Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A juvenile turtle (Testudines, Eucryptodira) from the Upper Jurassic of Langenberg Quarry, Oker, Northern Germany

Turtles are frequently found in fluviatile to lagoonal and shallow marine sediments in the Upper Jurassic of Western Europe. These turtles usually show a mixture of basal and derived characters, but phylogenetic relationships are still largely unresolved. This is mainly due to the incompleteness of fossils and the lack of taxonomically unambiguous characters and is also related to the presence of different ontogenetic stages, which are not easy to compare. The morphological description of a new turtle from the Upper Jurassic of Langenberg Quarry (Oker, Lower Saxony, Germany) gives further insights into the ontogeny of basal eucryptodire turtles as well as into aquatic adaptation of Upper Jurassic turtles. The specimen is herein left in open nomenclature, due to the fact that it represents a juvenile individual. Several characters define the specimen as juvenile: its small size (7.28 cm carapace length); lateral carapacial fontanelles; enlarged vertebral scutes; a radial striation pattern covering the entire carapace; and the grade of ossification of preserved skull and limb elements. A clear aquatic adaptation of the individual is the elongated manus, a feature that is independent of ontogenetic age. The elongated manus may indicate a marine lifestyle and the individual possibly inhabited nearshore to offshore areas around the former Jurassic islands, which today form the Saxony Basin. The ossification pattern of the carapace of this eucryptodire turtle resembles that of known Jurassic paracryptodires and thus provides new insights to the ontogeny of Jurassic turtles.
Flow over finite isolated topography

Abstract : One and two layer models are used to study flow over axisymmetric isolated topography. A one-layer quasi-geostrophic model is used to find the shape of Taylor columns on the Beta-plane in the inviscid limit of the frictional problem. An iterative boundary integral technique is used to find the solution. Flow over finite topography in a one-layer model and a quasi- geostrophic two-layer model is studied. Qualitative differences exist between the quasi-geostrophic solution and the finite depth solution when the effect of Beta is large. In the two-layer model, the topography goes all of the way through the lower layer and an order Rossby number amount into the upper layer. A modified contour dynamics method is developed that extends the range of problems to which contour dynamics can be applied and is used to study the initial value problem of flow over topography. When the topography fills up most of the water column in a barotropic model, fluid oscillates on and off the topography. In a small topography quasi-geostrophic two-layer model, and eddy is shed which is surface-intensified when the topography is finite.
Impact of Alignment Edits on the Quality of Experience of 360° Videos

Optimizing user quality of experience (QoE) for 360° videos faces two major roadblocks: inaccurate viewport prediction and viewers missing the plot of a story. To tackle these issues simultaneously, alignment edits have emerged as a promising solution. These edits, also known as “re-targeting edits,” work by aligning the user’s field of view with a specific region of interest in the video content. Despite their potential benefits, there is limited knowledge about the actual impacts of alignment edits on user experience (UX). Therefore, we conducted subjective experiments following ITU-T P.919 methodology to explore their effects on QoE. We proposed an alignment edit based on gradual rotation of the 360° frame, aiming to replicate natural viewing behavior. We tested this approach under various conditions and thoroughly analyzed its impacts using both head motion data and feedback from observers, focusing on their sense of presence, comfort, and perceived experience. The results of our experiments are encouraging. Our proposed gradual alignment technique achieved a level of comfort and presence comparable to that of instant edits. Furthermore, all alignment edits tested led to a noticeable reduction in head movement speed after the edit, affirming their potential utility for on-demand video streaming. Notably, the gradual edits, in particular, induced a significant reduction of approximately 8% in head movement speeds when compared to the instant alignment technique. These findings shed light on the positive effects of alignment edits on user experience and firmly establish the viability of the proposed gradual alignment technique to enhance QoE during video consumption.
On the significance of the interannual relationship between the Asian‐Pacific Oscillation and the North Atlantic Oscillation

Using monthly data from the European Centre for Medium‐Range Weather Forecasts 40 year Re‐Analysis, this study investigated the interannual relationship between the Asian‐Pacific Oscillation (APO) and the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) for the period of May to August. The NAO is represented by the leading Empirical Orthogonal Function of sea level pressure anomalies over the Atlantic sector. The difference of upper tropospheric eddy air temperature (T′) between Asia and the North Pacific is used to measure the APO. Results clearly show that the APO and the NAO correlated very well on the interannual time scale, with the positive (negative) phase of the APO corresponding to the strong (weak) NAO. Such a relationship is well supported by the atmospheric dynamic process. When the APO is in the positive phase (characterized by the positive T′ anomaly over Asia and the negative T′ anomaly over the North Pacific in the upper troposphere), the upper tropospheric geopotential height increases over Asia and decreases over the North Pacific. Accordingly, anticyclonic circulation and cyclonic circulation anomalies are introduced, respectively, over Asia and south of the North Pacific, and a zonal teleconnection wave train is excited from Asia to the North Atlantic. As a consequence, an anomalous anticyclonic circulation prevails in the low level of the North Atlantic and an anomalous cyclonic circulation appears to its north, which corresponds to the atmospheric pattern of strong NAO. Further study proposes that the quasi‐stationary wave pattern emanating from the western North Pacific region may serve as a bridge for this linkage.
Rice breeding for salt tolerance

Human exploitation of earth’s resources is leading to new problems day by day and hence newer methods are devised to overcome the same. One such case is breeding for abiotic stress, utilizing even non arable land, to feed the ever increasing population. A major stress leading to yield loss can be due to inland and coastal salinity. Rice is the most important cereal crop which feeds humans on earth. This review tries to analyse the efforts of breeders in minimising the effects of salt stress on the yield of rice crop.
New dasycladalean algal species from the Kalana Lagerstätte (Silurian, Estonia)

Abstract. A Silurian (Llandovery, Aeronian) Lagerstätte in Kalana, Estonia, has revealed exceptionally preserved noncalcified thalli of dasycladalean (divison Chlorophyta) algal fossils. The siphonous, serially segmented fossils of Palaeocymopolia silurica n. sp. are closely similar to P. nunavutensis, a Ludlovian species from the Arctic Canada. The occurrence of closely related species at Baltica and Laurentia paleocontinents indicates a wide distribution of noncalcified algal flora on both sides of the Iapetus Ocean in the Paleozoic. The exceptionally well-preserved specimens from the Kalana Lagerstätte show similarity to extant species Cymopolia barbata, with lack of a calcium carbonate skeleton being the major observable difference from the latter.
Understanding the roles of type and token frequency in usage-based linguistics

: This chapter contextualizes token and type frequency effects on accessibility, chunking, productivity and pronunciation in the context of probabilistic, connectionist and analogical views of learning. A review of the effects of frequency in language is provided. It is argued that token frequency as a measure of experience with a particular unit and type frequency as a measure of contextual variability are indispensable for understanding the effects of experience on language structure and linguistic behavior.
Analysis of Changes in BDNF Levels Before and After Bariatric Surgery in Obese Patients

Objectives: The rate of obesity has been increasing globally, so is the number of obese patients undergoingbariatric surgery. The relationship between brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and body weight has beenhighlighted in recent years, but there are few related studies in China. The purpose of this study was to investigate the changes of BDNF in obese patients before and after bariatric surgery and to provide evidence for obesity-related mechanisms. Methods: The BDNF levels in 44 obese patients who underwent bariatric surgery were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) before and 4.5 months after surgery. SPSS 27.0 was used for statistical analysis. Results: Among the 44 patients, 30 were female and 14 were male. The body mass index (BMI) decreased significantly after bariatric surgery (P < 0.001); the serum BDNF of the patients significantly increased (P < 0.001) after surgery. There was no significant difference in BDNF among patients with different degrees of obesity before and after surgery (P > 0.05). There were no significant differences in BMI and BDNF levels between different sexes before and after surgery (P > 0.05). Conclusion: The BDNF levels of obese patients increased significantly after bariatric surgery, which proved that bariatric surgery has an effect on BDNF levels.
Multistage extensional evolution of the central East Greenland Caledonides

Recent field investigations in the central East Greenland Caledonides (72°–74°N) resulted in the identification of an orogen‐scale extensional fault system called the Fjord Region Detachment (FRD). Previous geochronologic constraints on this deformation indicated that the FRD was active circa 430–425 Ma, a time when the Baltica‐Laurentia collision was thought to be occurring, and continued to be active for up to 80 million years. We present new 40Ar/39Ar thermochronologic data from an E‐W transect that cuts across two splays of the FRD. Our data demonstrate that at least two distinct episodes of faulting were responsible for extension in the East Greenland Caledonides: an earlier phase (circa 425–423 Ma) that was synorogenic and penetrated to middle‐crustal levels, followed by a post‐Caledonian phase of reactivation (∼414 to 380 Ma) that affected even deeper structural levels. Furthermore, we present in situ UV laser 40Ar/39Ar data for pseudotachylite collected along the deepest splay of the FRD that indicate this fault was active again as recently as ∼357 Ma (coeval with Devonian basin formation). Altogether, our data suggest that rather than being active continuously for 80 million years, the FRD consisted of multiple splays that were active for shorter intervals over discrete time periods separated by as much as 60 million years. Finally, our data provide evidence that young extensional deformation associated with postorogenic collapse in East Greenland was not restricted to the formation of sedimentary basins in the far eastern part of the orogen, but also resulted in deformation of the Archean‐Paleozoic crystalline basement.
Inorganic Carbon Supplementation to Culture Medium Enhancing Growth Performance and Pigmentation of Freshwater Microalgae Chlorella ellipsoidea

The availability of inorganic carbon in the culture media is a limiting factor for the growth of photosynthetic microalgae. However, the expense of supplying carbon dioxide to culture is a significant fraction of total energy usage. Bicarbonate salts, when added to the growth medium, can be an inexpensive inorganic carbon source for microalgae. In this study, Chlorella ellipsoidea was used to assess the capability of this species to utilize bicarbonate and determine the impact of this carbon source on growth performance and pigmentation. In a batch experiment, 0.
Comparison of Interaction Modalities for Mobile Indoor Robot Guidance : Direct Physical Interaction , Person Following and Pointing Control A

Three advanced natural interaction modalities for mobile robot guidance in an indoor environment were developed and compared using two tasks and quantitative metrics to measure performance and workload. The first interaction modality is based on direct physical interaction requiring the human user to push the robot in order to displace it. The second and third interaction modalities exploit a 3D vision-based human-skeleton tracking allowing the user to guide the robot by either walking in front of it or by pointing towards a desired location. In the first task, the participants were asked to guide the robot between different rooms in a simulated physical apartment requiring rough movement of the robot through designated areas. The second task evaluated robot guidance in the same environment through a set of waypoints, which required accurate movements. The three interaction modalities were implemented on a generic differential drive mobile platform equipped with a pan-tilt system and a Kinect camera. Task completion time and accuracy were used as metrics to assess the users’ performance, while the NASA-TLX questionnaire was used to evaluate the users’ workload. A study with 24 participants indicated that choice of interaction modality had significant effect on completion time (F(2,61)=84.874, p<0.001), accuracy (F(2,29)=4.937, p=0.016), and workload (F(2,68)=11.948, p<0.001). The direct physical interaction required less time, provided more accuracy and less workload than the two contactless interaction modalities. Between the two contactless interaction modalities, the person-following interaction modality was systematically better than the pointing-control one: the participants completed the tasks faster with less workload. Manuscript submitted 5 August, 2014; accepted 25 May, 2015. This research was supported by the EU-funded Initial Training Network (ITN) in the Marie-Curie People Programme (FP7): INTRO (INTeractive RObotics research network), grant agreement no. 238486, and partially supported by the Helmsley Charitable Trust through the Agricultural, Biological and Cognitive Robotics Initiative and by the Rabbi W. Gunther Plaut Chair in Manufacturing Engineering, both at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and the Beatriu de Pinós grant no. 2013 BP-B 00239 of the Catalan Government and the EU-funded Marie Curie Actions COFUND programme. A. Jevtić was with Robosoft, Bidart 64210, France. He is now with the Institut de Robòtica i Informàtica Industrial, CSIC-UPC, Barcelona 08028, Spain, and also with the Institute of Advanced Industrial Technologies (ESTIA), Bidart 64210, France (email: ajevtic@iri.upc.edu). G. Doisy, Y. Parmet and Y. Edan are with the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva 84110, Israel (e-mail: doisyg@post.bgu.ac.il; iparmet@bgu.ac.il; yael@bgu.ac.il). © 2015 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission. Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/THMS.2015. 2461683
Comparative analysis of relationships between NLDAS‐2 forcings and model outputs

This study reports results from an analysis of the relationship between atmospheric forcing and model‐simulated water and energy fluxes for the North American Land Data Assimilation System Project Phase 2 (NLDAS‐2). The relationships between mean monthly precipitation and total runoff are stronger in the Sacramento (SAC) and variable infiltration capacity (VIC) models, which grew out of the hydrological community, than in the Noah and Mosaic models, which grew out of the soil‐vegetation‐atmosphere transfer (SVAT) community. The reverse is true for the relationship between mean monthly precipitation and evapotranspiration. In addition, surface energy fluxes in VIC are less sensitive to model forcing (except for air temperature) than those in the Noah and Mosaic model. Notwithstanding these general conclusions, the relationships between forcings and model‐simulated water and energy fluxes for all models vary for different seasons, variables, and regions. These findings will ultimately inspire a combination of SVAT‐type model energy components with hydrological model water components to develop a SVAT‐hydrology model to improve both evapotranspiration and total runoff simulations. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Trends and clustering in the onsets of volcanic eruptions

[1] We show how the trend renewal process (TRP) can be used to model the process of eruption onsets. Using combinations of power, exponential and sine functions, trends and/or cyclic activity can be fitted. On 14 example volcanoes, cases of constant activity level, increasing trend, wax and wane of activity, and cyclic plus trend behaviors were all observed. Embedded in the TRP is a renewal function for the detrended interonset times. Using a Weibull distribution, which can measure the degree of clustering/periodicity, we show that the widely observed tendency of eruption onsets to cluster may be best explained by trends in the activity, which is confirmed by a fractal analysis using the Hurst exponent. This means that compensating for extra parameters by means of the Akaike information criterion, the best fitted model for most of the volcanoes appears to be the nonhomogeneous Poisson process special case of the TRP. The TRP lends itself to analytically simple forecasting of the annual eruption probability (AEP) for the next eruption. This AEP can exhibit considerable structure with certain trend functions, but example data from Etna show how the TRP can automatically act to compensate the AEP against incomplete observation by fitting an increasing trend.
Intercomparison of satellite and ground-based measurements of ozone, NO2, HF, and HCl near Saint Petersburg, Russia

Regular intercomparison of different observing systems is a part of their testing and validation protocol, which gives the estimates of real measurement errors. The main objective of our study is the comparison of satellite and ground-based measurements of atmospheric composition near Saint Petersburg, Russia. Since early 2009, high-resolution Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) solar absorption spectra have been recorded at Peterhof station (59.82° N, 29.88° E), located in the suburbs of Saint Petersburg. We derived column amounts of O3, HCl, HF, and NO2 from these spectra using the retrieval codes SFIT2 and PROFFIT. We compared the data retrieved from Bruker 125 HR FTIR measurements with coincident satellite observations of the Microwave Limb Sounding (MLS), Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI), Fourier Transform Spectrometer from Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment (ACE-FTS), Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME and GOME-2), and Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric Chartography (SCIAMACHY) instruments. The relative differences in ozone columns of FTIR from OMI-TOMS amount within (+3.4 ± 2.9)%, from GOME-2 are (+2.2 ± 3.0)%. The comparison of FTIR and MLS measurements of stratospheric ozone columns gives no mean and 5% of the RMS differences. Measurements of NO2 columns agree with the mean difference of +9% and the RMS differences within 14–16% for FTIR vs. GOME-2, SCIAMACHY, and OMI. FTIR vs. GOME comparison gives (+6 ± 31)%. HCl columns comparison for FTIR vs. MLS shows −4.5% in the mean and 12% in the RMS differences. FTIR vs. ACE-FTS comparison (nine cases) gives −8% and 10% for the mean and the RMS relative differences, respectively. Comparison of HF columns shows (−12 ± 6)% and (−12 ± 11)% for FTIR vs. ACE data v.2.2 and v.3.0, respectively. These figures show that the Peterhof ground-based FTIR measuring system can be used to support the validation of satellite data in the monitoring of stratospheric gases.
Shallow subsurface morphotectonics of the NW Sumatra subduction system using an integrated seismic imaging technique

In subduction zones, shallow subsurface structures are the manifestation of the plate interactions at depth. However, significant water depths, rough bathymetry and presence of heavily deformed accretionary wedge materials hamper imaging of the near-surface features to a great extent using conventional imaging techniques. In this study, we show results using an integrated processing technique to a multichannel seismic data set acquired in 2006 from the northwestern offshore Sumatra. We start with first downward continuing the 12-km-long surface streamer data to the seafloor, followed by a high-resolution traveltime tomography of refracted phases to determine a detailed velocity–depth model of subsurface, which in turns, is used for pre-stack depth migration in order to delineate the shallow subsurface structures beneath the trench, subduction front and outer accretionary wedge. Our velocity–depth model and the depth migrated image depict variation of sediment properties across the front and structures of uppermost sedimentary sequence with an unprecedented high resolution providing the precise location of the frontal and conjugate thrusts, highly folded sedimentary sequences, which in turns describe their relationship with the top of the subducting plate and factors that control rupture propagation to the trench. Furthermore, we estimate the porosity distribution across the front, where we find a 12 and 18 per cent decrease in porosity beneath the deformation front and the inner accretionary plateau at 500 m below the seafloor, respectively, which we interpret to be due to the compaction. A significant decrease in porosity at the plate interface below 5–6-km thick sediments near the deformation front would increase the coupling, leading to the rupture propagation up to the trench, uplifting 4.5 km water and producing large tsunami.
Bacterial Viability in Self-Healing Concrete: A Case Study of Non-Ureolytic Bacillus Species

Cracking is an inevitable feature of concrete, typically leading to corrosion of the embedded steel reinforcement and massive deterioration because of the freezing–thawing cycles. Different means have been proposed to increase the serviceability performance of cracked concrete structures. This case study deals with bacteria encapsulated in cementitious materials to “heal” cracks. Such a biological self-healing system requires preserving the bacteria’s viability in the cement matrix. Many embedded bacterial spores are damaged during concrete curing, drastically reducing efficiency. This study investigates the viability of commonly used non-ureolytic bacterial spores when immobilized in calcium alginate microcapsules within self-healing cementitious composites. Three Bacillus species were used in this study, i.e., B. pseudofirmus, B. cohnii, and B. halodurans. B. pseudofirmus demonstrated the best mineralization activity; a sufficient number of bacterial spores remained viable after the encapsulation. B. pseudofirmus and B. halodurans spores retained the highest viability after incorporating the microcapsules into the cement paste, while B. halodurans spores retained the highest viability in the mortar. Cracks with a width of about 0.13 mm were filled with bacterial calcium carbonate within 14 to 28 days, depending on the type of bacteria. Larger cracks were not healed entirely. B. pseudofirmus had the highest efficiency, with a healing coefficient of 0.497 after 56 days. This study also revealed the essential role of the cement hydration temperature on bacterial viability. Thus, further studies should optimize the content of bacteria and nutrients in the microcapsule structure.