Precursors of an upcoming solar cycle at high latitudes from coronal green line data

After reviewing potential early indicators of an upcoming solar cycle at high latitudes, we focus attention on the rush-to-the-poles (RTTP) phenomenon in coronal green line emission. Considering various correlations between properties of the RTTP with the upcoming solar cycle we find a correlation between the rate of the RTTP and the time delay until the maximum of the next solar cycle. On the basis of this correlation and the known internal regularities of the sunspot number series we predict that, following a minimum in 2019, cycle 25 will peak in late 2024 at an amplitude of about 130 (in terms of smoothed monthly revised sunspot numbers). This slightly exceeds the amplitude of cycle 24 but it would still make cycle 25 a fairly weak cycle.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures J. Atm. Sol.-Terr. Phys., in pres

Genetic variability of anther donor versus spontaneous doubled haploid descendents and colchicine induced doubled haploid sweet pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) lines

Haploid (n) and doubled haploid (DH) plants were developed in anther culture of sweet pepper (Capsicum annuum L.). Regenerants were analyzed by flow cytometry for haploid (n = 12) and spontaneous doubled haploid (2n = 24) genomes. Haploid plants were forwarded to colchicine-treatment for induced doubled haploid (2n·) plant production. Molecular polymorphism of anther donor plants (2n), the haploid regenerants (n), the spontaneous (2n) and induced (2n·)-DH plants were analysed by RAPD-, SSR- and ISSR-PCR. The analysis of anther-donor plants compared to DH-descendents showed an unexpectedly wide range of molecular polymorphism. Our results suggest that genetic changes occurring during meiotic recombination is higher than those of occurring during colchicine-induced genomic duplication

On the family of B-spline surfaces obtained by knot modification

B-spline surfaces are piecewisely defined surfaces where the section points of the domain of definition are called knots. In [2] the authors proved some theorems in terms of knot modification of B-spline curves. Here we generalize these results for one- and two-parameter family of surfaces. An additional result concerning a higher order contact of these surfaces and an envelope is also proved

The soil conditions of the physical landscapes of the southern Great Plain with special regard to the possibilities of soil amelioration

Összefoglalás: (A Dél-Alföld természeti tájainak talajviszonyai, különös tekintettel a talajjavitási lehetőségekre). A tanulmány szervesen kapcsolódik az Acta Geographica Szegediensis 1973.évi kötetében megjelent ,,On the Methods of Region Research with Special Regard to the Southern Great Plain" . (Adalék a tájkutatás módszereihez, különös tekintettel a Dél-Alföldre) c. dolgozathoz. Jelen tanulmány I. része a Dél-Alföld természeti tájbeosztását ismerteti Stefahovits talajtani osztályozása alapján. AII. rész a felszínt alkotó talajrétegek anyagának fizikai és kémiai sajátosságait ismerteti, míg a dolgozat III. részében a Dél-Alföld különböző talajtípusain sikerrel alkalmazható műanyagos talajjavítási módszerek ismertetésére kerül sor, az ide vonatkozó legújabb kutatások alapján. Zusammenfassung: (Die Bodenverhältnisse der Naturlandschaften des Südgebiets der grossen Ungarischen Tiefebene, mit besonderer Rücksicht auf die verwendbaren Bodenmeliorationsverfahren). Dieser Aufsatz ist der im Jahre 1973 in Acta Geographica Szegediensis publizierten Arbeit ,,On the Methods of Region Research with Special Regard to the Southern Great Plain" (Beiträge zu den Methoden der Landschaftsforschung, mit besonderer Rücksicht auf das Südgebiet der grossen Ungarischen Tiefebene) eng verbunden. „ Der erste Teil des Aufsatzes legt die Naturlandschaftaufteilung des Südgebiets der grossen Ungarischen Tiefebene auf Grund der bodenkundlichen Sortierung von Slej'anovits dar. Der zweite Teil beschäftigt sich den phisischen und chemischen Eigenschaften der Materie der oberen Bodenschichten. Im dritten Teil wird die Bodenmeliorationsverfahren mit den Kunststoffen behandelt, die nach den Erfahrungen der neuesten Forschungen bei verschiedenen Bodenarten des Südgebiets der grossen Ungarischen Tiefebene mit gutem Erfolg angewendet werden kann. Summary: This study is closely connected with the paper entitled ,,Onthe Methods of Region Research with Special Regardt to the Southern Great Plain" which was published in the 1973 volume of Acta Geographica Szegediensis. The first part of the present study deals with the physical geographic regionalization of the Southern Great Plain on the basis of the pedological classification of Stefanovits. The second part deals with the physical and chemical properties of the soil layers forming the surface, while in the second part methods of soil amelioration with synthetic materials are described on the basis of the most recent researches

Evidence for fresh frost layer on the bare nucleus of comet Hale--Bopp at 32 AU distance

Here we report that the activity of comet Hale--Bopp ceased between late 2007 and March, 2009, at about 28 AU distance from the Sun. At that time the comet resided at a distance from the Sun that exceeded the freeze-out distance of regular comets by an order of magnitude. A Herschel Space Observatory PACS scan was taken in mid-2010, in the already inactive state of the nucleus. The albedo has been found to be surprisingly large (8.1$\pm$0.9%{}), which exceeds the value known for any other comets. With re-reduction of archive HST images from 1995 and 1996, we confirm that the pre-perihelion albedo resembled that of an ordinary comet, and was smaller by a factor of two than the post-activity albedo. Our further observations with the Very Large Telescope (VLT) also confirmed that the albedo increased significantly by the end of the activity. We explain these observations by proposing gravitational redeposition of icy grains towards the end of the activity. This is plausible for such a massive body in a cold environment, where gas velocity is lowered to the range of the escape velocity. These observations also show that giant comets are not just the upscaled versions of the comets we know but can be affected by processes that are yet to be fully identified.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

Scaling behavior of the contact process in networks with long-range connections

We present simulation results for the contact process on regular, cubic networks that are composed of a one-dimensional lattice and a set of long edges with unbounded length. Networks with different sets of long edges are considered, that are characterized by different shortest-path dimensions and random-walk dimensions. We provide numerical evidence that an absorbing phase transition occurs at some finite value of the infection rate and the corresponding dynamical critical exponents depend on the underlying network. Furthermore, the time-dependent quantities exhibit log-periodic oscillations in agreement with the discrete scale invariance of the networks. In case of spreading from an initial active seed, the critical exponents are found to depend on the location of the initial seed and break the hyper-scaling law of the directed percolation universality class due to the inhomogeneity of the networks. However, if the cluster spreading quantities are averaged over initial sites the hyper-scaling law is restored.Comment: 9 pages, 10 figure

Weakly coupled, antiparallel, totally asymmetric simple exclusion processes

We study a system composed of two parallel totally asymmetric simple exclusion processes with open boundaries, where the particles move in the two lanes in opposite directions and are allowed to jump to the other lane with rates inversely proportional to the length of the system. Stationary density profiles are determined and the phase diagram of the model is constructed in the hydrodynamic limit, by solving the differential equations describing the steady state of the system, analytically for vanishing total current and numerically for nonzero total current. The system possesses phases with a localized shock in the density profile in one of the lanes, similarly to exclusion processes endowed with nonconserving kinetics in the bulk. Besides, the system undergoes a discontinuous phase transition, where coherently moving delocalized shocks emerge in both lanes and the fluctuation of the global density is described by an unbiased random walk. This phenomenon is analogous to the phase coexistence observed at the coexistence line of the totally asymmetric simple exclusion process, however, as a consequence of the interaction between lanes, the density profiles are deformed and in the case of asymmetric lane change, the motion of the shocks is confined to a limited domain.Comment: 14 pages, 15 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.