Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
SPEI-Based Approach to Agricultural Drought Monitoring in Vojvodina Region

This paper presents the standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI)-based approach to agricultural drought monitoring (ADM-SPEI approach) combining well-known methods, expert’ critical opinions, and local agro-climatic specificities. The proposed approach has been described in detail in three phases. This allows its application in any region and modification according to different agro-climatic conditions. The application of the ADM-SPEI approach has resulted in obtaining a modified SPEI for different crops (agricultural drought SPEI (AD-SPEIcrop)) in the Vojvodina region. In the first phase of the proposed approach, analytical hierarchy process (AHP) was used to obtain an experts’ group decision regarding the most suitable method for calculating evapotranspiration for a particular analyzed region. In the second phase, SPEI was modified and adjusted to the conditions in Vojvodina, where ET0 was replaced by ETc. In the validation phase, the results of the application of AD-SPEIcrop were compared to crop yields and well-known indices and evaluated by the experts’ feedback. The statistically significant correlations were achieved between AD-SPEIcrop and crop yields. The highest correlations were achieved in the months when the analyzed crops were in the developmental stages when they are most sensitive to drought. The AD-SPEIcrop better correlates to the crop yields compared to SPEI. The comparison of AD-SPEIcrop to the standardized precipitation index (SPI), SPEI, and self-calibrated Palmer drought severity index (SC-PDSI) shows that it can successfully detect dry and wet periods. The results have indicated that the proposed approach can be successfully applied, and AD-SPEIcrop has shown a good performance for agricultural drought monitoring.
Benefits of exhaust gas energy for preheating biodiesel fuel to enhance engine emissions and performance

The need for alternative fuel instead of conventional fossil fuels (diesel or gasoline) has recently increased for several reasons, including the expected shortage of petroleum fossil fuels and the production of pollution by transportation. Consequently, researchers are interested in finding new alternative fuels. At present, the number of studies on biodiesel as a compression ignition engine fuel has increased. Current studies are mainly concerned with studying the use of exhaust gas temperature to preheat biodiesel fuel before it enters the combustion chamber. A heat exchanger is designed to increase the temperature of the biodiesel fuel prior to the combustion process. The performance characteristics of diesel engines and the emission of pollutants resulting from this modification were investigated under different operating conditions, including different engine loads and speeds. The results showed clear improvements in engine performance, including improved output power, specific fuel consumption and pollutant emissions. The engine power and specific fuel consumption improvements as a result of preheating reached up to 1.3 % and 8.27 %, respectively. Pollutant emission also decreased obviously, with carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon emission decreases of 12.95 % and 12.85 %, respectively. However, the emission of nitrogen oxides increased by 4.39 %.
Cenozoic volcanism in Northeast Brazil and its links to the Cameroon Line

Cenozoic volcanism in Northeast Brazil occurs in three distinct regions: the Macau-Queimadas volcanic lineament (MQVL) and the Mecejana volcanic field, both in the Borborema Province, and the Fernando de Noronha archipelago. They are the only significant occurrences of Cenozoic magmatism along the South American passive margin and their location matches the position of the Cameroon Line in Africa, to which they were adjacent before the opening of the South Atlantic. The Cameroon Line is one of the few and the largest occurrence of Cenozoic volcanism along the African Atlantic passive margin. Volcanic activity in the two conjugate margins postdate continental separation by 10s of millions of years. Here, the Brazilian occurrences are compared with one another and with the Cameroon Line using sixteen new 40Ar/39Ar ages obtained for Borborema, which for the first time include Mecejana, major and trace element data and 87Sr/86Sr and 140Nd/139Nd isotopic ratios. Activity in Mecejana dates to the late Eocene to early Oligocene (35.03 ± 0.28 to 30.80 ± 0.22 Ma). Volcanism in the MQVL is synchronous with Mecejana but also continues intermittently to the Miocene (12.39 ± 0.34 Ma), with a peak in the late Oligocene to the early Miocene marked by activity in the local basins. Comparisons with other published ages show that volcanism in the MQVL also continues into the late Miocene and is synchronous with activity in Fernando de Noronha. There are no age progression patterns in the region, and a deep mantle plume is not a suitable model to explain local magmatism. Geochemical results show a compositional continuum in Northeast Brazil, with variability controlled by depth and degrees of partial melting of a stratified sublithospheric source that includes both spinel and garnet lherzolite and extends across both
Machine Learning-Empowered Biometric Methods for Biomedicine Applications

Nowadays, pervasive computing technologies are paving a promising way for advanced smart health applications. However, a key impediment faced by wide deployment of these assistive smart devices, is the increasing privacy and security issue, such as how to protect access to sensitive patient data in the health record. Focusing on this challenge, biometrics are attracting intense attention in terms of effective user identification to enable confidential health applications. In this paper, we take special interest in two bio-potential-based biometric modalities, electrocardiogram (ECG) and electroencephalogram (EEG), considering that they are both unique to individuals, and more reliable than token (identity card) and knowledge-based (username/password) methods. After extracting effective features in multiple domains from ECG/EEG signals, several advanced machine learning algorithms are introduced to perform the user identification task, including Neural Network, K-nearest Neighbor, Bagging, Random Forest and AdaBoost. Experimental results on two public ECG and EEG datasets show that ECG is a more robust biometric modality compared to EEG, leveraging a higher signal to noise ratio and also more distinguishable morphological patterns. Among different machine learning classifiers, the random forest greatly outperforms the others and owns an identification rate as high as 98%. This study is expected to demonstrate that properly selected biometric empowered by an effective machine learner owns a great potential, to enable confidential biomedicine applications in the era of smart digital health.
Analysis of the chemical and microstructural modifications effects on the hydro-mechanical behaviour of a lime-treated clay

ABSTRACT The paper presents the results of a characterization of kinetic characteristics of pozzolanic reaction with the aim to investigate the time-dependent modification of clay properties as a consequence of mixing with lime. Results of chemical analyses are in agreement with the increase of mechanical properties and with the observed microstructure modifications up to one year of curing time. The rate of development of pozzolanic reactions seems to be almost constant while the time required for their completion is dependent on the lime content. Pozzolanic products are responsible for the time reduction of swelling strain upon saturation as well as for the increases of yielding stress, stiffness and hydraulic conductivity. However, the data analysis proves that a significant component of settlement measured during loading may be induced by the secondary compression process (creep). These results are significant for the prediction of the long-term behaviour of the stabilized soil.
Performance of a Hydraulically Linked and Physically Decoupled Stormwater Control Measure (SCM) System with Potentially Heterogeneous Native Soil

This study shows that a physically decoupled but hydraulically linked design focusing on surface infiltration components (i.e., excluding underdrain and infiltration bed systems) can be the preferred way to have a low-cost and robust stormwater control measure (SCM) system. The SCM under investigation in Philadelphia, PA, is a green infrastructure (GI) and has a mirrored design of two sets of hydraulically linked planters. Each planter has an overflow pipe connected to an underground infiltration bed. The system showed excellent overall performance as no overflow/bypass entering the combined sewer. A large variation of saturated hydraulic conductivity was found for the planter soil, and the planter with lower saturated hydraulic conductivity created surface runoff that overflows to the next planter in line. Due to the linked design, the unexpected deviation of performance of a single planter did not affect overall system performance. The infiltration bed showed great variation in water drawdown rate at different water depth, which could be caused by the possible high heterogeneity of the native soil. The study argued that overflow systems, which handled only about 18% of runoff in this study, can be replaced by slightly larger surface area for lower building cost, lower maintenance cost, and more reliable performance.
ARE FRESH UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS IN A PUBLIC UNIVERSITY FREE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEMS: A PROPOSED STUDY OF DEPRESSION, ANXIETY, STRESS AND THEIR COPING MECHANISMS.

ABSTRACT Background : Depression, stress and anxiety are the most reported and studied form of mental illnesses. The burden of these psychological disorders seems to be on the increase among adolescents and young adults in Malaysia. Mental illness may or may not exhibit signs or symptoms at early stages of onset. Apart from the conspicuous nature of symptoms, the lack of awareness regarding the illness and lack of coping mechanisms worsen the problem. Materials and Method : A cross sectional study design will be used to determine the prevalence of depression, stress and anxiety and its associated factors among 675 participants selected faculties that offer undergraduate programs in Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM). The Depression, Stress and Anxiety (DASS-21) scale will be used to determine the prevalence of psychological problems (depression, stress and anxiety), the Brief COPE Inventory will be used to assess coping strategy; and the revised Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment (IPPA) will be used to determine attachment of the undergraduates to their father, mother and peers. Independent sample t-test and multivariate analysis with MANCOVA will be used to compare linear combination of the dependent variables (depression, stress and anxiety) with the independent categorical variables while controlling for covariates (Brief COPE and IPPA scores) which reduces error terms. Chi-square analyses for determining the association between variables, logistic regression model will be applied to indicate factors that significantly contribute towards stress, anxiety and depression. A multiple linear regression to analyse and “obtain independent effect” of independent variables on the dependent variables. Conclusion :The findings in this study would help in determining the prevalence of psychological problems (depression, stress and anxiety) among undergraduate students. Through early detection of symptoms, respondents would be able to seek assistance which would help prevent and minimize the exert effect of mental, emotional and physical Keywords: Depression, Stress, Anxiety, Coping Mechanism.
Assessment of rock glaciers and permafrost distribution in Uttarakhand, India

We have compiled an inventory of 1004 rock glaciers for Uttarakhand State, India, using high‐resolution satellite data freely available on Google Earth. The inventory is used to analyze the origin, spatial distribution, geometry and dynamics of rock glaciers using a combination of optical remote sensing techniques with a geographic information system (GIS). Results show that development of rock glaciers in this region depends strongly on high elevation (> 4000 m a.s.l.) and slope aspect. Rock glaciers are more dominant towards the southern quadrant (S, SE, SW) than the northern quadrant (N, NE, NW). A large number (n = 608) of small (<0.5 km2) rock glaciers originating from glacial moraine indicates glacial retreat in this region as one of the major causes for the formation of such a large number of rock glaciers. Median elevation of intact rock glaciers indicates that climatic conditions above 4600 m a.s. l. are suitable for the existence of permafrost in this region and that the lower limit of discontinuous permafrost gradually increases from west to east. Despite mean annual air temperatures below 0°C, increasing mean temperatures during warmest quarter of the year could be a strong controlling factor for permafrost thawing in the region. Logistic regression modeling using WorldClim version 2 climate data sets and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) land surface temperature (LST) data show that these models can produce fairly reliable estimates of permafrost probability in the studied area. MODIS LST climate data sets can be crucial for mapping and monitoring permafrost in the region.
The Seismically Active Lobate Scarps and Coseismic Lunar Boulder Avalanches Triggered by 3 January 1975 (MW 4.1) Shallow Moonquake

On 3 January 1975, the largest shallow moonquake (MW 4.1) occurred at Laue impact crater on the Moon. The fault responsible for the moonquake and origins of coseismic boulder avalanches are unknown. Our study reveals a set of previously unreported, seismically active, young lobate scarps near the epicenter. In addition, hundreds of boulder falls are observed on the interior walls of two impact craters on either side of the lobate scarps. The varying preservation levels and crater size‐frequency distributions of impact craters superimposed on the boulder falls indicate their episodic origins at 1.6 Ma and during the 1975 shallow moonquake. Our ground motion simulations confirm that the MW 4.1 moonquake along the lobate scarp at 1‐ to 5‐km focal depths produced strong ground shaking that triggered the boulder avalanches. Also, the fault slip along the Lorentz basin wall beneath the Laue crater floor produced the lobate scarps and the shallow moonquakes.
Neural Network Based Protection of Software Defined Network Controller against Distributed Denial of Service Attacks

Software Defined Network (SDN) is a new architecture for network management and its main concept is centralizing network management in the network control level that has an overview of the network and determines the forwarding rules for switches and routers (the data level). Although this centralized control is the main advantage of SDN, it is also a single point of failure. If this main control is made unreachable for any reason, the architecture of the network is crashed. A distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack is a threat for the SDN controller which can make it unreachable. In the previous researches in DDoS detection in SDN, not enough work has been done on improvement of accuracy in detection. The proposed solution of this research can detect DDoS attack on SDN controller with a noticeable accuracy and prevents serious damage to the controller. For this purpose, fast entropy of each flow is computed at certain time intervals. Then, by the use of adaptive threshold, the possibility of a DDoS attack is investigated. In order to achieve more accuracy, another method, computing flow initiation rate, is used alongside. After observation of the results of this two methods, according to the described conditions, the existence of an attack is confirmed or rejected, or this decision is made at the next step of the algorithm, with further study of flow statistics of network switches by the perceptron neural network. The evaluation results show that the proposed algorithm has been able to make a significant improvement in detection rate and a reduction in false alarm rate compared to closest previous work, besides maintaining the average detection time on an acceptable level.
Mathematical analysis of finite volume schemes for the simulation of quasi-geostrophic flows at low Froude number

The shallow water system plays an important role in the numerical simulation of oceanic models, coastal flows and dam-break floods. Several kinds of source terms can be taken into account in this model, such as the influence of bottom topography, Manning friction effects and Coriolis force. For large scale oceanic phenomena, the Coriolis force due to the Earth's rotation plays a central role since the atmospheric or oceanic circulations are frequently observed around the so-called geostrophic equilibrium which corresponds to the balance between the pressure gradient and the Coriolis source term. The ability of numerical schemes to well capture thelake at rest, has been widely studied. However, the geostrophic equilibrium issue, including the divergence free constraint on the velocity, is much more complex and only few works have been devoted to its preservation. In this manuscript, we design finite volume schemes that preserve the discrete geostrophic equilibrium in order to improve significantly the accuracy of numerical simulations of perturbations around this equilibrium. We first develop collocated and staggered schemes on rectangular and triangular meshes for a linearized model of the original shallow water system. The crucial common point of the various methods is to adapt and combine several strategies known as the Apparent Topography, the Low Mach and the Divergence Penalisation methods, in order to handle correctly the numerical diffusions involved in the schemes on different cell geometries, so that they do not destroy geostrophic equilibria. Finally, we extend these strategies to the non-linear case and show convincing numerical results.
Seasonal variations of snowpack temperature and thermal conductivity of snow in the vicinity of Vostok station, Antarctica

The data on snow the temperature which was monitored to a depth of 10 m in the vicinity of Vostok Station by the TAUTO autonomous system in 2010–2017 are presented. By analyzing seasonal temperature variations at different depth with the aid of a heat-transfer model we have inferred a relationship between relative thermal conductivity of snow and its porosity at this site. The same approach was also applied to analyze similar data obtained at Dome Fuji station in 1995–1997. It was found that the thermal conductivity of snow layers with identical density is noticeably lower at Dome Fuji than at Vostok, which point to a difference in structural characteristics of snow that determine its thermophysical properties. We demonstrate that the conduction is the dominant heat-transport mechanism which controls the temperature distribution in snow pack on the Antarctic plateau. The obtained parameters of the heat-transfer model can be used for reconstructing the past surface temperature variations from the long-term temperature measurements in the upper 100 m thick layer of the ice sheet.
Soil carbon release responses to long-term versus short-term climatic warming in an arid ecosystem

Abstract. Climate change severely impacts the grassland carbon cycling by altering rates of litter decomposition and soil respiration (Rs), especially in arid areas. However, little is known about the Rs responses to different warming magnitudes and watering pulses in situ in desert steppes. To examine their effects on Rs, we conducted long-term moderate warming (4 years, ∼3 ∘C), short-term acute warming (1 year, ∼4 ∘C) and watering field experiments in a desert grassland of northern China. While experimental warming significantly reduced average Rs by 32.5 % and 40.8 % under long-term moderate and short-term acute warming regimes, respectively, watering pulses (fully irrigating the soil to field capacity) stimulated it substantially. This indicates that climatic warming constrains soil carbon release, which is controlled mainly by decreased soil moisture, consequently influencing soil carbon dynamics. Warming did not change the exponential relationship between Rs and soil temperature, whereas the relationship between Rs and soil moisture was better fitted to a sigmoid function. The belowground biomass, soil nutrition, and microbial biomass were not significantly affected by either long-term or short-term warming regimes, respectively. The results of this study highlight the great dependence of soil carbon emission on warming regimes of different durations and the important role of precipitation pulses during the growing season in assessing the terrestrial ecosystem carbon balance and cycle.
CONTRIBUTION TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE CADDISFLY FAUNA OF MONTENEGRO – NEW DATA AND RECORDS FROM THE KARSTIC SPRINGS OF LAKE SKADAR BASIN

Caddisfly larvae were collected in 11 karstic springs located in Lake Skadar drainage basin in the Mediterranean part of Montenegro on May and June 2018. Three species are new records for the caddisfly fauna of Montenegro: Brachycentrus subnubilus, Lepidostoma hirtum, Triaenodes ochreellus lefkas. One is a confirmed record of a previously thought absent species Thremma anomalum. Future caddisfly surveys in the region will contribute significantly to the partially known Trichoptera fauna of Montenegro.
Fault Slip and Exhumation History of the Willard Thrust Sheet, Sevier Fold‐Thrust Belt, Utah: Relations to Wedge Propagation, Hinterland Uplift, and Foreland Basin Sedimentation

Zircon (U‐Th)/He (ZHe) and zircon fission track thermochronometric data for 47 samples spanning the areally extensive Willard thrust sheet within the western part of the Sevier fold‐thrust belt record enhanced cooling and exhumation during major thrust slip spanning approximately 125–90 Ma. ZHe and zircon fission track age‐paleodepth patterns along structural transects and age‐distance relations along stratigraphic‐parallel traverses, combined with thermo‐kinematic modeling, constrain the fault slip history, with estimated slip rates of ~1 km/Myr from 125 to 105 Ma, increasing to ~3 km/Myr from 105 to 92 Ma, and then decreasing as major slip was transferred onto eastern thrusts. Exhumation was concentrated during motion up thrust ramps with estimated erosion rates of ~0.1 to 0.3 km/Myr. Local cooling ages of approximately 160–150 Ma may record a period of regional erosion, or alternatively an early phase of limited (<10 km) thrust slip. Propagation of the Sevier wedge front and major thrust slip during the late Early to mid‐Cretaceous were synchronous with increasing subsidence and deposition of thick synorogenic strata in the foreland, crustal thickening in the hinterland, growing igneous activity in the Sierran magmatic arc, and increasing plate convergence rates. Along‐strike, other parts of the Cordilleran retroarc fold‐thrust belt also experienced major shortening during the late Early to mid‐Cretaceous, following a period of earlier Cretaceous quiescence. Late Jurassic shortening was concentrated nearer the arc, and thus mostly in the hinterland at the latitude of northern Utah, related to width and location of the passive‐margin sedimentary wedge relative to the plate margin.