CCD photometry of the galactic star clusters Be 15, Be 71 and King 1

We present UBV RI CCD photometry of three open star clusters Be 15, Be 71 and King 1 for the fist time. Base on these data, optical colour magnitude diagrams (CMDs) for the stars in the clusters down to V = 22 mag are studied. There are 1408, 1887 and 2485 stars located in the regions of Be 15, Be 71 and King 1 respectively. We also provide estimates of their fundamental parameters such as radius, reddening, distance and age. The radius values for the clusters Be 15, Be 71 and King 1 are 4.5, 3.0 and 4.0 arcmin respectively. The corresponding distances are 3.0±0.3, 3.9±0.4 and 1.9± 0.2 kpc respectively while the ages are log (age)=8.5±0.1, 8.8 ±0.1 and 9.2±0.1 respectively. The red giant clump is clearly visible in the CMDs of cluster King 1

Effects of time and diffusion phase-lags in a thick circular plate due to a ring load with axisymmetric heat supply

The purpose of this paper is to depict the effect of time, thermal, and diffusion phase lags due to axisymmetric heat supply in a ring. The problem is discussed within the context of DPLT and DPLD models. The upper and lower surfaces of the ring are traction-free and subjected to an axisymmetric heat supply. The solution is found by using Laplace and Hankel transform techniques. The analytical expressions of displacements, stresses and chemical potential, temperature and mass concentration are computed in transformed domain. Numerical inversion technique has been applied to obtain the results in the physical domain. Numerically simulated results are depicted graphically. The effect of time, diffusion, and thermal phase-lags are shown on the various components. Some particular results are also deduced from the present investigation

Mifepristone for cervical ripening and induction of labour

Background: The study was aimed to evaluate the efficacy of Mifepristone for induction of labour and in improving the Bishop score at term. The study also aimed to assess induction delivery interval and maternal and fetal outcomes with Mifepristone.Methods: The study was carried out on 200 pregnant females with 2 study groups of 100 each. Group A females received tablet Mifepristone 400mg and   Group B females received placebo. Results: Time interval between induction to onset of labour was 28 hours 54 min and 42 hours 18 min respectively in cases and control group. Mean induction delivery interval was 35 hours 38 min and 49 hours 52 minutes respectively in cases and control group. LSCS rate was less with Mifepristone group.Conclusions: This study showed that treatment with Mifepristone is a simple and effective method of inducing labour in women with term pregnancy with unripe cervix. The use of Mifepristone provides an interesting new alternative to classic uterotonic agents when induction is necessary. The potential advantage of Mifepristone over PGs or oxytocin requires further evaluation in scarred uterus

Free-energy functional for freezing transitions: Hard sphere systems freezing into crystalline and amorphous structures

A free-energy functional that contains both the symmetry conserved and symmetry broken parts of the direct pair correlation function has been used to investigate the freezing of a system of hard spheres into crystalline and amorphous structures. The freezing parameters for fluid-crystal transition have been found to be in very good agreement with the results found from simulations. We considered amorphous structures found from the molecular dynamics simulations at packing fractions $\eta$ lower than the glass close packing fraction $\eta_{J}$ and investigated their stability compared to that of a homogeneous fluid. The existence of free-energy minimum corresponding to a density distribution of overlapping Gaussians centered around an amorphous lattice depicts the deeply supercooled state with a heterogeneous density profile

PHARMACOGNOSTICAL AND PRELIMINARY PHYTOCHEMICAL INVESTIGATIONS OF AERIAL PARTS OF TRICHODESMA INDICUM R. BR.

Objective: This study was undertaken to carry out pharmacognostical studies and phytochemical studies on aerial parts of Trichodesma indicum R. Br belonging to the family Boraginaceae.Methods: The aerial parts of plant leaf and stem were evaluated for pharmacognostical studies such as macroscopy, microscopy, powder study, and quantitative microscopy. The powder was evaluated for proximate analysis like ash vale, extracting value, moisture content, swelling index, elemental analysis, fluorescence analysis, and preliminary phytochemical studies.Results: Transverse section of leaf of T. indicum R. Br. showed presence of covering trichomes with bulbous base upper and lower epidermis, collenchyma, prisms of calcium oxalate, vascular bundle and palisade cells. Surface preparation showed the presence of wavy epidermal cells, anomocytic stomata, anisocytic stomata, trichomes. Transverse section of Stem of Trichodesma indicum R. Br showed the presence of trichomes with, epidermis, hypodermis, cortex, xylem and pith. Powder study of aerial parts of T. indicum R. Br showed the presence of trichomes, xylem vessels, parenchyma, epidermal cells, fibres, calcium oxalate crystals. The powder of aerial parts was evaluated for proximate analysis such as ash value, extractive value, moisture content, total solid content, and the swelling index, which give idea about the presence of siliceous material, and amount of constituents extracted into different solvent. The elemental analysis of aerial parts showed that plant was free from heavy metal contamination i.e. arsenic, lead. The fluorescence analysis of plant powder showed that plant contains phenolic compounds. Qualitative chemical examination showed that the aerial parts of Trichodesma indicum R. Br, is credited with phytosterol, triterpenoids, tannins, phenolic compounds, carbohydrates, fixed oil, fatty acids mucilage.Conclusion: The study reveals specific identifying characteristics for the particular crude drug which will be of significant use in identification and control to adulteration of the raw drug and can serve as a reference for any further investigations.Â

Pre-main-sequence population in NGC 1893 region: X-ray properties

Continuing the attempt to understand the properties of the stellar content in the young cluster NGC 1893 we have carried out a comprehensive multi-wavelength study of the region. The present study focuses on the X-ray properties of T-Tauri Stars (TTSs) in the NGC 1893 region. We found a correlation between the X-ray luminosity, $L_X$, and the stellar mass (in the range 0.2$-$2.0 \msun) of TTSs in the NGC 1893 region, similar to those reported in some other young clusters, however the value of the power-law slope obtained in the present study ($\sim$ 0.9) for NGC 1893 is smaller than those ($\sim$1.4 - 3.6) reported in the case of TMC, ONC, IC 348 and Chameleon star forming regions. However, the slope in the case of Class III sources (Weak line TTSs) is found to be comparable to that reported in the case of NGC 6611 ($\sim$ 1.1). It is found that the presence of circumstellar disks has no influence on the X-ray emission. The X-ray luminosity for both CTTSs and WTTSs is found to decrease systematically with age (in the range $\sim$ 0.4 Myr - 5 Myr). The decrease of the X-ray luminosity of TTSs (slope $\sim$ -0.6) in the case of NGC 1893 seems to be faster than observed in the case of other star-forming regions (slope -0.2 to -0.5). There is indication that the sources having relatively large NIR excess have relatively lower $L_X$ values. TTSs in NGC 1893 do not follow the well established X-ray activity - rotation relation as in the case of main-sequence stars.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, Accepted for publication in New Astronom

Origin and consequences of chromosomal inversions in the virilis group of Drosophila

In Drosophila, large variations in rearrangement rate have been reported among different lineages and among Muller’s elements. Nevertheless, the mechanisms that are involved in the generation of inversions, their increase in frequency, as well as their impact on the genome are not completely understood. This is in part due to the lack of comparative studies on species distantly related to Drosophila melanogaster. Therefore, we sequenced and assembled the genomes of two species of the virilis phylad (Drosophila novamexicana [15010-1031.00] and Drosophila americana [SF12]), which are diverging from D. melanogaster for more than 40 Myr. Based on these data, we identified the precise location of six novel inversion breakpoints. A molecular characterization provided clear evidence that DAIBAM (a miniature inverted–repeat transposable element) was involved in the generation of eight out of the nine inversions identified. In contrast to what has been previously reported for D. melanogaster and close relatives, ectopic recombination is thus the prevalent mechanism of generating inversions in species of the virilis phylad. Using pool-sequencing data for three populations of D. americana, we also show that common polymorphic inversions create a high degree of genetic differentiation between populations for chromosomes X, 4, and 5 over large physical distances. We did not find statistically significant differences in expression levels between D. americana (SF12) and D. novamexicana (15010-1031.00) strains for the three genes surveyed (CG9588, Fig 4, and fab1) flanking three inversion breakpoints.This article is a result of the project Norte-01-0145-FEDER-000008—Porto Neurosciences and Neurologic Disease Research Initiative at I3S, supported by Norte Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER). N.P. and M.R. are funded by the Emmy Noether Programme of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Grant Number: PO 1648/3-1 to N.P.). We would like to thank the Transcriptome Analysis Lab (TAL) (University Medical Center Göttingen, UMG) in Göttingen for the Illumina sequencing