Thiol‐Directed Synthesis of Highly Fluorescent Gold Clusters and Their Conversion into Stable Imaging Nanoprobes

Fluorescent gold clusters (FGCs) with tunable emission from blue to red and quantum yields in the range of 6–17 % have been synthesized by simple modification of the conditions used for the synthesis of gold nanoparticles, namely by replacing the stronger reducing agent with a controlled amount of thiol. Various functional FGCs with hydrodynamic diameters of 5–12 nm have been successfully synthesized and used as cell labels. The results of our investigations strongly indicate that FGCs composed of Au⁰ are more stable imaging probes than commonly reported red/NIR‐emitting FGCs with a composition of Au⁰/Au^I, as this combination rapidly transforms into nonfluorescent large clusters on exposure to light. The FGC‐based nanoprobes reported herein exhibit stable fluorescence upon continuous light exposure and can be used as imaging probes with low cytotoxicity.     

Asymptotic behaviour of the stochastic Lotka-Volterra model

This paper examines the asymptotic behaviour of the stochastic extension of a fundamentally important population process, namely the Lotka-Volterra model. The stochastic version of this process appears to have far more intriguing properties than its deterministic counterpart. Indeed, the fact that a potential deterministic population explosion can be prevented by the presence of even a tiny amount of environmental noise shows the high level of difference which exists between these two representations.     

Measurement of the ground state 2n pickup probability for 28Si+68Zn and its role in sub-barrier fusion enhancement

The ground state and excited state transfer yields for the 2-neutron pickup channel in the ²⁸Si+⁶⁸Zn system have been measured explicitly. The recoil mass separator at the nuclear Science Centre, New Delhi was used for the measurement. A NaI(T1) detector was used for detecting the deexcitation γ’s from the transfer products. The kinematic coincidence technique was employed for the transfer measurement. Simplified coupled channels calculations show that out of all transfer channels the major contribution to the sub-barrier enhancement comes from the ground state 2 neutron pickup channel with a ground state Q-value of+1.83 MeV.     

Fission fragment angular distributions in 16O+181Ta

Time of flight and energy of fission fragments were measured using pulsed beam. Fission fragment mass and energy integrated angular distributions were extracted. Fission fragment anisotropy was explained in the framework of saddle point model.     

On covers of cyclic acts over monoids

In (Bull. Lond. Math. Soc. 33:385–390, 2001) Bican, Bashir and Enochs finally solved a long standing conjecture in module theory that all modules over a unitary ring have a flat cover. The only substantial work on covers of acts over monoids seems to be that of Isbell (Semigroup Forum 2:95–118, 1971), Fountain (Proc. Edinb. Math. Soc. (2) 20:87–93, 1976) and Kilp (Semigroup Forum 53:225–229, 1996) who only consider projective covers. To our knowledge the situation for flat covers of acts has not been addressed and this paper is an attempt to initiate such a study. We consider almost exclusively covers of cyclic acts and restrict our attention to strongly flat and condition (P) covers. We give a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of such covers and for a monoid to have the property that all its cyclic right acts have a strongly flat cover (resp. (P)-cover). We give numerous classes of monoids that satisfy these conditions and we also show that there are monoids that do not satisfy this condition in the strongly flat case. We give a new necessary and sufficient condition for a cyclic act to have a projective cover and provide a new proof of one of Isbell’s classic results concerning projective covers. We show also that condition (P) covers are not unique, unlike the situation for projective covers.     

On simulation-based approaches to risk measurement in mortality with specific reference to Poisson Lee-Carter modelling

This paper provides a comparative study of simulation strategies for assessing risk in mortality rate predictions and associated estimates of life expectancy and annuity values in both period and cohort frameworks.     

Inclusive and exclusive measurements in the projectile breakup of 7Li

The inclusive and exclusive measurements were carried out for ⁷Li projectile breakup on ²⁷Al target at 48 MeV. In the inclusive data we have observed a broad peak around the beam velocity for alphas and tritons. The exclusive data for alpha-triton coincidences show good agreement with the post-form DWBA theory of breakup reactions.