Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fluvial system response to external forcing and human impact – Late Pleistocene and Holocene fluvial dynamics of the lower Guadalete River in western Andalucía (Spain)

The 170 km long river course of the Guadalete River (western Andalucía) provides an excellent record of Late Pleistocene and Holocene fluvial sedimentation dynamics. Furthermore, its floodplain sediments are very well suited to describe geomorphic changes forced by climate fluctuations, sea‐level changes, tectonic influences and human activity. Multiproxy investigations were based on field mapping and the study of 18 profile sections, mainly including sedimentological characterisation, soil‐chemical analyses and radiocarbon dating of 34 samples. Findings were complemented by drillings and electrical resistivity tomography. The lowermost 50 km of the river section are divided into an upper and lower part (each 25 km long), based on different sediment preservation conditions. The boundary corresponds to the disappearance of the Late Pleistocene river terrace. Significant floodplain aggradation occurred at around 10 000 cal. years BP, while dynamics were strongly affected by sea‐level fluctuations until the early Holocene. Furthermore, sedimentation starting at 8000, 6100, 4600, 2200, 900 and 400 cal. years BP is related to enhanced fluvial dynamics due to environmental stress that presumably was triggered by climate fluctuations, that is, aridification. However, the strongest intensity of sedimentation at 400 cal. years BP points to climate anomalies in the course of the Little Ice Age. In contrast, several periods of stability associated with alluvial soil formation took place during the Bølling and Allerød interstadials, prior to 8000, 6100 and 5100, and after 4300 and 2000 cal. years BP. The anthropogenic signal in floodplain evolution is not clearly distinguishable from that of climate. However, human land use had the potential to amplify geomorphic processes, especially during periods of climate deteriorations that caused increasing stress on the environment.
Relationship between winter severity and survival of mule deer fawns in the Peace Region of British Columbia

This extension note summarizes results of an ongoing study to measure the survival of mule deer ( Odocoileus hemionus) fawns through their first winter in the Peace Region of British Columbia. Each spring since 1991, mule deer were counted and classified by sex and age by driving along roads that go through areas known for providing good winter range. Seven transects were driven for a total distance of 205.3 km. The number of fawns observed is expressed as a ratio of fawns per 100 does. Average monthly air temperature and total monthly snowfall data from November to the following April from 1991 through 2008 were obtained from Environment Canada’s website. A winter severity index (WSI) integrating temperature and snowfall data was calculated and correlated to the observed fawn-to-doe ratio. A statistically significant relationship between this ratio and the WSI was obtained through regression analysis. Resulting data confirms previous research that showed survival of fawns through their first winter is higher in milder winters. For the same time period, we also compared WSI values for the Peace Region with those from three other areas in British Columbia. Results indicate that, on average, the Peace Region experienced harsher winter conditions than the other regions. The variation of the WSI was also much greater in the Peace Region. These results have implications for mule deer management in this region.
Beyond memory: exploring the value of social cognition for older adults with neurocognitive disorders

Neurocognitive disorders involves progressive decline in cognition, function, behavior and needs. Recent developments have identified the need to characterize social cognition in individuals with neurocognitive impairments to support uncertainty in clinical decision making, treatment plans and monitoring individual change. Routine social cognition assessments have thus been more recently used and adopted in persons with dementia or mild cognitive impairment. This work serves to summarize current assessments and provide a discourse on the practicality of available social cognition tools, its implication in clinical practice and key future directions. We highlight advantages in establishing validated, multicomponent measures of social cognition for people with neurocognitive disorders.
Overcrowded Classrooms and their Association with South African Learners’ Mathematics Achievement

There is growing global concern concerning South African learners’ mathematics achievement, with research identifying many factors contributing to poor mathematics achievement, with class size being one of them. When classrooms are overcrowded, this may lead to a stressful environment which can negatively impact the quality of teaching and learning that is possible. The purpose of this study was to gain a holistic understanding of the problem of overcrowded classrooms by using an explanatory sequential mixed-methods approach. We first investigate the association between large classes and mathematics achievement using the TIMSS 2019 data for Grade 9 mathematics. This is followed by the qualitative phase, which elicited educators’ perceptions of the relationship between overcrowded classrooms and achievement. The quantitative results showed a significant negative correlation between the two, indicating that the larger the class size, the worse the achievement. It also showed that learners taught by teachers who strongly believed that there were too many learners in a class performed significantly worse than learners taught by teachers who did not feel this way. The qualitative results showed that participants believed that overcrowded classes led to limited personalised individual interaction with learners, didactic neglect and poor time management, which are associated with poorer mathematics performance. Recommendations include that the issue of overcrowded classes should be prioritised by all stakeholders at the different levels.
Land clutter statistical model for millimeter-wave radar

The main computation relations for determination o MMW radar land clutter statistical characteristics are analyzed. Expressions for normalized RCS determination of different surface types and polarization features of backscattering signals are discussed. Spatial and temporal statistical characteristics of the quadrature components and the amplitudes of scattered signals are analyzed; the influence of spatial characteristics of real land terrain on the quadrature component and amplitude distributions is discussed. It is shown that the amplitude pdf is approximated by the Weibull's law and the distribution of quadrature components is described by the compound Gaussian law. The spatial distributions for different terrain types are presented. As result, the algorithms for radar clutter modeling at millimeter band of radiowaves are obtained taking into consideration the spatial statistics of natural land surface.
Model shows that rivers transmit high-frequency climate cycles to the sedimentary record

Rivers are a major component of sediment routing systems that control the transfer of terrigenous sediments from source to sink. Although it is widely accepted that rivers are perturbed by millennial-scale climatic variability, the extent to which these signals are buffered or transferred down river systems to be recorded in sediments at or beyond the river mouth remains debated. Here, we employ a physically based numerical model to address this outstanding issue. Our model shows that river transport strongly amplifies high-frequency sediment flux variations arising from changing water discharge, due to positive feedback between discharge and the channel gradient. This behavior is distinctly different from short-period sediment flux signals (with constant water discharge) where the output sediment flux is strongly dampened within the river, due to negative feedback between the channel gradient and sediment concentration. We conclude that marine sedimentary basins may record sediment flux cycles resulting from discharge (and ultimately climate) variability, whereas they may be relatively insensitive to pure sediment flux perturbations (such as for example those induced by tectonics).
Body like an idol: K-pop fitspiration on Tumblr – an analysis of texts and images

Eating disorders are a major health issue in societies today which oftentimes remain untreated. In social media, such as Tumblr, people build communities to exchange information and connect to each other using specific hashtags. Some of these trends which emerge around these hashtags, are related to eating disorders. This study in information science addresses how inspiration for fitness (Fitspiration) inspired by music fandom (in particular K-pop) can be characterized on Tumblr by automatically analyzing text and images of posts. Images are evaluated based on their colorfulness and emotional measures, texts undergo a sentiment and readability analysis, as well as an evaluation of their psycho-linguistic features. Furthermore, a qualitative content analysis of K-pop Fitspiration posts (n=119) is performed and they are compared to the K-pop Thinspiration posts, regular Thinspiration and control group posts. Results reveal, that K-pop Fitspiration posts are oftentimes more similar to posts from the control group than to Thinspiration posts, but that they also share psycho-linguistic features with posts of eating disordered users.
Taboo: Why Black Athletes Dominate Sports And Why We're Afraid To Talk About It

A sure-to-be-controversial argument, based on the latest scientific research, that blacks are inherently better athletesand a searing investigation into why were so uncomfortable with that conclusion. Drawing on the latest scientific research, journalist Jon Entine makes an irrefutable case for black athletic superiority. We learn how scientists have used numerous, bogus scientific methods to prove that blacks were either more or less superior physically, and how racist scientists have often equated physical prowess with intellectual deficiency. Entine recalls the long, hard road to integration, both on the field and in society. And he shows why it isnt just being black that mattersit makes a huge difference as to where in Africa your ancestors are from. In virtually every sport in which they are given opportunity to compete, people of African descent dominate. East Africans own every distance running record. Professional sports in the Americas are dominated by men and women of West African descent. Why have blacks come to dominate sports? Are they somehow physically better? And why are we so uncomfortable when we discuss this? Drawing on the latest scientific research, journalist Jon Entine makes an irrefutable case for black athletic superiority. We learn how scientists have used numerous, bogus scientific methods to prove that blacks were either more or less superior physically, and how racist scientists have often equated physical prowess with intellectual deficiency. Entine recalls the long, hard road to integration, both on the field and in society. And he shows why it isnt just being black that mattersit makes a huge difference as to where in Africa your ancestors are from.Equal parts sports, science and examination of why this topic is so sensitive, Taboo is a book that will spark national debate.
Phenotypic heterogeneity drives differential disease outcome in a mouse model of triple negative breast cancer

The triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) subtype is one of the most aggressive forms of breast cancer that has poor clinical outcome and is an unmet clinical challenge. Accumulating evidence suggests that intratumoral heterogeneity or the presence of phenotypically distinct cell populations within a tumor play a crucial role in chemoresistance, tumor progression and metastasis. An increased understanding of the molecular regulators of intratumoral heterogeneity is crucial to the development of effective therapeutic strategies in TNBC. To this end, we used an unbiased approach to identify a molecular mediator of intratumoral heterogeneity in breast cancer by isolating two tumor cell populations (T1 and T2) from the 4T1 TNBC model. Phenotypic characterization revealed that the cells are different in terms of their morphology, proliferation and self-renewal ability in vitro as well as primary tumor formation and metastatic potential in vivo. Bioinformatic analysis followed by Kaplan Meier survival analysis in TNBC patients identified Metastasis associated colon cancer 1 (Macc1) as one of the top candidate genes mediating the aggressive phenotype in the T1 tumor cells. The role of Macc1 in regulating the proliferative phenotype was validated and taken forward in a therapeutic context with Lovastatin, a small molecule transcriptional inhibitor of Macc1 to target the T1 cell population. This study increases our understanding of the molecular underpinnings of intratumoral heterogeneity in breast cancer that is critical to improve the treatment of women currently living with the highly aggressive TNBC subtype.
Epistasis and destabilizing mutations shape gene expression variability in humans via distinct modes of action.

Increasing evidence shows that phenotypic variance is genetically determined, but the underlying mechanisms of genetic control over the variance remain obscure. Here, we conducted variance-association mapping analyses to identify expression variability QTLs (evQTLs), i.e. genomic loci associated with gene expression variance, in humans. We discovered that common genetic variants may contribute to increasing gene expression variance via two distinct modes of action-epistasis and destabilization. Specifically, epistasis explains a quarter of the identified evQTLs, of which the formation is attributed to the presence of 'third-party' eQTLs that influence the gene expression mean in a fraction, rather than the entire set, of sampled individuals. On the other hand, the destabilization model explains the other three-quarters of evQTLs, caused by mutations that disrupt the stability of the transcription process of genes. To show the destabilizing effect, we measured discordant gene expression between monozygotic twins, and estimated the stability of gene expression in single samples using repetitive qRT-PCR assays. The mutations that cause destabilizing evQTLs were found to be associated with more pronounced expression discordance between twin pairs and less stable gene expression in single samples. Together, our results suggest that common genetic variants work either interactively or independently to shape the variability of gene expression in humans. Our findings contribute to the understanding of the mechanisms of genetic control over phenotypic variance and may have implications for the development of variance-centred analytic methods for quantitative trait mapping.
High pressure, near‐liquidus phase equilibria of the Home Plate basalt Fastball and melting in the Martian mantle

Near‐liquidus phase equilibria experiments have been conducted on a synthetic Fastball basalt composition, as analyzed at Home Plate plateau of Mars (Gusev Crater), to test if it represents a primitive mantle derived melt and place constraints on the temperature of the ancient mantle and on the lithosphere‐asthenosphere boundary of Mars. The Fastball basalt is multiply saturated with olivine and orthopyroxene at ∼1.2 GPa and 1430°C. Based on melting models, we predict that the Fastball composition could be produced by 13–23% equilibrium melting of the Martian mantle, with extraction of melt from the base of ∼105 km thick lithosphere. The multiple saturation for Fastball also constrains the potential temperature of the Martian mantle to be approximately 1480–1530°C with an initial melting pressure of 4.0–4.7 GPa. This potential temperature is much lower than that of the terrestrial mantle derived from similarly ancient magmas, i.e., komatiites.
Resolving Vertical Profile of Cloud Condensation Nuclei Concentrations from 1 Spaceborne Lidar Measurements

Cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) are mediators of aerosol-cloud interactions (ACI), 17 contributing to the largest uncertainties in the understandings of global climate change. We present 18 a novel remote sensing-based algorithm that quantifies the vertically-resolved CCN number 19 concentrations (N CCN ) using aerosol optical properties measured by a multiwavelength lidar. The 20 algorithm considers five distinct aerosol subtypes with bimodal size distributions. The inversion 21 used the look-up tables developed in this study, based on the observations from the Aerosol 22 Robotic Network to efficiently retrieve optimal particle size distributions from lidar 23 measurements. The method derives dry aerosol optical properties by implementing hygroscopic 24 enhancement factors to lidar measurements. The retrieved optically equivalent particle size 25 distributions and aerosol type dependent particle composition are utilized to calculate critical 26 diameter using the κ-Köhler theory and N CCN at six supersaturations ranging from 0.07% to 1.0%. 27 Sensitivity analyses indicate that uncertainties in extinction coefficients and relative humidity 28 greatly influence the retrieval error in N CCN . The potential of this algorithm is further evaluated by
Low-temperature serpentinization processes and kimberlite groundwater signatures in the Kirkland Lake and Lake Timiskiming kimberlite fields, Ontario, Canada: implications for diamond exploration

Groundwaters from diamondiferous kimberlite pipes in the Kirkland Lake and Lake Timiskaming regions display unusual geochemical characteristics and signatures compared with groundwaters from the surrounding host rock. Reaction modelling was used to better constrain water/rock ratios, alteration mineralogy and groundwater geochemistry. A soil-zone Ca-HCO3− water from glacial till was reacted, using a reaction-modelling program, with three different suites of minerals: a kimberlite suite, a felsic intrusive suite and a mafic intrusive suite. Decreasing pH and alkalinity with increasing water/rock ratios in model reactions with the kimberlite suite suggest that sampled groundwaters are from both the hypabyssal facies (high pH and alkalinity; low water/rock ratios) and the diatreme facies (low pH and alkalinity; high water/rock ratios). Geochemical concentrations of sampled groundwaters from kimberlites were compared to modelled waters; results indicate that these waters are different from those flowing through local felsic or mafic intrusive rocks. The kimberlitic groundwaters, and modelled waters, contain low concentrations of Mg and Fe, high concentrations of K and Ca, have elevated pH (up to 12.45), and are defined as a Ca-OH− water for the A4 and B30 kimberlites. In contrast, the C14, Diamond Lake and 95-2 kimberlites contain groundwaters that have higher Mg and Fe, lower Ca and K concentrations, and relatively low pH (8.5–10). The reaction model suggests that different minerals precipitate where the water interacts with different kimberlite facies and/or where a different water/rock ratio exists. More hydroxide phases form where pH and hydroxide alkalinity are high. Where kimberlite waters interact with host-rock waters, minerals not likely to be found otherwise, such as magnesite, brucite and magnetite, may be detected along fractures, or near seeps or springs where groundwater comes to surface. Exploration for kimberlites can benefit from the use of groundwater. Groundwater interaction with kimberlitic rocks produces characteristic aqueous geochemical anomalies due to low-temperature serpentinization reactions. The identification of geochemical anomalies in the groundwaters down-flow of a kimberlite and the unusual mineral assemblages that may precipitate from these groundwaters may aid in the location of undiscovered kimberlites.
The No-Nonsense Guide to International Development

In this text, Maggie Black traces the history of development from its post-colonial beginnings, and examines the relationship between development and economic growth, the impact development has had on the living conditions of the poor and on the environment, and whether development will have a specific role in the future, or whether it will simply be subsumed under the concept of globalization.
Assessing the Expression of Long INterspersed Elements (LINEs) via Long-Read Sequencing in Diverse Human Tissues and Cell Lines

Transposable elements, such as Long INterspersed Elements (LINEs), are DNA sequences that can replicate within genomes. LINEs replicate using an RNA intermediate followed by reverse transcription and are typically a few kilobases in length. LINE activity creates genomic structural variants in human populations and leads to somatic alterations in cancer genomes. Long-read RNA sequencing technologies, including Oxford Nanopore and PacBio, can directly sequence relatively long transcripts, thus providing the opportunity to examine full-length LINE transcripts. This study focuses on the development of a new bioinformatics pipeline for the identification and quantification of active, full-length LINE transcripts in diverse human tissues and cell lines. In our pipeline, we utilized RepeatMasker to identify LINE-1 (L1) transcripts from long-read transcriptome data and incorporated several criteria, such as transcript start position, divergence, and length, to remove likely false positives. Comparisons between cancerous and normal cell lines, as well as human tissue samples, revealed elevated expression levels of young LINEs in cancer, particularly at intact L1 loci. By employing bioinformatics methodologies on long-read transcriptome data, this study demonstrates the landscape of L1 expression in tissues and cell lines.
The role of large‐scale convective organization for tropical high cloud amount

Tropical high clouds are closely coupled to deep convection, but local cloud amount and convective mass flux are nonlinearly related. We use the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory atmosphere‐only model AM2 forced with idealized sea surface temperature (SST) perturbations to study the sensitivity of high clouds to the large‐scale distribution of convection. Increasing/decreasing the SST contrast between convective and nonconvective regions decreases/increases the tropical deep convective area, and warming of convective areas decreases the tropical average convective mass flux (〈mc〉). In all experiments, fractional high cloud amount changes are less than fractional changes in 〈mc〉. High cloud amount is half as sensitive as expected from the climatological average cloud amount, as a function of convective mass flux, due to strong compensation from nonconvective high clouds. The latter results from changes in relative humidity related to the change in 〈mc〉. This effect renders high cloud amount remarkably robust to perturbations, though radiative effects of convective and nonconvective clouds will differ.
Evaluating transience of a potential geothermal heat flux anomaly beneath a tributary ice stream of Thwaites Glacier, West Antarctica

The Amundsen Sea Embayment of the West Antarctic ice sheet (WAIS) is currently one of the most rapidly changing sectors of a continental ice sheet. As a marine ice sheet, the WAIS is in a potentially unstable conﬁguration. A model is proposed to evaluate the eﬀect of geothermal ﬂux on ﬂow in ice streams using ice layer drawdown anomalies, features identiﬁable by a thick layer package resting on top of deformed ice. Drawdown anomalies represent either signiﬁcant loss or mechanical deformation of basal ice. Several features with the geometry of drawdown anomalies are identiﬁed in Thwaites Glacier along an ice stream tributary near Mt. Takahe. These anomalies correlate with the surface ice velocity and have thick layer packages that age at a constant rate, implying deformation at a single origin corresponding to an upstream ediﬁce. The abnormal amplitude of upstream drawdown anomalies implies a thermal event at the same ediﬁce 1000-2000 years ago.