Effect of isospin dependent cross-section on fragment production in the collision of charge asymmetric nuclei

To understand the role of isospin effects on fragmentation due to the collisions of charge asymmetric nuclei, we have performed a complete systematical study using isospin dependent quantum molecular dynamics model. Here simulations have been carried out for $^{124}X_{n}+ ^{124}X_{n}$, where n varies from 47 to 59 and for $^{40}Y_{m}+ ^{40}Y_{m}$, where m varies from 14 to 23. Our study shows that isospin dependent cross-section shows its influence on fragmentation in the collision of neutron rich nuclei

High speed sCMOS-based oblique plane microscopy applied to the study of calcium dynamics in cardiac myocytes

blique plane microscopy (OPM) is a form of light sheet microscopy that uses a single high numerical aperture microscope objective for both fluorescence excitation and collection. In this paper, measurements of the relative collection efficiency of OPM are presented. An OPM system incorporating two sCMOS cameras is then introduced that enables single isolated cardiac myocytes to be studied continuously for 22 seconds in two dimensions at 667 frames per second with 960 × 200 pixels and for 30 seconds with 960 × 200 × 20 voxels at 25 volumes per second. In both cases OPM is able to record in two spectral channels, enabling intracellular calcium to be studied via the probe Fluo-4 AM simultaneously with the sarcolemma and transverse tubule network via the membrane dye Cellmask Orange. The OPM system was then applied to determine the spatial origin of spontaneous calcium waves for the first time and to measure the cell transverse tubule structure at their point of origin. Further results are presented to demonstrate that the OPM system can also be used to study calcium spark parameters depending on their relationship to the transverse tubule structure

Numerical Simulation of Flow Past a Prolate Spheroid

The prolate spheroid is geometrically very simple but the flow characteristics are complex which are dominated by transition and three-dimensional separation phenomenon having both primary and secondary vortex. The transition phenomenon in this flow is triggered due to the stream wise Tollmien-Schlichting (T-S) wake instability and cross flow instability, which makes the prediction more challenging due to lack of effective predictive tool to model transition. The present work aims at simulating numerically the three-dimensional turbulent flow past 6:1 prolate spheroid at Re=4.2 x 106 using RANS approach for which experimental data are available in literature. These simulations have been carried out using parallel version of the in-house multiblock structured incompressible flow solution code 3D-PURLES (3D Pressure based Unsteady Reynolds Average Navier Stokes and LES solver)

Provenance variation in growth and genetic potential of Aquilaria malaccensis under nursery condition

Aquilaria malaccensis Lam. is commonly known as Agarwood which is distributed in the Indo-malesian genus Aquilaria of family Thymelaeaceae known to produce resin-impregnated heartwood that is fragrant and highly valuable. Agarwood is reputed to be the most expensive wood in the world. Twenty two open pollinated families in A. malaccensis were selected and evaluated for growth attributes and genetic divergence. The experiment was conducted at Forest College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University; Mettupalayam situated at 11° 19’ N longitude, 76° 56’ E latitude at 300 MSL during January - December 2010. The study indicates significant differences among the selected families for various growth attributes. Among the twenty two progenies evaluated, three progenies viz., NHJA, KHOW-1 and CHEK-1 exhibited consistent superiority over growth periods for shoot length, collar diameter and number of branches. Genetic divergence studies resulted in grouping of the selected families into six clusters which indicated the existence of adequate genetic divergence. Among the clusters, cluster VI was the largest with 9 progenies while the maximum intra clusters distance was recorded in cluster V. The intra and inter cluster distance revealed that maximum inter cluster distance was recorded between cluster IV and V which indicated the presence of wide genetic distance between A. malaccensis progenies. Among the various growth attributes, number of branches contributed maximum towards genetic divergence followed by shoot length. These two characters could act as a reliable indicator for future improvement programme in this economically important species. Genetic analysis of the progenies indicated adequate variability in the population. The phenotypic co-efficient of variation (PCV) and genotypic co-efficient of variation (GCV) estimates exhibited superiority of number of branches followed by shoot length and collar diameter. In case of shoot length, collar diameter and number of branches exhibited moderate heritability. The genetic advance was high for shoot length followed by number of branches which indicated the reliability of these two parameters for inclusion in future improvement programme.Keywords: Aquilaria malaccensis, provenances, variability, heritability, genetic divergence, intra and inter cluster distance

Rhizosphere of rice plants harbor bacteria with multiple plant growth promoting features

114 diazotrophic bacteria from the rice rhizosphere of five districts of Eastern Uttar Pradesh (India) were isolated and screened for plant growth promoting (PGP) activities employing standard microbiological and biochemical techniques. All these isolates showed nitrogenase activity in the range of 0.23 to 1.72 μmol C2H4 mg-1 protein h-1. Further analysis showed that 84 (73.68%) isolates were Indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) producer; the value of IAA production ranged from 10.1 to 353.0 μg IAA mg-1 protein. IAA production occurred solely in the medium supplemented with tryptophan. P solubilization activity was observed in 28 (24.56%) isolates, the activity being in the range of 38.50 to 321.0 P released μg mg-1 protein. 45 (39.46%) isolates were capable of producing siderophore, the range of production being 4.50 to 223.26 μg mg-1 protein. Analysis of molecular diversity was made by amplified ribosomal DNA restriction analysis (ARDRA) and denaturating gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE), which exhibited distinct differences among all the isolates. Of the 114 isolates, twenty one (21) isolates showed multiple plant growth promoting traits and were potent in terms of PGP activities. These isolates were identified on the basis of 16S rDNA sequencing and belonged to the genera Pantoea, Bacillus, Microbacterium, Pseudomonas, Sphingomonas, Ancylobacter, Enterobacter, Advenella, γ-proteobacterium strain VA3S1, Rhizobium and Agrobacterium. Findings of this study suggest that certain isolates may be exploited for developing a potential source of biofertilizer.Key words: Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria, N2 fixation, amplified ribosomal DNA restriction analysis, indole-3-acetic acid, siderophore, denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis, temperature gradient gel electrophoresi

Mapping 6D N = 1 supergravities to F-theory

We develop a systematic framework for realizing general anomaly-free chiral 6D supergravity theories in F-theory. We focus on 6D (1, 0) models with one tensor multiplet whose gauge group is a product of simple factors (modulo a finite abelian group) with matter in arbitrary representations. Such theories can be decomposed into blocks associated with the simple factors in the gauge group; each block depends only on the group factor and the matter charged under it. All 6D chiral supergravity models can be constructed by gluing such blocks together in accordance with constraints from anomalies. Associating a geometric structure to each block gives a dictionary for translating a supergravity model into a set of topological data for an F-theory construction. We construct the dictionary of F-theory divisors explicitly for some simple gauge group factors and associated matter representations. Using these building blocks we analyze a variety of models. We identify some 6D supergravity models which do not map to integral F-theory divisors, possibly indicating quantum inconsistency of these 6D theories.Comment: 37 pages, no figures; v2: references added, minor typos corrected; v3: minor corrections to DOF counting in section

Charge Lattices and Consistency of 6D Supergravity

We extend the known consistency conditions on the low-energy theory of six-dimensional N = 1 supergravity. We review some facts about the theory of two-form gauge fields and conclude that the charge lattice Gamma for such a theory has to be self-dual. The Green-Schwarz anomaly cancellation conditions in the supergravity theory determine a sublattice of Gamma. The condition that this sublattice can be extended to a self-dual lattice Gamma leads to a strong constraint on theories that otherwise appear to be self-consistent.Comment: 15 pages. v2: minor changes; references, additional example added; v3: minor corrections and clarifications added, JHEP versio

Robotic versus total laparoscopic radical hysterectomy with pelvic lymphadenectomy for the treatment of early cervical cancer

Background: The aim of this study is to compare the safety, morbidity, intra operative, pathologic and postoperative outcomes of Robotic radical hysterectomy (RRH) to total laparoscopic radical hysterectomy (TLRH) in patients with early stage cervical cancer.Methods: All the women with newly diagnosed invasive cervical cancer (stage IB1to IIA), who underwent TLRH or RRH with pelvic lymph node dissection at Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences from September 2011 to August 2013 were analysed.Results: Twenty six patients underwent TLRH with pelvic lymphadenectomy and twenty six patients underwent RRH with pelvic lymphadenectomy. Age, tumor histology, stage, lymphovascular space involvement and nodal status are same for both the groups. No statistical differences were observed in operative time (174 vs. 158 min), estimated blood loss (160 vs. 110 ml), or hospital stay (3.1 vs. 2.8 days). Mean pelvic lymph node count was more in Robotic group. None of the robotic or laparoscopic procedures required conversion to laparotomy. All patients in both groups are alive and free of disease at the time of last follow up.Conclusions: According to our experience, robotic radical hysterectomy appears to be safe and effective therapeutic procedure for managing early-stage cervical cancer without significant differences when compared to TLRH, with respect to operative time, blood loss, hospital stay. Regarding the oncological outcome, Robotic radical hysterectomy is superior in terms of number of lymph nodes and parametrial bulk; although multicenter randomized clinical trials with longer follow-up are necessary to evaluate the overall oncologic outcome

Populating the swampland: the case of U(1)^496 and E_8 x U(1)^248

For d=10 N=1 SUGRA coupled to d=10 N=1 SYM, anomaly cancellation places severe constraints on the allowed gauge groups. Besides the ones known to appear in string theory, only U(1)^496 and E_8 x U(1)^248 are allowed. There are no known theories of quantum gravity that reduce in some limit to these two last supergravity theories, and in this note I present some evidence that those quantum theories might not exist. The first observation is that, upon compactification, requring that the quantum theory possesses a moduli space with finite volume typically implies the existence of singularities where the 4d gauge group is enhanced, but for these two theories that gauge enhancement is problematic from the 10d point of view. I also point out that while these four supergravity theories present repulson-type singularities, the known mechanism that repairs those singularities for the first two - the non-Abelian enhancon - is not available for the last two theories. In short, these two supergravity theories might be too Abelian for their own good.Comment: 12 page