Ion beam induced enhanced diffusion from gold thin films in silicon

Enhanced diffusion of gold atoms into silicon substrate has been studied in Au thin films of various thicknesses (2.0, 5.3, 10.9 and 27.5 nm) deposited on Si(111) and followed by irradiation with 1.5 MeV Au2+ at a flux of 6.3x10^12 ions cm-2 s-1 and fluence up to 1x10^15 ions cm-2. The high resolution transmission electron microscopy measurements showed the presence of gold silicide formation for the above-mentioned systems at fluence greater than equal to 1x1014 ions cm-2. The maximum depth to which the gold atoms have been diffused at a fluence of 1x10^14 ions cm-2 for the cases of 2.0, 5.3, 10.9 and 27.5 nm thick films has been found to be 60, 95, 160 and 13 nm respectively. Interestingly, at higher fluence of 1x1015 ions cm-2 in case of 27.5 nm thick film, gold atoms from the film transported to a maximum depth of 265 nm in the substrate. The substrate silicon is found to be amorphous at the above fluence values where unusually large mass transport occurred. Enhanced diffusion has been explained on the basis of ion beam induced, flux dependent amorphous nature of the substrate, and transient beam induced temperature effects. This work confirms the absence of confinement effects that arise from spatially confined structures and existence of thermal and chemical reactions during ion irradiation.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figure

ICT AND EMPLOYMENT AMONG WOMEN: A CASE STUDY OF KUDUMBASREE ICT PROJECT

The Kudumbashree project from Kerala (a state in the southern part of India) has been a much discussed case for the community of practitioners, policy makers, researchers working on technology, empowerment and development. It is built around three pillars of economic, social and women’s empowerment. Its formation was the culmination of a process of community mobilization taken up by the State Government. But this article is focusing on the inclusion of gender in policies relating to information and communication technology with the aim of empowering socially excluded women as users and producers of this technology. The prominent part of this investigation is the case study of Kudumbashree ICT enterprises in the State of Kerala to understand the factors that resulted in the working of the enterprises and performance of them. Data were collected from Northern part of Kerala. Focus group discussions and interviews were the method employed to gather information

Decision Analysis in a Fishing Port Project Using Multi-attribute Utility Theory

In order to attain the goal of an overall project evaluation of a fishing port project, a conceptual approach has been established in this paper, using a multi-attribute utility theory. As a first step, the multiple attributes relevant to a fishing port project have been formulated. Based on these attributes, a basic approach to the overall evaluation of a fishing port project has further been sought through developing an evaluation model in the form of a flow chart. It is pointed out that an application of such methodology can only be made a concrete and detailed proposal which is quite often the case presented by the concerned authority for the consideration of a financial institution. In the past, many researchers in this field contributed their efforts to the approach and methodology for the preparation of a feasibility study through presenting and examining various alternative proposals. However, the evaluation of the detailed proposal based on an already completed feasibility study which was carried out by the other party, was hardly given consideration. In order to actually test the methodology and approach, an actual project proposal case has been taken from the Seo Geo Cha fishing port project in Korea, through which presented steps were examined

Maximally Recoverable Codes with Hierarchical Locality

Maximally recoverable codes are a class of codes which recover from all potentially recoverable erasure patterns given the locality constraints of the code. In earlier works, these codes have been studied in the context of codes with locality. The notion of locality has been extended to hierarchical locality, which allows for locality to gradually increase in levels with the increase in the number of erasures. We consider the locality constraints imposed by codes with two-level hierarchical locality and define maximally recoverable codes with data-local and local hierarchical locality. We derive certain properties related to their punctured codes and minimum distance. We give a procedure to construct hierarchical data-local MRCs from hierarchical local MRCs. We provide a construction of hierarchical local MRCs for all parameters. For the case of one global parity, we provide a different construction of hierarchical local MRC over a lower field size.Comment: 6 pages, accepted to National Conference of Communications (NCC) 201

Reply to Comment by D. Spemann et al [EPL 98 (2012) 57006, arXiv:1204.2992]

This article is a reply to the Comment by D. Spemann et al (arXiv:1204.2992) in response to our paper 'Revealing common artifacts due to ferromagnetic inclusions in highly oriented pyrolytic graphite' (EPL, 97 (2012) 47001).Comment: Reply to arXiv:1204.2992 Comment by D. Spemann et al re arXiv:1201.6374 by Sepioni et a

Case studies to enhance online student evaluation: Bond University – Surveying students online to improve learning and teaching

One of the most sensible ways of improving learning and teaching is to ask the students for feedback. At the end of each teaching period (i.e. semester or term) all universities and many schools survey their students. Usually these surveys are managed online. Questions ask for student perceptions about teaching, assessment and workload. The survey administrators report four common problems

Color Skyrmions in the Quark-Gluon Plasma

We consider the general formulation of nonabelian fluid dynamics based on symmetry considerations. We point out that, quite generally, this admits solitonic excitations which are the color analog of skyrmions. Some general properties of the solitons are discussed.Comment: LaTeX, 13 pages, references adde

Ultrastructure of the epithelial cells and oleo-gumresin secretion in Boswellia serrata (Burseraceae)

The ultrastructure of epithelial cells of oleo-gumresin ducts in Boswellia serrata, the source of Indian olibanum, is described. Oleo-gumresin ducts are present in primary and secondary phloem. The duct lumen forms an enlarged apoplastic space surrounded by epithelial cells. The epithelial cells are rich in dictyosomes, lipid bodies, mitochondria with dilated cristae, multivesicular bodies, osmiophilic materials, plastids and vesicIes. Plastids have poorly developed internal membranes. Dictyosomes and plastids are possible sites of resin synthesis. The gum component of the exudate is formed in dictyosomes and from the outer layers of the inner tangential wall (wall facing the duct lumen). This wall is replenished from inside by the activity of dictyosomes. The secretory materials are transported to the apoplast by granulocrine and eccrine secretion. They migrate through the loose microfibrils of the inner tangential wall into the duct lumen. Rarely, epithelial cells of young ducts have rudimentary plasmodesmata on the inner tangential wall which may be channels for passage of secretory materials into the duct lumen

On the least common multiple of qq-binomial coefficients

In this paper, we prove the following identity \lcm({n\brack 0}_q,{n\brack 1}_q,...,{n\brack n}_q) =\frac{\lcm([1]_q,[2]_q,...,[n+1]_q)}{[n+1]_q}, where ${n\brack k}_q$ denotes the $q$-binomial coefficient and $[n]_q=\frac{1-q^n}{1-q}$. This result is a $q$-analogue of an identity of Farhi [Amer. Math. Monthly, November (2009)].Comment: 5 page

Prevalence of bacterial vaginosis among reproductive age group women in a tertiary care centre

Background: Vaginal discharge in reproductive age poses a serious problem in the developing countries. Bacterial vaginosis also known as non-specific vaginitis is the most common cause of vaginal infections, detecting the organism at an early stage and initiating a proper treatment is very difficult in our country due to lack of awareness and proper follow-up. The disease manifests in the form of vaginal discharge with or without itching. It has a strong association with preterm labor, preterm premature rupture of membranes and low birth weight in pregnancy. The objective of this study was to find out the prevalence of bacterial vaginosis among the reproductive age group women, in a tertiary care centre.Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted among 150 women of the reproductive age group in the department of obstetrics and gynaecology Sree Mookambika Institute of Medical Sciences over a period of one month October 2018 the diagnosis was made with history and nugents scoring system.Results: Out of the total 150 women enrolled in the study 74 had positive results, 50% of them were of the age group 26-30.Conclusions: The study shows us the high prevalence of bacterial vaginosis