PONDER - A Real time software backend for pulsar and IPS observations at the Ooty Radio Telescope

This paper describes a new real-time versatile backend, the Pulsar Ooty Radio Telescope New Digital Efficient Receiver (PONDER), which has been designed to operate along with the legacy analog system of the Ooty Radio Telescope (ORT). PONDER makes use of the current state of the art computing hardware, a Graphical Processing Unit (GPU) and sufficiently large disk storage to support high time resolution real-time data of pulsar observations, obtained by coherent dedispersion over a bandpass of 16 MHz. Four different modes for pulsar observations are implemented in PONDER to provide standard reduced data products, such as time-stamped integrated profiles and dedispersed time series, allowing faster avenues to scientific results for a variety of pulsar studies. Additionally, PONDER also supports general modes of interplanetary scintillation (IPS) measurements and very long baseline interferometry data recording. The IPS mode yields a single polarisation correlated time series of solar wind scintillation over a bandwidth of about four times larger (16 MHz) than that of the legacy system as well as its fluctuation spectrum with high temporal and frequency resolutions. The key point is that all the above modes operate in real time. This paper presents the design aspects of PONDER and outlines the design methodology for future similar backends. It also explains the principal operations of PONDER, illustrates its capabilities for a variety of pulsar and IPS observations and demonstrates its usefulness for a variety of astrophysical studies using the high sensitivity of the ORT.Comment: 25 pages, 14 figures, Accepted by Experimental Astronom

A process for the preparation of nolignan 3- ethyl-2-methyl-3- (2",4",5"-trimethoxy) phenyl-1-(2',4',5'-trimethoxy) phenyl-1-propene

The present invention relates to a novel neolignan (Neolasa-I) 3-ethyl-2-methyl-3-(2", 4", 5"- trimethoxy-phenyl-1-(2' ,4' ,5'-trimethoxy)Phenyl-(2' ,4',5'-Trimethoxy)phenyl-1- propene and a process for the preparation of high purity, higher yield neolignan, a-asarone, 2,4,5- trimethoxy-phenylpropionone from B-asarone or B-asarone rich acorus calamus oil containing a and Y-asarone by hydrogenating and dimerizing by treatment with DDQ in presence of an organic acid

A PROCESS FOR THE PREPARATION OF PHARMACOLOGICALLY ACTIVE ά-ASARONE FROM TOXIC β-ASARONE RICH ACORUS CALAMUS OIL"

The present invention relates to a process for the preparation of high purity and yield aasarone, trans 2,4,5-trimethoxy cinnamaldehyde, 2,4,5-trimethoxy-phenyl propionone, from p-asarone or P-asarone rich Acorus calamus oil containing a and y-asarone by hydrogenating, followed by treatment with DDQ with or without solid support of silica gel or alumina in dry organic solvent and a-asarone can also be obtained by treating the hydrogenated product of P-asarone or P-asarone rich Acorus calamus with DDQ in an aqueous organic solvent to obtain an intermediate 2,4,5-trimethoxy phenyl propionone, which in turn is reduced with sodiumborohydride to obtain the corresponding 2,4,5- trimethoxy-phenyl propanol and followed by final treatment with a dehydrating agen

Gravitational collapse in asymptotically Anti-de Sitter/de Sitter backgrounds

We study here the gravitational collapse of a matter cloud with a non-vanishing tangential pressure in the presence of a non-zero cosmological term. Conditions for bounce and singularity formation are derived for the model. It is also shown that when the tangential pressures vanish, the bounce and singularity conditions reduce to that of the dust case studied earlier. The collapsing interior is matched with an exterior which is asymptotically de Sitter or anti de Sitter, depending on the sign of cosmological constant. The junction conditions for matching the cloud to exterior are specified. The effect of the cosmological term on apparent horizons is studied in some detail, and the nature of central singularity is analyzed. We also discuss here the visibility of the singularity and implications for the cosmic censorship conjecture.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figure, Revtex

Marker-assisted improvement of grain protein content and grain weight in Indian bread wheat

The leading Indian wheat cultivar ‘HUW234’ produces grain with relatively low protein content (GPC) and thousand grain weight (TGW). Therefore, marker-assisted backcrossing was used to improve these two important traits by introducing favorable genes/alleles from cv. ‘Glu133’, which harbors both alleles for both GPC (Gpc-B1) and TGW. Foreground selection for GPC was achieved using microsatellite markers Xucw108 linked with Gpc-B1 and Xgwm297 linked with TGW. Background selection applied to support recovery of the recurrent parent genotype was based on 86 genomically distributed microsatellites. A selected BC2F1 plant was the progenitor of 15 BC2F4 families, in which representation of the cv. HUW234 genome ranged from 89.5 to 93.0 %. The new derivatives of HUW234 were comparable in yield to the original cultivar, but with both significantly higher GPC and heavier kernels

​VL Mandua 382: The first early maturing, white seeded finger millet cultivar suitable for rainfed organic agro-ecology of the Himalayan region

White seeded finger millet is known to have higher acceptability in the baking and food industry compared to the brown seeded finger millet genotypes. The available white seeded finger millet genotypes are late maturing and blast susceptible thereby reducing their farmer’s acceptability in the north western Himalayan region particularly in Uttarakhand. Keeping this in view, the development of early maturing, blast resistance white seeded finger millet breeding programme was initiated at ICAR –VPKAS, Almora in 2003-04, which resulted in the release of VL Mandua 382in the year 2021, the first early maturing white seeded finger millet cultivar of finger millet suitable for rainfed and organic agro-ecology of the Himalayan region. It was derived from the cross between late maturing, white finger millet genotype WR 2 (obtained from UAS Bangalore) and early maturing and locally adapted blast tolerant brown seeded genotype VL 201. It recorded an average grain yield of 1,198 kg/ha, which was at par with the brown seeded check VL Mandua 324 (1,197 kg/ha) and out yielded the brown seeded check PRM-1 (1,163 kg/ha) by 3.0 per cent in State Varietal Trials (SVT) conducted under organic conditions of the Himalayan region. The grains contain higher calcium (340 mg/100g) and protein (8.8%) in comparison to the brown seeded check variety VL Mandua 324 (294 mg/100gand 6.6%, respectively). It exhibited moderate resistance to leaf, finger and neck blast in the multilocation trials conducted over 9 locations. Considering the speciality trait (white grains), excellent grain quality, matching yield potential with brown seeded check varieties and blast tolerance, the variety was released for cultivation in rainfed organic agro-ecology of Uttarakhand hills

Constraints on the χ_(c1) versus χ_(c2) polarizations in proton-proton collisions at √s = 8 TeV

The polarizations of promptly produced χ_(c1) and χ_(c2) mesons are studied using data collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC, in proton-proton collisions at √s=8  TeV. The χ_c states are reconstructed via their radiative decays χ_c → J/ψγ, with the photons being measured through conversions to e⁺e⁻, which allows the two states to be well resolved. The polarizations are measured in the helicity frame, through the analysis of the χ_(c2) to χ_(c1) yield ratio as a function of the polar or azimuthal angle of the positive muon emitted in the J/ψ → μ⁺μ⁻ decay, in three bins of J/ψ transverse momentum. While no differences are seen between the two states in terms of azimuthal decay angle distributions, they are observed to have significantly different polar anisotropies. The measurement favors a scenario where at least one of the two states is strongly polarized along the helicity quantization axis, in agreement with nonrelativistic quantum chromodynamics predictions. This is the first measurement of significantly polarized quarkonia produced at high transverse momentum