Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Intercomparison of ground‐based NO y measurement techniques

An informal intercomparison of NOy measurement techniques was conducted from June 13 to July 22, 1994, at a site in Hendersonville, Tennessee, near Nashville. The intercomparison involved five research institutions: Brookhaven National Laboratory, Environmental Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, NOAA/Aeronomy Laboratory, and Tennessee Valley Authority. The NOy measurement techniques relied on the reduction of NOy species to NO followed by detection of NO using O3-chemiluminescence. The NOy methods used either the Au-catalyzed conversion of NOy to NO in the presence of CO or H2 or the reduction of NOy to NO on a heated molybdenum oxide surface. Other measurements included O3, NOx, PAN and other organic peroxycarboxylic nitric anhydrides, HNO3 and particulate nitrate, and meteorological parameters. The intercomparison consisted of six weeks of ambient air sampling with instruments and inlet systems normally used by the groups for field measurements. In addition, periodic challenges to the instruments (spike tests) were conducted with known levels of NO, NO2, NPN, HNO3 and NH3. The NOy levels were typically large and highly variable, ranging from 2 ppbv to about 100 ppbv, and for much of the time was composed mostly of NOx from nearby sources. The spike tests results and ambient air results were consistent only when NOx was a substantial fraction of NOy. Inconsistency with ambient air data and the other spike test results is largely attributed to imprecision in the spike results due to the high and variable NOy background. For the ambient air data, a high degree of correlation was found with the different data sets. Of the seven NOy instrument/converters deployed at the site, two (one Au and one Mo) showed evidence of some loss of conversion efficiency. This occurred when the more oxidized NOy species (e.g., HNO3) were in relatively high abundance, as shown by analysis of one period of intense photochemical activity. For five of the instruments, no significant differences were found in the effectiveness of NOy conversion at these levels of NOy with either Au or Mo converters. Within the estimated uncertainty limits there was agreement between the sum of the separately measured NOy species and the NOy measured by the five of the seven techniques. These results indicate that NOy can be measured reliably in urban and suburban environments with existing instrumentation.
Respeciation of organic gas emissions and the detection of excess unburned gasoline in the atmosphere

The development of a set of organic gas composition profiles for key source categories is described. This information is used to recompute the organic gas emission inventory for the Los Angeles area. Comparisons are made between the revised emission inventory and ambient concentration measurements in southern California. Respeciation of the organic gas emissions results in large changes in the basinwide emissions estimates for many individual organic species, including l,3-butadiene, ethylene glycol, methanol, and cyclohexane. Significant changes are observed in the reactivity of the chemical composition profiles for individual source categories, especially for surface-coating activities and associated thinning solvent use. Receptor-modeling methods are used to identify the relative importance of major sources that contribute to atmospheric organic gas concentrations in southern California. The receptor modeling results indicate a key discrepancy between the emission inventory and ambient data: there is much more unburned gasoline in the atmosphere than is indicated in the emission inventory. These excess unburned gasoline emissions may be coming from a combination of sources including tailpipe emissions, hot-soak evaporative emissions, and fuel spillage.
Techniques for Contamination Assessment During Drilling for Terrestrial Subsurface Sediments

Details about the procedures for drilling a ca. 150 m long drill core in a terrestrial setting under contamination controlled conditions are presented. Different to previous studies we only used commercially available drilling equipment to reduce the cost of operation significantly. The goals were (1) to minimize, (2) to monitor and, if possible, to quantify the contamination of the recovered sediments, and (3) to identify the different sources of contamination. Both the potential contamination of the sample material by surface microorganisms and non-indigenous material was assessed. To estimate the infiltration of drill mud into the core, fluorescent microspheres, having about half the size as microorganisms, were added to the mud. The drilling technique used was mud rotary drilling. With the exception of the very beginning of the drilling operations, the drill mud was devoid of any allochthonous hydrocarbons potentially derived from the drilling equipment or drill additives, and its biomarker composition reflected the varying organo-facies that were penetrated. Due to the lack of allochthonous hydrocarbons in the drill mud, its infiltration into the sediment cannot be traced by organic geochemical biomarker analysis. Microspheres proved to be a sensitive tool for the assessment of infiltration of drill mud into the core. The concentration of microspheres in the drill mud decreased continuously during the drilling, most probably caused by seepage of mud through leaks and attachment of spheres to the surface scum in the mud pit. Microscopic enumeration of the microspheres showed great variability in the depth of penetration of mud into the core, apparently unaffected of lithology. The sampling of the core material in the laboratory was carried out inside an anaerobic chamber. Several techniques for subsampling were used, according to sediment properties. The overall results indicate that, if strict contamination control protocols are employed, it is possible to recover uncontaminated samples at reasonable cost with commercially available drilling equipment.
Public Sector Pay Premium and Compensating Differentials in the New Zealand Labour Market

In this article, propensity score matching (PSM) methods are applied to data from the 2005 International Social Survey Program Work Orientations (ISSP-WO) survey to examine the public sector pay premium in New Zealand. Taking account of a wide range of worker characteristics and attitudes, job attributes, and the effects that jobs have on workers and their family life, there appears to be a pay premium from working in the public sector of 17-21%.
Rigid Body Contact: Collision Detection to Force Computation

The most di cult aspect of rigid-body simulation is contact modeling. Two major subproblems of contact modeling are detecting contacts and computing contact forces. Although typically studied in isolation, these problems are tightly intertwined in simulation. This paper describes a method for tting the pieces together. It gives an overview of the V-Clip collision detection algorithm, which can rapidly and robustly locate pairs of closest features between polyhedral models. Using the results from multiple invocations of V-Clip, persistent, oneand two-dimensional contact regions can be modeled. The paper brie y describes several methods for computing contact forces that act between bodies. It also presents a new, easy to implement method, based on the singular value decomposition of the contact matrix. Presented at Workshop on Contact Analysis and Simulation, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, May 1998 This work may not be copied or reproduced in whole or in part for any commercial purpose. Permission to copy in whole or in part without payment of fee is granted for nonpro t educational and research purposes provided that all such whole or partial copies include the following: a notice that such copying is by permission of Mitsubishi Electric Information Technology Center America; an acknowledgment of the authors and individual contributions to the work; and all applicable portions of the copyright notice. Copying, reproduction, or republishing for any other purpose shall require a license with payment of fee to Mitsubishi Electric Information Technology Center America. All rights reserved. Copyright c Mitsubishi Electric Information Technology Center America, 1998 201 Broadway, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 1. First printing, TR98-01, March 1998
Layered Clay‐Sand Scheme of Land Reclamation

Dredged seabed sand and hill-cut soil are economical fill materials for coastal land reclamation. Wherever these materials are scarce, the possibility of using other available materials such as marine clay should be studied. Hydraulically placed marine clay would pose problems related to sedimentation and long-term settlement in the fill. By providing thin sand layers interbedded with marine clay, the settlement of the fill could be accelerated and the strength improved. A field test carried out on a recently reclaimed area shows the feasibility of reclaiming land using hydraulically placed clay and sand to form a layered clay-sand fill. The main feature of this scheme is the ability to form thin horizontal sand layers on top of sedimented clay. The procedure is described in detail, and the performance of the fill is examined.
Measurement error analysis of three dimensional coordinates of tomatoes acquired using the binocular stereo vision

This study analyzes the measurement errors of three dimensional coordinates of binocular stereo vision for tomatoes based on three stereo matching methods, centroid-based matching, area-based matching, and combination matching to improve the localization accuracy of the binocular stereo vision system of tomato harvesting robots. Centroid-based matching was realized through the matching of the feature points of centroids of tomato regions. Area-based matching was realized based on the gray similarity between two neighborhoods of two pixels to be matched in stereo images. Combination matching was realized using the rough disparity acquired through centroid-based matching as the center of the dynamic disparity range which was used in area-based matching. After stereo matching, three dimensional coordinates of tomatoes were acquired using the triangle range finding principle. Test results based on 225 stereo images captured at the distances from 300 to 1000 mm of 3 tomatoes showed that the measurement errors of x coordinates were small, and can meet the need of harvesting robots. However, the measurement biases of y coordinates and depth values were large, and the measurement variation of depth values was also large. Therefore, the measurement biases of y coordinates and depth values, and the measurement variation of depth values should be corrected in the future researches.
Spectral identification of ozone‐damaged pine needles

Needles were collected from ponderosa and Jeffrey pine trees at three sites in the Sierra Nevada, and were assembled into 504 samples and grouped according to five dominant live needle conditions – green, winter fleck, sucking insect damage, scale insect damage, and ozone damage – and a random mixture. Reflectance and transmittance measurements of abaxial and adaxial surfaces were obtained at ca 0.3 nm spectral resolution from 400–800 nm, and binned to simulate Airborne Visible and Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) data. There were no significant differences in optical properties between the two surfaces. Ozone‐damaged needles were collected from Jeffrey pine trees at one site, and exhibited significantly different (family‐wise α = 0.01) reflectance and transmittance signatures – and significantly different signature slopes – at both spectral resolutions, from green and winter fleck needles from the same site. Ozone‐damaged needles had significantly different (family‐wise α = 0.01) abaxial surface reflectance and reflectance slope signatures from all other groups of needles, at both spectral resolutions. In comparison with three chlorophyll reflectance indices, a new red fall index (RFI) provides high classification accuracies for ozone‐damaged and non‐ozone‐damaged pine needles (overall acc. = 94%; κ = 59%). Thus, ozone‐damaged Jeffrey pine needles have a unique spectral signature in relation to dominant needle conditions of ponderosa and Jeffrey pine trees.
Active mountain-building in Mongolia and Iran

In this thesis I use a multi-disciplinary approach to investigate two areas of active mountain–building within the Alpine–Himalayan belt: the Altai range in western Mongolia, and the Zagros mountains in southern Iran. I begin by studying a clustered earthquake sequence that struck a previously unrecognised fault zone in the NW Altai mountains in 2003. By combining seismology and field observations with satellite radar interferometry (InSAR), I attempt to unravel the detailed history of faulting in time and space. Differences between body-wave and InSAR-based models prevent me from matching individual seismic events with individual fault segments, and I explore the cause of these discrepancies. In the following two chapters, I establish late Quaternary slip-rates on major right-lateral and thrust faults in the eastern part of the Altai. In particular, I explore the use of in situ-produced cosmogenic Be and Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) for dating offset alluvial fans and river terraces. My results suggest that faulting has migrated toward the eastern margin of the range from the high, interior Altai, presumably in response to stresses introduced by topography. In the final, main chapter, I investigate a link between buried reverse faulting and surface folding in the Zagros Simply Folded Belt. Using surface displacements measured with InSAR, I show that a major anticline on Qeshm Island was uplifted during an earthquake in 2005. However, the pattern of uplift is discordant with the growth of neighbouring folds, preventing us from establishing a simple connection between faulting and folding. All in all, my work demonstrates
An examination of some uncertainties associated with estimates of sedimentation rates and tectonic subsidence

The sensitivity of backstripping calculations (sedimentation rates and tectonic subsidence) to uncertainties regarding porosity reduction is examined. Models simulating compaction and externally sourced cementation are considered to provide first-order bounds on the thickness and mass changes for individual sedimentary units. These bounds can be used to estimate uncertainties in sedimentation rate and subsidence estimates. With these models, the timing of cement development can be regarded as unimportant for backstripping calculations. Calculations have been made to evaluate the effect on backstripping calculations of uncertainties in sediment porosity, density and the mechanisms of porosity reduction. Departures from theoretically predicted subsidence curves of the order of 100 m or so have been variously interpreted as the result of fluctuations or uncertainties in sea-level, palaeobathymetry, tectonic stress, sedimentation rates and stratigraphic age. Two examples are given to illustrate that such departures may occur in some subsidence curves merely as a result of imprecise assumptions regarding porosity reduction. Consideration should be given to the uncertainties in models for porosity reduction when using subsidence curves to infer second order tectonic influence during basin evolution.
Effects of different dispersion and fine fraction determination methods on the results of routine particle size analysis

Particle-size analysis (PSA) methods to be used in routine situations need to be rapid, require no prior information about the sample and give precise results over a wide range of soil textures. Effects of three physical dispersion and two fine-fraction determination methods on PSA results were investigated over a wide range of soil textures to find the most appropriate technique for routine PSA. Interactions between physical dispersion and fine-fraction determination methods were also investigated. The reciprocating shaker produced significantly lower silt and fine sand and higher coarse sand (and clay, although not significant) values than either drink mixer or end-over-end shaker dispersions. This result was interpreted as the reciprocating shaker giving the most effective dispersion, with aggregated clay being dispersed to primary particles while coarse sand was not fragmented to fine sand or silt. The end-over-end shaker did not reliably disperse a heavy clay soil, and so cannot be recommended for routine use where similar soils may be encountered. When considered over all soils and dispersion methods, hydrometer clay and clay + silt values were higher than pipette values. These results were due to the effective depth of the hydrometer being greater, on average, than the depth of the pipette. However, there were interactions between dispersion and fine-fraction determination methods for the clay and clay +silt classes. Hydrometer values were greater than pipette values with drink mixer and end-over-end shaker dispersion, but were similar with reciprocating shaker dispersion. For the clay fraction, inferior dispersion given by the drink mixer and end-over-end shaker resulted in a significant mass of particles between the sampling depths of the pipette and hydrometer, causing the higher hydrometer values. For the clay +silt fraction, both drink mixer and end-over-end dispersion methods fragmented sands to a size which was recorded by the hydrometer but not the pipette. These interactions highlighted the requirement for effective dispersion where clay and silt are determined by the hydrometer, and may explain some of the conflicting observations of the precision of the hydrometer compared with the pipette. Reciprocating shaker physical dispersion combined with the hydrometer fine-fraction determination method was found the most appropriate PSA method combination for use in a routine situation.
The geochemistry of the Fox Hills-Basal Hell Creek Aquifer in southwestern North Dakota and northwestern South Dakota

The Late Cretaceous Fox Hills Formation and the basal portion of the overlying Hell Creek Formation constitute an important aquifer in the Fort Union coal region. Throughout most of southwestern North Dakota and northwestern South Dakota the aquifer is at depths ranging from 1000 to 2000 ft, except for exposures along the Cedar Creek anticline. Water flows in the aquifer from southwest to northeast, with flow rates of a few feet per year. The recharge and discharge areas of the aquifer are separated by a north-south trending transition zone in which significant changes in water chemistry occur. Dissolved constituents in the recharge area (the western part of the study area) are Na+ = 18 mmol/l, Cl− = 0.7 mmol/1, SO42− = 2.7 mmol/1, and HCO3− = 13 mmol/l (δ13C = −12‰) with pH = 8.5. Ca2+, Mg2+, and K+ are each less than 0.1 mmol/l, dissolved O2 = 0, and traces of H2S and CH4 are present. Computer modeling and carbon isotope data suggest the following reactions in the recharge area. CO2 derived from lignitic carbon reacts to dissolve carbonate minerals, with cations then being exchanged for Na+ on clay minerals. The high pH in the aquifer is the result of buffering by carbonate-ion exchange equilibria. In the discharge area, pH values have declined to 8.3, Cl− has increased from 0.7 to 5.5 mmol/l, with a parallel increase in Na+ SO42− has essentially disappeared, HCO3− has increased from 13 to 21 mmol/l (δ13C = −9‰), CH4 has attained concentrations greater than 0.5 mmol/l, and small amounts of He are present. Traces of H2S are present, and Ca2+, Mg2+, and K+ concentrations remain low throughout the aquifer: These changes can be accounted for by reactions in the aquifer: (1) sulfate reduction to pyrite with lignitic material as the carbon source and (2) continuous buffering of pH by the carbonate-ion exchange equilibria. Chemical and hydrologic data suggest that the increase in NaCl results from upward movement of small volumes of water into the Fox Hills aquifer from the transition zone eastward. Redox reactions in the aquifer are closely analogous to those observed in pore waters of reducing marine sediments. Reactions approach but do not achieve true thermodynamic equilibrium. Measurements of redox potential suggest a downgradient decrease in redox potential. The measurements are not amenable to quantitative interpretation.
Identifying runoff routing parameters for operational flood forecasting in small to medium sized catchments / Identification de paramètres de propagation d'écoulement pour la prévision opérationnelle de crue au sein de bassins versants de petite à moyenne taille

Abstract This paper proposes a framework for identifying the parameters of a lumped routing model in small to medium sized catchments where lateral inflows can be large but poorly defined. In a first step, a priori estimates of the parameters are made based on topography, aerial photographs, flood marks and field surveys. In a second step, runoff data are analysed of reservoir release events and convective events where no rainfall in the direct catchments occurred. In a third step the routing model is calibrated to the results of hydrodynamic models for scenarios of different magnitudes. In a fourth step, these pieces of information are combined, allowing for soft expert judgement to be incorporated. In a fifth step, the routing parameters are fine tuned to observed flood events where lateral inflows are estimated by a rainfall—runoff model. The framework is illustrated by the Kamp flood forecasting system in Austria that has been in operational use since 2006.
Spatial variability of small‐basin paleoflood magnitudes for a southeastern Arizona mountain range

Paleohydrological procedures were used to analyze spatial variations in flood magnitude in drainage basins of the Santa Catalina Mountains (maximum elevation 2791 m), southeastern Arizona. Paleoflood reconstructions in eight watersheds, ranging from 10 to 110 km2, were obtained for the largest floods in stable canyon reaches, yielding discharges ranging from 50 to 270 m3 s−1. Although there is a high correlation between drainage area and flood magnitude, it is also clear that basins located in the southern half of the Santa Catalina Mountains have larger unit discharges (peak discharge divided by drainage area) and that these values decrease toward the northern part of the range. This spatial pattern is probably the result of local hydroclimatological conditions whereby the largest floods are associated with the northward influx of moist, tropical, and subtropical air. For this atmospheric circulation the northern part of the range experiences a rain shadow effect that decreases the unit discharges generated in those basins. The unusually high unit discharge for one of the south facing basins is explained by its basin morphometry. Inverse problem solutions using a rainfall-runoff model demonstrate that both this basin and another with a comparable drainage area but a much lower estimated peak paleoflood discharge can have their peak flood outputs produced by the same storm intensity. The results demonstrate the potential of paleoflood data collection for understanding spatial variability in small basin flood hydrology.