419 research outputs found
Genetic Diversity Assessment of Rarely Cultivated Traditional Indica Rice (Oryza sativa L.) Varieties
Random amplified polymorphic DNA fingerprinting was performed to assess the genetic
diversity among rarely cultivated traditional indica rice (Oryza sativa
L.) varieties collected from a tribal hamlet of Kerala State, India. A
total of 664 DNA bands amplified by 15 primers exhibited 72.9% polymorphism (an
average of 32.3 polymorphic bands per primer). The varieties Jeerakasala and
Kalladiyaran exhibited the highest percent (50.19%) polymorphism, while Thondi and
Adukkan showed the lowest (9.85%). Adukkan (78 bands) and Jeerakasala (56 bands)
yielded the highest and the lowest number of amplicons, respectively. Unweighted
Pair Group Method with Arithmetic mean analysis using the Dice similarity
coefficient showed the highest value of similarity coefficient between the varieties
Adukkan and Thondi, both shared higher level of similarity (0.81), followed by
Kanali and Thondi (0.88). Of the three subclusters, the varieties of Adukkan,
Thondi, Kanali, Mannuveliyan, Thonnuranthondi, and Chennellu grouped together with a
similarity of 0.77. The second group represented by Navara, Gandhakasala, and
Jeerakasala with a similarity coefficient of 0.76 formed a cohesive group. The
variety Kalladiyaran formed an isolated position that joined the second cluster. The
Principal Coordinate Analysis also showed separation of Kalladiyaran from the other
varieties
RT-2 Detection of Quasi-Periodic Pulsations in the 2009 July 5 Solar Hard X-ray Flare
We present the results of an analysis of hard X-ray observations of the C2.7
solar flare detected by the RT-2 Experiment onboard the Coronas - Photon
satellite. We detect hard X-ray pulsations at periods of ~12 s and ~15 s. We
find a marginal evidence for a decrease in period with time. We have augmented
these results using the publicly available data from the RHESSI satellite. We
present a spectral analysis and measure the spectral parameters.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures and 3 tables, accepted for publication in The
Astrophysical Journa
Out-of-plane mosaic of single-wall carbon nanotube films
For single-wall carbon nanotube (SWNT) films deposited from suspension onto filter membranes, or by drop casting or spin coating onto flat substrates, the tube axes lie preferentially in the film plane. Using x-ray scattering and a two-dimensional detector, we show that this out-of-plane mosaic spread can be easily and accurately quantified. It varies significantly with deposition conditions, and the aligning effects of deposition and external force in the film plane (e.g., magnetic field) are additive. Films from well-dispersed tubes show better alignment than from poor dispersions. The finite out-of-plane mosaic in C60@SWNT films enables quantitative separation of one-dimensional diffraction (chains of C60 peas) from the 2D rope lattice diffraction
Unidentified EGRET Sources and the Extragalactic Gamma-Ray Background
The large majority of EGRET point sources remain to this day without an
identified low-energy counterpart. Whatever the nature of the EGRET
unidentified sources, faint unresolved objects of the same class must have a
contribution to the diffuse gamma-ray background: if most unidentified objects
are extragalactic, faint unresolved sources of the same class contribute to the
background, as a distinct extragalactic population; on the other hand, if most
unidentified sources are Galactic, their counterparts in external galaxies will
contribute to the unresolved emission from these systems. Understanding this
component of the gamma-ray background, along with other guaranteed
contributions from known sources, is essential in any attempt to use gamma-ray
observations to constrain exotic high-energy physics. Here, we follow an
empirical approach to estimate whether a potential contribution of unidentified
sources to the extragalactic gamma-ray background is likely to be important,
and we find that it is. Additionally, we comment on how the anticipated GLAST
measurement of the diffuse gamma-ray background will change, depending on the
nature of the majority of these sources.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, to appear in proceedings of "The Multi-Messenger
Approach to High Energy Gamma-Ray Sources", Barcelona, 4-7 July 2006;
comments welcom
Instruments of RT-2 Experiment onboard CORONAS-PHOTON and their test and evaluation V: Onboard software, Data Structure, Telemetry and Telecommand
The onboard software and data communication in the RT-2 Experiment onboard
the Coronas-Photon satellite is organized in a hierarchical way to effectively
handle and communicate asynchronous data generated by the X-ray detectors. A
flexible data handling system is organized in the X-ray detector packages
themselves and the processing electronic device, namely RT-2/E, has the
necessary intelligence to communicate with the 3 scientific payloads by issuing
commands and receiving data. It has direct interfacing with the Satellite
systems and issues commands to the detectors and processes the detector data
before sending to the satellite systems. The onboard software is configured
with several novel features like a) device independent communication scheme, b)
loss-less data compression and c) Digital Signal Processor. Functionality of
the onboard software along with the data structure, command structure, complex
processing scheme etc. are discussed in this paper.Comment: 24 pages, 2 figures, Accepted for publication in Experimental
Astronomy (in press
The obscured gamma-ray and UHECR universe
Auger results on clustering of > 60 EeV ultra-high energy cosmic ray (UHECR)
ions and the interpretation of the gamma-ray spectra of TeV blazars are
connected by effects from the extragalactic background light (EBL). The EBL
acts as an obscuring medium for gamma rays and a reprocessing medium for UHECR
ions and protons, causing the GZK cutoff. The study of the physics underlying
the coincidence between the GZK energy and the clustering energy of UHECR ions
favors a composition of > 60 EeV UHECRs in CNO group nucleons. This has
interesting implications for the sources of UHECRs. We also comment on the
Auger analysis.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures, in the International Conference on Topics in
Astroparticle and Underground Physics (TAUP) 2007, Sendai, Japan, September
11-15, 200
Signatures of Topological Defects
We argue that due to various restrictions cosmic strings and monopole-string
networks are not likely to produce the observed flux of ultra-high energy
cosmic rays (UHECR). Among the topological defects studied so far, the most
promising UHECR sources are necklaces and monopolonia. Other viable sources
which are similar to topological defects are relic superheavy particles. All
these sources have an excess of pions (and thus photons) over nucleons at
production. We demonstrate that in the case of necklaces the diffuse proton
flux can be larger than photon flux, due to absorption of the latter on
radiobackground, while monopolonia and relic particles are concentrated in the
Galactic halo, and the photon flux dominates. Another signature of the latter
sources is anisotropy imposed by asymmetric position of the sun in the Galactic
halo. In all cases considered so far, including necklaces, photons must be
present in ultra-high energy radiation observed from topological defects, and
experimental discrimination between photon-induced and proton-induced extensive
air showers can give a clue to the origin of ultra-high energy cosmic rays.Comment: version accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. D. No changes in the
conclusions and in figure
Evidence of TeV gamma-ray emission from the nearby starburst galaxy NGC 253
TeV gamma-rays were recently detected from the nearby normal spiral galaxy
NGC 253 (Itoh et al., 2002). Observations to detect the Cherenkov light images
initiated by gamma-rays from the direction of NGC 253 were carried out in 2000
and 2001 over a total period of 150 hours. The orientation of images in
gamma-ray--like events is not consistent with emission from a point source, and
the emission region corresponds to a size greater than 10 kpc in radius. Here,
detailed descriptions of the analysis procedures and techniques are given.Comment: 16 pages, 27 figures, aa.cl
Instruments of RT-2 Experiment onboard CORONAS-PHOTON and their test and evaluation III: Coded Aperture Mask and Fresnel Zone Plates in RT-2/CZT Payload
Imaging in hard X-rays of any astrophysical source with high angular
resolution is a challenging job. Shadow-casting technique is one of the most
viable options for imaging in hard X-rays. We have used two different types of
shadow-casters, namely, Coded Aperture Mask (CAM) and Fresnel Zone Plate (FZP)
pair and two types of pixellated solid-state detectors, namely, CZT and CMOS in
RT-2/CZT payload, the hard X-ray imaging instrument onboard the CORONAS-PHOTON
satellite. In this paper, we present the results of simulations with different
combinations of coders (CAM & FZP) and detectors that are employed in the
RT-2/CZT payload. We discuss the possibility of detecting transient Solar
flares with good angular resolution for various combinations. Simulated results
are compared with laboratory experiments to verify the consistency of the
designed configuration.Comment: 27 pages, 16 figures, Accepted for publication in Experimental
Astronomy (in press
Detection of diffuse TeV gamma-ray emission from the nearby starburst galaxy NGC 253
We report the TeV gamma-ray observations of the nearby normal spiral galaxy
NGC 253. At a distance of 2.5 Mpc, NGC 253 is one of the nearest
starburst galaxies. This relative closeness, coupled with the high star
formation rate in the galaxy, make it a good candidate TeV gamma-ray source.
Observations were carried out in 2000 and 2001 with the CANGAROO-II 10 m
imaging atmospheric Cerenkov telescope. TeV gamma-ray emission is detected at
the level with a flux of at energies 0.5 TeV. The data indicate that the
emission region is broader than the point spread function of our telescope.Comment: 4 pages, double colomn, 3 figures, aa.cl
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