Investigation of the agricultural resources in Sri Lanka

The author has identified the following significant results. Several in-house capabilities were developed. The facilities to prepare color composites of excellent quality were developed, using bulk B/W 70 mm transparencies or 1:1,000,000 positive transparencies. These color composites were studied through optical devices on light tables. A zoom transfer scope was also added, enabling direct transfer of LANDSAT composite data on to base maps

Quantitative chemical tagging, stellar ages and the chemo-dynamical evolution of the Galactic disc

The early science results from the new generation of high-resolution stellar spectroscopic surveys, such as GALAH and the Gaia-ESO survey, will represent major milestones in the quest to chemically tag the Galaxy. Yet this technique to reconstruct dispersed coeval stellar groups has remained largely untested until recently. We build on previous work that developed an empirical chemical tagging probability function, which describes the likelihood that two field stars are conatal, that is, they were formed in the same cluster environment. In this work we perform the first ever blind chemical tagging experiment, i.e., tagging stars with no known or otherwise discernable associations, on a sample of 714 disc field stars with a number of high quality high resolution homogeneous metal abundance measurements. We present evidence that chemical tagging of field stars does identify coeval groups of stars, yet these groups may not represent distinct formation sites, e.g. as in dissolved open clusters, as previously thought. Our results point to several important conclusions, among them that group finding will be limited strictly to chemical abundance space, e.g. stellar ages, kinematics, colors, temperature and surface gravity do not enhance the detectability of groups. We also demonstrate that in addition to its role in probing the chemical enrichment and kinematic history of the Galactic disc, chemical tagging represents a powerful new stellar age determination technique.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS

Correlation length scalings in fusion edge plasma turbulence computations

The effect of changes in plasma parameters, that are characteristic near or at an L-H transition in fusion edge plasmas, on fluctuation correlation lengths are analysed by means of drift-Alfven turbulence computations. Scalings by density gradient length, collisionality, plasma beta, and by an imposed shear flow are considered. It is found that strongly sheared flows lead to the appearence of long-range correlations in electrostatic potential fluctuations parallel and perpendicular to the magnetic field.Comment: Submitted to "Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion

The core-periphery model with three regions

We study a 3-region core-periphery model à la Krugman and compare our results with those of the standard 2-region model. The conditions for the stability of the dispersion and concentration configurations are established. Like in the 2-region model, dispersion and concentration can be simultaneously stable. We show that the 2- region (3-region) model favors the dispersion (concentration) of economic activity. Finally, we extend the core-periphery model to the case of n regions and show that stability of concentration with 2 regions implies stability of concentration with any even number of regions.new economic geography, core-periphery

Identificação e caracterização de microssatélites de Coffea arabica a partir de dados de sequenciamento de RNA e de BACS.

O café é uma das principais commodities agrícolas mundiais, sendo consumido regularmente por 40% de toda população. As espécies, Coffea arabica L. e Coffea canephora P. são as de maior importância respondendo por 65% e 35% da produção mundial, respectivamente. Em C. arabica , o desenvolvimento de novas cultivares é demorado, podendo levar mais de 20 anos para finalização dos trabalhos. Além disso, estreita base genética de C. arabica dificulta a obtenção de cultivares resistentes a várias pragas e doenças, assim como uma maior tolerância a estresses abióticos. A utilização de marcadores moleculares para análise da diversidade e seleção de genótipos representa uma importante ferramenta para auxiliar o melhoramento e tentar diminuir esses problemas. Neste trabalho foi realizada identificação e análise in silico de SSR?s a partir de dados de RNA-seq de Iapar 59 e de sequências de BACs de Hibrido de Timor 832/2 (CaHT). Para Iapar 59 foram analisados 77 contigs, encontrados 39 SSR?s e desenhados 21 pares de oligonucleotídeos. Para CaHT foram analisados também 77 contigs, encontrados 35 SSR?s e desenhados 29 pares de oligonucleotídeos. Os motivos com maior frequência foram di, tri e tetranucleotídeos, sendo (AT) no motivo mais frequente entre os dois genótipos. Esta busca de sequências repetitivas é de grande importância para futura validação e aumento desses marcadores para estudos de diversidade genética, mapeamento, e a ssociação com características agronômicas de interesse