Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An overview of aircraft observations from the Pacific Dust Experiment campaign

[1] Fourteen research flights were conducted in the Pacific Dust Experiment (PACDEX) during April and May 2007 to sample pollution and dust outbreaks from east Asia as they traveled across the northern Pacific Ocean into North America and interacted with maritime storms. Significant concentrations of black carbon (BC, consisting of soot and other light-absorbing particles measured with a soot photometer 2 instrument) and dust were observed both in the west and east Pacific Ocean from Asian plumes of dust and pollution. BC particles were observed through much of the troposphere, but the major finding is that the percentage of these particles compared with the total number of accumulation mode particles increased significantly (by a factor of 2–4) with increasing altitude, with peak values occurring between 5 and 10 km. Dust plumes had only a small impact on total cloud condensation nuclei at the sampling supersaturations but did exhibit high concentrations of ice nuclei (IN). IN concentrations in dust plumes exceeded typical tropospheric values by 4–20 times and were similar to previous studies in the Saharan aerosol layer when differences in the number concentrations of dust are accounted for. Enhanced IN concentrations were found in the upper troposphere off the coast of North America, providing a first direct validation of the transport of high-IN-containing dust layers near the tropopause entering the North American continent from distant sources. A source-specific chemical transport model was used to predict dust and other aerosols during PACDEX. The model was able to predict several features of the in situ observations, including the general altitudes where BC was found and a peak in the ratio of BC to sulfate between 5 and 10 km.
The resilient city : how modern cities recover from disaster

For as long as they have existed, cities have been destroyed - sacked, shaken, burnt, bombed, flooded, starved, irradiated, and pillaged - in almost every case they have risen again. Rarely in modern times has a city not been rebuilt following destruction, be it natural or man-made. "The Resilient City" explores urban disasters from around the globe and the ongoing restoration of urban life. It examines why cities are rebuilt, how a vision for the future gets incorporated into a new urban landscape, and how disasters have been interpreted and commemorated in built form. An international cast of historians, architects, and urban studies experts looks at a diverse group of cities that have suffered traumas, including: the Oklahoma City bombing; Chicago's great fire of 1871; San Francisco's earthquake and fires of 1906; Washington's invasion by the British during the War of 1812; Berlin and Warsaw in World War II; Gernika's bombardment during the Spanish Civil War, Jerusalem's rebuilding following centuries of destruction; Mexico City's 1985 earthquake; China's Tangshan earthquake; Tokyo's earthquake, fires, and WWII bombardment; Beirut in the 1990s wars; and South Central Los Angeles following the Rodney King beating. In so doing, they bring to light the experiences these resilient cities share, while underscoring that no two cities have recovered in the precisely the same way. This book will appeal to anyone interested in cities, among humankind's most durable artifacts and enduring forms of communal life.
Rice landraces of Kerala State of India: A documentation

Rice landraces of Kerala State of India are named based on cropping season, growing conditions, crop duration, morphological features, color of seed and other specific traits, if any. The collections of landraces of Kerala are classified as rare, very rare and common. A part of these collected accessions have been characterized. DIVA-GIS was used to map the collection site, which showed that the collections made are well distributed throughout Kerala but very meager collections are represented from Thiruvananthapuram and Pathanamthitta Districts. Till about 20 years back, all the paddy fields in Kerala were being cultivated with various landraces of rice during the southwest and northeast monsoon seasons. Currently, these paddy fields are being progressively filled with soil transported from other places and converted into building sites or sites for growing other upland crops. As a result of this, a large number of primitive cultivars and local landraces of rice have been lost. Genetic erosion can be assessed and target areas for collection in diversity rich area can be predicted based on resurvey of the collection localities and mapping the collection localities using DIVA-GIS tool. The present paper describes the rice landraces of Kerala with their specific location from where they have been collected. Key words: Rice, landraces, Kerala, DIVA GIS.
Meander migration and the lateral tilting of floodplains

The response of a meandering river to lateral tilting of the floodplain that supports the river is studied theoretically. Here, the lateral direction is perpendicular to the overall direction of the river on the floodplain. It is found that for most natural meandering rivers, the river will migrate down the tilt direction to a lower elevation. However, the theory also shows that under some conditions, especially when the Froude number of the flow in the channel is very small, the river migration is biased in the opposite direction. Two major contributions to the response of the river to lateral tilting, identified in the theory, are (1) perturbation of the cross‐section‐averaged flow velocities and (2) modification of the near‐bank flow velocity variation along the channel. The theory is one of the first attempts to develop a quantitative understanding of the effects of floodplain tilting on meandering rivers, and it provides a framework for future studies.
The breeding ecology of ruddy turnstones (Arenaria interpres) in the eastern Canadian Arctic

In 2002 and 2003, studies were made of the breeding phenology, nesting success, nesting density, and rates of nest predation of ruddy turnstones (Arenaria interpres) at East Bay, Southampton Island, Nunavut, Canada. Previous data from East Bay were used to compare nesting chronology and nest success across years. Bird banding data were used to examine migration routes and rates of return. In all years, ruddy turnstones initiated nests within 7 days of arrival at the study area. The median date of incubation onset was the same in 2002 and 2003, despite different spring snow conditions. Snow remained later in the season in 2003 and the overall range of incubation onset was greater than in 2002. Ruddy turnstones at East Bay nested at high densities and in semi-colonial groups with a significantly aggregated distribution. In both years, nest success was low, predation was high, and lemmings were scarce. These data (and data from earlier East Bay studies) support the ‘alternative prey hypothesis’. Resighting rates of breeding adults between 2002 and 2003 were also low. Individuals banded at East Bay were resighted at Delaware Bay on the Atlantic coast of the United States, the Caribbean Islands, and in southern Brazil. This study increases our knowledge of this understudied species about which there is conservation concern.
Emergency department patient and physician survey accuracy compared to chart abstraction in patients with acute respiratory illness

High‐quality research studies in older adults are needed. Unfortunately, the accuracy of chart review data in older adult patients has been called into question by previous studies. Little is known on this topic in patients with suspected pneumonia, a disease with 500,000 annual older adult U.S. emergency department (ED) visits that presents a diagnostic challenge to ED physicians. The study objective was to compare direct interview and chart abstraction as data sources.
Retrieval of crop canopy properties: a comparison between model inversion from hyperspectral data and image classification

The aim of this work was to investigate different approaches for the estimation of canopy structure properties from multiangular measurements at the field scale. Hyperspectral multiangular data were acquired on potato canopies using a spectroradiometer (GER-1500) and corresponding multiangular images using the VIFIS (Variable Interference Filter Imaging Spectrometer). The data obtained using the spectroradiometer were employed in the inversion of the PROSAIL model. The images obtained from the VIFIS were classified into the component image fractions: shaded and sunlit leaves and soil. These classification results were then used directly in the inversion of a simple ray-tracing canopy model. The inversion technique was based on a look-up table approach using a simple ray-tracing model of a plant canopy. Field sampling was carried out for the direct measurement of leaf area index (LAI) and other canopy properties. The experimental error in the data of both sensors was large since the canopy appeared non-homogeneous at the measurement height used, mainly because of the crop row structure. However LAI values retrieved from both approaches were realistic and allowed the discrimination of potato canopies that had received different nitrogen fertilization treatments. The relative merits and practicalities of the two approaches (multiangular hyperspectral reflectance versus image classification) are discussed.
STELLAR NUCLEOSYNTHESIS AND THE ISOTOPIC COMPOSITION OF PRESOLAR GRAINS FROM PRIMITIVE METEORITES

▪ Abstract Primitive meteorites contain grains of stardust that originated from stellar outflows and supernova ejecta prior to the formation of the Solar System. The study of these grains in the laboratory provide new information on stellar evolution, nucleosynthesis, mixing in supernovae, galactic evolution, and the age of the galaxy. Grains whose isotopically anomalous compositions indicate a stellar origin include diamond, silicon carbide, graphite, corundum, and silicon nitride. Most silicon carbide and corundum come from red giant and asymptotic giant branch stars (low-mass stars at the end of their evolution), and carry the isotopic signatures of H burning in the core and later of H and He burning in thin shells. Diamond carries a supernova isotopic signature in its Xe, and low-density graphite and silicon nitride, as well as a subgroup of silicon carbide, show evidence for a supernova origin in the form of extinct 44Ti and large 28Si excesses.
Effects of Push-Up Exercise Phase and Surface Stability on Activation of the Scapulothoracic Musculature

Objective: The purpose of this study was to measure muscle activation during ascending and descending phases of the push-up exercise on both stable and unstable support surfaces. Participants: Fourteen asymptomatic male amateur badminton players. During push-up exercises on stable and unstable bases, muscle activation measurements were collected with phase divisions (ascending and descending phase). Methods: Electromyography (EMG) was utilized to measure activation of the upper trapezius (UT) and lower trapezius (LT), middle serratus anterior (MSA) and lower serratus anterior (LSA), pectoralis major (PM), and triceps brachii (TB) muscles. Results: An unstable support surface produced significantly greater activation of the UT, LT, LSA, and PM muscles than a stable support surface (p < 0.05). The MSA, LSA, TB, and PM muscles demonstrated greater activation during the ascending phase than the descending phase of the push-up exercise (p < 0.05). Conclusions: The unstable support surface appeared to produce r.
A Deterministic Almost-Linear Time Algorithm for Minimum-Cost Flow

We give a deterministic $m^{1+o(1)}$ time algorithm that computes exact maximum flows and minimum-cost flows on directed graphs with m edges and polynomially bounded integral demands, costs, and capacities. As a consequence, we obtain the first running time improvement for deterministic algorithms that compute maximum-flow in graphs with polynomial bounded capacities since the work of Goldberg-Rao [J.ACM ’98]. Our algorithm builds on the framework of Chen-Kyng-Liu-Peng-Gutenberg-Sachdeva [FOCS ’22] that computes an optimal flow by computing a sequence of $m^{1+o(1)}$-approximate undirected minimum-ratio cycles. We develop a deterministic dynamic graph data-structure to compute such a sequence of minimum-ratio cycles in an amortized $m^{o(1)}$ time per edge update. Our key technical contributions are deterministic analogues of the vertex sparsification and edge sparsification components of the data-structure from Chen et al. For the vertex sparsification component, we give a method to avoid the randomness in Chen et al. which involved sampling random trees to recurse on. For the edge sparsification component, we design a deterministic algorithm that maintains an embedding of a dynamic graph into a sparse spanner. We also show how our dynamic spanner can be applied to give a deterministic data structure that maintains a fully dynamic low-stretch spanning tree on graphs with polynomially bounded edge lengths, with subpolynomial average stretch and subpolynomial amortized time per edge update.
Diffraction tomography for crosswell imaging of nearly layered media

Diffraction tomography is a high‐resolution imaging technique applicable to the mapping of formation velocities away from the borehole, achieving a spatial resolution of better than one acoustic wavelength when used to image synthetic model data. However, traditional filtered back‐propagation diffraction tomography algorithms are based on weak‐scattering and constant‐background velocity assumptions, which limits their applicability to models of realistic structural complexity. Results are obtained using a new, computationally efficient single‐mode (P‐wave) diffraction tomography algorithm that is applicable to models, including geologically realistic ones, whose strongest variations can be approximated as a set of horizontal layers. The algorithm starts with a layered model of the subsurface velocity structure, which may be constructed from well logs or by using traveltime tomography. Application of layered diffraction tomography updates this model to reveal 2-D structures such as faults, pinch‐outs, and .
Soil organic carbon enrichment of dust emissions: magnitude, mechanisms and its implications for the carbon cycle

Soil erosion is an important component of the global carbon cycle. However, little attention has been given to the role of aeolian processes in influencing soil organic carbon (SOC) flux and the release of greenhouse gasses, such as carbon dioxide (CO2), to the atmosphere. Understanding the magnitude and mechanisms of SOC enrichment in dust emissions is necessary to evaluate the impact of wind erosion on the carbon cycle. This research examines the SOC content and enrichment of dust emissions measured using Big Spring Number Eight (BSNE) wind‐vane samplers across five land types in the rangelands of western Queensland, Australia. Our results show that sandy soils and finer particulate quartz‐rich soils are more efficient at SOC emission and have larger SOC dust enrichment than clay‐rich aggregated soils. The SOC enrichment ratios of dusts originating from sites with sand‐rich soil ranged from 2·1–41·9, while the mean enrichment ratio for dusts originating from the clay soil was 2·1. We hypothesize that stronger inter‐particle bonds and the low grain density of the aggregated clay soil explain its reduced capacity to release SOC during saltation, relative to the particulate sandy soils. We also show that size‐selective sorting of SOC during transport may lead to further enrichment of SOC dust emissions. Two dust samples from regional transport events were found to contain 15–20% SOC. These preliminary results provide impetus for additional research into dust SOC enrichment processes to elucidate the impact of wind erosion on SOC flux and reduce uncertainty about the role of soil erosion in the global carbon cycle. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
INCORPORATING PROJECT UNCERTAINTY IN NOVEL ENVIRONMENTAL BIOTECHNOLOGIES: ILLUSTRATED USING PHYTOREMEDIATION

"Pollution of the environment by metals and organic contaminants is an intractable global problem, with cleanup costs running into billions of dollars using current engineering technologies. The availability of alternative, cheap and effective technologies would significantly improve the prospects of cleaning-up metal contaminated sites. Phytoremediation has been proposed as an economical and ‘green' method of exploiting plants to extract or degrade the contaminants in the soil. To date, the majority of phytoremediation efforts have been directed at leaping the biological, biochemical and agronomic hurdles to deliver a working technology, with scant attention to the economic outlook other than simple estimates of the cost advantages of phytoremediation over other techniques. In this paper we use a deterministic actuarial model to show that uncertainty in project success (the possibility that full clean up may not be realized) may significantly increase the perceived costs of remediation works for decision-makers. " Authors' Abstract
Origin of upper-mantle seismic scattering – evidence from Russian peaceful nuclear explosion data

SUMMARY Detailed interpretation of upper-mantle scattered waves recorded in the 800–1400 km offset range of four reversed ‘peaceful nuclear explosion’ seismic sections along the 3500 km long profile Kraton in Russia has revealed an ∼85 km thick seismically inhomogeneous low-velocity zone below the 8° discontinuity at ∼100 km depth. The scattered waves make up a wave train of high amplitude that decreases in duration from ∼8 s at 800 km offset to ∼4 s at 1400 km offset. 2-D elastic finite-difference modelling of the seismic wavefield has previously shown that the inhomogeneous zone from ∼100 to ∼185 km depth may be described by continuous, random velocity fluctuations represented by an exponential medium with a horizontal correlation length of 5–10 km, a vertical correlation length of <5 km and a standard deviation of ∼2 per cent of the average background velocity value. Here, we demonstrate that other proposed velocity fluctuations in the lower crust and in the uppermost mantle from the Moho to ∼100 km depth cannot explain the observed scattered phases. Our study shows that upper-mantle velocity fluctuations below the 8° discontinuity at 100 km depth are needed in order to explain the observed seismic wavefield, and that they lead to scattering that is significantly different from the scattering caused by the fluctuations at shallower levels.
Geodesic Regression Characterizes 3D Shape Changes in the Female Brain During Menstruation

Women are at higher risk of Alzheimer’s and other neurological diseases after menopause, and yet research connecting female brain health to sex hormone fluctuations is limited. We seek to investigate this connection by developing tools that quantify 3D shape changes that occur in the brain during sex hormone fluctuations. Geodesic regression on the space of 3D discrete surfaces offers a principled way to characterize the evolution of a brain’s shape. However, in its current form, this approach is too computationally expensive for practical use. In this paper, we propose approximation schemes that accelerate geodesic regression on shape spaces of 3D discrete surfaces. We also provide rules of thumb for when each approximation can be used. We test our approach on synthetic data to quantify the speed-accuracy trade-off of these approximations and show that practitioners can expect very significant speed-up while only sacrificing little accuracy. Finally, we apply the method to real brain shape data and produce the first characterization of how the female hippocampus changes shape during the menstrual cycle as a function of progesterone: a characterization made (practically) possible by our approximation schemes. Our work paves the way for comprehensive, practical shape analyses in the fields of bio-medicine and computer vision. Our implementation is publicly available on GitHub.
Dynamically Induced Anomalies of the Japan/East Sea Surface Temperature

Variability of sea surface temperature (SST) in the Japan/East Sea (JES) was studied using complex empirical orthogonal function (CEOF) analysis. Two daily data sets were analyzed: (1) New Generation 0.05˚-gridded SST from Tohoku University, Japan (July 2002-July 2006), and (2) 0.25˚-gridded SST from the Japan Meteorological Agency (October 1993-November 2006). Linkages with wind stress curl were revealed using 6-h 1˚-gridded surface zonal and meridional winds from ancillary data of the Sea-WiFS Project, a special National Centers for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP/NCAR) product (1998-2005). SST anomalies (SSTA) were obtained by removing the seasonal signal, estimated as the leading mode of the CEOF decomposition of the original SST. Leading CEOF modes of residual SSTA obtained from both data sets were consistent with each other and were characterized by annual, semiannual, and quasi-biennial time scales estimated with 95% statistical significance. The Semiannual Mode lagged 2 months behind the increased occurrence of the anticyclonic (AC) wind stress curl over the JES. Links to dynamic processes were investigated by numerical simulations using an oceanic model. The suggested dynamic forcings of SSTA are the inflow of subtropical water into the JES through the Korea Strait, divergence in the surface layer induced by Ekman suction, meridional shifts of the Subarctic Front in the western JES, AC eddy formation, and wind-driven strengthening/weakening of large-scale currents. Events of west-east SSTA movement were identified in July-September. The SSTA moved from the northeastern JES towards the continental coast along the path of the westward branch of the Tsushima Current at a speed consistent with the advective scale.
Predicting the hurricane damage ratio of commercial buildings by claim payout from Hurricane Ike

Abstract. The increasing occurrence of natural disaster events and related damages have led to a growing demand for models that predict financial loss. Although considerable research has studied the financial losses related to natural disaster events, and has found significant predictors, there has not yet been a comprehensive study that addresses the relationship among the vulnerabilities, natural disasters, and economic losses of the individual buildings. This study identified hurricanes and their vulnerability indicators in order to establish a metric to predict the related financial loss. We identify hurricane-prone areas by imaging the spatial distribution of the losses and vulnerabilities. This study utilized a Geographical Information System (GIS) to combine and produce spatial data, as well as a multiple linear regression method, to establish a hurricane damage prediction model. As the dependent variable, we utilized the following ratio to predict the real pecuniary loss: the value of the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA) claim payout divided by the appraised values of the buildings. As independent variables, we selected the hurricane indicators and vulnerability indicators of the built environment and the geographical features. The developed statistical model and results can be used as important guidelines by insurance companies, government agencies, and emergency planners for predicting hurricane damage.