Raniganj Girl's College, established in 1980, is a college for girl students at Raniganj in Asansol, Paschim Bardhaman district. It offers undergraduate courses in arts, commerce and science. It is affiliated to Kazi Nazrul University, Asansol. The college is recognized by the University Grants Commission (UGC) under sections 2f and 12B of the UGC Act 1956.
The increasing rate of CO2 emission and global warming are the prime causes for changing global climate. Biological C-sequestration using photosynthetic plants play significantly crucial roles to manage these problems. The present study focused to enhance the biomass growth-dependent carbon dioxide sequestration efficacy of Azolla pinnata by optimizing temperature, light intensity and CO2 concentration. To optimize the climatic factors for maximum growth, the A. pinnata was grown in tap water treated with 10
The low-temperature evolution of the isovector giant dipole resonance (IVGDR) width has been systematically investigated for the 116Te, 120Te, and 128Te nuclei to explore the roles of shell closure, neutron-to-proton ratio, and thermal shape fluctuations in the damping of collective motion. High-energy γ-rays, produced in alpha-induced fusion reactions, were measured using the LAMBDA spectrometer, with angular-momentum selection provided by γ-multiplicity detectors. The experimental γ-ray spectra were analyzed using a statistical-model framework and Bayesian inference method was applied to extract the IVGDR parameters over the temperature range T ≈ 0.8-1.5 MeV. Subsequently, a self-consistent nuclear energy-density-functional framework was employed to calculate the IVGDR widths at finite temperature and to interpret the observed temperature dependence. For the near-spherical 128Te nucleus, which lies close to the neutron magic number N=82, a stronger shell-induced inhibition of the evolution of IVGDR width is observed at low temperature compared to 116Te and 120Te. It has been observed that the low-temperature damping mechanism depends strongly on the proximity to shell closure, which can be quantified using a single dimensionless parameter δm (see main text for its definition). A systematic comparison across isotopic chains in different mass regions further confirms that larger values of δm correspond to relatively broader IVGDR widths, whereas variations in isospin asymmetry do not significantly influence the width.
Lethal Kala-azar, or visceral leishmaniasis, is the infective outcome of intracellular Leishmania donovani to its sole reservoir, the humans, mainly in the tropics, with an annual mortality of ~ 50,000. To date, the treatment regimen includes antimony compounds, miltefosine, amphotericin B, and paramomycin with region-specific effectiveness and mild to severe life-threatening side effects like cardiotoxicity, nephrotoxicity, pancreatitis, myocarditis, and ototoxicity. To solve these harms, alternative drugs have been proposed through computational biology and drug repurposing. In the present study, protein-drug docking analyses of forty-five proteins were performed comparing the structurally similar amino acid side chains in their 3D-crystal structures using SPRITE and ASSAM. Further, to validate the effectiveness of the predicted drugs, their association with the conserved active sites of thirty leishmanial enzymes was studied using GASS. Results delivered two known potent anti-HIV drugs, viz., Amprenavir and Darunavir. These two drugs targeted almost all the candidate proteins with maximum unique binding interfaces. Hence, therapeutic treatments with a combination of these two may effectively intervene with L. donovani proteins and eventually its life cycle.
Near-infrared (NIR) emitting phosphors have attracted significant attention due to their potential applications in NIR phosphor-converted LED (pc-LED) devices. In this work, a broadband NIR-emitting Ca3Sc2Ge3O12:Cr3+phosphor is reported. The samples were synthesized via the solid-state reaction method, and the phase formation was confirmed by XRD analysis. The structural and morphological properties were further investigated by Raman spectroscopy and field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). Optical properties were examined using UV–Vis–NIR diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. The wide band gap of the host material was estimated, and the presence of Cr4+ions was also observed in the DRS spectra. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) confirmed electron emissions from different elemental states. The PL excitation spectra exhibit prominent bands in the blue (459 nm) and red (686 nm) regions, while broadband NIR emission in the range of 700–900 nm was observed due to the spin-allowed 4T2→4A2 transition of Cr3+ ions. The PL excitation and emission spectra were further used to calculate the Stokes shift energy and crystal-field parameters, indicating a weak crystal-field environment suitable for broadband NIR emission. The Cr3+ doping concentration was optimized, and Li2CO3 flux was introduced and optimized to enhance luminescence performance. Photoluminescence decay curves were fitted using a single-exponential model, and the lifetime values were found to be in the microsecond range. These results demonstrate that Ca3Sc2Ge3O12:Cr3+ (CSGO: Cr3+) phosphor is a promising candidate for NIR pc-LED applications.
The proton capture ([Formula: see text]) cross-sections for eight different atomic nuclei in the mass region [Formula: see text]–110 were calculated within the nuclear reaction model code TALYS. For all the reactions, we tested different combinations of inputs for level density (l.d) parameter and gamma strength function ([Formula: see text]). Finally, it was observed that the application of hybrid input in TALYS (macroscopic l.d and microscopic or semi-microscopic [Formula: see text] or in abbreviation mac-mic) resulted in successful agreement of theoretical prediction that the existing experimental data. Isospin correction was also incorporated in a few cases which improved the matching if the center-of-mass energy reached the threshold energy of the opening of ([Formula: see text]) channel. The corresponding thermonuclear reaction rates were calculated for all the nuclei and some discrepancies were found with the prediction of the NONSMOKER code. Using the particular mac-mic input combination, the cross-section and reaction rate for the nuclei [Formula: see text]Nb and [Formula: see text]Mo were calculated within TALYS. These two nuclei lack experimental data but are highly important for understanding early solar system processes. This is a rare attempt to explain the p-capture cross-section of different p-nuclei ([Formula: see text]–110 range) with similar set of input combinations in TALYS, which may help to remove the uncertainty generated due to the variation of input parameters within nuclear statistical model codes.
