In the present study, we report the preparation of silver nanoparticles in the range of 10–15 nm with increased stability and enhanced anti-bacterial potency. The morphology of the nanoparticles was characterized by transmission electron microscopy. The antibacterial effect of silver nanoparticles used in this study was found to be far more potent than that described in the earlier reports. This effect was dose dependent and was more pronounced against gram-negative bacteria than gram-positive organisms. Although bacterial cell lysis could be one of the reasons for the observed antibacterial property, nanoparticles also modulated the phosphotyrosine profile of putative bacterial peptides, which could thus affect bacterial signal transduction and inhibit the growth of the organisms.

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A search for supersymmetry is presented based on multijet events with large missing transverse momentum produced in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of ffiffi ffi s p ¼ 13 TeV. The data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb −1 , were collected with the CMS detector at the CERN LHC in 2016. The analysis utilizes four-dimensional exclusive search regions defined in terms of the number of jets, the number of tagged bottom quark jets, the scalar sum of jet transverse momenta, and the magnitude of the vector sum of jet transverse momenta. No evidence for a significant excess of events is observed relative to the expectation from the standard model. Limits on the cross sections for the pair production of gluinos and squarks are derived in the context of simplified models. Assuming the lightest supersymmetric particle to be a weakly interacting neutralino, 95% confidence level lower limits on the gluino mass as large as 1800 to 1960 GeV are derived, and on the squark mass as large as 960 to 1390 GeV, depending on the production and decay scenario.

The observation of neutrons turning into antineutrons would constitute a discovery of fundamental importance for particle physics and cosmology. Observing the n−n transition would show that baryon number (B) is violated by two units and that matter containing neutrons is unstable. It would provide a clue to how the matter in our universe might have evolved from the B = 0 early universe. If seen at rates observable in foreseeable next-generation experiments, it might well help us understand the observed baryon asymmetry of the universe. A demonstration of the violation of B − L by 2 units would have a profound impact on our understanding of phenomena beyond the Standard Model of particle physics.Slow neutrons have kinetic energies of a few meV. By exploiting new slow neutron sources and optics technology developed for materials research, an optimized search for oscillations using free neutrons from a slow neutron moderator could improve existing limits on the free oscillation probability by at least three orders of magnitude. Such an experiment would deliver a slow neutron beam through a magnetically-shielded vacuum chamber to a thin annihilation target surrounded by a low-background antineutron annihilation detector. Antineutron annihilation in a target downstream of a free neutron beam is such a spectacular experimental signature that an essentially background-free search is possible. An authentic positive signal can be extinguished by a very small change in the ambient magnetic field in such an experiment. It is also possible to improve the sensitivity of neutron oscillation searches in nuclei using large underground detectors built mainly to search for proton decay and detect neutrinos. This paper summarizes the relevant theoretical developments, outlines some ideas to improve experimental searches for free neutron oscillations, and suggests avenues both for theoretical investigation and for future improvement in the experimental sensitivity.