Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Experimental Study of a Square Foundation with Connected and Non-Connected Piled Raft Foundation Under Eccentrically Loaded

In the recent years, non-connected piled raft foundation has been considered as an economical and practical deep foundation in the situation that high shear and concentrated loads may occur at the connection of the raft and pile head. This paper was presented an experimental study of a square foundation on the effects of parameters such as S/D, L/D and etc. in two cases of connected or non-connected piled raft system under the eccentrically loaded raft. The results was showed that square raft in the case of S/D = 3 and L/D = 8, the bearing capacity of the non-connected piles is more than that of the connected piles. The results of the experiments was showed pile length is more effective than the pile spacing in connected pile raft system. However by decreasing pile spacing, bearing capacity is increased in non-connected pile raft and pile spacing is more effective than the pile spacing in non-connected pile raft system. Comparison of bearing capacity and settlement indicated in the non-connected piled raft system, the longer piles not only has not much effect in increasing bearing capacity significantly, but also has lower effect on the reduction of the settlement. Also in non-connected piled raft system by increasing the pile spacing reduced BPI (bearing pile index) wile in connected piled raft system increased.
Using Video to Evaluate Depth and Velocity Selection by Arctic Grayling (Thymallus arcticus) in Pools of an Engineered Tundra Stream

We evaluated pool use by Arctic grayling (Thymallus arcticus) in an engineered stream in the Canadian Barrenlands at the summer background flow (1.0 l/s) and at enhanced flows (9.9 l/s and 21.9 l/s) similar to those during the spring spawning period. We used an acoustic Doppler velocimeter to measure and map out point velocities (horizontal and vertical) in five study pools. The positions of adult Arctic grayling were monitored for each flow condition using visual surveys and a novel video assessment technique. Although fish mobility limited pool selection at the summer background flow, the highest use of pools by fish during enhanced flows occurred where pool designs incorporated scour holes or downstream sills to provide larger amounts of relatively deep water. Within those pools, grayling selected for locations with depths between 0.20 m and 0.30 m and near-zero vertical velocities (−0.02 m/s to 0.04 m/s). Fish selected near-zero horizontal velocities(0.00 m/s to 0.04 m/s) for resting and higher velocities (0.12 m/s to 0.20 m/s) for feeding. In contrast, grayling tended to show local avoidance of areas with horizontal velocities above 0.2 m/s or vertical velocities above 0.04 m/s. Although findings are likely site specific, our study contributes towards the development of size, depth, and velocity criteria for Arctic grayling habitat; this information can promote effective designs for habitat compensation and fish passage projects. We also present a novel video monitoring method that can be easily deployed at remote locations.
Effects of fire and grazing on smallscale spatial heterogeneity in a tallgrass prairie

1. Grazing and fire are historically two important factors in the development and maintenance of many grassland systems. Most previous studies investigated their effects separately. We conducted a study to gain insight in the effects of fire, grazing and their interaction on small-scale (0.25 m2) vegetation heterogeneity and distribution of resources. In four different treatments (IU = annually burned, ungrazed, 4U = 4-year burned, ungrazed, I G = annually burned, grazed, 4G = 4-year burned, grazed) we measured plant species composition and resource availability. 2. Grazing had a positive effect on species richness, diversity and evenness, while it decreased the dominance of C4-grasses (e.g. Andropogon gerardii). Fire had an opposite effect, it reduced species richness, diversity and evenness and enhanced the cover of C4- grasses. The effect of fire was stronger in the absence of grazing. 3. Heterogeneity in the plant community was increased under grazing, whereas fire or a fire-grazing interaction had no significant effect on a small scale (0.25 m2). The increased heterogeneity in grazed sites was strongly correlated with increased resource availability, and not with enhanced patchiness in resources distribution. 4. The availability of resources (light and N) was only affected by the grazing treatment. No spatial patterns in resource distribution were found in the present study. 5. We conclude that grazing is the most important factor on the small scale, I determining the resource availability, vegetation composition and heterogeneity.
Global stability of the Minkowski spacetime for the Einstein-Vlasov system

We prove global stability of the Minkowski spacetime in the wave coordinates system for the massive Einstein-Vlasov system. In particular, compared with previous results by Lindblad-Taylor, in which the Vlasov part is assumed to have compact support assumption, and Fajman-Joudioux-Smulevci, in which the spacetime is assumed to be exact Schwarzschild in the exterior region, we do not impose any compact support condition for the Vlasov part and allow a large class of non-isotropic perturbations for the metric part, which decay at rate $\langle r\rangle^{-1+}$ towards space infinity.
Chapter 11. The role of adaptation in understanding linguistic diversity

The 6,000–7,000 languages spoken by people display a dazzling variety of sounds, word patterns, and grammatical forms. The dominant explanation for this diversity is that languages drift apart as communities separate. The accumulation of random changes eventually produces languages that are mutually unintelligible. We argue that in addition to this non-functional process of drift, language change and diversification can be explained in functional terms as adaptations to social, demographic, and ecological environments in which the languages are learned and used, a proposal we call the linguistic niche hypothesis . We support our position with a series of agent-based models that serve as an existence proof for why language diversity requires adaptation. We next discuss empirical evidence for a link between aspects of socio-demographic factors, ecological factors, and grammatical structure which strongly suggests adaptation to be at work. One mechanism we focus on is language learnability: while all languages need to be learnable by infants, only some languages are further constrained by adult learning biases. Thus, languages which for historical reasons have adult learners adapt to be more learnable by adults. As a result, languages spoken in larger and more heterogeneous environments in which adult language learning is more likely to take place tend to be grammatically simpler than languages spoken in small homogeneous environments. The linguistic niche hypothesis outlined in this chapter, while still in early stages, promises to shed light on longstanding questions such as why there are so many languages, and why they differ so substantially from one another.
Chemical Properties of Selected Contaminated Soils in Basrah City, Southern Iraq

The main objective of this study are both analyzing the chemical properties of soil quality in the urban area of Basra City, southern Iraq, and identifying the contamination effect on seasonal and spatial variations in chemical properties of the selected soil samples. Soil samples were collecting from known contaminated sites during winter and summer seasons of 2009. Sampling sites were selecting from various urban land-use patterns. The results of chemical parameters of soils in the study area have shown that seasonally and spatially varied, and that soil quality is deteriorating because of combined anthropogenic and natural factors. It has been indicating that, on average, soil quality was highly saline in terms of EC index, slightly alkaline in terms of pH index, and sodic-saline in terms of the US salinity Lab index. The main reason for this urban soil degradation it can be concluded due to the effects of contamination caused by various urban activities.
Global evolution and paleogeographic distribution of mid-Cretaceous orbitolinids

Members of the Larger Benthic Foraminiferal (LBF) family Orbitolinidae occurred from the Cretaceous to the Paleogene, however, they were most diverse during the mid-Cretaceous, and dominated the agglutinated LBF assemblages described from limestones of that period. Various orbitolinid species have been used to zone and date lithologies formed in the shallow, warm waters of the Aptian to the early Cenomanian, and many, sometimes inaccurate, generic and sub-generic nomenclatures have been proposed to differentiate the often-subtle morphological changes that orbitolinids exhibit over time. Also, until now, it has not been possible to develop an effective global overview of their evolution and environmental development because descriptions of specimens from Asia have been relatively rare. Following our recent study of over 1800 orbitolinid-rich thin sections of material from 13 outcrops of Langshan limestone, from the Southern Tibetan Plateau, and from the Barito Basin, South Kalimantan, Indonesia, it has been possible to compare the stratigraphic ranges of these orbitolinids with previously described Tethyan and American forms, based on the use of a planktonic zonal (PZ) scheme, itself tied to the most recent chronostratigraphic scale. This has allowed the reconstruction of the phylogenetic and paleogeographic evolution of the orbitolinids from their Valanginian origin in the Tethys. Although the Tethys remained the paleogeographic centre for the orbitolinids, it is inferred here for the first time that a bi-directional paleogeographic migration of some orbitolinid genera occurred from the Tethys to the Americas and also to the Western Pacific region. Our observations and dating suggest that global marine regressions in the Aptian were coincident with, and may well have facilitated, these orbitolinid transoceanic migrations. Migration stopped however after rising sea level in the early Albian appears to have again isolated these provinces from each other. Tectonic forces associated with the subduction of the Farallon Plate and further sea level raises led to the opening of the Western Interior Seaway in North America, which correlates with, and may have been the cause of, the middle Albian (top of PZ Albian 2) extinction of the American orbitolinids. The extinction of the orbitolinids revealed that the Western Pacific province was split into two sub-provinces, with extinction occurring at the end of the early Albian (top of PZ Albian 1) in the Northwest Pacific sub-province, and at the end of the Albian (top of PZ Albian 4) in the subprovince that is today South East Asia (on the margins and west of the Wallace Line). The final near extinction of the orbitolinids occurred at the end of the Cenomanian in the Tethyan province, which coincides with, and may have been caused by, global anoxic oceanic events that correlate with a near-peak Mesozoic eustatic sea level high-stand that led to the overall global collapse of the paleotropical reef ecosystem at that time.
Natural Variability in Projections of Climate Change Impacts on Fine Particulate Matter Pollution

Variations in meteorology associated with climate change can impact fine particulate matter (PM2.5) pollution by affecting natural emissions, atmospheric chemistry, and pollutant transport. However, substantial discrepancies exist among model‐based projections of PM2.5 impacts driven by anthropogenic climate change. Natural variability can significantly contribute to the uncertainty in these estimates. Using a large ensemble of climate and atmospheric chemistry simulations, we evaluate the influence of natural variability on projections of climate change impacts on PM2.5 pollution in the United States. We find that natural variability in simulated PM2.5 can be comparable or larger than reported estimates of anthropogenic‐induced climate impacts. Relative to mean concentrations, the variability in projected PM2.5 climate impacts can also exceed that of ozone impacts. Based on our projections, we recommend that analyses aiming to isolate the effect climate change on PM2.5 use 10 years or more of modeling to capture the internal variability in air quality and increase confidence that the anthropogenic‐forced effect is differentiated from the noise introduced by natural variability. Projections at a regional scale or under greenhouse gas mitigation scenarios can require additional modeling to attribute impacts to climate change. Adequately considering natural variability can be an important step toward explaining the inconsistencies in estimates of climate‐induced impacts on PM2.5. Improved treatment of natural variability through extended modeling lengths or initial condition ensembles can reduce uncertainty in air quality projections and improve assessments of climate policy risks and benefits.
Antipodean fugitive terranes in southern Laurentia: How Proterozoic Australia built the American West

Paleoproterozoic arc and backarc assemblages accreted to the south Laurentian margin between 1800 Ma and 1600 Ma, and previously thought to be indigenous to North America, more likely represent fragments of a dismembered marginal sea developed outboard of the formerly opposing Australian-Antarctic plate. Fugitive elements of this arc-backarc system in North America share a common geological record with their left-behind Australia-Antarctic counterparts, including discrete peaks in tectonic and/or magmatic activity at 1780 Ma, 1760 Ma, 1740 Ma, 1710–1705 Ma, 1690–1670 Ma, 1650 Ma, and 1620 Ma. Subduction rollback, ocean basin closure, and the arrival of Laurentia at the Australian-Antarctic convergent margin first led to arc-continent collision at 1650–1640 Ma and then continent-continent collision by 1620 Ma as the last vestiges of the backarc basin collapsed. Collision induced obduction and transfer of the arc and more outboard parts of the Australian-Antarctic backarc basin onto the Laurentian margin, where they remained following later breakup of the Neoproterozoic Rodinia supercontinent. North American felsic rocks generally yield Nd depleted mantle model ages consistent with arc and backarc assemblages built on early Paleoproterozoic Australian crust as opposed to older Archean basement making up the now underlying Wyoming and Superior cratons.
Deconfinement transition and localization of Dirac modes in finite-temperature $\mathbb{Z}_3$ gauge theory on the lattice

We study the localization properties of the eigenmodes of the staggered Dirac operator across the deconfinement transition in finite-temperature $\mathbb{Z}_3$ pure gauge theory on the lattice in 2+1 dimensions. This allows for nontrivial tests of the sea-islands picture of localization, according to which low modes should localize on favorable Polyakov-loop fluctuations in the deconfined phase of a gauge theory. We observe localized low modes in the deconfined phase of the theory, both in the real Polyakov-loop sector, where they are expected, and in the complex Polyakov-loop sectors, where they are not. Our findings expose the limitations of the standard sea-islands picture, and call for its refinement. An improved picture, where spatial hopping terms play a more prominent role, is proposed and found to be in excellent agreement with numerical results.
Farmers’ Network Analysis on Diffusion and Adoption of CAU-R1 Variety in Imphal East District of Manipur

Food security with increased and sustained production of the major cereal crops in India is the need of the hour. The role of farmers as informal extension agents has been depicted in many recent studies emphasising the need for studies on network linkages between the farmer communities and the stakeholders in dissemination and adoption of improved technologies. The present study has been conducted to understand the role of social networks in the diffusion of CAU-R1 variety among the farmers of Manipur. The research design employed was exploratory and the sampling procedure was mixed sampling with purposive sampling for the selection of the state, district and key farmers. Snowball sampling was used to identify other farmers in the network. The sample size was 64 farmers from eight villages in Imphal East district. The socio-economic profile of the farmers showed that majority belonged to medium age between 36 years to 50 years, medium level of innovativeness, social participation, cosmopoliteness and risk bearing ability. The Social Network Analysis measures employed for the study were the centrality measures that include the degree, closeness and betweenness centrality to identify the most central, influential and powerful actors in the network. The average in-degree and out-degree was found to be equal for all the villages with a maximum degree centrality of 16. The betweenness centralization index of the networks was very low (24.55%) indicating very slow rate of spread of information and information sharing restricted only between few actors in the network. Social participation and trainings were positively correlated while the farming experience and time taken for adoption were negatively correlated with the network measures. The outcomes revealed that there is need for a more concerted effort by the farmers and stakeholders to sensitize farmers about the variety through exposure visits, trainings, incentives and timely input supply.
Hurricane Katrina Floods New Jersey: The Role of Information in the Market Response to Flood Risk

This study uses hedonic property models to explore how coastal real estate markets subject to heterogeneous information treatments respond to flood risk. We identify reactions to flood risk, distinctly from price effects due to flood damage, by examining non-local flooding events. Utilizing a difference-in-difference methodology, we test whether the coastal real estate market in New Jersey responds to several well-publicized hurricanes and tropical storms that did not strike the Atlantic seaboard. We find that homes in high flood risk zones situated in towns that participate in public flood awareness activities incur a 7 to 16 percent decrease in price after the non-local shock.
Biomarker Thermal Maturity Reveals Localized Temperature Rise From Paleoseismic Slip Along the Punchbowl Fault, CA, USA

The Punchbowl Fault, California, USA, is an example of a simple fault zone that has a relatively narrow fault core with further slip localization to principal slip zones. We sampled the principal slip zone, fault core, and wall rocks and conducted hydrous pyrolysis experiments to analyze biomarker thermal maturity within the Punchbowl Fault. Using biomarker maturity as a proxy for temperature rise, we show that the existing principal slip zone experienced greater temperature rise than the surrounding fault core and wall rock, and therefore, we infer that earthquake slip localized along this layer. Furthermore, evidence of slight thermal maturity within the ultracataclasite suggests that the fault core is made up at least in part of reworked former principal slip zones. Using a wide range of possible layer thicknesses, we find that the maximum temperature range during a single earthquake could have varied from ~460 to 1,060 °C at 1‐m/s slip velocity. However, not all samples from within the principal slip zone show a temperature rise, indicating that layer thickness, slip, or shear stress varied during slip. Our temperature estimate also allows us to constrain the frictional energy dissipated during the earthquake to 2.2–25 MJ/m2. Our study demonstrates that localized slip structures can be directly linked to seismicity and that small changes in earthquake or fault parameters can lead to changes in temperature (and likely fault strength) at small scales.
Surrogate modelling approach: A solution to oil rim production optimization

Abstract Production from thin oil rim reservoirs can be very challenging due to the thin spread of the oil resources, complicated mechanism of production and fluid contact movement. Typically, the recovery from these types of reservoirs is usually low thereby making them economically unattractive. The objective of this present study is to evaluate the optimal well design for improved recovery from thin oil rim reservoirs. A surrogate modelling approach was deployed for evaluating three different development strategies. Numerical reservoir simulations were conducted to define the basis for the surrogate modelling. In all these strategies, the rim height, reservoir anisotropy, oil viscosity, horizontal permeability, bottom-hole pressure (BHP) and horizontal well length were considered as uncertainty. The selection of the best strategy was based on cumulative hydrocarbon recovery after 30 years of simulation. Uncertainty quantification was achieved using regular Monte Carlo Simulation. Management of a wide range of subsurface uncertainties was considered. The results showed that placing the well just above the oil-water contact (OWC) allowed more oil recovery compared to other strategies considered in this study. The results derived from surrogate model predictions compared favourably with those observed from the YADD thin oil rim reservoirs located in the Niger Delta. The methodology adopted saves time and is reproducible where oil rim development is desirable.
Groundwater response to tidal fluctuations in a leaky confined coastal aquifer with a finite length

The study on the hydraulic properties of coastal aquifers has significant implications both in hydrological sciences and environmental engineering. Although many analytical solutions are available, most of them are based on the same basic assumption that assumes aquifers extend landward semi‐infinitely, which does not necessarily reflect the reality. In this study, the general solutions for a leaky confined coastal aquifer have been developed that consider both finitely landward constant‐head and no‐flow boundaries. The newly developed solutions were then used to examine theoretically the joint effects of leakage and aquifer length on hydraulic head fluctuations within the leaky confined aquifer, and the validity of using the simplified solution, which assumes the aquifer is semi‐infinite. The results illustrated that the use of the simplified solution may cause significant errors, depending on joint effects of leakage and aquifer length. A dimensionless characteristic parameter was then proposed as an index for judging the applicability of the simplified solution. In addition, practical application of the general solution for the constant‐head inland boundary was used to characterize the hydraulic properties of a leaky confined aquifer using the data collected from a field site at the Seine River estuary, France, and the versatility of the general solution was further justified.
Impact of the West African Ebola Epidemic on Agricultural Production and Rural Welfare: Evidence from Liberia

The 2014-15 Ebola epidemic took a devastating human and economic toll on three West African countries, of which Liberia was perhaps the hardest hit. The pathways through which the crisis affected economic activity in these largely agrarian societies remain poorly understood. To study these mechanisms in the context of rural Liberia, we link a geographically disaggregated indicator of Ebola disease mortality to nationally representative household survey data on agricultural production and consumption. We find that higher Ebola prevalence (as proxied by local mortality) led to greater disruption of group-labor mobilization for planting and harvest, thereby reducing rice area planted as well as rice yields. Household welfare, measured by per capita expenditures spanning two points before and after the crisis, fell by more in Ebola prevalent areas with more intensive rice-farming, precisely those areas more adversely affected by agricultural labor shortages.