Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A simplified spring-block model of earthquakes

The time interval between earthquakes is much larger than the actual time involved during slip in an individual event. The authors have used this fact to construct a cellular automaton model of earthquakes. This model describes the time evolution of a 2-D system of coupled masses and springs sliding on a frictional surface. The model exhibits power law frequency-size relations and can exhibit large earthquakes with the same scatter in the recurrence time observed for actual earthquakes.
Development of Human-Robot Collaborative System with Forearm-worn Haptic Display to Increase Safety in Future Factories

—Complex tasks require human collaboration since robots do not have enough dexterity. However, robots are still used as instruments and not as collaborative systems. We are introducing a framework to ensure safety in a human-robot collaborative environment. The system is composed of a haptic feedback display, low-cost wearable mocap, and a new collision avoidance algorithm based on the Artiﬁcial Potential Fields (APF). Wearable optical motion capturing system enables tracking the human hand position with high accuracy and low latency on large working areas. This study evaluates whether haptic feedback improves safety in human-robot collaboration. Three experiments were carried out to evaluate the performance of the proposed system. The ﬁrst one evaluated human responses to the haptic device during interaction with the Robot Tool Center Point (TCP). The second experiment analyzed human-robot behavior during an imminent collision. The third experiment evaluated the system in a collaborative activity in a shared working environment. This study had shown that when haptic feedback in the control loop was included, the safe distance (minimum robot-obstacle distance) increased by 4.1 cm from 12.39 cm to 16.55 cm, and the robot’s path, when the collision avoidance algorithm was activated, was reduced by 81%.
Performance Evaluation of the Canadian Precipitation Analysis (CaPA)

AbstractThis paper presents an assessment of the operational system used by the Meteorological Service of Canada for producing near-real-time precipitation analyses over North America. The Canadian Precipitation Analysis (CaPA) system optimally combines available surface observations with numerical weather prediction (NWP) output in order to produce estimates of precipitation on a 15-km grid at each synoptic hour (0000, 0600, 1200, and 1800 UTC). The validation protocol used to assess the quality of the CaPA has demonstrated the usefulness of the system for producing reliable estimates of precipitation over Canada, even in areas with few or no weather stations. The CaPA is found to be better in autumn, spring, and winter than in summer. This is because of the difficulty in correctly producing convective precipitation in the NWP because of the low spatial resolution of the meteorological model. An investigation of the quality of the precipitation analyses in the 15 terrestrial ecozones of Canada indicates .
Stacks: A Bitcoin Layer for Smart Contracts

Stacks is a Bitcoin layer for smart contracts; it enables smart contracts and decentralized applications to trustlessly use Bitcoin as an asset and settle transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain. The initial version of Stacks, launched in early 2021, introduced Bitcoin settlement of transactions, the Clarity language for safe contracts that can respond to Bitcoin transactions, and atomic swaps of assets with BTC. The next major proposed upgrade of Stacks, the Nakamoto release (expected 2023), adds important capabilities that will enhance the power of Stacks as a Bitcoin layer: (a) a decentralized, two-way Bitcoin peg to move BTC in/out of the layer and write to Bitcoin, (b) transactions secured by Bitcoin finality, and (c) fast transactions between Bitcoin blocks. The resulting Stacks layer makes Bitcoin a fully programmable asset in a trustless manner. This can make hundreds of billions of dollars of passive Bitcoin capital productive, unlock it for decentralized applications, and make Bitcoin the backbone of a more secure web3.
UVM ScholarWorks UVM ScholarWorks

Culture is a fundamental force shaping our view of the world. Filtered through the stories we share on social media, our collective behavior both reflects and amplifies cultural impacts. The present study seeks to describe the effect of cultural factors, such as religion, on happiness scores in Arabic language tweets from January 2010 to June 2023. Our methodology involves using present tools called Hedonome-ter (https://hedonometer.org/) to study happy and sad events and StoryWrangler (https://storywrangling.org/) to study the usage of keywords related to those events. Our findings reveal a notable pattern of Twitter happiness declining following the start of the Arab Spring in 2010, and this decline persisted until around 2013. This pattern reflects the long-lasting impact of significant Arab Spring events on the overall happiness score on Twitter. Arabic culture seems to be heavily influenced by religion, with religion often being the driving force behind happy events, while acts of violence and conflict related to political and religious injustice are associated with sad events.
Evaluation of Chest CT Scan as a Screening and Diagnostic Tool in Trauma Patients with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): A Cross-Sectional Study

Background The lack of enough medical evidence about COVID-19 regarding optimal prevention, diagnosis, and treatment contributes negatively to the rapid increase in the number of cases globally. A chest computerized tomography (CT) scan has been introduced as the most sensitive diagnostic method. Therefore, this research aimed to examine and evaluate the chest CT scan as a screening measure of COVID-19 in trauma patients. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted in Rajaee Hospital in Shiraz from February to May 2020. All patients underwent unenhanced CT with a 16-slice CT scanner. The CT scans were evaluated in a blinded manner, and the main CT scan features were described and classified into four groups according to RSNA recommendation. Subsequently, the first two Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) categories with the highest probability of COVID-19 pneumonia (i.e., typical and indeterminate) were merged into the “positive CT scan group” and those with radiologic features with the least probability of COVID-19 pneumonia into “negative CT scan group. ” Results Chest CT scan had a sensitivity of 68%, specificity of 56%, positive predictive value of 34.8%, negative predictive value of 83.7%, and accuracy of 59.3% in detecting COVID-19 among trauma patients. Moreover, for the diagnosis of COVID-19 by CT scan in asymptomatic individuals, a sensitivity of 100%, specificity of 66.7%, and negative predictive value of 100% were obtained (p value: 0.05). Conclusion Findings of the study indicated that the CT scan's sensitivity and specificity is less effective in diagnosing trauma patients with COVID-19 compared with nontraumatic people.
Optical ID tags for automatic vehicle identification and authentication

We review the potential of optical techniques in security tasks and propose to combine some of them in the design of new optical ID tags for automatic vehicle identification and authentication. More specifically, we propose to combine visible and near infrared imaging, optical decryption, distortion-invariant ID tags, optoelectronic devices, coherent image processor, optical correlation, and multiple authenticators. A variety of images and signatures, including biometric and random sequences, can be combined in an optical ID tag for multifactor identification. Encryption of the information codified in the ID tag allows increasing security and deters from unauthorized usage of optical tags. A novel NIR ID tag is designed and built by using commonly available materials. The ID tag content cannot be visually perceived at naked eye; it cannot be copied, scanned, or captured by any conventional device. The identification process encompasses several steps such as detection, information decoding and verification which are all detailed in this work. Design of rotation and scale invariant ID tags is taken into account to achieve a correct authentication even if the ID tag is captured in different positions.
Market Structure and Innovation: A Dynamic Analysis of the Global Automobile Industry

We study the relationship between market structure and innovation in the global automobile industry from 1982 to 2004 using the dynamic industry framework of Ericson and Pakes (1995). Firms optimally choose a continuous level of innovation in a strategic and forward-looking manner, while anticipating the possibility of future mergers. We show that our estimated model predicts the data well and that changes in the modeling assumptions have a predictable effect on the key dynamic parameter -- the cost of innovation. In terms of the relationship between market structure and innovation, we find that: (1) At the firm level, there is a weakly positive relationship between a firm's price-cost margin and its innovation intensity; (2) There is no relationship between competition and innovation at the industry level in the steady state. As the industry goes through a consolidation phase, the relationship is negative if competition is measured by the inverse of markups and positive if it is measured by the inverse of concentration; (3) A key determinant of a firm's innovation intensity is its relative position in the industry in terms of knowledge stock.
L-moment estimation using annual maximum (AM) and peak over threshold (POT) series in regional analysis of flood frequencies

This article is a contribution to the development of robust approaches for frequency analysis in hydrology based on regional datasets. It focuses on finding relations between flood estimates based on Annual Maximum Series (AMS) and Peak Over Threshold Series (POTS). A consistent rule is elaborated for changing between the AMS and POTS representations for the individual observed values, for the choice of index flood and for parameter estimation. The point of departure for the analysis is the Langbein formula. The median related to AM as index flood is recommended, because, besides being robust, this characteristic can be estimated from both AMS and POTS. The methodology allows a direct comparison between L-moments of the annual maximum based on AMS and POTS, respectively, when the PWM method for estimating L-moments is applied. A conclusion of the analysis is that AM and POT data give identical results for estimation of AM L-moments but the latter has the smallest estimation errors.
Mindanao Dome variability over the last 160 kyr: Episodic glacial cooling of the West Pacific Warm Pool

We present sea surface, upper thermocline, and benthic delta(18)O data, as well as temperature and paleoproductivity proxy data, from the International Marine Global Change Study Program (IMAGES) Core MD06-3067 (6 degrees 31' N, 126 degrees 30' E, 1575 m water depth), located in the western equatorial Pacific Ocean within the flow path of the Mindanao Current. Our records reveal considerable glacial-interglacial and suborbital variability in the Mindanao Dome upwelling over the last 160 kyr. Dome activity generally intensified during glacial intervals resulting in cooler thermocline waters, whereas it substantially declined during interglacials, in particular in the early Holocene and early marine oxygen isotope stage (MIS) 5e, when upwelling waters did not reach the thermocline. During MIS 3 and MIS 2, enhanced surface productivity together with remarkably low SST and low upper ocean thermal contrast provide evidence for episodic glacial upwelling to the surface, whereas transient surface warming marks periodic collapses of the Mindanao Dome upwelling during Heinrich events. We attribute the high variability during MIS 3 and MIS 2 to changes in the El Nino-Southern Oscillation state that affected boreal winter monsoonal winds and upper ocean circulation. Glacial upwelling intensified when a strong cyclonic gyre became established, whereas El Nino-like conditions during Heinrich events tended to suppress the cyclonic circulation, reducing Ekman transport. Thus, our findings demonstrate that variations in the Mindanao Dome upwelling are closely linked to the position and intensity of the tropical convection and also reflect far-field influences from the high latitudes.
Swedish tree rings provide new evidence in support of a major, widespread environmental disruption in 1628 BC

Pine trees, recovered from a peat bog in south‐central Sweden, are used to develop a continuous, but “floating”, 200‐year tree‐ring chronology. By wiggle matching high‐precision 14C determinations against the radiocarbon calibration curve, the chronology is positioned at 1695–1496 BC with an uncertainty of ±65 years. One major event, denoted by four consecutive years with extremely narrow rings, indicative of highly unfavourable local tree‐growth conditions, occurred in the time window represented by the chronology. This growth depression is dated to 1637 BC (±65) and may be tentatively ascribed to the same phenomenon that caused frost damage in trees in California and a growth depression in European oak in 1628/27 BC, hence providing new evidence of a more northerly area of influence of this widespread phenomenon.
Retrieval of land surface temperature in Yangtze Delta by using split-window algorithm and AVHRR data

Land Surface Temperature (LST) is not only a necessary physical parameter of global climate system but an important input parameter in some models based on remote sensing for estimating crop yield and surface flux (e.g., sensible heat, latent heat, CO2 flux), monitoring soil water content and crop water deficit. This paper selected two AVHRR images derived at 11:00am and 1:00pm on April 15, 2003 to retrieve the instantaneous LST in Yangtze Delta by using Splitwindow Algorithm raised by Price (1984). To validate the retrieval effect, daily average LST was calculated on the retrieved instantaneous LST and then compared with the daily average LST measured by the ground weather observation stations. The results show that the total average error is 0.18°C, the maximum error is 2.9°C and the stations with retrieval error less than 1.1°C accounted for 77.78%. Therefore, the retrieval method of instantaneous LST in the paper can obtain more accurate results of the surface temperature in the Yangtze Delta. And the study could provide a scientific basis for the application of thermal infrared remote sensing data on the retrieval of large-scale regional or global surface temperature.
Burnt area detection at global scale using ATSR‐2: The GLOBSCAR products and their qualification

[1] Quantifying the contribution of biomass burning to the global distribution of emissions of carbon into the atmosphere requires knowledge of the area burnt. The GLOBSCAR project was initiated in 2001 as part of the European Space Agency (ESA) Data User Programme, with the objective of producing global incremental monthly maps of burnt areas, using daytime data from year 2000 of the Along Track Scanning Radiometer (ATSR-2) instrument onboard the ESA ERS-2 satellite. The processing system combines the use of two algorithms representing different approaches to burnt area detection. The K1 algorithm is a contextual algorithm based on the geometrical characteristics of the burnt pixels in the near-infrared (NIR, 0.87 microns)/thermal infrared (TIR, 11 microns) space, while the E1 algorithm consists of a series of fixed threshold tests applied to the data using information from four different spectral channels. The GLOBSCAR products are available from the GeoSuccess Web site (http://www.geosuccess.net) in ASCII and vector format. The products were validated using a variety of qualitative and quantitative tests against other field and remote sensing data. The GLOBSCAR results are presented per region and are compared to available statistics and other remote sensing products such as the ATSR-2 World Fire Atlas (WFA) and the Global Burnt Area product derived from SPOT/VEGETATION (GBA-2000). The potential and limitations of the GLOBSCAR products are then discussed. It is concluded that while the GLOBSCAR products represent a definite progress toward a better quantification of the areas burnt annually at the larger scales, coordinated improvements in remote sensing products are needed in order to better address the requirements of the user community. Future activities include the consolidation of the results through further qualification and the development of a multiyear multisensor product building upon the experience gained from both GLOBSCAR and GBA-2000 projects.
Suggestion for the Maintenance Program of the Sea Dike Using Geophysical Methods

The sea dike is the most important facility of reclamation projects, and plays an important role in securing freshwater in the reservoir. Systematic research on practical approaches and data analysis techniques are lacking even though some geophysical methods such as electrical resistivity and self-potential surveys are included within the inspection processes. Hence, geophysical methods were considered for improvement of precision safety diagnosis methods after problems in the maintenance system have been identified, such as safety checks and precision safety diagnoses. In addition, geophysical methods customized according to variations in ambient environmental limiting factors such as pore pressure changes by tidal fluctuation, compaction characteristics of the fill materials, and the surface condition of the embankment were suggested.
Thermopeaking in Alpine streams: event characterization and time scales

The present study provides a detailed quantification of the ‘thermopeaking’ phenomenon, which consists of sharp intermittent alterations of stream thermal regime associated with hydropeaking releases from hydroelectricity plants. The study refers to the Noce River (Northern Italy), a typical hydropower‐regulated Alpine stream, where water stored in high‐altitude reservoirs often has a different temperature compared with the receiving bodies. The analysis is based on a river water temperature dataset that has been continuously collected for 1 year at 30‐min intervals in four different sections along the Noce River. A suitable threshold‐based procedure is developed to quantify the main characteristics of thermopeaking, which is responsible for thermal alterations at different scales. The application of Wavelet Transform allows to separately investigate the thermal regime alterations at sub‐daily, daily and weekly scales. Moreover, at a seasonal scale, patterns of ‘warm’ and ‘cold’ thermopeaking can be clearly detected and quantified. The study highlights the relevance of investigating a variety of short‐term alterations at multiple time scales for a better quantitative understanding of the complexity that characterizes the river thermal regime. The outcomes of the analysis raise important interdisciplinary research questions concerning the effects of thermopeaking and of the related short‐ and medium‐term effects on biological communities, which have been rather poorly investigated in ecological studies. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The Odden ice feature of the Greenland Sea and its association with atmospheric pressure, wind, and surface flux variability from reanalyses

The Odden sea ice feature of the Greenland Sea is identified in a rotated principal component analysis of Hadley Center winter sea ice concentration data extending from 1951–2005. Time series of the Odden ice extent are evaluated in the context of sea level pressure, surface wind, air temperature, cloud, and energy flux variations using NCEP‐NCAR reanalyses. Odden was a recurring feature in winters 1966–1972, during the Great Salinity Anomaly (GSA), and appeared occasionally in the 1980s and 1990s but has occurred rarely since 2000. Odden formation is associated with northernmost Atlantic high pressure, a negative North Atlantic Oscillation, and anomalous westerly winds. Its formation is most highly correlated, however, to air temperature and fluxes of sensible/latent heat, and downward longwave radiation. Air temperature and downward longwave flux anomalies in the preceding autumn are also unusually low in advance of a winter Odden ice cover while heat fluxes are weakly positive. All parameters, including the ice cover anomaly, exhibit significant winter to winter persistence over time.
Last deglacial and Holocene vegetation evolution and climate variability in the subalpine western Nanling Mountains in South China

Pollen analysis of a 236-cm-long core at Daping Swamp, a subalpine swamp in the western Nanling Mountains, provided a history of vegetation evolution that was related to climate changes in the last 15,400 years. Generally, pollen data revealed a subtropical climate in the past 15,400 years. In the last deglacial period (15,400–10,900 cal yr BP), the study region was characterized by evergreen and deciduous broadleaved forests. A marked warm and wet period from 15,400 to 13,200 cal yr BP, which was characterized by high frequencies of arboreal pollen, corresponded to the Bølling–Allerød event. Significant shrinkage of evergreen–deciduous broadleaved forests and expansion of grassland from 13,200 to 10,900 cal yr BP suggested evidently cool and dry conditions that were the reflection of the Younger Dryas event. In the early Holocene (10,900–8200 cal yr BP), the glacier boundary effect might cause less warm and humid conditions relative to the middle Holocene. From 8200 to 4600 cal yr BP, pollen data reflected a marked expansion of evergreen and deciduous broadleaved forests and shrinkage of grassland, suggesting the thermal maximum that could be considered as the Holocene Optimum. From 4600 to 1500 cal yr BP, grassland exhibited expansion. Between 1500 and 600 cal yr BP, the evergreen and deciduous broadleaved forests expanded, whereas the grassland shrunk, implying a short wetter and warmer interval. After 600 cal yr BP, the grassland displayed expansion again. Broad regional correlation reflected that multiple factors including the summer monsoon, variation of sea level, ocean sea surface temperature (SST), and solar insolation may have played a role in climate changes that influenced vegetation evolution in the study area. Our results also reflected that in South China, the subalpine regions exhibited a different climate variation from that of regions with low latitude and elevation.
A Land Surface Water Deficit Model for an Arid and Semiarid Region: Impact of Desertification on the Water Deficit Status in the Loess Plateau, China

Abstract A land surface water deficit model was developed for a large-scale heterogeneous arid and semiarid area with various soil, vegetation, and land use types, and used to simulate seasonal and spatial variability in potential (E0) and actual (Ea) evapotranspiration and an index of water deficit (WDI). Comparisons with the results of other commonly used models and natural vegetation conditions suggest that this model can give an estimate of the success for large-scale regional studies. By using the model, the authors estimated E0, Ea, and WDI in a grid cell of 0.25° lat × 0.25° long over the Loess Plateau, China. Finally, the sensitivities of the model to both a vegetation parameter and an assumed desertification case were simulated, and several highly sensitive areas were found to be the risk regions to desertification.