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Thunderstorms and their associated severe weather, like lightning, hail, heavy precipitation and strong surface gusty winds, cause immense damage and loss of life throughout India. While many studies explore the large-scale character of thunderstorms over the region, the THUNDER-F Thunderstorm Testbed Project is the first multi-agency coordinated initiative to comprehensively study and model the mesoscale details of these thunderstorms and improve their operational forecasts. The THUNDER-F project is proposed to be situated over the East Indian region comprising of east Jharkhand, south Bengal and north Odisha, where the severity as well as the impact of thunderstorms is highest. The present study provides details of the types and locations of instruments to be installed in the region by 2026. It is expected that the high spatial and temporal resolution observations of the 3-D characteristics of the atmosphere from this project and complementary observations from other research projects in the area such as the Atmospheric and Space Research Facility (ASRF) will significantly improve the understanding of the dynamical–thermodynamical–microphysical–electrical processes associated with the cloud formation, growth and decay. This in turn will improve modelling of these weather systems in mesoscale models thereby improving forecast accuracy and dissemination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Micro-electro-discharge drilling (μ EDD) is a type of non-traditional machining process used for drilling micro-holes of desired dimensions with a high aspect ratio. But, there are no such research works that could have explained the desired accurate circular shape of micro-holes. The need for a more advanced hybrid machining process to improve the overall efficiency in terms of mainly desired circular shape and radial overcut is evolved. In this research work, an electromagnetic field force-assisted micro-EDM process has been carried out on Inconel 800 with a copper tool of 450 μ m. Experimental results showed that measured metal removal rate and tool wear rate decreased for ascending values of magnetic flux density, peak current and gap voltage, whereas circularity increases linearly with an increase in magnetic flux density and also the effects of magnetic field on circularity of micro-holes on Inconel 800 are more predominant than other parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study focuses on addressing the issue of too frequent triggers of deep convection in climate models, which are primarily based on physics-based classical trigger functions such as convective available potential energy (CAPE) or cloud work function (CWF). To overcome this problem, the study proposes using machine learning (ML) based deep convective triggers as an alternative. The deep convective trigger is formulated as a binary classification problem, where the goal is to predict whether deep convection will occur or not. Two elementary classification algorithms, namely support vector machines and neural networks, are adopted in this study. Additionally, a novel method is proposed to rank the importance of input variables for the classification problem, which may aid in understanding the underlying mechanisms and factors influencing deep convection. The accuracy of the ML-based methods is compared with the widely used convective available potential energy (CAPE)-based and dynamic generation of CAPE (dCAPE) trigger function found in many convective parameterization schemes. Results demonstrate that the elementary machine learning-based algorithms can outperform the classical CAPE-based triggers, indicating the potential effectiveness of ML-based approaches in dealing with this issue. Furthermore, a method based on the Mahalanobis distance is presented for binary classification, which is easy to interpret and implement. The Mahalanobis distance-based approach shows accuracy comparable to other ML-based methods, suggesting its viability as an alternative method for deep convective triggers. By correcting for deep convective triggers using ML-based approaches, the study proposes a possible solution to improve the probability density of rain in the climate model. This improvement may help overcome the issue of excessive drizzle often observed in many climate models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study finds out Climate Forecast System (CFS) version 2 (CFSv2T126 and CFSv2T382) models’ fidelity in capturing mean flow–eddy interaction, circulation–heating feedback and, the energy conversion processes during organization and intensification of Boreal Summer Intra-Seasonal Oscillation (BSISO) in the backdrop of the mechanism put forward by earlier observation-based study. Ten years of free-run is used to evaluate the models. CFSv2-T126 over-estimates the BSISO intensity from lag –24 and the over-estimation is even more for CFSv2-T382 compared to observation-based study. T126 model underestimates the mean kinetic energy (MKE) related to upper-level easterly wind and the under-estimation is notably more prominent for the strong events. The under-estimation is more for T382 model and the model has difficulty in capturing the upper-level MKE. However, both the model can capture the lower level MKE structure with a slight over-estimation for both the events. At the upper level, MKE to eddy kinetic energy (EKE) conversion for T126 model is significantly weak, and contrary to the observation-based study which shows a decrease in conversion in the subsequent lags. Nevertheless, T382 model shows an increase in MKE to EKE conversion for strong events which agrees with ERA analysis. CFSv2-T126 shows decreasing mean available potential energy (MAPE) to MKE conversion (CA process) for the strong events at the upper level in complete contrast to observation-based study. CFSv2-T382 model can capture the increasing MAPE to MKE conversion as BSISO approaches towards the organized and intense phase. For weak events, CA process is very weak in both models. Both models show a very weak vertical eddy momentum-vertical wind shear interaction (CK3 conversion) for strong events at the upper level. T126 model can capture the conversion for strong events at the lower level, but the magnitude is under-estimated. The process-based analyses of CFSv2 simulation bring out that the model has a significant deficiency in capturing the energy conversions and circulation–heating feedback processes. All these eventually led to lesser fidelity of the model in capturing the organization and intensification of BSISO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against the backdrop of limited fidelity of climate models in capturing low‐level cloud variability, the representation of the southern Indian Ocean (SIO) marine boundary layer (MBL) clouds and their transition from low to deep cloud have been investigated in this study. A historical run of 26 models, that featured in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5), and the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP)'s Climate Forecast System version 2.0 (CFSv2) models have been analysed along with different observational and reanalysis products. Observations clearly show the prominent occurrence of MBL low‐level clouds over the SIO in a 30–10°S latitudinal and 80–100°E longitudinal belt. Furthermore, there is a gradual transition from low to deep cloud towards the north of the Equator. The results reveal that the CMIP5 models were hardly able to capture the MBL low‐level clouds due to inaccurate temperature inversion and lower‐tropospheric stability (LTS) simulations. As compared to observations, the CMIP5 models show limited fidelity in capturing the transition from low to deep cloud at the north of the Equator. In this study, evaluation of one version of the CFS in which the convective parameterization is changed to the revised simplified Arakawa–Schubert (RSAS) scheme is carried out. In another CFS version (CFSR) with a more physically based cloud scheme (WRF Single‐Moment 6‐Class microphysics scheme; WSM6), comparisons are made with the default CFSv2 (CTRL) and RSAS. Only very few models, such as the MPI‐ESM‐LR, MRI, HadGEM, and NorESM models from among the 26 CMIP5 suites, and CFSCR from among the CFS suites, showed some fidelity in capturing the low‐level clouds over the SIO. This highlights that significant improvement is needed in climate models to improve the representation of the MBL over the SIO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we report the structural, magnetic, and transport properties of nanoparticles of Pr0.5Ca0.5MnO3(PCMO). On comparing our results with that of bulk PCMO, we find that there is a likely destabilization of charge ordering in nanoparticles of PCMO. The investigation has been done with particle sizes as small as 15 nm synthesized by polyol route. The size reduction (by keeping the chemical composition unchanged) reduces the orthorhombic c axis preferentially and thus reduces the orthorhombic distortion. The size reduction to 15 nm enhances the ferromagnetic moment at low temperatures and strongly suppresses the activated charge transport which is seen in the bulk samples of charge ordered PCMO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is an attempt to develop a prototype virtual union catalogue--SpaceCat--based on physical and virtual model that provides single-window real-time search system designed to display an up-to-date information of collections from the participating Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) libraries, geographically distributed in India. To understand the working of a union catalogue, the Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) functionalities it offers, a feasibility study of the already existing OPACs of union catalogues worldwide was undertaken. This study showed that only a few union catalogues have functions of real-time item-level status of availability; placing holds, single sign-on, personal reading history, late fee calculation, and so on. The global giants in the domain of union catalogue such as WorldCat, Consortium of Online Public Access Catalogues (COPAC) are not providing desired OPAC functionalities in the end-user interfaces. This paper aims to solve this issue by using Integrated Library System--Discovery Interface (ILS--DI) as a standard protocol to interlink front-end search interface that library users interact with, and is often referred to as the 'Online Public Access Catalogue' or OPAC of a union catalogue with back-end of the Koha Integrated Library System (ILS) that is specifically for staff use. The prototype SpaceCat has been developed on the basis of Open Standards and Open Source (OSS) Software. The framework includes Koha ILS as data provider, Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) as data harvesting protocol, VuFind as discovery layer, and ILS--DI-based multi-backend driver for generating OPAC functionalities in end-user interface including single sign-on option. The study suggests that the product can act as an information discovery and retrieval system to help end-users of entire ISRO community to quickly access the holdings' information from different geographically distributed ISRO institutes in a pin-pointed, an exhaustive, and an expeditious manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The performance of revised climate forecast system version 2 (CFSv2) are evaluated on the simulation of the underlying cloud and convective processes associated with the strong and weak boreal summer intraseasonal oscillations (BSISOs) events. The revised version of the CFSv2 consists of a six-class Weather Research Forecasting single moment (WSM6) cloud microphysics scheme and the default version has Zhao and Carr (ZC) cloud microphysics scheme. Both the version uses revised simplified Arakawa-Schubert (RSAS) convection scheme. The study reveals that the revised version of CFSv2 (RSAS-WSM) is able to better simulate the northward propagation of BSISOs and associated dynamical and thermodynamical mechanism put forward by earlier observation-based studies. It is found that the large-scale organized northwest-southeast tilted structure of rain band is better captured in RSAS-WSM simulation as compared to the default version of CFSv2 (RSAS-ZC) during strong BSISO events. Further, the reasonable large-scale or stratiform rainfall associated with the northward propagating strong BSISO events is seen in RSAS-WSM while it is completely missing in RSAS-ZC simulation. The pressure-latitude profiles of cloud liquid water (CLW) and cloud ice (CLI) show more realistic steady northward propagation in RSAS-WSM simulation. Consistent with the CLW and CLI distribution and their influence on the large-scale heating structure, the large-scale condensation heating shows quasi-periodic northward propagation in RSAS-WSM whereas such type of distribution is not captured in RSAS-ZC simulation. The realistic representation of cloud processes in WSM leads to simulate reasonable dynamical and thermodynamical processes associated with the strong BSISO events which follows the observation-based hypothesis proposed by earlier studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigates the magnetization and linewidth for liquid-phase-epitaxially grown thin films of europium-yttrium-iron-gallium-oxygen. Substitution of gallium on iron sublattices and its effect on temperature dependence; Theory of ferromagnetic resonance in rare-earth iron garnets; Relaxation of mechanism in thin films with large uniaxial anisotropy.

The recent demand for developing micro-pin Diamond grinding tools has gained tremendous importance in tool manufacturing industries. A successful development of these tools requires joining Diamond grits to carbide surface firmly. In this context, the present paper demonstrates the joining of Diamond grits to WC-cermet surface via brazing route using Ag-Cu-24.3In-3Ti active alloy (Incusil-ABA). All brazing experiments were conducted using a resistance type heating furnace under a highly controlled vacuum environment to eliminate contamination. Experimental findings of this investigation indicate that both brazing temperature and dwell time have significant influence on microstructure and other related properties of the alloy. Titanium present in the alloy was found to segregate towards Diamond-alloy interface. It was expected that such segregation would ensure a proper wetting by the alloy. However, the overall morphology of the brazed joint revealed that improper melting and poor wetting by alloy on cermet surface were two major challenges. The current study showcases that a careful control on brazing temperature and dwell time demonstrates a remarkable improvement in wetting characteristics and alloy morphology. It has been observed that a brazing temperature of 780 °C and dwell time of 15 min resulted in a good brazed joint morphology. The study also investigated the effect of said brazing temperature on grits physical characteristics using Raman spectroscopy. At the end, scratch test and wear characteristics of the filler are investigated in detail. The outcome of this investigation will be of immense interest to tool manufacturing industries associated with development of brazed micro-pin Diamond grinding tools using alloys having low melting point. [Display omitted] • Diamond has been successfully brazed to WC surface using Incusil-Active Braze Alloy containing 24.3 wt% In and 3 wt% Ti. • CuTi 2 and CuTi formed at brazing temperatures of 750 °C and 780 °C respectively affects the micro-hardness of the alloy. • With an increase in dwell time and brazing temperature, contact angle reduces. • Graphitization of Diamond is successfully prevented with the use of low melting point Incusil-Active Braze alloy. • Single grit scratch test confirmed that in none of the test conditions failure of the braze bond took place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a study which reported the results of audio frequency elastic measurements in the alloy series Fe[sub80-x]Ni[subx]Cr[sub20] through its various magnetic transitions. Method used in identifying and preparing the alloy; Evidence supporting prediction based on mean-field theories for sound propagation in spin glass.

Snake bite is an occupational hazard in India and important preventable cause of acute kidney injury (AKI). This study was done to estimate the magnitude of snakebite-induced AKI (SAKI)who required renal replacement therapy, prognostic predictors, and final outcome, and to measure the oxidative and carbonyl stress (CS) level in SAKI patient who underwent hemodialysis (HD). All SAKI patients dialyzed between April 2010 and July 2011 in NRS Medical College were included. Demographical, clinical, and biochemical data were analyzed, and patients are followed to discharge or death. Oxidative and CS markers (advanced oxidation protein product [AOPP], advanced glycation end product, pentosidine, dityrosine, thioberbituricacid reactive substance, and methylglyoxal [MG]) were measured in 48 SAKI patient requiring HD. About 155 SAKI patients (M: F 2.2:1 ) received HD. Of them. The age was 36.2 (range 4-74) years. The most common site of the bite was lower limb (88.7%). Oliguria and bleeding manifestation were the common presentation. Hypotension was found in 52 (33.5%) cases, cellulitis and inflammation were found in about 63%. Mean creatinine was 4.56 ± 0.24 mg/dl. About 42 (27.1%) had disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC). 36 (78.2%) had cellulites, 24 (52.2%) had hypotension or shock at initial presentation (P < 0.05), bleeding manifestation was found in 37 (80.4%), and 22 (47.8%) had DIC (P < 0.05). Forty-six (29.7%) patient died. DIC and hypotension/shock at initial presentation came out as an independent predictor of death. Among all markers measured for oxidative and CS (n = 48) AOPP and MG came out as an independent predictor (P < 0.05) of adverse outcome. Hypotension, DIC, AOPP, and MG were a poor prognostic marker in SAKI patients requiring dialysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The western part of Cuddapah basin has been considered as a foreland to the fold-thrust belt represented by eastern Nallamalais and Nellore schist belt. The igneous activities, in the form of lava flows and sills, in western Cuddapahs have been a subject of controversy since tectonogenetic models ranging from a mantle plume to lithospheric extension have been suggested. The present work covers a detailed study of the mafic sills and lava flows of Vempalle and Tadpatri formations in western Cuddapahs, which earlier workers have also noted. A detailed field and laboratory work in this study brings out, for the first time, five distinct petrographic and geochemical varieties of sills. Geochemical studies also suggest that the different sill types have originated from varying degrees of partial melting of a metasomatized subcrustal lithospheric mantle, the metasomatism of source being attributed to older Archaean convergent settings/greenstone belts that the basin unconformably overlies. The possible contribution of any small plume is only heating and doming of overlying mantle that induced incipient crustal rifting. Our geochemical studies on the lava flows of Vempalle Formation also suggest that the magma was derived from small degree of partial melting of spinel-garnet peridotite mantle in a rift setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study examines the ability of high resolution (T382) National Centers for Environmental Prediction coupled atmosphere-ocean climate forecast system version 2 (CFS T382) in simulating the salient spatio-temporal characteristics of the boreal summertime mean climate and the intraseasonal variability. The shortcomings of the model are identified based on the observation and compared with earlier reported biases of the coarser resolution of CFS (CFS T126). It is found that the CFS T382 reasonably mimics the observed features of basic state climate during boreal summer. But some prominent biases are noted in simulating the precipitation, tropospheric temperature (TT) and sea surface temperature (SST) over the global tropics. Although CFS T382 primarily reproduces the observed distribution of the intraseasonal variability over the Indian summer monsoon region, some difficulty remains in simulating the boreal summer intraseasonal oscillation (BSISO) characteristics. The simulated eastward propagation of BSISO decays rapidly across the Maritime Continent, while the northward propagation appears to be slightly slower than observation. However, the northward propagating BSISO convection propagates smoothly from the equatorial region to the northern latitudes with observed magnitude. Moreover, the observed northwest-southeast tilted rain band is not well reproduced in CFS T382. The warm mean SST bias and inadequate simulation of high frequency modes appear to be responsible for the weak simulation of eastward propagating BSISO. Unlike CFS T126, the simulated mean SST and TT exhibit warm biases, although the mean precipitation and simulated BSISO characteristics are largely similar in both the resolutions of CFS. Further analysis of the convectively coupled equatorial waves (CCEWs) indicates that model overestimates the gravest equatorial Rossby waves and underestimates the Kelvin and mixed Rossby-gravity waves. Based on analysis of CCEWs, the study further explains the possible reasons behind the realistic simulation of northward propagating BSISO in CFS T382, even though the model shows substantial biases in simulating mean state and other BSISO modes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keeping the systematic bias of the climate forecast system model version 2 (CFSv2) in mind, an attempt is made to improve the Indian summer monsoon (ISM) rainfall variability in the model from diurnal through daily to seasonal scale. Experiments with default simplified Arakawa-Schubert (SAS) and a revised SAS schemes are carried out to make 15 years climate run (free run) to evaluate the model fidelity with revised SAS as compared to default SAS. It is clearly seen that the revised SAS is able to reduce some of the biases of CFSv2 with default SAS. Improvement is seen in the annual seasonal cycle, onset and withdrawal but most importantly the rainfall probability distribution function (PDF) has improved significantly. To understand the reason behind the PDF improvement, the diurnal rainfall simulation is analysed and it is found that the PDF of diurnal rainfall has significantly improved with respect to even a high resolution CFSv2 T382 version. In the diurnal run with revised SAS, the PDF of rainfall over central India has remarkably improved. The improvement of diurnal cycle of total rainfall has actually been contributed by the improvement of diurnal cycle of convection and associated convective rainfall. This is reflected in outgoing longwave radiation and high cloud diurnal cycle. This improvement of convective cycle has resolved a long standing problem of dry bias by CFSv2 over Indian land mass and wet bias over equatorial Indian Ocean. Besides the improvement, there are some areas where there are still scopes for further development. The cold tropospheric temperature bias, low cloud fractions need further improvement. To check the role of shallow convection, another free run is made with revised SAS along with shallow convection (SC). The major difference between the new and old SC schemes lies in the heating and cooling behavior in lower-atmospheric layers above the planetary boundary layer. However, the inclusion of revised SC scheme could not show much improvement as compared to revised SAS with deep convection. Thus, it seems that revised SAS with deep convection can be a potentially better parameterization scheme for CFSv2 in simulating ISM rainfall variability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, compositionally graded In(Al,Ga)As metamorphic buffers (MBs) on GaAs substrate have been grown by MBE through three different paths. A comparative study has been done to comprehend the effect of underlying MB on the constant composition InAlAs healing layer by analyzing the relaxation behaviour, composition and surface morphology of the grown structures. The compositional variation between the constant composition healing layers on top of graded MB has been observed in all three samples although the growth conditions have been kept same. Indium incorporation rate has been found to be dependent on underlying MB. By combining the result of atomic force microscopy, photo-luminescence and X-ray reciprocal space mapping, varying surface roughness has been proposed as the probable driving force behind different Indium incorporation rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flower-like nanostructures of NiCo (1:1) in the presence of Jeffamine was synthesized by homogeneous nucleation in 1, 2-propanediol for 3h. Morphological characterizations performed by scanning and transmission electron microscopy (FESEM and TEM) revealed the average size distribution of 700nm containing 2D nanosheets of ~30nm thickness. The nanoflowers crystallize exclusively in face-centered cubic structures and were confirmed by x-ray diffraction studies. Various factors, including nature of polyol, concentrations of base and metal salts in precursor proved to affect the geometry of nanoflowers. Magnetic studies revealed the ferromagnetic nature of NiCo nanoflowers with high saturation magnetization and low coercivity (108.6emu/g and 78.4Oe). The enhanced shear properties and yield stress of dimorphic MR fluid containing nanoflowers of NiCo in ferrofluids can be attributed to stronger microstructure formation in the presence of magnetic field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The performance of ECHAM5 atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) is evaluated to simulate the seasonal mean and intraseasonal variability of Indian summer monsoon (ISM). The model is simulated at two different vertical resolutions, with 19 and 31 levels (L19 and L31, respectively), using observed monthly mean sea surface temperature and compared with the observation. The analyses examine the biases present in the internal dynamics of the model in simulating the mean monsoon and the evolution of the boreal summer intraseasonal oscillation (BSISO) and attempts to unveil the reason behind them. The model reasonably simulates the seasonal mean-state of the atmosphere during ISM. However, some notable discrepancies are found in the simulated summer mean moisture and rainfall distribution. Both the vertical resolutions, overestimate the seasonal mean precipitation over the oceanic regions, but underestimate the precipitation over the Indian landmass. The performance of the model improves with the increment of the vertical resolution. The AGCM reasonably simulates some salient features of BSISO, but fails to show the eastward propagation of the convection across the Maritime Continent in L19 simulation. The propagation across the Maritime Continent and tilted rainband structure improve as one moves from L19 to L31. The model unlikely shows prominent westward propagation that originates over the tropical western Pacific region. L31 also produces some of the observed characteristics of the northward propagating BSISOs. However, the northward propagating convection becomes stationary in phase 5-7. The simulation of shallow diabatic heating structure and the heavy rainfall activity over the Bay of Bengal indicate the abundance of the premature convection-generated precipitation events in the model. It is found that the moist physics is responsible for the poor simulation of the northward propagating convection anomalies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Endogenous glucocorticoids are essential for mobilizing energy resources, restraining inflammatory responses and coordinating behavior to an immune challenge. Impaired glucocorticoid receptor (GR) function has been associated with impaired metabolic processes, enhanced inflammation and exaggerated sickness and depressive-like behaviors. To discern the molecular mechanisms underlying GR regulation of physiologic and behavioral responses to a systemic immune challenge, GRdim mice, in which absent GR dimerization leads to impaired GR-DNA-binding-dependent mechanisms but intact GR protein-protein interactions, were administered low-dose lipopolysaccharide (LPS). GRdim-LPS mice exhibited elevated and prolonged levels of plasma corticosterone (CORT), interleukin (IL)-6 and IL-10 (but not plasma tumor necrosis factor-α (TNFα)), enhanced early expression of brain TNFα, IL-1β and IL-6 mRNA levels, and impaired later central TNFα mRNA expression. Exaggerated sickness behavior (lethargy, piloerection, ptosis) in the GRdim-LPS mice was associated with increased early brain proinflammatory cytokine expression and late plasma CORT levels, but decreased late brain TNFα expression. GRdim-LPS mice also exhibited sustained locomotor impairment in the open field, body weight loss and metabolic alterations measured by indirect calorimetry, as well as impaired thermoregulation. Taken together, these data indicate that GR dimerization-dependent DNA-binding mechanisms differentially regulate systemic and central cytokine expression in a cytokine- and time-specific manner, and are essential for the proper regulation and recovery of multiple physiologic responses to low-dose endotoxin. Moreover, these results support the concept that GR protein-protein interactions are not sufficient for glucocorticoids to exert their full anti-inflammatory effects and suggest that glucocorticoid responses limited to GR monomer-mediated transcriptional effects could predispose individuals to prolonged behavioral and metabolic sequelae of an enhanced inflammatory state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The characteristic features of Indian summer monsoon (ISM) and monsoon intraseasonal oscillations (MISO) are analyzed in the 25 year simulation by the superparameterized Community Climate System Model (SP-CCSM). The observations indicate the low frequency oscillation with a period of 30-60 day to have the highest power with a dominant northward propagation, while the faster mode of MISO with a period of 10-20 day shows a stationary pattern with no northward propagation. SP-CCSM simulates two dominant quasi-periodic oscillations with periods 15-30 day and 40-70 day indicating a systematic low frequency bias in simulating the observed modes. Further, contrary to the observation, the SP-CCSM 15-30 day mode has a significant northward propagation; while the 40-70 day mode does not show prominent northward propagation. The inability of the SP-CCSM to reproduce the observed modes correctly is shown to be linked with inability of the cloud resolving model (CRM) to reproduce the characteristic heating associated with the barotropic and baroclinic vertical structures of the high-frequency and the low-frequency modes. It appears that the superparameterization in the General Circulation Model (GCM) certainly improves seasonal mean model bias significantly. There is a need to improve the CRM through which the barotropic and baroclinic modes are simulated with proper space and time distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

LCMP, Department of Condensed Matter Physics & Material Sciences S.N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, Salt Lake, Kolkata 700 098, India The present work reports the synthesis of polyvinylchloride encapsulated superparamagnetic magnetite micro-agglomerates. These were characterized with scanning as well as transmission electron micrographs, and X-ray diffraction. Magneto-rheological fluids were produced by dispersing these particles in various concentrations in castor oil, which is the carrier fluid here. The viscoelastic characterization of these fluids were made at room temperature, under different shear rates, both with and without magnetic field. The behaviour of the fluids was modelled as a Herschel-Bulkley fluid. Overall, these fluids have been found to have desirable and usable properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Status and distribution of different forms of sulphur from the surface (0. to 25 cm) sulphur and subsurface (25 to 50 cm) soils of 12 different established soil series of Entisols in West Bengal was studied. Regarding different forms of sulphur, the inorganic sulphate sulphur, organic and total sulphur seemed to vary from 8.4 ppm to 16 ppm, 108 to 286 ppm and 120 ppm to 300 ppm respectively. A general decreasing trend over the subsurface horizon was found in all the three forms (excepting Bamundanga, Khagrabari and Poshgarh series). The physicochemical properties of these soils showed almost the decreasing trend down the horizon The inorganic sulphate sulphur, the plant available sulphur was found to be medium to low in sulphur status. Taxonomic analysis of mean values of all the three forms of sulphur was performed for different soil series of Entisols originated under different agroecological conditions of West Bengal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spatio-temporal variability of Indian Summer Monsoon is well studied based on different types of rainfall data. However, very few attempts have been made to study the underlying role of clouds and its hydromeseors on Mon- soon Intrascasonal Oscillations. The northward propagating Monsoon Intraseasonal Oscillations and its characteristics remain a challenge for the numerical modelers even today. In view of this, we have set out to analyze the role of cloud hydrometeors and their linkage with northward propagating Monsoon Intraseasonal Oscillations. The science question that we intend to address here is whether the different phases of the cloud hydrumeteors show similar propagation characteristics as that of rainfall, and what are the relations of their phases with the convection centre using Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission data. In answering the question, we have analyzed ten years of Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission 2A12 hydrometeor data over Indian region. Our analyses show that the cloud water and cloud ice do show a large scale organization during the Indian Summer Monsoon regime of June-September, and systematically progress northward getting initiated over equatorial Indian Ocean. On further analyses, we found that cloud water actually leads the rainfall and cloud ice lags the rainfall. We have further demonstrated the process by analyzing dynamical parameters from Modern Era-Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications. The presence of cloud water in the lower troposphere in the leading edge of rainfall indicates the lower level moistening and preconditioning of the convective instability due to enhanced moisture convergence. Subsequently, deep convection is triggered, which generates hydrometeor above freezing level and cloud ice in the upper troposphere. To quantify objectively the relation among cloud liquid water, cloud ice and rainfall, the lag correlation is computed with respect to convection center, where the above hypothesis is established that cloud liquid water leads the rainfall and cloud ice lag. This relation among hydrometeors may help the numerical modelers to incorporate such processes for capturing the characteristics of Monsoon Intraseasonal Oscillations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Purpose: Activation of cannabinoid CB(2) receptors protects against various forms of ischaemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury. Δ(8) -Tetrahydrocannabivarin (Δ(8) -THCV) is a synthetic analogue of the plant cannabinoid Δ(9) -tetrahydrocannabivarin, which exhibits anti-inflammatory effects in rodents involving activation of CB(2) receptors. Here, we assessed effects of Δ(8) -THCV and its metabolite 11-OH-Δ(8) -THCV on CB(2) receptors and against hepatic I/R injury.Experimental Approach: Effects in vitro were measured with human CB(2) receptors expressed in CHO cells. Hepatic I/R injury was assessed in mice with 1h ischaemia and 2, 6 or 24h reperfusion in vivo.Key Results: Displacement of [(3) H]CP55940 by Δ(8) -THCV or 11-OH-Δ(8) -THCV from specific binding sites in CHO cell membranes transfected with human CB(2) receptors (hCB(2) ) yielded K(i) values of 68.4 and 59.95 nM respectively. Δ(8) -THCV or 11-OH-Δ(8) -THCV inhibited forskolin-stimulated cAMP production by hCB(2) CHO cells (EC(50) = 12.95 and 14.3 nM respectively). Δ(8) -THCV, given before induction of I/R, attenuated hepatic injury (measured by serum alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase levels), decreased tissue protein carbonyl adducts, 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal, the chemokines CCL3 and CXCL2,TNF-α, intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (CD54) mRNA levels, tissue neutrophil infiltration, caspase 3/7 activity and DNA fragmentation. Protective effects of Δ(8) -THCV against liver damage were still present when the compound was given at the beginning of reperfusion. Pretreatment with a CB(2) receptor antagonist attenuated the protective effects of Δ(8) -THCV, while a CB(1) antagonist tended to enhance it.Conclusions and Implications: Δ(8) -THCV activated CB(2) receptors in vitro, and decreased tissue injury and inflammation in vivo, associated with I/R partly via CB(2) receptor activation.Linked Articles: This article is part of a themed section on Cannabinoids in Biology and Medicine. To view the other articles in this section visit http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/bph.2012.165.issue-8. To view Part I of Cannabinoids in Biology and Medicine visit http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/bph.2011.163.issue-7. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an extensive experimental study coupled with statistical analysis on infrared (IR)-assisted freeze drying of tiger prawn (Penaeus monodon) in cuboidal geometry. The work aims to estimate quality attributes of freeze-dried prawn in terms of final product temperature (below protein denaturation temperature), rehydration ratio, and final moisture content as a function of process parameters, viz. IR temperature (55-65°C), distance between sample and IR heater (30-60 mm), sample thickness (10-25 mm) and freeze-drying time (5.5-6.5 h). Response surface methodology (RSM) has been employed using a three-parameter, three-level face-centered central composite design (FCCD) to develop multivariate regression models in order to evaluate the influence of process parameters on the quality of the freeze-dried prawn. Optimal drying conditions of 10-mm sample thickness, 60-mm sample distance from the IR heater, 65°C IR temperature, and freeze-drying time of 6.37 h have been established. Separate validation experiments at the derived optimal conditions ascertained the predictive ability of the developed model equations. The outcome of this study would contribute to the development of technical capabilities for the design of freeze dryers applicable to such high-valued foodstuffs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In our continuing endeavour towards establishing the theory of p-ideals [4, 5, 7] in semiring, we have introduced in [1], the idea of p-prime and p-semiprime ideals in semiring and some related results were established, including that the intersection of any class of p-prime ideals of a semiring is a p-semiprime ideal thereof. In the present paper we introduce the concept of p-radical of an ideal of a commutative semiring and establish the corresponding version of the famous Krull's theorem for this structure. Thereafter, defining the p-radical of a semiring and p-nilpotent elements of a semiring, we present some interrelations between them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent times ytterbium (Yb) doped fibre-based mode-locked master oscillator and power amplifier have attracted a great deal of interest because of their inherent advantages like flexibility, reliability, compactness, high power handling capability and diffraction limited output beam quality as compared to the solid-state counterpart. But, to successfully develope of high-power femtosecond oscillator-amplifier system based on Ybdoped fibre, an appropriate choice of the mode-locking regime and the amplifier geometry are required. Development of an all-fibre integrated high-power Yb-doped fibre oscillator-amplifier system in which the advantages of a fibre-based system can be fully exploited remained a challenge as it requires the careful optimization of dispersion, nonlinearity, gain and ASE contribution. In this article, femto-second pulse generation in Yb-doped fibre oscillator in different mode-locking regimes are reviewed and the details of development and characterization of an all-fibre, high-power, low-noise amplifier system seeded by an all-normal-dispersion mode-locked Yb-doped fibre laser oscillator is described. More than 10 W of average power is obtained from the fibre oscillator-amplifier system at a repetition rate of 43 MHz with diffraction-limited beam quality. Amplified pulses are de-chirped to sub-160 fs duration in a grating compressor. This is the first 10 W-level source of femtosecond pulses with completely fibre-integrated amplification comprised of commercially available components. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an attempt to develop a better simulation of the climatology of monsoon precipitation in climate models, this paper investigates the impacts of different convective closures on systematic biases of an Indian monsoon precipitation climatology in a high-resolution regional climate model. For this purpose, the Weather Research Forecast (WRF) model is run at 45- and 15-km (two-way nested) resolution with three convective parameterization schemes, namely the Grell–Devenyi (GD), the Betts–Miller–Janjić (BMJ), and the Kain–Fritsch (KF), for the period 1 May–31 October 2001–07. The model is forced with the NCEP–NCAR reanalysis data as the initial and boundary conditions. The simulated June–September (JJAS) mean monsoon rainfall with the three convective schemes is compared with the observations. KF is found to have a high moist bias over the central and western coastal Indian region while GD shows the opposite. Among the three, BMJ is able to produce a reasonable mean monsoon pattern. In an attempt to get further insight into the seasonal bias and its evolution, the probability distribution function (PDF) of different rain-rate categories and their percentage contribution to the seasonal total are computed. BMJ and KF underestimate the observations for lighter rain rates and overestimate for rain-rate categories of more than 10 mm day−1. GD shows an overestimation for lighter rain and an underestimation of PDF for moderate categories. The seasonal patterns of evolution of PDF plots of three rain-rate categories are analyzed to determine whether the convective schemes show any systematic bias throughout the season or if they have problems during certain phases of the monsoon. This shows that the GD systematically overestimates the lighter rain rate and underestimates the moderate rain rate throughout the season, whereas BMJ and KF have problems in the initial stages. The heavy rain category is systematically overestimated by the KF compared to the other two. To further evaluate the proportionate contribution of each rain-rate bin to the total rain, the percentage contribution of each rain rate to the seasonal total is computed. Analyzing all the rain-rate simulations produced by the three schemes, it is found that KF has a moist bias and GD has a dry bias in the spatiotemporal distribution of the monsoon precipitation. Further, this paper investigates the causes behind the mean monsoon precipitation bias. It is shown that GD produces a model climate where the vertical velocity is less than that of the observations up to 500 hPa and the vertically integrated moist instability is also weaker. KF, on the other hand, shows a higher than the observed vertical velocity and a stronger moist instability. Along with this, the vertical profile of heating suggests a warmer middle level in the KF case and significantly reduced midlevel heating for GD. Thus, KF (GD) has produced a model atmosphere that has a stronger (weaker) convective instability to produce the observed bias in the model precipitation. BMJ is found to simulate a reasonable heating profile, along with the realistic moist instability and seasonal cycle of evaporation and condensation. Insight derived from the analysis is expected to help improve the convective parameterizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The weather systems that predominantly affect the eastern and northeastern parts of India during the pre-monsoon summer months (March, April and May) are severe thunderstorms, known as Nor'westers. The storms derive their names from the fact that they frequently strike cities and towns in the southern part of West Bengal in the afternoon from the north-west direction while traveling far from its place of genesis over the Bihar plateau. The storms are devastating in nature particularly due to strong (gusty) winds, heavy rains and hails associated with it. Although these storms are well known for its power of causing damages, studies on them are relatively few due to their small size and sparse network of observations. To address this important issue, the evolution of two Nor'westers of 12 March and 22 May 2003 over Kolkata is studied in detail in this paper using hourly Doppler weather radar (DWR) observations and high resolution Meteosat-5 imageries. In addition, supporting meteorological reports are used to find the large scale conditions that influence the moisture convergence and vertical wind shear. The genesis of both the storms is found to be over Bihar-Jharkhand region and beyond the range of the DWR. The satellite observations are found to be useful in identifying the location and initiation of the storms. The movements of the storms are captured by the DWR estimated vertical cross-section of reflectivities. The Doppler estimate shows that the 12 March storm had a vertical extent of about 10-12 km at the time of maturity and that of 22 May reaching up to 18 km signifying deep convection associated with these events. The genesis, maturity and dissipation are well brought out by the hourly DWR and satellite imageries. The DWR observations suggest that the systems move at a speed of 20-25m/s. The DWR estimated precipitation shows a detailed spatial distribution around Kolkata with several localized zones of heavy rain and this is found to be well supported by the nearby station observations. This study establishes that DWR observations along with hourly satellite imageries are able to capture the evolution of Nor'westers. The study also shows that the composite DWR-satellite information is a reliable tool for nowcasting the location, time and path of movement of Nor'westers. Based on these observations, a conceptual model of the Nor'wester is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Elastic modulus anisotropy with respect to sheet rolling direction was calculated, using X-ray diffraction determined texture components and their known individual anisotropies, for a deep drawing grade steel in the cold rolled as received and three heat treated conditions. The calculated elastic modulus anisotropy was compared to mechanically measured modulus values, at 0, 45 and 90° to the rolling direction, and ultrasonic velocity anisotropy, measured using an electromagnetic acoustic transducer (EMAT) system. It was found that the EMAT velocity anisotropy matched the measured modulus variation with angle, with differences between the as rolled and heat treated conditions being observed. However the predicted modulus variation did not show much difference between the as rolled and heat treated conditions, despite different textures being measured, resulting in a slight discrepancy with the EMAT velocity and measured modulus values at 90° for one heat treatment condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Purpose: Vascular smooth muscle proliferation and migration triggered by inflammatory stimuli are involved in the development and progression of atherosclerosis and restenosis. Cannabinoids may modulate cell proliferation in various cell types through cannabinoid 2 (CB2) receptors. Here, we investigated the effects of CB2 receptor agonists on TNF-alpha-induced proliferation, migration and signal transduction in human coronary artery smooth muscle cells (HCASMCs).Experimental Approach: HCASMCs were stimulated with TNF-alpha. Smooth muscle proliferation was determined by the extent of BrdU incorporation and the migration was assayed by modified Boyden chamber. CB2 and/or CB1 receptor expressions were determined by immunofluorescence staining, western blotting, RT-PCR, real-time PCR and flow cytometry.Key Results: Low levels of CB2 and CB1 receptors were detectable in HCASMCs compared to the high levels of CB2 receptors expressed in THP-1 monocytes. TNF-alpha triggered up to approximately 80% increase (depending on the method used) in CB2 receptor mRNA and/or protein expression in HCASMCs, and induced Ras, p38 MAPK, ERK 1/2, SAPK/JNK and Akt activation, while increasing proliferation and migration. The CB2 agonists, JWH-133 and HU-308, dose-dependently attenuated these effects of TNF-alpha.Conclusions and Implications: Since the above-mentioned TNF-alpha-induced phenotypic changes are critical in the initiation and progression of atherosclerosis and restenosis, our findings suggest that CB2 agonists may offer a novel approach in the treatment of these pathologies by decreasing vascular smooth muscle proliferation and migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper introduces an advanced recrystallization model, based on the principles of cellular automata. The model employs a scalable subgrid technique for efficient tracking of local variations during recrystallization and provides excellent statistics of grain size and texture after recrystallization. Grain boundary nucleation, transition band nucleation and particle-stimulated nucleation were incorporated in the model. This model can interface with other microstructural models, such as a deformation texture model, a dislocation density based flow stress model and a precipitation model. The sensitivity of the model with respect to minute changes of microstructure and microchemistry was tested. Finally, a through-process exercise was conducted to assess the performance of the model in multi-step simulations. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The concept of the p-ideals in a semiring was first introduced by Mukhopadhyay and Ghosh [4] and subsequently various characteristic features of a p-ideal in different classes of semirings were obtained in [4], [5] and [6]. In the present paper the concepts of p-prime and p-semiprime ideals of a semiring are provided and various results on these classes of ideals are obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this present work, solid specimens of photosensitive biocomplex of gum Acacia Arabica are prepared and their electrical and photoelectrical characters are examined experimentally. It has found that this new material exhibits electrical conduction, which is mostly ionic in nature and also found high photosensitivity due to presence of photo-chemical or redox-active molecules. These molecules are capable of absorbing and/or emitting light by losing or gaining an electron. The photosensitivity property of the chromophore is retained in the developed complex. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Simultaneous Q-switching and mode locking in a laser-diode end-pumped intracavity frequency-doubled Nd:YVO4/KTP green laser using a Cr4+:YAG saturable absorber with 81% initial transmission is experimentally demonstrated. At an incident pump power of 6 W, 300 mW of average green power was obtained, which is around four times higher than the cw green power obtained without the Cr4+:YAG crystal. The repetition rate of the mode-locked green pulses was 400 MHz and the individual mode-locked pulse width was measured to be 500 ps. The repetition rate of the Q-sw itched envelope of the mode-locked pulses was 15 kHz at 6 W of incident pump power. The energy of the mode-locked pulse at the peak of the Q-sw itched envelope was estimated to be 1 µJ and the peak power was estimated to be 2.4 kW. The measured width and the total energy of the Q-sw itched envelope of the mode-locked pulses was 47 ns and 21 µJ, respectively, at the maximum incident pump power. An analysis of the system by incorporating a nonlinear loss term due to the intracavity second-harmonic generation to the general recurrence relation for the mode-locked pulses under the Q-sw itched envelope at the fundamental wavelength has been presented. Using a hyperbolic secant square function to model the mode-locked pulse, the temporal shape of a single Q-sw itched pulse at the second-harmonic wavelength has been reconstructed. The theoretical calculations of the pulse parameters like pulse energy, peak power, pulse width and pulse-symmetry factor have shown fairly good agreement with the experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Al has unique intrinsic characteristics, which are of interest to scientists as well as engineers. Al and its alloys are slightly paramagnetic materials. Al has very low cross section for thermal neutrons of 0.23 barn, hence Al can be used in nuclear fields as a structural material which is virtually transparent to neutrons. We report VRT as a new technique to study material problems. We also discuss, the results of sound velocity and internal friction, and resonance frequency as a function of temperature range for a pure aluminum sample under investigation. By using VRT, we found that the annealing temperature (450°C) is sufficient to remove the type of defects introduced in the materials under study. The activation energy to remove point defect for Al samples was calculated and found to be about 0.0624 eV. Also, we could easily observe that Q-1 is a function of annealing time. From these measurements of sound velocity and internal friction we can conclude that VRT is a powerful tool for detecting and probing the physical properties of the material under study. Internal friction is a microscopic property for the indication of the purity of the sample. Sound velocity depends on the state of the materials (which depends on the process of treatment). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The freshwater prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii, commonly called 'scampi,' is the most important culturable freshwater species of prawn with a fairly high growth rate, wide range of temperature (15-35°C) and salinity tolerance. The nutrients required by this species for growth and associated physiological functions are similar to those required by other crustaceans. Current data suggest that a digestible protein level of above 30% is required for maximum growth and protein efficiency. Ingredients such as mussel meat meal, squid meal, and shrimp meal serve as potential sources of protein in formulated diets. The complete quantitative requirements for all the essential amino acids for this prawn species have not yet been worked out. With respect to non-protein energy supply in the form of carbohydrate, studies indicated that scampi is capable of utilizing various carbohydrate sources efficiently. Dietary carbohydrate in the form of complex polysaccharides appears to be more effective as an energy source. Like other crustaceans, scampi also has limited ability to synthesize sterol from acetate and mevalonic acid. Quantitative estimates of the essential fatty acid require-ments have been made in post-larval scampi. Data on vitamin and mineral requirements are scarce. Recent developments in diet formulation, practical feeding practices and the aquaculture potential in India have been indicated with emphasis on sustainable production. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A feeding trial was conducted in the laboratory (20-26°C) to evaluate the growth response, nutrient utilization and certain tissue biochemical changes in rohu, Labeo rohita, fingerling (average weight 3.0±0.47 g) fed with a natural and a prepared diet in 3 feeding regimens (T1, T2, and T3) for a period of 90 days. The main objective was to investigate live and prepared diet effects on growth rate and associated biochemical parameters. Three tanks per treatment were used as replicates. The T1 group was fed exclusively with mixed plankton as natural diet; the T2 group was fed a combination of prepared diet and mixed plankton in a ratio of 1:3; the T3 group was fed the prepared diet only. The three groups were provided with the same feeding rate. The best performance in terms of fish growth, nutrient utilization, protein and lipid deposition in muscle was observed in the T2 group. RNA/DNA ratio in liver and muscle was the highest in T2, followed by T3 and T1. A positive correlation (r = 0.71) was obtained in muscle RNA concentration with respective specific growth rate of fish in different dietary treatments, and the same was indicated in the case of muscle and liver RNA:DNA ratio and total RNA and DNA content, indicating growth changes were due to the different rates of protein retention. Perusal of the amino acid composition of whole body tissue of T2 and T3 groups of fish indicated comparatively high content of individual amino acids. Total ammonia excretion after feeding was comparatively less in the T2 group, indicating less amino acid catabolism. The present study revealed that supplementation of natural diet with prepared diet led to effective nutrient utilization, thereby ensuring improved performance and minimizing discharge of aquaculture wastes through reduced nitrogen excretion. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

.In this paper, we introduce p-ideals in semirings. A new form of regularity, which is compatible with p-ideals, is defined. Our aim is to explore the possibilities of establishing an ideal theory in semirings, going alongside the existing literature of semiring theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY Ewing’s sarcoma is the most common malignant bone tumour occurring in children and adolescents and exists in two different clinicopathological entities: osseous Ewing’s sarcoma (OES) and extraosseous Ewing’s sarcoma (EES). Five cases of primary epidural EES are described, which presented with non-specific symptoms leading to a long diagnostic delay. The median age at diagnosis was 22 years (range 13–36 years). The median diagnostic delay was 3 months. All patients had one or more neurological deficits. All underwent surgical exploration with a laminectomy and partial resection followed by adjuvant radiotherapy to a dose of 46–50 Gy and chemotherapy with VAC (vincristine, adriamycin and cyclophosphamide) alternating with ICE (ifosphamide, cisplatin and etoposide) for at least six cycles. The mean follow-up period is 21.2 months (range 11–32 months). Four of the five patients achieved a complete remission and are disease free at the time of writing this report. Two patients have a residual neurological deficit – both having presented with long history of neurological deficit. Primary spinal epidural EES should be suspected whenever young patients present with back pain and/or radicular pain, have abnormal neurology and an extradural mass is demonstrated on MRI. Surgical excision followed by adjuvant radiotherapy (50 Gy) and combination chemotherapy (VAC alternating with ICE) achieved local and systemic control in these patients. A greater number of patients and longer follow up are required to evolve a generally accepted treatment policy for this aggressive but potentially curable malignancy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Elastic modulus is the core of mechanical spectroscopy to study the actuation-based performance, lifetime, reliability, and stability of pure metals as well as alloys. In this investigation, a prototype system has been discussed for measuring the elastic properties of pure metals such as Cu (99.99%), Al (99.99%), and Ni (99.99%) using electrostatic force. The samples were processed by cold rolling producing specimens of 10–100 microns thickness. A variable potential difference ranging from 1 to 370 V DC was supplied, thus applying a variable electrostatic force to the specimen. The whole system is concentrated on the measurement of micro- to macroscale levels, and a powerful optical microscope evaluates the deflection. The current system has been used to estimate the samples' elastic moduli and then compare it with those obtained by the well-known tensile stress–strain testing method. Finally, the experimental principle of measuring elastic modulus was developed to conduct further research on the metallic materials that are induced by external stimuli like magnetic fields, lasers, and/or heat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The low temperature magnetic properties of FeAl alloys, near equiatomic composition, are a matter of contention from both theoretical perspectives and experimental measurements. There does not seem to be any consensus regarding these. In an attempt to find the source of contradictory behavior, we made a detailed study by both bulk magnetization and local probe by Mössbauer effect on a well characterized sample. It was interesting to find that while the former showed distinct magnetic phases, the local probe failed to resolve any magnetization on Fe atom down to very low temperature. This contradictory behavior suggested non-local moment formation in the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spontaneous perirenal hematoma following ruptured microaneurysm is an unusual but serious complication of polyarteritis nodosa. We describe a young male who presented with spontaneous perirenal hematoma and was subsequently diagnosed to have polyarteritis nodosa. He was managed with immunosuppressive medications with no recurrence of symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rare occurrence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transmission through organ transplantation cannot override the huge impact that it has on the patient. We report a case of HIV transmission by renal transplantation in a 33-year-old housewife, who received a living related transplantation from her sister. Both the patient and her donor were negative by HIV antibody testing prior to transplantation, but were found to be infected in the ninth month after transplant. Further testing suggested that the donor was in the window period at the time of organ donation after having acquired the infection from her husband. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ac susceptibility, sound velocity, and internal friction study of the martensitic transformation in melt-quenched (site-disordered) Ni55Fe20Al25 alloy unravels the irreversible thermoelastic changes (thermal hysteresis) that occur in the austenite phase in the premartensitic regime. In the heating cycle, the system retains the “memory” of the initiation and subsequent growth of the martensitic phase (at the expense of the parent austenite phase) that had taken place during the cooling cycle in the austenite-martensite phase coexistence region. These and other findings are discussed in this communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers the views of the author regarding quality of higher education in India. The author mentions that for the attainment of autonomy by colleges it is important for faculty members to have academic and research achievements. The article provides a historical background of autonomous colleges in India. The methods of analyzing a hypothesis of autonomous college with the help of 100 colleges in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) 2017 is offered.

The seasonal prediction skill of climate forecast system model with two different resolutions, namely T126 and T382, is studied using hindcast data. Using novel diagnostic tools such as total variation distance and two‐state Markov Chain analysis, it is shown that increasing the horizontal resolution of the model has minimal impact on the quality of seasonal prediction. The underlying rain distribution and associated transition probabilities are very similar in both model versions. The Markov chain analysis also provides critical clues about the issues associated with convective processes in the model. Both the models produce longer (shorter) wet (dry) spells compared to the observations. Models are trying to bring the atmosphere closer to convective quasi‐equilibrium, leading to a substantial departure from observed features. Although the conventional error metrics are helpful to assess the prediction skills, the new metrics used in the study provide further insights on possible pathways to improve model moist physics. Plain Language Summary: The state of the art in respect to the prediction of Indian summer monsoon uses coupled climate models. Models, in general, have a hard time producing an accurate forecast of seasonal mean monsoon. Serious effort is being put globally to improve the quality of the forecast. One of the simple and easy to comprehend approaches among the scientific community is to increase the model's horizontal resolution to improve the accuracy of the predictions. The present study indicates that this approach alone is not very useful as there is an only marginal improvement with an increase in the resolutions. Key Points: Novel metrics have been used to compare model hindcast at different horizontal resolutionsPrevious studies claiming an improved simulation of monsoon with higher resolutions climate forecast system model require further investigationOnly a marginal improvement is seen in the fidelity of the model with an increase in horizontal resolution [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, the use of a low pulse energy and high repetition rate diode pumped solid-state laser was investigated for trigger-free laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) based quantitative analysis of commonly used steel grades. Owing to the low pulse energy of 2 mJ, the signal was accumulated over a large number of pulses to obtain a good signal quality and was acquired in a free-running mode, i.e. without any triggering. Although the trigger-free signal acquisition lacked a continuum suppression capability, the weak plasma events caused by the low pulse energy did not produce a significant continuum and hence continuum suppression was not an issue. Further, the 2 kHz repetition rate of the laser required the sample to be continuously scanned to avoid signal decay as a result of the formation of excessively deep craters. As scanning could introduce additional signal fluctuations, a combination of sample scanning velocity and pulse energy leading to the least signal fluctuations was used to acquire LIBS spectra for the steel samples. Of the total 19 samples, 15 steel samples were used to train random forest regression models for the quantitative analysis of various elements, including C, Si, Mn, Cr, Ni, Mo, Cu, and Co. The remaining 4 samples were used for testing/validating the models. It was observed that compared to the full spectral range of ∼185–545 nm, a smaller and information-rich spectral range of ∼185–310 nm produced better results. With the selected spectral range, the relative mean error (RME) ranged from 1.4% to 15.77%, with the lower values belonging to the major elements and the higher values to the minor elements. The root mean square error (RMSE) values were found to range from 0.014 wt% for C to 0.26 wt% for Ni. The R2 values, which indicated the correlation between the predicted and reference concentrations, were found to be >96% for all the elements except Si and Cu. These results suggested that trigger-free LIBS based on a low-pulse-energy, high-repetition-rate laser and a single channel spectrometer covering a narrow spectral range, in combination with machine learning techniques, is suitable for the quantitative analysis of steel elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary Fry (0.46-0.53 g) and fingerlings (5.0-5.12 g) of the catfish Clarias batrachus were reared for 6 weeks on experimental diets differing in lipid sources. Triplicate groups of fish were fed ad libitum each of the four lipid sources (5 % of the diet), viz., (i) cod liver oil; (ii) sunflower oil; (iii) mixture (1:1) of cod liver oil/sunflower oil; and (iv) hydrogenated vegetable oil. These served mainly as sources of n-3; n-6; a mixture of n-3 and n-6; and saturated fatty acids, respectively. The results indicated that dietary lipid manipulation caused significant differences in weight gain, feed efficiency and tissue fatty acid profile of both fry and fingerlings. Deposition of fatty acids in the carcass very closely followed the fatty acid composition of the fed diet. The combination of n-3 and n-6 fatty acids elicited the best growth response, feed conversion and increased deposition of highly unsaturated fatty acids, suggesting the essential nature of both n-3 and n-6 fatty acids for maintenance of healthy stock and promotion of rapid growth in this species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]