Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pervasive pressure‐solution transfer: A poro‐visco‐plastic model

Stressed quartz sand saturated by water can deform by matter transport through the water phase (pressure solution). This process is modeled by a poro‐visco‐plastic (Voigt‐type) rheology. A characteristic time constant characterizes the transition between Newtonian viscous densification and poro‐plastic deformations. For short‐time scales, the viscous densification is either controlled by interface kinetic or by the diffusivity of the solute Si(OH)4 at the grain contacts. For long‐time scales, the poro‐plastic rheology corresponds to a thermodynamic equilibrium at the grain contacts.
Modeling enhanced geothermal systems and the essential nature of large‐scale changes in permeability at the onset of slip

The permeability structure resulting from high fluid pressure stimulation of a geothermal resource is the most important parameter controlling the feasibility and the viability of enhanced geothermal systems (EGS), yet is the most elusive to constrain. Linear diffusion models do a reasonably good job of constraining the front of the stimulated region because of the t 1/2 dependence of the perturbation length, but triggering pressures resulting from such models, and the permeability inferred using the diffusivity parameter, drastically underestimate both permeability and pressure changes. This leads to incorrect interpretations about the nature of the system, including the degree of fluid pressures needed to induce seismicity required to enhance the system. Here, I use a minimalist approach to modeling and show that all of the observations from Basel (Switzerland) fluid injection experiment are well matched by a simple model where the dominant control on the system is a large-scale change in permeability at the onset of slip. The excellent agreement between observations and these simplest of models indicates that these systems may be less complicated than envisaged, thus offering strategies for more sophisticated future modeling to help constrain and exploit these systems.
Mathematical model to explain a regime shift in Lake Takkobu

Mathematical model analysis was used to explain a regime shift of Takkobu Lake in Hokkaido Japan. In this lake, a catastrophic change occurred several years ago from a clear to a turbid water state. Our mathematical model consists of three elements: cyanobacteria, DIN, and submerged plants. In this model, seasonal changes in parameters and states are also considered. This model exhibits a catastrophic change in cyanobacteria density when the level of DIN loading into the lake changes. That change occurs in both cases, with and without submerged plants. We assumed that if an algal bloom occurs then submerged plants go extinct because of light intensity insufficient for growth due to turbid water. Our model also shows ‘Hysteresis’ in the density of cyanobacteria from the change in the DIN loading level into the lake, since submerged plants inhibit the growth of cyanobacteria through nutrient competition, allelopathy, reduced resuspension, etc.
Deformation around basin-margin faults in the North Sea/mid-Norway rift

Abstract It has been demonstrated previously that the rigid-domino model of extensional faulting can account well for the uplift/subsidence patterns observed within particular areas of the North Sea rift. This model, however, provides an unsatisfactory solution to deformation occurring at the basin margins. It is suggested here that the domino model is an elegant, geometric simplification of the more complete flexural-isostatic solution to fault displacements. Application of a flexural model allows a unified treatment of the basin and its margins. The basin-margins to the North Sea/Mid-Norway rift are all shown to have responded to extensional faulting by experiencing isostatic uplift in the footwalls to the marginal faults. Uplift magnitude varies from a few hundred metres adjacent to small faults to perhaps 5 km adjacent to the largest faults. Uplift patterns can be modelled or predicted by use of the flexural-cantilever basin model. Recognition of marginal uplift throughout the rift means that geometric section balancing techniques, all of which require the footwall to be rigid during extension, are inapplicable as a method for analysis of large, basement faults within the North Sea. Marginal, fault-related uplift is considered to have been a primary source of syn-rift clastic detritus. The precise locus of deposition for material eroded from emergent basin margins will depend on local drainage patterns, but deposition in the hangingwall basin and on the footwall platform may both be anticipated.
Changing Patterns of Local Administration in Sri Lanka: Loose-Coupling between Planning and Implementation

ABSTRACT Although devolution of power to the sub-national levels has been pursued in Sri Lanka with increasing vigor for more than three decades, the results of this exercise are far from impressive. None of the changes introduced to the local administrative system so far has paid adequate attention to the issue of local autonomy in planning; they were only concerned about implementing the plans drawn by the central government. This loose-coupling between planning and implementation has been, according the author, a major obstacle for local development. The paper in addressing this issue, analyzes the impact of four major administrative changes on local development in Sri Lanka.
Surface runoff and erosion after prescribed burning and the effect of different fire regimes in forests and shrublands: a review

This paper examines the state of knowledge about the effects of prescribed burning on surface runoff and erosion at point to catchment scales in forests and shrublands. Fires can increase surface runoff and erosion by removing vegetation, changing soil hydrologic properties and providing a readily erodible layer of sediment and ash. Catchment-scale studies in prescribed-burnt areas usually report minimal impacts from the burn. However, measurements at smaller spatial scales suggest that large changes to hydrologic properties and processes do occur, and a debris-flow example from Australia demonstrates that large catchment-scale impacts are possible. It appears that existing catchment-scale studies in prescribed burns do not capture these large events as the sample size (i.e. number of studies) is too small relative to the infrequency of such events. Furthermore, numerous knowledge gaps across all spatial scales limit understanding of the processes contributing to post-prescribed burn runoff and erosion. Understanding the influence of fire regime characteristics on post-fire runoff and erosion is particularly important in the context of prescribed burning, as fire regimes can be manipulated to reduce erosion and water-quality impacts. Therefore, two directions for future research are recommended: (1) process-based studies to understand the factors controlling surface runoff and erosion, particularly in relation to aspects of the fire regime; and (2) landscape-scale surveys to quantify large erosion events.
Dynamics of flood frequency

The probability mass function of peak streamflow from a given catchment is derived from the density functions for climatic and catchment variables by using the functional relationships provided by the kinematic wave method of hydrograph forecasting. The exceedance probability for a flood peak of given magnitude is then related to the annual exceedance recurrence interval of this flood. The resulting theoretical flood frequency relation shows a changing form with change in catchment and climate parameters and agrees well with observations from three Connecticut catchments. It provides a theoretical basis for estimating flood frequency in the absence of streamflow records and for extrapolating empirical estimates based on short records. Because of the explicit appearance of physically meaningful catchment parameters it also allows quantitative estimates of the effect on flood frequency of changes in average land use. The flood frequency relation for a given catchment is averaged across the population of catchments of given size to provide a theoretical regional flood frequency function that compares favorably with observations of mean annual floods on 44 Connecticut catchments.
A test of the Canadian land surface scheme (class) for a variety of wetland types

Abstract The validation of the Canadian Land Surface Scheme (CLASS) for several wetland types: fen, marsh and bog was undertaken. Incorporating organic soil parameters resulted in a significant improvement in turbulent flux estimates for the vascular dominated fen and marsh wetlands, yet non‐vascular bog‐type wetlands are relatively poorly modelled. Bog surfaces were treated as bare soil surfaces in this testing procedure since the non‐vascular nature is not readily incorporated within the current CLASS model vegetation categories. CLASS does not contain a method for moisture transfer from vegetation other than transpiration by the vascular pathway of root, stem and leaf while evaporation of water from moss and lichen dominated surfaces found in bogs is presently not included. With improved parametrization of the water table already introduced, and an additional non‐vascular vegetation category, it should be possible to model accurately the range of wetland types with CLASS.
Comparison of palaeoclimate simulations enhances confidence in models

The Paleoclimate Modelling Intercomparison Project (PMIP) [Joussaume and Taylor, 2000] is an international project involving members of all major climate modeling groups worldwide. Endorsed by the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) and the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), PMIP was launched in 1994 to provide a framework for evaluating climate models. By examining climate change that occurred when the external forcings were large and relatively well known and for which geological evidence exists, PMIP plans to determine the models' ability to reproduce climate states that are radically different from those of today
Elasticity of single crystal and polycrystalline MgSiO3 perovskite by Brillouin spectroscopy

The elastic moduli of MgSiO3 perovskite have been measured on both single‐crystal and polycrystalline samples by Brillouin spectroscopy at ambient conditions. The aggregate elastic moduli calculated from measured single‐crystal elastic moduli and from the average polycrystalline velocities are in excellent agreement. This convincingly demonstrates that accurate values of elastic moduli can be obtained for polycrystalline samples of dense anisotropic materials by Brillouin spectroscopy. Our new values of the bulk modulus (KS = 253(3) GPa) and shear modulus (μ = 175(2) GPa) are ∼4% and ∼1% lower than commonly accepted values for end‐member MgSiO3 perovskite (KS = 264 GPa, μ = 177 GPa). These lower elastic moduli suggest that the pressure, temperature, and compositional dependence of elastic moduli and wave velocities for magnesian silicate perovskite must be reevaluated in order to obtain reliable constraints on the mantle chemistry and thermal structure.
Cooperation on Congo Volcanic and Environmental Risks

On 17 January 2002, the Nyiragongo volcano (1.52°S, 29.25°E, 3469 meters above sea level), located about 18 kilometers north of Lake Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo, erupted, releasing a volume of 14–34 million cubic meters of lava. Lava flows originated from north-south oriented fractures that rapidly developed along the southern flank of the volcano. Two lava flows divided the nearby city of Goma (∼500,000 people) into two parts, forcing a rapid exodus of the population into Rwanda. One of these lava flows ran into Lake Kivu, encroaching 60 meters below lake level with a submerged lava volume of 1 million cubic meters. About 15% of the town was directly affected, leaving approximately 120,000 people homeless. At least 170 people died as a direct consequence of the eruption.
ESTIMATING THE BENEFITS OF PHOSPHORUS POLLUTION REDUCTIONS: AN APPLICATION IN THE MINNESOTA RIVER 1

ABSTRACT: In order to make economically efficient decisions about water quality improvements, data on both the costs and benefits of these improvements is needed. However, there has been little research on the benefits of reducing phosphorus pollution which implies that policy decisions are not able to make the comparison of costs and benefits that is essential for economic efficiency. This research attempts to ameliorate this situation by providing an estimate of the benefits of a 40 percent reduction in phosphorus pollution in the Minnesota River. A 1997 mail survey gathered information on Minnesota residents'use of a recreational site on the Minnesota River, the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge, and their willingness to pay for phosphorus reductions in the Minnesota River. The random effects probit model used in this research to investigate household willingness to pay for phosphorus pollution reductions in the Minnesota River incorporates recent innovations in nonmarket valuation methodology by using both revealed and stated preference data. This model estimated annual household willingness to pay for phosphorus reductions in the Minnesota River at $140. These results may be used in combination with cost estimates to determine the economic efficiency of phosphorus clean up.
Eye-position tracking stereoscopic display using image-shifting optics

We have developed an eye-position tracking stereoscopic projector which employs image shifting optics. The display allows 3D images to be viewed without special glasses from any position along a lateral axis. Its image shifting device contains a plane parallel glass plate and is installed in a liquid crystal projector. Refraction produced by inclination of the glass plate shifts the optical axis of the projected image. Since the only moving part in the optics is the lightweight glass plate, the response of the image shifting device is both fast and precise enough for interactive 3D-CAD and virtual reality applications. To improve the system's interactive response, we have widened the stereoscopic viewing area by adding a device which causes the image to vibrate laterally. Also we use a new tracking algorithm which reduces the tracking error that would ordinarily be created by delay time. Experimental results confirm the success of these improvements.
An inter-comparison of approaches and frameworks to quantify irrigation from satellite data

Abstract. This study provides the first inter-comparison of different state-of-the-art approaches and frameworks that share a commonality in their utilization of satellite remote-sensing data to quantify irrigation at a regional scale. The compared approaches vary in their reliance on either soil moisture or evapotranspiration data or their joint utilization of both. The two compared frameworks either extract irrigation information from residuals between satellite observations and rainfed hydrological models in a baseline framework or use soil water balance modeling in a soil-moisture-based inversion framework. The inter-comparison is conducted over the lower Ebro catchment in Spain where observed irrigation amounts are available for benchmarking. Our results showed that within the baseline framework, the joint approach using both soil moisture and evapotranspiration (ET) remote-sensing data only differed by +37 mm from the irrigation benchmark (922 mm) during the main irrigation season over 2 years and by +47 and −208 mm for approaches relying solely on soil moisture and ET, respectively. A comparison of the different frameworks showed that the main advantage of the more complex baseline framework was the consistency between soil moisture and ET components within the hydrological model, which made it unlikely that either one ended up representing all irrigation water use. However, the simplicity of the soil-moisture-based inversion framework, coupled with its direct conversion of soil moisture changes into actual water volumes, effectively addresses the key challenges inherent in the baseline framework, which are associated with uncertainties related to an unknown remote-sensing observation depth and the static depth of the soil layers in a conceptual model. The performance of the baseline framework came closest to the irrigation benchmark and was able to account for the precipitation input, which resulted in more plausible temporal distributions of irrigation than what was expected from the benchmark observations.
Airborne studies of equatorial F layer ionospheric irregularities

Radio wave and optical experiments were conducted onboard a U.S. Air Force research aircraft in March 1977 and March 1978 at low magnetic latitudes to investigate the effects of F region electron density irregularities on transionospheric communications links. Imaging photometer, ionosonde, and satellite amplitude scintillation measurements were used to monitor the development and motion of F region 6300-A O I airglow depletions, spread F, and scintillation producing irregularities that are all associated with low-density bubbles in the postsunset equatorial ionosphere. The 6300-A airglow depletions are the bottomside signature of low plasma density within the bubbles. Examples of multiple airglow depletions and their relation to variations in the F layer virtual height (h′F) and to the occurrence of amplitude scintillations on 250-MHz satellite signals are described. Estimates of the average bottomside electron density, from simultaneous ionosonde measurements and 6300-A airglow intensities, show electron density decreases of ∼66% within the bubbles. These decreases are approximately the same for bubbles observed at the magnetic equator and near Ascension Island (18°S magnetic latitude). The measurements at Ascension Island show that airglow depletions extend away from the magnetic equator into the southern 6300-A intertropical arc. Variations in the maximum poleward extent of airglow depletions and of associated ionospheric irregularities that give rise to amplitude scintillations were observed. These latitudinal variations are interpreted, using field line mapping considerations, as variations in the maximum altitude of plasma bubbles over the magnetic equator. A north-south flight confirms that the overall pattern of airglow depletions and associated ionospheric irregularities extends continuously across the magnetic equator to ±15° magnetic latitude.
Familial hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Nonsense versus missense mutations.

During the last 5 years familial hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (FHC) has become the paradigm of inherited cardiac disorders analyzed at the molecular and genetic levels. The history of this pathology is rather unusual. Observations of myocardial diseases that can reasonably be interpreted as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy were made in the middle of the last century at the Hospital de la Salpetriere in Paris by A. Vulpian, who called what he saw at the macroscopic level “retrecissement de l’orifice ventriculo-aortique. ”1 One of his pupils, H. Liouville, even predicted 1 year later that this pathology would have a great clinical impact once physicians began to pay sufficient attention to it.2 This took 1 century: it was only in the late 1950s that the unique clinical features of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy were systematically described.3 The first large pedigree was reported in 1960,4 the first disease locus in 1989,5 and the first disease gene in 1990.6 Since then, an unexpected genetic heterogeneity has been found. Four disease loci exist: CMH1 on chromosome 14q11-12,5 CMH2 on chromosome 1q3,7 CMH3 on chromosome 15q2,8 and CMH4 on chromosome 11p13-q13.9 Moreover, we have evidence that a fifth locus exists.10 Three genes have been identified within these loci, and it was a surprise to find that they encode cardiac sarcomeric proteins, β–myosin heavy chain,6 cardiac troponin T, and α-tropomyosin.11 Indeed, none of the previous hypotheses of the pathophysiological mechanisms of the disease would have predicted that among the possible molecular bases there could be a defect in a contractile protein; nevertheless, certain forms of the disease involve mutations in sarcomeric protein genes. There is also a striking allelic heterogeneity, as 29 mutations that alter the normal amino acid (missense mutations) were found in the β–myosin heavy chain gene, 2 …
Anaerobic mineralization of marine sediment organic matter: Rates and the role of anaerobic processes in the oceanic carbon economy

Abstract This paper addresses three related questions: (1) What factors control the efficiency of carbon burial in sediments? (2) Are rates of anaerobic organic matter degradation intrinsically lower than aerobic rates? (3) How important are anaerobic processes in the global marine sediment carbon economy? Carbon burial efficiency (the ratio of the carbon burial rate and the carbon flux to the sediment surface) was estimated from literature data for a range of environments and was shown to be a function of sedimentation rate. No difference independent of sedimentation rate was found between aerobic and anaerobic sediments. A review of recent microcosm and laboratory studies shows that anaerobic rates are not intrinsically lower than aerobic rates; fresh organic matter degrades at similar rates under oxic and anoxic conditions. Aerobic decomposition rates near the sediment surface are typically greater than anaerobic rates at depth because the most labile carbon is consumed before it can be buried in the a.
Transpressional collision tectonics and mantle plume dynamics: the Variscides of southwestern Iberia

Abstract In southwestern Iberia, three continental domains (the South Portuguese Zone (SPZ), Ossa-Morena Zone (OMZ) and Central Iberian Zone (CIZ) collided in Devonian-Carboniferous time. The collision was transpressional, with left-lateral kinematics, and was interrupted by extensional tectonics during the earliest Carboniferous, when bimodal magmatism (with associated mineral deposits) and basin development were the dominant orogenic features. Transpression was renewed in Visean time, and persisted until the end of the Carboniferous. The IBERSEIS deep seismic reflection profile helps to define the 3D geometry of transpressional structures: out-of-section displacements concentrate in bands, which bound wedges of upper crust; this crustal wedging strongly modifies the geometry of the sutures between continental blocks. A mid-crustal strongly reflective thick band (the Iberseis Reflective Body, IRB) is interpreted as a huge body of basic rocks. The IRB magma trapped in the middle crust was linked to the Early Carboniferous mantle-derived magmatism that crops out in the SPZ, OMZ and CIZ. Magmatism at the surface and trapped in the crust, high thermal gradients and basin development reflect a thermal anomaly in the underlying mantle, influencing both the thermal and the stress state of the orogen at that time. A mantle plume is inferred to have existed in the Early Carboniferous, the transpressional tectonic regime dominating again after its decay.