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In this paper we develop a fully nonconforming virtual element method of arbitrary approximation order for the two dimensional Cahn–Hilliard equation. We carry out the error analysis for the semidiscrete (continuous-in-time) scheme and verify the theoretical convergence result via numerical experiments. We present a fully discrete scheme which uses a convex splitting Runge–Kutta method to discretize in the temporal variable alongside the virtual element spatial discretization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The machinic moving image has the power to engage with a larger audience than a drawing. It often strips away ambiguity, getting its message across fast and indelibly, coupled with the troubles of our age – particularly the mitigation of climate change, the need for profound international cooperation, and the sheer scale of the intervention required to ease these problems. Marissa Lindquist evokes Australian artist and filmmaker Liam Young's Great Endeavor film project that relishes a new technological sublime – long a preoccupation in his work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article contends that storytelling is not merely a supplementary aspect of law but integral to its very essence. By examining popular culture and literary works like Frank Herbert’s Dune, the article illustrates how storytelling reveals and critiques the underlying violence and ambitions within legal systems. Structured in three acts, the article first examines legal scholars’ use of storytelling to unmask violence, then juxtaposes literary and legal critiques, and ends by demonstrating law as a unique form of storytelling, essential for understanding and critiquing legal practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay examines the history of space opera and melodrama through the lens of science fiction and especially Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel Dune, with recent film adaptations by Denis Villeneuve (2021, 2024). Drawing on scholarship that explores the imperial and energy imaginary of science fiction, it argues that space opera is a subgenre of science fiction which amplifies melodrama’s ideological and structural critique of domestic and colonial power and the energetic regimes that produce them. As an energodrama, Dune deploys contemporary ecosystem science, with its tracing of energetic flows and circuits of resource interdependence, to detail the impact of resource extraction on ecologies and colonial territories, reading this pattern across a range of contested histories, from the guano wars of Peru, to the first Arab Revolt of WWI, to the nuclear brinksmanship of the cold war. Recent film adaptations of Dune restore the visual and sonic texture of this critique, amplifying the melodramatic texture of the novel and providing new sonic and visual ecologies that bring the viewer and auditor into visceral contact with those histories and the territories they remade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Further global warming is projected to increase coastal erosion. Therefore, coastal protection is being intensified with a strong emphasis placed on environmental biotechniques. One such activity is anti-erosion planting using alien plant species. The aliens penetrate from the plant species into the natural ecosystems, reducing their biodiversity and ecosystem services. Parallel to coastal protection, measures for nature conservation are undertaken to eliminate invasive aliens from the natural ecosystems that take over. Such actions are featured in the master plans drafted for the Natura 2000 sites on the south Baltic coast. Although there is no sufficient scientific evidence, Salix acutifolia willow used in anti-erosion plantings was considered a neophyte invading white and grey dune habitats and reducing their biodiversity. The master plans mandated the elimination of the willow without considering the role of its spontaneous locations in providing erosion-control services. In 2017–2023, research was undertaken on the south Baltic coast (Wolin Island) on the arguments behind such a radical conservation action. We present the results of these studies. We consider the elimination of S. acutifolia from its spontaneous locations as a reduction in both its erosion-control services and the willow's role in nature conservation. We present some principles for action in case of a conflict between coast protection and nature conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant traits and connectivity influence habitat usage, but fine‐scale ecological characteristics that determine fossorial animal movement patterns remain unclear. To understand the influence of landscape connectivity on movement behaviour, we examined vegetation characteristics relative to tracks between vegetation hummocks left by the short blind dart skink, Typhlacontias brevipes, a fossorial lizard inhabiting dunes of the Namib Desert. We measured characteristics of >700 plant hummocks and 293 T. brevipes tracks. Tracks were relatively direct from hummock to hummock (median straightness = 0.94). Vegetation hummocks with tracks were significantly larger than hummocks without tracks, indicating that vegetation size was the most important factor we measured in predicting track occurrence and was more important to skinks than the distances between hummocks, with only 24% of tracks occurring between nearest neighbouring vegetation hummocks. Network clusters consisting of as many as 15 vegetation hummocks were connected by tracks. Skink tracks had a median length of 815 cm and were oriented primarily from 0° to 30°. Our study highlights the importance of vegetation size to fossorial skinks and raises questions regarding other vegetation features that might influence the movement and ecology of fossorial lizards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

DUNE is a next-generation long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment. It is expected to measure, with unprecedented precision, the atmospheric oscillation parameters, including the CP-violating phase δ C P . Moreover, several studies have suggested that its unique features should allow DUNE to probe several new physics scenarios. In this work, we explore the performances of the DUNE far detector in constraining new physics if a high-energy neutrino flux is employed (HE-DUNE). We take into account three different scenarios: Lorentz Invariance Violation (LIV), Long-Range Forces (LRFs) and Large Extra Dimensions (LEDs). Our results show that HE-DUNE should be able to set bounds competitive to the current ones and, in particular, it can outperform the standard DUNE capabilities in constraining CPT-even LIV parameters and the compactification radius R E D of the LED model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Module-0 Demonstrator is a single-phase 600 kg liquid argon time projection chamber operated as a prototype for the DUNE liquid argon near detector. Based on the ArgonCube design concept, Module-0 features a novel 80k-channel pixelated charge readout and advanced high-coverage photon detection system. In this paper, we present an analysis of an eight-day data set consisting of 25 million cosmic ray events collected in the spring of 2021. We use this sample to demonstrate the imaging performance of the charge and light readout systems as well as the signal correlations between the two. We also report argon purity and detector uniformity measurements and provide comparisons to detector simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two ichnofacies have been named to encompass inland eolian depositional systems, the Octopodichnus and the Entradichnus ichnofacies, and are often combined into a single, Octopodichnus–Entradichnus ichnofacies. In contrast, coastal dune fields are characterized by a mixture of traces produced by marine and nonmarine organisms attributed to a single, Psilonichnus ichnofacies. However, inland eolian depositional systems lack marine organisms and encompass multiple lithofacies, the most extensive and broadly defined as being dunal and interdunal (includes many water laid deposits). The two lithofacies host generally different ichnoassemblages. Dunes are dominated by arthropod and tetrapod walking traces, whereas interdunes are dominated by shallow burrows, though there is some overlap in the ichnoassemblages of both lithofacies. A re-evaluation of the three ichnotaxa unique to the Entradichnus ichnofacies indicates they are invalid: Entradichnus = Taenidium, Pustulichnus = Skolithos, and Digitichnus is not based on a biogenic structure. The Entradichnus ichnofacies is characterized by abundant horizontal, backfilled traces of mobile deposit feeders and other ichnotaxa that indicate it is a synonym of the Scoyenia ichnofacies. I advocate subsuming the Laoporus, Brasilichnium, and Chelichnus ichnofacies of earlier workers under the Octopodichnus ichnofacies. Thus, the two principal ichnofacies of eolian depositional systems are the Octopodichnus and Scoyenia ichnofacies, though several other ichnofacies have been identified. No single ichnofacies characterizes eolian depositional systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aeolian concentration of iron-titanium oxides (black sand) is a common phenomenon on coasts around the world but associated aeolian detrital gold is relatively rare. In contrast, Holocene and active dunes at Waipapa beach on the coast of the southern South Island of New Zealand host aeolian black sand layers with locally abundant finely particulate (<200 µm) gold and platinum, some of which have been mined historically. Aeolian concentration of black sand, gold and platinum is driven by strong prevailing westerly winds (gusts >100 km/h) on annual or decadal time scales. Holocene fluvial recycling of aeolian sands has been important in upgrading the black sand, gold, and platinum contents. Surf concentration of black sand on the beach is minor and merely feeds the aeolian system, and this differs from other beach gold deposits around the world, which are surf-dominated. Most of the Waipapa beach gold (>90%) has flaky morphology with abundant superficial transport-related deformation reflective of fluvial transport, probably down the nearby Mataura River (∼200 km transport) between Miocene and Holocene. Minor distinctive wind-sculpted toroidal gold, and the platinum, arrived from the west (∼300 km transport) via the Waiau River and Foveaux Strait. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An overview of modern bed load measurement methods in rivers with fine alluvium is performed. Four groups of the methods are identified: measuring with bed load samplers, dune-tracking with a single-beam echo-sounder, dune-tracking with a multi-beam echo-sounder and measurement using acoustic Doppler current profilers. Strengths and weaknesses of each method are considered. Due to the fact that bed load transport occurs in the form of dunes the most promising methods seem to be based on the use of echo-sounders since they make it possible to take into account the integrity of bed forms directly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We introduce a novel analytical model of the growth of barchan dunes in terms of their two flanks, from which we derive expressions for the size‐dependence of the bilateral asymmetry of these bedforms in three cases where different mechanisms dominate the growth process. Analysis of the morphology of barchans on Mars and Earth suggest that there may exist two distinct attractor states for the asymmetry distribution. By comparing our analytical results with the observations, we show that the growth of barchan dunes appears to be dominated by processes, which are proportional to the basal area or volume of the bedforms, rather than being linear to their width as is typically assumed. We propose hypotheses explaining area‐dominated growth as a result of variable wind regimes and volume‐dominated growth from collisions. These predictions appear to be in line with the available data for the terrestrial swarms and barchan‐like submarine bedforms and offer the potential of predicting patterns in inaccessible wind regimes from data on the morphology of the dunes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geometric characteristics of subaqueous bedforms, such as height, length and leeside angle, are crucial for determining hydraulic form roughness and interpreting sedimentary records. Traditionally, bedform existence and geometry predictors are primarily based on uniform, cohesionless sediments. However, mixtures of sand, silt and clay are common in deltaic, estuarine, and lowland river environments, where bedforms are ubiquitous. Therefore, we investigate the impact of fine sand and silt in sand‐silt mixtures on bedform geometry, based on laboratory experiments conducted in a recirculating flume. We systematically varied the fraction of sand and silt for different discharges, and utilized an acoustic Doppler velocimeter to measure flow velocity profiles. The final bed geometry was captured using a line laser scanner. Our findings reveal that the response of bedforms to an altered fine sediment percentage is ambiguous, and likely depends on, among others, bimodality‐driven bed mobility and sediment cohesiveness. When fine, non‐cohesive material (fine sand or coarse silt) is mixed with the base material (medium sand), an increased dune height and length is observed, possibly caused by the hiding‐exposure effect, resulting in enhanced mobility of the coarser material. However, weakly cohesive fine silt suppresses dune height and length, possibly caused by reduced sediment mobility. Finally, in the transition from dunes to upper stage plane bed, there are indications that the bed becomes unstable and dune heights vary over time. The composition of the bed material does not significantly impact the hydraulic roughness, but mainly affects roughness via the bed morphology, especially the leeside angle. Plain Language Summary: Underwater bedforms, such as dunes, are often found on the bed of rivers and deltas. These rhythmic undulations have specific shapes and sizes, and they affect how water flows. When the bed of the river is made up of sand, we can predict the dune height and length. However, mixtures of different‐sized sediments are common in rivers, and it is unknown how this impacts the geometry of the dunes. Therefore, we did experiments in a flume, a laboratory facility to simulate a river, and we tested different sediment bed mixtures. We found that replacing part of the base material with non‐cohesive fine particles leads to longer dunes, likely caused by increased mobility of the base material. However, for weakly cohesive fine particles, the effect was the opposite, and the dunes became shorter, probably due to the limited mobility of the sediment. Finally, we observed that under high flow conditions, the bed became unstable and different dune shapes occurred. We found that the friction the water experiences is not directly impacted by the sediment bed mixtures, but is mostly affected by the shape of the bedforms. Key Points: An increased dune length due to a larger fraction of finer, non‐cohesive material in a sand bed, implies an increased mobility of the sandA decreased dune size due to a larger fraction of finer, weakly cohesive silt in a sand bed, implies a decreased mobility of the sandSediment bed composition indirectly affects hydraulic roughness by altering bedform geometry [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Invertebrates play a critical role in beach ecosystems, and seasonal variation in their occurrence and abundance likely influences food webs. We examine and characterise seasonal patterns in invertebrate activity on a temperate, southern sandy dune and beach ecosystem at Venus Bay, Victoria, Australia. We index invertebrate abundance, diversity and assemblage composition at fixed-site pitfall traps which were deployed in four transects from the lower dunes to the beach. Seasonal differences occurred in assemblage composition (foredunes only), richness and abundance. Insects dominated assemblages in summer, spring and autumn; crustaceans dominated winter assemblages. Morphospecies richness was lowest in winter (139% higher in summer and 169% higher in autumn). Our results contrast with other studies from temperate beaches in that (1) richness was higher on beaches compared to in foredunes across all seasons and (2) abundance differed significantly such that winter abundance was higher than for all other seasons. Possible explanations include the exposed nature of the study foredunes, marine ecological subsides in the form of beach wrack in winter and/or between-site variations in such factors. Further studies would usefully examine between-beach variation in seasonality in invertebrate activity in foredunes and dunes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we present a framework for the construction and implementation of general virtual element spaces based on projections built from constrained least squares problems. Building on the triples used for finite element spaces, we introduce the concept of a virtual element method (VEM) tuple which encodes the necessary building blocks to construct these projections. Using this approach, a wide range of virtual element spaces can be defined. We discuss Hk-conforming spaces for k = 1, 2 as well as divergence and curl free spaces. This general framework has the advantage of being easily integrated into any existing finite element package, and we demonstrate this within the open source software package Dune. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sand dunes are supported by the extensive root systems of dune plants that anchor the dune and protect it from erosion. While all plants that grow on the dunes support their structure, invasive plants can outcompete the native and non‐native dune plants for resources such as nutrients, sunlight, and space to grow. During the summer, sea turtles lay nests on beaches and near dunes; however, their eggs and hatchlings are at risk of destruction and entrapment by dune plant root penetration. Dune plant roots can penetrate sea turtle nest cavities, thus decreasing hatch success of the eggs and emergence success of the hatchlings. We aimed to determine how plant roots impact threatened loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) nests on Casey Key, Sarasota County, Florida, USA and to assess the factors affecting plant root invasion. Specifically, we determined the effect of plant roots on loggerhead sea turtle nest success, the extent of the impact of invasive plants over non‐invasive plants on nests, and if the distance from the dune (barrier) affects whether roots will penetrate the nest. From July to August 2022, we excavated 93 nests to determine the extent of root penetration and identify associated plant species. This field campaign was supported by a long‐term dataset (1987–2022) on loggerhead sea turtle nesting across the region. We found that root presence decreased hatch success by 21% and emergence success by 18%, compared to nests that lacked roots within the nest chamber. Nests closer to the dune were more likely to have a higher proportion of root damage and lower hatch and emergence success. This study helps advance understanding of how native and non‐native plants affect sea turtle reproductive success and helps inform coastal management aimed at conserving threatened loggerhead populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Characterizing morphological features in shallow streams such as dunes and ripples is vital to studies on fluvial geomorphology and in-stream habitat assessments of stream ecology. The paper aimed to examine the feasibility of a conventional hyperspectral method called linear optimal band ratio analysis for capturing the detailed morphologies in shallow small streams, allowing the identification of ripples and dunes. The present study involved a dedicated field experiment at the Gam stream, which is a tributary of the Nakdong River, South Korea. An unmanned aerial vehicle based hyperspectral image was obtained with a spatial resolution of <10 cm and developed an optimal depth-band ratio rating by densely scattered in situ bathymetry measurements with a portable Real Time Kinematic Global Positioning System. The derived hyperspectral bathymetric map with a 7 cm spatial resolution successfully captured the detailed bed morphology, where dunes with sizes of 1.5 m were clearly identifiable. The correlation with depth measured by RTK-GPS was found to be 0.956, with Root Mean Square Error of 0.033 meter. The research confirmed that the conventional linear OBRA used for low-altitude UAV-based hyperspectral images can capture morphological features in shallow streams with a high spatial resolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Debris upstream of the bridge pier and through the flow variations, changes scour hole and river morphology. Dune forms downstream of the pier as a result of sediment movement in the pier scour phenomenon. The present study investigates the dune characteristics and geometrical parameters in experimental models. Experimental models are categorized into four cases including the pier, pier with buried debris, pier with free debris, and pier with free debris which was protected by bed sill at four various distances from the pier downstream face. It was concluded that debris submergence, densimetric particle Froude number, flow intensity, and bed sill affect dune geometrical parameters such as dune height (hd), dune crest position (xd), and dune length (ld). Results show dune height increases with debris accumulation up to almost 150% and its crest distance from the pier reduces up to approximately 100%. Also, in higher Fd, the dune height and its crest distance reduce with bed sill up to 50%, and in lower Fd, hd, and xd increase by up to 80% by using bed sill. Based on these effective parameters, three separate equations were proposed for hd, xd, and ld in pier scour with debris accumulation protected by bed sill.

The interest in understanding how information is controlled and circulated has recently increased exponentially, mostly due to the spread of disinformation from those in power (those looking to attain it or increase it). Seemingly widespread -- though by no means a recent occurrence -- during the 2016 American Presidential Campaign, the reliance on disinformation to steer public opinion has also characterized, for example, the rise of farright legend are weaponized by different entities to oppress those with less power in Frank Herbert's Dune (1965) and Ursula K. Le Guin's City of Illusions (1967), and also consider the presence, in both novels, of elements of hope and liberation from oppression through the unveiling of truth, whatever it may be. To achieve this, key and representative moments in both novels are contemplated briefly and then compared, establishing a sort of dialogue between Herbert and Le Guin's respective imaginaria. political parties such as Chega (Portugal) and Vox (Spain) across Europe as well as how the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza are presented on social media. It has become, thus, mandatory to rely on fact-checking platforms but, above all, on our own critical thinking and ability to scrutinize information and its sources. As a result, it seems relevant to also analyze this subject matter in literature, as a way of attempting to obtain some insight into how to navigate and mitigate the problem. This article aims to examine how information, history and legend are weaponized by different entities to oppress those with less power in Frank Herbert's Dune (1965) and Ursula K. Le Guin's City of Illusions (1967), and also consider the presence, in both novels, of elements of hope and liberation from oppression through the unveiling of truth, whatever it may be. To achieve this, key and representative moments in both novels are contemplated briefly and then compared, establishing a sort of dialogue between Herbert and Le Guin's respective imaginaria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding flow behavior over bedforms is one of the most complex topics in sedimentary engineering. Despite numerous studies that have been conducted on river beds, the understanding of the interaction between flow and bed in turbid and clear waters is still impoverished. The present study mainly focused on simulating clear and turbid flows using SSIIM software. This study modeled the flow through a 12-meter channel with nine consecutive dunes of 1-meter length and 4 cm height. Nine simulations were performed to investigate the effects of flow velocity and flow separation zone in clear and turbid water. Finally, the results were compared with the experimental results of previous researchers using the PIV. The modeling results showed that the length of the flow separation zone increases with increasing velocity, and the highest probability of flow separation occurs at the highest velocity. In turbid flow, flow separation is less than the same flow condition in clear flow, and as fluid density increases, the length of the flow separation zone decreases. This study demonstrates the acceptable functionality of the SSIIM software and its accuracy in estimating flow behavior with and without sediment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Debris upstream of the bridge pier and through the flow variations, changes scour hole and river morphology. Dune forms downstream of the pier as a result of sediment movement in the pier scour phenomenon. The present study investigates the dune characteristics and geometrical parameters in experimental models. Experimental models are categorized into four cases including the pier, pier with buried debris, pier with free debris, and pier with free debris which was protected by bed sill at four various distances from the pier downstream face. It was concluded that debris submergence, densimetric particle Froude number, flow intensity, and bed sill affect dune geometrical parameters such as dune height (hd), dune crest position (xd), and dune length (ld). Results show dune height increases with debris accumulation up to almost 150% and its crest distance from the pier reduces up to approximately 100%. Also, in higher Fd, the dune height and its crest distance reduce with bed sill up to 50%, and in lower Fd, hd, and xd increase by up to 80% by using bed sill. Based on these effective parameters, three separate equations were proposed for hd, xd, and ld in pier scour with debris accumulation protected by bed sill. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Sand dunes are supported by the extensive root systems of dune plants that anchor the dune and protect it from erosion. While all plants that grow on the dunes support their structure, invasive plants can outcompete the native and non‐native dune plants for resources such as nutrients, sunlight, and space to grow. During the summer, sea turtles lay nests on beaches and near dunes; however, their eggs and hatchlings are at risk of destruction and entrapment by dune plant root penetration. Dune plant roots can penetrate sea turtle nest cavities, thus decreasing hatch success of the eggs and emergence success of the hatchlings. We aimed to determine how plant roots impact threatened loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) nests on Casey Key, Sarasota County, Florida, USA and to assess the factors affecting plant root invasion. Specifically, we determined the effect of plant roots on loggerhead sea turtle nest success, the extent of the impact of invasive plants over non‐invasive plants on nests, and if the distance from the dune (barrier) affects whether roots will penetrate the nest. From July to August 2022, we excavated 93 nests to determine the extent of root penetration and identify associated plant species. This field campaign was supported by a long‐term dataset (1987–2022) on loggerhead sea turtle nesting across the region. We found that root presence decreased hatch success by 21% and emergence success by 18%, compared to nests that lacked roots within the nest chamber. Nests closer to the dune were more likely to have a higher proportion of root damage and lower hatch and emergence success. This study helps advance understanding of how native and non‐native plants affect sea turtle reproductive success and helps inform coastal management aimed at conserving threatened loggerhead populations.

DUNE is a next-generation long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment. It is expected to measure, with unprecedented precision, the atmospheric oscillation parameters, including the CP-violating phase δCP. Moreover, several studies have suggested that its unique features should allow DUNE to probe several new physics scenarios. In this work, we explore the performances of the DUNE far detector in constraining new physics if a high-energy neutrino flux is employed (HE-DUNE). We take into account three different scenarios: Lorentz Invariance Violation (LIV), Long-Range Forces (LRFs) and Large Extra Dimensions (LEDs). Our results show that HE-DUNE should be able to set bounds competitive to the current ones and, in particular, it can outperform the standard DUNE capabilities in constraining CPT-even LIV parameters and the compactification radius RED of the LED model.

Two ichnofacies have been named to encompass inland eolian depositional systems, the Octopodichnus and the Entradichnus ichnofacies, and are often combined into a single, Octopodichnus–Entradichnus ichnofacies. In contrast, coastal dune fields are characterized by a mixture of traces produced by marine and nonmarine organisms attributed to a single, Psilonichnus ichnofacies. However, inland eolian depositional systems lack marine organisms and encompass multiple lithofacies, the most extensive and broadly defined as being dunal and interdunal (includes many water laid deposits). The two lithofacies host generally different ichnoassemblages. Dunes are dominated by arthropod and tetrapod walking traces, whereas interdunes are dominated by shallow burrows, though there is some overlap in the ichnoassemblages of both lithofacies. A re-evaluation of the three ichnotaxa unique to the Entradichnus ichnofacies indicates they are invalid: Entradichnus = Taenidium, Pustulichnus = Skolithos, and Digitichnus is not based on a biogenic structure. The Entradichnus ichnofacies is characterized by abundant horizontal, backfilled traces of mobile deposit feeders and other ichnotaxa that indicate it is a synonym of the Scoyenia ichnofacies. I advocate subsuming the Laoporus, Brasilichnium, and Chelichnus ichnofacies of earlier workers under the Octopodichnus ichnofacies. Thus, the two principal ichnofacies of eolian depositional systems are the Octopodichnus and Scoyenia ichnofacies, though several other ichnofacies have been identified. No single ichnofacies characterizes eolian depositional systems.

The Module-0 Demonstrator is a single-phase 600 kg liquid argon time projection chamber operated as a prototype for the DUNE liquid argon near detector. Based on the ArgonCube design concept, Module-0 features a novel 80k-channel pixelated charge readout and advanced high-coverage photon detection system. In this paper, we present an analysis of an eight-day data set consisting of 25 million cosmic ray events collected in the spring of 2021. We use this sample to demonstrate the imaging performance of the charge and light readout systems as well as the signal correlations between the two. We also report argon purity and detector uniformity measurements and provide comparisons to detector simulations.

Liquid argon time projection chambers (LArTPCs) are widely used in particle detection for their tracking and calorimetric capabilities. The particle physics community actively builds and improves high-quality simulators for such detectors in order to develop physics analyses in a realistic setting. The ability of these simulators to mimic real, measured data is limited by the modeling of the physical detectors used for data collection. This modeling can be improved by performing dedicated calibration measurements. Conventional approaches calibrate individual detector parameters or processes one at a time. However, the impact of detector processes is entangled, making this a poor description of the underlying physics. We introduce a differentiable simulator that enables a gradient-based optimization, allowing for the first time a simultaneous calibration of all detector parameters. We describe the procedure of making a differentiable simulator, highlighting the challenges of retaining the physics quality of the standard, non-differentiable version while providing meaningful gradient information. We further discuss the advantages and drawbacks of using our differentiable simulator for calibration. Finally, we provide a starting point for extensions to our approach, including applications of the differentiable simulator to physics analysis pipelines.

Power-over-Fiber (PoF) technology has been used extensively in settings where high voltages require isolation from ground and electromagnetic isolation is critical. In cryogenic environments, PoF offers a reliable power transmission technology, leveraging optical fibers to transfer power with minimal system degradation. PoF technology excels in maintaining low noise levels and isolation when delivering power to sensitive electronic systems operating in extreme temperature ranges and high voltage environments. In a novel application of PoF for a HEP detector, power is provided to photon detector modules located on a surface at ∼ 300 kV with respect to ground in the planned DUNE experiment. This summary paper of the PoF talk at the 16th PISA Meeting on Advanced Detectors highlights the R&D effort of PoF in extreme conditions and underscores its capacity to revolutionize power delivery and management in critical applications offering a dependable solution with low noise, optimal efficiency, and superior isolation. The DUNE (Abi et al., 2020) experiment will soon deploy large liquid argon (LAr) time projection chambers (TPC) to detect neutrino interactions and other particle physics phenomena. In addition to the particle tracking provided by the TPC, photon detectors, powered by a first ever PoF system, in the cryostat will leverage the high scintillation light yield of LAr to provide crucial timing and additional calorimetric information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Total Water Level and Coastal Change Forecast (TWL&CC Forecast) provides coastal communities with 6-day notice of potential elevated water levels and coastal change (i.e., dune erosion, overwash, or inundation) on sandy beaches that threatens safety, infrastructure, or resources. This continuously operating model provides hourly information for select regions along U.S. Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean coastlines. The objective of this work is to assess the skill of forecasts during a period of elevated water levels along the coasts of North Carolina (NC) and South Carolina, USA caused by Hurricane Isaias in August 2020, using a combination of observations and model hindcasts. Water levels and waves were observed throughout the storm at three locations near Wrightsville Beach, NC, which provided information to assess forecast skill; a wave buoy offshore, a tide gage at a local pier, and a pressure sensor deployed at the pier. In addition to observations, the non-hydrostatic phase-resolving model SWASH (Simulating WAves till SHore) was forced with hourly wave energy spectra derived from a coupled Delft3D-SWAN simulation during the peak of Isaias, to complement observations by computing nearshore wave height and wave-induced setup and runup at the shoreline. During the storm peak, SWASH-simulated water levels at the sensor position were comparable to those at the maximum landward extent (bias = −0.05 m; gain = 0.26; r2 = 0.99), suggesting that observations at the USGS sensor location were a useful proxy for total water level (TWL; sum of tide, surge and wave runup) at the shoreline that are predicted by the TWL&CC Forecast. The TWL forecast at Wrightsville Beach was consistent with observations from the USGS sensor (bias = −0.38 m and −0.74 m, scatter index = 0.22 and 0.28 for the two forecast model grids considered, respectively; weighted regression considering model uncertainty explained 95 percent of variability in observed TWL). Observed TWL was within the confidence interval of the TWL&CC Forecast for the 5 h at the storm peak. Forecast mean water levels (MWL; sum of tide, surge and wave setup) and tide gage observations were also consistent (bias = 0.07 m and 0.02 m for the forecast model grids; scatter index = 0.46; r2 = 0.80). Forecast MWL at the storm peak was within 0.06 m of the observed MWL from the tide gage for both sites. In the region where Isaias made landfall, eight additional pressure sensors were compared to the peak TWL forecast (bias = 0.14 m; scatter index = 0.18). Forecast TWL explained 90 percent of observed variability in TWL when considering uncertainty of the forecast with a weighted regression. The results demonstrate that wave-driven water levels contributed a significant portion of the forecast TWL during Isaias (52 percent during the three peak hours of the storm), and that TWL were represented using the forecast model. Mean absolute error of the coastal change forecast and observed overwash is 0.4 and 0.14 for the two forecast model grids considered. The skill demonstrated by this computationally efficient method indicates that the forecasting system can provide fast and reliable predictions of TWL across hundreds of km of coastline at sub-km resolution, days to hours in advance of when storms threaten coastal regions. • This is the first validation of the Total Water Level and Coastal Change Forecast. • Forecast total water levels compared to pressure sensor measured water levels. • Forecast total water levels compared to SWASH modeled water levels. • Wave-driven water levels contributed 52% to total water levels during the storm. • Regional forecast and observations of water levels and coastal change show skill. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clinoforms are ubiquitous depositional surfaces in sedimentary systems. The quintessential shape, with a flat or gentle topset, sloping foreset, and gentle to flat bottomset, is recognizable in the smallest ripple to the kilometer high edges of the continents. Essentially the shape is one which develops with differential sedimentation away from a sedimentary source. Systematic decay of transport competence and/or sediment amount from a site favouring deposition, generates differential loading of a typically lens-shaped sedimentary body. The lithology, grain size, water depth, hydrodynamic factors, transport mechanisms, antecedent topography, relative sea level and sediment rate all interact to create different sizes, slopes and shapes. Meanwhile there are several fundamental similarities between clinoforms, even with the smallest bedwave features (ripples and dunes), despite forming under very different depositional conditions. All clinoforms are to some extent governed by accommodation and energy limiting factors (water agitation and/or flow regime), which controls their height, and by proxy influences slope angle. Lithology exerts a fundamental control, slopes can build to angle of repose, which is higher for coarser non-cohesive sediment, while cohesive sediment develops gentler slopes, and also fail at lower angles. Sediment at angle of repose create steep linear slopes, or slope segments, but conversely linear slopes on continental margins are extremely low angle, probably reflecting high sediment with little along-slope contrast and mud-dominance. Meanwhile clinothems of similar lithology display a wide range of foreset angles, indicating numerous additional controls. Sedimentation rate appears to exert significant control on slope steepness, with limited sedimentation promoting steeper slopes related to basinward thinning deposits. The observation of steeper slopes with greater depth is a response to deepening environments generating the effect of comparatively less sedimentation. Processes are important in controlling slope angle as tidal and wave reworking, debris flows, and overpressure and slope failure, typically create lower angles. Turbidity currents meanwhile are part of a dynamic depositional system which can both steepen or lower a slope. There are four basic clinoform shapes: concave, linear, convex, and sigmoidal. These develop in response to variations in sedimentation along the profile driven by erosion/bypass/factors limiting deposition/accumulation/waning sediment supply. Curvature tends to be an indication of along-slope contrast, such as between erosional and deposition, sandier and muddier lithology or higher and lower sedimentation. Sigmoidal clinothems, associated with more accommodation and higher trajectories, are typically shorter and steeper than concave clinothems. Decaying shear-zone agitation and/or reworking and erosion shapes the rounded rollover. Decaying sediment amount and carrying capacity shapes the ensuing curvature. Concave slopes, lacking topsets and associated with sharp rollovers and low angle trajectories, are often longer with lower angle than sigmoidal forms. Their formation is likely closely linked to increased lower slope accumulation through slope failure, bypass, and/or turbidity currents, but can also be from increased suspension-dominated deposition in smaller clinoforms. In this ripples differ, as the concave to sigmoidal transition is associated with higher energy and erosion rounding the crest, and unlike larger clinoforms, the concave is often steeper than the sigmoidal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Liquid argon time projection chambers (TPC) are widely used in neutrino oscillation and dark matter experiments. Detection of scintillation light in liquid argon TPC's is challenging because of its short wavelength, in the VUV range, and the cryogenic temperatures (∼ 86 K) at which the sensors must operate. Wavelength shifters (WLS) are typically needed to take advantage of the high Photon Detection Efficiency (PDE) in the visible range of most of photondetectors. The Hamamatsu VUV4 S13370–6075CN SiPMs can directly detect VUV light without the use of WLS, which main benefit is an improved PDE at these short wavelengths, but also the visible light from WLS. The manufacturer (Hamamatsu Photonics K.K.) provides a complete characterization of these devices at room temperature; however, previous studies have indicated a decrease of the PDE at cryogenic temperature for VUV light. In this work, we present the measurement of the PDE of VUV4 SiPMs at cryogenic temperature for different wavelengths in the range [270, 570] nm. A dedicated measurement at 127 nm is also shown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]