UNICS - An Unified Instrument Control System for Small/Medium Sized Astronomical Observatories

Although the astronomy community is witnessing an era of large telescopes, smaller and medium sized telescopes still maintain their utility being larger in numbers. In order to obtain better scientific outputs it is necessary to incorporate modern and advanced technologies to the back-end instruments and to their interfaces with the telescopes through various control processes. However often tight financial constraints on the smaller and medium size observatories limit the scope and utility of these systems. Most of the time for every new development on the telescope the back-end control systems are required to be built from scratch leading to high costs and efforts. Therefore a simple, low cost control system for small and medium size observatory needs to be developed to minimize the cost and efforts while going for the expansion of the observatory. Here we report on the development of a modern, multipurpose instrument control system UNICS (Unified Instrument Control System) to integrate the controls of various instruments and devices mounted on the telescope. UNICS consists of an embedded hardware unit called Common Control Unit (CCU) and Linux based data acquisition and User Interface. The Hardware of the CCU is built around the Atmel make ATmega 128 micro-controller and is designed with a back-plane, Master Slave architecture. The Graphical User Interface (GUI) has been developed based on QT and the back end application software is based on C/C++. UNICS provides feedback mechanisms which give the operator a good visibility and a quick-look display of the status and modes of instruments. UNICS is being used for regular science observations since March 2008 on 2m, f/10 IUCAA Telescope located at Girawali, Pune India.Comment: Submitted to PASP, 10 Pages, 5 figure

HPLC Method for Determination of p-coumaric acid from the Medicinal Herb Leptadinia reticulata

The aim of present study was to develop and validate a simple, precise and rapid HPLC method for the quantification of p-coumaric acid in Leptadinia reticulata extractst. The analysis was performed by reverse-phase chromatography on an phenomenex C18 columns with isocratic elution of Methanol and 0.8%-Formic acid in water (6:4) at a flow rate of 1.0mL/min, a column temperature of 35°C, photodiode array detector detection at 326 nm. The method validated in terms of linearity accuracy precision LOD, LOQ and stability. The herb Leptidinia reticulata contains 0.17% p-coumaric acid. The linear range of method was 0.25-50µg/ml with correlation coefficient of 0.9993, the recovery was 98-99.4% and the relative standard deviation is 0.98 % (n=6). The developed method was found to be a relatively simple, precise and reproducible for the quantification of p-coumaric acid. The method does not employ any derivatization procedure and can be used as a quality control tool for the routine analysis of    p-coumaric acid from an herb Leptadinia reticulata

(7E)-5-Benzyl-7-(2-chloro­benzyl­idene)-3-(2-chloro­phen­yl)-2-phenyl-3,3a,4,5,6,7-hexa­hydro-2H-pyrazolo­[4,3-c]pyridine

In the title 2H-pyrazolo­[4,3-c]pyridine derivative, C32H27Cl2N3, the dihydro­pyrazole ring adopts an envelope conformation and the piperidine fused ring a twisted-chair conformation. Two short intra­molecular C—H⋯Cl contacts are observed. The crystal packing is characterized by dimeric C—Cl⋯π inter­actions involving the 5-benzyl ring, with Cl⋯centroid and closest atomic Cl⋯π distances of 3.778 (2) and 3.366 (4) Å, respectively

Analysis, design and investigation on a new single-phase switched quasi Z-source inverter for photovoltaic application

Abstract: This paper addresses the approach to improve the efficiency of the quasi Z-source inverter. In order to increase the efficiency the reduction of conduction losses is one way to approach. Sequentially to decrease the conduction losses in the quasi z-source inverter the replacement of diode is replacing with switches is proposed which is also called as synchronous rectification. The paper represents basics of the approach, analysis and comparison of the power losses of the traditional and proposed designs of the grid connected PV-system with quasi z-source inverter system. The proposed approach validated on the computer simulations in the MATLAB environment

Status of woolly aphid Ceratovacuna lanigera and establishment of the parasitoid Encarsia flavoscutellum in sugarcane germplasm

Woolly aphid Ceratovacuna lanigera Zehntner (Hemiptera: Aphididae), a native of north-eastern India, appeared in the world sugarcane germplasm maintained at the ICAR-Sugarcane Breeding Institute Research Center (ICAR-SBIRC), Kannur, Kerala State, India, first in 2004. The aphid colonized Indian hybrids and accessions of Saccharum officinarum, Saccharum sinense, Saccharum robustum and Saccharum barberi in the first year of occurrence and every year thereafter. Early detection and spot application of insecticide were adopted to manage the aphid and protect germplasm. Soap solution was applied in the later years to conserve the predators Dipha aphidivora Metrics (Lepidoptera:Pyralidae) and Micromus sp. (Neuroptera: Hemerobiidae) that occurred intermittently. The parasitoid Encarsia flavoscutellum Zehntner (Hymenoptera: Aphelenidae) maintained at Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu State, India, was released in the germplasm thrice, i.e. in January 2009, November 2014 and June 2015. Post-release, E. flavoscutellum parasitism was detected first during April-June 2015 at low levels (2.0- 3.5%). Clear-cut evidence of establishment was witnessed during September-October 2021 when aphids showed a high 27.0% parasitism. Since E. flavoscutellum was found to regulate populations of woolly aphid wherever it established, it is expected to reach similar equilibrium with the aphid in the germplasm, D. aphidivora and Micromus sp. playing a complementary role at high aphid densities. However, continuous monitoring of aphid and natural enemies, and use of safer emergency control measures would go a long way in maintaining the germplasm free from woolly aphid

An alum [KAl (SO4)2.12H2O] catalyzed microwave assisted multicomponent synthesis of bioactive functionalized benzylpyrazolyl coumarin and quinolinone derivatives in PEG

An efficient and environmentally benign method has been developed for the synthesis of benzylpyrazolyl coumarin and quinolinone derivatives, hydroxy coumarin derivatives using Alum [KAl (SO4)2.12H2O] catalyst and Polyethylene glycol as green solvent under microwave condition. Keywords: Knoevenagel, Michael addition reaction, coumarins, quinolinones, alum, polyethylene glycol, multicomponent microwave irradiation method

Salicylic Acid Reduces the Production of Several Potential Virulence Factors of Pseudomonas aeruginosa Associated with Microbial Keratitis

PURPOSE. Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a common cause of contact-lens-related microbial keratitis. This bacterium is becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics, and even if the infection can be treated with antibiotics, damage to the cornea resulting from the combined effect of bacteria and host factors can lead to loss of vision. The purpose of this study was to test the effect of salicylic acid on the production of potential virulence factors during the growth of P. aeruginosa. METHODS. Bacterial cells were grown in a subinhibitory concentration of salicylic acid, and supernatants were collected and analyzed for presence of proteases by using zymography and hydrolysis of chromogenic substrates. The supernatants were also analyzed for the amount of acetylated homoserine lactones by using bacterial reporter strains. Pseudomonas cells from salicylic acid cultures were analyzed for their twitching and swimming motility as well as their ability to invade or cause the death of corneal epithelial cells. RESULTS. Growth in a subinhibitory concentration of salicylic acid resulted in a significant reduction in the number of bacterial cells and a reduction in the rate of the number of bacteria increasing during logarithmic growth, but the time to reach the stationary phase of growth was unchanged. These changes in growth pattern affected the amount of acylated homoserine lactones produced by P. aeruginosa 6294. Also affected by growth in salicylic acid was the ability of strain 6294 to show twitching or swimming motility. Salicylic acid also reduced the invasion of strain 6294 into corneal epithelial cells and the epithelial cell death caused by strain 6206. Furthermore, production of proteases by P. aeruginosa was significantly reduced by growth in salicylic acid. CONCLUSIONS. The results of this study clearly demonstrate that salicylic acid has a significant impact on several potential virulence factors of P. aeruginosa that may be involved in the production of microbial keratitis. These effects were probably mediated by reduction in the cell density and concomitant reduction in the quorum-sensing signaling molecules, the acylated homoserine lactones, produced by P. aeruginosa. (Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2006;47:4453-4460

Observations with the High Altitude GAmma-Ray (HAGAR) telescope array in the Indian Himalayas

The High Altitude GAmma-Ray (HAGAR) array is a wavefront sampling array of 7 telescopes, set-up at Hanle, at 4270 m amsl, in the Ladakh region of the Himalayas (Northern India). It constitutes the first phase of the HImalayan Gamma-Ray Observatory (HIGRO) project. HAGAR is the first array of atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes established at a so high altitude, and was designed to reach a relatively low threshold (currently around 200 GeV) with quite a low mirror area (31 m2). Regular source observations are running since September 2008. Estimation of the sensitivity of the experiment is undergoing using several hours of data from the direction of Crab nebula, the standard candle source of TeV gamma-ray astronomy, and from dark regions. Data were acquired using the On-source/Off-source tracking mode, and by comparing these sky regions the strength of the gamma-ray signal could be estimated. Gamma-ray events arrive close to telescope axis direction while the cosmic-ray background events arrive from the whole field of view. We discuss our analysis procedures for the estimate of arrival direction, estimate of gamma ray flux from Crab nebula, and the sensitivity of the HAGAR system, in this paper