Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dynamic refraction stereo

In this paper we consider the problem of reconstructing the 3D position and surface normal of points on an unknown, arbitrarily-shaped refractive surface. We show that two viewpoints are sufficient to solve this problem in the general case, even if the refractive index is unknown. The key requirements are: (1) knowledge of a function that maps each point on the two image planes to a known 3D point that refracts to it; and (2) light is refracted only once. We apply this result to the problem of reconstructing the time-varying surface of a liquid from patterns placed below it. To do this, we introduce a novel stereo matching criterion called refractive disparity, appropriate for refractive scenes, and develop an optimization-based algorithm for individually reconstructing the position and normal of each point projecting to a pixel in the input views. Results on reconstructing a variety of complex, deforming liquid surfaces suggest that our technique can yield detailed reconstructions that capture the dynamic behavior of free-flowing liquids
Biomarker temperature estimates for modern and last glacial surface waters of the California Current

Sea surface temperature (SST) estimates were made using data for C37-39 alkenones analyzed in modern and glacial-age intervals of sediment cores collected along an east-west (∼42°N from 125° to 132°W) and a north-south (41°–33°N) transect of the California Current system (CCS). The prymnesiophyte biomarker results suggest that surface waters warmed significantly throughout this region since the last glacial maximum (LGM) but the magnitude of warming varied spatially. Stratigraphic profiles from four sediment cores along the north-south transect indicate the warming period was confined to the glacial/interglacial transition (15-10 ka), with SST reaching a maximum value at ∼10 ka and maintaining a uniformly high value throughout the Holocene. Comparison of estimates derived from analysis of modern and LGM sediment intervals indicates the magnitude of the SST change was minimal for locations south of about 36°N (≤1°–2°C) and increased significantly (3°–5°C) north of this latitude. Using a simple heat balance model, we calculate from the latitudinal gradient in SST that southward flow in the California Current system during the LGM was about 60% of that measured today at 36°N. Our findings support the conclusion of others based on pollen data that coastal upwelling in the region of the northeast Pacific off northern California was significantly reduced or even completely shutdown during the LGM.
Large variations of δ13C values in stalagmites from southeastern China during historical times: implications for anthropogenic deforestation

Variations in speleothem δ13C values can reflect changes in overlying surface vegetation, which, over historical time scales, may represent the influence of human activities. Here, we examined δ13C variations in two stalagmites growing for the last 2200 years in Shennong Cave, Jiangxi Province, SE China. The two δ13C records corroborate well one another and show a prominent 6‰ enrichment of the δ13C values from AD 700 to 1100. The isotopic equilibrium for modern calcite and negative correlation between δ18O and δ13C values along the growth axis suggest that the influences of kinetic fractionation are negligible. Varied correlations between Mg/Ca and Sr/Ca ratios and divergent changes between δ13C values and Mg/Ca and Sr/Ca ratios from AD 700 to 1100 reveal that the prior calcite precipitation (PCP) and water–rock interaction did not dominate the increase of δ13C values. It is plausible that the obvious δ13C variation was largely influenced by the changes in vegetation cover overlying the cave. Our δ13C results, together with the records of climate and human activity from historical documentary records, suggest that: (i) prior to AD 700, small fluctuations in relatively light δ13C values reflect the presence of lush forest coverage above the cave, which was minimally disturbed by human activities; (ii) during AD 700–1100, the drastic increase in δ13C values indicates persistent and massive deforestation associated with large‐scale immigration into northern Jiangxi after the Rebellion of An & Shi (AD 755–763) in the Tang Dynasty and the subsequent development of agriculture and economic activity; and (iii) since AD 1100, fluctuations in relatively high δ13C values suggest that local vegetation during the last millennium has been sparse. Since the Rebellion of An & Shi, southeastern China was progressively developed, coincident with deforestation and vegetation deterioration caused by human disturbance in the form of deforestation and cultivation.
A Transient Model of Vadose Zone Reaction Rates Using Oxygen Isotopes and Carbon Dioxide

The importance of identifying and quantifying subsurface geochemical reaction rates and processes by monitoring and modeling CO2 and O2 concentrations is well established. These parameters, however, are typically studied independently under presumed steady‐state conditions. Here we present models of seasonally variable vadose zone CO2 and O2 concentrations that use δ18O of O2 as a constraint to create a dynamic link between these three parameters under transient conditions. The gas transport modeling was used to quantify the controls of biogeochemical processes and parameters (i.e., temperature and moisture content) on vadose zone distributions of CO2 and O2 gas concentrations. The investigation was conducted on a 3‐m‐thick, unvegetated, fine‐sand vadose zone located in northern Alberta, Canada (56°40′N, 111°07′W). Using the modeled molar ratio of surface fluxes for O2 and CO2, the change in reaction rate for a temperature change of 10°C (Q10), moisture content at maximum reaction rates, and biogeochemical discrimination against consumption of 18O16O (αk), we determined that organic C oxidation by microbial respiration was the predominant mechanism consuming O2 and producing CO2 The mean αk was determined to be 0.973, suggesting that subsurface respiration was via the alternative oxidase pathway, which may be common in cold climates. Modeling revealed that the moisture content of a moist, surficial clayey sand layer (0.1–0.3 m thick) had a dramatic effect on pore‐gas CO2 and O2 concentrations and on δ18OO2 The vadose zone in this study was at an unvegetated site to simplify the model application; however, it can be modified to include root respiration and applied to natural vadose zones to help quantify the role of subsurface respiration in global O2 and C budgets.
Fault slip models of the 2010–2011 Canterbury, New Zealand, earthquakes from geodetic data and observations of postseismic ground deformation

Abstract We present source models derived from geodetic data for the four major Canterbury earthquakes of 2010–2011. The September 2010 Darfield earthquake was largely right-lateral, but with several other fault segments active. The February 2011 Christchurch earthquake was mixed right-lateral and reverse with a left-stepping offset interrupting an ENE-striking rupture. The June 2011 earthquake included left-lateral slip on a NNW-striking fault. The December 2011 earthquakes were characterised by offshore reverse slip on an ENE-striking plane. Displacements of GPS sites define small but clearly detectable postseismic deformation east of the September 2010 earthquake, near the February 2011 earthquake and following the June 2011 earthquake. There has been no major moment release in a 15-km-long region between the eastern end of the September 2010 faulting and the western end of the February 2011 faulting. We recommend careful monitoring of this region for the next several years.
Soil Preferences of Nicrophorus Beetles and the Effects of Compaction on Burying Behavior

Burying beetles (Nicrophorus) are so named because of their characteristic of burying small carcasses for reproduction. Not only do they use the soil for reproductive purposes, but they bury themselves in it during daily and seasonal periods of inactivity. One member of this family, the American burying beetle (N. americanus), was declared federally endangered in 1989 and as a result management and conservation efforts have increased. The species is characterized as a habitat generalist which is surveyed by using baited pitfal traps, where little information about habitat preferences can be gained. It is therefore also important to know where they are most likely to occur during times of inactivity, but no studies to date have examined their soil preferences and conditions while inactive. The soil preferences of five Nicrophorus beetles were tested in this study. The American burying beetle is most likely to be found in moist sandy loam soil with cut vegetation coverage at a depth of approcimately 20 cm. Similar preference was found for N. marginatus and N. orbicollis, but not for N. carolinus. These results provide important insights for surveys, habitat conservation, and reintroduction activities.
Drainage rearrangement by river capture, beheading and diversion

Drainage rearrangement, involving stream piracy (capture), drainage diversion and/or beheading, may be significant for sediment budgets (including sediment provenance) and biotic distributions, as well as for its more usually considered role in landscape evolution. The processes involved in drainage rearrangement are not as self-evident as its abundant literature indicates. This is especially the case with the commonly invoked stream capture. The key process in stream capture, namely, drainage head retreat, is difficult to envisage as a normal part of drainage net evolution, especially in the light of recent findings on drainage hollow evolution. Stream capture may therefore be a relatively rare event in drainage net evolution. This, and uncertainties with interpretations of supposed elbows of capture, mean that stream capture should not be routinely invoked in interpretations of long-term drainage evolution. Further uncertainties associated with the maintenance of drainage lines during the erosion of significant crustal sections, especially in faulted and folded terrains, diminish the likelihood of many supposed examples of stream capture. It is more likely that examples of drainage rearrangement attributed to stream capture were generated by drainage diversion, but even this may involve special conditions.
MemoNet: Memorizing Representations of All Cross Features Efficiently via Multi-Hash Codebook Network for CTR Prediction

New findings in natural language processing(NLP) demonstrate that the strong memorization capability contributes a lot to the success of large language models.This inspires us to explicitly bring an independent memory mechanism into CTR ranking model to learn and memorize all cross fea-tures’ representations.In this paper,we propose multi-Hash Codebook NETwork(HCNet) as the memory mechanism for efficiently learning and memorizing representations of all cross features in CTR tasks.HCNet uses multi-hash codebook as the main memory place and the whole memory procedure consists of three phases: multi-hash addressing,memory restoring and feature shrinking.HCNet can be regarded as a general module and can be incorporated into any current deep CTR model.We also propose a new CTR model named MemoNet which combines HCNet with a DNN back-bone.Extensive experimental results on three public datasets show that MemoNet reaches superior performance over state-of-the-art approaches and validate the effectiveness of HCNet as a strong memory module.Besides, MemoNet shows the prominent feature of big models in NLP,which means we can enlarge the size of codebook in HCNet to sus-tainably obtain performance gains.Our work demonstrates the importance and feasibility of learning and memorizing representations of all cross features ,which sheds light on a new promising research direction.
Semantic Attention Flow Fields for Dynamic Scene Decomposition

We present SAFF: a dynamic neural volume reconstruction of a casual monocular video that consists of time-varying color, density, scene ﬂow, semantics, and attention information. The semantics and attention let us identify salient foreground objects separately from the background in arbitrary spacetime views. We add two network heads to represent the semantic and attention information. For optimization, we design semantic attention pyramids from DINO-ViT outputs that trade detail with whole-image context. After optimization, we perform a saliency-aware clustering to decompose the scene. For evaluation on real-world dynamic scene decomposition across spacetime, we annotate object masks in the NVIDIA Dynamic Scene Dataset. We demonstrate that SAFF can decompose dynamic scenes without affecting RGB or depth reconstruction quality, that volume-integrated SAFF outperforms 2D baselines, and that SAFF improves foreground/background segmentation over recent static/dynamic split methods.
The Wisconsinan deglaciation, of southern Saskatchewan and adjacent areas

The Wisconsinan deglaciation of southern Saskatchewan and adjacent areas of Alberta, Manitoba, Montana, and North Dakota is depicted in nine phases of glacial advance, readvance, and retreat. Althouth there is some uncertainty whether Phase 1 or 2 represents the Classical Wisconsin (Woodfordian) terminus, the glacial history from about 17 000–10 000 years ago is considered.Although the glacier margin retreated at an increasing rate in Saskatchewan, the volume of meltwater released by the melting glacier decreased with time. The large meltwater channels south of the Cypress Hills as compared to those to the north and the fact that most of the glacial lake deposits north of the Cypress Hills came from extraglacial rivers suggest there was much more glacial meltwater activity south of the Cypress Hills than north of them. This in turn suggests that much of the ice melted before significant retreat of the ice front took place.
A stand-alone tree demography and landscape structure module for Earth system models: integration with inventory data from temperate and boreal forests

Poorly constrained rates of biomass turnover are a key limitation of Earth system models (ESMs). In light of this, we recently proposed a new approach encoded in a model called Populations-Order-Physiology (POP), for the simulation of woody ecosystem stand dynamics, demography and disturbance-mediated heterogeneity. POP is suitable for continental to global applications and designed for coupling to the terrestrial ecosystem component of any ESM. POP bridges the gap between first-generation dynamic vegetation models (DVMs) with simple large-area parameterisations of woody biomass (typically used in current ESMs) and complex second-generation DVMs that explicitly simulate demographic processes and landscape heterogeneity of forests. The key simplification in the POP approach, compared with second-generation DVMs, is to compute physiological processes such as assimilation at grid-scale (with CABLE (Community Atmosphere Biosphere Land Exchange) or a similar land surface model), but to partition the grid-scale biomass increment among age classes defined at sub-grid-scale, each subject to its own dynamics. POP was successfully demonstrated along a savanna transect in northern Australia, replicating the effects of strong rainfall and fire disturbance gradients on observed stand productivity and structure. Here, we extend the application of POP to wide-ranging temporal and boreal forests, employing paired observations of stem biomass and density from forest inventory data to calibrate model parameters governing stand demography and biomass evolution. The calibrated POP model is then coupled to the CABLE land surface model, and the combined model (CABLE-POP) is evaluated against leaf–stem allometry observations from forest stands ranging in age from 3 to 200 year. Results indicate that simulated biomass pools conform well with observed allometry. We conclude that POP represents an ecologically plausible and efficient alternative to large-area parameterisations of woody biomass turnover, typically used in current ESMs.
Deep crustal geothermal measurements, hole 504B, Costa Rica Rift

We report an extensive suite of geothermal measurements in the deepest borehole yet drilled into the oceanic crust, hole 504B of the Deep Sea Drilling Project. Located in 6.2-m.y. -old crust of the Costa Rica Rift, hole 504B was cored during legs 69 and 70 in late 1979 and leg 83 in late 1981, to a total depth of 1350 m beneath the seafloor, through 274.5 m of sediment and 1075.5 m of basalt. During the three drilling legs, downhole temperatures were logged 11 times, and the thermal conductivities of 239 sediment and basalt samples were measured. The results indicate a dominantly conductive mode of heat transfer through the complete section, at 190±10 mW/m2. This is consistent with the predicted plate heat transfer and the hypothesis that the thick sediment cover acts as a seal against hydrothermal circulation of seawater to basement. For over 2 years after this sediment seal was penetrated, borehole temperatures were nearly isothermal to about 350–370 m, indicating that ocean bottom water was flowing down the hole into the upper ∼100 m of basement. This downhole flow was driven by the underpressure of the basement pore fluids, which is of indefinite, but possibly hydrothermal, origin (Anderson and Zoback, 1982). The flow rate decreased from 6000–7000 1/h in late 1979 to about 1500 1/h 2 years later; altogether over 50×106 kg of seawater has been drawn into the basement. We estimate a permeability of ≳6×10−14 m2 for the reservoir in the upper ∼100 m of basement. This zone seems to correspond to a layer of high apparent porosity (Becker et al., 1982), which has been tentatively identified as a thin layer 2A (Anderson et al., 1982a).
Synoptic‐scale Rossby waves and the geographic distribution of lateral transport routes between the tropics and the extratropics in the lower stratosphere

Atmospheric transport between the tropics and the extratropics, in the lowest part of the stratosphere during Northern Hemisphere winter, is investigated. The role of synoptic-scale disturbances that propagate laterally into the tropics is examined using the middle atmosphere version of the National Center for Atmospheric Research Community Climate Model Version 3 general circulation model. In the lower stratosphere, synoptic-scale Rossby waves propagate vigorously from the northern (i.e., winter) extratropics through two “westerly ducts,” where the westerly zonal mean winds near the equator are favorable to Rossby wave propagation. The waves break in the westerly ducts and modify the mean potential vorticity (PV) structure to connect subtropical and equatorial regions of sharp PV gradients. Frequent wave breaking and the wave-induced PV structure create distinct routes where transport occurs vigorously between the tropics and the northern extratropics. Interhemispheric transport also occurs through regions associated with the westerly ducts. In the Southern (summer) Hemisphere lower stratosphere, synoptic-scale disturbances propagate mainly as “tongues” of PV elongated from extratropical disturbances. The transport between the tropics and the southern extratropics has a strong geographic preference but is dominated by the monsoon circulation, as was shown for the upper troposphere by Chen [1995]. PV tongues and other transient anomalies are of secondary importance.
Fire Severity, Ash Deposition, and Clipping Effects on Soil Nutrients in Chaparral

Fire may affect soil nutrient status by direct addition of nutrients and by indirectly altering the soil environment. The objective of this study was to examine how fire severity, ash deposition, and clipping affect posttreatment soil nutrient status. There were eight experimental treatments designed to examine increasing fire severity, ash (nutrient) addition independent of fire severity, clipping to study competition for nutrients per se, and untreated controls. Fire severity affected both the quality and quantity of ash. Increasing fire severity increased the concentrations of Mg and K and decreased the concentrations of NH₄-N and NO₃-N in the ash. As fire severity increased, there was an increasing recovery of ash relative to standing biomass (10–18 g kg⁻¹). Fire increased the availability of all nutrients (NH₄-N, NO₃-N, PO₄-P, Ca, Mg and K). This nutrient enhancement was largely restricted to the surface soil (0–5 cm); only soluble N appeared to increase in the subsurface soil (5–10 cm). The soil quantities of NH₄-N increased and NO₃-N decreased with increasing fire severity, suggesting either a direct addition of variable amounts of these N ions or an indirect effect on postfire nitrification rates. Clipping had no effect on enhancing soil nutrient availability. The apparent recovery of the basic cations in the water extracts of the ash samples was in the order: K » Mg > Ca; this was different from the subsequent recovery in the soil: Ca > K > Mg. It was hypothesized that the relative recovery of basic cations in the water extracts of the ash samples was controlled by the solubility of Ca, Mg, and K salts.
Robust MPC for LTI Systems with Parametric and Additive Uncertainty: A Novel Constraint Tightening Approach

We propose a novel approach to design a robust Model Predictive Controller (MPC) for constrained uncertain linear systems. The system dynamics matrices are not known exactly, leading to parametric model mismatch. We also consider the presence of an additive disturbance. Set based bounds for each component of the model uncertainty are assumed to be known. We formulate a novel optimization-based constraint tightening strategy around a predicted nominal trajectory which utilizes these bounds. With appropriately designed terminal cost function and constraint set, we prove robust satisfaction of the imposed constraints by the resulting MPC controller in closed-loop with the uncertain system, and Input to State Stability of the origin. We highlight the efficacy of our proposed approach via a numerical example.
Fluctuation of rainfall time series in Malawi: An analysis of selected areas

Inter annual fluctuation of rainfall in Malawi was studied using a 31 year time series from selected rain gauge stations with the aim of analyzing the spatial and temporal characteristics of rainfall in Malawi. The study found strong inter-annual fluctuation of rainfall, with topography and location playing major roles in the annual rainfall distribution. The seasonal index and precipitation concentration index showed that rainfall is highly seasonal and highly concentrated with most stations receiving rainfall in three months, except for Nkhatabay which has seasonal rainfall. The intra annual rainfall distribution was highly variable in time and space. Cross correlations among the stations suggested two distinct zones, zone 1 composed of Karonga and Nkhatabay and zone 2 composed of Bolero, Kasungu, Salima, Dedza, Mangochi, Makoka and Ngabu. Spectral analysis of the rainfall time series revealed cycles at five to eight years, suggesting links with the El Nino Southern Oscillation and double the period of the Quasi Biennial Oscillation. Apart from the common cycles, the rainfall time series of the two zones showed periods of 13.64 and 10.06 years, respectively, which suggests links with the solar cycle. These cycles are consistent with those found in other southern Africa countries.