Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
MULTI-CRITERIA RANKING OF INDOOR AIR QUALITY IN NON- INDUSTRIAL ENVIRONMENTS

Abstract Relative to other western nations, there is a paucity of information on indoor air organic pollutants in Australia. While some data are available on the indoor levels of volatile organic compounds in Australian dwellings, corresponding information on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons levels is scarce. Therefore, this paper reports the results of the characterisation and quantification of airborne polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and volatile organic compounds in non-industrial environments in an Australian city. The most abundant and most frequently encountered compounds include, nonanal, decanal, texanol, acetone, formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, toluene, hexanal, ethyl benzene, the xylenes and C3-benzene. The distribution of these and other compounds found in the buildings have been rationalised in terms of indoor activities and the building characteristics (distance from a major roads, floor materials, use of air extractors etc). In addition, multi-criteria decision making procedures have been employed to rank the buildings on the basis of forty indoor air quality-influencing variables. This approach offers a useful tool that could facilitate the identification of environments requiring attention, and assist the formulation and prioritisation of control strategies.
Venezuelan Andean Spanish intonation

Lying in western Venezuela, the state of Merida is traversed by the eastern branch of the northern Andes and has an area of 11,300 km2, which corresponds to approximately 1.2% of the national territory. The main economic activities of the region are agriculture and tourism. The city of Merida itself has 300,000 inhabitants (2001 census) and constitutes a national cultural and university centre. The Universidad de Los Andes is a major source of employment in the region, specifically in the areas of teaching, research and services. The structure of this chapter is as follows. Section 1 first offers an overview of past intonational research in Venezuelan Spanish and especially in Venezuelan Andean Spanish and then describes the methodological procedure used in the present study. Section 2 presents an inventory of pitch accents and boundary tones found in the Merida dialect. Section 3 analyses the basic intonation contours found in the Merida corpus. Finally, Section 4 summarises the nuclear patterns in the different sentence types.
Geological offsets and age constraints along the northern Dead Sea fault, Syria

Abstract: North of the Lebanese restraining bend, the northern Dead Sea fault in Syria cuts Late Miocene–Pliocene intraplate alkali basalts that have 40Ar/39Ar ages ranging between 6.4 ± 0.1 and 3.7 ± 0.1 Ma. Despite a wide (40 m) gouge zone in places, only between 5.3 and 16.8 km of Pliocene–Recent left-lateral offset occurs along the segment south of Mesyef, where up to 1100 m of down-to-the-east throw has been measured using the base Neogene volcanic rocks as a datum horizon. Although theoretically possible, there is no geological evidence for pre-Pliocene movement along the fault in NW Syria. The fault splays into two transtensional faults bounding the Pliocene Al-Ghab depression and cuts basalts dated at 4.0–3.7 Ma. The minor lateral geological offsets and matching of Mesozoic and Tertiary stratigraphy across the fault show that the northern Dead Sea fault is not a plate boundary, but merely an intraplate fault. The kinematics of NW Syria can be related to a dynamically evolving stress field with time from Miocene NW–SE compression to Pliocene–Recent north–south strike-slip faulting, coupled with minor anti-clockwise rotation, initiation of the Dead Sea left-lateral transtensional strike-slip fault and the transtensional Al-Ghab basin. Supplementary material: Analytical procedures, data tables and concordia diagrams are available at http://www.geolsoc. org.uk/SUP18423.
Evolution of the Kid Group, southeast Sinai Peninsula: Thrusts, melanges, and implications for accretionary tectonics during the late Proterozoic of the Arabian-Nubian Shield

The late Proterozoic–age Kid Group in the southeast Sinai Peninsula is a volcano-sedimentary sequence of island-arc affinities. The group deformed in four main phases, with a thermal peak after D1, followed by a regional greenschist facies overprint during D2. Recumbent folding followed by thrusting began during D2, with the folds being propagated southward toward the arc foreland until D4, the last folding event. The thrusts are responsible for the juxtaposition of four megatectonic units above a substrate of unknown composition. These units, probably allochthonous, comprise a Basal Complex of infracrustal gneiss and three arc-related units, including inferred vestiges of a forearc accretionary prism and a marginal basin. Narrow slices of ophiolitic rocks were emplaced tectonically along the boundaries of some of these units. Melanges attributed to gravitational collapse of the forearc edifice and thrust tectonics formed, in particular, along the arc-forearc transition zone. The evolution of the Kid Group, coupled with data from the rest of the Arabian-Nubian Shield, can be well accommodated within the concept of oceanic-crust subduction, magmatic-arc development and ultimate collision between the arc complex and a continental margin.
Apatite triple dating and white mica 40Ar/39Ar thermochronology of syntectonic detritus in the Central Andes: A multiphase tectonothermal history

We applied apatite U-Pb, fission track, and (U-Th)/He triple dating and white mica 40 Ar/ 39 Ar thermochronology to syntectonic sedimentary rocks from the central Andean Puna plateau in order to determine the source-area geochronology and source sedimentary basin thermal histories, and ultimately the timing of multiple tectonothermal events in the Central Andes. Apatite triple dating of samples from the Eocene Geste Formation in the Salar de Pastos Grandes basin shows late Precambrian–Devonian apatite U-Pb crystallization ages, Eocene apatite fission track (AFT), and Eocene–Miocene (U-Th)/He (ca. 8–47 Ma) cooling ages. Double dating of cobbles from equivalent strata in the Arizaro basin documents early Eocene (46.2 ± 3.9 Ma) and Cretaceous (107.6 ± 7.6, 109.5 ± 7.7 Ma) AFT and Eocene–Oligocene (ca. 55–30 Ma) (U-Th)/He ages. Thermal modeling suggests relatively rapid cooling between ca. 80 and 50 Ma and reheating and subsequent diachronous basin exhumation between ca. 30 Ma and 5 Ma. The 40 Ar/ 39 Ar white mica ages from the same samples in the Salar de Pastos Grandes area are mainly 400–350 Ma, younger than apatite U-Pb ages, suggesting source-terrane cooling and exhumation during the Devonian–early Carboniferous. Together these data reveal multiple phases of mountain building in the Paleozoic and Cenozoic. Basin burial temperatures within the plateau were limited to
Trends in the farming of the snakeskin gourami (Trichogaster pectoralis) in Thailand

The production of snakeskin gourami (Trichogaster pectoralis) from wild stocks and traditional culture systems has been declining in central Thailand, although they are on the increase in modern culture practices adopted in some provinces. Net yields of T. pectoralis in traditional systems are about a third of those in modern systems. The potential of T. pectoralis as a candidate for more intensive waste-fed polyculture appears promising if seed supply constraints can be removed.
The Future of Shrinking Cities: Problems, Patterns and Strategies of Urban Transformation in a Global Context

This publication is the outcome of a symposium held at UC Berkeley in February 2007, organized by the Center for Global Metropolitan Studies at the Institute of Urban and Regional Development, UC Berkeley. It brought together urban and regional planners, architects, engineers, developers, artists, and academics to examine the perspectives of a largely underrepresented topic: shrinking cities. The Future of Shrinking Cities: Problems, Patterns, and Strategies of Urban Transformation in a Global Context presents research carried out under the aegis of the Shrinking Cities International Research Network (SCiRN) and – in addition – selected case studies from the United States. The purpose of the publication is to encourage and inform discussion to improve the quality of life in shrinking cities. The authors identify and examine critical projects and issues in shrinking cities and present lessons learned from relevant projects and experiences in the US and abroad. The comparative approach to shrinking cities, incorporating a wide range of case studies in order to widen the debate, is both unique and innovative. The shrinking city phenomenon is a multidimensional process, comprising cities, parts of cities, or entire metropolitan areas that have experienced dramatic decline in their economic and social bases. Thus, urban shrinkage is often a challenge on the wide scale of metropolitan regions and requires policy-makers to redefine traditional paths of regional governance. Urban decline and the loss of employment opportunities are closely linked in a downward spiral, leading to an out-migration of population. The joint work places shrinking cities in a global perspective, setting the context for in-depth comparisons of selected cities considering specific social, economic, environmental, cultural, and land-use issues. Especially in the United States, planning practice is to a large extent concentrated on either managing urban growth or tackling redevelopment in a fragmented – not a regional – way, despite the fact that in many metropolitan regions urban shrinkage reaches beyond individual cities. In this regard, the papers will help initiate a redefinition of regional governance in the U.S. and also in the other participating countries via comparative research on shrinking cities. Karina Pallagst et al (eds.) With contributions by Thorsten Wiechmann, Emmanuele Cunningham-Sabot, Sylvie Fol, Cristina Martinez-Fernandez, Chung-Tong Wu, Hans Harms, Sergio Moraes, Robert Beauregard, Ivonne Audirac, Karina Pallagst, David Leadbeater, Helen Mulligan, Jasmin Aber, Jose Vargas, Rollin Stanley, Teresa Gillotti, Daniel Kildee, Joseph Schilling, Gabi Troeger-Weis and Hans-Jorg Domhardt.
Detection and attribution of global mean thermosteric sea level change

Changes in sea level are driven by a range of natural and anthropogenic forcings. To better understand the response of global mean thermosteric sea level change to these forcings, we compare three observational data sets to experiments of 28 climate models with up to five different forcing scenarios for 1957–2005. We use the preindustrial control runs to determine the internal climate variability. Our analysis shows that anthropogenic greenhouse gas and aerosol forcing are required to explain the magnitude of the observed changes, while natural forcing drives most of the externally forced variability. The experiments that include anthropogenic and natural forcings capture the observed increased trend toward the end of the twentieth century best. The observed changes can be explained by scaling the natural‐only experiment by 0.70 ± 0.30 and the anthropogenic‐only experiment (including opposing forcing from greenhouse gases and aerosols) by 1.08 ± 0.13(±2σ).
The Interaction of Multiple Time Scales in the Tropical Climate System

Abstract The spatial distribution and evolution of variability of near-global SST and SLP data in the quasi-biennial (QB) and 3–7 year low-frequency (LF) period bands are investigated and described. The largest signals in both bands are in the tropics. The near-equatorial characteristics of the QB in the SLP field are those of a quasi-progressive wave while the LF variation in the same field is closer to the standing wave. Both bands show the traditional Southern Oscillation pattern. The SST variability in both bands is essentially that of El Nino. It is shown that ENSO is partially due to a nonlinear interaction between the two frequency bands. Both bands appear important to the ENSO cycle. The current work could not establish conclusively that if either was the fundamental mode, although there is weak evidence favoring the QB mode. The QB signal described here is essentially the ENSO signal and does not seem to be simply related to the stratospheric QBO. Calculations suggest the tropospheric QB describe.
New findings regarding the Saksunarvatn Ash in Germany

The Saksunarvatn Ash is an important tephra layer for the correlation of Early Holocene environmental records in northern Europe, the North Atlantic and Greenland. The Saksunarvatn Ash is believed to have been produced by eruptions of the Grimsvötn volcanic system ∼10.3 ka BP, which had two axes of dispersal, one plume in a north‐west direction over northern Iceland and into Greenland, and a second southerly plume covering the Faroe Isles, Shetland Isles, western Norway and northern Germany. Here we present data from Potremser Moor, north‐east Germany, extending the easterly margin of the ash fallout zone. We also present single grain trace element data from the type site at Saksunarvatn as well as from Potremser Moor. The Saksunarvatn Ash is indistinguishable between Potremser Moor and Saksunarvatn, suggesting the two tephras were produced by the same eruption. Trace element compositions from both sites are similar to data from the North Atlantic marine core (LINK 14:185), but different from the GRIP ice core (GRIP 1528.61 m), indicating that the south‐east and north‐west plumes may have arisen from separate eruption events. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Response of the thermohaline circulation to cold climates

[1] A coupled atmosphere-ocean-sea ice-land surface-ice sheet model of intermediate complexity, the so-called McGill Paleoclimate Model, is employed to study the response of the thermohaline circulation (THC) to various global climate coolings, which are realized by increasing the present-day planetary emissivity to various values. Generally, it is found that the response of the THC to global cooling is nonlinear: For a slightly cold climate the THC in the North Atlantic and the Pacific upwelling become intensified. For a very cold climate the THC in the North Atlantic may be weakened or even collapsed. The associated Pacific upwelling for a very cold climate also becomes weak when the THC is weakened, and intermediate deep water may form in the Pacific when the THC is collapsed. Some support for this nonlinear response is found in recent paleoceanographic data. The reduced atmospheric poleward moisture transport due to the global cooling is mainly responsible for the intensification of the THC in the North Atlantic for a slightly cold climate. For a very cold climate the global cooling may lead to a decrease of the meridional surface density gradient and an increase of the vertical density difference (lower layer density minus upper layer density) in the deep water formation region, which can weaken or shut down the THC. It is the temperature-dependent part of the density differences that is mainly responsible for the weakening or shutting down of the THC. The potential influence of surface temperature changes must be taken into account for a full understanding of the role of the THC in the climate system.
Coastal metabolism and the oceanic organic carbon balance

Net organic metabolism (that is, the difference between primary production and respiration of organic matter) in the coastal ocean may be a significant term in the oceanic carbon budget. Historical change in the rate of this net metabolism determines the importance of the coastal ocean relative to anthropogenic perturbations of the global carbon cycle. Consideration of long-term rates of river loading of organic carbon, organic burial, chemical reactivity of land-derived organic matter, and rates of community metabolism in the coastal zone leads us to estimate that the coastal zone oxidizes about 7 × 1012 moles C/yr. The open ocean is apparently also a site of net organic oxidation (∼16 × 1012 moles C/yr). Thus organic metabolism in the ocean appears to be a source of CO2 release to the atmosphere rather than being a sink for atmospheric carbon dioxide. The small area of the coastal ocean accounts for about 30% of the net oceanic oxidation. Oxidation in the coastal zone (especially in bays and estuaries) takes on particular importance, because the input rate is likely to have been altered substantially by human activities on land.
Three‐dimensional velocity structure of the Kilauea Caldera, Hawaii

High‐resolution velocity models (0.5 km resolution) of the Kilauea caldera region are obtained by the tomographic inversion of both P‐ and S‐wave arrival times. Data are from the permanent Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) seismic network, a broadband seismic network, and a temporary array of stations centered on the southern boundary of the caldera. A low‐velocity P‐wave anomaly is imaged centered on the southeastern edge of the caldera, with a velocity contrast of about 10% and a volume of 27 km³. The VP/VS model mimics the spatial extent of the P‐wave anomaly, but is partitioned into two discrete anomalous volumes centered on the southern boundary of the caldera and on the upper east rift of the volcano. The corresponding Poisson's ratio in these zones is high (ν=0.25–0.32) which is consistent with a densely‐cracked, hot volume which may contain partial melt. The large‐scale features of the models are consistent with results obtained from an earlier, larger‐scale (2 km resolution) tomographic image of Kilauea Volcano based on HVO network data.
Tetrachloroethylene as an indicator of low Cl atom concentrations in the troposphere

Tetrachloroethylene (C2Cl4), a largely man-made chemical pollutant, is known to react with Cl atoms at a rate that is some 300 times faster than with OH radicals (kCl/kOH = 365 at 275 K). Analysis of C2Cl4 data, with the help of a global 2-D model and in conjunction with the OH field derived from CH3CCl3 observations, has been used to provide a sensitive means for evaluating Cl atom abundance in the troposphere. In the “mean case” scenario, that employs best available measurements, emissions and kinetic parameters, it is found that OH oxidation is adequate to balance the C2Cl4 budget and significant removal by Cl is not indicated (Cl ≤10² molec. cm−3). An “upper limit” analysis that takes into account possible uncertainties in measurements, source emissions (man-made and natural), and reaction rates, is performed to estimate that annually averaged Cl atom concentrations in the troposphere are <5–10×10² molec. cm−3. If we assume that nearly all (80–100%) of the Cl atoms reside in the marine boundary layer (MBL), mean MBL concentrations are estimated to be <5–15×10³ molec. cm−3. This analysis implies that mean Cl concentrations in the MBL are below or near the lower end of the values inferred in recent studies (104-106 molec. cm−3). We conclude that despite their high reactivity, Cl atoms are too few to compete with OH radicals (≈ 106 molec. cm−3) in influencing the oxidizing capacity of the global troposphere.
AUTOMATED AND MANUAL ANALYSES OF THE PORE DENSITY-TO-OXYGEN RELATIONSHIP IN GLOBOBULIMINA TURGIDA (BAILEY)

To test the pore density in benthic foraminifera as a potential proxy for bottom-water oxygenation, pore density analyses were carried out on tests of living (rose Bengal-stained) specimens of the deep-infaunal and anoxia-tolerant foraminiferal species Globobulimina turgida. Three stations within and two stations below the oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) off Namibia were investigated and compared to in situ-measured bottom-water oxygen content (BW-O2). Pore density was first conventionally assessed by rather time-consuming manual pore counting on SEM photographs and measurement of the analyzed test areas. To significantly shorten the measurement time we tested and evaluated an automation of the pore density measurement using the image analysis software package analySIS (version 5.0, Olympus Soft Imaging Solutions). Pore density data from automated analyses are compared to manually acquired data from G. turgida. Our study shows almost identical results for both manually and automatically acquired data. Consequently, we assume that the new technique provides an alternative and more rapid method to analyze the pore density of foraminifera. For both methods, our results show a distinct negative linear correlation (automatically analyzed pore density: τ = −0.50, p < 0.001; manually analyzed pore density: τ = −0.49, p < 0.001) between pore density and BW-O2, suggesting that G. turgida increases its pore density in response to decreasing oxygen. Thus, we suggest that, similar to other recently described low-oxygen-tolerant benthic foraminiferal species, G. turgida may improve its O2 uptake by increasing pore density to survive in low-oxic environments. This morphological adaption might be useful for future studies to establish an independent proxy for BW-O2. In addition, pore density has been compared to in situ-measured bottom-water nitrate concentration (BW-NO3−). Our investigation of the pore density-to-BW-NO3− relationship for G. turgida suggests that nitrate seems to be a minor factor influencing pore density in this species compared to BW-O2. Add to CiteULike
Contesting land, creating community, in the Highlands and Islands, Scotland

Abstract This paper draws on research in four communities in the Highlands and Islands, Scotland, to explore how the notion of community and community identity are re‐worked in the political spaces created as communities claim collective rights to land. In the cases of the Assynt Crofters’ Trust, the Bhaltos Community Trust, and Laid, this has concerned land under crofting tenure; in the case of the claim of the North Sutherland Community Forestry Trust, the land on which the Naver Forests stand is the responsibility of the Scottish Ministers and is managed by Forest Enterprise. The four case studies differ with respect to membership and institutional practices and thus provide fertile ground on which to examine, comparatively, collective struggles for the land and the search for sustainable futures.