Acute toxicity of alkali and alkaline earth metals on Rohu, Labeo rohita (Hamilton) egg and hatchlings

The acute toxicity of salts of alkali and alkaline earth metals, such as sodium (Na), potassium (K), calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg) were studied on the egg and larval stages of Indian major carp Labeo rohita (Hamilton). The acute toxicity experiments were conducted followed by the range finding bioassay tests. The experiments were conducted in triplicates. The cumulative percentage of dead or damaged eggs at the end of 6, 12, 18, 24, 36, 48, 60, 72 and 96 hours was recorded for the calculation of LC50. The increase in salt concentrations in water increased their toxicity and reduced the duration to damage 50% of the eggs. The eggs became smaller than their normal size and whitish before being damaged in the test solutions. Most of the exposed eggs and hatchlings tended to lay on the floor of the tank. The toxicity of the metals was in the order of K>Na>Mg>Ca. The 96 hours LC50 values were 3.25, 2.73, 28.9 and 20.52 ppm for sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium, respectively

Thermal transport on composite thin films using graphene nanodots and polymeric binder

Abstract(#br)Series of composite thin films consisted of graphene nanodots (GNDs) and water-based binder (i.e., polyvinylpyrrolidone and polyvinyl alcohol) are designed and fabricated for nano-engineering devices with enhanced thermal and electrical conductivities. A thermal pyrolysis of citric acid and urea is adopted to synthesize crystalline GNDs under IR irradiation. The as-prepared GNDs are uniformly coated over three types of substrates including Cu foil, cotton cloth and filter paper. The GND thin films emit tunable fluorescence upon thermal treatment of GNDs at 400 °C in helium atmosphere. The thermally treated GND-based thin film exhibits excellent thermal as well as electrical conductivity compared to bare GNDs and reduced graphene oxide sheets. The enhanced conductivity is due to the reduced oxidation level induced by the thermal treatment on GNDs samples which subsequently decreases the photon scattering. With increasing weight loading, GNDs can serve not only as connective point but also as stuff, offering a well-developed conductive path for the heat dissipation. Accordingly, the design of GND thin film is promising for enhanced thermal management for electronic and photonic applications since it enables engineering the fluorescence emission with substantially increased thermal and electrical conductivities

Constraining the magnitude of the Chiral Magnetic Effect with Event Shape Engineering in Pb-Pb collisions at sNN\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 2.76$ TeV

In ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions, the event-by-event variation of the elliptic flow $v_2$ reflects fluctuations in the shape of the initial state of the system. This allows to select events with the same centrality but different initial geometry. This selection technique, Event Shape Engineering, has been used in the analysis of charge-dependent two- and three-particle correlations in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{\rm NN}}} =2.76$ TeV. The two-particle correlator $\langle \cos(\varphi_\alpha - \varphi_\beta) \rangle$, calculated for different combinations of charges $\alpha$ and $\beta$, is almost independent of $v_2$ (for a given centrality), while the three-particle correlator $\langle \cos(\varphi_\alpha + \varphi_\beta - 2\Psi_2) \rangle$ scales almost linearly both with the event $v_2$ and charged-particle pseudorapidity density. The charge dependence of the three-particle correlator is often interpreted as evidence for the Chiral Magnetic Effect (CME), a parity violating effect of the strong interaction. However, its measured dependence on $v_2$ points to a large non-CME contribution to the correlator. Comparing the results with Monte Carlo calculations including a magnetic field due to the spectators, the upper limit of the CME signal contribution to the three-particle correlator in the 10-50% centrality interval is found to be 26-33% at 95% confidence level

Constraining the magnitude of the chiral magnetic effect with event shape engineering in Pb–Pb collisions at √sNN=2.76 TeV

In ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions, the event-by-event variation of the elliptic flow v2 reflects fluctuations in the shape of the initial state of the system. This allows to select events with the same centrality but different initial geometry. This selection technique, Event Shape Engineering, has been used in the analysis of charge-dependent two- and three-particle correlations in Pb–Pb collisions at √sNN=2.76 TeV. The two-particle correlator 〈cos⁡(φα−φβ)〉, calculated for different combinations of charges α and β, is almost independent of v2 (for a given centrality), while the three-particle correlator 〈cos⁡(φα+φβ−2Ψ2)〉 scales almost linearly both with the event v2 and charged-particle pseudorapidity density. The charge dependence of the three-particle correlator is often interpreted as evidence for the Chiral Magnetic Effect (CME), a parity violating effect of the strong interaction. However, its measured dependence on v2 points to a large non-CME contribution to the correlator. Comparing the results with Monte Carlo calculations including a magnetic field due to the spectators, the upper limit of the CME signal contribution to the three-particle correlator in the 10–50% centrality interval is found to be 26–33% at 95% confidence level