Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Adjustment of daily precipitation data at 10 climate stations in Alaska: Application of World Meteorological Organization intercomparison results

A methodology for adjusting the daily precipitation measured by the U.S. National Weather Service (NWS) 8‐inch standard gauge for wind‐induced undercatch, wetting loss, and trace amount of precipitation is provided. The application of the proposed adjustment procedures was made at 10 NWS climate stations in Alaska for 1982 and 1983. The results show the following: (1) Daily adjustment for wind‐induced undercatch, wetting loss, and trace amount of precipitation increases the gauge‐measured annual precipitation by 65–800 mm for the 2 years (about 10‐140% of the gauge‐measured yearly total) at the 10 stations in Alaska; (2) compared to wetting loss and trace amount of precipitation, wind‐induced undercatch is the source of greatest error, although wetting loss and trace amount of precipitation are also significant systematic errors in the northern Alaska regions of low precipitation; (3) in the similar climate condition, the NWS 8‐inch standard gauges with an Alter wind shield have a much lower adjustment for wind‐induced undercatch than the unshielded gauges at nearby stations, and the unshielded gauges placed on the roof of the weather office building have a higher adjustment for wind‐induced errors than those gauges mounted on the ground; (4) monthly adjustment factors (adjusted/measured precipitation) differ by station, and at an individual station by type of precipitation; (5) considerable intra‐annual variation of the magnitude of the adjustments has been found in Alaska owing to the fluctuation of wind speed, air temperature, and frequency of snowfall. Using the constant correction factors (derived at a single intercomparison site) to the archived monthly precipitation records produces significant undercorrection of the wind‐induced errors at high wind sites and overcorrecting of the errors at low wind sites. To avoid the undercorrection or overcorrection of the wind‐induced errors, a constant correction factor should not be applied to gauge‐measured snow data. Daily adjustments for systematic errors need to be applied to the archived precipitation data. It is expected that the adjustments will have an impact on climate monitoring.
Deterministic and Stochastic Allele Specific Gene Expression in Single Mouse Blastomeres

Stochastic and deterministic allele specific gene expression (ASE) might influence single cell phenotype, but the extent and nature of the phenomenon at the onset of early mouse development is unknown. Here we performed single cell RNA-Seq analysis of single blastomeres of mouse embryos, which revealed significant changes in the transcriptome. Importantly, over half of the transcripts with detectable genetic polymorphisms exhibit ASE, most notably, individual blastomeres from the same two-cell embryo show similar pattern of ASE. However, about 6% of them exhibit stochastic expression, indicated by altered expression ratio between the two alleles. Thus, we demonstrate that ASE is both deterministic and stochastic in early blastomeres. Furthermore, we also found that 1,718 genes express two isoforms with different lengths of 3′UTRs, with the shorter one on average 5–6 times more abundant in early blastomeres compared to the transcripts in epiblast cells, suggesting that microRNA mediated regulation of gene expression acquires increasing importance as development progresses.
Advances in flood risk management from the FLOODsite project

The future management of flood risk will not come from a single technical solution or policy but from a range of responses which are tuned to the specific circumstances at a local or regional scale, taking account of national governance structures and public attitudes towards flood risks. This diversity of approach is recognised by the embodiment of the subsidiarity principle in the European Directive on the assessment and management of flood risks. This paper covers some of the main areas of innovation achieved within the European funded research project FLOODsite. These innovations will facilitate the implementation of the European Directive actions of flood risk assessments, risk mapping and the preparation of flood risk management plans. FLOODsite does not propose a single integrated methodology for flood risk management; rather it provides a set of linked methods which support integrated flood risk management. We also compare FLOODsite against the ambitions set for the EC Sixth Framework Programme Integrated Projects.
Ocorrência de Dentocarpus silvai silvai Dusbabek & Cruz, 1966 (Acari: Chirodiscidae) em duas espécies de molossídeos (Mammalia: Chiroptera) no estado do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil

Occurence of Dentocarpus silvai silvai, Dusbabek & Cruz, 1966 (Acari: Chirodiscidae) on two molossids (Mammalia: Chiroptera) species in Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil - In 2001 mites from three bats were collected, Molossus ater at Silva Jardim municipality and from Molossus molossus at Rio de Janeiro municipality, both in the Rio de Janeiro state. The mites where identified as Dentocarpus silvai silvai (Acari: Chirodiscidae), this being the first report of this mite species in Brazil.
Relationships between South African rainfall and SST anomalies in the Southwest Indian Ocean

Previous work has indicated the importance of sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies in the Southwest Indian Ocean for rainfall variability over South Africa. Here, these links are further explored via bandpass filtering of the rainfall and SST data in several bands on the interannual and interdecadal scale that are known to be significant for global climate variability. This procedure suggests that warmer SST in the Southwest Indian Ocean tends to be associated with wetter conditions over eastern and central South Africa and vice versa. An ensemble of experiments with an atmospheric general circulation model forced by an idealization of the warming in the Southwest Indian Ocean leads to statistically significant rainfall increases over large areas of eastern South Africa and neighbouring regions. The mechanism appears to involve changes in the convergence of moist air streams originating from the Indian Ocean and from tropical southern Africa. The magnitude of the rainfall anomalies accumulated over a 90 day season was of the order of 90–300 mm and, therefore, represent a significant fraction of the annual total. These model results reinforce the observational work suggesting that SST anomalies in the Southwest Indian Ocean are linked with significant rainfall anomalies over eastern South Africa. Copyright © 1999 Royal Meteorological Society
Experiments of Urban Autonomous Navigation using Lane Tracking Control with Monocular Vision

Autonomous Lane detection with vision is a difficult problem because of various road conditions, such as shadowy road surface, various light conditions, and the signs on the road. In this paper we propose a robust lane detection algorithm to overcome shadowy road problem using a statistical method. The algorithm is applied to the vision-based mobile robot system and the robot followed the lane with the lane following controller. In parallel with the lane following controller, the global position of the robot is estimated by the developed localization method to specify the locations where the lane is discontinued. The results of experiments, done in the region where the GPS measurement is unreliable, show good performance to detect and to follow the lane in complex conditions with shades, water marks, and so on.
Polymer molecular-weight and degree of drying effects on infiltration and erosion of three different soils

Low infiltration rate and high levels of soil erosion are critical problems in many soils worldwide. Amendment of soils with organic polymers could alleviate these problems. The objective of the present study is to investigate the effects of polymer molecular weight and the degree of drying on the infiltration rate of, and erosion from, three different soil types from Israel. A solution of high-molecular-weight (2x107 Da) or low-molecular-weight (2x105 Da) negatively charged polyacrylamide (PAMH and PAML, respectively) was added to the surface of soil samples packed in trays, at a rate of 20 kg ha-1. The soil samples were allowed to dry to varying degrees and were then exposed to 60 mm of simulated rain during which infiltration rate and soil loss were determined. The ability of the polymer to maintain high final infiltration rates (FIR) depended on its molecular weight and the clay content of the soils. In the coarse- and medium-textured soils, the PAMH was more effective than the PAML in maintaining high FIR. In the fine-textured soil, the effects of both polymers on Fm. were comparable; the use of the PAML is therefore preferable since it is easier to handle. Both polymers had reduced soil loss comparably. The effects of drying were similar for both polymers: the FIR and soil loss values with the intermediate degrees of drying were higher and lower, respectively, than they were with the no-drying or complete-drying treatments.
Faulting, Flow, and the Strength of the Continental Lithosphere

Most of our knowledge about the deformation of the continents comes from observations made at the surface or within the seismogenic layer where faulting occurs in earthquakes. Yet the bulk of the lithosphere thickness deforms by creep, which probably becomes more distributed with depth. The extent to which motions at the surface are controlled by the strength and anisotropy of the seismogenic layer, or by viscous forces on its base arising from flow beneath, is a central question in continental tectonics, affecting our approaches to modeling or visualizing the behavior of continental lithosphere. Attempts to answer this question directly, by comparing block motions at the surface with estimates of the overall velocity field, have proved difficult and inconclusive. One difficulty is in knowing whether velocity fields we observe geodetically are elastic and recoverable or truly representative of longer-term motion. Another is in understanding how finite deformation, particularly rotations about a vertical axis, is related to the instantaneous fault configurations and velocity fields we see active today. Nonetheless, new results from Greece and western North America indicate fault patterns that appear to be dominated by the relative rotation of a few rigid blocks, with rapid spatial variations in rotation rates. At least in Greece, these blocks appear to accommodate substantial finite rotations, but the faulting on their boundaries changes with time. A recent re-assessment of continental strength profiles, based on earthquake depth distributions and gravity anomalies, suggests that the seismogenic layer may be the only significant source of strength in the continental lithosphere, and that the upper mantle beneath the continents is relatively weak. Taken together, these observations suggest that the detailed behavior of the upper crust is indeed dominated by the strength and anisotropy of fault-bounded blocks, but that the faulting can evolve with time so as to accommodate the overall characteristics of a flow that is probably controlled by larger-scale effects, such as buoyancy forces arising from crustal thickness contrasts and forces on the edges of plates.
Deep‐Sea Benthic Foraminiferal Assemblage Response to a Surface Ocean Productivity Gradient: A Test

A transect of samples from the eastern equatorial Pacific, where surface ocean productivity is the only changing environmental variable, was used to test the response of benthic foraminiferal assemblages to an open-ocean productivity gradient. The transect runs along the East Pacific Rise from the highly productive waters near the equator to the oligotrophic South Pacific subtropical gyre. Surface sediment benthic assemblages show progressive change along the transect with strong compositional shifts corresponding to the rapid productivity gradient near the equator and to the position of the southern convergence, near 18°–19°S. The relationship of the assemblages to surface ocean productivity was tested by statistical regression of quantitative estimates of productivity on the assemblage principal component scores calculated for each sampling location. The regression yielded an r-squared of 0.87, demonstrating a clear relationship between surface ocean productivity and deep-sea benthic foraminiferal assemblage composition. The species most important to this relationship display a consistent response to oceanic productivity for long stretches of geologic time. This conservative behavior and the results of the regression analysis indicate that benthic foraminiferal assemblages can be used to estimate surface ocean productivity for the geologic past.
On the Importance of Vertical Resolution in Certain Ocean General Circulation Models

Abstract In centered difference models of ocean circulation, two grid-point computational modes can be excited if grid Reynolds and Peclet numbers are greater than two. The Bryan-Cox General Circulation Model (GCM) is used to show the dramatic effect that this instability has on the equatorial thermohaline circulation. In many recent numerical calculations researchers have used 12 vertical levels. It is shown that this resolution produces an artificial cell at the equator when typical values of the vertical diffusivity and viscosity parameters are used. This artifical cell rotates counter to the primary cell driven by deep water formation at high latitudes, is driven by downwelling at the eastern boundary near the equator and is 40% the strength of the primary cell for the parameters used in the present study. When the vertical resolution is increased the cell vanishes. It is suggested therefore that higher vertical resolution should be used in Bryan-Cox GCM deep-ocean modeling studies when current values.
Illumination conditions at the lunar polar regions by KAGUYA(SELENE) laser altimeter

The sunlit conditions of the lunar polar regions were estimated by using a digital elevation model made by the laser altimeter data onboard the Japanese lunar orbiter KAGUYA (SELENE). The result shows that i) there are no peaks of eternal light in either north or south polar regions, ii) most continuously lit surfaces are 89% for north and 86% for south, iii) there are permanently shadowed regions. These information will be useful for the long‐durable landing experiments on the Moon and possibly for the human activity on the Moon in the near future.
Wave propagation in rocks with elastic-plastic deformations

Wave propagation in rocks subject to elastic-plastic deformations can be described by the equations of motion for small dynamic fields superposed on a static bias. The static bias refers to the statically deformed state of the material with large deformations. Referred to this statically deformed state, the Piola-Kirchhoff stress equations of motion describe wave propagation in terms of second- and third-order elastic constants, static stresses, and finite deformation gradients. Plane wave propagation along the principal stress directions can be described in terms of principal stretches, total static strains, and plastic strains. The elastic strains are differences between the total and plastic strains. Calculations are performed for the plane wave speeds in the absence and presence of plastic strains. Theoretical predictions agree very well with the laboratory measurements made on dry Castlegate sandstone samples subject to multiple uniaxial load cycles up to 70% of the unconfined compressive strength of 16 MPa. The difference between the plane wave speeds in these two cases can be calibrated as function of a certain measure of plastic strain. This analysis also provides a framework for the estimation of plastic strain as a measure of mechanical damage in the material from the acoustic wave velocity measurements. Estimation of near-wellbore damage influences perforation strategy that would avoid sanding during hydrocarbon production.
A choice approach to the valuation of urban green space in Brighton and Hove

In 2002, researchers from the University of Surrey and the University of Brighton conducted a study in Brighton and Hove to assess how residents perceive and value urban green space. This research was carried out to measure how the residents of Brighton and Hove value green space and its attributes. In this respect, particular attention was paid to the different roles in which they visit these green spaces: as green space consumers, as local residents and as citizens. With the results from postal surveys and a choice experiment, the researchers were able to determine the effects of 24 selected park attributes from the different user perspectives. Green space managers and planners can take these different uses and users into account when considering how to improve green space. EU involvement: The GREENSPACE project was funded by the European Commission under the Key Action Environment and Sustainable Development of the EU Fifth Framework Programme.
Ionospheric perturbations of electron density before the Wenchuan Earthquake

Based on electron density data recorded by the Detection of Electro-Magnetic Emissions Transmitted from Earthquake Regions (DEMETER) satellite of France, the phenomena of disturbed electron density in the ionosphere before the Wenchuan Earthquake of magnitude 8.0 on 12 May 2008, were analysed. The results showed that the anomalies concentrated 3 days prior to the earthquake, especially the variation on 9 May, when the electron density reduced above the northeast epicentral area, and the peak values moved to the equator. Compared with the variations in the geomagnetic indexes and other parameters related to solar activity, the geomagnetic condition and solar activity were all quiet from 7 to 12 May, so the variation on 9 May might be related to this strong earthquake. In addition, the geomagnetic field observed at the surface was analysed, and the Z component data at stations near the epicentral area showed apparent aberrations of daily variation compared with those at stations in eastern China. All these phenomena illustrate that obvious perturbations in the ionosphere and at the surface might be related to the preparation process of the Wenchuan Earthquake.
DEPREDACIÓN DEL JAGUAR (Panthera onca) SOBRE EL GANADO EN LOS LLANOS ORIENTALES DE COLOMBIA

RESUMEN: Se caracterizaron algunos aspectos de los ataques del jaguar sobre el ganado en el municipio de Puerto Carreno (Dept. Vichada, Colombia). El ganado porcino fue el mas depredado (90%), seguido por el ganado equino (6.8%) y el vacuno (1.7%). El jaguar selecciono el ganado porcino frente al resto de ganado (χ²=103.9; df=1, p<0.0001) y los bosques frente a la sabana para realizar sus ataques (χ²= 15.5, df=1, p<0.0001). El 65% de los individuos depredados eran menores de un ano. En el 42% de las fincas consideradas se mato al jaguar. Se sugieren medidas para reducir los ataques de jaguar a ganado domestico.
Hydrothermal plumes along segments of contrasting magmatic influence, 15°20′–18°30′N, East Pacific Rise: Influence of axial faulting

Vertical profiles of light backscattering and temperature recorded on 133 rock cores and dredge hauls between the Orozco and Rivera transform faults on the East Pacific Rise (EPR) (15°20′–18°30′N) provide an opportunity to compare the hydrothermal environment of three adjacent but distinctly different segments that span the maximum range of axial cross section at a relatively constant spreading rate. Contrary to predictions based on data from other Pacific ridges, hydrothermal plumes over the inflated 16°N segment were less extensive and weaker than along the narrower, rifted 17°N segment. Remarkably, the 17°N segment has a plume incidence equal to the mean of superfast spreading segments from the southern EPR. The data suggest that the local permeability environment in this region controls the expression of hydrothermal activity in the water column. The 16°N segment, which has little or no indication of faulting, may have its hydrothermal activity presently suppressed by widespread volcanic flows that act as an impermeable cap over much of the segment. Activity on the 17°N segment may be tectonically enhanced, with hydrothermal fluids circulating through deep faults to a cracking front. Within each segment, intense hydrothermal plumes characteristic of focused discharge seem associated with clearly rifted areas, while weaker water column signals characteristic of diffuse discharge are associated with unrifted portions of the ridge axis that appear dominated by magmatism. Previous studies at intermediate‐ to‐superfast spreading ridges have emphasized a positive correlation between local magmatic budget and hydrothermal activity. Our data suggest, however, that even at fast rates local tectonics can control the extent and nature of hydrothermal activity, as documented for several sites on the slow‐spreading Mid‐Atlantic Ridge. Despite the segment‐scale incongruity between hydrothermal activity and magmatic budget, the fraction of total ridge length between 15°20′ and 18°30′N overlain by plumes (0.39) follows the existing global correlation between plume incidence and spreading rate.
Brain functional connectome defines a transdiagnostic dimension associated with cognition and psychopathology in youth Authors:

The search for psychiatric biomarkers has remained elusive, in part, due to high comorbidity, low specificity, and poor concordance between neurobiological abnormalities and existing diagnostic categories. Developmental shifts in symptom expression and brain function across the lifespan further complicate biomarker identification. Recent studies suggest that focusing on cognition may be a pathway forward: Cognitive dysfunction is a common feature across psychiatric disorders. Individual differences in cognition may reflect variability in the connectivity of underlying neurocognitive brain networks, and predict psychopathology at different developmental periods. In the present study we identified brainbased dimensions of general cognitive capacity and psychopathology using sparse canonical correlation analysis (sCCA) in a sample of 7,383 preadolescents from the Adolescent Brian Cognitive Development (ABCD) study. This analysis revealed correlated patterns of functional connectivity with cognitive control capacity and psychopathology. Specifically, the results identified a single connectome-based latent brain variate that was positively correlated with performance on cognitive measures across domains and negatively correlated with parent-reported psychopathology across diagnoses and domains. Functional connectivity loadings for the brain variate were across distributed cortical and subcortical brain networks and a dose-dependent relationship with psychopathology based upon the cumulative number of psychiatric diagnoses was observed. These findings provide preliminary evidence for a connectome-based biomarker that indexes individual differences in cognitive control and predicts transdiagnostic psychopathology in a dose-dependent fashion.