The Background Field Method as a Canonical Transformation

We construct explicitly the canonical transformation that controls the full dependence (local and non-local) of the vertex functional of a Yang-Mills theory on a background field. After showing that the canonical transformation found is nothing but a direct field-theoretic generalization of the Lie transform of classical analytical mechanics, we comment on a number of possible applications, and in particular the non perturbative implementation of the background field method on the lattice, the background field formulation of the two particle irreducible formalism, and, finally, the formulation of the Schwinger-Dyson series in the presence of topologically non-trivial configurations.Comment: 11 pages, REVTeX. References added, some explanations extended. Final version to appear in the journa

Location relevance and diversity in symbolic trajectories with application to telco data

We present an approach to the discovery and characterization of relevant locations and related mobility patterns in symbolic trajectories built on call detail records - CDRs - of mobile phones (telco trajectories). While the discovery of relevant locations has been widely investigated for continuous spatial trajectories (e.g., stay points detection methods), it is not clear how to deal with the problem when the movement is defined over a discrete space and the locations are symbolic, noisy and irregularly sampled, such as in telco trajectories. In this paper, we propose a methodological approach structured in two steps, called trajectory summarization and summary trajectories analysis, respectively, the former for removing noise and irrelevant locations; the latter to synthesize key mobility features in a few novel indicators. We evaluate the methodology over a dataset of approx 17,000 trajectories with 55 million points and spanning a period of 67 days. We find that trajectory summarization does not compromise data utility, while significantly reducing data size. Moreover, the mobility indicators provide novel insights into human mobility behavior

Resource management for apple scab and sanjose scale control of apple in Kashmir Valley of J&K State

The study on resource management for apple scab and sanjose scale of apple in Kashmir Valley of J&K State was conducted purposively in Sopore and Patten tehsils of Baramulla district covering 4 villages with a sample size of 200 apple growers selected through random sampling method. The study revealed that all the apple growers (100%) from rainfed and irrigated areas were applying the resource management practices such as checking the expiry of chemical before purchase, undertake precautions while using chemicals and sprayers, purchaseeconomical and convenient packing’s of plant protection chemicals, check the working condition of the sprayers on regular basis, undertaking care and maintenance of sprayers regularly and were able to repair the minor defects of sprayers by self followed by (66%) apple growers who had decided to planed plant protection schedule in advance. The data further showed that hired labour for disease and pest management of apple were available easily and locally, and as per requirement (100%). As regards prevailing wage rates (88%) farmers from rainfed and (91%) from irrigated area reported that these were reasonable. Plant protection chemicals needed for control of disease and pest of apple were found adopted by cent per cent farmers. The plant protection chemicals were also available in suitable packings (97%) and before the expiry date (96%). The critical evaluation of the plant protection chemicals and equipments before their use with regard to their quality being taken care by all the apple growers would help in eradication of the disease from the region

A novel hepatitis C virus (HCV) subtype from Somalia and its classification into HCV clade 3.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) sequences from throughout the world have been grouped into six clades, based on recently proposed criteria. Here, the partial sequences and clade assignment are reported for three HCV isolates from chronic hepatitis C patients from Somalia, for whom conventional assays failed to identify the genotype. Phylogenetic analysis of the sequences of the core, envelope 1 and part of the non- structural 5b regions suggests that all three isolates belong to a distinct HCV genetic group, tentatively classified as subtype 3h. This novel HCV subtype shows the highest sequence similarity with HCV isolates from Indonesia. Despite the fact that these patients were infected with HCV clade 3, none of them responded to standard interferon treatment

Analytical study of training needs of olive growers in various subject matter areas of olive cultivation in Uri Block of district Baramulla, J&K, India

The main purpose of this study was to know the training needs of olive growers in different subject matter areas of olive cultivation undertaken in Uri block of district Baramulla of Jammu and Kashmir State. A sample size of 150 respondents was randomly selected from 5 villages and from each village 30 farmers were selected randomly. It was observed during the study that majority of farmers require training and with emphasis on latest transfer of technology in establishing olive farm, procurement of root stocks of improved varieties, soil management,proper spacing and planting, manures and fertilizers, irrigation and drainage, insect-pests and diseases, harvesting and marketing, etc. The area of insect-pests and diseases require high training need followed by soil management, selection of varieties, manures and fertilizers, harvesting and marketing, irrigation and drainage, establishing olive farm and procurement of root-stocks of improved varieties. Therefore, the study has highlighted the need for restructuring the training programme to benefit the olive growers in the region. Such an approach would boost production and generate additional income for the orchardists

Detection of quiescent galaxies in a bicolor sequence from z=0-2

We investigate the properties of quiescent and star-forming galaxy populations to z~2 with purely photometric data, employing a novel rest-frame color selection technique. From the UKIDSS Ultra-Deep Survey Data Release 1, with matched optical and mid-IR photometry taken from the Subaru XMM Deep Survey and Spitzer Wide-Area Infrared Extragalactic Survey respectively, we construct a K-selected galaxy catalog and calculate photometric redshifts. Excluding stars, objects with uncertain z_phot solutions, those that fall in bad or incomplete survey regions, and those for which reliable rest-frame colors could not be derived, 30108 galaxies with K<22.4 (AB) and z<2.5 remain. The galaxies in this sample are found to occupy two distinct populations in the rest-frame U-V vs. V-J color space: a clump of red, quiescent galaxies (analogous to the red sequence) and a track of star-forming galaxies extending from blue to red U-V colors. This bimodal behavior is seen up to z~2. Due to a combination of measurement errors and passive evolution, the color-color diagram is not suitable to distinguish the galaxy bimodality at z>2 for this sample, but we show that MIPS 24um data suggest that a significant population of quiescent galaxies exists even at these higher redshifts. At z=1-2, the most luminous objects in the sample are divided roughly equally between star-forming and quiescent galaxies, while at lower redshifts most of the brightest galaxies are quiescent. Moreover, quiescent galaxies at these redshifts are clustered more strongly than those actively forming stars, indicating that galaxies with early-quenched star formation may occupy more massive host dark matter halos. This suggests that the end of star formation is associated with, and perhaps brought about by, a mechanism related to halo mass.Comment: 17 pages, 16 figures, accepted to ApJ after minor revisions. The K-selected catalog described herein can be downloaded at http://www.strw.leidenuniv.nl/galaxyevolution/UD