Revising the Gent Formation : a new lithostratigraphy for Quaternary wind-dominated sand deposits in Belgium

In Belgian lithostratigraphy, the Gent Formation was previously introduced to encompass all Quaternary sandy aeolian sediments. It has been difficult to apply, however, as it was incomplete, regionally biased, and not based on sediment properties alone. To solve this problem the Gent Formation is revised both in terms of definition and subdivision. Morphological and chronological criteria were omitted to allow ranking strata on the basis of visible lithological properties. The Belgian sand belt is newly introduced to designate the area where these sediments were deposited. The Gent Formation is subdivided into five members based on distinct lithological properties, and as a consequence reflecting different palaeoenvironmental conditions during deposition. Whenever feasible, each member is put in a chronostratigraphical and geomorphical context. The new subdivision is discussed and compared with earlier Belgian lithostratigraphical frameworks, as well as to the most recent one for comparable deposits in the Netherlands

Multilevel modelling of refusal and non-contact in household surveys: evidence from six UK Government surveys

We analyse household unit non-response in six major UK Government surveys by using a multilevel multinomial modelling approach. The models are guided by current conceptual frameworks and theories of survey participation. One key feature of the analysis is the investigation of the extent to which effects of household characteristics are survey specific. The analysis is based on the 2001 UK Census Link Study, which is a unique source of data containing an unusually rich set of auxiliary variables. The study contains the response outcome of six surveys, linked to census data and interviewer observations for both respondents and non-respondents

Musical Vocabularies : creating a framework for meaningful intercultural musical dialogue

In this arts-based research I draw on the approaches of autoethnography and artistic research to uncover findings emerging from my artistic and pedagogical navigation through traditional and contemporary folk and global musics. I explore the processes of my own interpretations and understandings of music-making in intercultural contexts through composing, co-creating, and interacting with musicians from different musical and cultural backgrounds. The title of musical vocabularies refers to the process of gathering and understanding musical aesthetics from diverse and unfamiliar musics as a non-native, and how to integrate and transmit these elements artistically and ethically in my performing and teaching practices. Through exploring musical dialogues and collaborations in this research, I discover different ways of music-making and music-thinking, which involve a variety of pedagogical methods and perspectives. In the first sections of this work, I discuss my positionality by briefly unfolding my artistic and educational background, as well as unpack the core methods applied in this arts-based research. On the basis of three selected artistic case studies, I explore new and unfamiliar musical cultures together with their related pedagogical approaches and thinking. I unfold the working methods used and discuss the compositional processes, which involve co-creating and interacting in an intercultural environment, resulting in three main artistic outcomes, including a duo with a musician from the Faroe Islands, collaborations with musicians in Hungary, and an intercultural trio formed for my master’s concert. Through these case studies, I explore the artistic possibilities of intercultural music-making and how hands-on experience can be translated to teaching practice, suggesting a framework for meaningful intercultural musical dialogue. Key findings include that intercultural musical dialogues require multiple ways of music-thinking and pedagogical approaches. Furthermore, immersion into different cultural contexts, including day to day experiences of the culture and hands on collaboration with musicians from inside each culture are essential elements. Finally, I reflect on possible future directions for intercultural musical dialogue and discuss its complexities and current issues

Electron sin resonance (ESR) dating of Quaternary materials

ESR hat sich im letzten Jahrzehnt bei der Datierung verschiedenster littoraler Ablagerungen (Korallenriffterassen, Strandwallsysteme, Dünen) als effizientes Datierungswerkzeug etabliert. Verbesserungen in der Bestimmung der jährlichen Dosisleistung (D’) und ein neu entwickelter Ansatz zur Bestimmung der Äquivalent Dosis (DE – Dmax Verfahren) haben die Präzision der ESR-Datierung sowohl an holozänen und pleistozänen Korallen als auch an marinen und terrestrischen Molluskenschalen verbessert. Dies wurde durch den Vergleich mit anderen numerischen Datierungsverfahren wie Radiokohlenstoff und TIMS-Uranserien- Analyse (TIMS 230Th/234U) unterstützt. Der Vergleich mit letzterer Methode steht im Fokus dieses Artikels. Die mit der ESR-Methode verbundenen Ungenauigkeiten bei der Datierung holozäner Korallen liegt in der Größenordnung der Variabilität von 14C-Altern, die durch den marinen Reservoireffekt bedingt ist. Die Datierung pleistozäner Korallen erlaubt die Differenzierung der wichtigen marinen Isotopenstadien (MIS) 5, 7, 9,11 und 13 sowie der Untereinheiten 5e3/2 und 5e1, 5c und 5a1 und 5a2. Der durchschnittliche Fehler bei der Datierung von Korallen liegt zwischen 5 bis 8%. Weiterhin hat die Datierung mariner und terrestrischer Mollusken mittels ESR viel versprechende Resultate geliefert, die eine Differenzierung der Interglaziale MIS 1, 5, 7 und 9 ermöglichen, bei einem Fehler von 10-15%. Die ESR Datierung von Quarz ist eine weitere vielversprechende Datierungstechnik für quartäre und sogar neogene geologische Formationen. Das Vorkommen von Quarz in vulkanischen Gesteinen, Tephren, Störungen und Sedimenten (thermisch beeinflusst und unbeeinflusst) ermöglicht die zeitliche Bestimmung des letzten Zeitpunkts vor der Erhitzung, Störung oder der Aussetzung von Sonnenlicht. Obwohl durch einige experimentelle Ergebnisse angezweifelt, ist die ESR Datierung von Quarz die einzige Möglichkeit Altersdaten älterer Ablagerungen zu liefern. ESR wurde auch bei einer Vielzahl anderer Materialien angewendet, wie zum Beispiel Foraminiferen, Speleothemen, Travertinen, Kalkkrusten und Zahnschmelz. Die gebräuchlichste und zuverlässigste Anwendung ist die ESR-Datierung von Mammutstoßzähnen. Im Zusammenspiel mit der Laser-Ablation Uranserien Datierung ist ESR eine wichtige Methode zur Altersbestimmung archäologischer Fundstätten jenseits der Bestimmungsgrenzen der Radiokohlenstoffmethode bis in den Bereich von 200 bis 300 ka.researc

Extreme right-wing voting in Western Europe

In this study we explain extreme right-wing voting behaviour in the countries of the European Union and Norway from a micro and macro perspective. Using a multidisciplinary multilevel approach, we take into account individual-level social background characteristics and public opinion alongside country characteristics and characteristics of extreme right-wing parties themselves. By making use of large-scale survey data (N = 49,801) together with country-level statistics and expert survey data, we are able to explain extreme right-wing voting behaviour from this multilevel perspective. Our results show that cross-national differences in support of extreme right-wing parties are particularly due to differences in public opinion on immigration and democracy, the number of non-Western residents in a country and, above all, to party characteristics of the extreme right-wing parties themselves

Joint Sequential Fronthaul Quantization and Hardware Complexity Reduction in Uplink Cell-Free Massive MIMO Networks

Fronthaul quantization causes a significant distortion in cell-free massive MIMO networks. Due to the limited capacity of fronthaul links, information exchange among access points (APs) must be quantized significantly. Furthermore, the complexity of the multiplication operation in the base-band processing unit increases with the number of bits of the operands. Thus, quantizing the APs' signal vector reduces the complexity of signal estimation in the base-band processing unit. Most recent works consider the direct quantization of the received signal vectors at each AP without any pre-processing. However, the signal vectors received at different APs are correlated mutually (inter-AP correlation) and also have correlated dimensions (intra-AP correlation). Hence, cooperative quantization of APs fronthaul can help to efficiently use the quantization bits at each AP and further reduce the distortion imposed on the quantized vector at the APs. This paper considers a daisy chain fronthaul and three different processing sequences at each AP. We show that 1) de-correlating the received signal vector at each AP from the corresponding vectors of the previous APs (inter-AP de-correlation) and 2) de-correlating the dimensions of the received signal vector at each AP (intra-AP de-correlation) before quantization helps to use the quantization bits at each AP more efficiently than directly quantizing the received signal vector without any pre-processing and consequently, improves the bit error rate (BER) and normalized mean square error (NMSE) of users signal estimation.Comment: Accepted for publication in EuCNC & 6G Summit 202

Primary and secondary power control of multiterminal HVDC grids

Postprint (published version