Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Rare earth element geochemistry of scleractinian coral skeleton during meteoric diagenesis: a sequence through neomorphism of aragonite to calcite

Rare earth element geochemistry in carbonate rocks is utilized increasingly for studying both modern oceans and palaeoceanography, with additional applications for investigating water–rock interactions in groundwater and carbonate diagenesis. However, the study of rare earth element geochemistry in ancient rocks requires the preservation of their distribution patterns through subsequent diagenesis. The subjects of this study, Pleistocene scleractinian coral skeletons from Windley Key, Florida, have undergone partial to complete neomorphism from aragonite to calcite in a meteoric setting; they allow direct comparison of rare earth element distributions in original coral skeleton and in neomorphic calcite. Neomorphism occurred in a vadose setting along a thin film, with degradation of organic matter playing an initial role in controlling the morphology of the diagenetic front. As expected, minor element concentrations vary significantly between skeletal aragonite and neomorphic calcite, with Sr, Ba and U decreasing in concentration and Mn increasing in concentration in the calcite, suggesting that neomorphism took place in an open system. However, rare earth elements were largely retained during neomorphism, with precipitating cements taking up excess rare earth elements released from dissolved carbonates from higher in the karst system. Preserved rare earth element patterns in the stabilized calcite closely reflect the original rare earth element patterns of the corals and associated reef carbonates. However, minor increases in light rare earth element depletion and negative Ce anomalies may reflect shallow oxidized groundwater processes, whereas decreasing light rare earth element depletion may reflect mixing of rare earth elements from associated microbialites or contamination from insoluble residues. Regardless of these minor disturbances, the results indicate that rare earth elements, unlike many minor elements, behave very conservatively during meteoric diagenesis. As the meteoric transformation of aragonite to calcite is a near worst case scenario for survival of original marine trace element distributions, this study suggests that original rare earth element patterns may commonly be preserved in ancient limestones, thus providing support for the use of ancient marine limestones as proxies for marine rare earth element geochemistry.
Radar ACFs and turbulence characteristics from artificially generated field‐aligned irregularities

The plasma in the auroral ionosphere may be considered as a flowing turbulent fluid and the radar auto‐correlation function (ACF), calculated from received radar signals, is used to derive turbulence characteristics, such as diffusion coefficients and correlation times. Artificial backscatter generated by the Tromsø heater has been diagnosed in this way using the CUTLASS HF radars. Turbulence characteristics were extracted from the ACFs using the method of Villain et al. [1996] for naturally occurring irregularity backscatter. In this study, it was found that the distribution of diffusion coefficients for artificially generated backscatter centered on a value that was about an order of magnitude less than that corresponding to the return from naturally occurring irregularities. Also, the modal correlation length value was about twice that corresponding to the natural case.
Wintertime variability of the Beaufort gyre in the Arctic Ocean derived from CryoSat‐2/SIRAL observations

We processed the sea surface height measured by the SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar)/Interferometric Radar Altimeter (SIRAL) on board CryoSat-2 (CS-2) and successfully estimated the monthly dynamic ocean topography (DOT) of the Arctic Ocean. The CS-2 monthly DOT showed the interannual and monthly variability of the Beaufort Gyre (BG) during winter between 2010/2011 and 2014/2015. The northward flow at the western edge of the BG was primarily estimated over the Chukchi Borderland (CBL). However, the BG extended across the CBL, and the northward flow was estimated over the Mendeleev Ridge in the winter of 2012/2013. Our analyses revealed a significantly variable BG in response to changes in the sea surface stress field. Our analysis indicated that (1) sea ice motion, driven by wind fields, acts as a driving force for the BG when sea ice motion was intensified during winter and (2) sea ice motion can also act as an inhibiting force for the BG when sea ice motion is weakened during winter. In addition, the relationship between the DOT, steric height, and ocean bottom pressure implied that the DOT during winter responded to varying wind stresses through baroclinic and barotropic adjustments. According to a tracer experiment, we inferred that in the winter of 2012/2013, the Pacific-origin water carried into the BG through the Barrow Canyon was transported to the northern shelf and shelf break of the Chukchi Sea rather than the CBL, which is where the Pacific-origin water had been transported in the other years of the observation period.
Shear and strain in Santa Monica Basin

By injecting a cloud of SF6 into Santa Monica Basin at a depth of 790 m and observing its vertical spread, Ledwell and Watson (1991) estimate the average diapycnal diffusivity between 750 and 850 m as Kp = 2.5 × 10−5 m2 m−1 This diffusivity is higher than inferred from microstructure measurements in the open-ocean thermocline for typical internal wave levels (Gregg and Sanford, 1988). To examine shear and strain in the basin, we dropped expendable current profilers (XCPs) and calculated strain from conductivity, temperature, and depth (CTD) casts. Shear and strain are above the GM76 model spectrum (Garrett and Munk, 1975; Cairns and Williams, 1976), and comparisons with published parameterizations indicate more than enough shear variance to account for the high diffusivity reported by Ledwell and Watson. Thus, the eddy diffusivity in Santa Monica Basin is not at odds with lower values estimated from microstructure measurements in the open ocean, but is due to an elevated internal wave field. The spectral shapes, however, differ from typical open-ocean spectra.
An Analogue of the Descartes-euler Formula for Infinite Graphs and Higuchi's Conjecture an Analogue of the Descartes-euler Formula for Infinite Graphs and Higuchi's Conjecture

Let R be a connected 2-manifold without boundary obtained from a (possibly infinite) collection of polygons by identifying them along edges of equal length. Let V be the set of vertices, and for every v ∈ V , let κ(v) denote the (Gaussian) curvature of v: 2π minus the sum of incident polygon angles. Descartes showed that v∈V κ(v) = 4π whenever R may be realized as the surface of a convex polytope in R 3. More generally, if R is made of finitely many polygons, Euler's formula is equivalent to the equation v∈V κ(v) = 2πχ(R) where χ(R) is the Euler characteristic of R. Our main theorem shows that whenever v∈V :κ(v)<0 κ(v) converges and there is a positive lower bound on the distance between any pair of vertices in R, there exists a compact closed 2-manifold S and an integer t so that R is homeomorphic to S minus t points, and further v∈V κ(v) ≤ 2πχ(S) − 2πt. In the special case when every polygon is regular of side length one and κ(v) > 0 for every vertex v, we apply our main theorem to deduce that R is made of finitely many polygons and is homeomorphic to either the 2-sphere or to the projective plane. Further, we show that unless R is a prism, antiprism, or the projective planar analogue of one of these that |V | ≤ 3444. This resolves a recent conjecture of Higuchi.
Predictors of illness severity in COVID-19 cases

Background Multiple studies worldwide reported the clinical and epidemiological features of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) with limited reports form the Middle East area. Methods This is an observational study to describe the clinical and epidemiological features of 341 COVID-19 cases in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia over the first three months from reporting the first case in the country and identify factors associated with severity of the illness. Results The median age was 45 years and males were twice as affected as females (p value < 0.0001). The duration of viral shedding ranged from 9 to 36 days. The most common clinical presentations include fever, shortness of breath, cough, myalgia, sore throat, vomiting, and headache. Severe and critical cases were significantly higher in males compared to females (23% vs 8.7%), senior adults (> 65 years), Bengali ethnicity, and in patient with com-morbidities including diabetes, hypertension, and dyslipidemia (p-value = 0.001). Furthermore, case fatality rate was found to be 10% and was significantly higher in male gender compared to female (13.8%vs 2.6%), and in Asian ethnicity (17.9%) compared to Arabs (6%) and African counterparts (0) (p-value = 0.002). No association was found between viral load represented by the RT-PCR cycle threshold (Ct) values and severity of illness. Conclusion Age, gender and ethnicity are important predictors of COVID-19 severity while Cycle threshold (Ct) of SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR test cannot be used as a predictor of criticality of illness.
Stable isotope sclerochronology of rudist bivalves: Growth rates and Late Cretaceous seasonality

The almost complete translation of shell accretion to vertical growth was a successful morphogenetic adaptation of rudist bivalves, which replaced coral-algal-hydrozoan communities in most Tethyan shallow-marine environments during the Cretaceous. Growth rates of rudist shells are, therefore, important in reconstructions of Cretaceous shallow-marine benthic communities. Carbon and oxygen isotopic compositions were analyzed in sclerochronological profiles through the shells of two Late Cretaceous rudist bivalves from Greece and Turkey. Values of δ 13 C vary between +0.8‰ and +2.2‰ in the hippuritid Vaccinites ultimus and between +0.8‰ and +2.6‰ in the radiolitid Gorjanovicia cf. costata . Ranges in δ 18 O are −5.3‰ to −2.9‰ and −4.6‰ to −2.1‰, respectively. A distinct cyclicity of δ 13 C and δ 18 O in both shells reflects Late Cretaceous seasonality and indicates annual vertical-growth increments of 45 mm in V. ultimus and 54 mm in Gorjanovicia . The concentrations of minor elements are similar to those of extant bivalves with low-Mg calcite shells.
Poloidal and toroidal fields in geomagnetic field modeling

The theory of surface operators is described and applied to four surface operators on spheres: the dimensionless surface gradient, ▽1=r▽-r∂r; the dimensionless surface curl, Λ1=rˆ×▽1; the dimensionless surface Laplacian, ▽1²=▽1 · ▽1; and the Funk-Hecke operators, integral operators with axisymmetric kernels. Three methods are given for solving ▽1²g=f as g=▽1−2f; one method works numerically when f has a rapidly convergent expansion in spherical harmonics, the second works when f is smooth in longitude but not latitude, and the third (a Funk-Hecke operation) works when f is rough in all directions. With this apparatus, a complete proof is given of the Helmholtz representation of an arbitrary vector field v S (r), the spherical surface of radius r centered on the origin: there are unique scalar fields f, g, h on S(r) such that v=rˆf+▽1g+Λ1h and 〈g〉r=〈h〉r=0. Here 〈g〉r is the average value of g on S (r). From the Helmholtz representation on spherical surfaces, the Mie or poloidal-toroidal representation in spherical shells is deduced. Suppose S(a,c) is the spherical shell whose inner and outer boundaries are S(a) and S(c). Suppose B is solenoidal in S (a,c), i.e., ▽·B=0 and 〈Br〉a=0. Then there are unique scalar fields P and Q in S(a,c) such that B=▽ × Λ1P + Λ1Q and 〈P〉r=〈Q〉r=0 for a ⪕ r ⪕ c. The fields P = ▽ × Λ1P and Q=Λ1Q are the poloidal and toroidal parts of B. Applications of this formalism to geomagnetic field modeling are discussed. Gauss's resolution of the geomagnetic field B on S(b) into internal and external parts is generalized; if the radial current Jr does not vanish on S (b), then to Gauss's expression must be added a toroidal field on S(b) due entirely to Jr on S(b). A simple proof is given of Runcorn's theorem that to first order in susceptibility no external magnetic field results from magnetization in a horizontally homogeneous spherical shell polarized by sources inside the shell. A Funk-Hecke-based method of modeling ionospheric currents is described, which may be more accurate than truncated spherical harmonic expansions and easier to use than Biot-Savart integrals. Finally, the formalism makes possible the modeling of satellite samples of the geomagnetic field in a spherical shell S (a,c) where electric currents cannot be neglected. Two approximation schemes are described. One is a truncated power series expansion in (c-a)/H, where H is the radial length scale of the currents. The other assumes that most of B in S(a,c) is not due to the currents between S (a) and S(c), and that the currents in S(a,c) are field-aligned. Then the collection of physically possible magnetic fields in S(a,c) is only 50% larger, in a well-defined sense, than the collection of vacuum fields there. Methods of calculation are given explicitly.
cardiac cycle observed by MR imaging. Variation of lateral ventricular volume during the

CSF pulsation suggests variation in the size of the cerebral ventricles during the cardiac cycle. The arterial blood flow and venous outflow are two major components that contribute to the variation. High-resolution MR imaging with cardiac gating provides sharp delineation of the cerebral ventricles with clear boundaries. Subtle changes in the size of the ventricles ~uring the cardiac cycle are measurable with high precision and accuracy-15y using a sophisticated automated edge-detection algorithm. In 12 normal individuals, the cerebral ventricles were examined, and the size of the lateral ventricles s~owed a 10-20% change duri_ryg the cardiac cycle. The paHern is complex but similar in appearance to the intrac_l"anial pressure pulse waveform. The variation suggests that the choroid plexus may·piay a greater role as a source of CSF pulsation than currently acknowledged. The ability to measure the variations in ventricular volume has clinical implication as a noninvasive method for the diagnosis of diseases with abnormal brain elasticity. AJNR 10:1145-1149
Video-based Analysis of the Blink Re�ex in Parkinson’s Disease Patients

We developed a video-based tool to quantitatively assess the Glabellar Tap Re�ex (GTR) in patients with idiopathic Parkinson’s Disease (iPD) patients as well as healthy age-matched subjects. We also video-graphically assessed the effect of dopaminergic medication on the GTR in iPD patients, as well as frequency and velocity of re�ex and non-reex blinks. The Glabellar Tap Re�ex is a clinical sign seen in patients e.g. suffering from iPD. Reliable tools to quantify this sign are lacking. Methods: We recorded the GTR in 11 iPD patients and 12 healthy controls (HC) with a high-speed camera and a framerate of at least 180 images/s. In these videos, re�ex and non-reex blinks were analyzed for blink count and velocity in an automated fashion. Results: With our setup, the GTR can be extracted from high-resolution cameras using landmarks of MediaPipe face algorithm. iPD patients did not habituate to the GTR; dopaminergic medication did not alter that response. iPD patients’ non-reex blinks were higher in frequency and lower in velocity (mean width); dopaminergic medication decreased the frequency and increased the velocity – both in the direction of HC. Conclusion: We developed a quantitative, video-based tool to assess the GTR and other blinking-specic parameters in HC and iPD patients. Further studies could compare the video data to electromyogram (EMG) data for accuracy and comparability, as well as evaluate the speci�city of the GTR in patients with other neurodegenerative disorders, in whom the GTR can also be present. Signi�cance: The video-based detection of the blinking parameters allows for unobtrusive measurement in patients, a safer and more comfortable option.
REMOVING OIL ANO SAVING OILED MARSH GRASS USING A SHORELINE CLEANER

: A new shoreline cleaner, which was specially developed during the cleanup ofthe Valdez spill in Alaska, was tested to determine its effectiveness in removing oil from Louisiana Gulf Coast marsh grass thus minimizing the oil impact. Intact plugs of Spartina alterniflora containing living plants, roots, and soil microbial communities were collected from salt marshes and transferred to a greenhouse. Plant photosynthesis, respiration, and stomata! conductance were monitored following various oiling and cleaning scenarios. The treatments in­ cluded: oiled, oiled and cleaned after one day, oiled and cleaned after rwo days, cleaner only, and control. Plant recovery depended upon the degree of oiling and the type of oil used. Fouling with bunker C oil caused almost total plant mortality unless the plants were cleaned with the shoreline cleaner. South Louisiana crude oil was less toxic but cleaning accelerated recovery as was evident by photosynthetic activity and other plant functions such as regeneration of new shoots. Collec­ tively, these studies demonstrate the potential for saving an oiled Spar­ tina altemiflora marsh by use ofthis shoreline cleaner in a real oil spill. Marshes are an important-part of riverine, estuarine, and coastal ~cosystems. A significant amount of pe.troleum is refined, stored, or ! ransported through these areas and some marshes are therefore sub­ ject_ to occasional fouling with oil. Marshes provide fish and wildlife habitat and can improve water quality. u Thus, there is generally great public attention and pressure to minimize negative impacts of oil in marshes.
Locality and Transit

—A substantial amount of work has recently gone into localizing BitTorrent trafﬁc within an ISP in order to avoid excessive and often times unnecessary transit costs. Several architectures and systems have been proposed and the initial results from speciﬁc ISPs and a few torrents have been encouraging. In this work we attempt to deepen and scale our understanding of locality and its potential. Looking at speciﬁc ISPs, we consider tens of thousands of concurrent torrents, and thus capture ISP-wide implications that cannot be appreciated by looking at only a handful of torrents. Secondly, we go beyond individual case studies and present results for few thousands ISPs represented in our dataset of up to 40K torrents involving more than 3.9M concurrent peers and more than 20M in the course of a day spread in 11K ASes. Finally, we develop scalable methodologies that allow us to process this huge dataset and derive accurate trafﬁc matrices of torrents. Using the previous methods we obtain the following main ﬁndings: ( i ) Although there are a large number of very small ISPs without enough resources for localizing trafﬁc, by analyzing the 100 largest ISPs we show that Locality policies are expected to signiﬁcantly reduce the transit trafﬁc with respect to the default random overlay construction method in these ISPs; ( ii ) contrary to the popular belief, increasing the access speed of the clients of an ISP does not necessarily help to localize more trafﬁc; ( iii ) by studying several real ISPs, we have shown that soft speed-aware locality policies guarantee win-win situations for ISPs and end users. Furthermore, the maximum transit trafﬁc savings that an ISP can achieve without limiting the number of inter-ISP overlay links is bounded by “unlocalizable” torrents with few local clients. The application of restrictions in the number of inter-ISP links leads to a higher transit trafﬁc reduction but the QoS of clients downloading “unlocalizable” torrents would be severely harmed.
Apropos de l'information sur l'amplitude, apportee par le champ sismique ambiant

The use of the ambient seismic field (ASF) to extract Earth’s response has received significant attention in the last several years. Multiple studies demonstrate the utility of the ASF for estimating high-resolution velocity models in various locations. In this paper, we discuss the amplitude information carried by the ASF. Amplitude information includes both amplification effects due to elastic structure, such as low velocity sedimentary basins, and attenuation effects in the crust and upper mantle or even in buildings. As has been suggested by other authors, amplitude measurements may be biased due to nonuniformities in ambient field excitation; however, we find very similar and stable results for different time intervals for both amplification and attenuation, suggesting that this bias may not be as large as feared. We conclude that valuable amplitude information can be recovered from the ASF through careful processing. Amplitude measurements may be particularly valuable due to the enhanced sensitivity of attenuation to fluids and/or temperature fluctuations.
The efficacy of hyaluronidase on flap survival: an animal model.

OBJECTIVE It has been hypothesized that hyaluronidase may allow fluid to enter and exit the basal area of the flap more readily and thus allow waste metabolites from the distal portion of the flap to drain towards areas where the blood supply may be healthier. We aimed to test this hypothesis by seeing whether hyaluronidase enhances the survival of a flap created in an animal model. MATERIALS AND METHODS The experiment utilized 14 male Wistar rats to test the effect of administering hyaluronidase on flap survival. The study utilized the same "flap survival method" technique reported in numerous previous studies. RESULTS The area of necrosis in the animals of the intervention group was lower than in the control animals, and this result reached statistical significance. CONCLUSIONS Hyaluronidase may preserve tissue flap vitality, starting at the bottom end of the dosage range. Future research should establish the minimal concentration needed to obtain benefits. The optimal mode of administration, whether by injection or topical application, is also a topic for future studies.
, R. (2017). Large Deformations of the Tracy–Widom Distribution I: Non-oscillatory Asymptotics. Communications in Mathematical Physics, 223-263.

We analyze the left-tail asymptotics of deformed Tracy-Widom distribution functions describing the ﬂuctuations of the largest eigenvalue in invariant random matrix ensembles after removing each soft edge eigenvalue independently with probability 1 − γ ∈ [0 , 1]. As γ varies, a transition from Tracy-Widom statistics ( γ = 1) to classical Weibull statistics ( γ = 0) was observed in the physics literature by Bohigas, de Carvalho, and Pato [12]. We provide a description of this transition by rigorously computing the leading-order left-tail asymptotics of the thinned GOE, GUE, and GSE Tracy-Widom distributions. In this paper, we obtain the asymptotic behavior in the non-oscillatory region with γ ∈ [0 , 1) ﬁxed (for the GOE, GUE, and GSE distributions) and γ ↑ 1 at a controlled rate (for the GUE distribution). This is the ﬁrst step in an ongoing program to completely describe the transition between Tracy-Widom and Weibull statistics. As a corollary to our results, we obtain a new total-integral formula involving the Ablowitz-Segur solution to the second Painlev´e equation.
Stem Enhancement Ramsay Hunt Syndrome Associated with Brain

Summary: Postcontrast T1-weighted MR images in a patient with Ramsay Hunt syndrome showed an enhancing lesion in the region of the nucleus of the pontine facial nerve and abnormal enhancement of the intrameatal, labyrinthine, and tympanic facial nerve segments and of the geniculate ganglion, as well as enhancement of the vestibulocochlear nerve and parts of the membranous labyrinth. This enhancement most probably resulted from a primary neuritis of the in-trameatal nerve trunks of the seventh and eighth cranial nerves.