Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prehistoric human impact on wild mammalian populations in Scandinavia

This thesis aims to study the interactions of pre-agricultural societies in Scandinavia with wild mammals, for example in terms of hunting and translocation. More specifically, the aim is to investigate the possibility of identifying examples of overexploitation, targeted hunting or translocation of wild mammals in prehistoric Scandinavia, and to discuss the implications this could have had for both the wild animals and the humans. The thesis also studies translocation to evaluate the feasibility of using it as a proxy for prehistoric human mobility, and to understand the motivation for this action. Although the focus is on the animals in this thesis, the ultimate purpose is to study humans and their interactions with animals in prehistory. The thesis applies genetic analyses to zooarchaeological material of various mammalian species from different Scandinavian sites, in order to study whether the genetic structures have changed in these species over time, and to assess whether these changes were induced by different human actions. The species studied in this thesis were selected on the basis of the importance they are considered to have had for prehistoric people. The dissertation comprises five studies. The first study investigates the occurrence of mountain hares on the island of Gotland, and discusses how they got there and where they came from. The second study explores the temporal genetic structure of the grey seal in the Baltic Sea, and discusses whether humans and/or climate were the drivers for the sudden disappearance of grey seals from the island of Stora Karlsö. The third study concerns a shift where moose apparently became less important as prey in northern Sweden at the end of the Neolithic period, and discusses whether humans targeted female moose in hunting. The fourth study analyses and discusses the history of the harp seal in the Baltic Sea. The fifth study is a methodological paper which involves identifying seals according to sex, using the dog genome. The overall result of the different case studies shows that there were major population fluctuations over time in all the species studied, and that in some cases, humans are likely to have contributed to this, e.g. through overhunting and translocation. The study also shows that the population fluctuations often occurred in connection with certain climatic events, though it was not possible to separate climatic effects from human impact in terms of the cause.
NeuralRecon: Real-Time Coherent 3D Reconstruction from Monocular Video

We discuss the relationship between Atlas and the proposed method NeuralRecon as follows: 1) We share the same idea of predicting the TSDF volume directly from the 3D feature volume, 2) One of the major focuses of Atlas is the scene completion (i.e. TSDF refinement) capability of this design. Atlas achieves impressive reconstruction completeness that sometimes even surpass the ground-truth. However, the major focus of NeuralRecon is on the computation efficiency of this design compared to depth-based methods, 3) Being a real-time method, NeuralRecon incrementally reconstructs local fragment geometry, instead of aggregating the image feature of the entire sequence and then predicts the global geometry as in Atlas and 4) The local fragment separation in our method is also acting as a view-selection mechanism that avoids irrelevant image features to be fused into the 3D volume.
Graduates migration in the UK: an exploration of gender dynamics and employment patterns

Comunian, R. , Jewell, S. and Faggian, A. (2017) Graduates migration in the UK: an exploration of gender dynamics and employment patterns. In: Corcoran, J. and Faggian, A. (eds.) Graduate migration and regional development: an international perspective. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, pp. 220-238. ISBN 9781784712150 doi: https://doi.org/10.4337/9781784712167 Available at http://centaur.reading. ac.uk/70375/
Seafloor seismometers monitor northern Cascadia earthquakes

The Mw = 9.0 earthquake of 11 March 2011 at the Japan Trench and its devastating tsunami underscore the importance of understanding seismogenic behavior of subduction faults and realistically estimating the potential size of future earthquakes and tsunamis. For the Cascadia subduction zone (Figure 1a), a critical knowledge gap is the level of microseismicity offshore, especially near the megathrust, needed to better understand the state of the locked zone. In 2010 the first detailed seafloor earthquake monitoring campaign along the northern Cascadia subduction zone recorded nearby earthquakes in the local magnitude (ML) range from possibly around zero to 3.8 (Figures 1b and 1c) and larger earthquakes from outside this region. Preliminary analyses indicate that the network appears to have yielded a fairly complete catalog for events with ML > 1.2. Only a few tens of these events occurred beneath the continental shelf and slope (Figure 1a). The majority of the earthquakes were located along the margin-perpendicular Nootka fault zone. The relatively low seismicity away from the Nootka fault is consistent with a fully locked megathrust. Land-based GPS measurements cannot resolve the question of whether the offshore part of the megathrust seismogenic zone is narrow and fully locked or wider and only partially locked (slowly creeping). If it were only partially locked, the seafloor seismometer data should show many more small earthquakes along the interface than were actually detected.
Mountain permafrost distribution modelling using a multi‐criteria approach in the Hövsgöl area, northern Mongolia

Lake Hövsgöl is located on the southern fringe of the continuous permafrost zone in northern Mongolia. This paper describes a GIS‐based empirical permafrost model that is calibrated with ground temperature observations, and utilises a multi‐criteria approach to derive zones of permafrost favourability based on terrain parameters and land cover information. The scores are derived either by logistic regression or from satellite image information. The model is validated by DC resistivity tomography measurements. The overall permafrost distribution in the study area is well‐described and the method appears to be a valid approach for mapping permafrost at both local and regional scales in mountain areas with low data coverage. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The effect of LDL apheresis on ocular microcirculation in patients with hypercholesterolemia-A pilot study

Aim To investigate the effect of LDL (low density lipoprotein) apheresis on ocular microcirculation in patients with hypercholesterolemia Methods Six patients with hypercholesterolemia were included in this study. The diameter of retinal vessels was measured continuously with the retinal vessel analyzer (RVA) before and after LDL apheresis. After baseline assessment a monochromatic luminance flicker was applied to evoke retinal vasodilation. Flicker response was then analyzed 50, 70 and 120 sec after baseline measurement. Additionally, cholesterol, HDL, LDL-and triglyceride level were obtained to find a possible correlation between retinal vessel diameter changes and lipid metabolism before and after apheresis
An essay on Gnedenko’s theorem

A local central limit theorem is established for a Markov chain on a lattice under recurrence type assumptions and a simple additional assumption on conditional distributions of the process. The main result extends, in particular, the classical theorem by B. V. Gnedenko for the case of independent identically distributed random variables (1948). Suﬃcient conditions for recurrence assumptions are provided.
Post‐1850 changes in glacier benito, north patagonian icefield, chile

Abstract Glacier Benito is a temperate outlet glacier on the west side of the North Patagonian Icefield. Rates of thinning and ablation were obtained using data collected by the ritish Joint Services Expedition in 1972/73 and subsequent data collected in 2007 and 2011. Ice‐front recession rates were based on dendrochronological dating for the terminal moraines and aerial and satellite imagery of the ice front in 1944, 1998 and 2002. Between the first Benito survey in 1973 and 2007, the lower glacier thinned by nearly 150 m at an average rate of 4.3 m yr−1 with the rate increasing to 6.1 m yr−1 between 2007 and 2011, a 28.7% increase during the latter period. Increases in ice movement and ablation were negligible: ice movement for 1973 and 2007 averaged 0.45 m day−1 and ablation averaged 0.05 m day−1. Ice front recession along the glacier's centre line from 1886 to 2002 was approximately 1860 m. Retreat rates between 1886 and 1944 averaged 8.9 m yr−1. Thereafter glacier asymmetry makes measurement along the glacier centre line unrepresentative of areal change until 1998 when symmetry was restored; retreat between 1944 and 1998 was 15.4 m yr−1. From 1998 to 2002 the rate increased dramatically to 127.2 m yr−1. Recession from the southern end of Benito's terminal moraine in the 1850s supports an early date for initial retreat of the Icefield's glaciers.
Social-ecological Changes, Livelihoods and Resilience Among Fishing Communities in Mafia Island Marine Park, Tanzania

Analysis of societal dimensions is increasingly receiving attention in social–ecological resilience research. This study investigates the impacts of neo-liberal marine conservation and economic policies, and environmental changes on the livelihoods of two fishing communities in Mafia Island Marine Park, Tanzania, and their response strategies towards attempting to maintain livelihood resilience. These communities are in similar geographical and administrative settings but differ in their proximity to Park headquarters, conformity to Park regulations and engagement in fish trade. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, direct observation and questionnaire surveys. Interviewees from both villages reported increasing poverty in terms of reduced capacity to meet their basic needs, and decreases in numbers of meals per day, variety of foods and fish consumption, reduced access to resources, low productivity and prices of local produce. Women experienced raised household responsibilities for food security and meeting other household needs. Their main responses to these changes included loan seeking, reduction of expenditures, skipping meals, selling assets, collective fishing, livelihoods diversification, change of fishing techniques and gears, abandoning of fishing activity and outward migration. Their responses only contributed to survival without resolving the challenges. Paying attention to these societal experiences is therefore necessary, if resilience of social–ecological systems in a marine conservation area is to be maintained or enhanced.
Interpretable brain decoding from sensations to cognition to action: graph neural networks reveal the representational hierarchy of human cognition

Inter-subject modeling of cognitive processes has been a challenging task due to large individual variability in brain structure and function. Graph neural networks (GNNs) provide a potential way to project subject-specific neural responses onto a common representational space by effectively combining local and distributed brain activity through connectome-based constraints. Here we provide in-depth interpretations of biologically-constrained GNNs (BGNNs) that reach state-of-the-art performance in several decoding tasks and reveal inter-subject aligned neural representations underpinning cognitive processes. Specifically, the model not only segregates brain responses at different stages of cognitive tasks, e.g. motor preparation and motor execution, but also uncovers functional gradients in neural representations, e.g. a gradual progression of visual working memory (VWM) from sensory processing to cognitive control and towards behavioral abstraction. Moreover, the multilevel representations of VWM exhibit better inter-subject alignment in brain responses, higher decoding of cognitive states, and strong phenotypic and genetic correlations with individual behavioral performance. Our work demonstrates that biologically constrained deep-learning models have the potential towards both cognitive and biological fidelity in cognitive modeling, and open new avenues to interpretable functional gradients of brain cognition in a wide range of cognitive neuroscience questions. Highlights BGNN improves inter-subject alignment in task-evoked responses and promotes brain decoding BGNN captures functional gradients of brain cognition, transforming from sensory processing to cognition to representational abstraction. BGNNs with diffusion or functional connectome constraints better predict human behaviors compared to other graph architectures Graphic Abstract Multilevel representational learning of cognitive processes using BGNN
A Missing Piece of the E-Region Puzzle: The Need for High-Resolution Photoionization Cross Sections and Solar Irradiance in Models

Most ionospheric models cannot suﬃciently reproduce the observed electron density proﬁles in the E-region ionosphere, since they usually underestimate electron densities. Mitigation of this issue is often addressed by increasing the solar soft X-ray ﬂux which is ineﬀective for resolving data-model discrepancies. We show that low-resolution cross sections and solar spectral irradiances fail to preserve structure within the data, which considerably impacts the radiative processes in the E-region, and are largely responsible for the discrepancies between observations and simulations. To resolve data-model inconsistencies, we utilize new high-resolution (0.001 nm) atomic oxygen (O) and molecular nitrogen (N2) cross sections and solar spectral irradiances, which preserve autoionization and narrow rotational lines, allowing solar photons to reach lower altitudes and increase in the photoelectron ﬂux. This work improves upon Meier et al. (2007) by additionally incorporating new high-resolution N2 photoionization and photoabsorption cross sections in model calculations. Model results with the new inputs show increased O+ production rates of over 500%, larger than those of Meier et al. (2007) at 0.1 nm resolution, and total ion production rates of over 125%, while N2+ production rates decrease by 15% 30 in the E-region in comparison to the results obtained using the cross section compilation from Conway (1988). Low-resolution molecular oxygen (O2) cross sections from the Conway (1988) compilation are utilized for all input cases and indicate that O2+ is a dominant contributor to the total ion production rate in the E-region. Speciﬁcally, the photoionization contributed by longer wavelengths is a main contributor at 120 km.
IX.—Additional Notices on the Fossil Genera Ichthyosaurus and Plesiosaurus.

In the former communication which I had the honour of submitting to the Society, on the subject of the fossil remains of animals belonging to the Saurian order, it was my object to give a general outline of the facts which my own observation, or that of others, had enabled me, up to that period, to ascertain concerning the genus Ichthyosaurus; and to introduce to the knowledge of the public a new genus, which my own inquiries, assisted by those of Mr. De la Beche, had enabled me to constitute, and to which I appropriated the name of Plesiosaurus. It is my present intention to redeem the pledge I gave of endeavouring to fill up the outlines which I then offered, so far as the additional facts gathered in the researches of another year, the examination of many new and illustrative specimens, and my correspondence with scientific friends, have enabled me to do so. Were I at liberty to acknowledge all my obligations to those friends, I should at once disclaim for myself a large share of any merit that may be supposed to be attached to the prosecution of these inquiries, and at the same time confirm the results I have to state by authority far superior to my own. And I wish it to be understood, that I have again received, throughout, the assistance of Mr. De la Beche, and continued to derive material information from the fresh specimens which have found their way into the collection of
Principal condition for the earliest Asian summer monsoon onset

The earliest onset of the Asian summer monsoon rainfall occurs in May over Indochina and its vicinity. While heating over the Tibetan Plateau has been considered as a major driving mechanism to induce the onset, several other possible mechanisms have been proposed in recent years. This study explores the monsoon onset over Indochina through several integrations of a global atmospheric model with various boundary conditions in topography and sea surface temperature (SST). Results indicate that warm SST which appears to migrate from the ocean around Indochina to the Western Pacific during the rainy season plays a major role to induce the monsoon over Indochina. The onset requires the warm SST around Indochina as a part of the asymmetric SST field of the globe. The Tibetan Plateau is not an major factor for the onset. The recognized earliest onset can thus be interpreted as the onset of “marine monsoon. ”
Simultaneous observations of plasmaspheric and ionospheric variations during magnetic storms in 2011: First result from Chinese Meridian Project

The plasma transport between the plasmasphere and ionosphere during magnetic storms is a long‐standing problem and is still not fully understood. Simultaneous observations of the plasmasphere and ionosphere are vital to understand the coupling between the two regions. In this study, using the measurements from the newly developed Chinese ground‐based space weather monitoring network (Meridian Project), we investigate the plasmaspheric density at L ≃ 2 inferred from ground magnetometers and the ionospheric electron density inferred by digital ionosondes and GPS signals during magnetic storms in 2011. Five moderate magnetic storms with minimum Dst index between −47 and −103 nT during this period have been investigated. The observations show that the plasmaspheric density drops significantly by more than half of the prestorm value. The ionospheric F2 layer electron density NmF2 and the total electron content (TEC) show ~20–50% decreases, and the NmF2 and TEC reductions take place before the plasmaspheric density reaches its minimum. These findings suggest that the plasmaspheric depletion is very likely due to the reduced plasma supply from the ionosphere for the five moderate magnetic storms in 2011. Therefore, the plasmasphere dynamics seems to be controlled by the ionosphere during magnetic storms.
New late Precambrian-Cambrian U-PB zircon ages for zoned intrusives in the western Carolina terrane, Spartanburg and Union Counties, South Carolina

The geology of the western Carolina terrane comprises zoned mafic-ultramafic intrusive complexes intruding a volcanic pile of basalts and basaltic andesites; this package is interpreted to represent an episode of intra-arc rifting prior to regional metamorphism and foliation formation. New U-Pb zircon ages from the Mean Crossroads complex in northwestern South Carolina along the central Piedmont suture confirm relative ages obtained by detailed mapping. Two foliated meta-diorites yield U-Pb dates of 580 Ma, interpreted to be crystallization ages. A foliated meta-quartz diorite yields a U-Pb date of 535 Ma interpreted to be a crystallization age. These ages are broadly contemporary with those inferred by other workers for the Battleground Formation in the type locality of the Kings Mountain belt. An undeformed, unmetamorphosed diorite intruding these metamorphosed zoned complex intrusives also yields an age of 535 Ma. Hence the authors believe that intra-arc rifting and regional metamorphism both occurred c. 535 Ma. While petrographic and Ar-Ar studies support subsequent regional metamorphic overprint(s), or at least static recrystallization and/or uplift through hornblende-biotite-muscovite blocking temperatures for Ar in mid- to late-Paleozoic time, the 535 Ma, undeformed, unmetamorphosed intrusive suggest late Precambrian regional metamorphism and deformation was the event responsible for regional greenschist-lower amphibolitemore » facies metamorphism and foliation formation in this area of the Piedmont. This seems to contradict correlations with middle Ordovician fabric elements in the eastern Piedmont as well as the idea that this metamorphism and fabric development are related to presumed early Paleozoic accretion of the Carolina arc to Laurentia. They have also dated a foliated megacrystic granite that cuts the central Piedmont suture (325 Ma, U-Pb zircon), and the Bald Rock granite (326 Ma, U-Pb zircon). « less
Early evolution of the Earth: accretion, atmosphere formation, and thermal history

Atmospheric and thermal evolution of the earth growing by planetesimal impacts was modeled by taking into account the blanketing effect of an impact-induced H2O atmosphere and the temperature dependence of H2O degassing. When the water content of planetesimals is larger than 0.1% by weight and the accretion time of the earth is less than 5 × 107 years, the surface of the accreting earth melts and thus a “magma ocean” forms and covers the surface. The formation of a “magma ocean” will result in the initiation of core-mantle separation and mantle differentiation during accretion. Once a magma ocean is formed, the surface temperature, the degree of melting in the magma ocean, and the mass of the H2O atmosphere are nearly constant as the protoplanet grows further. The final mass of the H2O atmosphere is about 1021 kg, a value which is insensitive to variations in the model parameter values such as the accretion time and the water content of planetesimals. That the final mass of the H2O atmosphere is close to the mass of the present oceans suggests an impact origin for the earth's hydrosphere. On the other hand, most of the H2O retained in planetesimals will be deposited in the solid earth. Free water within the proto-earth may affect differentiation of the proto-mantle, in particular, the mantle FeO abundance and the incorporation of a light element in the outer core.
Uncertainty in the estimation of backwater effects at bridge crossings

The presence of a bridge spanning over a river and its floodplain alters the condition of flow. In subcritical conditions, which are typical in alluvial rivers, this flow alteration results in the so‐called backwater effect, that is, an increase of the water surface elevation upstream of the structure as a response to increased energy losses. The extension of the expected backwater affected area and the increase in water surface elevation are highly dependent on the river morphology, bridge geometry, flow and floodplain characteristics and may originate upstream flooding. Thus, in many countries, at the stage of design a new bridge (or renovation works), a specific investigation on the backwater effect has to be undertaken to analyse its effect on the flooding of its vicinity. Bridge waterway hydraulics has been widely investigated in terms of practical research and some standard guidelines have been suggested for modelling the backwater effect at bridge crossings. Although the scientific literature has widely proven that hydraulic modelling is affected by many sources of uncertainty, the hydraulic modelling of backwater effects is still undertaken within a deterministic approach, based on the outcomes of a calibrated hydraulic model. This article aims at approaching the prediction of backwater effects at bridge crossings by accounting for the main sources of uncertainty affecting the hydraulic modelling exercise. A bridge over a highly vegetated floodplain (Tallahala Creek, Mississippi, USA) was considered for this analysis, and uncertainty in the model parameters and input data was assessed to predict backwater flood design profiles. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.