Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
of Climate of the Past Millennial temperature reconstruction intercomparison and evaluation

There has been considerable recent interest in paleoclimate reconstructions of the temperature history of the last millennium. A wide variety of techniques have been used. The interrelation between the techniques is sometimes unclear, as different studies often use distinct data sources as well as distinct methodologies. Recent work 5 is reviewed with an aim to clarifying the import of the different approaches. A range of proxy data collections used by different authors are passed through two reconstruction algorithms: firstly, inverse regression and, secondly, compositing followed by variance matching. It is found that the first method tends to give large weighting to a small number of proxies and that the second approach is more robust to varying proxy input. 10 A reconstruction using 18 proxy records extending back to AD 1000 shows a maximum pre-industrial temperature of 0.25 K (relative to the 1866 to 1970 mean). The standard error on this estimate, based on the residual in the calibration period is 0.149 K. Two recent years (1998 and 2005) have exceeded the estimated pre-industrial maximum by more than 4 standard errors. 15
Origination preceding extinction during late Cenozoic turnover of Caribbean reefs

Abstract Statistical analyses of occurrence data derived from new collections through scattered Caribbean sections indicate that increased speciation preceded a pulse of extinction during regional turnover of the Caribbean reef coral fauna in Plio-Pleistocene time. The data are based on samples that were newly collected and identified to species using standardized procedures. Age-dates were assigned using high-resolution chronostratigraphic methods. The results show that coral species with a wide range of ecological traits originated and were added to the species pool as much as 1–2 million years before extinction peaked at the end of the turnover interval. Local assemblages consisted of a mix of extinct and living species, which varied in composition but not in richness. Extinction was selective and resulted in a faunal shift to the large, fast-growing species that dominate Caribbean reefs today. The unusual relationship between origination and extinction may have been caused by changes in oceanic circulation associated with emergence of the Central American Isthmus, followed by the onset of Northern Hemisphere glaciation. The pattern of origination preceding extinction may have been responsible for the stability of reef ecosystems during the intense climatic fluctuations of the late Pleistocene, and for the composition and structure of modern Caribbean reef ecosystems.
3D reconstruction from satellite imagery using deep learning

Learning-based multi-view stereo (mvs) has shown promising results in the domain of general 3D reconstruction. However, no work before this thesis has applied learning-based mvs to urban 3D reconstruction from satellite images. In this thesis, learning-based mvs is used to infer depth maps from satellite images. Models are trained on both synthetic and real satellite images from Las Vegas with ground truth data from a high-resolution aerial-based 3D model. This thesis also evaluates different methods for reconstructing digital surface models (dsms) and compares them to existing satellite-based 3D models at Maxar Technologies. The dsms are created by either post-processing point clouds obtained from predicted depth maps or by an end-to-end approach where the depth map for an orthographic satellite image is predicted. This thesis concludes that learning-basedmvs can be used to predict accurate depth maps. Models trained on synthetic data yielded relatively good results, but not nearly as good as for models trained on real satellite images. The trained models also generalize relatively well to cities not present in training. This thesis also concludes that the reconstructed dsms achieve better quantitative results than the existing 3D model in Las Vegas and similar results for the test sets from other cities. Compared to ground truth, the best-performing method achieved an L1 and L22 error of 14 % and 29 % lower than Maxar’s current 3D model, respectively. The method that uses a point cloud as an intermediate step achieves better quantitative results compared to the end-to-end system. Very promising qualitative results are achieved with the proposed methods, especially when utilizing an end-to-end approach.
Three-dimensional inversion of airborne time-domain electromagnetic data with applications to a porphyry deposit

We inverted airborne time-domain electromagnetic (ATEM) data over a porphyry deposit in central British Columbia, Canada and recovered the 3D electrical conductivity structure. Full 3D inversion was required because of the circular geometry of the deposit. Typical analysis, which assumes a homogeneous or layered earth, produces conductive artifacts that are contrary to geologic expectations. A synthetic example showed that those misleading artifacts arise by assuming a 1D layered earth and that a 3D inversion can successfully solve the problem. Because of the computational challenges of solving the 3D inversion with many transmitters of airborne survey, we introduced a work flow that uses a multimesh strategy to handle the field data. In our inversion, a coarse mesh and a small number of soundings are first used to rapidly reconstruct a large-scale distribution of conductivity. The mesh is then refined and more soundings are incorporated to better resolve small-scale features. This strategy significantly .
Beyond Moore's Law: the Interconnect Era

COMPUTING IN SCIENCE & ENGINEERING In the 20th century, mainstream electronics evolved from vacuum tubes and discrete copper wires to individual transistors and batch-fabricated, printed wiring boards to its current form, which integrates more than a billion transistors and copper interconnections in a single silicon chip. Until the past decade, designers benignly neglected the electrical performance of wires or metal interconnections, beyond a cursory accounting for their parasitic capacitance. They effectively addressed this problem simply by increasing transistor channel width to provide larger drive currents, and thus enable transistor-level circuit performance. Unfortunately, this simple fix is no longer adequate for two salient reasons: both interconnect latency and energy dissipation now tend to dominate key metrics of transistor performance. For example, for current, state-of-the-art 100-nm technology, the latency of a 1-mm-long interconnect benchmark is approximately six times larger than that of a corresponding transistor. Moreover, the energy dissipation associated with a benchmark interconnect’s binary transition is approximately five times larger than that of a corresponding transistor. This “tyranny of interconnects” escalates rapidly for future generations of silicon technology. Consequently, in the nearand mediumterm future, exponential increases in transistors per chip—as Moore’s law eloquently projects— will necessarily emphasize advances in interconnect technology. These advances will be extremely diverse and will include new interconnect materials and processes, optimal reverse scaling, microarchitectures that shorten interconnects, 3D structures and I/O enhancements, interchip optical interconnects, and more powerful computeraided design tools for chip layout and interconnect routing. Here, I discuss these improvements, which are likely to evolve for decades. I also discuss the logic behind my prediction that any revolutionary technology that supplants silicon must be interconnect-centric. First, however, let’s review Moore’s law and what its ultimate limits mean for the future of interconnect technology.
Dynamics of changes of bed load outflow from a small glacial catchment (West Spitsbergen)

Fluvial transport in a small glacial river catchment localized in the NW part of Wedel-Jarlsberg Land (Spitsbergen SW) was studied in the summer period of 2009. The intensity of bed load transport was determined using the River Debris Traps constructed for the project’s need. The obtained results indicate high dynamics of bed load transport, the amount of which reached up to several dozen kg for 24 hours in individual measurement sites. The results also confirmed great variability of different fluvial processes in the polar zone.
Self potential generated by two‐phase flow in a porous medium: Experimental study and volcanological applications

In order to characterize the relationships between self-potential generation and hydrothermal convection, laboratory measurements of electric potential and temperature are made along a vertical cylindrical column of porous material where a two-phase flow (wet steam) occurs. For steady state convection, the vertical distributions of vapor and water flow rates are calculated from thermal balance. At the initiation of convection, a positive electrical charge flux is related to the convective front. For isothermal and steady state columns, a positive electric potential gradient is observed along the vapor flow direction. These electric potentials are mainly a function of the vapor flow rates and of the medium permeability. A sudden and large increase in the vapor flow rate and in the volume fraction of vapor can induce a large and long-lived increase in the potential differences along the vapor flow direction. An electrokinetic effect related to the saturated vapor flow is the best candidate for this electric potential generation. The experimental results obtained in the present study are applied to self-potential generation in rising two-phase convective cells on active volcanoes. The observed positive self-potential anomalies close to active fissures depend on the electrical charge flux related to the upward saturated vapor flow. These results also demonstrate the value of self-potential monitoring in the early stages preceding a volcanic eruption.
The IRISA Text-To-Speech System for the Blizzard Challenge 2016

This paper describes the implementation of the IRISA unit selection-based TTS system for our participation in the Blizzard Challenge 2016. We describe the process followed to build the voices from given data and the architecture of our system. The search is based on a A* algorithm with preselection filters used to reduce the search space. A penalty is introduced in the concatenation cost to block some concatenations based on their phonological class. Moreover, a fuzzy function is used to relax this penalty based on the concatenation quality with respect to the cost distribution.
The IRISA Text-To-Speech System for the Blizzard Challenge 2018

This paper describes the implementation of the IRISA unit selection-based TTS system for our participation to the Bliz-zard Challenge 2018. We describe the process followed to build the voice from given data and the architecture of our system. It uses a selection cost which integrates notably a bottleneck DNN-based embedding prediction. Unit selection is based on a Viterbi-based algorithm with preselection ﬁlters used to reduce the search space. The system achieves average results compared to others
Population and housing grid spatialization in Yunnan Province based on grid sampling and application of rapid earthquake loss assessment: the Jinggu Ms6.6 earthquake ☆

Abstract: Population and housing grid data spatialization based on 340 grid samples (1 km × 1 km) is used instead of regional statistical data to simulate the population and housing distribution data of Yunnan Province (1 km × 1 km) for rapid loss assessment for the Jinggu M s6.6 earthquake. The results indicate that the method reflects the actual population and housing distribution and that the assessment results are credible. The method can be used to quickly provide spatial orientation disaster information after an earthquake.
Predicting habitat suitability for wildlife in southeastern Arizona using Geographic Information Systems: scaled quail, a case study

Studies have used Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to evaluate habitat suitability for wildlife on a landscape scale, yet few have established the accuracy of these models. Based on documented habitat selection patterns of scaled quail (Callipepla squamata pallida), we produced GIS covers for several habitat parameters to create a map of potential habitat in southeastern Arizona. We found scaled quail coveys on 36% of surveys conducted inside of potential scaled quail habitat, and 80% of the scaled quail coveys found occurred within the potential habitat map. We developed a logistic regression model that predicted 70% of used and unused sites. Potential causes for the low accuracy of GIS models are discussed.
Unified system of code transformation and execution for heterogeneous multi-core architectures. (Système unifié de transformation de code et d'éxécution pour un passage aux architectures multi-coeurs hétérogènes)

Heterogeneous architectures have been widely used in the domain of high performance computing. However developing applications on heterogeneous architectures is time consuming and error-prone because going from a single accelerator to multiple ones indeed requires to deal with potentially non-uniform domain decomposition, inter-accelerator data movements, and dynamic load balancing. The aim of this thesis is to propose a solution of parallel programming for novice developers, to ease the complex coding process and guarantee the quality of code. We lighted and analysed the shortcomings of existing solutions and proposed a new programming tool called STEPOCL along with a new domain specific language designed to simplify the development of an application for heterogeneous architectures. We evaluated both the performance and the usefulness of STEPOCL. The result show that: (i) the performance of an application written with STEPOCL scales linearly with the number of accelerators, (ii) the performance of an application written using STEPOCL competes with an handwritten version, (iii) larger workloads run on multiple devices that do not fit in the memory of a single device, (iv) thanks to STEPOCL, the number of lines of code required to write an application for multiple accelerators is roughly divided by ten.
Fault plane orientations of intermediate‐depth earthquakes in the Middle America Trench

[1] Intermediate-depth earthquakes are often attributed to dehydration embrittlement reactivating preexisting weak zones. The orientation of presubduction faults is particularly well known offshore of Middle America, where seismic reflection profiles show outer rise faults dipping toward the trench and extending >20 km into the lithosphere. If water is transported along these faults and incorporated into hydrous minerals, the faults may be reactivated later when the minerals dehydrate. In this case, the fault plane orientations should be the same in the outer rise and at depth, after accounting for the angle of subduction. To test this hypothesis, we analyze the directivity of 54 large (MW ≥ 5.7) earthquakes between 35 and 220 km depth in the Middle America Trench. For 12 of these earthquakes, the directivity vector allows us to identify the fault plane of the focal mechanism. Between 35 and 85 km depth, we observe both subhorizontal and subvertical fault planes. The subvertical fault planes are consistent with the reactivation of outer rise faults, whereas the subhorizontal fault planes suggest the formation of new faults. Deeper than 85 km, we only observe subhorizontal faults, indicating that the outer rise faults are no longer being reactivated. The similarity with previous results from the colder Tonga-Kermadec subduction zone suggests that the mechanism generating these earthquakes, and controlling fault plane orientations, depends on pressure rather than temperature or other tectonic parameters and that the observed rupture characteristics constitute a basic feature of intermediate-depth seismicity. Exclusively subhorizontal faults may result from isobaric rupture propagation or the hindrance of seismic slip on preexisting weak subvertical planes.
Patterns of Quaternary basaltic volcanism in the northern North Island, New Zealand

Abstract North of Taupo Volcanic Zone (TVZ) are 4 major Quaternary volcanic fields; South Auckland, Auckland, Whangarei, and Kaikohe-Bay of Islands. Volcanoes in these fields are monogenetic and include maars and scoria cones atop lava pedestals. Volumes are small (<1 km3) although a few centres erupted approximately 5 km3 of lava and scoria. Early,, often explosive, undersaturated volcanism is followed by eruption of more voluminous saturated basalts. Differences in chemistry and volcanic style between earlier and later volcanism are matched by differences in texture and mineralogy of the lavas. A similar style of basaltic volcanism occurred throughout the Pliocene and Miocene. The basalts are explained as products of progressive melting of mantle diapirs formed by convection in the mantle wedge to the rear of the TVZ. Melting probably occurs between 70 and 120 km, which is a zone of low Q beneath the northern North Island. Ascent rates of mantle diapirs of the order of 102 cm/year are suggested by the r.
Principal Component Analysis in CGAL

Principal component analysis is a basic component of many geometric computing and processing algorithms. It is most commonly used on point sets, although applicable as well to sets of arbitrary primitives through the computation of covariance matrices. In this paper we provide closed form formulas of covariance matrices for sets of 2D and 3D geometric primitives such as segments, circles, triangles, iso rectangles, spheres, tetrahedra and iso cuboids. We also describe the method of deriving covariance matrices for their dimensional variants such as disks, balls etc. We finally discuss the flexibility and added value of the present approach by discussing its potential use in applications. Our implementation will be available through the next release of the CGAL library.
Phenomenological modeling of image irradiance for non-Lambertian surfaces under natural illumination

PHENOMENOLOGICAL MODELING OF IMAGE IRRADIANCE FOR NON-LAMBERTIAN SURFACES UNDER NATURAL ILLUMINATION Shireen Y. Elhabian November 26th, 2012 Various vision tasks are usually confronted by appearance variations due to changes of illumination. For instance, in a recognition system, it has been shown that the variability in human face appearance is owed to changes to lighting conditions rather than person’s identity. Theoretically, due to the arbitrariness of the lighting function, the space of all possible images of a fixed-pose object under all possible illumination conditions is infinite dimensional. Nonetheless, it has been proven that the set of images of a convex Lambertian surface under distant illumination lies near a low dimensional linear subspace. This result was also extended to include non-Lambertian objects with non-convex geometry. As such, vision applications, concerned with the recovery of illumination, reflectance or surface geometry from images, would benefit from a lowdimensional generative model which captures appearance variations w.r. t. illumination conditions and surface reflectance properties. This enables the formulation of such inverse problems as parameter estimation. Typically, subspace construction boils to performing a dimensionality reduction scheme, e.g. Principal Component Analysis (PCA), on a large set of (real/synthesized) images of object(s) of interest with fixed pose but different illumination conditions. However, this approach has two major problems. First, the acquired/rendered image ensemble should be statistically significant vis-à-vis capturing the full behavior of the sources of variations that is of interest, in particular illumination and reflectance. Second, the curse of dimensionality hinders numerical methods such as Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) which becomes intractable especially with large number of largesized realizations in the image ensemble. One way to bypass the need of large image ensemble is to construct appearance subspaces using phenomenological models which capture appearance variations through mathematical abstraction of the reflection process. In particular, the harmonic expansion of the image irradiance equation can be used to derive an analytic subspace to represent images under fixed pose but different illumination conditions where the image irradiance equation has been formulated in a convolution framework. Due to their lowfrequency nature, irradiance signals can be represented using low-order basis functions, where Spherical Harmonics (SH) has been extensively adopted. Typically, an ideal solution to the image irradiance (appearance) modeling problem should be able to incorporate complex illumination, cast shadows as well as realistic surface reflectance properties, while moving away from the simplifying assumptions of Lambertian reflectance and single-source distant illumination. By handling arbitrary complex illumination and non-Lambertian reflectance, the appearance model proposed in this dissertation moves the state of the art closer to the ideal solution.
Bayesian Approach for Indoor Pedestrian Localisation

The principal concept of navigation is to start from a known (initial) position and to ensure a continued and reliable localisation of the user during his/her movement. The initial position of the trajectory is usually obtained via GPS or defined by the user. Consider a pedestrian navigation system which contains a GPS receiver and a set of inertial sensors, connected with a map database. In the urban environment and indoors the localisation depends entirely on the measurements from the inertial sensors. The trajectory is defined in a local coordinate system and with an arbitrary orientation. The problem to solve is to determine the users location using the map database and inertial measurements of the navigation system. The idea behind our approach is to find the location and orientation of the trajectory and thus the users location. The proposed solution associates the users trajectory with the map database applying statistical methods in combination with map-matching. Similar geometric forms must be identified in both the trajectory and the link-node model. The trajectory, defined by a set of consecutive points, is transformed to a set of lines thanks to a dedicated motion model. In this research we propose a solution based on statistical methods where the history of the route and actual measurements are treated at the same time. The determination of the absolute position is entirely represented by its probability density function (PDF) in the frame of Bayesian inference. Following this approach the posterior estimation of the users location can be calculated using prior information and actual measurements. Because of the non-linear nature of the estimation problem, non-linear filtering techniques like particle filters (Sequential Monte Carlo methods) are applied.
Stability of the Rake during the 1992, Landers Earthquake. An indication for a small stress release?

We use the high quality data set of the Landers earthquake to study in detail the ability of strong motion inversions to resolve the rake during the rupture process. Initially, we constrain the rake to be constant on the fault. Several inversions with different rake values show that a pure strike slip gives the best fit to the data. In a second step, we have allowed the rake to vary spatially. Spatial rake variations are well resolved by the data and remain small; the data strongly constrain the earthquake to be a pure strike-slip event with almost no variation of the rake. We assume that the direction of the slip vector is always close to the direction of the applied stress, which itself is the vector sum of the pre-existing stress and the dynamic stress changes. The stability of the rake on a fault with a dynamical rupture process which is clearly heterogeneous suggests that the pre-existing stress level is quite homogeneous and that it dominates over the dynamic stress changes.