357 research outputs found
The layer disorders defect in coir fiber under thermal and chemical treatment
Natural coir fibers, subjectd to thermal treatments in the range of 0oC
to 200oC and alkali treatment with 5% to 30% concentration w/w, have been used in
the present investigation to determine the interlayer variability of the cellulose
planes (020), (110) and (110). Among the equatorial reflections (110), (110) and
(020), the extent of variability is found to be more with the proportion of such
affected planes less for (020) reflection in the native cellulose at lower
temperature while at higher temperature (110) and (110) become more affected by
variability defect. (110) and (1 10) planes are more affected also with alkali
treatment.The layer disorders defect in coir fiber under thermal and chemical treatment
D N Mahato*, B K Mathur and S Bhattacharjee
Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology,
Kharagpur-721 302, West Bengal, India
E-mail : [email protected] of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology,
Kharagpur-721 302, West Bengal, Indi
Nanodot to Nanowire: A strain-driven shape transition in self-organized endotaxial CoSi2 on Si (100)
We report a phenomenon of strain-driven shape transition in the growth of
nanoscale self-organized endotaxial CoSi2 islands on Si (100) substrates. Small
square shaped islands as small as 15\times15 nm2 have been observed. Islands
grow in the square shape following the four fold symmetry of the Si (100)
substrate, up to a critical size of 67 \times 67 nm2. A shape transition takes
place at this critical size. Larger islands adopt a rectangular shape with ever
increasing length and the width decreasing to an asymptotic value of ~25 nm.
This produces long wires of nearly constant width.We have observed nanowire
islands with aspect ratios as large as ~ 20:1. The long nanowire
heterostructures grow partly above (~ 3 nm) the surface, but mostly into (~17
nm) the Si substrate. These self-organized nanostructures behave as nanoscale
Schottky diodes. They may be useful in Si-nanofabrication and find potential
application in constructing nano devices.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure
Enhancement of stability in randomly switching potential with metastable state
The overdamped motion of a Brownian particle in randomly switching piece-wise
metastable linear potential shows noise enhanced stability (NES): the noise
stabilizes the metastable system and the system remains in this state for a
longer time than in the absence of white noise. The mean first passage time
(MFPT) has a maximum at a finite value of white noise intensity. The analytical
expression of MFPT in terms of the white noise intensity, the parameters of the
potential barrier, and of the dichotomous noise is derived. The conditions for
the NES phenomenon and the parameter region where the effect can be observed
are obtained. The mean first passage time behaviours as a function of the mean
flipping rate of the potential for unstable and metastable initial
configurations are also analyzed. We observe the resonant activation phenomenon
for initial metastable configuration of the potential profile.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures. In press in "European Physical Journal B
Mapping the G-structures and supersymmetric vacua of five-dimensional N=4 supergravity
We classify the supersymmetric vacua of N=4, d=5 supergravity in terms of
G-structures. We identify three classes of solutions: with R^3, SU(2) and
generic SO(4) structure. Using the Killing spinor equations, we fully
characterize the first two classes and partially solve the latter. With the N=4
graviton multiplet decomposed in terms of N=2 multiplets: the graviton, vector
and gravitino multiplets, we obtain new supersymmetric solutions corresponding
to turning on fields in the gravitino multiplet. These vacua are described in
terms of an SO(5) vector sigma-model coupled with gravity, in three or four
dimensions. A new feature of these N=4 vacua, which is not seen from an N=2
point of view, is the possibility for preserving more exotic fractions of
supersymmetry. We give a few concrete examples of these new supersymmetric
(albeit singular) solutions. Additionally, we show how by truncating the N=4,
d=5 set of fields to minimal supergravity coupled with one vector multiplet we
recover the known two-charge solutions.Comment: 31 pages, late
de Sitter group and Einstein-Hilbert Lagrangian
Axial vector torsion in the Einstein-Cartan space is considered here.
By picking a particular term from the SO(4,1) Pontryagin density and then
modifying it in a SO(3,1) invariant way, we get a Lagrangian density with
Lagrange multipliers. Then considering torsion and torsion-less connection as
independent fields, it has been found that and of
Einstein-Hilbert Lagrangian, appear as integration constants in such a way that
has been found to be linked with the topological Nieh-Yan density of
space.Comment: 14 page
Phases of one dimensional large N gauge theory in a 1/D expansion
We consider large N Yang Mills theory with D adjoint scalar fields in d
dimensions for d=0 or 1. We show the existence of a non-trivial saddle point of
the functional integral at large D which is characterized by a mass gap for the
adjoint scalars. We integrate out the adjoint scalars in a 1/D expansion around
the saddle point. In case of one dimension which is regarded as a circle, this
procedure leads to an effective action for the Wilson line. We find an analogue
of the confinement/deconfinement transition which consists of a second order
phase transition from a uniform to a non-uniform eigenvalue distribution of the
Wilson line, closely followed by a Gross-Witten-Wadia transition where a gap
develops in the eigenvalue distribution. The phase transition can be regarded
as a continuation of a Gregory-Laflamme transition. Our methods involve large
values of the dimensionless 'tHooft coupling. The analysis in this paper is
quantitatively supported by earlier numerical work for D=9.Comment: 27 pages + 21 pages of Appendix; 8 figures, v2:some comments are
added in sec.4.3, minor corrections, one reference added, v3: minor
corrections, one reference added, version to be published in JHE
Prevalence and risk factors associated with chronic kidney disease in Nepal: evidence from a nationally representative population-based cross-sectional study.
OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to determine population-based prevalence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and its associated factors in Nepal. STUDY DESIGN: The study was a nationwide population-based cross-sectional study. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Cross-sectional survey conducted in a nationally representative sample of 12 109 Nepalese adult from 2016 to 2018 on selected chronic non-communicable diseases was examined. Multistage cluster sampling with a mix of probability proportionate to size and systematic random sampling was used for the selection of individuals aged 20 years and above. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: Primary outcome in this study was population-based prevalence of CKD in Nepal. A participant was considered to have CKD if the urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio was greater than or equal to 30 mg/g and/or estimated glomerular filtration rate is less than 60 mL/min/1.73 m2 at baseline and in follow-up using modification of diet in renal disease study equations. The secondary outcome measure was factors associated with CKD in Nepal. The covariate adjusted association of risk factors and CKD was calculated using multivariable binary logistic regression. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of CKD in Nepal was 6.0% (95% CI 5.5 to 6.6). Factors independently associated with CKD included older age (adjusted OR (AOR) 2.6, 95% CI 1.9 to 3.6), Dalit caste (AOR 1.6, 95% CI 1.1 to 2.3), hypertension (AOR 2.4, 95% CI 2.0 to 3.0), diabetes mellitus (AOR 3.2, 95% CI 2.5 to 4.1), raised total cholesterol (AOR 1.3, 95% CI 1.0 to 1.6) and increased waist-to-hip ratio (AOR 1.6, 95% CI 1.2 to 2.3). CONCLUSION: This nationally representative study shows that the prevalence of CKD in the adult population of Nepal is substantial, and it is independently associated with several cardiometabolic traits. These findings warrant longitudinal studies to identify the causes of CKD in Nepal and effective strategies to prevent it
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