Adaptive Filters in Paleoclimatology: Measure it Twice!

Time series of stable isotopes (oxygen, carbon) measured at foraminifers are often very noisy due to the combined effect of low sedimentation rates, intensive bioturbation and small sample sizes (5-20 foraminifers). Adaptive filters may help to increase the signal-to-noise ratio of such time series where conventional methods such as fixed filters cannot be applied if optimal filtering is to be achieved, because the signal-to-noise ratio is unknown and varies with time. Continue reading “Adaptive Filters in Paleoclimatology: Measure it Twice!”

Interactive eBook Edition of MRES

With its fourth edition, the MRES book makes its first appearance as an interactive ebook. This ebook allows the reader to interact with the book and comes in two different formats, with the first being for Apple iPads and Macs (in the form of an .ibooks file created with Apple’s iBooks Author software) and the second being for other platforms (as a PDF file that includes relative links to interactive objects stored on the reader’s hard drive). Continue reading “Interactive eBook Edition of MRES”

MATLAB-Based Detection of the Orientation of Handaxes

Some archeological sites in East Africa revealed unusual accumulations of Acheulean handaxes, such as in Olorgesailie in Southern Kenya (see photo above) and in Kariandusi in Central Kenya. It has been debated whether these accumulations were a result of fluvial reworking or of in situ deposition by hominins. A MATLAB-based algorithm to automatically determine the orientation of handaxes in excavation plans helps to test the preferred orientation of stone tools as the result of fluvial reworking.

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