Critical Binder cumulant and universality: Fortuin-Kasteleyn clusters and order-parameter fluctuations

We investigate the dependence of the critical Binder cumulant of the magnetization and the largest Fortuin-Kasteleyn cluster on the boundary conditions and aspect ratio of the underlying square Ising lattices. By means of the Swendsen-Wang algorithm, we generate numerical data for large system sizes and we perform a detailed finite-size scaling analysis for several values of the aspect ratio $r$, for both periodic and free boundary conditions. We estimate the universal probability density functions of the largest Fortuin-Kasteleyn cluster and we compare it to those of the magnetization at criticality. It is shown that these probability density functions follow similar scaling laws, and it is found that the values of the critical Binder cumulant of the largest Fortuin-Kasteleyn cluster are upper bounds to the values of the respective order-parameter's cumulant, with a splitting behavior for large values of the aspect ratio. We also investigate the dependence of the amplitudes of the magnetization and the largest Fortuin-Kasteleyn cluster on the aspect ratio and boundary conditions. We find that the associated exponents, describing the aspect ratio dependencies, are different for the magnetization and the largest Fortuin-Kasteleyn cluster, but in each case are independent of boundary conditions.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables, version as published in Phys Rev

The relation between IQ, MTR and brain volume in healthy adolescents

El artículo examina el ejercicio de la competencia de la Corte Penal Internacional por remisión de una situación por el Consejo de Seguridad actuando con arreglo al Capítulo VII de la Carta de las Naciones Unidas. Se intenta establecer la existencia de principios de procedimiento penal aplicables en los casos remitidos por el Consejo de Seguridad que, si bien hasta el momento han sido únicamente dos- Darfur y Libia - han dejado material de análisis suficiente para examinar cuál ha sido el tratamiento procesal de las investigaciones que dieran origen a los casos en los que actualmente interviene el Tribunal. Este punto de análisis resulta interesante considerando que nada dice el Estatuto de Roma sobre la adopción de decisiones preliminares cuando la situación hubiera sido remitida a la Corte por el Consejo de Seguridad de las Naciones Unidas

The effect of varicocele on sperm morphology and DNA maturity: Does acridine orange staining facilitate diagnosis?

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine whether Acridine Orange (AO) can be used as a routine procedure in a physician's office to detect sperm deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) fragmentation in patients with varicoceles. Material and methods: Forty-five patients with a mean age of 30.4 years, who had been diagnosed with varicoceles by physical examination and 30 healthy males with a mean age of 28.3 years and without any signs of varicoceles were included in this study. Doppler Ultrasonography was performed to each individual in addition to physical examination. Semen analyses were performed by the same biologist. Sperm morphology was evaluated according to the World Health Organization (WHO) criteria and Kruger's strict criteria. After routine semen analysis, the samples were fixed separately for further examination with AO staining. Results: In routine semen analyses, total sperm count, total motile sperm count, and fast direct forward motile and direct forward motile sperm counts were significantly lower in patients with varicoceles, and the immotile sperm count was significantly higher in patients with varicoceles compared to the control group. Kruger's examination revealed a lower sperm count with normal morphology in patients with varicoceles. After AO staining, the ratio of spermatozoa demonstrating red and green coloration were 6.5±11.0% and 93.5±11.0%, respectively in the varicocele group and 1.0±1.0% and 99.0±1.0%, respectively in the control group (p0.001). Conclusion: Semen analysis using AO staining can be performed under a clinician's office conditions with a fluorescent microscope without any additional equipment. Further studies are needed to validate the AO staining with more extensively used and well-known methods. Therefore, AO staining can be used as a simple and reliable method that can be performed daily in a physician's office in infertility and andrology clinics. © 2013 by Turkish Association of Urology

Clinical presentation and assessment of older patients presenting with headache to emergency departments: A multicentre observational study

10.1111/ajag.12999Australasian Journal on Ageing411126-13