Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Subaerial river bank erosion processes and their interaction with other bank erosion mechanisms on the River Arrow, Warwickshire, UK

River bank erosion occurs primarily through a combination of three mechanisms: mass failure, fluvial entrainment, and subaerial weakening and weathering. Subaerial processes are often viewed as ‘preparatory’ processes, weakening the bank face prior to fluvial erosion. Within a river basin downstream process ‘domains’ occur, with subaerial processes dominating the upper reaches, fluvial erosion the middle, and mass failure the lower reaches of a river. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that (a) subaerial processes may be underestimated as an erosive agent, and (b) process dominance has a temporal, as well as spatial, aspect. Bank erosion on the River Arrow, Warwickshire, UK, was monitored for 16 months (December 1996 to March 1998) using erosion pins. Variations in the rate and aerial extent of erosion are considered with reference to meteorological data. Throughout the first 15 months all erosion recorded was subaerial, resulting in up to 181 mm a−1 of bank retreat, compared with 13 to 27 mm a−1 reported by previous researchers. While the role of subaerial processes as ‘preparatory’ is not contended, it is suggested that such processes can also be erosive. The three bank erosion mechanisms operate at different levels of magnitude and frequency, and the River Arrow data demonstrate this. Thus the concept of process dominance has a temporal, as well as spatial aspect, particularly over the short time‐periods often used for studying processes in the field. Perception of the relative efficacy of each erosive mechanism will therefore be influenced by the temporal scale at which the bank is considered. With the advent of global climate change, both these magnitude–frequency characteristics and the consequent interaction of bank erosion mechanisms may alter. It is therefore likely that recognition of this temporal aspect of process dominance will become increasingly important to studies of bank erosion processes. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Family selection gains for quality traits among South African sugarcane breeding populations

In sugarcane breeding, family selection has been shown to produce larger gains than individual plant selection. During family selection, whole families of seedlings are selected or rejected based on data derived from replicated family plots. The objective of this study was to determine predicted family selection gains and evaluate their implications for variety improvement in terms of quality traits among sugarcane breeding populations of the South African Sugarcane Research Institute's regional breeding programmes. The data was collected from seven breeding populations and analysed using the Statistical Analysis System (SAS). All the quality traits showed highly significant family effects variance components. There were consistent increases in heritability and gains to selection with advancing population series indicating benefits from indirect recurrent selection. Brix % cane, because it costs less to measure, could be used to evaluate within family variability. The B, C, U and F populations produced larger and more consistent selection gains than K, T and S. Recurrent selection could be used to enhance breeding for quality traits.
Childhood asthma: Regional and social inequalities in parents' perceptions of the diagnostic process in Norway

The article examines the experiences of Norwegian parents of asthmatic children in the period leading up to a formal diagnosis from a doctor. The outcomes include delays in both the process of achieving a formal diagnosis and diagnosis during acute hospitalization. These outcomes were to some extent differentiated by the regional and educational background of parents. Families living in regions dominated by paediatricians in private practice were less likely to record delays in the process of achieving a formal diagnosis. Parents with higher education rarely experienced delays, often giving positive evaluations of the process. These results confirm previous studies of diagnostic decisions in adults, suggesting that lower socioeconomic groups tend to present with more advanced or severe disease. The findings make it difficult to defend a generalized account of the lay actor as passive and at the mercy of external social forces and modern expert systems. People do not appear as passive recipients of care but exercise agency, in the sense of actively seeking out alternative sources of medical care. The empirical material consists of a 1999 survey (N = 1800) of parents with children having a confirmed diagnosis of asthma.
The size‐frequency and areal distribution of rock clasts at the Spirit landing site, Gusev Crater, Mars

Size‐frequency and nearest neighbor spacing measurements derived from the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit's Panoramic Camera images of the Gusev landing site reveal that rock clasts on the intercrater plains are smaller, better sorted, and more evenly spaced than clasts found near the crater rims. The even clast spacing is interpreted to be due to wind transport, which acts to minimize surface roughness during periods of high velocity wind.
Convective boundary layer budgets of moisture and sensible heat over an unstressed prairie

Convective boundary layer budgets of sensible heat and moisture were evaluated for 2 days over the unstressed vegetation of the tallgrass Konza National Prairie during IFC 1 of the First International Satellite Land Surface Climatology Project (ISLSCP) Field Experiment (FIFE) 87. On June 1, 1987, winds were strong, while on the other day, June 4, 1987, winds were light. Data for the budgets came from morning and afternoon missions of the NCAR King Air aircraft. In addition to the budget evaluation the study had these objectives: to estimate the area-averaged surface fluxes and compare them to independent, ground-based measurements, to estimate the near surface evaporative fraction, and to compare various evaluations of the ratio of surface to inversion fluxes (the entrainment parameter). The budget analyses suggest that horizontal and vertical advection were significant terms in the budget and cannot be ignored. Given the uncertainties in both aircraft and ground-based nstruments and methods, the surface sensible heat flux comparisons were reasonable as was the comparison for evaporative fraction. However, comparison of latent heat fluxes was unsatisfactory. In contrast to other FIFE studies, consistent underestimation of surface fluxes by the aircraft was not found. The direct evaluation of the entrainment parameter, k, was problematic and did not compare well with other studies; however, using other methods of estimation, k was greater than 0.2. Bowen ratio estimates from level aircraft runs were low compared to sounding estimates. Error analyses and the budget evaluations emphasized the fact that the FIFE area was too small for accurate estimates of gradients and near-inversion fluxes. Since larger sites may make adequate deployment of surface property measurements prohibitive, a suggestion for improvement in experimental design of aircraft missions is presented. Both days and a third (June 6, 1987) studied previously, showed morning and afternoon episodes of drying throughout the mixed layer and surface layer. A mixed layer growth model is presented which predicts that the time rate of change of potential temperature in the superadiabatic layer is about 40% of the surface temperature rate. Variations in surface evaporation rate and leaf vapor pressure deficit appeared to be strongly associated with solar angle with no modulation by drying episodes, suggesting that atmospheric forcing of plant moisture cycling was minimal during this period.
Field measurement and numerical modelling of aeolian mass flux distributions on a sandy beach

ABSTRACT The vertical and horizontal distributions of aeolian mass flux were measured at Oceano Dunes, California, and these data were used to evaluate a numerical model of saltation. Grain‐size analyses showed that the distributions of the modal sediment size class corresponded closely to those of the total sediment population, and modelling thus focused on replicating the distributions of the mean grain size. Although much previous work has assumed that the mean launch speed of saltating particles varies in proportion to shear velocity, simulations using a constant mean launch speed were found to yield the closest approximations to the mass flux distributions observed in the field. Both exponential and gamma distributions of launch velocity produced realistic simulations, although the latter approach required the inclusion of an additional reptation component to achieve good results. A range of mean launch angles and an equivalent sphere correction were also found to generate comparable results, providing the other input parameters could be varied freely. All the modelling approaches overestimated the proportion of mass flux occurring at the bottom of the vertical distributions, and underestimated the proportion occurring at the upwind end of the horizontal distributions. No theoretical shortcoming that would account for these small, but systematic, discrepancies could be identified, and experimental error thus represents a more plausible explanation. The conclusion that mean grain launch speeds are essentially constant and independent of shear velocity suggests that the additional kinetic energy extracted by grains under more energetic wind conditions is largely transferred to the bed, and that increases in the transport rate are therefore driven primarily by the ejection of additional grains. It is suggested that the kinetic energy of rebounding grains is constrained by the ability of the bed to resist deformation, equivalent to a plastic limit. Hence, grains of larger mass (diameter) rebound from the bed at lower speeds, and follow shorter, lower trajectories, as has been widely observed previously.
Anti-politics, Apocalypse and Adaptation in Kenya's National Climate Change Response Strategy

Abstract Climate change is increasingly discussed in apocalyptic terms, a spectre-invoking crisis discourse that simultaneously legitimises society-wide action, while de-politicising this very political issue. This paper examines the depoliticisation of climate change adaptation in Kenya, a country which has been recently praised as a developing country with a progressive adaptation policy. Using examples from fieldwork in Kenya, it focusses on Kenya's recently adopted National Climate Change Response Strategy (NCCRS), and argues that Kenya's adaptation discourse is driven by particular imaginaries, specifically: adaptation as a ‘universal apocalypse’, and adaptation as a technical-economic problem. These function as deliberate anti-political strategies, aimed at obscuring the highly charged realities of adaptation. For Kenya's current political elite adaptation is predominantly a matter of reducing the perceived risks to economic growth, and enhancing opportunities to gain revenue from international funding sources. This is achieved through a discursive construction of a particular vision of adaptation, and against a backdrop of a capitalist strategy for growth. The paper concludes that a critical and political interpretation of the NCCRS and similar adaptation strategies is necessary to keep equity and justice at the centre of the climate debate, and to dispel the myth of adaptation policy making as a rational and disinterested process.
Accuracy of total ozone column amounts observed with solar infrared spectroscopy

Total ozone column amounts were observed at Rikubetsu (43.5°N, 143.8°E), Japan on 90 days between May 18, 1995 and April 26, 1996 with a high‐resolution infrared (IR) Fourier transform spectrometer and compared with Dobson spectrometer measurements. The sensitivities of the analysis for IR solar absorption spectra to initial profiles were examined using two kinds of initial profiles for ozone and temperature, namely monthly and yearly averages. IR/Dobson mean column ratios in the two cases were 1.02 and 1.03 and the standard deviation of the ratios were 3.7 and 4.1%, which correspond to 14 and 16 Dobson Units. The standard deviations are smaller than or comparable to the amplitudes of the day‐to‐day total ozone column variations indicating that day‐to‐day variations can be detected using monthly or yearly averaged profiles. However, significant solar zenith angle (SZA) dependences were observed in the columns derived using yearly averaged profiles. The SZA dependence was most significant in January and February when the ozone amount in the lower stratosphere was largest. The SZA dependence is considered to be caused by the difference between initial and actual ozone profiles.
A Novel Formulation of LV Distribution Network Equivalents for Reliability Analysis

Reliability analysis of large power networks often requires aggregate models of low voltage (LV) networks to allow for reasonable calculation complexity and to prevent long computational times. However, commonly used lumped load models neglect the differences in spatial distribution of demand, type of phase-connection of served customers and implemented protection system components (e.g., single-pole vs three-pole). This paper proposes a novel use of state enumeration (SE) and Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) techniques to formulate LV network reliability equivalents with improved accuracy. The combination of SE and MCS is illustrated using a generic suburban LV test network, which is realistically represented by a reduced number of system states. This approach would allow power utilities for much faster and more accurate reliability assessments, where further reduction of system states results in a single-component equivalent with the same unavailability as the original LV network. Both mean values and probability distributions of standard reliability indices are calculated, where errors associated with the use of single-line models, as opposed to more detailed three-phase models, are quantified.
Cusp as a source for oxygen in the plasma sheet during geomagnetic storms

[1] We have used the ion composition data from the CIS/CODIF instrument on Cluster to determine how the O+ population in the plasma sheet and the adjacent lobes changes during geomagnetic storms. The Cluster trajectory, which moves over the polar cap, into the lobe, and then into the plasma sheet on each orbit, allows us to track the changes in O+ in these regions for a prestorm orbit, main-phase orbit, and recovery phase orbit. We find that changes in the O+ density and pressure in the plasma sheet are similar to those commonly observed in the ring current during a storm. The O+ is low prestorm. It increases by about a factor of 10 just prior to or during the early main phase of the storm, and is reduced, but usually not down to prestorm levels, in the recovery phase. The lobes contain tailward streaming O+ which originates in the “cleft ion fountain”. During the storms main phase, this population also increases. A detailed look at the main-phase passes shows that a significant increase in the O+/H+ ratio is observed when this lobe population reaches the plasma sheet, and the tailward streaming O+ is observed continuously as the spacecraft moves from the lobe into the plasma sheet. The enhanced O+ in the lobe and the plasma sheet is observed for many hours during the storm. The inward convection of this population is likely a significant contributor to the storm time ring current.
Human Appropriation of Renewable Fresh Water

Humanity now uses 26 percent of total terrestrial evapotranspiration and 54 percent of runoff that is geographically and temporally accessible. Increased use of evapotranspiration will confer minimal benefits globally because most land suitable for rain-fed agriculture is already in production. New dam construction could increase accessible runoff by about 10 percent over the next 30 years, whereas population is projected to increase by more than 45 percent during that period.
A robust multimodel framework for ensemble seasonal hydroclimatic forecasts

We provide a framework for careful analysis of the different methodological choices we make when constructing multimodel ensemble seasonal forecasts of hydroclimatic variables. Specifically, we focus on three common modeling decisions: (i) number of models, (ii) multimodel combination approach, and (iii) lead time for prediction. The analysis scheme includes a multimodel ensemble forecasting algorithm based on nonparametric regression, a set of alternatives for the options previously pointed, and a selection of probabilistic verification methods for ensemble forecast evaluation. The usefulness of this framework is tested through an example application aimed to generate spring/summer streamflow forecasts at multiple locations in Central Chile. Results demonstrate the high impact that subjectivity in decision‐making may have on the quality of ensemble seasonal hydroclimatic forecasts. In particular, we note that the probabilistic verification criteria may lead to different choices regarding the number of models or the multimodel combination method. We also illustrate how this objective analysis scheme may lead to results that are extremely relevant for the case study presented here, such as skillful seasonal streamflow predictions for very dry conditions.
Observations of magnetic‐field‐aligned auroral‐electron precipitation

A sounding rocket was launched in the early evening into an auroral display during a 50-γ positive bay. The flight path carried the rocket over the two most northerly arcs in a band of parallel east-west oriented arcs, into a region of low activity to the north of the band, and then into a large fold northeast of the launch site. Several times during the flight, intense field-aligned electron pitch-angle distributions (i.e., peaked near 0°) were observed; these regions were found to be coincident with the northern boundary of the band of auroral precipitation. No equivalent distributions were observed between arcs to the south. Electron intensities of about 1011 (cm² sec ster kev)−1 peaked near β = 0 were observed at 0.55 kev, and electrons near this energy were conservatively estimated to carry a current of 2 × 10−4 amp/m². This electron current sheet was estimated to have a large east-west extent and a north-south thickness of 10 km, and under certain conditions would produce a transverse magnetic field of 10³ γ. Field-aligned 7.8-kev electrons were also observed in the boundary region with intensities (∼3 × 109 (cm² sec ster kev)−1), a factor of 10 larger than that observed at any other time in the flight. Energetic electron (E > 25 kev) pitch-angle distributions were found to be generally antisotropic peaked near 90°; however, at times of maximum intensities, the distributions approached isotropy. Energetic proton (E > 30 kev) intensity profiles obtained during the flight were featureless, and pitch-angle distributions were anisotropic, peaked near 90°. No correlation with electron intensities was apparent; however, the proton pitch-angle distributions gradually shifted toward isotropy on two occasions of intense electron precipitation (near the center of the arc). This minor correlation wag not considered statistically significant. Low-energy ion precipitation was below the limit of detectability, and an upper limit on the primary ion beam was set at 5 × 105 (cm² sec ster kev)−1 and the 1- to 20-kev energy range. Most characteristics of particle precipitation observed in the boundary region are shown to be consistent with a local acceleration from a parallel electric field with a potential drop greater than 7 kv.
Empirical ocean tide models estimated from TOPEX/POSEIDON altimetry

Three empirical ocean tide models are determined from repeat cycles 10 to 78 of the TOPEX/POSEIDON (T/P) altimeter mission. The three models investigate the effects of the satellite orbit ephemeris on the ocean tides determined from T/P altimetry and the effect of extracting the free core nutation resonance in the definition of the diurnal ocean tide admittance. The altimetric data series use the Joint Gravity Model JGM-2 geopotential orbit ephemeris and the preliminary JGM-3 orbit ephemeris computed at the University of Texas, Center for Space Research. The altimetric data from the T/P mission are shown to have the precision necessary to estimate the monthly and fortnightly ocean tides in each bin. Inclusion of existing models of the ocean tides in the polar latitudes not sampled by the altimeter demonstrates the importance of these latitudes on spherical harmonic representations of the ocean tides. The ocean tides are first estimated in bins of size 2.834° in longitude by 1° in latitude and then smoothed to 1° by 1° grids within ±66° latitude. The orthotide response formalism of Groves and Reynolds (1975) is used to represent the diurnal and semidiurnal ocean tides, while a constant admittance is assumed across narrow bandwidths around each of the monthly (Mm), fortnightly (Mf), and termensual (Mt) tidal components. Comparisons of the T/P ocean tide models to tide gauge observations indicate their accuracies to be of the order of 2–3 cm. The T/P-derived ocean tide models remove approximately 20 cm2 more of the T/P measured sea surface variance than the Cartwright and Ray (1991) tide model and show a 19 cm2 and 15 cm2 improvement over the Schwiderski (1980a, b) and Cartwright and Ray (1991) tide models, respectively, when compared to tide gauge estimates of the ocean tides.
Record in metamorphic tourmalines of subduction-zone devolatilization and boron cycling

Boron concentrations and isotope compositions of fluids and lavas from subduction-zone settings show great potential for elucidating mass flux at Earth's modern convergent margins. However, the fluid-mineral-melt behaviorof B and its two stable isotopes remains relatively poorly understood. Boron isotope analyses of tourmaline in metasedimentary rocks subducted to 15-90 km depths (1) demonstrate the ability of this mineral to retain information regarding prograde devolatilization history in even highly retrograded rocks and (2) indicate the importance of tourmaline in affecting whole-rock B loss and B isotope evolution during subduction-zone metamorphism. The B lost from micas during metamorphism of subducting sedimentary rocks and altered oceanic crust is isotopically more enriched in 1 1 B than the B retained in the micas. Beneath forearcs and volcanic arcs, the B from micas is either removed from the subduction-zone rocks via metamorphic fluids or sequestered by growing tourmaline, in which the B can be entrained to even greater depths. Here we demonstrate that these metamorphic fluids could contribute to the relatively high 811B signatures observed in most arc lavas and the across-arc trends of decreasing δ 1 1 B observed in several arcs.