The water vapor transmission of a wide range of base fabrics used in extreme cold weather protective clothing has been evaluated using the conventional dish and MDSC techniques. The results generated from the two methods are compared. The studies reveal that the two techniques cannot be compared directly due to different test conditions, although few samples exhibited good correlation. Further, the study examines and analyzes the effect of constructional parameters of the base fabric on water vapor transfer, factors that are often used as surrogate indicators of clothing comfort affecting the combat efficiency of soldiers.

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<p class="p1">A comparison of Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) activity of chemically synthesised silver nanostructures with different shapes is reported. The silver nanostructures of cubical, prism and wire like morphology were synthesised using chemical synthesis route and utilised as SERS substrates. The sensors were fabricated by spin coating these materials over a Silicon or glass substrate. The fabricated sensors were used to analyse response with two different analytes, 4-Mercaptobenzoic acid and Rhodamine 6G under different concentrations. The signal enhancement was compared with a silver coated thin film over glass substrate and it was observed that the enhancement of the order of 10<span class="s1">³</span>is achieved. The nanowire performed better than the other forms of silver and gave a higher signal enhancement for all the analytes as compared to other nanostructures. The fabricated sensors may be useful for various applications including explosive and biowarfare agent detection.</p>