Probing Cosmic-ray Propagation with TeV Gamma Rays from the Sun Using the HAWC Observatory

Cosmic rays in the inner solar system are subject to deflection by both the geomagnetic and interplanetary magnetic fields, and simultaneously interact with the Sun's photosphere resulting in the production of gamma rays. This phenomenon can be studied by observing the deficit ("shadow") in the cosmic ray flux from the direction of the Sun and searching for an excess photon signal above the isotropic background. The High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Observatory in Mexico has been taking data on the solar disk at TeV energies since the end of 2014. We present our first efforts to estimate the luminosity of TeV gamma rays from the Sun which can be used to place limits on the production mechanisms, including astrophysical processes and beyond the standard model predictions.Comment: Presented at the 35th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC2017), Bexco, Busan, Korea. See arXiv:1708.02572 for all HAWC contribution

Coumarin‐Based Heteroaromatics as Plant Growth Regulators

Heterocyclic compounds are the largest and most versatile class of organic compounds. Plants produce valuable heterocyclic substances called phytohormones to carry out the growth process. They control the growth or other physiological functions. Both hormones and vitamins are generally referred as plant growth regulators. Aromatic compounds having lactone ring are called coumarin. Coumarin is one of the most important natural substances in plants and is referred to as anti‐auxins, as these compounds are considered to play an essential role in plants growth as well as defense

In vitro biological assessment of 1,3,4-oxadiazole sandwiched by azinane and acetamides supported by molecular docking and BSA binding studies

The 1,3,4-Oxadiazole is an aromatic heterocyclic moiety recognized in drug research for its low lipophilicity. The multiple functionalities, heterocyclic azinane, sulfonamide, 1,3,4-oxadiazole and acetamide, are combined collectively to enhance the bioactivity potential of synthesized molecules. All the compounds were acquired by following microwave assisted and conventional techniques in a comparative way. The synthesized derivatives were screened for their antibacterial and enzyme inhibition potential. Furthermore, BSA binding analysis was executed to infer about the interaction with serum albumin. The spectral data of IR, EI-MS, 1H-NMR and 13C-NMR were used to elucidate the final structures of compounds. The synthesized compounds had a modest antibacterial potential. Compound 8f bearing 2-methyl-4,5-dinitrophenyl group was the most active one against all the bacterial strains taken into account and α-glucosidase enzyme. Compound 8d bearing 4-nitrophenyl group was the best acetyl cholinesterase inhibitor and 8i bearing phenylethyl group was the best urease inhibitor

Constraining TeV-scale astrophysical foregrounds for dark matter searches with HAWC

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Rochester. Department of Physics and Astronomy, 2019.Astrophysical observations are central to the quest for new physics including the search for dark matter. The search is based on identifying potential deviations from the Standard Model in the cosmic-ray and the electromagnetic spectrum of astrophysical sources. The deviations could either be signatures of dark matter or have consequences for our understanding of known sources. The last decade of precision measurements from detectors in space, such as the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, and the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer for detecting cosmic rays aboard the International Space Station, have identified certain “anomalies” or unexpected spectral features, that challenge the standard models of how cosmic rays are produced and propagate through the Galaxy. Examples include an unexpectedly hard spectrum of cosmic-ray antiprotons at energies above a few hundred GeV, and an unexplained excess of very-high-energy gamma rays from the Sun. An excess of cosmic-ray antiprotons and a hard spectrum of gamma rays from the Sun also feature in the predictions of various models of dark matter annihilation. However, without a complete understanding of the antiproton spectrum, and the production mechanisms of solar gamma rays, it is impossible to differentiate new physics from the standard astrophysical foreground flux of these particles. Measuring these fluxes at energies that extend into the TeV range is an observational challenge that we explore in this thesis. The High AltitudeWater Cherenkov (HAWC) Observatory is a wide field-of-view array that is currently the only detector capable of making high-statistics measurements of cosmic rays and gamma rays at multi-TeV energies. This work uses data from HAWC collected between 2014–2017 to constrain two unique fluxes at the TeV scale: antiprotons in Galactic cosmic rays, and gamma rays from the quiescent Sun — both relevant foregrounds for astrophysical searches for physics beyond the Standard Model. Cosmic rays in the inner solar system are subject to deflection by the magnetic fields of the Earth and the Sun, affecting the observed deficit or “shadow” of the Moon/Sun. Cosmic rays also interact with the Sun’s atmosphere to produce a steady emission of gamma rays up to at least 200 GeV, though the exact underlying mechanism remains a puzzle. We present the strongest upper limits on the antiproton to proton ratio in TeV cosmic rays at 1% using the Moon shadow as a momentum/ charge discriminant. We also discuss our search for excess gamma rays from the Sun above 1 TeV, and present the resulting implications for models of dark matter capture and annihilation in the Sun. Our results constrain the steady gamma-ray emission from the Sun up to a few times 10−12 TeV cm−2 s−1 at 1 TeV. For dark matter annihilation with long-lived mediators in the Sun, we present the strongest upper limits on dark matter-proton scattering cross section up to ~10−45 cm2, which is a potential improvement of four orders of magnitude compared to direct-detection experiments for dark matter mass of 1 TeV

Performance Prediction for Undergraduate Degree Programs Using Machine Learning Techniques - A Preliminary Review

Academic Performance prediction for undergraduate students is considered as one of the hot research areas since last couple of decades. An accurate and timely prediction of the student’s performance can directly influence the three participants; learner, instructor and the institution. This study presents a brief, preliminary review to explore existing literature from 2010 to 2022 in the context of performance prediction for Undergraduate Degree Programs (UDP). This review is organized according to Online and Traditional Education Systems (TES), and granularity level of performance output i.e., Degree program (Final CGPA), Next-semester, and the Course level grades. Aggregate analysis of the extracted data reveals that course level prediction is highly worked area deploying classification and regression techniques using data from academic domain. Existing empirical studies are mostly evaluated using accuracy, precision, recall and F1-measure and are validated with 10-fold cross validation. Contribution of this study is the novel categorical distribution of studies with respect to education system and granularity levels. Another important finding was the Success ratio of different Machine learning (ML) techniques used for these prediction studies. It is concluded that further research is required for TES to discover interdependent group of courses and Course Clusters for a certain degree program and then to develop prediction models for those course clusters

Impact of Teachers Emotional Intelligence in Large Classes

Purpose: People with emotional intelligence are more cheerful than others because it helps them to understand their feelings and allows them to live more freely and amicably. In this study, teachers' participation in large classrooms in government secondary schools was predicted using emotional intelligence. Design/Methodology/Approach: It is a quantitative strategy that made use of co relational research. In Multan, Pakistan, four tehsils are used to select 300 secondary school teachers using stratified random sampling. The secondary school teachers' responses to a closed-ended questionnaire were employed as the data source. The majority of secondary school instructors were found to have average levels of emotional intelligence and successfully engage students in large classrooms, according to the survey, which indicated that teachers' emotional intelligence levels were average. Findings: Teachers were surveyed regarding to their emotional involvement in large classrooms with the school community, their coworkers, and the students, as well as their level of emotion in interactions with the students and the impact of their emotional involvement on student achievement. It was discovered that teachers had a moderate amount of attachment to the culture of the school, their coworkers, and the students Implications/Originality/Value: Teachers participated actively in the classroom as a result of these traits.  Government should hire more teachers who have high emotional intelligence since it improves their ability to engage the students in class rooms

Perceived parenting styles and primary attachment styles of single and children living with both parents

Objective: The study investigates the association between perceived primary parenting styles and attachment styles between single parent children and children living with both parents. Methods: A correlational research study was carried out on a sample of 200 children, 100single parent children (Boys=50; Girls=50) taken from single parent families living in child protection and welfare bureau and 100 children living with both parents (Boys=50; Girls=50) enrolled in different grades taken from a private school of Lahore, through purposive sampling strategy. The study was carried out at Lahore Garrison University from September 2017 to march 2017.After obtaining permission from authorities, children were given Parental Authority Questionnaireand the Urdu version of Inventory of Parental and Peer attachment. Results:The results showed that there was a significant negative correlation between permissive parenting styles with mother’scommunication (*p<.05); authoritarian parenting style has negative correlation with parental communication, and trust(***p<.001). Authoritative parenting has significant positive relationship with trust (***p<.001), and communication with parents (***p<.001), negative relationship between authoritative parenting with feeling alienated from parents (*p<.01). The resultsof t-test also revealed that single parent children perceive their parents as authoritarian (***p<.001) and had more alienated attachment with parents (***p<.001), whereas children living with both parents had more trust (***p<.001) and had better communication with their parents (***p<.001). Conclusion: Current research is insightful in understanding the role of parents and different parenting styles in building up strong parent child attachment. Continuous..