Luminescence dating of Romanian loess using feldspars

This work investigates the potential of optically and infrared stimulated luminescence signals (OSL and IRSL, respectively) from polymineral silt-sized grains to establish sedimentation chronologies for Romanian loess. The incentive for the study was the observation that various grain sizes of quartz yielded significantly different OSL ages, a behaviour that remains to be understood; feldspar also has the potential to date older deposits. The samples used in this study were taken from the loess/palaeosol sequence near Mircea Vodă, and all luminescence measurements were made using a single-aliquot regenerative-dose (SAR) protocol. A conventional approach, in which stimulation with IR was at 50°C and the detection window in the blue, was found to be compromised by thermal instability of the signals and/or initial sensitivity changes. A double-SAR approach – involving successive stimulation of the polymineral fine grains with IR and blue light, and detection of the resulting IRSL and post-IR OSL signals in the UV – was also tested. Although both signals exhibited significantly different fading rates, the corrected ages are mutually consistent and in agreement with OSL ages for purified silt-sized quartz. This indicates that it may not be necessary to isolate pure quartz to obtain reliable ages for Romanian loess. Owing to the limitations of the fading-correction method, however, the approach is limited to samples from the last glacial period. Finally, a post-IR IRSL protocol was tested, in which a first stimulation at 50°C was followed by a second stimulation at 225°C, and detection was in the blue. The post-IR IR225 signal appears not to suffer from anomalous fading, and yields ages entirely consistent with both OSL ages for silt-sized quartz and independent age control over four interglacial/glacial cycles. The overall conclusion is that post-IR IR dating of polymineral fine grains is very promising. The obtained age results urge the long-established chronostratigraphical framework for Romanian loess to be revised; the two uppermost well-developped palaeosols can no longer be thought of as interstadial soils that developed during the Last Glacial, but have formed during MIS 5 and MIS7, respectively

Case Study: Using AI-Assisted Code Generation In Mobile Teams

The aim of this study is to evaluate the performance of AI-assisted programming in actual mobile development teams that are focused on native mobile languages like Kotlin and Swift. The extensive case study involves 16 participants and 2 technical reviewers, from a software development department designed to understand the impact of using LLMs trained for code generation in specific phases of the team, more specifically, technical onboarding and technical stack switch. The study uses technical problems dedicated to each phase and requests solutions from the participants with and without using AI-Code generators. It measures time, correctness, and technical integration using ReviewerScore, a metric specific to the paper and extracted from actual industry standards, the code reviewers of merge requests. The output is converted and analyzed together with feedback from the participants in an attempt to determine if using AI-assisted programming tools will have an impact on getting developers onboard in a project or helping them with a smooth transition between the two native development environments of mobile development, Android and iOS. The study was performed between May and June 2023 with members of the mobile department of a software development company based in Cluj-Napoca, with Romanian ownership and management.Comment: 8 pages, 10 figures, 1 table, ICCP conferenc

Considerations on the hydro-geological characteristics of the surface aquifers from the Jijia-Prut confluence area

Consideraţii asupra caracteristicilor hidro-geologice a acviferelor de suprafaţă din aria de confluenţă Jijia-Prut. La nivelul Podişului Moldovei, zonele de confluenţă suscită un interes deosebit prin dinamica morfologică a reliefului şi caracteristicile hidrologice şi hidrogeologice diferite faţă de zonele din amonte. Zona de confluenţă Jijia-Prut se integrează în acest peisaj geomorfologic prin caracterul mobil al condiţiilor lito-geomorfologice şi hidrogeologice, în funcţie de factorii care au generat procesele hidrogeomorfologice locale. Fluxurile de substanţă şi energie, din cele două bazine hidrografice, al Jijiei şi al Prutului, modulate într-o multitudine de secvenţe, cu intensităţi diferite la scara timpului, au generat o mobilitate a zonei de confluenţă, în funcţie de condiţiile hidrologice conjuncturale. Plecând de la aceste premise ne-am propus o evaluare a caracteristicilor hidrogeologice ale acviferului din zona Cârniceni, aflată la 5km nord-vest de localitatea Sculeni (pe râul Prut).În urma analizei calitatea apelor subterane din este considerată nesatisfăcătoare datorită unor caracteristici fizico-chimice nefavorabile şi a condiţiilor şi proceselor hidrogeochimice naturale, care se desfăşoară în substrat, şi care favorizează trecerea în soluţie a diferiţilor anioni şi cationi; poluării apelor de suprafaţă şi schimbului hidrodinamic dintre acestea şi apele subterane, reintroducerea în activitatea agricolă a îngrăşămintelor pe bază de azot şi de fosfor, precum şi a pesticidelor; exploatarea necorespunzătoare a unor sisteme de irigaţii care au contribuit la mineralizarea materiei organice din sol şi la migrarea substanţelor rezultate din aceste procese spre adâncime

Considerations on land use and land degradation in Jijia’s upper catchment (Hilişeu county)

Land degradation from Hilişeu county is mainly due to various erosion types, as areolar or liniar, but also by amplifying landslides (both with generalized spread). Also, land degradation is influenced by a considerable number of secondary processes whose is represented at punctual level. Soil cover, which is in direct contact with climatic factors, being strongly controlled by them, changes completely in its appearence and characteristics. On flat or slightly inclined surfaces, alteration products remain in place, contributing to the formation of eluvium that covers the sculptural interfluves. When the slope is increasing, alteration products start to move slowly. These processes are known as areolar erosion, depth erosion or wet landslides, processes that have an important role not only in the evolution of landscape, but also in the slope one. Their main reason is the force of gravity, but their mode of expression and their stage of development depends on a complex of natural and anthropogenic factors. The occurance of areas affected by current geomorphological processes on arable surface (occupying a total of 2502.02 ha), is associated with the dysfunctional land use and ineffective style of exploitation. By using GIS techniques applied to topographic maps and orthophotos, subsequently verified by field research, was conducted the diachronic analysis of the current land use, but also the statistical analysis specific to the digital cartographic reliance previous obtained

The analysis of soil properties and quality in Jijia’s upper basin

The study of soil properties, according to the distribution of soilscapes and of soil forming factors and processes, is essential for the modern spatial analysis of the soil cover and for its integration in the soil mapping process. Thus, soil forming and soil evolution processes, determined by the complex of factors and by the physical and chemical characteristics of soils (expressed by soil reaction, organic matter, contents of carbonates, nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium), represent the criteria in establishing diagnoses and classifying soils from the Jijia upper basin. On the territory of Hilişeu township have been identified 49 soil units, belonging to Protisols, Chernisols, Luvisols, Hidrisols and Anthrisols. Chernisols dominate this repartition, with over 40%, being followed by Luvisols. Gleysols are also well represented, being developed in the floodplains of Jijia and its tributaries. A general characteristic of soils from the studied territory is the high clay content, even from the soil surface, as well as the low humus reserve in the upper horizons. The present paper approached the identification of soils’ qualitative aspects in the area, as well as the correlation with the morphometric or land use parameters, having in view the strong conditioning of the soil properties by the landscape of the region. In what regards soil quality, the area is dominated by the 2nd and 3rd quality classes, each with about 40% and 37%, being followed by the 4th (19%) and 5th (4%) classes. The lower quality of these soils is given mainly by erosion and by the gleyzation-stagnogleyzation processes

Luminiscente dating of fluvial deposits in the rock shelter of Cueva Antón, Spain.

The fluvial sediments at Cueva Antón, a Middle Palaeolithic rock shelter located in the valley of the River Mula (Southeast Spain), produced abundant lithic assemblages of Mousterian affinities. Radiocarbon dates are available for the upper part of the archaeological succession, while for the middle to lower parts chronometric data have been missing. Here we present luminescence dating results for these parts of the succession. Quartz OSL on small aliquots and single grain measurements yield ages ranging from 69 ± 7 ka to 82 ± 8 ka with a weighted mean of 72 ± 4 ka for sub-complexes AS2 to AS5. Equivalent dose estimates from large aliquots were highest and inconsistent with those from single grains and small multiple grain aliquots. This is probably caused by the presence of oversaturating grains, which have been quantified by single grain measurements. Additional post-IR IRSL measurements on coarse grained feldspar give strong support to a well-bleached quartz OSL signal. While independent chronometric control is missing, the results are within the expected age range and support the notion of a rapid accumulation of the fluvial deposits

Site-specific seeding using multi-sensor and data fusion techniques : a review

Site-specific seeding (SSS) is a precision agricultural (PA) practice aiming at optimizing seeding rate and depth, depending on the within field variability in soil fertility and yield potential. Unlike other site-specific applications, SSS was not adopted sufficiently by farmers due to some technological and practical challenges that need to be overcome. Success of site-specific application strongly depends on the accuracy of measurement of key parameters in the system, modeling and delineation of management zone maps, accurate recommendations and finally the right choice of variable rate (VR) technologies and their integrations. The current study reviews available principles and technologies for both map-based and senor-based SSS. It covers the background of crop and soil quality indicators (SQI), various soil and crop sensor technologies and recommendation approaches of map-based and sensor-based SSS applications. It also discusses the potential of socio-economic benefits of SSS against uniform seeding. The current review proposes prospective future technology synthesis for implementation of SSS in practice. A multi-sensor data fusion system, integrating proper sensor combinations, is suggested as an essential approach for putting SSS into practice