Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Riparian hydroecology: A coupled model of the observed interactions between groundwater flow and meadow vegetation patterning

Stream incision is altering the hydroecology of riparian areas worldwide. In the Last Chance watershed in the northern Sierra Nevada, California, logging, overgrazing, and road/railroad construction have caused stream incision, which resulted in drainage of riparian meadow sediments and a succession from native wet meadow vegetation to sagebrush and dryland grasses. Restoration efforts have been initiated to reestablish the ecosystem function of these systems. Original field data including stream stage records, water table hydrographs, sediment hydraulic properties, topographic transects, and aerial imagery of vegetation patterning were used to develop a model of an archetype meadow. Hydrologic behavior was simulated with a finite element model of variably saturated groundwater flow. This model was coupled to an empirical, time‐dependent, vegetation threshold relationship between vegetation type and depth to the water table. This was a two‐way coupling requiring an iterative approach because water table depth is a determinant of vegetation type, yet the vegetation regime influences water table depth through evapotranspiration. The hydrology and vegetation patterns were analyzed under pristine, degraded (incised), and restored conditions. For the case of deep streambed incision, our hydroecological model predicts the observed shift from mesic (wetter) to xeric (drier) vegetation communities and reproduces their imaged longitudinal zonation. This patterning is explained as a response to groundwater drainage to the stream, which creates dry zones with xeric vegetation adjacent to the stream, while preserving sufficient moisture at the margins of the meadow to support holdout populations of mesic vegetation. The model further predicts the reestablishment of meadow vegetation when the incised channel is filled and a new shallow channel is restored. The coupling of a near‐surface hydrologic model to a vegetation response model may be used to design stream restoration projects by predicting vegetation patterning.
Instability, softening and localization of deformation

Abstract Material strain softening is commonly taken as a necessary and sufficient condition for localization in deforming rocks. However, there is a wide range of experimental and theoretical information which shows that localization can occur in sands, brittle rocks and ductile metals under strain-hardening conditions. This paper aims to bring these two contrasted views together. Three separate criteria are necessary in order to understand localization behaviour. The first involves the stability of the deforming system. The second determines whether a deforming system will undergo bifurcation so as to cease deforming in a homogeneous mode and instead deform in an inhomogeneous mode such as barrelling or localization. The stability and bifurcation criteria are independent of each other since barrelling is a stable mode whereas localization is unstable. The third criterion establishes if the unstable bifurcation mode is one of localization or of some other kind. Localization may arise from the presence of vertices on the yield surface (as in the case of pressure insensitive, rate dependent metals and in brittle rocks due to the development of preferred microfractures for slip) or from the constitutive relation being such that the plastic strain-rate vector is not normal to the yield surface (as in the cases of pressure sensitive, dilatant rocks, of materials deforming by crystal-plastic processes involving dislocation cross-slip and/or climb, and of visco-plastic materials in which voids are forming due to diffusive processes). It is important to distinguish between material and system softening (or hardening) behaviour. The theory for a kinematically unconstrained shortening experiment (that is, rigid, frictionless platens) indicates that localization can occur in strain-hardening materials but the system must strain-soften from then on; that is, localization occurs at peak stress for the system even though the material may continue to harden (or soften). However, the addition of kinematic constraints (such as friction at elastic platens, a constraint to deform in plane strain or at constant volume) means that localization may occur in a system that is monotonically strain hardening. Shear zones in naturally deformed rocks show ample evidence of dilatant behaviour in that evidence for the passage of large volumes of fluid during localization is common as is the development of dilatant vein systems. As such, since shear zones are strongly constrained by the elastic and (limited) plastic response of the relatively undeformed rocks surrounding the shear zones, strain-hardening behaviour of the system is to be expected as the norm, even if the rocks within the shear zones are undergoing material strain-softening.
Geochemistry and geochronology of Mesoproterozoic basement rocks from the Eastern Amery Ice Shelf and southwestern Prydz Bay, East Antarctica: Implications for a long-lived magmatic accretion in a continental arc

The high-grade metamorphic rocks from the eastern Amery Ice Shelf and southwestern Prydz Bay of East Antarctica represent reworked Rayner Complex during the late Neoproterozoic/Cambrian metamorphism. These Mesoproterozoic basement rocks can provide important information for the earlier tectonic evolution of the Rayner orogen. Chemical compositions of the mafic granulites from the Søstrene Island and Munro Kerr Mountains area suggest that their protoliths resemble Nb-enriched arc basalts, whereas those from the McKaskle-Mistichelli Hills, Reinbolt Hills and Manning Nunataks show typical characteristics of island arc basalts. Nd isotopic analyses yielded initial Nd isotope compositions, expressed as εNd(T) values, ranging from +4.1 to −0.4 for the former, and mostly from −3.2 to −4.7 for the latter. The felsic orthogneisses have the characteristics of volcanic arc granites, and one fifth of the samples belong to high Sr/Y types. The felsic orthogneisses yielded εNd(T) values of −2.4 to −7.6 and Nd depleted-mantle model ages of 2.2 to 1.9 Ga, implying an important episode of crustal formation in the Paleoproterozoic. The high Sr/Y orthogneisses have high K2O/Na2O ratios (>1), positive Eu anomalies, significant HREE depletion and negative εNd(T) values, suggesting their derivation from partial melting of garnet-bearing K-rich mafic sources at the lower crust of the continental arc. Geochronological data give protolith ages ranging from 1380 to 1020 Ma for these arc-related rocks, indicating a long-lived magmatic accretion in the Rayner continental arc for ∼360 Ma. In addition, a younger island arc (<1080 Ma) was probably formed in the south of the Fisher oceanic arc. Coupled with the available data for the adjacent areas, we propose that the tectonic process of the Rayner orogen involved the collision of several island arcs with East Antarctica (the Lambert Terrane or the Ruker craton), followed by the closure of ocean and final collision of the Indian craton with the newly accreted Antarctic margin.
Revisit Data Partitioning in Data-intensive workflows

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés.
Peak ductility demand of mainshock-aftershock sequences for Japanese earthquakes

A large mainshock triggers numerous aftershocks. Large aftershocks can cause additional damage and disruption to buildings and infrastructure in a post-disaster situation. This study investigates the effects of aftershocks on peak ductility demand of elastic-perfectly-plastic single-degree-of-freedom systems using real as well as artificial mainshock-aftershock sequences. First, empirical assessment of the incremental peak nonlinear response due to aftershocks is conducted by using real mainshock-aftershock sequences constructed from the K-NET and KiK-net databases for Japanese earthquakes. Subsequently, an alternative method of generating artificial time-history data of mainshock-aftershock sequences is implemented based on the generalized Omori’s law and suitable record selection criteria for aftershocks. Analysis results indicate that overall increase of the peak ductility demand ranges from 5% to 20%, depending on the vibration period of a structural system and seismic excitation level, and that peak ductility demands for real and artificial sequences are similar and thus artificial sequences can be substituted for real sequences.
On a Reef Far, Far Away: Anthropogenic Impacts Following Extreme Storms Affect Sponge Health and Bacterial Communities

Terrestrial runoff can negatively impact marine ecosystems through stressors including excess nutrients, freshwater, sediments, and contaminants. Severe storms, which are increasing with global climate change, generate massive inputs of runoff over short timescales (hours to days); such runoff impacted offshore reefs in the northwest Gulf of Mexico (NW GoM) following severe storms in 2016 and 2017. Several weeks after coastal flooding from these events, NW GoM reef corals, sponges, and other benthic invertebrates ∼185 km offshore experienced mortality (2016 only) and/or sub-lethal stress (both years). To assess the impact of storm-derived runoff on reef filter feeders, we characterized the bacterial communities of two sponges, Agelas clathrodes and Xestospongia muta, from offshore reefs during periods of sub-lethal stress and no stress over a three-year period (2016—2018). Sponge-associated and seawater-associated bacterial communities were altered during both flood years. Additionally, we found evidence of wastewater contamination (based on 16S rRNA gene libraries and quantitative PCR) in offshore sponge samples, but not in seawater samples, following these flood years. Signs of wastewater contamination were absent during the no-flood year. We show that flood events from severe storms have the capacity to reach offshore reef ecosystems and impact resident benthic organisms. Such impacts are most readily detected if baseline data on organismal physiology and associated microbiome composition are available. This highlights the need for molecular and microbial time series of benthic organisms in near- and offshore reef ecosystems, and the continued mitigation of stormwater runoff and climate change impacts.
Stereo vision-based pedestrian detection using dense disparity map-based detection and segmentation

In this paper, we propose a stereo vision-based pedestrian detection method using a dense disparity map-based detection and segmentation algorithm. To enhance a pedestrian detection performance, we use a dense disparity map extracted from a global stereo matching algorithm. First, we extract a road feature information from the dense disparity map, which is a decision basis of presence or absence of obstacles on the road. It is very important to extract the road feature from the disparity for detecting obstacles robustly regardless of external traffic situations. The obstacle detection is performed with the road feature information to detect only obstacles from entire image. In other words, pedestrian candidates including various upright objects are detected in the obstacle detection stage. Each obstacle area tends to include multiple objects. Thus, a disparity map-based segmentation is performed to separate the obstacle area into each obstacle accurately. And then, accurate pedestrian areas are extracted from segmented obstacle areas using road contact and pedestrian height information. This stage enables to reduce false alarms and to enhance computing speed. To recognize pedestrians, classifier is performed in each verified pedestrian candidate. Finally, we perform a verification stage to examine the recognized pedestrian in detail. Our algorithms are verified by conducting experiments using ETH database.
Energy Efﬁcient Resource Allocation for Underlaying Multi-D2D Enabled Multiple-Antennas Communications

—Energy efﬁciency has a signiﬁcant importance to optimize the wireless communications systems by providing high data rates. In order to develop energy efﬁcient systems, one of the promising methods is to use multiple device-to-device (D2D) underlaying multiple antenna cellular systems. The interference from cellular users to D2D pairs, the interference between D2D pairs and the interference at the base station (BS) caused by D2D pairs occur in these communications systems. In this article, we propose energy efﬁcient resource allocation algorithms for under-laying multi-D2D enabled multiple-antennas communications by employing different multiple antenna processing techniques at the BS. A joint method based on Dinkelbach algorithm and Message Passing Algorithm (MPA) and an approach based on deep learning withmulti-layerartiﬁcialneuralnetworkareproposedtomaximize theglobalenergyefﬁciency(GEE)whilesatisfyingthedataraterequirementsofbothcellularusersandD2Dpairs.InMPA,the factorgraphoftheD2DpairsisconstructedbytakingintoaccounttheinterferenceamongtheD2Dpairsandtheinterferencelevelat theBStoavoidanyinterruptioninthecellulartransmission.Byrelyingonthetrainingbasedontheproposedjointalgorithm,a deepneuralnetworkapproachispresentedforoff-lineimplemen-tation. Theperformanceresultsoftheproposedenergyefﬁcient resourceallocationalgorithmsshowthesuperiorityofmulti-D2Dcommunicationsoverconventionalsingle-D2Dcommunications.
Contamination of commercial dry dog food by Aspergillus flavus and aflatoxins in Aguascalientes, Mexico

: Commercial dry food (CDF) for dogs is a whole grain ration thoroughly mixed and die-cut with heat and pressure to give it the shape of kibble. CDF is formulated with several agro-industrial ingredients and by-products of agricultural and livestock origin. Contamination by Aspergillus flavus and aflatoxins (AFs) in foods has been shown to be a global problem that causes harm to human and animal health. The objective was to evaluate the presence of fungal microbiota and contamination by AFs in CDF. A random sample (n= 77) of marketed
Generating Well-Typed Terms That Are Not “Useless”

Random generation of well-typed terms lies at the core of effective random testing of compilers for functional languages. Existing techniques have had success following a top-down type-oriented approach to generation that makes choices locally, which suffers from an inherent limitation: the type of an expression is often generated independently from the expression itself. Such generation frequently yields functions with argument types that cannot be used to produce a result in a meaningful way, leaving those arguments unused. Such "use-less" functions can hinder both performance, as the argument generation code is dead but still needs to be compiled, and effectiveness, as a lot of interesting optimizations are tested less frequently. In this paper, we introduce a novel algorithm that is significantly more effective at generating functions that use their arguments. We formalize both the "local" and the "nonlocal" algorithms as step-relations in an extension of the simply-typed lambda calculus with type and arguments holes, showing how delaying the generation of types for subexpressions by allowing nonlocal generation steps leads to "useful" functions.
No respite from permafrost-thaw impacts in 2 absence of a global tipping point

Arctic permafrost, the largest non-seasonal component of Earth’s cryosphere, contains a significant climate-sensitive carbon pool. Its potential for loss due to climatic changes leading to a global tipping point, where thawing accelerates with disproportionate impacts, remains debated. Here, we provide an integrative perspective on this question, building on a cross-disciplinary meta-analysis of literature supported by geospatial analyses of global data products and climate model output. Contrary to the existence of a global-scale tipping point, scientific evidence suggests a quasi-linear response to global warming, both from observation-based and model-based projections. While certain processes, such as talik development, thermokarst, thermo-erosion, and vegetation interactions, can drive rapid local permafrost thaw and ground ice loss, they do not accumulate to a non-linear response beyond regional scales. We conclude that there is no safety margin for Arctic permafrost where its loss would be acceptable. Instead, with each increment of global warming, more land areas underlain by permafrost will proportionally experience thaw, causing detrimental local impacts and global feedbacks
VRGuide: Efficient Testing of Virtual Reality Scenes via Dynamic Cut Coverage

Virtual Reality (VR) is an emerging technique that has been applied to more and more areas such as gaming, remote conference, and education. Since VR user interface has very different characteristics compared with traditional graphic user interface (GUI), VR applications also require new testing techniques for quality assurance. Recently, some frameworks (e.g., VRTest) have been proposed to automate VR user interface testing by automatically controlling the player camera. However, their testing strategies are not able to address VR-specific testing challenges such as object occlusion and movement. In this paper, we propose a novel testing technique called VRGuide to explore VR scenes more efficiently. In particular, VRGuide adapts a computer geometry technique called Cut Extension to optimize the camera routes for covering all interact-able objects. We compared the testing strategy with VRTest on eight top VR software projects with scenes. The results show that VRGuide is able to achieve higher test coverage upon testing timeout in two of the projects, and achieve saturation coverage with averagely 31% less testing time than VRTest on the remaining six projects. Furthermore, VRGuide detected and reported four unknown bugs confirmed by developers, only one of which is also detected by VRTest.
Reconstruction of the late-Holocene changes in the Sub-Arctic Front position at the Reykjanes Ridge, north Atlantic

Changes in the dynamics of the North Atlantic subpolar gyre are involved in the modulation of the northward salinity and heat transport in the northern North Atlantic via the North Atlantic Current (NAC). Variations in the strength of the East Greenland Current (EGC) can influence the gyre dynamics by impacting deep convection in the Labrador Sea. Oxygen isotope data of three planktonic foraminiferal species (surface water Neogloboquadrina pachyderma dextral coiling and Globigerina bulloides; thermocline recorder Globorotalia inflata) from a site located close to the present Sub-Arctic Front at the Reykjanes Ridge suggest significant strengthening or shifting of the Sub-Arctic Front throughout the late Holocene. The oxygen isotope based inferences are supported by Mg/Ca-derived temperature reconstructions from Neogloboquadrina pachyderma dextral coiling, alkenone-derived sea surface temperature and other paleoclimatic proxy data. The late-Holocene strengthening/shift of the Sub-Arctic Front appears caused by an increasingly more defined and fresher EGC. The proposed subpolar gyre changes may modulate the northward heat transport, and explain the geographically different long-term climatic trends in the North Atlantic during the late Holocene, i.e. a cooling of the EGC-influenced regions and a warming of the NAC-influenced areas from c. 4 to 5 ka. This mechanism cannot, however, explain the simultaneous occurrence of millennial-scale events at c. 5.6, 3.9, 2.7, 1.3 ka and the ‘Little Ice Age’ in both areas. Noteworthy is the steadily increasing amplitude of these cold events at the Reykjanes Ridge, likely induced by drift ice and/or EGC-influence culminating in the ‘Little Ice Age’. A widespread pronounced warming at 2.0 ka seems to represent the ‘Roman Warm Period’ and reflects the warmest period of the late Holocene.
Risk Factors (Excluding Hormone Replacement Therapy) for Endometrial Hyperplasia: a Systematic Review

Objective: To conduct a systematic review of risk factors associated with the development of Endometrial Hyperplasia (EH). Data sources: Ovid MEDLINE, EMBASE and Web of Science databases were searched from inception to 30 June 2015. Study eligibility: Fifteen observational studies that reported on EH risk in relation to lifestyle factors (n=14), medical history (n=11), reproductive and menstrual history (n=9) and measures of socio-economic status (n=2) were identified. Pooled relative risk estimates and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI) were able to be derived for EH and Body Mass Index (BMI), smoking, diabetes and hypertension, using random effects models comparing high versus low categories. Results: The pooled relative risk for EH when comparing women with the highest versus lowest BMI was 1.82 (95% CI 1.22–2.71; n=7 studies, I2=90.4%). No significant associations were observed for EH risk for smokers compared with non-smokers (RR 0.88, 95% CI 0.66-1.17; n=3, I2=0.0%), hypertensive versus normotensive women (RR 1.51, 95% CI 0.72–3.15; n=5 studies, I2=79.1%), or diabetic versus non-diabetic women (RR 1.77, 95% CI 0.79–3.96; n=5 studies, I2=31.8%) respectively although the number of included studies was limited. There were mixed reports on the relationship between age and risk of EH. Too few studies reported on other factors to reach any conclusions in relation to EH risk. Conclusions: A high BMI was associated with an increased risk of EH, providing additional rationale for women to maintain a normal body weight. No significant associations were detected for other factors and EH risk, however relatively few studies have been conducted and few of the available studies adequately adjusted for relevant confounders. Therefore, further aetiological studies of endometrial hyperplasia are warranted.
Correlation between Epididymal Semen Quality Parameters and Malondialdehyde Levels in Adults SD rats Liver after Exposure to Bisphenol A.

: It has been shown that reactive oxygen species (ROS) can lead to deleterious effects on a range of sperm parameters. Bisphenol A (BPA) has been shown to cause injury in the liver by forming ROS and increasing levels of lipid peroxidation. The aim of study was to determine the level of lipid peroxidation as indicated by Malondialdehyde (MDA) in the liver tissue of rats treated with BPA. BPA was mixed in corn oil and intra-peritoneal administered every other day for 20 days in dose dependent manner. After 24 h of the last treatment, rats were weighed, sacrificed and liver harvested for analysis. Epididymal semen quality analysis was performed simultaneously using the CASA system (CFT-9200 computer-aided sperm and microorganism test and analysis system). The levels of MDA increased significantly in the treatment group compared to control group (**P ˂ 0.01) and had negative correlation with sperm count, motility and morphology (P<0.001). BPA caused a reduction in the epididymal semen quality and sperm count in a dose dependent manner. Sperm analyses results showed that there was oligozoospermia ( ˂ 20 x10 6 spermatozoids/ml) and asthenozoospermia (motility ˂ 50%) in the treatment group compared to control groups. These results indicate that exposure of graded doses of BPA may elicit depletion of MDA level and induce oxidative stress in epididymal sperm of rat thereby decreasing sperm count and quality. These findings provide a possible toxicological evidence of an adverse effect of BPA on semen quality.