scholarly journals Heated Topics in Thermochronology and Paths towards Resolution

Geosciences ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 375 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Fox ◽  
Andrew Carter

Thermochronometry is widely used to track exhumation, the motion of rock towards Earth’s surface, and to gain fresh insights into geodynamic and geomorphic processes. Applications require models to reconstruct a rock’s cooling history as it is exhumed from higher temperatures at depth within the crust to cooler shallower levels and eventually Earth’s surface. Thermochronometric models are dependent on the predictable accumulation and the temperature-dependent loss of radiogenic daughter products measured in the laboratory. However, there are many geologically reasonable scenarios that will yield very similar thermochronometric ages. This similarity hinders finding the actual scenario, so instead an approximate model is sought. Finding suitable model parameters is a potentially ill-posed inverse problem that requires making decisions about how best to extract information from the data and how to combine data to leverage redundant information and reduce the impact of data noise. Often these decisions lead to differences in conclusions of studies and such discrepancies have led to heated debates. Here, we discuss debates centred on the use of a variety of modelling approaches and potential sources of biases that lead to differences in the predicted exhumation rate. We also provide some suggestions about future research paths that will help resolve these debates.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Kimathi ◽  
Samuel Mwalili ◽  
Viona Ojiambo ◽  
Duncan Gathungu

Abstract Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. The disease has spread to almost every country in the world. Kenya reported its first case on 13th of March 2020. From 16th March 2020, the country instituted various social distancing strategies to reduce the transmission and flatten the epidemic curve. These strategies include school closure, dusk-to-dawn curfew, and travel restriction across counties, especially Nairobi, Mombasa and Kwale. An age-structured compartmental model was developed to assess the impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions on severity of infections, hospital demands and deaths. Methods: The population is divided into four age-groups and for each age-group there are seven compartments, namely: susceptible , exposed, asymptomatic, mild, severe, critical, death and recovered. The contact matrices between the different ages are integrated into an age-structured deterministic model via the force of infection. This model is represented by ordinary differential equations and solved using Runge–Kutta methods, with suitable model parameters. Simulation results for the unmitigated and mitigated scenarios were depicted, for the different age-groups. Results: The 45% reduction in contacts for 60-days period resulted to between 11.5-13% reduction of infections severity and deaths, while for the 190-days period yielded between 18.8-22.7% reduction. The peak of infections in the 60-days mitigation was higher and happened about 2 months after the relaxation of mitigation as compared to that of the 190-days mitigation, which happened just a month after mitigation were relaxed. Low numbers of cases in children under 15 years was attributed to low susceptibility of persons in this age-group. High numbers of cases are reported in the 15-29 years and 30-59 years age bands since these individuals have wider interaction spheres, and they form a significant percentage of Kenya population. Conclusion: Two mitigation periods, considered in the study, resulted to reductions in severe and critical cases, attack rates, hospital and ICU bed demands, as well as deaths, with the 190-days period giving higher reductions. The study revealed the age-dependency of the key health outputs.


Author(s):  
L.M. Tuktamysheva ◽  
◽  
O.B. Chaganova ◽  

The issue of studying the socio-economic inequality of the population in the regional context is a broad field for research. Of interest are studies based on the analysis of the relationships between the population’s income, debt load or the propensity to accumulation of money, as well as the population’s ability to spend leisure time in restaurants and other similar establishments. The purpose of the article is to identify the features and analyze the dynamics of financial and consumer behavior of the population of the Russian Federation in the regional context. The article studies the financial and consumer behavior of the population of Russian regions, both in time and spatial terms, based on open data from SBER. The spatial regression heterogeneity of data is proved by using the multidimensional classification methods and the time heterogeneity of data is proved by using special statistical criteria used in time series analysis. The revealed differentiation of the regions of the Russian Federation in terms of financial and consumer behavior shows the stability of the class with the highest incomes and consumer expenditures. This class includes the capital regions and the Northern regions where mining operations as economic activity is developed. Meanwhile, almost all of Central Russia belongs to regions with very low incomes, which means that the population of these regions does not have the opportunity to saving up. The population of these regions is characterized by the lowest spending not only in restaurants, but also in fast food cafes. The developed system of equations model based on panel data has a scientific novelty, which allows displaying structural relationships between the population’s income, financial and consumer behavior. In future research, when information for 2020 becomes publicly available, the model parameters should be re-evaluated, and to account for the impact of quarantine measures, appropriate variables (dummies, perhaps) may be introduced into the model. The obtained results and conclusions can be used in the development and evaluation of the effectiveness of projects aimed at demographic development or any socio-economic programs.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu Jiang ◽  
Pablo González

<p>Phase unwrapping is the process of recovering the absolute phase from unambiguous wrapped phase values that are measured modulo 2pi rad. From a mathematical point of view, phase unwrapping is an inverse problem, however, it is ill-posed and notoriously difficult to solve in the presence of noise. Meanwhile, phase unwrapping errors severely impact the estimation of earthquake and volcano source parameters using interferometric observations, therefore avoiding phase unwrapping completely is desirable. </p><p>A potential solution to avoid the unwrapping error issue completely, is to carry out a geophysical inversion directly on the wrapped phase observations. To overcome the need for phase unwrapping, we propose a novel approach that we can invert directly the interferometric wrapped phase, circumventing the ill-posed phase unwrapping processing step. This approach includes (1) a downsampling algorithm, (2) a method to estimate the covariance function of the wrapped phase, (3) an appropriate misfit function between the observed and the simulated wrapped phase. We also assess the uncertainties of source parameters within a Bayesian approach, and finally we test the robustness of the inversion methodology in multiple simulations including variable decorrelation and atmospheric noise simulations.</p><p>We demonstrate the proposed methodology on synthetic cases with variable noise and one real earthquake case. We show that the method is robust in challenging noise scenarios. We also show an improvement with the Bayesian approach in performance with respect to similar previous methods, resulting in avoiding any influence of seed starting models, and escaping local minima. We study the impact of a small percentage of incorrectly unwrapped phase observations in current state-of-the-art methods, and show that the presence of a small fraction of unwrapping errors affect strongly the estimation process. We conclude that in the cases where phase unwrapping is difficult or even impossible, the proposed inversion methodology with wrapped phase will provide an alternative approach to assess earthquake and volcano source model parameters.</p>


2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 557-575 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manjula Devak ◽  
C. T. Dhanya

Abstract Different hydrological models provide diverse perspectives of the system being modeled, and inevitably, are imperfect representations of reality. Irrespective of the choice of models, the major source of error in any hydrological modeling is the uncertainty in the determination of model parameters, owing to the mismatch between model complexity and available data. Sensitivity analysis (SA) methods help to identify the parameters that have a strong impact on the model outputs and hence influence the model response. In addition, SA assists in analyzing the interaction between parameters, its preferable range and its spatial variability, which in turn influence the model outcomes. Various methods are available to perform SA and the perturbation technique varies widely. This study attempts to categorize the SA methods depending on the assumptions and methodologies involved in various methods. The pros and cons associated with each SA method are discussed. The sensitivity pertaining to the impact of space and time resolutions on model results is highlighted. The applicability of different SA approaches for various purposes is understood. This study further elaborates the objectives behind selection and application of SA approaches in hydrological modeling, hence providing valuable insights on the limitations, knowledge gaps, and future research directions.


2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 2097-2108
Author(s):  
Robyn L. Croft ◽  
Courtney T. Byrd

Purpose The purpose of this study was to identify levels of self-compassion in adults who do and do not stutter and to determine whether self-compassion predicts the impact of stuttering on quality of life in adults who stutter. Method Participants included 140 adults who do and do not stutter matched for age and gender. All participants completed the Self-Compassion Scale. Adults who stutter also completed the Overall Assessment of the Speaker's Experience of Stuttering. Data were analyzed for self-compassion differences between and within adults who do and do not stutter and to predict self-compassion on quality of life in adults who stutter. Results Adults who do and do not stutter exhibited no significant differences in total self-compassion, regardless of participant gender. A simple linear regression of the total self-compassion score and total Overall Assessment of the Speaker's Experience of Stuttering score showed a significant, negative linear relationship of self-compassion predicting the impact of stuttering on quality of life. Conclusions Data suggest that higher levels of self-kindness, mindfulness, and social connectedness (i.e., self-compassion) are related to reduced negative reactions to stuttering, an increased participation in daily communication situations, and an improved overall quality of life. Future research should replicate current findings and identify moderators of the self-compassion–quality of life relationship.


Author(s):  
Endy Gunanto ◽  
Yenni Kurnia Gusti

In this article we present a conceptual of the effect of cross culture on consumer behavior incorporating the impact of globalization. This conceptual idea shows that culture inûuences various domains of consumer behavior directly as well as through international organization to implement marketing strategy. The conceptual identify several factors such as norm and value in the community, several variables and also depicts the impact of other environmental factors and marketing strategy elements on consumer behavior. We also identify categories of consumer culture orientation resulting from globalization. Highlights of each of the several other articles included in this special issue in Asia region. We conclude with the contributions of the articles in terms of the consumer cultural orientations and identify directions for future research.


2020 ◽  
Vol 91 (8) ◽  
pp. 651-661
Author(s):  
Joshua T. Davis ◽  
Hilary A. Uyhelji

INTRODUCTION: Although the impact of microorganisms on their hosts has been investigated for decades, recent technological advances have permitted high-throughput studies of the collective microbial genomes colonizing a host or habitat, also known as the microbiome. This literature review presents an overview of microbiome research, with an emphasis on topics that have the potential for future applications to aviation safety. In humans, research is beginning to suggest relationships of the microbiome with physical disorders, including type 1 and type 2 diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, and respiratory disease. The microbiome also has been associated with psychological health, including depression, anxiety, and the social complications that arise in autism spectrum disorders. Pharmaceuticals can alter microbiome diversity, and may lead to unintended consequences both short and long-term. As research strengthens understanding of the connections between the microbiota and human health, several potential applications for aerospace medicine and aviation safety emerge. For example, information derived from tests of the microbiota has potential future relevance for medical certification of pilots, accident investigation, and evaluation of fitness for duty in aerospace operations. Moreover, air travel may impact the microbiome of passengers and crew, including potential impacts on the spread of disease nationally and internationally. Construction, maintenance, and cleaning regimens that consider the potential for microbial colonization in airports and cabin environments may promote the health of travelers. Altogether, the mounting knowledge of microbiome effects on health presents several opportunities for future research into how and whether microbiome-based insights could be used to improve aviation safety.Davis JT, Uyhelji HA. Aviation and the microbiome. Aerosp Med Hum Perform. 2020; 91(8):651–661.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 (1) ◽  
pp. 331-338 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jérémie Gerhardt ◽  
Michael E. Miller ◽  
Hyunjin Yoo ◽  
Tara Akhavan

In this paper we discuss a model to estimate the power consumption and lifetime (LT) of an OLED display based on its pixel value and the brightness setting of the screen (scbr). This model is used to illustrate the effect of OLED aging on display color characteristics. Model parameters are based on power consumption measurement of a given display for a number of pixel and scbr combinations. OLED LT is often given for the most stressful display operating situation, i.e. white image at maximum scbr, but having the ability to predict the LT for other configurations can be meaningful to estimate the impact and quality of new image processing algorithms. After explaining our model we present a use case to illustrate how we use it to evaluate the impact of an image processing algorithm for brightness adaptation.


Author(s):  
Dzhyhil Yu. ◽  

Residential architecture has one of the most conservative styles based on its specifics. However, today this type of architecture seeks to actively respond to changes in the modern world. These changes are caused by multiple factors, among them are: technological and information progress; lack of resources and environmental pollution; military conflicts and population migration etc. The purpose of this article is to summarize the experience of the Department of Architectural Environment of Lviv Polytechnic National University over housing issues and outline the methodological principles of innovation in designing both individual houses and the architectural environment of residential formations. While writing this article, we analyzed the 15-year experience of Architectural Environment's Department diploma projects. The unique feature of these projects is the priority on the design of the environment. The evolution of diploma project topics is revealed on multiple distinctive examples such as the reconstruction of old buildings in Lviv and the construction of prefabricated homes and container-type housing. Futuristic settlements are represented in projects such as “The Ocean Settlements” and “Prykarpatsk - the City of Future”. Research projects were developed to study current trends in housing design and the impact of innovative technologies on planning decisions. These projects discoursed the protection of housing from traffic noise and issues related to environmental preservation. Innovative architectural ideas of future housing, developed by students in these projects, are based on a combination of aesthetic, technical, and social components of architecture. The conclusion indicates that when educating future architects, it is important to teach them the basics of the craft, as well as the ability to defend their innovative ideas. The emphasis is placed on the importance of educating the architect's personal responsibility for their own design solutions. It is stated that professional motivation and the ability to constantly renew previously acquired knowledge and skills will be among the main tasks in training future architects.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 112
Author(s):  
Sura Altheeb ◽  
Kholoud Sudqi Al-Louzi

The current research investigates the impact of internal corporate social responsibility on job satisfaction in Jordanian pharmaceutical companies. Quantitative research design and regression analysis were applied on a total of 302 valid returns that were obtained in a questionnaire based survey from 14 pharmaceutical companies among employees, supervisors and managers. The results showed that internal corporate social responsibility was significantly related to job satisfaction and three of its dimensions, namely working conditions, work life balance and empowerment contributed significantly to job satisfaction, whereas employment stability and skills development had no contribution. This study implies that Jordanian pharmaceutical companies have to try their best to promote and facilitate internal corporate social responsibility among their employees in an effort to improve their job satisfaction, which will eventually yield positive results for the company as a whole. In light of these results, the research presented many recommendations for future research; the most important ones were the application of this study in other sectors, cultures, and countries, and using of multi method for collecting data.


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