Teleportation of a qubit using entangled non-orthogonal states: A comparative study

The effect of non-orthogonality of an entangled non-orthogonal state based quantum channel is investigated in detail in the context of the teleportation of a qubit. Specifically, average fidelity, minimum fidelity and minimum assured fidelity (MASFI) are obtained for teleportation of a single qubit state using all the Bell type entangled non-orthogonal states known as quasi Bell states. Using Horodecki criterion, it is shown that the teleportation scheme obtained by replacing the quantum channel (Bell state) of the usual teleportation scheme by a quasi Bell state is optimal. Further, the performance of various quasi Bell states as teleportation channel is compared in an ideal situation (i.e., in the absence of noise) and under different noise models (e.g., amplitude and phase damping channels). It is observed that the best choice of the quasi Bell state depends on the amount non-orthogonality, both in noisy and noiseless case. A specific quasi Bell state, which was found to be maximally entangled in the ideal conditions, is shown to be less efficient as a teleportation channel compared to other quasi Bell states in particular cases when subjected to noisy channels. It has also been observed that usually the value of average fidelity falls with an increase in the number of qubits exposed to noisy channels (viz., Alice's, Bob's and to be teleported qubits), but the converse may be observed in some particular cases.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figure

Astrometric Microlensing of Primordial Black Holes with Gaia

The Gaia space telescope allows for unprecedented accuracy for astrometric measurements of stars in the Galaxy. In this work, we explore the sensitivity of Gaia to detect primordial black hole (PBH) dark matter through the distortions that PBHs would create in the apparent trajectories of background stars, an effect known as astrometric microlensing (AML). We present a novel calculation of the lensing probability, and we combine this with the publicly released Gaia eDR3 stellar catalog to predict the expected rate of AML events that Gaia will see. We also compute the expected distribution of a few event observables, which will be useful for reducing backgrounds. We argue that the astrophysical background rate of AML like events due to other sources is negligible (except possibly for very long duration events), and we use this to compute the potential exclusion that could be set on the parameter space of PBHs with a monochromatic mass function. We find that Gaia is sensitive to PBHs in the range of $0.4~M_\odot$ - $5\times10^7~M_\odot$, and has peak sensitivity to PBHs of $\sim 10~M_\odot$ for which it can rule out as little as a fraction $3\times10^{-4}$ of dark matter composed of PBHs. With this exquisite sensitivity, Gaia has the potential to rule out a PBH origin for the gravitational wave signals seen at LIGO/Virgo. Our novel calculation of the lensing probability includes for the first time, the effect of intermediate duration lensing events, where the lensing event lasts for a few years, but for a period which is still shorter than the Gaia mission lifetime. The lower end of our predicted mass exclusion is especially sensitive to this class of lensing events. As and when time-series data for Gaia is released, our prediction of the lensing rate and event observable distributions will be useful to estimate the true exclusion/discovery of the PBH parameter space utilizing this data.Comment: 45 pages, 11 figures, 2 tables. Updates in response to referee comments; main results unchange

Importance of silicon in combating a variety of stresses in plants: A review

The abundance of silicon (Si) in the earth's crust is found as silicon dioxide (SiO2). But this abundance of Si is not a sign that the plants take up an adequate amount of Si. This review article incorporates research based on Si to understand the importance of Si in plants under various stress conditions and its role in sustainable agricultural production. Si's application is considered a better approach to providing stress tolerance to plants under stress conditions. The review describes the different phases of Si, its absorption, transport in plants, and its various mechanisms of action to tolerate specific stresses. The uptake and transport of Si through various Si transporters have also been reported. This review also discusses the various mechanisms of Si under biotic or abiotic stress in different plants. The application of Si improves soil quality and soil health and enhances the soil microbial population. In addition, the role of Si in the upregulation and down-regulation of proteins under stressful conditions has also been reported. The information can help to better understand the importance and mechanism of Si in plants and its application in agriculture

Situs inversus with atrial septal defect and pulmonary stenosis presenting as cortical blindness

Cortical blindness is a rare form of blindness characterized by the normal anterior visual afferent system. Cerebrovascular diseases, tumor involving bilateral occipital lobe, cardiac surgery or cerebral angiography are common causes for cortical blindness. Some cases may be associated with denial of blindness when it is called Anton syndrome. We came across a 9-year-old male child presenting to us for evaluation of blindness which turned out to be cortical blindness after the examination. EEG and VEP were consistent with cortical blindness with MRI showing parieto-occipital lobe signal intensity alterations. Evaluation for the cause of cortical blindness led to the diagnosis of situs inversus in the patient with an atrial septal defect. The patient had an episode of dehydration due to gastroenteritis which resulted in vascular compromise thereby leading to hypoxic damage to the brain and cortical blindness. Presentation of cortical blindness in a patient of situs inversus is unique and hence being reported

Evaluation of endometrium by transvaginal ultrasonography and hysteroscopy and its correlation with histopathology in perimenopausal women with abnormal uterine bleeding at tertiary rural centre

Background: Abnormal uterine bleeding is one of the commonest clinical presentation ac-counts for 33% gynaecological consultations and this proportion rises to 70% in perimenopausal and postmenopausal age group in any gynaecology clinic. The most probable etiology of abnormal uterine bleeding relates to the patients reproductive age. Various diagnostic techniques have been evolved over the periods to determine the etiology of abnormal uterine bleeding in perimenopausal women, but their accuracy has not been compared properly. The aim of study is to evaluate the endometrium by transvaginal ultrasonography and hysteroscopy and its correlation with histopathology in perimenopausal patients with abnormal uterine bleeding.Methods: Total 96 patients in perimenopausal age group, admitted with chief complaints of ab-normal uterine bleeding were included. All patients underwent transvaginal ultrasonography and hysteroscopy, followed by hysteroscopy guided biopsy and histopathological examination. Accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value were calculated for both methods and compared, considering histopathological diagnosis as gold standard.Results: Mean age of patients was 44.05±3.29. Hysteroscopy has high accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value than Transvaginal sonography for diagnosis of all endometrial and intrauterine pathologies.Conclusions: Hysteroscopy results are more consistent with the results of histopathology. Hysteroscopy and hysteroscopy guided biopsy has been proven as gold standard for endometrial evaluation of patients with abnormal uterine bleeding. TVS can be used as most cost effective first step investigation in cases of perimenopausal bleeding

Performance of Chilli (Capsicum annuum L.) hybrids for yield and quality traits

Twenty-eight F1 combinations of chilli (Capsicum annuum L.) obtained from half-diallel cross along with eight diverse parents were evaluated in a field study to elucidate the information on the extent of mean performance of various horticultural traits. The analysis revealed that all the genotypes possessed wide spectrum of variability and showed significant differences for parents and hybrids for the traits studied. For parents UHF CHI 13 (216.20), UHF CHI 15 (193.80), UHF CHI 5 (139.00) and for hybrids H1 (182.60), H9 (181.40) and H7 (172.80) hold highest fruit count per plant. The parents UHF CHI 5 (1047.13 g), UHF CHI 15 (949.62 g) and UHF CHI 7 (912.61 g) and cross combinations H17 (1535.10 g), H8 (1320.00), H6 (1229.76) and H18 (967.60) recorded the high ripe fruit yield per plant. As for earliness, parents UHF CHI 5 (43.33), UHF CHI 11 (45.00), UHF CHI 7 (45.33) and hybrids H27 (42.67), H26 (43.00) and UH28 (43.00) took minimum days for flowering. For pungency UHF CHI 12 (0.28 %), UHF CHI 13 (0.26 %), DKC-8 (0.24 %) and H23 (0.33 %), H5 (0.31 %), H26 (0.26 %) recorded high capsaicin content

Comparison of 2D and 3D gamma evaluation method in patient specific intensity-modulated radiotherapy quality assurance

Background: In this study we have compared 2D and 3D gamma pass percentage for a variety of acceptance criteria for 40 step-and-shoot IMRT (intensity-modulated radiotherapy) plans. Methods: Treatment planning was done for 40 patient including head and neck, abdomen and pelvis simulated on the Siemens Healthcare GmBH CT simulator with images of 3 mm slice thickness using treatment planning system (TPS) (Monaco Version 5.11.03, Elekta medical system) using Monte Carlo algorithm. The gamma evaluation was done using PTW VeriSoft 8.1 which allowed us to perform 2D and 3D gamma index calculation, slice-by-slice comparison of measured and calculated dose distributions, measured dose was compared against the calculated DICOMRT dose on the OCTAVIUS 3D phantom from TPS. Results: The average 3D and 2D gamma passing in coronal planes were 96.61±0.45% and 96.27±0.78% for 5 mm/5% criteria, 93.74±4.17% and 91.9±4.88% for 3 mm/3% criteria, 85.83±7.58% and 82.41±8.06% for 2 mm/2% criteria and 62.8±9.42% and 59.18±9.52% for 1 mm/1% criteria respectively for all cases. The average gamma passing rate for 3D gamma analysis was 0.35%, 1.97 %, 3.97% and 5.78% higher when compared with 2D coronal planar analyses for 5 mm/5%, 3 mm/3%, 2 mm/2% and 1 mm/1% DTA criteria respectively. Conclusions: It is concluded in the study that 3 D gamma passing rate is higher compared to 2D gamma passing for head and neck, abdomen and pelvis cases

Seeding the Green Future - Participatory organic cotton breeding

BackgroundWorldwide, India is the most important country for organic cotton production with 67% market share. In India, organic cotton production is challenged by 95% genetically modified (GM) cotton cultivation.Public breeding and seed multiplication were neglected and local non-GM seeds supply were eroded. With the continuous growth of the organic market it is important to maintain non-GM germplasm, to enlarge the offer of organic cultivars with a better performance that meet the demand of the market, and to rebuild the seed sovereignty of organic smallholder cotton farmers. Participatory breeding of Gossypiumhirsutumand traditionalG. arboreumcotton offers a great opportunity for developing locally adapted cultivars for increasing genetic diversity