Effect of annealing on cathodoluminescence of synthetic zincite single crystals

We have studied the effect of annealing on the luminescent properties of zincite single crystals grown from hydrothermal solutions. Annealing in the temperature range of 400–700°C increases the edge cathodoluminescence (CL) intensity in zincite. At the same time, raising the annealing temperature from 800 to 1100°C leads to quenching of the edge emission and increases the intensity of the green band. In addition, annealing leads to broadening of the edge luminescence band and shifts it to lower energies. In contrast, annealing shifts the impurity band to higher energies. The observed changes in the CL behavior of zincite are tentatively interpreted in terms of the temperature effect on the concentration of structural defects, in particular, oxygen vacancies and their complexes.     

Impacts of Climate Variables on Residential Water Consumption in the Czech Republic

The paper investigates whether there is a statistically significant impact of short-term climate variables (specifically air temperature and rainfall) on residential water consumption at two selected case sites in the Czech Republic. The analysis is based on a unique time series of daily data from 2004–2009. The statistical methods used are CART methodology and a decomposition of these time series based on a locally weighted regression method. Apart from the data analysis results, the investigation raises several methodological questions regarding the use of daily data and the scope of analysis based on such data sets.     

Fully dense hot pressed calcium cobalt oxide ceramics

The processing parameters have been optimized to achieve highly pure and fully dense pellets of calcium cobalt oxide (Ca₃Co₄O₉) from solid-state ball milled calcium carbonate and cobalt oxide mixtures, calcined at optimized temperature and time, and consolidated by hot-pressing. The microscopic, spectroscopic, and thermal analysis suggest samples with longer ball-milling time require less calcination time for synthesizing highly pure crystalline phases of Ca₃Co₄O₉, and provide 99.2 ± 0.5% relative density.     

Synthesis,Characterization, and Application of Mesoporous Silica Functionalized with Alkyl‐Hydroperoxides

A variety of alkyl hydroperoxides such as tert‐butyl‐, tert‐octyl‐, 1‐cyclopentyl‐, 1‐cyclohexyl‐, 3,4‐disubstituted‐1‐cyclohexyl‐, n‐propyl, and n‐undecyl‐hydroperoxides have been functionalized onto ordered mesoporous silica, SBA‐15, from the corresponding covalently anchored synthons. All the tert‐hydroperoxides are prepared by autoxidation using molecular O₂ and an initiator, whereas other hydroperoxides are obtained by reaction with H₂O₂. For autoxidation, the use of a combination of an azoinitiator (AIBN) and N‐hydroxyphthalimide increased the hydroperoxide yield compared with using the azoinitiator alone. Synthons containing two or more tert‐ and sec‐hydrogens lead to higher peroxide yield compared to synthons with a single reactive site. Oxidation of Si–OH (silanol groups) with acidic H₂O₂ at low temperature produces Si–OOH. Reusability of these alkyl hydroperoxides is carried out by oxidation of alcohols obtained from the corresponding alkyl hydroperoxides using H₂O₂. Both the covalently anchored synthons and the resulting hydroperoxides are thoroughly characterized by powder X‐ray diffraction, ¹³C cross‐polarized magic angle spinning NMR, TG/DTA, Fourier transform IR spectroscopy, sorption, and surface area measurements. The quantification of the amount of alkyl hydroperoxide was carried out by iodometric titration using a thio solution. The hydroperoxides exhibit high activity for the epoxidation of styrene to styrene oxide and exhibit reasonably high efficiency for oxygen transfer.     

Prediction and Measurement of Electron Density and Collision Frequency in a Weakly Ionised Pine Fire

Pine litter flame is a weakly ionised medium. Electron-neutral collisions are a dominant form of particle interaction in the flame. Assuming flame electrons to be in thermal equilibrium with neutrals and average electron-neutral collision frequency to be much higher than the plasma frequency, the propagation of microwaves through the flame is predicted to suffer signal intensity loss. A controlled fire burner was constructed where various natural vegetation species could be used as fuel. The burner was equipped with thermocouples and used as a cavity for microwaves with a laboratory quality network analyzer to measure wave attenuation. Electron density and collision frequency were then calculated from the measured attenuation. The parameters are important for numerical prediction of electromagnetic wave propagation in wildfire environments. A controlled pine litter fire with a maximum flame temperature of 1080 K was set in the burner and microwaves (8–10.5 GHz) were caused to propagate through the flame. A microwave signal loss of 1.6–5.8 dB was measured within the frequency range. Based on the measured attenuation, electron density and electron-neutral collision frequency in pine fire were calculated to range from 0.51–1.35?×?10¹⁶ m^?3 and 3.43–5.97?×?10¹⁰ s^?1 respectively.     

New Technology Introduction and Implementation: The Case of Paging Technology in the Ratlam Division of Indian Railways

Concomitant to the liberalisation policy and market reforms in India has been the issue of declining budgetary support for public sector organisations. Hitherto, Indian Railways, the biggest publicly-owned enterprise, has largely been supported by the exchequer. Since the early 1990s, however, the Railways has had to operate increasingly as a commercial rather than a social organisation. One of the ways of improving efficiency is to introduce efficiency-enhancing technologies. This paper is a case study of the introduction of paging technology to the Ratlam Division of Indian Railways. It describes the process of planning and implementation, the HRM implications of the adoption and how the process was successfully managed. It aims at shedding further light on the nature and the processes whereby technologies eventually gain company recognition and acceptance.     

Light-assisted adsorption processes in nanocrystalline diamond membranes studied by femtosecond laser spectroscopy

We report on femtosecond photoluminescence spectroscopy of nanocrystalline diamond membranes (thickness ～ 1000 nm) prepared by microwave plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (CVD) technique. The decay of photoluminescence excited by the blue femtosecond light pulses (405 nm) reflects the photoexcited charge carrier dynamics in the sub-band gap energy states. The photoluminescence is strongly influenced by ambient conditions and by the laser irradiation (405 nm, 70 fs pulses). Under lower ambient air pressure (5–300 Pa) the photoluminescence intensity increases and the photoluminescence decay gets faster. For higher air pressures (> 600 Pa) the photoluminescence intensity decreases and the photoluminescence decay rates do not evolve. We interpret the observed different behaviour of the photoluminescence in the two air pressure intervals in terms of a thin water layer condensed on the surface at higher air pressures. Due to a low coverage of the sample surface by water molecules under low pressure the air species can be adsorbed to NCD and influence the sub-band gap energy states.