Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Salt diapir reactivation and normal faulting in an oblique extensional system, Vulcan Sub-basin, NW Australia

Oblique extension and salt diapirism have their own distinct mechanisms that control the geometry and kinematics of structures. In this study, we document a geological phenomenon from the Vulcan Sub-basin in NW Australia that combines these processes: a salt diapir reactivated in an oblique extensional system. Detailed structural analysis of this natural example, with a focus on normal fault systems, allows characterization of the oblique extensional system and investigation of how the pre-existing structural fabrics and salt diapir control deformation, and interact with each other under oblique extension. After comparison with forward modelling results and using constraints from geological evidence, our fault strike analysis indicates that the Neogene flexural extension orientation in the oblique extensional system is around 347°, revealing a perpendicular relationship between extension direction and fault strikes from the deformation zone. The salt diapir, reactivated during Neogene extension, strongly influences local structure in the oblique extensional system by altering fault strikes, stepping patterns, deformation zone width and fault density, indicative of a ‘stress–strain concentration’ effect of the salt diapir owing to its extremely low strength. These results provide valuable insights into the understanding of oblique extensional systems, the geomechanical role of salt during extension, and the Neogene tectonic evolution of NW Australia. Supplementary material: Dominant seismic frequency analysis, uninterpreted seismic profiles, additional structural and isochron maps, a 3D view of fault systems, and original measurements of the fault system are available at http://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare. c.3148321.
Status and Threats to Fish Diversity and Water Quality of Semariang Mangrove Area, Sarawak, Malaysia

This study aimed to document the status and threats to the fish diversity and water quality at Sungai Semariang mangrove area, which is located on the eastern part of Kuching Wetland National Park. A total of 32 families represented by 76 species of fish were caught from the area. The six dominant families in terms of the number of individuals caught were Ariidae (35 percent), Sciaenidae (11 percent), Engraulidae (9 percent), Leiognathidae, Mugilidae and Pristigasteridae (7 percent each). The four families with the most number of species were Sciaenidae (12 species), Ariidae (10 species), Engraulidae (6 species) and Leiognathidae (5 species), Arius venosus was the most common species with the highest number of individuals caught. Most of the individuals caught from the area were small sized individuals indicating the importance of the area as nursery, feeding, breeding and shelter areas for many species of fish. Water temperature ranged from 28.0 to 30.2 °c and pH from 6.9 to 7.3. Dissolved oxygen ranged from 2.4 to 3.8 mg/L. Low dissolved oxygen was found near flood mitigation works and downstream of residential areas. Among the threats to the area are residential areas and flood mitigation works.
The Schooner Field, Blocks 44/26a, 43/30a, UK North Sea

Abstract The Schooner Field is Shell U.K.'s first Carboniferous gas development in the North Sea. The field was discovered in 1987 by well 44/26-2 and gas production began in October 1996 from four wells. In contrast to the majority of the fields in the Southern North Sea producing from the aeolian Leman Sandstones Formation (Rotliegend), Schooner targets the low net-to-gross, fluvial Upper Carboniferous Barren Red Measures and Coal Measures formations. The reservoir consists of discrete, low sinuosity fluvio-deltaic channels draining a swampy coastal floodplain evolving upwards into a highly aggrading, low gradient, distal fluvial fan, dominated by braided and anastomosing channels. In Schooner, like other Carboniferous fields, reservoir connectivity is one of the key subsurface uncertainties due both to channel lateral discontinuity and fault compartmentalization. Production data and reservoir properties distribution, together with a new stratigraphical subdivision driven mostly by chemostratigraphic techniques, have been used to reassess the volume of gas-in-place which currently is estimated at 29.98 Gm3 (1059 BCF)
Evidence for interannual variability of the carbon cycle from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory Global Air Sampling Network

The distribution and variations of atmospheric CO2 from 1981 to 1992 were determined by measuring CO2 mixing ratios in samples collected weekly at a cooperative global air sampling network. The results constitute the most geographically extensive, carefully calibrated, internally consistent CO2 data set available. Analysis of the data reveals that the global CO2 growth rate has declined from a peak of approximately 2.5 ppm/yr in 1987-1988 to approximately 0.6 ppm/yr in 1992. In 1992 we find no increase in atmospheric CO2 from 30 deg to 90 deg N. Variations in fossil fuel CO2 emissions cannot explain this result. The north pole-south pole CO2 difference increased from approximately 3 ppm during 1981-1987 to approximately 4 ppm during 1988-1991. In 1992 the difference was again approximately 3 ppm. A two-dimensional model analysis of the data indicates that the low CO2 growth rate in 1992 is mainly due to an increase in the northern hemisphere CO2 sink from 3.9 Gt C/yr in 1991 to 5.0 Gt C/yr in 1992. The increase in the north pole-south pole CO2 difference appears to result from an increase in the southern hemisphere CO2 sink from approximately 0.5 to approximately 1.5 Gt C/yr.
Speleothems as indicators of wet and dry periods

INTRODUCTION Calcareous speleothems, cave deposits such as stalactites, stalagmites and flowstones are phenomena which are generated by a complex set of processes in part dependent on climate. During the late 20th century, the main focus of research was on δ18O records in speleothems as palaeotemperature indicators. However, even where the results of this approach can be calibrated in the instrumental period (e.g. Mangini et al., 2005), there are discrepancies with other palaeoclimate indicators, and it now appears that shifts in meteorological patterns over time need to be considered. Such changing patterns are also likely to be reflected in changing rainfall amount and indeed much attention is currently being
Childbearing with Hypermobile Ehlers–Danlos Syndrome and Hypermobility Spectrum Disorders: A Large International Survey of Outcomes and Complications

One in 20 births could be affected by hypermobile Ehlers–Danlos syndrome or Hypermobility Spectrum Disorders (hEDS/HSD); however, these are under-diagnosed and lacking research. This study aimed to examine outcomes and complications in people childbearing with hEDS/HSD. A large online international survey was completed by women with experience in childbearing and a diagnosis of hEDS/HSD (N = 947, total pregnancies = 1338). Data were collected on demographics, pregnancy and birth outcomes and complications. Participants reported pregnancies in the UK (N = 771), USA (N = 364), Australia (N = 106), Canada (N = 60), New Zealand (N = 23) and Ireland (N = 14). Incidences were higher in people with hEDS/HSD than typically found in the general population for pre-eclampsia, eclampsia, pre-term rupture of membranes, pre-term birth, antepartum haemorrhage, postpartum haemorrhage, hyperemesis gravidarum, shoulder dystocia, caesarean wound infection, postpartum psychosis, post-traumatic stress disorder, precipitate labour and being born before arrival at place of birth. This potential for increased risk related to maternal and neonatal outcomes and complications highlights the importance of diagnosis and appropriate care considerations for childbearing people with hEDS/HSD. Recommendations include updating healthcare guidance to include awareness of these possible complications and outcomes and including hEDS/HSD in initial screening questionnaires of perinatal care to ensure appropriate consultation and monitoring can take place from the start.
Air‐Sea Heat Fluxes Associated With Convective Cold Pools

High‐resolution air‐sea observations collected by a suite of remotely‐piloted uncrewed surface vehicles (USV) provide new insight on surface latent and sensible heat fluxes associated with convective cold pools over the eastern Pacific Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). Convective cold pools are linked to isolated, heavily precipitating cells over the ocean that yield downdrafts of evaporatively‐cooled air that spreads out horizontally in all directions and are characterized by strong air temperature gradients and horizontal wind speeds. Cold pool frontal signatures are identified based on air temperature depression criteria of −1.5°C in 10 min or less, resulting in a total of 276 events observed within the eastern Pacific ITCZ across 590 total seadays of data from 10 drones over the course of 3 years. Composite analysis reveals enhanced latent and sensible heat fluxes from the ocean to the atmosphere immediately following the frontal passage, and a decomposition of the bulk flux formulas indicates that variations in latent heat flux are largely influenced by the anomalous wind field (i.e., the cold pool gust front) acting on the mean background air‐sea moisture gradient, while variations in sensible heat flux are largely influenced by the mean background wind acting on the anomalous air‐sea temperature gradient (i.e., the cold pool temperature front). High‐frequency variations in wind speed and velocity are further explored in the context of “gustiness” and averaging intervals used in bulk flux algorithms. A case study is also presented for a convective cold pool event captured by a traveling mesoscale network, or mesonet, of USVs.
Investigation of the impact of commercial malolactic fermentation starter cultures on red wine aroma compounds, sensory properties and consumer preference

Wine aroma and flavour contribute to the intrinsic sensory properties which determine wine quality and consequently influence consumer acceptability and preference of a product. Understanding wine aroma and flavour requires having insight into an extremely complex system of interactions among many hundreds of compounds that are influenced by a variety of physical and biological factors. The chemical compounds involved in the final aroma and flavour of a wine could originate from the grape to the bottle at any stage and often involves microbial activity of some kind. The influence of malolactic fermentation (MLF) on wine aroma and flavour has received considerable attention in the last few years, and is of particular interest as it could provide an additional tool to winemakers to produce quality wines. However, the potential contribution of lactic acid bacteria to wine aroma and flavour is not yet fully understood. The main focus of this review includes; (i) a summary of MLF related compositional changes and their potential impact on wine aroma and flavour; (ii) an outline of the analytical techniques used to quantify specific compounds in wine; (iii) an overview of MLF related sensory research findings; and finally, (iv) some innovative applications for studying MLF and its influence on wine aroma and flavour. This review therefore also highlights the importance of exploiting the hidden wealth of possibilities for bacteria to improve the aroma and flavour profile of wine.
Functional Role of RING Ubiquitin E3 Ligase VdBre1 and VdHrd1 in the Pathogenicity and Penetration Structure Formation of Verticillium dahliae

Verticillium dahliae, a virulent soil-borne fungus, elicits Verticillium wilt in numerous dicotyledonous plants through intricate pathogenic mechanisms. Ubiquitination, an evolutionarily conserved post-translational modification, marks and labels proteins for degradation, thereby maintaining cellular homeostasis. Within the ubiquitination cascade, ubiquitin ligase E3 demonstrates a unique capability for target protein recognition, a function often implicated in phytopathogenic virulence. Our research indicates that two ubiquitin ligase E3s, VdBre1 and VdHrd1, are intrinsically associated with virulence. Our findings demonstrate that the deletion of these two genes significantly impairs the ability of V. dahliae to colonize the vascular bundles of plants and to form typical penetration pegs. Furthermore, transcriptomic analysis suggests that VdBre1 governs the lipid metabolism pathway, while VdHrd1 participates in endoplasmic-reticulum-related processes. Western blot analyses reveal a significant decrease in histone ubiquitination and histone H3K4 trimethylation levels in the ΔVdBre1 mutant. This research illuminates the function of ubiquitin ligase E3 in V. dahliae and offers fresh theoretical perspectives. Our research identifies two novel virulence-related genes and partially explicates their roles in virulence-associated structures and gene regulatory pathways. These findings augment our understanding of the molecular mechanisms inherent to V. dahliae.
Relating students’ proportional reasoning level and their understanding of fair games

This paper analyzes the relationship between proportional reasoning and understanding fair games in Costa Rican students. We conducted a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the answers to six items on comparing ratios of increasing difficulty level and another item on prize estimation in a fair game. We describe the strategies employed and the semiotic conflicts detected in 292 Costa Rican students from Grades 6 to 10 (11-16-year-olds), comparing the findings with those established in previous research. The results show an increase in the level of proportional reasoning with the grade, although the age at which the higher levels are reached is lower than that assumed by Noelting. The percentage of students applying correct strategies in the fair game problem also increases with grade, and a relationship between the understanding of fair game and the level of proportional reasoning is observed.
Earthquake nucleation and rupture at a range of scales : laboratories, gold mines, and subduction zones

We measured spectral and time-domain properties of seismic events over a size range that spans magnitudes M r -2 to 8 in order to study earthquake source processes. In addition, we conducted laboratory experiments to study interseismic behaviors that can influence earthquake nucleation and we developed a model of eathquake rupture to explain the scaling behaviors we observe. To bridge the scale gap between laboratory data and global seismic observations, we studied data from five deep gold mines in the Far West Rand region of South Africa. These mines are seismically active due to daily underground blasting and record a 1000 events per day from -2 < M < 3+ close to their sources. Frequency-magnitude relations, spatiotemporal clustering relations and observations of seismic spectra provide evidence that there are two types of events that occur in these mines, which we designate as Type A and Type B. Type-A events are fracture-dominated ruptures of previously intact rock and show an upper magnitude cutoff at M e 0.5. They are tightly clustered in space and time and occur close to active stope faces. They have scaling properties that agree with other studies of fresh-fracturing seismicity in that apparent stress decreases with magnitude and stress drop increases with magnitude. In contrast, Type-B events are temporally and spatially distributed throughout the active mining region. They have a lower magnitude cutoff at M e 0. From frictional scaling laws and observations of source spectra, we deduce that that this lower magnitude cutoff represents the critical patch size for earthquake nucleation in this mining environment. We find that the critical patch size is on the order of 10 m with a critical slip distance on the order of 10-4 m. Type-B events have scaling properties that match extrapolations from tectonic earthquakes. For example, apparent stress and particle velocity increase with magnitude. We develop a kinematic model of increasing rupture velocity with increasing source size to account for the observed scaling of frictional shear events. Thesis Supervisor: Thomas H. Jordan Title: Professor
MODELING TOC AND UV‐254 ABSORBANCE FOR RESERVOIR PLANNING AND OPERATION 1

ABSTRACT: Total organic carbon (TOC) is an important indicator of water quality in drinking water supply systems. Prescribed chlorination rates are often based on TOC levels, and levels of disinfection byproducts (DBP) can be subsequently approximated. Unfortunately, TOC is difficult to measure, and some water utilities rely on the more easily measured absorbance of ultraviolet light (specifically at a wavelength of 254 nm, abbreviated UV‐254) as a surrogate indicator of organic content. For daily or weekly operating purposes, measurements of UV‐254 can provide inexpensive and meaningful prescriptive guidance for disinfection processes. However, for longer term planning periods (monthly, seasonal, or annual) over which the minimization or reduction of TOC is an objective, a modeling approach may be necessary, and in a modeling environment, simulating TOC with simple mass balance relationships is much less data intensive than simulating light absorbance. This study aims to (1) develop a simple mass balance model for TOC in a stratified drinking water reservoir that can be used to help minimize TOC in real time and over longer term planning periods, and (2) demonstrate that TOC and UV‐254 are well correlated, so that either value can be used as model input or output. The study shows that TOC and UV‐254 are correlated reasonably well in a water supply reservoir for Boston, MA, and that a simple mass balance tool can effectively assist with planning and operations management using UV‐254 as a primary water quality indicator.
Edinburgh Research Explorer An improved pig reference genome sequence to enable pig genetics and genomics research

Background: The domestic pig ( Sus scrofa ) is important both as a food source and as a biomedical model given its similarity in size, anatomy, physiology, metabolism, pathology, and pharmacology to humans. The draft reference genome (Sscrofa10.2) of a purebred Duroc female pig established using older clone-based sequencing methods was incomplete, and unresolved redundancies, short-range order and orientation errors, and associated misassembled genes limited its utility. Results: We present 2 annotated highly contiguous chromosome-level genome assemblies created with more recent long-read technologies and a whole-genome shotgun strategy, 1 for the same Duroc female (Sscrofa11.1) and 1 for an outbred, composite-breed male (USMARCv1.0). Both assemblies are of substantially higher ( > 90-fold) continuity and accuracy than Sscrofa10.2. Conclusions: These highly contiguous assemblies plus annotation of a further 11 short-read assemblies provide an unprecedented view of the genetic make-up of this important agricultural and biomedical model species. We propose that the improved Duroc assembly (Sscrofa11.1) become the reference genome for genomic research in pigs.
LOCALIZATION AND URBANIZATION ECONOMIES

The IEB research program in Cities and Innovation aims at promoting research in the Economics of Cities and Regions. The main objective of this program is to contribute to a better understanding of agglomeration economies and 'knowledge spillovers'. The effects of agglomeration economies and 'knowledge spillovers' on the Location of economic Activities, Innovation, the Labor Market and the Role of Universities in the transfer of Knowledge and Human Capital are particularly relevant to the program. The effects of Public Policy on the Economics of Cities are also considered to be of interest. This program puts special emphasis on applied research and on work that sheds light on policy-design issues. Research that is particularly policy-relevant from a Spanish perspective is given special consideration. Disseminating research findings to a broader audience is also an aim of the program. The program enjoys the support from the IEB-Foundation The Barcelona Institute of Economics (IEB) is a research centre at the University of Barcelona which specializes in the field of applied economics. Through the IEB-Foundation , several private institutions (Applus, Abertis, Ajuntament de Barcelona, Diputació
Global variable-resolution simulations of extreme precipitation over Henan, China in 2021

A historic rainstorm occurred over Henan, China in July 2021 ("7.20" extreme precipitation event), resulting in significant human casualties and socio-economic losses. A global variable-resolution model (MPAS-Atmosphere v7.3) was employed to simulate this extreme precipitation event, by bridging the hydrostatic and non-hydrostatic scales together. A series of simulations have been done at both quasi-uniform (60km and 15km) and variable-resolution meshes (60-15km and 60-3km). For the 48-hour peak precipitation duration (07/20-07/22), the 60-3km variable-resolution simulation coupled with 5 the scale-aware convection-permitting parameterization scheme suite stands out predominately among other simulation experiments as it reproduces this extreme precipitation event most accurately, in terms of both the intensity and location of the peak precipitation. At 15-km resolution, the 60-15km variable-resolution simulation achieves comparable forecasting skills as the 15-km quasi-uniform simulation, but at a much reduced computing cost. In addition, at 15-km resolution, we found that the default mesoscale suite generally outperforms the convection-permitting suite at 15-km resolution as simulations coupled 10 with
In�uence of psycho-sexual factors on the quality of life in pregnant women during the COVID-19 pandemic: A Path Analysis

Introduction: COVID-19 has spread rapidly around the world. This epidemic has created stress and anxiety for pregnant women in different parts of the world. Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between quality of life (QoL) with anxiety, depression, coronavirus induced anxiety, sexual function (SF), and marital satisfaction (MS) in pregnant women during the Covid-19 pandemic. Methods: The present study is a cross-sectional study involving 261 pregnant women, administered through an online survey. Outcomes: The Short-Form Health Survey (SF_12), Marital Satisfaction Scale (MSS), Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), and coronavirus induced anxiety questionnaire, Padua Obsession Questionnaire, General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) are used for data collection. Data were analyzed using the Pearson correlation coe�cient and path analysis. Results: The overall goodness-of-t statistics revealed that the predictors of QoL had excellent �tness indices (RMSEA=0.02; AGFI=0.99). The results show that coronavirus induced anxiety, marital satisfaction (MS), sexual function (SF), depression, and anxiety have a direct effect on women’s QoL. Among the variables, GHQ has a more direct effect on women’s QoL. General health (GH) is considered as a mediator variable; variables such as anxiety, depression, and coronavirus induced anxiety with effect on GH can impress QoL. Anxiety as a main predictor of QoL, with direct and indirect effects through GH, depression, SF, and MS can impress QoL. Conclusion: Since the QoL in pregnant women is associated with coronavirus epidemics, these results can be used to plan to improve the health and QoL of these people.