Geomagnetic storm effects on GPS based navigation

The energetic events on the sun, solar wind and subsequent effects on the Earth's geomagnetic field and upper atmosphere (ionosphere) comprise space weather. Modern navigation systems that use radio-wave signals, reflecting from or propagating through the ionosphere as a means of determining range or distance, are vulnerable to a variety of effects that can degrade the performance of the navigational systems. In particular, the Global Positioning System (GPS) that uses a constellation of earth orbiting satellites are affected due to the space weather phenomena. <br><br> Studies made during two successive geomagnetic storms that occurred during the period from 8 to 12 November 2004, have clearly revealed the adverse affects on the GPS range delay as inferred from the Total Electron Content (TEC) measurements made from a chain of seven dual frequency GPS receivers installed in the Indian sector. Significant increases in TEC at the Equatorial Ionization anomaly crest region are observed, resulting in increased range delay during the periods of the storm activity. Further, the storm time rapid changes occurring in TEC resulted in a number of phase slips in the GPS signal compared to those on quiet days. These phase slips often result in the loss of lock of the GPS receivers, similar to those that occur during strong(>10 dB) L-band scintillation events, adversely affecting the GPS based navigation

Factors Influencing the Usage of ICT in Secondary Schools: A Case Study in Telangana State of India

Results are reported from a study in which teachers’ views on usage and impact of information and communication technology in secondary schools, were compared between private and government schools and between the state board (SSC) syllabus and CBSE board syllabus. The main purpose of the study was to answer the following questions: Firstly, How socio economic parameters can impact the ICT usage, Secondly, What differential role does ownership (Public/Private) of the management has an impact on the usage of ICT and Thirdly, How the board of education can have an impact on the usage of ICT in secondary schools? The key finding the study are as follows First, Gender, age group has no impact on ICT usage, Secondly, the ownership of management i.e Government schools Vs private schools has no impact on the usage of ICT in secondary schools, Thirdly,  it’s been observed that there is a significant impact of board of education , i.e State board Vs CBSE board on the usage of ICT in secondary schools Keywords: Gender, age, income, StateSecondary Certificate (SSC), Central Boardfor Secondary Education(CBSE), ICT, government, privat

Bandwidth Recycling using Variable Bit Rate

IEEE 802.16 standard was designed to support the bandwidth demanding applications with quality of service (QoS). Bandwidth is reserved for each application to ensure the QoS. For variable bit rate (VBR) applications, however, it is difficult for the subscriber station (SS) to predict the amount of incoming data. To ensure the QoS guaranteed services, the SS may reserve more bandwidth than its demand. As a result, the reserved bandwidth may not be fully utilized all the time. In this paper, we propose a scheme, named Bandwidth Recycling, to recycle the unused bandwidth without changing the existing bandwidth reservation. The idea of the proposed scheme is to allow other SSs to utilize the unused bandwidth when it is available. Thus, the system throughput can be improved while maintaining the same QoS guaranteed services. Mathematical analysis and simulation are used to evaluate the proposed scheme. Simulation and analysis results confirm that the proposed scheme can recycle 35% of unused bandwidth on average. By analyzing factors affecting the recycling performance, three scheduling algorithms are proposed to improve the overall throughput. The simulation results show that our proposed algorithm improves the overall throughput by 40% in a steady network. Keywords: WiMAX, IEEE 802.16, Bandwidth Recyclin

Giant Meterwave Radio Telescope observations of an M2.8 flare: insights into the initiation of a flare-coronal mass ejection event

We present the first observations of a solar flare with the GMRT. An M2.8 flare observed at 1060 MHz with the GMRT on Nov 17 2001 was associated with a prominence eruption observed at 17 GHz by the Nobeyama radioheliograph and the initiation of a fast partial halo CME observed with the LASCO C2 coronograph. Towards the start of the eruption, we find evidence for reconnection above the prominence. Subsequently, we find evidence for rapid growth of a vertical current sheet below the erupting arcade, which is accompanied by the flare and prominence eruption.Comment: Accepted for publication in Solar Physic

Temporal and spatial variations in TEC using simultaneous measurements from the Indian GPS network of receivers during the low solar activity period of 2004?2005

International audienceWith the recent increase in the satellite-based navigation applications, the ionospheric total electron content (TEC) and the L-band scintillation measurements have gained significant importance. In this paper we present the temporal and spatial variations in TEC derived from the simultaneous and continuous measurements made, for the first time, using the Indian GPS network of 18 receivers located from the equator to the northern crest of the equatorial ionization anomaly (EIA) region and beyond, covering a geomagnetic latitude range of 1° S to 24° N, using a 16-month period of data for the low sunspot activity (LSSA) years of March 2004 to June 2005. The diurnal variation in TEC at the EIA region shows its steep increase and reaches its maximum value between 13:00 and 16:00 LT, while at the equator the peak is broad and occurs around 16:00 LT. A short-lived day minimum occurs between 05:00 to 06:00 LT at all the stations from the equator to the EIA crest region. Beyond the crest region the day maximum values decrease with the increase in latitude, while the day minimum in TEC is flat during most of the nighttime hours, i.e. from 22:00 to 06:00 LT, a feature similar to that observed in the mid-latitudes. Further, the diurnal variation in TEC show a minimum to maximum variation of about 5 to 50 TEC units, respectively, at the equator and about 5 to 90 TEC units at the EIA crest region, which correspond to range delay variations of about 1 to 8 m at the equator to about 1 to 15 m at the crest region, at the GPS L1 frequency of 1.575 GHz. The day-to-day variability is also significant at all the stations, particularly during the daytime hours, with maximum variations at the EIA crest regions. Further, similar variations are also noticed in the corresponding equatorial electrojet (EEJ) strength, which is known to be one of the major contributors for the observed day-to-day variability in TEC. The seasonal variation in TEC maximizes during the equinox months followed by winter and is minimum during the summer months, a feature similar to that observed in the integrated equatorial electrojet (IEEJ) strength for the corresponding seasons. In the Indian sector, the EIA crest is found to occur in the latitude zone of 15° to 25° N geographic latitudes (5° to 15° N geomagnetic latitudes). The EIA also maximizes during equinoxes followed by winter and is not significant in the summer months in the LSSA period, 2004?2005. These studies also reveal that both the location of the EIA crest and its peak value in TEC are linearly related to the IEEJ strength and increase with the increase in IEEJ

Heat and Mass Transfer in MHD Micropolar Fluid in The Presence of Diffusion Thermo and Chemical Reaction

This work is devoted to investigating the influence of diffusion thermo effect on hydromagnetic heat and mass transfer oscillatory flow of a micropolar fluid over an infinite moving vertical permeable plate in a saturated porous medium in the presence of transverse magnetic field and chemical reaction. The dimensionless equations are solved analytically using perturbation technique. The effects of the various fluid flow parameters entering into the problem on the velocity, microrotation, temperature and concentration fields within the boundary layer are discussed with the help of graphs. Also the local skin-friction coefficient, the wall couple stress coefficient, and the rates of heat and mass transfer coefficients are derived and shown in graphs. Comparison of the obtained numerical results is made with existing literature and is found to be in good agreement

Schwannoma arising from hypoglossal nerve in the submandibular triangle: a case report

Hypoglossal schwannomas usually develop in the intracranial portion of the brain. The incidence of hypoglossal schwannomas of the submandibular region is extremely rare. Here we report a case of schwannoma arising from the extracranial hypoglossal nerve in the left submandibular region

Elasticity-mediated self-organization and colloidal interactions of solid spheres with tangential anchoring in a nematic liquid crystal

Using laser tweezers and fluorescence confocal polarizing microscopy, we study colloidal interactions of solid microspheres in the nematic bulk caused by elastic distortions around the particles with strong tangential surface anchoring. The particles aggregate into chains directed at about 30 degrees to the far field director and, at higher concentrations, form complex kinetically trapped structures. We characterize the distance and angular dependencies of the colloidal interaction forces.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure

Chemical Oscillations in Mn2+-catalysed Belousov-Zhabotinskii Reaction in Orthophosphoric Acid Medium

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Characterisation of human steroid hormone transport mediated by Cdr1p, a multidrug transporter of Candida albicans, belonging to the ATP binding cassette super family

Cdr1p, a multidrug transporter from a pathogenic yeast Candida albicans, confers resistance to several unrelated drugs including anti-Candida drugs. We demonstrate that Cdr1p can specifically transport human steroid hormones namely β-estradiol and corticosterone. Saccharomyces cerevisiae transformant S-12, harbouring the CDR1 gene, accumulated about 3-fold less [3H]β-estradiol and about 2-fold less [3H]corticosterone than the non-transformed strain. When CDR1 was expressed in AD strain (AD-CDR1) which had seven ATP binding cassette (ABC) superfamily of putative transporter genes disrupted, the net accumulation of these hormones as compared to S-12 was significantly lower. Efflux of β-estradiol and corticosterone was inhibited by a 100-fold higher (200 nM) concentration of β-estradiol, corticosterone, ergosterol or dexamethasone, but progesterone which could not be transported by Cdr1p did not affect the efflux and thus accumulation. Interestingly, some of the drugs viz. cycloheximide, chloramphenicol, fluconazole and o-phenanthroline, to which CDR1 confers resistance, could also prevent efflux and enhance accumulation to some extent. In conclusion, we show that human steroid hormones could be the substrates for Cdr1p and the energy dependent transport mediated by it is specific for estradiol and corticosterone