Brans-Dicke theory: Jordan vs Einstein Frame

It is well known that, in contrast to general relativity, there are two conformally related frames, the Jordan frame and the Einstein frame, in which the Brans-Dicke theory, a prototype of generic scalar-tensor theory, can be formulated. There is a long standing debate on the physical equivalence of the formulations in these two different frames. It is shown here that gravitational deflection of light to second order accuracy may observationally distinguish the two versions of the Brans-Dicke theory.Comment: 10 pages, Accepted by Mod. Phys. Letts.

Application of Replacement Theory in Determination of Pavement Design Life

This paper presents a methodology to determine the economic life of pavement based replacement theory/decision. The replacement theory is generally used for the determination of the replacement period of machines, bulbs, vehicles, equipment, buildings, T.V. parts… etc. This theory has been used to determine the economic life pavement for a road project and a bridge project with a real case study. The economic life has been found out. The economic life of flexible pavement has been found to be 15 years for national highways. This theory can be also applied to determine the economic life of new developed items/useful materials for highway projects

Strong field gravitational lensing in scalar tensor theories

Strong field gravitational lensing in the Brans-Dicke theory has been studied. The deflection angle for photons passing very close to the photon sphere is estimated for the static spherically symmetric space-time of the theory and the position and magnification of the relativistic images are obtained. Modeling the super massive central object of the galaxy by the Brans-Dicke space-time, numerical values of different strong lensing observable are estimated. It is found that against the expectation there is no significant scalar field effect in the strong field observable lensing parameters. This observation raises question on the potentiality of the strong field lensing to discriminate different gravitational theories.Comment: 20 pages, accepted in Class. Quantum Grav., final versio

Testing gravity at the Second post-Newtonian level through gravitational deflection of massive particles

Expression for second post-Newtonian level gravitational deflection angle of massive particles is obtained in a model independent framework. Several of its important implications including the possibility of testing gravitational theories at that level are discussed.Comment: 5 pages, couple of equations of the previous version are correcte

Cascade PSI-BLAST web server: a remote homology search tool for relating protein domains

Owing to high evolutionary divergence, it is not always possible to identify distantly related protein domains by sequence search techniques. Intermediate sequences possess sequence features of more than one protein and facilitate detection of remotely related proteins. We have demonstrated recently the employment of Cascade PSI-BLAST where we perform PSI-BLAST for many ‘generations’, initiating searches from new homologues as well. Such a rigorous propagation through generations of PSI-BLAST employs effectively the role of intermediates in detecting distant similarities between proteins. This approach has been tested on a large number of folds and its performance in detecting superfamily level relationships is ∼35% better than simple PSI-BLAST searches. We present a web server for this search method that permits users to perform Cascade PSI-BLAST searches against the Pfam, SCOP and SwissProt databases. The URL for this server is

Compatibility of Einstein minimally coupled self interacting scalar field theory with the solar system tests of gravity

We examine the compatibility of the Einstein minimally coupled self-interacting scalar field theory with the local tests of gravity. We find that apart from the trivial case of the Schwarzschild-de Sitter solution with constant scalar field the theory does not admit any other static solution, which is consistent with the solar system tests of gravity.Comment: 6 pages, a part of the earlier version removed, final version accepeted by CQ

Production oriented survey (POS) on different aspects of rice cultivation and farmers practices under red and lateritic zone of West Bengal, India

Production Oriented Survey (POS) on rice cultivation was conducted by Rice Research Station, Bankura under programme of AICRIP, Directorate of Rice Research (ICAR), Rajendranagar, Hyderabad – 50003 during kharif, 2009 in Red and Laterite zone of West Bengal, India. Purulia, Bankura and some parts of Birbhum, Paschim Medinipur and Burtdwan districts that belongs to Red and Laterite zone of West Bengal. The popular commercial cultivars were Swarna (MTU 7029), Lalat, Jaya, CR 1010, CR 1017 and IR-64.  Rice is cultivated as mono crop in this zone. The Indian sub-continent is predominantly characterized by a tropical monsoon climate which determines the success of kharif crops. Biotic constraints like blast, brown spot, sheath blight, sheath rot, grain dis-colouration and bacterial leaf blight (BLB) were in low to moderate intensities. Among insect pests brown plant hopper, green leaf hopper, stem borer, rice hispa and gundhi bugs were recorded in low to moderate intensities in the surveyed districts. Among weeds, Cyperus rotundus, Echinocloa crusgalli, Cyperus iria, Cynodon dactylan and Monochoria sp.  were major problem in all the districts. The farmers used mainly hand weeding for control of weeds. Minimum use of pesticides and insecticides were observed