Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Facilitated e-learning in sub-Saharan Africa

This paper describes an e-learning initiative made possible by improved electronic communications and computer skills of staff in Africa, and not just in the capital city. The analysis of climatic data is important in many development sectors including agriculture, food security, health, water supply, building and flood prevention. National Meteorological Services in Africa are decentralising their climatic activities, a change made possible by the wide availability of computers and improved communications infrastructure. The staff in the individual Met stations need training in data analysis, as do the many potential users of climatic data. A training course, called SIAC, Statistics in Applied Climatology, is designed to support producers and users of climatic data to develop their skills in the analysis of the historical records. Since 2005, part of this training has been given as a facilitated e-learning course. The paper describes the importance of a "virtual community of practice" for sustained learning and how an online platform can offer the opportunity and space to engage with other climatologists across the continent. It narrates the challenges of an online course for professional development in Africa and the positive impact of e-SIAC on motivation and collaborative on-line problem solving.
The Status and Forecast of China's Exploitation of Renewable Marine Energy Resources

ABSTRACT Liu, Y. ; Luo, G. , and Zhuang, Y. , 2015. The status and forecast of China's exploitation of renewable marine energy resources. With the development of the economy, the demand for energy will rise steadily and mineral energy will be in short supply. Renewable marine energy has many advantages including being cleaned, renewable and not causing pollution. In addition, marine energy enjoys a large reserve which can help supply the energy for island residents. In the long-term, it can relieve the energy scarcity problem and improve energy structure. Therefore, this energy sources plays a strategic role for China. However, due to technology costs and the difficulty of maintaining equipment quality, the development of marine energy is slow. There are many obstacles in the comprehensive plan, including the input of R&D and the management system. In order to exploit the marine energy in China, we must take into account things such as the cost of technology, equipment, electric lines, electricity transmission and maintenance.
Earliest evidence for life on Earth: an Australian perspective

Australia is home to some of Earth's best-preserved early Archean rocks. Of particular interest in relation to the origin and evolution of life is the Pilbara Craton of Western Australia, containing one of Earth's oldest and least metamorphosed volcano-sedimentary successions. Over the past decade a number of new claims for Earth's earliest life have come out of these rocks, aided by significant advances in stratigraphic correlation and radiometric dating within this craton. This contribution provides an up-to-date summary of the evidence for life in Pilbara rocks >3000 Ma in age. Potential indicators of life in these rocks include microfossils, trace fossils, stromatolites, biofilms (aggregates of cells and associated extra-cellular substances that have enveloped or colonised a substrate) and microscopic sulfide minerals with distinctive sulfur isotope signatures from normal marine, marginal marine and hydrothermal settings. This shows that Australia contains the most diverse and arguably the most critically evaluated evidence for life on our planet prior to 3000 Ma.
JeromeDL

The Web has evolved from an information source to a medium of communication and social interactions. The vision of the Semantic Web becomes a reality. These advances in the Internet technologies influence changes in the digital libraries domain. Advanced digital library systems are an outcome of the synergy between digital libraries, the Semantic Web, and social networking. They aim to improve, among other things, usability of information discovery. In this article we introduce the concept of semantic digital libraries. We present the JeromeDL system - a prototype implementation of this concept. We conclude with a report on the results of the evaluation of semantic and social information discovery services implemented in JeromeDL.
PLC Automated Water Tap Assembling and Scrap Recycling Using Scada Representation

Automation is a necessity of this century. When it comes to industrial automation that brings out the best of that industry. Industries can save time and money by utilizing automation technologies with a use of closed loop control techniques that automatically adjust process variables to set or desired values. Also, Industrial automation increases the level of safety to personnel by substituting them with automated machines in hazardous working conditions. We are proposing an idea to automate a plastic water tap assembling and scrap recycling using PLC programming and SCADArepresentation. Thus, to bring out the best products in the least time. Thereby the industry could increase its profit by increasing the production and reducing the production cost with the aid of automated machineries. The industry we selected is Modern Plastics. This industry manufactures plastic water taps and they have also established a scrap recycling plant which provides raw materials for manufacturing their products. The company was established in the year of 1999, at Kodanad in Ernakulam district, Kerala.
The structure of the Dalradian rocks in the North Ballachulish district of Scotland

The present study, based on the detailed mapping of minor structures, confirms the original interpretation of Bailey (1910, 1934) concerning the Dalradian rocks of the Ballachulish district. The rocks are only affected by two deformation phases of any importance. These are correlated with the D1 and D3 phases in the regional deformation history established by Treagus (1974). The structures formed in response to these phases correspond to the primary and secondary structures of Bailey (1910), respectively. The D1 structures comprise the Fort William Slide, the Appin Syncline, the Tom Meadhoin Anticline, the Ballachulish Slide and the Ballachulish Syncline, arranged in order of structural succession. The slides are lags associated with zones of intense D1 deformation. The Stob Ban Synform is a D3 fold which separates downward-facing D1 structures to the SE from upward-facing D1 structures to the NW.
DISTRIBUTION AND CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF MICROCOLONIAL FUNGI AND ROCK COATINGS FROM ARID AUSTRALIA

Microcolonial fungi are found on rock coatings at various sites throughout the arid regions of Australia. Fungi tend to concentrate in depressions, although it is uncertain whether they contribute to enlargement of microhollows. As determined by SEM-EDAX, the chemical characteristics of microcolonial fungi are variable but do not reflect those of the surfaces on which they are found. Most fungi contain calcium, sulfur, chlorine and sometimes phosphorus, but not manganese, in quantities greater than those of adjacent rock coatings. Major sources for accumulated elements may be rainfall or dust. Some elements, especially calcium, are apparently concentrated temporarily in microcolonial fungi, with amounts present in dead organisms being relatively low. The incorporation of some dead microcolonial fungi into developing rock coatings is therefore unlikely to lead to anomalously high calcium levels for cation ratio dating. As rock coatings contain trace or undetectable amounts of some other elements concentrat.
EJECTED BOULDERS: IMPLICATIONS FOR SECONDARY CRATERS AND THE AGE DATING OF SURFACES.

The size-frequency distribution (SFD) of craters on the Moon, Mars, and Mercury turns up at very small crater diameters; for the Moon the upturn occurs near 3 km [1, 2]. Neukum, Ivanov, and Hartmann [2] propose that this upturn is a result of collisional process in the asteroid belt and represents the impacting population. On the other hand, Shoemaker [3] and others [1, 4, 5] propose that this upturn is a result of secondary cratering, wherein solid material ejected from an impact crater itself impacts the surface, forming a crater. Secondary craters are formed from solid blocks (or groups of blocks) ejected from impact craters. Therefore, to better understand whether secondary craters cause this upturn in the SFD, we examined ejected boulders scattered around four small craters — three on the Moon and one on Mars. We compare the observed distribution of these boulders to the distribution of secondary craters around large primary craters. Lee et al. [6] also examined boulders ejected from craters and constructed size-frequency plots, though they do not specifically address the issue regarding secondaries and the SFD.
Winter 2009–2010: A case study of an extreme Arctic Oscillation event

Winter 2009–2010 made headlines for extreme cold and snow in most of the major population centers of the industrialized countries of the Northern Hemisphere (NH). The major teleconnection patterns of the Northern Hemisphere, El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the Arctic Oscillation (AO) were of moderate to strong amplitude, making both potentially key players during the winter of 2009–2010. The dominant NH winter circulation pattern can be shown to have originated with a two‐way stratosphere‐troposphere interaction forced by Eurasian land surface and lower tropospheric atmospheric conditions during autumn. This cycle occurred twice in relatively quick succession contributing to the record low values of the AO observed. Using a skillful winter temperature forecast, it is shown that the AO explained a greater variance of the observed temperature pattern across the extratropical landmasses of the NH than did ENSO.
New theory for the derivation of emission area from a Fowler-Nordheim plot

In field emission display technology, emission current densities are important. With broad-area emission, the average current density is often measured. Emission may actually come from a small number of centres; we need to know the 'effective emission area' and the 'true' current density. In principle, this area can be derived from the intercept of a Fowler-Nordheim (FN) plot (when linear), but the present state of the theory makes this far from straightforward. Even in the most basic application, namely cold field electron emission from broad-area metal surfaces, the theory is not formally complete. This paper reports enhancements to basic Fowler-Nordheim theory as re-formulated by Murphy and Good in 1956.
l2-l∞ output feedback control for a class of networked system with random delay

This paper investigates the problem of output feedback l2-l∞ control for networked system with random delays. The sensor-to-controller and controller-to-actuator delays are simultaneously considered due to limited bandwidth communication. The random delays are described by a binary switching sequence satisfying a Bernoulli distribution. The purpose is the design of a dynamic output feedback controller which ensures the exponentially mean-square stability of the closed-loop system and guarantees an l2-l∞ norm bound constraint on disturbance attenuation. Via matrix inequalities a sufficient condition for solvability of this problem is presented. The sequentially linear programming method (SLPMM) is applied to solve the matrix inequalities. A numerical example is provided to demonstrate the validity of the proposed design approach.
Wireless smart network in Alborz Province

Smart power distribution grid has many aspects such as automation of network, consumers and intelligent control to manage and coordinate between them. Wireless network base architecture is proposed in this paper, for monitoring and optimizing application of recloser, sectionalizer, and fault detection equipments trough of the Alborz Province Electric Power Distribution Company's networks. The system consists of multiple recloser, sectionalizer, and fault detection equipments trough of the network and a control and monitoring central that workman analyze system and make prepare decisions for having stable system. The implementation of this system will improve usage of recloser and sectionalizer and save large amount of electricity by decreasing fault detection time, and thereby electricity will be available for more number of consumers than earlier, in a highly populated province such as Alborz. The proposed smart grid architecture developed for Alborz scenario, real-time monitoring of protection devises operation, minimum energy not supplied, and minimum fault detection time.
A 126-/spl mu/W cochlear chip for a totally implantable system

A single-chip speech processor/stimulator is presented for use in a totally implanted cochlear prosthesis system. It implements a continuous interleaved sampling (CIS) strategy. By combining the speech processor and the stimulator into one mixed-signal chip, both size and power are reduced sufficiently, so as to make a totally implanted system feasible. First silicon has been validated and typically operates at 126 /spl mu/W (excluding cochlear stimulation currents).
Magnetic barrier structures for superconductingmagnetic hybrid Josephson junctions

If Josephson and spintronic technologies can be successfully integrated to produce a cryogenic memory that can be controlled with single-flux quantum pulses, then they may enable ultra-low-power, high-speed computing. We have developed hybrid Josephson junctions with Nb electrodes, using barrier materials composed of both pseudo-spin valves (PSV) and magnetic-clusters. Our choice of relatively weak ferromagnetic materials such as Ni, PdFe, and NiFeNb enabled us to grow individual layers beyond a few monolayers such that the junctions made with these materials exhibit Josephson coupling as well as magnetic switching behavior. The differences in switching field of each layer were determined by magnetization measurements at 10 K. We fabricated junctions with a wide range of areas (1 μm2 to 100 μm2) by high-throughput, conventional fabrication techniques. In PSV-barrier junctions, the critical current is strongly modulated by the magnetic state in the barrier, including magnetic hysteresis. In junctions with Mn-doped Si barriers, the Josephson coupling was tuned by the density of the Mn magnetic-clusters. Such devices may offer an energy-efficient way to control Josephson junction properties by changing their collective states.
Theory of CBM AVO: I. Characteristics of anomaly and why it is so

ABSTRACTBased on the inverse correlations between methane content and elastic parameters of coalbed methane (CBM) reservoirs and on geomodulus approximation of Zoeppritz equations, we study characteristics of CBM amplitude versus offset (AVO) anomaly. Our research first suggests that CBM AVO cannot, and needs not, cling to Poisson’s Ratio as AVO for conventional gas (C-gas) does and that various approximations of Zoeppritz equations for C-gas AVO can be applied to CBM AVO though the elastic contrasts at boundaries of CBM reservoirs cannot be said to be small compared to unity. We then show that the sweet spots within a brine-saturated high- and/or medium-rank CBM reservoir can have only Class IV AVO anomaly. The reason is that all of the three elastic reflectivities, i.e., λ reflectivity, μ reflectivity, and ρ reflectivity, at one and the same boundary of a CBM reservoir, are always of the same sign and that μ reflectivity or density reflectivity or both are significant in comparison with λ reflectivity.
Algebraic Approach for Modelling and Analysis of Nonlinear Hybrid Dynamical Systems

This work is concerned with hybrid dynamical systems and their stability analysis using on the one hand the direct Lyapunov method and the advantages of the tensor notation for nonlinear systems on the other hand. In order to provide the systematic formulation of the stability conditions as LMI tests a corresponding approach is proposed. This approach is based on the use of the Kronecker product mathematical tool which leads to the description of the analytic vector fields by polynomial functions and allows various algebraic manipulations.
Wilderness Visitors, Experiences, and Visitor Management

Wilderness areas are managed to protect their wilderness character, but they also provide opportunities for recreation use. Decades ago, relatively few people sought wilderness experiences, and management problems were few and far between. Today, there are many places where the demand for recreation use cannot be met without significant impact to wilderness ecosystems and experiences (Cole and others 1997). Managers must seek a balance between the provision of access for visitors and protection from the problems associated with that visitation. They are challenged to find management approaches that maintain the sense of freedom, solitude, spontaneity, risk, and challenge that are considered fundamental to wilderness experiences. The ideal wilderness setting, where visitors have free access, experience minimal behavioral restrictions, and find undisturbed and uncrowded conditions is not always attainable. Managers must often choose among these desirable attributes. Resulting decisions—to deny access, restrict behavior, or allow further degradation—are always controversial. Wilderness managers must deal with the fact that the types of people who visit wilderness come with very different expectations, motivations, desires, and abilities (Manning 1999). Some come for a few hours, while others come for weeks. Some ride horses while others hike. Some come in large groups while others come alone. In many cases, these differences result in serious conflict among user groups. Some places in wilderness, particularly unusually attractive locations close to trailheads, within close proximity to metropolitan areas, are heavily visited; other places seldom receive any visitation. One style of management simply cannot fit all these different situations. To effectively manage wilderness recreation, managers need information that science can provide about wilderness visitors. Fortunately, there is a strong tradition of research about wilderness visitors. In fact, this is the wilderness research topic that has received the most attention from scientists since the early 1960s. Numerous studies have been conducted about who wilderness visitors are, the types of trips they take in wilderness, their behavior, knowledge, and experience and trends in these characteristics over time. Other studies have examined the motivations and preferences of visitors about desired wilderness experiences, as well as their evaluations of wilderness conditions and factors that influence the quality of experiences. Still others have examined how visitors and experiences have responded to changing wilderness conditions, particularly changes that have resulted from various management actions.
K-Ar dating, Quaternary and Neogene volcanic rocks of the Snake River Plain, Idaho

Ninety-eight K-Ar dates for lavas of the Snake River Plain (SRP) and vicinity provide calibration for the stratigraphic framework discussed by Malde and Powers (1962). The Idavada Volcanics, predominantly silicic volcanic rocks, are 9 to 13 m.y. old in the western SRP. Rocks of similar type and comparable stratigraphic position are 8 to 10 m.y. old in the central SRP and as young as 4 to 5 m.y. old in the eastern SRP. This time-transgressive silicic volcanic assemblage merges in the east with the silicic volcanic units erupted during the last 2 m.y. from Island Park, Yellowstone, and related volcanic centers. The Idaho Group, consisting of intercalated basalt flows and sedimentary deposits in the western half of the SRP, ranges in age from about 0.6 to 11.5 m.y. (71 refs.)
JITPCB

Commercialization of desktop milling machines has made rapid Printed Circuit Board (PCB) fabrication accessible. Unfortunately, PCB design for embedded and robotic systems is still a tedious and time consuming activity. In this paper, we present a technique, Just In Time Printed Circuit Board (JITPCB) for designing PCB systems at speeds commensurate with the capability of desktop PCB milling machines. We propose designing boards by writing software circuit generators that wire together and lay out circuit components in a hierarchical and reusable fashion. We have developed a declarative design mechanism allowing users to specify desired input and output peripherals and well as application code. Given this input, our system produces a complete working circuit board design, along with necessary initialization and networking code. Our system is an open framework that allows users to create a set of highly reusable parametric hardware/software modules. We demonstrate our approach by showing some common robotics applications designed with JITPCB to show its utility and generality.
A statistical volcanic forcing scenario generator for climate simulations

[1] The climate system is continuously affected by forcings that add to its inherent variability. Recently, the dominant influence shifted from mostly natural factors to the rapidly increasing anthropogenic greenhouse gas and aerosol forcing. Climate change simulations for the 21st and 22nd centuries then employ possible story lines of human socio-economic development with associated radiative forcing that exclusively explore the potential human influence on climate. None of the scenarios, however, include natural factors that dominated climate variations prior to the large anthropogenic emissions. This leads to a discontinuity at the transition between the historical and the future projection period. Similarly, studies of transient climate variations before the last 1–2 millennia generally use only the well-known, slowly varying forcings such as orbital or greenhouse forcing derived from ice cores. While past solar irradiance variations can be reasonably estimated from cosmogenic isotope data, no well-dated, high-resolution information exists before about A.D. 500 that would allow for an implementation of forcing from explosive volcanism. Here, we present a statistical approach to generate statistically (and geophysically) realistic scenarios of volcanic forcing that are based on the properties of the longest available volcanic forcing series derived from ice cores. The resulting scenarios do not carry direct temporally predictive or hindcast capabilities, but they allow for an appropriate evaluation of natural uncertainty on various timescales. These series can be applied to ensure a seamless integration of an important natural forcing factor for climate change simulations of periods where such forcing is not available.
TRMM observed first direct evidence of smoke from forest fires inhibiting rainfall

Although it has been known that smoke from biomass burning suppresses warm rain processes, it was not known to what extent this occurs. The satellite observations of the Tropical‐Rainfall‐Measuring‐Mission (TRMM), presented here, show that warm rain processes in convective tropical clouds infected by heavy smoke from forest fires are practically shut off. The tops of the smoke‐infected clouds must exceed the freezing level, i.e., grow to altitudes colder than about −10°C, for the clouds to start precipitating. In contrast, adjacent tropical clouds in the cleaner air precipitate most of their water before ever freezing. There are indications that rain suppression due to air pollution prevails also in the extra‐tropics.