Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Interpretation of interannual winter temperature variations over southwestern Europe

A great part of winter temperature variability over southwestern Europe (SWE) shows a very low correlation with the North Atlantic or Arctic Oscillation indices. The patterns of winter mean surface air temperature over SWE were obtained from gridded and instrumental data. The first mode is highly correlated with the East Atlantic (EA) pattern and explains temperature variations of the same sign over the whole domain. The second mode, however, is correlated with the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and shows a dipolar structure with significant negative values in northern Africa and the southern Iberian Peninsula and positive values toward northern Europe. Thus the NAO only influences the meridional gradient of temperature over the area, and the second mode explains a significantly lower fraction of variance than the first mode. Both modes of temperature variability depend on the stationary component of the sensible heat fluxes but cannot be explained through the eddy sensible heat fluxes. It is well known that precipitation depends on the existence of baroclinic systems over the area. According to the results in this paper, this does not hold for temperature. This explains the different sensitivities of SWE precipitation and temperature to the North Atlantic Oscillation.
Efeito do envelhecimento de isca na captura de moscas (Diptera: Brachycera) em área de Caatinga

Especies de Diptera, principalmente as moscas, tem se mostrado como potenciais bioindicadores para mudancas ambientais. Para captura destes animais, ha diferentes metodos, incluindo as armadilhas com atrativos alimentares. Neste estudo, para avaliar a eficiencia de armadilhas na captura de moscas usando isca de melaco de cana-de-acucar, foram avaliados os parâmetros ecologicos: abundância, riqueza e composicao de especies de moscas, comparando diferentes periodos de exposicao das armadilhas em campo: 24, 48, 72 e 96h. A riqueza e abundância apresentaram mudanca significativa em relacao ao tempo de exposicao da isca, tendo se estabilizado apos 48h, e a composicao diferiu entre o primeiro dia (24h) e os demais (48, 72, 96h). Effect of Aging Bait for Catching Flies (Diptera: Brachycera) in a Caatinga Area Abstract. Diptera species, especially flies, has shown potential as bioindicators for environmental changes. There are different methods to capture these animals, including traps with food baits. In this study, we assess the efficiency of traps for catching flies using bait of cane sugar molasses, analyzing the ecological parameters: abundance, species richness and species composition of flies during different periods of exposure of the traps in the field: 24, 48, 72 and 96h. Species richness and abundance showed significant change with respect to exposure time in the field, with stabilization after 48h, and species composition differed between the first and the other days.
Dating the upper Cenozoic sediments in Fisher Valley, southeastern Utah

More than 140 m of upper Cenozoic basin-fill sediments were deposited and then deformed in Fisher Valley between about 2.5 and 0.25 m.y. ago, in response to uplift of the adjacent Onion Creek salt diapir. In addition to these basin-fill sediments, minor amounts of eolian and fluvial sand were deposited in Holocene time. The sediments, whose relative ages are known from the stratigraphy, are predominantly sandy, second-cycle red beds derived from nearby Mesozoic rocks; most were deposited in a vertical sequence, filling a sedimentary basin now exposed by fluvial dissection. We have applied a variety of established and experimental dating methods to the sediments in Fisher Valley to establish their age and to provide time control for the recent history of the Onion Creek salt diapir. Volcanic ash beds provide time datums at 610,000 yr (Lava Creek Ash) and 730,000 yr (Bishop Ash); the related eruptions have been dated by potassium-argon (K-Ar) and fission-track methods. Paleo-magnetic stratigraphy also provides time markers at the Brunhes-Matuyama boundary (730,000–790,000 yr) and at the Matuyama-Gauss boundary (2.48 m.y.); normal events within the Matuyama chronozone are missing or are obscured by secondary remagnetization. Uranium-trend analyses yield ages of 530,000 yr for the Lava Creek Ash horizon, 210,000–240,000 yr for the top of the basin-fill sediments, and 9,000 yr for Holocene eolian sand. Average accumulation rates of secondary carbonate and clay in the ten paleosols in the section were calculated from the amounts of these materials above the Lava Creek Ash and the Brunhes-Matuyama boundary; these rates yield estimates of 260,000 yr (carbonate) and 320,000 yr (clay) for the top of the basin fill. Amino-acid analyses of bulk soil materials are complex, but some data appear to change systematically with relative age. Thermoluminescence (TL) analyses proved inapplicable because of residual TL at the time of deposition and because the age range of the method was probably exceeded. Holocene deposits yield radiocarbon dates between modern and 9,300 yr B.P. These age estimates provide a time framework for the history of late Cenozoic deposition and geomorphic change in Fisher Valley, and they constrain the late history of deformation of the subjacent Onion Creek salt diapir. The use of multiple dating methods in a well-established stratigraphy lends confidence to several critical age estimates and provides needed tests of experimental dating methods.
Mapping burned areas in Mediterranean countries using spectral mixture analysis from a uni‐temporal perspective

The main aim of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of spectral mixture analysis (SMA) for mapping forest areas burned by fires in the Mediterranean area using low and medium spatial resolution satellite sensor data. A methodology requiring only one single post‐fire image was used to carry out the study (uni‐temporal techniques). This methodology is based on the contextual classification of the fraction images obtained after applying SMA to the original post‐fire image. The results showed that the proposed method, using only one image acquired post‐fire, could accurately identify the burned surface area (Kappa coefficient>0.8). The spatial resolution of the satellite images had practically no influence on the accuracy of the burned area estimate but did affect the possibility of detecting areas inside the perimeter of the burned area which were only slightly damaged.
Reconstruction of deglacial sea surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific from selective analysis of a fossil coral

The Sr/Ca of coral skeletons demonstrates potential as an indicator of sea surface temperatures (SSTs). However, the glacial‐interglacial SST ranges predicted from Sr/Ca of fossil corals are usually higher than from other marine proxies. We observed infilling of secondary aragonite, characterised by high Sr/Ca ratios, along intraskeletal pores of a fossil coral from Papua New Guinea that grew during the penultimate deglaciation (130 ± 2 ka). Selective microanalysis of unaltered areas of the fossil coral indicates that SSTs at ∼130 ka were ≤1°C cooler than at present in contrast with bulk measurements (combining infilled and unaltered areas) which indicate a difference of 6–7°C. The analysis of unaltered areas of fossil skeletons by microprobe techniques may offer a route to more accurate reconstruction of past SSTs.
The applicability of slug tests in fractured-rock formations

Currently slug tests in South Africa are used with two objectives in mind: • To get a first estimate of the yield of a borehole • To estimate the K-value (or T-value) of the aquifer near the borehole. The paper shows that the use of currently available slug-test interpretation methods to analyse slug tests in fractured-rock aquifers to estimate a T or K-value is problematic. The estimated value is dependent on the flow thickness (thickness of the part of the aquifer in which flow occurs due to the slug input). If this thickness of flow is known, the estimated T-value is more representative of that of the fracture zone. By using the total thickness of the formation for the estimation of the K-value in slug-test analysis, the estimated K-value (and thus KD-value) does not represent the T-value of the formation. Water SA Vol. 31 (2) 2005: pp.157-160
Why Does the Indonesian Throughflow Appear to Originate from the North Pacific

Abstract Most available wind products show a mean wind stress curl across the Pacific at 2°N that is close to zero, so a Sverdrup model predicts the western boundary current at the Asian coast to be nearly zero at this latitude. Thus, the Australasian circulation, or Indonesian Throughflow-which is estimated by a Sverdrup model to be (16 ± 4) × 106 m3 s−–is predicted to flow westward as a zonal jet from the northern tip of Irian Jaya into the Indonesian seas. If this Sverdrup flow pattern were valid, the throughflow would be supplied by (salty) South Equatorial Current water from the northern tip of Irian Jaya, while the (relatively fresh) Mindanao Current would all return eastward to feed the North Equatorial Countercurrent. Observed salinities in the Indonesian Throughflow are close to those of the Mindanao Current, suggesting that they are inconsistent with the Sverdrup flow pattern. The outputs of two recent ocean general circulation models are examined; in both models, the Indonesian throughflow is s.
Tectonics of the Antarctic‐Scotia plate boundary near Elephant and Clarence Islands, West Antarctica

Over 5000 km of new bathymetric data collected from near the northern Antarctic Peninsula (60°S–63.5°S latitude, 53.5°W–63°W longitude) show the morphology of an irregular segment of the Antarctic-Scotia plate boundary and nearby Shetland microplate. The irregular plate boundary is formed by an oblique intersection (>70°) of the sinistral transpressional Shackleton fracture zone (SFZ) and the sinistral transtensional South Scotia Ridge transform (SSR) near Elephant (EI) and Clarence (CI) Islands. Mapped boundaries of the Shetland microplate include the South Shetland Trench and the volcanic rift axis of Bransfield Strait marginal basin. Bathymetric data, single-channel seismic reflection profiles, and Geosat/ERS 1 free air gravity data show a southeast trending fault zone on the northeast side of a prominent ridge in the SFZ. The fault zone is defined by scarps that affect ocean floor sediments, fault-bounded subbasins, rotated sedimentary layers, angular unconformities, linear gravity trends, and transtensional followed by contractional deformation. Southeast of a termination of the SFZ ridge at the South Shetland Trench, the fault zone subdivides into segments displaying steep scarps (up to 23°) and canyons on the northeast margin of the EI platform. These features become east-west trending nearer to the western SSR. South of the islands, southwest trending extensional or transtensional fault zones disrupt the Bransfield Strait volcanic rift axis. These data suggest that (1) recent (<4 Ma) changes in the configuration of the Antarctic plate near the Antarctic Peninsula caused a segment of the SFZ transform to adjust to a more stable, rectilinear geometry with the SSR transform, and (2) diffuse transtension resulting from current Antarctic-Scotia relative motion is dissecting the Shetland microplate near EI and CI and transferring slivers of the Scotia plate onto the Antarctic plate.
Crust restoration for the western Lachlan Orogen using the strain-reversal, area-balancing technique: implications for crustal components and original thicknesses

Strain reversal of structural/stratigraphic profiles at different scales in the western Lachlan Orogen provides a perspective on original crustal thickness estimates, the former depositional basin width of the proto-western Lachlan Orogen, the original sedimentary-fan thickness, and the possible length extent of lower crust lost by subduction. Retrodeformation using strain-reversal techniques allows basin reconstruction giving an original width of the western Lachlan Orogen basin receptor of between 800 km (minimum) and ∼1150 km (maximum), depending on the amount of stratal duplication allowed in the turbidites. Crude area balancing of the regional cross-section, adding in sectional volume lost by erosion and assuming strain compatibility between the upper and lower crust, suggests that the predeformation crustal thickness ranges between 15 km and ∼21 km, with a lower crustal thickness (oceanic lithosphere) of ∼9 km and a turbidite fan thickness of ∼6 km (minimum) and ∼12 km (maximum allowable), respectively. Disparity between the calculated fan thickness and that derived from measured stratigraphic sections adjusted for strain (∼6 km) indicates that some form of crustal stacking must be important in structural thickening of the turbidite crustal component. By varying shortening due to fault stacking, mass balance dictates the mismatch of the upper crustal (uc) and lower crustal (lc) retrodeformed lengths, and therefore provides an estimate of lower crustal loss by subduction. End members range from: (i) a 12 km-thick fan without fault duplication, a basin width of ∼800 km where uc = lc giving no lower crustal loss by subduction; to (ii) a ∼6 km fan, requiring duplication by faulting, a basin of ∼1150 km where uc > lc, and ∼360 km of lower crust length (∼30%) lost by subduction. This suggests that the total thickness of underplated igneous material in the western Lachlan Orogen is low, probably < ∼2 km.
A SPATIO‐TEMPORAL KERNEL METHOD FOR MAPPING CHANGES IN PREHISTORIC LAND‐USE PATTERNS

Archaeologists are accustomed to considering both the spatial distributions of sites and the temporal distributions of dates as means of analysing the dynamics of prehistoric societies. However, spatial and temporal approaches have thus far remained largely separate, rather than being combined within a single, unified framework. A formal methodology is outlined that combines univariate kernel density estimation based on radiocarbon dates with bivariate kernel density estimation based on spatial site coordinates; the approach allows archaeologists to arrive at reconstructed land-use distributions through time that not only correct for the problematic issue of site contemporaneity, but also reflect the continuous nature of the archaeological record. The model is implemented using as a data set a series of sites from the Mesolithic of Atlantic Iberia; the results demonstrate that it is capable of providing key insights into changing patterns of land use that are not apparent from either the temporal or the spatial perspective alone.
Pharmaceuticals and personal care products in environmental waters

En la presente Tesis Doctoral se han desarrollado diferentes metodos analiticos para la determinacion de pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) en aguas medioambientales. El termino PPCPs engloba todos los farmacos, drogas de abuso, hormonas y los excipientes activos incluidos en productos de uso personal, asi como los metabolitos, conjugados y sub-productos de transformacion. Los metodos desarrollados han estado basados en extraccion en fase solida o extraccion con barras magneticas agitadoras seguidos de la cromatografia liquida acoplada a la espectrometria de masas o de masas en tandem. Debido a los bajos limites de deteccion alcanzados, estos metodos se pudieron aplicar a la monitorizacion de estos compuestos en diferentes plantas depuradoras del area de Tarragona, donde la informacion al respeto era inexistente. Debido a que el principal destino de las aguas residuales son los rios, se analizaron aguas del Ter, Llobregat y Ebro. Para completar el estudio, la presencia de PPCPs fue determinada en aguas de consumo.
Magnetopause orientation: Comparison between generic residue analysis and BV method

Determining the direction normal to the magnetopause layer is a key step for any study of this boundary. Various techniques have been developed for this purpose. We focus here on generic residue analysis (GRA) methods, which are based on conservation laws, and the new iterative BV method, where B represents the magnetic field and V refers to the ion velocity. This method relies on a fit of the magnetic field hodogram against a modeled geometrical shape and on the way this hodogram is described in time. These two methods have different underlying model assumptions and validity ranges. We compare here magnetopause normals predicted by BV and GRA methods to better understand the sensitivity of each method on small departures from its own physical hypotheses. This comparison is carried out first on artificial data with magnetopause‐like noise. Then a statistical study is carried out using a list of 149 flank and dayside magnetopause crossings from Cluster data where the BV method is applicable, i.e., where the magnetopause involves a single‐layer current sheet, with a crudely C‐shaped magnetic hodogram. These two comparisons validate the quality of the BV method for all these cases where it is applicable. The method provides quite reliable normal directions in all these cases, even when the boundary is moving with a varying velocity, which distorts noticeably the results of most of the other methods.
Response to commentary on “Effect of brush control on evapotranspiration in the North Concho River watershed using the eddy covariance technique” by Wilcox et al. (2010)

Notwithstanding the differing professional opinion of our colleagues, the authors of this article stand by our concluding statement that brush control offers great potential for increasing water yield in the Concho River Watershed. The commenting authors are not disputing our basic finding that decreases in tree cover and density decrease evapotranspiration; rather, they dispute our statement that these seemingly modest differences will translate to meaningful changes in water supply in this watershed. Hence, we find ourselves defending not the methods and findings of our research, but rather our assertion regarding the implications of our findings. Beginning with the support for our position, it is for the most part still amply presented in the brush control planning, assessment, and feasibility study (UCRA 1999). Therein is provided the historical grassland vegetative setting of the watershed prior to the 1880s, the infestation by evasive shrubs and brush largely culminating by the late 1950s, and ample anecdotal evidence from numerous “old time” residents of perennial streamflow and permanent spring conditions ceasing in the North Concho River and its tributaries during the 1950s. Despite no notable pumping of the groundwater resources, evidence from water well measurements in the watershed is also provided of generally declining…
Near‐field tsunami models with rapid earthquake source inversions from land‐ and ocean‐based observations: The potential for forecast and warning

Computation of tsunami models in the region adjacent to large earthquakes immediately after rupture initiation remains a challenging problem. Limitations of traditional seismological instrumentation in the near field and concern by tsunami modelers regarding the nonuniqueness of source inversions and the use of indirect observations have in the past been hurdles for such efforts. Employing near‐field data from the Mw 9.0 2011 Tohoku‐oki data, we test source models obtained from newly developed algorithms and multisensor data. We demonstrate the ability of such source models determined from land‐based coseismic data from the combination of GPS and strong‐motion sensors to forecast near‐source tsunamis. We also demonstrate that rapid ingestion of offshore shallow water (100–1000 m) wave gauge data substantially improves the earthquake source and tsunami forecast. To assess the success of such tsunami models, we rely on detailed comparisons to 2000+ tsunami survey measurements collected after the event. We argue that deployments of shallow water wave gauges coupled with land‐based geophysical sensors can, in the future, provide enough information to issue timely and accurate forecasts of tsunami intensity immediately or shortly after rupture initiation of large earthquakes.
Experiments on the thickness of beds deposited by turbidity currents

ABSTRACT Turbidites were produced experimentally by releasing suspensions of spherical beads from a lock into a 6 m long horizontal channel. Flow properties were varied by changing initial flow geometry, and sediment size, sorting, and concentration in the initial suspension. Initial flow geometry was varied using two lengths of lock (0.29 and 0.59 m) and four depths (0.15, 0.2, 0.3 and 0.4 m). To vary the properties of the initial suspension, three nearly uniform sizes (2.0, 2.7, and 3.6 phi) of glass beads and one (2.5 phi) of plastic beads (specific gravity 1.52) were used, and all experiments were run at concentrations of 20% and 40% by volume. The effect of poor sorting was investigated by mixing the coarse and fine glass beads to produce a poorly sorted sediment with a median grain size qual to that of the intermediate-size glass beads. Bed thickness was almost uniform near the source except for beds deposited from poorly sorted sediment suspensions, which tended to be wedge-shaped. High concentration produced more uniform bed thickness, and (for equal volume of sediment) shorter, thicker beds. Increases in lock height and length increased bed thickness almost equally. If all other variables were held constant, bed thickness was directly proportional to grain size. The dimensionless ratio of the square of bed thickness divided by the volume of suspension (per unit width) was found to be directly proportional to the dimensionless ratio of settling velocity divided by the speed of the head of the current. The 'constant' in the regression equation appears to depend mainly on the sediment concentration. The experimentally determined equation gives plausible values for turbidity current velocities when extrapolated to scales over a million times larger than those of the experiments.
On Persistence in Mutual Fund Performance

Using a sample free of survivor bias, the author demonstrates that common factors in stock returns and investment expenses almost completely explain persistence in equity mutual funds' mean and risk-adjusted returns. Darryll Hendricks, Jayendu Patel, and Richard Zeckhauser's (1993) 'hot hands' result is mostly driven by the one-year momentum effect of Narasimham Jegadeesh and Sheridan Titman (1993), but individual funds do not earn higher returns from following the momentum strategy in stocks. The only significant persistence not explained is concentrated in strong underperformance by the worst-return mutual funds. The results do not support the existence of skilled or informed mutual fund portfolio managers. Copyright 1997 by American Finance Association.
Numerical simulation of convection and mixing in magma chambers replenished with CO2‐rich magma

Magma convection and mixing, and periodic refilling, commonly occur in magma chambers. We show here that the presence of CO2 in the refilling magma is a very efficient mean of inducing buoyant‐driven plume rise and large scale convection. Numerical simulations performed with an appositely developed code for the transient 2D dynamics of multicomponent compressible to incompressible fluids reveal several features of the processes of plume rise, convection and mixing in magma chambers associated with chamber refilling. A parametric study on CO2 abundance in the refilling magma shows that progressively larger amounts of this volatile produce a shift from simple plume rise and spreading near the chamber top, to complex patterns of flow circulation and large scale vorticity and mixing. Lower chamber depth and lower magma viscosity largely enhance the efficiency of mixing and convection, favoring the formation of multiple vortexes migrating with time.