MEHENDIPUR BALAJI REVISITED: A DESCRIPTIVE PHENOMENOLOGICAL INQUIRY

The role of faith healing centers in the management of psychiatric conditions has become an integral part of psychotherapy in India. However, there are limited academic ventures trying to explain these practices via a psychological perspective. The present study aimed to explain the Mehendipur Balaji healing tradition by a qualitative exploratory study design using the tool of observation. Data was scrutinized through the strategy of qualitative narrative enquiry. Findings revealed the need of a psychological perspective in understanding faith healing practices along within the healthy accommodation of faith healing to mainstream psychotherapeutic practice.  Article visualizations

Effect of Heat Treatment on Band Gap of V2O5

The most stable oxide of the vanadium oxide family is V2O5. A lot of research effort is focused on it because it has a multitude of functional applications. Here we report on how the heat treatment (600°C, 5 h, air) affects the microstructure and hence, the band gap of V2O5. The V2O5 powders, initially obtained by simple thermal dissociation (500 °C, 3 h, air) of ammonium metavanadate, followed by heat treatment of pellets; were studied. The structural and optical studies performed using X-ray diffraction (XRD), FESEM and UV-Vis techniques, provide uniquely interesting results which indicate the possibility of band gap tuning by controlling the microstructure

Space-charge limited conduction in epitaxial chromia films grown on elemental and oxide-based metallic substrates

We study temperature dependent (200 – 400 K) dielectric current leakage in high-quality, epitaxial chromia films, synthesized on various conductive substrates (Pd, Pt and V2O3). We find that trap-assisted space-charge limited conduction is the dominant source of electrical leakage in the films, and that the density and distribution of charge traps within them is strongly dependent upon the choice of the underlying substrate. Pd-based chromia is found to exhibit leakage consistent with the presence of deep, discrete traps, a characteristic that is related to the known properties of twinning defects in the material. The Pt- and V2O3-based films, in contrast, show behavior typical of insulators with shallow, exponentially-distributed traps. The highest resistivity is obtained for chromia fabricated on V2O3substrates, consistent with a lower total trap density in these films. Our studies suggest that chromia thin films formed on V2O3 substrates are a promising candidate for next-generation spintronics

Genetic diversity, population structure, and genome‑wide association study for the flowering trait in a diverse panel of 428 moth bean (Vigna aconitifolia) accessions using genotyping by sequencing

Background Moth bean (Vigna aconitifolia) is an underutilized, protein-rich legume that is grown in arid and semiarid areas of south Asia and is highly resistant to abiotic stresses such as heat and drought. Despite its economic importance, the crop remains unexplored at the genomic level for genetic diversity and trait mapping studies. To date, there is no report of SNP marker discovery and association mapping of any trait in this crop. Therefore, this study aimed to dissect the genetic diversity, population structure and marker-trait association for the flowering trait in a diversity panel of 428 moth bean accessions using genotyping by sequencing (GBS) approach. Results A total of 9078 high-quality single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were discovered by genotyping of 428 moth bean accessions. Model-based structure analysis and PCA grouped the moth bean accessions into two subpopulations. Cluster analysis revealed accessions belonging to the Northwestern region of India had higher variability than accessions from the other regions suggesting that this region represents its center of diversity. AMOVA revealed more variations within individuals (74%) and among the individuals (24%) than among the populations (2%). Marker-trait association analysis using seven multi-locus models including mrMLM, FASTmrEMMA FASTmrEMMA, ISIS EM-BLASSO, MLMM, BLINK and FarmCPU revealed 29 potential genomic regions for the trait days to 50% flowering, which were consistently detected in three or more models. Analysis of the allelic effect of the major genomic regions explaining phenotypic variance of more than 10% and those detected in at least 2 environments showed 4 genomic regions with significant phenotypic effect on this trait. Further, we also analyzed genetic relationships among the Vigna species using SNP markers. The genomic localization of moth bean SNPs on genomes of closely related Vigna species demonstrated that maximum numbers of SNPs were getting localized on Vigna mungo. This suggested that the moth bean is most closely related to V. mungo. Conclusion Our study shows that the north-western regions of India represent the center of diversity of the moth bean. Further, the study revealed flowering-related genomic regions/candidate genes which can be potentially exploited in breeding programs to develop early-maturity moth bean varieties

Functionalized multiwalled carbon nanotubes based hydrogen gas sensor

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are extremely sensitive to environmental gases. Detection of H-2 gas at room temperature with fast response and recovery time is still a challenge. Here, we report that 0.05% H-2 gas at room temperature can be detected using acids functionalized multiwalled carbon nanotubes (F-MWCNTs). F-MWCNTs showed faster response to H-2 gas as compared to pristine multiwalled carbon nanotubes (P-MWCNTs). The effect of functionalization on the P-MWCNTs structure and their electrical properties are investigated using different techniques. The calculated crystallite size of the acids treated nanotubes from the Raman spectra is found to decrease to 14.6 nm as compared to 15.2 nm for the pristine. Also, due to attchements of functional groups on the nanotubes, the interplanar size of F-MWCNTs is increased, as identified from high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) and the X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. The presence of functional groups at the nanotubes walls after acids treatments is confirmed by fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra. Furthermore, the current carrying capacity of F-MWCNTs is found to increase to 35 mA from 49 mu A at low sweep voltage. It is also observed that, the recovery time of F-MWCNTs sensor decreases to 100 s for 0.05% of H-2 gas as compared to 190s for the P-MWCNTs. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Room temperature hydrogen gas sensors of functionalized carbon nanotubes based hybrid nanostructure: Role of Pt sputtered nanoparticles

Fast detection of H-2 gas at room temperature has constantly remained a challenge. The metal-oxide based gas sensors have shown excellent sensing properties for gases like H-2, NO, CO and NH3. In the present work, the H-2 gas sensing characteristics of multiwalled carbon nanotubes based hybrid sensor (F-MWCNTs/TiO2/Pt) has been reported. The fabricated sensor shows 3.9% sensitivity for low concentration i.e. 0.05% of H-2 with good repeatability and stability at room temperature. The sensing response of F-MWCNTs/TiO2/ Pt is interrelated to change in their resistance on the introduction of H-2 gas and this phenomenon is required for deep understanding the effect of H-2 adsorption on their electronic conduction. The improvement in sensitivity of F-MWCNTs/TiO2/Pt as compared to MWCNTs/TiO2 towards H-2 is because of the catalytic role of dispersed Pt nanoparticles deposited by sputtering. (C) 2017 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved