Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bear Hunting at the Pleistocene/Holocene Transition on the Northern Northwest Coast of North America

Recent discoveries on the northern Northwest Coast of North America provide evidence of bear hunting dating to the Pleistocene/Holocene transition. This paper describes the faunal assemblage from the Kilgii Gwaay wet site in southern Haida Gwaii. This assemblage includes a high proportion of remains of black bear. Ethological data, ethnographic sources, and the archaeological record are examined in order to provide an interpretative context for this assemblage and others in this region. The significance of bear hunting, the use of different hunting strategies, the economic utility of bears, bear ceremonialism, and the occurrence of bear bones at other Pleistocene archaeological sites are discussed. Evidence from Kilgii Gwaay suggests that bear hunting at the Pleistocene/Holocene transition on the northern Northwest Coast had both economic and ceremonial significance.
Rb‐Sr isotopic systematics of an Archaean granite–gneiss terrain: The Mount Edgar Batholith, Pilbara Block, Western Australia

Rb‐Sr whole rock analyses describe the isotopic system of the Mount Edgar Batholith in the Archaean Pilbara Block, Western Australia. The batholith comprises a complex gneiss terrain intruded by ‘older’ variably deformed granites, minor aplite, and a ‘younger’ post‐tectonic granite, the Moolyella Suite. The ‘older’ granites occur as six suites with isotopically indistinguishable individual isochrons; the pooled mean age is 3202 ± 17 Ma with initial 87Sr/86Sr ratios in the range 0.7010–0.7025. This age is taken to record timing of granite emplacement, although it may represent a metamorphic resetting. If the latter is correct, resetting took place in the greenschist to lower amphibolite facies, less than 100 Ma after batholith formation. Localized Rb‐Sr resetting and aplite dyke emplacement record a ∼3000 Ma event also detected in other parts of the Pilbara Block. The ‘younger’ Moolyella suite is dated at ∼2800 Ma, but appears to have undergone minor isotopic disturbance. The gneiss complex records a compl.
Electronic Music and Sound Design - Theory and Practice with Max/Msp - Volume 1

Structured for use in university courses, the book is an overview of the theory and practice of Max/MSP, with a glossary of terms and suggested tests that allow students to evaluate their progress. Comprehensive online support, running parallel to the explanations in the book, includes hundreds of sample patches, analyses, interactive sound-building exercises, and reverse engineering exercises. This book will provide a reader with skill and understanding in using Max/MSP for sound design and musical composition.You can download a PDF demo of the book at virtual-sound.com/en
Frost Survival of Plants: Responses and Adaptation to Freezing Stress

Low temperature represents, together with drought and salt stress, one of the most important environmental constraints limiting the pro ductivity and the distribution of plants on the Earth. Winter survival, in particular, is a highly complex phenomenon, with regards to both stress factors and stress responses. The danger from winter cold is the result not only of its primary effect, i. e. the formation of ice in plant tissues; additional threats are presented by the freezing of water in and on the ground and by the load and duration ofthe snow cover. In recent years, a number of books and reviews on the subject of chilling and frost resistance in plants have appeared: all of these publications, however, concentrate principally on the mechanisms of injury and resistance to freezing at the cellular or molecular level. We are convinced that analysis of the ultrastructural and biochemical alterations in the cell and particularly in the plasma membrane during freezing is the key to understanding the limits of frost resistance and the mechanisms of cold acclimation. This is undoubtedly the immediate task facing those of us engaged in resistance research. It is nevertheless our opinion that, in addition to understanding the basic physiological events, we should be careful not to overlook the importance of the comparative aspects of the freezing processes, the components of stress avoidance and tolerance and the specific levels of resistance. "
Infrared analysis of water in tektites and other glasses

The water contents of some tektites, impactites, and artificial glass of tektite composition have been determined by infrared analysis. Calibration is based on a series of rhyolitic obsidian glasses previously analyzed by I. Friedman by a manometric technique. With one exception, the twenty-five tektites measured had an average water content of 0.012±0.004 wt %. Water analyses of a series of glasses made in a solar furnace at atmospheric pressure, synthetic tektite glasses, and impactites showed an average water content of 0.043±0.013% and hence suggest that they were formed in an atmosphere having a higher water content than that in which tektites were formed. A comparison of the water content of selected small areas in tektite thin sections shows a nonuniform distribution and somewhat lower water content along what appears to be the aerodynamically heated side of the tektite. The results generally suggest that tektites were not formed under normal atmospheric pressure but in a partial-to-high vacuum.
The Ecology of Agricultural Landscapes: Long-Term Research on the Path to Sustainability

Contents 1 Conceptual and Experimental Approaches to Long-term Ecological Research at the Kellogg Biological Station 1 G. Philip Robertson and Stephen K. Hamilton 2 Farming for Ecosystem Services: An Ecological Approach to Production Agriculture 44 G. Philip Robertson, Katherine L. Gross, Stephen K. Hamilton, Douglas A. Landis, Thomas M. Schmidt, Sieglinde S. Snapp, and Scott M. Swinton 3 Economic Value of Ecosystem Services from Agriculture 76 Scott M. Swinton, Christina B. Jolejole-Foreman, Frank Lupi, Shan Ma, Wei Zhang and Huilan Chen 4 A Crop Stress Index to Predict Climatic Effects on Row-crop Agriculture in the U.S. North Central Region 110 Stuart H. Gage, Julie E. Doll, and Gene R. Safir 5 Soil Organic Matter Dynamics: Controls and Management for Sustainable Ecosystem Functioning 142 Eldor A. Paul, Alexandra Kravchenko, A. Stuart Grandy, and Sherri Morris 6 Microbial Diversity in Soils of Agricultural Landscapes and its Relation to Ecosystem Function 186 Thomas M. Schmidt and Clive Waldron 7 Plant Community Dynamics in Agricultural and Successional Fields 216 Katherine L. Gross, Sarah Emery, Adam S. Davis, Richard G. Smith, and Todd M.P. Robinson 8 Arthropod Diversity and Pest Suppression in Agricultural Landscapes 257 Douglas A. Landis and Stuart H. Gage 9 Nitrogen Transfers and Transformations in Row-crop Ecosystems 289 Neville Millar and G. Philip Robertson 10 Simulating Crop Growth and Biogeochemical Fluxes in Response to Land Management using the SALUS Model 343 Bruno Basso and Joe T. Ritchie 11 Water Quality and Movement in Agricultural Landscapes 376 Stephen K. Hamilton 12 Mitigation of Greenhouse Gases in Agricultural Ecosystems 419 Ilya Gelfand and G. Philip Robertson 13 Farmer Decisions about Adopting Environmentally Beneficial Practices 459 Scott M. Swinton, Natalie Rector, G. Philip Robertson, Christina B. Jolejole-Foreman, and Frank Lupi 14 Acoustic Observations in Agricultural Landscapes 490 Stuart H. Gage, Wooyeong Joo, Eric P. Kasten, Jordan Fox, and Subir Biswas 15 Designing Cropping Systems for Ecosystem Services 512 Sieglinde S. Snapp, Richard G. Smith, and G. Philip Robertson
A study of long-term trends in mineral dust aerosol distributions in Asia using a general circulation model

[1] Dust events have been observed in Japan with high frequency since 2000. On the other hand, the frequency of dust storms is said to have decreased in the desert regions of China since about the middle of the 1970s. This study simulates dust storms and transportation of mineral dust aerosols in the east Asia region from 1981 to 2001 using an aerosol transport model, Spectral Radiation-Transport Model for Aerosol Species (SPRINTARS), implemented in the Center for Climate System Research/National Institute for Environmental Studies atmospheric global circulation model, in order to investigate the main factors that control a dust event and its long-term variation. The model was forced to simulate a real atmospheric condition by a nudging technique using European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts reanalysis data on wind velocities, temperature, specific humidity, soil wetness, and snow depth. From a comparison between the long-term change in the dust emission and model parameters, it is found that the wind speed near the surface level had a significant influence on the dust emission, and snow is also an important factor in the early spring dust emission. The simulated results suggested that dust emissions from northeast China have a great impact on dust mass concentration in downwind regions, such as the cities of northeastern China, Korea, and Japan. When the frequency of dust events was high in Japan, a low-pressure system tended to develop over the northeast China region that caused strong winds. From 2000 to 2001 the simulated dust emission flux decreased in the Taklimakan desert and the northwestern part of China, while it increased in the Gobi desert and the northeastern part of China. Consequently, dust particles seem to be transported more from the latter region by prevailing westerlies in the springtime to downwind areas as actually observed. In spite of the similarity, however, there is still a large disagreement between observed and simulated dust frequencies and concentrations. A more realistic land surface and uplift mechanism of dust particles should be modeled to improve the model simulation. Desertification of the northeastern China region may be another reason for this disagreement.
Strontium isotopes in the investigation of early glass production: Byzantine and early islamic glass from the Near East

Sr-87\Sr-86 ratios have been determined for glasses from four production sites, dated to between the sixth and the 11th centuries, in the Eastern Mediterranean region. On the basis of elemental analyses, the glasses at each location are believed to have been melted from different raw materials. Two glass groups, from Bet Eli'ezer and Bet She'an, in Israel, are believed to have been based upon mixtures of Levantine coastal sands and natron, and have Sr-87\Sr-86 ratios close to 0.7090, plus high elemental strontium, confirming a high concentration of modern marine shell (Sr-87\Sr-86 similar to 0.7092) in the raw materials. The isotopic compositions of these two groups of glasses differ slightly, however, probably reflecting a varying ratio of limestone to shell because the sands that were utilized were from different coastal locations. Natron-based glasses from a workshop at Tel el Ashmunein, Middle Egypt, have Sr-87\Sr-86 values of 0.70794-0.70798, and low elemental strontium, consistent with the use of limestone or limestone-rich sand in the batch. High-magnesia glasses based on plant ash, from Banias, Israel, have Sr-87\Sr-86 values of 0.70772-0.70780, probably reflecting the isotopic composition of the soils that were parental to the plants that were ashed to make the glass. Strontium and its isotopes offer an approach to identifying both the raw materials and the origins of ancient glasses, and are a potentially powerful tool in their interpretation.
NDVI, biomass, and landscape evolution of glaciated terrain in northern Alaska

Abstract The patterns of the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) on three glacial surfaces of different ages in the vicinity of Toolik Lake, Alaska, were examined. NDVI was derived from SPOT multispectral digital data, and the images were stratified according to boundaries on glacial geology and vegetation maps. Ground-level measurements of NDVI from common vegetation types were also collected, using a portable spectrometer. Late Pleistocene glacial surfaces have lower image-NDVI than older Middle Pleistocene surfaces, and the mean NDVI is correlated with approximate time since deglaciation. The trends are related to differences in NDVI associated with vegetation growing on mineral vs peaty substrates. Nonacidic mineral substrates are more common on the younger landscapes, and acidic peaty soils are more common on the older surfaces. The field-NDVIs of acidic dry, moist, and wet tundra are consistently higher than those of corresponding nonacidic tundra types. These same trends are seen when the SPOT NDVI image is stratified according to vegetation boundaries appearing on two detailed vegetation maps in the region. Above-ground biomass of moist and wet acidic tundra is significantly greater than corresponding nonacidic types. Vegetation species composition was examined along two transects on the oldest and youngest glacial surfaces. Shrub cover is the most important factor affecting the spectral signatures and biomass. Older surfaces have greater cover of shrub-rich tussock tundra and shrub-filled water tracks, and the younger surfaces have more dry, well-drained sites with low biomass and relatively barren nonsorted circles and stripes. These trends are related to paludification and modification of the terrain by geomorphic and geochemical processes. Similar patterns of spectral reflectance have been noted in association with a variety of large-scale natural disturbances in northern Alaska. However, extrapolation of these results to much broader regions of the circumpolar Arctic will require the use of sensors covering larger areas, such as the AVHRR aboard the NOAA satellites.
Impacts of Road Disturbance on Soil Properties and on Exotic Plant Occurrence in Subalpine Areas of the Australian Alps

Abstract The construction and maintenance of roads in the Australian Alps has caused profound disturbance to the natural existing soil and vegetation, as well as the introduction and proliferation of exotic plant species. This study examined three ecotypes associated with roads. These ecotypes were tested for differences in soil characteristics and occurrence of different plant species. Differences in chemical and physical soil properties were found between road verges and adjacent native vegetation areas. Soils from natural areas had higher humus levels, less gravel and sand, higher levels of nutrients, and higher pH and electrical conductivity than road verges. A relationship was found between soil properties and the occurrence of different exotic plant species along roadsides. Exotics dominated in areas along the road verge and road drainage lines. The dominant exotic found in these ecotypes was Achillea millefolium (yarrow). These ecotypes were characterized by high water and sediment wash off, which had significantly higher soil pH and exchangeable levels of calcium and potassium than natural areas and disturbed areas without yarrow.
Sedimentary and geochemical evolution of the Dras forearc basin, Indus suture, Ladakh Himalaya, India

The Nindam Formation of the Indus suture zone represents the forearc basin to the Dras-Kohistan volcanic arc, which was generated in an intraoceanic setting during mid-Cretaceous time, and accreted to the margin of Eurasia during Late Cretaceous time. The Nindam Formation comprises volcaniclastic sediment and pelagic carbonate deposited in cyclic influxes of high-density, sheet-like turbidites, with locally well-defined channel morphologies. Debris-flow deposits as much as 5 m thick that rework older material are volumetrically <5% of the sequence. A fine-grained basal section is succeeded by several hundred meters of cyclic sandy turbidites, and finally a more shaley top. This large-scale variation may be linked to tectonic controls on arc activity, while individual sandy packages 50–100 m thick are inferred to have a glacioeustatic origin. Sedimentation mirrors similar patterns observed in the modern Mariana and Tonga forearcs. The lack of major unconformities and large-scale reworking suggests that the volcaniclastic sedimentary rocks should form a relatively complete record of geochemical change in the arc source. The sediment trace- and rare earth element (REE) signature is similar to that of the Dras and Chalt volcanic rocks erupted at the volcanic front during the intraoceanic phase of activity and is distinct from the Kardung Volcanic Group erupted during the continental arc phase, following collision with the Eurasian margin. Nd isotopes also support an intraoceanic origin. The sedimentary rocks show either no or slight light REE enrichment, similar to modern sediments from the Mariana arc, as well as the volcanic and intrusive core of the Dras-Kohistan Arc. The overall chemistry of the Dras-Kohistan Arc is thus more depleted in light REE than continental crust. Our data do not support models that propose continental crust being formed along intraoceanic active margins.
Estimating montane forest above-ground biomass in the upper reaches of the Heihe River Basin using Landsat-TM data

In this work, the results of above-ground biomass (AGB) estimates from Landsat Thematic Mapper 5 (TM) images and field data from the fragmented landscape of the upper reaches of the Heihe River Basin (HRB), located in the Qilian Mountains of Gansu province in northwest China, are presented. Estimates of AGB are relevant for sustainable forest management, monitoring global change, and carbon accounting. This is particularly true for the Qilian Mountains, which are a water resource protection zone. We combined forest inventory data from 133 plots with TM images and Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) global digital elevation model (GDEM) V2 products (GDEM) in order to analyse the influence of the sun-canopy-sensor plus C (SCS+C) topographic correction on estimations of forest AGB using the stepwise multiple linear regression (SMLR) and k-nearest neighbour (k-NN) methods. For both methods, our results indicated that the SCS+C correction was necessary for getting more reliable forest AGB estimates within this complex terrain. Remotely sensed AGB estimates were validated against forest inventory data using the leave-one-out (LOO) method. An optimized k-NN method was designed by varying both mathematical formulation of the algorithm and remote-sensing data input, which resulted in 3000 different model configurations. Following topographic correction, performance of the optimized k-NN method was compared to that of the regression method. The optimized k-NN method (R2 = 0.59, root mean square error (RMSE) = 24.92 tonnes ha–1) was found to perform much better than the regression method (R2 = 0.42, RMSE = 29.74 tonnes ha–1) for forest AGB retrieval over this montane area. Our results indicated that the optimized k-NN method is capable of operational application to forest AGB estimates in regions where few inventory data are available.
Measurement of carbon dioxide and hydrocarbon fluxes from a sitka spruce forest using micrometeorological techniques

CO2 and hydrocarbon fluxes from a sitka spruce forest were measured using a conditional sampling method, The method was used in two ways: (1) an automated system was used to monitor continuously the mixing ratio difference of total hydrocarbons and CO2 in sampling lines for updraught and downdraught air and (2) conditionally sampled updraught and downdraught air was passed through adsorption tubes, which subsequently were analyzed in the laboratory, to determine the fluxes of nonmethane hydrocarbons (NMHCs), Aerodynamic gradient measurements of NMHC fluxes were made over the same period. Method (1) produced a high temporal resolution data set of approximately 4 days of near-continuous fluxes. Marked diurnal trends in CO2 flux were evident. Peak daylight photosynthetic fluxes ranged from -30 to -90 mmol m(-2) h(-1). Smaller fluxes were noted during heavy rainfall and diminished photosynthetically active radiation, Nighttime respiration ranged from 0 to 10 mmol m(-2) h(-1). Total hydrocarbon fluxes were 3 orders of magnitude smaller. During hot, sunny conditions a total hydrocarbon flux of approximately 400 mu mol m(-2) h(-1) (CH4 equivalents) was observed, Fluxes of specific NMHC compounds, from method (2), ranged between 90 and 563 mu g m(-2) hour(-1). The annual carbon flux to Great Britain's conifer forests was estimated to be 1.3 Mt using a simple upscaling model based on the observations of CO2 flux during the field experiment.
Automated cloud and shadow detection and filling using two-date Landsat imagery in the USA

A simple, efficient, and practical approach for detecting cloud and shadow areas in satellite imagery and restoring them with clean pixel values has been developed. Cloud and shadow areas are detected using spectral information from the blue, shortwave infrared, and thermal infrared bands of Landsat Thematic Mapper or Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus imagery from two dates (a target image and a reference image). These detected cloud and shadow areas are further refined using an integration process and a false shadow removal process according to the geometric relationship between cloud and shadow. Cloud and shadow filling is based on the concept of the Spectral Similarity Group (SSG), which uses the reference image to find similar alternative pixels in the target image to serve as replacement values for restored areas. Pixels are considered to belong to one SSG if the pixel values from Landsat bands 3, 4, and 5 in the reference image are within the same spectral ranges. This new approach was applied to five Landsat path/rows across different landscapes and seasons with various types of cloud patterns. Results show that almost all of the clouds were captured with minimal commission errors, and shadows were detected reasonably well. Among five test scenes, the lowest producer's accuracy of cloud detection was 93.9% and the lowest user's accuracy was 89%. The overall cloud and shadow detection accuracy ranged from 83.6% to 99.3%. The pixel-filling approach resulted in a new cloud-free image that appears seamless and spatially continuous despite differences in phenology between the target and reference images. Our methods offer a straightforward and robust approach for preparing images for the new 2011 National Land Cover Database production.