Plant phenological response to microclimatic variations in an alpine zone of Garhwal Himalaya

The impact of microclimatic variations on the developmental stages of common alpine plant species at four primary phenology sites at Dayara meadow of Garhwal Himalayas (Uttarakhand) was studied. The study revealed that the variations in the topographical features and environmental conditions directly influenced the phenology of the alpine plant species. Site I and IV showed great variation in the timing of phenological phases whereas, site III and IV showed approximately similar phenological timings. Anemone obtusiloba and Anaphalis contorta showed early flowering whereas Aconitum heterophyllum, Bupleurum longicaule and Parnassia nubicola flowered in late August and early September. P. nubicola had a shorter flowering period whereas Tanacetum longifolium.and A. nepalensis had the longest flowering period. Taraxacum officinale and Geum elatum flowered twice in the season

Radiating dipoles in photonic crystals

The radiation dynamics of a dipole antenna embedded in a Photonic Crystal are modeled by an initially excited harmonic oscillator coupled to a non--Markovian bath of harmonic oscillators representing the colored electromagnetic vacuum within the crystal. Realistic coupling constants based on the natural modes of the Photonic Crystal, i.e., Bloch waves and their associated dispersion relation, are derived. For simple model systems, well-known results such as decay times and emission spectra are reproduced. This approach enables direct incorporation of realistic band structure computations into studies of radiative emission from atoms and molecules within photonic crystals. We therefore provide a predictive and interpretative tool for experiments in both the microwave and optical regimes.Comment: Phys. Rev. E, accepte

Detection of continuum radio emission associated with Geminga

A deep Very Large Array observation of the Geminga pulsar field led to the discovery, at a higher than 10 sigma significance level, of radio emission trailing the neutron star proper motion. This 10-arcsec-long radio feature, detected with a flux of 0.4 mJy at 4.8 GHz, is marginally displaced (2.7\pm1.8 arcsec) from the pulsar (which, at any rate, is unlikely to contribute with magnetospheric pulsed emission more than 15% to the total observed radio luminosity, about 1E26 erg/s) and positionally coincident with the X-ray axial tail recently discovered by Chandra and ascribed to the pulsar wind nebula (PWN). Overall, the Geminga radio tail is compatible with the scenario of a synchrotron-emitting PWN, but the present data do not allow us to discriminate between different (and not always necessarily mutually exclusive) possible processes for producing that. If this radio feature does not result from intrinsic peculiarities of Geminga, but its proximity and radio-quiet nature (both helping in not hindering the faint diffuse radio emission), other relatively near and energetic radio-quiet pulsars could show similar structures in dedicated interferometric observations.Comment: Version accepted by MNRAS Letters (new title and substantial changes in response to referees reports); 5 pages, 2 colour figure

Beyond single-photon localization at the edge of a Photonic Band Gap

We study spontaneous emission in an atomic ladder system, with both transitions coupled near-resonantly to the edge of a photonic band gap continuum. The problem is solved through a recently developed technique and leads to the formation of a ``two-photon+atom'' bound state with fractional population trapping in both upper states. In the long-time limit, the atom can be found excited in a superposition of the upper states and a ``direct'' two-photon process coexists with the stepwise one. The sensitivity of the effect to the particular form of the density of states is also explored.Comment: to appear in Physical Review

Inhibition of Simian Virus 40 replication by targeting the molecular chaperone function and ATPase activity of T antigen

Polyomaviruses such as BK virus and JC virus have been linked to several diseases, but treatments that thwart their propagation are limited in part because of slow growth and cumbersome culturing conditions. In contrast, the replication of one member of this family, Simian Virus 40 (SV40), is robust and has been well-characterized. SV40 replication requires two domains within the viral-encoded large tumor antigen (TAg): The ATPase domain and the N-terminal J domain, which stimulates the ATPase activity of the Hsp70 chaperone. To assess whether inhibitors of polyomavirus replication could be identified, we examined a recently described library of small molecules, some of which inhibit chaperone function. One compound, MAL2-11B, inhibited both TAg's endogenous ATPase activity and the TAg-mediated activation of Hsp70. MAL2-11B also reduced SV40 propagation in plaque assays and compromised DNA replication in cell culture and in vitro. Furthermore, the compound significantly reduced the growth of BK virus in a human kidney cell line. These data indicate that pharmacological inhibition of TAg's chaperone and ATPase activities may provide a route to combat polyomavirus-mediated disease. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Novel Collective Effects in Integrated Photonics

Superradiance, the enhanced collective emission of energy from a coherent ensemble of quantum systems, has been typically studied in atomic ensembles. In this work we study theoretically the enhanced emission of energy from coherent ensembles of harmonic oscillators. We show that it should be possible to observe harmonic oscillator superradiance for the first time in waveguide arrays in integrated photonics. Furthermore, we describe how pairwise correlations within the ensemble can be measured with this architecture. These pairwise correlations are an integral part of the phenomenon of superradiance and have never been observed in experiments to date.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure

Non-Markovian Decay of a Three Level Cascade Atom in a Structured Reservoir

We present a formalism that enables the study of the non-Markovian dynamics of a three-level ladder system in a single structured reservoir. The three-level system is strongly coupled to a bath of reservoir modes and two quantum excitations of the reservoir are expected. We show that the dynamics only depends on reservoir structure functions, which are products of the mode density with the coupling constant squared. This result may enable pseudomode theory to treat multiple excitations of a structured reservoir. The treatment uses Laplace transforms and an elimination of variables to obtain a formal solution. This can be evaluated numerically (with the help of a numerical inverse Laplace transform) and an example is given. We also compare this result with the case where the two transitions are coupled to two separate structured reservoirs (where the example case is also analytically solvable)

Maternal risk factors associated with term low birth weight in India: A review

Low birth weight is one of the leading factors for infant morbidity and mortality. To a large extent affect, various maternal risk factors are associated with pregnancy outcomes by increasing odds of delivering an infant with low birth weight. Despite this association, understanding the maternal risk factors affecting term low birth weight has been a challenging task. To date, limited studies have been conducted in India that exert independent magnitude of these effects on term low birth weight. The aim of this review is to examine the current knowledge of maternal risk factors that contribute to term low birth weight in the Indian population. In order to identify the potentially relevant articles, an extensive literature search was conducted using PubMed, Goggle Scholar and IndMed databases (1993 – Dec 2020). Our results indicate that maternal age, educational status, socio-economic status, ethnicity, parity, pre-pregnancy weight, maternal stature, maternal body mass index, obstetric history, maternal anaemia, gestational weight gain, short pregnancy outcome, hypertension during pregnancy, infection, antepartum haemorrhage, tobacco consumption, maternal occupation, maternal psychological stress, alcohol consumption, antenatal care and mid-upper arm circumference have all independent effects on term low birth weight in the Indian population. Further, we argue that exploration for various other dimensions of maternal factors and underlying pathways can be useful for a better understanding of how it exerts independent association on term low birth weight in the Indian sub-continent

Multipole interaction between atoms and their photonic environment

Macroscopic field quantization is presented for a nondispersive photonic dielectric environment, both in the absence and presence of guest atoms. Starting with a minimal-coupling Lagrangian, a careful look at functional derivatives shows how to obtain Maxwell's equations before and after choosing a suitable gauge. A Hamiltonian is derived with a multipolar interaction between the guest atoms and the electromagnetic field. Canonical variables and fields are determined and in particular the field canonically conjugate to the vector potential is identified by functional differentiation as minus the full displacement field. An important result is that inside the dielectric a dipole couples to a field that is neither the (transverse) electric nor the macroscopic displacement field. The dielectric function is different from the bulk dielectric function at the position of the dipole, so that local-field effects must be taken into account.Comment: 17 pages, to be published in Physical Review