Fission and cluster decay of 76^{76}Sr nucleus in the ground-state and formed in heavy-ion reactions

Calculations for fission and cluster decay of $^{76}Sr$ are presented for this nucleus to be in its ground-state or formed as an excited compound system in heavy-ion reactions. The predicted mass distribution, for the dynamical collective mass transfer process assumed for fission of $^{76}Sr$, is clearly asymmetric, favouring $\alpha$-nuclei. Cluster decay is studied within a preformed cluster model, both for ground-state to ground-state decays and from excited compound system to the ground-state(s) or excited states(s) of the fragments.Comment: 14 pages LaTeX, 5 Figures available upon request Submitted to Phys. Rev.

Emission of intermediate mass fragments from hot 116^{116}Ba∗^* formed in low-energy 58^{58}Ni+58^{58}Ni reaction

The complex fragments (or intermediate mass fragments) observed in the low-energy $^{58}$Ni+$^{58}$Ni$\to ^{116}$Ba$^*$ reaction, are studied within the dynamical cluster decay model for s-wave with the use of the temperature-dependent liquid drop, Coulomb and proximity energies. The important result is that, due to the temperature effects in liquid drop energy, the explicit preference for $\alpha$-like fragments is washed out, though the $^{12}$C (or the complementary $^{104}$Sn) decay is still predicted to be one of the most probable $\alpha$-nucleus decay for this reaction. The production rates for non-$\alpha$ like intermediate mass fragments (IMFs) are now higher and the light particle production is shown to accompany the IMFs at all incident energies, without involving any statistical evaporation process in the model. The comparisons between the experimental data and the (s-wave) calculations for IMFs production cross sections are rather satisfactory and the contributions from other $\ell$-waves need to be added for a further improvement of these comparisons and for calculations of the total kinetic energies of fragments.Comment: 22 pages, 15 figure

On the role of different Skyrme forces and surface corrections in exotic cluster-decay

We present cluster decay studies of $^{56}$Ni$^*$ formed in heavy-ion collisions using different Skyrme forces. Our study reveals that different Skyrme forces do not alter the transfer structure of fractional yields significantly. The cluster decay half-lives of different clusters lies within \pm 10% for PCM and \pm 15% for UFM.Comment: 13 pages,6 figures and 1 table; in press Pramana Journal of Physics (2010

The cluster-core model for halo-structure of light nuclei at the drip lines

Nuclei at both the neutron- and proton-drip lines are studied. In the cluster-core model, the halo-structure of all the observed and proposed cases of neutron- or proton-halos is investigated in terms of simple potential energy surfaces calculated as the sum of binding energies, Coulomb repulsion, nuclear proximity attraction and the centrifugal potential for all the possible cluster+core configurations of a nucleus. The clusters of neutrons and protons are taken to be unbound, with additional Coulomb energy added for proton-clusters. The model predictions agree with the available experimental studies but show some differences with the nucleon separation energy hypothesis, particularly for proton-halo nuclei. Of particular interest are the halo-structures of $^{11}N$ and $^{20}Mg$. The calculated potential energy surfaces are also useful to identify the new magic numbers and molecular structures in exotic nuclei. In particular, N=6 is a possible new magic number for very neutron-deficient nuclei, but Z=N=2 and Z=8 seem to remain magic even for such nuclei, near the drip line

Genetic diversity, population structure, and genome‑wide association study for the flowering trait in a diverse panel of 428 moth bean (Vigna aconitifolia) accessions using genotyping by sequencing

Background Moth bean (Vigna aconitifolia) is an underutilized, protein-rich legume that is grown in arid and semiarid areas of south Asia and is highly resistant to abiotic stresses such as heat and drought. Despite its economic importance, the crop remains unexplored at the genomic level for genetic diversity and trait mapping studies. To date, there is no report of SNP marker discovery and association mapping of any trait in this crop. Therefore, this study aimed to dissect the genetic diversity, population structure and marker-trait association for the flowering trait in a diversity panel of 428 moth bean accessions using genotyping by sequencing (GBS) approach. Results A total of 9078 high-quality single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were discovered by genotyping of 428 moth bean accessions. Model-based structure analysis and PCA grouped the moth bean accessions into two subpopulations. Cluster analysis revealed accessions belonging to the Northwestern region of India had higher variability than accessions from the other regions suggesting that this region represents its center of diversity. AMOVA revealed more variations within individuals (74%) and among the individuals (24%) than among the populations (2%). Marker-trait association analysis using seven multi-locus models including mrMLM, FASTmrEMMA FASTmrEMMA, ISIS EM-BLASSO, MLMM, BLINK and FarmCPU revealed 29 potential genomic regions for the trait days to 50% flowering, which were consistently detected in three or more models. Analysis of the allelic effect of the major genomic regions explaining phenotypic variance of more than 10% and those detected in at least 2 environments showed 4 genomic regions with significant phenotypic effect on this trait. Further, we also analyzed genetic relationships among the Vigna species using SNP markers. The genomic localization of moth bean SNPs on genomes of closely related Vigna species demonstrated that maximum numbers of SNPs were getting localized on Vigna mungo. This suggested that the moth bean is most closely related to V. mungo. Conclusion Our study shows that the north-western regions of India represent the center of diversity of the moth bean. Further, the study revealed flowering-related genomic regions/candidate genes which can be potentially exploited in breeding programs to develop early-maturity moth bean varieties

Antioksidativni potencijal i sposobnost hvatanja slobodnih radikala metanolnog ekstrakta plodova Citrullus colocynthis (L.) Schrad.

Citrullus colocynthis (L.) Schrad. (Cucurbitaceae) is a medicinal plant traditionally used as an abortifacient and to treat constipation, oedema, bacterial infections, cancer and diabetes. Preliminary phytochemical screening of the plant showed the presence of large amounts of phenolics and flavonoids. Subsequent quantification showed the presence of 0.74% phenolics (calculated as gallic acid) and 0.13% flavonoids calculated as catechin equivalents per 100 g of fresh mass. The presence of phenolic compounds prompted us to evaluate its antioxidant activity. In the present study, methanolic fruit extract of C. colocynthis was screened to evaluate its free-radical scavenging ability. The highest antioxidant and free radical scavenging effect of the fruit extract was observed at a concentration of 2500 µg mL1.Citrullus colocynthis (L.) Schrad. (Cucurbitaceae) je ljekovita biljka koja se tradicionalno upotrebljava kao abortiv i za liječenje konstipacije, edema, bakterijskih infekcija, karcinoma i dijabetesa. Preliminarno fitokemijsko pretraživanje ukazalo je na prisutnost velikih količina fenola i flavonoida. Udio fenola bio je 0,74% (preračunato na galnu kiselinu), a flavonoida 0,13% preračunato na ekvivalente katehina na 100 g svježe mase. Zbog prisutnosti fenolnih spojeva ispitivano je antioksidativno djelovanje i sposobnost hvatanja slobodnih radikala metanolnog ekstrakta plodova. Koncentracija 2500 µg mL1 imala je najjači učinak

Meeting Future Energy Needs in the Hindu Kush Himalaya

As mentioned in earlier chapters, the HKH regions form the entirety of some countries, a major part of other countries, and a small percentage of yet others. Because of this, when we speak about meeting the energy needs of the HKH region we need to be clear that we are not necessarily talking about the countries that host the HKH, but the clearly delineated mountainous regions that form the HKH within these countries. It then immediately becomes clear that energy provisioning has to be done in a mountain context characterized by low densities of population, low incomes, dispersed populations, grossly underdeveloped markets, low capabilities, and poor economies of scale. In other words, the energy policies and strategies for the HKH region have to be specific to these mountain contexts