[en] The use of plant suspension cultures to remove ionic metallic species and TNT-based explosives and their oxidation products from aqueous solution is described. Several plant strains were investigated including D. innoxia, Citrus citrus, and Black Mexican Sweet Corn. All showed significant ability to remove metal ions. Ions removed to sub-ppm levels include barium, iron, and plutonium. D. innoxia cells growing in media containing weapons effluent contaminated with Ba²⁺ also remove TNT, other explosives and oxidation products thereof from solution. The use of dead, dehydrated cells were also found to be use in treating waste directly. (author)

[en] The plasticity of crystals of f.c.c. metals hardened by solute atoms, neutron irradiation, quenching and by dislocation distributions not characteristic of the active mode of testing is reviewed, with emphasis being placed on the simiularity of slip after various hardening treatments. Normal work hardening is not treated. The reasons for this exclusion are discussed. It is concluded that correlated slip is a normal aspect of deformation, and that diffuse uncorrelated slip occurs only when secondary dislocation multiplication is promoted, e.g. by obstacles introduced by prior slip, or by the presence of hard impenetrable obstacles of another material or phase

[en] The distribution of secondary dislocations in strained, neutron irradiated copper crystals was studied by etch pitting, and with the transmission electron microscope. Secondary dislocations multiply in the matrix adjacent to the slipped lamellae which characterize plastic deformation in irradiated copper. The bearing these observations have on theories of the flow stress is discussed. It is suggested that double cross-slip creates conditions suitable for secondary multiplication. A model of the process is described and related to observations

[en] Cadmium single crystals prestrained on the pyramidal glide systems at 293 K have been tested in shear on the basal plane at 77 K. The strain rate sensitivity of the flow stress on the basal system after pyramidal hardening was found to be lower than it is in an uninterrupted test on the basal plane, indicating that pyramidal dislocations provide obstacles to slip of longer range than those introduced during a normal tensile test. (author)

[en] Radiation damage associated with grown-in dislocations in crystals which have been irradiated with neutrons between 200 and 400⁰C is described. It is proposed that point defects precipitate near climbing grown-in dislocations because the capacity of these dislocations to absorb point defects is limited by the rate at which jogs can be nucleated. This limitation is likely to be important only in the early stages of damage formation when the total line length of dislocation in the crystal is low. (author)

No abstract available

[en] The effects of Cd on poly(γ-glutamylcysteinyl)glycine [(γEC)_nG] biosynthesis and formation of (γEC)_nG:Cd complexes were measured in two cell lines of Datura innoxia with differing Cd tolerance. In addition, RNA synthesis, protein synthesis, and GSH concentrations were measured during 48 hour exposure to Cd. Exposure to 250 micromolar CdCl₂ was toxic to the sensitive line, whereas the tolerant line survived and grew in its presence. Cd-sensitive cells synthesized the same amount of (γEC)_nG as tolerant cells during an initial 24 hour exposure to 250 micromolar CdCl₂. However, rates of (γEC)_nG:Cd complex formation differed between the two cell lines with the sensitive cells forming complexes later than tolerant cells. In addition, the complexes formed by sensitive cells were of lower molecular weight than those of tolerant cells and did not bind all of the cellular Cd. Pulse-labeling of cells with L-[³⁵S]cysteine resulted in equivalent rates of incorporation into the (γEC)_nG of both cell lines during the initial 24 hours after Cd. Rates of protein and RNA synthesis were similar for both cell lines during the initial 8 hours after Cd but thereafter declined rapidly in sensitive cells. This was reflected by a decline in viability of sensitive cells. The GSH content of both cell lines declined rapidly upon exposure to Cd but was higher in sensitive cells throughout the experiment. These results show that the biosynthetic pathway for (γEC)_nG synthesis in sensitive cells is operational and that relative overproduction of (γEC)_nG is not the mechanism of Cd-tolerance in a Cd-tolerant cell line of D. innoxia. Rapid formation of (γEC)_nG:Cd complexes that bind all of the cellular Cd within 24 hours appears to correlate with tolerance in these cells

[en] Published in summary form only

[en] Copper crystals irradiated with neutrons at high temperatures show inhomogeneous clusters of damage. Etch pit studies of the low index planes reveal that the damage morphology is three dimensional and that the damage forms as a result of dislocation decoration. (author)

[en] In cell lines of Datura innoxia increased synthesis of (gammaEC)_nG is detected 5 min after exposure to Cd and this rapid response is largely insensitive to cycloheximide. In the absence of exogenous cysteine, glutathione pools are depleted coincident with (gammaEC)_nG synthesis implying an element of regulation at step(s) in the pathway after glutathione synthetase. A variant cell line, Cd-300, accumulates Cd-(gammaEC)_nG aggregates more rapidly than wild type, WDI, cells. However, initial rates of synthesis of the apopolypeptide are similar in both cell lines. Therefore, increased (gammaEC)_nG synthesis in response to Cd is not regulated by product removal due to Cd-aggregate formation. However, pulse chase experiments using (³⁵S)-cysteine show that a large pool of (gammaEC)_nG is unavailable for the synthesis of (gammaEC)_n+1G following exposure to Cd. S^2- is also a component of some Cd-(gammaEC)_nG complexes in Cd-300 cells