Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
SAR-to-Optical Image Translation Based on Conditional Generative Adversarial Networks - Optimization, Opportunities and Limits

Due to its all time capability, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) remote sensing plays an important role in Earth observation. The ability to interpret the data is limited, even for experts, as the human eye is not familiar to the impact of distance-dependent imaging, signal intensities detected in the radar spectrum as well as image characteristics related to speckle or steps of post-processing. This paper is concerned with machine learning for SAR-to-optical image-to-image translation in order to support the interpretation and analysis of original data. A conditional adversarial network is adopted and optimized in order to generate alternative SAR image representations based on the combination of SAR images (starting point) and optical images (reference) for training. Following this strategy, the focus is set on the value of empirical knowledge for initialization, the impact of results on follow-up applications, and the discussion of opportunities/drawbacks related to this application of deep learning. Case study results are shown for high resolution (SAR: TerraSAR-X, optical: ALOS PRISM) and low resolution (Sentinel-1 and -2) data. The properties of the alternative image representation are evaluated based on feedback from experts in SAR remote sensing and the impact on road extraction as an example for follow-up applications. The results provide the basis to explain fundamental limitations affecting the SAR-to-optical image translation idea but also indicate benefits from alternative SAR image representations.
Index-based methods for water body extraction in satellite data

Several water index-based methods have been proposed in the literature, which, combine satellite multispectral bands in an algebraic expression. The objective of these water index-based methods is to increase the intensity contrast between water-pixels (surface water-body) and non-water pixels (built-up, soil, vegetation, etc.). The present investigation evaluates the Modified Normalized Difference Water Index (MNDWI) and the Automated Water Extraction Index (AWEI) using the Satellite data from Landsat 5 TM, Landsat 8 and Sentinel 2A at different time scenes. Based on visual inspection of the Lake Metztitlan water body mapping results, a high performance of AWEI approached via the OLI and the MSI sensors is observed. In the selected study area of [9210x9380]m, a statistical water pixel percentage of 30.703616% is observed in a flooding season and 9.884537% for a dry season of the year.
The Nutritional, Physiological and Psychological Status of a Group of British Sappers after 23 Days of Adventure Training in the Hot Wet Tropics

Abstract : The nutritional adequacy of both Australian combat ration packs and local feeding with fresh foods was evaluated during Exercise Pelopor Finn, a 23-day adventure training exercise conducted in Saban, Malaysia. Thirty one males (aged 19 to 32 years) from the British 25 Engineer Regiment participated in the study. Blood samples were collected for determination of nutritional status and a skin immune- function test was performed before and after the exercise. Measurement of body mass, recording of food consumption, physical fitness testing, collection of saliva samples (immunoglobulin-A) and testing of psychological status (mood and cognition) occurred immediately before and after and at multiple time points during the study. Mean weight loss was 5.5%, decrements in physical and mental performance were not observed and good immune status was maintained. Food consumption was encouraged by the novelty of new foods, ability to socialize and take meal breaks, ability to self-select food items and number of serves, adequate sleep, good morale, and good hydration status. Conclusion: Although providing sufficient energy and macronutrients, the Australian CRP failed to provide sufficient iron, folic acid, antioxidants and vitamin B6 to prevent a decline in storage of these nutrients. Tobacco smoking and alcohol consumption were shown to be detrimental to nutritional status and alcohol may have had a particular negative effect on iron status.
Breast cancer screening disparities among ethnically diverse women in California : a latent profile analysis

Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers among women in the United States (U.S. CSWG, 2009). Health care, screening behaviors (e.g., mammography) and late-stage disease detection account for significant differences in breast cancer morbidity and mortality among ethnically diverse women (ACS, 2007). The current study sought to identify variables that best predict women's breast cancer screening behaviors and to develop screening typologies for women in a large multiethnic sample (N = 15,130) from the California Health Interview Survey 2005 (CHIS, 2006). The study examined whether ethnicity (Hispanic, African American, Asian, and non-Hispanic white) moderated the relationship between emergent typologies and screening outcomes. Variables of interest addressed the following themes: health behaviors, women's health, cancer history, health insurance, health care utilization, mental health, as well as acculturation, racial discrimination, education, and socioeconomic status. Latent profile analysis (LPA : Lanza, Flaherty, & Collins, 2003) was employed to empirically derive and subsequently predict screening using each variable simultaneously to develop typologies of women. Post-hoc analyses using logistic regression were utilized to explain significant ethnicity by class interactions. Results revealed three substantive risk domains, Health, Stress, and Demographic, were significantly related to breast cancer screening. LPA revealed two classes, deemed Healthy and Health Risk, emerged significant for the Health domain. Health Risk class women engaged in more mammography screening, relative to Healthy class counterparts across all ethnic groups (ps < .001). In the Stress domain Minimal, Mild, Moderate, and Severe Stress classes emerged. Women reported more breast cancer screening in the Minimal and Mild Stress classes, comparatively to their Moderate and Severe Stress class counterparts (ps < .001). This relationship was significant in follow-up analyses for non -Hispanic white women. Among the Demographic domain Minimal, Limited, Moderate, and Substantial Resource classes emerged. Women in the Minimal and Substantial Resource classes engaged in greater breast cancer screening (ps < .001) than Limited and Moderate Resource class women and this was replicated across ethnic groups. The current study portrays a rich constellation of variables that influence women's screening behaviors and underpins future targets of breast cancer prevention in typologies of ethnically diverse women within California
STUDY OF MOTION RESPONSES OF THE H-TYPE FLOATING BREAKWATER

This study focuses on the hydrodynamics behavior of a floating breakwater with taut leg mooring configuration. The aim of the study is to understand the motion responses of the H-type floating breakwater and the effects of the mooring system on the motion responses of the floating breakwater. This study focuses only on the heave, surge and pitch movements, whilst the other motion responses were restricted. In order to quantify the motion responses of the floating breakwater, the Response Amplitude Operator (RAO) was utilized in the study. The RAO values for heave, surge and pitch obtained in the study will provide an insight on the extent of the movement of the H-type floating breakwater subjected to various wave conditions. The results show that the motion responses of the floating breakwater are heavily affected by the breakwater’s drafts and the wave period. The recorded RAO values show that the motion responses of heave and surge decreased with an increase of the breakwater draft. However, as for the case of pitch RAOs, no specific pattern can be recorded; a clear indication that the pitch responses are less significant as far as changing the drafts is concerned. All of the RAO values of the heave, surge and pitch are rather sensitive to the change of wave period, as the RAOs vary significantly with the increasing wave period. The motion responses for all the heave, surge and pitch also show significant differences when subjected to different wave steepness, with lower RAO values recorded milder wave steepness (H/L = 0.04). However, the RAOs are less sensitive at higher wave steepness (H/L = 0.05 and H/L = 0.06) and the effect are rather scarce. The RAO’s patterns for both regular and random waves are almost identical; with the RAOs for regular waves tend to produce larger values as compared to random waves.
Multiscale Approaches in Reactive Transport Modeling

The field of reactive transport lies at the intersection of several disciplines in the Earth and Environmental sciences, including hydrology, geochemistry, biology and geology. The processes in natural and engineered media that are the focus of study of these disciplines take place over a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. Specifically, geological media are characterized by their physical and mineralogical heterogeneity at spatial scales from nanometers to hundreds of meters and beyond. Flow and advection of solutes take place at the scale of individual pores but are commonly represented at the Darcy scale where the porous medium is treated as a continuum. A large contrast is often observed between fluid residence times in regions of enhanced permeability such as fractures or macropores and less permeable media where diffusion may be the dominating solute transport process. Understanding of reactive processes, including those mediated by microorganisms, is often developed at the molecular scale in the laboratory but their impact in the environment is observed at larger spatial scales.
An Analysis Of Energy Transitions At Different Scales: Fossil Fuel Divestment In Higher Education And Individual Behavior

A sociotechnical energy transition requires both a shift to new technologies and attention to social issues like political movements, policy and human behavior. This dissertation investigates social elements of the renewable energy transition occurring at different scales. The core research questions are: How are universities creating and responding to the shifting language of fossil fuel investments? How and for whom do behavioral interventions work? And finally, do in-home displays (IHDs) change behaviors and attitudes of millennial energy users? The three studies covered here occurred within higher education and reflect the importance of colleges and universities as dynamic players in energy transitions. These spaces encourage learning and organizational change on the inside while also pushing outward, challenging social norms. Using a coding approach and text analysis software, this research identifies common frames of language used by colleges and universities who have released formal statements rejecting or adopting divestment policies. This study provides a quantitative assessment of themes and an early overview of this dynamic movement. The second and third study describe the outcomes of a behavioral energy experiment with off-campus students at the University of Vermont testing real-time feedback and financial incentives on individual’s behavior. The second study analyzes the results of a survey conducted with participants in the experiment, investigating changes in attitudes and self-reported behaviors and correlations with actual energy usage. Applying Wilcoxon-signed rank tests and a repeated measures marginal model, showed a minimal effect from the behavioral interventions in survey responses. The results also raise questions about surveys as a reliable predictor for behavior-based outcomes. In the third study, interview data from participants sheds light on questions of how and for whom behavioral interventions work. A within-households split-incentive is discovered, describing one factor contributing to the limited effect of in-home displays on household energy usage. Other factors affecting household energy use are also discussed. This dissertation concludes with recommendations for utilities and policy makers.
Enhancing the Flow Characteristics in a Branching Channel Based on a Two-Dimensional Depth-Averaged Flow Model

Natural rivers have many branching junctions. The flow in branching junctions is complex, owing to significant changes associated with flow dynamics and sediment transport that result in erosion and deposition problems. A branching channel of the Tigris River in Missan, Iraq, was selected for investigation of the scouring and deposition zones. A two-dimensional (2D) numerical model was used to simulate the hydro-morphodynamics in the branching channel, where hypothetical vanes as control structures were included at the junction to control the scouring and deposition zones. The simulation results suggest the most effective location, dimension, and angle of the introduced vanes. For the studied junction, controlling morphological features was achieved by introducing a single vane with an inclination angle of 90° on the flow direction of the Tigris River. The most effective location of the introduced vane was the location that caused considerable enhancement in the flow depth and velocity distribution.
Dissipation of Earthward Propagating Flux Rope Through Re‐reconnection with Geomagnetic Field: An MMS Case Study

Three‐dimensional global hybrid simulations and observations have shown that earthward‐moving flux ropes (FRs) can undergo magnetic reconnection (or re‐reconnection) with the near‐Earth dipole field to create dipolarization front (DF)‐like signatures that are immediately preceded by brief intervals of negative BZ. The simultaneous erosion of the southward BZ field at the leading edge of the FR and continuous reconnection of lobe magnetic flux at the X‐line tailward of the FR result in the asymmetric south‐north BZ signature in many earthward‐moving FRs and possibly DFs with negative BZ dips prior to their observation. In this study, we analyzed Magnetospheric MultiScale (MMS) observation of fields and plasma signatures associated with the encounter of an ion diffusion region ahead of an earthward‐moving FR on 3 August 2017. The signatures of this re‐reconnection event were (i) +/− BZ reversal, (ii) −/+ bipolar‐type quadrupolar Hall magnetic fields, (iii) northward super‐Alfvénic electron outflow jet of ~1,000–1,500 km/s, (iv) Hall electric field of ~15 mV/m, (v) intense currents of ~40–100 nA/m2, and (vi) J·E′ ~0.11 nW/m3. Our analysis suggests that the MMS spacecraft encounters the ion and electron diffusion regions but misses the X‐line. Our results are in good agreement with particle‐in‐cell simulations of Lu et al. (2016, https://doi.org/10.1002/2016JA022815). We computed a dimensionless reconnection rate of ~0.09 for this re‐reconnection event and through modeling, estimating that the FR would fully dissipate by −16.58 RE. We demonstrated pertubations in the high‐latitude ionospheric currents at the same time of the dissipation of earthward‐moving FRs using ground‐ and space‐based measurements.
Target Complicity in the Confirmation and Disconfirmation of Erroneous Perceiver Expectations: Immediate and Longer Term Implications

The authors explored the role o f target self-presentational goals in the expectation confirmation process within the context of simulated employment interviews. As predicted, applicants encouraged to be deferential inadvertently succumbed to their interviewers' expectations; applicants encouraged to be challenging, t o advance their own agenda, did not. The challenging-motivated applicants succeeded in disconfirming negative expectations by presenting favorable information about themselves even in the face of negatively constraining interviewer questions; other theoretically relevant behaviors were not supported as mediators. Of added interest, the self-fulfilling prophecies observed for the deference-motivated applicants carried over to a 2nd interview because of changes in applicant self-perceptions following the 1st interview. People frequently hold expectations about what others are going to be like. When expectations are accurate, representing reasonably well others' personalities, abilities, or behavioral propensities, they help people prepare appropriately for social encounters. When expectations are inaccurate, however, as when based on incorrect social stereotypes or third-party hearsay, using them can have significant costs, as even erroneous expectations may greatly transform the way people think about and interact with others. Inaccurate expectations may serve as perceptual and interpretive filters, leading people to view others' ambiguous behaviors as expectation-consistent instead (for reviews, see Fiske & Neuberg, 1990; Hamilton, Sherman, & Ruvulo, 1990; Higgins & Bargh, 1987). They may also create self-fulfilling prophecies (Merton, 1948), whereby people cause others to behave in ways objectively consistent with their expectations (for reviews, see Darley & Fazio, 1980; Jussim, 1986; Miller & Turnbull, 1986; Neuberg, 1996b; Rosenthal & Rubin, 1978: Snyder, 1984). Much research has focused o n the behavioral mechanisms through which perceivers create self-fulfilling prophecies. Two mediating processes stand out as particularly important. First, a perceiver may express a tone, based on his or her expectation,
Nitrogen Fertilization I: Impact on Crop, Soil, and Environment

Nitrogen (N) is a major limiting nutrient to sustain crop yields and quality. As a result, N fertilizer is usually applied in large quantity to increase crop production throughout the world. Application of N fertilizers has increased crop yields and resulted in achievement of self-sufficiency in food production in many developing countries. Excessive application of N fertilizers beyond crops ’ demand, however, has resulted in undesirable consequences of degradation in soil, water, and air quality. These include soil acidification, N leaching in groundwater, and emissions of nitrous oxide (N 2 O), a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming. Long-term application of ammonia-based N fertilizers, such as urea, has increased soil acidity which rendered to soil infertility where crops fail to respond with further application of N fertilizers. Another problem is the groundwater contamination of nitrate-N (NO 3 -N) which can be a health hazard to human and livestock if its concentration goes above 10 mg L (cid:1) 1 in drinking water. The third problem is emissions of N 2 O gas which is 300 times more powerful than carbon dioxide in terms of global warming potential. This chapter examines the effect of N fertilization on soil and environmental quality and crop yields.
Use of Sentinel-1 radar observations to evaluate snowmelt dynamics
in alpine regions

Abstract. Knowing the timing and the evolution of the snow melting process is very important, since it allows the prediction of: i) the snow melt onset; ii) the snow gliding and wet-snow avalanches; iii) the release of snow contaminants and iv) the runoff onset. The snowmelt can be monitored by jointly measuring snowpack parameters such as the snow water equivalent (SWE) or the amount of free liquid water content (LWC). However, continuous measurements of SWE and LWC are rare and difficult to be obtained. On the other hand, active microwave sensors such as the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) mounted on board of satellites, are highly sensitive to LWC of the snowpack and can provide spatially distributed information with a high resolution. Moreover, with the introduction of Sentinel-1, SAR images are regularly acquired every 6 days over several places in the world. In this paper we analyze the correlation between the multi-temporal SAR backscattering and the snowmelt dynamics. We compared Sentinel-1 backscattering with snow properties derived from in situ observations and process-based snow modeling simulations for five alpine test sites in Italy, Germany and Switzerland considering two hydrological years. We found that the multi-temporal SAR measurements allow the identification of the three melting phases that characterize the melting process i.e., moistening, ripening and runoff. In detail, we found that the C-band SAR backscattering decreases as soon as the snow starts containing water, and that the backscattering increases as soon as SWE starts decreasing, which corresponds to the release of meltwater from the snowpack. We discuss the possible reasons of this increase, which are not directly correlated to the SWE decrease, but to the different snow conditions, which change the backscattering mechanisms. Finally, we show a spatially-distributed application of the identification of the runoff onset from SAR images for a mountain catchment, i.e., the Zugspitze catchment in Germany. Results allow to better understand the spatial and temporal evolution of melting dynamics in mountain regions. The presented investigation could have relevant applications for monitoring and predicting the snowmelt progress over large regions.
Fatigue Assessment of Welded Pipelines in Ultra-Deep Water

Welded oil and gas transport pipelines buried in Ultra Deep water (1500m and beyond) experience more stress and display a lower fatigue life span when compared to unwelded pipelines. This is due to the inherent weakness of weld joint and/or the presence of defects therein. These defects may look negligible, but they contribute largely to the stress concentration that exists at these joints, especially when they are joints of dissimilar pipe radius (Lotsberg, 2009). These pipelines, if left unchecked may lead to leakage of transported petroleum product into the surrounding water. This type of pollution can be irreversible and expensive to manage, it can also lead to the death of organisms habiting the immediate polluted surrounding. Two 7.1mm thick pipes of 7 inches (177.8 mm) and 8 inches (203.2 mm) outer radius were modelled as welded together. The pipeline was simulated in COMSOL Multiphysics® to experience Ultra Deepwater boundary condition at 2000 m depth such as external hydrostatic pressure, axial force and internal flow pressure which are acting on it simultaneously. The material properties were selected to represent that of a X60 steel pipe, which are used for Ultra Deepwater environments. The fatigue of the welded pipe was evaluated using the Smith-Watson-Topper model (SWT model) for pipeline models with 1.7mm, 4.7mm lack of penetration defect depth (case 1, 2) and increased axial force on 1.7mm defect depth (case 3). The size and material properties of the pipeline models were kept constant for all cases. The result showed similar deformation patterns across all cases with slight variance in degree but a significant difference in fatigue life between case 1 which is referred to as the initial condition and cases 2 and 3. The number of cycles to failure decreasing from 109628 cycles at initial conditions (case 1) to 3551.8 cycles when the size of defect is increased (case 2) and 3357.9 cycles when axial force was increased (case 3). The result also showed the fatigue of the pipeline models generating from the defect as it gradually spreads to the smaller diameter pipe The results showed the influence of the defect size and load magnitude on the fatigue life of the pipeline section. This makes the fatigue life of the welded joint important to evaluate in order to ascertain a safe operating condition of oil and gas transport pipelines in Ultra Deep water, and to prevent avoidable catastrophic pollution of surrounding water bodies. The welded joints are to undergo intensive welding and scheduled inspection to prevent leakage or burst. This will help to prevent expensive replacement of pipeline and determine a maintenance approach to extend the life of the pipeline.