While SrTiO3 exhibits promising electronic transport properties, its high thermal conductivity (κ) is detrimental for its use as a thermoelectric material. Here, we investigate the influence of oxygen non-stoichiometry on κ in bulk SrTiO3 ceramics. A significant reduction in κ was achieved in oxygen deficient SrTiO3−δ, owing to the presence of oxygen vacancies that act as phonon scattering centers. Upon oxidation of SrTiO3−δ, the κ of pristine SrTiO3 was recovered, suggesting that oxygen vacancies were indeed responsible for the reduction in κ. Raman spectroscopy was used as an independent tool to confirm the reduction of oxygen vacancies in SrTiO3−δ upon oxidation.

Manganiferous garnets occur in metamorphosed Mn silicate-oxide and silicate-carbonate-oxide rocks of the Sausar Group, India. The garnets of the carbonatic rock show maximum calderite content (∼50 mole%). Increased Ca content in the bulk has been observed to be sympathetically related to the concentration of calderite, rather than the expected andradite component of the garnets. This is the consequence of the preferential partitioning of Ca in coexisting pyroxmangite and/or carbonate. Petrochemical characteristics of the diverse assemblages in response to the physical conditions of metamorphism show that the calderite solubility in manganiferous garnet is not only a function of pressure. Such characteristics only indicate that the mobile components in the bulk influenced the mineralogy of the assemblages at the ambient physical conditions of metamorphism, and this in turn controlled the calderite solubility in garnet.

Mg-Mn amphibole (tirodite), with or without pyroxmangite in the total absence of pyroxenes and high-calcic pyroxenoids, occurs in the Mn silicate rocks of the Sausar Group, India. The rocks were metamorphosed to amphibolite facies condition (T ∼ 650°C, P ∼ 6 kbar). Tirodite-pyroxmangite pairs developed in both carbonate-free and rhodochrosite-bearing assemblages. Also tirodite coexists with either kutnahorite or manganoan calcite in the absence of pyroxmangite. Mineral reactions inferred from modal abundances and compositions of the phases indicate stabilization of the amphibole alone from a bivalent cation-bearing residual unbuffered X CO2 system with X Mn < 0.3. On the other hand, tirodite-pyroxmangite pairs appeared in unbuffered low to intermediate X CO2 assemblages with X Mn > 0.35. Pyroxenes and high-calcic pyroxenoids did not appear in the present situation, though they occur elsewhere in rocks with broadly similar contents of immobile components. Closely associated assemblages of diverse mineralogy suggest that the X Mn and X CO2 , rather than the physical conditions of metamorphism, are the decisive factors in promoting the observed phase assemblages.

This article describes an unexplored transport phenomenon where a mildly viscoelastic medium encroaches a narrow capillary channel under the action of surface-tension force. The ultimate goal of the study is to provide the penetration length and the intrusion rate of the liquid as functions of time. The resulting analysis would be instrumental in building an inexpensive and convenient rheometric device which can measure the temporal scale for viscoelastic relaxation from the stored data of the aforementioned quantities. The key step in the formulation is a transient eigenfunction expansion of the instantaneous velocity profile. The time-dependent amplitude of the expansion as well as the intruded length are governed by a system of integro-differential relations which are derived by exploiting the mass and momentum conservation principles. The obtained integro-differential equations are simultaneously solved by using a fourth-order Runge–Kutta method assuming a start-up problem from rest. The resulting numerical solution properly represents the predominantly one-dimensional flow which gradually slows down after an initial acceleration and subsequent oscillation. The computational findings are independently verified by two separate perturbation theories. The first of these is based on a Weissenberg number expansion revealing the departure in the unsteady imbibition due to small but finite viscoelasticity. In contrast, the second one explains the long-time behaviour of the system by analytically predicting the decay features of the dynamics. These asymptotic results unequivocally corroborate the simulation inferring the accuracy of the numerics as well as the utility of the simplified mathematical models.

The 32Si concentration in a sample of surface ice from the snout of Changme-Khangpu glacier is 0.36 disintegrations per minute/tonne compared to the fall-out value of 0.7 d.p.m./tonne. If this decrease is assumed to be solely due to decay of 32Si, an age off c. 100 years is estimated for the surface ice of the snout, leading to an average flow velocity of c. 40 m/year for the past century. A vertical profile of 210Pb in a core taken at an altitude of 5040 m shows two horizons where this isotope is enriched, one between 3 and 4 m and another between 11 and 12 m, indicating that the primary concentration of 210Pb can change by physico-chemical processes like adsorption on dust. None the less, a longitudinal profile along the glacier shows a systematic decrease of 210Pb activity with decreasing altitude, the surface ice of the snout giving a value of 0.2 d.p.m./l, corresponding to an age of 100 years which is concordant with the 32Si age. This surface flow-rate of the glacier is much larger than the average contemporary flow-rate (c. 13m/year). The difference can be understood in terms of the past history of advance and recession of the glacier as revealed by the geomorphic evidence.

The Gor Garung group of glaciers constitute an ice cover of over 4 km2 in a basin of 27 km2 area, lying in the Sutlej River catchment of the north–western Himalaya. This paper, the first record of these glaciers, their moraines and lakes observed in this area, is the result of mapping the glaciers and the pro–glacial field.

An attempt has been made to utilize lichenometry for establishing relative antiquity of various terminal moraine ridges generated by these glaciers, and six groups have been determined.

Does gender matter in people's attitudes and cooperation in community-based natural resource management? If so, how do gender differences in conservation-related attitudes help or hinder sustaining the commons? Since biases ingrained in community norms and expectations often exclude women from decision making in co-management, it is imperative to find plausible answers to these queries in order to understand gender relations and cooperation in co-management. To this end, the authors conducted psychometric surveys and trust experiments on 196 forest-dependent households in West Bengal, India during 2009–2010. The findings suggest that, despite an overall negative perception about women's involvement in co-management, women are more conservation friendly and pro-social than men. It is also noticed that forest biomass and forest incomes as the indicators of sustainability have increased in those forest communities where women's proportional strength as decision makers is greater and people hold an overall positive conservation attitude.

An economical numerical method has been developed to calculate unsteady aerodynamic characteristics of aircraft configurations, undergoing small amplitude simple harmonic motion in various laterally symmetric modes of oscillation, in inviscid incompressible flow, by taking advantage of the computational efficiency of internal distribution of singularities. The only approximation introduced in the method is the linearisation of the problem with respect to the amplitude of oscillation. A number of comparisons have been made to demonstrate the effects of different aircraft components on wing or tail pressure, and lift distributions.

A hybrid integral equation finite volume scheme has been developed for the calculation of transonic potential flow about complex configurations. A new technique has been used for evaluating the potential values in the field cells intersecting the body surface panels. These potential values then serve as Dirichlet boundary conditions for computing the potentials in the field by a finite volume Successive Line Over Relaxation (SLOR) scheme. In this approach there is no need to evaluate the potentials anywhere in the field by direct application of Green's third identity, thus significantly reducing computer processing time and storage requirement, while improving accuracy of surface pressure prediction and shock capture, as results indicate. The capability of tackling additional complex geometry with ease, the primary advantage of the integral equation approach, is demonstrated by using the same field grid for wing-alone and wing-body combination cases, while maintaining the solution accuracy.

Using high resolution powder neutron diffraction data, we show that there is a distinct anomaly in the structural noncentrosymmetry around the magnetic transition point TN for bulk and nanoscale BiFeO3. It appears that the structural noncentrosymmetry - which gives rise to the ferroelectric polarization - is suppressed anomalously by ~1% (of the average noncentrosymmetry at above the magnetic transition) in the bulk sample and by ~12% in the nanoscale sample as the magnetic transition is approached from higher temperature. This observation shows that the multiferroic coupling improves in the nanoscale sample which is expected to brighten the application prospects of nanoscale BiFeO3 in nanospintronics-based sensor devices.

PACS Nos. 75.70.Cn, 75.75.-c

Prior to 2009 dengue fever had not been reported in the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago. In 2009, a few patients with dengue fever-like illness were reported, some of whom tested positive for dengue antibodies. In 2010, 516 suspected cases were reported, including some with dengue haemorrhagic fever (DHF) and dengue shock syndrome (DSS); 80 (15·5%) were positive for dengue antibodies. DENV RNA was detected in five patients and PCR-based typing showed that three of these belonged to serotype 1 and two to serotype 2. This was confirmed by sequence typing. Two clones of dengue virus, one belonging to serotype 1 and the other to serotype 2 appeared to be circulating in Andaman. Emergence of severe diseases such as DHF and DSS might be due to recent introduction of a more virulent strain or because of the enhancing effect of sub-neutralizing levels of antibodies developed due to prior infections. There is a need to revise the vector-borne disease surveillance system in the islands.

In this paper, we report on the growth and fabrication of thin film Si photovoltaic devices on photonic structures which were fabricated on steel and PEN and Kapton substrates. Both amorphous Si and thin film nanocrystalline Si devices were fabricated. The 2 dimensional photonic reflector structures were designed using a scattering matrix theory and consisted of appropriately designed holes/pillars which were imprinted into a polymer layer coated onto PEN, Kapton and stainless steel substrates. The photonic structures were coated with a thin layer of Ag and ZnO. Both single junction and tandem junction (amorphous/amorphous and amorphous/nanocrystalline) cells were fabricated on the photonic layers. It was observed that the greatest increase in short circuit current and efficiency in these cells due to the use of photonic reflectors was in nanocrystalline Si cells, where an increase in current approaching 30% (compared to devices fabricated on flat substrates) was obtained for thin (∼ 1 micrometer thick i layers) films of nano Si deposited on steel structures. The photonic structures (which were nanoimprinted into a polymer) were shown to stand up to temperatures as large as 300 C, thereby making such structures practical when a steel (or glass) of kapton substrate is used. Detailed measurements and discussion of quantum efficiency and device performance for various photonic back reflector structures on steel, kapton and PEN substrates will be presented in the paper.

While considerable attention has been given to the harm done to consumers by marketing, less attention has been given to the harm done by consumers as an indirect effect of marketing activities, particularly in regard to supply chains. The recent development of dramatically expanded global supply chains has resulted in social and environmental problems upstream that are attributable at least in part to downstream marketers and consumers. Marketers have responded mainly by using corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication to counter the critique of CSR practice, but these claims of ethical corporate behavior often lack credibility and can result in a backlash against brands. The article argues that more adequate attention to the harmful upstream effects of downstream marketing and consumption decisions requires greater attention to stakeholder marketing and marketer efforts to help create responsible consumers. It concludes by identifying implications for further research in this important emergent area of marketing ethics.