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Evidence of the Frasnian Genundewa Event at the FZ 2 – FZ 3 boundary interval has been detected in the facies of the isolated carbonate platform in Subpolar Urals. The preserved traces of the Genundewa Event represent micritic microlaminated carbonates, which manifests a short-term deepening episode in an extremely shallow water background. From the onset of this deep-water deposition there is a dominance of Polygnathus, Ancyrodella, and Mesotaxis whereas in the underlying shallow water deposits, the genus Polygnathus clearly predominated. No specific features of the Genundewa Event were observed in the C-isotope record. The mean δ13Ccarb value is approximately 2‰ in the event interval. The onset of the Genundewa Еvent corresponds to the beginning of Euro-American IIb-2 cycle and is correlated with the base of the Sargaevian regional substage of the Urals and Russian Platform, as well as the base of Poland IC cycle. This correlation confirms the global character of this event. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sponges are among the most common and diverse Cambrian fossils. However, the origin of the crown groups of the extant sponge classes constitutes the principal problem in the understanding of the evolution of these lower metazoans. New intact spiculate sponges from the lower Cambrian Stage 3–Stage 4 Sinsk Lagerstätte of the Siberian Platform enable a better understanding of the early evolution of crown‐group demosponges. The skeletons of Neomenispongia plexa and N. diazoma gen. et sp. nov. consist mostly of simple oxeas, which are organized in relatively regular tufts that are additionally strengthened by sigmoidal spicules. The C‐shaped elements of N. diazoma are megascleres in their size range but have sigmoidal shapes similar to sigma microscleres of extant demosponges; the sigmoidal spicules of N. plexa fully accord with microscleres and are the smallest spicules in known Cambrian demosponges. Together with an unnamed early Cambrian demosponge from the Sirius Passet biota (Greenland) and middle Cambrian Ulospongiella from the Burgess Shale (Canada), the new species represent the earliest heteroscleromorph demosponges and indicate an evolutionary origin of microscleres from megascleres. The thin, homogenous skeleton of Keithospongos loricatus gen. et sp. nov. is built of small, spirally arranged oxeas corresponding to the skeletal structure of the primitive Hazeliidae, which have been interpreted as the ancestral skeletal organization of demosponges. These new sponges therefore provide a link from extant spiculate demosponge groups to their more familiar Cambrian ancestors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the stresses in continuous welded rails on bridges including the aspect of fatigue of rail steel. Furthermore, it examines the possibility to avoid rail expansion joints, while simultaneously exploiting the permissible stress capacity of the rail profile 60E1. Accordingly, general application of permissible values of pressure and tensilestresses prescribed in the current European standards was critically analysed. Paper includes specific application aspects of the prescribed stress values for railway bridges in Serbia. General algorithm for reducing the stresses due to the vehicle/track/bridge interaction, which is presented in this paper, was developed by the authors. This algorithm includes all essential parameters of the bridge structure and railway superstructure, as well as the influence of climate conditions and railway route design.

Comparative studies of the effect of discrete surface hardening by standard ion-plasma technology and discrete oxidation technology on wear resistance have been carried out. Metallographic studies have shown that discrete oxidation has a polycrystalline structure. It was found that the technology of discrete oxidation makes it possible to increase the hardness by 31% in relation to the uncoated material, and the wear resistance of the cutting tool with oxidation is 1.5-3 times higher than that of the tool hardened by the standard ion-plasma technology.