Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
LIQUEFACTION RESISTANCE BASED ON SHEAR WAVE VELOCITY

This report reviews the current simplified procedures for evaluating the liquefaction resistance of granular soil deposits using small-strain shear wave velocity. These procedures were developed from analytical studies, laboratory studies, or very limited field performance data. Their accuracy is evaluated through field performance data from 20 earthquakes and in situ shear wave velocity measurements at over 50 different sites (124 test arrays) in soils ranging from sandy gravel with cobbles to profiles including silty clay layers, resulting in a total of 193 liquefaction and non-liquefaction case histories. The current procedures correctly predict high liquefaction potential at many sites where surface manifestations of liquefaction were observed. Revisions and enhancements to the current procedures are proposed using the compiled case history data. The recommended procedure follows the general format of the SPT- and CPT- based procedures. Liquefaction potential boundaries are established by applying a modified relationship between shear wave velocity and cyclic stress ratio for constant average cyclic shear strain suggested by Dobry. These new boundaries, which are simply defined mathematically and easy to implement, correctly predict moderate to high liquefaction potential for more than 95% of the liquefaction case histories. Additional case histories are needed of all types of soils that have and have not liquefied during earthquakes, particularly from deeper deposits (depth > 8m) and from denser soils (V sub S > 200 m/s) shaken by stronger ground motions (a sub max > 0.4 g), to further validate the proposed procedures.
Rossby Wave Propagation in the Tropics and Midlatitudes

Rossby waves are the slow atmospheric waves that propagate thousands of kilometres on the time scale of days and are associated with weather. The small amplitude linear theory of Rossby waves on the sphere goes back over two centuries to Laplace’s tidal equations and is today considered thoroughly understood. However, with a more realistic background flow that includes both the tropical trade winds and the midlatitude jetstream, the global wave theory has not been fully established. To study this problem, this thesis uses the rotating shallow water (RSW) equations on the sphere as a model for Earth’s atmosphere. The spectrum of the RSW equations is numerically computed using a Galerkin method. It is found that the Rossby spectrum of this global model consists of two parts that naturally correspond respectively to local tropical and midlatitude theories. The first part of the spectrum is the countably infinite set of discrete eigenmodes with arbitrarily small wavelength near the equator, consistent with the local tropical β-plane theory. These discrete modes however achieve only a finite limiting wavelength in the midlatitudes. To account for smaller scales in the midlatitudes, it is necessary to consider the continuous spectrum that results from regular singular points in the RSW operator arising from shear in the background flow. The regular singular points correspond to critical latitudes, which prevent wave propagation from the midlatitudes into the tropics. The numerical results are complemented by small wavelength asymptotics of ray theory and Wentzel–Kramers–Brillouin (WKB) analysis to gain an understanding of the local wavelength, amplitude and group velocity for Rossby waves. The global understanding of Rossby waves presented in this thesis is used to provide some explanation of the small number of Rossby modes found in long-term climatological observations of the atmosphere.
Seismicity of Northern Anatolia

Earthquakes of magnitude 5.0 and greater that occurred in 1930-1972 in northern Anatolia have been relocated in order to define more accurately the characteristics of recent seismicity. The revised epicenters were determined either by joint epicenter determination (JED) or singly, with travel-times modified by JED-calculated source-station adjustments. Calibration epicenters were assigned on the basis of published field studies of the earthquakes. Many characteristics of the occurrence of magnitude 5.0 and greater earthquakes on the North Anatolian fault are similar to characteristics of small-earthquake seismicity on California's San Andreas fault. Earthquakes tend to be concentrated on or near particular sections of the North Anatolian fault, suggesting intrinsic differences in mechanical properties along the fault. The relocated epicenters support the hypothesis that fault rupture in large and great earthquakes will begin in regions of small and moderate earthquakes; the rupture of the large earthquake then propagates into sections of the fault that normally have a low level of activity. From 1939 through 1967, seven earthquakes of magnitude 6.8 or greater ruptured the North Anatolian fault from east to west for a distance of 800 km. Several sections of the fault zone were active before the occurrence of the large earthquakes of 1939-1967. Foreshock activity also extended tens of kilometers away from the fault zone. The time intervals between successive magnitude 6.0 or greater earthquakes on the fault are not consistent with a constant velocity of source migration; a model is proposed here in which these time intervals are equal to the duration of nonelastic effects precursory to the earthquakes. In western Turkey, the burst of normal-fault earthquakes in 1969-1970 was concentrated in distinctly separated source areas. The distribution of aftershocks to the earthquake of March 28, 1970 suggests that the surface fault scarps accompanying this earthquake are a distorted representation of the normal fault plane at depth.
Constraining hydrologic interpretations using near-surface geophysical methods

We have collected 18 geophysical transects of resistivity and p-wave velocities in a catchment in the Laramie Range, Wyoming to identify structures that influence the movement and storage of water. When we independently invert the data, we observe similar structures in the resistivity and p-wave velocity data despite being completely different geophysical parameters. We map the resistivity and seismic velocities over over the catchment to identify hydrostratigraphic boundaries and areas of high fluid saturation.
Observation vs. Observable: Maximum Likelihood Estimations according to the Assumption of Generalized Gauss and Laplace Distributions

Aim: The paper aims to investigate the use of maximum likelihood estimation to infer measurement types with their distribution shape. Material and Methods: A series of twenty-eight sets of observed data (different properties and activities) were studied. The following analyses were applied in order to meet the aim of the research: precision, normality (Chi-square, KolmogorovSmirnov, and Anderson-Darling tests), the presence of outliers (Grubbs’ test), estimation of the population parameters (maximum likelihood estimation under Laplace, Gauss, and Gauss-Laplace distribution assumptions), and analysis of kurtosis (departure of sample kurtosis from the Laplace, Gauss, and Gauss-Laplace population kurtosis). Results: The mean of most investigated sets was likely to be Gauss-Laplace while the standard deviation of most investigated sets of compound was likely to be Gauss. The MLE analysis allowed making assumptions regarding the type of errors in the investigated sets. Conclusions: The proposed procedure proved to be useful in analyzing the shape of the distribution according to measurement type and generated several assumptions regarding their association.
Why Do We Miss Early Warning Signs of Economic Crises?

This paper shows that agents underreact to rare and extreme signals. Agents observing these signals choose delay, hoping to condition their behavior on future actors (who may themselves also delay). This stalemate prevents society from recognizing the presence of rare states, even when the relevant signals are widely distributed across agents. Instead, rare signals accumulate privately (and redundantly) until they become overwhelming, after which they are all simultaneously revealed in a burst.
BULGARIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

Design principles of a novel Multifunctional Operation Station (MOS) using Augmented Reality (AR) technology (MOSAR) are proposed in this paper. ARbased design allows more ergonomic remote instrument control in real time in contrast to classical instrument-centered interfaces. Another advantage is its hierarchical software structure including multiple programming interpreters. The MOSAR approach is illustrated with a remote surgical operating station that controls intelligent surgical instruments. The implementation of the Operation Station (MOS) is based on the multiplatform open-source library Tcl/Tk, and an AR extension has been developed on a Unity platform, using Vuforia SDK.
Performance Analysis of a Scalable Algorithm for 3D Linear Transforms on Supercomputer with Intel Processors/Co-Processors

Abstract Practical realizations of 3D forward/inverse separable discrete transforms, such as Fourier transform, cosine/sine transform, etc. are frequently the principal limiters that prevent many practical applications from scaling to a large number of processors. Existing approaches, which are based primarily on 1D or 2D data decompositions, prevent the 3D transforms from effectively scaling to the maximum (possible/available) number of computer nodes. A highly scalable approach to realize forward/inverse 3D transforms has been proposed. It is based on a 3D decomposition of data and geared towards a torus network of computer nodes. The proposed algorithms requires compute-and-roll time-steps, where each step consists of an execution of multiple GEMM operations and concurrent movement of cubical data blocks between nearest neighbors. The aim of this paper is to present an experimental performance study of an implementation on high performance computer architecture.
Vulnerability of Kuwait coast to sea level rise

Abstract Assessing coastal vulnerability to sea level rise (SLR) at local and regional scales is a fundamental step for designing successful long-term coastal management plans. This study was thus designed to assess Kuwait coastal vulnerability to SLR at four scenarios (.5, 1, 1.5 and 2 m). Potential inundated areas and the number of people at risk were estimated based on these SLR scenarios. A coastal vulnerability index (CVI) map of Kuwait was then computed based on the lowest scenario using eight parameters: elevation, coastal slope, geomorphology, distance to 20-m isobath, population, land use, cultural heritage and transportation. The geographic distribution of inundated areas at an SLR of . 5 m revealed that the northern islands of Kuwait and coastal areas along Kuwait Bay would be highly impacted, whereas the coastal area near Shuaibah Port was the most influenced among the southern coasts. Most of the coastal area exhibited a moderate vulnerability to SLR, especially the northern islands. This study presented an initial vulnerability assessment for Kuwait coasts to SLR, which can be extended with more variables. The integrated remote sensing and geographic information system methodology demonstrated in this study can be applied in similar studies elsewhere.
The Balancing Act: Combining Symbolic and Statistical Approaches to Language

Symbolic and statistical approaches to language have historically been at odds -- the former viewed as difficult to test and therefore perhaps impossible to define, and the latter as descriptive but possibly inadequate. At the heart of the debate are fundamental questions concerning the nature of language, the role of data in building a model or theory, and the impact of the competence-performance distinction on the field of computational linguistics. Currently, there is an increasing realization in both camps that the two approaches have something to offer in achieving common goals. The eight contributions in this book explore the inevitable "balancing act" that must take place when symbolic and statistical approaches are brought together -- including basic choices about what knowledge will be represented symbolically and how it will be obtained, what assumptions underlie the statistical model, what principles motivate the symbolic model, and what the researcher gains by combining approaches. The topics covered include an examination of the relationship between traditional linguistics and statistical methods, qualitative and quantitative methods of speech translation, study and implementation of combined techniques for automatic extraction of terminology, comparative analysis of the contributions of linguistic cues to a statistical word grouping system, automatic construction of a symbolic parser via statistical techniques, combining linguistic with statistical methods in automatic speech understanding, exploring the nature of transformation-based learning, and a hybrid symbolic/statistical approach to recovering from parser failures.
Monitoring Chandra Observations of the Quasi-persistent Neutron Star X-Ray Transient MXB 1659–29 in Quiescence: The Cooling Curve of the Heated Neutron Star Crust

We have observed the quasi-persistent neutron star X-ray transient and eclipsing binary MXB 1659-29 in quiescence on three occasions with Chandra. The purpose of our observations was to monitor the quiescent behavior of the source after its last prolonged (~2.5 yr) outburst that ended in 2001 September. The X-ray spectra of the source are consistent with thermal radiation from the neutron star surface. We found that the bolometric flux of the source decreased by a factor of 7-9 over the timespan of 1.5 yr between our first and last Chandra observations. The effective temperature also decreased, by a factor of 1.6-1.7. The decrease in time of the bolometric flux and effective temperature can be described using exponential decay functions, with e-folding times of ~0.7 and ~3 yr, respectively. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that we observed a cooling neutron star crust that was heated considerably during the prolonged accretion event and that is still out of thermal equilibrium with the neutron star core. We could only determine upper limits for any luminosity contribution because of the thermal state of the neutron star core. The rapid cooling of the neutron star crust implies that it has a large thermal conductivity. Our results also suggest that enhanced cooling processes are present in the neutron star core.
Playing Hardball : Relationship Banking in the Age of Credit Derivatives

This paper shows how credit derivatives can facilitate banks’ quest for more effective lending relationships. Credit protection improves banks’ exit option, thereby making it less costly for banks to take a tough stance against misbehaving corporate borrowers and let them fail. This has positive implications for managerial incentives ex ante. Yet, while credit protection helps to resolve existing conflicts of interest it can also introduce new ones: when the “insiders” (bank and borrower) are insured against fluctuations in long term firm value then their joint incentive to maximize value will be seriously impaired. We show that well–capitalized banks fully mitigate this dilution effect by taking temporary protection that expires before project maturity. Poorly capitalized banks’ hedging demand impedes full value maximization. We also argue that credit derivatives can have ambiguous effects on financial stability, and that disclosure requirements can strengthen the efficacy of the credit derivatives market.
Global HYCOM and Advanced Data Assimilation

Abstract : The long-term goal is to use a HYbrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM) with data assimilation in an eddy-resolving, fully global ocean prediction system with transition to the Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVO) at . 08 equatorial resolution in 2006 and with . 04 resolution by the end of the decade. Equatorial resolution of . 08 (.04 ) increases from 9 km (4.4 km) at the equator to 6 km (3 km) at 47 latitude. The Arctic is covered by a bipolar PanAm grid. At 59 N it matches the spherical grid covering the rest of the global ocean. The model will include shallow water to a minimum depth of 10- 20 m and will provide boundary conditions to finer resolution coastal models that may use HYCOM or a different ocean model.
Using rock physics and full elastic modeling to seismically model complex lithologies

Previous work by Nasser and Sinton (2011) showed how it is possible to combine rock physics models and elastic simulations to make better decisions concerning seismic acquisition and processing, as well as to help communicate complex geophysical concepts to decision makers. That work focused purely on clastic geology was recently extended to more complex geologies that include clastics, carbonates, evaporites and mixed facies. The goal of this work is to better understand the limits of available seismic data for characterizing a subsalt carbonate reservoir in terms of resolution, image quality, noise attenuation and hence rock and fluid peroperties.
Dating of speleothems in non-karst caves - methodological aspects and practical application, Polish Outer Carpathians case study

Gravitational mass movements (landslides) have been one of the most efficient processes contributing to the morphogenesis of the Outer Carpathians formed of flysch, siliciclastic-clayey rocks. Such processes often produce non-karst caves in sandstones. Dating of calcite speleothems developed in caves hosted by sandstone with calcareous cement seems to be a suitable method to reconstruct phases of slope evolution in this region. The paper discusses the usefulness of radiocarbon (14 C) and U-series dating of speleothems in non-karst caves in the reconstruction of mass movement chronology and evaluates possible reasons for discrepancies between both methods. The obtained speleothem age data are used to improve the existing knowledge on the chronology of mass movements during the Late Glacial and Holocene in the flysch Carpathians.
Characterising resistance to fatigue crack growth in adhesive bonds by measuring release of strain energy

During their operation, modern aircraft engine components are subjected to increasingly demanding operating conditions, especially the high pressure turbine (HPT) blades. Such conditions cause these parts to undergo different types of time-dependent degradation, one of which is creep. A model using the finite element method (FEM) was developed, in order to be able to predict the creep behaviour of HPT blades. Flight data records (FDR) for a specific aircraft, provided by a commercial aviation company, were used to obtain thermal and mechanical data for three different flight cycles. In order to create the 3D model needed for the FEM analysis, a HPT blade scrap was scanned, and its chemical composition and material properties were obtained. The data that was gathered was fed into the FEM model and different simulations were run, first with a simplified 3D rectangular block shape, in order to better establish the model, and then with the real 3D mesh obtained from the blade scrap. The overall expected behaviour in terms of displacement was observed, in particular at the trailing edge of the blade. Therefore such a model can be useful in the goal of predicting turbine blade life, given a set of FDR data. Abstract Measurement of the energy dissipation during fatigue crack growth is used as a technique to gain more insight into the physics of the crack growth process. It is shown that the amount of energy dissipation required per unit of crack growth is determined by G max , whereas the total amount of energy available for crack growth in a single cycle is determined by Abstract Measurement of the energy dissipation during fatigue crack growth is used as a technique to gain more insight into the physics of the crack growth process. It is shown that the amount of energy dissipation required per unit of crack growth is determined by G max , whereas the total amount of energy available for crack growth in a single cycle is determined by c 2016 Authors.
Terrain surface simplication based on surface features

The objective of this research is to build triangulated surface approximations to terrain surfaces from dense digital elevation models. We propose an adaptive triangulation construction algorithm that combines the two basic triangulation construction algorithms, i.e., refinement and decimation. Experiments show that our adaptive algorithm constructs more accurate triangulated surface approximations than the pure refinement algorithm. Before constructing the initial triangulation for our adaptive triangulation construction algorithm, we use the curvature information of the surface to extract structural lines of the surface. Each structural line is associated with a local region around the structural line. This region can be used to assign a significance to the lines. The significant lines are then used as the initial skeleton of the triangulation. Our experiments show that the triangulated surface approximations using structural lines are more accurate than the triangulations without using structural lines.
Postmenopausal Hormone Replacement Therapy Scientific Review

meta-analysis risk significantly thromboembolic subarachnoid intracerebral thromboembolism current HRT 2.14; 95% CI, 1.64-2.81) the of use 3.49; 95% CI, 2.33-5.59) to a meta-analysis of a meta-analysis of estrogen trials, estrogen an increased risk of breast cancer that increases with of cancer incidence, not mortality, estrogen use but not estrogen progestin. A meta-analysis of 18 observational studies showed a 20% reduction in colon cancer incidence among 95% CI, finding supported by the cognition. studies of estrogen not In a cohort study, current HRT an age-adjusted for cholecystitis of (95% CI, 1.6-2.0), increasing to (95% CI,
Killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptor alleles influence susceptibility to occult hepatitis B infection in West African population

Occult hepatitis B infection (OBI) is a public health problem in Burkina Faso. OBI represents a risk factor for the development of cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). OBI could be due to mutant viruses undetectable by HBsAg assays or a strong suppression of viral replication and gene expression under the pression of the host immune system. To investigate the role of killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptor (KIR) gene polymorphisms in patients with OBI in Burkina Faso compared to healthy and chronic hepatitis B subjects. A total of 286 participants was recruited, including 42 cases of OBI, 110 cases of chronic hepatitis B and 134 HBV negative subjects. SSP-PCR was performed to search for the presence of KIR genes. The HBV viral load was determined by qPCR. The frequencies of the activator gene KIR2DS5 (P=0.045) and the pseudogene KIR2DP1 (P<0.001) in patients with OBI were higher than those in patients with chronic hepatitis B. These genes are associated with susceptibility of occult hepatitis B infection. The frequencies of the inhibitory KIR gene KIR2DL3 (P=0.01) of patients with occult hepatitis B were lower than those in chronic hepatitis B patients. This gene KIR2DL3 is associated with protection against occult hepatitis B infection. Also, the frequencies of the inhibitory KIR genes KIR2DL2 (P<0.001), KIR2DL3 (P<0.001) and activators KIR2DS2 (P<0.001) in chronic hepatitis B patients were higher compared to the frequencies of the KIR genes in healthy subjects. These genes KIR2DL3, KIR2DL5 (A, B), KIR3DL3, KIR3DS1, KIR2DL2 and KIR2DS2 are thought to be genes associated with the susceptibility to OBI. The KIR2DS5 and KIR2DP1 genes could be associated with susceptibility to OBI. As for the KIR gene KIR2DL3 could be associated with protection against occult hepatitis B infection.