Incidence of epizootic ulcerative syndrome (EUS) in freshwater fishes in the endemic area of Punjab, Pakistan

Incidence of Epizootic Ulcerative Syndrome (EUS) has been recorded for the first time in freshwater fishes in the endemic area of Punjab, Pakistan. Survey of private fish farms, hatchery and natural water bodies was conducted in a radius of 14 Km from around river Ravi near Lahore (Punjab Province) Pakistan. Out Of 1628 fishes belonging to 18 genera, 517 fishes of 10 genera were found affected with EUS. The incidence of EUS in culturable fishes was higher in Cirrhina mrigala (15.4%) moderate in Catla cat/a (13.3%) and lower in Labeo rohita (5.0%). Exotic fish, Chinese carp Ctenoparyngodon idella and Hypophthalmicthys molitrix were not affected with EUS. In non-culturable fishes the incidence of EUS was highest in Channa punctatus (72.8%) moderate in by C. straitus (65.45%) and comparatively lower Puntius ticto (43.7%). A slow growing temperature sensitive Saprolegnia spp. was isolated from all of EUS infected fish species. Aeromonas spp. and Pseudomonas spp. were isolated from the diseased fishes. Ectoparasites viz. Lernaea, Argulus and Triclwdina spp. were also isolated from the skin and gills of infected fish species. The disease was more severe in water having low alkalinity (70 mg/1), hardness (75 mg/1) and low temperature of 10-12 °C

Quantum Hall Effects in Graphene-Based Two-Dimensional Electron Systems

In this article we review the quantum Hall physics of graphene based two-dimensional electron systems, with a special focus on recent experimental and theoretical developments. We explain why graphene and bilayer graphene can be viewed respectively as J=1 and J=2 chiral two-dimensional electron gases (C2DEGs), and why this property frames their quantum Hall physics. The current status of experimental and theoretical work on the role of electron-electron interactions is reviewed at length with an emphasis on unresolved issues in the field, including assessing the role of disorder in current experimental results. Special attention is given to the interesting low magnetic field limit and to the relationship between quantum Hall effects and the spontaneous anomalous Hall effects that might occur in bilayer graphene systems in the absence of a magnetic field

Quantum Hall to charge-density-wave phase transitions in ABC-trilayer graphene

ABC-stacked trilayer graphene's chiral band structure results in three ($n=0,1,2$) Landau level orbitals with zero kinetic energy. This unique feature has important consequences on the interaction driven states of the 12-fold degenerate (including spin and valley) N=0 Landau level. In particular, at many filling factors $\nu_{T} =\pm5,\pm4,\pm2,\pm1$ a quantum phase transition from a quantum Hall liquid state to a triangular charge density wave occurs as a function of the single-particle induced LL orbital splitting $\Delta_{LL}$. This phase transition should be characterized by a re-entrant integer quantum Hall effect with the Hall conductivity corresponding to the {\it adjacent} interaction driven integer quantum Hall plateau.Comment: 4+ page

Coulomb-driven broken-symmetry states in doubly gated suspended bilayer graphene

The non-interacting energy spectrum of graphene and its bilayer counterpart consists of multiple degeneracies owing to the inherent spin, valley and layer symmetries. Interactions among charge carriers are expected to spontaneously break these symmetries, leading to gapped ordered states. In the quantum Hall regime these states are predicted to be ferromagnetic in nature whereby the system becomes spin polarized, layer polarized or both. In bilayer graphene, due to its parabolic dispersion, interaction-induced symmetry breaking is already expected at zero magnetic field. In this work, the underlying order of the various broken-symmetry states is investigated in bilayer graphene that is suspended between top and bottom gate electrodes. By controllably breaking the spin and sublattice symmetries we are able to deduce the order parameter of the various quantum Hall ferromagnetic states. At small carrier densities, we identify for the first time three distinct broken symmetry states, one of which is consistent with either spontaneously broken time-reversal symmetry or spontaneously broken rotational symmetry

The Role of Qualitative Research in Clinical Trial Development: The EASE Back Study

This article outlines the rationale for adopting a mixed methods approach within randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and explores challenges associated in doing so. Taking the example of the EASE Back feasibility and pilot study (Evaluating Acupuncture and Standard care for pregnant womEn with BACK pain: ISRCTN49955124), we detail why and how we operationalized a concurrent-sequential mixed methods research design. We present key findings from the exploratory research (focus groups and interviews) and explain how these were integrated with descriptive findings (a national survey of physical therapists) in order to inform and refine the design of the explanatory phase (the pilot RCT). We conclude with a discussion of lessons learned and implications for future research design and conduct

Energy gaps at neutrality point in bilayer graphene in a magnetic field

Utilizing the Baym-Kadanoff formalism with the polarization function calculated in the random phase approximation, the dynamics of the $\nu=0$ quantum Hall state in bilayer graphene is analyzed. Two phases with nonzero energy gap, the ferromagnetic and layer asymmetric ones, are found. The phase diagram in the plane $(\tilde{\Delta}_0,B)$, where $\tilde{\Delta}_0$ is a top-bottom gates voltage imbalance, is described. It is shown that the energy gap scales linearly, $\Delta E\sim 14 B[T]K, with magnetic field.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, title changed, references added, JETP Letters versio

Applying System Engineering to Pharmaceutical Safety

While engineering techniques are used in the development of medical devices and have been applied to individual healthcare processes, such as the use of checklists in surgery and ICUs, the application of system engineering techniques to larger healthcare systems is less common. System safety is the part of system engineering that uses modeling and analysis to identify hazards and to design the system to eliminate or control them. In this paper, we demonstrate how to apply a new, safety engineering static and dynamic modeling and analysis approach to healthcare systems. Pharmaceutical safety is used as the example in the paper, but the same approach is potentially applicable to other complex healthcare systems. System engineering techniques can be used in re-engineering the system as a whole to achieve the system goals, including both enhancing the safety of current drugs while, at the same time, encouraging the development of new drugs

Living between languages: The politics of translation in Leila Aboulela’s Minaret and Xiaolu Guo’s A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers

This is the author's final draft post-refereeing as published in The Journal of Commonwealth Literature 2012 47: 207 DOI:10.1177/0021989412440433. The online version of this article can be found at: http://jcl.sagepub.com/content/47/2/20