In situ electron beam irradiated rapid growth of bismuth nanoparticles in bismuth-based glass dielectrics at room temperature

In this study, in situ control growth of bismuth nanoparticles (Bi⁰ NPs) was demonstrated in bismuth-based glass dielectrics under an electron beam (EB) irradiation at room temperature. The effects of EB irradiation were investigated in situ using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), selected-area electron diffraction and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. The EB irradiation for 2–8 min enhanced the construction of bismuth nanoparticles with a rhombohedral structure and diameter of 4–9 nm. The average particle size was found to increase with the irradiation time. Bismuth metal has a melting point of 271 °C and this low melting temperature makes easy the progress of energy induced structural changes during in situ TEM observations. This is a very useful technique in nano-patterning for integrated optics and other applications.     

VEGFR-2 targeted cellular delivery of doxorubicin by gold nanoparticles for potential antiangiogenic therapy

We report a novel gold nanobioconjugate system that achieves targeted delivery of the small molecule drug doxorubicin to endothelial cells using anti-VEGFR-2 antibody conjugated gold nanoparticles (GNPs). The reported nanobioconjugate system combines the inherent ability of GNPs to undergo high levels of derivatization with the precision of antibody recognition of a cell surface antigen. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) confirmed intracellular presence of the GNPs. Using a VEGFR-2 expressing cell line and a cell line that is negative for the receptor, in combination with competition assay we established the cell specific targeted delivery of the nanobioconjugate. The nanobioconjugate system described here may have potential drug delivery applications for antiangiogenic cancer therapy.     

Proton radioactivity with a Yukawa effective interaction

The half-lives of proton radioactivity of proton emitters are investigated theoretically. Proton-nucleus interaction potentials are obtained by folding the densities of the daughter nuclei with a finite-range effective nucleon-nucleon interaction having Yukawa form. The Wood-Saxon density distributions for the nuclei used in calculating the nuclear as well as the Coulomb interaction potentials are predictions of the interaction. The quantum mechanical tunneling probability is calculated within the WKB framework. These calculations provide reasonable estimates for the observed proton radioactivity lifetimes. The effects of neutron-proton effective mass splitting in neutron-rich asymmetric matter as well as the nuclear matter incompressibility on the decay probability are investigated.     

Lowest lying <Superscript>1</Superscript>D<Superscript>e</Superscript> resonance of H<Superscript>-</Superscript> in Debye plasma

Electron-hydrogen scattering has been investigated in Debye plasma environment employing the close-coupling approximation. Two models, viz., 6-state CCA and 9-state CCA have been used. Plasma screening has been taken into account via Debye-Hückel model potential. The lowest lying ¹D^e^1{\rm D}^{{\rm e}} auto-detaching resonance of the hydrogen negative ion has been successfully predicted for various plasma conditions. The resonant state changes to shape resonance for Debye scattering lengths less than a critical value.     

Effect of harmonic confinement on correlation studies of a spin-polarized s-wave superconductor

We study different correlation functions for a spin imbalanced and harmonically trapped Fermi gas in two dimensions described by an attractive Hubbard model. Eigensolutions obtained via numerically solving Bogoliubov de Gennes equations are used to compute the local pairing amplitudes which show significantly different behaviour for the trapped case where the profile is radially modulated in contrast with a spatial modulation extending throughout the lattice geometry when trap effects are switched off. Further, different experimentally accessible quantities, such as pair–pair, density–density correlations and local density fluctuations show characteristic fluctuations for the spin polarized phase, which however wash away as the trapping effects are turned on. A contrasting scenario is presented corresponding to the case when the spin polarization effects are turned off.     

ProSTRIP: A method to find similar structural repeats in three-dimensional protein structures

The occurrence of similar structural repeats in a protein structure has evolved through gene duplication. These repeats act as a structural building block and form more than one compact structural and functional unit called a repeat domain. The protein families comprising similar structural repeats are mainly involved in protein–protein interactions as well as binding to other ligand molecules. The identification of internal sequence repeats in the primary structure is not sufficient for the analysis of structural repeats. Thus, a new method called ProSTRIP has been developed using dynamic programming to find the similar structural repeats in a three-dimensional protein structure. The detection of these repeats is made by calculating the protein backbone Cα angles. An internet computing server is also created by implementing this method and enables graphical visualization of the results. It can be freely accessed at http://cluster.physics.iisc.ernet.in/prostrip/.     

Quantitative Characterization of Bovine Serum Albumin, α-Lactalbumin and β-Lactoglobulin in Commercial Whey Sample by RP-LC

A simple, sensitive and precise reverse phase liquid chromatographic method has been developed and validated for quantification of bovine serum albumin (BSA), α-lactalbumin (α-La) and β–lactoglobulin (β-Lg) that are removed from whey waste by foam fractionation method. The data is reproducible over a wide concentration range. This optimized method allowed analysis of BSA, α-La, β-Lg in a mixture within 5 min and could be applied to the analysis of a variety of commercial and laboratory whey products within a short time.     

Studies on elemental charge-changing cross-section for relativistic U+Al collisions using CR-39 (DOP) detector

Summary A search has been made on the charge-changing partial cross-sections by using 0.927 GeV/n²³⁸U ion from LBL BEVALAC projected at an angle 30° on²⁷Al target and CR-39 (DOP) was used as analyser. The irradiated plastic sheets were duly etched for one hour in 6.25N NaOH solution and about 1680 cone lengths at both the surfaces of the CR-39 (DOP) sheets were optically measured. The cone length distribution exhibits the existence of U fragments in the charge range 84≤Z≤91 and the estimated partial cross-sections range from 60 to 400 mb. The present data are in accord with the fit to the extrapolated data of Binnset al.