Report of the workshop on ecosystem characterisation of Indian coastal waters, Dona Paula, Goa, India, 20-22 October, 2014

The goals of the workshop were to: conduct an interactive workshop for characterizing Indian coastal ecosystems; verification of the ecosystem characterisation report for the East coast of India; and development of ecosystem characterisation for the west coast of India based on ecological/biophysical systems

Surgical Management of an Indian Spotted Eagle with Compound Fracture of Humerus

An adult Indian Spotted Eagle (Aquila hastata) was presented with a history of being unable to fly. Clinical examination and radiography revealed a compound oblique fracture in the distal humerus of the right wing. The fracture site was grossly contaminated and the fragments were necrosed. Hence, to save the life of the bird, the wing was amputated under general anaesthesia, induced and maintained with ketamine. The surgical intervention led to uncomplicated recovery of an eagle

Retrieval of Pharyngeal Foreign Body Through Oral Approach in Three Dogs

Three dogs aged between 2 to 4 years old were presented to the Referral Veterinary Polyclinic, Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar with clinical signs of anorexia, hypersalivation and repeated attempts at swallowing. Two cases showed shaking of head, pawing at the mouth and rubbing the head against wall, while in one case behavioral signs of depression were observed. Clinical examination and lateral plain radiograph of head and neck revealed radio opaque foreign body in the pharynx of all the animals. The foreign bodies were retrieved through the oral approach under general anaesthesia. This clinical paper reports the successful management of pharyngeal foreign bodies through oral approach using long curved artery forceps without any complication

Structural and electrical properties of c-axis oriented Y1-xCaxBa2(Cu1-yZny)3O7-delta thin films grown by pulsed laser deposition

Ca- and Zn-subsituted Y1-xCaxBa2(Cu1-yZny)O7-delta (x = 0, 0.05 and y = 0, 0.02, 0.04, 0.05) thin films were grown on SrTiO3 (100) substrates using the pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique. Effects of various growth parameters on the quality of the film were studied via X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and in-plane resistivity, rhoab(T), measurements. The deposition temperature and oxygen partial pressure were gradually increased to 820C and 1.20 mbar respectively. Films grown under these conditions exhibited good c-axis orientation (primarily limited by the grain size) and low values of the extrapolated residual resistivity, rho(0), at zero temperature. The planar hole content, p, was determined from the room temperature thermopower, S[290K], measurements and the effects of oxygen annealing were also studied. Fully oxygenated samples were found to be overdoped with p ~ 0.195. The Superconducting transition temperature Tc(p), and rho(T,p) showed the expected systematic variations with changing Zn content.Comment: Submitted to Physica C (2003

Close encounters of a rotating star with planets in parabolic orbits of varying inclination and the formation of Hot Jupiters

(abbreviated) We extend the theory of close encounters of a planet on a parabolic orbit with a star to include the effects of tides induced on the central rotating star. Orbits with arbitrary inclination to the stellar rotation axis are considered. We obtain results both from an analytic treatment and numerical one that are in satisfactory agreement. These results are applied to the initial phase of the tidal circularisation problem. We find that both tides induced in the star and planet can lead to a significant decrease of the orbital semi-major axis for orbits having periastron distances smaller than 5-6 stellar radii (corresponding to periods $\sim 4-5$ days after the circularisation has been completed) with tides in the star being much stronger for retrograde orbits compared to prograde orbits. We use the simple Skumanich law for the stellar rotation with its rotational period equal to one month at the age of 5Gyr. The strength of tidal interactions is characterised by circularisation time scale, $t_{ev}$ defined as a time scale of evolution of the planet's semi-major axis due to tides considered as a function of orbital period $P_{obs}$ after the process of tidal circularisation has been completed. We find that the ratio of the initial circularisation time scales corresponding to prograde and retrograde orbits is of order 1.5-2 for a planet of one Jupiter mass and $P_{obs}\sim$ four days. It grows with the mass of the planet, being of order five for a five Jupiter mass planet with the same $P_{orb}$. Thus, the effect of stellar rotation may provide a bias in the formation of planetary systems having planets on close orbits around their host stars, as a consequence of planet-planet scattering, favouring systems with retrograde orbits. The results may also be applied to the problem of tidal capture of stars in young stellar clusters.Comment: to be published in Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronom

Ecosystem characterisation of Indian coast with special focus on the west coast

CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography (CSIR-NIO), Goa, India in collaboration with CSIRO, Australia organised a 2 day national experts workshop to: pool information between fisheries and oceanography experts; verify a draft ecosystem characterisation for the east coast of India; and develop a draft ecosystem characterisation for the west coast of India

Some FRW Models of Accelerating Universe with Dark Energy

The paper deals with a spatially homogeneous and isotropic FRW space-time filled with perfect fluid and dark energy components. The two sources are assumed to interact minimally, and therefore their energy momentum tensors are conserved separately. A special law of variation for the Hubble parameter proposed by Berman (1983) has been utilized to solve the field equations. The Berman's law yields two explicit forms of the scale factor governing the FRW space-time and constant values of deceleration parameter. The role of dark energy with variable equation of state parameter has been studied in detail in the evolution of FRW universe. It has been found that dark energy dominates the universe at the present epoch, which is consistent with the observations. The physical behavior of the universe is discussed in detail.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure

Superconformal Multi-Black Hole Moduli Spaces in Four Dimensions

Quantum mechanics on the moduli space of N supersymmetric Reissner-Nordstrom black holes is shown to admit 4 supersymmetries using an unconventional supermultiplet which contains 3N bosons and 4N fermions. A near-horizon limit is found in which the quantum mechanics of widely separated black holes decouples from that of strongly-interacting, near-coincident black holes. This near-horizon theory is shown to have an enhanced D(2,1;0) superconformal symmetry. The bosonic symmetries are SL(2,R) conformal symmetry and SU(2)xSU(2) R-symmetry arising from spatial rotations and the R-symmetry of N=2 supergravity.Comment: 23 pages, harvmac. v2: many typos fixe

Shot noise of series quantum point contacts intercalating chaotic cavities

Shot noise of series quantum point contacts forming a sequence of cavities in a two dimensional electron gas are studied theoretically and experimentally. Noise in such a structure originates from local scattering at the point contacts as well as from chaotic motion of the electrons in the cavities. We found that the measured shot noise is in reasonable agreement with our theoretical prediction taking the cavity noise into account.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure