The super-oscillating superlens

We demonstrate a lens that creates a sub-wavelength focal spot beyond the near-field by exploiting the phenomenon of super-oscillation

Salinity stress effect on biochemical changes in leaves of rice genotypes differing in salt tolerance

The impact of salinity stress on biochemical changes of salt tolerant genotypes PVSB9, PVSB19, PNR381, PNR519, Iratom24 and salt sensitive genotype NS15 along with one standard check salt tolerant rice cultivar Pokkali were assessed in two factors [7 rice genotypes in combination with 5 levels of salinity (0, 3, 6, 9 and 12 dS m-1)] in pot culture. The biochemical aspects studied include chlorophyll, free amino acids and soluble proteins of the selected rice genotypes in view to evaluate their response at different salinity levels. The results of biochemical changes indicated that salinity seriously affected the biosynthesis of leaf chlorophyll of all the selected genotypes at different days after transplanting (DAT). At 35, 65 and 75 DATs, chlorophyll a and chlorophyll a/b ratio increased with increase in salinity levels but total chlorophyll and chlorophyll b decreased with increasing the levels of salinity. The soluble protein and free amino acids content in leaves of seven selected rice genotypes increased significantly with increase in salinity levels at 35 DAT but at 60 and 75 DAT, this increasing pattern continued up to 6 and 9 dSm-1, respectively.ÂÂ

CoVar: A generalizable machine learning approach to identify the coordinated regulators driving variational gene expression

Network inference is used to model transcriptional, signaling, and metabolic interactions among genes, proteins, and metabolites that identify biological pathways influencing disease pathogenesis. Advances in machine learning (ML)-based inference models exhibit the predictive capabilities of capturing latent patterns in genomic data. Such models are emerging as an alternative to the statistical models identifying causative factors driving complex diseases. We present CoVar, an ML-based framework that builds upon the properties of existing inference models, to find the central genes driving perturbed gene expression across biological states. Unlike differentially expressed genes (DEGs) that capture changes in individual gene expression across conditions, CoVar focuses on identifying variational genes that undergo changes in their expression network interaction profiles, providing insights into changes in the regulatory dynamics, such as in disease pathogenesis. Subsequently, it finds core genes from among the nearest neighbors of these variational genes, which are central to the variational activity and influence the coordinated regulatory processes underlying the observed changes in gene expression. Through the analysis of simulated as well as yeast expression data perturbed by the deletion of the mitochondrial genome, we show that CoVar captures the intrinsic variationality and modularity in the expression data, identifying key driver genes not found through existing differential analysis methodologies

Suitability of potato varieties grown from true seed and seed tubers for chips making using a microwave oven.

One of the basic concepts of microwave drying of potato ( Solanum tuberosum ) chips is to achieve desired chip colour and texture, within a short period. In this study, chips (1 mm thickness) of true potato seed (TPS) (\u2018BARI TPS-1\u2019) and seed potato (\u2018Asterix\u2019) varieties were heated for 0, 10, 20, 30, 60, 90, 120, 180 and 300 s by a microwave oven, and the changes in chips were analysed physiologically and histologically to investigate the suitability of TPS tubers as processing potato. Although potato chip crispiness of both potato varieties increased continuously throughout the heating treatment, crispiness of \u2018BARI TPS-1\u2019, increased more slowly than that of \u2018Asterix\u2019, indicating that TPS chips became less rigid and fluffy after microwave heating than that of \u2018Asterix\u2019 chips. SEM images of starch granules showed slower swelling and deformed structure in TPS than in \u2018Asterix\u2019, suggesting that TPS can retain crisp texture longer than \u2018Asterix\u2019. Although there was no substantial increase of a* and b* value in both potato chips, a lower value of L* and crispiness in TPS, suggests TPS chips lose crispiness and colour within a shorter period of microwave heating than \u2018Asterix\u2019.L\u2019un des concepts de base du s\ue9chage par micro-ondes des frites de pomme de terre ( Solanum tuberosum ) consiste \ue0 obtenir la couleur et la texture souhait\ue9es, en tr\ue8s peu de temps. Dans cette \ue9tude, des frites (1 mm d\u2019\ue9paisseur) de vari\ue9t\ue9s des vraies graines de pomme de terre (TPS) (\uabBARI TPS-1\ubb) et des graines de pommes de terre (\uabAst\ue9rix\ubb) ont \ue9t\ue9 chauff\ue9s pendant 0, 10, 20, 30, 60, 90, 120 , 180 et 300 s par un four \ue0 micro-ondes, et les changements dans les frites ont \ue9t\ue9 analys\ue9s physiologiquement et histologiquement pour examiner la pertinence des tubercules TPS en tant que le processus de transformation de pomme de terre. Bien que le croustillant de frites de pomme de terre des deux vari\ue9t\ue9s de pomme de terre ait augment\ue9 de fa\ue7on continue tout au long du traitement de chauffage, celui de \u2018BARI TPS-1\u2019 a augment\ue9 plus lentement que celui de \u2018Asterix\u2019, indiquant que les frites de TPS sont devenues moins rigides et moelleuses que les chips d\u2019Ast\ue9rix apr\ue8s le chauffage par micro-ondes. Les images de SEM pour les granules d\u2019amidon ont montr\ue9 un gonflement plus lent et une structure d\ue9form\ue9e dans TPS qu\u2019\ue0 Ast\ue9rix, ce qui sugg\ue8re que TPS peut conserver une texture croustillante plus longtemps qu`Ast\ue9rix. Bien qu\u2019il n\u2019y ait pas eu d\u2019augmentation substantielle des valeurs a * et b * dans les deux croustilles, une valeur inf\ue9rieure de L * et de croustillant dans TPS, sugg\ue8re que les frites TPS perdent leur croustillant et leur couleur en moins de temps que \uabAst\ue9rix\ubb

Higgs as a pseudo-Goldstone boson, the mu problem and gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking

We study the interplay between the spontaneous breaking of a global symmetry of the Higgs sector and gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking, in the framework of a supersymmetric model with global SU(3) symmetry. In addition to solving the supersymmetric flavour problem and alleviating the little hierarchy problem, this scenario automatically triggers the breaking of the global symmetry and provides an elegant solution to the mu/Bmu problem of gauge mediation. We study in detail the processes of global symmetry and electroweak symmetry breaking, including the contributions of the top/stop and gauge-Higgs sectors to the one-loop effective potential of the pseudo-Goldstone Higgs boson. While the joint effect of supersymmetry and of the global symmetry allows in principle the electroweak symmetry to be broken with little fine-tuning, the simplest version of the model fails to bring the Higgs mass above the LEP bound due to a suppressed tree-level quartic coupling. To cure this problem, we consider the possibility of additional SU(3)-breaking contributions to the Higgs potential, which results in a moderate fine-tuning. The model predicts a rather low messenger scale, a small tan beta value, a light Higgs boson with Standard Model-like properties, and heavy higgsinos.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figures. New section 3.3 on the mu/Bmu problem, more detailed analytic computation in section 4.1, error in Fig. 5 corrected, significant redactional changes (including abstract, introduction and conclusion) in order to better emphasize the main results of the paper. Title changed in journal. Final version to appear in Eur. Phys. J.

Sub-terahertz, microwaves and high energy emissions during the December 6, 2006 flare, at 18:40 UT

The presence of a solar burst spectral component with flux density increasing with frequency in the sub-terahertz range, spectrally separated from the well-known microwave spectral component, bring new possibilities to explore the flaring physical processes, both observational and theoretical. The solar event of 6 December 2006, starting at about 18:30 UT, exhibited a particularly well-defined double spectral structure, with the sub-THz spectral component detected at 212 and 405 GHz by SST and microwaves (1-18 GHz) observed by the Owens Valley Solar Array (OVSA). Emissions obtained by instruments in satellites are discussed with emphasis to ultra-violet (UV) obtained by the Transition Region And Coronal Explorer (TRACE), soft X-rays from the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) and X- and gamma-rays from the Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI). The sub-THz impulsive component had its closer temporal counterpart only in the higher energy X- and gamma-rays ranges. The spatial positions of the centers of emission at 212 GHz for the first flux enhancement were clearly displaced by more than one arc-minute from positions at the following phases. The observed sub-THz fluxes and burst source plasma parameters were found difficult to be reconciled to a purely thermal emission component. We discuss possible mechanisms to explain the double spectral components at microwaves and in the THz ranges.Comment: Accepted version for publication in Solar Physic

Systematic study of the effect of short range correlations on the form factors and densities of s-p and s-d shell nuclei

Analytical expressions of the one- and two-body terms in the cluster expansion of the charge form factors and densities of the s-p and s-d shell nuclei with N=Z are derived. They depend on the harmonic oscillator parameter b and the parameter $\beta$ which originates from the Jastrow correlation function. These expressions are used for the systematic study of the effect of short range correlations on the form factors and densities and of the mass dependence of the parameters b and $\beta$. These parameters have been determined by fit to the experimental charge form factors. The inclusion of the correlations reproduces the experimental charge form factors at the high momentum transfers ($q\geq 2 1/fm$). It is found that while the parameter $\beta$ is almost constant for the closed shell nuclei, $^4$He, $^{16}$O and $^{40}$Ca, its values are larger (less correlated systems) for the open shell nuclei, indicating a shell effect in the closed shell nuclei.Comment: Latex, 21 pages, 6 figures, 1 tabl

Measurement of the B0 and B+ meson masses from B0 -> psi(') K_S and B+ -> psi(') K+ decays

Using 9.6 million B meson pairs collected with the CLEO detector, we have fully reconstructed 135 B0 -> psi(') K_S and 526 B+ -> psi(') K+ candidates with very low background. We fitted the psi(')K invariant mass distributions of these B meson candidates and measured the masses of the neutral and charged B mesons to be M(B0)=5279.1+-0.7[stat]+-0.3[syst] MeV/c^2 and M(B+)=5279.1+-0.4[stat]+-0.4[syst] MeV/c^2. The precision is a significant improvement over previous measurements.Comment: 2 typographic errors corrected; 11 pages, 2 figures; also available through http://www.lns.cornell.edu/public/CLNS/CLEO.htm

Update of the Search for the Neutrinoless Decay τ→μγ\tau\to \mu\gamma

We present an update of the search for the lepton family number violating decay $\tau \to \mu\gamma$ using a complete CLEO II data sample of 12.6 million $\tau^+\tau^-$ pairs. No evidence of a signal has been found and the corresponding upper limit is \BR(\tau \to \mu\gamma) < 1.0 \times 10^{-6} at 90% CL, significantly smaller than previous limits. All quoted results are preliminary.Comment: 9 pages postscript, also available through http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/public/CLN

Demonstration of the temporal matter-wave Talbot effect for trapped matter waves

We demonstrate the temporal Talbot effect for trapped matter waves using ultracold atoms in an optical lattice. We investigate the phase evolution of an array of essentially non-interacting matter waves and observe matter-wave collapse and revival in the form of a Talbot interference pattern. By using long expansion times, we image momentum space with sub-recoil resolution, allowing us to observe fractional Talbot fringes up to 10th order.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figure