Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Maps of quaternary deposits and liquefaction susceptibility in the Central San Francisco Bay Region, California

ADDENDUM: The final technical report for U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) grant award numbers 99HQGR0095 and 05HQGR0151 was prepared as a single publication consisting of electronic maps and accompanying text Additional products of this research include postscript and PDF files of the Quaternary Deposits and Liquefaction Susceptibility Maps of the central San Francisco Bay region at 1:200,000 scale. Because of the large volume of these files, we do not include the maps here. However, the maps along with complete Geographic Information System database files can be downloaded at: ERRATA: Please note that in the original publication we inadvertently omitted the acknowledgement of support from USGS grant award number 05HQGR0151. We are grateful for the support. This report is preliminary and has not been reviewed for conformity with U.S. Geological Survey editorial standards or with the North American Stratigraphic Code. Any use of trade, product, or firm names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. This database, identified as 'Maps of Quaternary deposits and liquefaction susceptibility in the Central San Francisco Bay Region, California', has been approved for release and publication by the Director of the USGS. Although this database has been reviewed and is substantially complete, the USGS reserves the right to revise the data pursuant to further analysis and review. This database is released on condition that neither the USGS nor the U.S. Government may be held liable for any damages resulting from its use. INTRODUCTION This report presents a map and database of Quaternary deposits and liquefaction susceptibility for the central San Francisco Bay region. It supercedes the equivalent area of U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 00-444 (Knudsen and others, 2000), which covers the larger 9-county San Francisco Bay region. The report consists of (1) this text introduction the report and describing the spatial database, (2) a text describing the Quaternary map and liquefaction interpretation, (3) the spatial database, and (4) two small-scale colored maps (Quaternary deposits and liquefaction susceptibility. All parts of the report are digital; this pamphlet describes the database and digital files and how to obtain them by downloading across the internet. The nine counties surrounding San Francisco Bay straddle the San Andreas fault system, which exposes the region to serious earthquake hazard (Working Group on California Earthquake Probabilities, 1999). Much of the land adjacent to the Bay and the major rivers and streams is underlain by unconsolidated deposits …
Diel Activity Patterns of Juvenile Late Fall‐run Chinook Salmon with Implications for Operation of a Gated Water Diversion in the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta

In the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta, California, tidal forces that reverse river flows increase the proportion of water and juvenile late fall‐run Chinook salmon diverted into a network of channels that were constructed to support agriculture and human consumption. This area is known as the interior delta, and it has been associated with poor fish survival. Under the rationale that the fish will be diverted in proportion to the amount of water that is diverted, the Delta Cross Channel (DCC) has been prescriptively closed during the winter out‐migration to reduce fish entrainment and mortality into the interior delta. The fish are thought to migrate mostly at night, and so daytime operation of the DCC may allow for water diversion that minimizes fish entrainment and mortality. To assess this, the DCC gate was experimentally opened and closed while we released 2983 of the fish with acoustic transmitters upstream of the DCC to monitor their arrival and entrainment into the DCC. We used logistic regression to model night‐time arrival and entrainment probabilities with covariates that included the proportion of each diel period with upstream flow, flow, rate of change in flow and water temperature. The proportion of time with upstream flow was the most important driver of night‐time arrival probability, yet river flow had the largest effect on fish entrainment into the DCC. Modelling results suggest opening the DCC during daytime while keeping the DCC closed during night‐time may allow for water diversion that minimizes fish entrainment into the interior delta. Published 2015. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.
SeaWiFS identifies dust sources in the Namib Desert

Mineral dust sources were identified in Sea‐viewing Wide Field‐of‐view Sensor (SeaWiFS) images along the south‐west coast of Africa. Up to 150 dust plumes were observed over a 3 year period, and these are linked to sources that are either salt pans or dry river beds in the Namib Desert. This demonstrates that dust supply is maintained by fluvial landforms and associated hydrology. This paper highlights the need to look in more detail at source areas around the globe, as this will further our understanding of dust‐production processes.
Assessing Land Cover Change in Hydro-Climatic Data Network Watersheds Using NALC Imagery

Land cover conversion is known to alter the hydrologic regimes of watersheds. While connections between land cover and runoff are generally known, not all land cover alterations result in detectable changes in streamflow, and the quantity of land cover change required to yield a detectable change in streamflow is unknown over a range of watersheds. The connection between land cover change and streamflow was explored for a Hydro-Climatic Data Network (HCDN) watershed. HCDN is a database of USGS gauged streams commonly used to assess the influence of climatic change on streamflow. Watersheds included in the HCDN have been screened to represent "unimpaired" streamflow. Implicit in this definition is the assumption that land cover is relatively unaltered over the streamflow time series. Imagery from the North American Landscape Characterization (NALC) project was analyzed to detect land cover change from 1972 to 1992 in an Oregon watershed selected from the HCDN. A post-classification change detection yielded a 44% rate of landscape change over 20 years. Changes in land cover classes by dominant soil types were paired with the L-THIA model of Purdue University to quantify the effect of land cover change on runoff. Despite land cover changes, simulations confirmed that runoff remained unchanged. This report summarizes recommended steps for applying NALC imagery to detection of landscape change in other watersheds.
Design and Implementation of a Control System for a Quadrotor MAV

Title of thesis: DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A CONTROL SYSTEM FOR A QUADROTOR MAV Dean Bawek, Master of Science, 2012 Thesis directed by: Dr. Inderjit Chopra Department of Aerospace Engineering The quadrotor is a 200 g MAV with rapid-prototyped rotors that are driven by four brushless electric motors, capable of a collective thrust of around 400 g using an 11 V battery. The vehicle is compact with its largest dimension at 188 mm. Without any feedback control, the quadrotor is unstable. For flight stability, the vehicle incorporates a linear quadratic regulator to augment its dynamics for hover. The quadrotor’s nonlinear dynamics are linearized about hover in order to be used in controller formulation. Feedback comes both directly from sensors and a Luenberger observer that computes the rotor velocities. A Simulink simulation uses hardware and software properties to serve as an environment for controller gain tuning prior to flight testing. The results from the simulation generate stabilizing control gains for the on-board attitude controller and for an off-board PC autopilot that uses the Vicon computer vision system for position feedback. Through the combined effort of the on-board and off-board controllers, the quadrotor successfully demonstrates stable hover in both nominal and disturbed conditions. DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A CONTROL SYSTEM FOR A QUADROTOR MAV by Dean Bawek Thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science 2012 Advisory Committee: Dr. Inderjit Chopra, Chair/Advisor Dr. J. Sean Humbert Dr. Robert M. Sanner c © Copyright by Dean Bawek 2012 Dedication For Dr. William E. Lotz, who would never turn down a trip to the National Air & Space Museum.
Modified particle swarm optimization for day-ahead distributed energy resources scheduling including vehicle-to-grid

Acknowledgements I would like to take this space to express my gratitude to the people who made this thesis possible. I express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor professor Dr. Zita A. Vale for all the provided means she gave me to execute this thesis and all the positive energy, productive discussions and exceptional assistance. I greatly appreciate her constant tolerance and expended time with me. I also would like to express my deepest gratitude to my co-supervisor Hugo Morais for the ideas, technical support and enriching discussions about the thesis. Research Center) for benefitting me with a nice place, enough facilities and outstanding computer resources to do my thesis, and most importantly the friendly environment. I am grateful to my friend Tiago Sousa for his practical discussions and invaluable assistance during the master course and this thesis. A special thanks to my friend Bruno Canizes for his help and his comments on the written English and Dr. Hussein Khodr for his valuable suggestions. for their weekend support, and everyday patient with me. At last but not the least I want to thank my great family and specially my beloved parents, sister and godparents, for their care and love. IV João Soares " The difficulty in life is the choice. " Abstract This thesis proposes a modified Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) approach for the day-ahead scheduling of Distributed Energy Resources (DER) in smart grids, considering Electric Vehicles (EVs) with gridable capability (vehicle-to-grid). The proposed methodology introduces several changes in traditional PSO meta-heuristic to solve effectively the scheduling problem of DER with EVs. This thesis proposes an intelligent mechanism for adjusting the velocity limits of the swarm to alleviate violations of problem constraints and to improve the quality of the solution, namely the value of the objective function. In addition, a hybridization of PSO method is used, which combines this meta-heuristic with an exact method, a full ac power flow in order to validate network constraints of the solutions explored by the swarm. This thesis proposes a trip reduce demand response program for EVs users. A data-mining based methodology is used to support the network operator in the definition of this program and to estimate how much demand response is adequate for a certain operation condition. The case studies included in the thesis aim to demonstrate the effectiveness of the modified PSO approach to the problem of DER scheduling considering EVs. …
Pre-concentration and determination of fluoxetine in hospital wastewater and human hair samples using solid-phase µ-extraction by silver nanoparticles followed by spectro-fluorimetric

Fluoxetine (N-methyl-c-[4-phenoxy] benzene epropanamine) (FLU) is the parent drug of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressant class, which has emerged as a major therapeutic advance in psychopharmacology. It has been approved worldwide in the therapy of major depression and has also demonstrated to be effective in the treatment of other syndromes, such as bulimia nervosa, panic fits and obsessive–compulsive disorder. An instrumental setup including off-line solid phase micro-extraction coupled to spectrophotometry has been constructed to improve the sensitivity for quantification of fluoxetine in real samples. The method was applied to analysis of spiked wastewater samples with the recovery 89.9%. This research provides an overview of the new developments in material and format technology that improve the extraction of semi-polar compounds in several extraction techniques. It mainly include a solid-phase µ-extraction, uses a simple silver nanoparticles. The influences of micro-extraction conditions such as pH, salt effect, performance and desorption conditions were investigated. The method has a high enrichment factor and excellent selective clean-up of sample. Reasonable relative recovery were also obtained. The linear calibration curves was obtained in the range of 0.1-35 mg.L-1 . We used the method to pre-concentration and clean up fluoxetine from real samples.
Boon or Bane?: Others' Unemployment, Well-Being and Job Insecurity

The social norm of unemployment suggests that aggregate unemployment reduces the wellbeing of the employed, but has a far smaller effect on the unemployed. We use German panel data to reproduce this standard result, but then suggest that the appropriate distinction may not be between employment and unemployment, but rather between higher and lower levels of labour-market security. Those with good job prospects, both employed and unemployed, are strongly negatively affected by regional unemployment. However, the insecure employed and the poor-prospect unemployed are less negatively, or even positively, affected. We use our results to analyse labour-market inequality and unemployment hysteresis.
YSAR: a compact, low-cost synthetic aperture radar

The authors have developed a relatively inexpensive, experimental synthetic aperture radar (SAR) system which can be flown on small aircraft. The entire unit weighs approximately 360 lbs with most of the weight in the battery-power supply. The system cost is kept low by using a simple RF subsystem with an all-digital IF and commercial components for the chirp generation, analog-to-digital conversion, and digital signal processing. The system has been successfully operated from a truck and an aircraft and has exhibited a range resolution of 1.5 m and an azimuth resolution of 0.5 m. The system is described and images from the tests are shown.
Effects of temperature and CO2 on the frictional behavior of simulated anhydrite fault rock

The frictional behavior of anhydrite‐bearing faults is of interest to (a) the safety and effectiveness of CO2 storage in anhydrite‐capped reservoirs, (b) seismicity induced by hydrocarbon production, and (c) natural seismicity nucleated in evaporite formations. We performed direct shear experiments on simulated anhydrite fault gouges, at a range of temperatures (80–150°C) and sliding velocities (0.2–10 µm s−1), under a fixed effective normal stress of 25 MPa. Four types of experiments were conducted (1) dry experiments, (2) experiments pressurized with water, (3) dry experiments pressurized with CO2, and (4) wet experiments pressurized with CO2. Fluid pressures of 15 MPa were used when applied. Over the temperature range investigated water‐saturated samples were found to be up to 15% frictionally weaker than dry equivalents. Wet samples containing CO2 were also up to 15% weaker than CO2‐free equivalents. Dry sample strength without CO2 was independent of temperature, whereas wet samples without CO2 strengthened 10% from 80 to 150°C. Samples containing CO2 weakened by 4% (dry) and 10% (wet) from 80 to 150°C. Under the P‐T conditions investigated, only dry anhydrite fault gouge showed velocity‐weakening behavior above 120°C, required for faults to potentially generate earthquakes. Assuming natural fault gouges are wet in situ, seismicity is unlikely to nucleate in anhydrite‐rich faults, though the presence of dolomite or (reaction‐produced) calcite may change seismic potential. CO2 penetration into wet anhydrite‐rich faults may trigger slip on critically stressed faults due to the observed short‐term CO2 weakening effects (excluding possible formation of secondary minerals), but is not expected to influence slip stability.
Satellite study of the influence of coastal upwelling on a red tide in the Zhejiang Coastal Waters

In this article, EOS MODIS ocean color and sea-surface temperature data were used to study the influence of coastal upwelling on a red tide in the Zhejiang Coastal Waters in the summer of 2007. Several cloud-free and date-continued ocean color and sea-surface temperature images during the red tide event were selected and processed in this study. According to the field observations of the red tide, pixels with chlorophyll concentration higher than a certain value were considered as the red tide waters in the ocean color images. And the coastal upwelling in the Zhejiang Coastal Waters was measured by applying a temperature threshold approach from the sea-surface temperature images. Then, the temporal and spatial distributions of the red tide and the coastal upwelling were contrastively analyzed. Results show that there exists a high degree of correlation in spatial distribution between the coastal upwelling and the red tide. The coastal upwelling affects the spatial cover of the red tide according to their spatial correlation and the upwelling plays a crucial role in the development of the red tide in term of water temperature. The upwelling in the Zhejiang Coastal Waters is an important dynamic factor for the formation of red tides there.
New frequency‐based real‐time magnitude proxy for earthquake early warning

The two frequency‐based magnitude proxies currently employed by earthquake early warning systems in California are the predominant and the characteristic periods. These proxies, obtained using simple expressions that are valid for noise‐free monochromatic signals, yield erroneous result. The log‐average period, τlog, introduced in this study, is calculated directly from the actual velocity spectrum of the first few seconds of the seismic record. Using data from South California and Japan consisting of 440 earthquakes whose magnitudes range between 3 and 7.3, it is demonstrated that τlog is better correlated with the catalog magnitude than the predominant period and provides better magnitude assessment than the characteristic period for small magnitudes (M<4). The average prediction error is reduced with increasing the input interval up to 6 s. It appears that a single linear scaling describes the relation between log(τlog) and the catalog magnitude for the entire magnitude range studied here.
Organotemplate silica deposition in Neoproterozoic deep‐marine environments: evidence from the Penganga Group, Adilabad, India

Silica in bedded cherts interstratified with manganese carbonates in a deep‐water carbonate ramp succession of the Neoproterozoic Penganga Group, India, displays film‐like, spherical to rod‐shaped, and tubular branching microstructures. The microstructures resemble mineralized extracellular polysaccharides, biofilms and bacterial morphologies. The microstructures suggest silicification by nucleation of silica on organic‐templates or indirectly as sorbed species accumulating on organic templates. Given that similar microstructures have also been documented in Archean cherts it is proposed that organotemplates might have been an important sink for the deposition of silica in Precambrian deep‐water marine environments.
Anthropogenic carbon dioxide in the Arctic Ocean: Inventory and sinks

An inventory and sequestering rate of anthropogenic carbon dioxide CTanthro in the Arctic Ocean, calculated by a plume-entrainment model, are presented. The plume is initiated by a fraction rj leaving the shelf break at 200 m, followed by an entrainment of rj for every 150 m depth the plume descends. The model is constrained by the CFC-12 and carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) distributions, with the concentrations of CFC-12, CCl4, and CTanthro in the source water calculated assuming a water in 100% equilibrium with the atmosphere. The model is run from 1750 to 1991, the latter being the year in which measurements of the transient tracers in the water column of the central Arctic Ocean were made. The output from the model gives sinks of anthropogenic carbon dioxide in 1991 of 0.026±0.009 Gt C yr−1, of which 0.0194 Gt C yr−1 is in the Eurasian Basin and 0.0070 Gt C yr−1 in the Canadian Basin. This amounts to about 1% of the total oceanic uptake of anthropogenic CO2. The Arctic Ocean inventory of anthropogenic carbon dioxide in 1991 was 1.35(+0.12/−0.06) Gt C, which is about 1% of the total oceanic inventory. The sensitivity of the computed sinks and inventories to various model assumptions was estimated.
Altimeter data assimilation into an ocean circulation model: Sensitivity to orbital parameters

Different orbital scenarios for satellite missions are evaluated with respect to their ability to provide a satisfactory altimeter data set as input into an assimilation procedure. The assimilation is realized, using the technique of “nudging” (Anthes, 1974), into a numerical simulation of the general oceanic circulation at mid-latitudes involving strong variability fields of the Gulf-Stream-like jet stream. The numerical model is multilayered and quasi-geostrophic, and it considers basin-scale circulation with high resolution. The basic orbital scenarios under consideration are four in number: the two ERS 1 and Topex/Poseidon nominal mission parameters (with 3- and 10-day orbital periods, respectively) and two extra possibilities for Topex/Poseidon: a 17-day orbital period scenario (close to the Geosat parameters) and a 29-day orbital period scenario. All four cases are compared for assimilation experiments realized under identical conditions. The criterion of efficiency is to ensure that model flows converge toward observations, i.e., the fact that surface information is sufficient to recreate via the model the realistic three-dimensional ocean circulation. In the conditions of experiments, results show that the 10- to 17-day range is able to satisfy the convergence condition to some extent. This is not the case for the two scenarios outside this range. The effects of subsequent undersampling (subcycles) are examined in the 10-day case and found to be of little importance as long as sampling is sufficiently regular. Preliminary tests to take into account data and model inaccuracy are reported.