Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dynamic Stress Triggering during the Great 25 March 1998 Antarctic Plate Earthquake

We investigate the coseismic stress redistribution during the 25 March 1998 great Antarctic plate (MW 8.1) earthquake, in which the mainshock consisted of two distinct subevents separated in time by several tens of seconds. We compute the dynamic stress time histories for the fault geometry and the rupture and slip history determined by Henry et al. (2000), using the discrete wavenumber and re- flectivity method of Cotton and Coutant (1997), both for a homogeneous and a strat- ified half-space. We first image the coseismic stress evolution caused by the first subevent on the fault plane of the second one for both the velocity models. We compute both shear and normal stress changes and a time-dependent Coulomb failure function (CFF). Our results show that the shear stress changes have larger amplitudes than the other stress components and hence are the primary control on the evolution of the CFF. The dynamic stress amplitudes are larger than the static stress pertur- bations, with the largest positive dynamic stress peak on the second subevent fault plane reaching slightly less than 0.2 MPa at 60 sec and 65 sec after the nucleation, for the layered and the homogeneous crustal models, respectively. We suggest that the dynamic stress changes caused by the first subevent promoted a nearly instan- taneous failure on the second subevent fault.
Threshold values for sulphur in soils of the main maize-producing areas of South Africa

Fertilizers introduced to South Africa after World War 2 contained sufficient sulphur (S) to satisfy the demands of all crops. However, dramatic shifts to high-analysis NPK fertilizers containing little or no S and restriction on sulphur dioxide emissions by industries lowered the coincidental input of S. At the same time continuous crop- ping and higher-yielding cultivars removed more S which led to low S levels in cultivated soils. The aim of this study was to determine the threshold value for S and to evaluate the S-levels in soils of the main maize-growing areas of South Africa. In order to determine the critical sulphur content in these soils, field trials were carried out at ten localities during four consecutive seasons. The treatments were full fertilization as reference, with the comparative treatment being where S was omitted. Relative yields were calculated as the yield of the (-S) plot expressed as a percentage of the yield of the plot (in the same replicate) which received all the nutrients including S. Composite soil samples were taken and S was extracted with monocalcium phosphate which includes SO4 and some mineralizable organic S. The results indicate that maize will respond to S fertilization when the S value is lower than the threshold value of 9 mg S kg-1 in the topsoil. A survey of soil samples submitted by farmers highlighted the importance of supplementing S in the main maize-growing areas of South Africa.
Essential oil from the stems of Croton kongensis Gagnep.: chemical composition, antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory activities

Abstract The current study describes the chemical compositions, antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory activities of the essential oil (EO) from the stems of Croton kongensis Gagnep. , collected from two wild-growing populations in Thanh Hoa province, Vietnam, namely Nhu Xuan and Thuong Xuan. According to gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) analyses, the major components in the Nhu Xuan EO sample were (E)-caryophyllene (10.62%), bornyl acetate (9.81%), (E)-nerolidol (9.15%), and linalool (8.10%). In contrast, linalool (15.05%), bornyl acetate (9.52%), (E)-caryophyllene (7.91%), bicyclogermacrene (7.36%), 1,8-cineole (6.53%), and (E)-nerolidol (6.00%) were the dominant components in the Thuong Xuan EO sample. The two EO samples were screened for antimicrobial activity against a panel of pathogenic bacteria and fungi using a broth microdilution assay and showed promising antimicrobial activities with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) ≤ 200 μg/mL. Among them, the Nhu Xuan EO sample exhibited better activity against four bacteria and three fungi compared to the Thuong Xuan EO sample, which only showed activity against one bacterium and three fungi. Additionally, the anti-inflammatory study demonstrated that the EO samples from Nhu Xuan and Thuong Xuan inhibited nitric oxide production in lipopolysaccharide-stimulated RAW 264.7 macrophage cells, with IC50 values of 105.71 ± 0.96 μg/mL and 94.93 ± 1.31 μg/mL, respectively. In conclusion, this is the first report describing the antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory effects of the EO from C. kongensis stems. Our results suggest that the EO from C. kongensis stems in both regions could be potentially utilized as new natural antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory ingredients in the medicine and food industries.
REPORT OF AN ENCOUNTER WITH A HUMAN-INTENTIONALLY-ENTANGLED AMAZON RIVER DOLPHIN ( Inia geoffrensis ) CALF AND ITS RELEASE IN TEFÉ RIVER, AMAZONAS STATE, BRAZIL

The Amazon river dolphin or boto ( Inia geoffrensis ) interacts with human fishing activities throughout its range in South America, which causes local communities to have negative reactions to the species’ presence. Here we report the encounter with a human-intentionally-entangled boto calf with a plastic bottle in Tefe river, and its successful release. At least another similar case occurred in 2009 at the nearby Mamiraua Sustainable Development Reserve, which suggests boto calves may be an easy target for human agonistic behavior towards the species. Educational programs at riverside and native communities should be implemented in order to ensure the conservation of this dolphin in the Central Amazon.
Impact of Subgrid-Scale Convection on Global Thermohaline Properties and Circulation

Abstract In most ocean general circulation models the simulated global-scale deep-ocean thermohaline properties appear to be chronically colder and fresher than observed. To some extent, this discrepancy has been known to be due to excessive open-ocean deep convection in the Southern Ocean (SO) caused by crude “convective adjustment” parameterizations on scales typically two orders of magnitude larger than the actual convection scale. To suppress the strength of open-ocean convection and to thereby eventually improve the global deep-ocean water properties, the authors first reduced convection in the SO in an ad hoc manner by activating it every 10 days rather than every model time step (20 hours). Second, a more physically based subgrid-scale convection in the SO was introduced by applying the penetrative plume convection scheme of Paluszkiewicz and Romea. With both treatments, SO convection decreased by about 30%, and the globally averaged deep-ocean potential temperature and salinity increased substanti.
U-Pb Geochronology of Archean magmatism and Proterozoic metamorphism in the Quadrilátero Ferrífero, southern São Francisco craton, Brazil

The Quadrilatero Ferrifero is a metallogenic district (Au, Fe, Mn) located in the southernmost Sao Francisco craton in eastern Brazil. It is composed of Archean granitoids, gneisses, and a greenstone belt sequence (Rio das Velhas Supergroup), overlain by a Proterozoic clastic-chemical sedimentary sequence hosting a thick Lake Superior-type banded iron formation (Minas Supergroup). A U-Pb study of the main units leads to the following conclusions: granitoid emplacement was dated at 2776 +7/-6 Ma and 2721 ± 3 Ma; two felsic volcanic rocks from the Rio das Velhas Supergroup yielded ages of 2776 +23/-10 Ma and 2772 ± 6 Ma. These data indicate that greenstone-belt volcanism was coeval with granitoid emplacement, a common feature of greenstone-belt terrains, but so far undocumented in the southern Sao Francisco shield. The younger granitoid intrusion marks the stabilization of the shield in Late Archean time. Zircon cores older than 2776 Ma, together with other data, indicate the presence of continental crust 2.88-3.1 Ga old in the Quadrilatero Ferrifero. A detrital zircon from the uppermost formation in the Minas Supergroup (Sabara Formation) is concordant at 2125 ± 4 Ma and provides the first age constraint on the deposition of the Supergroup. Monazite from two pegmatites and titanite from an amphibolite enclave in gneisses from the Bacao Complex, in central Quadrilatero Ferrifero, yielded ages between 2060 Ma and 2030 Ma. These data may constrain the minimum age for the deposition of the Minas Supergroup. In addition, they indicate that the Early Proterozoic Transamazomian orogeny is represented by amphibolite-facies metamorphism and partial melting of Archean crust.
Perspectives on NO, NOy, and fine aerosol sources and variability during SONEX

Distributions of upper tropospheric tracer data on each of the 14 science flights of SONEX (SASS [Subsonics Assessment] Ozone and Nitrogen Oxides Experiment) provide a statistical overview of NO, NOy and fine aerosol variability during SONEX (an aircraft mission conducted in October and November 1997). The wide range of variability of NO from all sources provides a perspective on the aircraft perturbation. Background distributions of NOy are somewhat elevated inside flight corridors relative to outside; fine aerosol and NO/NOy in and out of corridors are similar. The potential vorticity of air sampled during SONEX is low relative to the NAFC (North Atlantic Flight Corridor) as a whole, due either to advection of lower latitude air into the corridor or biases in sampling to avoid the stratosphere. High NO/NOy (>0.4) from fresh lightning and aircraft sources was usually associated with pv much lower than the NAFC as a whole. Air masses identified as tropospheric by a low ozone criterion nevertheless have high pv, a marker for stratospheric air. Thus, stratospheric and surface sources also contribute to overall variability. A statistically robust assessment of the relative aircraft NO contribution during SONEX, based on data alone, is unlikely, given the mixture of other NO sources within which the aircraft signal is embedded. This underscores the need for more data and modeling studies.
Observations in the northwest corner of the North Atlantic Current

Abstract The North Atlantic Current, a northern branch of the Gulf Stream, flows in a northerly direction to the east of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland and turns sharply to the right north of Flemish Cap in the “Northwest Corner. ” The currents and water masses in and near this turn are described using data from Batfish, satellite-tracked drifters, CTDs, and current meters. Drifter trajectories and water mass properties indicate that the northward current toward the northwest corner is sometimes well defined, narrow, converging, and accelerating. At other times it is poorly defined, weaker, less coherent, and diverging. When it is well defined the current turns sharply eastward between 51° and 52°N but rather than continuing east it forms ∼100-km anticyclonic eddies, which persist for at least 1–2 months. Records from 16 current meters placed on four moorings across the current show the flow direction to be variable in time but nearly constant throughout the water column. Speed is also constant with depth.
The Social Values of Nursing Staff and the Perceived Quality of Their Professional Lives

This study’s main purpose involves exploring the relationship between the social values of nursing staff and the perception they have of their professional lives. A further aim is to examine how their terms of employment and tenure of service relate to the quality of their careers and their social values. The research consisted of a non-experimental quantitative approach of a descriptive nature involving 380 nursing staff at four public hospitals in Madrid (Spain). The values were appraised by means of the Schwarz Value Survey (SVS) and the quality of their careers was measured through the Quality of Professional Life (QPL-35) questionnaire. The results reveal significant correlations between the two, highlighting the significance of such values as universalism, benevolence, achievement and power depending on their terms of employment, on the one hand, and all the values in the Schwartz model according to the length of their tenure on the other. The findings suggest that terms of employment and tenure are significantly related to the axiological profile of nursing staff and the quality of their professional lives. This study provides major empirical evidence that contributes to our understanding of how social values and the quality of professional lives are interwoven within the field of nursing in Spain.
Effects of Mate Value and Mate Value Discrepancy on Perceived Marital Quality: A Dyadic Approach

The main aim of this study was to investigate the effects of mate value assessment and mate value discrepancy on perceived marital quality, using an assessment of personal and partner mate value obtained by both partners. The sample included 442 heterosexual couples that have lived together for at least a year. The Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM) was used to investigate the effects of personal and partner mate value assessment on the evaluation of marital quality. In addition, two interaction effects were added to the model to examine the effect of mate value discrepancy on perceived marital quality. The APIM model showed significant actor and partner effects of the partner's mate value assessment on the evaluation of both husbands' and wives' marital quality. The model also showed a significant effect of personal mate value assessed by wives on husbands' marital quality assessment. However, the current evidence does not confirm the assumption of a possible combination of partners' mate value promoting marital quality above and beyond the contribution of both partners' mate value.
SCARDEC: a new technique for the rapid determination of seismic moment magnitude, focal mechanism and source time functions for large earthquakes using body‐wave deconvolution

Accurate and fast magnitude determination for large, shallow earthquakes is of key importance for post-seismic response and tsumami alert purposes. When no local real-time data are available, which is today the case for most subduction earthquakes, the first information comes from teleseismic body waves. Standard body-wave methods give accurate magnitudes for earthquakes up to Mw= 7–7.5. For larger earthquakes, the analysis is more complex, because of the non-validity of the point-source approximation and of the interaction between direct and surface-reflected phases. The latter effect acts as a strong high-pass filter, which complicates the magnitude determination. We here propose an automated deconvolutive approach, which does not impose any simplifying assumptions about the rupture process, thus being well adapted to large earthquakes. We first determine the source duration based on the length of the high frequency (1–3 Hz) signal content. The deconvolution of synthetic double-couple point source signals—depending on the four earthquake parameters strike, dip, rake and depth—from the windowed real data body-wave signals (including P, PcP, PP, SH and ScS waves) gives the apparent source time function (STF). We search the optimal combination of these four parameters that respects the physical features of any STF: causality, positivity and stability of the seismic moment at all stations. Once this combination is retrieved, the integration of the STFs gives directly the moment magnitude. We apply this new approach, referred as the SCARDEC method, to most of the major subduction earthquakes in the period 1990–2010. Magnitude differences between the Global Centroid Moment Tensor (CMT) and the SCARDEC method may reach 0.2, but values are found consistent if we take into account that the Global CMT solutions for large, shallow earthquakes suffer from a known trade-off between dip and seismic moment. We show by modelling long-period surface waves of these events that the source parameters retrieved using the SCARDEC method explain the observed surface waves as well as the Global CMT parameters, thus confirming the existing trade-off. For some well-instrumented earthquakes, our results are also supported by independent studies based on local geodetic or strong motion data. This study is mainly focused on moment determination. However, the SCARDEC method also informs us about the focal mechanism and source depth, and can be a starting point to study systematically the complexity of the STF.
Stress diffusion following large strike-slip earthquakes: a comparison between spherical and flat-earth models

SUMMARY A comparison is performed between predictions of coseismic and post-seismic deformations, based on two diVerent earth models. The main purpose of this work is to clarify in a rigorous manner the role of sphericity in the assessment of both residual deformations and large-scale post-seismic motions. The two models considered in this study are commonly employed for predictions of post-seismic deformations. They exhibit the common feature of a layered viscoelastic structure but diVer in their global geometrical features, the first being characterized by a flat-earth approximation and the second by a spherical geometry. The purpose of this study is twofold. First, we wish to assess the influence of sphericity in predictions of post-seismic deformations, especially in the far field of major earthquakes. Second, we wish to elucidate the potential role of stress migration in earthquake triggering over great distances.
Prognostic Relevance of Tumor-Infiltrating Immune Cells in Cervix Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Simple Summary Although tumor immune infiltration has been analyzed in a variety of tumor entities, it has never been investigated in cervical cancer in relation to histological subtypes and prognosis. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the prognostic impact of tumor immune infiltration in a panel of 238 sporadic cervical cancer cases by quantifying the levels of tumor-infiltrating immune cells (TIICs) and correlate them with the histological subtype and with patient survival. The level of TIIC was significantly enhanced in cervix squamous cell carcinomas (CSCC) versus cervix adenocarcinomas (CAC) and represented an independent positive prognosticator for disease-free survival (DFS) in patients with CSCC. Abstract There exists a variety of studies about tumor-infiltrating immune cells (TIICs) in cervical cancer, but their prognostic value in correlation with the histopathological subtype has never been investigated. Therefore, the aim of this study was to quantify TIICs in a panel of 238 sporadic cervical cancers and investigate the correlation with cervical cancer subtype and patient survival. TIICs levels were significantly increased in the subgroup of CSCC (191 samples) in comparison to CAC (47 samples). In CSCC, TIICs’ infiltration showed a negative correlation with age, FIGO stage and with the histone protein modification H3K4me3. Moreover, in CAC, it was positively correlated with p16 and with the glucocorticoid receptor and inversely correlated with the MDM2 protein and with H3K4me3. Interestingly, immune infiltration was an independent positive prognosticator for disease-free survival (DFS) in patients with CSCC, those bearing tumors with the strongest TIICs infiltration showing the better DFS. Altogether, the present study provides a differentiated overview of the relations between TIIC levels and prognosis in patients with CSCC vs. patients with CAC.
Record-breaking persistence of the 2022/23 marine heatwave in the Mediterranean Sea

Since May 2022, the Mediterranean Sea has been experiencing an exceptionally long marine heatwave event. Warm anomalies, mainly occurring in the Western basin, have persisted until boreal spring 2023, making this event the longest Mediterranean marine heat wave of the last four decades. In this work, the 2022/2023 anomaly is characterized, using in-situ and satellite measurements, together with state of the art reanalysis products. The role of atmospheric forcing is also investigated; the onset and growth of sea surface temperature anomalies is found to be related to the prevalence of anticyclonic conditions in the atmosphere, which have also caused severe droughts in the Mediterranean region over the same period. Analysis of in-situ observations from the Lampedusa station and of ocean reanalyzes reveals that wind-driven vertical mixing led to the penetration of the warm anomalies below the sea surface, where they have persisted for several months, particularly in the central part of the basin. The evolution of the 2022/23 event is compared with the severe 2003 event, to put recent conditions in the context of climate change.
Development of a Real-Time PCR Assay for the Detection of the Phlebovirus Fermo Virus

Fermo virus is a Phlebovirus that is increasingly reported in sand flies from northern Italy. The natural cycle is not fully understood, but the virus has been detected by direct methods only in sand flies. Although there is serological evidence that it can infect vertebrates, the virus has not been directly detected in animals or humans. Here, we have developed and reported a specific real-time PCR for Fermo virus. The availability of the described method will be useful to characterize the epidemiology of the FERV, ensuring, compared to previously available protocols, a more sensitive detection in insects and the possible detection in vertebrates to evaluate the presence of reservoirs and the pathogenic potential of the virus in humans or animals.
Source parameters of the 1933 Long Beach earthquake

Regional seismographic network and teleseismic data for the 1933 (M_L = 6.3) Long Beach earthquake sequence have been analyzed. Both the teleseismic focal mechanism of the main shock and the distribution of the aftershocks are consistent with the event having occurred on the Newport-Inglewood fault. The focal mechanism had a strike of 315°, dip of 80° to the northeast, and rake of −170°. Relocation of the foreshock-main shock-aftershock sequence using modern events as fixed reference events, shows that the rupture initiated near the Huntington Beach-Newport Beach City boundary and extended unilaterally to the northwest to a distance of 13 to 16 km. The centroidal depth was 10 ± 2 km. The total source duration was 5 sec, and the seismic moment was 5 * 10^(25) dyne-cm, which corresponds to an energy magnitude of M_W = 6.4. The source radius is estimated to have been 6.6 to 7.9 km, which corresponds to a Brune stress drop of 44 to 76 bars. Both the spatial distribution of aftershocks and inversion for the source time function suggest that the earthquake may have consisted of at least two subevents. When the slip estimate from the seismic moment of 85 to 120 cm is compared with the long-term geological slip rate of 0.1 to 1.0 mm/yr along the Newport-Inglewood fault, the 1933 earthquake has a repeat time on the order of a few thousand years.