Dielectric properties of Li2O-3B2O3 glasses

The frequency and temperature dependence of the dielectric constant and the electrical conductivity of the transparent glasses in the composition Li2O-3B2O3 (LBO) were investigated in the 100 Hz- 10 MHz frequency range. The dielectric constant and the loss in the low frequency regime were electrode material dependent. Dielectric and electrical relaxations were respectively analyzed using the Cole-Cole and electric modulus formalisms. The dielectric relaxation mechanism was discussed in the framework of electrode and charge carrier (hopping of the ions) related polarization using generalized Cole-Cole expression. The frequency dependent electrical conductivity was rationalized using Jonscher's power law. The activation energy associated with the dc conductivity was 0.80 \pm 0.02 eV, which was ascribed to the motion of Li+ ions in the glass matrix. The activation energy associated with dielectric relaxation was almost equal to that of the dc conductivity, indicating that the same species took part in both the processes. Temperature dependent behavior of the frequency exponent (n) suggested that the correlated barrier hopping model was the most apposite to rationalize the electrical transport phenomenon in Li2O-3B2O3 glasses. These glasses on heating at 933 K/10h resulted in the known non-linear optical phase LiB3O5.Comment: 32 pages, 13 figure

The glass transition and crystallization kinetic studies on BaNaB9O15 glasses

Transparent glasses of BaNaB9O15 (BNBO) were fabricated via the conventional melt-quenching technique. The amorphous and the glassy nature of the as-quenched samples were respectively, confirmed by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The glass transition and crystallization parameters were evaluated under non-isothermal conditions using DSC. The correlation between the heating rate dependent glass transition and the crystallization temperatures was discussed and deduced the Kauzmann temperature for BNBO glass-plates and powdered samples. The values of the Kauzmann temperature for the plates and powdered samples were 776 K and 768 K, respectively. Approximation-free method was used to evaluate the crystallization kinetic parameters for the BNBO glass samples. The effect of the sample thickness on the crystallization kinetics of BNBO glasses was also investigated.Comment: 23 pages, 12 figure

On Approximate Envy-Freeness for Indivisible Chores and Mixed Resources

We study the fair allocation of undesirable indivisible items, or chores. While the case of desirable indivisible items (or goods) is extensively studied, with many results known for different notions of fairness, less is known about the fair division of chores. We study envy-free allocation of chores and make three contributions. First, we show that determining the existence of an envy-free allocation is NP-complete even in the simple case when agents have binary additive valuations. Second, we provide a polynomial-time algorithm for computing an allocation that satisfies envy-freeness up to one chore (EF1), correcting a claim in the existing literature. A modification of our algorithm can be used to compute an EF1 allocation for doubly monotone instances (where each agent can partition the set of items into objective goods and objective chores). Our third result applies to a mixed resources model consisting of indivisible items and a divisible, undesirable heterogeneous resource (i.e., a bad cake). We show that there always exists an allocation that satisfies envy-freeness for mixed resources (EFM) in this setting, complementing a recent result of Bei et al. [Bei et al., 2021] for indivisible goods and divisible cake

Economic Liberalization - A Stumbling Block in the Commercialization of Indigenous Calcium Silicide Technology

Indian ferro alloy industry is passing through one of its worst periods by the process of economic liberalization. Its production in our country is coming down mainly due to inadequate indigenous demand, non-availability of exports and high power cost as compared to other competing countries. The indigenous calcium silicide technology developed at National Metallurgical Laboratory; Jamshedpur could not be commercialized on account of thenew economic liberalization policy of Government of India

Emotional voice processing: Investigating the role of genetic variation in the serotonin transporter across development

The ability to effectively respond to emotional information carried in the human voice plays a pivotal role for social interactions. We examined how genetic factors, especially the serotonin transporter genetic variation (5-HTTLPR), affect the neurodynamics of emotional voice processing in infants and adults by measuring event-related brain potentials (ERPs). The results revealed that infants distinguish between emotions during an early perceptual processing stage, whereas adults recognize and evaluate the meaning of emotions during later semantic processing stages. While infants do discriminate between emotions, only in adults was genetic variation associated with neurophysiological differences in how positive and negative emotions are processed in the brain. This suggests that genetic association with neurocognitive functions emerges during development, emphasizing the role that variation in serotonin plays in the maturation of brain systems involved in emotion recognition