Chirality of topological gap solitons in bosonic dimer chains

We study gap solitons which appear in the topological gap of 1D bosonic dimer chains within the mean-field approximation. We find that such solitons have a non-trivial texture of the sublattice pseudospin. We reveal their chiral nature by demonstrating the anisotropy of their behavior in presence of a localized energy potential

Fermi Surface Properties of Low Concentration Cex_{x}La1−x_{1-x}B6_{6}: dHvA

The de Haas-van Alphen effect is used to study angular dependent extremal areas of the Fermi Surfaces (FS) and effective masses of Ce$_{x}$La$_{1-x}$B$_{6}$ alloys for $x$ between 0 and 0.05. The FS of these alloys was previously observed to be spin polarized at low Ce concentration ($x$ = 0.05). This work gives the details of the initial development of the topology and spin polarization of the FS from that of unpolarized metallic LaB$_{6}$ to that of spin polarized heavy Fermion CeB$_{6}$ .Comment: 7 pages, 9 figures, submitted to PR

Bronchial Carcinoid Tumor and Loculated Tuberculous Empyema Coexisting in the Same Lung: A Case Report

Carcinoid tumors of the tracheobronchial tree are rare events occurring at an incidence of 1-2% of lung cancers. The coexistence of carcinoid tumors with tuberculosis is an even rarer occurrence. We report active loculated tuberculous empyema and a bronchial carcinoid coexisting in the same lung in a 59 year old male patient. The clinical presentation with emphasis on diagnostic difficulties in dual pathologies and therapeutic options are discussed. Preoperative bronchoscopy has been recommended prior to thoracotomy in patients with tuberculosis for the identification of specific tuberculosis (tbc) related pathologies. In addition, routine preoperative bronchoscopy may have the additional benefit of detecting rare and unsuspected pathologies such as an associated carcinoid tumor. &nbsp

Achieving Strong Magnon Blockade through Magnon Squeezing in a Cavity Magnetomechanical System

We propose a scheme to achieve magnon (photon) blockade by using magnon squeezing within a cavity magnomechanical system under weak pump driving. Under ideal conditions, we observe a substantial magnon blockade effect, as well as simultaneous photon blockade. Moreover, both numerical and analytical results match perfectly, providing robust evidence of consistency. In addition to calculating optimal parametric gain and detuning values, we can improve the second-order correlation function. The proposed scheme will be a pioneering approach towards magnon (photon) blockade in experimental cavity magnomechanical systems.Comment: 6 page

Effects of countdown displays in public transport route choice under severe overcrowding

The paper presents a route choice model for dynamic assignment in congested, i.e. overcrowded, transit networks where it is assumed that passengers are supported with real-time information on carrier arrivals at stops. If the stop layout is such that passenger congestion results in First-In-First-Out (FIFO) queues, a new formulation is devised for calculating waiting times, total travel times and route splits. Numerical results for a simple example network show the effect of information on route choice when heavy congestion is observed. While the provision of information does not lead to a remarkable decrease in total travel time, with the exception of some particular instances, it changes the travel behaviour of passengers that seem to be more averse to queuing at later stages of their journey and, thus, prefer to interchange at less congested stations

Invitro Antibacterial Screening of Extracts from Selected Ethiopian Medicinal Plants

Indigenous knowledge, literature reports and ethnobotanical records suggest that plants are the basis for medicines. They constitute natural source of antimicrobial drugs that will provide novel or lead compounds for the fight against disease. In this study, the antimicrobial activity of three selected Ethiopian medicinal plants was studied with the objective of  screening their antibacterial activity. The fruits of Measalanceolata, aerial part of Cissus quadrangularis and leaf of Dodonae angustifolia were collected, air dried under shed, powdered and soaked in 80% methanol and extracted. In vitro antibacterial activity of the extracts was tested at different concentrations by using agar disc diffusion method and  measuring the zone of inhibition. The plant extracts showed broad  spectrum activity against gram positive (S. aureus) as well as gram  negative (E. coli) bacteria, except Cissus quadrangularis which did not show any activity against E. coli. Furthermore, the plant extracts had also  concentration dependant zone of inhibition against the tested bacteria. In fact, the highest activity was obtained for Dodonae angustifolia at  1000mg/ml against S. aureus. The activities are attributed to the presence of some secondary metabolites present in the tested plants which have been associated with antibacterial activities. This finding suggests that these medicinal plants can be potential source to isolate antibacterial drugs.Keywords: Antibacterial activity, Disc diffusion, E. coli, Plant extract and S. aureus

Quantum Probes for the Characterization of Nonlinear Media

Active optical media leading to interaction Hamiltonians of the form $H = \tilde{\lambda}\, (a + a^{\dagger})^{\zeta}$ represent a crucial resource for quantum optical technology. In this paper, we address the characterization of those nonlinear media using quantum probes, as opposed to semiclassical ones. In particular, we investigate how squeezed probes may improve individual and joint estimation of the nonlinear coupling $\tilde{\lambda}$ and of the nonlinearity order $\zeta$. Upon using tools from quantum estimation, we show that: i) the two parameters are compatible, i.e. the may be jointly estimated without additional quantum noise; ii) the use of squeezed probes improves precision at fixed overall energy of the probe; iii) for low energy probes, squeezed vacuum represent the most convenient choice, whereas for increasing energy an optimal squeezing fraction may be determined; iv) using optimized quantum probes, the scaling of the corresponding precision with energy improves, both for individual and joint estimation of the two parameters, compared to semiclassical coherent probes. We conclude that quantum probes represent a resource to enhance precision in the characterization of nonlinear media, and foresee potential applications with current technology