A theoretical study on the C + OH reaction dynamics and product energy disposal with vibrationally excited reagent

State-to-state dynamics of the C(3P) + OH(X2Π, v = 0–2, j = 0) → CO (a3Π) + H (2S), reaction on the first (12A″) and second (14A″) excited states is studied by the real wave packet method of Gray and Balint-Kurti [S.K. Gray et al., J. Chem. Phys. 108, 950 (1998)]. Product state-resolved (both vibrational and rotational) and total reaction probabilities are calculated for the total angular momentum, J = 0. Product vibrational and rotational distributions are also examined at five different collision energies to elucidate the reaction mechanism. Reagent vibrational excitation is found to decrease the reactivity on the 12A″ state and enhance the same on the 14A″ state. While the excess reagent vibrational energy releases mainly as product translation on the 12A″ state, the same releases as product vibration and rotation on the 14A″ state. The product rotational distribution is relatively cold on the 14A″ state. Despite same mass combination and same exoergicity, the drastic differences of the dynamics of the reaction on the two excited states are related to the microscopic topology of the underlying reaction path. The late barrier present on the 14A″ state plays crucial role on the reaction dynamics at the state-to-state level. The results of the present study are compared with the available literature data

Listeriosis in a peri-urban area: Cultural and molecular characterization of Listeria monocytogenes isolated from encephalitic goats

Background and Aim: Listeriosis in food animals bears a significant threat to human health. Detailed investigations into the cause facilitate proper management of the disease. This study reports the cultural, pathological, and molecular characterization of Listeria monocytogenes isolated from encephalitic goats from peri-urban Guwahati, Assam. Materials and Methods: Out of nine suspected samples, five positive isolates of L. monocytogenes were subjected to bacteriological, biochemical, and molecular tests. The genus and species-specific L. monocytogenes 16S rRNA and prs genes were amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to yield 1200 and 370 bp sized products, respectively. The encephalitic form of the disease was characterized by circling movement, high fever, and terminal recumbence. Results: All the five isolates were confirmed to be L. monocytogenes based on PCR amplification of genus and species-specific 16S rRNA and prs gene products. The isolates were sensitive to ciprofloxacin, oxytetracycline (OTC), and norfloxacin, but resistant to doxycycline and erythromycin. A high dose of OTC was used in a goat at the early stage of clinical symptom and the animal recovered clinically. Conclusion: Listeriosis in goats could pose a significant public health threat as the meat (occasionally milk) or meat products from goats are widely consumed by the people of Assam. Understanding the molecular epidemiological aspects of L. monocytogenes infections of food animal species should, therefore, be the priority in this part of the country

Where Brain, Body and World Collide

The production cross section of electrons from semileptonic decays of beauty hadrons was measured at mid-rapidity (|y| < 0.8) in the transverse momentum range 1 < pt < 8 Gev/c with the ALICE experiment at the CERN LHC in pp collisions at a center of mass energy sqrt{s} = 7 TeV using an integrated luminosity of 2.2 nb^{-1}. Electrons from beauty hadron decays were selected based on the displacement of the decay vertex from the collision vertex. A perturbative QCD calculation agrees with the measurement within uncertainties. The data were extrapolated to the full phase space to determine the total cross section for the production of beauty quark-antiquark pairs