Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pre-operative rehabilitation for dysvascular lower-limb amputee patients: A focus group study involving medical professionals

Background Major lower-limb amputation (LLA) predisposes patients post-operatively to a significant decline in daily-life functioning. The physical condition of amputee patients prior to surgery is significantly deteriorated due to chronic peripheral vascular disease (PVD) and diabetes, which accounts for the majority of LLAs in the adult population. A common strategy called pre-rehabilitation has been used in multiple patient populations to prepare the patient for undergoing a surgical event and to improve post-operative patient outcomes. Pre-rehabilitation might enhance the outcome of dysvascular LLA patients and reduce the high post-operative mortality rates. However, experience of experts with pre-rehabilitation and feasibility of a pre-rehabilitation program in this group remains unknown. Objective To investigate the experiences of medical professionals and researchers in the field of LLA with the use of pre-rehabilitation in general and in particular PVD patients. Additionally, the study examines their opinions regarding need for and feasibility of a pre-rehabilitation program for dysvascular patients at risk for an LLA. Methods Two explorative focus group discussions were organized with in total 16 experts in the field of treatment and research of LLA. Transcribed data were coded using the Atlas.ti software package. Thematic analysis with inductive approach was opted to arrange and interpret codes. Results The experiences of the experts with pre-rehabilitation in dysvascular patients were scarce. The experts described dysvascular patients at risk for an LLA as a difficult group for pre-rehabilitation due to short time window prior to surgery, older age, multiple co-morbidities and lack of motivation for behavioral change. The experts concluded that a pre-rehabilitation program should focus on patients who have sufficient time in advance before the amputation for pre-rehabilitation and who are motivated to participate. Conclusion Although in general the effects of pre-rehabilitation are promising, pre-operative rehabilitation in dysvascular patients at risk for an LLA seems not feasible. Future research could focus on a better monitoring of dysvascular patients and the development of pre-rehabilitation in subgroups of younger dysvascular LLA patients.
Early Holocene Appearance of Mountain Birch (Betula pubescens ssp. tortuosa) at Unprecedented High Elevations in the Swedish Scandes: Megafossil Evidence Exposed by Recent Snow and Ice Recession

Abstract Megafossil wood remnants (trunks and roots) of mountain birch (Betula pubescens ssp. tortuosa) were retrieved from the alpine tundra of the southern Swedish Scandes (the Sylarna Mountains). The samples have recently become exposed by rapid recession of glaciers and snow patches at three sites located 630 to 350 m higher than the present-day birch tree-limit and 350 to 80 m higher than the early Holocene pine limit. Radiocarbon dating yielded ages ranging between 8700 and 6200 B.P. (9700–7000 cal B.P.). This is the first direct evidence of past tree growth at such high elevations in the Scandes, relative to the modern tree-limit. The overall situation with uniquely high tree-limits and absence of glaciers suggests a climate with generally drier and warmer summers than during any later part (secular-millennial scale) of the Holocene. Corrected for glacioisostatic land-uplift, summers around 8700 B.P. may have been about 3°C warmer than at present. This inference is compatible with the Milankovitch model of orbital climate forcing during the course of the Holocene, implying a gradually increasing maritime climate (less seasonal), with a heavier snowpack. As a consequence, alpine snowfields started to develop over the period 8700–6200 B.P., causing demise and burial of the highest metapopulations of mountain birch. At lower elevations, where snow accumulation had previously been suboptimal for birch, this species could now benefit from a deeper and more persistent snow cover. Since about 7000 B.P., a distinct mountain birch belt has been a characteristic feature in this part of the Scandes. The exposure of mountain birch megafossils relates to substantial 20th-century warming, reaching a peak in the past few years. Evidently, this is an exceptional occurrence in the context of several past millennia.
Subsolidus and Partial Melting Reactions in the Quartz-excess CaO+MgO+Al2O3+SiO2+H2O System under Water-excess and Water-deficient Conditions to 10 kb: Some Implications for the Origin of Peraluminous Melts from Mafic Rocks

Experimental results up to 10 kb pressure are presented on the stability of amphibole in the quartz-excess CaO + MgO + Al2O3 + SiO2 + H2O (CMASH) system under H2O-excess and H2Odeficient conditions. Amphibole is stable above the solidus under H2O-excess conditions whereas under H2O-deficient conditions dehydration melting of amphibole-bearing assemblages defines the solidus. The successive appearance of amphibole, talc, and zoisite with increasing pressure considerably modifies the plagioclase-pyroxene-garnet-kyanite reactions documented experimentally in the CaO + MgO + Al2O3 + SiO2 system for gabbro-granulite-eclogite transitions. Although both clinopyroxene and cordierite (with anorthite + orthopyroxene + quartz) may melt eutectically at one atmosphere to form diopside-normative and corundum-normative melts respectively, at higher pressures under H2O-excess conditions the peritectic melting of mafic rock compositions produces corundum-normative liquids together with either clinopyroxene or amphibole. Dehydration melting produces melts which are not corundum-normative. These data are used to discuss the origins and evolution of contrasting basalt-andesite-dacite-rhyolite volcanic suites and granitic plutons, many of whose silicic variants are corundum-normative in character, such as the Toba Tuff ignimbrites, Indonesia (Beddoe-Stephens et ai, 1983) and I-type granite minimum melts (White & Chappell, 1977). In contrast, it is proposed that for the Cascades basalt-andesite-dacite-rhyolite suite the orthopyroxene-plagioclase-quartz thermal divide was maintained up to rhyolite compositions, thereby prohibiting the derivation of corundum-normative rocks from diopside-normative parent magmas. The deduced reaction relations between pyroxenes, amphibole, plagioclase, quartz, and liquid are used to explain the absence or extreme scarcity of hydrous phases in some hydrous magmas. These phase relations can also explain the development of later plagioclase overgrowths on resorbed plagioclase cores in granitic intrusives, and the general absence of resorption and overgrowths in chemically equivalent extrusive rocks. A theoretical analysis of the partial melting of forsterite-bearing assemblages in the CaO + MgO + Al2O3 + SiO2-l-H2O system shows that under H2O-excess conditions partial melting may generate corundum-normative (but low SiO2) melts from a peridotite source at shallow depths.
Numerical Modeling of Orographically Forced Postfrontal Rain

Abstract A nonhydrostatic mesoscale model is used to simulate the dynamics and microphysics of postfrontal flow in the mountainous region of southeastern Australia. The aim of the paper is to determine if it is possible to use 2D models to simulate the characteristics of the liquid water field upstream from Baw Baw Plateau under postfrontal conditions. Results from both 2D and 3D simulations are compared with aircraft and surface observations taken during the Australian Winter Storms Experiment I, conducted during July and August 1988. The observations and both the 2D and 3D simulations show that under postfrontal conditions, the main feature of the flow is a series of standing lee waves downstream from Baw Baw Plateau. The microphysical fields are characterized by a cap cloud over Baw Baw Plateau and a region of high liquid water content extending at least 50 km upstream from the plateau. Convective elements form upstream from the plateau and are subsequently advected to the northeast. As the convective .
Effect of impurity on the elasticity of perovskite and postperovskite: Velocity contrast across the postperovskite transition in (Mg,Fe,Al)(Si,Al)O3

We calculated the acoustic velocity contrasts between perovskite and postperovskite in MgSiO3, FeSiO3 and Al2O3 compounds, using the planewave pseudopotential method for a pressure range of the Earth's lower mantle. Both FeSiO3 and Al2O3 pv and ppv have about 20% smaller shear moduli than Mg‐phases at deep mantle pressures, though the bulk moduli are comparable, consistent with previous studies. For the relative variations of shear to compressional velocities, bulk to shear velocities and density to shear velocity at constant pressure due to variations in Fe and Al content up to 20 mol%, we find RS/P of 1.5∼2.2, RΦ/S of 0.1∼0.4 and Rρ/S of −1.0∼−0.2. Both Fe and Al influence elasticity of ppv more than that of pv. Therefore velocity contrasts across the postperovskite phase change would decrease with increasing Fe and Al content. We find that positive velocity variations are hardly produced in pv with the MORB composition.
Es el cristianismo responsable de la crisis ambiental del planeta

As a result of a paper published in the sixties, Christianity has been frequently accused of being behind earth’s environmental degradation, on the grounds that it has given humans the religious support to adopt a dominant role over the rest of Creation. This paper explores some of the answers to those criticisms, both from a historical and theological point of view. In the second part, the paper explores to what extent the environmental degradation supposedly caused by Christianity has affected those countries with mostly Christian populations, comparing them with those with other religious traditions. Several indicators of environmental health and ecosystem conservation are used for the comparisons. A high correlation between per capita income and environmental performance for the Christian and Buddhist countries was observed, while poor trends were observed for Hindu and Islamic countries. Comparing representative countries of both large and medium population size, the Christian countries outperform others in most indicators. Even though it cannot be concluded that Christianity, in fact, encourages environmental conservation, the results from our analysis at least provide grounds to reject the opposite hypothesis, as Christian countries do not have significantly lower environmental indicators than those representing other major religions.
The structure of the COPI coat determined within the cell

COPI-coated vesicles mediate trafficking within the Golgi apparatus and from the Golgi to the endoplasmic reticulum. The structures of membrane protein coats, including COPI, have been extensively studied with in vitro reconstitution systems using purified components. Previously we have determined a complete structural model of the in vitro reconstituted COPI coat (Dodonova et al., 2017). Here, we applied cryo-focused ion beam milling, cryo-electron tomography and subtomogram averaging to determine the native structure of the COPI coat within vitrified Chlamydomonas reinhardtii cells. The native algal structure resembles the in vitro mammalian structure, but additionally reveals cargo bound beneath β’–COP. We find that all coat components disassemble simultaneously and relatively rapidly after budding. Structural analysis in situ, maintaining Golgi topology, shows that vesicles change their size, membrane thickness, and cargo content as they progress from cis to trans, but the structure of the coat machinery remains constant.
Method of interpretation of magnetotelluric data when source field is considered

The curve-matching method can be used to interpret magnetotelluric data when the wavelength of the source is known. A similar method of interpretation is also suggested for cases where the wavelength of the source is not known. The application of these methods to the determination of the resistivity distribution in shallow as well as in deep regions within the earth is illustrated by means of a few theoretical models. These models show that the source effect is more pronounced in phase angles than in apparent resistivity values. Hence more attention should be given to phase values when determining the resistivity distribution in deep regions within the earth. The models also show that the wavelength of the source can be assumed to be infinite for moderate resistivity distributions at shallow depths.
The behavioural ecology of climbing plants

Climbing plants require an external support to grow vertically and thus achieve better access to sunlight. Climbing plants that find a suitable support have greater performance, size and reproduction than those that remain prostrate. Plant behaviour involves rapid morphological or physiological responses to events or environmental changes. Theoretical frameworks from behavioural ecology, traditionally applied to animals, have been successfully used to study plant behaviour. I herein review studies addressing ecological causes and consequences of support finding and use by climbing plants. I also propose the use of behavioural ecology theoretical frameworks to study climbing plant behaviour.
Wavelet Coherence Analysis of Broadband Array Data Recorded at Stromboli Volcano, Italy

We present a wavelet coherence method that is capable of displaying local coherence information between two seismic stations in the sense of a spectrogram. We have analyzed the vertical components of a 20-min-long time series from four stations that were situated in the seismic near field of Stromboli volcano. Typical volcanic seismic signals recorded in the near field of Stromboli volcano consist of continuous volcanic tremor superimposed on frequent Strombolian explosion signals. The tremor exhibits a banded and frequency-stable structure, whereas the broadband explosion signals span two or three frequency decades. We demonstrate that signals related to explosion earthquakes are strongly correlated within the network over 1.5 frequency decades. Using synthetic data, we show how coherent signal portions can be extracted out of noisy data using a coherence-filtering method. A time delay analysis using coherence information results in a coarse source location estimation that lies within the crater region. With the exception of randomly fluctuating coherence peaks, low correlations have been observed in the characteristic bands that are assumed to be generated by continuous tremor. In the low-frequency band that is related to the ocean microseisms (period ≈ 4–8 sec), we observe mostly high correlation that breaks down during the appearance of explosion earthquake signals. Based on further analysis using the inverse wavelet transformation, we propose a model that describes the breakdown phenomenon as a superposition of two independent events.
Soil moisture proxies from MODIS-derived apparent thermal inertia time series

Topsoil water content – an important parameter for several hydrological and biological processes - can be linked to the amplitude of the diurnal temperature variation of land surfaces through the concept of thermal inertia, i.e. the resistance of the material to external temperature driving forces. Approximations of thermal inertia, called apparent thermal inertia (ATI), can be derived from consecutive night- and daytime land surface temperature (LST) measurements by spaceborne thermal infrared radiometers such as the MODIS instrument onboard the Terra and Aqua satellites. Unfortunately, the establishment of meaningful MODIS-derived ATI time series is hampered by the difference in time of observation between two consecutive days. As a result of the wide swath width of the MODIS instrument this difference can be as large as almost one hour and additional heating or cooling of the surface during this period adds noise to the ATI. We propose a method that replaces the day-night temperature difference in the formulation of ATI by the amplitude of a simpliﬁed surface temperature curve, empirically ﬁtted to the four daily MODIS LST observations. Temporal ﬂuctuations in apparent thermal inertia can then be related to changes in moisture content, thus allowing the creation of a computationally simple soil moisture proxy without the need for ground reference datasets. It is investigated whether MODIS-derived apparent thermal inertia can be used as a soil moisture proxy at different scales at two sites: the ﬁrst is the region of Calabria in southern Italy, the second site is located in southern Africa covering parts of South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. The relation between apparent thermal inertia and surface soil moisture is validated in both space and time, using ground-based volumetric soil moisture measurements and meteorological data for Calabria and the coarse resolution AMSR-E soil moisture product for southern Africa.
Climate variability in the Botswana Kalahari from the late Pleistocene to the present day

Noble gas concentrations and oxygen isotopes in groundwaters from the Kalahari Desert in Botswana contain a ∼45 ka paleotemperature record indicating that mean annual temperatures during the period from 24 ka BP to 45 ka BP were 5.2 ± 1.5°C cooler than from ∼16 ka to the present day. In addition to enrichments in oxygen‐18, groundwaters recharged after 16 ka BP also contain higher concentrations of excess‐air (entrained air bubbles). Taken together, the noble gas, oxygen isotope, and excess‐air based paleoclimate archives provide evidence that the high interior desert of southern Africa was both cooler and dryer prior to the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Cool, dry conditions also suggest a weaker hydrological cycle in southern Africa. This is contrary to the predicted enhancement of monsoon strength by increased summer insolation in the southern tropics induced by orbital precession during the LGM.
Multivariate and spatial extremes forthe analysis of air quality data

In recent years statistical analyses for monitoring the environment are increasingly in demand in di erent areas such as epidemiology, engineering, economy, etc. An example is the statistical monitoring of air quality, which makes it possible to statistically quantify the amount of certain pollutants in the lower troposphere. For a better understanding of the stochastic behavior of pollutants we focus on describing their extreme responses, because excessively extreme levels in the air may have implications in the environment and on human health. We then consider multivariate extreme value models and the class of maxstable processes in order to asses the frequencies of several extreme pollutant levels in central Europe and their spatial dependence structure.
Evaluation of atmospheric boundary layer–surface process relationships in a regional climate model along an East Antarctic traverse

Some primary physical relationships related to the surface climate and atmospheric boundary layer were examined over East Antarctica and evaluated in the regional climate model HIRHAM for 2005–2008. For stable conditions, the observation-derived relationship between wind-scaled sensible heat flux and air-surface temperature difference distinctively differs between different surface flux parameterizations. Some of them decrease the heat transfer coefficient CH for strongly stable conditions, while others, such as the Louis scheme, do not. However, HIRHAM’s application of the Louis parameterization produces small CH for strongly stable conditions similar to observations and other schemes, likely because a surface roughness much larger than observed is used and the bulk Richardson number differs. For Zhongshan, the observed radiation-cloud, temperature-cloud, and temperature-wind relationships are reproduced in the model, though quantitative differences are evident. An observed longwave warming effect of clouds is larger in the model, while the reduction of downwelling shortwave radiation by clouds is twice as large in the model. The model partially reproduces an observed weak wind regime associated with atmospheric decoupling, but fails to reproduce increasing temperatures with increasing winds. The quantitative differences in the radiation-cloud relationship suggest that errors in cloud characteristics produce a significant deficiency in downwelling net radiation for clear and cloudy conditions. This deficiency is the likely cause of HIRHAM’s strong cold bias in the surface temperature and positive bias in near-surface stability. The sensible heat flux analyses and a sensitivity test suggest that errors in the sensible heat flux relationship are not the primary cause.
The bulk-Moon MgO/FeO ratio: A highlands perspective

Compositional data for nonmare (highlands) samples suggest that the Moon's mg ratio (MgO/FeO) is higher than general estimates. Geochemically representative highlands soils have mg ratios of 0.66 (Apollo 16), 0.69 (Luna 20) and 0.73 (ALHA81005). These soils are mixtures of unrelated pristine nonmare rocks, of which there are at least three groups: Mg-rich rocks, ferroan anorthosites, and KREEP. Other than Mg-rich rocks, virtually all pristine rocks have mg 0.65. Thus, assuming the mixing process that sampled Mg-rich materials was random, the average mg of Mg-rich parent magmas was probably at least 0.70. More direct evidence can be derived from the Mg-rich rocks themselves. Nine of them have bulk-rock mg 0.87. Two (15445 A and 67435 PST) contain Fo(92) olivine. Production of melts that crystallized Fo(92) olivine implies that the mg ratios of source regions in lunar mantle were commensurably high. A quantification of this constraint is developed assuming that the parent melts formed by equilibrium (batch) partial melting. Implications of the model are discussed.
Probing the interior structure of Mercury from an orbiter plus single lander

The possibility of measuring the inclination of Mercury's spin axis and the amplitude of its 88-day forced libration in longitude by a lander-orbiter measurement system is investigated. The experiment would involve ranging to a small lander placed at a high latitude on Mercury from a satellite in a near-circular polar orbit, which is accurately tracked from the Earth. These measurements can be used to determine the polar moment of inertia of the anticipated fluid outer core plus solid inner core, and thus to obtain information on the outer radius of the fluid core. Covariance analyses are carried out to assess the performance of a simulated data set consisting of 40 separate arcs with orbiter to lander ranging of about 1-m accuracy and high-accuracy Earth to orbiter ranging and Doppler tracking data. The effects of the uncertainties in a number of unestimated parameters are also considered. The force model includes the gravity field up to degree and order 14, solar tidal distortion of Mercury, and a fairly complex formulation for solar and Mercury radiation pressure on the spacecraft body and on the antenna. The total uncertainties for the estimated libration amplitude and the spin axis inclination are shown to be 0.26 and 0.03 arc seconds, respectively, for the model employed. The resulting uncertainty for the fractional moment of inertia of the core is 0.0045. Moreover, the Love number k2 can be determined with an accuracy of 0.01. Thus information on the elastic properties of Mercury's mantle also can be obtained.