Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Damage And Loss Prediction Model ConsideringInundation Level, Flow Velocity And VulnerabilityOf Building Types

Reliable prognoses of building damage caused by flood impact require realistic relationships between action and damage or loss describing parameters. Due to the fact that commonly applied damage functions are related to the different usage classes (i.e. private housing), the required differentiation according to the parameters on the resistance side is still missing and further impact parameters like flow velocity remain unconsidered. On the basis of the Earthquake Damage Analysis Center (EDAC) flood database (including different datasets collected after the 2002 flood in Saxony), a method to determine the structural damage and the losses for any given flood scenario was developed. The key elements of the developed method are the engineered evaluation and categorization of the existing building stock, the definition of five damage grades with respect to the observed damage patterns and the classification of building types into vulnerability classes (and the consideration of the inherent scatter). Specific Functions enabling the calculation of damage grades and the loss assessment in separate steps of the same procedure. Specific Vulnerability Functions (SVF) are related to the inundation level or additionally the flow velocity (action side), and the predominant building types or the vulnerability classes (resistance side). Specific Damage Functions (SDF) can calculate the expected losses directly under consideration of the inundation level and the predominant building types (SDF of Type 1a) or the assigned vulnerability classes (SDF of Type 1b). SDF of Type 2 transfers the damage grades into loss statements. The developed tools are applied to the reinterpretation of the August 2002 flood damage. Results are presented for different study areas on a micro-scale level. In all cases, remarkably good agreement between the predicted and the reported losses can be Flood Recovery Innovation and Response III 53 www.witpress. com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line) WIT Transactions on Ecology and The Environment, Vol 159, © 201 WIT Press 2 doi:10.2495/FRIAR120051 stated. First investigations with respect to the location of buildings, the direction of flow and the structural damage are also represented.
The relationship between Quaternary volcanism in central Mexico and the seismicity and structure of subducted ocean lithosphere

Late Quaternary volcanism in central Mexico is related to the subduction of young ocean lithosphere at the Middle America. Trench. Along-arc variations in seismicity, volcano structure, and composition of volcanic products bear a remarkable correlation with the age and structural framework of the downgoing slab. Morphological and petrographic characteristics of major volcanoes within the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt (TMVB) serve to distinguish two calc-alkaline subprovinces: 1. A western arc, averaging 60 km in width, associated with aseismic subduction of the Rivera plate. The main cones of this region are dominated by two-pyroxene andesites, comprise volumes ⩽70 km 3 , and stand less than 3,000 m above sea level. 2. A broad central and eastern arc related to subduction of a gently inclined segment of the Cocos plate bounded by the Rivera transform and the Tehuantepec Ridge. Major volcanic edifices possess summit elevations in the range 4,000 to 6,000 m, have appropriately larger volumes (typically > 200 km 3 ) and are constructed with a high proportion of amphibole-bearing lavas. The boundary between these subprovinces is marked by a north-south–oriented structural depression, the Colima Graben, and it coincides with a 100-km offset in the “volcanic front. ” Extensional tectonism in the Colima Graben, accompanied by mixed calc-alkaline and alkaline volcanism of potassic affinity, is likely related to a hinge-type transform fault which marks the Cocos-Rivera plate juncture in the downgoing slab. A third segment of ocean floor is presently interacting with continental lithosphere south of the Gulf of Tehuantepec, where Quaternary volcanism is weakly developed within a tectonically complex region that marks the diffuse Cocos-NOAM-Caribbean triple junction. The northern limit of this triple junction is defined by the seismically active Isthmus fault, which may be related to alkaline volcanic activity at San Andres Tuxtla. A tectonic reconstruction based on the evolution of oceanic crust reveals that the distribution of intermediate-depth earthquakes along the arc is directly dependent upon the age of the subducted slab. Ocean lithosphere younger than approximately 20 m.y. is subducted aseismically at convergence rates approaching 9 cm/yr. The length of the inclined seismic zone indicates that the time constant for thermal relaxation in the slab is approximately 4 m.y. The TMVB overlies the aseismic extension of this young ocean lithosphere. Several aspects of this study have a bearing on the segmented nature of converging margins in general: 1. The tectonic evolution of the ocean floor may determine the nature of segmentation at the site of subduction. 2. The complete record of volcanism in the TMVB over the past million years can be related to the present plate configuration. 3. Alkaline and calc-alkaline volcanism have developed contemporaneously at a converging plate margin. 4. Lineaments in volcanic arcs may reflect the structural complexity of the crust rather than segment boundaries in the subducted slab.
Analysis of riparian vegetation in the Siwaluh River, Karanganyar District, Central Java, Indonesia

Abstract. Pramadaningtyas PS, Chandrasari N, Izdihar RS, Iqbal WM, Cahyaningsih AP, Setyawan AD. 2023. Analysis of riparian vegetation in the Siwaluh River, Karanganyar District, Central Java, Indonesia. Intl J Bonorowo Wetlands 13: 45-56. This research was conducted in the Siwaluh River Basin region, Karanganyar District, Central Java, Indonesia. Land conversion into residential areas has lowered infiltration capacity, particularly in the Siwaluh River riparian vegetation, in the form of reduced or even lost vegetation that should serve as a water catchment area and habitat for riparian plants. The research was done to analyze riparian vegetation in the Siwaluh River to collect data for the conservation of the riparian zone, which plays a vital role in ecology and the ecosystem. Calculating the maximum IVI value and the existence of plant species from the diversity of riparian vegetation could determine the dominant vegetation type in a given area. The quadratic plot method employed was used; square plots of 20mx20m for trees, 10mx10m for poles, 5mx5m for saplings, and 2mx2m for seedlings were established at each sampling location. After that, the vegetation investigation comprised density, dominance, frequency, Shannon-Wiener diversity index, and IVI. The survey identified 209 plant species; Kigelia africana dominated the highest IVI value in tree habitus. Practically, in each upstream, middle, and downstream location, Bambusa sp. dominated the highest IVI in the pole habitus, Manihot esculenta controlled the highest IVI in the sapling habitus, and Ageratum conyzoides dominated the seedling habitus. Variations in the diversity index (H') of tree, pole, sapling, and seedling habitus result from reduced or even disappearing vegetation due to land changes. Therefore, it changes the distribution pattern of riparian vegetation.
Genetic diversity and molecular analysis using RAPD markers of banana cultivars in the five regions of East Java, Indonesia

Abstract. Slameto. 2023. Genetic diversity and molecular analysis using RAPD markers of banana cultivars in the five regions of East Java, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 24: 5035-5043. The study explored banana plants in East Java, Indonesia, specifically in the districts of Jember, Banyuwangi, Bondowoso, Situbondo, and Lumajang, using Random Amplified Polymorphic Deoxyribonucleic Acid (RAPD) markers. Thirty accessions of Musa ssp. were collected from these five districts, revealing a high level of genetic diversity. Primers OPA-04 and OPC-05 were suitable for assessing genetic variation in banana plants. It was found that the OPD-07 primer produced the fewest DNA bands (8 bands and 7 polymorphic bands), while the OPA-04 primer produced the maximum number of DNA bands (14 bands, with 9 polymorphic bands). The OPB-08 primer had the lowest polymorphism percentage (56%), and the OPC-05 primer had the greatest percentage (92%). With genetic similarity scores ranging from 0.04 (Bigih Tanjung Glugur and Lilin Banyuwangi) to 0.94 (Agung Banyuwangi and Let). The phylogenetic tree of 30 banana plants formed two primary clusters: cluster I and II, included 26 and 4 banana varieties respectively. In addition, molecular variance (AMOVA) resulted a significant proportion (93%) of genetic diversity within the population. Further studies using more precise genetic markers are still needed to determine the exact identity of the banana plant genome.
Ethnic Diversity and Social Trust

We argue that residential exposure to ethnic diversity reduces social trust. Previous within-country analyses of the relationship between contextual ethnic diversity and trust have been conducted at higher levels of aggregation, thus ignoring substantial variation in actual exposure to ethnic diversity. In contrast, we analyze how ethnic diversity of the immediate micro-context—where interethnic exposure is inevitable—affects trust. We do this using Danish survey data linked with register-based data, which enables us to obtain precise measures of the ethnic diversity of each individual’s residential surroundings. We focus on contextual diversity within a radius of 80 meters of a given individual, but we also compare the effect in the micro-context to the impact of diversity in more aggregate contexts. Our results show that ethnic diversity in the micro-context affects trust negatively, whereas the effect vanishes in larger contextual units. This supports the conjecture that interethnic exposure underlies the negative relationship between ethnic diversity in residential contexts and social trust.
Microseismic investigation of an unstable mountain slope in the Swiss Alps

[1] Risks associated with unstable rocky slopes are growing as a result of climate change and rapid expansions of human habitats and critical infrastructure in mountainous regions. To improve our understanding of mountain slope instability, we developed a microseismic monitoring system that operates autonomously in remote areas afflicted by harsh weather. Our microseismic system comprising 12 three-component geophones was deployed across ∼60,000 m 2 of rugged crystalline terrain above a huge (30 million m 3 ) recent rockfall in the Swiss Alps. During its 31-month lifetime, signals from 223 microearthquakes with approximate moment magnitudes ranging from -2 to 0 were recorded. Determining the hypocenters was challenging for several reasons: (1) P wave velocities were highly heterogeneous, varying abruptly from 3.8 km/s. (2) First-break picks were either inaccurate or lacking for some microearthquakes. (3) There were no reliable S wave picks. (4) Numerous microearthquakes occurred just outside the network boundaries. These issues were addressed by using a three-dimensional (3-D) P wave velocity model of the mountain slope determined from refraction tomography in a nonlinear inversion for hypocenter parameters and their probability density functions. Recordings from geophones at different altitudes and in boreholes constrained microearthquake depth estimates. Most microearthquakes were concentrated within 50-100 m of the surface in two zones, one that followed the recent rockslide scarp and one that spanned the volume of highest fracture zone/fault density. These two active zones delineated a mass of rock that according to geodetic measurements has moved toward the scarp at 1-2 cm/yr.
Impact de la pollution sur l'unique réseau hydrographique de Casablanca, Maroc

De par sa position geographique, situe en zone aride a semi-aride, le Maroc a vecu depuis des millenaires une evolution fortement liee au climat et a sa variabilite. Le bilan hydrique et les ressources en eau de cette region sont conditionnes par trois principaux facteurs : la pluviometrie, la temperature de l'air et les evenements climatiques extremes, en particulier les secheresses, frequentes et parfois dramatiques pour les populations locales. La ville de Casablanca, capitale economique et industrielle, se trouve particulierement touchee par ce probleme, du fait de sa demographie croissante et du developpement continu du secteur industriel. Le cours d'eau Bouskoura represente l'unique reseau superficiel de la ville de Casablanca. Il se trouve actuellement menace par les activites humaines (rejets urbains et industriels, utilisation d'eau pour les besoins agricoles, etc.). Dans le but de cerner l'etat de pollution de ce cours d'eau, une etude portant sur la determination de parametres physico-chimiques, l'inventaire de la faune benthique ainsi qu'une analyse bacteriologique de l'eau souterraine ont ete realises. Les resultats obtenus decrivent une situation preoccupante de l'etat de ce cours d'eau qui se trouve menace dangereusement par les activites humaines. La perpetuelle degradation de la qualite des eaux superficielles et souterraines conduirait certainement, si des mesures de protection ne sont pas entreprises, a la perte de ce patrimoine naturel de la ville.
Morphological and anatomical studies of Conamomum vietnamense N.S. Lý & T.S. Hoang: An endemic plant from Vietnam

Abstract. Nhi NTT, Chen TV, Lam DNX, Nguyen DD, Dinh QD, Linh NHK. 2023. Morphological and anatomical studies of Conamomum vietnamense N.S. Lý & T.S. Hoang: An endemic plant from Vietnam. Biodiversitas 24: 5022-5034. Conamomum vietnamense N.S. Lý & T.S. Hoang (Zingiberaceae) is an endemic plant from Vietnam. Information on the anatomical structure of leaves, roots, rhizomes, and the powder characteristics of C. vietnamense has not been reported. This study aimed to combine macro- and micro-morphological analysis to identify C. vietnamense accurately. Twenty fresh plants were randomly collected from the wild habitats in Vietnam were used for the study. Macromorphological characteristics were observed and compared to earlier research. Iodine green-carmine staining was then used to histologically examine the leaves, roots, and rhizomes. The powdered rhizome and leaf features were described via a microscope. Macromorphologically, C. vietnamense is characterized by its stout stilt roots, short petioles, oblong-lanceolate leaf blades with lightly plicate, inflorescences with obovoid, and narrowly ovate bracts, hairy underside bracteoles, bilobed calyx, yellow flowers with broadly obovate, glabrous, trilobed labellum. Micromorphologically, the anatomical features of leaves, roots, and rhizomes have similarities with those of Zingiberaceae species. The tetracytic stomata was observed on both leaf surfaces. The stomatal indexes on the abaxial and adaxial surfaces of the leaves are 8.81±0.55% and 0.1±0.06%, respectively. Calcium oxalate crystals were found in the leaf. Starch grains and reticulate xylem vessels were present only in rhizome powder. These findings are important characteristics for identifying C. vietnamense.
Prognostic residual mean flow in an ocean general circulation model and its relation to prognostic Eulerian mean flow

AbstractRecent work has shown that taking the thickness-weighted average (TWA) of the Boussinesq equations in buoyancy coordinates results in exact equations governing the prognostic residual mean flow where eddy–mean flow interactions appear in the horizontal momentum equations as the divergence of the Eliassen–Palm flux tensor (EPFT). It has been proposed that, given the mathematical tractability of the TWA equations, the physical interpretation of the EPFT, and its relation to potential vorticity fluxes, the TWA is an appropriate framework for modeling ocean circulation with parameterized eddies. The authors test the feasibility of this proposition and investigate the connections between the TWA framework and the conventional framework used in models, where Eulerian mean flow prognostic variables are solved for. Using the TWA framework as a starting point, this study explores the well-known connections between vertical transfer of horizontal momentum by eddy form drag and eddy overturning by the bolus .
Adoption of improved maize cultivars for climate vulnerability reduction in Malawi

The projected negative impacts of climate change threaten to endanger smallholder rain-fed maize production and therefore food security across Sub-Saharan Africa. It is widely advocated that the provision of improved, climate-tolerant maize seeds will overcome this problem by enabling agricultural adaptation to changing weather conditions. However, attempts to launch new agricultural technologies in Africa have rarely successfully transformed prospects for the most vulnerable, and historical uptake of improved maize has remained low in some countries, including Malawi, despite a strong political legacy of modern input promotion. This thesis investigates how social dimensions (such as asset ownership, cultural preferences and perceptions of climate risk) affect the potential for cultivar adoption to enable equitable adaptation to climate change amongst smallholder maize farmers in Malawi. National strategies for the diffusion of maize cultivars are explored and analysed with reference to agricultural innovation theory. Adoption outcomes are then assessed using household data from two case study areas selected on the basis of their contrasting climate vulnerability characteristics and productive potentials for maize. Lastly, perceptions of climate change amongst research participants are explored and considered in relation to a statistical analysis of historical rainfall and temperature data within the two research areas, Kasungu and Ngabu. The empirical findings reveal that whilst Malawi’s maize seed industry is modernising, changes do not necessarily benefit smallholders, and access to cultivars and information about them remains unequal. State agricultural policies lack regional contextual specificity and have contributed to heightened vulnerability in Ngabu (the less productive case study area). Stakeholders’ perceptions and attitudes about current and future climate change reveal incongruities and misconceptions. Widespread beliefs that seasons are shortening are driving preferences for short season hybrid cultivars, which increasingly flood the seed market, but statistical analysis of historical seasonal rainfall data reveals no clear seasonal trend in this direction. New diffusion strategies, increasing policy sensitivity for dealing with climate vulnerability in marginal areas, and better understanding and communication about climate variability and change will all be required if cultivar adoption is to enable successful and equitable adaptation for Malawian smallholders. These goals could be better supported if vulnerability reduction, rather than corporate growth, was made central to the development of Malawi’s agricultural innovation system. Practical methods by which this change might be achieved are discussed.
Late Archaean to early Proterozoic granitoid magmatism and high-grade metamorphism in the central Limpopo belt, South Africa

The Central Zone of the Limpopo belt in southern Africa has previously been interpreted as a segment of Archaean crust which experienced its main deformation and metamorphism around 2.7 Ga ago. We report new single zircon U/Pb and Pb/Pb ages for granitoid gneisses, supracrustal rocks and anatectically derived granitic melt patches in the area around Messina, South Africa. The Sand River Gneiss is a composite suite of tonalitic to trondhjemitic rocks with protolith ages between 2.6 and 3.2 Ga. The Singelele gneiss, a heterogeneous granodioritic to quartz monzonitic rock, has protolith ages between 2.55 and 2.58 Ga. Since both the Sand River and Singelele gneisses experienced polyphase high-strain ductile deformation this must have occurred later than 2.55 Ga ago. Granulite-facies pelitic gneisses of the Beit Bridge Complex contain abundant spherical, multifacetted zircons which reflect new zircon growth near or at the peak of metamorphism. These zircons provide ages with a mean at 2026.5±6.3 Ma which is interpreted as reflecting a high P–T event (>10 kbar, 825±25°C). Granitic melt patches in the metapelites as well as in the Sand River Gneiss and anatectic granites are probably related to rapid near-isothermal decompression to below 3–5 kbar and 600–750°C). These rocks contain new magmatic zircons which yielded a mean age of 2005.6±4.4 Ma and probably reflect a crustal melting event resulting from rehydration of the granulitic assemblage. Our zircon data support previous suggestions for only one single granulite-facies event in the Central Zone, and we suggest that this event occurred c. 2027 Ma ago. Since most of the deformation seen in the gneisses of the Messina area must have occurred later than 2.55 Ga ago, it is likely that the ‘Limpopo Orogeny’, at least in the Central Zone, is not an Archaean event but took place in the early Proterozoic.
The Flow of Glaciers in the Khumbu Region:Glaciological Expedition to Nepal, Contribution No. 10

The results of measurements of the surface velocity of the glaciers in the Khumbu region showed that the surface velocity underwent a seasonal variation in the upper parts of the ablation area of the Khumbu and the Nuptse glaciers, that is, the velocity from May to August was higher than that of the rest of the year. It was found that the surface of the Kongma Glacier moved upward and this strange motion of the ice was discussed. The thickness of the Khumbu and the Nuptse glaciers was estimated using the theory of glacier flow to be 110 m and 70 m, respectively. The discharge of the Khumbu Glacier was also estimated to be 7.5 × 106, 3.4 × 106, 1.6 × 106 and approximately 0 × 106 tons/year at the elevations of 5340 m, 5280 m, 5140 m and 4960 m, respectively. Using these values and measured ablation rate, the increasing rate of the thickness of the Khumbu Glacier was obtained as follows, 1 m/year between 5340 m and 5280 m, 0.3 m/year between 5280 m and 5140 m, and -1.5 m/year between 5140 m and 4960 m. These results indicated that the Khumbu Glacier was not in equilibrium.
Seismic scattering attenuation estimates for the German KTB Area derived from well‐log statistics

We applied a recently developed scattering attenuation theory to model Q‐values measured at the German KTB site and found that scattering attenuation plays an important role in the upper crust in this area. This does not conform with previous studies that suggest absorption mechanisms as the main reason for the attenuation. The scattering attenuation model used is based on the wave propagation theory in random media and allows quantification of scattering attenuation in complex geological regions using simple statistical estimates from well‐log data. For our estimates of scattering Q we used statistical models of heterogeneities obtained from KTB logs. A good agreement between the magnitude of scattering attenuation and the measured Q‐values shows the necessity of evaluating the role of scattering in seismic attenuation phenomena.