Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The 1999 Southern California Seismic Network Bulletin

The Pasadena office of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), together with the Caltech Seismological Laboratory, operates a network of more than 350 remote seismometers in southern California called the S outhern C alifornia S eismic N etwork (SCSN). SCSN is part of TriNet, a cooperative project between the USGS, Caltech, and the California Division of Mines and Geology (CDMG). The TriNet project is halfway completed and is upgrading the existing network to digital, adding new stations, and developing real-time and earthquake-alert capabilities. Signals from the SCSN sites are telemetered to a central processing location at the Caltech Seismological Lab in Pasadena. Computers that detect and record thousands of earthquakes each year continuously monitor these signals. Phase arrival times for these events are picked by analysts and are archived along with digital seismograms. Data acquisition, processing, and archiving are achieved using the Caltech/USGS Seismic Processing (CUSP) system (Dollar, 1989). These data have been compiled into the SCSN Catalog of Earthquakes, a list beginning in 1932 that currently contains more than 356,300 events. Waveform, phase, and catalog data are archived by the Southern California Earthquake Center Data Center (SCEC_DC). This data set is critical to the evaluation of earthquake hazards in California and to the advancement of geoscience as a whole. This and previous SCSN Bulletins are intended to serve several purposes, the most important of which is to make Network data more accessible to current and potential users. The Bulletins also document important details of Network operation so that researchers can use the data with a full understanding of the process by which they are collected. The list of fifteen new stations added through 31 December 1999 is in Table 1. A list of all currently operating TriNet stations (all three TriNet agencies) may be found at http://www.trinet. org/trinetmap/trinetmap.html, and …
A study of the behavior of the terminator time shifts using multiple VLF propagation paths during the Pakistan earthquake ( M = 7.2) of 18 January 2011

Abstract. On 18 January 2011, at 20:23 UTC, an earthquake of magnitude 7.2 occurred in southwestern Pakistan (latitude 28°44' N, longitude 63°56' E) at a depth of 68 km. We present the results of the analysis of very low frequency (VLF) radio signals, received at three stations located in India. We analyze the VLF signals around this earthquake day and look for possible precursory effects of this earthquake. For our analysis, we use four different VLF propagation paths. These propagation paths are DHO–IERC (Sitapur), VTX–Pune, VTX–ICSP (Indian Centre for Space Physics, Kolkata) and NWC–IERC. We observed significant shifts of the "sunrise terminator time" (SRT) for DHO–IERC and VTX–Pune paths. For DHO–IERC path, the SRT of the VLF signals shifted towards nighttime three days before the earthquake day, and in the case of VTX–Pune path it shifted towards nighttime just one day before the earthquake day. For VTX–Kolkata path, the shift of SRT is four days before the earthquake day, but here the shift is not so strong, somewhere between 2σ and 3σ lines. For the other two paths, namely, DHO–IERC and VTX–Pune, the terminator time shifts crossed the 3σ line. We found no significant shifts of SRT for NWC–IERC propagation path. Higher deviation in the VTX–Pune path as compared to VTX–ICSP path could be due to the proximity of the former to the epicenter. Similarly, DHO–IERC path is over the epicenter while NWC–IERC path is totally away from the epicenter. This could be the reason why the effect in DHO–IERC path is stronger than that in NWC–IERC path.
Possible Influence of Beach Sand Characteristics on Green Turtle Nesting Activity on Samandağ Beach, Turkey

Abstract Physical characteristics such as sand grain size and humidity were determined and the relation between the examined parameters and nesting success, nest density, and hatchling success of green turtles on Samandağ Beach, Hatay, Turkey were investigated in this study. Coarse sand and low humidity at the river site and fine sand and high humidity at distances perpendicular to the river mouth were determined. The wind speed and direction toward land on the beach are important factors forming grain structure on Samandağ Beach. The mean particle size, about 350 μm, at nesting locations (N) of green turtles is smaller than that at nonnesting areas (NT and T). Nesting sites have the lowest uniformity coefficients (Cu = 2.78) on the surface than in no-nest no-track sites (Cu = 3.48) and in only-track sites (Cu = 3.5) on the surface. A negative correlation exists between sand moisture and nesting success with respect to increasing distance from Çevlik Harbor for Chelonia mydas. The hatchling success of C. mydas was found to be significantly affected by sand moisture. When sand moisture is above 8%, hatchling success become too low or no successful hatching occurs.
Nanoliter Reactors Improve Multiple Displacement Amplification of Genomes from Single Cells

Since only a small fraction of environmental bacteria are amenable to laboratory culture, there is great interest in genomic sequencing directly from single cells. Sufficient DNA for sequencing can be obtained from one cell by the Multiple Displacement Amplification (MDA) method, thereby eliminating the need to develop culture methods. Here we used a microfluidic device to isolate individual Escherichia coli and amplify genomic DNA by MDA in 60-nl reactions. Our results confirm a report that reduced MDA reaction volume lowers nonspecific synthesis that can result from contaminant DNA templates and unfavourable interaction between primers. The quality of the genome amplification was assessed by qPCR and compared favourably to single-cell amplifications performed in standard 50-μl volumes. Amplification bias was greatly reduced in nanoliter volumes, thereby providing a more even representation of all sequences. Single-cell amplicons from both microliter and nanoliter volumes provided high-quality sequence data by high-throughput pyrosequencing, thereby demonstrating a straightforward route to sequencing genomes from single cells.
Particle mass yield in secondary organic aerosol formed by the dark ozonolysis of α-pinene

The yield of particle mass in secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formed by dark ozonolysis was measured for 0.3-22.8 ppbv of reacted -pinene. Most experiments were conducted using a continuous-flow chamber, allowing nearly constant SOA concentration and chemical composition for several days. For comparison, some experiments were also conducted in batch mode. Reaction conditions were 25 C, 40% RH, dry (NH4)SO4 seed particles, and excess 1-butanol. The organic particle loading was independently measured by an aerosol mass spectrometer and a scanning mobility par- ticle sizer, and the two measurements agreed well. The ob- servations showed that SOA formation occurred for even the lowest reacted -pinene concentration of 0.3 ppbv. The par- ticle mass yield was 0.09 at 0. 15µg m 3 , increasing to 0.27 at 40µg m 3 . Compared to some results reported in the lit- erature, the yields were 80 to 100% larger for loadings above 2µg m 3 . At lower loadings, the yields had an offset of ap- proximately +0.07 from those reported in the literature. To as low as 0. 15µg m 3 , the yield curve had no inflection point toward null yield, implying the formation of one or several products having vapor pressures below this value. These ob- servations of increased yields, especially for low loadings, are potentially important for accurate prediction by chemi- cal transport models of organic particle concentrations in the ambient atmosphere.
Conditional Correlations and Volatility Spillovers between Crude Oil and Stock Index Returns

This paper investigates the conditional correlations and volatility spillovers between the crude oil and financial markets, based on crude oil returns and stock index returns. Daily returns from 2 January 1998 to 4 November 2009 of the crude oil spot, forward and futures prices from the WTI and Brent markets, and the FTSE100, NYSE, Dow Jones and S&P500 stock index returns, are analysed using the CCC model of Bollerslev (1990), VARMA-GARCH model of Ling and McAleer (2003), VARMA-AGARCH model of McAleer, Hoti, and Chan (2008), and DCC model of Engle (2002). Based on the CCC model, the estimates of conditional correlations for returns across markets are very low, and some are not statistically significant, which means the conditional shocks are correlated only in the same market and not across markets. However, the DCC estimates of the conditional correlations are always significant. This result makes it clear that the assumption of constant conditional correlations is not supported empirically. Surprisingly, the empirical results from the VARMA-GARCH and VARMA-AGARCH models provide little evidence of volatility spillovers between the crude oil and financial markets. The evidence of asymmetric effects of negative and positive shocks of equal magnitude on the conditional variances suggests that VARMA-AGARCH is superior to VARMA-GARCH and CCC.
Urban Jamification: Gincanas as location-based mobile games in Brazil

Gincanas are a traditional event in Brazilian culture where groups of people compete against each other by solving tasks. Recently, the Dutch Waag Society and the Brazilian Mobilefest developed the location-based game called Global Gincana, where players use their phones as interfaces to interact with the game space through solving location-based tasks about the countries’ history and culture. By exploring the history of Brazilian gincanas and how they have evolved through the spread and appropriation of mobile technologies, this article addresses two main research questions: (1) how mobility and the configuration of urban space influence the design and performance of location-based mobile games; and (2) how the urban and socio-economic context of developing countries, specifically Brazil, shape mobile technology appropriation and location-based mobile game design. We demonstrate that urban spaces can convey a multiplicity of performances, encompassing a vast arrange of applications, ranging from education and philanthropic to marketing oriented.
GLACIAL ISOSTASY AND THE INTERPLAY BETWEEN UPPER AND LOWER MANTLE LATERAL VISCOSITY HETEROGENEITIES

From the analysis of sea-level data near the centre of the former Fennoscandian ice sheet and the theoretical predictions of vertically and laterally stratified Earth models, we explore the extent to which lateral viscosity variations could have influenced the estimate of long term mantle viscosity. We follow a finite element scheme in cylindrical symmetry, focusing on the effects of lateral viscosity contrasts of different magnitudes and wavelengths. Sea-levels are consistent with long wavelength lateral viscosity contrasts of at most 2 orders of magnitude; short wavelength variations, comparable with the lateral extension of the surface load, should be ruled out. Differences in the average viscosities inferred from laterally stratified and uniform mantle models, may be as high as 1 order of magnitude. If we allow for different lateral viscosity patterns in the upper and lower mantle, we find that sea-levels are consistent with short wavelength variations in the upper mantle of around 2 orders of magnitude, coupled with smoother lateral viscosity contrasts in the lower mantle.
The absolute concentration of O(³P) in the Earth's stratosphere

A new technique for observing directly the absolute concentration of atoms and radicals in the earth's upper atmosphere is discussed. Atomic resonance fluorescence in conjunction with a parachute borne flow-through module deployed from a balloon at 40 kilometers is used to determine the ground state (³P) atomic oxygen concentration between 40 and 25 kilometers in the earth's atmosphere. Under daytime equilibrium conditions: 25 November 1974; 32°N latitude; solar zenith angle 56°, 10:30AM C.S. T. , the absolute concentration of O(³P) is found to decrease from 1 × 109 cm−3 at 39 km to 6 × 107 cm−3 at 26 kilometers with statistically significant local structure evident in the altitude profile.
Global Decadal Upper-Ocean Heat Content as Viewed in Nine Analyses

Abstract This paper examines nine analyses of global ocean 0-/700-m temperature and heat content during the 43-yr period of warming, 1960–2002. Among the analyses are two that are independent of any numerical model, six that rely on sequential data assimilation, including an ocean general circulation model, and one that uses four-dimensional variational data assimilation (4DVAR), including an ocean general circulation model and its adjoint. Most analyses show gradual warming of the global ocean with an ensemble trend of 0.77 × 108 J m−2 (10 yr)−1 (=0.24 W m−2) as the result of rapid warming in the early 1970s and again beginning around 1990. One proposed explanation for these variations is the effect of volcanic eruptions in 1963 and 1982. Examination of this hypothesis suggests that while there is an oceanic signal, it is insufficient to explain the observed heat content variations. A second potential cause of decadal variations in global heat content is the uncorrelated contribution of heat content vari.
Transport Mechanisms of Sand in Deep-Marine Environments—Insights Based on Laboratory Experiments—Reply

First of all we would like to thank Dr. Shanmugam for his interest in our study of transport mechanisms of sand in deep-marine environments (Breien et al. 2010). In order to answer the remarks of Shanmugam, we here provide some more details around the experiments, and we specify the intention of the study. The main objective of the experiments presented in our paper was to study transportation and depositional processes in sand-rich slurries run in water, and how these mechanisms respond to changing sand/clay ratios. We find some of the comments of Shanmugam (2011) to be more concentrated on the Bouma sequence and the properties of its divisions Ta–Te, than on the mechanism of sediment transport itself. We do not claim to have produced a complete Bouma sequence (cf. Bouma 1962; Walker 1965; Middleton and Hampton 1973); however, we rather see that our experiments indicate that similar graded-bed deposits may be produced by different transport mechanisms. We show that dense, laminar flows may transport sand through fluidization and incrementally produce sand deposits resembling deposits produced by turbulent turbidity currents. Thus, we regard the process observed in the laboratory as only one out of several mechanisms to transport and deposit clean sand in submarine basins. As part of a Ph.D. program (Breien 2009), 47 debris flow experiments were performed, prepared with five different compositions of varying sand/clay ratio (5, 10, 15, 20, and 25% clay by weight). Content of water and coal …
Quasi-Equilibrium States in the Tropics Simulated by a Cloud-Resolving Model: Part 1; Specific Features and Budget Analysis

Abstract A series of long-term integrations using the two-dimensional Goddard Cumulus Ensemble (GCE) model were performed with various imposed environmental components. Vertical wind shear, minimum surface wind speed (only used for computing surface fluxes), and radiation are found to be the three major components that determine the quasi-equilibrium temperature and water vapor fields simulated in this study. The genesis of a warm/wet quasi-equilibrium state is mainly due to either strong vertical wind shear along with strong surface winds or large surface fluxes, while a colder/drier quasi-equilibrium state is due to weak (mixed wind) shear along with weak surface winds. Latent heat flux and net large-scale temperature forcing dominate the beginning stages of the simulated convective systems, then considerably weaken in the final stages leading to quasi-equilibrium states. Radiation is necessary in establishing the quasi-equilibrium states but is not crucial to the considerable variation between them. A .
Identification of drought‐vulnerable areas using NOAA AVHRR data

Drought is a recurring phenomenon in many parts of India, bringing significant water shortages, economic losses and adverse social consequences. The western regions of India (Rajasthan and Gujarat provinces) have suffered with severe droughts several times in the past. In this study meteorological and satellite data were used for monitoring drought in the southern part of Rajasthan. Monthly rainfall data from six stations were used to derive the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI). The Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) onboard the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) series of satellite was used for calculating brightness temperature (BT), the Normalized Difference Vegetative Index (NDVI) and the Water Supplying Vegetation Index (WSVI). BT was converted to the Vegetation Condition Index (VCI) and the Temperature Condition Index (TCI), which are useful indices for the estimation of vegetation health and drought monitoring. The analysis was carried out for a period of four years (2002–2005) and from the SPI analysis it was observed that 2002 was a drought year. On the basis of the satellite‐based indices, the study area was divided into categories of extreme, severe, moderate and slight drought and normal condition. We found that in 2002 all of the area under study was affected by drought with greater intensity, mostly classed as extreme and severe drought conditions. An analysis was carried out of the study area divided into four zones on the basis of rainfall distribution, soil characteristics, cropping patterns and other physical characteristics. This analysis revealed that zone 1 was the most drought‐prone area in all four years; zone 4 was the next area most affected by severe drought, followed by zones 2 and 3, which were less affected by drought conditions.
Transnational aspects of the Kurdish question

Simplifying a complex question, one may observe that the objectives of all Kurdish political movements of the past century have concerned two central issues, culture and territory. The Kurdish language and the region historically known as Kurdistan are the Kurds’ most important national symbols. It is only seemingly a paradox that many of the most active participants in the present Kurdish movement (especially so in the case of Turkey’s Kurds) speak but little Kurdish and have long lived outside Kurdistan. Pre-modern Kurdish uprisings were mostly directed against outside interference in the affairs of local communities; the insurgents as well as their leaders had strong local roots and usually spoke the same Kurdish dialect. Ideas of a common Kurdish identity or of Kurdistan as a natural territorial unit, however, did not occur to them. These ideas are not entirely a modern development — we find them quite explicitly expressed in the work of the seventeenth-century poet Ehmede Xani — but only in the twentieth century did they get something of a wider appeal. The first Kurdish nationalist associations were established, significantly, outside Kurdistan, and in Kurdistan itself it was only in the largest and most modern towns that initially gained some influence.
L’impact des privatisations sur la performance des entreprises françaises

(VF)Les deficits budgetaires de nombreux pays, la faiblesse des performances financieres des entreprises publiques et les developpements recents de la recherche en finance incitent de nombreux Etats a ceder leurs entreprises au secteur prive. Apres un panorama du mouvement de privatisation dans le monde et particulierement en France ainsi qu’un expose des principaux courants theoriques qui confortent ce mouvement, cet article expose les resultats d’une etude empirique realisee sur les privatisations francaises. Au cours de la periode 1986-2004, nous trouvons que le transfert de propriete du secteur public au secteur prive a une incidence positive sur la performance des entreprises privatisees. La performance est evaluee a partir d’analyses de ratios de rentabilite, de productivite, d’investissement et de financement. (VA)The budget deficits of numerous countries, the poor financial performance of nationalized firms and the recent developments of financial theory encourage many States to sell off their companies to the private sector. After a survey of recent privatization trends in the world and in France, as well as a presentation of the main theories in favour of privatization, this article presents the results of an empirical study on French privatizations. Over the 1986-2004 period, we find that privatization has a positive impact on the economic and financial performance of the firms in our sample. Performance is measured through different ratios:profitability, productivity, investment and financing.
Exploring the Nitrogen Cycle and Macroalgae Dynamics in the Lagoon of Venice Using a Multibox Model

The paper aims to understand theUlva rigidadynamics in the lagoon of Venice and the contributions to its growth from different loadings, coupling a multibox model to a simple hydrodynamic model. The different pools in the multibox biological model are interconnected by their exchange rates. The latter have been tested by a set of sensitivity experiments to investigate their influence among different nitrogen forms. The steady state of the domain, under summer and winter conditions, was simulated and the different kinds of loading were tested to study the behaviour of the ecosystem due to loading changes. The influence of municipal, industrial, river and Adriatic Sea loadings on the lagoon ecosystem was studied. Time dependent runs made it possible to follow the dynamic processes involved under tidal forcing, to study the N-Ulva seasonal and interannual trends from 1988 to 1993, and validate them by their comparison with experimental data. Model results show that municipal, river, and industrial loading have local effects on macroalgal growth and that an overall macroalgae decrease in the lagoon that occurred from 1988 to 1993 seemed to be supported by the tidal exchange between the northern Adriatic and the lagoon. Even if other causes (for example macroalgae harvest, weather conditions) could have been induced or may have hastened the decrease of macroalgae in the lagoon from 1988, available data show the strong importance of the coastal eutrophic conditions of the northern Adriatic.
Rheology of the lithosphere inferred from postseismic uplift following the 1959 Hebgen Lake earthquake

[1] We have modeled the broad postseismic uplift measured by geodetic leveling in the epicentral area of the 1959 Mw = 7.3 Hebgen Lake, Montana earthquake, a normal faulting event in the northern Basin and Range province. To fit the observed uplift we calculate synthetic postseismic deformation using the relaxation response of a gravitational viscoelastic Earth to the earthquake. For a model with an elastic plate overlying a viscoelastic half-space, we find that the elastic thickness is 38 ± 8 km, which is close to the local crustal thickness. The half-space viscosity is estimated at 4 × 1018±0.5 Pa s. The leveling data do not require a viscous lower crust but permit a lower bound viscosity of 1020 Pa s. The observed broad uplift cannot be explained by physically plausible afterslip on and below the coseismic fault. However, local deformation across the coseismic surface rupture requires shallow afterslip reaching the surface. The postseismic deformation induced by the estimated viscoelastic structure decays exponentially with a time constant of ∼15 years. Because of coupling between the elastic layer and the viscoelastic substrate, this relaxation time is significantly longer than the 2 year Maxwell relaxation time of the viscous half-space itself. Our result suggests the importance of postseismic relaxation in interpreting high-precision global positioning system velocities. For example, our model results suggest that postseismic transient velocities from both the 1959 Hebgen Lake and the 1983 Mw = 6.9 Borah Peak earthquakes are currently as large as 1–2 mm/yr.