Minimal model of self-replicating nanocells: a physically embodied information-free scenario

The building of minimal self-reproducing systems with a physical embodiment (generically called protocells) is a great challenge, with implications for both theory and applied sciences. Although the classical view of a living protocell assumes that it includes information-carrying molecules as an essential ingredient, a dividing cell-like structure can be built from a metabolism-container coupled system, only. An example of such a system, modeled with dissipative particle dynamics, is presented here. This article demonstrates how a simple coupling between a precursor molecule and surfactant molecules forming micelles can experience a growth-division cycle in a predictable manner, and analyzes the influence of crucial parameters on this replication cycle. Implications of these results for origins of cellular life and living technology are outlined.Comment: 9 pages, 10 figure

Sylvia Plath : Une écriture embryonnaire

Le premier versant de cette étude propose une plongée dans l\u27univers bleu des poèmes de jeunesse de Sylvia Plath, l\u27un des plus grands poètes américain des années 60, pour s\u27achever sur la fulgurance ultime, imprégnée de rouge, d\u27Ariel. Le sujet en gestation se révèle indissociable de l\u27émergence du texte dans l\u27œuvre de ce poète qui est l\u27un des seuls à avoir obtenu le Prix Pulitzer à titre posthume. Maints mythes, rythmes et figures archaïques sont revues et déconstruits pour dire ce monde sous cloche, univers de recherche autant que de détresse.

No collective neutrino flavor conversions during the supernova accretion phase

The large neutrino fluxes emitted with a distinct flavor hierarchy from core-collapse supernovae (SNe) during the post-bounce accretion phase, offer the best opportunity to detect effects from neutrino flavor oscillations. We perform a dedicated study of the SN neutrino flavor evolution during the accretion phase, using results from recent neutrino radiation hydrodynamics simulations. In contrast to what expected in the presence of only neutrino-neutrino interactions, we find that the multi-angle effects associated with the dense ordinary matter suppress collective oscillations. This is related to the high matter densities during the accretion phase in core-collapse SNe of massive iron-core progenitors. The matter suppression implies that neutrino oscillations will start outside the neutrino transport region and therefore will have a negligible impact on the neutrino heating and the explosion dynamics. Furthermore, the possible detection of the next galactic SN neutrino signal from the accretion phase, based on the usual Mikheyev- Smirnov-Wolfenstein effect in the SN mantle and Earth matter effects, can reveal the neutrino mass hierarchy in the case that the mixing angle $\theta_{13}$ is not very small.Comment: (4 pages, 4 eps figures, v2 revised version. Discussion clarified. Matches the version published on PRL

Stochastic theory of two-species cooperation

Cooperative interactions pervade the dynamics of a broad rage of many-body systems, such as ecological communities, the organization of social structures, and economic webs. In this work, we investigate the dynamics of a simple population model that is driven by cooperative and symmetric interactions between two species. We develop a mean-field and a stochastic description for this cooperative two-species reaction scheme. For an isolated population, we determine the probability to reach a state of fixation, where only one species survives, as a function of the initial concentrations of the two species. We also determine the time to reach the fixation state. When each species can migrate into the population and replace a randomly selected individual, the population reaches a steady state. We show that this steady-state distribution undergoes a unimodal to trimodal transition as the migration rate is decreased beyond a critical value. In this low-migration regime, the steady state is not truly steady, but instead fluctuates strongly between near-fixation states of the two species. The characteristic time scale of these fluctuations diverges as $\lambda^{-1}$.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figure

Analysis of matter suppression in collective neutrino oscillations during the supernova accretion phase

The usual description of self-induced neutrino flavor conversions in core collapse supernovae (SNe) is based on the dominance of the neutrino density n_nu over the net electron density n_e. However, this condition is not met during the post-bounce accretion phase, when the dense matter in a SN is piled up above the neutrinosphere. As recently pointed-out, a dominant matter term in the anisotropic SN environment would dephase the flavor evolution for neutrinos traveling on different trajectories, challenging the occurrence of the collective behavior in the dense neutrino gas. Using the results from recent long term simulations of core-collapse SN explosions, based on three flavor Boltzmann neutrino transport in spherical symmetry, we find that both the situations of complete matter suppression (when n_e >> n_nu) and matter-induced decoherence (when n_e \gtrsim n_nu) of flavor conversions are realized during the accretion phase. The matter suppression at high densities prevents any possible impact of the neutrino oscillations on the neutrino heating and hence on the dynamics of the explosion. Furthermore, it changes the interpretation of the Earth matter effect on the SN neutrino signal during the accretion phase, allowing the possibility of the neutrino mass hierarchy discrimination at not too small values of the leptonic mixing angle \theta_{13} (i.e. \sin^2{\theta}_{13} \gtrsim 10^{-3}).Comment: Revised version (15 pages, 13 eps figures) published on Physical Review D. Discussion enlarged, references update

An ensemble approach to assess hydrological models’ contribution to uncertainties in the analysis of climate change impact on water resources

Over the recent years, several research efforts investigated the impact of climate change on water resources for different regions of the world. The projection of future river flows is affected by different sources of uncertainty in the hydro-climatic modelling chain. One of the aims of the QBic3 5 project (Que´bec-Bavarian International Collaboration on Climate Change) is to assess the contribution to uncertainty of hydrological models by using an ensemble of hydrological models presenting a diversity of structural complexity (i.e. lumped, semi distributed and distributed models). The study investigates two humid, mid-latitude catchments with natural flow conditions; one located in 10 Southern Que´bec (Canada) and one in Southern Bavaria (Germany). Daily flow is simulated with four different hydrological models, forced by outputs from regional climate models driven by a given number of GCMs’ members over a reference (1971–2000) and a future (2041–2070) periods. The results show that the choice of the hydrological model does strongly affect the climate change response of selected hydrological indicators, especially those related to low flows. Indicators related to high flows seem less sensitive on the choice of the hydrological model. Therefore, the computationally less demanding models (usually simple, lumped and conceptual) give a significant level of trust for high and overall mean flows

On the need for bias correction in regional climate scenarios to assess climate change impacts on river runoff

In climate change impact research, the assessment of future river runoff as well as the catchment scale water balance is impeded by different sources of modeling uncertainty. Some research has already been done in order to quantify the uncertainty of climate 5 projections originating from the climate models and the downscaling techniques as well as from the internal variability evaluated from climate model member ensembles. Yet, the use of hydrological models adds another layer of incertitude. Within the QBic3 project (Qu´ebec-Bavaria International Collaboration on Climate Change) the relative contributions to the overall uncertainty from the whole model chain (from global climate 10 models to water management models) are investigated using an ensemble of multiple climate and hydrological models. Although there are many options to downscale global climate projections to the regional scale, recent impact studies tend to use Regional Climate Models (RCMs). One reason for that is that the physical coherence between atmospheric and land-surface 15 variables is preserved. The coherence between temperature and precipitation is of particular interest in hydrology. However, the regional climate model outputs often are biased compared to the observed climatology of a given region. Therefore, biases in those outputs are often corrected to reproduce historic runoff conditions from hydrological models using them, even if those corrections alter the relationship between temperature and precipitation. So, as bias correction may affect the consistency between RCM output variables, the use of correction techniques and even the use of (biased) climate model data itself is sometimes disputed among scientists. For those reasons, the effect of bias correction on simulated runoff regimes and the relative change in selected runoff indicators is explored. If it affects the conclusion of climate change analysis in 25 hydrology, we should consider it as a source of uncertainty. If not, the application of bias correction methods is either unnecessary in hydro-climatic projections, or safe to use as it does not alter the change signal of river runoff. The results of the present paper highlight the analysis of daily runoff simulated with four different hydrological models in two natural-flow catchments, driven by different regional climate models for a reference and a future period. As expected, bias correction of climate model outputs is important for the reproduction of the runoff regime of the 5 past regardless of the hydrological model used. Then again, its impact on the relative change of flow indicators between reference and future period is weak for most indicators with the exception of the timing of the spring flood peak. Still, our results indicate that the impact of bias correction on runoff indicators increases with bias in the climate simulations

Topology and Evolution of Technology Innovation Networks

The web of relations linking technological innovation can be fairly described in terms of patent citations. The resulting patent citation network provides a picture of the large-scale organization of innovations and its time evolution. Here we study the patterns of change of patents registered by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). We show that the scaling behavior exhibited by this network is consistent with a preferential attachment mechanism together with a Weibull-shaped aging term. Such attachment kernel is shared by scientific citation networks, thus indicating an universal type of mechanism linking ideas and designs and their evolution. The implications for evolutionary theory of innovation are discussed.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Physical Review