ALBERT

Description: High-frequency radar-based observations of surface currents along the east coast of Taiwan, obtained over a 50-day period in early 2017, are used to examine the occurrence, generation, and downstream advection of submesoscale eddies in the Kuroshio. Measured at an effective depth of 2 m and radial resolution of 3 km from four land-based HF radar systems spanning an 250-km along-stream distance, the surface current observations reveal the instantaneous position of the Kuroshio on hourly time scales as well as the occurrence of numerous high relative vorticity features. Vortex features with spatial scales of 5-20 km were concentrated in the first 30 km offshore, with many created at the southern tip of Taiwan on tidal timescales. Most features, with relative vorticities approaching zeta/f=1, translated northward along the coast at the speed of the Kuroshio itself and were coherent over the 250-km length of the Taiwanese coastline. Both tides and regional winds appear to influence when long-lived features form, and the offshore advection of surface waters by the vortices are observable in intermittent Satellite images of surface chlorophyll. While most features are advected northward with the current, a submarine ridge acts to impede the flow, scattering northward moving features and causing occasional southward-migrating vortices. Data Description: DESCRIPTION; The surface current observations used here were obtained from four long-range (4 MHz transmit frequency) land-based coastal radar systems, operated by the Taiwan Ocean Research Institute (TORI) and the National Taiwan University (NTU). All systems were Codar Ocean Sensors SeaSondes, with the three southern stations operated by TORI, and the northern-most station by NTU. Collected over the time period spanning February 1st to March 26th, 2017, the hourly observations of Doppler cross-spectra had a radial resolution of 3 km. Horizontal resolution was dependent on both the resolution of the measured antenna patterns (1 degree in azimuth) as well as the inherent azimuthal resolution of the radar returns themselves. DATA_PREPARATION_DESCRIPTION; Observed Doppler cross-spectra were reprocessed following Kirincich et al. (2012) using adjusted measured antenna patterns and advanced quality control metrics to estimate the radial surface currents observed at each site. Measured antenna response patterns were adjusted iteratively to reduce radar-to-radar inconsistencies defined using synthetic radials estimated from adjacent radars as well as systematic biases in mean vorticity and divergence patterns. Vector combinations of the radial surface currents, representative of the average currents over the top 2 m of the water column (StewartJoy, 1974) were estimated using power-weighed least-squares methods (Kirincich et al. 2012, Kaplan et al 2005) with a fixed horizontal averaging length-scale of 3 km, and masked for errors due to the geometric dilution of precision (GDOP) greater than 2 (Barrack, 2002). Acquisition Description: SENSOR_INFORMATION; Radio frequency interference from the ionosphere is a particular problem for the TORI and NTU radars, due to a combination of latitude and transmit frequency, causing elevated background noise during local nighttime. Returns at ranges of 90 km, the distance to the primary scattering layer within the ionosphere, are especially affected. SNR was used as an effective screening tool to isolate and eliminate data contaminated by ionospheric radio noise common in the region, adding further improvements to the radial velocity results. However, data from a 50x50 km region directly offshore of the radar site near 23deg 30' N 121deg 30' E was excised during the hours of 11 to 17 UTC each day during the observational period due to poor data returns during times of high ionospheric reflections and radio noise that resulted in poorly resolved and inaccurate vector current estimates. Using synthetic radials from adjacent HFR sites (Emery et al 2019), surface current uncertainties are estimated to be 5-10 cm/s. the west of the 2018-2019 mooring locations. The surface mooring was located at 41.0706degN 70.8177degW in 40 m of water and sampled surface vector winds, air temperature, air pressure, and relative humidity using a Vaisala WXT520 located at 2 m above mean sea level at 10 min ensemble averages, of 1 Hz data. The 2020 surface mooring also had 5 temperature-conductivity sensors (SBE37s) that sampled the oceanic water column at fixed depths below the surface of 0.6,4,6.5,10, and 20-m at 2 min increments. Finally the 2020 subsurface mooring was deployed at 41.0706degN 70.8177degW and contained a sub-surface float at 8-m below sea level in 40 m of water. The float held an upward looking Nortek Signature 1000 AD2CP that collected 2048 pings @4Hz every 20 min at 0.25 m bin depths.

Description: HF Radar observations used here were funded by Taiwan's National Applied Research Laboratories as well as the National Taiwan University. A. Kirincich was funded by the U.S. Office of Naval Research under contract #N000141712761.

Description: Cassiterite, the economically most important tin mineral, typically has moderate U and variable common Pb contents, making it amenable for U-Pb dating. Cassiterite has extremely low Th/U ratios (Th/U 〈 0.01) and its 208Pb is dominantly common Pb. This is particularly helpful as there is significant interference of tungsten oxides on 202Hg and 204Pb. The feasibility of the 208Pb correction procedure is discussed in detail. The 208Pb corrected LA-SF-ICP-MS data are in good agreement with intercept ages in the Tera-Wasserburg diagram and 207Pb corrected ages. Twelve cassiterite samples were investigated using the ID-TIMS and LA-SF-ICP-MS methods. The ID-TIMS results of Pit-AB, Rond-A, RG-114, BB#7 and 19GX cassiterite are reported for the first time in this study. RG-114, BB#7 and 19GX cassiterite have very low common Pb contents and are recommended for use as primary reference materials for in situ cassiterite. Pit-AB, Rond-A and Yankee cassiterite contain a small amount of common Pb, produce reliable and consistent ages and are suitable as primary reference materials. The remaining five cassiterite samples (Kard, Zinnwald, Els, XBD-W and Y724) were only investigated using the LA-SF-ICP-MS method and produce ages consistent with published age data from the host rocks associated with the tin deposits and with published U-Pb ages of cassiterite from the same deposits. We present an ID-TIMS Usingle bondPb of 154.3 ± 0.7 Ma for the commonly used cassiterite reference material AY-4. This age differs from previously reported ID-TIMS ages. This age discrepancy is caused by different initial common Pb compositions rather than age heterogeneity.

Description: We present a new procedure for U–Pb dating of vesuvianite using laser ablation sector field inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-SF-ICP-MS). Vesuvianite is a common mineral in skarn ore deposits and in metamorphic and metasomatic argillaceous carbonate rocks. The age of vesuvianite growth directly dates the formation of skarn mineralization, possibly also the metamorphism and metasomatism of argillaceous limestones. Vesuvianite U–Pb dating may provide age information for hydrothermal, metamorphic, and metasomatic processes that may be hard to get by zircon U–Pb dating. We analyzed eleven vesuvianite samples. Matrix effects were corrected by using Ti-bearing andradite (schorlomite) of known age as no well-characterized vesuvianite was available as a U–Pb reference material. The robustness of the analytical protocol was assessed by additional U–Pb dating of four vesuvianite samples by ID-TIMS. The U–Pb ages determined by ID-TIMS and LA-SF-ICP-MS agree well within uncertainties. An additional seven vesuvianite samples yielded in situ U–Pb ages that agree with previously published zircon, cassiterite, or wolframite U–Pb ages from the same area. Therefore, U–Pb dating of vesuvianite by LA-SF-ICP-MS represents a fast, relatively low-cost approach with high spatial resolution that may be particularly suited to date skarn mineralization.

Description: In this chapter the application of the curlometer technique to various regions of the inner magnetosphere and upper ionosphere and for special circumstances of sampling is described. The basic technique is first outlined, together with the caveats of use, covering: the four-spacecraft technique, its quality factor and limitations; the lessons learnt from Cluster data, together with issues of implementation, scale size and stationarity, and description of the key regions covered by related methodology. Secondly, the application to the Earth’s ring current region is outlined, covering: the application of Cluster crossings to survey the ring current; the use of the MRA (magnetic rotation analysis) method for field curvature analysis; the use of THEMIS (Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Sub-storms mission) three-spacecraft configurations to sample the ring current, and future use of MMS (Magnetospheric MultiScale mission) and Swarm data, i.e. the case of small separations. Thirdly, the application of the technique to the low altitude regions covered by Swarm is outlined, covering: the extension of the method to stationary signals; the use of special configurations and adjacent times to achieve 2, 3, 4, 5 point analysis; the use of the extended ‘curlometer’ with Swarm close configurations to compute 3-D current density, and a brief indication of the computation of current sheet orientation implied by 2-spacecraft correlations. Fourthly, the direct coordination of Cluster and Swarm to check the scaling and coherence of field-aligned currents (FACs) is outlined.

Description: Nitrogen regulates multiple aspects of the permafrost climate feedback, including plant growth, organic matter decomposition, and the production of the potent greenhouse gas nitrous oxide. Despite its importance, current estimates of permafrost nitrogen are highly uncertain. Here, we compiled a dataset of 〉2000 samples to quantify nitrogen stocks in the Yedoma domain, a region with organic-rich permafrost that contains ~25% of all permafrost carbon. We estimate that the Yedoma domain contains 41.2 gigatons of nitrogen down to ~20 metre for the deepest unit, which increases the previous estimate for the entire permafrost zone by ~46%. Approximately 90% of this nitrogen (37 gigatons) is stored in permafrost and therefore currently immobile and frozen. Here, we show that of this amount, ¾ is stored 〉3 metre depth, but if partially mobilised by thaw, this large nitrogen pool could have continental-scale consequences for soil and aquatic biogeochemistry and global-scale consequences for the permafrost feedback.

Description: Allanite is a common accessory mineral that generally incorporates considerable amounts of Th, U and light rare Earth elements in its structure, making it a useful mineral for in situ U-Th-Pb geochronology and Sm-Nd isotope measurements. Here, we present in situ U-Th-Pb ages and Sm-Nd isotopic compositions for nine allanite samples considered as potential reference materials (CAPb, Tara, Daibosatsu, LE40010, LE2808, A007, A011, A012 and SQ-51), with ages ranging from ~ 2650 Ma to ~ 12 Ma. Our study indicates that Daibosatsu and LE40010 have relatively homogeneous 147Sm/144Nd and 143Nd/144Nd isotopic compositions (147Sm/144Nd ratio variation is less than 2%) and, thus, can serve as primary reference materials for Sm-Nd microanalysis. In contrast, CAPb, Tara, LE2808, A007, A011 and A012 all show homogeneous calculated initial 143Nd/144Nd isotopic compositions, but with variable 147Sm/144Nd compositions, and thus can be used only as secondary reference materials for Sm-Nd microanalysis. Of these materials, LE40010 allanite can serve as a suitable primary reference material for in situ U-Pb dating, CAPb allanite can serve as a suitable primary reference material for in situ Th-Pb dating, and LE2808, LE40010, A007, A011 and A012 can serve as suitable secondary reference materials for in situ U-Pb geochronology. In addition, Daibosatsu is suitable as a secondary reference material for Cenozoic Th-Pb dating to monitor data reproducibility.

Description: With the development of intelligent networks such as the Internet of Things, network scales are becoming increasingly larger, and network environments increasingly complex, which brings a great challenge to network communication. The issues of energy-saving, transmission efficiency, and security were gradually highlighted. Compressed sensing (CS) helps to simultaneously solve those three problems in the communication of intelligent networks. In CS, fewer samples are required to reconstruct sparse or compressible signals, which breaks the restrict condition of a traditional Nyquist–Shannon sampling theorem. Here, we give an overview of recent CS studies, along the issues of sensing models, reconstruction algorithms, and their applications. First, we introduce several common sensing methods for CS, like sparse dictionary sensing, block-compressed sensing, and chaotic compressed sensing. We also present several state-of-the-art reconstruction algorithms of CS, including the convex optimization, greedy, and Bayesian algorithms. Lastly, we offer recommendation for broad CS applications, such as data compression, image processing, cryptography, and the reconstruction of complex networks. We discuss works related to CS technology and some CS essentials.

Description: Driver fatigue detection is of great significance for guaranteeing traffic safety and further reducing economic as well as societal loss. In this article, a novel complex network (CN) based broad learning system (CNBLS) is proposed to realize an electroencephalogram (EEG)-based fatigue detection. First, a simulated driving experiment was conducted to obtain EEG recordings in alert and fatigue state. Then, the CN theory is applied to facilitate the broad learning system (BLS) for realizing an EEG-based fatigue detection. The results demonstrate that the proposed CNBLS can accurately differentiate the fatigue state from an alert state with high stability. In addition, the performances of the four existing methods are compared with the results of the proposed method. The results indicate that the proposed method outperforms these existing methods. In comparison to directly using EEG signals as the input of BLS, CNBLS can sharply improve the detection results. These results demonstrate that it is feasible to apply BLS in classifying EEG signals by means of CN theory. Also, the proposed method enriches the EEG analysis methods.

Description: Music plays a more important role in our life than just being an entertainment. For example, it can be used as an anti-anxiety therapy of human and animals. However, the unsafe listening of loud music triggers hearing loss in millions of young people and professional musicians (rock, jazz and symphony orchestra) owing to exposure to damaging sound levels using personal audio devices or at noisy entertainment venues including nightclubs, discotheques, bars and concerts. Therefore, it is important to understand how loud music affects us. In this pioneering study on healthy mice, we discover that loud rock music below the safety threshold causes opening of the blood-brain barrier (OBBB), which plays a vital role in protecting the brain from viruses, bacteria and toxins. We clearly demonstrate that listening to loud music during 2 h in an intermittent adaptive regime is accompanied by delayed (1 h after music exposure) and short-lasting to (during 1–4 h) OBBB to low and high molecular weight compounds without cochlear and brain impairments. We present the systemic and molecular mechanisms responsible for music-induced OBBB. Finally, a revision of our traditional knowledge about the BBB nature and the novel strategies in optimizing of sound-mediated methods for brain drug delivery are discussed.