Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Time scales of regional circulation of saline fluids in continental aquifers (Armorican massif, Western France)

In recent decades, saline fluids have been sampled worldwide at great depths in continental basements. Although some of them have been attributed to marine transgressions the mechanisms allowing their circulation is not understood. In this paper, we describe the horizontal and vertical distribution of moderately saline fluids (60 to 1400 mg L−1) sampled at depths ranging from 41 to 200 m in aquifers at the regional scale of the Armorican Massif (northwestern France). The horizontal and vertical distributions of high chloride concentrations are in good agreement with both the altitudinal and vertical limits and succession of the three major transgressions between the Mio-Pliocene and Pleistocene ages. The mean chloride concentration for each transgression area is exponentially related to the time spanned until present. It defines the potential laws of leaching of marine waters by fresh meteoric waters. The results of the Armorican aquifers provide the first observed constraints for the time scales of seawater circulation in the continental basement and the subsequent leaching by fresh meteoric waters. The general trend of increasing chloride concentration with depth and the time frame for the flushing process provide useful information to develop conceptual models of the paleo-functionning of Armorican aquifers.
Representation of a nonspherical ice particle by a collection of independent spheres for scattering

Disclosed herein is a new and unique type of circuit control for an electric guitar. Simply stated, it varies the resonant frequency of the pickup itself in addition to filtering out frequencies which are suppressed or rolled off. The mechanism by which this is brought about includes a potentiometer connected to a center tap of the coil assembly.
Yes, some of the Mediterranean outflow does come from great depth

In 1973 Stommel et al. predicted that the Western Mediterranean Deep Water (WMDW) contributes directly to the Mediterranean outflow through the Strait of Gibraltar (Strommel et al., 1973). Hydrographic data obtained in November 1985 showed unambiguous evidence of WMDW west of the major Gibraltar sill, thus confirming the prediction.
How can we improve a global ocean tide model at a regional scale? A test on the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea

A global ocean model has been developed within the context of TOPEX/Poseidon (T/P) on the basis of a finite element hydrodynamic modeling approach combined with data assimilation based on the representer method. The solution produced at global scale represents a spectacular improvement over what was available before the era of T/P. Typically, the mean discrepancy between the main tidal components and a hundred in situ tide gauges is 1.7 cm for M2 and 1 cm or less for the other components. However, the accuracies of this solution and of that produced by different authors within the T/P tide working group are all worse near coastlines and over continental shelves. This is the case for our finite element solution (FES) FES94.1 solution over the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea (YS-ECS) where the discrepancy is 33 cm for the M2 tide and 9 cm for the K1 tide when compared to a set of 192 tide gauges distributed along the coastlines. This is due largely to the complex geometry of the basin and the limited knowledge of the bathymetry. The aim of this paper is to investigate how our FES model can be improved with a dedicated application focused on one of the most energetic coastal basins: the YS-ECS (∼180 Gigawatts for M2, i.e. 8% of the global energy dissipated in the whole ocean). For this application, a finite grid was implemented with a resolution down to 5 km along the coasts and over the continental shelf break. Particular attention was paid to bathymetry by complementing the ETOP05 database with regional maps. Sensitivity tests to the tuning of the bottom friction and the nonlinear interactions between the diurnal and semidiurnal components allow us to investigate the impact of dissipation parameterization and to produce an optimal solution, without any data assimilation, for nine main components of the tidal spectrum (improvement by a factor of 2). M2 distance to the observations is now ∼17.5 cm (global variance of 92 cm), and K1 is 4 cm (global variance of 21 cm). As nonlinear components are significant over these basins, the two main quarterdiurnal components are calculated. The improvements are explained by five points: (1) the choice of a mixed friction, (2) a refinement of the mesh, (3) a choice of reliable boundary conditions, (4) a refined topography and, (5) the use of a specific friction coefficient 1.5×10−3. Surprisingly, the energy budget for the M2 component leads to a dissipation similar to the value estimated by the global FES94.1. This is a major result of this study, which leads us to the conclusion that when forcing a regional model with sea level boundary conditions along the open limits, the simulated velocity field adjusts to the tuning of friction coefficients in order to dissipate the same amount of energy made available at its open boundaries.
Magmatic Evolution and Ascent History of the Aries Micaceous Kimberlite, Central Kimberley Basin, Western Australia: Evidence from Zoned Phlogopite Phenocrysts, and UV Laser 40Ar/39Ar Analysis of Phlogopite–Biotite

The Neoproterozoic Aries kimberlite was emplaced in the central Kimberley Basin, Western Australia, as a N–NNE-trending series of three diatremes infilled by lithic-rich kimberlite breccias. The breccias are intruded by hypabyssal macrocrystic phlogopite kimberlite dykes that exhibit differentiation to a minor, high-Na–Si, olivine–phlogopite–richterite kimberlite, and late-stage macrocrystic serpentine–diopside ultramafic dykes. Mineralogical and geochemical evidence suggests that the high-Na–Si, olivine–phlogopite–richterite kimberlite was derived from the macrocrystic phlogopite kimberlite as a residual liquid following extended phlogopite crystallization and the assimilation of country rock sandstone, and that the macrocrystic serpentine–diopside ultramafic dykes formed as mafic cumulates from a macrocrystic phlogopite kimberlite. Chemical zonation of phlogopite–biotite phenocrysts indicates a complex magmatic history for the Aries kimberlite, with the early inheritance of a range of high-Ti phlogopite–biotite xenocrysts from metasomatized mantle lithologies, followed by the crystallization of a population of high-Cr phlogopite phenocrysts within the spinel facies lithospheric mantle. A further one to two phlogopite–biotite overgrowth rims of distinct composition formed on the phlogopite phenocrysts at higher levels during ascent to the surface. Ultra-violet laser 40Ar/39Ar dating of mica grain rims yielded a kimberlite eruption age of 815·4 ± 4·3 Ma (95% confidence). 40Ar/39Ar laser profiling of one high-Ti phlogopite-biotite macrocryst revealed a radiogenic 40Ar diffusive loss profile, from which a kimberlite magma ascent duration from the spinel facies lithospheric mantle was estimated (assuming an average kimberlite magma temperature of 1000°C), yielding a value of ∼0·23–2·32 days for the north extension lobe of the Aries kimberlite.
Why do patients discontinue fertility treatment? A systematic review of reasons and predictors of discontinuation in fertility treatment

BACKGROUND Chances of achieving parenthood are high for couples who undergo fertility treatment. However, many choose to discontinue before conceiving. A systematic review was conducted to investigate patients' stated reasons for and predictors of discontinuation at five fertility treatment stages. METHODS Six databases were systematically searched. Search-terms referred to fertility treatment and discontinuation. Studies reporting on patients' stated reasons for or predictors of treatment discontinuation were included. A list of all reasons for discontinuation presented in each study was made, different categories of reasons were defined and the percentage of selections of each category was calculated. For each predictor, it was noted how many studies investigated it and how many found a positive and/or negative association with discontinuation. RESULTS The review included 22 studies that sampled 21 453 patients from eight countries. The most selected reasons for discontinuation were: postponement of treatment (39.18%, postponement of treatment or unknown 19.17%), physical and psychological burden (19.07%, psychological burden 14%, physical burden 6.32%), relational and personal problems (16.67%, personal reasons 9.27%, relational problems 8.83%), treatment rejection (13.23%) and organizational (11.68%) and clinic (7.71%) problems. Some reasons were common across stages (e.g. psychological burden). Others were stage-specific (e.g. treatment rejection during workup). None of the predictors reported were consistently associated with discontinuation. CONCLUSIONS Much longitudinal and theory led research is required to explain discontinuation. Meanwhile, treatment burden should be addressed by better care organization and support for patients. Patients should be well informed, have the opportunity to discuss values and worries about treatment and receive advice to decide about continuing treatment.
TMPRSS2 and TMPRSS4 promote SARS-CoV-2 infection of human small intestinal enterocytes

The SARS-CoV-2 virus infects cultured ACE2-expressing human enterocytes aided by the TMPRSS2 and TMPRSS4 serine proteases. Smothering fecal-oral coronavirus spread Besides respiratory symptoms, diarrhea is one of the other commonly observed disease manifestations in patients with COVID-19. Zang et al. used organoid cultures of epithelial lining cells from human small and large intestine as an in vitro model system to study SARS-CoV-2 entry and replication in enterocytes. Mature enterocytes expressing the highest levels of the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) viral receptor were susceptible to productive infection. Two related membrane-bound serine proteases, TMPRSS2 and TMPRSS4, enhanced virus entry into enterocytes. While a subset of patients with COVID-19 shed high levels of viral RNA in feces, experiments examining the effect of simulated human colonic fluid on the virus suggest that shed virus is rapidly inactivated during transit through the colon, strongly suppressing the potential for further spread of the infection through a fecal-oral route. Gastrointestinal symptoms and fecal shedding of SARS-CoV-2 RNA are frequently observed in COVID-19. However, it is unclear whether SARS-CoV-2 replicates in the human intestine and contributes to possible fecal-oral transmission. Here, we report productive infection of SARS-CoV-2 in ACE2+ mature enterocytes in human small intestinal enteroids. Expression of two mucosa-specific serine proteases, TMPRSS2 and TMPRSS4, facilitated SARS-CoV-2 spike fusogenic activity and promoted virus entry into host cells. We also demonstrate that viruses released into the intestinal lumen were inactivated by simulated human colonic fluid, and infectious virus was not recovered from the stool specimens of patients with COVID-19. Our results highlight the intestine as a potential site of SARS-CoV-2 replication, which may contribute to local and systemic illness and overall disease progression.
Allometric prediction models of growth variables of Daniella oliveri in the Nigerian Guinea Savanna

Trees show considerable variation and flexibility in their size of crowns, height, stem diameters, crown height and crown length. Stem diameter at breast height is an important tree characteristics and an accurate prediction of tree growth dimensions. Relationships between stem diameter and crown length with other variables of Daniella oliveri was studied. The result reveal positive correlations between stem diameter, tree height, crown height and crown length which were all significant at F0.05 (1), 8. The corresponding F-values from analyses of variance were also significant (P=0.05) except for stem diameter with crown ratio, which show no relationship. The values of Pearson correlation coefficients (r) between the stem diameter, tree height, crown height and crown length were 0.693, 0.693 and 0.733 respectively. The coefficients of determination (r2) were 0.480, 0.617 and 0.537 also respectively. Taking the crown length as a predictor variable, there were also positive correlations with tree height and crown height. Here the r-values were 0.679 and 0.698 respectively and the r2-values were 0.461 and 0.487 also respectively. These means that stronger correlations were found with tree height and crown height when the stem diameter was taken as predictor variable than crown length. Key words: Toma Buba, Bauchi, stem diameter, tree height, correlation, regression,Daniella oliveri, clinometers, minitab.
Peri‐arterial pathways for clearance of α‐Synuclein and tau from the brain: Implications for the pathogenesis of dementias and for immunotherapy

Accumulation of amyloid beta (Aβ), α‐synuclein (αSyn), and tau in dementias indicates their age‐related failure of elimination from the brain. Aβ is eliminated along basement membranes in walls of cerebral arterioles and leptomeningeal arteries (intramural peri‐arterial drainage [IPAD]); IPAD is impaired with age. We test the hypothesis that αSyn and tau are also eliminated from the normal brain along IPAD pathways.
Revisiting frontiers as transitional spaces in Thailand

This paper explores the notion of frontiers as 'in-between' spaces that define particular transitions. Three contexts of frontier and their rapidly changing nature form the basis of the analysis. Agricultural frontiers (typically between farmland and forest) are defined by new relations of production and interplays between conservation, shifting modes of agriculture and natural resource use and management. Peri-urban frontiers (between countryside and city) are taken beyond their desakota/chaan-meuang locations to a more generic interplay between urbanity and rurality in defining livelihood and identity. National frontiers (between nation states with sharply different political and economic conditions) are transcended from above in the form of new regionalisms, and, from below, in migrations and other transboundary influences and flows. The paper proposes the frontier as both a spatial and temporal heuristic for understanding development and associated societal transitions in Thailand.
Extension-related Miocene calc-alkaline magmatism in the Apuseni Mountains, Romania: Origin of magmas

The Miocene magmatism of the Apuseni Mountains in the Carpatho-Pannonian area hosts some of Europe’s largest porphyry epithermal Cu–Au ore systems associated with shallow subvolcanic intrusions. Detailed field observations combined with K–Ar ages, geochemical analyses, Sr–Nd isotopes and paleomagnetic data constrain a model for the geotectonic evolution and processes of melt generation that may account for the exceptional mineralizing potential of the magmatic activity in this region. The magmatic activity developed mainly between 14.7 and 7.4 Ma and after a gap ceased at around 1.6 Ma. Geotectonic conditions do not support contemporaneous subduction processes, but were represented by transtensional and rotational tectonics, which generated horst and graben structures and favoured the generation and ascent of magmas. The “subduction signature” of the magmas emphasizes the significant involvement of fluids (mantle lithosphere and/or lower crust) inherited during previous geodynamic events. The mechanism of magmagenesis is considered to be related to decompressional melting (various degrees of) of a heterogeneous source situated at the crust-lithosphere mantle boundary. Mixing with asthenospheric melts generated during the extension-related attenuation of the lithosphere may also be implied. The evolution from normal to adakiticlike calc-alkaline and alkaline magmas generally is time-dependent as a consequence of variable fluid-present melting. Fractional crystallization-assimilation processes in shallow magma chambers are suggested for early magmatism but were almost absent from later magmatism, which related to an increasingly extensional regime. The youngest alkalic (shoshonitic) magmatism (1.6 Ma) is asthenosphere-derived, but in a different extensional event, being almost coeval with the OIB-like alkali-basaltic magmatism (2.5 Ma) occurring along the South Transylvanian fault. The fluid-present melting of the source seems to be the critical factor for the presence of the copper-gold-bearing mineralizing fluids.
Simple consistent models for water retention and hydraulic conductivity in the complete moisture range

The commonly used hydraulic models only account for capillary water retention and conductivity. Adsorptive water retention and film conductivity is neglected. This leads to erroneous description of hydraulic properties in the dry range. The few existing models, which account for film conductivity and adsorptive retention are either difficult to use or physically inconsistent. A new set of empirical hydraulic models for an effective description of water dynamics from full saturation to complete dryness is introduced. The models allow a clear partitioning between capillary and adsorptive water retention as well as between capillary and film conductivity. The number of adjustable parameters for the new retention model is not increased compared to the commonly used models, whereas only one extra parameter for quantifying the contribution of film conductivity is required for the new conductivity model. Both models are mathematically simple and thus easy to use in simulation studies. The new liquid conductivity model is coupled with an existing vapor conductivity model to describe conductivity in the complete moisture range. The new models were successfully applied to literature data, which all reach the dry to very dry range and cannot be well described with the classic capillary models. The investigated soils range from pure sands to clay loams. A simulation study with steady‐state water transport scenarios shows that neglecting either film or vapor conductivity or both can lead to significant underestimation of water transport at low water contents.
Salmon River Arch revisited: new evidence for 1370 Ma rifting near the end of deposition in the Middle Proterozoic Belt basin

New U–Pb zircon dates on diabase, diorite, and migmatites within a large magmatic complex in east-central Idaho have refined the age and tectonic setting of the East Kootenay orogeny that affected the Belt basin ca. 1370 Ma. These data show that a large volume of mafic magma was injected into the basin in east-central Idaho and followed shortly thereafter by its own felsic differentiate and granitic plutons and metamorphism of the host sediments ca. 1370 Ma. These data show that the magmatic complex and associated gneisses in east-central Idaho are not pre-Belt basement, but contemporaneous in age with the Belt basin. Nd isotopic analysis of the magmatic rocks establishes that they are not derived from known Proterozoic or Archean basement terranes, but could have formed from the host Yellowjacket Formation or juvenile 1.7 Ga crust. Nd isotopic composition of gneisses and the Yellowjacket Formation are interpreted to support previous correlations between these rocks and the Belt Supergroup. Metamorphic ba.
Stresses and plate boundary forces associated with subduction plate margins

Primary tectonic stress in the lithosphere is predominantly caused by lateral density variations within the Earth and associated topographical loading. When such a stress system caused by major sublithospheric density anomalies is intersected by a weak zone which cuts across the lithosphere, plate boundary forces develop and modify the plate interior stresses. In this paper, unite element analysis is used to model the stresses and plate boundary forces associated with subduction plate boundaries, with dipping and vertical slabs extending to about 270 and 400 km depths having the subduction fault both locked and unlocked. In such regions, several types of horizontal deviatoric stress may occur, including (1) local compression in the trench-arc region caused by the dense sinking slab and the associated surface downflexure; (2) plate interior tension which occurs when this compression is intersected by a weak subduction fault; (3) local tension associated with thickening of the crust at the arc and elsewhere; (4) local tension in the back arc region produced by the underlying low density upper mantle; and (5) downbending stresses in the subducting slab, thermal stresses, and transmitted ridge push, which are not included in the modelling here. A gradient from compression in the forearc to tension in the back arc can be modelled in terms of these stresses when the fault is partially locked. It is, however, the intersection of the local compression (1) by an unlocked or partially locked subduction fault that modifies the plate interior stresses and gives rise to the slab pull and trench suction plate boundary forces. The state of stress in the interior of the overriding plate is also crucially influenced by back arc spreading where this occurs. Plate boundary forces have been evaluated for each of the models. It is shown that slab pull and trench suction may be of comparable magnitude.
A fractal model of earthquake occurrence: Theory, simulations and comparisons with the aftershock data

Our understanding of earthquakes is based on the theory of plate tectonics. Earthquake dynamics is the study of the interactions of plates (solid disjoint parts of the lithosphere) which produce seismic activity. Over the last about fifty years many models have come up which try to simulate seismic activity by mimicking plate plate interactions. The validity of a given model is subject to the compliance of the synthetic seismic activity it produces to the well known empirical laws which describe the statistical features of observed seismic activity. Here we present a review of one such, purely geometric, model of earthquake dynamics, namely The Two Fractal Overlap Model. The model tries to emulate the stick-slip dynamics of lithospheric plates with fractal surfaces by evaluating the time-evolution of overlap lengths of two identical Cantor sets sliding over each other. As we show later in the text, some statistical aspects of natural seismicity are naturally captured by this simple model. More importantly, however, this model also reveals a new statistical feature of aftershock sequences which we have verified to be present in nature as well. We show that, both in the model as well as in nature, the cumulative integral of aftershock magnitudes over time is a remarkable straight line with a characteristic slope. This slope is closely related to the fractal geometry of the fault surface that produces most of thee aftershocks. We also go on to discuss the implications that this feature may have in possible predictions of aftershock magnitudes or times of occurrence.
New and emerging agents in the management of lipodystrophy in HIV-infected patients

: Lipodystrophy remains a major long-term complication in human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients under antiretroviral (ARV) therapy. Patients may present with lipoatrophy or lipohypertrophy or both. The choice of treatments to improve fat redistribution depends on the form of lipodystrophy and its duration. Measures known to improve lipoatrophy are switches in ARV therapy (stavudine or zidovudine to abacavir or tenofovir) and filling interventions. Pioglitazone may be added to these measures, although any benefits appear small. Uridine and leptin were found to be disappointing so far. Regarding lipohypertrophy, diet and exercise, recombinant human growth hormone, and metformin may reduce visceral fat, but may worsen subcutaneous lipoatrophy. Surgical therapy may be required. Attractive pharmacologic treatments include growth hormone-releasing factor and leptin. Adiponectin and adiponectin receptors are promising therapeutic targets to explore.