Formation of topological defects in nematic shells with a dumbbell-like shape.

The present study investigates dumbbell-shaped nematic liquid crystal shells. Using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, we consider the effects of an external electric field on nematic ordering by computing the average molecular alignment's time evolution and equilibrium configuration. We show that the number and location of topological defects are strongly affected by the external field, with the orientational ordering's equilibrium configuration depending on field direction about the shell's long axis. For a transverse external field, it is verified that the defect rearrangement presents a non-linear dynamics, with a field independent characteristic time scale delimiting the short and long time regimes. Effects associated with varying the shell's Gaussian curvature are also analyzed.

Critical properties of the SIS model on the clustered homophilic network.

The spreading of epidemics in complex networks has been a subject of renewed interest of several scientific branches. In this regard, we have focused our attention on the study of the susceptible-infected-susceptible (SIS) model, within a Monte Carlo numerical simulation approach, representing the spreading of epidemics in a clustered homophilic network. The competition between infection and recovery that drives the system either to an absorbing or to an active phase is analyzed. We estimate the static critical exponents ß ∕ ν , 1 ∕ ν and γ ∕ ν , through finite-size scaling (FSS) analysis of the order parameter ρ and its fluctuations, showing that they differ from those associated with the contact process on a scale-free network, as well as those predicted by the heterogeneous mean-field theory.

More sex chromosomes than autosomes in the Amazonian frog Leptodactylus pentadactylus.

Heteromorphic sex chromosomes are common in eukaryotes and largely ubiquitous in birds and mammals. The largest number of multiple sex chromosomes in vertebrates known today is found in the monotreme platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus, 2n = 52) which exhibits precisely 10 sex chromosomes. Interestingly, fish, amphibians, and reptiles have sex determination mechanisms that do or do not involve morphologically differentiated sex chromosomes. Relatively few amphibian species carry heteromorphic sex chromosomes, and when present, they are frequently represented by only one pair, either XX:XY or ZZ:ZW types. Here, in contrast, with several evidences, from classical and molecular cytogenetic analyses, we found 12 sex chromosomes in a Brazilian population of the smoky jungle frog, designated as Leptodactylus pentadactylus Laurenti, 1768 (Leptodactylinae), which has a karyotype with 2n = 22 chromosomes. Males exhibited an astonishing stable ring-shaped meiotic chain composed of six X and six Y chromosomes. The number of sex chromosomes is larger than the number of autosomes found, and these data represent the largest number of multiple sex chromosomes ever found among vertebrate species. Additionally, sequence and karyotype variation data suggest that this species may represent a complex of species, in which the chromosomal rearrangements may possibly have played an important role in the evolution process.

Interplay between modulational instability and self-trapping of wavepackets in nonlinear discrete lattices.

We investigate the modulational instability of uniform wavepackets governed by the discrete nonlinear Schrodinger equation in finite linear chains and square lattices. We show that, while the critical nonlinear coupling χMI above which modulational instability occurs remains finite in square lattices, it decays as 1/L in linear chains. In square lattices, there is a direct transition between the regime of stable uniform wavefunctions and the regime of asymptotically localized solutions with stationary probability distributions. On the other hand, there is an intermediate regime in linear chains for which the wavefunction dynamics develops complex breathing patterns. We analytically compute the critical nonlinear strengths for modulational instability in both lattices, as well as the characteristic time τ governing the exponential increase of perturbations in the vicinity of the transition. We unveil that the interplay between modulational instability and self-trapping phenomena is responsible for the distinct wavefunction dynamics in linear and square lattices.

Crossing the Rift valley: using complete mitogenomes to infer the diversification and biogeographic history of ethiopian highlands Ptychadena (anura: Ptychadenidae).

The Ethiopian Highlands are considered a biodiversity hotspot, harboring a high number of endemic species. Some of the endemic species probably diversified in situ; this is, for example, the case of a monophyletic clade containing 12 known species of grass frogs of the genus Ptychadena. The different species occur at elevations ranging from 1,500 to above 3,400 m and constitute excellent models to study the process of diversification in the highlands as well as adaptations to high elevations. In this study, we sampled 294 specimens across the distribution of this clade and used complete mitogenomes and genome-wide SNP data to better understand how landscape features influenced the population structure and dispersal of these grass frogs across time and space. Using phylogenetic inference, population structure analyses, and biogeographic reconstructions, we found that the species complex probably first diversified on the south-east side of the Great Rift Valley. Later on, species dispersed to the north-west side, where more recent diversification occurred. We further demonstrate that Ptychadena species have dispersed across the Great Rift Valley at different times. Our analyses allowed for a more complete understanding of the contribution of geological events, biogeographic barriers and climatic changes as drivers of species diversification and adaptation in this important biogeographic region.

Asymmetric acoustic wave scattering by a nonreciprocal and position-dependent mass defect.

We investigate the asymmetric wave scattering in a phononic one-dimensional lattice with a nonreciprocal defect and position dependent masses coupled by the defect spring. The nonreciprocal interaction is characterized by a single parameter Δ while the nonlinear contribution due to position-dependent masses are controlled by a parameterχ. The transmission and reflection coefficients are analytically computed and the effects of the nonreciprocity and nonlinearity are detailed. We show that, in opposite with the linear case, the rectification factor has a frequency dependence, which leads to a more efficient diode-like action at large wavevectors. Further, the nonlinearity leads to an asymmetry of the reflected component, absent in the linear regime. We extend our analysis to a system with frictional forces which suppresses the multistability window promoted by the nonlinear mass contribution without compromising the rectification action.

Low-temperature pseudo-phase-transition in an extended Hubbard diamond chain.

We consider the extended Hubbard diamond chain with an arbitrary number of particles driven by chemical potential. The interaction between dimer diamond chain and nodal couplings is considered in the atomic limit (no hopping), whereas the dimer interaction includes the hopping term. We demonstrate that this model exhibits a pseudo-transition effect in the low-temperature regime. Here, we explore the pseudo-transition rigorously by analyzing several physical quantities. The internal energy and entropy depict sudden, although continuous, jumps which closely resembles discontinuous or first-order phase-transition. At the same time, the correlation length and specific heat exhibit astonishing strong sharp peaks quite similar to a second-order phase-transition. We associate the ascending and descending parts of the peak with power-law "pseudo-critical" exponents. We determine the pseudo-critical exponents in the temperature range where these peaks are developed, namely, ν=1 for the correlation length and α=3 for the specific heat. We also study the behavior of the electron density and isothermal compressibility around the pseudo-critical temperature.

Universal dynamical scaling laws in three-state quantum walks.

We perform a finite-time scaling analysis over the detrapping point of a three-state quantum walk on the line. The coin operator is parametrized by ρ that controls the wave packet spreading velocity. The input state prepared at the origin is set as a symmetric linear combination of two eigenstates of the coin operator with a characteristic mixing angle θ, one of them being the component that results in full spreading occurring at θ_{c}(ρ) for which no fraction of the wave packet remains trapped near the initial position. We show that relevant quantities, such as the survival probability and the participation ratio assume single parameter scaling forms at the vicinity of the detrapping angle θ_{c}. In particular, we show that the participation ratio grows linearly in time with a logarithmic correction, thus, shedding light on previous reports of sublinear behavior.

A molecular dynamics study of ferroelectric nanoparticles immersed in a nematic liquid crystal.

A large number of interesting phenomena related to the insertion of colloidal particles in liquid crystals (LC) have recently been reported. Here, we investigate effects caused by the addition of spherically shaped ferroelectric nanoparticles to a nematic liquid crystal. Using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, the density of LC molecules, the orientational order parameter, and the polar and azimuthal angle profiles are calculated as functions of the distance to the center of the immersed nanoparticle for different temperatures of the system. We observe that the assembly of ferroelectric nanoparticles enhances the nematic order in the LC medium changing many properties of its host above the nematic-isotropic transition temperature T (*) (NI) .

Wing morphometry as a tool for correct identification of primary and secondary New World screwworm fly.

Cochliomyia hominivorax and Cochliomyia macellaria are endemic Neotropical Calliphoridae species. The former causes severe myiasis in hosts while the latter is Sarcosaprophagous, but commonly found as a second invader in wounds. Due to the morphological similarity between them and the potential losses that C. hominivorax represents for cattle breeders, the rapid and correct identification of these two species is very important. In addition to a correct identification of these species, a good knowledge of C. hominivorax biology can be helpful for designing control programs. We applied geometric morphometric methods to assess wing differences between C. hominivorax and C. macellaria and conduct a preliminary analysis of wing morphological variation in C. hominivorax populations. Canonical variate analysis, using wing shape data, correctly classified 100% of the individuals analyzed according to sex and species. This result demonstrates that wing morphometry is a simple and reliable method for identifying C. hominivorax and C. macellaria samples and can be used to monitor C. hominivorax. Both species show sexual dimorphism, but in C. hominivorax it is magnified. We suggest that this may reflect different histories of selection pressures operating on males and females. Significant differences in wing size and shape were obtained among C. hominivorax populations, with little correlation with latitude. This result suggests that wing variation is also a good morphological marker for studying population variation in C. hominivorax.

Rectification of acoustic phonons in harmonic chains with nonreciprocal spring defects.

The scattering of acoustic phonons by nonreciprocal spring defects inserted in an harmonic chain is investigated. The degree of nonreciprocity of the forces mediated by the defect springs is parameterized by a single quantity Δ that effectively takes into account the interaction of the coupled masses with hidden degrees of freedom of an underlying nonequilibrium system. We demonstrate a pronounced rectification effect with transmission having a preferential direction. Nonreciprocity also allows energy exchange between the system and the medium. Further, we show a cooperative action between defects mediated by resonant cavity modes. The influence of damping forces is also explored and shown to promote the rectification of the reflected vibrational wave component.

Emerging extreme value and Fermi-Dirac distributions in the Lévy branching and annihilating process.

We study the dynamics of the branching and annihilating process with long-range interactions. Static particles generate an offspring and annihilate upon contact. The branching distance is supposed to follow a Lévy-like power-law distribution with P(r)∝1/r^{α}. We analyze the long term behavior of the mean particles number and its fluctuations as a function of the parameter α that controls the range of the branching process. We show that the dynamic exponent associated with the particle number fluctuations varies continuously for α<4 while the particle number exponent only changes for α<3. A crossover from extreme value Frechet (at α=3) and Gumbell (for 2<α<3) distributions is developed, similar to the one reported in recent experiments with cw-pumped random fiber lasers presenting underlying gain and Lévy processes. We report the dependence of the relevant dynamical power-law exponents on α showing that explosive growth takes place for α≤2. Further, the average occupation number distribution is shown to evolve from the standard Fermi-Dirac form to the generalized one within the context of nonextensive statistics.

Complex patterns of genetic variability in populations of the New World screwworm fly revealed by mitochondrial DNA markers.

Cochliomyia hominivorax (Coquerel) (Diptera: Calliphoridae), the New World screwworm fly, is an important agent of traumatic myiasis, which is endemic in the Neotropical region and which has great economic impact on the development of the livestock industry. International efforts have been aimed at designing programmes to control and eradicate this species from endemic areas. Thorough knowledge of the population genetics of an insect pest is a fundamental component to ensuring the success of a pest management strategy because it enables the determination of an appropriate geographic scale for carrying out effective treatments. This study undertook an analysis of mtDNA polymerase chain reaction-restricted fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) in 34 populations of C. hominivorax from 10 countries, encompassing almost all the current distribution of the species. Results showed high levels of mitochondrial DNA variability (pi= 2.9%) and a complex pattern of population genetic structure for this species. Significant population structure (Phi st= 0.5234) and low variability were found in Caribbean populations, suggesting that, in general, islands constitute independent evolutionary entities connected by restricted gene flow. By contrast, high variability and low, but significant, differentiation was found among mainland populations (Phi st= 0.0483), which could not be attributed to geographic distance. Several processes may be acting to maintain the observed patterns, with different implications for establishing control programmes.

Free-electron gas in the Apollonian network: multifractal energy spectrum and its thermodynamic fingerprints.

We study the free-electron gas in an Apollonian network within the tight-binding framework. The scale-free and small-world character of the underlying lattice is known to result in a quite structured energy spectrum with deltalike singularities, gaps, and minibands. After an exact numerical diagonalization of the corresponding adjacency matrix of the network with a finite number of generations, we employ a scaling analysis of the moments of the density of states to characterize its multifractality and report the associated singularity spectrum. The fractal nature of the energy spectrum is also shown to be reflected in the thermodynamic behavior by logarithmic modulations on the temperature dependence of the specific heat. The absence of chiral symmetry of the Apollonian network leads to distinct thermodynamic behaviors due to electrons and holes thermal excitations.

Enhanced nonreciprocal transmission through a saturable cubic-quintic nonlinear dimer defect.

The transmission properties through a saturable cubic-quintic nonlinear defect attached to lateral linear chains is investigated. Particular attention is directed to the possible non-reciprocal diode-like transmission when the parity-symmetry of the defect is broken. Distinct cases of parity breaking are considered including asymmetric linear and nonlinear responses. The spectrum of the transmission coefficient is analytically computed and the influence of the degree of saturation analyzed in detail. The transmission of Gaussian wave-packets is also numerically investigated. Our results unveil that spectral regions with high transmission and enhanced diode-like operation can be achieved.

Localization-delocalization transition in discrete-time quantum walks with long-range correlated disorder.

We study the effects of spatially long-range correlated phase disorder on the Hadamard quantum walk on a line. The shift operator is built to exhibit an intrinsic disorder distribution featuring long-range correlations. To impose such, we resort to fractional Brownian motion with power-law spectrum 1/k^{2α} with α≥0 being the exponent that controls the degree of correlations. We discuss the scaling behavior of the walker's wave packet and report a localization-delocalization transition controlled by α. We unveil two intermediate dynamical regimes between exponential localization and full delocalization.

Finite-size scaling and disorder effect on the transmissivity of multilayered structures with metamaterials.

We investigate the influence of metamaterials on the scaling laws of the transmission on multilayered structures composed of random sequences of ordinary dielectric and metamaterial layers. The spectrally averaged transmission in a frequency range around the fully transparent resonant mode is shown to decay with the total number of layers as 1/N. Such thickness dependence is faster than the 1/N(1/2) decay recently reported to take place in random sequences of ordinary dielectric slabs. The interplay of strong localization and the emergence of resonant modes within the gap leads to a non-monotonous disorder dependence of the transmission that reaches a minimum at an intermediate disorder strength.

Homeotropic surface anchoring and the layer-thinning transition in free-standing films.

In this work, we investigate the interplay between surface anchoring and finite-size effects on the smectic-isotropic transition in free-standing smectic films. Using an extended McMillan model, we study how a homeotropic anchoring stabilizes the smectic order above the bulk transition temperature. In particular, we determine how the transition temperature depends on the surface ordering and film thickness. We identify a characteristic anchoring for which the transition temperature does not depend on the film thickness. For strong surface ordering, we found that the thickness dependence of the transition temperature can be well represented by a power-law relation. The power-law exponent exhibits a weak dependence on the range of film thicknesses, as well as on the molecular alkyl tail length. Our results reproduce the main experimental findings concerning the layer-thinning transitions in free-standing smectic films.

Phase diagram and re-entrant fermionic entanglement in a hybrid Ising-Hubbard ladder.

The degree of fermionic entanglement is examined in an exactly solvable Ising-Hubbard ladder, which involves interacting electrons on the ladder's rungs described by Hubbard dimers at half-filling on each rung, accounting for intrarung hopping and Coulomb terms. The coupling between neighboring Hubbard dimers is assumed to have an Ising-like nature. The ground-state phase diagram consists of four distinct regions corresponding to the saturated paramagnetic, the classical antiferromagnetic, the quantum antiferromagnetic, and the mixed classical-quantum phase. We have exactly computed the fermionic concurrence, which measures the degree of quantum entanglement between the pair of electrons on the ladder rungs. The effects of the hopping amplitude, the Coulomb term, temperature, and magnetic fields on the fermionic entanglement are explored in detail. It is shown that the fermionic concurrence displays a re-entrant behavior when quantum entanglement is being generated at moderate temperatures above the classical saturated paramagnetic ground state.

Criticality of a contact process with coupled diffusive and non-diffusive fields.

We investigate the critical behavior of a model with two coupled critical densities, one of which is diffusive. The model simulates the propagation of an epidemic process in a population, which uses the underlying lattice to leave a track of the recent disease history. We determine the critical density of the population above which the system reaches an active stationary state with a finite density of active particles. We also perform a scaling analysis to determine the order parameter, the correlation length, and critical relaxation exponents. We show that the model does not belong to the usual directed percolation universality class and is compatible with the class of directed percolation with diffusive and conserved fields.