Solvation effect on the vertical ionization energy of adenine-thymine base pair: From microhydration to bulk

In the present work, we investigate the effect of aqueous environment on the vertical ionization potential (VIP) of adenine-thymine (AT) base pair using a multilayer equation of the motion-coupled cluster method. The microsolvation can cause both blue-shift and red-shit of the IP values. However, the bulk water environment always results in the red-shift of the vertical ionization potential. Our study shows that the correct treatment of the short-range interaction plays an essential role in determining the magnitude of the red-shift. We have developed a biased sampling scheme based on Koopmans' energy, which can significantly speed up the convergence with respect to the number of solvent-solute configurations.     

Studies on the anomalies in the behaviour of transmitted subionospheric VLF electromagnetic signals and the changes in the fourth Schumann resonance mode as signatures of two pending earthquakes

Some anomalies are observed in the subinospheric VLF electromagnetic (EM) signals at 19.8 kHz transmitted from North West Cape, Australia (lat: 21.82° S; long: 114.16° E) and 40 kHz from Fukushima, Japan (lat: 36.18° N, long: 139.85° E), recorded by VLF receivers near Kolkata (lat: 22.56° N, long: 88.5° E) during the occurrence of the two earthquakes at Andaman Island (lat:14.018° N, long: 92.92° E), India and other at South Coast of Honsu (lat: 34.78° N, long: 138.27° E), Japan. The analyses of these seismo-ionospheric VLF EM anomalies at these two frequencies during some days before and after the occurrence of earthquake on August 11, 2009 will be presented here. VLF-LF transient variations of significant magnitude in the form of spikes are observed few days prior to the day of occurrence of the earthquakes that continued several days more, then decaying gradually and finally ceased. Signals are examined to describe their connectivity with earthquakes. The enhancements of the amplitude and frequency of the fourth mode of Schumann resonance spectra have been detected during the occurrence of the two earthquakes, which will also be reported here.     

Effects of thermal radiation on MHD viscous fluid flow and heat transfer over nonlinear shrinking porous sheet

This paper investigates the effects of thermal radiation on the magnetohy-drodynamic (MHD) flow and heat transfer over a nonlinear shrinking porous sheet. The surface velocity of the shrinking sheet and the transverse magnetic field are assumed to vary as a power function of the distance from the origin. The temperature dependent viscosity and the thermal conductivity are also assumed to vary as an inverse function and a linear function of the temperature, respectively. A generalized similarity transformarion is used to reduce the governing partial differential equations to their nonlinear coupled ordinary differential equations, and is solved numerically by using a finite difference scheme. The numerical results concern with the velocity and temperature profiles as well as the local skin-friction coefficient and the rate of the heat transfer at the porous sheet for different values of several physical parameters of interest.     

Properties of Particle Trajectory Around a Weakly Magnetized Black Hole

In this paper, we consider charged accelerating AdS black holes with nonlinear electromagnetic source. The metric chosen by us is of a regular black hole, which shows regular nature at poles and a conical effect, which corresponds to a cosmic string. In such a space time construction of the Lagrangian for a charged particle is done. Cyclic coordinates as well as the corresponding symmetry generators, i.e., the Killing vectors are found. Conservation laws corresponding to the symmetries are counted. Euler-Lagrange equations are found. The orbit is mainly taken to be a circular one and effective potential is found. The minimum velocity obtained by a particle to escape from innermost stable circular orbit is found. The value of this escape velocity is plotted with respect to the radius of the event horizon of the central black hole for different parametric values. The nature of the escape velocity is studied when the central object is working with gravitational force and charge simultaneously. Effective potential and effective force are also plotted. The range of radius of event horizon for which the effective force turns to be positive is found out. A pathway of future studies of accretion disc around such black holes is made.     

Suppression of the Verwey Transition by Charge Trapping

The Verwey transition in Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles with a mean diameter of 6.3 nm is suppressed after capping the particles with a 3.5 nm thick shell of SiO₂. By X‐ray absorption spectroscopy and its associated X‐ray magnetic circular dichroism this suppression can be correlated to localized Fe²⁺ states and a reduced double exchange visible in different site‐specific magnetization behavior in high magnetic fields. The results are discussed in terms of charge trapping at defects in the Fe₃O₄/ SiO₂ interface and the consequent difficulties in the formation of the common phases of Fe₃O₄. By comparison to X‐ray absorption spectra of bare Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles in course of the Verwey transition, particular changes in the spectral shape could be correlated to changes in the number of unoccupied d states for Fe ions at different lattice sites. These findings are supported by density functional theory calculations.     

Estimation of Sea Level Muon Energy Spectrum at High Latitude from the Latest Primary Nucleon Spectra Near the Top of the Atmosphere

The vertical muon energy spectra at sea level have been estimated from directly measured primary cosmic-ray nucleon spectrum. The hadronic energy moments have been calculated from the CERN LEBC EHS data on the Lorentz invariant cross-section results on pp ^±X and pp K^±X inclusive reactions and are duly corrected for A–A collisions. Finally, the sea level muon energy spectra have been calculated from the decay of conventional mesons, using standard formulation. The estimated muon spectra are found to be in good agreement with the directly measured muon spectra obtained from the different experiments.     

Fluorescence resonance energy transfer from TX-100 to 3-acetyl-4-oxo-6,7-dihydro-12H-indolo-[2,3-a]quinolizine in premicellar and micellar environments

Fluorescence (Förster) resonance energy transfer (FRET) from the phenyl groups of the non-ionic triton X-100 (TX-100) micelles to a potent bioactive molecule 3-acetyl-4-oxo-6,7-dihydro-12H-indolo-[2,3-a] quinolizine (AODIQ) has been studied using steady state absorption and fluorescence techniques. High values of Stern–Volmer constants (K_SV) suggest that a long-range dipole–dipole interaction is operative for the energy transfer mechanism. From the analysis of the quenching of the donor fluorescence the energy transfer efficiency (E) has been determined in both premicellar and micellar environments. Experimental results reveal that the energy transfer process is more efficient in the micellar environment compared to the premicellar situation.     

Optimizing the degradation of dichlorvos in aqueous solution using nZVI DTPA+H2O2 and its detection using ac conductivity measurement with the help of response surface methodology

Degradation of organic pollutants in wastewater is a common subject of discussion under advanced oxidation process. To detect the degradation of colourless organic pollutants conventional analytical techniques are available but their sophistication makes it difficult to pursue in all form of chemical laboratories. In the present study it was found that during degradation of Dichlorvos using diethylene triamine pent acetic acid (DTPA) stabilized nano zero valent iron (nZVI), COD removal and ac conductivity change has been done simultaneously. In this degradation study the heterogeneous Fenton type oxidation method was employed and an LCR circuit (which contains inductor, capacitor and resistor) was used to measure the ac conductivity. This study aims to find out a correlation between ac conductivity and COD removal using simple response surface methodology (RSM) so that the degradation of colourless pollutants can be estimated easily and also to identify the best processing parameters to optimise Dichlorvos degradation. It was found that COD removal in most of all cases, was more than 60% when the change in final ac conductivity more than 600% with respect to initial value. All of the experimental results were in good accord with the projected outcome.