Andean orogenic signature in the Quaternary sandy barriers of Southernmost Brazilian Passive Margin-Paradigm as a source area

Multiple source provenance of sediments and submarine fan formation are herein investigated based on Quaternary sandy barriers of the Brazilian Southernmost Coastal Plain.LA-ICP-MS dating on 1625 detrital zircons from marine and aeolian facies sands of four successive lagoon-barrier systems are analyzed.The characterization of Archean to Pleistocene zircons into a younger Andean(22 ± 4 Ma to 1 ± 1 Ma,48 from 1625),Mesozoic to Paleozoic,and Mesoproterozoic(479 from 1622) populations suggest that the main feeding of sediments to the coastal plain occurred through the La Plata River drainage system.The significant contribution of sediments is transported from the mouth of La Plata River northward by longshore circulation(littoral drift).Minor contributions are also recognized as.a farther source associated with the Patagonia drainage and nearby source related to the Uruguay/Rio Grande do Sul Shield and the Paraná Basin,drained by the Camaqu? and Jacuí rivers.The latter one is recognized by the contribution from Neoproterozoic to Early Paleozoic,and some Paleoproterozoic and Archean zircon grains.The definition of the sources of clastic sediments allows inferences about the origination of Rio Grande Fan where both the cold Falkland and the warm Brazil currents played a major role.     

A model for decoding the life cycle of granular avalanches in a rotating drum

Granular materials can behave as harmless sand dunes or as devastating landslides. A granular avalanche marks the transition between these distinct solid-like and fluid-like states. The solid-like state is typically described using plasticity models from critical state theory. In the fluid regime, granular flow is commonly captured using a visco-plastic model. However, due to our limited understanding of the mechanism governing the solid–fluid-like transition, characterizing the material behavior throughout the life cycle of an avalanche remains an open challenge. Here, we employ laboratory experiments of transient avalanches spontaneously generated by a rotating drum. We report measurements of dilatancy and grain kinematics before, during, and after each avalanche. Those measurements are directly incorporated into a rate-dependent plasticity model that quantitatively predicts the granular flow measured in experiments. Furthermore, we find that dilatancy in the solid-like state controls the triggering of granular avalanches and therefore plays a key role in the solid–fluid-like transition. With the proposed approach, we demonstrate that the life cycle of a laboratory avalanche, from triggering to run out, can be fully explained. Our results represent an important step toward a unified understanding of the physical phenomena associated with transitional behavior in granular media.     

Interplay between urban communities and human‐crowd mobility: A study using contributed geospatial data sources

An intense process of urbanization, witnessed particularly in the last decade, has stressed the need to comprehend human mobility behavior in urban settings. Although the emergence of contributed geospatial data (i.e., pervasive activity‐based data) has contributed to substantial progress toward understanding human activity, the relationship between human‐crowd mobility and the functional structure of a city is not yet well understood. In this context, the present research focuses on the intra‐urban origin–destination matrix modeling founded on a combination of two major crowdsourced datasets as well as the inclusion of urban communities’ structure. Specifically, the well‐known “radiation” and “PWO” models were modified through first, identifying the communities embedded in the cyberspace network then employing the identified hierarchical structure of the spatial‐interaction network for the formulation of the users’ movement network and second, imposing proper input variables including the telecommunication activity volume and check‐in frequency. The results obtained by various empirical analyses suggest that the modified community‐constrained origin–destination flow estimation models exhibit better performance levels than those of alternative conventional mobility models.     

Grain size characteristics of superficial sediments of the Gulf of Tunis (NE Tunisia)

This work presents a recent grain size study characterizing superficial sediments of the whole sectors of the Gulf of Tunis which extends from Sidi Ali El Mekki to Sidi Daoued. In this study, a total of 112 samples were collected from different depths following 26 profiles perpendicular to the shore and from rivers. The determination of the proportions of coarse and fine fractions and the interpretation of the grain size results lead to dividing the Gulf of Tunis into two principal coasts: (1) the western coast situated between Sidi Ali El Mekki and Borj Cédria, which is characterized by three sedimentary facies: (a) a sandy facies along the coastline, (b) a mixed facies between Ghar El Melh and Raoued, near the Medjerda River, and between La Goulette and Ezzahra, near the Miliane River, and (c) a muddy facies between Ghar El Melh and Kalâat El Andalous and covered by fine to very fine sands, and (2) the eastern coast, which is characterized by a sandy facies and covered by medium to coarse sands. The dominant N–E and N–W waves generate longshore currents that provide sediment transport following the directions N–S, from Sidi Ali El Mekki to Kalâat El Andalous; SE–NW, from Gammarth to Raoued; NE–SW, from Sidi Bou Saïd to La Goulette and from Sidi Daoued to Bir El Jadi; SE–NW, from Hammam-Plage to Ezzahra; and SW–NE, from Port aux Princes to Rtiba.     

Middle to Upper Eocene ostracofauna of central Tunisia and Pelagian Shelf: examples of Jebel Bargou and the Gabes Gulf

Studies on ostracofauna gathered from the Middle–Late Eocene outcropping series of Jebel Bargou anticline, central Tunisia and from an offshore well in the Pelagian Shelf (ABR1) allowed to date major biostratigraphic limits and contribute to improve the precision on the present Eocene biozonation scheme based specially on the planktonic foraminifera markers. Paleogeographic and paleoecological interpretation was derived from an analysis of 60 ostracod species belonging to 38 genera coupled to lithostratigraphic facies interpretation. Ostracods associations indicate an evident similarity between the studied sections with circalittoral taxonomic dominance. In large scale, the ostracofauna recognized in the studied sections shows plentiful similarities with those of Northern Africa and the Middle East regions (Libya, Mauritania, Egypt, Jordan, and Sicilia). The similarities with the genera from Nigeria, Ghana, and Togo are rare and totally absent with those of European margin. Accordingly, during the Middle to Late Eocene, marine connection is evident between Northern Africa and the Middle East, probable between Northern Africa and eastern Africa and totally absent between Northern Africa and European margin because ostracods similarities are absent between European and Tunisian ostracods we were identified except some cosmopolitan forms.     

Computer Vision for the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO)

In Fall 2008 NASA selected a large international consortium to produce a comprehensive automated feature-recognition system for the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). The SDO data that we consider are all of the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) images plus surface magnetic-field images from the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI). We produce robust, very efficient, professionally coded software modules that can keep up with the SDO data stream and detect, trace, and analyze numerous phenomena, including flares, sigmoids, filaments, coronal dimmings, polarity inversion lines, sunspots, X-ray bright points, active regions, coronal holes, EIT waves, coronal mass ejections (CMEs), coronal oscillations, and jets. We also track the emergence and evolution of magnetic elements down to the smallest detectable features and will provide at least four full-disk, nonlinear, force-free magnetic field extrapolations per day. The detection of CMEs and filaments is accomplished with Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO)/Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO) and ground-based Hα data, respectively. A?completely new software element is a trainable feature-detection module based on a generalized image-classification algorithm. Such a trainable module can be used to find features that have not yet been discovered (as, for example, sigmoids were in the pre-Yohkoh era). Our codes will produce entries in the Heliophysics Events Knowledgebase (HEK) as well as produce complete catalogs for results that are too numerous for inclusion in the HEK, such as the X-ray bright-point metadata. This will permit users to locate data on individual events as well as carry out statistical studies on large numbers of events, using the interface provided by the Virtual Solar Observatory. The operations concept for our computer vision system is that the data will be analyzed in near real time as soon as they arrive at the SDO Joint Science Operations Center and have undergone basic processing. This will allow the system to produce timely space-weather alerts and to guide the selection and production of quicklook images and movies, in addition to its prime mission of enabling solar science. We briefly describe the complex and unique data-processing pipeline, consisting of the hardware and control software required to handle the SDO data stream and accommodate the computer-vision modules, which has been set up at the Lockheed-Martin Space Astrophysics Laboratory (LMSAL), with an identical copy at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO).     

Monitoring the evolution of irrigated areas with Landsat images using backward and forward change detection analysis in the Kou watershed,Burkina Faso

The Kou watershed is characterized by important water resources used for drinking, agriculture (especially in the irrigated areas), industry and the preservation of aquatic fauna and flora. For several decades, there has been increasing pressure on the Kou's water resources, partly because of the expansion of the irrigated agricultural areas. This study was conducted to examine this issue, focusing on one specific irrigated area. In order to monitor the expansion of irrigated areas in developing countries, a low-cost remote sensing method based on Landsat images and aerial photographs was developed. The method is based on maximum-likelihood classification, followed by backward and forward change detection analysis requiring agronomic expertise. Using pixel trajectory analysis, the method connects all pixels to their consecutive states in order to correct their current states. The study showed that the irrigated area has expanded by almost 70% over 20 years, with most of this expansion occurring in the past 10 years. The method, if validated, could be used to obtain better information on past occupation in the rural irrigated areas for which there is currently no archived data, making temporal analyses impossible.     

Properties of a diffuse interface model based on a porous medium theory for solid–liquid dissolution problems

In this paper, a local non-equilibrium diffuse interface model is introduced for describing solid–liquid dissolution problems. The model is developed based on the analysis of Golfier et al. (J Fluid Mech 457:213–254, 2002) upon the dissolution of a porous domain, with the additional requirement that density variations with the mass fraction are taken into account. The control equations are generated by the upscaling of the balance equations for a solid–liquid dissolution using a volume averaging theory. This results into a diffuse interface model (DIM) that does not require an explicit treatment of the dissolving interface, e.g., the use of arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian (ALE) methods, for instance. Test cases were performed to study the features and influences of the effective coefficients inside the DIM. In particular, an optimum expression for the solid–liquid exchange coefficient is obtained from a comparison with the referenced solution by ALE simulations. Finally, a Ra–Pe diagram illustrates the interaction of natural convection and forced convection in the dissolution problem.