Transfer measurements for the Ti+Ni systems at near barrier energies

Large enhancements have been observed in the sub-barrier fusion cross sections for Ti+Ni systems in our previous studies. Coupled channel calculations incorporating couplings to 2⁺ and 3⁻ states failed to explain these enhancements completely. A possibilty of transfer channels contributing to the residual enhancements had been suggested. In order to investigate the role of relevant transfer channels, measurements of one- and two-nucleon transfer were carried out for ^46,48Ti+⁶¹Ni systems. The present paper gives the results of these studies.     

Fabrication and characterization of enhanced hydrazine electrochemical sensor based on gold nanoparticles decorated on the vanadium oxide,ruthenium oxide nanomaterials,and carbon nanotubes composites

This work describes the synthesis of mixed oxide film of vanadium and ruthenium by pulsed deposition technique on multiwall carbon nanotubes and the decoration of gold nanoparticles on the mixed film. A ternary electrocatalyst has been developed for the electrochemical oxidation of hydrazine by combining two metal oxide mixtures with Au nanoparticles. Surface morphology and chemical composition of the electrode have been examined with SEM, EDX, HRTEM, EIS, and XRD. The peak current of hydrazine increased 9 times at the AuNPs/(VOx-RuOx)/CNT/GCE compared to the bare GCE, and the peak potential shifted to negative 848 mV. Linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) and amperometric techniques revealed that the AuNPs/(VOx-RuOx)/CNT/GCE displays linear concentration range 2.5–10000 µM (LSV) and the concentration range 0.03–100 µM (amperometry). The limit of detection (LOD) is 0.5 μM and 0.1 μM at (S/N = 3) for LSV and amperometric technique, respectively. The results obtained show a good RSD% of 2.1%–3.2% and reasonable recovery of 97%–108% of hydrazine detection.     

Λ b →Λ c +a 1 decay in the heavy quark effective theory

Using the heavy quark approximation, we have studied the nonleptonic decay mode Λ _b →Λ _c a ₁. We have included nonfactorizable contributions as well as factorizable ones in our analysis. The estimated branching ratio for this process is (1.4±0.1)% and the asymmetry parameter α found to be −0.8.     

Study of Optical Properties of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Macrophomina phaseolina</Emphasis> Impregnated Sol-gel Derived Silica Matrices

In the present frame of work, Macrophomina phaseolina is encapsulated in silica matrices at various concentrations by low temperature sol-gel technique using tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) as precursor. The optical and photophysical properties of these samples have been studied by second harmonics of Nd:YAG laser at 532 nm. UV-visible absorption spectra of samples have been recorded and it is found that the absorption increases with increase in concentration of fungus. Further, a decrease in output transmission intensity of the laser has been observed with increase in fungus concentration. The temporal response of these samples has also been examined. The results show that the fungus concentration can be measured within ∼15–20 min. This method of optical sensing of fungus in test sample is faster than other techniques, such as the conventional colorimetric method which takes about 1 h.     

Syntheses and crystal structures of two new coordination polymers of Cd(II) using organic spacer and inorganic-bridging ligands

Two new cadmium (II) complexes [Cd(hmt)(dca)₂] _n (1) and [Cd₃(hmt)₂(SeCN)₆(H₂O)₂] _n (2) (hmt=hexamethylenetetramine, dca=dicyanamide) have been synthesized and characterized by X-ray single-crystal analysis. The complex 1 is a 2D rectangular grid of octahedral cadmium (II) with CdN₆ chromophore where cadmium centers are doubly bridged by dicyanamide and hmt along a-axis, which are interlinked by dicyanamide running along c-axis. Whereas, complex 2 is a 1D chain of octahedral cadmium (II) with a three-leg ladder topology running along a-axis. The Cd(II) centers are doubly bridged through SeCN (infinite rail) along a-axis and singly bridged by hmt (two-step rung) along c-axis, having cadmium centers with CdSe₂N₃O and CdSe₂N₄ chromophores. The adjacent chains through H-bonding between coordinated water and hmt, and SeSe interaction are extended to 2D supramolecular architecture.     

Diffuse ultrasonic backscatter at normal incidence through a curved interface

Diffuse ultrasonic backscatter techniques are useful for probing heterogeneous materials to extract microstructural parameters and detect flaws which cannot be detected by conventional ultrasonic techniques. Such experiments, usually done using a modified pulse-echo technique, utilize the spatial variance of the signals as a primary measure of microstructure. Quantitative ultrasonic scattering models include components of both transducer beams as well as microstructural scattering information. Of particular interest for interpretation of many experiments is the propagation through a liquid-solid interface. Here, a recent single-scattering model is expanded to include components needed for comparison with experiments. In particular, the Wigner distribution of the displacement profile is derived to model the beam pattern of an ultrasonic transducer through a curved liquid-solid interface. A simple Gaussian beam is used to model the transducer beam pattern. This expression is then used in conjunction with an appropriate scattering operator to complete the derivation. The theory developed is then compared with experimental results for a fine-grained steel using both a planar and a cylindrical interface. These results are anticipated to impact ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation and characterization of heterogeneous media with arbitrary curvatures.     

An explicit analytical expression for bed-load layer thickness based on maximum entropy principle

The present study aims to derive an analytical model on bed-load layer thickness in an open channel turbulent flow carrying sediments. Determination of the thickness of the bed-load layer is of utmost importance in the study of bed-load transport as it is required to determine the bed-load transport rate, as well as in the study of suspended load transport as it acts as reference level for the particles in suspension. Apart from the several deterministic approaches available in the literature, the work adopts probabilistic approach based on entropy theory to determine the bed-load layer thickness. The concept of entropy theory developed by Shannon is used and the method of Lagrange multipliers is employed for the maximization of entropy function to find the least biased probability distribution. To calculate the Lagrange multipliers, present in the probabilistic model of dimensionless bed-load layer thickness, two different methodologies are presented. The model of bed-load layer thickness is a function of dimensionless shear stress and also depends on three other parameters which are found to be functions of specific gravity of sediment particle and dimensionless particle diameter from a non-linear regression analysis. The proposed model is validated with wide sets of experimental data available in literature and a good agreement is achieved. Apart from comparison with data, the model is also compared with existing deterministic model and computation of relative percentage error proves the better efficiency of the present model.     

Role of magnetic shear on the electrostatic current driven ion-cyclotron instability in the presence of parallel electric field

Recent observation and theoretical investigations have led to the significance of electrostatic ion cyclotron (EIC) waves in the electrodynamics of acceleration process. The instability is one of the fundamental of a current carrying magnetized plasma. The EIC instability has the lowest threshold current among the current driven instabilities. On the basis of local analysis where inhomogeneities like the magnetic shear and the finite width current channel, have been ignored which is prevalent in the magnetospheric environment. On the basis of non-local analysis interesting modification has been incorporated by the inclusion of magnetic shear. In this paper we provide an analytical approach for the non-local treatment of current driven electrostatic waves in presence of parallel electric field. The growth rate is significantly influenced by the field aligned electron drift. The presence of electric field enhances the growth of EIC waves while magnetic shear stabilizes the system.     

The Consensus Problem in Polities of Agents with Dissimilar Cognitive Architectures

Agents interacting with their environments, machine or otherwise, arrive at decisions based on their incomplete access to data and their particular cognitive architecture, including data sampling frequency and memory storage limitations. In particular, the same data streams, sampled and stored differently, may cause agents to arrive at different conclusions and to take different actions. This phenomenon has a drastic impact on polities—populations of agents predicated on the sharing of information. We show that, even under ideal conditions, polities consisting of epistemic agents with heterogeneous cognitive architectures might not achieve consensus concerning what conclusions to draw from datastreams. Transfer entropy applied to a toy model of a polity is analyzed to showcase this effect when the dynamics of the environment is known. As an illustration where the dynamics is not known, we examine empirical data streams relevant to climate and show the consensus problem manifest.     

Working group report: Astroparticle and neutrino physics

The working group on astroparticle and neutrino physics at WHEPP-9 covered a wide range of topics. The main topics were neutrino physics at INO, neutrino astronomy and recent constraints on dark energy coming from cosmological observations of large scale structure and CMB anisotropy.