Upper Cretaceous to Lower Eocene calcareous nannofossil biostratigraphy from Malaqet and Mundassah sections western flank of the Northern Oman Mountains

This work is the first attempt to undertake a biostratigraphic study on calcareous nannofossil assemblages of the exposed Upper Cretaceous to Lower Eocene rocks at the Malaqet and Mundassah sections, NW Oman. The Upper Cretaceous to Lower Eocene rocks belong to the Simsima Formation and the Muthaymimah Formation. Specimens of calcareous nannofossils identified during this study have been ascribed to 67 different species. The Cretaceous/Palaeocene boundary can be placed in correspondence with the unconformity between the mentioned formations. The presence of a big hiatus in this area is suggested by the absence of the latest Maastrichtian Micula prinsii nannofossil Zone, and the Palaeocene NP1 and NP2 nannofossil Zones. In the two study sections, the Danian/Selandian boundary is placed at the level of the first occurrence (FO) of Fasciculithus tympaniformis (base of NP5 Zone).At Jabal Mundassah, the Selandian/Thanetian boundary is positioned at the FO of Discoaster mohleri, which is used to define the base of NP7/8 Zone. Unfortunately, a major hiatus is detected at the Selandian/Thanetian boundary at the Jabal Malaqet section as indicated by the absence of NP6 and NP7/8 Zones. The Paleocene/Eocene boundary is placed at the base of Subzone NP9b at Jabal Mundassah, whereas at Jabal Malaqet the Paleocene/Eocene boundary interval is missing and a major hiatus is testified by the absence of the NP9b Subzone and NP10 Zone. This work is the first attempt to undertake a biostratigraphic study on calcareous nannofossil assemblages of the exposed Upper Cretaceous to Lower Eocene rocks at the Malaqet and Mundassah sections, NW Oman. The Upper Cretaceous to Lower Eocene rocks belong to the Simsima Formation and the Muthaymimah Formation. Specimens of calcareous nannofossils identified during this study have been ascribed to 67 different species. The Cretaceous/Palaeocene boundary can be placed in correspondence with the unconformity between the mentioned formations. The presence of a big hiatus in this area is suggested by the absence of the latest Maastrichtian Micula prinsii nannofossil Zone, and the Palaeocene NP1 and NP2 nannofossil Zones. In the two study sections, the Danian/Selandian boundary is placed at the level of the first occurrence (FO) of Fasciculithus tympaniformis (base of NP5 Zone).At Jabal Mundassah, the Selandian/Thanetian boundary is positioned at the FO of Discoaster mohleri, which is used to define the base of NP7/8 Zone. Unfortunately, a major hiatus is detected at the Selandian/Thanetian boundary at the Jabal Malaqet section as indicated by the absence of NP6 and NP7/8 Zones. The Paleocene/Eocene boundary is placed at the base of Subzone NP9b at Jabal Mundassah, whereas at Jabal Malaqet the Paleocene/Eocene boundary interval is missing and a major hiatus is testified by the absence of the NP9b Subzone and NP10 Zone.</span

Multi-View Region Adaptive Multi-temporal DMM and RGB Action Recognition

Human action recognition remains an important yet challenging task. This work proposes a novel action recognition system. It uses a novel Multiple View Region Adaptive Multi-resolution in time Depth Motion Map (MV-RAMDMM) formulation combined with appearance information. Multiple stream 3D Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) are trained on the different views and time resolutions of the region adaptive Depth Motion Maps. Multiple views are synthesised to enhance the view invariance. The region adaptive weights, based on localised motion, accentuate and differentiate parts of actions possessing faster motion. Dedicated 3D CNN streams for multi-time resolution appearance information (RGB) are also included. These help to identify and differentiate between small object interactions. A pre-trained 3D-CNN is used here with fine-tuning for each stream along with multiple class Support Vector Machines (SVM)s. Average score fusion is used on the output. The developed approach is capable of recognising both human action and human-object interaction. Three public domain datasets including: MSR 3D Action,Northwestern UCLA multi-view actions and MSR 3D daily activity are used to evaluate the proposed solution. The experimental results demonstrate the robustness of this approach compared with state-of-the-art algorithms.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, 13 tables. Submitte

The Legal and Legislative Challenges that Face the Municipalities in Jordan

This study aims to identify the most important legal and legislative challenges that face the municipalities in Jordan and affect the municipalities\u27 ability to achieve their objectives and serve their local communities; by discussing and analyzing the Jordanian Municipal Law No. 41 of 2015currently in force. Hence, this study sought to answer the following questions: Do the Jordanian municipalities have the legal personality and thus enjoy the financial and administrative independence, or is the given independence not genuine? Does the law promote decentralization and give the municipality’s board powers to enhance their developmental role? In order to achieve the objectives of the study, the researcher used the analytical method to analyze and discuss the legal texts of the current municipal law, which are considered legal challenges that can limit the ability of municipal and local councils to perform their tasks efficiently. The study has found many legal and legislative challenges in the Municipal Law, which stand in the way of municipalities in carrying out their tasks and developing their local communities, and making the municipality’s just administrative units of the central authority and limiting their role to providing services to the local population. Furthermore, the study has indicated many legal texts that constitute a clear infringement of the financial and administrative independence in which the municipalities in Jordan should be enjoyed. The duty of the central authority is to provide the necessary technical support and guidance to the municipalities rather than to intervene and control them, which may reach the level of trusteeship of the municipalities. In addition, the current law does not contain any provision that requires the availability of scientific qualifications that the candidates should meet for the presidency and membership of municipal and local councils, depriving these councils of competencies capable of performing the functions of these councils. One of the most important legal challenges that weaken the municipal councils is the central authority\u27s control over the distribution of financial revenues that are collected for the benefit of the municipalities, which are sometimes used as a means of pressure and intervention in the work of municipalities, which affects their financial independence. The study recommended the reform of the law and legislation through the amendment of the current municipal law to ensure the strengthening of decentralization and expansion of the powers of municipal and local councils to do their developmental and service role and to ensure the enhancement of financial and administrative independence of the municipalities, and limits the intervention and control of the central authority, with the need to pay attention to the supervision of the municipalities to ensure the proper functioning of the work and ensure that they achieve their goals with the highest degrees of efficiency and effectiveness, In addition to the need for administrative reform to ensure the provision of human elements qualified and trained and able to meet the needs of the population in the local areas, as well as a financial reform, which ensures the provision of sufficient financial resources for municipalities to enable self-reliance on themselves and away from the interventions and pressures by the central authorit

Integrated biostratigraphy of two Upper Maastrichtian – Palaeocene successions in north-central Sinai, Egypt

Integration of the calcareous nannofossil and planktonic foraminiferal biostratigraphies has been performed for theUpper Maastrichtian – Palaeocene successions at Gebel Umm Khushayb and west El-Hassana sections (north-centralSinai, Egypt). The studied successions include the uppermost part of the Sudr, Dakhla, and their lateral coeval Beida Formation. Biostratigraphic analysis has allowed recognition from Zone CF2 to Zone P4in terms of planktonic foraminifera and from Zone CC26c to Zone NP7/8 in terms of calcareous nannofossils. Maastrichtian/Palaeogene (K/Pg) boundary is characterized by an erosional surface that marks a hiatus between theSudr/Dakhla or Sudr/Beida formation boundaries, as confi rmed by the absence of the planktonic foraminiferal CF1to P1a zones and their equivalent nannofossil zones (top part of CC26c to lowest part of Zone NP3). Selandian (Da/Se) boundary lies in the upper part of the Dakhla Formation within the top of nannofossil Zone NP4,and within planktonic foraminiferal Zone P3b, similar to that of the Global Standard Stratotype-section and Point(GSSP) of the D/S boundary which has recently been chosen at the Zumaia section, northern Spain. was observed across the Selandian/Thanetian boundary as indicated by a lithological change and a very condensedZone NP6, corresponding to the Dakhla and Tarawan formation boundary in the west El-Hassana section. </p

New microplanktonic biostratigraphy and depositional sequences across the Middle-Late Eocene and Oligocene boundaries in eastern Jordan

The first detailed calcareous nannofossil and planktonic foraminiferal biostratigraphic and integrated lithofacies analyses of the Eocene–Oligocene transition at the Qa’ Faydat ad Dahikiya area in the Eastern Desert of Jordan, on the border with Saudi Arabia, is presented. Three calcareous nannofossil zones namely: Discoaster saipanensis (NP17), Chiasmolithus oamaruensis (NP18) and Ericsonia subdisticha (NP21), and three planktonic foraminiferal zones: upper part of Truncorotaloides rohri (E13), Globigerinatheka semiinvoluta (E14) and Cassigerinella chipolensis/ Pseudohastigerina micra (O1) are identified. Calcareous nannofossil bioevents recorded in the present study show numerous discrepancies with the Standard biostratigraphic zonal schemes to detect the Middle/Upper Eocene boundary (e.g. the highest occurrences (HOs) of Chiasmolithus solitus, C. grandis, and lowest occurrences (LOs) of C. oamaruensis, Isthmolithus recurvus are not considered reliable markers for global correlation). The Middle/Upper Eocene boundary occurs in the current study above the extinctions of large muricate planktonic foraminifera (large Acarinina and Truncorotaloides spp.) which coincide within the equivalent calcareous nannofossil NP18 Zone. These microplanktonic bioevents seem to constitute more reliable markers for the base of the Upper Eocene in different provinces. The uppermost portion of the Middle Eocene is characterized by an observed drop in faunal content and, most likely, primarily denotes the effect of the major fall in eustatic sea level. A major unconformity (disconformity) marked by a mineralized hardground representing a lowstand is recorded in the present study at the Eocene–Oligocene transition that reveals an unexpected ca. 2.1 Myr duration, separating Eocene (NP18/E14 zones) from Oligocene (NP21/O1 zones). Furthermore, the microfossil turnover associated with a rapid decline of the microfossil assemblages shows a distinct drop in diversity and abundance towards the Eocene/Oligocene unconformity and is associated with a sharp lithological break marked, at the base, by a mineralized hardground representing a major sequence boundary. These bioevents, depositional sequences and the depositional hiatus correlate well with different parts of the Arabian and African plates, but the magnitude of the faunal break differs from place to place as a result of intraplate deformation during the regional Oligocene regression of Neo-Tethys on the northern Arabian Plate. The presence of the Lower Oligocene shallow-marine calcareous planktonic assemblages in the study area indicate that communication between the eastern and western provinces of the western Neo-Tethys region still existed at this time

Vision based dynamic thermal comfort control using fuzzy logic and deep learning

A wide range of techniques exist to help control the thermal comfort of an occupant in indoor environments. A novel technique is presented here to adaptively estimate the occupant’s metabolic rate. This is performed by utilising occupant’s actions using computer vision system to identify the activity of an occupant. Recognized actions are then translated into metabolic rates. The widely used Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) thermal comfort index is computed using the adaptivey estimated metabolic rate value. The PMV is then used as an input to a fuzzy control system. The performance of the proposed system is evaluated using simulations of various activities. The integration of PMV thermal comfort index and action recognition system gives the opportunity to adaptively control occupant’s thermal comfort without the need to attach a sensor on an occupant all the time. The obtained results are compared with the results for the case of using one or two fixed metabolic rates. The included results appear to show improved performance, even in the presence of errors in the action recognition system