Quantum tasks using six qubit cluster states

The usefulness of the recent experimentally realized six photon cluster state by C. Y. Lu et al. (Nature 3:91, 2007) is investigated for quantum communication protocols like quantum teleportation and quantum information splitting (QIS) and dense coding. We show that the present state can be used for the teleportation of an arbitrary two qubit state deterministically. Later, we devise two distinct protocols for the QIS of an arbitrary two qubit state among two parties. We construct sixteen orthogonal measurement basis on the cluster state, which will lock an arbitrary two qubit state among two parties. The capability of the state for dense coding is investigated and it is shown that one can send five classical bits by sending only three qubits using this state as a shared entangled resource. We finally show that this state can also be utilised in the remote state preparation of an arbitrary two qubit state.     

DGPose: Deep Generative Models for Human Body Analysis

International Journal of Computer Vision - Deep generative modelling for human body analysis is an emerging problem with many interesting applications. However, the latent space learned by such...     

Synthesis of C60 Fullerene-Silica Hybrid Nano Structures

We have recently demonstrated a procedure for the synthesis of silica nanometer and micrometer particles under modest conditions. Here we report the synthesis of C₆₀ fullerene-silica hybrid nanometer sized materials via sol-gel processing at neutral pH and under ambient conditions. The C₆₀ fullerene, when functionalized, was water-soluble and also able to facilitate the formation of silica structures from an aqueous silica precursor. This C₆₀ fullerene had similar functionality to the cationically charged polymers, which have been reported earlier to act as catalysts/templates for silicification. The resulting organic-inorganic hybrid was studied using SEM, EDS and UV/Vis spectroscopy. These hybrid materials may have applications in areas such as optical devices, semiconductors, chemical sensors, catalysis and in the medical field. The results presented in this study may be useful in developing a process for the synthesis of novel organic-inorganic nanometer sized materials and for the biomimetic synthesis of silica.     

Transductive methods for the distributed ensemble classification problem

We consider ensemble classification for the case where there is no common labeled training data for jointly designing the individual classifiers and the function that aggregates their decisions. This problem, which we call distributed ensemble classification, applies when individual classifiers operate (perhaps remotely) on different sensing modalities and when combining proprietary or legacy classifiers. The conventional wisdom in this case is to apply fixed rules of combination such as voting methods or rules for aggregating probabilities. Alternatively, we take a transductive approach, optimizing the combining rule for an objective function measured on the unlabeled batch of test data. We propose maximum likelihood (ML) objectives that are shown to yield well-known forms of probabilistic aggregation, albeit with iterative, expectation-maximization-based adjustment to account for mismatch between class priors used by individual classifiers and those reflected in the new data batch. These methods are extensions, for the ensemble case, of the work of Saerens, Latinne, and Decaestecker (2002). We also propose an information-theoretic method that generally outperforms the ML methods, better handles classifier redundancies, and addresses some scenarios where the ML methods are not applicable. This method also well handles the case of missing classes in the test batch. On UC Irvine benchmark data, all our methods give improvements in classification accuracy over the use of fixed rules when there is prior mismatch.     

Electroless deposition,post annealing and characterization of nickel films on silicon

Electroless deposition of nickel (EN) films on n-type silicon has been investigated under different process conditions. The interface between the film and substrate has been characterized for electrical properties by probing the contact resistances. X-ray diffraction and atomic force microscopy have been performed to obtain information about the structural and morphological details of the films. As a comparative study, nickel films have also been sputter deposited on silicon substrates. An as-deposited electroless film is observed to form non-ohmic contact while in a sputtered film prepared without the application of substrate heating, the formation of metal-insulating-semiconductor type junction is seen.     

Mesophilic and thermophilic anaerobic digestion of faecal sludge in a pilot plant digester

In many developing countries, the sewage consisting of faecal sludge is discharged untreated into rivers, lakes and coastal areas. This poses a health hazard and a risk to the ecosystem, and wastes a resource which could produce sustainable energy. This paper reports results from an anaerobic digester of 1000L used for digestion of faecal waste at mesophilic and thermophilic conditions. The specific biogas production rate from faecal sludge was in the range of 0.06–0.12 m³/(kg DM.d) at mesophilic conditions at NTP (Normal Temperature & Pressure i.e. 25 °C and 1 atm. Pressure) and 0.1–0.21 m³/(kg DM.d) at thermophilic conditions calculated at NTP. The number of toilet users affects the biogas production with changes in the organic loading rate. The results showed 97% reductionin chemical oxygen demand and 90% reduction in biological oxygen demand of anaerobic digester discharge water as compared to inlet substrate values.     

Thermogravimetric analysis of the interaction of ferromagnetic metal atom and multiwalled carbon nanotubes

This paper describes the thermal oxidative behavior of atomized iron or atomized cobalt in the presence of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT). The thermogravimetric analysis shows the atomized iron thermal oxidation starts at about 500 degrees C that is absent when the atomized iron is sintered with multiwalled carbon naonotubes. The thermal oxidation of iron in the sintered samples requires the collapse of the multiwalled carbon nanotubes. A similar behavior is observed with atomized cobalt when its oxidation requires the collapse of the nanotubes. This thermal oxidative shift is interpreted as due to the atomized iron or atomized cobalt atom experiencing extensive overlap and confinement effect with multiwalled carbon nanotubes causing a spin transfer. This confinement effect is suggested to produce a transformation of iron from the outermost electronic distribution of 3d64s2 to an effective configuration of 3d84s0 and for cobalt 3d74s2 to 3d94s0 producing spintronics effect.     

3D simulation of hydride-assisted crack propagation in zircaloy-4 using XFEM

Influence of hydride precipitated at the tip of the crack on crack propagation in zircaloy-4 is numerically investigated using the extended finite element method (XFEM). Numerical simulation is performed on compact tension specimen to understand the effects of crack and hydride lengths on crack propagation in terms of stress intensity factor and J-integral. The values of stress intensity factor and J-integral indicate that hydride induces the crack instability. The stress intensity factor decreases with the precipitation of brittle hydride phase at the crack tip, resulting in hydride-assisted crack propagation. A comparison of crack propagation behaviour with different hydride lengths is also presented. The crack remains stable in the absence of the hydride while it propagates when hydride is considered at its tip for the same applied load. The crack arrests only after reaching to the zircaloy metal matrix causing complete fracture of hydride.     

Dense plasma focus ion-based titanium nitride coating on titanium

We report the synthesis of titanium nitride coating on a titanium substrate by utilizing energetic nitrogen ions emitted from a 2.3 kJ dense plasma focus device for 30 focus shots. The number of nitrogen ions transferred to the sample by a single ion pulse of about 140 ns duration in the energy interval (40-600 keV) is about 1.09 × 10¹² with a mean energy per ion of 58 keV. The corresponding energy flux delivered to the titanium surface is estimated to be 6.17 × 10¹⁴ keV cm⁻³ ns⁻¹ leading to a transient temperature rise of the top layer of about 5400 K which helps layer growth. The coating is investigated on the basis of its morphological, compositional and hardness properties. X-ray diffraction analysis of the sample reveals the formation of a nanocrystalline titanium nitride coating having (1 1 1) and (2 0 0) plane reflections with an average crystallite size of 40 nm. The compressive residual stresses in the nitride coating have been evaluated to be 2.80 GPa and 6.81 GPa corresponding to (1 1 1) and (2 0 0) plane orientations. A complete restructuring of the manually polished titanium substrate has been observed with appearance of nano-sized multidimensional granular surface morphologies. The thickness of the nitride coating is about 1 μm, whereas the coating has a nitrogen content of 35.35 at.% and 13.78 ± 3.57 wt.% and a surface hardness of 8.19 GPa.     

Prevention of metallic corrosion by lauric hydrazide and its salts under vapor phase conditions

Six organic volatile corrosion inhibitors (VCI) were synthesized using lauric hydrazide with various acids such as cinnamic acid, succinic acid, nitrobenzoic acid, phthalic acid, and maleic acid and evaluated as corrosion inhibitors of mild steel, copper, brass, zinc, and aluminum by weight loss and potentiodynamic polarization methods. All the investigated VCI exhibited good inhibition efficiency for all the metals tested. The inhibition efficiency of all compounds increased as the inhibitor concentration increased. Lauric hydrazide cinnamate showed the best results among all compounds studied. In addition, all inhibitors showed anodic behavior. Adsorption studies demonstrated that all the investigated compounds followed Temkin's adsorption isotherm.