Observation-based 3-D view of aerosol radiative properties over Indian Continental Tropical Convergence Zone: Implications to regional climate

Spatial vertical distributions of aerosol radiative properties over Indian Continental Tropical Convergence Zone (CTCZ) up to 6 km altitude during the pre-monsoon monsoon seasons of 2008 have been measured reported for the first time. Inter-seasonal intra-seasonal comparisons of different aerosol properties below above the boundary layer are carried out in among different regions of CTCZ. During pre-monsoon, aerosol layers were found to be present up to altitude as high as 6 km over the Indo-Gangetic Plains Himalayan foothills. A large increase in absorption coefficients (by two to five times) near the Himalayan foothills coastal India than the background values may be attributed to extensive biomass burning as supported by fire counts data. During monsoon, the aerosols were mostly confined to lower troposphere. However, absorbing aerosols were found to rebuild much faster than scattering aerosols after rains. Heating rates were very high over urban city of Bareilly peaking around 2 km during the pre-monsoon. The HR values over urban Kanpur during monsoon were comparable to Bareilly during pre-monsoon. Negligible latitudinal gradient of heating rate from the Himalayan foothill to central India was observed during both the seasons

Dose calculations in high-dose rate brachytherapy planning for cancer treatment

This article provides the overview of current literature regarding the application of high-dose rate planning and optimization techniques. A summary of commonly used optimization technique known as heuristics method (stochastic and deterministic) is also provided

Designer receptors show role for ventral pallidum input to ventral tegmental area in cocaine seeking.

The ventral pallidum is centrally positioned within mesocorticolimbic reward circuits, and its dense projection to the ventral tegmental area (VTA) regulates neuronal activity there. However, the ventral pallidum is a heterogeneous structure, and how this complexity affects its role within wider reward circuits is unclear. We found that projections to VTA from the rostral ventral pallidum (RVP), but not the caudal ventral pallidum (CVP), were robustly Fos activated during cue-induced reinstatement of cocaine seeking--a rat model of relapse in addiction. Moreover, designer receptor-mediated transient inactivation of RVP neurons, their terminals in VTA or functional connectivity between RVP and VTA dopamine neurons blocked the ability of drug-associated cues (but not a cocaine prime) to reinstate cocaine seeking. In contrast, CVP neuronal inhibition blocked cocaine-primed, but not cue-induced, reinstatement. This double dissociation in ventral pallidum subregional roles in drug seeking is likely to be important for understanding the mesocorticolimbic circuits underlying reward seeking and addiction

Marine Cyanobacteria Compounds with Anticancer Properties: Implication of Apoptosis

Marine cyanobacteria have been proved to be an important source of potential anticancer drugs. Although several compounds were found to be cytotoxic to cancer cells in culture, the pathways by which cells are affected are still poorly elucidated. For some compounds, cancer cell death was attributed to an implication of apoptosis through morphological apoptotic features, implication of caspases and proteins of the Bcl-2 family, and other mechanisms such as interference with microtubules dynamics, cell cycle arrest and inhibition of proteases other than caspases

Study of hadronic event-shape variables in multijet final states in pp collisions at √s=7 TeV

Peer reviewe

Identification of Radiopure Titanium for the LZ Dark Matter Experiment and Future Rare Event Searches

The LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment will search for dark matter particle interactions with a detector containing a total of 10 tonnes of liquid xenon within a double-vessel cryostat. The large mass and proximity of the cryostat to the active detector volume demand the use of material with extremely low intrinsic radioactivity. We report on the radioassay campaign conducted to identify suitable metals, the determination of factors limiting radiopure production, and the selection of titanium for construction of the LZ cryostat and other detector components. This titanium has been measured with activities of $^{238}$U$_{e}$~$<$1.6~mBq/kg, $^{238}$U$_{l}$~$<$0.09~mBq/kg, $^{232}$Th$_{e}$~$=0.28\pm 0.03$~mBq/kg, $^{232}$Th$_{l}$~$=0.25\pm 0.02$~mBq/kg, $^{40}$K~$<$0.54~mBq/kg, and $^{60}$Co~$<$0.02~mBq/kg (68\% CL). Such low intrinsic activities, which are some of the lowest ever reported for titanium, enable its use for future dark matter and other rare event searches. Monte Carlo simulations have been performed to assess the expected background contribution from the LZ cryostat with this radioactivity. In 1,000 days of WIMP search exposure of a 5.6-tonne fiducial mass, the cryostat will contribute only a mean background of $0.160\pm0.001$(stat)$\pm0.030$(sys) counts

Constraints on parton distribution functions and extraction of the strong coupling constant from the inclusive jet cross section in pp collisions at √s=7 TeV

Peer reviewe

LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) Technical Design Report

In this Technical Design Report (TDR) we describe the LZ detector to be built at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF). The LZ dark matter experiment is designed to achieve sensitivity to a WIMP-nucleon spin-independent cross section of three times ten to the negative forty-eighth square centimeters