Salinity tolerance and fishery of mud shrimp Solenocera crassicornis (H. Milne Edwards) in the coastal waters of Mumbai

Salinity tolerance of mud shrimp Solenocera crassicornis investigated at different salinities ranging from 15‰ to 55‰ showed that shrimps in the salinity range 30‰ - 42‰ survived but those in lower and higher salinities died soon after the transfer. Ionic concentration in the hemolymph and free amino acids in the body muscle in response to different salinity ranges showed hypo-regulation initially but later became hyposmotic to the medium and died eventually when the salinity decreased. The abundance of shrimp showed inverse relationship with rainfall and consequent lowering of salinity in the inshore waters. The study showed that S. crassicornis can regulate osmotic and ionic concentrations of body fluids efficiently in the salinity range of 30 - 42‰ but unlike euryhaline penaeid shrimps it is a poor regulator at lower salinities and therefore it migrates offshore during monsoon months

Gamma-radiation with E gamma 5 MeV detected from Seyfert galaxy 3C120 and region with 1" = 190 deg and b" = 20 deg

The observation of the Galaxy anticenter region in gamma-rays with E gamma = 5 / 100 MeV was made by gamma-telescope Natalya-1 in a balloon flight. The flight was performed at the ceiling 5.1 + or - 0.1 g/sq cm, magnetic cutoff being 17 GV. The description of the instrument and the analysis of the experiment conditions are given. The tracks of electron-positron pairs generated by gamma-quanta in the convertors were detected by wire spark chambers. The recorded events were classified manually by an operator using a graphic display into three classes: pairs, single and bad events. The arrival angle of gamma-quanta and their energy for selected gamma-ray events (pairs and singles) were determined through multiple scattering of pair components in the convertors. On the basis of the data obtained the celestial maps were made in gamma-rays for E sub gamma 5 MeV and E gamma 20 MeV energy ranges

The Smallest Molecular Switch

Ab-initio total energy calculations reveal benzene-dithiolate (BDT) molecules on a gold surface, contacted by a monoatomic gold STM tip to have two classes of low energy conformations with differing symmetries. Lateral motion of the tip or excitation of the molecule cause it to change from one conformation class to the other and to switch between a strongly and a weakly conducting state. Thus, surprisingly, despite their apparent simplicity these Au/BDT/Au nanowires are shown to be electrically bi-stable switches, the smallest two-terminal molecular switches to date. Experiments with a conventional or novel self-assembled STM are proposed to test these predictions.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure

Identification of Moisture Content in Cotton Bale by Microwave Imaging

Understanding of cotton quality is important in order to properly identify the moisture content .Measurement of moisture is difficult particularly at harvest and through the gin, because of the influence these processes have different fibre quality. Dry cotton can be harvested cleanly and efficiently but may suffer undue damage in the gin. On the other hand harvesting and ginning wet cotton leads to significant issues in processing and quality. A number of methods are used to measure moisture in seed cotton, lint and fuzzy seed, each has its varying advantages. A moisture variation of the bales that is not monitored from the outside of the bale. This research examines a new microwave imaging technique to view the internal moisture variations of cotton bale. Tests on the developed imaging sensor showed the ability to resolve small structures of parameters, against a low standard background, that were less than 1 cm in width. The accuracy of the sensing structure was also shown to provide the ability to accurately determine parameter standards. A preliminary test of the imaging capabilities on a wet commercial bale showed the technique was able to accurately image and determines the location of the wet layer within the bale

Balloon observations of hard X-rays from NGC 4151 and an X-ray transient source

An X-ray telescope consisting of 400 sq cm phoswich detectors (NaI(Tl)/CsI(Na)) was flown from Hyderabad (India) on 31 October 1980; the field of view was 11 deg x 1 deg FWHM. During a five hour observation at 5 millibars two X-ray sources were seen: (1) the variable Seyfert Galaxy NGC 4151; and (2) a transident of approximately 8 minutes duration in the vicinity of the variable source 4U1444 43 which may be associated with the galaxy NGC 5608. X-ray fluxes and spectra in 18-120 keV X-rays are presented

Initial Stages of Bose-Einstein Condensation

We present the quantum theory for the nucleation of Bose-Einstein condensation in a dilute atomic Bose gas. This quantum theory comfirms the results of the semiclassical treatment, but has the important advantage that both the kinetic and coherent stages of the nucleation process can now be described in a unified way by a single Fokker-Planck equation.Comment: Four pages of ReVTeX and no figure

Electrostatic potential profiles of molecular conductors

The electrostatic potential across a short ballistic molecular conductor depends sensitively on the geometry of its environment, and can affect its conduction significantly by influencing its energy levels and wave functions. We illustrate some of the issues involved by evaluating the potential profiles for a conducting gold wire and an aromatic phenyl dithiol molecule in various geometries. The potential profile is obtained by solving Poisson's equation with boundary conditions set by the contact electrochemical potentials and coupling the result self-consistently with a nonequilibrium Green's function (NEGF) formulation of transport. The overall shape of the potential profile (ramp vs. flat) depends on the feasibility of transverse screening of electric fields. Accordingly, the screening is better for a thick wire, a multiwalled nanotube or a close-packed self-assembled monolayer (SAM), in comparison to a thin wire, a single-walled nanotube or an isolated molecular conductor. The electrostatic potential further governs the alignment or misalignment of intramolecular levels, which can strongly influence the molecular I-V characteristic. An external gate voltage can modify the overall potential profile, changing the current-voltage (I-V) characteristic from a resonant conducting to a saturating one. The degree of saturation and gate modulation depends on the metal-induced-gap states (MIGS) and on the electrostatic gate control parameter set by the ratio of the gate oxide thickness to the channel length.Comment: to be published in Phys. Rev. B 69, No.3, 0353XX (2004

Balloon observations of hard X-rays from some galactic X-ray sources

An X-ray telescope consisting of 400 cm phoswich detectors (NaI(T1)/CsI(Na)) was flown from Hyderabad (India) on 18 December 1984. The field of view was 5 deg x 5 deg FWHM. In a 10 hour float at 4 MB several galactic X-ray sources were tracked by the telescope using an on-board microprocessor. Fluxes and spectra in 18-120 keV X-rays for SCO X-1, GX 1+4, Gx 5-1, GX 17+2, SCT X-1, CYC X-1 an CYG X-3 will be presented

Multicritical crossovers near the dilute Bose gas quantum critical point

Many zero temperature transitions, involving the deviation in the value of a $U(1)$ conserved charge from a quantized value, are described by the dilute Bose gas quantum critical point. On such transitions, we study the consequences of perturbations which break the symmetry down to $Z_N$ in $d$ spatial dimensions. For the case $d=1$, $N=2$, we obtain exact, finite temperature, multicritical crossover functions by a mapping to an integrable lattice model.Comment: 10 pages, REVTEX 3.0, 2 EPS figure

Non-equilibrium Gross-Pitaevskii dynamics of boson lattice models

Motivated by recent experiments on trapped ultra-cold bosonic atoms in an optical lattice potential, we consider the non-equilibrium dynamic properties of such bosonic systems for a number of experimentally relevant situations. When the number of bosons per lattice site is large, there is a wide parameter regime where the effective boson interactions are strong, but the ground state remains a superfluid (and not a Mott insulator): we describe the conditions under which the dynamics in this regime can be described by a discrete Gross-Pitaevskii equation. We describe the evolution of the phase coherence after the system is initially prepared in a Mott insulating state, and then allowed to evolve after a sudden change in parameters places it in a regime with a superfluid ground state. We also consider initial conditions with a "pi phase" imprint on a superfluid ground state (i.e. the initial phases of neighboring wells differ by pi), and discuss the subsequent appearance of density wave order and "Schrodinger cat" states.Comment: 16 pages, 11 figures; (v2) added reference