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The evolution of Peninsular Indian biodiversity has been a fascinating topic of research due to historical connections of this region to the ancient Gondwanaland. We investigated the phylogeny and historical biogeography of nearly all extant species of the genus Piper reported from the region to assess the biogeographical origins and test mechanisms of lineage diversification (dispersal, vicariance and in situ radiation) of this highly diverse genus of angiosperms commonly found in the understory of evergreen forests. The phylogeny of 21 species of Piper reported from Peninsular India was reconstructed for the first time, which included three new putative species from the Western Ghats. We used BEAST for the divergence time estimations (using three constraints), and ancestral range estimations were performed with the dated phylogenetic tree using BIOGEOBEARS. Divergence dating analysis revealed that the genus Piper originated during lower Cretaceous around 110 Ma [95% highest posterior density (HPD): 116–105 Ma] and colonized Peninsular India five times independently, from Southeast Asia starting from the Oligocene. The two major dispersals into India occurred during the periods of 27.3 Ma (95% HPD: 35.8–19.9.) and 15.5 Ma (95% HPD: 24.9–7.11). This was followed by rapid radiations in some lineages with subsequent back dispersals to Southeast Asia. Our study indicates that dispersals from Southeast Asia led to the arrival of Piper to Indian subcontinent following the Indo-Eurasian collision. Members of Piper have colonized and diversified within the climatically stable habitats of Peninsular India. Furthermore, the present study provides evidence for the Miocene overland dispersal of Piper species to Africa from South Asia.

Magnetron sputtering is an established coating process rarely used for carbon films due to low deposition rates and poor adhesion. Substantial ion fluxes with tunable energies can be added by converting the process to high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) using a high voltage pulsed power supply. Here, we use a mixed mode (HiPIMS with transition to arc) process to deposit carbon coatings for applications in blood-contacting devices. Films produced at negative substrate bias in the range 0–350 V covalently bind protein molecules directly from buffer solution, making them biologically functionalisable, unlike coatings deposited with conventional magnetron sputtering. The HiPIMS coatings showed strikingly low thrombogenicity. A proof of principle application was demonstrated by deposition onto a stainless steel cardiovascular stent. Adhesion and toughness sufficient to withstand the extreme deformation, that accompanies surgical insertion, was achieved with negative bias in the range 100–350 V. Covalently immobilized, cell-adhesive extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins, tropoelastin and fibronectin, significantly increased the proliferation of endothelial cells on the HiPIMS coatings. Optimum proliferation was observed in the negative bias range 200–350 V. These results suggest that HiPIMS carbon coatings have great potential for biomedical devices where functionalization with active biomolecules can accelerate tissue integration.

The Wireless Sensor network has placed its inevitable position in monitoring and surveillance purpose. The remote and unattended condition of Wireless Sensor network seeks a new energy efficient algorithm. Enhancing the lifetime of Wireless sensor network has become the primary need to prolong the network lifetime. This paper envisage the increase in lifetime of nodes by properly selecting the cluster head based on the residual energy state and total number of frames transmitted to the sink. The role of sensor node is modelled as Finite State machine and realized as markov process. The process helps in scheduling the role of the sensor node and in the process of cluster head selection. Lifetime enhancement is achieved by selecting optimal cluster head among eligible cluster members. The proposed algorithm outperforms the other algorithms in terms of lifetime and throughput when compared to other protocol. The results supports that Energy aware routing increases the lifetime of the network and serves as the better solution for energy consumption.

This work reports the effect of thermal annealing (350 °C and 450 °C) on structural, linear and non-linear optical properties of thermally evaporated Bi7In28Se65 chalcogenide films of ∼800 nm thickness. The surface structure and elemental concentration were analyzed by the Field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) and Energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX). Based on the structural analysis, the 450 °C annealed film showed complete crystallinity whereas 350 °C annealed film showed less crystalline nature without much structural alterations from the as-prepared film which is mostly rhombohedral in nature. The Raman study showed the alteration on bonding in 450 °C annealed film than the as-prepared and 350 °C annealed films. The optical analysis by UV–Vis spectroscopy showed the decrease in transmittance and an increase in absorbance property with annealing. The direct bandgap and Tauc parameter decreased with annealing. Correspondingly, the refractive index increased along with other optical parameters such as lattice dielectric constant (eL), optical density (OD), skin depth (δ), real and imaginary dielectric constant (er and ei), loss factor, volume energy loss function (VELF) and surface energy loss function (SELF) with annealing temperatures. The static linear refractive index (n0) for the studied films showed an incremental behavior with annealing and satisfied Moss's rule. Such annealing induced higher absorption coefficient (α) and bandgap (Eg) along with other optical constants of the annealed films showed the possibility to be useful for solar cell, opto-electronic and nonlinear device applications.

In this work, the photo sensing performance of the highly sensitive CdSe-based photodetector prepared using thermal evaporation method on a cleaned glass substrate were analyzed. At various temperatures, the effect of post-annealing on the crystalline, morphological, optical, and photo-electrical properties was examined. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman experiments confirmed the polycrystalline nature of the CdSe films. From the field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), it was observed that there were changes in surface morphology and grain size of the films. Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) confirms the presence of constituent elements such as Cd and Se in the deposited films. The UV–Visible measurement was used to evaluate the change in several optical properties of the examined films, such as bandgap (Eg), absorption & extinction coefficient (α & k) and refractive index (n). Importantly, varying annealing temperatures resulted in lower and higher bandgap values. The photo-response and optical properties of the annealed CdSe film at 300 °C were good, making it suitable for the application of photodetectors.

SnS thin films were deposited onto glass substrates with different substrate temperature of 50 °C, 100 °C, 150 °C and 200 °C by vacuum thermal evaporation at 10−5 Torr using prepared SnS powder sample as evaporated targets. The structural, electrical and optical properties of substrate temperature influenced SnS films were studied using standard characterization techniques. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) showed that the deposited films are of orthorhombic crystal structure and are polycrystalline in nature. Energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) revealed the presence of Sn and S elements in the deposited film and its stoichiometry. Raman studies confirmed the formation of orthorhombic phase SnS films. The optical properties such as film thickness (d), absorption coefficient (α), optical band gap (Eg), refractive index (n) and extinction coefficient (k) of the deposited thin films are estimated from the optical transmittance measurements. The optical band gap values were found to be in the range of (1.843–2.075 eV). The visible photoresponsivity and specific detectivity of the films also increased with increasing the substrate temperature.

The present study reports the linear and nonlinear optical properties of as-prepared and annealed As40Se50Te10 thin films prepared on glass substrate by thermal evaporation method. The modifications in different properties after annealing were studied by XRD, EDAX, Raman spectroscopy, FESEM and UV–Vis-NIR and XPS spectroscopy. The study reports the decrease in optical band gap due to increase in disorder while the width of the tail in the gap increased with annealing temperature. The linear refractive index, optical as well as electrical conductivity and extinction coefficient increased with annealing. The dispersion energy, oscillator energy, dielectric constant and oscillator strength increased with annealing temperature while the electrical susceptibility decreased upon annealing. The 3rd order optical susceptibility and nonlinear refractive index were found to be increased with annealing temperature. The influence of different annealing temperatures on the variation of different parameters were elaborately explained on the basis of defect states in localized region. The structure remained unchanged while the heteropolar to homopolar bond conversion was noticed from the XPS and Raman spectroscopy. The changes in both nonlinear and linear optical properties by annealing shows that annealing temperature can be used as an important tool for controlling the optical constants of As40Se50Te10 chalcogenide film which could be a suitable candidate for numerous photonic applications.

A clad modified optical fiber gas sensor for sensing volatile organic compound vapours (VOCs) such as formaldehyde (HCHO), ammonia (NH3), ethanol (C2H5OH) and methanol (CH3OH) up to 500 ppm was studied using nanocrystalline nickel oxide embedded coatings. Prior to the measurements, nickel oxide in two different crystallite sizes such as 24 nm and 76 nm was synthesized by calcination of reverse precipitated nickel hydroxide subsequently at 450 °C and 900 °C for 30 min. Then, samples physical properties were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). Our gas sensing measurement concludes that the lower crystallite size (24 nm) nickel oxide nanocrystals exhibits superior performance to formaldehyde and ethanol vapours as compared with other two VOCs, the observed experimental results were discussed in detail.

Hermetic electrical feedthroughs are essential for safe and functional active implantable biomedical devices and for a wide range of other applications such as batteries, supercapacitors, OLEDs and solar cells. Ceramics and metals have previously been the materials of choice for encapsulations, while polymers have advantages of ease of mass production and end user compatibility. We demonstrate a laser sealing technology that gives hermetic, mechanically strong feedthroughs with low electrical resistance in a polyetheretherketone (PEEK) encapsulation. The conductive pathways are wires and sputtered thin films. The water vapor transmission rate through the fabricated encapsulations is comparable to that of PEEK itself.

A new ternary conducting polymer composite of polypyrrole (PPy), prussian blue (PB), titanium dioxide (TiO2), PPy-PB-TiO2 synthesized by in-situ oxidative polymerization is reported for fiber optic gas sensing applications. The phase, morphology, optical and thermal studies of the polymer composite are analyzed using various analytical techniques. The gas sensing properties of the clad-modified PPy-PB-TiO2 sensor are investigated upon exposure to different volatile gas analytes of varying concentrations (0−500 ppm) at room temperature. The experimental results of PPy-PB-TiO2 sensor exhibits high sensitivity and selectivity to ammonia than acetone and ethanol; the sensing characteristics outstripped that of pure TiO2 and PPy-PB sensors. Thus, the present work demonstrates clad removed PPy-PB-TiO2 sensor as an excellent candidate for fiber optic gas sensing application.

In this work, an optical shadow method (non-intrusive) was used to evaluate the falling film thickness around the circumference of a horizontal tube. A Mach-Zehnder Interferometer was used to visualize the isotherm formation. Most of the well established non-intrusive techniques for measuring film thickness around the cylinder fails to measure the film thickness near to entry region ( θ 30 ∘ ) and towards the exit region ( θ > 140 ∘ ) because of the limitation and complexity of the apparatus. Relavance of this work lies on the simplicity of the measurement and the range of circumferential angles that can be investigated ( 10 ∘ ≤ θ ≤ 170 ∘ ). This technique involves image visualization, thus, serves as a tool for analyzing the film both quantitatively and qualitatively. A lucid algorithm was developed for image processing along with a set of intensity profile tracking procedures making the whole process of film thickness measurement more obvious. The measured film thickness is showing good agreement with the commonly used empirical formula, and the effectiveness of using those empirical formulas for the small diameter tubes was analyzed. Further, this study was extended to determine the effects of flow rate and feed inlet temperature on film thickness. Film thickness variation around the circumference of the cylinder is showing an increase in trend with increasing Reynolds number, but a change in trend with the varying feed inlet temperature is found to be marginal. This study is further extended for different positions of the tube in the order of impingement of film or feed inlet as top, middle and bottom tubes and the film thickness variation was again found to be marginal. Dynamic characterization at θ = 10 ∘ was studied and the maximum film thickness variation was found to be 11.8%. A standard error of mean analysis was performed on every data set which validates the reproducibility and the dynamic measurement capability of the technique used.

The separation of people from their landscapes undergirds conservation action, especially in the global south. Such a ‘fortress conservation’ approach is based on the flawed idea that local people's use of forests endangers biodiversity and therefore habitats should be protected by force if necessary. Such a conservation approach runs contrary to the recent understanding that ecosystems once perceived as ‘wilderness’ have been transformed by people. Long-term interdisciplinary research has produced a nuanced understanding of the linkages between ecological and social processes. An example of such long-term engagement is a series of programmes by Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) in the Western Ghats and the Himalayas. We describe programmes in four sites: Kalakad Mundanthurai Tiger reserve, Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Tiger Reserve, Senchal Wildlife Sanctuary and Vembanad Ramsar site. Our experiences highlight primarily, a broadening of the initial focus on the ecological dynamics to include social dimensions. Secondly, a programmatic rather than a project-mode approach has enabled a clear long-term vision. Third, the research and action work has continued a tradition in conservation science of field-based, empirical work driven by theory as well as produced grounded knowledge. Such a long-term ‘dirt on the boots’ approach has built a platform from which ATREE is able to launch programmes that have made an impact on livelihoods and landscapes. And finally, long-term engagement and a strong network of local actors have allowed us to implement and inform conservation policy.

Highly populated tropical countries face tremendous pressures in reconciling the needs for improved economic security and the protection of declining biodiversity. India is no exception and its biodiversity is under severe pressure due to complex interactions among land use change, other human economic activities, and climate change. Preservation and restoration of biodiversity is perhaps the cheapest and least risky way to mitigate the impacts of threats such as climate change, diminishing food and nutritional security, declining economy, absence of affordable healthcare, rising zoonotic diseases and lack of capacity to address these issues. Here we describe a framework for biodiversity conservation – the National Mission on Biodiversity and Human Well-Being (NMBHWB) for India – which integrates biodiversity, ecosystem services, climate change, agriculture, health, bio-economy and capacity building in the realm of biodiversity science. We provide an overview of the seven Programs of the Mission which make it interdisciplinary, integrative, and comprehensive in its approach. The Mission explicitly links research with policy-making and implementation for effective management of biodiversity with sustainable development. With its emphasis on convergence and synergies among various goals, themes and project sites, the Mission will further develop new models for stakeholder consultations and co-production of knowledge. We posit that the NMBHWB will enable India to realize the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and Targets while advancing India's commitments to the Paris Agreement on climate change and other international environmental conventions and treaties.

Stoichiometric amorphous HfO2 films have been deposited by reactive High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering (HiPIMS) from a Hf target in a 1:1 Ar:O2 atmosphere at pressures 2–4.5 mTorr. An optimum pressure was found for depositing smooth, high refractive index and amorphous films. Stress and refractive index reached a maximum as deposition pressure was increased to 3.5 mTorr. At 3.5 mTorr, HfO2 films were deposited with a refractive index of 2.15 at 500 nm, low leakage currents, moderate fixed charge density and a high dielectric constant of ∼18.3. The intensification of energetic ion bombardment upon the film with increase in HiPIMS pressure plays a dominant role in film properties. Increase in pressure above the optimum relieved the stress in the films and degraded the optical and electrical properties. HiPIMS pressure enables to gain indirect control of ion flux and energy in the plasma and can be used to modify the properties of depositing films.

The present research reports the influence of different annealing temperature on the linear and nonlinear optical response of thermally evaporated 800 nm As40Se60 thin films. The optical parameters were deduced from the transmittance and reflectance spectra using spectrophotometric measurements in the range 500–1000 nm. The heat treatment is found to be significantly enhanced both linear and nonlinear refractive index as well as absorption coefficient. The optical bandgap is found to be systematically decreased with annealing temperature. The large covalently bonded molecules of the films were seemingly favourable for the increase of nonlinear optical susceptibility. The developments of linear, nonlinear optical parameters, as well as the optical conductivity by annealing process, infers that annealing temperature can be considered as a useful factor for controlling the optical properties of the As40Se60 chalcogenide film which could be candidate for numerous photonic applications. The structural study was done by X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy.

Present work reports a simple, rapid, one-step hot plate technique for systematic growth transformation of highly oriented ZnO nanorods (ZNRs) into ZnO nanotubes (ZNTs). The controlled growth of ZnO nanostructures (nanorods and nanotubes) was achieved at low temperature (90 °C) in a short time (1hr) in a sealed weighing bottle (100 ml). It is observed that as the Zinc precursor concentration increases, a vertically grown ZnR morphology evolves into ZNT. The crystal structure of as-grown ZnO nanostructures, surface morphology, phase, and optical energy gap were respectively characterized by XRD, FESEM, Raman, XPS, CL and UV–Vis spectroscopy. Grown nanostructures are further explored for their application in CZTS based heterojunction photovoltaics.

This paper presents an improved method of high precision tilt measurement using a phase shifting cyclic interferometer. Tilt measurement with a cyclic interferometer is a highly stable and reliable experimental technique and tilts as low as 5 μrad has been reported using the same. Here we employ Polarizing Phase Shifting Interferometry (PPSI) as well as multiple reflections for improving the sensitivity. Using a combination of these two techniques tilts as low as 500 nrad has been measured.

The genus Sida L. (family: Malvaceae) is widely used in India and many other countries including China, South East Asia, Africa and South America for treating various neurological disorders and for improving general health and vigour. However, as with many other herbal medicines, it is believed that the Sida products sold in the market may be adulterated with other related or unrelated plant species. In this study, we investigate species adulteration in the raw herbal trade of Sida natural health products (NHPs) in southern India. DNA barcoding was used as a tool to identify the ingredients in the NHPs. A biological reference material (BRM) library for Sida and closely related species was developed using taxonomically authenticated species. DNA barcodes for the species were developed using one nuclear (ITS) and two chloroplast regions (matK and psbA-trnH). The psbA-trnH and ITS region were found to effectively discriminate all species with an interspecific distance of 0.133 and 0.149 and intra-species distance of 0.007 and 0.015 respectively. These DNA barcodes were used to identify the ingredients in raw Sida herbal products obtained from 10 markets in Southern India. Our study indicated that species adulteration in the market samples is rampant especially in case of Sida cordifolia, where all the market samples analyzed were Sida acuta. We discuss the results and the need for a robust herbal drug authentication system to regulate the quality in raw herbal trade market.

article i nfo Article history: Received 2 December 2014 Accepted in revised form 28 March 2015 Available online xxxx Smooth and dense TiO2 films with different thickness (45 nm and 300 nm respectively) were deposited on a flat CoCrMo substrate by high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS). A cantilever resonance method was developed to load cyclic stress on the sheet samples to investigate the fatigue durability of the TiO2 films. The evolution of pre-cracks, which were introduced intentionally in the TiO2 films, was studied at the same time. Aftercyclicdeformation,thecorrosionresistanceoftheTiO2 filmcoatedCoCrMoalloywasinvestigatedbypoten- tiodynamicpolarizationtests.Theresultsshowedthattherewerenopeelings,cracksordelaminationofboth film types after 1.08 × 10 7 loading cycles with the maximum stress of 200 MPa. For the evolution of the pre-cracks in the thicker TiO2 films (300 nm), new cracks emerged near the pre-cracks in the films, while for the pre- cracks in the thinner TiO2 films (45 nm) not any new cracks were observed. The thinner films seemed to show betterfatiguedurabilitythanthicker films.Thepotentiodynamicpolarizationtestsrevealedthatthecorrosionre- sistance of the thinner TiO2 films (45 nm) was not degraded even after 1.08 × 10 7 loading cycles with the max

Graded composite layers containing metal and plasma polymer components were deposited using a cathodic arc in conjunction with plasma immersion ion implantation. Using a bias potential throughout, pure metal was deposited initially using the cathodic arc alone and then acetylene was added to the process to increase the fraction of the plasma polymerized carbon film. To test adhesion, the substrate and film were strongly deformed by folding the substrate inward and outward with a small radius of curvature. Strong adhesion between the metal surface and the deposited layers was achieved by the use of the graded layers as inferred from the SEM observations of the deformation region. Strong adhesion of biologically active protein molecules to the surface of the graded layer was confirmed by detergent washing and colorimetric enzyme activity assays. These characteristics suggest that the coatings may be suitable for cardiovascular stent applications.

A clad-modified fiber optic sensor with nanocrystalline CeO2 is proposed for gas detection. As-prepared and annealed CeO2 (500 C) samples have been used as gas sensing media. The spectral characteristics of the fiber optic gas sensor are studied for various concentrations of ammonia, ethanol and methanol gases (0-500 ppm). The sensor exhibits linear variation in the spectral peak intensity with the gas concentration. The characteristics of the sensor are also studied for gas selectivity. The time response characteristics of the sensor are reported. � 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The optical properties of bilayer thin films of Bi/As 2 S 3 with various thicknesses which were prepared from Bi and As 2 S 3 by thermal evaporation technique under high vacuum were characterized by Fourier Transformed Infrared Spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Raman spectroscopy. The prepared bilayer films of 905 nm, 910 nm and 915 nm thickness have As 2 S 3 as bottom layer (900 nm) and Bi as top layer (5,10,15 nm). X-ray diffraction studies confirm the amorphous nature of the prepared films. The optical properties show a strong dependence on the film thickness. It was found that the optical band gap increases with film thickness. The obtained lower values of Urbach energy indicate that as thickness increases, more ordered films can be produced. The reduction in disorder in bonding network is amply supported by the way of increase in band gap, increase in Tauc parameter ( B 1/2 ) and reduction in Urbach energy from the analysis of transmittance spectra. The change in XPS core level spectra and Raman spectra also shows the changes due to thickness.

A fiber optic gas sensor with a PMMA fiber whose clad is modified with chemically sensitive nano-crystalline zinc oxide has been developed and investigated to detect acetone, isopropyl alcohol and benzene gases. The spectral characteristics of the sensor were recorded for different concentrations ranging from (0-500 ppm) for these gases both with as-prepared and annealed nanocrystalline ZnO, and the influence of annealing on the gas sensing has been studied.The response time and recovery time were found to be 48 min. and 42 min. respectively for 500 ppm concentration. � 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The promising radiation technology was inculcated for the enhancement of gas sensing performance of fibre optic gas sensor. Magnesium tetraborate (MTB), known for its radiation dosimetry and frequency conversion application was used as a sensor element. Solid state sintering technique was adopted for the preparation of polycrystalline samples. In order to understand the role of crystallinity in gas sensing property, the glasses of magnesium tetraborate was synthesize by following melting-quenching method. Cerium (Ce) was doped with MTB in 0.25 mol% concentration. XRD pattern reveals the perfect incorporation of dopant without changing the crystal structure of the host and the cell parameters are matches well with standard ICDD data (031-0787). UV–Vis absorption spectra show the lack of any strong absorption in visible region. Irrespective of crystalline nature, the gas sensitivity of pristine MTB is highly negligible say, 2 counts/50 ppm and 1 counts/50 ppm respectively. Interestingly, gamma radiation treated MTB:Ce samples shows excellent sensitivity of 35 counts/50 ppm and 46 counts/50 ppm towards acetone vapours. Based on the obtained results, gamma irradiated cerium doped MTB glass is suggested as a best sensor for the detection of acetone with high sensitivity.

Amorphous carbon thin films with high hardness and wear resistance have become increasingly popular for surface engineering of materials for an array of applications ranging from cutting tools to biomedical devices. For any practical application, such carbon films must resist delamination from the substrate under load. High power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) provides an opportunity to fabricate carbon films with a wide range of sp3 fractions and thus with tuned mechanical properties. Here we used a process of mixed mode HiPIMS with transition to arc to deposit amorphous carbon films with high hardness-to-elasticity (H/E) ratio, a parameter that is often used as a measure of wear resistance. We tuned the deposition rate and the content of argon in the films by varying either the frequency of HiPIMS pulses or the substrate-to-target distance. In both cases, the argon content increased with increases in the deposition rate. Increasing deposition rate and argon content, increased the H/E ratio, while the sp3 fraction and residual stress decreased. Our results suggest that argon bombardment in a mixed mode HiPIMS process induces a dynamic annealing effect in the carbon films. We showed that H/E does not vary substantially with increasing substrate temperature alone, while the stress decreases for temperatures higher than 120 °C. Deposition at high frequencies is therefore recommended as a practical approach for the synthesis of wear resistant films, as determined by the H/E ratio.

Many talented professionals leave their organizations because managers fail to understand the psychology behind work satisfaction. To ensure that, in today's global scenario, employees stay in the organization and perform at peak levels, managers need to adopt a game changing strategy. Butler.T and Waldroop. J, in their article published in the Harvard Business Review, September/October, 1999 have introduced the concept of Job Sculpting i.e. matching jobs to deeply embedded life interests. Deeply embedded life interests are positively correlated to individual life motivators.Motivation induces employees to take certain actions or behave in a certain way. Motivation drives a person towards a desired goal. Individual motivators can be classified into status, power, monetary rewards, autonomy, and search for meaning, security, affiliation, achievement, and creativity. The researchers have developed a model based on the interviews of 300 employees across various job designations within 25 organizations in India in 2011, to identify the presence or otherwise of these motivators in individuals and to measure the relative importance assigned to each motivator on a subjective basis by each individual. Subsequently, the researchers have studied job satisfaction as a product of congruence between motivators, life interests, job expectations and actual job description.This model can be used by Managers in developing a game changing strategy to map the innate life interests to the job profile of each employee in the organization resulting in a sculpted job description that will greatly enhance employee productivity, reduce attrition, and help in attainment of overall organizational objectives.

We report the observation of giant photo induced optical bleaching in Sb/As(2)S(3) multilayered film at room and liquid He temperatures, when irradiated with 532 nm laser at moderate intensities. The experimental results show a dramatic increase in transmittance near the band gap regime at both the temperatures; however the rates at which transmission change occurs are rather slow at low temperature. The huge change in transmission is due to the photo induced intermixing of As(2)S(3) layer with Sb. Our XPS measurements show that photo induced intermixing occurs through the wrong homopolar bonds, which under actinic light illumination are converted into energetically favored hetropolar bonds. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Exposure with above band gap light and thermal annealing at a temperature near to glass transition temperature, of thermally evaporated amorphous (As 2 S 3 ) 0.85 Sb 0.15 thin films were found to be accompanied by structural effects, which in turn, lead to changes in the optical properties. The optical properties of thin films induced by illumination and annealing were studied by Fourier Transform Infrared spectrometry, X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy and Raman Spectroscopy. Photodarkening or photobleaching was observed in the film depending upon the conditions of the light exposure or annealing. These changes of the optical properties are assigned to the change of homopolar bond densities. The photodarkening in the as-prepared film was seen at low temperature (4.2 K).

The increase in optical band gap (photo bleaching) due to light illumination was studied at room temperature as well as at low (4.2 K) temperature for Sb/As2S3 multilayered film of 640 nm thickness by Fourier Transform Infrared Technique. The interdiffusion of Sb into As2S3 matrix results the formation of Sb-As2S3 ternary solid solutions which is explained by the change in optical band gap (E-g), absorption coefficient (alpha), Tauc parameter (B-1/2), Urbach edge (E-e). At the same time, photo darkening phenomena was observed in (As2S3)(0.93)Sb-0.07 film of same thickness both at low and room temperatures. From our X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy measurements,we are able to show that some of the As-As, S-S and Sb-Sb bonds are converted into As-S and S-Sb bonds in case of multilayers. We found that the energetically favoured heteropolar bond formation take place by a phonon-assisted mechanism using the lone pair pi electrons of S-2(0). But in case of (As2S3)(0.93)Sb-0.02 film, the homopolar bonds are playing a major role. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

In this paper, we report results of the optical properties of thermally deposited As 2 − x S 3 − x Sb x thin films with x = 0.02, 0.07, 0.1 and 0.15. We have characterized the deposited films by Fourier Transform Infrared, Raman and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The relationship between the structural and optical properties and the compositional variation were investigated. It was found that the optical bandgap decreases with increase in Sb content. The XPS core level spectra show a decrease in As 2 S 3 percentage with increase in Sb content. This is confirmed from the shifting of the Raman peak from AsS 3 vibrational mode towards SbS 3 vibrational mode.

The light and heat induced changes in the optical band gap of Sb/As 2 S 3 nanomultilayered chalcogenide film has been studied. Even though the changes in optical bandgap are attributed to the light and heat induced interdiffusion, the diffusional intermixing between the layers is rather different with light and heat. The observed difference in the light and heat induced interdiffusion is due to unequal diffusion coefficients of light and heat predicted by thermal spike model.

Transport vehicles greatly pollute the environment through emissions such as CO, CO2, NOx, SOx, unburnt or partially burnt HC and particulate emissions. Fossil fuels are the chief contributors to urban air pollution and major source of green house gases (GHGs) and considered to be the prime cause behind the global climate change. Biofuels are renewable, can supplement fossil fuels, reduce GHGs and mitigate their adverse effects on the climate resulting from global warming. This paper presents the results of performance and emission analyses carried out in an unmodified diesel engine fueled with Pongamia pinnata methyl ester (PPME) and its blends with diesel. Engine tests have been conducted to get the comparative measures of brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC), brake specific energy consumption (BSEC) and emissions such as CO, CO2, HC, NOx to evaluate the behaviour of PPME and diesel in varying proportions. The results reveal that blends of PPME with diesel up to 40% by volume (B40) provide better engine performance (BSFC and BSEC) and improved emission characteristics.

In part I of the present work [H. Sattari, R. Ganesan, R. Sedaghati, Analysis and design optimization of deep drawing process. Part 1: Three dimensional finite element and sensitivity analysis, J. Mater. Process. Technol., submitted for publication], a finite element formulation based on a combined Total and Updated Lagrangian approach (TUL) has been developed to calculate the sensitivities in the large elasto-plastic strains in sheet metal forming parts obtained by deep drawing. The present part II deals with the use of multiplicative decomposition of the TUL to improve the efficiency in the analysis and optimum design of blank contours of complicated parts. The TUL exploits the knowledge of the 3D shape of the final workpiece. An iterative scheme is developed to find the original position of each material point in the initial flat blank after which it is possible to estimate the strains and stresses in the final workpiece. The von Mises plasticity is adopted regarding the constitutive equations. In the present work, several developments have been presented: (1) the bending effects are taken into account using shell elements without increasing the number of degrees of freedom per node. (2) Appropriate improvements of resolution algorithms such as the introduction of a relaxation coefficient, a damping factor and a good initial solution are realized. (3) Shape optimization of blank contours is performed using a numerical procedure based on the coupling of the TUL and the sequential quadratic programming method (SQP). The numerical results obtained using the Lagrangian approaches for the benchmark test are compared with existing experimental and numerical results. The optimization procedure is applied to shape optimization of a square blank which is used to produce a cup in deep drawing process. The objective function is defined to minimize the thickness variations.

This is a review of the surgical pathology of the neoplastic and preneoplastic conditions of the female genital tract as well as the secondary Mullerian system. The review is aimed at discussion of entities and concepts that affect prognosis and patient management.

A wavelet-based method of moment calculation with a set of basis functions is presented for centroid estimation in a Shack-Hartmann Wavefront Sensor. The method has been compared with other algorithms such as statistical averaging, FFT and least-squares method. A comparative analysis shows that wavelet method has a high accuracy and processing speed, and better suited for wavefront reconstruction applications. Further, the wavelet method presented here has a variable accuracy and resolution, and can be optimized for a particular application under consideration.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has become an important part of the assessment of suspected vaginal pathology. This pictorial review demonstrates the MRI features and some of the histopathological findings of a variety of vaginal conditions. These may be congenital (total vaginal agenesis, partial vaginal agenesis, longitudinal vaginal septum, transverse vaginal septum), benign (Bartholin's cyst, diffuse vaginal inflammation, invasive endometriosis, ureterovaginal fistula, post-surgical appearances with the formation of a neovagina and adhesions) or malignant, usually due to extension or recurrence from another pelvic malignancy. In this paper, examples of the above are described and illustrated together with examples of the much rarer primary vaginal malignancies.

Bis(8-hydroxyquinoline)manganese(II) [Mn(C9H6NO)2 (Mn–Qn)] was encapsulated in NaY, KL, MCM-41, Na and Na-ZSM-5. Characterization of the catalysts was done by using IR, UV–vis and EPR spectroscopy whereas redox properties of neat and encapsulated Mn–Qn complexes were evaluated by cyclic voltammetry. Peak broadening and different electrochemical responses are observed upon encapsulation of Mn–Qn complex in various zeolites, thus indicating that Mn–Qn complexes have altered values of redox potential in various positions of zeolite. In order to compare biological systems with metal complexes encapsulated in various zeolites, cytochrome- c was immobilized in MCM-41. Redox potential of cytochrome-c is shifted towards more positive value upon immobilization in MCM-41. This has been attributed to be due to conformational change of cytochrome-c in MCM-41. Change of redox potential of Mn–Qn complex in zeolites is due to change in the positions of HOMO and LUMO levels of metal complexes. Density functional theory (DFT) is employed to calculate the position of HOMO and LUMO levels of metal complexes in zeolite cluster models. The catalytic activity towards oxidation of cyclohexanol was performed using neat and encapsulated Mn–Qn complexes. Encapsulated complexes shows higher activity compared to that of neat complex. © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

In this paper, a modified shear-lag model was developed and implemented to perform interlaminar stress analysis of the unidirectional laminate with drop-off plies in tension. The essential assumptions for the established model are that both plies and resin layers are treated to act as carriers of tensile stress and also to act as stress-transfer media. The model, therefore, overcomes the limitations exhibited in the conventional shear-lag and is capable of addressing delaminations in the laminated composite due to material and geometric discontinuities at the region close to the drop-off plies. The validity and efficiency of the model have been illustrated by comparison of results obtained with the current model and ones from the existing literature.

This paper describes the encapsulation of μ-oxo bridged dinuclear iron 1,10 phenanthroline (Fe-phen) complex in MCM-41. These systems have been characterized by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), UV–Vis, FT-IR, EPR and cyclic voltammetry. On encapsulation reduction potential of Fe-phen is shifted by 275 mV more positive due to perturbation of molecular energy levels. Because of antiferromagnetic coupling a decrease in EPR signal intensity is observed as temperature is lowered from 300 to 77 K. By comparing the performance of the heterogeneous system with the free complex in the oxidation of benzyl alcohol using t-butyl hydroperoxide (TBHP), a protection effect of the matrix over the active center was evidenced by high turnover and yield of product. UV–VIS spectrum shows in neat complex Fe–O–Fe bridge is cleaved during the oxidation of benzyl alcohol while in encapsulated system, it is stable.