Evaporation residue (ER) cross-sections were measured for 30Si+142Ce reaction at laboratory energies in the range of 105 - 132 MeV using the HYbrid Recoil mass Analyzer (HYRA) at IUAC, New Delhi. The transmission efficiency of the HYRA was estimated using the calibration reaction 28Si+142Ce. Sub-barrier fusion enhancement was observed when compared with the one-dimensional barrier penetration model predictions for the present system. To explore the phenomena responsible for sub-barrier fusion enhancement, coupled-channels calculations were performed using the CCFULL code. The effect of couplings and the role of positive Q-value neutron transfer (PQNT) channels on sub-barrier fusion cross-sections were investigated. Coupled-channels calculations were able to reproduce the data by including the coupling in both projectile and target nucleus along with two neutron-transfer channels having positive Q-value. The measured ER cross-sections were compared with the nearby systems to explore the role of deformation of the colliding nuclei.

In the present work, fission times have been calculated for systems with wide range of fissility using statistical model code JOANNE2. Fission time is a direct indicator of the dissipation strength of the compound nucleus and higher the fission time, more will be the hindrance in the evolution path of the compound nucleus (CN). So, in order to understand the dissipation effects in CN, it becomes important to calculate the fission time ( τ _tot ). Role of excitation energy, shell effects and entrance channel mass effects are also studied for these systems. Effect of entrance channel on τ _tot has been studied for ^216 Ra, ^197 Tl, ^210 Po and ^213 Fr. Radon isotopes have τ _tot in the range (60–80 ± 10) × 10^-21 secs whereas for Francium isotopes, the total fission time is found to be as high as ( 130 ± 10 ) × 10^-21 secs. ^213 Fr having neutron shell enclosure has τ _tot lower than other Fr isotopes.

Objective: To gain better insight into the extent of secondary bacterial and fungal infections in hospitalized patients in India, and to assess how these alter the course of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) so that control measures can be suggested. Methods: In this retrospective, multicentre study, the data of all patients who tested positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) on reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), admitted to hospital between March 2020 and July 2021, were accessed from the electronic health records of a network of 10 hospitals across five states in North India. Results: Of 19,852 patients testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 on RT-PCR and admitted to the study hospitals during the study period, 1940 (9.8%) patients developed secondary infections (SIs). Patients with SIs were, on average, 8 years older than patients without SIs (median age 62.6 vs 54.3 years; P <0.001). The risk of SIs was significantly (P <0.001) associated with age, severity of disease at admission, diabetes, admission to the intensive care unit (ICU), and ventilator use. The most common site of infection was urine (41.7%), followed by blood (30.8%) and sputum/bronchoalveolar lavage/endotracheal fluid (24.8%); the least common was pus/wound discharge (2.6%). Gram-negative bacilli (GNB) were the most common organisms (63.2%), followed by Gram-positive cocci (GPC) (19.6%) and fungi (17.3%). Most patients with SIs were on multiple antimicrobials. The most commonly used antibiotics against GNB were beta-lactam/beta-lactamase inhibitors (76.9%), carbapenems (57.7%), cephalosporins (53.9%), and antibiotics against carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (47.1%). Empirical use of antibiotics against GPC was seen in 58.9% of patients with SIs, and empirical use of antifungals was observed in 56.9% of patients with SIs. The average length of hospital stay for patients with SIs was almost twice as long as that of patients without SIs (median 13 vs 7 days). Overall mortality among patients with SIs (40.3%) was more than eight times higher than that among patients without SIs (4.6%). Only 1.2% of patients with SIs with mild COVID-19 at admission died, compared with 17.5% of those with moderate COVID-19 at admission and 58.5% of those with severe COVID-19 at admission (P <0.001). The mortality rate was highest in patients with bloodstream infections (49.8%), followed by those with hospital-acquired pneumonia (47.9%), urinary tract infections (29.4%), and skin and soft tissue infections (29.4%). The mortality rate in patients with diabetes with SIs was 45.2%, compared with 34.3% in those without diabetes (P < 0.001). Conclusions: SIs complicate the course of patients hospitalized with COVID-19. These patients tend to have a much longer hospital stay, a higher requirement for oxygen and ICU care, and a significantly higher mortality rate compared with those without SIs. The groups most vulnerable to SIs are patients with more severe COVID-19, elderly patients and patients with diabetes. Judicious empirical use of combination antimicrobials in these groups of vulnerable patients can save lives. It is desirable to have region- or country-specific guidelines for appropriate use of antibiotics and antifungals to prevent their overuse.

The B$^0_s$ and B$^+$ production yields are measured in PbPb collisions at a center-of-mass energy per nucleon pair of 5.02 TeV. The data sample, collected with the CMS detector at the LHC, corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 1.7 nb$^{-1}$. The mesons are reconstructed in the exclusive decay channels B$^0_s$ $\to$ J/$\psi(\mu^+\mu^-)\phi($K$^+$K$^-)$ and B$^+$ $\to$ J/$\psi(\mu^+\mu^-)$K$^+$, in the transverse momentum range 7-50 GeV/c and absolute rapidity 0-2.4. The B$^0_s$ meson is observed with a statistical significance in excess of five standard deviations for the first time in nucleus-nucleus collisions. The measurements are performed as functions of the transverse momentum of the B mesons and of the PbPb collision centrality. The ratio of production yields of B$^0_s$ and B$^+$ is measured and compared to theoretical models that include quark recombination effects.

Excited states in [Formula: see text]Xe were populated via [Formula: see text]Sn(9Be, 5n[Formula: see text]) and [Formula: see text]Sn(9Be, 3n[Formula: see text]) fusion-evaporation reactions, respectively, at a beam energy of 48[Formula: see text]MeV. The electromagnetic (electric or magnetic) nature and multipolarity of some inter-band [Formula: see text] rays are determined from linear polarization and angular correlation measurements. Re-measured/newly measured linear polarization asymmetry helps to assign the parity of 2302-keV ([Formula: see text]Xe)/2228-keV ([Formula: see text]Xe) [Formula: see text] state unequivocally.

ABSTRACTSecond wave of COVID-19 pandemic in India came with unexpected quick speed and intensity, creating an acute shortage of beds, ventilators, and oxygen at the peak of occurrence. This may have been partly caused by emergence of new variant delta. Clinical experience with the cases admitted to hospitals suggested that it is not merely a steep rise in cases but also possibly the case-profile is different. This study was taken up to investigate the differentials in the characteristics of the cases admitted in the second wave versus those admitted in the first wave.Records of a total of 14398 cases admitted in the first wave (2020) to our network of hospitals in north India and 5454 cases admitted in the second wave (2021) were retrieved, making it the largest study of this kind in India. Their demographic profile, clinical features, management, and outcome was studied.Age-sex distribution of the cases in the second wave was not much different from those admitted in the first wave but the patients with comorbidities and those with greater severity had larger share. Level of inflammatory markers was more adverse. More patients needed oxygen and invasive ventilation. ICU admission rate remained nearly the same. On the positive side, readmissions were lower, and the duration of hospitalization was slightly less. Usage of drugs like remdesivir and IVIG was higher while that of favipiravir and tocilizumab was lower. Steroid and anticoagulant use remained high and almost same during the two waves. More patients had secondary bacterial and fungal infections in Wave-2. Mortality increased by almost 40% in Wave-2, particularly in the younger patients of age less than 45 years. Higher mortality was observed in those admitted in wards, ICU, with or without ventilator support and those who received convalescent plasma.No significant demographic differences in the cases in these two waves, indicates the role of other factors such as delta variant and late admissions in higher severity and more deaths. Comorbidity and higher secondary bacterial and fungal infections may have contributed to increased mortality.

I discuss several novel and unexpected aspects of quantum chromodynamics. These include: (a) the nonperturbative origin of intrinsic strange, charm and bottom quarks in the nucleon at large x; the breakdown of pQCD factorization theorems due to the lensing effects of initialand final-state interactions; (b) important corrections to pQCD scaling for inclusive reactions due to processes in which hadrons are created at high transverse momentum directly in the hard processes and their relation to the baryon anomaly in high-centrality heavy-ion collisions; and (c) the nonuniversality of quark distributions in nuclei. I also discuss some novel theoretical perspectives in QCD: (a) lightfront holography – a relativistic color-confining first approximation to QCD based on the AdS/CFT correspondence principle; (b) the principle of maximum conformality – a method which determines the renormalization scale at finite order in perturbation theory yielding scheme independent results; (c) the replacement of quark and gluon vacuum condensates by “in-hadron condensates” and how this helps to resolves the conflict between QCD vacuum and the cosmological constant.

The low-lying negative parity states in the 133Ba nucleus have been investigated using the 124Sn(13C, 4nγ)133Ba reaction at Elab = 48 MeV. With the addition of new γ-transitions, nω=0,1,2 wobbling bands were identified in this nucleus. The angular correlations and linear polarization measurements have been performed to confirm the spin and parity of the states. Predominant E2 character was obtained for the inter-linking ΔI=1 transitions between the successive phonon (Δnω=1) wobbling bands. The transverse nature of the wobbling bands is concluded on the basis of observed decreasing behavior of the wobbling frequency with increasing spin. The quasiparticle triaxial rotor model calculations are found to be in agreement with the experimentally determined wobbling frequency and the transition probability ratios. This letter reports the first observation of transverse wobbling mode associated with a hole-like quasiparticle.

Rotational bands built on positive parity , , and valence neutron orbitals in have been investigated via in-beam ray spectroscopy. Excited states belonging to these one-quasineutron bands were populated via ) fusion-evaporation reaction at a beam energy of 48 MeV. The level scheme has been updated by extending the low-lying rotational bands up to higher spin states, as well as, by assigning the spin/parity of the constituting energy levels. Signature splitting of low-j , and high-j bands have been discussed in comparison to the neighbouring nuclei. Theoretical Modified Particle Rotor Model (MPRM) calculations have been carried out in order to study the microscopic structure of these bands.

S. K. Pandit1,2,∗ A. Shrivastava, K. Mahata, V. V. Parkar, R. Palit, P. C. Rout, K. Ramachandran, S. Bhattacharya, V. Nanal, A. Kumar, S. Biswas, S. Saha, J. Sethi, P. Singh, and S. Kailas Nuclear Physics Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai 400085, India Homi Bhabha National Institute, Anushaktinagar, Mumbai 400094, India DNAP,Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai 400005, India and Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre, Kolkata 700064, India

Nuclear data with complete uncertainty information is of great importance for designing and running of nuclear facilities. Uncertainty information in the form of error bars is not sufficient for application part, therefor for more accurate calculations we also need covariance information of nuclear data. To evaluate nuclear data we need a prior estimate and then new experimental measurements can be combined with the prior estimate to give new evaluated data. In evaluation process prior estimate can be given using theoretical models or a prior evaluation of experimental data. These days different nuclear reaction codes are commonly used to give a prior estimate, and uncertainty in theoretical model parameters are propagated by using Monte Carlo (MC) method through the codes [1]. But such methods involve a very large number of calculations before it can produce satisfactory results. In present study, we have used Unscented Transform (UT) method [2] instead of Monte Carlo method to propagate uncertainty of nuclear model parameters through nuclear reaction code TALYS 1.9 [3]. UT is a deterministic method and uses very less calculations as compared to Monte Carlo method. We have presented some of our preliminary results for Ni(n, p)Co reaction, we have propagated uncertainties of optical model parameters through TALYS 1.9.

Department of Physics and Astrophysics, University of Delhi, Delhi 110007, India Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, China. Department of Physics, Panjab University, Chandigarh 160014, India Department of Physics, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India Inter University Accelerator Centre, Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, New Delhi 110067, India * email: pandeyanand799@gmail.com

In the frame of TANGRA-project at JINR-FLNP (Dubna) we measured the gamma-rays resulting from the inelastic scattering of 14.1 MeV neutrons on magnesium. As a source of neutrons we used ING-27 portable neutron generator of VNIIA (Moscow) where the neutrons are produced in a d-t fusion-fission nuclear reaction, H(d,n)He. The α-particles were registered by a 64-pixel Si charge particle detector embedded in ING-27 vacuum chamber. The sample tested was a 10cm-thick plastic cube filled with MgO powder. The gamma-rays from the interaction of neutrons with the sample we registered by a Romashka-type Fe-protected array, consisted of 22 hexagonal NaI(Tl) scintillator prisms. The analog signals form all the αand γdetectors were collected in list-mode, simultaneously, by a computerized 32-channel data acquisition system (DAQ) from JINR AFI-electronics, which was used, also, for digitizing and storing the waveforms on the computer hard-drive for further off-line analysis with CERN-ROOT modular scientific software toolkit. Using the time-correlated associated particle method (TCAPM), also known as tagged neutron method (TNM), the influence of the background radiation on the collected gamma-ray spectra was

The electromagnetic properties of the γ-transitions, decaying from the γ-vibrational states of 126Xe, have been studied via 122Sn(9Be, 5nγ) fusion-evaporation reaction at a beam energy of 48 MeV. The level scheme has been updated by placing the 82+→81+ (ΔI=0) and the 71+→61+ (ΔI=1) γ-transitions. Spin and parity of several excited states have been assigned on the basis of angular correlation and linear polarization results. Systematic of the γ-band in even-even Xe isotopes has been discussed.

Excited states of Xe-127 were populated in the Sn-122(Be-9, 4n gamma) fusion-evaporation reaction at a beam energy of 48 MeV. A sequence of Delta I = 2 gamma-transitions has been observed above the I-pi = 19/2(+) state at 2307 keV. Spi and parity of the states belonging to this band have been assigned firmly. The dynamic moment of inertia of this band is found to be low and almost constant as a function of angular momentum. Observed experimental features along with the results of theoretical semiclassical model calculation suggest an antimagnetic rotational character for this band.

Rotational bands built on positive parity $$ s_{1/2} $$, $$ d_{3/2} $$, and $$ g_{7/2} $$ valence neutron orbitals in $$ ^{127}\hbox {Xe}$$ have been investigated via in-beam $$ \gamma $$ ray spectroscopy. Excited states belonging to these one-quasineutron bands were populated via $$^{122} \hbox {Sn}( ^{9} \hbox {Be}, \hbox {4n} \gamma $$) fusion-evaporation reaction at a beam energy of 48 MeV. The level scheme has been updated by extending the low-lying rotational bands up to higher spin states, as well as, by assigning the spin/parity of the constituting energy levels. Signature splitting of low-j$$ \nu s_{1/2} $$, $$ \nu d_{3/2} $$ and high-j$$ \nu g_{7/2} $$ bands have been discussed in comparison to the neighbouring nuclei. Theoretical Modified Particle Rotor Model (MPRM) calculations have been carried out in order to study the microscopic structure of these bands.

C. Majumder, H. P. Sharma, ∗ S. Chakraborty, S. S. Tiwary, K. Katre, Yashraj, Indu Bala, R. P. Singh, S. Muralithar, B. Rohila, A. Kumar, Anuj, S. Kumar, Ravi Bhusan, S. K. Chamoli, A. Sharma, and T. Trevedi Department of Physics, Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi Nuclear Physics Group, Inter-University Accelerator Centre, New Delhi Department of Physics, Panjab University, Chandigarh Department of Physics&Astrophysics, University of Delhi, New Delhi Department of Physics, Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla Department of Pure&Applied Physics, Guru Ghasidas Vishwavidyalaya, Bilaspur

Antimicrobial resistance is becoming a growing health problem, which has become a challenge for the physicians to control infection and also an economic burden on the healthcare. This increase in resistance to the present antimicrobial agents led the researchers to find some alternative and more efficient drugs which can fight with the resistant microorganisms more effectively. Hence, in silico approach is used to design some novel drugs against various targets of microorganisms. For effective virtual screening of the drugs, there is a need to know about the chemical structure and properties of the antimicrobial agents. Therefore, we have prepared a comprehensive database as a platform for the researcher to search for possible lead molecules. Antimicrobial chemotherapeutics database (ACD) is comprised of ~4100 synthetic antimicrobial compounds as well as ~1030 active antimicrobial peptides. The Antimicrobial peptides are mainly from biological sources but some of them are synthetic in nature. Only those compounds, which are found to be active against either bacteria (both Gram-positive and negative) or fungus, are selected for this database.The ACD database is freely available at URL: http://amdr.amu.ac.in/acd, and it is compatible with desktops, smartphones, and tablets.