Magnitude Scale Research Articles

Unintentional force drifts in the lower extremities.

We explored the phenomenon of unintentional force drift seen in the absence of visual feedback during knee extension contractions in isometric conditions. Based on the importance of knee extensors for the anti-gravity function, we hypothesized that such force drifts would be slower and smaller compared to those reported for the upper extremities. We also explored possible effects of foot dominance and gender on the force drifts. Young healthy persons produced isometric knee extension contractions to different levels, ranging from 15 to 25% of maximal voluntary contraction force, with the help of visual feedback, and then, the visual feedback was turned off. Force change over the time interval without visual feedback was quantified. In the absence of visual feedback, force drifted to smaller magnitudes. The drift magnitude expressed in percent of the initial force magnitude was smaller for smaller initial force levels, ranging between 8 and 15% of the initial force for the initial force magnitude of 15% and 25% of maximal voluntary contraction force. The time exponent of the force drift was independent of the initial force magnitude and was, on average, 6.45s. There were no significant effects of foot dominance or gender, although the male subjects tended to show stronger scaling of the drift magnitude with the initial force level compared to the female subjects. The results show that unintentional force drift is a common phenomenon across limbs and muscle groups. This conclusion fits the theory of control with spatial referent coordinates and the general tendency of all natural systems to drift to states with lower potential energy.

The effect of post-COVID-19 on gustatory and olfactory function: A preliminary case-controlled study.

The aim of the study was to analyze objective and subjective olfactory/gustatory function in post-COVID-19 infection (PCI). Patients with past PCR-confirmed COVID-19 infection and persistent olfactory/gustatory complaints were investigated. Olfactory threshold and identification, gustatory detection, identification, and magnitude scaling were tested. A total of 42 PCI subjects were compared to 41 age- and gender-matched controls with no COVID-19 history. All PCI tested had mild COVID-19 disease. Mean interval between COVID-19 confirmations to testing was 7.4 ± 3.1 months. PCI subjects complained of combined dysfunction in 85.7%, isolated olfactory or gustatory dysfunction in 7.1% each. Combined complaints were significantly higher in PCI (p < 0.001). Objective testing showed significantly higher prevalence of dysfunction in PCI versus controls for hyposmia (73.8%, 12.2%), anosmia (11.9%, 0%), odor identification (68.5%, 83.0%), hypogeusia (23% and 2.4%, respectively), and impaired magnitude scaling, (p < 0.05). All PCI subjects with hypogeusia had abnormal gustatory magnitude scaling. While most PCI subjects complained of combined gustatory and olfactory dysfunction, objective testing showed in the majority an isolated single sense dysfunction, with a low level of agreement between subjective and objective findings. Abnormal objective results for all olfactory and gustatory functions tested may suggest a central rather than peripheral mechanism, although concomitant mechanisms cannot be excluded.

New Methodology for Unbiased Ground-Motion Intensity Conversion Equations

ABSTRACT Ground-motion intensity conversion equations (GMICEs) allow for conversions between ground-motion amplitude and shaking intensity. The current methods used to develop GMICEs model the dependence of the intensity on the peak ground-motion (PGM) parameter. For some models, there is a second step that models the magnitude and distance dependence of the residuals from the initial regression. We show that this approach for developing GMICEs works well for estimating the intensity from median ground motions, but for ground-motion values away from the medians, the intensities estimated by the GMICE can have large bias, with overprediction for positive PGM residuals and underprediction for negative PGM residuals. The bias is due to an implicit assumption in the current approach that there is a direct causal relation between intensity and the ground-motion parameter and that the residuals of the intensity and ground-motion parameter are fully correlated. We present two alternative methodologies for developing GMICEs that do not suffer from this bias. The first method includes the magnitude and distance scaling of the GMICE in the initial regression for the scaling with the PGM. The second method excludes the magnitude and distance terms but includes the number of standard deviations of the PGM (ϵ) as an additional parameter in the GMICE. Using a synthetic data set of intensity and peak ground acceleration values, we show that the GMICE developed using the proposed method leads to more accurate estimates of the intensity than current methods. We also discuss implications of using GMICEs based on the proposed methods for the evaluation of probabilistic hazard maps and as input to ShakeAlert estimates.

Comprehensive study of micro-seismicity by using an automatic monitoring platform

A modern digital seismic network, with many stations optimally distributed on the earthquake causative seismic zone, enables detection of very low magnitude earthquakes and determination of their source parameters. It is essential to associate to such kind of networks procedures to analyze the huge amount of continuously recorded data for monitoring the space-time-magnitude evolution of natural and/or induced seismicity. Hence, the demand for near-real-time, automated data collection and analysis procedures for assisting seismic network operators in carrying out microearthquake monitoring is growing. In response to this need, we designed a computational software platform, TREMOR, for fast and reliable detection and characterization of seismicity recorded by a dense local seismic network. TREMOR integrates different open-source seismological algorithms for earthquake signal detection, location, and source characterizations in a fully automatic workflow. We applied the platform in play-back mode to the continuous waveform data recorded during 1 month at the Japanese Hi-net seismic network in the Nagano region (Japan) and compared the resulting catalog with the Japan Meteorological Agency bulletin in terms of number of detections, location pattern and magnitudes. The results show that the completeness magnitude of the new seismic catalog decreased by 0.35 units of the local magnitude scale and consequently the number of events increased by about 60% with respect to the available catalog. Moreover, the fault plane solutions resulted coherent with the stress regime of the region, and the Vp/Vs ratio well delineated the main structural features of the area. According to our results, TREMOR has shown to be a valid tool for investigating and studying earthquakes, especially to identify and monitor natural or induced micro-seismicity.

Calibration of the local magnitude scale (Ml) for Central Southern Africa

The Central Southern Africa is an area of moderate seismic activity generally caused by the presence of the East Africa Rift System. To improve the quantification of seismicity in this region, we propose a local magnitude scale (Ml), based on the original Richter definition to be used by the Zimbabwe and Botswana national networks. The magnitude scale is developed using 621 seismic events that occurred between 1997–2000 and 2013–2018. These events were recorded by 61 broadband seismic stations located in Botswana, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. We evaluated 5306 traces of zero to peak maximum amplitude, recorded on the horizontal channel from simulated Wood-Anderson seismograms. All 5306 maximum amplitude measurements were inverted simultaneously to determine the attenuation constants. The resultant Ml is defined as $ M_{l} = \log _{10}A+0.80 \times \log _{10}(R)+0.00086 \times R-1.37 \pm S $ in which A is ground displacement amplitude determined from instrument corrected synthetic Wood-Anderson seismograms in nanometres, R is the epicentral distance (km), and S is the station correction. Station corrections were determined for all stations during analysis resulting in values ranging between − 0.44 and + 0.31. The range in station corrections suggests a strong influence of local site effects on the amplitude of the seismic signal. Without station correction, the overall standard deviation of the magnitude residuals using our magnitude relation is 0.32, while using station corrections, the standard deviation 0.17. A comparison of our local magnitude relation with published mblg relationships for Southern Africa shows that these two magnitude scales are almost equivalent. The Ml equation for Central Southern Africa derived in this study has good correlation with mb values reported by the ISC and NEIC and attains systematically lower magnitude values than the South African relationship.

Regression relationships for conversion of body wave and surface wave magnitudes toward Das magnitude scale, Mwg

A reliable and standardized estimation of earthquake size is a fundamental requirement for all tectonophysical and engineering applications. Several investigations raised questions about the determinations of smaller and intermediate earthquakes using Mw scale. Recent investigations (Das et al. in Bull Seismol Soc Am 108(4):1995–2007, 2018b) show that the moment magnitude scale Mw is not applicable for lower and intermediate ranges throughout the world and does not efficiently represent the seismic source potential due to its dependence on surface wave magnitudes; therefore, an observed seismic moment (M0)-based magnitude scale, Mwg, which smoothly connects seismic source processes and highly correlates with seismic-radiated energy (Es) compared to the Mw scale is suggested. With the goal of constructing a homogeneous data set of Mwg to be used for earthquake-related studies, relationships for body wave (mb) and surface wave magnitudes (Ms) toward Mwg have been developed using regression methodologies such as generalized orthogonal regression (GOR) (GOR1: GOR relation is expressed in terms of the observed independent variable; and GOR2: GOR relation is used inappropriately in terms of theoretical true point of GOR line) and standard least-square regression (SLR). In order to establish regression relationships, global data have been considered during 1976–2014 for mb magnitudes of 524,790 events from the International Seismological Centre (ISC) and 326,201 events from the National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC), Ms magnitudes of 111,443 events from ISC along with 41,810 Mwg events data from the Global Centroid Moment Tensor (GCMT). Scaling relationships have been obtained between mb and Mwg for magnitude range 4.5 ≤ mb ≤ 6.2 for ISC and NEIC events using GOR1, GOR2 and SLR methodologies. Furthermore, scaling relationships between Ms and Mwg have been obtained for magnitude ranges 3.0 ≤ Ms ≤ 6.1 and 6.2 ≤ Ms ≤ 8.4 using GOR1, GOR2 and SLR procedures. Our analysis found that GOR1 provides improved estimates of dependent variable compared to GOR2 and SLR on the basis of statistical parameters (mainly uncertainty on slope and intercept, RMSE and Rxy) as reported in Das et al. (2018b). The derived global scaling relationships would be helpful for various seismological applications such as seismicity, seismic hazard and Risk assessment studies.

Completing RHINO

The right-handed (RH) Higgs-induced neutrino mixing (RHINO) model explains neutrino masses and origin of matter in the universe within a unified picture. The mixing, effectively described by a dimension five operator, is responsible both for the production of dark neutrinos, converting a small fraction of seesaw neutrinos acting as source, and for their decays. We show that including the production of source neutrinos from Higgs portal interactions, their abundance can thermalise prior to the onset of source-dark neutrino oscillations, resulting into an enhanced production of dark neutrinos that thus can play the role of decaying dark matter (DM) for a much higher seesaw scale. This can be above the sphaleron freeze-out temperature and as high as ~ 100 TeV, so that strong thermal resonant leptogenesis for the generation of the matter-antimatter asymmetry is viable. We obtain a ~ 1 TeV–1 PeV allowed dark neutrino mass range. Intriguingly, their decays can also explain a neutrino flux excess at mathcal{O} (100 TeV) energies recently confirmed by the IceCube collaboration analysing 7.5 yr HESE data. Our results also point to an effective scale for Higgs portal interactions nicely identifiable with the grandunified scale and many orders of magnitude below the effective scale for the mixing. We explain this hierarchy in a UV-complete model with a very heavy fermion as mediator: the first scale corresponds to the fundamental scale of new physics, while the second is much higher because of a very small coupling that can be identified with a symmetry breaking parameter. Therefore, RHINO realises a simple unified model of neutrino masses and origin of matter in the universe currently under scrutiny at neutrino telescopes and potentially embeddable within a grandunified model.

A Time-Domain Approach for Accurate Spectral Source Estimation with Application to Ridgecrest, California, Earthquakes

ABSTRACTWe determine the seismic moment and corner frequency of earthquakes using narrowband, time-domain measurements of the maximum shear-wave displacement amplitude. Each S wave is passed through a set of one-octave band-pass filters between 0.25 and 32 Hz to measure the peak amplitude on the horizontal components. Following the development of Richter (1935) local magnitude scale, we derive a functional form of maximum amplitude versus distance, but separately for each frequency band, and use them to estimate wave attenuation as a function of frequency and distance. Attenuation is a strong function of frequency, approximately proportional to 1/f, with path averaged Q increasing (attenuation decreasing) with propagation distance. We use these empirical attenuation curves to correct the time-domain peak amplitudes to a reference distance of 10 km to recover the source spectrum. We find that the spectral shape is consistent with the Brune model, showing a well-defined plateau at low frequency and a decay at high frequency proportional to ω−2. We use the median spectrum for stations at distances up to 120 km for each event to measure the moment and corner frequency. This time-domain method provides a reliable and efficient way to accurately measure earthquake source parameters.

The contribution of subliminal perceptions, dietary habits, and psychological traits to the perception of oral tingling and burning sensations

The tingling evoked by Sichuan pepper and the burning elicited by chili pepper constitutes the typical flavor of Sichuan cuisine and is a component of leisure food. Although factors affecting the burning sensation have extensively been studied, few studies have examined the factors of individual sensitivity, personality traits, and dietary habits that contribute to the perception of oral tingling sensation, which hinders the formulation of tingling products and the development of new products. In contrast, many studies have examined the factors influencing the burning sensation. In this web-based survey, 68 participants disclosed their dietary habits, liking for tingling and hot foods, and psychological traits. Individual sensitivity to the tingling and burning sensation produced by a range of Sichuan pepper oleoresin and capsaicin solutions was determined using rated differences from control, generalized labeled magnitude scale method and ranking test. The consistency score indicated the accuracy of individual ranking results while also providing an indirect response to the sensitivity of the participant to supra-threshold for burning or tingling. Individual ratings for medium Sichuan pepper oleoresin concentrations significantly correlated with the just noticeable difference (p < 0.01), and ratings for medium and high capsaicin concentrations correlated significantly with 6-n-propylthiouracil ratings (p < 0.01). Notably, the power exponent of burning was significantly correlated with the burning recognition threshold (p < 0.01), and the power exponent of tingling and burning were significantly correlated (r = 0.340, p < 0.05). There was a negative correlation between supra-threshold tingling and burning sensation perceptions and life satisfaction ratings. Further, intensity ratings for oral tingling and burning sensation did not always correspond with individual sensitivity indicators (e.g., recognition threshold, 6-n-propylthiouracil, just noticeable difference, and consistency score). Thus, this study provides new insight into establishing a sensory selection method for chemesthetic sensation panelists and theoretical guidelines for formulation design and in-depth analysis of popular tingling dishes and foods.

Advanced Unified Earthquake Catalog for North East India

Northeast India is one of the world’s most seismically active regions. The event data included in this research for the period 1737–2012 is mostly obtained from worldwide database agencies such as ISC, NEIC, and GCMT. Historical seismicity is collected from published and unpublished documents and some earthquake events are collected from the Indian Meteorological Department Bulletins. As the Mw scale is developed and validated in the southern California region and overestimates the smaller magnitude earthquakes, therefore, recent literature suggested an improved version of the seismic moment magnitude scale (Mwg) applicable for the entire globe considering both long- and short-period frequency-spectra using modern instrumental data. To update the earthquake catalog of Northeast India, we prepared empirical relationships between different magnitudes to Mwg using robust statistical General Orthogonal Regression. A procedure is also suggested for converting different earthquake sizes towards seismic moment scale. The Magnitude of Completeness (Mc) and the Gutenberg–Richter (GR) recurrence parameter values for the declustered homogenized catalog in four time periods, namely 1737–1963, 1964–1990, 1964–2000, and 1964–2012, have been computed. Our analysis suggests that the use of the Mwg scale improves seismicity parameters ‘b’ up to 30%, ‘a’ up to 17%, and ‘Mc’ up to 18% for the Northeast India region. A complete unified earthquake catalog in terms of advanced seismic moment magnitude scale could help understand seismicity and earthquake engineering studies of the region.

An updated earthquake catalog for Bangladesh: an attempt at a seismic risk evaluation

A unique, consistent, and uniform earthquake catalog is crucial for assessing seismic hazards in any locality. This study aims at compiling and processing a better uniform earthquake catalog, using this catalog to identify the probable subduction zone, and assessing seismicity parameters for Bangladesh. The study area is bounded by the geographical limits 16–29°N and 86–96°E. It includes a sum of 48,342 events which are compiled as 1.0 to 8.5 magnitudes (MW) and time period from 1548 to 2020 yrs. Uniformization is made between the body, surface wave, and moment magnitude scales to unify the catalog in terms of MW. For seismic hazard assessment or prediction studies, this catalog comprises earthquake events from Bangladesh and adjoining regions. The assessed MC obtained is around 4.0–5.0, which leads to a, b value varying between 0.71–1.12 and an a value varying between 4.85–7.12. The findings show that the MC is lower at the border of the Chittagong-Sylhet through Hill tracts than the northern part of the area with an MC 4.5–5.0 and a, b value close to 1.00. The results indicate that the study area is a seismically highly active zone in the context of seismicity parameters. Finally, the compiled catalog, seismicity of the area and a probable deformation front are presented and are recommended for use in assessing seismic hazard analysis in Bangladesh.

Engineering-oriented ground-motion model for Israel

This study presents a response-spectral Ground Motion Model (GMM) for Israel, called KYB22 herein and derived with practical applications in mind. This model is based on the former work by Maiti et al. (Bull Seismol Soc Am 111: 2177–2194, 2021), who derived a suite of nine Fourier amplitude spectra GMMs, using both empirical data and calibrated point-source simulations. In this study, a weighted average of the Maiti et al. (Bull Seismol Soc Am 111: 2177–2194, 2021) FAS models is computed and a synthetic database is created. Next, this database is converted to the Response spectral domain using the random vibration theory and a new GMM is regressed, constraining the magnitude and distance scaling on the synthetic response-spectral data. Site scaling is represented by VS30 and is a combination of empirical scaling with other considerations which are discussed in the text. Nonlinear site response is constrained from a global model, as are finite-fault effects, such as hanging-wall, mechanism and top of rupture—which cannot be constrained from the data because it does not contain enough large magnitude data. State-wide hazard is then computed using KYB22, comparing results with other GMM combinations. It is found that the hazard results obtained by using KYB22 as a backbone model are comparable to results obtained using other popular combinations of GMMs in the logic tree. Therefore, we recommend using the new GMM as one of the branches within the ground-motion logic tree when conducting seismic hazard calculations for Israel.

College-Aged Males Experience Attenuated Sweet and Salty Taste with Modest Weight Gain

BackgroundHuman and animal studies report a blunted sense of taste in people who are overweight or obese, with heightened sensitivity also reported after weight loss. However, it is unknown if taste changes concurrently with weight gain. ObjectiveThis study investigated the association of weight gain with changes in suprathreshold taste intensity perception in a free-living population of young adults. MethodsTaste response, anthropometric measures, and diet changes were assessed with a longitudinal study design in first-year college students 3 times throughout the academic year. At baseline, 93 participants (30 males, 63 females) were an average of 18 y old, with a body mass index (in kg/m2) of 21.9. Sweet, umami, salty, sour, and bitter taste intensities were evaluated at 3 concentrations by using the general Labeled Magnitude Scale. Ordinary least-squares regression models assessed the association of weight gain and within-person taste change, adjusting for sex, race, and diet changes. ResultsParticipants gained an average of 3.9% in weight, ranging from −5.7% to +13.8%. With each 1% increase in body weight, males perceived sweet and salty as less intense, with taste responses decreasing by 11.0% (95% CI: −18.9%, −2.3%; P = 0.015) and 7.5% (95% CI: −13.1%, −1.5%; P = 0.015) from baseline, respectively. Meanwhile, females did not experience this decrement, and even perceived a 6.5% increase (95% CI: 2.6%, 10.5%; P = 0.007) in sour taste with similar amounts of weight gain. Changes in the consumption of meat and other umami-rich foods also negatively correlated with umami taste response (−39.1%; 95% CI: −56.3%, −15.0%; P = 0.004). ConclusionA modest weight gain is associated with concurrent taste changes in the first year of college, especially in males who experience a decrement in sweet and salty taste. This suggests that young-adult males may be susceptible to taste loss when gaining weight.

The role of RNA condensation in reducing gene expression noise.

Biomolecular condensates have been shown to play a fundamental role in localizing biochemistry in a cell. RNA is a common constituent with proteins and can determine biophysical properties. Functions of biomolecular condensates are varied including activating, inhibiting, and localizing reactions. Recently it has been proposed that condensates can buffer noise to diminish cell to cell variability. Here we introduce a phenomenological model in which phase separation of mRNAs into RNP droplets can regulate the abundance of the protein these mRNA encode and markedly decreases expression noise. We place particular emphasis on how this mechanism can facilitate efficient transcription by reducing noise even in the limit of infrequent bursts of transcription, by exploiting the physics of concentration dependent, deterministic phase separation threshold. We investigate two biologically relevant scenarios in which phase separation acts to either “buffer” noise by storing mRNA in inert droplets, or “filter” phase separated mRNAs by accelerating their decay, and quantify expression noise as a function of kinetic parameters. In either case the most efficient expression occurs when bursts produce mRNAs close to the phase separation threshold, which we find to be consistent with observations of a RNP-droplet forming cyclin in multinucleate Ashbya gossypii cells. We finally consider the contribution of noise in the phase separation threshold, and exhibit that protein copy number noise can be efficiently suppressed under modest assumptions on the magnitude and time scale of phase separation threshold fluctuations.

Insiders, Outsiders: Toward a New History of Southern Thought ed. by Sarah E. Gardner and Steven M. Stowe

Reviewed by: Insiders, Outsiders: Toward a New History of Southern Thought ed. by Sarah E. Gardner and Steven M. Stowe Robert Jackson Insiders, Outsiders: Toward a New History of Southern Thought. Edited by Sarah E. Gardner and Steven M. Stowe. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2021. Pp. xii, 242. Paper, $29.95, ISBN 978-1-4696-6356-2; cloth, $95.00, 978-1-4696-6355-5.) There is a lot to like in this collection. The contributors are prominent scholars of southern history and literature who represent two generations of thoughtful, dedicated work. Many of the individual essays have particular strengths: Stephen Berry’s essay on Edgar Allan Poe is beautifully written and—rare in an academic piece of this sort—rather dramatic in the telling. Essays by John Grammer and Scott Romine on New Journalism and Reconstruction-era literary revisionism, respectively, are excellent models of the case-study method. Another highlight is Michael Kreyling’s essay, which contrasts the writ-erly approaches of Tony Judt and Michael O’Brien, a pair of eminent British-born historians who passed away in recent years (Judt in 2010, O’Brien in 2015). Kreyling examines their distinct methods on the way to lauding O’Brien’s Conjectures of Order: Intellectual Life and the American South, 1810–1860 (2 vols.; Chapel Hill, 2004) for its difficult balancing act between the rigors of an overarching interpretive frame and the frequently rebellious “subtleties of individuality” (p. 219). An eminent literary scholar himself, Kreyling takes the occasion to meditate on the challenges of reconciling the immensity of the past with the historian’s inescapable fate—“the process by which history becomes writing and inevitably writing becomes history” (p. 203). This is an apt conclusion to a volume whose debt to Michael O’Brien is significant. The editors dedicate the collection to O’Brien, and, indeed, a respectful invocation of O’Brien’s scholarship is a frequent, if not quite compulsory, gesture across the essays. The contributors are divided evenly between history and literature, and they speak to the two disciplines in overlapping ways that mirror much of O’Brien’s own methodology. Southern intellectual history here seems largely contained in these two disciplines; this is a rich, battle-tested interdisciplinary matrix, to be sure, but there does not seem to be much awareness of other disciplines—sociology, performing arts, religious studies, the pure and applied sciences, to name several in increasing scales of magnitude—and what they might contribute to this shared scholarly project. The vision of southern intellectual history that emerges in these pages instead relies most fundamentally on the worlds of print culture and publishing. Two essays, by Beth Barton Schweiger and Jonathan Daniel Wells, address book history. Others deal with individual authors and their publishing contexts: Berry on Poe’s tortured relationship to the reputation-imparting Charles Dickens; Timothy J. Williams on Edwin Wiley Fuller and his audience of Lost [End Page 131] Cause enthusiasts; Grammer on Willie Morris’s cultivation of the “Wrecking Crew,” a southern cohort at Harper’s Magazine at the end of the 1960s; and Romine on Edward A. Pollard’s almost comical search for authentic southern identities that would meet the needs of his imagined readership. “The constant in Pollard’s writing,” Romine concludes wryly, “is a conception of ‘all true southerners,’ even if the true southerner in question never survived the next publication cycle” (p. 176). Indeed, even Michael T. Bernath’s essay on the complex situation of northerners who worked as schoolteachers in the South near the beginning of the Civil War, and whose mere presence frequently whipped up violent conflicts based more on local class antagonism than regional or racial identification, emphasizes this point. Bernath characterizes such figures as “public intellectuals” (although his discussion of their actual thoughts and ideas is minimal); and he concludes that the contest of ideas that played out in local newspapers in response to their presence “shows the central role that print played in antebellum southern life” (pp. 49–50). Another remarkable aspect of this volume is the almost complete absence of Black or other nonwhite subjects. Many, perhaps most, of the essays address slavery, segregation, and racism itself...

Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Analysis of Burdur City

The aim of this study is to assess seismic hazard for Burdur City (SW Turkey) using a probabilistic approach. A new earthquake catalog for Burdur City and its vicinity, with unified moment magnitude scale, was prepared in the scope of the study. Seismicity of the area was evaluated by the Gutenberg-Richter recurrence relationship. For hazard computation, R-CRISIS (v18) software was used. New Generation Attenuation models were used for analyses. Seismic hazard maps were developed for peak ground acceleration and for bedrock with hazard levels of 2% and 10% probability of exceedance in 50 years. Results of the study show that peak ground acceleration values on bedrock with hazard levels of 2% and 10% probability of exceedance in 50 years change between 0.70-0.75 g and 0.44-0.48 g, respectively.

A Probabilistic Dynamic Movement Primitives Framework on Human Hand Motion Prediction for an Object Transfer Scenario

Recent advancements in Human-Robot Collaboration (HRC) have opened up promising prospects for revolutionizing the current manufacturing automation. Accurate modeling of human motion patterns is crucial for enabling the robot to understand human intention and predict their future motion based on online observations. As the widely used deterministic methods often lack confidence information about the provided result to account for the possible variability of human motion, in this work, a Probabilistic Dynamic Movement Primitives (PDMP)-based framework is adopted to recognize goal-directed human movements in the reaching phase and making online predictions. The proposed framework employs PDMP based on off-line demonstrations of relevant hand movements. To avoid frame-dependency, a novel DMP formulation with rotation and magnitude scaling is used, allowing for generalization of learned motion patterns to similar tasks. The proposed framework has been validated in experiments regarding an object transfer scenario on the workbench, using a Intel RealSense camera and OpenPose system for motion capturing. Results show that this framework can offer good performance in hand motion prediction in presence of human motion variations, and can be generalized to relevant tasks beyond the limited demonstrated trajectories.

Strong Red Noise Ocean Forcing on Atlantic Multidecadal Variability Assessed from Surface Heat Flux: Theory and Application

Abstract The role of ocean forcing on Atlantic multidecadal variability (AMV) is assessed from the (downward) heat flux–SST relation in the framework of a new stochastic climate theory forced by red noise ocean forcing. Previous studies suggested that atmospheric forcing drives SST variability from monthly to interannual time scales, with a positive heat flux–SST correlation, while heat flux induced by ocean processes can drive SST variability at decadal and longer time scales, with a negative heat flux–SST correlation. Here, first, we develop a theory to show how the sign of heat flux–SST correlation is affected by atmospheric and oceanic forcing with time scale. In particular, a red noise ocean forcing is necessary for the sign reversal of heat flux–SST correlation. Furthermore, this sign reversal can be detected equivalently in three approaches: the low-pass correlation at lag zero, the unfiltered correlation at long (heat flux) lead, and the real part of the heat flux–SST coherence. Second, we develop a new scheme in combination with the theory to assess the magnitude and time scale of the red noise ocean forcing for AMV in the GFDL SPEAR model (Seamless System for Prediction and Earth System Research) and observations. In both the model and observations, the ocean forcing on AMV is in general comparable with the atmospheric forcing, with a 90% probability greater than the atmospheric forcing in observations. In contrast to the white noise atmospheric forcing, the ocean forcing has a persistence time comparable or longer than a year, much longer than the SST persistence of ∼3 months. This slow ocean forcing is associated implicitly with slow subsurface ocean dynamics. Significance Statement A new theoretical framework is developed to estimate the ocean forcing on Atlantic multidecadal variability form heat flux–SST relations in climate models and observation. Our estimation shows the ocean forcing is comparable with the atmospheric forcing and, in particular, has a slow time scale of years.

Enhancement of taste by retronasal odors in patients with Wolfram syndrome and decreased olfactory function.

Wolfram syndrome is a rare disease characterized by diabetes, neurodegeneration, loss of vision, and audition. We recently found, in a young sample of participants (mean age 15 years), that Wolfram syndrome was associated with impairment in smell identification with normal smell sensitivity and whole-mouth taste function. However, these senses were assessed separately, and it is unknown whether smell-taste interactions are altered in Wolfram syndrome, which was the focus of this study. Participants with Wolfram syndrome (n = 36; 18.2 ± 6.8 years) and sex-age-equivalent healthy controls (n = 34) were assessed with a battery of sensory tests. Using sip-and-spit methods, participants tasted solutions containing gustatory and olfactory stimuli (sucrose with strawberry extract, citric acid with lemon extract, sodium chloride in vegetable broth, and coffee) with and without nose clips, and rated perceived taste and retronasal smell intensities using the generalized Labeled Magnitude Scale. Participants also completed n-butanol detection thresholds and the University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT). Retronasal smell increased taste intensity of sucrose, sodium chloride, and coffee solutions similarly in both groups (P values <0.03). Compared with the control group, participants in the Wolfram group had lower UPSIT scores and reduced smell sensitivity, retronasal intensity, and saltiness (P values <0.03), but rated other taste intensities similarly when wearing the nose clip. Despite impairments in orthonasal smell identification, odor-induced taste enhancement was preserved in participants with Wolfram syndrome who still had some peripheral olfactory function. This finding suggests that odor-induced taste enhancement may be preserved in the presence of reduced olfactory intensity.

Liquefaction potential hazard study at UIN Datokarama, Palu City, Central Sulawesi

In June 2019, the Asian Development Bank approved emergency rehabilitation and reconstruction assistance (EARR) to help Indonesia rebuild better critical infrastructure damaged by the 2018 Palu-Donggala earthquake. One of the EARR sub-projects is the reconstruction of Universitas Islam Negeri (UIN) Datokarama that suffered significant damage from the combined effects of the tsunami and earthquake. The design for the building's reconstruction incorporated better principles of deconstruction, including pile foundations to ensure the facilities are earthquake, tsunami, and liquefaction resistant. This study purpose is to evaluate liquefaction potential and estimate its severity or damage potential to structures in the reconstruction site. Liquefaction potential will be assessed in two ways, first by using soil deposits grain sizes distribution method from Japan technical standards for port and harbour facilities and second by safety factor against liquefaction (FOS) method using the SPT-based liquefaction triggering analysis with the revised magnitude scaling factor (MSF) relationship by Idriss and Boulanger. Liquefaction Potential Index (LPI) from Iwasaki will be used for estimating liquefaction severity. The analysis is performed on dataset taken from 6 boreholes in location dominated by saturated sandy soil and shallow ground water. Based on the result, liquefaction potentially triggered at various depth with consistent LPI index at &gt; 15, The reconstruction site has a very high liquefaction risk.