Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Soil Survey Interpretation—Theory and Purpose1

Soil survey interpretation comprises the organization and presentation of knowledge about characteristics, qualities, and behavior of soils as they are classified and outlined on maps. This knowledge should be organized and presented in ways that will help people to make more intelligent decisions in their uses of soils. Agricultural users should be helped to make proper choices from available alternatives in use and management of soils for plant production. Engineering users should be helped to make choices among possible designs for subgrades, types of foundations, and the like. Hydrologists should be able to estimate runoff and water yields more accurately. Soil survey interpretations should help these and other users to make full and effective application of the knowledge available about soils.
Statistical Downscaling Forecasts for Winter Monsoon Precipitation in Malaysia Using Multimodel Output Variables

Abstract This paper compares the skills of four different forecasting approaches in predicting the 1-month lead time of the Malaysian winter season precipitation. Two of the approaches are based on statistical downscaling techniques of multimodel ensembles (MME). The third one is the ensemble of raw GCM forecast without any downscaling, whereas the fourth approach, which provides a baseline comparison, is a purely statistical forecast based solely on the preceding sea surface temperature anomaly. The first multimodel statistical downscaling method was developed by the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Climate Center (APCC) team, whereas the second is based on the canonical correlation analysis (CCA) technique using the same predictor variables. For the multimodel downscaling ensemble, eight variables from seven operational GCMs are used as predictors with the hindcast forecast data spanning a period of 21 yr from 1983/84 to 2003/04. The raw GCM forecast ensemble tends to have higher skills than the.
A note on the individuality of the intake of drinking water by dairy cows

The individual water intakes of 16 (four groups of four) lactating dairy cows, measured on 7 consecutive days, were significantly correlated with dry-matter (DM) intakes (range 4·6 to 14·4 kg/day) and milk yields (range 13·7 to 30·0 kg/day). There was no significant correlation with DM content of the feed (range 833 to 898 g/kg), body weight (range 400 to 620 kg) or mean air temperature (range 7·0 to 20·0°C). Applying a multiple regression analysis to the data, the following relationship was obtained: water intake (kg/day) = 2·15 (± 0·415) × DM intake (kg/day)+0·73 (± 0·197) × milk yield (kg/day) + 12·3 (+ 5·57). After adjusting the data for variations in DM intake and milk yield there was no significant difference between the mean daily water intakes of individual cows. There was, however, a significant day-to-day variation in the mean water intakes of the groups of four cows ( P
Driver Response to Parking Guidance and Information Systems in Nanjing

Parking Guidance and Information (PGI) Systems provide drivers with dynamic information on parking within controlled areas which combine traffic monitoring, communication, processing and dissemination technologies to provide the service. This paper employs questionnaires to investigate the impact of the Parking Guidance and Information (PGI) Systems on drivers in Nanjing. Three logistic regression models were developed to relate drivers’ awareness, understanding and response to person, trip and information characteristics. We can find out that the response is strongly related to age, trip purpose, familiarity and evaluation of the effectiveness of the PGI systems. In the studies that which factor is the most important of drivers to select park and which park information is the most requested of drivers, most respondents take into account the convenience of park rather than the parking fees and state their preference for park information about availability of parks, location of parks, how to find available parks and location of alternative parks when preferred is not available, but few drivers request price of parks, road congestion and regional map. This requires that PGI systems should cater for drivers’ personalities, trip as well as park behavior characteristics.
Multiple controls on rift basin sedimentation in volcanic settings: Insights from the anatomy of a small Early Cretaceous basin in the Yanshan belt, northern North China

This paper deals with a small continental rift basin in a volcanic setting and tries to decipher potential controls on its synrift sedimentation. The Luanping basin, which is a well-exposed Early Cretaceous rift basin in the Yanshan belt on the northern periphery of the North China block, was chosen as a case study. We show that extensive and vigorous volcanism took place just prior to the onset of basin formation and continued into a synrift period. Basin fills consist predominantly of lacustrine, fan-delta, braid-delta, and volcaniclastic deposits. Lacustrine facies are composed mostly of deep-lake deposits that appear to have been established soon after basin initiation. Fan-delta systems developed along two high-angle border faults, the master northern Hongqi fault and the secondary western Xiaobaiqi fault. Fan-delta fronts were built up primarily by gravelly and sandy debrites and turbidites. Braid-delta deposits are restricted to the eastern corner of the basin and are characterized by an aggregation of braid-plain conglomeratic deposits. Underwater extrusions of magma and pyroclastic flows are inferred from the presence of volcanic breccias, ignimbrites, andesitic pillows, and peperites, which are enclosed by host lacustrine deposits. Deep-lake and fan-delta systems persisted throughout the synrift period, indicating a rapid subsidence rate, with both adequate sediment and water supply. The high-angle border faults are thought to have played a critical role in creating large accommodation space, and simultaneous displacements of the Hongqi and Xiaobaiqi faults led to the localization of a major depocenter in the western part of the basin. One-dimensional backstripping analysis of three stratigraphic sections shows that the Luanping basin experienced marked synrift tectonic subsidence up to 2 km at a subsidence rate close to 0.2 mm yr −1 . We propose that the high rate of basin subsidence might have been caused mainly by left-lateral transtensional faulting and was enhanced by the superposition of basement downsag induced by underlying magma withdrawal. A predominance of volcanic particles in both debrites and sandstones suggests that source areas were erodible volcanic edifices. A humid paleoclimate is inferred, which not only provided enough water supply, but also promoted weathering of volcanic rocks in source areas, thus maintaining both the deep-lake environment and sediment influx. We conclude that relatively small and isolated rift basins in volcanic settings can experience both rapid subsidence and receive thick lacustrine deposits if they are under the combined control of favorable structure, climate, and magmatism. The model proposed here is believed to be applicable to other rift basins in similar volcano-tectonic settings.
Validation of ECMWF (re)analysis surface climate data, 1979–1998, for Greenland and implications for mass balance modelling of the ice sheet

Climate (re)analysis products are potentially valuable tools, when properly verified, for helping to constrain the surface mass balance of the Greenland Ice Sheet (GIS). Monthly surface fields from European Centre for Medium‐Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) operational‐ and re‐analyses spanning 1979–1998 were validated using in situ data (surface air pressure and temperature, precipitation, cloud cover, short‐/all‐wave radiation, and wind speed/direction). These validation data are from coastal or near‐coastal Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI) synoptic stations, inland Greenland Climate Network (GC‐Net) and University of Wisconsin Automatic Weather Stations (AWSs), and two energy balance stations near the southern ice margin. The ECMWF analyses closely reproduce the seasonal patterns and interannual variations of much of the in situ data. Differences in the mean values of surface air pressure and temperature can mainly be ascribed to orography errors in the analyses' schemes, compared with the latest available accurate digital elevation model. Much of the GIS margin as modelled by ECMWF was too cold, on average by 4°C, and ECMWF precipitation averaged some 136% of the DMI station values. The misrepresentation of the (relatively) steep ice‐sheet margin, which tends to be broadened and systematically over‐elevated by several hundred metres, orographically reduced temperature and enhanced precipitation there in the ECMWF models. The cloud‐cover comparison revealed not dissimilar annual mean cloud covers (ECMWF −8%) but the ECMWF analyses had too little cloud and were too ‘sunny’ during the critical summer melt‐season. ECMWF‐modelled surface albedo in summer was ∼11% lower than GC‐Net values, which was mainly responsible for the disagreement of modelled surface short‐wave radiation fluxes with observations. Model albedo and cloud errors need to be rectified if the analyses are to be used effectively to drive energy balance models of Greenland snowmelt. ECMWF wind speed averaged 66% (62%) of the DMI station (AWS) values. The validation results provide useful insights into how one can best improve the ECMWF Greenland climate data for use in glaciological and climatological studies. Copyright © 2001 Royal Meteorological Society
Critical point and onset of deconfinement

Since it started in 2005, the subfield of studying quantum chromodynamics (QCD) phase structure has developed very rapidly. This is partly because the discovery of the strongly interacting quark-gluon plasma (sQGP), at the vanishing net-baryon densities, at RHIC and LHC and partly due to the successful of the RHIC beam energy scan program. During November 7–11, 2011, the 7th International Workshop on Critical Point and Onset of Deconfinement (CPOD2011) was held at the College of Physical Science and Technology, Central China Normal University. More than two hundred participants attend this workshop and about eighty of them are graduate students or fresh postdocs. The focus of the workshop was the phase structure of the QCD matter. Recent progresses on experimental results of energy dependence of particle production, correlations and fluctuations, and on theoretical results from the Lattice QCD calculations and other other QCD model results were presented at the workshop. As the result of the discussion, this special issue of the Central European Journal of Physics collects more than forty papers focusing on the progress in the research of QCD
Scales of Variability in the Equatorial Pacific Inferred form Tropical Atmosphere-Ocean Buoy Array

Abstract The highly temporally resolved time series from the Tropical Atmosphere-Ocean moored buoy array are used to evaluate the scales of thermal variability in the upper equatorial Pacific. The TAO array consists of nearly 70 deep-ocean moorings arranged nominally 15° longitude and 2°–3° latitude apart across the equatorial Pacific. The bulk of the data from the array consists of daily averages telemetered in real time, with some records up to 15 years long. However, at several sites more finely resolved data exist, in some cases with resolution of 1 minute. These data form the basis for spectral decomposition spanning virtually all scales of variability from the Brunt-Vaiala frequency to the El Nino-Southern Oscillation timescale. The spectra are used to define the signal to noise ratio as a function of sample rate and frequency, and to investigate the effects of aliasing that results from sparser sampling, such as ship-based observational techniques. The results show that the signal to noise ratio is.
Examination of evaporative fraction diurnal behaviour using a soil-vegetation model coupled with a mixed-layer model

In many experimental conditions, the evaporative fraction, defined as the ratio between evaporation and available energy, has been found stable during daylight hours. This constancy is investigated over fully covering vegetation by means of a land surface scheme coupled with a mixed-layer model, which accounts for entrainment of overlying air. The evaporation rate follows the Penman-Monteith equation and the surface resistance is given by a Jarvis type parameterization involving solar radiation, saturation deficit and leaf water potential. The diurnal course of the evaporative fraction is examined, together with the influence of environmental factors (soil water availability, solar radiation input, wind velocity, saturation deficit above the well-mixed layer). In conditions of fair weather, the curves representing the diurnal course of the evaporative fraction have a typical concave-up shape. Around midday (solar time) these curves appear as relatively constant, but always lower that the daytime mean value. Evaporative fraction decreases when soil water decreases or when solar energy increases. An increment of saturation deficit above the mixed-layer provokes only a slight increase of evaporative fraction, and wind velocity has almost no effect. The possibility of estimation daytime evaporation from daytime available energy multiplied by the evaporative fraction at a single time of the day is also investigated. It appears that it is possible to obtain fairly good estimates of daytime evaporation by choosing adequately the time of the measurement of the evaporative fraction. The central hours of the day, and preferably about 3 hr before or after noon, are the most appropriate to provide good estimates. The estimation appears also to be much better when soil water availability (or evaporation) is high than when it is low.
Mesoscale Cyclone Activity over the Ice-Free Southern Ocean: 1999–2008

Abstract Mesoscale cyclones play an important role in the weather and climate of the Southern Hemisphere (SH) mid-to-high latitudes. However, the relatively small size and short lifetime of these systems, combined with the lack of available conventional data in this region, means that there is a poor understanding of their climatological characteristics. In this study, the University of Melbourne cyclone-finding algorithm was applied to relatively high-resolution scatterometer-derived surface pressure fields, obtained from the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Washington, to produce a decade-long (1999–2008) seasonal climatology of mesoscale cyclone activity over the ice-free regions of the Southern Ocean. The frequency of mesoscale cyclone activity was found to be highest just to the north of the sea ice zone, reaching a maximum over the Amundsen and Bellingshausen Seas (ABS), while the southern Indian Ocean was associated with systems of the largest depth, intensity, and momentum f.
MODIS thermal emissive band detector bias

Two nearly identical MODIS instruments are currently operating in space: one on the Terra spacecraft launched in December 1999 and another on the Aqua spacecraft launched in May 2002. MODIS has a total of 36 spectral bands, 16 of which are the Thermal Emissive Bands (TEB) with wavelengths covering from 3. 7μm to 14. 4μm. Each TEB has 10 detectors aligned in the along-track direction with a spatial resolution of 1km. The 10 detectors view the Earth each scan over a 2330km wide swath. The curvature of the Earth creates a bowtie effect with each scan. At large scan angles consecutive scans will have several detectors with overlapping fields of view. This paper applies two approaches to investigate any potential bias between the 10 detectors of any TEB. A histogram approach is applied to large relatively uniform scenes over the Antarctic plateau, ocean and desert. Results are compared with an approach using the sets of matched detector pairs due to the bowtie effect. Terra and Aqua MODIS TEB long term trends in detector biases are presented and discussed.
External modulation of volcanic activity

Summary Time and again records of seismovolcanic activity that show a diurnal and semi-diurnal modulation have been related to the Earth’s tidal stress field as an external triggering mechanism. Several seismic data sets from different volcanoes are examined, including Stromboli volcano, Italy, Mt Ruapehu, New Zealand, and Merapi and Batur, Indonesia, where in some cases weather data are also incorporated. A comparison with theoretical body tides in the spectral domain reveals strong evidence against a correlation between seismovolcanic activity and tidal stress. However, other parameters such as temperature and barometric pressure show the same diurnal and semi-diurnal modulation and are, therefore, candidates for a possible external modulation of volcanic activity. Several mechanisms are discussed. For Stromboli a clear correlation between volcanic activity and barometric pressure is shown.
RELATION OF MACROINVERTEBRATE COMMUNITY IMPAIRMENT TO CATCHMENT CHARACTERISTICS IN NEW JERSEY STREAMS 1

ABSTRACT: The level of macroinvertebrate community impairment was statistically related to selected basin and water‐quality characteristics in New Jersey streams. More than 700 ambient biomonitoring stations were chosen to evaluate potential and known anthropogenic effects. Macroinvertebrate communities were assessed with a modified rapid‐bioassessment approach using three impairment ratings (nonimpaired, moderately impaired, and severely impaired). Maximum‐likelihood multiple logistic‐regression analysis was used to develop equations defining the probability of community impairment above predetermined impairment levels. Seven of the original 140 explanatory variables were highly related to the level of community impairment. Explanatory variables found to be most useful for predicting severe macroinvertebrate community impairment were the amount of urban land and total flow of municipal effluent. Area underlain by the Reading Prong physiographic region and amount of forested land were inversely related to severe impairment. Nonparametric analysis of variance on rank‐transformed bioassessment scores was used to evaluate differences in level of impairment among physiographic regions and major drainage areas simultaneously. Rejection of the null hypothesis indicated that the levels of impairment among all six physiographic regions and five major drainage areas were not equal. Physiographic regions located in the less urbanized northwest portion of New Jersey were not significantly different from each other and had the lowest occurrence of severely impaired macroinvertebrate communities. Physiographic regions containing urban centers had a higher probability of exhibiting a severely impaired macroinvertebrate community. Analysis of major drainage areas indicates that levels of impairment in the Atlantic Coastal Rivers drainage area differed significantly from those in the Lower Delaware River drainage area.
Comparing Wealth Effects: The Stock Market versus the Housing Market

Abstract We examine the link between increases in housing wealth, financial wealth, and consumer spending. We rely upon a panel of 14 countries observed annually for various periods during the past 25 years and a panel of U.S. states observed quarterly during the 1980s and 1990s. We impute the aggregate value of owner-occupied housing, the value of financial assets, and measures of aggregate consumption for each of the geographic units over time. We estimate regression models in levels, first differences and in error-correction form, relating consumption to income and wealth measures. We find a statistically significant and rather large effect of housing wealth upon household consumption.
Quantifying canopy height underestimation by laser pulse penetration in small-footprint airborne laser scanning data

There is a well-reported tendency for canopy height to be underestimated in small-footprint airborne laser scanning (ALS) data of coniferous woodland. This is commonly explained by a failure to record treetops because of insufficient ALS sampling density. This study examines the accuracy of canopy height estimates retrieved from small-footprint ALS data of broadleaf woodland. A novel field sampling method was adopted to collect reference canopy upper surface measurements of known horizontal (x, y) and vertical (z) position that had sub-metre accuracy. By investigating the z differences between ALS and reference canopy measurements with matching x and y locations, the effects of ALS sampling density were removed from the analysis. For raw point-sample ALS data, a negative bias of 0.91 m for sample shrub canopies and 1.27 m for sample tree canopies was observed. These results suggest that for broadleaf woodland, a small-footprint laser pulse hitting the upper surface of a canopy often advances into the canopy before reflecting a signal strong enough to be detected by the scanner as a first return. The depth of laser pulse penetration will vary with canopy structural characteristics and ALS device configuration. Interpolation of the point-sample ALS canopy measurements into a grid-based digital canopy height model (DCHM) propagated the observed errors, resulting in a negative bias of 1.02 m for shrub canopies and 2.12 m for tree canopies. Here the sampling density in relation to canopy surface roughness was important.
Crater degradation on the lunar maria: Topographic diffusion and the rate of erosion on the Moon

Landscape evolution on the Moon is dominated by impact cratering in the post‐maria period. In this study, we mapped 800 m to 5 km diameter craters on >30% of the lunar maria and extracted their topographic profiles from digital terrain models created using the Kaguya Terrain Camera. We then characterized the degradation of these craters using a topographic diffusion model. Because craters have a well‐understood initial morphometry, these data provide insight into erosion on the Moon and the topographic diffusivity of the lunar surface as a function of time. The average diffusivity we calculate over the past 3 Ga is ~5.5 m2/Myr. With this diffusivity, after 3 Ga, a 1 km diameter crater is reduced to approximately ~52% of its initial depth and a 300 m diameter crater is reduced to only ~7% of its initial depth, and craters smaller than ~200–300 m are degraded beyond recognition. Our results also allow estimation of the age of individual craters on the basis of their degradation state, provide a constraint on the age of mare units, and enable modeling of how lunar terrain evolves as a function of its topography.
Use of percentage of possible sunshine data to prepare automated forecasts of sky cover and to verify plain language forecasts

Abstract Surveys have indicated a general misunderstanding by the public of many of the sky cover terms used in weather forecasts. This difficulty often carries over to the forecast staff. Reports of hours of bright sunshine were used in the Quebec Forecast Office to attempt to improve the understanding of sky cover terminology. Sunshine data received on a near real‐time basis were converted to percent of possible sunshine. A preliminary survey was made in the Quebec Forecast Office, followed by a national survey in which all of the other Canadian forecast meteorologists were asked to provide their views on the relationships between sky cover terminology and percentage of possible sunshine. Based on the survey results it was possible to quantify plain language forecasts and consequently to develop techniques to verify them objectively, as well as to prepare computer‐produced forecasts. It is proposed that forecasts of hours of bright sunshine or of percent of possible sunshine be used to replace currently.