Nadine Godehardt, the Chinese Constitution of Central Asia: Regional and Intertwined Actors in International Relations (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014)

This is an engaging piece of work which takes an innovative approach on Chinese expert discourse on Central Asia – analysing how Chinese define Central Asia. At the same time the author offers an inside perspective on Chinese voices whose meanings are rarely examined in Chinese International Relations (IR) studies. The volume is thus a contribution to theorising the China-Central Asia regional security from IR perspective imbued with recent theories. The author argues there has, as yet, not been a ‘post-regionalist' movement in IR. According to the author, most regional studies are built upon a similar ontological premise, one which characterises in particular the relationship between researchers and the world, as well as how researchers produce knowledge about the world. In chapter two, the author focuses on two areas: first, regions and regionalism and second, typologies of regional order. The former is clustered along two lines: first, cooperation- comprising the different approach to regionalism and second, security – which refers to approaches such as the Regional Security Complex (RSC) theory. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.336711

Intrinsic carrier mobility of multi-layered MoS2_2 field-effect transistors on SiO2_2

By fabricating and characterizing multi-layered MoS$_2$-based field-effect transistors (FETs) in a four terminal configuration, we demonstrate that the two terminal-configurations tend to underestimate the carrier mobility $\mu$ due to the Schottky barriers at the contacts. For a back-gated two-terminal configuration we observe mobilities as high as 125 cm$^2$V$^{-1}$s$^{-1}$ which is considerably smaller than 306.5 cm$^2$V$^{-1}$s$^{-1}$ as extracted from the same device when using a four-terminal configuration. This indicates that the intrinsic mobility of MoS$_2$ on SiO$_2$ is significantly larger than the values previously reported, and provides a quantitative method to evaluate the charge transport through the contacts.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, typos fixed, and references update

Use of activated Red Mud for removal of Phosphate and Selenite from Aqueous Solutions

Red mud,a voluminous waste produced from alumina industry, mainly consist of oxides of aluminium, iron, titanium and silicon as major and oxides of calcium and sodium as minor constituents. Due to its fineness and active surface sites it can be used to absorb heavy metal ions present in industrial effluents. It is activated by different methods and used for r emoval of phosphate and selenite ions from aqueous solutions. Adsorption experiments were conducted to obtain the optimum conditions of pH, temperature, concentration of absorbate and amount of adsorbent. Applicability of Langmuir as well as Freundlich isotherms to the process was studied. Activated red mud samples produced from simple treatment with 20% HCl with and subsequent ammonia precipitation showed highest adsorption capacity for both the ions. An increase in absorption capacity with increase in adsorbate concentration and vice-versa were also observed. However, with increase in temperature, an increase in the percentage of adsorption for phosphate and decrease for selenite ions were observed. The adsorption capacity of the activated sample was correlated with the surface properties. The activated sample can be effectively used for the removal of phosphate and selenite ions from aqueous solutions

Electron-Ion Recombination Rate Coefficients and Photoionization Cross Sections for Astrophysically Abundant Elements. V. Relativistic calculations for Fe XXIV and Fe XXV for X-ray modeling

Photoionization and recombination cross sections and rate coefficients are calculated for Li-like Fe XXIV and He-like Fe XXV using the Breit-Pauli R-matrix (BPRM) method. A complete set of total and level-specific parameters is obtained to enable X-ray photoionization and spectral modeling. The ab initio calculations for the unified (e + ion) recombination rate coefficients include both the non-resonant and the resonant recombination (radiative and di-electronic recombination, RR and DR, respectively) for (e + Fe XXV) -> Fe XXIV and (e + Fe XXVI) -> Fe XXV. The level specific rates are computed for all fine structure levels up to n = 10, enabling accurate computation of recombination-cascade matrices and effective rates for the X-ray lines. The total recombination rate coefficients for both Fe XXIV and Fe XXV differ considerably, by several factors, from the sum of RR and DR rates currently used to compute ionization fractions in astrophysical models. As the photoionization/recombination calculations are carried out using an identical eigenfunction expansion, the cross sections for both processes are theoretically self-consistent; the overall uncertainty is estimated to be about 10-20%. All data for Fe XXIV and Fe XXV (and also for H-like Fe XXVI, included for completeness) are available electronically.Comment: 31 pages, 10fug

Bianchi Type I Magnetofluid Cosmological Models with Variable Cosmological Constant Revisited

The behaviour of magnetic field in anisotropic Bianchi type I cosmological model for bulk viscous distribution is investigated. The distribution consists of an electrically neutral viscous fluid with an infinite electrical conductivity. It is assumed that the component $\sigma^{1}_{1}$ of shear tensor $\sigma^{j}_{i}$ is proportional to expansion ($\theta$) and the coefficient of bulk viscosity is assumed to be a power function of mass density. Some physical and geometrical aspects of the models are also discussed in presence and also in absence of the magnetic field.Comment: 13 page

Classical orbital paramagnetism in non-equilibrium steady state

We report the results of our numerical simulation of classical-dissipative dynamics of a charged particle subjected to a non-markovian stochastic forcing. We find that the system develops a steady-state orbital magnetic moment in the presence of a static magnetic field. Very significantly, the sign of the orbital magnetic moment turns out to be {\it paramagnetic} for our choice of parameters, varied over a wide range. This is shown specifically for the case of classical dynamics driven by a Kubo-Anderson type non-markovian noise. Natural spatial boundary condition was imposed through (1) a soft (harmonic) confining potential, and (2) a hard potential, approximating a reflecting wall. There was no noticeable qualitative difference. What appears to be crucial to the orbital magnetic effect noticed here is the non-markovian property of the driving noise chosen. Experimental realization of this effect on the laboratory scale, and its possible implications are briefly discussed. We would like to emphasize that the above steady-state classical orbital paramagnetic moment complements, rather than contradicts the Bohr-van Leeuwen (BvL) theorem on the absence of classical orbital diamagnetism in thermodynamic equilibrium.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, Has appeared in Journal of Astrophysics and Astronomy special issue on 'Physics of Neutron Stars and Related Objects', celebrating the 75th birth-year of G. Srinivasa