Variable light source with a million-to-one intensity ratio

A wide range, variable intensity light source of constant color characteristics has been developed for testing and calibrating photomultiplier tubes. A light attenuator first diffuses light from a constant source, then permits variable attenuation through a series of chambers and adjustable apertures

Guadalupe pluton–Mariposa Formation age relationships in the southern Sierran Foothills: Onset of Mesozoic subduction in northern California?

We report a new 153 ± 2 Ma SIMS U-Pb date for zircons from the hypabyssal Guadalupe pluton which crosscuts and contact metamorphoses upper crustal Mariposa slates in the southern Sierra. A ~950 m thick section of dark metashales lies below sandstones from which clastic zircons were analyzed at 152 ± 2 Ma. Assuming a compacted depositional rate of ~120 m/Myr, accumulation of Mariposa volcanogenic sediments, which overlie previously stranded Middle Jurassic and older ophiolite + chert-argillite belts in the Sierran Foothills, began no later than ~160 Ma. Correlative Oxfordian-Kimmeridgian strata of the Galice Formation occupy a similar position in the Klamath Mountains. We speculate that the Late Jurassic was a time of transition from (1) a mid-Paleozoic–Middle Jurassic interval of mainly but not exclusively strike-slip and episodic docking of oceanic terranes; (2) to transpressive plate underflow, producing calcalkaline igneous arc rocks ± outboard blueschists at ~170–150 Ma, whose erosion promoted accumulation of the Mariposa-Galice overlap strata; (3) continued transpressive underflow attending ~200 km left-lateral displacement of the Klamath salient relative to the Sierran arc at ~150–140 Ma and development of the apparent polar wander path cusps for North and South America; and (4) then nearly orthogonal mid and Late Cretaceous convergence commencing at ~125–120 Ma, during reversal in tangential motion of the Pacific plate. After ~120 Ma, nearly head-on subduction involving minor dextral transpression gave rise to voluminous continent-building juvenile and recycled magmas of the Sierran arc, providing the erosional debris to the Great Valley fore arc and Franciscan trench

Behaviour of a shear-wave at a solid-smectic interface

Results of theoretical investigations into the behaviour of a shear wave at the boundary between an isotropic solid and a smectic A liquid crystal are presented. These results track the subsequent response of the smectic to the refracted wave. Using the techniques of Landau and Lifshitz for sound in isotropic fluids [1], we extend the results for smectic C by Gill and Leslie [2] and perform the analogous calculations for a sample of smectic A using the dynamic theory of Stewart [3]. These calculations enable a comparison between the results for smectic A and an extension, by the present authors, to the known results for smectic C. Motivated by the work of Auernhammer, Brand, and Pleiner [4, 5], mechanisms for determining the impact of perturbations upon the modes of response behaviour will be analysed, with plots demonstrating the amplitudes of these waves relative to that of the incident wave displayed for a range of typical physical parameters characteristic to smectic C and smectic A

Search for Spin-Dependent Short-Range Force Using Optically Polarized 3^3He Gas

We propose a new method to detect short-range \textit{P-} and \textit{T-} violating interactions between nucleons, based on measuring the precession frequency shift of polarized $^3$He nuclei in the presence of an unpolarized mass. To maximize the sensitivity, a high-pressure $^3$He cell with thin glass windows (250 $\rm\mu m$) is used to minimize the distance between the mass and $^3$He. The magnetic field fluctuation is suppressed by using the $^3$He gas in a different region of the cell as a magnetometer. Systematic uncertainties from the magnetic properties of the mass are suppressed by flipping both the magnetic field and spin directions. Without any magnetic shielding, our result has already reached the sensitivity of the current best limit. With improvement in uniformity and stability of the field, we can further improve the sensitivity by two orders of magnitude over the force range from $10^{-4}-10^{-2}$ m

Slippery motion between the limbs of a double tendon graft

Relative motion of tendon limbs of a double tendon graft for the application of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction may affect the mechanical behaviour of a tendon graft structure. The biomechanical data derived from the standard tensile testing machines may not be able to show the relative motion of the graft limbs. This paper uses the non-destructive digital stereo imaging recording system, synchronized with the standard test machine, to precisely determine the biomechanical properties of 10 bovine flexor tendon grafts which hanged from the loop side to the rig and the other end was fixed in a bone block. The study showed there is a relative motion between graft limbs

Interstellar Carbon in Translucent Sightlines

We report interstellar C II column densities or upper limits determined from weak absorption of the 2325.4029 A intersystem transition observed in six translucent sightlines with STIS. The sightlines sample a wide range of interstellar characteristics including total-to-selective extinction, R_{V} = 2.6 - 5.1; average hydrogen density along the sightline, = 3 - 14 cm^{-3}; and fraction of H in molecular form, 0 - 40%. Four of the sightlines, those toward HD 37021, HD 37061, HD 147888 and HD 207198, have interstellar gas-phase abundances that are consistent with the diffuse sightline ratio of 161 +/- 17 carbon atoms in the gas per million hydrogen nuclei. We note that while it has a gas-phase carbon abundance that is consistent with the other sightlines, a large fraction of the C II toward HD 37061 is in an excited state. The sightline toward HD 152590 has a measured interstellar gas-phase carbon abundance that is well above the diffuse sightline average; the column density of C in this sightline may be overestimated due to noise structure in the data. Toward HD 27778 we find a 3 sigma abundance upper limit of <108 C atoms in the gas per million H, a substantially enhanced depletion of C as compared to the diffuse sightline value. The interstellar characteristics toward HD 27778 are otherwise not extreme among the sample except for an unusually large abundance of CO molecules in the gas.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa