Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Influence of offset weak zones on the development of rift basins: Activation and abandonment during continental extension and breakup

We use numerical modelling to investigate reactivation of inherited Offset Weak Zones (OWZ) in continental crust and Mantle Weak Zones (MWZ) to form offset rift basins during continental rifting and breakup. Offset rift basins are basins that are set off/offset from the main rift/locus of breakup. Weak zones embedded in a stiff layer are preferentially and rapidly reactivated, whereas the same zones are either ignored or slowly reactivated when embedded in pliable layers. Here stiff implies a nonlinear flow law with a high stress exponent (n > ∼ 10,000), a plastic material, and pliable means a low stress exponent (n ∼ 2–5) as in ductile, power‐law creep of rocks. Whether offset rift basins form during rifting of a composite lithosphere (i.e., comprising stiff and pliable layers) depends on the competition between necking instabilities that develop at the weak zones in the stiff layers, and the coupling between the stiff and pliable layers. Stiff/cratonic lithosphere results in early localization of the deformation at the MWZ, rapid necking and breakup without developing offset rift basins. In contrast, warm pliable lithosphere develops significant offset basins and has protracted rifting because the MWZ is now embedded in a pliable layer. We also investigate the influence of OWZ dip, sedimentation, and the sensitivity of reactivation to the distance from OWZ to the MWZ, and to the size of the MWZ. A tectonic rifting styles diagram is used to show that the model results agree with natural examples.
Genetic variation of St. Louis encephalitis virus

St. Louis encephalitis virus (SLEV) has been regularly isolated throughout the Americas since 1933. Previous phylogenetic studies involving 62 isolates have defined seven major lineages (I–VII), further divided into 14 clades. In this study, 28 strains isolated in Texas in 1991 and 2001–2003, and three older, previously unsequenced strains from Jamaica and California were sequenced over the envelope protein gene. The inclusion of these new sequences, and others published since 2001, has allowed better delineation of the previously published SLEV lineages, in particular the clades of lineage II. Phylogenetic analysis of 106 isolates identified 13 clades. All 1991 and 2001–2003 isolates from Nueces, Jefferson and Harris Counties (Texas Gulf Coast) group in clade IIB with other isolates from these counties isolated during the 1980s and 1990s. This lack of evidence for introduction of novel strains into the Texas Gulf Coast over a long period of time is consistent with overwintering of SLEV in this region. Two El Paso isolates, both from 2002, group in clade VA with recent Californian isolates from 1998–2001 and some South American strains with a broad temporal range. Overall, these data are consistent with multiple introductions of SLEV from South America into North America, and provide support for the hypothesis that in most situations, SLEV circulates within a locality, with occasional incursions from other areas. Finally, SLEV has much lower nucleotide (10.1 %) and amino acid variation (2.8 %) than other members of the Japanese encephalitis virus complex (maximum variation 24.6 % nucleotide and 11.8 % amino acid).
Evaluating the success of astronomical tuning: Pitfalls of using coherence as a criterion for assessing pre‐Pleistocene timescales

The imprint of orbital variations on the geological record of climatic variability is well documented, especially for the Plio-Pleistocene. There is considerable interest in developing very high resolution timescales through the Cenozoic and into the Mesozoic by tuning geological records to the assumed astronomical forcing. Since the precession signal is so highly amplitude modulated, it is widely believed that high coherence between record and assumed forcing in the precession band is an indication that the timescale is probably correct, because coherence is supposed to provide a measure of the degree of common amplitude modulation. We show that this is misleading; even a sinusoidal variation that has been “tuned” to an insolation record shows highly significant coherence at the 23-kyr and 19-kyr precession frequencies. Coherence is a good indication that the tuning has generated a consistent phase relationship, but complex demodulation is a better tool for assessing the relationship between amplitude modulation in the data and in the hypothetical forcing.
Cryptotephrochronology of the Eemian and the last interglacial–glacial transition in the North East Atlantic

The Eemian interglacial and the onset of the subsequent glacial period serve as the most recent analogue for the natural operation of the climate system during the current interglacial. Pronounced climatic oscillations occurred during this period, but their nature and pattern are poorly understood due to dating limitations and unknown phase relationships between different regions and archives. Tephrochronology offers considerable potential for precise correlation of disparate palaeoclimatic archives preserving evidence of these rapid climatic transitions through the tracing of common isochronous tephra horizons. We outline the identification of three previously unknown cryptotephra horizons within a marine core from the Rockall Trough, North East Atlantic. This sequence preserves a high‐resolution record of this interval and shard size, geochemical heterogeneity and the co‐variance of shard concentrations with ice‐rafted debris data are utilized to demonstrate that primary airfall was the most likely transport and depositional pathway. The main geochemical populations of these horizons have similar transitional alkali major and trace element compositions, suggesting that they were derived from a common Icelandic source, potentially the Öræfajökull volcanic system. These tephra horizons represent additions to the North Atlantic event stratigraphy for this period and tentative correlations to Icelandic terrestrial deposits are proposed for two horizons.
On the status of environmental education and awareness of undergraduate students at Ankara University, Turkey

The study reported in this paper was undertaken during 2001 and early 2002 to assess the status of environmental education and awareness of undergraduate students at Ankara University, Turkey. The main objectives of the study were to determine the depth of students' knowledge and awareness of environmental issues and problems and their attitude to the environment, and to make recommendations based on the findings. It is generally assumed that in Turkey, university students mainly come from a particular socio-economic sector of society. And, therefore, that there is a certain homogeneity of environmental awareness and attitudes among most students at all Turkish universities. To test the veracity or otherwise of this widely held assumption, data on students' socio-economic backgrounds were also analysed. The study comprised face-to-face interviews of a random sample of 651 students in the final year of their educational programmes during which a detailed questionnaire was completed for each. The chi-squared test was used to evaluate collected data. The respondents came from 14 faculties of the university. The study was designed to assess the general characteristics, environmental knowledge, and behavioural pattern of the sample. Results of the study validate the above assumption and reveal, among others, that: (a) in general, Ankara University students are reasonably aware of environmental issues and problems; (b) majority of those studying environmental subjects are from the social sciences; and (c) compared to the rest, students in the health sciences are significantly unaware of issues such as those of sustainable development, organic farming and solid waste pollution.
Sedimentation, stratigraphy, and petroleum potential of Krishna-Godavari basin, East Coast of India

The Krishna-Godavari basin is located in the central part of the eastern passive continental margin of India. The structural grain of the basin is northeast-southwest. Exposures of Upper Cretaceous sedimentary rocks demarcate the basin margin toward the north west, where the northwest-southeast-trending Pranahita-Godavari graben abuts the basin. The basin contains thick sequences of sediments with several cycles of deposition ranging in age from Late Carboniferous to Holocene. A major delta with a thick, argillaceous facies that has prograded seaward since the Late Cretaceous is a hydrocarbon exploration target. Magnetic and gravity data predicted the basin architecture, which was subsequently confirmed by a multichannel seismic sur vey. The basin is divided into subbasins by fault-controlled ridges. Sediments accumulated in subbasins more than 5 km thick. Above the basement ridges, thin sediments are found. Until the Jurassic period, sediments were deposited in the rift valley and in topo graphic lows. This sequence is completely overlain by a Lower Cretaceous, transgressive sedimentary wedge. Later, continued delta progradation characterized basin sedimentation. With an areal extent of approximately 45,000 km2, this proven petroliferous basin has potential reservoirs ranging in age from the Permian to the Pliocene. Exploratory drilling of more than 350 wells in more than 160 structures has resulted in the discovery of 42 oil and gas bearing structures. Good source rocks are known from sequences ranging in age from Permian-Carboniferous to early Miocene. Because the reservoir sand bodies have limited lateral variation, understanding the stratigraphy and depositional sub environments in different sequences is essential to decipher the favorable locales for reservoir sands. Tilted fault blocks, growth faults, and related rollover anticlines provide the structural traps. (Begin page 1624)
Airflow Pathway Development as Affected by Soil Moisture Variability in Heterogeneous Soils

Understanding how lateral airflow pathways develop in the unsaturated zone is important to address problems dealing with intrusion of contaminants in the form of vapor into buildings and subsurface structures. One of the key factors that contribute to the formation of these vapor pathways is the spatial and temporal variation of soil moisture saturation. The soil moisture in the unsaturated zone is expected to be affected by the mass and temperature boundary conditions at the land surface. We performed highly controlled laboratory experiments in an intermediate‐scale test tank to improve the basic understanding of the factors that contribute to development of such pathways. The tank was packed with different test sands in a layered configuration and the precipitation and thermal boundary conditions were controlled at the soil surface. A numerical model based on the COMSOL Multiphysics software was validated using the experimental data. This model was used to obtain insights into how the degree of subsurface heterogeneity affects air pathway development. The results showed that (i) soil moisture variations created by precipitation could significantly affect the development of dynamic airflow pathways, (ii) thermal flux at the soil surface does not significantly affect soil moisture deep in the formation and hence has a negligible effect on airflow pathways, and (iii) the capping effect created by water accumulating at soil layer interfaces results in more air of subsurface origin entering the building. Further study is needed, however, to examine the validity of these findings under more realistic soil and climate conditions.
Study of seismic tomography in Panxi paleorift area of southwestern China——Structural features of crust and mantle and their evolution

Structural features of the typical continental paleorift in Panxi area are revealed by seismic tomography. (1) In the profile along the minor axis of Panxi paleorift, we found alternating high and low-velocity strips existing at different depths in the crust, presenting itself as a “sandwich” structure. The existence of these high and low-velocity anomaly strips is related to the basal lithology in the rift area. (2) An addition layer with velocity values of 7.1? /FONT>7.5 km/s and 7.8 km/s exists from the base of lower crust to uppermost mantle and its thickness is about 20 km. Some study results indicate that the addition layer results from the invasion of mantle material. (3) A lens-shaped high-velocity body surrounded by relatively low-velocity material is observed at depths of 110? /FONT>160 km between Huaping and Huidong in the axis of the paleorift. This is the first time to discover it in the upper mantle of the paleorift. Based on the results of geology, petrology and geochemistry, we infer that the formation of the addition layer and the lens-shaped high-velocity body in the upper mantle are related to the deep geodynamic process of generation, development and termination of the rift. On the one hand, the upwelling of asthenosphere mantle caused partial melting, and then the basaltic magma from the partial melted material further resulted in underplating and formed the crustal addition layer. On the other hand, the high-density content of mineral facies was increased in the residual melted mass of intensely depleted upper mantle, formed by basalt withdrawing. The solid-melt medium in the depleted upper mantle was mainly an accumulation of garnet and peridotite because the heating effect of lithosphere was relatively weakened in the later riftogenesis, so that a lens-shaped high-density and high-velocity zone was produced in the upper mantle. The results indicate that the energy and material exchange between asthenosphere and lithosphere and remarkable underplating would have an important effect on the material state and propagation of seismic wave in the lower crust, crust-mantle interface, asthenosphere and lithosphere. This process possibly is an important mechanism on the growth of continental crust and the evolution of deep mantle.
Object segmentation controls image reconstruction from natural scenes

The structure of the physical world projects images onto our eyes. However, those images are often poorly representative of environmental structure: well-defined boundaries within the eye may correspond to irrelevant features of the physical world, while critical features of the physical world may be nearly invisible at the retinal projection. The challenge for the visual cortex is to sort these two types of features according to their utility in ultimately reconstructing percepts and interpreting the constituents of the scene. We describe a novel paradigm that enabled us to selectively evaluate the relative role played by these two feature classes in signal reconstruction from corrupted images. Our measurements demonstrate that this process is quickly dominated by the inferred structure of the environment, and only minimally controlled by variations of raw image content. The inferential mechanism is spatially global and its impact on early visual cortex is fast. Furthermore, it retunes local visual processing for more efficient feature extraction without altering the intrinsic transduction noise. The basic properties of this process can be partially captured by a combination of small-scale circuit models and large-scale network architectures. Taken together, our results challenge compartmentalized notions of bottom-up/top-down perception and suggest instead that these two modes are best viewed as an integrated perceptual mechanism.
PERCEPCIÓN DEL CONSUMIDOR Y PRODUCTOR DE ORGÁNICOS: EL MERCADO OCELOTL DE XALAPA, VER. MÉXICO

The objective of this study was to explore the perception and attitude of consumers and organic producers of Ocelotl market from Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico. The main issues searched were with the purpose for consuming or producing organic products, main benefits received by consuming or producing organics and the extra payment that consumers would be willing to pay and farmers would be willing to receive for organic products. A survey based on questionnaire was applied during 2007 to consumers and farmers/sellers of organic products. A total of 20 consumers and 18 farmers/sellers were interviewed. This sample frame of consumers represents the 60% and nearly 90% of the whole farmers, respectively. Anova and correlation analyzes were performed. It was found that organic consumption is determined due to its health benefit (86%), environmental concern (31%), taste (26%), freshness (20%) and to be free of pesticides (3%). Statistical difference was found between willing to pay and food stipends by consumers. 69% agree and fully agree to give an extrapayment and 17% disagree and fully disagree on that. 61, 28 y 11% of the consumers were willing to pay 10%, 20% and 40% for organics. It was identified the main issues to improve cooperation among consumers, producers and local authorities.
Altitudinal and latitudinal dependence of future warming in Taiwan simulated by WRF nested with ECHAM5/MPIOM

It is difficult and inadequate to use a global model alone for projecting future climate changes in areas such as Taiwan, a complex geographic nature island, due to its coarse resolution. In this study, we have performed dynamic downscaling of Taiwan's climate in the recent past (1979–2003) and climate change projection for the near and distant future (2015–2039 and 2075–2099, respectively) by using the Weather Research Forecasting (WRF) model. The simulation is forced by the Max Plank Institute Hamburg, global model, ECHAM5/MPIOM. Simulation results showed close correlation between fine‐resolution downscaling by WRF nested with ECHAM5/MPIOM and the actual observation data for the period 1979–2003. Projection of future climate changes revealed both altitudinal and latitudinal variations in warming trend, with more significant temperature increase in mountain areas than in plain areas towards the end of the 21st century and more obvious warming in the north than in the south of Taiwan. The results obtained in this study can be applied to other regions of similar latitudes and with comparable relief.
Insulin-stimulated brain glucose uptake correlates with brain metabolites in severe obesity: A combined neuroimaging study

The human brain undergoes metabolic adaptations in obesity, but the underlying mechanisms have remained largely unknown. We compared concentrations of often reported brain metabolites measured with magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS, 3 T MRI) in the occipital lobe in subjects with obesity and lean controls under different metabolic conditions (fasting, insulin clamp, following weight loss). Brain glucose uptake (BGU) quantified with 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (18F-FDG-PET)) was also performed in a subset of subjects during clamp. In dataset A, 48 participants were studied during fasting with brain 1H-MRS, while in dataset B 21 participants underwent paired brain 1H-MRS acquisitions under fasting and clamp conditions. In dataset C 16 subjects underwent brain 18F-FDG-PET and 1H-MRS during clamp. In the fasting state, total N-acetylaspartate was lower in subjects with obesity, while brain myo-inositol increased in response to hyperinsulinemia similarly in both lean participants and subjects with obesity. During clamp, BGU correlated positively with brain glutamine/glutamate, total choline, and total creatine levels. Following weight loss, brain creatine levels were increased, whereas increases in other metabolites remained not significant. To conclude, insulin signaling and glucose metabolism are significantly coupled with several of the changes in brain metabolites that occur in obesity.
Association between serum lipids concentration and patients with age-related cataract in China: a cross-sectional, case–control study

Objective Obesity and a high-fat diet have been found to be associated with an increased risk of age-related cataract (ARC). Thus, this study aimed to investigate whether serum lipid levels are associated with the incidence of ARC. Design Cross-sectional, case–control study. Setting EyeandENT Hospital of Fudan University, Shanghai, China. Participants A total of 219 ARC (male=94, female=125) subjects and 218 (male=110, female=118) normal control subjects were recruited in this study. Outcome measures A detailed eye and systematic examination was performed. Serum high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), triglyceride (TG) and cholesterol (CHO) levels were measured by enzymatic colorimetry, and serum apolipoprotein A (APOA) and apoB (APOB) levels were measured by immunoturbidimetry. The subgroups were classified according to gender and types of disease (cortical, nuclear and posterior subcapsular cataract). Logistic regression analyses were performed to identify the association between serum lipid levels and ARC. Results The serum LDL-C, TG, CHO and APOA levels were significantly higher (p<0.05) in the ARC group than in the control group. A similar result was observed when the serum lipid concentrations were compared between the ARC and control groups both in male and female subgroups. A higher proportion of individuals in the ARC group had higher LDL-C, TG, CHO and APOA levels (fold=3.45, 17.37, 3.27 and11.91, respectively; p<0.0001 in all cases) than in the control group. Results of the logistic regression analyses revealed that high LDL-C (ORs=1.897, 95% CI 0.960 to 3.678) and TG (OR=1.854, 95% CI 1.232 to 2.791) were the independent risk factors for ARC. Conclusion The serum LDL-C and TG levels were demonstrated to be independent risk factors for ARC.
Coherent structures contributions in fluxes of momentum and heat at two tropical sites during pre‐monsoon thunderstorm season

An attempt has been made to differentiate percentage contribution of coherent structures (CS) in the turbulent fluxes of heat and momentum during thunderstorm days (TD) and non‐thunderstorm days (NTD) at two tropical sites. Pre‐monsoon months (Marcha to May) fast response data (10 Hz) of wind and temperature at Kharagpur (22°30′N, 87°20′E) for years 2007, 2009, and 2010, and at Ranchi (23°25′N, 85°26′E) for years 2008–2010 have been used. The contributions were calculated after decomposing the time series using wavelet technique by two methods: (1) the method of quadrant analysis for each scale, and (2) the method of zero‐crossing. Contributions of CS in momentum flux are higher in TD than NTD, whereas for heat flux CS contribution is higher for NTD to that of TD at both sites; however, values are different at both sites and by each method as well. Significant percentages of contributions of CS to the total flux are noticed at both the sites.
Sexuality (and Lack Thereof) in Adolescence and Early Adulthood: A Review of the Literature

Youth sexuality has been primarily studied with a focus on its potential public health issues, such as sexually transmitted infections and unwanted pregnancies, and its comorbidity with other risky behaviors. More recently, it has been studied as a normative step in romantic partnerships, either pre- or post-marital, as well as outside the context of romantic involvement. In this paper, we review the extensive literature on sexuality in adolescence and early adulthood both within and outside romantic relationships (i.e., casual sexual relationships and experiences; CSREs). Furthermore, the recent recognition of youth sexuality as a developmental task has led to a renewed interest from scholars in youth who abstain from sexual encounters, whether deliberately or not. A brief overview of the literature on cultural differences in sexuality, and sexual-minority youth sexual development is also provided. This paper concludes by suggesting future directions to bring the field of youth sexuality and romantic relationships forward.