Genetic variability, characters association and path analysis for yield and fruit quality components in Brinjal

The experiment was done at AB District Seed Farm, BCKV, Kalyani Simanta, West-Bengal, India during autumn-winter 2013-14 and 2014-15. The characters that exhibited higher Phenotypic and Genotypic Co-efficient of variation values were number of fruits per plant (76.86, 75.63%), fruit weight (43.88, 41.34%), harvest index (23.57, 22.29%), fruit yield per plant (53.61, 51.17%), anthocyanin in peel, total phenols and DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-l-picryl hydrazyl) free radical scavenging (FRS) capacity indicating that a greater amount of genetic variability was present for these characters which provide greater scope for selection. High heritability coupled with high genetic advance as percent of mean was observed for the characters like plant height, days to 1st flowering, days to 50% flowering, number of fruits per plant, fruit weight, harvest index, fruit yield per plant, total sugar, anthocyanin in peel, total phenols and DPPH FRS capacity depicting that these traits were under the strong influence of additive gene action and hence simple selection based on phenotypic performance of these traits would be more effective. Fruit yield per plant showed highly positive significant correlation with number of primary branches per plant, number of fruits per plant, harvest index, vitamin-A and total phenols and significant negative correlation with days to 1st flowering, TSS, total sugars and total protein. Number of fruits per plant imparted the highest positive direct effect on yield followed by harvest index, fruit weight, days to 50% flowering and anthocyanin in peel. Number of fruits per plant and days to flowering were emerged as the main casual factors for positive or negative association of several characters with fruit yield per plant. Therefore, selection for fruit yield per plant based on these characters would be reliable

Heavy ion physics

The 8th workshop on high energy physics phenomenology (WHEPP-8) was held at the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, India during January 5-16, 2004. One of the four working groups, group III was dedicated to QCD and heavy ion physics (HIC). The present manuscript gives a summary of the activities of group III during the workshop (see also [1] for completeness). The activities of group III were focused to understand the collective behaviours of the system formed after the collisions of two nuclei at ultra-relativistic energies from the interactions of the elementary degrees of freedom, i.e. quarks and gluons, governed by non-abelian gauge theory, i.e. QCD. This was initiated by two plenary talks on experimental overview of heavy ion collisions and lattice QCD and several working group talks and discussions

Baryon inhomogeneity generation via cosmic strings at QCD scale and its effects on nucleosynthesis

We have earlier shown that cosmic strings moving through the plasma at the time of a first order quark-hadron transition in the early universe can generate large scale baryon inhomogeneities. In this paper, we calculate detailed structure of these inhomogeneities at the quark-hadron transition. Our calculations show that the inhomogeneities generated by cosmic string wakes can strongly affect nucleosynthesis calculations. A comparison with observational data suggests that such baryon inhomogeneities should not have existed at the nucleosynthesis epoch. If this disagreement holds with more accurate observations, then it will lead to the conclusions that cosmic string formation scales above $10^{14} - 10^{15}$ GeV may not be consistent with nucleosynthesis and CMBR observations. Alternatively, some other input in our calculation should be constrained, for example, if the average string velocity remains sufficiently small so that significant density perturbations are never produced at the QCD scale, or if strings move ultra-relativistically so that string wakes are very thin, trapping negligible amount of baryons. Finally, if quark-hadron transition is not of first order then our calculations do not apply.Comment: 24 pages, 5 figures, minor changes, version to appear in Phys. Rev.

Cosmic string induced sheet like baryon inhomogeneities at quark-hadron transition

Cosmic strings moving through matter produce wakes where density is higher than the background density. We investigate the effects of such wakes occurring at the time of a first order quark-hadron transition in the early universe and show that they can lead to separation of quark-gluon plasma phase in the wake region, while the region outside the wake converts to the hadronic phase. Moving interfaces then trap large baryon densities in sheet like regions which can extend across the entire horizon. Typical separation between such sheets, at formation, is of the order of a km. Regions of baryon inhomogeneity of this nature, i.e. having a planar geometry, and separated by such large distance scales, appear to be well suited for the recent models of inhomogeneous nucleosynthesis to reconcile with the large baryon to photon ratio implied by the recent measurements of the cosmic microwave background power spectrum.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure

Effect of pre-existing baryon inhomogeneities on the dynamics of quark-hadron transition

Baryon number inhomogeneities may be generated during the epoch when the baryon asymmetry of the universe is produced, e.g. at the electroweak phase transition. The regions with excess baryon number will have a lower temperature than the background temperature of the universe. Also the value of the quark hadron transition temperature $T_c$ will be different in these regions as compared to the background region. Since a first-order quark hadron transition is very susceptible to small changes in temperature, we investigate the effect of the presence of such baryonic lumps on the dynamics of quark-hadron transition. We find that the phase transition is delayed in these lumps for significant overdensities. Consequently, we argue that baryon concentration in these regions grows by the end of the transition. We briefly discuss some models which may give rise to such high overdensities at the onset of the quark-hadron transition.Comment: 16 pages, no figures, minor changes, version to appear in Phys. Rev.

Working Group Report: Neutrino and Astroparticle Physics

This is the report of neutrino and astroparticle physics working group at WHEPP-8. We present the discussions carried out during the workshop on selected topics in the above fields and also indicate progress made subsequently. The neutrino physics subgroup studied the possibilites of constraining neutrino masses, mixing and CPT violation in lepton sector from future experiments. Neutrino mass models in the context of abelian horizontal symmetries, warped extra dimensions and in presence of triplet Higgs were studied. Effect of threshold corrections on radiative magnification of mixing angles was investigated. The astroparticle physics subgroup focused on how various particle physics inputs affect the CMBR fluctuation spectrum, and on brane cosmology. This report also contains an introduction on how to use the publicly available code CMBFAST to calculate the CMBR fluctuations.Comment: Prepared for the 8th Workshop on High-Energy Physics Phenomenology (WHEPP-8), IIT Mumbai, India, 5-16 Jan 200

Electromagnetic probes

We introduce the seminal developments in the theory and experiments of electromagnetic probes for the study of the dynamics of relativistic heavy ion collisions and quark gluon plasma.Comment: 47 pages, 33 Figures; Lectures delivered by Dinesh K. Srivastava at QGP Winter School (QGPWS08) at Jaipur, India, February 1-3, 200

Modeling Stochasticity and Variability in Gene Regulatory Networks

Modeling stochasticity in gene regulatory networks is an important and complex problem in molecular systems biology. To elucidate intrinsic noise, several modeling strategies such as the Gillespie algorithm have been used successfully. This paper contributes an approach as an alternative to these classical settings. Within the discrete paradigm, where genes, proteins, and other molecular components of gene regulatory networks are modeled as discrete variables and are assigned as logical rules describing their regulation through interactions with other components. Stochasticity is modeled at the biological function level under the assumption that even if the expression levels of the input nodes of an update rule guarantee activation or degradation there is a probability that the process will not occur due to stochastic effects. This approach allows a finer analysis of discrete models and provides a natural setup for cell population simulations to study cell-to-cell variability. We applied our methods to two of the most studied regulatory networks, the outcome of lambda phage infection of bacteria and the p53-mdm2 complex.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figure

Development of screen-printed electrode based immunosensor for the detection of HER2 antigen in human serum samples

In this study, an immunosensor based on screen-printed electrode (SPE) has been developed for the detection of Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor-2 (HER2) antigen. The SPEs were fabricated and a sandwich enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) format was followed for the construction of the immunosensor. The capture antibody (mouse anti-human ErbB2) was coated onto the electrode surface without any prior surface modification, followed by the addition of recombinant human HER2 antigen. Biotinylated goat anti-human ErbB2 was used as the detection antibody which was linked to streptavidin conjugated horseradish peroxidase (HRP). 3,3',5,5'-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) was used as the substrate. The redox reaction was measured using cyclic voltammetry at scan rate of 50mV/s for the quantification of the antigen in solution. The biotin-avidin chemistry enabled the accurate detection of the antigen in nanogram levels. The amperometric signal obtained increased linearly with increase in the HER2 concentration and two-fold linear range was obtained between 5ng/ml-20ng/ml and 20-200ng/ml respectively. The limit of detection (LOD) and the limit of quantification (LOQ) of this immunosensor were found to be 4ng/ml and 5ng/ml respectively. The detection of HER2 in the serum samples of invasive and non-invasive breast cancer patients has been realized

Nanocrystalline magnesium oxide stabilized palladium(0): an efficient reusable catalyst for room temperature selective aerobic oxidation of alcohols

Nanocrystalline magnesium oxide-stabilized palladium(0) [NAP-Mg-Pd(0)], as an efficient catalytic system has been employed for the selective oxidation of alcohols using atmospheric oxygen as a green oxidant at room temperature. Various alcohols could be transformed into their corresponding aldehydes or ketones in good to excellent yields using a set of optimal conditions. NanoActive Magnesium Oxide Plus, [NAP-MgO] with its three-dimensional structure and well-defined shape acts as an excellent support for well dispersed palladium(0) nanoparticles. This catalyst can be recovered and reused for several cycles without any significant loss of catalytic activity