We present photo-ionization and morpho-kinematic analyses of the ejecta of novae. The sample consists of ten novae belonging to the Fe II, He/N and hybrid classes. The Fe II class of novae in the sample have bipolar cone-like structures, with or without equatorial rings with inclination angle in the range of 40°–60°. The He/N novae have bullet-nose curve along with bipolar cone-like structures and equatorial rings with an inclination angle of ~80°. The hybrid nova in the sample is a bipolar frustum of prolate spheroid along with bipolar cone-like structures and equatorial rings with an inclination angle of 63°.

Spiking Neural Networks propose to mimic nature’s way of recognizing patterns and making decisions in a fuzzy manner. To develop such networks in hardware, a highly manufacturable technology is required. We have proposed a silicon-based leaky integrate and fire (LIF) neuron, on a sufficiently matured 32 nm CMOS silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology. The floating body effect of the partially depleted (PD) SOI transistor is used to store “holes” generated by impact ionization in the floating body, which performs the “integrate” function. Recombination or equivalent hole loss mimics the “leak” functions. The “hole” storage reduces the source barrier to increase the transistor current. Upon reaching a threshold current level, an external circuit records a “firing” event and resets the SOI MOSFET by draining all the stored holes. In terms of application, the neuron is able to show classification problems with reasonable accuracy. We looked at the effect of scaling experimentally. Channel length scaling reduces voltage for impact ionization and enables sharper impact ionization producing significant designability of the neuron. A circuit equivalence is also demonstrated to understand the dynamics qualitatively. Three distinct regimes are observed during integration based on different hole leakage mechanism.

Cosmopolites sordidus (Germar), commonly known as banana corm weevil, is an important economic pest in Asia that can cause severe yield loss depending upon the stage at which infestation occurs. In spite of its economic importance, little is known about the population structure of this pest in India. Random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) were used to characterize the population genetic structure of C. sordidus collected from five hot spot locations in India. Nineteen RAPD primers and five selective AFLP primer combinations generated 147 and 304 amplification products, respectively. UPGMA dendrograms generated with both marker systems failed to reveal populations clustered based on geographic distance, which was confirmed by the Mantel test, which did not show a strong correlation between genetic distance and geographic distance. Values of indices of genetic identity showed that the populations were closely related. Though the gene flow estimate (Nm) between the populations was 0.469, suggesting restricted gene flow, the populations are not genetically distinct. These observations suggest that the range expansion of this banana pest in India has taken place through transport of infested corms and plant material, resulting in genetically close populations that are geographically distinct. These results provide important information on the population structure of this pest in India, which will aid in designing suitable strategies for its control and management, especially with respect to insecticide resistance.

Despite immense efforts, vaccine against visceral leishmaniasis has yet not been developed. Earlier our proteomic study revealed a novel protein, cofactor-independent phoshoglycerate mutase (LdiPGAM), an important enzyme in glucose metabolism, in T helper cells type 1 (Th1) stimulatory region of soluble Leishmania donovani antigen. In this study, LdiPGAM was biochemically and molecularly characterized and evaluated for its immunogenicity and prophylactic efficacy against L. donovani. Immunogenicity of recombinant LdiPGAM (rLdiPGAM) was initially assessed in naïve hamsters immunized with it by analysing mRNA expression of inducible nitric oxide (NO) synthase (iNOS) and other Th1/T helper cells type 2 cytokines, which revealed an upregulation of Th1 cytokines along with iNOS. Immunogenicity of rLdiPGAM was further evaluated in lymphocytes of treated Leishmania-infected hamsters and peripheral blood mononuclear cells of Leishmania patients in clinical remission by various parameters, viz. lymphoproliferation assay and NO production (hamsters and patients) and levels of various cytokines (patients). rLdiPGAM induced remarkable Lymphoproliferative response and NO production in treated Leishmania-infected hamsters as well as in patients and increase in interferon gamma (IFN-γ), interleukin-12 (IL-12p40) responses in Leishmania patients in clinical remission. Vaccination with rLdiPGAM exerted considerable prophylactic efficacy (73%) supported by increase in mRNA expression of iNOS, IFN-γ and IL-12p40 with decrease in transforming growth factor beta and interleukin-10. Above results indicate the importance of rLdiPGAM protein as a potential vaccine candidate against visceral leishmaniasis.

High temperature stress at critical growth stages is a major risk factor for wheat in many wheat growing areas globally. Developing weather indices relating to yield reductions in wheat is an urgent requirement for weather-index-based crop insurance. The objectives of the present study were to: (i) identify critical phenological stage(s) for heat stress, (ii) quantify the impact of heat stress at critical growth stage(s) and (iii) work out thresholds of temperature for obtaining above average, average and below average yield of wheat. For achieving these objectives, 11 years’ experimental data for three cultivars (HD-2285, K-8804 and K-9107) under three sowing dates at the Kanpur Centre located in the Indo-Gangetic Plains of Uttar Pradesh, India were used. Among the eight phenological stages, the milk stage (growth stage 73) was identified as most sensitive for high maximum and minimum temperatures to adversely affect yield. The rate of yield reduction with unit increase in maximum and minimum temperatures (°C) was found to be highest in K-8804 and lowest in HD-2285. The optimum ranges of maximum temperature during anthesis, milk, dough and maturity stages are 19·7–21·9, 24·2–26·5, 26·1–28·8 and 29·5–30·8 °C, respectively and those for minimum temperature are 4·3–6·2, 8·3–9·7, 11·5–12·4 and 13·0–15·1 °C, respectively. The thresholds of temperature during critical stages and quantification of heat stress on yield will be of use in devising weather-index-based crop insurance products in wheat and also for breeding temperature-stress-resistant genotypes. This method of devising weather indices in the present study can be used in other crops and regions of the world as an adaptation strategy for climate change.

To quantify the effect of thermal stress and photothermal quotient (PTQ) on yield components, eleven years experimental data of three cultivars (HD-2285, K-8804 and K-9107) under three sowing dates at Kanpur centre were analysed. Number of grains per ear (NG), grain weight per ear (GW) and 1000-grain weight (TG) were identified as prime yield contributing components in HD-2285, K-8804 and K-9107, respectively. GW was highly sensitive to maximum temperature (MXT) while NG was sensitive to minimum temperature (MNT) during jointing (JNT) to anthesis (ATS) as well as the total growing season in all the cultivars. In both HD-2285 and K-8804, optimum MXT and MNT during JNT to ATS are 22.7–24.6 and 7.0–7.9 °C, respectively for obtaining maximum NG. Optimum MXT for GW ranged from 15.8–17.3 °C during tillering (TLR) to JNT stage in K-8804 and K-9107 while it was 20.4 °C during JNT to ATS stage in HD-2285. MXT, MNT and PTQ of 23.6 °C, 9.2 °C and 25 MJ/m2/day/ °C, respectively during JNT to ATS in K-9107 were found optimum for higher TG.

A high gain ZnO nanowire (NW) based photodetector was fabricated, which was sensitive to photoexcitation at or below 370 nm corresponding to the band-edge of ZnO. At an incident wavelength of 370 nm and a bias field of 5 kV/cm, the maximum responsivity was over 105 A/W corresponding to an extremely high photoconductive gain of the order of 106. Through this work we provide experimental evidence of the role of surface and defects in carrier dynamics, resulting in enhanced photoresponse. Using intensity and temperature dependence of the rise and decay rates of photocurrent, we present a detailed analysis that provides an estimate of the activation energies of carrier trapping mechanisms.

This experiment was conducted to study the long-term effect of soil management treatments on crop yields, sustainability yield indices (SYI) and soil fertility in rainfed semi-arid tropical Alfisol at Hayathnagar Research Farm, Hyderabad, India, during the period 1995 to 2009. The experiment was conducted in a split–split plot design with conventional tillage (CT) and minimum tillage (MT) as main factors, surface application of sorghum stover @ 2 t ha−1 (SS), fresh Gliricidia loppings @ 2 t ha−1 (GL) and ‘no’ residue (NR) as sub-factors and levels of N viz. 0 (N0), 30 (N30), 60 (N60) and 90 (N90) kg N ha−1 as sub–sub factors in a castor–sorghum two-year rotation. On an average, CT maintained 30.4 and 57.0% higher grain yields of sorghum and castor, respectively, over MT. Between two residues, GL performed well in both the crops. The highest yields of sorghum (1425 kg ha−1) and castor (876 kg ha−1) were recorded at 90 kg N ha−1. CT maintained higher SYI of 0.44 compared to MT (0.38) and higher agronomic efficiency (AE) of 13.5 and 6.76 kg grain kg−1 N for sorghum and castor crop, respectively. Use of crop residue as mulch had an advantage in increasing the yield of both the crops with increase in rainfall under CT even without N application (control), probably by making the soil more receptive to water infiltration, better moisture storage and by reducing the evaporative losses. Using response functions, the optimum fertilizer N requirement was also computed for a given set of tillage and residue combinations. The revised optimum fertilizer N doses for sorghum and castor varied from 45 to 56 kg ha−1 and 46 to 74 kg ha−1, respectively, under different tillage and residue combinations and could be recommended depending upon the soil management practices.

In this work, TOPO(tri-octyl phosphine oxide)/TOP(tri-octyl phosphine)-capped cadmium selenide (CdSe) quantum dots (QD's) of varied sizes (5–9 nm) prepared at different input Cd:Se precursor ratio's (1:1–2:1) using chemical route were dispersed in conducting polymer matrices viz poly[2-methoxy,5-(2-ethyl-hexyloxy)-1,4-phenylene vinylene] (MEH-PPV) and poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) respectively. The properties of polymer:CdSe nanocomposites are evaluated by means of photoluminescence (PL), UV-VIS absorption, Raman, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) techniques respectively. The emission and structural properties of polymer-CdSe nanocomposites are found to be dependent on their morphology. The better quality of smallest sized CdSe QD's (size ~5 nm) in conjunction with regioregular P3HT polymer, leads to higher photostability of P3HT:CdSe QD's nanocomposites as compared to that for corresponding MEH-PPV:CdSe nanocomposites, thus making it as an attractive candidate for hybrid solar cells application.

In vitro propagation followed by PCR, and a PCR-based method capable of the direct detection of Blastocystis in faeces were utilized to detect Blastocystis from various hosts in Australia, including primates and their handlers from the Perth Zoo. In addition, Blastocystis isolates from dogs and humans living in a localized endemic community in Thailand were also characterized genetically. PCR-based detection directly from faeces was shown to be more sensitive compared with in vitro culture for the detection of Blastocystis. Moreover, phylogenetic analysis of Blastocystis isolates amplified utilizing in vitro techniques prior to PCR revealed that this method favoured the preferential amplification of Blastocystis subtype 5 over subtype 1. This study is the first to provide molecular-based evidence supporting the zoonotic potential of Blastocystis in dogs, possums and primates in a natural setting.