Cosmological distance indicators

We review three distance measurement techniques beyond the local universe: (1) gravitational lens time delays, (2) baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO), and (3) HI intensity mapping. We describe the principles and theory behind each method, the ingredients needed for measuring such distances, the current observational results, and future prospects. Time delays from strongly lensed quasars currently provide constraints on $H_0$ with < 4% uncertainty, and with 1% within reach from ongoing surveys and efforts. Recent exciting discoveries of strongly lensed supernovae hold great promise for time-delay cosmography. BAO features have been detected in redshift surveys up to z <~ 0.8 with galaxies and z ~ 2 with Ly-$\alpha$ forest, providing precise distance measurements and $H_0$ with < 2% uncertainty in flat $\Lambda$CDM. Future BAO surveys will probe the distance scale with percent-level precision. HI intensity mapping has great potential to map BAO distances at z ~ 0.8 and beyond with precisions of a few percent. The next years ahead will be exciting as various cosmological probes reach 1% uncertainty in determining $H_0$, to assess the current tension in $H_0$ measurements that could indicate new physics.Comment: Review article accepted for publication in Space Science Reviews (Springer), 45 pages, 10 figures. Chapter of a special collection resulting from the May 2016 ISSI-BJ workshop on Astronomical Distance Determination in the Space Ag

Molecular breeding tools improved drought tolerant groundnut variety for resistance to foliar fungal diseases

A largely rainfed crop in India, drought tolerance, particularly mid- and end-season tolerance, is a key trait in groundnut varieties. A combination of both empirical and trait-based approaches was used in breeding programs of ICAR and ICRISAT, resulting in release of few tolerant varieties that have superior pod yield under drought stress and/or have enhanced water-use-efficiency. There is a need to breed varieties with drought tolerance, disease resistance and quality traits that suit different production ecologies as well as meet the needs of the farmers, consumers and industries. ICRISAT has released an early-maturing (90-95 d) and drought- tolerant variety ICGV 91114 for the drought-prone Ananthapur district of Andhra Pradesh, India, where about 0.7 m ha area is under groundnut cultivation and has low (300 mm) and erratic (30-40 rainy days) rainfall. On-farm studies conducted with ICGV 91114 during 2008-10 showed 30% reduction in yield variability over the years. Following screening in hot-spots of both rust and LLS disease during 2014 rainy season, a total of 27 introgression lines derived from ICGV 91114 were selected and advanced for evaluation in multi-location trials at six locations in 2015 under rainfed conditions. Based on the pod yield under rainfed conditions and disease resistance, three superior introgression lines (ICGV 14410, ICGV 13189, ICGV 14421) were proposed for the first-ever NILs trial (near-isogenic lines trial) along with eight others conducted under All India Coordinated Research Project on Groundnut (AICRP-G) at national level

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Not AvailableLinseed (Linum usitatissimum L.) is an important oil yielding crop cultivated widely in India. During the field survey, 2018-19 (Rabi season; January-February), characteristic powdery mildew disease symptoms were observed in around 90 hectares of linseed in Northern Karnataka (Agricultural Research Station, Raichur). The incidence of the disease was estimated, and it was found in the range up to 96 per cent. Initially, the symptoms were appeared as tan lesions, which later turned into small, circular chlorotic lesions and yellowing of the abaxial leaf surface with white fungal mycelial growth on the abaxial leaf surface. As the disease progress, white fungal mycelial growth was also noticed on the adaxial leaf surface. In severe infection, drying and premature defoliation of infected leaves was observed (Figure S1 A-D). A total of 12 samples were collected and subjected to morphological and molecular identification. Microscopic examination revealed the presence of conidia borne on conidiophores (simple, sometimes branched). Conidiophores were measured 83.17 – 116.45 µm (n=90). Conidia were single-celled, hyaline, dimorphic (pyriform and cylindrical), and 70.2 - 82.7μm × 15.1 - 26.3 μm (n=100) (Figure S1 E&F). A reference specimen was deposited at Agharkar Research Institute’s (ARI) Ajrekar Mycological Herbarium (AMH 2015-07/AKC 2231-03/SKS/DKM). Since the conidial morphology and characters were very similar to Leveillula taurica the fungus was identified as L. taurica (Lév.) G. Arnaud. (Braun and Cook, 2012). Further, to confirm the identity based on ITS-rDNA barcoding, genomic DNA was isolated from conidial suspension harvested from powdery mildew affected linseed samples. ITS was amplified using powdery mildew-specific ITS universal primer pair PN23/PN34 and sequenced directly (Chen et al., 2008). The ITS regions were amplified at ~700bp. nBLAST analysis revealed that the ITS sequence shared 100% similarity with reference sequence AB045148.1 respectively. The representative sequences were deposited in GenBank with accession numbers OK036584 (LuLtR1) and OK036585 (LuLtR2). Further amplification of L1/L2 primer pair from ITS region were PCR amplified (Reddy et al., 2013) and an expected amplicon of 374bp was analyzed. Though, the ITS-rDNA and L1/L2 specific region analyzed, they are not specific exclusively to the L. taurica. However, combination of morphology and molecular sequence was used to confirm the identity. Further to prove Koch’s postulates, pathogenicity tests were conducted on healthy linseed plants grown under greenhouse condition (28±2° C; >80% Relative Humidity). Conidia were harvested from infected leaves and the suspension was sprayed on 30 (40 days old) linseed plants. The development of powdery mildew symptoms was recorded on 22 plants 10 days after inoculation. Control plants inoculated with sterile water remained healthy, and no powdery mildew symptoms were observed. The identity was confirmed upon microscopic observation of spores from artificially inoculated plants, thus confirming the association. Leveillula taurica is known to cause powdery mildew on tomato, chilli and other crops. Amano (1986) and Saharan and Saharan (1994) reported the occurrence of L. taurica on linseed, however, no further details are available on the association, as well as molecular confirmation of L. taurica associated with linseed from India (Farr and Rossman, 2021). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of L. taurica associated with powdery mildew of linseed in India. Since it is the first confirmed record through molecular sequence analysis, it is important to know its geographical distribution and impact on linseed production to chalk the management strategies.Not Availabl

BIODECOLORIZATION OF ANTHRAQUINONE TEXTILE (ACID BLUE 25) DYE BY KLEBSIELLA SP

Acid Blue 25 is an Anthraquinone based dye extensively used in textile industries, many bacterial isolates obtained from the textile effluents showed the decolorization activity, among all isolates, Klebsiella sp. showed maximum decolorization potential. In the present study different tests have been conducted to optimize the decolorization efficiency, such as enrichment of carbon &amp; Nitrogen source with different concentrations, P H , Temperature, size of inoculums etc., 70% to 90% of decolorization activity was recorded within 48 hrs of incubation at static conditions by Klebsiella sp. The degradation was confirmed by UV-Visible spectrum and TLC analysis. Microbial Toxicity study revealed the degradation of Acid blue 25 in to non-toxic products by klebsiella sp. High efficiency of dye decolorization is a key for the degradation of biological treatment of polluted effluents. Therefore Klebsiella sp. appears to be the promising organism for acid blue 25 dye degradation

Strong Lens Time Delay Challenge: II. Results of TDC1

We present the results of the first strong lens time delay challenge. The motivation, experimental design, and entry level challenge are described in a companion paper. This paper presents the main challenge, TDC1, which consisted of analyzing thousands of simulated light curves blindly. The observational properties of the light curves cover the range in quality obtained for current targeted efforts (e.g.,~COSMOGRAIL) and expected from future synoptic surveys (e.g.,~LSST), and include simulated systematic errors. \nteamsA\ teams participated in TDC1, submitting results from \nmethods\ different method variants. After a describing each method, we compute and analyze basic statistics measuring accuracy (or bias) $A$, goodness of fit $\chi^2$, precision $P$, and success rate $f$. For some methods we identify outliers as an important issue. Other methods show that outliers can be controlled via visual inspection or conservative quality control. Several methods are competitive, i.e., give $|A|<0.03$, $P<0.03$, and $\chi^2<1.5$, with some of the methods already reaching sub-percent accuracy. The fraction of light curves yielding a time delay measurement is typically in the range $f =$20--40\%. It depends strongly on the quality of the data: COSMOGRAIL-quality cadence and light curve lengths yield significantly higher $f$ than does sparser sampling. Taking the results of TDC1 at face value, we estimate that LSST should provide around 400 robust time-delay measurements, each with $P<0.03$ and $|A|<0.01$, comparable to current lens modeling uncertainties. In terms of observing strategies, we find that $A$ and $f$ depend mostly on season length, while P depends mostly on cadence and campaign duration.Comment: referee's comments incorporated; to appear in Ap