The pecularities of shear crack pre-rupture evolution and distribution of seismicity before strong earthquakes

Several methods are presently suggested for investigating pre-earthquake evolution of the regions of high tectonic activity based on analysis of the seismicity spatial distribution. Some precursor signatures are detected before strong earthquakes: decrease in fractal dimension of the continuum of earthquake epicenters, cluster formation, concentration of seismic events near one of the nodal planes of the future earthquake, and others. In the present paper, it is shown that such peculiarities are typical of the evolution of the shear crack network under external stresses in elastic bodies with inhomogeneous distribution of strength. The results of computer modeling of crack network evolution are presented. It is shown that variations of the fractal dimension of the earthquake epicenters’ continuum and other precursor signatures contain information about the evolution of the destruction process towards the main rupture

Shock waves in superconducting cosmic strings: growth of current

Intrinsic equations of motion of superconducting cosmic string may admit solutions in the shock-wave form that implies discontinuity of the current term \chi. The hypersurface of discontinuity propagates at finite velocity determined by finite increment \Delta \chi =\chi_+ -\chi_-. The current increases \chi_+>\chi_- in stable shocks but transition between spacelike (\chi >0) and timelike (\chi<0) currents is impossible.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figure

Sonde Adjust Value-Added Product Technical Report

The Sonde Adjust (SONDEADJUST) value-added product (VAP) creates a file that includes all fields from original Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Climate Research Facility (ARM Facility) radiosonde files and contains several value-added fields that provide adjustments related to well-known humidity issues. SONDEADJUST produces data that correct documented biases in radiosonde humidity measurements. Previous efforts towards applying some of these corrections are available via the discontinued PI product sgpsondecorr1miloC1. Unique fields contained within this datastream include smoothed original relative humidity, dry bias corrected relative humidity, and final corrected relative humidity. The smoothed RH field refines the relative humidity from integers-the resolution of the instrument-to fractions of a percent. This profile is then used to calculate the dry bias corrected field. The final correction fixes the time-lag problem and uses the dry-bias field as input into the algorithm. In addition to dry bias, solar heating is another correction that is encompassed in the final corrected RH field. Output from SONDEADJUST differs from the previous RH-corrected datastreams in important ways. First, all three types of ARM radiosondes-Vaisala RS-80, RS-90, and RS-92-are corrected using dedicated procedures and/or parameters. Second, the output variables include all of those found in the original radiosonde file: dry bulb temperature, dewpoint temperature, wind speed, wind direction, eastward wind component, northward wind component, wind status (a Vaisala-produced field used in conjunction with the Loran system), ascent rate, and original relative humidity. Additional humidity fields are smoothed relative humidity, dry biased corrected relative humidity, final ambient relative humidity, and scaled adjusted relative humidity. Third, quality control (QC) flags of the fields from the original radiosonde datastream are brought into the SONDEADJUST output file. Additional QC variables are created for the new fields

Constitutional-Legal and Political Responsibility of Political Parties in the Russian Federation to Electors

Analysis of the legal and political responsibility of officials of a democratically elected state to their constituents. The subjects of the above responsibility may be elected officials of the legislative (representative) bodies of state power. The constitutional status of elected persons exercising public authority on behalf of individuals suggests the possibility of terminating their powers as sanctions only on the basis of the rules of law enshrined in the relevant acts and establishing clear reasons and procedures for liability. The current legislation of the Russian Federation provides for various types of constitutional and legal sanctions

The Search for Higher TcT_c in Houston

It is a great pleasure to be invited to join the chorus on this auspicious occasion to celebrate Professor K. Alex Mueller's 90th birthday by Professors Annette Bussman-Holder, Hugo Keller, and Antonio Bianconi. As a student in high temperature superconductivity, I am forever grateful to Professor Alex Mueller and Dr. Georg Bednorz "for their important breakthrough in the discovery of superconductivity in the ceramic materials" in 1986 as described in the citation of their 1987 Nobel Prize in Physics. It is this breakthrough discovery that has ushered in the explosion of research activities in high temperature superconductivity (HTS) and has provided immense excitement in HTS science and technology in the ensuing decades till now. Alex has not been resting on his laurels and has continued to search for the origin of the unusual high temperature superconductivity in cuprates.Comment: Dedicated to Alex Mueller, whose "important breakthrough in the discovery of superconductivity in ceramic materials" in 1986 has changed the world of superconductivit

Synthesis of technetium hydride TcH1.3_{1.3} at 27 GPa

In this work, we synthesize and investigate lower technetium hydrides at pressures up to 45 GPa using the synchrotron X-ray diffraction, reflectance spectroscopy, and ab initio calculations. In the Tc-H system, the hydrogen content in TcH$_x$ phases increases when the pressure rises, and at 27 GPa we found a new hexagonal (hcp) nonstoichiometric hydride TcH$_{1.3}$. The formation of technetium hydrides is also confirmed by the emergence of a new reflective band at 450-600 nm in the reflectance spectra of TcH$_x$ samples synthesized at 45 GPa. On the basis of the theoretical analysis, we proposed crystal structures for the TcH$_{0.45 \pm 0.05}$ (Tc$_{16}$H$_7$) and TcH$_{0.75 \pm 0.05}$ (Tc$_4$H$_3$) phases previously obtained at 1-2 GPa. The calculations of the electron-phonon interaction show that technetium hydrides TcH$_{1+x}$ do not possess superconducting properties due to the low electron-phonon interaction parameter ($\lambda \sim 0.23$)