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Mass movements are common on the continental slope, affecting not only the subsequent sea floor morphology but often substantially modifying the underlying deposits. Various styles of substrate interaction have been recognised, representing the various degrees of involvement of the underlying material and its incorporation into the mass movement. This work presents a new style of basal interaction not previously described. Based on the morphology of the basal surface of a mass transport deposit, this can be recognised both in seismic data and in an outcrop analogue. A subsurface example, from an ca 100 m thick mass transport deposit located in Santos Basin, offshore Brazil, displays a basal surface with spoon‐shaped scours or scoops. These scoops are of the order of tens up to 400 m in maximum dimension, where masses of underlying sediment have been removed and incorporated into the mass movement. Outcrops used for this work are located in La Rioja Province, Western Argentina, where the study involves a well‐exposed ca 200 m thick mass transport deposit that crops out continuously over 7 km. Its basal surface is incised irregularly into the underlying sandstones, incorporating the blocks of sandstone into the mass movement. The striking similarities observed between outcrop examples and the northern Santos Basin suggest that they can be effective analogues, facilitating a comprehensive understanding of mass transport deposit dynamics across diverse basin environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Submarine fan reservoirs are important accumulation zones for oil, gas, and natural gas hydrates, offering significant potential for hydrocarbon exploration. During the deposition period of the Sanya Formation in the southern part of the Changchang Sag of the Qiongdongnan Basin, a large submarine fan developed. However, the internal structure, source-sink system, and formation mechanism of this fan remain poorly understood, posing significant challenges to exploration in this area. This paper examines the source-to-sink sedimentary processes and deposition of submarine fans, using the Changchang Sag, in the Qiongdongnan Basin in the Northern South China Sea, as an example, which will provide valuable general guidance for deep water oil and gas exploration. Based on the theories of seismic stratigraphy and seismic sedimentology, this paper utilizes techniques such as seismic facies analysis, seismic attribute optimization, paleogeomorphology reconstruction, and source-to-sink sedimentary systemanalysis to analyze the 3D seismic data of the study area. Research indicates that the Sanya Formation in the Changchang Sag of the Qiongdongnan Basin comprises three depositional units: submarine fan, feeder channel, and Semi-deep marine to deep marine mudstone. The submarine fan is a fan formed by the coupling and convergence of submarine fans sourced from the southwest and southeast. Internally, it is divided into three sub-facies: the proximal fan of the sand-rich submarine fan, the main body of the sand-rich submarine fan lobes, and the distal lobes of the sand-rich submarine fan. The submarine fan sourced from the southwest extends nearly north-south and is primarily fed by sediment transported through three large, banded ancient valleys. The sedimentary filling is characterized by three-phase progradation. The submarine fan sourced from the southeast extends nearly east-west and is primarily fed by sediment transported through a single large, banded ancient valley. The sedimentary filling is characterized by two-phase lateral accumulation. During the deposition period of the Sanya Formation, certain areas of the southern uplift belt were exposed for extended periods and subjected to weathering and erosion. Sediments are transported to large ancient valleys through small supply channels. A large number of sediments were transported to the southern slope of the Changchang sag through the provenance channel system such as large ancient valleys and slope belts and deposited in the center of the sag. These make up a complete system of large ancient uplifts and submarine fan source-to-sink sedimentary systems. The sedimentary model is a lobed submarine fan controlled by semi-restricted ancient valleys and expansive basins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In automated video surveillance applications, detecting abnormal human activity is incredibly difficult to classify them. The automatic detection of aberrant human activity in a surveillance system was resolved in our proposed work. The videos are first turned into frames, and keyframes from a batch of frames are extracted using fuzzy logic. Secondly, the features are retrieved from the keyframes using a pre-train convolutional neural network (CNN) through transfer learning. Finally, to recognize anomalous activity from video, the collected features are loaded into a Long-Short Term Memory (LSTM) based recurrent network. Two benchmark datasets were used to evaluate the proposed methodology: the UCF50 and the UCF-crime, with our model achieving 95.04% and 49.04% accuracy, respectively. Using the same data set, the experimental findings are compared to conventional detection approaches which suggest that our proposed model outperforms the other approaches that were compared. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Defect detection on rail lines is essential for ensuring safe and efficient transportation. Current image analysis methods with deep neural networks (DNNs) for defect detection often focus on the defects themselves while ignoring the related context. In this work, we propose a fusion model that combines both a targeted defect search and a context analysis, which is seen as a multimodal fusion task. Our model performs rule-based decision-level fusion, merging the confidence scores of multiple individual models to classify rail-line defects. We call the model "hybrid" in the sense that it is composed of supervised learning components and rule-based fusion. We first propose an improvement to existing vision-based defect detection methods by incorporating a convolutional block attention module (CBAM) in the you only look once (YOLO) versions 5 (YOLOv5) and 8 (YOLOv8) architectures for the detection of defects and contextual image elements. This attention module is applied at different detection scales. The domain-knowledge rules are applied to fuse the detection results. Our method demonstrates improvements over baseline models in vision-based defect detection. The model is open for the integration of modalities other than an image, e.g., sound and accelerometer data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study developed a novel, detailed sedimentological analysis for the complex interactions between rainout, iceberg rafting, tractional underflows, and settling of fines along a glacially influenced basin margin. The glaciomarine interval of the El Imperial Formation (Pennsylvanian, Serpukhovian–Bashkirian) in the San Rafael basin comprises massive to stratified diamictites, interpreted as rainout tills, thinly bedded diamictites, associated with cohesive debris flows, and mudstones containing ice-rafted debris (IRD), all capped by postglacial, transgressive, fine-grained sediments. The rhythmic intercalation of IRD-bearing (dropstone mudstones) and IRD-free (mudstones) intervals likely indicates variations in debris content within the ice margins, the on-and-off switching of ice streams, or dynamic oscillations of the ice terminus. The glaciomarine deposits exhibit soft sediment deformation on both large (metric to decametric) and small (centimetric) scales. This contribution refines previous interpretations of the soft sediment deformation, discerning between loading and slope triggered deformation. Large-scale deformation is characterized by coherent slump folds with low dispersion in the orientations of fold axial plane vergence and fold b-axes. Downslope-verging folds indicate a northward paleoslope, consistent with paleoflow indicators from flute casts found in sandstone turbidite beds. The diamictites affected by the large-scale soft sediment deformation are interpreted as rainout tills with a variable degree of gravity remobilization. Their association with thinly bedded diamictites and laminated mudstones with dropstones suggests that ice rafting played a significant role in the deposition of this succession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The stratigraphic architecture of fjords is complicated due to the delicate interplay between ice dynamics, sediment supply, relative sea‐level fluctuations and slope failures. Glaciogenic sediment is prone to failure and to be carried downslope to the fjord floor through the entire spectrum of mass movements and subaqueous density flows, as the unstable paraglacial submarine landscape moves towards stability. Palaeofjords formed by Gondwanan glaciers during the late Palaeozoic Ice Age contain a compelling record of gravitational resedimentation in fjord depositional systems. This paper showcases the geomorphology and depositional history of a glacial cycle in the Orutanda fjord in north‐western Namibia as an example of an overdeepened fjord basin fill dominated by products of subaqueous gravitational processes. During glaciation, the Orutanda glacier carved a 20 km long by 3.7 km wide glacial trough that embodies an overdeepened basin. Ice thickness during terminal glacial occupation of the fjord is estimated to had been up to 200 m based on the fjord geomorphology. The progressive retreat of the tidewater glacier, concomitant with marine flooding, increased accommodation space in the overdeepened basin during deglaciation. During this stage, proglacial sedimentation through iceberg rafting and settling of turbid plumes was outpaced by intense paraglacial downslope resedimentation of glacially‐transported debris. Successive failures from the fjord walls and downslope resedimentation resulted in coalescing debrite–turbidite lobes on the fjord floor. Slide deposits, composed entirely of deformed debrites and turbidites, indicate that these resedimented facies were prone to renewed mass wasting. As the Orutanda glacier melted, the fjord experienced the axial progradation of a fjord‐head delta registered only by turbidites and slide deposits derived from its collapse. The Orutanda fjord sheds light on the relevance of paraglacial mass wasting in overprinting glaciogenic deposits. This insight is key to understanding the role of glaciers versus non‐glacial processes in producing the glacial deep‐time record. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Models (paradigms) and former interpretations have often been presupposed when conducting field research. In the 19th century diamictites were for the first time interpreted to have originated from ancient glaciations. These interpretations have to a large part prevailed in the geological community, although there has been much progress in the areas of sedimentology, glaciology and physical geography. The present work is an effort to find criteria which most clearly discriminate between geological features produced by different processes, mainly glaciation and mass flow, the latter predominantly sediment gravity flows. Geological features which have been interpreted to have formed by glaciation throughout pre-Pleistocene Earth history are compared to similar-appearing geological features formed by mass flow and tectonics, so as to uncover variations in the appearance between features resulting from these different processes. The starting point for this comparison is documentation of the appearance of Quaternary products of erosion and deposition, in order to discern the origin of older formations. It is shown that the appearance and origin of pavements, dropstones, valleys, small-scale landforms, surface microtextures and most other geological features may in some cases be equivocal, but in others the details are indicative of the process which generated the feature. Detailed geological field data which have been compiled by geologists from outcrops of pre-Pleistocene strata, more often than is considered in most papers, commonly point to a mass flow origin, mainly a sediment gravity flow origin, rather than a glaciogenic origin. A process of multiple working hypotheses or interpretations is therefore advocated, based mainly on a comparison of the appearance of features formed by different geological processes documented from different research disciplines. Instead of starting with current interpretations or models, this multiple working hypothesis or methodology helps to avoid confirmation bias and jumping to conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to observe the impact of peripheral vision on construction safety. The study further intends to create awareness of eye diseases in construction safety, an important root cause for most construction-related hazards and accidents. Design/methodology/approach: This study focuses on the impact of peripheral vision in terms of construction site safety. Experiments were conducted with construction employees with different qualifications, ages, expertise and previous safety training experience. The experiments were conducted with an experiment set consisting of a tangent screen to measure the peripheral angle of the participants. The study measured peripheral vision, which helped determine the vision field accordingly. In this context, a total of 32 participants were investigated in terms of their peripheral visual angle and the field of vision. The data collected were analyzed in terms of several statistical tests such as One-Sample t-test, multivariate ANOVA and multiple linear regression. Findings: The results of the study indicated that there are significant differences in peripheral vision in terms of age of participants, work qualification, work experience, area of expertise and previous safety training experience. The study further revealed that most of the participants failed to satisfy both OSHA requirements about peripheral vision, and normal limits defined in the previous literature. The study further implies that participants, who reported previous sight problems or eye diseases are more vulnerable to construction site accidents. Originality/value: Construction site safety remains a major concern for most construction companies despite the latest developments in technology. Several companies are struggling with poor safety performance, occupational injuries and illnesses, and work-related accidents resulting in fatalities. However, the root causes behind several construction accidents are still vague due to different dynamics in the construction industry. Among these root causes, poor sight, vision and or eye diseases constitute an important part. Hence, the study provides empirical evidence with the workers checked for eye health to help policymakers and industry practitioners in terms of developing awareness for eye-related injuries and accidents and review their safety programs accordingly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study demonstrates the effectiveness of sedimentological–statistical multivariate analysis of one‐dimensional‐section in the unravelling depositional processes and sedimentation patterns recorded in a contained and partially ponded succession. Turbidite deposition of a 100 m thick mud‐rich Oligocene‐age sequence at Szczawa, the Polish Outer Carpathians, was primarily controlled by topographic confinement and magnitude of incoming flows. Only the largest turbidite flows were subjected to the true flow ponding, while in smaller volume flows the silty/sandy part behaved as unconfined flow and only muddy suspension cloud developed a ponded character. True ponding of low‐density turbidity currents is interpreted for sandstones that show sedimentary structures attesting to flow reflections and combined‐flow processes, and are associated with abnormally thick co‐genetic mudstones, which in turn results in low sandstone‐to‐mudstone ratio, irrespective of turbidite bed thickness. These features testify to pronounced interaction of flows with confining topography. Tractional structures associated with a considerable proportion of fines, namely banded structure and heterolithic bedding, are interpreted as produced during transitional (turbulent to laminar) flow phase in the condition of mud‐rich turbidite flow confinement. These structures are also considered here as indicators of proximity to source area and location on the slope. The co‐occurrence of banded sandstones, hybrid event megabeds and an olistostrome resulted from flows‐trapping, confined basin geometry, which precluded downslope propagation and further transformation of large‐volume flows. Therefore, a structurally‐controlled contained intraslope mini‐basin is proposed here as the most likely depositional setting. This work provides robust field and statistical evidence for ponding processes of low‐density turbidity currents in a structurally‐controlled mini‐basin. The results of this study are consistent with experimental data and recent field studies on ponded turbidites. Therefore, the Szczawa succession may serve as a new reference example of containment processes of low‐density turbidity currents and represents a valuable depositional model for intraslope turbidite succession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Minerals are the fundamental record of abiotic processes over time, while biominerals are one of the most common records of life due to their easy preservation and abundance. However, distinguishing between biominerals and abiotic minerals is challenging due to the superimposition and repetition of geologic processes and the interference of ubiquitous and diverse life on Earth's surface and crust. Mineral dubiofossils, being potential outcomes of both abiotic and biotic environments, emerge as valuable entities that can contribute significantly to the understanding of this issue, facilitating the testing and refinement of biogenicity criteria. The aim of this contribution is to decipher the origin and history of branched mineralized structures that were previously considered mineral dubiofossils from the Pennsylvanian of the Paraná Basin, Brazil. While this material has different forms and refers to biological aspects, it is challenging to associate it with any known fossil group due to the overlapping geological processes occurring in a transitional deposit of Rio do Sul Formation (Itararé Group of the Paraná Basin), particularly in close proximity to a sill from the Serra Geral Group (Lower Cretaceous), which has undergone thermal effects. Given the absence of attributes essential for supporting the initial hypotheses proposing the material as a potential set of sponge spicules or a result of contact metamorphism in Pennsylvanian turbidites, the objects are now investigated as mineral dubiofossils. To address this challenge, we have developed a descriptive protocol for dubiofossils, building upon prior research in the field. This protocol evaluates the following aspects: (1) morphology, texture, and structure; (2) relationship with the matrix; (3) composition; and (4) context. This is done by assessing indigeneity and syngenicity and comparing the specimens with abiotic and biotic products. Applying this protocol to our samples revealed a wide range of morphologies with internal organization, predominantly composed of calcite with impurities such as iron, magnesium, aluminum, and oxygen. The inferred indigeneity suggests the presence of these minerals concurrently with or prior to the intrusion of the sill. Extensive comparisons were made between the studied samples and a broad spectrum of abiotic minerals, as well as controlled, induced, and influenced biominerals from similar contexts. These comparative analyses encompassed sponge spicules; sea urchin and algae skeletons; minerals induced or influenced by fungi, bacteria, and microbial mats; and inorganic pre- and synsedimentary–eodiagenetic minerals like evaporites, springs, and other precipitates, and mesodiagenetic–metamorphic crystals. Despite this comprehensive analysis, no hypothesis emerged as significantly more likely than others. The comparative analysis did allow us to exclude the possibility of the samples being controlled biominerals due to their patternless diversity of morphologies, as well as purely thermometamorphic in origin due to their branched elongated forms. The occurrence of these structures suggests a complex history: a syn-depositional or eodiagenetic origin of some carbonate or sulfate (gypsum, ikaite, dolomite, calcite, aragonite, siderite), potentially associated with the presence of microbial mats, which may have served as templates for mineralization and mediated mineral growth. Mesodiagenesis could have further modified the occurrence through processes such as mineral stabilization, agglutination, aging, and growth. However, the primary agent responsible for the formation of the dubiofossil was the Cretaceous intrusion, which dissolved and replaced the initial minerals, resulting in the precipitation of calcite. Throughout these steps, a combination of physical–chemical and biological reactions, influenced by intrinsic matrix characteristics, organic matter content, and distance from the intrusive body, may have contributed to the heightened morphological complexity observed, thus corroborating the origin of the material becomes even more challenging. Consequently, both the hypotheses pertaining to the formation of biotic and abiotic sulfates and carbonates remain plausible explanations, hence sustaining the classification of the material as a dubiofossil. This material illustrates how dubiofossils can be a result of a complex history and overlapping geological processes. It also highlights the difficulty in differentiating biominerals from abiotic minerals due to the scarcity of biogenicity arguments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vidos from a first-person or egocentric perspective offer a promising tool for recognizing various activities related to daily living. In the egocentric perspective, the video is obtained from a wearable camera, and this enables the capture of the person's activities in a consistent viewpoint. Recognition of activity using a wearable sensor is challenging due to various reasons, such as motion blur and large variations. The existing methods are based on extracting handcrafted features from video frames to represent the contents. These features are domain-dependent, where features that are suitable for a specific dataset may not be suitable for others. In this paper, we propose a novel solution to recognize daily living activities from a pre-segmented video clip. The pre-trained convolutional neural network (CNN) model VGG16 is used to extract visual features from sampled video frames and then aggregated by the proposed pooling scheme. The proposed solution combines appearance and motion features extracted from video frames and optical flow images, respectively. The methods of mean and max spatial pooling (MMSP) and max mean temporal pyramid (TPMM) pooling are proposed to compose the final video descriptor. The feature is applied to a linear support vector machine (SVM) to recognize the type of activities observed in the video clip. The evaluation of the proposed solution was performed on three public benchmark datasets. We performed studies to show the advantage of aggregating appearance and motion features for daily activity recognition. The results show that the proposed solution is promising for recognizing activities of daily living. Compared to several methods on three public datasets, the proposed MMSP–TPMM method produces higher classification performance in terms of accuracy (90.38% with LENA dataset, 75.37% with ADL dataset, 96.08% with FPPA dataset) and average per-class precision (AP) (58.42% with ADL dataset and 96.11% with FPPA dataset). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

5.5 million Americans have Alzheimer's disease or some form of dementia and by mid-century, the number of people living with dementia in the United States is projected to grow to 13.8 million. About half of the persons with dementia currently live at home, 43% require occasional support, 47% daily support, and 10% continuous support; with most of this support provided by informal family caregivers. Caregivers face on-going significant risk throughout the ebb and flow of providing care, as care recipients may lose grasp of their understanding of their circumstances, relying heavily on caregivers for all aspects of support. This support includes prompting and cueing through the multi-step instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs) such as meal preparation and house-keeping which require complex cognitive processing and are cognitively demanding. This paper describes the preliminary pilot study work laying the groundwork for ongoing development of a cognitive assistive technology (CAT) to support IADLs in dementia homecare. Through a user-centered design methodology, an online survey for caregivers identified areas of the home with the highest levels of IADL needs, aiding in the development of an 800 sq ft mock-up apartment for preliminary testing of the mobile interface for the CAT tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An aged population, increasing care needs, and a lack of (in)formal caregivers represent major challenges for our society today. Addressing these challenges fuels efforts and developments in innovative technologies leading to various existing AAL applications aiming at improving autonomy, independence, and security in older age. Here, the usage of video-based AAL technologies is promising as detailed information can be obtained and analyzed. Simultaneously, this type of technology is strongly connected with privacy concerns due to fears of unauthorized data access or inappropriate use of recorded data potentially resulting in rejection and non-use of the applications. As privacy-preserving visualizations of video data can diminish those concerns, this empirical study examines the acceptance and privacy perceptions of video-based AAL technology applying different visualization modes for privacy preservation (n = 161). These visualization modes differed in their degrees of visibility and identifiability, covering different levels of privacy preservation (low level: "Blurred" mode; medium level: "Pixel" and "Grey" modes; high level: "Avatar" mode) and are specifically evaluated based on realistic video sequences. The results of our study indicate a rather low acceptance of video-based AAL technology in general. From the diverse visualization modes, the "Avatar" mode is most preferred as it is perceived as best suitable to protect and preserve the users' privacy. Beyond that, distinct clusters of future users were identified differing in their technology evaluation as well as in individual characteristics (i.e., privacy perception, technology commitment). The findings support the understanding of potential users' needs for a successful future design, development, and implementation of video-based, but still privacy-preserving AAL technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transition from the Late Paleozoic Ice Age (LPIA) to fully postglacial conditions in SW Gondwana is under increasing discussion due to either the radiometric ages of its boundary or the stratigraphic nature of this transition. The record of this transition in the Paraná Basin is found in the glacial and glacially influenced deposits of the upper Mafra and Rio do Sul Formations (upper Itararé Group) and postglacial strata of the Rio Bonito Formation (Guatá Group). Here we address the depositional architecture and stratigraphic evolution of these deposits in the Rio do Sul depocenter, eastern Paraná Basin, Brazil, the main area of subsidence in the basin during this transition in Pennsylvanian-Cisuralian time, bringing an opportunity to examine the characteristics of glacial to postglacial transition. Analyses of facies, stratigraphic logs, stratigraphic correlations, and paleocurrent dispersal trends allowed us to define three evolutionary stages. The first stage registers glacial advance from the south-southwest represented by an erosive surface and subglacial tillites. Gravitational deposits covered the tillites in response to ice retreat (upper Mafra Formation), and the Lontras Shales (lower Rio do Sul Formation) correspond to the marine maximum flooding. The second stage comprises co-genetic deepwater (Rio do Sul Formation) to shallow (Rio Bonito Formation, Triunfo Member) progradational deposits after the Lontras Shale maximum flooding. Paleocurrent data and glacially related features point to glaciated source areas located to the NE, E, and SE for the Rio do Sul depocenter during this stage. The third stage corresponds to retrogradational stacking pattern upon a fluvial subaerial unconformity (incised valley), starting with fluvio-deltaic beds (Triunfo Member), followed by fine-grained deposits of the Paraguaçu Member of Rio Bonito Formation. No features related to glacial influence characterize this third stage. As previously suggested, tectonic uplift likely drove the additional NE source and created the space that allowed the transitional contact between Rio do Sul and Rio Bonito formations in the Rio do Sul depocenter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emplacement of submarine landslides, or mass‐transport deposits, can radically reshape the physiography of continental margins, and strongly influence subsequent sedimentary processes and dispersal patterns. Typically, progressive healing of the complicated relief generated by the submarine landslide occurs prior to progradation of sedimentary systems. However, subsurface and seabed examples show that submarine channels can incise directly into submarine landslides. Here, the evolution of a unique exhumed example of two adjacent, and partially contemporaneous, submarine channel‐fills is documented. The channels show deep incision (>75 m), and steep lateral margins (up to 70°), cut into a >200 m thick submarine landslide. The stepped basal erosion surface, and multiple terrace surfaces, are mantled by clasts (gravels to cobbles) reflecting periods of bedload‐derived sedimentation, punctuated by phases of downcutting and sediment bypass. The formation of multiple terrace surfaces in a low aspect ratio confinement is consistent with the episodic migration of knickpoints during entrenchment on the dip slope of the underlying submarine landslide. Overlying sandstone‐rich channel‐fills mark a change to aggradation. Laterally stacked channel bodies coincide with steps in the original large‐scale erosion surface, recording widening of the conduit; this is followed by tabular, highly aggradational fill. The upper fill, above a younger erosional surface, shows an abrupt change to partially confined tabular sandstones with normally graded caps, interpreted as lobe fringe deposits, which formed due to down‐dip confinement, followed by prograding lobe deposits. Overlying this, an up‐dip avulsion induced lobe switching and back‐stepping, and subsequent failure of a sandstone body up‐dip led to emplacement of a sandstone‐rich submarine landslide within the conduit. Collectively, this outcrop represents episodic knickpoint‐generated incision, and later infill, of a slope adjusting to equilibrium. The depositional signature of knickpoints is very different from existing models, but is probably reflective of other highly erosional settings undergoing large‐scale slope adjustment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The late early Permian coincided with a short-lived cold episode in Western Australia, which occurred long after the demise of late Paleozoic ice sheets, and is manifested by conspicuous dropstones in corresponding marine strata. In the northern Perth Basin, this time interval is represented by the Carynginia Formation, which has long been regarded as a record of low-energy marginal-marine sedimentation. The low-diversity body-fossil content and impoverished trace-fossil assemblages in the formation were recognised as evidence of low salinities, low dissolved-oxygen levels and high suspended-sediment concentrations presumably related to freshwater influxes into a restricted basin. However, sedimentary facies indicative of river processes have yet to be documented to explain the sedimentological and paleontological character of the formation. This study examines an overlooked sandstone-rich interval of the Carynginia Formation in the Irwin Sub-basin, a marginal half graben faulted against crystalline basement of the Yilgarn Craton and forming part of a series of late Paleozoic intracratonic rift basins in Western Australia. Facies analysis indicates that the lower part of the interval is dominated by storm-generated deposits containing extraformational pebbles and boulders. These deposits are interpreted as recording lower-shoreface sedimentation under the influence of seasonal sea ice, and constitute a shallower, sandstone-rich equivalent of mudstone-prone strata that otherwise characterise the Carynginia Formation. The upper part of the interval consists of river-borne deposits representing friction-dominated deposition of a river-mouth bar, the first direct record of deltaic sedimentation in the Carynginia Formation. The stratal organisation of mouth-bar bedsets is likely the result of successive sediment-laden pulses related to seasonal floods in a shallow marine basin, and the autogenic evolution of the mouth-bar complex in response to fluctuating river discharge and compensational stacking. Formative runoff events were arguably responsible for reductions in salinity and the introduction of turbid buoyant plumes into the shallow sea that were adverse to faunal development. A fluvial influence may explain the sedimentary character and fossil content of coeval mudstone-prone formations in Western Australian rift basins, especially in the vicinity of cratonic margins. The lower Permian (late Artinskian–Kungurian) mudstone-prone Carynginia Formation in the northern Perth Basin has long been regarded as the record of low-energy, marginal-marine conditions in a cold-water seaway. The low-diversity fossil content in the lower part of the formation indicates stressed physico-chemical conditions influenced by freshwater, sediment-laden influxes. The described mouth-bar deposits are the first direct evidence of deltaic sedimentation in the Carynginia Formation, demonstrating that river outflows likely controlled water chemistry and impacted faunal development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The late Paleozoic ice age (or LPIA) glaciations in Gondwana were the longest and most widespread in Phanerozoic history. Despite their paleobiogeographic significance for Earth evolution, their drivers are strongly debated. In this work, we used field observations (upper Paleozoic glaciogenic strata lapping onto Mississippian granites), low‐temperature cooling ages (apatite fission track), thermochronology modeling (apatite and zircon fission track, and apatite U‐Th/He data) and landscape numerical simulations in a pericratonic scenario far away from the late Paleozoic plate margin to demonstrate that exhumation, tectonic uplift and glaciations were coeval and genetically linked. Considering low temperatures alone cannot drive a glaciation, we propose that this uplift and mountain building were key controls to trap humid air masses within the interior foreland of SW Gondwana. Plain Language Summary: The late Paleozoic glaciation is one of the largest in the Phanerozoic. Our work shows that during the early Carboniferous, uplift and erosion processes associated with mountain glaciations are recorded in the interior region of southwestern Gondwana. This would have influenced the location of the line of glacier formation, or ELA, and opening the possibility that the Late Paleozoic glaciations were strongly controlled by changes in the elevation and vertical movement of the lithosphere, in addition to global cooling. Our results and conclusions are based on stratigraphic relationships, low‐temperature thermochronology and landscape modeling reported in west and central Argentina. Key Points: Mississippian glaciations in Gondwana were mainly driven by contemporaneous mountain building, where glacial paleovalleys developedLow‐temperature thermochronology data and modeling show rapid cooling in foreland and pericratonic areas of GondwanaLandscape numerical models agree with contemporaneous Carboniferous uplift/erosion instead of a glaciation on inherited topographies [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ichnology is fundamental to understanding characteristics of paleoenvironments such as hydrodynamic energy, oxygenation, salinity and substrate consistency. The Itararé Group is a Mississippian-Cisuralian lithostratigraphic unit of the Paraná Basin, in which trace fossils have been increasingly employed in paleoenvironmental reconstructions during the Late Paleozoic Ice Age in western Gondwana. The upper unit of the Itararé Group, the Rio do Sul Formation, exhibits a diverse trace fossil assemblage preserved in fine-grained rhythmites deposited in glacially related aquatic environments. In these rhythmites, trackways and trails produced by terrestrial and aquatic organisms were previously described. In this paper we report a new trace fossil collected from a rhythmite quarry near Trombudo Central, Santa Catarina state, and discuss potential paleoenvironmental implications. The studied specimen consists of an arthropod jumping trackway which could indicate a subaerial paleoenvironmental setting corroborating previous ichnological studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes the fusion of Unobtrusive Sensing Solutions (USSs) for human Activity Recognition and Classification (ARC) in home environments. It also considers the use of data mining models and methods for cluster-based analysis of datasets obtained from the USSs. The ability to recognise and classify activities performed in home environments can help monitor health parameters in vulnerable individuals. This study addresses five principal concerns in ARC: (i) users' privacy, (ii) wearability, (iii) data acquisition in a home environment, (iv) actual recognition of activities, and (v) classification of activities from single to multiple users. Timestamp information from contact sensors mounted at strategic locations in a kitchen environment helped obtain the time, location, and activity of 10 participants during the experiments. A total of 11,980 thermal blobs gleaned from privacy-friendly USSs such as ceiling and lateral thermal sensors were fused using data mining models and methods. Experimental results demonstrated cluster-based activity recognition, classification, and fusion of the datasets with an average regression coefficient of 0.95 for tested features and clusters. In addition, a pooled Mean accuracy of 96.5% was obtained using classification-by-clustering and statistical methods for models such as Neural Network, Support Vector Machine, K-Nearest Neighbour, and Stochastic Gradient Descent on Evaluation Test. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing numbers of older individuals in the societies pose great challenges for countries affected by the demographic change. The rapid development in the technological sector, on the other hand, enables various applications to make everyday life easier for older and disabled people and to maintain their autonomy for longer. This study examines the acceptance and privacy perceptions of a video-based technology for lifelogging in home environments among German and Turkish users, using a multi-method empirical research approach. Results expose an overall differing acceptance of using lifelogging cameras between German and Turkish participants and suggest that the consideration of the varying culture-bound demands is necessary. The findings of this study support the understanding of requirements for a successful implementation of a video-based assistive technology in private environments to optimally address the needs of the future users, drawing attention to the important cultural influences that affect its acceptance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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A novel first-person human activity recognition framework is proposed in this work. Our proposed methodology is inspired by the central role moving objects have in egocentric activity videos. Using a Deep Convolutional Neural Network we detect objects and develop discriminant object flow histograms in order to represent fine-grained micro-actions during short temporal windows. Our framework is based on the assumption that large scale activities are synthesized by fine-grained micro-actions. We gather all the micro-actions and perform Gaussian Mixture Model clusterization, so as to build a micro-action vocabulary that is later used in a Fisher encoding schema. Results show that our method can reach 60% recognition rate on the benchmark ADL dataset. The capabilities of the proposed framework are also showcased by profoundly evaluating for a great deal of hyper-parameters and comparing to other State-of-the-Art works. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jets that expand from an orifice into an ambient water body represent a basic flow model for depositional environments related to expanding flows. Momentum‐dominated jets evolve into gravity‐dominated density flows. To understand this transition and its sedimentological relevance, three‐dimensional tank experiments with submerged wall jets were conducted, systematically varying parameters such as the initial density difference, bed slope, grain size and sediment supply. Bedform successions could be subdivided into those related to the jet and those related to the density flow. Jet deposits included early‐stage bedforms, scours and mouth bars. Early‐stage bedforms are asymmetrical dunes that spread concentrically from the orifice. Sediment entrainment by eddies from the expanding jets led to the formation of scours and mouth bars. Flows with lesser initial density difference produced more elongate scours. Conversely, scours became deeper for denser incoming flows. Coarser‐grained sediment caused the formation of higher and steeper mouth bars and vice versa. The transition from momentum‐dominated jets to gravity‐dominated density flows occurred approximately at the mouth‐bar crest. Hydraulic jumps were absent in the expanding jet regions and at the transitions to density flows. Instead, complex flow patterns and circulations were inferred from the velocity measurements within the scour and at the mouth‐bar crests. Bedform trains related to the density flow were controlled by the grain size and sediment supply. Coarse‐grained sediment and high supply rates caused strong mouth‐bar aggradation and flow splitting, leading to the formation of bedform trains laterally adjacent to the mouth bar. Fine‐grained sediment and low supply rates caused the formation of bedform trains downflow of the mouth bar. The symmetrical bedforms deposited by the density flows always displayed an in‐phase relationship with the flow, indicating that they were antidunes. The experimental jet deposits resemble successions known from subaqueous ice‐contact fans and deep water channel‐lobe transition zones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the evolution of submarine channel-lobe systems on salt-influenced slopes is challenging as these systems react to subtle, syn-depositional changes in seafloor topography. The impact of large blocking structures on individual deep-water systems is well documented, but our understanding of the spatial and temporal evolution of extensive channel-lobe systems on slopes influenced by relatively modest salt structures is relatively poor. We focus on Late Miocene deep-water depositional systems contained within a c. 450 ms TWTT thick interval imaged in 3D seismic reflection data from the contractional salt-tectonic domain, offshore Angola. Advanced seismic attribute mapping, tied to seismic facies analysis and time-thickness variations, reveal a wide range of interactions between structurally induced changes in slope relief, deep-water sediment routing, geomorphology and sedimentology. Five seismic units record a striking tectono-stratigraphic within eight minibasins. We observe gradual channel diversion through lateral migration during times of relatively high structural growth rate, as opposed to abrupt channel movement via avulsion nodes during times of relatively high sediment accumulation rate. Our models capture the response of deep-water depositional systems to the initiation, maturation, and decay of contractional structures on salt-influenced slopes. The initiation stage is defined by small, segmented folds with deep-water depositional system being largely able to transverse multiple minibasins. In contrast, the maturity stage is characterised by large, now-linked high-relief structures bounding prominent minibasins leading to ponding and large-scale diversion of channel-lobe systems and the emplacement of MTCs derived from nearby highs. The decay stage is expressed by structures that are shorter and more subdued than those characterising the maturity stage; this leads to a more complicated array of channel-lobe system, the evolution of which is still influenced by bypass, diversion and ponding. During the decay stage, remnant structures still exert a subtle but key control on the development and positioning of avulsion nodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sensor-based human activity recognition (HAR) using machine learning requires a sufficiently large amount of annotated data to realize an accurate classification model. This requirement stimulates the advancement of the transfer learning research area that minimizes the use of labeled data by transferring knowledge from the existing activity recognition domain. Existing approaches transform the data into a common subspace between domains which theoretically loses information, to begin with. Besides, they are based on the linear projection which is bound to linearity assumption and its limitations. Some recent works have already incorporated nonlinearity to find a latent representation that minimizes domain discrepancy based on an autoencoder that includes statistical distance minimization. However, such approach discovers latent representation for both domains at once, which causes sub-optimal representation because both domains compensate each other's reconstruction error during the training. We propose an autoencoder-based approach on domain adaptation for sensor-based HAR. The proposed approach learns a latent representation which minimizes the discrepancy between domains by reducing statistical distance. Instead of learning representation of both domains simultaneously, our method is a two-phase approach which first learns the representation for the domain of interest independently to ensure its optimality. Subsequently, the useful information from the existing domain is transferred. We test our approach on the publicly available sensor-based HAR datasets, using cross-domain setup. The experimental result shows that our approach significantly outperforms the existing ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Boletim Paranaense de Geociências is the property of Universidade Federal do Parana and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Boletim Paranaense de Geociências is the property of Universidade Federal do Parana and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Boletim Paranaense de Geociências is the property of Universidade Federal do Parana and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Boletim Paranaense de Geociências is the property of Universidade Federal do Parana and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Glossifungites Ichnofacies is a substrate‐controlled ichnofacies that occurs in omission surfaces and has been used in the identification and interpretation of stratigraphic discontinuities. The Early Permian Rio Bonito–Palermo sedimentary succession from the Paraná Basin (southern Brazil) offers an opportunity to discuss the genesis of the omission surfaces demarked by the occurrence of Glossifungites suites. These suites are composed of sharp, unlined burrows with irregular boundaries and passive infill by generally medium‐ to coarse‐grained sandstones. Thalassinoides is the dominant component in the Glossifungites suites in the studied deposits, with local occurrences of Diplocraterion, Gyrolithes, and Skolithos. Based on the ichnological signatures of the distinct Glossifungites suites observed in these deposits and the characteristics of the facies in which they occur, the associated discontinuity surfaces were interpreted as autogenic or allogenic. The morphological distinction between allogenic and autogenic expressions of the Glossifungites Ichnofacies is observed. Glossifungites suites demarking autogenic surfaces are associated with dewatered muddy substrates from the estuarine settings. Glossifungites suites demarking allogenic surfaces are characterized by large vertical burrows and occur in association with a sequence boundary and coplanar surfaces registered in lower shoreface settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Submarine mass‐transport deposits are important in many ancient and modern basins. Mass‐transport deposits can play a significant role in exploration as reservoir, seal or source units. Although seismic data has advanced the knowledge about these deposits, more outcrop studies are needed to better understand gravity mass flows and predict the properties of their resultant deposits. It is proposed that sufficiently well‐exposed outcrops of mass‐transport deposits can be divided into three strain‐dominant morphodomains: headwall, translational and toe. The outcrops of the Rapanui mass‐transport deposit, part of the Lower Mount Messenger Formation in the Taranaki Basin, New Zealand, are exposed along a ca 4 km transect in coastal cliffs that enable the identification of the three morphodomains. The aim of this study is to characterize the stratigraphic and sedimentological nature of the Miocene‐age Rapanui mass‐transport deposit outcrops and the evolution of its basal shear zone. The basal shear zone of a mass‐transport deposit is defined as the stratal zone formed in the interface between the overriding mass flow and the underlying in situ deposits or sea floor. Accordingly, the deformation structures in the Rapanui mass‐transport deposit and the basal shear zone were documented in an established spatial framework. Traditional methodologies were used to characterize the sedimentology of the Rapanui mass‐transport deposit. Data collected from intrafolial folds, rafted blocks and samples from the Rapanui mass‐transport deposit were used to investigate strain and matrix texture evolution, estimate palaeoflow direction, and calculate yield strength and overpressure at time of deposition. Additionally, a one‐dimensional numerical model was used to test sedimentation‐driven overpressure as probable trigger. This work demonstrates that the basal shear zone, as well as the matrix texture of a mass‐transport deposit, can vary spatially as sediments from underlying deposits are entrained during shear‐derived mixing. This phenomenon can impact the seal potential of mass‐transport deposits and their interaction with fluids in the subsurface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human-computer interfaces and multimodal interaction are increasingly used in everyday life. Environments equipped with sensors are able to acquire and interpret a wide range of information, thus assisting humans in several application areas, such as behaviour understanding, event detection, action recognition, and many others. In these areas, the suitable processing of this information is a key factor to properly structure multimodal data. In particular, heterogeneous devices and different acquisition times can be exploited to improve recognition results. On the basis of these assumptions, in this paper, a multimodal system based on Allen's temporal logic combined with a prevision method is proposed. The main target of the system is to correlate user's events with system's reactions. After the post-processing data coming from different acquisition devices (e.g., RGB images, depth maps, sounds, proximity sensors), the system manages the correlations between recognition/detection results and events, in real-time, thus creating an interactive environment for users. To increase the recognition reliability, a predictive model is also associated with the method. Modularity of the system grants a full dynamic development and upgrade with customized modules. Finally, comparisons with other similar systems are shown, thus underlining the high flexibility and robustness of the proposed event management method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Earth's penultimate icehouse period, the late Paleozoic ice age (LPIA), was a time of dynamic glaciation and repeated ecosystem perturbation, which was under conditions of substantial variability in atmospheric p CO2 and O2. Improved constraints on the evolution of atmospheric p CO2 and O2/CO2 ratios during the LPIA and its subsequent demise to permanent greenhouse conditions are crucial for better understanding the nature of linkages between atmospheric composition, climate, and ecosystem perturbation during this time. We present a new and age-recalibrated p CO2 reconstruction for a 40 Myr interval (∼313 to 273 Ma) of the late Paleozoic that (1) confirms a previously hypothesized strong CO2 –glaciation linkage, (2) documents synchroneity between major p CO2 and O2/CO2 changes and compositional turnovers in terrestrial and marine ecosystems, (3) lends support for a modeled progressive decrease in the CO2 threshold for initiation of continental ice sheets during the LPIA, and (4) indicates a likely role of CO2 and O2/CO2 thresholds in floral ecologic turnovers. Modeling of the relative role of CO2 sinks and sources active during the LPIA and its demise on steady-state p CO2 using an intermediate-complexity climate–carbon cycle model (GEOCLIM) and comparison to the new multi-proxy CO2 record provides new insight into the relative influences of the uplift of the Central Pangean Mountains, intensifying aridification, and increasing mafic rock to granite rock ratio of outcropping rocks on the global efficiency of CO2 consumption and secular change in steady-state p CO2 through the late Paleozoic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hyperpycnites are extrabasinal turbidites related to hyperpycnal flows which form during river floods. Compared to intrabasinal turbidite systems in deep marine or lacustrine settings, hyperpycnites in shallow lakes settings are not understood. In this work, we studied the typical sedimentary characteristics of shallow lacustrine hyperpycnal flow deposits in outcrops of the Luanping Basin, Northeast China. Based on the sedimentary architecture and analysis of the facies associations in these outcrops, the hyperpycnites can be classified into the following three types: (a) bedload‐dominated erosional channel deposits, (b) bedload‐ and suspended‐load‐dominated channel‐to‐lobe transitional deposits, and (c) suspended‐load‐dominated lobe deposits. The erosional channels in proximal locations are filled by mud clasts, parallel‐laminated sandstones, massive sandstones, cross‐bedded sandstones, massive siltstones, and mudstones. The channel‐to‐lobe transitional deposits in a middle location are composed of parallel‐laminated sandstones, cross‐bedded sandstones, mud clasts near internal erosional surfaces, ripple cross‐bedded sandstones, massive siltstones, and mudstones. The lobe deposits in distal locations are composed of ripple cross‐bedded sandstones, massive siltstones, and mudstones. The sedimentary process of the shallow lacustrine hyperpycnal flows shows obvious response to periodic flood energy fluctuations. Gentle slope, small capacity of flood discharges and semiarid paleoclimate may be the possible reason for the observed sedimentary architecture of the shallow lacustrine hyperpycnal flow deposits. Therefore, this study offers new insights into the sedimentology of shallow lacustrine deposits in rift basins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Orbital cycles are related to variations of Earth's orbit through time and exert profound control on glacial and interglacial climates due to changes in insolation. In this study, we aim to test whether orbital and millennial‐scale climate cycles conditioned the deposition of rhythmites in the southern Gondwana during the Late Paleozoic Ice Age (LPIA). We present the first cyclostratigraphic study based on X‐ray fluorescence records from a 27‐m‐thick interval of LPIA rhythmites in the southeastern border of the Paraná Basin, Brazil. TiO2 and Fe2O3 records display cycles in the Milankovitch and millennial bands. Among millennial‐scale variability, there are strong signals suggesting cycles with periods similar to the ~2.4‐kyr Hallstatt heliomagnetic and the ~1.5‐kyr Dansgaard‐Oeschger cycles. We estimated an average sediment accumulation rate of 5.94 cm/kyr, which suggests that the rhythmites were deposited in a relatively distal setting, during deglaciation episodes paced by millennial‐scale climate cycles. We interpret variations in concentrations of the terrigenous components TiO2 and Fe2O3 as indicative of glacial‐interglacial changes, reflected by advances and retreats of glaciers under drier and wetter climate conditions, respectively. Here we show that these high‐latitude glacial‐interglacial cycles were probably paced by short eccentricity, as previously suggested for Carboniferous cyclothems in low‐latitude deposits, and highlight the importance of millennial‐scale climate cycles at controlling glacially influenced deposition at high latitudes. Our results for the LPIA are similar to patterns seen in Pleistocene records. Plain Language Summary: In this study, we investigate a geological record from the Late Paleozoic Ice Age (LPIA), one of the major glaciations that ever occurred in Earth's history and increasingly compared to the Pleistocene glaciation. With high‐resolution profiles that reflect the chemical composition of the sediments, we were able to identify orbital and millennial‐scale climate cycles that show similarities to Pleistocene glacial and interglacial climate variability. Assuming that changes in the concentrations of iron and titanium in the sediments reflect paleoclimatic characteristics, we suggest that major advances and retreats of high‐latitude glaciers during the LPIA occurred about 100,000 years apart, under drier and wetter climate conditions, respectively. Our results suggest that the behavior of glaciers during the LPIA was comparable to Pleistocene glacial‐interglacial cycles. Key Points: Orbital and millennial‐scale cycles paced rhythmites deposition in a southwestern Gondwana paleovalley during the Late Paleozoic Ice AgeOur study highlights similar forcing mechanisms at play during the Late Paleozoic Ice Age and Pleistocene glacial‐interglacial variabilitySolar forcing seems to be a persistent feature throughout geologic time [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human Activity Recognition (HAR) systems are devoted to identifying, amidst the sensory stream provided by one or more sensors located so that they can monitor the actions of a person, portions related to the execution of a number of a-priori defined activities of interest. Improving the performance of systems for Human Activity Recognition is a long-standing research goal: solutions include more accurate sensors, more sophisticated algorithms for the extraction and analysis of relevant information from the sensory data, and the enhancement of the sensory analysis with general or person-specific knowledge about the execution of the activities of interest. Following the latter trend, in this article we propose the association and enhancement of the sensory data analysis with cultural information, that can be seen as an estimate of person-specific information, relieved of the burden of a long/complex setup phase. We propose a culture-aware Human Activity Recognition system which associates the recognition response provided by a state-of-the-art, culture-unaware HAR system with culture-specific information about where and when activities are most likely performed in different cultures, encoded in an ontology. The merging of the cultural information with the culture-unaware responses is done by a Bayesian Network, whose probabilistic approach allows for avoiding stereotypical representations. Experiments performed offline and online, using images acquired by a mobile robot in an apartment, show that the culture-aware HAR system consistently outperforms the culture-unaware HAR system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Eurydesma Fauna characterizes the Late Pennsylvanian-Permian glacial-postglacial sediments recorded in several Gondwanan basins during the Late Paleozoic Ice Age (LPIA). Brachiopods, as one the most significant components of this fauna, are herein analyzed along with the associated bivalves, in two key sections from western and eastern Gondwana (Bonete Formation in the Sauce Grande Basin, eastern Argentina, and the Wasp Head Formation in the southern Sydney Basin, eastern Australia). The preliminary quantitative analysis indicates a high compositional similarity in both regions but occupancy exhibits important differences: brachiopod-dominated faunas can be found in eastern Australia (Tomiopsis and Trigonotreta are the most frequent taxa), and bivalve-dominated faunas are characteristic in eastern Argentina, where the brachiopods are poorly represented with the genera Tivertonia and Tomiopsis. In this locality, the development of r-strategy taxa, such as the bivalve Eurydesma, during the end of a glacial episode would adversely affect brachiopods' abundance. This is also consistent with previous studies that indicate that brachiopods already showed a decrease in importance in Pennsylvanian communities from Argentina. Relative abundances of brachiopods and bivalves in both localities may reflect differences in the regional environmental conditions but, unfortunately, eastern Argentina lacks younger records to compare the faunal turnover with that of the Australian sequences. Despite the ecological structural differences identified (i.e. brachiopod:bivalve ratio), the postglacial Eurydesma fauna flourished in western and eastern Gondwana and it is striking that two faunas located on the opposite margins of this paleocontinent show such high compositional similarity during the development of a global postglacial event. This is particularly significant considering that the type of the basins (i.e. restricted vs open basins), biological features, paleoenvironmental conditions directly related to glacial dynamics, and also the diachronism of the transgression, can be controlling the composition of this fauna. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alzheimer patients face difficulty to remember the identity of persons and performing daily life activities. This paper presents a hybrid method to generate the egocentric video summary of important people, objects and medicines to facilitate the Alzheimer patients to recall their deserted memories. Lifelogging video data analysis is used to recall the human memory; however, the massive amount of lifelogging data makes it a challenging task to select the most relevant content to educate the Alzheimer's patient. To address the challenges associated with massive lifelogging content, static video summarization approach is applied to select the key-frames that are more relevant in the context of recalling the deserted memories of the Alzheimer patients. This paper consists of three main modules that are face, object, and medicine recognition. Histogram of oriented gradient features are used to train the multi-class SVM for face recognition. SURF descriptors are employed to extract the features from the input video frames that are then used to find the corresponding points between the objects in the input video and the reference objects stored in the database. Morphological operators are applied followed by the optical character recognition to recognize and tag the medicines for Alzheimer patients. The performance of the proposed system is evaluated on 18 real-world homemade videos. Experimental results signify the effectiveness of the proposed system in terms of providing the most relevant content to enhance the memory of Alzheimer patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The most recent Giant Gaussian Process (GGP) model, based on the last 5 Ma, has been used as a reference for directional distribution of paleomagnetic record of older rocks as Cenozoic and Proterozoic. However, for Paleozoic times, its validity has not yet been tested. Here we evaluate the validity of this recent GGP model for the Kiaman superchron. We present new paleomagnetic results from a late Pennsylvanian section of glacial rhythmites (Mafra Formation) from southern Brazil. The 5‐m section sampled spans more than 800 kyr, as evaluated by cyclostratigraphic analysis. Thermal demagnetization revealed a reversed characteristic component carried by single domain magnetite. Anisotropy of anhysteretic remanent magnetization indicated a small shallowing correction of f = 0.97. The final paleomagnetic pole position is located at 51.9°S, 344.3°E (N = 111, R = 109.0, K = 55.9, A95 = 1.8°), with a mean direction of Dec = 144.2°, Inc = 69.5° (N = 111, R = 110.2, k = 134.4, α95 = 1.2°, Paleolat = 53.2°S). The shape of the distribution of magnetization directions (elongation E = 2.081.443.13) and the dispersion of virtual geomagnetic poles (SV=10.99.811.8) are incompatible with the recent model. The reduced dispersion, also found in other studies, implies a different shape in directional distributions for any GGP model describing the Kiaman interval. This result alerts us that we should abandon the use of the recent GGP model as a reference for inclination shallowing correction of Carboniferous sedimentary data. Key Points: We present a new Upper Carboniferous paleomagnetic pole for South American Plate, with inclination shallowing correction and time controlThe paleosecular variation results indicated that we should avoid the use of recent geomagnetic models as a reference for Kiaman superchron [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first Carboniferous palaeofloristic locality recognized in Argentina is situated to the south of the Sierra Chica de Zonda in San Juan Province, Argentina. The fossiliferous site known as Retamito or Río del Agua provided plant remains which were studied by the Polish scientist Ladislaus Szajnocha in 1891. Szajnocha proposed an early Carboniferous age for the assemblage and described some species of lycophytes and sphenophytes, and foliage of cordaitalean and probable pteridosperms. Subsequent studies of this outcrop and its palaeontological content have been few, and a new interdisciplinary approach is needed. The succession is interpreted as fluvial-deltaic in origin, with intercalation of shallow marine deposits, which provided diagnostic plant components of the Nothorhacopteris/Botrychiopsis/Ginkgophyllum Biozone of the late Carboniferous in Argentina. Palynological assemblages recovered from the same strata contain bisaccate taeniate pollen and spores (e.g. Striatosporites heyleri) that support an age probably not older than early Moscovian. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the eastern part of the Karoo Basin of South Africa, the sedimentary record of the Late Palaeozoic Ice Age, the Dwyka Group, consists of an up to 200 m thick accumulation of massive to crudely stratified diamictite occasionally interstratified with siltstone, sandstone and conglomerate horizons. Three distinct sedimentary units, separated by intervening glacial erosion surfaces, are viewed as ice‐margin fluctuation sequences. The lowermost one, resting on highly uneven, glacially abraded Archaean basement, has been interpreted as a grounding zone wedge deposited after the retreat and stabilization of the ice margin after the inundation of the Karoo Basin. The grounding zone wedge interpretation is based on its thickness (up to 100 m), the dominance of diamictite, and its facies assemblage and inferred depositional processes (rain‐out of debris, dropstone dumping, mass and debris flow, till). Overlying the grounding zone wedge, deposits are sedimentary units interpreted as glaciofluvial or ice‐contact delta and grounding zone wedges, respectively. By analogy with Quaternary sedimentary sequences, deposition of the Dwyka Group in the study area might have been very rapid (tens to hundreds of thousand years) and may hence correlate with the ultimate deglacial sequence of the Western Karoo Basin, as both successions are covered by the postglacial Ecca Group. Although commonly observed and imaged on modern, high‐latitude continental shelves, grounding zone wedges have never been interpreted in the ancient geological record. This paper therefore outlines a model defining criteria necessary for their identification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Submarine channel and fan deposits form the largest sediment accumulations on Earth and host significant reservoirs for hydrocarbons. While many studies of ancient fan deposits describe architectural variability along 2D transects (e.g. axis‐to‐fringe, proximal‐to‐distal), these relationships are often qualitative and are rarely quantified at the event‐bed scale. In order to enable quantitative comparison of the fine‐scale architecture of submarine depositional environments, 56 bed‐scale outcrop correlation panels from five broadly categorized environments (channel, levee, lobe, channel‐lobe transition zone, CLTZ and basin plain) were digitized. Measured architectural parameters (bed thickness, bed thinning rates, lateral correlation distance, net‐to‐gross) provide a large (n = 28,525) and statistically robust framework to compare event‐bed architectures within and between environments. "Thinning rate" data (i.e. the lateral rate of change of bed thickness) clearly differentiate deposits from different submarine depositional environments, helping to quantify generally accepted models for proximal‐to‐distal evolution of stratigraphic architecture. The thinning rates of sandstone beds and mudstone‐dominated intervals vary predictably between environments. For example, the highest sandstone thinning rates occur in channel deposits (0.2–6 cm/m; P10 and P90 values here and below) and decrease to lobe (0.1–1.6 cm/m), CLTZ (0.2–0.9 cm/m), levee (0.0024–0.078 cm/m) and basin‐plain deposits (0.000017–0.0054 cm/m). These quantitative relationships provide valuable insights for downslope flow evolution and the construction of stratigraphic architecture in submarine settings. Due to intra‐environment variability, net‐to‐gross is highly variable and thus (when considered alone) is not a diagnostic indicator of depositional environment. Submarine lobe deposits show the most variability in event bed thickness, thinning rate and net‐to‐gross, likely due to the inherent facies variability and differing boundary conditions. To explore this variability, lobe deposits were sub‐classified based on position (proximal, distal) and effective confinement (unconfined, semiconfined, confined) to provide a more detailed sub‐environment analysis. Unconfined lobe deposits show a proximal‐to‐distal increase in sandstone thickness and decrease in mudstone thickness, supporting conceptual models. Confined lobe deposits have thicker sandstone and mudstone beds and lower net‐to‐gross values as compared to unconfined and semiconfined lobes, supporting a sediment trapping mechanism by confinement. These quantified bed‐scale parameter comparisons enable the recognition of architectural similarities and differences within and between environments, demonstrating the need for more quantitative studies of bed‐scale heterogeneity. The results from this study are immediately applicable to parameterizing forward stratigraphic models, constraining property distribution in reservoir models, and probabilistic determination of depositional environment from outcrop and core descriptions of submarine depositional environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The automatic description of digital multimedia content was mainly developed for classification tasks, retrieval systems and massive ordering of data. Preservation of cultural heritage is a field of high importance of application of these methods. We address classification problem in cultural heritage such as classification of architectural styles in digital photographs of Mexican cultural heritage. In general, the selection of relevant content in the scene for training classification models makes the models more efficient in terms of accuracy and training time. Here we use a saliency-driven approach to predict visual attention in images and use it to train a Deep Convolutional Neural Network. Also, we present an analysis of the behavior of the models trained under the state-of-the-art image cropping and the saliency maps. To train invariant models to rotations, data augmentation of training set is required, which posses problems of filling normalization of crops, we study were different padding techniques and we find an optimal solution. The results are compared with the state-of-the-art in terms of accuracy and training time. Furthermore, we are studying saliency cropping in training and generalization for another classical task such as weak labeling of massive collections of images containing objects of interest. Here the experiments are conducted on a large subset of ImageNet database. This work is an extension of preliminary research in terms of image padding methods and generalization on large scale generic database. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]