Independence in 1991 and the need to construct a new national identity have drawn the attention of national post-Soviet political elites to the capital cities. Minsk was unique in this process because the set of possible cultural interpretations was initially limited there to post-war architecture that represented the Soviet power and its attributes. In this study, I analyzed cultural narratives in the space of Minsk as represented by the names of the places, the outer look and decorations of the city.

The features of codeposition process of Ni, Ni--Fe, Co--P, Co--Fe--P, Ni--P, Ni, and Cu matrixes with ultra dispersed diamond particles from sulphate, chloride, acetate, glycine, citrate, sulphamate bath were investigated in view of magnetic recording systems application. The cation and anion surfactants were used to study the liophobic colloid systems and the behavior of ultra fine particles, to prevent agglomeration and sedimentation and to control the particle incorporation into metal matrix. Mechanical properties of composite films were described from the point of view of applications in high-tech devices. It was determined that wear resistance increased 2--2.5 times, microhardness increased 2 times, coefficient of friction and corrosion current were reduced by factor 1.5 and 1.6 respectively. Application of nanodiamond particles in technology of composite functional layers of hard disks, magnetic heads, micromotors, and micromechanical components allows increasing reliability of storage information systems considerably.

Deposition of coinage metals on a crystallographic surface of a colloidal crystal is proposed to fabricate metal surface with a regular relief on a scale of 200--300 nm to get strong surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). The approach is performed by means of a thin gold film deposition on a surface of a crystal consisting of silica globules. Mitoxantrone molecules, a DNA intercalator, have been used to prove high SERS efficiency of the structures proposed. As compared to other SERS active substrates, metal-dielectric colloidal crystal structures possess well-defined surface parameters (globule diameter and film thickness), high stability and reproducibility. These advantages are important for systematic analysis of SERS mechanisms in mesoscopic structures and its application in single molecules detection.

A process of the pair production by a circularly polarized photon in the field of unpolarized atomic electron has been considered in the Weizaecker-Williams approximation. The degree of longitudinal polarization of positron and electron has been calculated. An exclusive cross-section as well as a spectral distribution are obtained. We estimate the accuracy of our calculations at the level of a few percent. We show the identity of the positron polarization for considered process and for process of pair production in the screened Coulomb field of nucleus.

Выполнен теоретический анализ явления анизотропии магнитного тушения позитрониевых состояний в ориентированных относительно направления внешнего магнитного поля некубических кристаллах. Показано, что начальная поляризация позитронов усиливает анизотропию магнитного тушения позитрония и понижает величину магнитного поля, в котором анизотропия максимальна. Получены численные оценки величины экспериментально наблюдаемого эффекта для квазипозитрония в монокристалле кристаллического кварца и позитрониевого комплекса в монокристалле нафталина.