Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evolution and changes of permafrost on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau during the Late Quaternary

Due to the uplift of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP), the cryosphere gradually developed on the higher mountain summits after the Neocene, becoming widespread during the Late Quaternary. During this time, permafrost on the QTP experienced repeated expansion and degradation. Based on the remains and cross-correlation with other proxy records such as those from glacial landforms, ice-core and paleogeography, the evolution and changes of permafrost and environmental changes on the QTP during the past 150, 000 years were deduced and are presented in this paper. At least four obvious cycles of the extensive and intensive development, expansion and decay of permafrost occurred during the periods of 150-130, 80-50, 30-14 and after 10.8 ka B.P. During the Holocene, fluctuating climatic environments affected the permafrost on the QTP, and the peripheral mountains experienced six periods of discernible permafrost changes:(1) Stable development of permafrost in the early Holocene (10.8 to 8.5-7.0 ka B.P.); (2) Intensive permafrost degradation during the Holocene Megathermal Period (HMP, from 8.5-7.0 to 4.0-3.0 ka B.P.); (3) Permafrost expansion during the early Neoglacial period (ca. 4, 000-3, 000 to 1, 000 a B.P.); (4) Relative degradation during the Medieval Warm Period (MWP, from 1, 000 to 500 a B.P.); (5) Expansion of permafrost during the Little Ice Age (LIA, from 500 to 100 a B.P.); (6) Observed and predicted degradation of permafrost during the 20 th and 21 st century. Each period differed greatly in paleoclimate, paleoenvironment, and permafrost distribution, thickness, areal extent, and ground temperatures, as well as in the development of periglacial phenomena. Statistically, closer dating of the onset permafrost formation, more identification of permafrost remains with richer proxy information about paleoenvironment, and more dating information enable higher resolution for paleo-permafrost reconstruction. Based on the scenarios of persistent climate warming of 2.2~2.6℃ in the next 50 years, and in combination of the monitored trends of climate and permafrost changes, and model predictions suggest an accelerated regional degradation of plateau permafrost. Therefore, during the first half of the 21 st century, profound changes in the stability of alpine ecosystems and hydro (geo) logical environments in the source regions of the Yangtze and Yellow rivers may occur. The foundation stability of key engineering infrastructures and sustainable economic development in cold regions on the QTP may be affected.
Study of the influence of different parameters on the flight of microdroples over the contact line in a liquid film heated from below

In this work, experimental studies were carried out on the flight of levitating liquid microdrops over the contact line around a dry patch formed in the horizontal liquid film heated from below in the temperature range of 52°C - 77°C. The working area is a textolite base, in the center of which a copper rod of a circular cross section with a diameter of 3 mm is pressed. The copper rod serves as a heating element. It was found that with an increase in the substrate temperature and decrease in the diameter of the microdroplets the height of the flight increases.
The crustal structure beneath Mauritius from teleseismic P receiver functions: Oceanic or continental?

It has recently been suggested that the volcanic island of Mauritius may be underlain by a remnant of continental origin termed “Mauritia. ” To constrain the crustal thickness beneath Mauritius, we analyzed data from 11 land stations, 10 of which were deployed recently by the RHUM‐RUM project. From the recordings, we obtained 382 P receiver functions (RFs). By applying the H‐κ stacking technique, we derive crustal thicknesses of approximately 10–15 km. We observe a considerable variation in the Vp/Vs ratio caused by a lack of clear multiples. Using forward modeling of RFs, we show that the lack of clear multiples can be explained by a transitional Moho, where the velocity increases gradually. The modeling further indicates that the thickness of this gradient zone is estimated to be approximately 10 km. We argue that our findings suggest oceanic crust thickened by crustal underplating due to the mantle plume currently located beneath La Réunion.
Rosmarinic Acid and Flavonoids of the Seagrass Zostera noltei: New Aspects on Their Quantification and Their Correlation with Sunlight Exposure

Seagrasses are plants adapted to the marine environment that inhabit shallow coastal waters, where they may be exposed to direct sunlight during low tides. These plants have photoprotection mechanisms, which could include the use of phenolic secondary metabolites. In this study, rosmarinic acid (RA) and the flavonoids of Zostera noltei from the Bay of Cadiz (Spain) have been analyzed, first to define suitable conditions of leaves (i.e., fresh, dried, or frozen) for quantitative analysis, and then to explore the potential correlation between the phenolic profile of the leaves and sunlight exposure using an in situ experimental approach. Compared with fresh leaves, the contents of RA and flavonoids were significantly lower in air-dried and freeze-dried leaves. Freezing caused highly variable effects on RA and did not affect to flavonoid levels. On the other hand, the content of RA was significantly higher in plants that emerged during low tides than in plants permanently submerged, while plants underneath an artificial UV filter experienced a progressive reduction in RA content. However, the major flavonoids did not show a clear response to sunlight exposure and were unresponsive to diminished UV incidence. The results showed a positive correlation of RA with direct sunlight and UV exposure of leaves, suggesting that this compound contributes to the photoprotection of Z. noltei.
Proximal tubule cells in blood and urine as potential biomarkers for kidney disease biopsy

Early diagnosis and treatment are crucial for managing kidney disease, yet there remains a need to further explore pathological mechanisms and develop minimally invasive diagnostic methods. In this study, we employed single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) to assess the cellular heterogeneity of kidney diseases. We analyzed gene expression profiles from renal tissue, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), and urine of four patients with nephritis. Our findings identified 12 distinct cell subsets in renal tissues and leukocytes. These subsets encompassed fibroblast cells, mesangial cells, epithelial cells, proximal tubule cells (PTCs), and six immune cell types: CD8+ T cells, macrophages, natural killer cells, dendritic cells, B cells, and neutrophils. Interestingly, PTCs were present in both PBMCs and urine samples but absent in healthy blood samples. Furthermore, several populations of fibroblast cells, mesangial cells, and PTCs exhibited pro-inflammatory or pro-apoptotic behaviors. Our gene expression analysis highlighted the critical role of inflammatory PTCs and fibroblasts in nephritis development and progression. These cells showed high expression of pro-inflammatory genes, which could have chemotactic and activating effect on neutrophils. This was substantiated by the widespread in these cells. Notably, the gene expression profiles of inflammatory PTCs in PBMCs, urine, and kidney tissues had high similarity. This suggests that PTCs in urine and PBMCs hold significant potential as alternative markers to invasive kidney biopsies.
Enhancing Counseling Services in Secondary Schools Through the Implementation of Training Modules and Counseling Materials for Peer Counselors

The implementation of this community service aims to address issues in counseling services in remote secondary schools, resulting from the lack of counselors with a background in counseling education. Counselors often play the role of subject teachers, leading to suboptimal counseling implementation, causing students in need of psychosocial assistance to receive inadequate services. The form of community service utilized combines Service Learning and Community-Based Participatory approaches. Lecturers and students actively engage in developing and implementing training modules and counseling materials for adolescent peer counselors. Meanwhile, the community, particularly secondary schools and peer counselors, are invited to participate in designing and adapting modules to fit the local context and needs. The solution derived from this community service is the development of relevant and effective training modules and counseling materials to enhance the competence of peer counselors in providing support and counseling to their peers. With the existence of these modules, it is anticipated that counseling services in remote secondary schools can be improved, ensuring that students in need of psychosocial assistance are better served. In conclusion, the implementation of this community service combines the Service Learning and Community-Based Participatory approaches to address issues in counseling services in remote secondary schools. The development of training modules and counseling materials emerges as a relevant and effective solution to enhance the quality of counseling services, involving the community as partners in the decision-making process and service implementation. It is expected that this community service will have a positive impact in assisting adolescents in overcoming issues and increasing awareness and social support within the school environment. Keywords: Counseling Services, Peer Counseling, Training Modules, Counseling Materials
Impact of fines and rock wettability on reservoir formation damage

Pore throat plugging of porous rock by fine particles causes formation damage, and thus has attracted attention in various areas such as petroleum engineering, hydrology and geothermal energy production. Despite significant efforts, the detailed pore‐scale mechanisms leading to formation damage and the associated permeability reduction are not well understood. We thus investigated plugging mechanisms and characteristics with a combination of ex situ (i.e., coreflooding measurements and scanning electron microscopy imaging) and in situ (i.e., nuclear magnetic resonance and μCT) methods, with a particular focus on the effect of wettability.
Student motivation in learning and perceptions of online teachers

The goal of this study was to examine the relationship between students’ motivation for learning in an online course and their perceptions regarding the teacher’s role. 520 undergraduate students at a college participated in asynchronous online courses and responded to a closed-ended questionnaire about their motivation for learning and their expectations regarding the teacher’s role in online courses. The study’s findings indicate significant relationships between the students' different types of motivation for learning in the online course and their perception of the teacher's role in these courses. For example, students with high levels of self-efficacy and control over their learning beliefs expect the teacher to meet their pedagogical and differentiating roles. However, students with high levels of test anxiety expect the teacher to meet affective and technological needs. Therefore, when preparing online courses, these differences must be taken into account and teachers must carefully consider how they fulfill their role. For example, if teachers focus solely on the pedagogical role, it is likely to negatively affect the success of students facing high levels of anxiety. However, teachers who primarily promote affective social interactions will disappoint another group of students. Enhancing teachers’ awareness of the association between students’ motivation and their expectations of their teachers could help teachers plan their courses to best meet their students’ needs and perhaps reduce dropping out.
Icings and their role as an important element of the cryosphere in High Arctic glacier forefields

Abstract This study investigates icings and their role as an important element of the glacier forefields observed in the Kaffiøyra region in Svalbard. The emergence or disappearance of icings is one of the effects of changes observed in the area of a glacier and its catchment in the High Arctic. Icings were observed both in summer and spring in 1996–2015. The main objective was focused on the location and surface changes of the icings, as this is important for their responses to changes which occur across the cryosphere. In the forefields of most glaciers in the Kaffiøyra region, a generally declining trend is observed in the size of icing fields, with only occasional periods in which it increased. During the last five years, they have not been so large as they were in the preceding years. The degradation of High Arctic icings mainly occurs in summer, generally as a result of surface and mechanical ablation. The reach of icings is rather variable and their surface and thickness tend to change year by year, depending on hydrological conditions in the glacier’s system. Regardless of the causes of icings’ formation, their size, range and reach are related to the intensity of melting during a given season, which is conditioned by the weather, and especially by the winter outflow from a glacier.
Distributed Modal Birefringence Measurement in a Few-Mode Fiber Based on Stimulated Brillouin Scattering

We present a novel method to characterize the modal birefringence in a few-mode fiber (FMF), based on stimulated Brillouin scattering. The method exploits two phenomena which can be observed in distributed Brillouin measurements: the dependence of the Brillouin frequency shift (BFS) on the effective refractive index (ERI) of the interacting optical beams, and the spatial oscillations of the Brillouin gain along the FMF deriving from multimodal interference. Using both phenomena, a wide range of ERI separations can be measured, from ≈ 10−7 to 10−2 or more. The method has been demonstrated over a two-mode graded-index FMF, using two photonic lanterns to selectively excite the desired spatial modes. The birefringence values obtained using the proposed method have been validated using a different distributed technique, based on the analysis of the fiber's Rayleigh-backscattered trace acquired in the frequency domain.
Poverty Reduction Effect of Chinese Foreign Aid to Africa: An Empirical Study Based on Panel Data of 48 Recipient Countries

This research examines the impact and mechanisms of poverty alleviation associated with Chinese aid to African countries, utilizing comprehensive panel data from the 2000-2017 timeframe. A detailed exploration of salient indicators - the headcount ratio, poverty gap, and poverty severity - has been conducted to critically evaluate the efficacy of this aid. The study substantiates that Chinese aid meaningfully ameliorates the headcount ratio, lessens the poverty gap, and mitigates poverty severity in the recipient countries. Further examination of mechanisms reveals that the principal stratagem of reducing poverty resides in the proliferation of capital accumulation, fostering job generation, and advancing human capital development in the recipient countries. An assessment of varied outcomes demonstrates Chinese aid to be most potent in poverty alleviation in countries characterized by diminished per capita income and lower corruption indices. When compared, Official Development Assistance (ODA) exerts a more pronounced impact on curtailing poverty severity than other official aids, which have a more potent influence on reducing poverty incidence. Mixed aid-types demonstrate superior efficacy in decreasing poverty incidence, with development aid showing remarkable proficiency in addressing poverty depth and severity. This investigation significantly broadens the existing discourse on the poverty-reduction impact of Chinese foreign aid, offering invaluable insights and articulate points of reference for the enhancement of collaborative strategies in poverty alleviation policy between nations.
Energy balance fluxes in a subtropical city : Miami, FL.

This study presents summertime surface energy balance measurements from a suburb in west Miami, Florida, from May 13 (YD 133) to June 21 (YD 172), 1995. The incoming and outgoing shortwave, longwave, and the net all-wave radiation are measured directly, and both the sensible and latent turbulent heat fluxes are measured directly by eddy correlation. Results from this fieldwork are presented as an energy balance climatology, mainly using ensemble averages. The findings are compared with results from midlatitude suburban studies. The complete, directly observed suburban radiation balance is one of very few available. In conjunction with these data, derived surface characteristics, such as temperature, albedo and emissivity (e0) are given. The clear sky midday albedo is observed to be 0.17, and sa is estimated to be 0.97. Parameterizations to calculate various energy fluxes are evaluated using the Miami data. These include formulae to calculate the net radiation and incoming shortwave and longwave radiative fluxes, under both clear and cloudy sky conditions. Of the radiative formulae tested, the calculation of incoming shortwave from the net radiation is particularly effective, especially under cloudless skies. In contrast, some of the incoming longwave radiation equations are essentially useless in cloudy conditions. The sensible, latent, and storage heat fluxes are each presented as ensemble averages, and as fractions of the net radiation. The average daytime sensible heat flux normalized by the net radiation is 0.43, which is in the middle of the range of previous urban observations. The average daytime latent heat flux normalized by the net radiation is 0.27, which is reasonably similar to midlatitude suburban observations. The storage heat flux appears to play a significant
Metamorphism of high‐P metagreywacke from the Eastern Himalayan syntaxis: phase equilibria and P–T path

High‐pressure (HP) metagreywacke from the Namche Barwa Complex, Eastern Himalayan Syntaxis (EHS), consists of garnet, biotite, plagioclase, quartz, rutile and ilmenite with or without K‐feldspar, sillimanite, cordierite, spinel and orthopyroxene. Two types of metagreywacke are recognized: medium‐temperature (MT) and high‐temperature (HT) types. Garnet in the MT metagreywacke shows significant growth zoning and contains lower MgO than the weakly zoned garnet in the HT metagreywacke. Petrographic observations and phase equilibria modelling for four representative samples indicate that both types of metagreywacke experienced clockwise P–T paths subdivided into three stages: stage I is the pre‐peak prograde to pressure peak (Pmax) stage characterized by progressive increase in P–T conditions. The Pmax conditions are estimated using the garnet composition with maximum CaO, being 12.5–13.5 kbar and 685–725 °C for the MT metagreywacke, and 15–16 kbar and 825–835 °C for the HT one. Stage II is the post‐Pmax decompression with heating or near‐isothermal to Tmax stage and the Tmax conditions, constrained using the garnet compositions with maximum MgO, are 11 kbar and 760 °C for the MT metagreywacke, and ~12 kbar and 830–845 °C for the HT one. The modelled mineral assemblages at Tmax are garnet + biotite + K‐feldspar + rutile + plagioclase ± ilmenite in the presence of melt for both types of metagreywacke, consistent with the petrographic observations. Stage III is the post‐Tmax retrograde metamorphism, characterized by decompression and cooling. The modelling suggests that the melts with high Na/K ratios (1.7–5.2) have been produced during stages I and II, which could be responsible for the formation of sodium‐rich leucogranites. This study and previous results indicate that the Higher Himalayan Crystallines in the EHS consist of MT–HP and HT–HP metamorphic units separated by a speculated tectonic contact. Petrological and structural discontinuities within the EHS cannot be easily interpreted with ‘tectonic aneurysm’ model.
The continuing decline in cohort fertility and mixed evidence of narrowing educational differences

Background Typically, women with higher levels of education have had fewer children and were more likely to be childless compared to those with lower levels of education. However, in recent years, there has been a trend of fertility convergence between education levels in several high-income countries, including Australia. New data are needed to determine whether this trend has continued and fertility remains educationally stratified among Australian women. Aims Using the latest available data from the 2021 Australian Census, the aim of this study is to compare the average completed fertility and number of children ever born of women born between 1952 and 1981, with a specific focus on how these metrics vary by education level. Data and methods Data on the number of children ever born are sourced from the 2021 Australian Census to compute population statistics (completed cohort fertility, proportion of women by parity, and parity progression ratios) for six educational categories (postgraduate, graduate, bachelor, diploma, year 12, year 11 and below) and six cohort groups (1952-56, 1957-61, 1962-66, 1967-71, 1972-76, 1977-81). These statistics are used to describe trends in fertility patterns over time and by education. Results Completed cohort fertility has continued to decline slowly, from 2.22 for the1952-56 birth cohorts to 1.89 for the 1977-81 birth cohorts, mostly due to an increase in childlessness and a decrease in larger families with more than two children. There has been more divergence than convergence by education level, with those with bachelor's or diploma qualifications experiencing greater declines in fertility than any other education group. Although childlessness rates by education level have converged, women with lower education have also become increasingly likely to have larger families. Conclusions While there is evidence of convergence in childlessness rates across different levels of education, the gap in fertility rates between education groups continue to increase in Australia.
Contextualizing the Role of Osteopontin in the Inflammatory Responses of Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is characterized by progressive accumulations of extracellular amyloid-beta (Aβ) aggregates from soluble oligomers to insoluble plaques and hyperphosphorylated intraneuronal tau, also from soluble oligomers to insoluble neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs). Tau and Aβ complexes spread from the entorhinal cortex of the brain to interconnected regions, where they bind pattern recognition receptors on microglia and astroglia to trigger inflammation and neurotoxicity that ultimately lead to neurodegeneration and clinical AD. Systemic inflammation is initiated by Aβ’s egress into the circulation, which may be secondary to microglial activation and can confer both destructive and reparative actions. Microglial activation pathways and downstream drivers of Aβ/NFT neurotoxicity, including inflammatory regulators, are primary targets for AD therapy. Osteopontin (OPN), an inflammatory cytokine and biomarker of AD, is implicated in Aβ clearance and toxicity, microglial activation, and inflammation, and is considered to be a potential therapeutic target. Here, using the most relevant works from the literature, we review and contextualize the evidence for a central role of OPN and associated inflammation in AD.