Effect of laser irradiation on the electrical properties of amorphous germanium films

Amorphous films of germanium were grown using a vacuum evaporation technique, on glass substrates kept at room temperature. As-grown films were irradiated with Q-Switched Nd-YAG laser pulses (=1.06 m, 20nsec, 10 to 50Jcm^–2). The d.c. conductivity measurements were made in the temperature range 77 to 300 K. It was observed that the effect of laser irradiation was similar to the effect caused by the thermal annealing of the films. The d.c. conductivity data were analysed in the light of Mott's theory of a variable range hopping conduction process.     

Influence of variables in nickel-manganese-zinc alloy plating from a sulphate bath

An Ni-Mn-Zn alloy has been satisfactorily electrodeposited from a sulphate bath containing nickel sulphate (20–23 g dm⁻³), manganese sulphate (76–88 g dm⁻³), zinc sulphate (18–24 g dm⁻³), ammonium sulphate (30 g dm⁻³), thiourea (18g dm⁻³) and ascorbic acid (0.8 g dm⁻³) under various plating conditions, namely, current density 1.0–3.0 A dm⁻²; temperature 30–45° C; pH 2.7–4.2 and duration of electrolysis 15–30 min. Semibright, blackish-grey, thin films were generally deposited with the proportion of nickel and manganese in the deposits increasing with increasing current density, temperature and duration of electrolysis. However, the amount of zinc increased as the pH of the solution was raised. The cathode efficiency for alloy deposition increased linearly as the temperature or the pH of the solution was decreased, whereas at any particular pH and temperature it continuously rose with increasing current density or the time of deposition. The cathode polarization shifted to more negative values on increasing the current density and to less negative values at higher pH values and temperatures which consequently lowered the throwing power under the latter conditions.     

\lambda -Statistical convergence of fuzzy numbers and fuzzy functions of order \theta

In this paper, we introduce the concept of $\lambda $ -statistical convergence of order $\theta $ and strong $\lambda $ -summability of order $\theta $ for the sequence of fuzzy numbers. Further the same concept is extended to the sequence of fuzzy functions and introduce the spaces like $S_\lambda ^\theta (\hat{f})$ and $\omega _{\lambda p} ^\theta (\hat{f})$ . Some inclusion relations in those spaces and also the underlying relation between these two spaces are also obtained.     

IR studies on preoxidized PAN fibres

IR absorption spectra of preoxidized PAN fibres have been studied in the spectral region 2–15 μ. Observed frequencies have been assigned to the different modes of vibration. The neighbouring frequencies appearing in the stretching mode region of the nitrile group has been interpreted in terms of Fermi-resonance and a basis for the correlation between their intensity ratio and the degree of oxidation has also been discussed.     

Dense subgraph maintenance under streaming edge weight updates for real-time story identification

Recent years have witnessed an unprecedented proliferation of social media. People around the globe author, everyday, millions of blog posts, social network status updates, etc. This rich stream of information can be used to identify, on an ongoing basis, emerging stories, and events that capture popular attention. Stories can be identified via groups of tightly coupled real-world entities, namely the people, locations, products, etc, that are involved in the story. The sheer scale and rapid evolution of the data involved necessitate highly efficient techniques for identifying important stories at every point of time. The main challenge in real-time story identification is the maintenance of dense subgraphs (corresponding to groups of tightly coupled entities) under streaming edge weight updates (resulting from a stream of user-generated content). This is the first work to study the efficient maintenance of dense subgraphs under such streaming edge weight updates. For a wide range of definitions of density, we derive theoretical results regarding the magnitude of change that a single edge weight update can cause. Based on these, we propose a novel algorithm, DynDens, which outperforms adaptations of existing techniques to this setting and yields meaningful, intuitive results. Our approach is validated by a thorough experimental evaluation on large-scale real and synthetic datasets.     

Survey of denoising,segmentation and classification of magnetic resonance imaging for prostate cancer

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Prostate cancer (PCa) has become the second most dreadful cancer in men after lung cancer. Traditional approaches used for treatment of PCa were manual, time...     

Multi-Model Approach to Assess the Dynamics of Hydrologic Components in a Tropical Ecosystem

Estimation of terrestrial water budget at global and regional scales are essential for efficient agricultural water management, flood predictions, and, hydrological modeling. In hydrological modeling, it is a challenging task to quantify the major hydrological components like runoff, evapotranspiration (ET), and total water storage (TWS) due to improper and limited availability of detailed meteorological datasets. Furthermore, there has been no consensus to answer a-decade-long critical question that a less data-intensive models can be an alternate to robust data-intensive models in data scarce conditions. This study aims at multi-model approach over the single models usage for representing the hydrological behaviour in the Kangsabati River Basin (KRB), India. It is done by applying the standard model selection criteria over various hydrological models. Two hydrological models are selected, a semi- distributed model, Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC-3 L), and a conceptually lumped model, Identification of unit Hydrograph and Component flows from Rainfall, Evapotranspiration and Streamflow (IHACRES). Both models were calibrated against the observed daily discharge at the KRB outlet for the period of 2001–2006 and validated for 2008–2010. The results show that both VIC-3 L and IHACRES produce reasonable runoff estimates at daily and monthly time scale in the KRB. The ET estimates show that VIC-3 L and IHACRES captured the seasonal variations with the percent change of 0.4% and 6.6% respectively. As IHACRES is simpler, parsimonious, fewer parameters, and better performances, it can be useful for hydrological modeling in data-scarce regions.

     

Hydrological Response to Agricultural Land Use Heterogeneity Using Variable Infiltration Capacity Model

Hydrological responses corresponding to the agricultural land use alterations are critical for planning crop management strategies, water resources management, and environmental evaluations. However, accurate estimation and evaluation of these hydrological responses are restricted by the limited availability of detailed crop classification in land use and land cover. An innovative approach using state-of-the-art Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) model is utilized by setting up the crop-specific vegetation parameterization and analyse the effect of uniform and heterogeneous agricultural land use over the hydrological responses of the basin, in the Kangsabati River Basin (KRB). Thirteen year simulations (1998–2010) based on two different scenarios i.e., single-crop in agricultural land use (SC-ALU) and multi-crop in agricultural land use (MC-ALU) patterns are incorporated in the model and calibrated (1998–2006) and validated (2007–2010) for the streamflow at Reservoir and Mohanpur in the KRB. The results demonstrated that the VIC model improved the estimates of hydrological components, especially surface runoff and evapotranspiration (ET) at daily and monthly timescales corresponding to MC-ALU than SC-ALU (NSC?>?0.7). Grid-scale ET estimates are improved after incorporating heterogeneous agricultural land use (NSC?>?0.55 and R²?>?0.55) throughout the period of 1998–2010. This study improves our understanding on how the change in agricultural land use in the model settings alters the basin hydrological characteristics, and to provide model-based approaches for best management practices in irrigation scheduling, crop water requirement, and management strategies in the absence of flux towers, eddy covariance, and lysimeters in the basin.

     

Ferroelectric liquid crystals: Excellent tool for modern displays and photonics

The ferroelectric liquid crystals, because of their fast electro‐optical response, are one of the most important classes of liquid crystals. Here, in this review, we have summarized the different electro‐optical modes for ferroelectric liquid crystals. Clark–Lagerwall effect (surface stabilized ferroelectric liquid crystal), deformed helix ferroelectric (DHF) effect, electrically suppressed helix (ESH) mode, DHF orientational Kerr effect, and ESH diffraction modes have been discussed. All of the crucial features, that is, optics, electro‐optics, dynamics, and their dependence on material parameters, operational regime, and applications, have been reviewed.