Assessment of Traffic Noise Pollution in Burla Town,India; An Inclusive Annoyance Study

Noise pollution is one of the major public health problems in urban areas throughout the world. Noise is unwanted sound which produces undesirable problems in day to day life of human being (e.g., physiological and psychological problems). Rapid increase of the industrialization, urbanization, infrastructure, volume of motor vehicles, and increase in the road networks brought noise pollution to the highest level of disaster in a current situation. In urban areas, road traffic noise plays commanding role among all noise sources and affects the exposed inhabitants. The present work is done to evaluate and assess the traffic noise and its effects in Burla town. Burla, Vidyanagari of Odisha, is an emerging town in India, as it hosts national level of teaching and research institutions like IIM Sambalpur, a medical college- cum-hospital (VIMSAR), a technical university (VSSUT) and Sambalpur University. In last two decade, the road traffic volume has been increased and is facing severe noise pollution to its inhabitants. Noise pollution assessment was made at different locations of the town. This study unveiled the dismal state of noise pollution in the town. Noise contour maps were drawn to visualize the noise level at the traffic and its surroundings. The numbers of hearing impaired patients in different hospitals of the locality are increasing. That shows grim picture of the situation. Regression equations were established taking noise levels with percentage of highly annoyed people during study indicates strong correlation.     

Double-pass erbium-doped zirconia fiber amplifier for wide-band and flat-gain operations

The double-pass erbium-doped zirconia fiber amplifier (EDZFA) is proposed and demonstrated to provide a wide-band amplification as well as flat-gain operation in both the C- and L-band regions using only a single-gain medium. The proposed amplifier utilizes an erbium-doped zirconia fiber (EDZF) with erbium ion concentration of 2800 ppm as a gain medium. The medium is fabricated in a ternary glass host, zirconia-yttria-aluminum codoped silica fiber through solution doping technique along with modified chemical vapor deposition (MCVD). Compared to a single-pass operation, the double-pass EDZFA shows a better gain performance. At input signal power of 0 dBm and the optimum EDZF length of 2 m, a flat gain of around 16 dB is achieved by the proposed double-pass amplifier with gain variation of approximately 2.5 dB throughout the wavelength range from 1530 to 1590 nm. However, the noise figure of the double-pass amplifier is slightly higher than that of the single-pass due to inefficient population inversion at the input part of the amplifier.     

Phase transformation and electrical resistivity of tetracyanoethylene under pressure

This paper reports the phase transformation behaviour of tetracyanoethylene (TCNE) under pressure as revealed by AC electrical resistivity, its time evolution and X-ray diffraction studies. An irreversible transformation from monoclinic to cubic phase occurs at 2.1±0.1 GPa and is indicated by a sharp resistivity drop at this pressure. The time evolution of resistivity studies indicate that this transformation occurs via an intermediate phase having resistivity higher than either of the two crystalline phases. Finally, the kinetics of phase transformations obtained by time evolution of resistivity is compared with the X-ray studies on the pressure quenched TCNE.     

Observing in-phase single-quantum 15N multiplets for NH2/NH3+ groups with two-dimensional heteronuclear correlation spectroscopy

Two-dimensional (2D) F1-(1)H-coupled HSQC experiments provide 3:1:1:3 and 1:0:1 multiplets for AX(3) and AX(2) spin systems, respectively. These multiplets occur because, in addition to the 2S(y)H(z)(a)-->2S(y)H(z)(a) process, the coherence transfers such as 2S(y)H(z)(a)-->2S(y)H(z)(b) occurring in t(1) period provide detectable magnetization during the t(2) period. Here, we present a 2D F1-(1)H-coupled (1)H-(15)N heteronuclear correlation experiment that provides a 1:3:3:1 quartet for AX(3) spin system and a 1:2:1 triplet for AX(2). The experiment is a derivative of 2D HISQC experiment [J. Iwahara, Y.S. Jung, G.M. Clore, Heteronuclear NMR spectroscopy for lysine NH(3) groups in proteins: unique effect of water exchange on (15)N transverse relaxation. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 129 (2007) 2971-2980] and contains a scheme that kills anti-phase single-quantum terms generated in the t(1) period. The purge scheme is essential to observe in-phase single-quantum multiplets. Applications to the NH(2) and NH(3)(+) groups in proteins are demonstrated.     

Unifying darko-lepto-genesis with scalar triplet inflation

We present a scalar triplet extension of the standard model to unify the origin of inflation with neutrino mass, asymmetric dark matter and leptogenesis. In presence of non-minimal couplings to gravity the scalar triplet, mixed with the standard model Higgs, plays the role of inflaton in the early Universe, while its decay to SM Higgs, lepton and dark matter simultaneously generate an asymmetry in the visible and dark matter sectors. On the other hand, in the low energy effective theory the induced vacuum expectation value of the triplet gives sub-eV Majorana masses to active neutrinos. We investigate the model parameter space leading to successful inflation as well as the observed dark matter to baryon abundance. Assuming the standard model like Higgs mass to be at 125–126 GeV, we found that the mass scale of the scalar triplet to be ?O(10⁹) GeV$?O({10}^9)\text{GeV}$ and its trilinear coupling to doublet Higgs is ?0.09 so that it not only evades the possibility of having a metastable vacuum in the standard model, but also lead to a rich phenomenological consequences as stated above. Moreover, we found that the scalar triplet inflation strongly constrains the quartic couplings, while allowing for a wide range of Yukawa couplings which generate the CP asymmetries in the visible and dark matter sectors.     

Resonance states in 16O+16O, 12C+16O, α+16O and α+12C with modified Morse potentials

The resonance states in ¹⁶O+¹⁶O, ¹²C+¹⁶O, α+¹⁶O and α+¹²C are described using modified Morse potential proposed earlier whose success has already been demonstrated in the case of ¹²C+¹²C system. The general validity of such a potential with long range, shallow depth and repulsive soft core determined from the resonance data itself is being examined through the present study of the resonances in the above four systems. In each system, the experimental data of a large number of states have been successfully described with a modified Morse potential. The success points out a common mechanism of the origin of these states, and reaffirms authentically the diatomic-like rotational and vibrational picture of the nuclear molecular resonances proposed previously. The close resemblance between the physics of diatomic molecules and nuclear molecular resonances extending to the level of potential which is Morse type in both the cases — although belong to two different areas of physics — is further strengthened through the present study.      

Current–voltage and capacitance–voltage studies of nanocrystalline CdSe/Au Schottky junction interface

Journal of Nanoparticle Research - CdSe nanocrystalline thin films have been synthesized on indium tin oxide (ITO) substrates by an electrodeposition technique. A Schottky junction device in the...     

Enhance luminescence by introducing alkali metal ions (R+ = Li+, Na+ and K+) in SrAl2O4:Eu3+ phosphor by solid-state reaction method

In the present article, the role of charge compensator ions (R⁺?=?Li⁺, Na⁺ and K⁺) in europium-doped strontium aluminate (SrAl₂O₄:Eu³⁺) phosphors was synthesized by the high-temperature, solid-state reaction method. The crystal structures of sintered phosphors were in a monoclinic phase with space group P2₁. The trap parameters which are mainly activation energy (E), frequency factor (s) and order of the kinetics (b) were evaluated by using the peak shape method. The calculated trap depths are in the range from 0.76 to 0.84?eV. Photoluminescence measurements showed that the phosphor exhibited emission peak with good intensity at 595?nm, corresponding to ⁵D₀–⁷F₁ (514?nm) orange emission and weak ⁵D₀–⁷F₂ (614?nm) red emission. The excitation spectra monitored at 595?nm show a broad band from 220 to 320?nm ascribed to O–Eu charge-transfer state transition and the other peaks in the range of 350–500?nm originated from f–f transitions of Eu³⁺ ions. The strongest band at 394?nm can be assigned to ⁷F₀–⁵L₆ transition of Eu³⁺ ions due to the typical f–f transitions within Eu³⁺ of 4f⁶ configuration. The latter lies in near ultraviolet (350–500?nm) emission of UV LED. CIE color chromaticity diagram and thermoluminescence spectra confirm that the synthesized phosphors would emit an orange-red color. Incorporating R⁺?=?Li⁺, Na⁺ and K⁺ as the compensator charge, the emission intensity of SrAl₂O₄:Eu³⁺ phosphor can be obviously enhanced and the emission intensity of SrAl₂O₄:Eu³⁺ doping Li⁺ is higher than that of Na⁺ or K⁺ ions.     

High pressure investigations on amorphous selenium

We report the diamond anvil cell (DAC) high pressure powder X-ray diffraction studies on amorphous selenium (a-Se) under truly hydrostatic pressure condition up to 20 GPa. Amorphous selenium exhibits a sharp and irreversible transition to a hexagonal structure at 10.6 ± 0.1 GPa. It is also known that metallization occurs in a-Se around this pressure. Some plausible arguments are provided to suggest that the amorphous to crystalline transition may be driven by metallization.     

Effect of strain on multisubband electron transport in GaAs/InxGa1-xAs coupled quantum well structures

We analyze the strain induced changes in the low temperature multisubband electron mobility mediated through the intersubband interactions in a pseudomorphic GaAs/In_xGa_1−xAs coupled double quantum well structure. We consider the non-phonon scattering mechanisms and study the effect of strain on them. We show that strain reduces the mobility due to ionized impurity (imp-) scattering μ^imp but enhances the mobility due to interface roughness (IR-) scattering μ^IR. For alloy disorder (AL-) scattering as long as the lowest subband is occupied, the effect of strain enhances the mobility μ^AL. However, once the second subband is occupied, there is almost no change, rather decrease in μ^AL for larger well widths. It is gratifying to note that for single subband occupancy, the effect of strain enhances the total mobility μ. On the other hand, for double subband occupancy, initially there is almost no change, but with increase in well width the total mobility reduces. We vary the In composition x from 0.15 to 0.2 and 0.25 and the barrier width between the two wells to analyze their effects on the mobility which shows interesting results. Our study of multisubband mobility can be utilized for the low temperature device applications.