Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sediment yield changes in the semi-arid Karoo: a palaeoenvironmental reconstruction of sediments accumulating in Cranemere Reservoir, Eastern Cape, South Africa

The history of sediment yield from a 57 km 2 catchment in the semi-arid Karoo of South Africa was reconstructed from the sediment stored in a reservoir at Cranemere dating back to 1843. The volume of sediment accumulating in the reservoir between different dates was estimated firstly by developing a core chronology based on Cs-137 and Pb-210 using gamma spectrometry and secondly by estimating volumetric changes from the depth of 17 cores located across the dry reservoir surface. The variation in sediment yield was interpreted in relation to historical changes in livestock management, rainfall patterns and catchment connectivity. Daily rainfall data were available from 1891. The results indicated low sediment yields until the 1950s, after which they increased rapidly up to the 1970s before declining gradually to the present day. There is historical evidence that accelerated erosion was initiated before the turn of the 19th Century due to high stock numbers and poor stock management until soil conservation practices were put in place during the 1950s. However, there is little evidence of this increase in erosion in the sedimentary record indicating that there were considerable lags between the onset of erosion and the sediment reaching the reservoir. The rapid increase in sedimentation after the 1950s is explained as a result of increased connectivity between the local sediment sinks and the reservoir following the construction of new culverts under a major road less than a kilometre upstream of the reservoir in the 1950s. Peak sediment yields of the 1970s coincide with high daily rainfalls and widespread flooding. The rainfall record indicates that daily rainfall maxima have increased since 1950, leading to potentially more erodible conditions. Our explanation of the increased sediment yields suggests that we need to examine more closely the links between catchment sources, local sinks within drainage lines and the final sink, the reservoir.
The Dynamic Multiscale Nature of Climate Change Vulnerability: An Inuit Harvesting Example

This article advances a vulnerability framework to understand how climatic risks and change are experienced and responded to by Inuit harvesters using a case study from Iqaluit, Nunavut. The article makes important contributions to methodological design in vulnerability studies, emphasizing the importance of longitudinal study design, real-time observations of human–environment interactions, community-based monitoring, and mixed methods. Fieldwork spanned five years, during which sixty-four semistructured interviews were conducted and historical records examined to develop an understanding of the processes and conditions affecting vulnerability. A local land use monitoring team was established, collecting ∼22,000 km of land use Global Positioning System (GPS) data and engaging in biweekly interviews (more than 100) on exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity. This was complemented by analysis of instrumental data on sea ice and climate conditions. Results indicate that sea ice conditions are changing rapidly and affecting trail conditions, safety, and access to harvesting grounds. GPS data and biweekly interviews document real-time adaptations, with traditional knowledge and land-based skills, resource use flexibility, and mobility underpinning significant adaptability, including utilizing new areas, modifying trail routes, and taking advantage of an extended open water season. Sociospatial reorganization following resettlement in the 1950s and 1960s, however, has created dependency on external conditions, has reduced the flexibility of harvesting activities, and has affected knowledge systems. Within the context of these “slow” variables, current responses that are effective in moderating vulnerability could undermine adaptive capacity in the long term, representing overspecialized adaptations, creating the potential for further loss of response diversity and flexibility, and engendering potential downstream effects, creating trajectories of maladaptation. These findings challenge previous research that has argued that current resilience of the Inuit socioecological system is indicative of high adaptive capacity to future change and indicates that climate change might pose more serious risks to the harvesting sector than previously assumed.
Postmortem computed tomography is an informative approach for prevention of sudden unexpected natural death in the elderly

Introduction: we evaluated the possible use of postmortem computed tomography (PMCT) to investigate the causes of sudden unexpected natural death (SUND) in the elderly. Methods and subjects: Death cases confirmed within 24 hours since the onset of symptoms at the Emergency Department of Mie University Hospital were defined as sudden death cases. A total of 212 sudden death cases, including 175 SUND cases, that occurred in a 3-year period from September 2006 to August 2009 were investigated. Results and discussion: The number of sudden death cases was highest in patients in their seventies (56 cases, 26%), followed by patients in their eighties and sixties. Sudden death occurred more in men than in women in their fifties to seventies, while it occurred more in women than in men over the age of 90. PMCT was performed in more than 80% of SUND cases regardless of age of the deceased. The causes in 26 cases (27.1%) were established by PMCT, many of which were hemorrhagic diseases. Signs of aortic aneurysm rupture were detected by PMCT in the thoracic and abdominal areas of 8 patients in their seventies and over, whereas signs were absent in the younger group. Also, more than 18% of sudden death cases in patients in their seventies and over were bathing-related sudden death (BRSD). BRSD was rarely caused by hemorrhagic diseases, suggesting that a drop in blood pressure caused by bathing is an important factor in BRSD. Conclusion: PMCT is a method that is relatively acceptable by bereaved families. It is useful for establishing the causes of approximately 30% of the SUND cases examined. The PMCT findings suggested that early detection and treatment of thoracic and abdominal aortic aneurysms and preventive measurements of bathing-related drop in blood pressure are important for the prevention of SUND in the elderly.
Application of Statistical Bias correction method to the Yoshino River Basin

1Student Member of JSCE, Ph.D. Candidate, Dept. of Civil Eng., The University of Tokyo (Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 1138656, Japan) 2 Fellow of JSCE, Dr. Eng., Professor, Dept. of Civil Eng., The University of Tokyo (Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan) 3Researcher, Institute Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo (Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8505, Japan) 4Associate Professor, Institute Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo (Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8505, Japan) 5Member of JSCE, Dr. Eng., Professor, Institute Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo (Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8505, Japan)
Evidence of subsurface preferential flow using soil hydrologic monitoring in the Shale Hills catchment

Characterization of preferential flow at multiple spatial and temporal scales is fundamental to the understanding of complex subsurface heterogeneity and catchment hydrology. Evidence of subsurface preferential flow and the conditions under which it occurs were investigated in the Shale Hills catchment, a humid forested region in central Pennsylvania, USA. Seven monitoring sites, plus five replicates, were established along a concave hillslope, a convex hillslope and a valley floor to monitor in situ the hydrology in various soil horizons and their interfaces at half‐minute intervals. Using the indicator of a lower horizon that responded to a rainstorm earlier than an upper horizon within the same soil profile, we investigated the subsurface preferential flow processes and their dynamics in each of the five soil series mapped in the catchment. Threshold behaviour, hydrophobicity impact, influence of soil thickness and topography were observed in the spatial and temporal variation of the subsurface preferential flow, which was initiated more readily under the conditions of more intense rain, drier initial soil, shallower soil, and steeper slope. Whereas preferential flow seemed common in this catchment, its frequency during the 15 storm events from 23 September 2006 to 1 January 2007 ranged from 0 to 73.3% for the 68 soil horizons monitored at the 12 stations, with an overall average frequency of 7.5% (i.e. ∼5 horizons per storm event). This preferential flow was more frequent during the drier period than that during the wetter one. Variation was observed within the same soil series, even for those profiles adjacent to one another. This was due to the differences in hillslope position, slope gradient and orientation, the underlying bedrock fracture and orientation, or some combinations. Whereas different soil series help differentiate the processes and dynamics involved in the subsurface preferential flow, a combined consideration of soil types and landscape features is important to ensure proper use of the soil data for hydrological applications.
In Vitro Effects of Bisphenol A β-D-Glucuronide (BPA-G) on Adipogenesis in Human and Murine Preadipocytes

Background Exposure to common environmental substances, such as bisphenol A (BPA), has been associated with a number of negative health outcomes. In vivo, BPA is rapidly converted to its predominant metabolite, BPA-glucuronide (BPA-G), which has long been believed to be biologically inactive because it lacks estrogenic activity. However, the effects of BPA-G on cellular metabolism have not been characterized. In the present study we examined the effect of BPA-G on adipogenesis. Methods The effect of BPA-G on the differentiation of human and 3T3L1 murine preadipocytes was evaluated in vitro by quantifying lipid accumulation and the expression of adipogenic markers. Results Treatment of 3T3L1 preadipocytes with 10 μM BPA-G induced a significant increase in lipid accumulation, mRNA expression of the adipogenic markers sterol regulatory element binding factor 1 (SREBF1) and lipoprotein lipase (LPL), and protein levels of LPL, aP2, and adipsin. Treatment of primary human preadipocytes with BPA-G also induced adipogenesis as determined by aP2 levels. Co-treatment of cells with the estrogen receptor (ER) antagonist fulvestrant (ICI) significantly inhibited the BPA-G–induced increase in LPL and aP2 levels, whereas treatment with ICI alone had no effect. Moreover, BPA-G did not display any significant estrogenic activity. Conclusions To our knowledge, this study is the first to report that BPA-G induces adipocyte differentiation and is not simply an inactive metabolite. The fact that BPA-G induced adipogenesis and was inhibited by an ER antagonist yet showed no estrogenic activity suggests that it has no classical ER transcriptional activation function and acts through a pathway that remains to be determined. Citation Boucher JG, Boudreau A, Ahmed S, Atlas E. 2015. In vitro effects of bisphenol A β-D-glucuronide (BPA-G) on adipogenesis in human and murine preadipocytes. Environ Health Perspect 123:1287–1293; http://dx.doi. org/10.1289/ehp.1409143
Sea level variations at Panama

Forty-eight-year records of sea level, and other variables, were analyzed for Balboa and Cristobal. It was found that from 1909 to 1962 the sea level has increased by 8.5±1.5 cm at Balboa and 7.1±2.0 cm at Cristobal. No significant trends were found in the climatological records. The increase in sea level at Panama, therefore, is probably due to subsidence of the land. The sea level oscillations at Balboa are similar to those occurring elsewhere along the northwest coast of South America. The rms amplitude of the annual sea level oscillation is 10.5 cm at Balboa and 3.8 cm at Cristobal. The corresponding values of the nonannual sea oscillations are 4.5 cm and 3.3 cm, respectively. The sea level difference, Balboa minus Cristobal, varies from about 8 cm in March to about 33 cm in June, In exceptional spring months the sea level may be higher by a few centimeters on the Caribbean side of the isthmus than on the Pacific side. A spectral analysis of the records in the frequency range between zero and 6 cycles per year showed significant peaks corresponding to the annual and semiannual cycles. An interesting peak suggesting a 4-year oscillation was found in the atmospheric pressure spectrums, but not elsewhere. At Balboa, there is a strong and direct relation between oscillations of sea level and sea surface temperature.
Adoption of the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program in the New York City watershed: The role of farmer attitudes

Despite widespread adoption of conservation practices by farmers in the Cannonsville watershed, part of the New York City water supply system, there is considerable resistance to riparian buffer practices of the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP). Traditional approaches to promoting CREP adoption, based on the adoption-diffusion model, were not effective in promoting CREP. We surveyed farmers in the Cannonsville watershed to evaluate factors affecting CREP adoption. Many variables commonly tied to practice adoption, including farm structure and farmer sociodemographic traits, were poorly correlated with the attitudes of Cannonsville farmers toward CREP. Attitudes toward land costs and farmer resentment toward New York City's control of land and conservation policy were, however, strong predictors of CREP adoption. This suggests that as regional watershed collaborations become more active in managing private landowner conservation behaviors, resentment factors may inhibit adoption of the encouraged practices. Findings provide insight into mechanisms to improve upstream-downstream partnerships and the potential to balance clean water resources with local agricultural production priorities.
A comprehensive approach to monitoring volcano deformation as a window on the eruption cycle

Since the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, volcanologists have made considerable progress toward predicting eruptions on the basis of precursors that typically start a few days to several months in advance. Although accurate eruption prediction is by no means routine, it may now be possible in some cases to extend the effective warning period by anticipating the onset of short‐term precursors. Three promising indicators of deep magmatic processes are (1) deep, long‐period earthquakes and tremor that indicate the ascent of magma through the crust, (2) magmatic CO2 emission rate as a proxy for magma supply rate, and (3) relatively broad, generally aseismic surface uplift caused by magmatic intrusions. In the latter case it is essential to sample the deformation field thoroughly in both time and space to adequately constrain source models. Until recently, this has been nearly impossible because high‐precision sensors could not be deployed in sufficient numbers, nor could extensive geodetic surveys be conducted often enough. Advances in instrumentation, interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR), and telecommunications are helping to overcome these limitations. As a result, comprehensive geodetic monitoring of selected volcanoes is now feasible. A combination of InSAR, large‐aperture GPS surveys, microgravity surveys, and dense arrays of continuous GPS stations, strain meters, and tiltmeters can reveal both spatial and temporal patterns of ground deformation throughout the eruption cycle. Improved geodetic monitoring of many of the world's volcanoes would be a major stride toward better understanding of magmatic processes and longer‐term eruption forecasts.
Political Culture

Political culture refers to the values and political conduct of individual or collective agents. As a concept it is as old as the analysis of politics itself. Aristotle wrote about a “state of mind” that could inspire either political change or stability; Machiavelli stressed the role of the values and feelings of identity and commitment; Burke praised the “cake of custom” that enabled political institutions to fulfill their aims; Tocqueville emphasized moeurs as the key determinants of the character of a particular society. But the contemporary understanding of political culture has been uniquely influenced by Gabriel Almond and Sidney Verba’s classic behaviorist formulation in The Civic Culture (1963), leading up to today’s multicausal, relational, and mixed methods approaches to the study of the concept (Thompson, Ellis, & Wildavsky, 1990). As a result of this methodological diversity, political culture has ceased to be narrowly identified with the attitudes toward government of political agents, to be measured in the aggregate and then compared across political systems, or even more broadly conceived as a process in which political meaning is constructed in the interplay between the attitudes of individual citizens and the language and symbolic systems in which they are embedded. Contemporary analysis of political culture is a broad church, taking in everything from data collection on political opinions, attitudes, and values conducted by means of structured interviews with representative samples of citizens (e.g., Inglehart, 1997), to interpretive approaches that use a range of qualitative methods to clarify how political identities are generated, or how symbols and rhetoric can generate compliance or conflict, to discussions of why some ethnic identities become radicalized and others do not. The field has become so broad, that it is hard to pinpoint what is political culture and what is not.
Stratigraphy of Stephens Subgroup (Maitai Group) in the Countess Range — Mararoa River area, northwestern Southland, New Zealand

Abstract Stephens Subgroup (upper Maitai Group) is well exposed (except for its top) for over 30 km in the Countess Range, Snowdon Peak and Bare Peak-Mararoa River areas. The sequence consists of 2750 m of sedimentary rocks which include volcaniclastic sandstone, conglomerate, and siltstones, conspicuous tuffs and occasional limestone lenses. The subgroup is subdivided into five formations; four of them are new. Kiwi Burn Tuffs (new) is characterised by tuff. Acheron Lakes Sandstone (new) is a thick sequence of volcaniclastic sandstones. Cerberus Formation (new) is dominated by red coloured siltstone and sandstone. Eldon Formation (new) is another sequence of volcaniclastic sandstones, and Snowdon Formation is of variable lithology including volcaniclastic sandstone, conglomerate, siltstone and tuff. Fossils are rare in the Stephens Subgroup. However, Permophorus obovatus is found in the Retford Conglomerate Member, which has now been traced to the Mararoa River. This, along with Mellarium and radiometric.
iFold: a platform for interactive folding simulations of proteins

UNLABELLED We built a novel web-based platform for performing discrete molecular dynamics simulations of proteins. In silico protein folding involves searching for minimal frustration in the vast conformational landscape. Conventional approaches for simulating protein folding insufficiently address the problem of simulations in relevant time and length scales necessary for a mechanistic understanding of underlying biomolecular phenomena. Discrete molecular dynamics (DMD) offers an opportunity to bridge the size and timescale gaps and uncover the structural and biological properties of experimentally undetectable protein dynamics. The iFold server supports large-scale simulations of protein folding, thermal denaturation, thermodynamic scan, simulated annealing and p(fold) analysis using DMD and coarse-grained protein model with structure-based Gō-interactions between amino acids. AVAILABILITY http://ifold.dokhlab. org
Regionalism versus multilateralism

This paper examines the theoretical arguments and historical evidence about whether regionalism undermines the multilateral trading system. It first considers how to define multilateralism and then surveys over 60 recent contributions to the literature. It classifies theoretical models by four criteria: their assumed objective functions (national welfare versus pressure group interests); symmetric versus asymmetric models; one-off versus repeated games; and how they determine post-integration policies. It finds significant theoretical arguments and historical evidence on both sides of the debate. Very tentative conclusions include that regionalism may: help to liberalize very restrictive trade regimes; increase the vulnerability of less restrictive ones to break down; and be more likely to be harmful if governments are subject to sector-specific lobbying forces.
Coseismic deformation of the May 21st, 2003, Mw = 6.8 Boumerdes earthquake, Algeria, from GPS measurements

On May 21st, 2003, a Mw = 6.8 earthquake struck the central part of northern Algeria causing extensive damage in the Boumerdes area, 40 km east of Algiers. It is among the largest events to occur in the western Mediterranean over the past 25 years. We present GPS measurements of horizontal coseismic displacements that provide new constraints on the rupture geometry. Modeling the data with a uniform dislocation on a rectangular fault in an elastic half‐space, we find that the rupture occurred on a reverse fault dipping 42°S, with its upper edge 6 km offshore and lower edge 4 km inland. The amplitude distribution of the coseismic displacements indicates that the rupture did not reach the surface, at least in its western part, and ended to the west around 3.4°E. Offshore faults like that of the Boumerdes earthquake could account for part of the Africa‐Eurasia relative plate motion in the western Mediterranean and represent a significant seismic threat for Algeria.
Inhibitory effects of C-type natriuretic peptide on the differentiation of cardiac fibroblasts, and secretion of monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1

The present study aimed to investigate the effect of C-type natriuretic peptide (CNP) on the function of cardiac fibroblasts (CFs). Western blotting was used to investigate the expression of myofibroblast marker proteins: α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), extra domain-A fibronectin, collagen I and collagen III, and the activity of extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2). Immunofluorescence was used to examine the morphological changes; a transwell assay was used to analyze migration, and reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction and ELISA were employed to determine the mRNA expression and protein secretion of monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1). The results demonstrated that CNP significantly reduced the protein expression of α-SMA, fibronectin, collagen I and collagen III, and suppressed the migratory ability of CFs. Additionally, the mRNA and protein expression of MCP-1 and PAI-1 was inhibited under the CNP treatment; and this effect was mediated by the inhibition of the ERK1/2 activity. In conclusion, CNP inhibited cardiac fibroblast differentiation and migration, and reduced the secretion of MCP-1 and PAI-1, which demonstrates novel mechanisms to explain the antifibrotic effect of CNP.
Buffers, energy storage, and the mode and tempo of geologic events

Processes in the crust are driven by continuous supplies of energy from within the earth and from the sun. Natural reservoirs buffer and store that energy, and it is released periodically as geologic work. The tempo of geologic events is a function of the rate of energy input and the capacity and competence of the energy storage buffer. Buffers release energy at rates that range from catastrophic to gradual. External events can act as triggers, one event entraining another in its rhythm, but most geologic episodes are probably inherent in the processes that produce them. The concept of energy storage has general applicability to both the inorganic and organic world.