12,841 research outputs found
BOBMEX: the Bay of Bengal monsoon experiment
The first observational experiment under the Indian Climate Research Programme, called the Bay of Bengal Monsoon Experiment (BOBMEX), was carried out during July-August 1999. BOBMEX was aimed at measurements of important variables of the atmosphere, ocean, and their interface to gain deeper insight into some of the processes that govern the variability of organized convection over the bay. Simultaneous time series observations were carried out in the northern and southern Bay of Bengal from ships and moored buoys. About 80 scientists from 15 different institutions in India collaborated during BOBMEX to make observations in most-hostile conditions of the raging monsoon. In this paper, the objectives and the design of BOBMEX are described and some initial results presented. During the BOBMEX field phase there were several active spells of convection over the bay, separated by weak spells. Observation with high-resolution radiosondes, launched for the first time over the northern bay, showed that the magnitudes of the convective available potential energy (CAPE) and the convective inhibition energy were comparable to those for the atmosphere over the west Pacific warm pool. CAPE decreased by 2-3 kJ kg-1 following convection, and recovered in a time period of 1-2 days. The surface wind speed was generally higher than 8 m s-1. The thermohaline structure as well as its time evolution during the BOBMEX field phase were found to be different in the northern bay than in the southern bay. Over both the regions, the SST decreased during rain events and increased in cloud-free conditions. Over the season as a whole, the upper-layer salinity decreased for the north bay and increased for the south bay. The variation in SST during 1999 was found to be of smaller amplitude than in 1998. Further analysis of the surface fluxes and currents is expected to give insight into the nature of coupling
Peculiarities and variations in the optical spectrum of the post-AGB star V448Lac=IRAS22223+4327
Repeated observations with high spectral resolution acquired in 1998-2008 are
used to study the temporal behavior of the spectral line profiles and velocity
field in the atmosphere and circumstellar envelope of the post-AGB star
V448Lac. Asymmetry of the profiles of the strongest absorption lines with
low-level excitation potentials less 1eV and time variations of these profiles
have been detected, most prominently the profiles of the resonance lines of
BaII, YII, LaII, SiII. The peculiarity of these profiles can be explained using
a superposition of stellar absorption line and shell emission lines. Emission
in the (0;1) 5635A Swan band of the C2 molecule has been detected in the
spectrum of V448Lac for the first time. The core of the Halpha line displays
radial velocity variations with an amplitude ~8 km/s. Radial velocity
variations displayed by weakest metallic lines with lower amplitudes, 1-2 km/s,
may be due to atmospheric pulsations. Differential line shifts, 0 -- 8 km/s,
have been detected on various dates. The position of the molecular spectrum is
stationary in time, indicating a constant expansion velocity of the
circumstellar shell, Vexp=15.2 km/s, as derived from the C2 and NaI lines.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures, 1 tabl
Solitary Dust--Acoustic Waves in a Plasma with Two-Temperature Ions and Distributed Grain Size
The propagation of weakly nonlinear dust--acoustic waves in a dusty plasma
containing two ion species with different temperatures is explored. The
nonlinear equations describing both the quadratic and cubic plasma
nonlinearities are derived. It is shown that the properties of dust--acoustic
waves depend substantially on the grain size distribution. In particular, for
solitary dust--acoustic waves with a positive potential to exist in a plasma
with distributed grain size, it is necessary that the difference between the
temperatures of two ion species be large that that in the case of unusized
grains.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figure
Reentrant Peak Effect in an anisotropic superconductor 2H-NbSe_2 : Role of disorder
The reentrant nature of Peak Effect is established in a single crystal of
2H-NbSe_2 via electrical transport and dc magnetisation studies. The role of
disorder on the reentrant branch of PE has been examined in three single
crystals with varying levels of quenched random disorder. Increasing disorder
presumably shrinks the (H,T) parameter space over which vortex array retains
spatial order. Although, the upper branch of the PE curve is somewhat robust,
the lower reentrant branch of the same curve is strongly affected by disorder.Comment: 5 Pages of text, 4 figure
Farmers' perception on plant protection in India and Nepal: a case study
Participatory rural appraisal was undertaken in 70 villages in India and Nepal, covering 1185 farmers to generate baseline information on the current plant protection practices. The study revealed that 93% of the farmers in India and 90% in Nepal had adopted chemical control for the management of various insect pests in different crops; however, less than 20% of the farmers expressed confidence on their efficacy. In India, 52% of farmers get their plant protection advice from pesticide dealers, while in Nepal, the majority of the farmers (69%) make their plant protection decisions through agricultural officers. A majority of the farmers (73% in India and 86% in Nepal) initiate the plant protection based on the first appearance of the pest, irrespective of their population, crop stage and their damage relationships. About 50% of the farmers in India and 20% in Nepal were not using any protective clothing while spraying. Health problems associated with the application of plant protection chemicals were reported by farmers. The cost of plant protection on various crops ranged from 7 to 40% of the total crop production cost. Though integrated pest management (IPM) has been advocated for the past two decades, only 32% in India and 20% in Nepal were aware of IPM practices. IPM implementation in selected villages brought a 20-65% reduction in pesticide use in different crops. The vegetable samples analysed for pesticide residues revealed the presence of residues
Multiplication law and S transform for non-hermitian random matrices
We derive a multiplication law for free non-hermitian random matrices
allowing for an easy reconstruction of the two-dimensional eigenvalue
distribution of the product ensemble from the characteristics of the individual
ensembles. We define the corresponding non-hermitian S transform being a
natural generalization of the Voiculescu S transform. In addition we extend the
classical hermitian S transform approach to deal with the situation when the
random matrix ensemble factors have vanishing mean including the case when both
of them are centered. We use planar diagrammatic techniques to derive these
results.Comment: 25 pages + 11 figure
Rheology of Active-Particle Suspensions
We study the interplay of activity, order and flow through a set of
coarse-grained equations governing the hydrodynamic velocity, concentration and
stress fields in a suspension of active, energy-dissipating particles. We make
several predictions for the rheology of such systems, which can be tested on
bacterial suspensions, cell extracts with motors and filaments, or artificial
machines in a fluid. The phenomena of cytoplasmic streaming, elastotaxis and
active mechanosensing find natural explanations within our model.Comment: 3 eps figures, submitted to Phys Rev Let
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