Color identification testing device

Testing device, which determines ability of a technician to identify color-coded electric wires, is superior to standard color blindness tests. It tests speed of wire selection, detects partial color blindness, allows rapid testing, and may be administered by a color blind person

Application of calibration masks to TV vidicon tube

Photographic application method devised for overlaying test pattern masks on TV camera vidicon tubes prints the mask within 0.0076 cm of the vertical and horizontal center lines of the tube face. Entire process, including mask fabrication and alignment procedure, requires less than 10 minutes

Degenerate ground state and anomalous flux hysteresis in an YBa2Cu3O7 grain boundary r.f. SQUID

We report measurements of the flux hysteresis curves and trapped flux distribution in an YBa2Cu3O7 r.f. SQUID containing two closely spaced grain boundary Josephson junctions in parallel. Broadening of the flux distribution from T = 15 K to 30 K is followed by a bifurcation at T = 35 K which corresponds to a degenerate ground state. Above T ~ 40 K the bifurcation disappears, the flux distribution narrows significantly and small secondary loops appear in the hysteresis curves. This behaviour can be modelled qualitatively if we assume a temperature dependent second harmonic term in the current-phase relationship of the junctions.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figure

Flux-flow in d-wave superconductors: Low temperature universality and scaling

We demonstrate that superclean d-wave superconductors display a novel type of vortex dynamics: At low temperatures, both dissipative and transverse components of the flux-flow conductivity are found to approach universal values even in the limit of infinite relaxation time. A finite dissipation in the superclean limit is explained in terms of the Landau damping on zero-frequency vortex modes which appear due to minigap nodes in the bound-state spectrum in the vortex core. In the moderately clean regime the scaling law at low T and low field is obtained.Comment: RevTex file, 4 pages, no figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett., revised after referee report

Critical Behavior of the Flux-line Tension in Extreme Type-II Superconductors

The entropic corrections to the flux-line energy of extreme type-II superconductors are computed using a schematic dual Villain model description of the flux quanta. We find that the temperature profile of the lower-critical field vanishes polynomially at the transition with an exponent $\nu\cong 2/3$ in the isotropic case, while it exhibits an inflection point for the case of weakly coupled layers in parallel magnetic field. It is argued that vestiges of these effects have already been observed in high-temperature superconductors.Comment: 12 pages of plain TeX, 2 postscipt figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Evaluation of an integrated plantation forestry and beef production system

The profitability of timber plantations and combined timber and grazing enterprises were compared to conventional grazing. Scenarios were considered at two sites (one near Kingaroy and one near Nambour) where hardwood plantation forests have been established. At each site a number of contrasting variables were considered. These were: (1) plantation rotation lengths (20, 25 and 30 years); (2) plantation establishment costs (high and low); and (3) prices paid for the timber at harvest (high and low stumpage price). A spreadsheet-based investment analysis tool was used to compare these scenarios. The marginal NPV (net present value) and marginal IRR (internal rate of return) were calculated to indicate the difference in return between the traditional land use of grazing and the introduction of plantation hardwood trees into the traditional just grazing system. Marginal internal rate of return, which is a measure of the marginal return to the extra funds invested, ranged from 0.46% under the most pessimistic option without cattle, to 10.7% under the most optimistic option with cattle, at the Kingaroy site, and from 2.8% to 13.3% under contrasting options at the Nambour site. The more profitable scenarios occurred when planted forests were coupled with cattle grazing systems. The internal rate of return and net present value were particularly sensitive to the price received for the final product when the trees are harvested. Engineered wood products may provide a future high-value option for the hardwood plantation resource and revenues from commercial thinning may be brought forward if an existing technology (i.e. spindle-less lathe technology) is taken up by industry. Expansion of hardwood plantation forests could help meet the increasing demand for hardwood products in Australia if investments in plantation forests are made. The scenarios considered here demonstrate that there is potential for profitable agroforestry systems in the two regions where plantation forests have been successfully established

Mesoscopic Superconducting Disc with Short-Range Columnar Defects

Short-range columnar defects essentially influence the magnetic properties of a mesoscopic superconducting disc.They help the penetration of vortices into the sample, thereby decrease the sample magnetization and reduce the upper critical field. Even the presence of weak defects split a giant vortex state (usually appearing in a clean disc in the vicinity of the transition to a normal state) into a number of vortices with smaller topological charges. In a disc with a sufficient number of strong enough defects vortices are always placed onto defects. The presence of defects lead to the appearance of additional magnetization jumps related to the redistribution of vortices which are already present on the defects and not to the penetration of new vortices.Comment: 14 pgs. RevTex, typos and figures corrected. Submitted to Phys. Rev.

Tracking Cardiac Rehabilitation Utilization in Medicare Beneficiaries: 2017 UPDATE

PURPOSE: This study updates cardiac rehabilitation (CR) utilization data in a cohort of Medicare beneficiaries hospitalized for CR-eligible events in 2017, including stratification by select patient demographics and state of residence. METHODS: We identified Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries who experienced a CR-eligible event and assessed their CR participation (≥1 CR sessions in 365 d), engagement, and completion (≥36 sessions) rates through September 7, 2019. Measures were assessed overall, by beneficiary characteristics and state of residence, and by primary (myocardial infarction; coronary artery bypass surgery; heart valve repair/replacement; percutaneous coronary intervention; or heart/heart-lung transplant) and secondary (angina; heart failure) qualifying event type. RESULTS: In 2017, 412 080 Medicare beneficiaries had a primary CR-eligible event and 28.6% completed ≥1 session of CR within 365 d after discharge from a qualifying event. Among beneficiaries who completed ≥1 CR session, the mean total number of sessions was 25 ± 12 and 27.6% completed ≥36 sessions. Nebraska had the highest enrollment rate (56.1%), with four other states also achieving an enrollment rate \u3e50% and 23 states falling below the overall rate for the United States. CONCLUSIONS: The absolute enrollment, engagement, and program completion rates remain low among Medicare beneficiaries, indicating that many patients did not benefit or fully benefit from a class I guideline-recommended therapy. Additional research and continued widespread adoption of successful enrollment and engagement initiatives are needed, especially among identified populations

Nonlinear Magneto-Optical Response of ss- and dd-Wave Superconductors

The nonlinear magneto-optical response of $s$- and $d$-wave superconductors is discussed. We carry out the symmetry analysis of the nonlinear magneto-optical susceptibility in the superconducting state. Due to the surface sensitivity of the nonlinear optical response for systems with bulk inversion symmetry, we perform a group theoretical classification of the superconducting order parameter close to a surface. For the first time, the mixing of singlet and triplet pairing states induced by spin-orbit coupling is systematically taken into account. We show that the interference of singlet and triplet pairing states leads to an observable contribution of the nonlinear magneto-optical Kerr effect. This effect is not only sensitive to the anisotropy of the gap function but also to the symmetry itself. In view of the current discussion of the order parameter symmetry of High-T$_c$ superconductors, results for a tetragonal system with bulk singlet pairing for various pairing symmetries are discussed.Comment: 21 pages (REVTeX) with 8 figures (Postscript

Spin Gaps in High Temperature Superconductors

The phenomenology and theory of spin gap effects in high temperature superconductors is summarized. It is argued that the spin gap behavior can only be explained by a model of charge 0 spin 1/2 fermions which become paired into singlets and that there are both theoretical and experimental reasons for believing that the pairing is greatly enhanced in the bilayer structure of the $YBa_2Cu_3O_{6+x}$ system. This article will appear in the Proceedings of the Stanford Conference on Spectroscopies in Novel Superconductors. To obtain postscript files containing the figures send mail to [email protected]: 9 pages, revtex. To obtain figures contact [email protected]