Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effective Stress in Unsaturated Soil: Accounting for Surface Tension and Interfacial Area

A pore‐scale model for water retention and the specific air–water interfacial area is developed to quantitatively assess the contribution of interfacial forces to effective stress in coarse‐grained unsaturated soils. The simulated air–water interfacial area for several sand‐sized materials shows non‐monotonic behavior as a function of saturation, with the peak interface area between 10 and 25% saturation. Comparisons are made between suction stress characteristic curves calculated with and without accounting for interfacial forces calculated using surface tension and the simulated interfacial area. The contribution of interfacial forces to effective stress is most significant at low saturation (S < ~0.2) and for wetting processes because the air–water interface area is largest. The percent difference between suction stress for drying processes calculated with and without accounting for interfacial forces is zero at 100% saturation, negligible for saturation greater than ~70%, increases to ~10% at 50% saturation, and reaches a maximum of ~50% at 10% saturation. During wetting, the difference increases to as much as 140% at 10% saturation. While these differences can be appreciable for some geotechnical problems, the practical implications of neglecting interfacial forces in effective stress formulations for the mechanical behavior of unsaturated soil depend on the range of saturation, suction stress, and normal stress encountered in typical field environments.
Results of longitudinal Nutri-D study: factors influencing winter and summer vitamin D status in a Caucasian population

Introduction Inadequate vitamin D status is a worldwide public health issue. In humans, vitamin D status is affected by diet, and even more by exposure to ultraviolet B (UVB) light and consequential endogenous synthesis. Various personal and environmental factors influence endogenous synthesis. Factors affecting vitamin D status were investigated in a prospective longitudinal cohort study with a summer and winter observation period. Methods The final sample included 292 adults, of those 111 (38%) males and 181 (62%) females, with a mean age of 38.2 (±11.8) years from Slovenia who were not supplementing vitamin D. Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] concentrations were measured in both periods; vitamin D intake, self-reported body mass index (BMI), and protective behaviors against sun were also recorded. Other measured parameters included measurements of constitutive skin color using the objective individual typology angle (ITA), and difference in the melanin index (ΔMI) for assessment of objective sun exposure. Results In winter a high prevalence (63.4%) of insufficient vitamin D status (< 50 nmoL/L) was observed with higher odds ratios (OR) for insufficiency in those with a higher BMI and light ITA. During summer, insufficiency prevalence was low (5.5%), but half of the participants (50.0%) had suboptimal 25(OH)D concentration (< 75 nmol/L). In summer OR for suboptimal status were higher in those with obesity, lower ΔMI, light ITA, low vitamin D intake, and protective clothing behaviors. Conclusion Using a series of measures, we showed that vitamin D status is hugely affected by several personal factors such as BMI, ITA, vitamin D intake, ΔMI, and protective behavior against the sun. This conclusion questions the usefulness of generalized population-level recommendations since personal factors are a major predictor of vitamin D status.
Uncertainties of Interpolating Satellite-Specific Slant Ionospheric Delays and Impacts on PPP-RTK

Precise point positioning–real-time kinematic (PPP-RTK) achieves fast convergence in global navigation satellite system (GNSS) positioning and navigation. Correcting slant ionospheric delays is crucial for this purpose. One way to obtain the slant ionospheric corrections is by interpolating from nearby reference stations. However, the interpolation performance depends on many factors, such as time, elevation, and distance. This article aims to study the performance of three interpolation algorithms, i.e., inverse-distance weighting (IDW), radial basis function (RBF), and Kriging, under different ionospheric conditions. For inhomogeneously distributed ionospheric density, the performance of IDW is unsatisfying compared with the other two methods. In addition, we represent uncertainties on a 2-D map and find that the uncertainties increase on average linearly with distance. Elevation also plays an important role in interpolation uncertainty. Comprehensively, we build a mathematical model between the uncertainties of different interpolation methods as a function of time, elevation, and distance. They all degrade significantly with a large rate of change in the total electron content index (ROTI). Finally, we validate the proposed uncertainties by applying them to PPP-RTK processing. A convergence time within 2 min and positioning accuracy within 3.5 cm in horizontal and 6 cm in vertical directions are achieved.
Design of a Tripod-Shaped Radiator Patch Antenna for Ultra-Wideband Direction Finding

As UWB technology develops and devices become smaller, miniaturization techniques for an array antenna system are required. In addition, more in-depth research is needed for UWB direction-finding techniques using channel impulse response (CIR) data. This paper proposes an ultra-wideband (UWB) antenna using a single-radiator multiple-port (SRMP) design for the direction-finding systems of smart devices. The proposed SRMP antenna was designed using a single tripod-shaped patch that can replace the array system. The tripod-shaped radiator was optimized using the edge shape design function to improve its broadband and mutual coupling characteristics. For performance verification, the proposed antenna was fabricated, and the reflection coefficient, mutual coupling, and radiation patterns were measured in a fully anechoic chamber. The proposed antenna has an operating frequency band of 6.1 GHz (from 5.8 GHz to 11.9 GHz) for port 1 and a measured mutual coupling of −14.8 dB at 8 GHz. The SRMP antenna has measured maximum gains of 3.5 dBi for port 1 and 2.9 dBi for port 2. To examine the direction-finding performance, the fabricated antenna was connected to a circuit module with a DW3000 chip, which is widely employed in commercial mobile UWB systems. The direction of arrival (DoA) results using the measured CIR data show root-mean-square (RMS) errors of 1.57° and 4.58° at distances of 30 cm and 60 cm.
PatchDiscovery: Patch Presence Test for Identifying Binary Vulnerabilities Based on Key Basic Blocks

Software vulnerabilities are easily propagated through code reuses, which pose dire threats to software system security. Automatic patch presence test offers an effective way to detect whether vulnerabilities have been patched, which is significant for large-scale software system maintenance. However, most existing approaches cannot handle binary codes. They suffer from low accuracy and poor efficiency. None of them are resilient to version gap, function size, and patch size. To tackle the above problems, we propose <italic>PatchDiscovery</italic>, a patch presence test approach to identify binary vulnerabilities by extracting key basic blocks of patch and vulnerability as their signatures for patch discovery. We propose an efficient and accurate basic block matching method over the normalized and simplified control flow graphs (CFGs) of a vulnerable function (VF) and its patched function (PF) to precisely locate a vulnerability and a patch. Then, we conduct fine-grained patch-level analysis on the patch and the vulnerability to gain their key basic blocks as the signatures of PF and VF for patch presence test. Concretely, the key basic blocks of PF and VF are separately searched in a target function (TF) to identify whether the TF is more similar to PF or VF, i.e., patched or not. Extensive experiments based on two real-world binary datasets that contain 524 common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVEs) with 11607 target functions reveal that <italic>PatchDiscovery</italic> is very effective and efficient. It achieves <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$92.2\%$</tex-math><alternatives><mml:math display="inline"><mml:mn>92.2</mml:mn><mml:mi mathvariant="normal">%</mml:mi></mml:math><inline-graphic xlink:href="yan-ieq1-3332732.gif"/></alternatives></inline-formula> F-measure and takes only 0.091s on average to test a target function. It is also resilient to version gap, patch size, and function size to a good extent. Moreover, it is outperforming the state-of-the-art works and has a much faster testing speed for large-scale patch detection. Moreover, <italic>PatchDiscovery</italic> achieves good performance in firmware vulnerability discovery scenario.
Evidencias de validez del Perceived Available Support in Sport Questionnaire (PASS-Q) en deportistas mexicanos (Validity evidence of the Perceived Available Support in Sport Questionnaire (PASS-Q) in Mexican athletes)

El estudio científico del apoyo social en México se ha visto limitado en su desarrollo, en parte debido a la falta de instrumentos específicos del contexto deportivo. Atendiendo a estas demandas de medición, el objetivo de esta investigación fue analizar la evidencia de validez y fiabilidad del Perceived Available Support in Sport Questionnaire (PASS-Q) en deportistas mexicanos. Participaron 991 deportistas (hombres = 66.3%) entre 12 y 32 años de edad (M = 17.22, DT = 2.83). Mediante el Análisis factorial confirmatorio se obtuvo suficiente evidencia de la validez de constructo. Los índices de bondad de ajuste del modelo tetrafactorial del PASS-Q fueron aceptables (χ2 = 474.949; χ2/df = 5.39; df = 88; p < .01; CFI = 0.96; TLI = 0.94; IFI = 0.96; RMSEA = 0.07). Las cargas factoriales estandarizadas resultaron estadísticamente significativas, superando el valor mínimo recomendado (λ = 0.40). En cuanto a la validez discriminante y concurrente, se encontró respaldo empírico a las correlaciones del PASS-Q con el ABQ y la SPSS. La fiabilidad fue alta con coeficientes alfa de Cronbach entre 0.81 y 0.84. El modelo tetrafactorial demostró invarianza configural, métrica y escalar en relación al género. El PASS-Q muestra adecuadas evidencias de validez y fiabilidad, recomendando su uso con deportistas mexicanos. Palabras clave: apoyo social, validez de constructo, consistencia interna, deportes. Abstract. The development of scientific research on social support in Mexico has been limited, partly due to the lack of specific instruments about the sports environment. In response to this measurement necessity, the present study aims to analyze the evidence of validity and reliability of the Perceived Available Support in Sport Questionnaire (PASS-Q) in Mexican athletes. The sample was composed of 991 athletes, with ages between 12 and 32 years. Through Confirmatory factor analysis, it was obtained enough evidence for construct validity. The adjustment indexes used to evaluate the PASS-Q four-factor model seem to fit well (χ2 = 474.949; fg = 88; p < .01; CFI = 0.96; TLI = 0.94; IFI = 0.96; RMSEA = 0.07). The standardized factor loadings were statistically significant, exceeding the minimum recommended value (λ = 0.40). Regarding discriminant and concurrent validity, empirical support was found for the correlations of the PASS-Q with the ABQ and the SPSS. The reliability was high with Cronbach's alpha coefficient ​​between 0.81 and 0.84. The tetrafactorial model demonstrated configural, metric and scalar invariance in relation to gender. The PASS-Q shows adequate psychometric properties and its use with Mexican athletes is recommended. Keywords: Social support, construct validity, internal consistency, sports.
THE GLOBAL HYDROLOGICAL AND ENERGY CYCLES AT LAST GLACIAL MAXIMUM IN CCSM3

Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), defined as the climate at 21ka (21000 years BP), was the peak of the last glacial period, when large inland ice sheets reached their maximum extent. Two of the largest ice sheets during LGM were in the Northern Hemisphere, the Laurentide Ice Sheet (located over North America) and the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet (over Northern Europe). This work focuses on a comparison between Last Glacial Maximum and Pre-industrial (PI), which is the climate before industrialization at 1800 A.D. (OttoBliesner et al. 2006). Clouds are important within the climate system in part because they reflect solar radiation and contribute to the greenhouse effect. A cloud feedback occurs due to changes in these cloud effects. Cloud feedbacks can arise from changes in the cloud amount, top height, and cloud optical properties. Further discussion of cloud and other radiative feedbacks can be found in Bony et al. (2006). Changes to climate during an ice age or global warming affect the distribution of clouds. The resulting cloud feedbacks can either amplify or damp changes in the globally averaged surface temperature. In this study, we examine the cloud feedbacks that affect the differences between the LGM and PI climates as simulated by a climate model.
Clay Petrology Of Cambro-Ordovician Continental Margin, Cow Head Klippe, Western Newfoundland

The sedimentary rocks of the Taconic Cow Head klippe contain three clay-mineral suites of progressively younger stratigraphic occurrence. An illite—14A chlorite suite is the oldest, occurring in the Middle Cambrian to early Lower Ordovician part of the 310-m Cow Head Breccia. These earliest clays were transported from the stable craton and shelf, slowly accumulating during 70 x 106 yr on the continental slope in limestone breccia, green and gray shale, and argillaceous limestone. The illite and 14A chlorite are judged to be largely detrital. An illite-expandable chlorite suite is in early to late Lower Ordovician limestone breccia, green and gray shale, and argillaceous limestone of the Cow Head Breccia. A corrensite-illite-smectite suite of late Lower to Middle Ordovician age occurs in the Cow Head Breccia and throughout the overlying 200-m ‘Red Shale’ and the more than 400-m ‘Green Sandstone’ flysch sequence of volcanogenic sandstone and gray shale. Beginning in the early Lower Ordovician, increasing amounts of Mg2+-rich volcanic detritus were rapidly transported westward from a developing volcanic island arc in central Newfoundland. During burial metamorphism, volcanic materials and their alteration products reacted to form the illite-smectite with 5–10% expandable layers plus corrensite or expandable chlorite found in the younger two clay-mineral suites.
Recent Stratigraphy and Pollen Analysis of Lomawai and Kubulau

Late Holocene sea level trends of two significant mangrove areas in Fiji were reconstructed by transect-sampled stratigraphic cores, at Lomawai on the western coast of Viti Levu, and Kubulau on the southern coast of Vanua Levu. These cores were investigated using percent organic, radiocarbon dating, and pollen analysis techniques to reconstruct environmental history of the Late Holocene. Results showed at Lomawai that mangroves occurred to at least 3 meters below present, and with a micro-tidal range of mangroves of 1 meter or less this indicates relative sea-level rise at the site in the last 1,000 years at least, consistent with regional subsidence. At Kubulau, stratigraphy was relatively shallow, with little evidence of mangrove presence below current levels suggesting tectonic stability. Inorganic sedimentation at both sites indicated high levels of allochthonous sediment input in association with catchment delivery, with sedimentary rates of around 1.1-2.0 mm a-1 under the present mangroves, though more rapid at the Lomawai seaward edge, perhaps in association with disturbance. The Lomawai mangrove area has been keeping up with relative sea level rise rates higher than global rates in the last several hundred years, with replicated evidence of mangrove stratigraphy far lower than present tidal levels. While mangroves have kept up, there has been a slow landward migration of mangrove zones over the centuries indicating that the rate or relative sea level rise has been slightly higher than the sedimentation rates. Hence both Lomawai and Kubulau mangroves are vulnerable to global increases in the rate of sea level rise, which can be mitigated by continued catchment sediment delivery, and other actions to retain mangrove resilience.
Absence of Fingerprints- A Case Series

Background & objective: Biometric identification with the use of fingerprints being one of the most popular methods in recent times for identity verification all over the world, is extensively used to keep up records and getting through every legislative process in Bangladesh. This newly devised method of identity verification is exposing cases of genetically inherited adermatoglyphia (absence of fingerprints) also termed as, immigration delay disease. The disease is characterized by absence of fingerprints that are seeking legal attention to concerned authorities requiring an alternative standardized method of verification. Only a few isolated cases of the adermatoglyphia, where every offspring has 50% chance of having the disease in an autosomal dominant fashion, have been reported in the whole world till date. Hence an alternative method of verification is required to keep up authentic records for these people and their future generations. This case series study was done on newly identified suspected cases of genetically inherited adermatoglyphia, where six male members from one single-family are suffering from this disease. They are facing problems in everyday life as the absence of fingerprints is restricting them from accessing national ID card, sim card registration, passport, driving license & other services where biometric verification is mandatory to confirm the identity. Ibrahim Card Med J 2022; 12 (1): 64-68
Yield of dry matter and nutritious quality of the grass Panicum maximum vc. Likoni in a soil of region east of Cuba.

In a design of blocks the influence of the days of regrowth was evaluated at random (30 to 105 days) and the factors of the climate in the matter yield REDVET. Revista electrónica de Veterinaria 1695-7504 2010 Volumen 11 Número 07 Rendimiento de materia seca y calidad nutritiva del pasto Panicum maximum vc. Likoni en un suelo fluvisol de la región oriental de Cuba http://www.veterinaria. org/revistas/redvet/n070710/071018.pdf 2 and nutritious quality of the grass Panicum maximum vc. Likoni. No fertilization or irrigation was practiced. The yield of DM was increased significantly with the age (P <0,001) and quadratic equations were adjusted between this and the age, for both periods, with values superiors to the 90 days (7.23 rainy season and 2,16 dry season t/ha/cut). The climatic variables showed discharges correlations (positive and negative) with the yield and the chemical composition, accented in the dry season. The crude protein, digestibility of the DM and OM diminished with the age (P <0,001) and equations of quadratic regression were adjusted between these variables and the age, the biggest percentages were shown to the age of 30 days in both periods. The FND, FAD, lignin and the Cellulose were increased with the age (P <0,001), showing their biggest values to the 105 days of rebrote in both periods and equations of quadratic regression of these variables were adjusted regarding the age. This concludes that the age and the climatic conditions had a marked effect in the behavior of the evaluated indicators, accented in the rainy period when diminishing the nutritious quality.
Effects of a low-velocity zone on a dynamic rupture

Dynamic-crack earthquake simulations generally assume that the crustal material surrounding faults is laterally homogeneous. Tomographic and near-fault seismic studies indicate that the crust near faults is instead comprised of rocks of varying material velocities. We have tested the effects of adding material-velocity variation to simulations of spontaneously propagating earthquakes. We used two-dimensional plane strain conditions coupled with a slip-weakening fracture criterion and examined earthquakes on faults that bisect finite-width low-velocity zones embedded in country rock and earthquakes on faults that bound two different-velocity materials. When a fault bisects a low-velocity zone, the normal stress remains unchanged, but both the rupture velocity and slip-velocity pulse shape are perturbed. The presence of the low-velocity zone induces high-frequency oscillations in the slip function near the rupture front. When the fault is on the edge of the low-velocity zone, the oscillations are more pronounced, and repeated sticking and slipping can occur near the rupture front. For the slip-weakening (velocity-independent) friction model, however, the temporary sticking does not lead to permanent arrest of slip, and slip duration is still controlled by the overall rupture dimension. When an earthquake ruptures a fault juxtaposing a lower-velocity material against a higher-velocity material, the normal stress across the fault near the crack tip is perturbed. The sign of the normal stress perturbation depends on the direction of rupture, leading in some cases to a directional dependence of rupture velocity. When slip is accompanied by stress reduction, a positive feedback develops between the normal and shear stress changes, as previously noted by Andrews and Ben-Zion (1997), resulting in an apparently unavoidable grid-size dependence in computation of stress change near the rupture front. Numerical experiments indicate, however, that the rupture velocity is insensitive to this zone size dependence, which is highly localized immediately behind the crack tip. The factors controlling the rupture velocity in the simulations, including directional dependence, are further elucidated by a new analytical solution for rupture of an asperity on a frictionless interface.
Preliminary Characterization of Clay Organo-Mineral Aggregates Isolated from Different Typical Soils

Clay organo-mineral aggregates were isolated from different soils in China including red soil,black soil and fluvo-aquic soil by ultrasonic dispersion in water followed by sedimentation.The physico-chemical properties of organo-mineral aggregates were determined and the clay fractions were characterized jointly with Fourier transform infrared(FTIR)spectroscopy,scanning electron microscopy(SEM),X-ray diffraction(XRD)and nuclear magnetic resonance(NMR)spectrometry.It was found that clay fraction of black soil had the highest soil organic matter content and greatest cation exchange capacity.XRD patterns showed that quartz was the dominant mineral in all kinds of clays.Clay of red soil also consisted of mica,amphibole and trace amount of chlorite,while the mineral assemblage of black soil consisted of feldspar,calcite and trace amount of mica and chlorite.The mineral in clay of fluvo-aquic soil was mica,feldspar,calcite and dolomite.From FTIR spectra,the result can be reached that mineral components from red soil are mainly kaolinites while those from black soil and fluvo-aquic soil are mainly montmorillonites.The results of FTIR spectra were coincident with those of XRD.The SEM images indicated that all clays were sheet-like,amorphous aggregates.The surface of fluvo-aquic soil was roughest,while clay of red soil showed relatively clean surface than others.Results of SEM-EDS revealed that silicon was the dominant constituent element,which was consistent with above results.The information from NMR indicated that the content of aliphatic C of red soil was highest,while the content of o-alkyl C was the most in clay of black soil,furthermore,the content of aliphatic,o-alkyl and aromatic C levels were similar in clay of fluvo-aquic soil.