Multifunctional Antenna with Reconfigurable Ultra-Wide Band Characteristics

In this paper a multifunctional antenna is presented which offers an ultra-wideband (UWB) operation, an UWB operation with two switchable notches and reconfigurable dual-band operation for WiMAX and WLAN applications, respectively. Total seven functions/states could be achieved from a single antenna using an electronic switching. The antenna uses dual slots on the ground plane to provide a wide bandwidth, ranging from 3.1 GHz to 10.6 GHz. U-Shaped slot and C-Shaped printed strip in the ground are used to generate two notches at 3.6 GHz(WiMAX) and 5.2 GHz (WLAN/ WiFi) bands, respectively. Moreover, four parasitic strips are added in the feed side to make antenna functional at either3.6 GHz or 5.2 GHz or both. Total Five PIN diodes are required to obtain seven operations from the proposed antenna. Seven structures are fabricated and measured to verify the seven states and results are found in good agreement with estimated results obtained from the simulation

Comparative evaluation of water budgeting parameters under different rice (Oryza sativa L.) cultivation methods

Water budgeting studies under different rice cultivation methods provides an insight into the amount of water used by the plant and percolated below the root zone for judicious water management. To undertake this study, a field experiment was conducted to estimate different soil water balance parameters under three rice (Oryza sativa L.) cultivation methods viz. Direct Seeded Rice (DSR), System of Rice Intensification (SRI) and Conventional Puddled Rice (CPR). The experiment was conducted during kharif 2013 and kharif 2014 season at research farm of Indian Council of Agricultural Research-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India. In this study, the rainfall and irrigation depth, Crop Evapotranspiration (ETc), percolation beyond root zone of the crop and surface runoff during the crop growth period were accounted in water budgeting. It was observed that the percolation be-yond root zone of the crop was the highest under CPR method amounting 963 mm and 831 mm, which was about 55% and 58% of total water applied during 2013 and 2014, respectively. However, the percolation beyond root zone of the crop was the lowest under DSR method of rice cultivation amounting 367 mm and 332 mm which was 43% and 39% of total water applied during 2013 and 2014, respectively. Water loss through Etc was around 30% of total water applied in all three cultivation methods for year 2013. However, it was 59%, 46% and 43% of total water ap-plied for DSR, SRI and CPR, respectively in the year 2014.This indicates more effective utilization of total applied water in the year 2014.The study highlighted that water loss through deep percolation beyond root zone is the major factor contributing to the high water requirement in CPR and SRI methods compare to DSR method. Moreover, different soil water balance components computed in this study will be helpful for estimation of irrigation water requirement in the rice growing areas of the agro-climatic region VI (Trans-gangetic Plains) of India

Surface modification of silicate, borosilicate and phosphate bioactive glasses to improve/control protein adsorption: PART I

Bioactive glasses (BGs) are promising for bone tissue regeneration. BG composition can be tailored, according to the application of interest, and/or functionalized with organic molecules/biomolecules to improve their performances. However, despite the wide knowledge concerning BGs, their interaction with proteins, fundamental for controlling the fate of the implant, has not been deeply investigated yet. Controlling or predicting protein adsorption requires a full understanding of the materials surface physico-chemical properties. In this work, four different BGs (S53P4, B25, SCNB, PhGlass) were surface-modified by four different treatments: 72 h-soaking in TRIS, 72 h soaking in simulated body fluid, APTES grafting and quaternized APTES grafting. The surfaces were then characterized both untreated and after each treatment by contact angle, zeta potential analysis, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Fourier Transform InfraRed–Attenuated Total Reflectance spectroscopy and Scanning Electron Microscopy and Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy. Inductively Coupled Plasma – Optical Emission Spectrometry was then performed to investigate the ion leaching. The aim of this study (Part I) is the physico-chemical characterization of BGs as a function of the implemented treatments, aiming to better understand how the superficial properties are successively affecting protein adsorption. Protein adsorption on untreated and treated BGs will be discussed in a following manuscript (Part II)

Thermal Time Scales in a Color Glass Condensate

In a model of relativistic heavy ion collisions wherein the unconfined quark-gluon plasma is condensed into glass, we derive the Vogel-Fulcher-Tammann cooling law. This law is well known to hold true in condensed matter glasses. The high energy plasma is initially created in a very hot negative temperature state and cools down to the Hagedorn glass temperature at an ever decreasing rate. The cooling rate is largely determined by the QCD string tension derived from hadronic Regge trajectories. The ultimately slow relaxation time is a defining characteristic of a color glass condensate.Comment: 5 pages, ReVTeX format, nofigure

Optical observations of the bright long duration peculiar GRB 021004 afterglow

The CCD magnitudes in Johnson $B,V$ and Cousins $R$ and $I$ photometric passbands are determined for the bright long duration GRB 021004 afterglow from 2002 October 4 to 16 starting $\sim$ 3 hours after the $\gamma-$ray burst. Light curves of the afterglow emission in $B$,$V$,$R$ and $I$ passbands are obtained by combining these measurements with other published data. The earliest optical emission appears to originate in a revese shock. Flux decay of the afterglow shows a very uncommon variation relative to other well-observed GRBs. Rapid light variations, especially during early times ($\Delta t < 2$ days) is superposed on an underlying broken power law decay typical of a jetted afterglow. The flux decay constants at early and late times derived from least square fits to the light curve are $0.99\pm0.05$ and $2.0\pm0.2$ respectively, with a jet break at around 7 day. Comparison with a standard fireball model indicates a total extinction of $E(B-V)=0.20$ mag in the direction of the burst. Our low-resolution spectra corrected for this extinction provide a spectral slope $\beta = 0.6\pm0.02$. This value and the flux decay constants agree well with the electron energy index $p\sim 2.27$ used in the model. The derived jet opening angle of about $7^{\circ}$ implies a total emitted gamma-ray energy $E_{\gamma} = 3.5\times10^{50}$ erg at a cosmological distance of about 20 Gpc. Multiwavelength observations indicate association of this GRB with a star forming region, supporting the case for collapsar origin of long duration GRBs.Comment: 19 pages, 3 figures, BASI, 31, 1

Potential of INSAT-3D sounder-derived total precipitable water product for weather forecast

The objectives of the INSAT-3D satellite are to enhance the meteorological observations and to monitor the Earth's surface for weather forecasting and disaster warning. One of the weather-monitoring capabilities of the INSAT-3D sounder is the estimation of water vapour in the atmosphere. The amount of water vapour present in the atmospheric column is derived as the total precipitable water (TPW) product from the infrared radiances measured by the INSAT-3D sounder. The present study is based on TPW derived from INSAT-3D sounder, radiosonde (RS) observations and the corresponding National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellite. To assess retrieval performances of INSAT-3D sounder-derived TPW, RS TPW observations are considered for the validation from May to September 2016 from 34 stations belonging to the India Meteorological Department (IMD). The analysis is performed on daily, monthly, and subdivisional bases over the Indian region. The comparison of INSAT-3D TPW with RS TPW on daily and monthly bases shows that the root mean square error (RMSE) and correlation coefficients (CC) are  ∼ 8&thinsp;mm and 0.8, respectively. However, on subdivisional and overall scales, the RMSE found to be in the range of 1 to 2&thinsp;mm and CC was around 0.9 in comparison with RS and NOAA. The spatial distribution of INSAT-3D TPW with actual rainfall observation is also investigated. In general, INSAT-3D TPW corresponds well with rainfall observation; however, it has found that heavy rainfall events occur in the presence of high TPW values. In addition, the cases of thunderstorm events were assessed using TPW from INSAT-3D and network of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver. This shows the good agreement between TPW from INSAT-3D and GNSS during the mesoscale activity. The improvement in the estimation of TPW is carried out by applying the GSICS calibration corrections (Global Space-based Inter-Calibration System) to the radiances from infrared (IR) channels of the sounder, which is used by IMDPS (INSAT Meteorological Data Processing System). The current TPW from INSAT-3D satellite can be utilized operationally for weather monitoring and forecast purposes. It can also offer substantial opportunities for improvement in nowcasting studies.</p

Effect of vermicompost and fertility levels on growth, yield, nutrient uptake and net returns in pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum)

A field experiment was conducted during 2010 in semi- arid climate of Rajasthan to asses the effect of vermicompost and fertility levels on the pearl millet. Application of vermicompost @ 6 tonnes/ha significantly improved the growth and yield attributes and yields of the pearl millet. Application of vermicompost @ 6 tonnes/ha increased the grain yield of pearl millet by 51.4, 20.1 and 7.3% and stover yield by 42.4, 19.3 and 6.3 percent respectively over control, 2 and 4 tonnes/ha vermicompost, respectively. Application of vermicompost @ 6 tonnes/ha recorded significantly higher N content in grain and stover indicating an increase of 10.4 and 16.3 over control, 13.5 and 8.4 over 2 tonnes/ha and 16.6 and 3.2 percent over 4 tonnes/ha, respectively. Phosphorus content in grain and stover were significantly higher by 11.6 and 13.7% over control. Application of 6 tonnes/ha of vermicompost significantly increased N and P uptake in pearl millet. The highest net return (` 11 785) was obtained with vermicompost @ 2 tonnes/ha and minimum with 6 tonnes/ha vermicompost. Application of 100% RDF significantly increased nutrient content, nutrient uptake and net return (` 13 798/ha) and proved significantly superior to all the lower levels of fertility