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Physical properties of vapour grown indium monotelluride platelets
Indium monotelluride (InTe) crystals were grown from vapour phase under different temperature gradients by employing physical vapour deposition (PVD) method. The morphology of these crystals such as whiskers, needles, platelets etc., strongly depends on the temperature distribution in the horizontal dual zone furnace. InTe platelets were deposited by setting the temperature of the charge (TC) and growth (TS) zones at 1073 K and 773 K (?T=300 K), respectively, for different growth periods (24 h, 48 h, 72 h and 96 h). The surface growth features have been analyzed by scanning electron microscopes, which indicate layer growth mechanism for all the crystals. Various crystals grown under ?T=200 K and 300 K (retaining TS invariant) were examined by X-ray diffraction and elemental analysis. InTe samples exhibited consistent lattice parameters, density and atomic percentage, establishing stoichiometry and chemical homogeneity. The results obtained for Seebeck coefficient, electrical conductivity, power factor, dislocation density and microhardness are found to be reproducible as well. The vapour deposited InTe platelets are mechanically stable and possess high value of TEP, which ensure their practical application in thermoelectric power generation. 2014 Elsevier B.V. -
Synthesis, spectral characterization and antimicrobial studies of novel acyl hydrazones of pacetoxybenzaidehyde
Novel acyl hydrazones derived from p-acetoxybenzaldehyde and various acid hydrazides have been synthesized. Synthetic procedure is simple and convenient and affords good yield. Elemental analysis and spectral results of the products arc also reported. 2015 Scientific Publishers. All Rights Reserved. -
Twin deficit hypothesis: Some recent evidence from India
The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between budget deficit and trade deficit commonly known as 'twin deficits hypotheses' in Indian economy. We used time series data for the period of 1970 to 2013. The empirical results of this study follow the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) cointegration technique for long run and short run estimates and error correction mechanism (ECM). In this study, we check the hypotheses that trade deficit is the determinant of budget deficit with its current values or the lag values. The results of the ARDL model confirm that there is the positive and significant relationship between trade deficit and budget deficit. So twin deficits hypothesis is valid for India. The ARDL results of the short run confirm the hypothesis that trade deficit can determine the budget deficit in the case of India. The results of the long run estimates are also significant. The error correction specification is used to find evidence of long-run causality running from budget deficit to trade deficit and vice versa. The empirical results suggest that trade deficit can determine the budget deficit in case of India. 2016 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. -
Gamma irradiation effects in InBi0.8Te0.2 crystals grown by horizontal directional freezing
The high-energy gamma-ray irradiation treatment using Co-60 isotope offers the possibility of engineering mechanical and optoelectronic properties of InBi0.8Te0.2 crystals. Tellurium-doped indium bismuthide (InBi) crystals were prepared by horizontal directional freezing technique. Dose-dependent modifications in structure, composition and surface topographical features have been analyzed by X-ray powder diffraction, X-ray energy-dispersive analysis, transmission electron and atomic force microscopy, respectively. Dielectric constant and dielectric loss were found to increase with the cumulative dose of radiation, and a shift in the ferroelectric transition temperature (T0c0) from 405 to 410 K was observed for 25 kGy. Upon irradiation, there is an enhancement in microhardness (H0V0), yield stress (sigma; 0y0) and stiffness constant (C0110). The optical transmittance was decreased by 12.45%, resulting in a reduction in the optical band gap from 0.210 eV to 0.198 eV. These results indicate the suitability of InBi00.80Sb00.20 crystals for low-wavelength infrared applications. The Chinese Society for Metals and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015. -
Crystal structure of 4-{(E)-[2-(pyridin-4-ylcarbonyl)hydrazin-1-ylidene]methyl}-phenyl acetate monohydrate
The asymmetric unit of the title compound, C15H13N3O3H2O, comprises a 4-{(E)-[2-(pyridin-4-ylcarbonyl)hydrazinyl-idene]methyl}phenyl acetate molecule and a solvent water molecule linked by O - H?O and O - H?N hydrogen bonds from the water molecule and a C - H?O contact from the organic molecule. The compound adopts an E conformation with respect to the azomethine bond and the dihedral angle between the pyridine and benzene rings is 21.90 (7). The azomethine bond [1.275 (2) distance is very close to the formal C=N bond length, which confirms the azomethine bond formation. An extensive set of O - H?O, O - H?N, N - H?O and C - H?O hydrogen bonds builds a two-dimensional network progressing along the c axis. -
Synthesis and characterization of porous, mixed phase, wrinkled, few layer graphene like nanocarbon from charcoal
A technique to synthesis wrinkled graphene like nano carbon (GNC) from charcoal is reported in the current study. The charcoal produced by thermal decomposition and is intercalated by Hummers method. It is separated by centrifugation and sonication to get few layer graphene sheets. The structural and chemical changes of the nanostructure is elucidated by Raman spectroscopy, TEM, SEM-EDS and XPS. Raman spectra revealed the existence of highly graphitized amorphous carbon, which is confirmed by the appearance of five peaks in the deconvoluted first order Raman spectra. The SEM analysis reveals the formation of large area graphene sheets with nano-porous structure in it. The TEM/SAED analysis exhibits the presence of short range few layer graphene. 2015 Pleiades Publishing, Ltd. -
Synthesis, characterization and catalytic activity of oxovanadium(IV) complexes of heterocyclic acid hydrazones
Two acid hydrazones, furan-2-carbaldehyde nicotinic hydrazone (L1) and furan-2-carbaldehyde benzhydrazone (L2) have been synthesized and they are characterized by elemental analysis, IR, NMR and UV spectral analysis. Oxovanadium(IV) complexes of these two hydrazones were synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis, IR, UV, EPR, molar conductivity and magnetic susceptibility measurements. Conductivity measurements reveal that the complexes are non-electrolytes. Spectral data indicates the square pyramidal geometry for the monomeric five coordinated oxovanadium(IV) complexes with the general formula [VO(L)(OCH3)]. The complex was studied for its catalytic activity and was found to be a good catalyst in quinoxaline synthesis. -
Electrocatalytic oxidation and determination of morin at a poly(2,5-dimercapto-1,3,4-thiadiazole) modified carbon fiber paper electrode
Voltammetric determination of morin on carbon fiber paper (CFP) electrode modified by electropolymerization of 2,5-dimercapto- 1,3,4-thiadiazole (DMTD) in phosphate buffer solution (PB, pH 9.0) have been studied. This modified electrode showed strong electrocatalytic activity toward the oxidation of morin, a flavonoid at physiological pH (PB, pH 7.0). Morin gave a sensitive anodic peak at 0.245 V (vs. SCE). The parameters influencing the anodic peak of morin such as effect of pH, effect of scan rate and concentration have been optimized. The electrochemical process was found to be irreversible and adsorption-controlled. Under the optimum conditions, the anodic peak current was linear to concentration of morin in the range of 2.5 10-10-2.75 109 M and detection limit was found to be 8.3 10-11 M. The practical application of the modified electrode was successfully demonstrated for the determination of morin in mulberry leaves. 2016 The Electrochemical Society. All rights reserved. -
Sub-type discernment of attention deficit hyperactive disorder in children using a cluster partitioning algorithm
Background/Objectives: Attention deficit hyperactive disorder is one major neuropsychiatric disorder particularly found in children. This medical disorder is difficult to identify and quantify, even if done, it is very subjective as it is the discretion of the psychiatrists or parents. Methods/Statistical analysis: The most exigent task after identifying ADHD children is to find their exact deficiency of what is the category, is it a hyperactive disorder, an impulsive disorder or an attention deficit disorder. Each category insists a diverse form of treatment and training. With the MRI image data the Tr values are estimated and given for clustering, a k-means algorithm was deployed for clustering. Findings: With different distance measures k-means was able to cluster precisely the three categories from the data. The result obtained would be a very substantial data for the medical physicists and an inevitable philanthropic contribution for the children society combating against this disorder. Applications/Improvements: The method adopted is novel and concise approach to identify the type of ADHD prevalent children. The method can be further perfected and completely automated to identify the category of ADHD in children. -
Social performance and sustainability of Indian microfinance institutions: an interrogation
This paper has come forward from the research proposal to understand the effect of social performance on the sustainability of microfinance institutions. It has been revealed that the conventional method of assessment of financial institutions is not applicable to the microfinance sector. Performance measurement of microfinance institutions has to be different from that of other financial institutions because of the social aspects involved besides profitability. Social performance has now become part of microfinance business along with business sustainability. Our whole study course is entitled Effect of social performance on the sustainability of microfinance institutions. In this paper, we elucidate the topic, find the underrepresented research areas and formulate a research hypothesis for understanding the relationship between social performance and the sustainability of microfinance institutions. 2016, 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. -
Foreign exchange rate forecasting using Levenberg-Marquardt learning algorithm
Background/Objectives: Foreign currency Exchange (FOREX) plays a vital role for currency trading in the international market. Accurate prediction of foreign currency exchange rate is a challenging task. The paper investigates the FOREX prediction using feed forward neural network. Methods/Statistical analysis: This paper employs artificial neural network to forecast foreign currency exchange rate in India during 2010-2015.The exchange rates considered between Indian Rupee and four major currencies Euro, Japanese Yen, Pound Sterling and US Dollar. The network developed consists of an input layer, hidden layer and output layer. The neural network was trained with Levenberg-Marquardt (LM) learning algorithm. Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), Mean Absolute Error (MAE) and Forecasting Error (FE) are used as indicators for the performance of the networks. Findings: Simulation results are presented to show the performance of the proposed system. The paper also aims to suggest about network topology that must be chosen in order to fit time series kind of complicated data to a neural network model. The proposed technique gives the evidence that there is possibility of extracting information hidden in the foreign exchange rate and predicting into the future. Applications/Improvements: Finally, this paper presents the best network topology for FOREX prediction by comparing the effectiveness of various hidden layer performance algorithm using MATLAB neural network software as a tool. -
Prediction of stock market price using hybrid of wavelet transform and artificial neural network
Background/Objectives: Accurate prediction of stock market is highly challenging. This paper presents a forecasting model based on Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) and Artificial Neural Network (ANN) for predicting financial time series. Methods/Statistical analysis: The idea of forecasting stock market prices with discrete wavelet transform is the central element of this paper. The proposed forecasting model uses the Discrete Wavelet Transform to decompose the financial time series data. The obtained approximation and detail coefficients after decomposition of the original time series data are used as input variables of back propagation neural network to forecast future stock prices. Approximation coefficients can characterize the coarse structure of the data and detail coefficients capture ruptures, discontinuities and singularities in the original data, to recognize the long-term trends in the original data. Findings: The proposed model was applied to five datasets. For all of the datasets, accuracy measures showed that the presented model outperforms a conventional model. It also proved that the hybrid forecasting technique has achieved better results compared with the approach which is not using the wavelet transform. Applications/Improvements: The accuracy of the proposed hybrid method can also be improved by developing a model using artificial neural network with Adaptive Neuro Fuzzy Interference System. -
Sex determination using finger print ridge density among the medical students of NIMS medical college, Jaipur
To determine the sex of an individual plays an important role among forensic pathologists and scientists particularly when the fingerprints recovered from the crime scene does not match any of the criminal record so in that case fingerprint ridge density plays an important role in determining the sex of an individual. The present study was done among the 100 medical students of NIMS Medical college (50 males and 50 females) shobha nagar, Jaipur. Finger ridge density was counted on the radial border of each print. Result of the study shows that females have higher number of finger ridge density count as compared to males. Application of Bayes theorem suggests that finger print ridge density count <14ridges/25mm2 is more likely to be male while finger print ridge density count >14ridges/25mm2 is more likely to be female. 2016, World Informations Syndicate. All rights reserved. -
Can Leaders Transform Humiliation Into a Creative Force?
The intractable group conflicts, mass killings, and genocides around the world attest to the role of humiliation as a negative force causing violence and destruction. Based on the analysis of the speeches of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, the most important leader of Dalits (ex-untouchables) in India, it is suggested that leaders possess the capacity for creative use of humiliation. The creative use of humiliation is made possible by the innovation in constructing social identities involved in humiliation. Creative leadership can be an important catalyst that can transform humiliation into a positive force for social change. 2015 University of Phoenix. -
Comparison of genetic algorithm with Particle Swarm Optimisation, ant colony optimisation and Tabu search based on university course scheduling system
Objectives: Planning and allocation of the various resources according to the constraints is a hilarious task. The paper aims to find a suitable method to solve the university course scheduling problem. Methods and Statistical Analysis: This paper compares the usage of Particle Swarm Optimisation (PSO), Ant Colony Optimisation (ACO), Tabu Search and Genetic Algorithm (GA) in the preparation of University Course Scheduling System. Certain hard constraints, which has to be satisfied and some soft constraints that can be satisfied are considered. Findings: The algorithm should check for the satisfaction of the hard constraints and the possibility of satisfying the soft constraints. Application/Improvements: The performance of the suitable method is found by comparing with the other methods based on various parameters. -
Microstructural evolution and wear characteristics of equal channel angular pressing processed semi-solid-cast hypoeutectic aluminum alloys
This work investigated the microstructural evolution of Al-7Si-Mg alloy cast semi-solid using a cooling slope as well as conventional casting followed by equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) in a 120 die. Feed materials were prepared for ECAP by cooling slope casting and by conventional casting. The microstructure of the processed alloys extruded was observed by optical microscope and by transmission electron microscope, and their hardness and wear resistance were evaluated. After ECAP processing, the primary ?-Al phase tended to be elongated while the Si particles became fragmented and more nearly globular in shape and uniform in size than in the as-cast sample. The microstructure of the cooling slope-cast ECAPed samples was more homogenous than that of the conventionally cast ECAPed sample. The ?-Al phase sub-grains were refined to sub-micrometer sizes for samples cast by both methods after ECAP. The hardness of the cooling slope-cast ECAPed sample was also higher than that of the conventionally cast ECAPed sample. The wear resistance of the alloy improved after cooling slope casting and ECAP processing. 2014 The Authors. -
Successful turnarounds: the role of appropriate entrepreneurial strategies
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to report on a research study aimed at comparing the causes of organisational decline and turnaround strategies involved in cases of successful and unsuccessful turnarounds, with a view to identifying the differences, if any, between the two groups, which in turn is expected to provide useful information to academics, practitioners and policy makers. Design/methodology/approach Since turnaround is a business phenomenon of general interest, their stories are often published in business periodicals, which are a rich source of data on them. In order to tap this data source, the present paper employed a method of content analysis for the proposed investigation on the cause of organisational decline and turnaround strategies used. In order to quantify the data, a three-point scale was developed, where the presence of a cause/strategy is rated as 3, its ambivalence as 2 and its absence as 1, whose validity was assessed through the inter-rater agreement indices. The data thus generated are amenable to statistical analyses, using which the more commonly prevalent causes of organisational decline and the strategies commonly employed for turnaround by the successful and unsuccessful companies are identified. Findings The findings of the present study have generated a few useful insights. First, the primary causes for organisational decline are the internal weaknesses of the organisation; in fact the external changes can adversely affect the organisation only if it is internally weak. Second, organisational decline caused by multiple factors (which is usually the case) can be managed effectively by adopting a variety of strategies; hence a single-pronged strategy is often found to be ineffective. Third, the more successful turnarounds had a diverse portfolio of strategies including those of institution-building, often employed in a phased manner, consistent with the stage theories of turnaround. Research limitations/implications The limitations of this research arise mainly from the generation of data from published sources and the consequent biases, which can be managed, to a large extent, by using multiple sources for the same case for reducing the publishers biases as well as by having multiple raters for identifying the researchers biases, if any. Originality/value The study has highlighted the need for addressing the internal causes of organisational decline on a priority-basis rather than blaming the external factors, besides pointing to the need for adopting a variety of strategies for dealing with the diversity of causes affecting the organisations health, particularly the need for institutionalising the changes. These findings can be of help especially to turnaround managers and policy-makers in dealing with organisational decline and thus contribute to the creation and enhancement of economic value. 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited. -
The social representations of academic achievement and failure
This study tried to explore the ways in which the construct of academic achievement and failure is conceptualized and represented among different social categories based on educational roles. It was indicated that social representations of academic achievement and failure function in broader social contexts. Findings also suggested that academic achievement and failure are not the antinomies and have multidimensional aspects which collaborate and have greater bearing on the future social outcomes. National Academy of Psychology (NAOP) India 2015. -
Estimation of ground state and excited state dipole moments of a novel Schiff base derivative containing 1, 2, 4-triazole nucleus by solvatochromic method
A novel schiff base derivative containing 1, 2, 4-triazole moiety (NBTMPA) has been synthesized from 4- [1, 2, 4] triazol-1-ylmethyl-phenylamine and 4-nitrobenzaldehyde in the presence of glacial acetic acid in an ethanolic medium. The absorbance and fluorescence spectra of (4-nitro-benzylidene)-(4- [1, 2, 4] triazol-1-ylmethyl-phenyl)-amine (NBTMPA) were recorded in various solvents to investigate their solvatochromic behaviour. Dipole moments of the two electronic states of NBTMPA were calculated from solvatochromic spectral shifts. These were correlated with the refractive index (n) and dielectric constant (?) of various solvents. Theoretical calculations were performed to estimate the excited state dipole moment on the basis of different solvent correlation methods, like the Bilot-Kawski, Bakhshiev, Lippert-Mataga, Kawski-Chamma-Viallet and Reichardt methods. The dipole moment in the excited state was found to be higher than that in the ground state due to a substantial redistribution of electron densities and charges. Using a multiple regression analysis, the solvent-solute interactions were determined by means of Kamlet Taft parameters (?, ?, ??). Computational studies were performed by Gaussian 09 W software using a time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) in order to calculate the atomic charges and frontier molecular orbital energies in the solvent phase. The calculations indicated that the dipole moment of the molecule in an excited state is much higher than that in a ground state. The chemical stability of NBTMPA was determined by means of chemical hardness (?) using HOMO-LUMO energies. The reactive centres in the molecule were also identified by molecular electrostatic potential (MESP) 3D plots as a result of a TDDFT computational analysis. 2015 Elsevier B.V. -
The Nainital-Cape Survey: IV. A search for pulsational variability in 108 chemically peculiar stars
The Nainital-Cape Survey is a dedicated ongoing survey program to search for and study pulsational variability in chemically peculiar (CP) stars to understand their internal structure and evolution. Aims. The main aims of this survey are to find new pulsating Ap and Am stars in the northern and southern hemisphere and to perform asteroseismic studies of these new pulsators. Methods. The survey is conducted using high-speed photometry. The candidate stars were selected on the basis of having Stromgren photometric indices similar to those of known pulsating CP stars. Results. Over the last decade a total of 337 candidate pulsating CP stars were observed for the Nainital-Cape Survey, making it one of the longest ground-based surveys for pulsation in CP stars in terms of time span and sample size. The previous papers of this series presented seven new pulsating variables and 229 null results. In this paper we present the light curves, frequency spectra and various astrophysical parameters of the 108 additional CP stars observed since the last reported results. We also tabulated the basic physical parameters of the known roAp stars. As a part of establishing the detection limits in the Nainital-Cape Survey, we investigated the scintillation noise level at the two observing sites used in this survey, Sutherland and Nainital, by comparing the combined frequency spectra stars observed from each location. Our analysis shows that both the sites permit the detection of variations of the order of 0.6 milli-magnitude (mmag) in the frequency range 1-4 mHz, Sutherland is on average marginally better. 2016 ESO.