Solar influence on the Indian summer monsoon during the Holocene

The large (8%) changes in the past seasonal insolation have a well-documented influence on the Indian summer monsoon. However, the effect of the small ( < 1%) decade to century scale solar variability is less certain. Evidence is emerging that Earth's climate is sensitive to small changes in solar output on centennial time scale during the Holocene. Comparison of a recently published proxy record for sunspot activity with our newly-revised higher-resolution record of the Indian summer monsoon winds reveals multiple intervals of weak summer monsoon during the Holocene at multidecadal to centennial scales. Weak summer monsoon winds correlate with reduced solar output. Our results suggest that small changes in solar irradiance can bring pronounced changes in the tropical monsoon. The multidecade to century scale variations in the monsoon winds were much larger in the early Holocene coincident with increased sunspot numbers

A Vector Error Correction Model Approach to Investigate the Causal Relationship among Energy Consumption, Real GDP, and Industry Value Added of Bangladesh

The paper focuses on investigating the casual relationship among Energy Consumption, Real GDP, and Industry Value Added of Bangladesh using the World Bank Development Indicators data set. The Granger causality approach has been applied to identify the short-run causality direction for all possible pairs of dynamic variables of the study. Results from the approach indicate the unidirectional short run causal relationship from Real GDP to Energy Consumption, while another unidirectional short-run causality has been found from Industry Value Added to Real GDP. The concept of cointegration and Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) are employed to find the long-run relationships among the variables. Our results show the existence of long run relationship between each pair of variables. Furthermore, the Variance Decomposition (VDC) techniques and Impulse Response Function (IRF) was also used to measure the extent/degree of dynamic properties of the variables. Bangladesh has an emerging economy with limited energy resources. Here, the evidence from our study would help policymakers in setting the appropriate energy consumption policies that will enhance and sustain economic growth for the welfare/development of this country

Development and characterization of large-scale simple sequence repeats in jute

Jute is an important crop of the Indian subcontinent and comprises tossa jute (Corchorus olitorius) and white jute (C. capsularis). The yield and fiber quality of this crop remained stagnant for many years and could not be improved through conventional plant breeding. Also, no effort has been made to develop molecular markers on a scale required for marker-assisted selection (MAS) to supplement conventional plant breeding. As a first step toward deploying MAS for jute improvement, 2469 simple sequence repeats (SSRs) were developed in tossa jute (JRO 524) using four SSR-enriched genomic libraries. A random subset of 100 SSRs (25 SSRs from each library) was used to detect polymorphism between the parental genotypes of each of the two recombinant inbred line (RIL) mapping populations. The RILs are being developed from JRO 524 × PPO4 (for fiber fineness) and JRC 321 × CMU 010 (for lignin content) crosses to prepare molecular maps and conduct quantitative trait loci (QTL) analyses. Both SSR length polymorphism and ± polymorphism (null alleles, i.e., presence and absence of specific SSR) were detected; 50 SSRs detected polymorphism between the two genotypes of tossa jute, whereas 45 SSRs detected polymorphism between the two genotypes of white jute. This SSR allelic polymorphism in jute is higher than that reported in other crops and is adequate for construction of genetic maps for QTL analysis. The large-scale SSRs will also prove useful in studying genetic diversity, population structure, and association mapping

Mechanochemical synthesis of a new triptycene-based imine-linked covalent organic polymer for degradation of organic dye

In the present work, a novel triptycene-based imine-linked covalent organic polymer (TP-COP) was designed and synthesized via room-temperature, solvent-free mechanochemical grinding. The as-synthesized TP-COP material was fully characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, solid-state NMR, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller method, thermogravimetric analysis, diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR). The HRTEM image of TP-COP clearly indicates the presence of graphene-like layered morphology (exfoliated layers). The DRS study reveals that TP-COP exhibited a low optical band gap value of 2.49 eV, implying its semiconducting nature. Further, the EPR study confirmed the semiconducting behavior of TP-COP through the generation of free radicals. These findings suggest that TP-COP could be used as an efficient photocatayst for the degradation of organic dye (RhB) under solar irradiation. Moreover, TP-COP showed excellent reusability in degrading dye (RhB) without obvious performance decay

Development of SSR markers and construction of a linkage map in jute

Jute is an important natural fibre crop, which is only second to cotton in its importance at the global level. It is mostly grown in Indian subcontinent and has been recently used for the development of genomics resources. We recently initiated a programme to develop simple sequence repeat markers and reported a set of 2469 SSR that were developed using four SSR-enriched libraries (Mir et al. 2009). In this communication, we report an additional set of 607 novel SSR in 393 SSR containing sequences. However, primers could be designed for only 417 potentially useful SSR. Polymorphism survey was carried out for 374 primer pairs using two parental genotypes (JRO 524 and PPO4) of a mapping population developed for fibre fineness; only 66 SSR were polymorphic. Owing to a low level of polymorphism between the parental genotypes and a high degree of segregation distortion in recombinant inbred lines, genotypic data of only 53 polymorphic SSR on the mapping population consisting of 120 RIL could be used for the construction of a linkage map; 36 SSR loci were mapped on six linkage groups that covered a total genetic distance of 784.3 cM. Hopefully, this map will be enriched with more SSR loci in future and will prove useful for identification of quantitative trait loci/genes for molecular breeding involving improvement of fibre fineness and other related traits in jute

Mechanochemical synthesis of a new triptycene-based imine-linked covalent organic polymer for degradation of organic dye

In the present work, a novel triptycene-based imine-linked covalent organic polymer (TP-COP) was designed and synthesized via room-temperature, solvent-free mechanochemical grinding. The as-synthesized TP-COP material was fully characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, solid-state NMR, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller method, thermogravimetric analysis, diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR). The HRTEM image of TP-COP clearly indicates the presence of graphene-like layered morphology (exfoliated layers). The DRS study reveals that TP-COP exhibited a low optical band gap value of 2.49 eV, implying its semiconducting nature. Further, the EPR study confirmed the semiconducting behavior of TP-COP through the generation of free radicals. These findings suggest that TP-COP could be used as an efficient photocatayst for the degradation of organic dye (RhB) under solar irradiation. Moreover, TP-COP showed excellent reusability in degrading dye (RhB) without obvious performance decay

Design and implementation of a noise temperature measurement system for the Hydrogen Intensity and Real-time Analysis eXperiment (HIRAX)

This paper describes the design, implementation, and verification of a test-bed for determining the noise temperature of radio antennas operating between 400-800MHz. The requirements for this test-bed were driven by the HIRAX experiment, which uses antennas with embedded amplification, making system noise characterization difficult in the laboratory. The test-bed consists of two large cylindrical cavities, each containing radio-frequency (RF) absorber held at different temperatures (300K and 77K), allowing a measurement of system noise temperature through the well-known 'Y-factor' method. The apparatus has been constructed at Yale, and over the course of the past year has undergone detailed verification measurements. To date, three preliminary noise temperature measurement sets have been conducted using the system, putting us on track to make the first noise temperature measurements of the HIRAX feed and perform the first analysis of feed repeatability.Comment: 19 pages, 12 figure

Isolation and Characterization of Compounds From Traditional Indian Medicinal Plants

Herbal drugs have been used by the mankind from ancient period. As India is rich in medicinal plants, the uses of various plants as medicine for diseases have been studied and recorded by the ancient physicians in the Ayurveda. Inspite of the fact, that phenomenal advancement has been achieved in synthetic drug developments, plants still remain almost the exclusive source of drugs for a large number of people throughout the world. For last two decades the global demands for the herbal drugs has steadily increased, as the side effects of theses herbal products are much less than synthetically developed drugs. Consequently, tremendous interest in traditional medicines and drugs is developing among the scientists. As a part of an attempt to establish the efficacy of the drugs on scientific basis, an extensive research is going on to isolate and characterize the compounds from the medicinal plants. The chemical compounds isolated from these medicinal plants may be active ones or at least used as ‘marker’ compounds to standardize the formulation