Meteorite falls over India during 2003: Petrographic and chemical characterization and cosmogenic records

Two meteorite falls observed over India in 2003 led to the recovery of surviving fragments. The Kasauli meteorite that fell in northern India is a single fall, while Kendrapara meteorite is a multiple fall that covered a large coastal region of Orissa. Data for petrographic characteristics and chemical composition suggest that the two meteorites belong to the H group of chondrites, with Kasuali suffering a lesser degree of thermal metamorphism than Kendrapara during their residence in their parent bodies. Cosmogenic records indicate a large size (≥1 m) for the Kendrapara meteoroid that has spent ~5 million years in interplanetary space following its ejection from its parent body until its fall on the Earth. On the other hand, the Kasauli meteoroid spent an unusually long time (~37 Ma) in interplanetary space before its fall and lost ~80% of its original mass during atmospheric ablation

Non-local Operations: Purification, storage, compression, tomography, and probabilistic implementation

We provide several applications of a previously introduced isomorphism between physical operations acting on two systems and entangled states [1]. We show: (i) how to implement (weakly) non-local two qubit unitary operations with a small amount of entanglement; (ii) that a known, noisy, non-local unitary operation as well as an unknown, noisy, local unitary operation can be purified; (iii) how to perform the tomography of arbitrary, unknown, non-local operations; (iv) that a set of local unitary operations as well as a set of non-local unitary operations can be stored and compressed; (v) how to implement probabilistically two-qubit gates for photons. We also show how to compress a set of bipartite entangled states locally, as well as how to implement certain non-local measurements using a small amount of entanglement. Finally, we generalize some of our results to multiparty systems.Comment: 15 pages, no figure

Increased delignification rate of Dendrocalamus strictus (Roxburgh) nees by Schizophyllum commune Fr.; Fr. to reduce chemical consumption during pulping process

Pulp and paper industry is traditionally known to be a large contributor to environmental pollution due its largeconsumption of energy and chemicals. To reduce the chemical consumption, rate of delignification was increased bySchizophyllum commune in destructured sample of Dendrocalamus stictus, which was destructured by Impressafiner (compression-cum dewatering process). The extent of delignification was determined and comparison was made between thenon-destructured and destructured samples. The influence of physical parameters like incubation time, moisture level, media,media concentration, pH and temperature were also examined during the study. It was found that rate of delignification wassignificantly 6.43% more in destructured sample than non-destructured sample. Kraft pulping of treated destructured sampleshows 2.59 point reduction in kappa number than untreated non-destructured sample. Thus this paper provides an insight ofthe delignification extent in Dendrocalamus strictus after mechanical operation at varying physical parameters

<SUP>26</SUP>Al records in chondrules from unequilibrated ordinary chondrites: II. Duration of chondrule formation and parent body thermal metamorphism

Fossil records of the now-extinct short-lived nuclide 26Al were analyzed in twelve chondrules from four unequilibrated ordinary chondrites (UOCs), Semarkona (3.0), Bishunpur and Y-791324 (both 3.1) and ALHA76004 (3.3), belonging to the LL group to infer their time of formation. The present data along with those reported by us previously firmly establish a short duration of less than a million years for the major episode of UOC chondrule formation. Nebular processes responsible for chondrule formation started ~ 1 Ma after formation of CAIs and effectively stopped within another one and a half million years in the inner region of the asteroidal belt. Modeling of thermal evolution of chondritic parent bodies suggest that the longer duration of UOC chondrule formation inferred in some of the earlier studies could be attributed to thermal metamorphism experienced by some chondrules in UOC parent bodies. The duration of formation of UOC chondrules is significantly shorter than that for carbonaceous chondrite chondrules

Evaluation of cloud base height measurements from Ceilometer CL31 and MODIS satellite over Ahmedabad, India

Clouds play a tangible role in the Earth's atmosphere and in particular, the cloud base height (CBH), which is linked to cloud type, is one of the most important characteristics to describe the influence of clouds on the environment. In the present study, CBH observations from Ceilometer CL31 were extensively studied during May 2013 to January 2015 over Ahmedabad (23.03° N, 72.54° E), India. A detailed comparison has been performed with the use of ground-based CBH measurements from Ceilometer CL31 and CBH retrieved from MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) onboard Aqua and Terra satellite. CBH retrieved from MODIS is  ∼  1.955 and  ∼  1.093 km on 25 July 2014 and 1 January 2015 respectively, which matches well with ceilometer-measured CBH ( ∼  1.92 and  ∼  1.097 km). Some interesting features of cloud dynamics viz. strong downdraft and updraft have been observed over Ahmedabad which revealed different cloud characteristics during monsoon and post-monsoon periods. CBH shows seasonal variation during the Indian summer monsoon and post-monsoon period. Results indicate that the ceilometer is an excellent instrument to precisely detect low- and mid-level clouds, and the MODIS satellite provides accurate retrieval of high-level clouds over this region. The CBH algorithm used for the MODIS satellite is also able to capture the low-level clouds