A new view on planet formation

The standard picture of planet formation posits that giant gas planets are over-grown rocky planets massive enough to attract enormous gas atmospheres. It has been shown recently that the opposite point of view is physically plausible: the rocky terrestrial planets are former giant planet embryos dried of their gas "to the bone" by the influences of the parent star. Here we provide a brief overview of this "Tidal Downsizing" hypothesis in the context of the Solar System structure.Comment: contributed talk to the IAU 276; 4 pages and 1 figur

Variations of growth parameters in transplanted Aman rice (cv. BRRI dhan39) in response to plant spacing and fertilizer management

The experiments were carried out at the Agronomy Field Laboratory, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh, Bangladesh during June to December 2015 to investigate the effect of spacing and fertilizer management on the growth parameters of transplant Aman rice cv. BRRI dhan39. The experiment comprised of five spacing’s viz. 25 cm × 5 cm, 25 cm × 10 cm, 25 cm × 15 cm, 25 cm × 20 cm, 25 cm × 25 cm, and four fertilizer treatments viz. no manure and no fertilizer (control), recommended dose of chemical fertilizer (80-60-40 kg N, P2O5, K2O ha-1,respectively + 60 kg ha-1 gypsum + 10 kg ha-1 ZnSO4), 75% recommended dose of inorganic fertilizer + cow dung at 5 t ha-1,75% recommended dose of inorganic fertilizer + poultry manure @ 2.5 t ha-1. The highest and lowest plant height was found in spacing 25 cm × 15 cm, and 25 cm × 5 cm, respectively at all dates of observations. Spacing 25 cm × 15 cm, produced the highest number of tillers hill-1 at 80 DAT. Leaf area index (LAI) and total dry matter (TDM) hill-1 were the highest in 25 cm × 15 cm spacing and lowest in 25 cm × 5 cm spacing. The highest plant height, LAI and total TDM hill-1 were recorded in 75% recommended dose of inorganic fertilizer + cow dung at 5 t ha-1 and the lowest values were observed in control treatment. In case of interaction, the highest number of tillers hill-1, leaf area index and total dry matter hill-1 were obtained in spacing 25 cm × 15 cm fertilized with 75% recommended dose of inorganic fertilizers + cow dung at 5 t ha-1.Therefore, 25 cm × 15 cm spacing combined with 75% recommended dose of inorganic fertilizers + cow dung at 5 t ha-1 appeared as the promising practice in transplant Aman rice cv. BRRI dhan39 cultivation in terms of growth parameters

Impact of row arrangements, age of tiller seedlings and number of tiller seedlings hill-1 on the growth performance of transplanted Aman rice (cv. BR23)

The experiment was carried out at the Agronomy Field Laboratory, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh to see the effect of row arrangements, age of tiller seedlings and number of tiller seedlings hill-1 on growth of transplant Aman rice (cv. BR23). The experiment comprised three row arrangements viz. single, double and triple row; two ages of tiller seedling viz. 25 and 35 days and three levels of number of tiller seedlings hill-1 viz., 2, 4 and 6 tiller seedlings hill-1. The effect of row arrangement, age of tiller seedlings and number of tiller seedlings hill-1 were significant on plant height, number of leaves hill-1, number of total tillers hill-1, leaf dry weight, stem dry weight and total dry weight. The tallest plants at 70 DAT, the highest number of leaves and leaf dry weight were found at 25, 40, 55 and 70 DAT in single row arrangement which was as good as double row arrangement while shorter plant and the lowest number of leaves hill-1 were found in triple row arrangement. The highest stem and total dry matter production hill-1 were recorded in triple row arrangement and the lowest were found in single row arrangement. Wider spacing significantly increased plant height, total tiller production hill-1, leaf production hill-1and leaf dry matter production while closer spacing of triple rows enhance stem and total dry matter production hill-1. Transplanted Aman rice (BR23) can be grown in single rows for the highest plant height, more tiller production, leaf production and leaf dry matter production hill-1. In case of total dry matter production cv. BR23 can be grown in triple rows by transplanting 35-day old seedlings with 6 tiller seedlings hill-1

Ytterbium doped nano-crystalline optical fiber for reduced photodarkening

We report suppression of photodarkening in Yb-doped nano-crystalline fibers in silica host. The photodarkening induced loss reduced by 20 times compared to Yb-doped aluminosilicate fibers. The laser efficiency of the nano-crystalline fiber was 79%

Fast switching tunable laser sources for wavelength division multiplexing in passive optical access networks

Tunable laser structures with nanosecond switching time between wavelength channels and low-power injection locking are demonstrated on a low-cost platform. These lasers are suitable as source or slave lasers in WDM passive optical access networks