Solution combustion synthesis of gamma(L)-Bi(2)MoO(6) and photocatalytic activity under solar radiation

The facile method of solution combustion was used to synthesize gamma(L)-Bi(2)MoO(6). The material was crystallized in a purely crystalline orthorhombic phase with sizes varying from 300 to 500 nm. Because the band gap was 2.51 eV, the degradation of wide variety of cationic and anionic dyes was investigated under solar radiation. Despite the low surface area (< 1 m(2)/g) of the synthesized material, gamma(L)-Bi(2)MoO(6) showed high photocatalytic activity under solar radiation due to its electronic and morphological properties. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Radiation resistance of PFN and PNM-PT relaxor ferroelectrics

The relaxor ferroelectric compositions Pb(Fe1/2Nb1/2)O-3 (PEN) and [Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O-3](0.8)-[PbTiO3](0.2) (PMN-PT) are studied for their radiation response to the high energy heavy ions (50 MeV Li3+, fluence 1 X 10(13)-1 X 10(14) ions/cm(2)) in terms of their structural, dielectric and piezoelectric properties. There was no change in the crystallinity of both the compositions after irradiation as seen from the XRD. The PEN composition did not show much change in the dielectric constant but the value of T-m decreased by 8degreesC. The PMN-PT composition showed an increase in the dielectric constant with increase in the irradiation fluence from 1 x 10(13) to 1 X 10(14) ions/cm(2) with no change in the value of T-m. The piezoelectric coefficient decreased in both the samples after irradiation. Among the compositions studied, PEN is observed to be more radiation resistant to changes in structural and dielectric properties than PM-PT. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effective thermal conductivity of a heat generating rod bundle dissipating heat by natural convection and radiation

A numerical study of conjugate natural convection and surface radiation in a horizontal hexagonal sheath housing 19 solid heat generating rods with cladding and argon as the fill gas, is performed. The natural convection in the sheath is driven by the volumetric heat generation in the solid rods. The problem is solved using the FLUENT CFD code. A correlation is obtained to predict the maximum temperature in the rod bundle for different pitch-to-diameter ratios and heat generating rates. The effective thermal conductivity is related to the heat generation rate, maximum temperature and the sheath temperature. Results are presented for the dimensionless maximum temperature, Rayleigh number and the contribution of radiation with changing emissivity, total wattage and the pitch-to-diameter ratio. In the simulation of a larger system that contains a rod bundle, the effective thermal conductivity facilitates simplified modelling of the rod bundle by treating it as a solid of effective thermal conductivity. The parametric studies revealed that the contribution of radiation can be 38-65% of the total heat generation, for the parameter ranges chosen. Data for critical Rayleigh number above which natural convection comes into effect is also presented. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The radiation resistance of off-set series slots in microstrip line

The radiation resistance of off-set series slots has been calculated for microstrip lines using the method proposed by Breithaupt for strip lines. A suitable transformation is made to allow for the difference in structure. Curves relating the slot resistance to the microstrip length, width and off-set distance have been obtained. Microstrip slot antenna arrays are becoming important in applications where size and weight are of significance. The radiation resistance is a very significant parameter is the design of such arrays. Oliner first calculated the radiation conductance of centered series slots in strip transmission lines and that analysis was extended by Breithaupt to the off-set series slots in stripline. The radiation resistance of off-set series slots in microstrip lines is calculated in this paper and data are obtained for different slot lengths, slot widths and off-set values. An example of the use of these data in array antenna design in shown.

Variation of the gas and radiation content in the sub-Keplerian accretion disk around black holes and its impact to the solutions

We investigate the variation of the gas and the radiation pressure in accretion disks during the infall of matter to the black hole and its effect to the flow. While the flow far away from the black hole might be non-relativistic, in the vicinity of the black hole it is expected to be relativistic behaving more like radiation. Therefore, the ratio of gas pressure to total pressure (beta) and the underlying polytropic index (gamma) should not be constant throughout the flow. We obtain that accretion flows exhibit significant variation of beta and then gamma, which affects solutions described in the standard literature based on constant beta. Certain solutions for a particular set of initial parameters with a constant beta do not exist when the variation of beta is incorporated appropriately. We model the viscous sub-Keplerian accretion disk with a nonzero component of advection and pressure gradient around black holes by preserving the conservations of mass, momentum, energy, supplemented by the evolution of beta. By solving the set of five coupled differential equations, we obtain the thermo-hydrodynamical properties of the flow. We show that during infall, beta of the flow could vary up to similar to 300%, while gamma up to similar to 20%. This might have a significant impact to the disk solutions in explaining observed data, e.g. super-luminal jets from disks, luminosity, and then extracting fundamental properties from them. Hence any conclusion based on constant gamma and beta should be taken with caution and corrected. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Multi-decadal variation of the net downward shortwave radiation over south Asia: The solar dimming effect

The solar radiation flux at the earth's surface has gone through decadal changes of decreasing and increasing trends over the globe. These phenomena known as dimming and brightening, respectively, have attracted the scientific interest in relation to the changes in radiative balance and climate. Despite the interest in the solar dimming/brightening phenomenon in various parts of the world, south Asia has not attracted great scientific attention so far. The present work uses the net downward shortwave radiation (NDSWR) values derived from satellites (Modern Era Retrospective-analysis for Research and Applications, MERRA 2D) in order to examine the multi-decadal variations in the incoming solar radiation over south Asia for the period of 1979-2004. From the analysis it is seen that solar dimming continues over south Asia with a trend of -0.54 Wm(-2) yr(-1). Assuming clear skies an average decrease of -0.05 Wm(-2)yr(-1) in NDSWR was observed, which is attributed to increased aerosol emissions over the region. There is evidence that the increase in cloud optical depth plays the major role for the solar dimming over the area. The cloud optical depth (MERRA retrievals) has increased by 10.7% during the study period, with the largest increase to be detected for the high-level (atmospheric pressure P < 400 hPa) clouds (31.2%). Nevertheless, the decrease in solar radiation and the role of aerosols and clouds exhibit large monthly and seasonal variations directly affected by the local monsoon system, the anthropogenic and natural aerosol emissions. All these aspects are examined in detail aiming at shedding light into the solar dimming phenomenon over a densely populated area. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Phylogeny of the Asian Eutropis (Squamata: Scincidae) reveals an `into India' endemic Indian radiation

Recent generic rearrangement of the circumtropical distributed skink genus `Mabuya' has raised a lot of debate. According to this molecular phylogeny based rearrangement, the tropical Asian members of this genus have been assigned to Eutropis. However, in these studies the Asian members of `Mabuya' were largely sampled from Southeast (SE) Asia with very few species from Indian subcontinent. To test the validity of this assignment and to determine the evolutionary origin of Indian members of this group we sequenced one nuclear and two mitochondrial genes from most of the species from the Indian subregion. The nuclear and mitochondrial trees generated from these sequences confirmed the monophyly of the tropical Asian Eutropis. Furthermore, in the tree based on the combined mitochondrial and nuclear dataset an endemic Indian radiation was revealed that was nested within a larger Asian clade. Results of dispersal-vicariance analysis and molecular dating suggested an initial dispersal of Eutropis from SE Asia into India around 5.5-17 million years ago, giving rise to the extant members of the endemic Indian radiation. This initial dispersal was followed by two back dispersals from India into SE Asia. We also discuss the relationships within the endemic Indian radiation and its taxonomic implications. (c) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Novel Radiation-Induced Properties of Graphene and Related Materials

Interaction of graphene, graphene oxide, and related nanocarbons with radiation gives rise to many novel properties and phenomena. Irradiation of graphene oxide in solid state or in solution by sunlight, UV radiation, or excimer laser radiation reduces it to graphene with negligible oxygen functionalities on the surface. This transformation can be exploited for nanopatterning and for large scale production of reduced graphene oxide (RGO). Laser-induced dehydrogenation of hydrogenated graphene can also be used for this purpose. All such laser-induced transformations are associated with thermal effects. RGO emits blue light on UV excitation, a feature that can be used to generate white light in combination with a yellow emitter. RGO as well as graphene nanoribbons are excellent detectors of infra-red radiation while RGO is a good UV detector.

Queens and Workers of the Primitively Eusocial Wasp Ropalidia marginata do not Differ in Their Dufour's Gland Morphology

Ropalidia marginata is a primitively eusocial paper wasp found in peninsular India, where recent work suggests the role of the Dufour's gland hydrocarbons in queen signaling. It appears that the queen signals her presence to workers by rubbing the tip of her abdomen on the nest surface, thereby presumably applying her Dufour's gland secretion to the nest. Since the queen alone produces pheromone from the Dufour's gland and also applies it on the nest surface, the activity level of queen gland should be higher than that of worker gland, as the gland contents would have to get replenished periodically for queens but not for workers. The difference in activity level can be manifested in difference in Dufour's gland morphology, larger glands implying higher activity levels and smaller glands implying lower activity levels, as positive correlation between gland size and gland activity has been reported in exocrine glands of various taxa (including Hymenopteran insects). Hence we investigated whether there is any size difference between Dufour's glands of queens and workers in R. marginata. We found that there was no difference between queens and workers in their Dufour's gland size, implying that Dufour's gland activity and Dufour's gland size are likely to be uncorrelated in this species.

Performances of single and two-stage pulse tube cryocoolers under different vacuum levels with and without thermal radiation shields

Single and two-stage Pulse Tube Cryocoolers (PTC) have been designed, fabricated and experimentally studied. The single stage PTC reaches a no-load temperature of similar to 29 K at its cold end, the two-stage PTC reaches similar to 2.9 K in its second stage cold end and similar to 60 K in its first stage cold end. The two-stage Pulse Tube Cryocooler provides a cooling power of similar to 250 mW at 4.2 K. The single stage system uses stainless steel meshes along with Pb granules as its regenerator materials, while the two-stage PTC uses combinations of Pb along with Er3Ni/HoCu2 as the second stage regenerator materials. Normally, the above systems are insulated by thermal radiation shields and mounted inside a vacuum chamber which is maintained at high vacuum. To evaluate the performance of these systems in the possible conditions of loss of vacuum with and without radiation shields, experimental studies have been performed. The heat-in-leak under such severe conditions has been estimated from the heat load characteristics of the respective stages. The experimental results are analyzed to obtain surface emissivities and effective thermal conductivities as a function of interspace pressure.