Aperiodic Ising model on the Bethe lattice: Exact results

We consider the Ising model on the Bethe lattice with aperiodic modulation of the couplings, which has been studied numerically in Phys. Rev. E 77, 041113 (2008). Here we present a relevance-irrelevance criterion and solve the critical behavior exactly for marginal aperiodic sequences. We present analytical formulae for the continuously varying critical exponents and discuss a relationship with the (surface) critical behavior of the aperiodic quantum Ising chain.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, minor correction

A first genetic portrait of synaptonemal complex variation.

The synaptonemal complex (SC) is a proteinaceous scaffold required for synapsis and recombination between homologous chromosomes during meiosis. Although the SC has been linked to differences in genome-wide crossover rates, the genetic basis of standing variation in SC structure remains unknown. To investigate the possibility that recombination evolves through changes to the SC, we characterized the genetic architecture of SC divergence on two evolutionary timescales. Applying a novel digital image analysis technique to spermatocyte spreads, we measured total SC length in 9,532 spermatocytes from recombinant offspring of wild-derived mouse strains with differences in this fundamental meiotic trait. Using this large dataset, we identified the first known genomic regions involved in the evolution of SC length. Distinct loci affect total SC length divergence between and within subspecies, with the X chromosome contributing to both. Joint genetic analysis of MLH1 foci-immunofluorescent markers of crossovers-from the same spermatocytes revealed that two of the identified loci also confer differences in the genome-wide recombination rate. Causal mediation analysis suggested that one pleiotropic locus acts early in meiosis to designate crossovers prior to SC assembly, whereas a second locus primarily shapes crossover number through its effect on SC length. One genomic interval shapes the relationship between SC length and recombination rate, likely modulating the strength of crossover interference. Our findings pinpoint SC formation as a key step in the evolution of recombination and demonstrate the power of genetic mapping on standing variation in the context of the recombination pathway

Luxembourg

The 2018 political year was dominated by the parliamentary elections on 14 October2018. The general expectation was that the Christian Democrats (CSV), who had been inopposition since 2013,would win the election and return to government.In the end,they lostvotes and the incumbent coalition of Liberals (DP), Social Democrats (LSAP) and Greens(Déi Gréng) could maintain its majority, allowing the three parties to continue for a secondterm. These elections also led to the rise of the Pirate Party.On the legislative front, several bills on the government’s legislative agenda were votedon by Parliament

X-ray enabled MOCASSIN: a 3D code for photoionized media

We present a new version of the fully 3D photoionization and dust radiative transfer code, MOCASSIN, that uses a Monte Carlo approach for the transfer of radiation. The X-ray enabled MOCASSIN allows a fully geometry independent description of low-density gaseous environments strongly photoionized by a radiation field extending from radio to gamma rays. The code has been thoroughly benchmarked against other established codes routinely used in the literature, using simple plane parallel models designed to test performance under standard conditions. We show the results of our benchmarking exercise and discuss applicability and limitations of the new code, which should be of guidance for future astrophysical studies with MOCASSIN.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJS 9 pages, 5 figure

Radial Fredholm perturbation in the two-dimensional Ising model and gap-exponent relation

We consider concentric circular defects in the two-dimensional Ising model, which are distributed according to a generalized Fredholm sequence, i. e. at exponentially increasing radii. This type of aperiodicity does not change the bulk critical behaviour but introduces a marginal extended perturbation. The critical exponent of the local magnetization is obtained through finite-size scaling, using a corner transfer matrix approach in the extreme anisotropic limit. It varies continuously with the amplitude of the modulation and is closely related to the magnetic exponent of the radial Hilhorst-van Leeuwen model. Through a conformal mapping of the system onto a strip, the gap-exponent relation is shown to remain valid for such an aperiodic defect.Comment: 12 pages, TeX file + 4 figures, epsf neede

Ice island thinning : rates and model calibration with in situ observations from Baffin Bay, Nunavut

Funding: Instrument development and fieldwork were supported by the Northern Transportation Adaptation Initiative of Transport Canada, the Polar Knowledge Canada Safe Passage project (no. 1516-065), and Polar Knowledge Canada's Northern Scientific Training Program. Anna J. Crawford received personal funding from the Garfield Weston Foundation, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (Canada), and Environment and Climate Change Canada.A 130 km2 tabular iceberg calved from Petermann Glacier innorthwestern Greenland on 5 August 2012. Subsequent fracturing generated manyindividual large “ice islands”, including Petermann ice island (PII)-A-1-f, which drifted between Nares Strait and the North Atlantic.Thinning caused by basal and surface ablation increases the likelihood thatthese ice islands will fracture and disperse further, thereby increasing therisk to marine transport and infrastructure as well as affecting thedistribution of freshwater from the polar ice sheets. We use a uniquestationary and mobile ice-penetrating radar dataset collected over fourcampaigns to PII-A-1-f to quantify and contextualize ice island surface andbasal ablation rates and calibrate a forced convection basal ablation model.The ice island thinned by 4.7 m over 11 months. The majority of thinning (73 %) resulted from basal ablation, but the volume loss associated withbasal ablation was ∼12 times less than that caused by arealreduction (e.g. wave erosion, calving, and fracture). However, localizedthinning may have influenced a large fracture event that occurred along asection of ice that was ∼40 m thinner than the remainder ofthe ice island. The calibration of the basal ablation model, the first knownto be conducted with field data, supports assigning thetheoretically derived value of 1.2×10−5 m2∕5 s−1/5 ∘C−1 to the model's bulk heat transfercoefficient with the use of an empirically estimated ice–ocean interfacetemperature. Overall, this work highlights the value of systematicallycollecting ice island field data for analyzing deterioration processes,assessing their connections to ice island morphology, and adequatelydeveloping models for operational and research purposes.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe