Remarkable catalytic activity of silica nanoparticle in the bis-Michael addition of active methylene compounds to conjugated alkenes

We have demonstrated the remarkable catalytic activity of silica nanoparticles (NPs) in the unusual bis-Michael addition of active methylene compounds to conjugated alkenes at room temperature. The catalyst silica NPs were reused up to seven runs without appreciable loss of catalytic activity.     

Role of many-electron dynamics in high harmonic generation

High harmonic generation (HHG) in many-electron atoms is studied theoretically. The breakdown of the frozen-core single active electron approximation is demonstrated, as it predicts roughly the same radiation amplitude in all noble gases. This is in contradiction with experiments, where heavier noble gases are known to emit much stronger HHG radiation than lighter ones. This experimental behavior of the noble gases can be qualitatively reproduced when many-electron dynamics, within a simple approximation, is taken into account.     

Finite size scaling in BTW like sandpile models

Lattice statistical models of equilibrium critical phenomena generally obey finite size scaling (FSS) ansatz. However, the critical behavior of the prototypical BTW sandpile model demonstrating self-organized criticality at out of equilibrium is described by a peculiar multiscaling behaviour. FSS hypothesis is verified here on two versions (RSM1 and RSM2) of a rotational sandpile model (RSM) with broken mirror symmetry. In these models, sand grains flow only in the forward direction and in a specific rotational direction from an active site after toppling. The toppling rules are such that RSM1 will have less randomness whereas RSM2 will have more randomness with respect to RSM. RSM1 is expected to be more closer to BTW whereas RSM2 is expected to be more closer to Manna’s stochastic model. Both RSM1 and RSM2 are found to belong to the same universality class of RSM. The scaling functions of RSM1 and RSM2 are also found to obey usual FSS hypothesis at out of equilibrium instead of multiscaling as in BTW.     

A study on the synthesis of alkaline copper(III)-periodate (DPC) complex with an overview of its redox behavior in aqueous micellar media

Research on Chemical Intermediates - In the present study the copper(III)-periodate (DPC) has been synthesized in an alkaline medium. The stability of this complex is significantly dependent on the...     

Random walk on topologically biased anisotropic percolation clusters and transport properties

Unbiased random walks are performed on topologically biased anisotropic percolation clusters (APC). Topologically biased APCs are generated using suitable anisotropic percolation models. New walk dimensions are found to characterize the anisotropic behaviour of the unbiased random walk on the biased topology. Critical properties of electro and magneto conductivities are characterized estimating respective dynamical critical exponents. A dynamical scaling theory relating dynamical and static critical exponents has been developed. The dynamical critical exponents satisfy the scaling relations within error bar.     

Influence of breakup on elastic and α-production channels in the ~6Li+~(116)Sn reaction

The effects of breakup reactions on elastic and α-production channels for the ~6Li+~(116)Sn system have been investigated at energies below and near the Coulomb barrier. The angular distributions of α-particle production differential cross sections have been obtained at several projectile energies between 22 and 40 MeV. The measured breakup α-particle differential cross sections and elastic scattering angular distributions have been compared with the predictions of continuum-discretized coupled channels(CDCC) calculations. The influence of breakup coupling has also been investigated by extracting dynamic polarization potentials(DPP) from the CDCC calculations. From the predictions of CDCC calculations the relative importance of the nuclear, Coulomb, and total breakup contributions have also been investigated. The nuclear breakup couplings are observed to play an important role in comparison to the Coulomb breakup for the direct breakup mechanisms associated in the reaction of ~6Li projectile with ~(116)Sn target nuclei. The influence of strong nuclear breakup coupling exhibits suppression in the Coulomb-nuclear interference peak. The direct breakup cross sections from the CDCC calculations under-predict the measured α-particle differential cross sections at all energies. This suggests that the measured α particles may also have contributions from other possible breakup reaction channels.     

Synthesis and anticancer activity of conformationally constrained Smac mimetics containing pseudo β turns

Herein, we report synthesis and in vitro anticancer activity of conformationally constrained Smac mimetics containing reverse turn inducing motifs “Ant-Pro” and “^sAnt-Pro”. The synthesis of Smac analogs with diverse hydrophobic groups at the C-terminus was carried out using solution phase peptide synthesis. The synthesis of Ant-Pro containing analogs 3a–j was carried out by ring opening of benzoxazinones 7a–c, whereas, their sulfonamide counterparts 4a–h were synthesized by using routine acid-amine coupling reaction. In vitro anticancer studies against breast cancer cell line MDA-MB-231 revealed that some of the new analogs had better anticancer activity than the standard AVPI Smac tetrapeptide.     

Beam optics of the folded tandem ion accelerator at BARC

The beam optics of the 6 MV folded tandem ion accelerator, that has recently been commissioned at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, is presented. Typical beam trajectories for proton and ¹²C beams under different conditions, are shown. The constraints on the design due to the use of the infrastructure of the Van de Graaff accelerator, which existed earlier, are discussed.