Magnetic and FMR study on CoFe₂O₄/ZnFe₂O₄ bilayers

CoFe<sub>2</sub>O<sub>4</sub>/ZnFe<sub>2</sub>O<sub>4</sub> bilayers were deposited by the pulsed laser deposition on amorphous fused quartz substrate at substrate temperature of 350°C and in oxygen pressure of 0.16 mbar. The films were studied after ex-situ annealing for 2 h in air at various temperatures up to 650°C. The magnetic properties of the bilayers were studied at 300 K and at 10 K. Ferromagnetic resonance was carried out at x-band frequencies at room temperature. It was found that as a result of annealing, the diffusion between Co ferrite and Zn ferrite starts around 350°C and leads to a large line width system having magnetization, which remains undetected by Ferromagnetic resonance

Ultraviolet B radiation mediated generation of Platelet-activating factor agonists augments melanoma tumor growth

poster abstractPlatelet-activating factor (1-alkyl-2-acetyl-glycerophosphocholine; PAF) is a potent lipid mediator with diverse activities. Our previous studies have demonstrated that oxidized glycerophosphocholines (OxGPCs) that act as agonists for the Platelet-activating factor receptor (PAF-R) mediate ultraviolet B radiation (UVB) induced systemic immunosuppression in a process involving IL-10. However, the exact role of UVB-mediated systemic immunosuppression in pathophysiological processes remains unclear. The current studies sought to define whether UVB-induced systemic immunosuppression could modulate experimental murine melanoma tumor growth. Using a murine UVB model of systemic immunosuppression, we demonstrate that UVB exposure to a remote site from skin implanted with subcutaneous B16F10 melanoma results in enhanced tumor growth in C57BL/6 (wild-type) mice but not in PAF-R-deficient mice. We further show that intraperitoneal injection of the PAF agonist carbamoylPAF (CPAF) mimicked the UVB effect. Interestingly, neutralizing antibody against IL-10 blocked both CPAF- and UVB-mediated augmentation of B16F10 tumor growth. The next studies were designed to define whether the PAF-R effect was due to direct effects on B16F10 cells. Of note, B16F10 cells lack functional PAF-R expression. To address this question, we first generated PAF-R expressing B16F10 (B16-PAFR) and its vector control B16-MSCV cells by retroviral transduction and confirmed the presence of PAF-R in B16-PAF-R cells by intracellular Ca2+ flux in response to CPAF and qRT-PCR. Transplantation of B16-PAFR cells into mice did not result in an increased rate of tumor growth over control B16-MSCV cells either alone, or in response to UVB or CPAF. These studies provide a novel unreported effect of UVB-mediated PAF agonists, namely, that they can augment melanoma tumor growth via IL-10

Ethnobotanical study of medicinal plants in the coastal districts of Odisha

Ethnobotanical study was carried out in the coastal districts of Odisha during 2010-2011 to document the medicinal utility of plants. The present paper deals with traditional uses of 46 plant species belonging to 44 genera and 32 families along with correct botanical identification, local names, parts used and mode of administration in respect to different diseases.  The documented ethnomedicinal plants are mostly used to cure skin diseases, diarrhoea, jaundice, piles and urinary troubles

Substitution of live feed by formulated diet: effect on the growth and survival of Betta splendens (Regan) fry

The present work evaluates the effectiveness of partial or total replacement of live feed (LF) (Tubifex) together with formulated diet (FD) for Betta splendens. Three hundred Betta splendens fry of uniform size (mean weight 0.19±0.01g) were equally distributed in five treatment groups with three replicates in glass aquaria of 351itre capacity. Fishes were given diets at different ratio of LF and FD viz. T1(C) 100% LF; T2 75% LF, 25% FD; T3 50% LF, 50% FD; T4 25% LF, 75% FD and T5 100% FD and the experiment continued for 105 days. T2 group registered highest (P<0.05) % body weight gain (125.61±0.26) and specific growth rate (2.34±0.02), which was similar to T1 and T3 groups. Lowest FCR was recorded in T2 (2.40±0.11) group, which was similar to Tl, T3 and T4 groups. Highest (P<0.05) PER was observed in T4 (1.00±0.03) group, which was similar to T3 and T5 groups. At the end of experiment, highest % survival was recoded in T1, T2 and T3 groups (96.67±1.67), which was similar to T4 group. From the study, it is concluded that LF can be successfully replaced up to 75% by FD without any adverse effect on the growth and survival of Betta splendens

Non-equilibrium surface diffusion in the O/W(110) system

In this Letter, we present results of an extensive Monte Carlo study of the O/W(110) system under non-equilibrium conditions. We study the mean square displacements and long wavelength density fluctuations of adatoms. From these quantities, we define effective and time-dependent values for the collective and tracer diffusion mobilities. These mobilities reduce to the usual diffusion constants when equilibrium is reached. We discuss our results in view of existing experimental measurements of effective diffusion barriers, and the difficulties associated with interpreting non-equilibrium data.Comment: 14 pages LaTeX and five PostScript figures; tarred, gzip'ed, and uuencoded. Uses elsart.sty and elsart12.sty which are included in the package. To appear in Surface Science Letter

A Dynamical Mean Field Theory for the Study of Surface Diffusion Constants

We present a combined analytical and numerical approach based on the Mori projection operator formalism and Monte Carlo simulations to study surface diffusion within the lattice-gas model. In the present theory, the average jump rate and the susceptibility factor appearing are evaluated through Monte Carlo simulations, while the memory functions are approximated by the known results for a Langmuir gas model. This leads to a dynamical mean field theory (DMF) for collective diffusion, while approximate correlation effects beyond DMF are included for tracer diffusion. We apply our formalism to three very different strongly interacting systems and compare the results of the new approach with those of usual Monte Carlo simulations. We find that the combined approach works very well for collective diffusion, whereas for tracer diffusion the influence of interactions on the memory effects is more prominent.Comment: 13 pages LaTeX and 6 PostScript figures, style files included. To appear in Surface Science Letter

Strangeness Production in Neutron Stars

Production of strange quarks in neutron stars is investigated in this work. Three cases, one in which the energy and neutrinos produced in the strangeness production reactions are retained in the reaction region, second in which the neutrinos are allowed to escape the reaction region but the energy is retained and the third in which both the energy and neutrinos escape the reaction region are considered. It is shown that the nonleptonic weak process dominates strange quark production while semileptonic weak processes, which produce neutrinos, lead to the cooling if the neutrinos escape the reaction region. It is found that the time required for the saturation of the strangeness fraction is between $10^{-7}$ and $10^{-5}$ sec, with the shorter time corresponding to the first two cases. About 0.2 neutrinos/baryon are emitted during the process in the first two cases where as the neutrino emission is somewhat suppressed in the last case. The average energy of the neutrinos produced in all the three cases is found to be several hundred $MeV$. We also find that a large amount of energy is released during the strangeness production in the first two cases and this leads to the heating of the reaction region. Implications of the neutrino production are investigated.Comment: Latex file. 3 figures available from SKG on request. accepted in Nucl Phys

Anisotropic flow of charged hadrons, pions and (anti-)protons measured at high transverse momentum in Pb-Pb collisions at sNN=2.76\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=2.76 TeV

The elliptic, $v_2$, triangular, $v_3$, and quadrangular, $v_4$, azimuthal anisotropic flow coefficients are measured for unidentified charged particles, pions and (anti-)protons in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 2.76$ TeV with the ALICE detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Results obtained with the event plane and four-particle cumulant methods are reported for the pseudo-rapidity range $|\eta|<0.8$ at different collision centralities and as a function of transverse momentum, $p_{\rm T}$, out to $p_{\rm T}=20$ GeV/$c$. The observed non-zero elliptic and triangular flow depends only weakly on transverse momentum for $p_{\rm T}>8$ GeV/$c$. The small $p_{\rm T}$ dependence of the difference between elliptic flow results obtained from the event plane and four-particle cumulant methods suggests a common origin of flow fluctuations up to $p_{\rm T}=8$ GeV/$c$. The magnitude of the (anti-)proton elliptic and triangular flow is larger than that of pions out to at least $p_{\rm T}=8$ GeV/$c$ indicating that the particle type dependence persists out to high $p_{\rm T}$.Comment: 16 pages, 5 captioned figures, authors from page 11, published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/186

Centrality dependence of charged particle production at large transverse momentum in Pb-Pb collisions at sNN=2.76\sqrt{s_{\rm{NN}}} = 2.76 TeV

The inclusive transverse momentum ($p_{\rm T}$) distributions of primary charged particles are measured in the pseudo-rapidity range $|\eta|<0.8$ as a function of event centrality in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm{NN}}}=2.76$ TeV with ALICE at the LHC. The data are presented in the $p_{\rm T}$ range $0.15<p_{\rm T}<50$ GeV/$c$ for nine centrality intervals from 70-80% to 0-5%. The Pb-Pb spectra are presented in terms of the nuclear modification factor $R_{\rm{AA}}$ using a pp reference spectrum measured at the same collision energy. We observe that the suppression of high-$p_{\rm T}$ particles strongly depends on event centrality. In central collisions (0-5%) the yield is most suppressed with $R_{\rm{AA}}\approx0.13$ at $p_{\rm T}=6$-7 GeV/$c$. Above $p_{\rm T}=7$ GeV/$c$, there is a significant rise in the nuclear modification factor, which reaches $R_{\rm{AA}} \approx0.4$ for $p_{\rm T}>30$ GeV/$c$. In peripheral collisions (70-80%), the suppression is weaker with $R_{\rm{AA}} \approx 0.7$ almost independently of $p_{\rm T}$. The measured nuclear modification factors are compared to other measurements and model calculations.Comment: 17 pages, 4 captioned figures, 2 tables, authors from page 12, published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/284

Measurement of charm production at central rapidity in proton-proton collisions at s=2.76\sqrt{s} = 2.76 TeV

The $p_{\rm T}$-differential production cross sections of the prompt (B feed-down subtracted) charmed mesons D$^0$, D$^+$, and D$^{*+}$ in the rapidity range $|y|<0.5$, and for transverse momentum $1< p_{\rm T} <12$ GeV/$c$, were measured in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 2.76$ TeV with the ALICE detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The analysis exploited the hadronic decays D$^0 \rightarrow$K$\pi$, D$^+ \rightarrow$K$\pi\pi$, D$^{*+} \rightarrow$D$^0\pi$, and their charge conjugates, and was performed on a $L_{\rm int} = 1.1$ nb$^{-1}$ event sample collected in 2011 with a minimum-bias trigger. The total charm production cross section at $\sqrt{s} = 2.76$ TeV and at 7 TeV was evaluated by extrapolating to the full phase space the $p_{\rm T}$-differential production cross sections at $\sqrt{s} = 2.76$ TeV and our previous measurements at $\sqrt{s} = 7$ TeV. The results were compared to existing measurements and to perturbative-QCD calculations. The fraction of cdbar D mesons produced in a vector state was also determined.Comment: 20 pages, 5 captioned figures, 4 tables, authors from page 15, published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/307