LOWER DEVONIAN (PRAGIAN) BRACHIOPODS FROM THE DASHATIAN SECTION, GUANGXI, SOUTH CHINA

Lower Devonian brachiopods in South China are very rare since most areas lack deposits owing to an uplift movement of the Guangxi (Caledonian) Orogeny. In this paper, we describe a brachiopod fauna consisting of 13 species in 12 genera from the Nagaoling Formation at the Dashatian section in the suburb area of the Nanning City, Guangxi, South China. This fauna is dominated by small rhynchonellide and spiriferide species, along with chonetidines, strophomenides, atrypides, athyridides and others. The early Pragian age for the brachiopod-bearing horizons in the Nagaoling Formation is constrained by the associated early Pragian conodonts Eognathodus sulcatus Zone. About 33% genera of the brachiopod fauna are endemic to South China, therefore they do not provide any clear evidence for its paleobiogeographical link to the faunas of Europe, Australia, or North America. This fauna is paleoecologically interpreted as being deposited in a shallow, oxygen-rich, low to moderate energy, subtidal palaeoenvironment in the early Pragian and it corresponds to the benthic assemblage BA2 to upper BA

MiliPoint: A Point Cloud Dataset for mmWave Radar

Millimetre-wave (mmWave) radar has emerged as an attractive and cost-effective alternative for human activity sensing compared to traditional camera-based systems. mmWave radars are also non-intrusive, providing better protection for user privacy. However, as a Radio Frequency (RF) based technology, mmWave radars rely on capturing reflected signals from objects, making them more prone to noise compared to cameras. This raises an intriguing question for the deep learning community: Can we develop more effective point set-based deep learning methods for such attractive sensors? To answer this question, our work, termed MiliPoint, delves into this idea by providing a large-scale, open dataset for the community to explore how mmWave radars can be utilised for human activity recognition. Moreover, MiliPoint stands out as it is larger in size than existing datasets, has more diverse human actions represented, and encompasses all three key tasks in human activity recognition. We have also established a range of point-based deep neural networks such as DGCNN, PointNet++ and PointTransformer, on MiliPoint, which can serve to set the ground baseline for further development

Griesbachian and Dienerian (Early Triassic) ammonoids from Qubu in the Mt. Everest area, southern Tibet

The Permian–Triassic boundary (PTB) is defined by the conodont Hindeodus parvus at Meishan section D in the palaeotropical Tethyan region, where basal Triassic ammonoids are rare and poorly preserved. Here we describe some basal Early Triassic ammonoids from the lower part of the Kangshare Formation at the Qubu section in the Mt. Everest area in southern Tibet, China. Our study recognizes three distinct ammonoid zones, the Otoceras woodwardi, Ophiceras tibeticum, and Ambites zones in ascending order. The occurrence of Otoceras, a key basal Triassic taxon, is here documented for the first time in this area. The first occurrence of Triassic conodonts at Qubu indicates that the PTB is not higher than the level 0.81 m above the base of the dolomite unit of the Kangshare Formation, and the first occurrence of the ammonoid Otoceras woodwardi is 0.89 m higher up at the section. At Qubu, the Griesbachian–Dienerian boundary is placed between the Ophiceras tibeticum Zone and the Ambites Zone. Our work represents a valuable addition for the construction of a high resolution of Griesbachian and Dienerian ammonoid biozonations in southern Tibet and provides a framework for the basal Triassic correlation in the Mt. Everest area

Fusulinoideans from the early Midian (late Middle Permian) Metadoliolina dutkevitchi-Monodiexodina sutchanica Zone of the Senkina Shapka section, South Primorye, Far East Russia.

Fusulinoideans from the Metadoliolina dutkevitchi-Monodiexodina sutchanica Zone of the lower part of the Chandalaz Formation in the Senkina Shapka section in South Primorye, Far East Russia, are described. The fusulinoidean zone is assigned to the early Midian (=Capitanian: late Middle Permian) based mainly on the morphologie and biostratigraphic characteristics of Metadoliolina dutkevitchi. Previously, a Midian age has been established for the Metadoliolina dutkevitchi-Monodiexodina sutchanica Zone by the coexistence of Lepidolina species. However, the occurrence of Lepidolina with the two zonal species in this area has not been verified by the illustration of Lepidolina specimens. We examined a fusulinoidean-bearing sample from the Metadoliolina dutkevitchi-Monodiexodina sutchanica Zone, and three fusulinoidean species, Monodiexodina sutchanica, Pseudofusulina sp. and Metadoliolina dutkevitchi, are de-scribed and illustrated.<br /

Study on the development status and emission levels of methanol vehicles

Based on the research on the development status of methanol vehicles and formaldehyde testing technology at home and abroad, a comparison test was conducted between National V gasoline vehicles and methanol vehicles, and it was found that CO and THC emissions of methanol vehicles are lower than those of gasoline vehicles, NOx emissions are roughly the same as those of gasoline vehicles, and PM emissions are significantly lower; formaldehyde emissions are higher than those of gasoline vehicles. However, the existing testing methods cannot achieve direct and continuous testing of formaldehyde, and there is an urgent need to develop a direct measurement method for formaldehyde and corresponding testing equipment for in-use methanol-fuelled vehicles

Early Late Permian coupled carbon and strontium isotope chemostratigraphy from South China: Extended Emeishan volcanism?

Carbon isotope compositions of carbonates (δ13Ccarb) document a new 3.5‰ CIE toward lower values concomitant with an Emeishan Large Igneous Province (ELIP)-related drowning event (Mapojiao Event, southern Guizhou) during the early Wuchiapingian. Organic carbon isotope data (δ13Corg) have a 2‰ shift toward higher values across the drowning event, showing decoupling with the δ13Ccarb evolution. Rock-Eval and palynofacies analyses suggest an elevated flux of terrestrial organic matter (OM) during the drowning episode. Therefore, the decoupling between δ13Ccarb and δ13Corg is best explained by the mixing of different organic carbon pools in the δ13Corg curve. Strontium isotope data (87Sr/86Sr) also show a transient shift from 0.70715 to 0.70694 associated with this early Wuchiapingian carbon isotope excursion (CIE), which is superimposed on the late Permian prolonged global rising trend. This short-lived 87Sr/86Sr excursion is best interpreted as an enhanced hydrothermal flux related to a short pulse of ELIP-related volcanism