Study of Three-Quasiparticle Band in 83 Kr

Excited states of ⁸³Kr, populated in the ⁷⁶Ge(¹¹B, 3npγ) reaction at a beam energy of 50 MeV, have been studied. The ΔI?=?1 band, built upon the 2,510.0 keV state, has been observed up to 5,639.4 keV with spin (27/2^???). Mean lifetimes have been measured up to spin 23/2^?? in ΔI?=?1 band using the Doppler shift attenuation method. The B(M1) rates derived from the measured lifetimes decrease smoothly with spin indicating that the angular momentum belonging to this band are generated by the shears mechanism.     

Kinetics of Surfactant-induced Aggregation of Lysozyme Studied by Fluorescence Spectroscopy

The study of protein conformational changes in the presence of surfactants and lipids is important in the context of protein folding and misfolding. In the present study, we have investigated the mechanism of the protein conformational change coupled with aggregation leading to size growth of Hen Egg White Lysozyme (HEWL) in the presence of an anionic detergent such as sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) in alkaline pH. We have utilized intrinsic protein fluorescence (tryptophan) and extrinsic fluorescent reporters such as 8-anilinonaphthalene-1-sulfonic acid (ANS), dansyl and fluorescein to follow the protein conformational change in real-time. By analyzing the kinetics of fluorescence intensity and anisotropy of multiple fluorescent reporters, we have been able to delineate the mechanism of surfactant-induced aggregation of lysozyme. The kinetic parameters reveal that aggregation proceeds with an initial fast-phase (conformational change) followed by a slow-phase (self-assembly). Our results indicate that SDS, below critical micelle concentration, induces conformational expansion that triggers the aggregation process at a micromolar protein concentration range.     

Synthesis,characterization, and in vitro biological evaluation of highly stable diversely functionalized superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles

In this article, we report the design and synthesis of a series of well-dispersed superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) using chitosan as a surface modifying agent to develop a potential T ₂ contrast probe for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The amine, carboxyl, hydroxyl, and thiol functionalities were introduced on chitosan-coated magnetic probe via simple reactions with small reactive organic molecules to afford a series of biofunctionalized nanoparticles. Physico-chemical characterizations of these functionalized nanoparticles were performed by TEM, XRD, DLS, FTIR, and VSM. The colloidal stability of these functionalized iron oxide nanoparticles was investigated in presence of phosphate buffer saline, high salt concentrations and different cell media for 1 week. MRI analysis of human cervical carcinoma (HeLa) cell lines treated with nanoparticles elucidated that the amine-functionalized nanoparticles exhibited higher amount of signal darkening and lower T ₂ relaxation in comparison to the others. The cellular internalization efficacy of these functionalized SPIONs was also investigated with HeLa cancer cell line by magnetically activated cell sorting (MACS) and fluorescence microscopy and results established selectively higher internalization efficacy of amine-functionalized nanoparticles to cancer cells. These positive attributes demonstrated that these nanoconjugates can be used as a promising platform for further in vitro and in vivo biological evaluations.     

Application of ionic liquid doped solid polymer electrolyte

The electrical, structural, and photoelectrochemical properties of the polymer electrolyte PEO:NaI/I₂ doped with an ionic liquid 1-ethyl 3-methylimidazolium dicyanamide (EMImDCN) have been reported. Incorporation of the ionic liquid (IL) increases the membrane homogeneity, decreased surface roughness, and enhances the short current (J _sc). Additionally, the doping of IL provides more charge carriers which enhances overall ionic conductivity (σ). The optimized σ was found at 40 wt.% IL composition. The fabricated DSSC using this new solid electrolyte showed 1.43% efficiency at 100 mW cm⁻².     

Entire Solutions of Hydrodynamical Equations with Exponential Dissipation

We consider a modification of the three-dimensional Navier–Stokes equations and other hydrodynamical evolution equations with space-periodic initial conditions in which the usual Laplacian of the dissipation operator is replaced by an operator whose Fourier symbol grows exponentially as e^|k|/k_d{{{\rm e}^{|k|/k_{\rm d}}}} at high wavenumbers |k|. Using estimates in suitable classes of analytic functions, we show that the solutions with initially finite energy become immediately entire in the space variables and that the Fourier coefficients decay faster than e^{-C(k/k_d) ln(|k|/k_d)}{{{\rm e}^{-C(k/k_{\rm d})\,{\rm ln}(|k|/k_{\rm d})}}} for any C < 1/(2 ln 2). The same result holds for the one-dimensional Burgers equation with exponential dissipation but can be improved: heuristic arguments and very precise simulations, analyzed by the method of asymptotic extrapolation of van der Hoeven, indicate that the leading-order asymptotics is precisely of the above form with C = C _* = 1/ ln 2. The same behavior with a universal constant C _* is conjectured for the Navier–Stokes equations with exponential dissipation in any space dimension. This universality prevents the strong growth of intermittency in the far dissipation range which is obtained for ordinary Navier–Stokes turbulence. Possible applications to improved spectral simulations are briefly discussed.     

Temperature Effects on Attenuation Due to Rain for Millimeter and Centimeter Waves

Radio wave operating in millimetrewave and microwave frequency bands are adversely affected due to rain. Particularly the attenuation is of immense significance for sensitive remote measurements by satellites using frequencies greater than 10 GHz. Maintenance of an uninterrupted communication link requires a precise knowledge of the attenuation effect due to rain for commissioning right kind of transmitting sources for various purposes required in present day situation. Precise measurement of attenuation at various frequencies will enable us to choose the right frequency, polarization, incident angle and power of the source for different purposes. In this paper we have compared the results of earlier works using aR^b Olsen et al, (1) and the formulation by Moupfouma, (2) on the basis of theoretical analysis for explaining the observed results. Effect of temperature, considered in detail in this communication, has contributed the necessary correction factor of the rain attenuation for explaining the observed results. Theoretical analyses to measure the attenuation of the propagating wave due to temperature variation in the rain path have been presented. Correction factor due to temperature profile (temperature from the ground to the rain height within which the radio wave traces its path) has been incorporated in two models by using the concept of dipole energy changes. The effect of this temperature is noted to be quite significant and incorporates an error to the extent of 7–8%.     

Observation of phonon bottleneck in quantum dot electronic relaxation

Time-resolved differential transmission measurements of self-assembled In0.4Ga0.6As quantum dots clearly indicate a phonon bottleneck between the n = 2 and n = 1 electronic levels. The key to this observation is the generation of electrons in dots where there are no holes so that electron-hole scattering does not mask the bottleneck. We use a simple carrier capture model consisting of two capture configurations to explain the bottleneck signal and offer arguments to rule out other possible sources of the signal.     

Measurement of parallelism of the surfaces of a transparent sample

An interferometric method for the measurement of parallelism of the end faces of a transparent material is described. It is based on the measurement of fringe displacement caused by the wedge angle of the material by using the Lau effect.