Formation of polycrystalline SnS layers by a two-step process

Thin films of SnS have been produced by a novel two-stage process. This involved the deposition of thin films of Sn onto glass substrates using d.c. magnetron sputtering followed by conversion of the metallic layers into the compound by annealing in the presence of elemental sulfur. All the layers synthesised were found to be polycrystalline, the grain size and crystallinity of the layers increasing with increasing annealing temperature. The precursor layers sulfurised at temperatures 350°C, were found to be non-stoichiometric and X-ray diffraction data indicated the presence of a range of binary phases other than SnS. The best SnS layers were synthesised for annealing temperatures between 300 and 350°C. These layers were found to be stoichiomentric with a strong {111} preferred orientation. The stoichiometric SnS layers had resistivities of 1.5×102 ?cm and Arrhenius plots of the resistivity gave an activation energy of 0.65 eV. The optical energy band gap of the layers was 1.35 eV. These p-type layers could find application as absorber layers in thin film solar cells

PCR for the diagnosis and species identification of microsporidia in patients with keratitis

AbstractCorneal scrapings from 30 patients with microbial keratitis were subjected to microsporidial PCR. PCR was positive for microsporidia in ten of 30 patients. The species was identified as Vittaforma corneae by sequencing in all ten patients. The remaining 20 patients were negative for microsporidia and showed the growth of other organisms (Acanthamoeba, fungi or bacteria)

Periodontal Probes - A Review

A periodontal probe till today remains the most important diagnostic tool in periodontal diseases. A probe is used to make initial assessment, followed by detailed evaluation to determine the extent and degree of severity of disease and tissue destruction for specific treatment planning. During treatment the probe is applied to assess the progress. After treatment, use of the probe helps to determine the completion of professional services as recognized by the health status of the tissue. This article provides the reader with the review of periodontal probes which throws light on clinical presentation, diagnosis, prevention and management

Simulation of Droplet Formation, Ejection, Spread, and Preliminary Designof Nozzle for Direct Ceramic Inkjet Printing

Recent advances in drop-on-demand (DOD)-type inkjet printing techniques have increasedresearch activities in the area of direct ceramic inkjet printing. In an attempt to develop a ceramicinkjet printer for the manufacture of ceramic components with their sizes in micro scale, theformation of ceramic ink droplet (ethyl alcohol loaded with different volume fractions of aluminaparticles) and its spread from a reservoir using piezoelectric actuation are simulated. The propertiesof the ceramic ink are taken from the data reported in literature. The simulations were performedwith computational fluid dynamics software (CFD-ACE+), CFDRC. This study gives details ofthe interaction among different physical phenomena that contribute to the droplet formation andejection process. The results from this study are being used for a preliminary design of nozzleand for the preparation of ceramic inks to achieve the desired droplet characteristics

Future Armour Materials and Technologies for Combat Platforms

The ultimate goal of armour research is to create better armour for battle worthy combat plat forms such as main battle tanks, infantry combat vehicles and light combat vehicles. In each of these applications, the main aim boils down to one of the two things; either reduce the weight without sacrificing protection or enhance the performance at same or even reduced weight. In practice, these ambitions can be fulfilled only if we have with us, appropriate improved armour materials, advanced and innovative technologies and also improved designs, which enable us to use them for creating next generation armour modules. Armour systems have progressed through improvements in metallic, ceramic and lightweight (low areal density) composite materials. Similarly, the advances in development of explosive reactive armour (ERA) and non-explosive reactive armour (NERA) have generated efficient armour system against contemporary high explosive antitank ammunition and missile threats for the armoured vehicles. Yet, to achieve armour performance exceeding that of the current light combat vehicles and main battle tanks, further advancements in armour materials, systems, and survivability technologies are required for new vehicular systems that weigh significantly less than the present combat platforms. Various approaches and advancements in the metallic and composite armour materials, ERA and NERA systems to improve the survivability of armoured vehicles in the futuristic multi-spectral battlefield scenarios are described

Evaluation of the carcass and commercial characteristics of carps

The role of carcass evaluation techniques in aquaculture research programs, especially in genetics, breeding, production management, feeding and nutrition, cannot be overemphasized. Knowledge of production efficiencies and growth potentials in relation to desired carcass attributes has provided an impetus to improvements in genetic selection techniques and management of aquatic food animals. Accurate, standard and uniform methods of carcass evaluation are critically important. A standard format developed for collection of data on carps is presented in this paper

Bi-Objective Community Detection (BOCD) in Networks using Genetic Algorithm

A lot of research effort has been put into community detection from all corners of academic interest such as physics, mathematics and computer science. In this paper I have proposed a Bi-Objective Genetic Algorithm for community detection which maximizes modularity and community score. Then the results obtained for both benchmark and real life data sets are compared with other algorithms using the modularity and MNI performance metrics. The results show that the BOCD algorithm is capable of successfully detecting community structure in both real life and synthetic datasets, as well as improving upon the performance of previous techniques.Comment: 11 pages, 3 Figures, 3 Tables. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:0906.061

Virus shapes and buckling transitions in spherical shells

We show that the icosahedral packings of protein capsomeres proposed by Caspar and Klug for spherical viruses become unstable to faceting for sufficiently large virus size, in analogy with the buckling instability of disclinations in two-dimensional crystals. Our model, based on the nonlinear physics of thin elastic shells, produces excellent one parameter fits in real space to the full three-dimensional shape of large spherical viruses. The faceted shape depends only on the dimensionless Foppl-von Karman number \gamma=YR^2/\kappa, where Y is the two-dimensional Young's modulus of the protein shell, \kappa is its bending rigidity and R is the mean virus radius. The shape can be parameterized more quantitatively in terms of a spherical harmonic expansion. We also investigate elastic shell theory for extremely large \gamma, 10^3 < \gamma < 10^8, and find results applicable to icosahedral shapes of large vesicles studied with freeze fracture and electron microscopy.Comment: 11 pages, 12 figure

District level baseline survey of family planning program in Uttar Pradesh: Meerut

The Government of India and USAID began the Innovations in Family Planning Services Project (IFPS) in Uttar Pradesh under the State Innovations in Family Planning Services Agency (SIFPSA). The goal was to reduce the fertility rate in India’s most populous State of Uttar Pradesh by accelerating family planning (FP) services at the district level through innovative approaches. IFPS’s main objectives were to increase access to FP services, improve quality of FP services, and promote contraceptive use. Initially 15 districts were selected for the Baseline Surveys in Uttar Pradesh (BSUP). The baseline information collected will be used to plan FP interventions and will be employed as the reference for the measurements in contraceptive use. SIFPSA designated the Population Council, India, as the nodal organization, responsible for providing coordination and technical support for the BSUP. As noted in this report, the Centre for Management of Development Programmes, a nongovernment research organization in New Delhi, was assigned the responsibility for conducting the baseline survey in the Meerut district