We report evolution of the surface and wetting behavior of Barium fluoride (BaF2) thin films under the effect of swift heavy ion (SHI) irradiation at different fluences. The analogy of this study may be used may be used for the development of dust resistant fabric technology for rural area. The ion irradiation has been performed at normal incidence on the films with Au ions having 100 MeV energy. Further, the wettability of irradiated surfaces is studied through contact angle of water droplet. The value of contact angle of droplet changes with irradiation, it increases from 111° to 123° with the increase in fluence from 5×1011 to 1×1013 ions/cm2. The mechanism of wettability of BaF2 is explained on the basis of increase in contact area of water droplet with surface. SHI irradiation deposits a huge amount of energy in materials due to extreme electronic excitation and it causes a large increase in the temperature of material around the ion track. Ion beam irradiation leads to the large ejection of atoms from the surface which is one of the major factors in increasing the roughness of the surface and thus for the change in contact angle.

A clinically-oriented description is provided of the Discretized Analog or Discan method (Singh and Bilsbury, 1984) for obtaining reliable and precise measures of subjectively experienced dysfunction variables whose possible values form a continuum. The method can provide a 14-point ordered categorical scale with only four reference levels which represent some of the possible values of intensity of the variable. The process of Discan administration consists of a series of repeated comparisons of the true or perceived level with one or two reference levels at a time. It therefore allows for use of elaborate descriptive statements for reference levels. It is recommended following Shapiro (1961, 1975) that the reference levels be ideographic, ipsitive and should reflect ordered steps of recovery from the dysfunction. Discan overcomes several limitations of the commonly used rating scales. An application of Discan to the MSB relaxation technique is presented as an illustration.

Shapiro (1961) devised a scaling method based on pair comparisons to overcome the problems associated with numerical rating scales. Phillips (1963, 1966, 1970, 1977, 1979) developed the theory underlying Shapiro's method and extended it to increase the precision of measurement. In this paper we present a simpler justification of the Shapiro–Phillips method and propose improvements by sequentializing the presentation of pair comparisons. In this way, the total number of comparisons can be reduced to correspond with an acceptable level of reliability. Responses are recorded graphically producing an instant score and reliability check. Some possible generalizations are discussed.