Weak phase information from the color suppressed B_d^0 -> D^{*0} K^{*0} modes

The decay channels $B_d^0 \to D^{*0} K^{*0}$ are investigated for extracting weak $CKM$ phase information. These channels are described by color-suppressed tree diagrams only and are free from penguin contributions. The branching ratios for these channels are found to be $\sim \cal O$ $(10^{-5} - 10^{-6})$ which can be measured at the currently running $B$ factories. The method presented here may be well-suited to determine the phase $\gamma$.Comment: 11 pages, revised extensively, version to appear in Phys. Rev.

Fluorescence dynamics of bovine serum albumin (BSA) conjugated CdZnS nanocrystallites

We report on the production of composite semiconductor CdZnS nanoparticles by adopting an inverse micellar route, using bis (2-ethylhexyl) sulfosuccinate (aerosol-AOT) as surfactant and with a degree of hydration w0=[ H2O]:[AOT]=8.9. Prior to bioconjugation (conjugation with bovine serum albumin (BSA)), the hydrophobic surface of the nanocrystals were made hydrophilic with thiol treatment (reacting with mercapto acetic acid). We compare photophysical nature of as prepared, thio-stabilized and bioconjugated CdZnS nanoparticles using absorption/emission spectroscopy and ultrafast photoluminescence decay measurements. The change-over from nonzero anisotropy (untreated) to zero anisotropy (bioconjugated) is assigned to the depolarized emission due to the surface reconstruction owing to BSA adsorption into the surface vacancies. Exploration of the dynamics of photophysical features would be promising for biomolecular sensing, labeling, and imaging applications

Study of some rare decays of B_s meson in the fourth generation model

We study some rare decays of $B_s$ meson governed by the quark level transitions $b \to s$, in the fourth generation model popularly known as SM4. Recently it has been shown that SM4, which is a simple extension of the SM3, can successfully explain several anomalies observed in the CP violation parameters of $B$ and $B_s$ mesons. We find that in this model due to the additional contributions coming from the heavy $t'$ quark in the loop, the branching ratios and other observables in rare $B_s$ decays deviate significantly from their SM values. Some of these modes are within the reach of LHCb experiment and search for such channels are strongly argued.Comment: 21 pages, 5 figures, version to appear in Phys. Rev.

Responsible fisheries and sustainable aquaculture - A pledge for 21st century

The beginning of the new millennium century the next millennium looks not only to secure enough food for the existing population but also to provide a guarantee to sustained food availability for future generation. Though scientific aquaculture has substituted the traditional practices in a big way, it cannot be fully relied upon to meet the demands of future generation. This is due to the fact that continued over fishing, heavy intensification of farms in localized areas, degradation of aquatic environment etc will put insurmountable strain on the fishery sector which is capable enough for a sustainable food supply

STUDY ON AVAILABILITY AND AFFORDABILITY OF ANTI HYPERTENSIVE MEDICINES IN THE STATE OF KERALA

Objective: Since the 1970s, one of the smallest Indian States, Kerala, has been internationally applauded for its excellent performance in its health indicators. Even if mortality is low, the morbidity (those suffering from chronic/non-communicable diseases) levels in urban and rural is high in Kerala compared to other Indian states. Gradually, the public sector becomes incapable to convene the demands for health care and people have responded to this meagerness by increasing the use of an emerging private sector. To overcome this scenario, Kerala government established KMSCL for promoting access to medicines to the patients approaching the public hospitals in Kerala by making available selected essential medicines at free of cost. The present study was conducted to evaluate the availability, cost and affordability of anti-hypertensive medicines in Kerala. Methods: This prospective, observational study was conducted in Trivandrum district in Kerala, from June 2013 to November 2013. Three types of medication prices were taken into contemplation with the intension for calculation purposes, the highest and the lowest branded medication costs in private pharmacy and Karunya Community Pharmacy (KCP) prices. Affordability was calculated for the different level of skilled workers and through the wages fixed by the government of Kerala for these categories, who were consuming the medications at the time. A comparison was also done between various treatment guidelines of hypertension. Results: There was 15.5% to 230% price variation between the highest and lowest price of branded anti-hypertensive medicines respectively. For treating Stage 3 of hypertension; unskilled and highly skilled workers had to spend a minimum of 1.22 and 0.84 wage days respectively and a maximum of 5.23 and 4.34 wage days respectively in private pharmacies. All the medicines required for the treatments of hypertension were available in both private and KCP. Conclusion: The study revealed that there was an average availability at of antihypertensive medicines in public health facilities. The availability of all medicines at KCP in low price shows the good impact of KMSCL for promoting access of medicines to the poor

Characterization and its implication on beneficiation of low grade iron ore by gravity separation

Studies were undertaken on low grade iron ore sample from Noamundi iron ore mines. The objective of this study was to examine the possibility of the physical beneficiation of low grade iron ore sample by physical methods for the blast furnace route of iron production. The present investigation relies on petrography and ore mineralogical characterization, ore textures (primary, secondary, metamorphic), liberation characters and its impact on the mineral beneficiation methods to produce quality concentrate. The geological characters, alteration mineralogy, morphometric variation, ore microscopy (using model microscope with transmitted and reflected light) and thereby understanding the genesis has given proper insight into the occurrence of various minerals. In addition to this, representative samples were employed for detailed investigation by using XRD, SEM-EDS and cathodoluminescence (CL) studies for confirmation of major as well as minor ore minerals and associated gangue minerals. Investigations suggest that lateritic iron ore samples obtained from the study area are composed of hematite (two generations), goethite (two generations) and limonitic material (younger generation) in association with major gangue minerals such as clay minerals (kaolinite, illite), bauxitic minerals(gibbsite, boehmite and diaspore), cryptocrystalline silica(japer, chert) and crystalline quartz as well as apatite and collophane. Fair liberation obtained below 74 micron size. It was interesting to find that inspite of the complex mineralogy of iron ore, beneficiation results using gravity separation like multi gravity separator (MGS), particularly in finer size ranges was encouraging. The result of ore-gangue mineralogical studies were found quite useful in evaluating the separation efficacy of gravity separation process. The process mineralogical data corroborated well with beneficiation results

Effect of FCNC mediated Z boson on lepton flavor violating decays

We study the three body lepton flavor violating (LFV) decays $\mu^- \to e^- e^+ e^-$, $\tau^- \to l_i^- l_j^+ l_j^-$ and the semileptonic decay $\tau \to \mu \phi$ in the flavor changing neutral current (FCNC) mediated $Z$ boson model. We also calculate the branching ratios for LFV leptonic B decays, $B_{d,s} \to \mu e$, $B_{d,s} \to \tau e$, $B_{d,s} \to \tau \mu$ and the conversion of muon to electron in Ti nucleus. The new physics parameter space is constrained by using the experimental limits on $\mu^- \to e^- e^+ e^-$ and $\tau^- \to \mu^- \mu^+ \mu^-$. We find that the branching ratios for $\tau \to eee$ and $\tau \to \mu \phi$ processes could be as large as $\sim {\cal O}(10^{-8})$ and ${\rm Br}B_{d,s} \to \tau \mu, \tau e) \sim {\cal O}(10^{-10})$. For other LFV B decays the branching ratios are found to be too small to be observed in the near future.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures, typos corrected, one more section added, version to appear in EPJ

Double-Lepton Polarization Asymmetries and Branching Ratio in B \rar K_{0}^{*}(1430) l^+ l^- transition from Universal Extra Dimension Model

We investigate the B \rar K_{0}^{*}(1430) l^+ l^- transition in the Applequist-Cheng-Dobrescu model in the presence of a universal extra dimension. In particular, we calculate double lepton polarization asymmetries and branching ratio related to this channel and compare the obtained results with the predictions of the standard model. Our analysis of the considered observables in terms of radius $R$ of the compactified extra-dimension as the new parameter of the model show a considerable discrepancy between the predictions of two models in low $\frac{1}{R}$ values.Comment: 12 Pages, 15 Figures and 1 Tabl