Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fuel structural traits modulating soil temperatures in different species patches of Mediterranean Basin shrublands

The ability of a fuel to burn is determined by its flammability, a property that varies from one species to another and is partially determined by different fuel structural traits such as surface-to-volume ratio of twigs and leaves, retention of standing dead twigs, canopy architecture and bulk density. Our aim was to assess the role of these fuel structural traits in modulating soil temperatures under patches of different species. The results showed that there were contrasting differences in the fuel-structure complex among different species patches in Mediterranean Basin shrublands. The differences in the fuel structure were important in modulating soil temperature because, regardless of the total fuel load, the highest temperatures were found under the species with the highest loads and densities of dead fine fuel. Surprisingly, temperatures under herbaceous species were high in relation to shrubby species; however, temperature residence times were shorter. Therefore, management strategies that promote species that accumulate low contents of fine dead fuel could be crucial for attaining less severe fires with a reduced effect on ecosystem functioning.
A comparative assessment of satellite-derived Adriatic Sea surface temperature

In this article, five Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) and four Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS)-based Adriatic-focused satellite sea surface temperature (SST) products are analysed and compared with two sets of in situ SST measurements: a drifter-based dataset collected in 2003, and a platform-based dataset gathered in 2004; an additional set was used to validate the new SST coefficients. Analysis of satellite minus in situ SST residuals shows similar results for both in situ datasets, with the differences being within 0.2 K. All daytime SST biases exhibited positive values (less than 0.5 K). Night-time biases for short-wave infrared (IR) algorithms exhibited near zero and small negative values with an exceptionally low standard deviation (about 0.3 K) regardless of the sensor used. Analysis of filtered residual time-series allowed direct comparison between different SST products. The seasonal change in the daytime biases was found to covary with similar changes in atmospheric water vapour and the Adriatic specific wind regime.
An improved approach for DSM generation from high‐resolution satellite imagery

This paper develops an improved approach to digital surface model (DSM) generation from high‐resolution satellite imagery (HRSI). The approach centres upon an image matching strategy that integrates feature point, grid point and edge matching algorithms within a coarse‐to‐fine hierarchical process. The starting point is a knowledge of precise sensor orientation, achieved in this case through bias‐compensated rational polynomial coefficients (RPCs), and the DSM is sequentially constructed through a combination of the matching results for feature and grid points, and edges at different image pyramid levels. The approach is designed to produce precise, reliable and very dense DSMs which preserve information on surface discontinuities. Following a brief introduction to sensor orientation modelling, the integrated image matching algorithms and DSM generation stages are described. The proposed approach is then experimentally tested through the generation of a DSM covering the Hobart area from a stereo pair of IKONOS Geo images. The accuracy of the resulting surface model is assessed using both ground checkpoints and a lidar DSM, with the results indicating that for favourable imagery and land cover, a heighting accuracy of 2 ‐ 4 pixels can be readily achieved. This result validates the feasibility of the developed approach for DSM production from HRSI.
Factors associated with the functional capacity of older adults with leprosy.

Objective: to investigate the association between socio-demographic and clinical factors and the functional capacity of older adults with leprosy. Method: cross-sectional analytical study conducted in Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil, with 77 older adult patients with leprosy in a referral service, through interview, medical records and application of the Katz Index and the Lawton and Brody Scale. Results: the mean age was 68.23 years, with prevalence of men, in stable union/married, with mean monthly family income of 2.04 minimum wages, positive bacillary index, clinical dimorphic form and grade zero disability. In the Lawton and Brody scale, independence (58.5%) was predominant and associated to the variables "living arrangement" and "educational attainment". Total independence (87.0%) was predominant in the Katz Index and statistically associated to the variable monthly family income. Conclusion: most of the participants were classified as independent in the instruments used. Furthermore, the instruments pointed to a greater number of associations with socio-demographic and clinical factors not related to leprosy. Objetivo: investigar a associação de fatores sociodemográficos e clínicos à capacidade funcional de idosos com hanseníase. Método: estudo transversal, analítico realizado em Fortaleza, Ceará, com 77 idosos com hanseníase acompanhados em serviço de referência, através de entrevista, consulta ao prontuário e aplicação do Índice de Katz e Escala de Lawton e Brody. Resultados: a média de idade foi de 68,23 anos, com prevalência de sexo masculino, união estável/casado, renda familiar mensal média de 2,04 salários mínimos, índice baciloscópico positivo, forma clínica dimorfa e Grau de Incapacidade Física zero. Na escala de Lawton e Brody prevaleceu a independência (58,5%) com associação às variáveis "com quem reside" e "escolaridade". Destacou-se a independência total (87,0%) no índice de Katz, associando-se estatisticamente a variável renda familiar mensal. Conclusão: a maioria dos participantes mostrou-se independente nos instrumentos utilizados. Ademais, os instrumentos apontaram mais associações a fatores sociodemográficos e clínicos não relacionados com a hanseníase.
Influence of Curing Stress on One-Dimensional Yielding of Cement-Admixed Bangkok Clay at High Water Content

ABSTRACT The influence of curing stress on the one-dimensional compression characteristics of cement-admixed clay at high water content is investigated by oedometer tests, with special attention paid to the primary vertical yield stress. From the test results, the stress acting during the formation of cementation plays an important role in the one-dimensional compression characteristics of cement admixed clay. The stress compresses the treated clay and results in an increase in the vertical yield stress. For the cement-admixed clay studied, the effect of the curing stress inherently reflects on the after-curing void ratio. Therefore, the primary vertical yield stress in one-dimensional compression is a function of the after-curing void ratio and the ratio of the clay water content to the cement content ratio.
The Khanka Block, NE China, and its significance for the evolution of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt and continental accretion

Abstract Sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry U–Pb dating of zircons from granitoids and paragneiss in the Chinese segment of the Khanka Block reveals that granite magmatism occurred at 518±7 Ma and was followed shortly after by high-grade metamorphism at c. 500 Ma (timing ranging from 491±4 Ma in medium-grained granitoid, through 499±10 Ma in porphyritic granite, to 501±8 Ma in paragneiss). Such a scenario has previously been established on similar lithologies in the Jiamusi Block to the west, with identical ages. This suggests that the Khanka and Jiamusi blocks form part of a single terrane and that the Dunhua–Mishan Fault, which was previously considered to separate two unique terranes, cannot be a terrane boundary fault. Previous suggestions of a link between the Khanka Block and the Hida Block in Japan are not supported following a comparison of the new zircon data with published ages for the Japanese terranes. A granitoid with an age of 112±1 Ma in the Khanka Block probably records the effect of Pacific plate subduction, as such ages are common further south in the extreme eastern part of the North China Craton, where they have been related to post-collisional extension and lithospheric thinning in the Jiaodong Peninsula. The presence of such young granitoids, and the previous dating of blueschist-facies metamorphism as late Early Jurassic in the Heilongjiang Complex of the Jiamusi Block, supports the view that the current location of the Jiamusi–Khanka terrane is a product of circum-Pacific accretion rather than it being a microcontinental block that was trapped by the northward collision of the North China Craton with Siberia as part of the assembly of the main Central Asian Orogenic Belt.
On the fluctuating buoyancy fluxes simulated in a 1/10° OGCM

AbstractSubgrid-scale fluctuations with zero means have generally been neglected in ocean modeling, despite their potential role in affecting the oceanic state following Hasselmann's seminal paper on stochastic climate models and series of studies conducted thereafter. When representing effects of these fluctuations in a stochastic parameterization, knowledge of basic properties of these fluctuations is essential. Here, the authors quantify these properties using hourly output of a simulation performed with a global OGCM. This study found that fluctuating buoyancy fluxes are strong in the sense that their strengths are up to one order of magnitude larger than the magnitudes of the respective mean eddy fluxes and that the fluctuations originate not only from mesoscale eddies and tropical instability waves but also from near-inertial waves, especially in the low- and midlatitude oceans. It is this wave contribution that makes the basic properties of fluctuations distinctly different from those expected from.
Influence de la culture itinérante sur la végétation d'une savane humide de Côte-d'Ivoire (Booro-Borotou - Touba)

Dix unites de vegetation ont ete definies sur un bassin versant (1,36 km2) situe dans une zone de savane humide en Cote d'Ivoire. L'influence des diverses modalites du systeme agricole induit, lors de l'abandon des champs, des variations du potentiel vegetatif (envahissement des herbacees, diminution de la densite des ligneux et degradation des sols). Une analyse synchronique des jacheres, a ensuite permis de reconnaitre 4 types differents de dynamique, en fonction des facteurs historiques et des facteurs du milieu: (1) dans le cas de zones defrichees mecaniquement, la vitesse de reconstitution de la vegetation est tres lente; (2) dans le cas des zones de bas versant, le couvert ligneux reconstitue est faible dans les jacheres et comparable au couvert initial; (3) dans les zones de haut de versant, la reconstitution de la vegetation est rapide avec une surface terriere des ligneux elevee; (4) dans les zones de la mi-versant, cas le plus etonnant, la vegetation reconstituee apres des cultures sur defrichement de savane arboree basse, se revele etre de type savane boisee basse (densite et surface terriere d'arbres plus fortes). Dans les deux premiers cas, ce sont les micro-organisations pedologiques de surface qui, par le biais de termites fourrageurs, limitent l'infiltration et la reconstitution de la vegetation. Dans les deux derniers cas, le couvert vegetal dense permet l'installation d'une autre espece de termites qui en detruisant periodiquement les croutes superficielles et en creant des galeries dans le sol, favorisent l'infiltration de l'eau
Dynamics of Izmit Earthquake Postseismic Deformation and Loading of the Duzce Earthquake Hypocenter

We have developed dynamic finite-element models of Izmit earthquake postseismic deformation to evaluate whether this deformation is better explained by afterslip (via either velocity-strengthening frictional slip or linear viscous creep) or by distributed linear viscoelastic relaxation of the lower crust. We find that velocity-strengthening frictional afterslip driven by coseismic shear stress loading can reproduce time-dependent Global Positioning System data better than either linear viscous creep on a vertical shear zone below the rupture or lower crustal viscoelastic relaxation. Our best frictional afterslip model fits the main features of postseismic slip inversions, in particular, high slip patches at (and below) the hypocenter and on the western Karadere segment, and limited afterslip west of the Hersek Delta (Burgmann et al., 2002). The model requires a weakly velocity-strengthening fault, that is, either low effective normal stress in the slipping regions or a smaller value for the parameter describing rate-dependence of friction ( a - b ) than is indicated by laboratory experiments. Our best afterslip model suggests that the Coulomb stress at the Duzce hypocenter increased by 0.14 MPa (1.4 bars) during the Izmit earthquake (assuming right-lateral slip on a surface dipping 50° to the north), and by another 0.1 MPa during the 87 days between the Izmit and Duzce earthquakes. In the Marmara Sea region (within about 160 km of the Izmit earthquake rupture), this model indicates that the Coulomb stresses increased by 15%-25% of the coseismic amount during the first 300 days after the earthquake. Three hundred days after the earthquake, postseismic contributions to Coulomb stressing rate on the Maramara region faults had fallen to values equal to or less than the inferred secular stress accumulation rate. Our estimates of postseismic Coulomb stress are highly model dependent: in the Marmara region, the linear viscous shear zone and viscoelastic lower crust models predict greater postseismic Coulomb stresses than the frictional afterslip model. Near-field stress and fault-zone rheology estimates are sensitive to the Earth9s elastic structure. When a layered elastic structure is incorporated in our model, it yields a Coulomb stress of 0.24 MPa at the Duzce hypocenter, significantly more than the 0.14 MPa estimated from the uniform elastic model. Because of the higher near-field coseismic stresses, the layered elastic model requires a higher value of velocity-strengthening parameter ( A - B ) ([ a - b ] times effective normal stress r ′) to produce comparable postseismic slip. ( A - B ) is estimated at 0.4 and 0.2 MPa, respectively, for the layered and uniform elastic models. These results highlight the importance of understanding the Earth9s elastic structure and the mechanism for postseismic deformation if we wish to accurately model coseismic and postseismic crustal stresses.
Cyanobacterial blooms in shallow lakes of the Iławskie Lake District

Cyanobacterial blooms in shallow lakes of the Iławskie Lake District The dominance of blue-green algae observed in many lakes is related to a high trophic level. Shallow eutrophic lakes are particularly often abundant in blue-green algae. The research on phytoplankton, the results of which are presented in this paper, was carried out between 2002 and 2005 in six lakes. These lakes differed considerably in their size and management methods applied in the catchment (drainage) area. A few types of water blooms were distinguished, which is related to the catchment area management, the intensity of mixing and the trophic level. Algal blooms of the Planktothrix type appeared in lakes situated in an open area of agricultural catchment basins. Algal blooms of the Limnothrix type were characteristic of lakes with a forest-agricultural catchment area but surrounded by high shores, which reduced the wind influence on the mixing. Sporadic mixed algal blooms were typical of lakes situated in forest catchment areas.
Snowmelt Hydrology of two subarctic slopes, Southern Yukon, Canada

Large quantities of water are discharged from subarctic basins during snowmelt season. Runoff contributing areas as well as timing and magnitude of meltwater generation from different slopes are highly variable. Two slopes in the lower Wolf Creek basin, southern Yukon, were studied in 1997. The south-facing slope has a dense aspen forest that is leafless in the melt period (April – May) and is underlain by seasonal frost. The north-facing slope has open stands of spruce and an organic layer that rests on mineral soils with permafrost. In 1997, snowmelt is advanced by over 10 days on the south slope, which receives more solar radiation than the north aspect. All meltwater on the south slope infiltrates the frozen silt without generating runoff. By the time significant melt events occur on the north slope the frost and snow are gone from the south. Meltwater is able to infiltrate the frozen organic soil but deep percolation is prevented by the ice-rich substrate. Lateral flow begins after the organic layer is saturated, with much runoff along intermittent rills fed by diffuse and pipe flows. Rills and pipes are interconnected but the drainage network and runoff contributing area change depending on the disposition of the snow as well as water and frost table positions relative to local topography. Contrasts between the north and south slopes have important implications on direct runoff generation during the melt period. Situations similar to the study site can be found elsewhere in subarctic North America and the observed processes have a bearing upon hydrological modelling for the subarctic environment.
Atmospheric response to different sea surface temperatures in the Baltic Sea: coupled versus uncoupled regional climate model experiments

A climate change experiment with a fully coupled high resolution regional atmosphere-ocean model for the Baltic Sea is compared to an experiment with a stand-alone regional atmospheric model. Both experiments simulate 30-yr periods with boundary data from the same global climate model system. This particular global model system simulates very high sea surface temperatures during summer for the Baltic Sea at the end of this century under the investigated emission scenario. We show that the sea surface temperatures are less warm in the coupled regional model compared to the global model system and that this difference is dependent on the atmospheric circulation. In summers with a high NAO index and thereby relatively strong westerly flow over the North Atlantic the differences between the two models are small, while in summers with a weaker, more northerly flow over the Baltic Sea the differences are very large. The higher sea surface temperatures in the uncoupled experiment lead to an intensified hydrological cycle over the Baltic Sea, with more than 30% additional precipitation in summer taken as an average over the full 30-yr period and over the entire Baltic Sea. The differences are mostly local, over the sea, but there are differences in surrounding land areas.
Alcohol prevention on college campuses: the moderating effect of the alcohol environment on the effectiveness of social norms marketing campaigns.

OBJECTIVE Evaluations of social norms marketing campaigns to reduce college student drinking have produced conflicting results. This study examines whether the effectiveness of such campaigns may be moderated by on-premise alcohol outlet density in the surrounding community. METHOD Multilevel analyses were conducted of student survey responses (N= 19,838) from 32 U.S. colleges that took part in one of two 4-year randomized, controlled trials completed for the Social Norms Marketing Research Project (SNMRP). In the models, students by year were nested within treatment (n = 16) and control group (n = 16) campuses, which were characterized by the on-premise outlet density in their surrounding community. The moderating effect of outlet density was introduced into the models as an interaction between the treatment effect (i.e., the effect of the social norms marketing campaigns over time) and outlet density. The models were also stratified by campus alcohol outlet density (high vs. low) to examine the effect of the intervention in each type of setting. RESULTS There was a significant interaction between the treatment effect and on-premise alcohol outlet density for one of the drinking outcomes targeted by the SNMRP intervention, the number of drinks when partying, and marginal evidence of interaction effects for two other outcomes, maximum recent consumption and a composite drinking scale. In stratified analyses, an intervention effect was observed for three of the four outcomes among students from campuses with lower on-premise alcohol outlet density, whereas no intervention effect was observed among students from campuses with higher on-premise alcohol outlet density. CONCLUSIONS The findings suggest that the campus alcohol environment moderates the effect of social norms marketing interventions. Social norms marketing intervention may be less effective on campuses with higher densities of on-sale alcohol outlets.
Closing the sea level rise budget with altimetry, Argo, and GRACE

An analysis of the steric and ocean mass components of sea level shows that the sea level rise budget for the period January 2004 to December 2007 can be closed. Using corrected and verified Jason‐1 and Envisat altimetry observations of total sea level, upper ocean steric sea level from the Argo array, and ocean mass variations inferred from GRACE gravity mission observations, we find that the sum of steric sea level and the ocean mass component has a trend of 1.5 ± 1.0 mm/a over the period, in agreement with the total sea level rise observed by either Jason‐1 (2.4 ± 1.1 mm/a) or Envisat (2.7 ± 1.5 mm/a) within a 95% confidence interval.
The Mid‐Pleistocene climate transition: A deep sea carbon isotopic perspective

Five δ13C records from the deep ocean, extending back to 1.3 Ma, were examined in order to constrain changes in mean ocean carbon isotope composition and thermohaline circulation over the 41- to 100-ka climate transition. These data show that significant perturbations in mean ocean carbon chemistry were associated with the mid-Pleistocene climate transition. Notable features of the last 1.3 Myr are (1) a pronounced ∼0.3‰ decrease in mean ocean δ13C between 0.9 and 1.0 Myr, followed by a return to pre-1.0 Ma values by 400 ka B.P., which we propose was due to the onetime addition of isotopically depleted terrestrial carbon to the ocean, possibly associated with an increase in global aridity (and decrease in the size of the biosphere) across the 41- to 100-ka transition; (2) no change in the Atlantic-Pacific (A-P) δ13C gradient over the last 1.3 Myr, suggesting no change in mean ocean nutrient content accompanied the addition of light carbon; and (3) stronger vertical nutrient fractionation in the North Atlantic in the middle Pleistocene between sites 607 and 552, suggesting weaker North Atlantic Deep Water formation at this time relative to the early and late Pleistocene. We also find evidence for a more pronounced deep recirculation gyre in the western North Atlantic basin in the early Brunhes, as evidenced by “aging” of deep northern basin water (site 607) relative to deep water in the equatorial Atlantic (site 664).