, Solaris and 5 varieties of sweet sorghum: Zernogradskij yantar, Debut, Listvenit, Sazhen, Sever. Agricultural technology of experiments —adopted in the region for silage and fodder crops. The laying of experiments, field records and observations were carried out according to the Broad Unified Classifier of the CMEA, the International Classifier of the CMEA of cultivated species of the genus Sorghum Moench and the Methodology of the state variety testing of agricultural crops.Results. The significant influence of azophoska , borophosphate and ammonium nitrate on the growth, development, yield and quality of the feed massof sorghum-sudan grass hybrids has been established. The highest yield of 14.8–15.8 t dry matter or 65–71 t ofgreen mass per 1 ha formed sorghum-sudan grass hybrids Sabantuy F1 and Solaris in the variant with N90 feeding on the main background 1 — azophoska N60P60K60. High-yielding agrocenoses of sweet sorghum Listvenit were marked—, 65–70.9 t/ha of green mass with a seeding rate of 500 thousand pieces of germinating seeds per 1 ha. The highest yield of gross energy with the harvest was provided by the Listvenit variety (54.8 GJ/ha), in the Sazhen and Sever varieties in the range of 50.1–50.7 GJ/ha. A high energy coefficient of 4.3–4.5 and an energy efficiency coefficient of 2.1 and 2.4respectively were shown by crops of Listvenitand Sever varieties.

—We present the study of the multiple system HD 52721 by means of speckle interferometry in 2019–2020 at the 6-m telescope of the SAO RAS. Formerly, HD 52721 was known as triple ( $$6.93$$ (B2V + B2V; $$P = {{1}^{{\text{d}}}}.6101570$$ ) + $$7.88$$ ; $$0_{.}^{'}65$$ ). In our work, the system is resolved as a speckle interferometric triple system, i.e., the total system multiplicity increased up to four components ( $$6.80$$ (B2Ve; $${{1}^{{\text{d}}}}.6101570$$ )+ $$8.95$$ (B9VХ, $$0_{.}^{{''}}03$$ ); $$0_{.}^{{''}}64$$ ). We have used the reference-dependent and reference-independent methods for measuring positional parameters and magnitude differences between the components. The obtained measurements of the brightness differences agree with the observed light curve of the eclipsing pair.

Abstract The experiments at the FT-2 tokamak are described that were focused on clearing up the role of the parametric decay instabilities in decreasing the generation efficiency of the non-inductive current excited by the electromagnetic waves in the lower hybrid frequency range. The most discussed instability of such kind is the decay of the pump wave into the daughter high-frequency waves and the low-frequency ion–acoustic quasi-modes. The studies performed have shown that, under conditions of the FT-2 experiment, the ion–acoustic instability has no decisive effect on the decrease in the efficiency of the lower hybrid current drive.

SummaryThe purpose of the work is to determine the clinical, diagnostic and treatmentfeatures of severe community-acquired pneumonia CAP (S CAP) in servicemen ofdifferent age groups.Materials and methods. 74 medical cards of male-patients with a SCAP, who wereexamined and treated in the Pulmonology clinic of the National Military MedicalClinical Center «The Main Military Clinical Hospital» of the Ministry of Defense ofUkraine in 2018–2019, were analyzed. Patients were allocated to three groups235according to their age: 1 group – 17 servicemen, the average age of patients in thisgroup was (41.4±4.2) years; Group 2 – 28 servicemen, whose average age was(31.5±2.9) years; the 3rd group included 29 patients, the average age of patients –(22.1±1.7) years. All patients underwent X-ray examination of the chest in direct andlateral projections and general clinical methods of examination.Results. A high percentage of smokers was found in all groups of patients. Bodymass index in groups 2 and 3 of patients corresponded to normal values. 96.5% ofservicemen of group 1 and 67.9% of servicemen from group 2 were hospitalized within1–2 days from the beginning of the disease. Among concomitant diseases, acute sinusitiswas found in patients of groups 2 and 3 – 21.4% and 48.3%, respectively. Stage Ihypertension was found in 17.6% patients of group 1. Patients in groups 2 and 3 had asignificantly higher proportion of bilateral lesions and multiple pneumonic infiltration,while in group 1 the percentage of patients with unilateral pneumonic infiltrationprevailed – 76.4%.Conclusions. The predominant number of cases of SCAP (82.8%) depends on theseason of the year and is observed in the winter-spring period. Young servicemen(conscripts and under contract) are hospitalized in 96.5% and 67.9%, respectively,within 1–2 days from the onset of the disease. A high frequency of infectious-toxic shock(51.7%) and infectious myocarditis (31.1%) was found in servicemen with an averageage of (22.1±1.7) years, while in the older age group exudative pleurisy prevailed –58.9%.

This study provides a retrospective analysis of work to ensure high quality of medical care in an unfavorable epidemic situation. The consequence of COVID-19 was the implementation of a program to prevent the spread of infection, the re-profiling of medical institu-tions, and the introduction of restrictive and anti-epidemic measures. The experience of our work has shown the effectiveness of changing the order of med-ical care, the organization of the functioning of de-partments and patient routing. The study reflects the measures implemented in the hospital departments, the Department of clinical and laboratory diagnostics, radiation diagnostics and pathology Department. To ensure the safety of patients, it was decided to place patients on a single bed according to the type of infec-tious boxes. The safety of employees was ensured by the use of personal protective equipment, minimiza-tion of contact time with patients, and preventive weekly examination of staff for SARS-CoV-2 infection. The organized and well-coordinated work of the en-tire staff of the institution made it possible to prevent the spread of COVID-19 among employees, to detect cases of infection in a timely manner, and to carry out appropriate isolation and monitoring measures. At the time of completion of infectious diseases departments, the mortality rate among patients was less than 9%. Our experience in reorganizing a multi-specialty facil-ity can be used in the future when working with pa-tients who have undergone COVID-19, as well as in the context of a worsening epidemic situation.

In the framework of the isotope effect studies at the FT-2 tokamak, the efficiencies were compared of the lower hybrid wave heating of the ion components of the hydrogen and deuterium plasmas with high densities (close to the Greenwald limit, 〈ne〉 ≤ 1020 m–3). It was experimentally ascertained that, in accordance with the theoretical concepts, the efficient axial heating of the deuterium plasma ions occurs, as opposed to the peripheral heating of the hydrogen plasma ions. Such an isotope effect occurs due to the different localization of the plasma-RF wave interaction regions. The distinctive feature of these experiments is the fact that, in deuterium plasma, during the preliminary ohmic heating, the dependence of the energy lifetime on density τЕ(n) is linear (LOC dependence), and, with increasing density, the transition to the improved ohmic confinement mode occurs. In hydrogen plasma, on the contrary, the transition to the saturation mode is observed. In this study, the considerable decrease in τЕ was revealed, observed during the additional lower hybrid wave heating in both hydrogen and deuterium plasmas.

Globus-M2—a new 1-Tesla spherical tokamak—was recently launched. The main features and research directions of this machine in scope of fusion–fission reactor development are described. Main results of the first experimental campaign with toroidal magnetic field up to 0.73 T and plasma current up to 0.33 MA are discussed. Significant improvement of the discharge parameters as compared to Globus-M was achieved. Plasma total stored energy higher than 7 kJ was obtained. Energy confinement time increase was consistent with predictions by spherical tokamak scalings. Toroidal Alfven eigenmode-induced losses decrease with increase of plasma current and toroidal magnetic field. For the first time, LHCD with the toroidal wave slowing-down was successfully used at a spherical tokamak.

SummaryThe purpose of the work is to determine the features of the clinic, diagnosis and course ofcommunity-acquired pneumonia (P) in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF).Material and methods. 88 patients with P were examined, the average age of whichwas (61.3±2.2) years, who were admitted and examined at the pulmonology clinic ofNational Military Medical Clinical Center «The Main Military Clinical Hospital» of theMinistry of Defense of Ukraine. The main group included 45 persons with P and CHF,and the comparison group – 43 persons with P without signs of CHF, matched by ageand sex. In order to determine the place of treatment and the development of adverseeffects of P for all patients, a disease severity index on the PORT (PSI) and CRB-65scales was calculated.Results and discussion. In the main group of patients, a significantly higher body massindex was observed, in the majority of cases compensated or subcompensated type 2 diabetesmellitus, chronic kidney disease of I–II study were found as well as a significantly higherpercentage of persons, who have been taking antibacterial drugs for the past three months. Inthe main group of patients there were no patients with grade 1–2 risk of adverse pneumonia,because all patients had two or more comorbidities. It was found that there were significantly among those who had a severe course of P in the main group with multiple concomitantpathology of two or more systems. According to the results of X-ray chest examination, a -significantly higher percentage of patients with bilateral lesions (35.6%, p

The systematization of experimental data related to development of the parametric decay instability in tokamak plasma during RF power input within the lower hybrid frequency range was performed, which allows its characteristics to be compared with theoretical representations. The spectra of pumping waves and radiation from the plasma are obtained, which illustrate the appearance of satellites that are shifted from a pump frequency by a value that is a multiple of the ion cyclotron frequencies, toward the “red” and “blue” sides. It is noted that with a rise in density, a considerable broadening of the line of a pumping wave occurs. Values of the RF power and plasma density are observed, which are threshold values for the onset of the development of parametric decay instability. Using the diagnostic complex, the analysis of the low-frequency region of the plasma oscillation spectrum was carried out. The conditions of the development of instability were analyzed within the existing theoretical representations.

In experiments on lower hybrid current drive (LHCD) carried out at the FT-2 tokamak, a substantial increase in the central electron temperature T e (r = 0 cm) from 550 to 700 eV was observed. A complex simulation procedure is used to explain a fairly high LHCD efficiency and the observed additional heating, which can be attributed to a transition into the improved core confinement (ICC) mode. For numerical simulations, data obtained in experiments with deuterium plasma at 〈n e 〉 = 1.6 × 1019 m–3 were used. Simulations by the GRILL3D, FRTC, and ASTRA codes have shown that the increase in the density and central temperature is apparently caused by a significant suppression of heat transport in the electron component. The mechanism for transition into the improved confinement mode at r < 3 cm can be associated with the broadening of the plasma current channel due to the lower hybrid drive of the current carried by superthermal and runaway electrons. In this case, the magnetic shear s = (r/q)(dq/dr) in the axial region of the plasma column almost vanishes during the RF pulse. In this study, the effect of lower hybrid waves on the plasma parameters, resulting in a transition into the ICC mode, is considered. New experimental and calculated data are presented that evidence in favor of such a transition. Special attention is paid to the existence of a threshold for the transition into the ICC mode in deuterium plasma.

The results of a study on the binary HIP 18856 and construction of its orbit are presented. New observational data were obtained at the BTA of SAO RAS in 2007-2019. Earlier, Cvetković et al. constructed the orbit for this system. However, it is based on six measurements, which cover a small part of the orbit. The positional parameters of the ESA astrometric satellite Hipparcos published speckle interferometric data (Mason et al., Balega et al., Horch et al.) and new ones were used in this study. Based on the new orbital parameters, the mass sum was calculated and the physical parameters of the components were found. The obtained orbital and fundamental parameters were compared with the data from the study by Cvetković et al.. The comparison shows that the new orbital solution is better than the old one, since it fits new observational data accurately. Also based on a qualitative evaluation performed by Worley & Heintz, the new orbit was classified as “reliable”, which means data cover more than half of the orbit with sufficient quantities of residuals of measurements.

Background: The effectiveness of barrier function of the respiratory mucosa largely depends on interferons type I (IFNs-α/β) and type III (IFNs-λ) The IFNs-λ forms the first level of innate immune protection The single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) affecting IFN- λ3 production were found previously The study aimed to investigate a putative association of SNPs rs8099917 T/G located upstream IFNL3 gene and rs12979860 C/T within IFNL4 gene with a risk of pneumonia developing after infection with respiratory viruses Methods: The nasopharyngeal swabs, lavages, and blood samples from 318 patients infected with respiratory viruses were analyzed Of these, 168 participants were shown to have community-acquired pneumonia, while the rest patients were diagnosed with bronchitis The respiratory virus genomes were detected by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using commercially available kits The DNA samples from all patients were used to detect SNPs rs8099917 T/G and rs12979860 C/T by real-time PCR using a commercially available kit COVID-19 morbidity and mortality data were obtained from the WHO website Results: No association was found between different rs8099917 allelic variants and the development of pneumonia The rs12979860 TT genotype was significantly more often detected in patients with pneumonia (p = 0 039;OR = 2 400;95% CI 1 310 - 3 706) IFN-λ3 production has been early found to be maximal with rs12979860 TT genotype An association was established between rs12979860 T allele frequency and COVID-19 mortality rate in 13 countries Conclusions: The rs12979860 TT genotype is a genetic marker of increased risk of pneumonia after infection with respiratory viruses High T allele frequency may be an indicator of a higher COVID-19 mortality rate Patients with rs12979860 TT genotype have an increased risk of developing COVID-19 pneumonia

During modernization of the Globus-M tokamak, toroidal magnetic field and plasma current were increased, and a number of diagnostics were upgraded, which made it possible to study phenomena associated with the excitation of Alfvén waves in a spherical tokamak in a wider range of plasma parameters. In the experiments with neutral beam injection, the dependences of fast particle losses initiated by the toroidal Alfvén eigenmodes (TAE) on their magnitude in the magnetic field range of 0.4 – 0.7 T and currents of 180 – 330 kA were acquired. Resulting dependences confirm previously obtained results and indicate a decrease in losses with increasing magnetic field and plasma current. At the same time, a number of new phenomena, that have never been observed on Globus-M were detected. In experiments with neutral beam injection at the current ramp up stage, Alfvén cascades (AC) in the frequency range of 100 – 300 kHz were observed for the first time. By means of the Doppler backscattering diagnostics (DBS), it was shown that ACs are localized closer to magnetic axis unlike TAE. Also, during low hybrid wave current drive (LHCD) experiments, global Alfvén eigenmodes (GAE) were detected at a frequency close to 1 MHz, apparently driven in the resonance with runaway electron beam. Detected global eigenmodes are also able to arise in ohmic discharges, however, their magnitude is lower.

Observations by the method of lunar occultations at the 6-m telescope of the SAO RAS reach a resolution limit better than 1 mas. We have devised a new method of observation, which allows obtaining the curves of lunar occultations simultaneously in different ranges of the visible part of the spectrum, and conducted the first observations using a modified optical system. In January 2019, applying the new method, the magnitude differences of the components of the binary star HD 36524 in the R and I bands were measured, which were 1.5 and 1.3 mag, respectively, in good agreement with values calculated from the Gaia mission. According to the obtained data, it was determined that with this method it is possible to reach a signal-to-noise ratio of about 5–10 for stars of 10th magnitude. We discuss the applicability of the proposed optical scheme for the study of binary stars.

A new generation spherical tokamak Globus-M2 was launched in 2018. It keeps size of Globus-M, however new electromagnetic system allows achieving higher toroidal magnetic field and plasma current. First experimental campaign with the toroidal magnetic field 0.7 T and plasma current up to 300 kA was carried out in 2019. Increase in the toroidal magnetic field and plasma current resulted in overall improvement of the discharge parameters. Significant plasma temperature growth and neutron rate increase was obtained. Record stored energy, which is approximately one and a half times higher than in the Globus-M experiments, was reached. Toroidal lower hybrid wave launch provided noticeable current drive. Preparation for the next experimental campaigns with the higher toroidal magnetic field and plasma current are on the way.

In this work, we present transit timing variations detected for the exoplanet TrES-5b. To obtain the necessary amount of photometric data for this exoplanet, we have organized an international campaign to search for exoplanets based on the Transit Timing Variation method (TTV) and as a result of this we collected 30 new light curves, 15 light curves from the Exoplanet Transit Database (ETD) and 8 light curves from the literature for the timing analysis of the exoplanet TrES-5b. We have detected timing variations with a semi-amplitude of A ~ 0.0016 days and a period of P ~ 99 days. We carried out the N-body modeling based on the three-body problem. The detected perturbation of TrES-5b may be caused by a second exoplanet in the TrES-5 system. We have calculated the possible mass and resonance of the object: M ~ 0.24MJup at a 1:2 Resonance., 21 pages, 5 figures

Study of behavior of accelerated electrons (AE) in the ohmically heated (OH) plasma and low-hybrid current drive (LHCD) in tokamak has the practical interest especially for estimations of AE radiation energy losses and solving of the non-inductive CD problem for the ITER. Studies based on measurements of non-thermal microwave radiation (MR) intensity and hard X-ray (HXR) spectra are conducted in the FT-2 tokamak having large local magnetic ripples under LHCD in the omically heated (OH) plasma with the fan instability excited. The paper presents experimental data first obtained in such conditions witnessing about some AE behavior features. Nature of MR abnormal intensity and short giant flashes together with the fast additional electron heating in the plasma core are discussed. The first high additional fast electron heating was registered together with the synchrotron radiation (SR) intensity increase. It was accompanied by short MR spikes observed in the narrow frequency range (53 ÷ 78) GHz. They arise owing to the AE transverse energy and pitch angle increase under each crossing the cyclotron auto-resonance region and SR maser gain. It is proposed the heating mechanism owing to absorption of SR and Bernstein waves arising at linear transformation the extraordinary component of intensive MR spikes in the black plasma layers. It was found that the non-thermal MR of abnormal intensity arising during OH in the frequency range (10 ÷ 40) GHz is due to the fan instability development and the substantial local magnetic ripples. MR is accompanied by short giant flashes having a narrow frequency spectrum. Together with the SR growth the less intensive MR flashes appear in the range (57 ÷ 75) GHz. In our case it becomes possible the maser amplification of both SR and collective radiation. Appearance of the giant flashes may be initiated under transition of the maser - amplifier into the self - excitation regime, when low-frequency quasi- coherent MR flashes are generated.

We present the results of photometric observations of the weak magnetic white dwarf WD 0009+501. The observations were carried out for two years with the 1-m telescopes of the Special and Crimean Astrophysical Observatories. As a result of these observations, we detected regular V -band luminosity variations with a period of P ≈ 8 hours. The amplitude of the variability is stable on timescales greater than two years and amounts to 11 ± 1 mmag. The difference in the variability amplitude from observations with different telescopes is 1–3 mmag. The result is interpreted within the concept of a rotation-modulated variability of magnetic properties of the star’s atmosphere. We also discuss a possible variability due to the presence of planetary companions around stars of this type. The results of monitoring were used to explore the capabilities of the telescopes for exoplanet investigation. We studied the dependences between the characteristic times of exposures, magnitudes of the objects, and a threshold level of the expected variability amplitudes for all the telescopes involved in our program. A program of exoplanet monitoring with the mentioned telescopes was drawn up for the next few years based on the results of the study.

We report the discovery of the transiting hot Jupiter KPS-1b. This exoplanet orbits a V=13.0 K1-type main-sequence star every 1.7 days, has a mass of $1.090_{-0.087}^{+0.086}$ $M_{\mathrm{Jup}}$ and a radius of $1.03_{-0.12}^{+0.13}$ $R_{\mathrm{Jup}}$. The discovery was made by the prototype Kourovka Planet Search (KPS) project, which used wide-field CCD data gathered by an amateur astronomer using readily available and relatively affordable equipment. Here we describe the equipment and observing technique used for the discovery of KPS-1b, its characterization with spectroscopic observations by the SOPHIE spectrograph and with high-precision photometry obtained with 1-m class telescopes. We also outline the KPS project evolution into the Galactic Plane eXoplanet survey (GPX). The discovery of KPS-1b represents a new major step of the contribution of amateur astronomers to the burgeoning field of exoplanetology., 12 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in PASP (Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific)

We present the results of speckle interferometric observations of 156 stars possessing global magnetic fields, carried out with the 6-m BTA telescope of the Special Astrophysical Observatory. Virtually all stars were observed between 2010 and 2012. Thirty-four stars were resolved into individual components (31 double and 3 triple), of which 14 binary systems (BD+41○43, HD2887, HD30466, HD36540, HD36955, HD37479, HD61045, HD89069, HD144334, HD164258, HD349321, HD343872, HD184471, HD196691) and 2 triple systems (HD37140, HD338226) were for the first time resolved by the astrometric method.

This work presents first results of observation of parametric decay instabilities (PDI) in plasma formation and current start-up experiments on the spherical tokamak Globus-M by radiofrequency (RF) waves without use of induction electric field. In these experiments RF power was used for plasma discharge, as well as for current ramp-up. The current direction was determined on the direction of vertical magnetic field. We used RF generator with operational frequency 900 MHz. Spectral analysis of electromagnetic radiation from plasma showed appearance of big number of low frequency oscillations which was excited by pump wave. These spectra are typical for non-linear parametric instabilities. PDI may lead to the redistribution of the incident RF power between secondary waves with frequencies, differing from pump, to abnormal reflection and even to significant change of plasma-wave interaction mechanism. PDI mostly appeared on the current ramp-up phase. Both sidebands with small shift and with large, about half of pump frequency shift were excited. Relation between PDI and discharge parameters was defined.

The flood meadow was analyzed in the conditions of radioactive pollution of the territory to study the effect of mineral fertilizer on the efficiency of a meadow and 137Cs content in green grass stand. The experiment was conducted in alluvial meadow sandy soil with 137Cs pollution density of 559-867 kBq/m2 in the subzone of soddy-podzolic soil of southern taiga of the Belarusian province of sod-podszolic slightly humic soils and low-land swamps. The study revealed that the efficiency of natural grass stand is low, the introduction of mineral fertilizer increased the productivity of green grass stand of a meadow to 37 t/hectare with nitrogen fertilizers being the main factors. The decrease of 137Cs in green grass stand triggered the use of potash fertilizer. The use of a flood meadow as a pasture at 137Cs pollution density of over 555 kBq/m2 is impossible for livestock production satisfying norms on 137Cs content in milk and meat without the use of mineral fertilizers.

Experimental results on the generation and maintenance of the toroidal current in the Globus-M spherical tokamak by using waves in the lower hybrid frequency range without applying an inductive vortex electric field are presented. For this purpose, the original ridge guide antennas forming a field distribution similar to that produced by multiwaveguide grills were used. The high-frequency field (900 MHz) was used for both plasma generation and current drive. The magnitude of the generated current reached 21 kA, and its direction depended on the direction of the vertical magnetic field. Analysis of the experimental results indicates that the major fraction of the current is carried by the suprathermal electron beam.

At present, the method of current drive by means of lower hybrid waves is not applied to low-aspect-ratio tokamaks, because, in the traditional approach, it would be necessary to use waves with a very high slowing-down factor. However, studies of new transparency regions for waves in a nonuniform magnetized plasma, performed earlier at the Ioffe Physical Technical Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, made it possible to develop an approach in which slow waves are excited in the poloidal (rather than toroidal) direction. In this approach, moderately slowed-down waves first propagate in the poloidal direction, but then turn in the toroidalal direction and get into the dense plasma. In this work, this approach is further developed using numerical methods. In particular, the influence of the density profile in the edge plasma on the efficiency of wave excitation for given antenna parameters is studied in detail.

We present the measurements of positional parameters of 194 nearby binary stars performed at the 6-m BTA telescope of the SAO RAS from 2002 through 2006 applying the speckle interferometric technique. The observations were conducted at central filter wavelengths ranging from 545 to 800 nm using a speckle interferometer equipped with a fast CCD and a three-stage image intensifier. A significant part of the observed systems (80 stars) are pairs, the duality of which was discovered or suspected from the Hipparcos satellite observations. The remaining stars are visual binaries and interferometric binary systems with orbital motion period estimates from several to tens of years, as well as the pairs with slow relative motion of the components, used for gaging the image scales and positional angle calibrations.

In experiments with lower hybrid current drive (LHCD) on the FT-2 tokamak, lower hybrid (LH) waves have been successfully used for the first time to ensure effective additional heating of plasma electrons from 450 to 600 eV (I Pl = 32 kA, Δt RF = 14 ms, P RF = 100 kW, F = 920 MHz). Several factors influencing the efficiency of plasma heating have been discovered. In particular, significant growth of radiation losses in the LHCD regime has been found, which is probably related to an increase in the intensity of synchrotron radiation from accelerated electrons. The increase in this intensity in the 53–156 GHz frequency range was accompanied by short spikes of microwave radiation, which were observed only in a narrower frequency range (53–78 GHz) and apparently resulted from interaction of a runaway electron beam with significant local mirrors of toroidal magnetic field. A model of the additional heating of plasma electrons due to absorption of the microwave radiation generated by a beam of accelerated electrons is proposed.

The experiments carried out at the FT-2 tokamak in which additional pulsed puffing of helium into the hydrogen plasma was used for diagnostic purposes are considered. To estimate the necessary content of helium ions in the experiments on studying short-scale plasma oscillations, the ionization-recombination balance was simulated numerically under the assumption of a toroidally homogeneous influx of the working gas onto the boundary of the plasma column. In these simulations, the effective density of the neutral gas incident on the plasma boundary was determined by the iteration method, which made it possible to provide agreement between the obtained solution and the experimental discharge conditions. In particular, the correspondence of the determined admixture content to both the plasma quasineutrality condition and the value of the effective charge Zeff, as well as agreement between the calculated and measured plasma density profiles, was ensured. The simulations were performed under the assumption of anomalous diffusion coefficients for all plasma components. The temporal variations of the ionization-recombination balance were checked by comparing them with the measured spectra of radiation in the HeI, HeII, and Hα lines. In the current drive experiments, variations in ne(r) at the discharge periphery were examined by the method based on the proportionality of the intensity ratio of the helium spectral lines, HeI(668 nm)/HeI(728 nm), to the plasma density. In these calculations, the factors relating the intensity ratio of these lines to the plasma density were taken from the literature on spectral diagnostics.

The impedance of the coupling between the antenna and the plasma of the Globus-M2 tokamak with an increase in the toroidal magnetic field and profiles of HF power absorption by plasma components are calculated. The concept of an antenna for the input of fast magnetosonic waves into plasma is discussed.

We present the results of speckle interferometry of a sample of 117 chemically peculiar stars with global magnetic fields. The observations were made in December 2009 at the BTA with a spatial resolution of about 0.02″ in the visual spectral region. Twenty-nine stars were resolved into individual components, 14 of them for the first time (HD965, HD5797, HD8855, HD10783, HD16605, HD21699, HD35502, HD51418, HD64486, HD79158, HD103498, HD108651, HD213918, HD293764). In twelve cases a companion turned out to be 2–4 m fainter than the main component—a magnetic star. Young hot Bp stars HD35502 and HD213918 are exceptions, since their companions are fainter by about 1 m . In all cases, the linear distance from a star to its companion at the epoch of observations in the picture plane exceeded 109 km. Eighty-eight magnetic CP stars revealed no secondary components within our study. Thus, the fraction of speckle interferometric binaries in our sample amounts to 25%.

The Globus-M2 spherical tokamak is the considerably upgraded Globus-M facility. Its technical parameters were increased as much as possible to achieve the promising range of physical parameters (sub-fusion temperatures and collisionality of much less than unity). These parameters will be achieved in a compact magnetic configuration similar to that of the Globus-M tokamak, the plasma current and toroidal magnetic field amounting to 0.5 MA and 1 T, respectively. The demand to increase the magnetic field and plasma current in the Globus-M2 resulted in the need for a complete redesign of the electromagnetic system because the plasma equilibrium requirements have changed and the mechanical and thermal loads have considerably increased as compared to the Globus-M. The vacuum vessel and the in-vessel components of the new Globus-M2 tokamak remain the same. Power supplies were upgraded to provide the required currents in the toroidal field coil and the central solenoid. The Globus-M2 tokamak was build up and preliminary tests were carried out. New auxiliary heating systems and diagnostics were developed and installed to be used in future experiments. Fist plasma was achieved at the Globus-M2 in April 2018.

Results are presented from experimental studies of the efficiency of lower hybrid current drive (LHCD) in the FT-2 tokamak. The dependence of the LHCD efficiency on the grill phasing Δφ and RF oscillator power was determined experimentally in a wide range of plasma densities. It is shown that, at high plasma currents (i.e., at sufficiently high electron temperatures), current drive is suppressed when the plasma density reaches its resonance value n LH for the pumping wave frequency, rather than when parametric decay comes into play (as was observed in regimes with lower plasma currents and, accordingly, lower electron temperatures T e ). In order to analyze the experimentally observed effect of LHCD and its dependence on the value and sign of the antenna phasing, the spectra of the excited LH waves, P(N z ), were calculated. Simulations using the FRTC code with allowance for the P(N z ) spectrum and the measured plasma parameters made it possible to calculate the value and direction of the LH-driven current, which are determined by the spectrum of the excited LH waves. It is shown that the synergetic effect caused by the interaction between different spectral components of the excited RF wave plays a decisive role in the bridging of the gap in the wave spectrum.

Basic experimental results on cyclotron heating of the ion plasma component in the Globus-M spherical tokamak obtained by means of the ACORD-12 charge-exchange ion analyzer are presented. A procedure for determining the maximum energy of fast ions confined in the plasma is described. The procedure was applied to estimate the limiting energy of hydrogen minority ions accelerated during ion cyclotron heating in the Globus-M tokamak. The experimental evaluation of the maximum hydrogen ion energy is confirmed by simulations of ion orbits. Recommendations for optimizing experiments on ion cyclotron heating in the Globus-M tokamak are formulated.

A conceptual design of the lower hybrid current drive (LHCD) system for the upgraded T-15 tokamak (RNC Kurchatov Institute, Moscow) is presented. A tentative theoretical analysis, including extensive numerical simulations of different antenna types and LH wave propagation as well as estimation of LHCD efficiency, is carried out. The analysis has shown the possibility of launching a 4–5 MW radio frequency power through one tokamak port and driving up to a 1 MA LH current at a plasma density of 2–3 × 1013 cm−3. The most suitable design of the whole LHCD system and the antenna, in particular, is discussed as well as the main technical problems of the T-15 LHCD project.

One of the goals of the Pulkovo program of research on stars with large proper motions is to reveal among the low-luminosity stars those that have evidence of binarity. Twelve astrometric binary candidates from the Pulkovo list have been included in the program of speckle observations with the BTA telescope at the Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences (SAO RAS) and the 2.5-m telescope at the Caucasus Mountain Observatory (CMO) of the Sternberg Astronomical Institute of the Moscow State University to confirm their binarity and then to determine the parameters of the revealed stellar pairs. The binarity of the brightest of these stars, J1158+4239 (GJ 3697), has been confirmed. Four sessions of speckle observations with the BTA SAO RAS telescope and one session with the 2.5-m CMO telescope have been carried out in 2015 - 2016. The weighted mean estimates of the pair parameters are $\rho$=286.5$\pm$1.2 mas and $\theta$=230.24$\pm$0.16$^{\circ}$ at the epoch B2015.88248. The magnitude difference between the pair stars is $\Delta m$=0.55$\pm$0.03 (a filter with a central wavelength of 800 nm and a FWHM of 100 nm) and $\Delta m$=0.9$\pm$0.1 (an R filter)., Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures

We present the first results of our search for transiting exoplanet candidates as part of the Kourovka Planet Search (KPS) project. The primary objective of the project is to search for new hot Jupiters which transit their host stars, mainly in the Galactic plane, in the $R_c$ magnitude range of 11 to 14 mag. Our observations were performed with the telescope of the MASTER robotic network, installed at the Kourovka astronomical observatory of the Ural Federal University (Russia), and the Rowe-Ackermann Schmidt Astrograph, installed at the private Acton Sky Portal Observatory (USA). As test observations, we observed three celestial fields of size $2\times2$ deg$^2$ during the period from 2012 to 2015. As a result, we discovered four transiting exoplanet candidates among the 39000 stars of the input catalogue. In this paper, we provide the description of the project and analyse additional photometric, spectral, and speckle interferometric observations of the discovered transiting exoplanet candidates. Three of the four transiting exoplanet candidates are most likely astrophysical false positives, while the nature of the fourth (most promising) candidate remains to be ascertained. Also, we propose an alternative observing strategy that could increase the project's exoplanet haul., 11 pages, 16 figures; Accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 2016