Morpho-anatomical responses of Catharanthus roseus due to combined heavy metal stress observed under Scanning Electron Microscope

Heavy metals trigger various plant responses that basically vary with the intensity as well as duration of stress. Comprehension of the morphological and anatomical responses to such stress is essential for a holistic perception of plant resistance mechanisms to metal-excess conditions in higher plants. In the present study, the effects of heavy metals on morpho-anatomy of Catharanthus roseus based on its potential to tolerate metal stress has been studied in industrially polluted environments. The tissue samples of these plants grown in contaminated and uncontaminated soils were processed for analysis under Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). Briefly, harvested tissues were pre-fixed using glutaraldehyde and paraformaldehyde in sodium cacodylate (CAC) buffer, followed by post fixation in osmium tetroxide. Further, the digital micrographs of critically dried samples were captured. The analysis of micrographs revealed structural changes like cell wall thickening, increased stele diameter, increased root and shoot diameter, variations in stomatal number, enlargement of trichomes and salt glands of plants grown in contaminated soil when compared to those grown in uncontaminated soil. The study also provided microscopic evidence of endophytic colonization of microorganisms within surface-disinfected plant tissues. Based on the varied morpho-anatomical responses due to heavy metal stress, several physiological and metabolic mechanisms of plants were deciphered

Aqua­{6,6′-dimeth­oxy-2,2′-[ethane-1,2-diylbis(nitrilo­methyl­idyne)]diphenolato}(4-hydroxy­benzoato)manganese(III)

The title compound, [Mn(C18H18N2O4)(C7H5O3)(H2O)], was synthesized by a template reaction of ethane-1,2-diamine and 3-methoxy­salicylaldehyde in presence of manganese(II) 4-hydroxy­benzoate. The Jahn–Teller-distorted manganese(III) centre has an octa­hedral geometry. Extensive O—H⋯O hydrogen-bonding inter­actions generate a two-dimensional sheet structure parallel to (103)

A low power IoT network for smart agriculture

Traditional agriculture is transforming into smart agriculture due to the prominence of the Internet of Things (IoT). Low-cost and low-power are the key factors to make any IoT network useful and acceptable to the farmers. In this paper, we have proposed a low-power, low-cost IoT network for smart agriculture. For monitoring the soil moisture content, we have used an in-house developed sensor. In the proposed network, the IITH mote is used as a sink and sensor node which provides low-power communication. We have evaluated our network with state of the art networks, proposed for agriculture monitoring. Power and cost are the two metrics used for evaluation of these networks. Results show that the proposed network consumes less power and has prolonged lifetime in the agriculture field

Mycobacteremia in tuberculosis patients with HIV infection

Background: Mycobacteremia in HIV positive tuberculosis patients is associated with extra-pulmonary tuberculosis and disseminated tuberculosis. Objective: To study the occurrence of mycobacteremia among HIV-infected patients with tuberculosis (both pulmonary and extra-pulmonary forms) using radiometric BACTEC method. Methods: HIV positive patients admitted to the Government Hospital of Thoracic Medicine with a clinical diagnosis of tuberculosis were screened. HIV serology was reconfirmed using ELISA (two different tests) at Tuberculosis Research Centre. Five ml of venous blood was collected on the day of admission to the ward before start of anti-tuberculosis therapy. Results: Of the 105 patients screened, 85 were were found to be eligible for analysis. Patients were aged between 20-40 years, with a male preponderance (5:1). Pulmonary tuberculosis was the predominant form of tuberculosis (85%), while 15 % had associated extra-pulmonary involvement. Eight-four percent of the patients had CD4 counts of less than 200 cells/mm3, with 42% being below 50 cells/mm3. Four of the 85 patients were blood culture positive; three were identified as M.tuberculosis and one as Mycobacterium phlei. Conclusions: Mycobacteremia was detected in 4% of HIV positive patients with tuberculosis. All of them were immunosuppressed with CD4 counts of <50 cells/m3. More work needs to be done in India to understand the risk factors and outcome of patients with mycobacteremia

Upper limits on gravitational wave emission from 78 radio pulsars

We present upper limits on the gravitational wave emission from 78 radio pulsars based on data from the third and fourth science runs of the LIGO and GEO 600 gravitational wave detectors. The data from both runs have been combined coherently to maximize sensitivity. For the first time, pulsars within binary (or multiple) systems have been included in the search by taking into account the signal modulation due to their orbits. Our upper limits are therefore the first measured for 56 of these pulsars. For the remaining 22, our results improve on previous upper limits by up to a factor of 10. For example, our tightest upper limit on the gravitational strain is 2.6×10−25 for PSR J1603−7202, and the equatorial ellipticity of PSR J2124–3358 is less than 10−6. Furthermore, our strain upper limit for the Crab pulsar is only 2.2 times greater than the fiducial spin-down limit

Search of S3 LIGO data for gravitational wave signals from spinning black hole and neutron star binary inspirals

We report on the methods and results of the first dedicated search for gravitational waves emitted during the inspiral of compact binaries with spinning component bodies. We analyze 788 hours of data collected during the third science run (S3) of the LIGO detectors. We searched for binary systems using a detection template family specially designed to capture the effects of the spin-induced precession of the orbital plane. We present details of the techniques developed to enable this search for spin-modulated gravitational waves, highlighting the differences between this and other recent searches for binaries with nonspinning components. The template bank we employed was found to yield high matches with our spin-modulated target waveform for binaries with masses in the asymmetric range 1.0M

Upper Limits on a Stochastic Background of Gravitational Waves

The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory has performed a third science run with much improved sensitivities of all three interferometers. We present an analysis of approximately 200 hours of data acquired during this run, used to search for a stochastic background of gravitational radiation. We place upper bounds on the energy density stored as gravitational radiation for three different spectral power laws. For the flat spectrum, our limit of Ω

All-sky search for periodic gravitational waves in LIGO S4 data

We report on an all-sky search with the LIGO detectors for periodic gravitational waves in the frequency range 50–1000 Hz and with the frequency’s time derivative in the range −1×10−8  Hz s−1 to zero. Data from the fourth LIGO science run (S4) have been used in this search. Three different semicoherent methods of transforming and summing strain power from short Fourier transforms (SFTs) of the calibrated data have been used. The first, known as StackSlide, averages normalized power from each SFT. A “weighted Hough” scheme is also developed and used, which also allows for a multi-interferometer search. The third method, known as PowerFlux, is a variant of the StackSlide method in which the power is weighted before summing. In both the weighted Hough and PowerFlux methods, the weights are chosen according to the noise and detector antenna-pattern to maximize the signal-to-noise ratio. The respective advantages and disadvantages of these methods are discussed. Observing no evidence of periodic gravitational radiation, we report upper limits; we interpret these as limits on this radiation from isolated rotating neutron stars. The best population-based upper limit with 95% confidence on the gravitational-wave strain amplitude, found for simulated sources distributed isotropically across the sky and with isotropically distributed spin axes, is 4.28×10−24 (near 140 Hz). Strict upper limits are also obtained for small patches on the sky for best-case and worst-case inclinations of the spin axes

Upper limit map of a background of gravitational waves

We searched for an anisotropic background of gravitational waves using data from the LIGO S4 science run and a method that is optimized for point sources. This is appropriate if, for example, the gravitational wave background is dominated by a small number of distinct astrophysical sources. No signal was seen. Upper limit maps were produced assuming two different power laws for the source strain power spectrum. For an f−3 power law and using the 50 Hz to 1.8 kHz band the upper limits on the source strain power spectrum vary between 1.2×10−48  Hz−1 (100  Hz/f)3 and 1.2×10−47  Hz−1 (100  Hz/f)3, depending on the position in the sky. Similarly, in the case of constant strain power spectrum, the upper limits vary between 8.5×10−49  Hz−1 and 6.1×10−48  Hz−1. As a side product a limit on an isotropic background of gravitational waves was also obtained. All limits are at the 90% confidence level. Finally, as an application, we focused on the direction of Sco-X1, the brightest low-mass x-ray binary. We compare the upper limit on strain amplitude obtained by this method to expectations based on the x-ray flux from Sco-X1

Search for gravitational waves from binary inspirals in S3 and S4 LIGO data

We report on a search for gravitational waves from the coalescence of compact binaries during the third and fourth LIGO science runs. The search focused on gravitational waves generated during the inspiral phase of the binary evolution. In our analysis, we considered three categories of compact binary systems, ordered by mass: (i) primordial black hole binaries with masses in the range 0.35M