Genetic Variability, Population Differentiation, and Correlations for Thermal Tolerance Indices in the Minute Wasp, Trichogramma cacoeciae

Temperature is a main driver of the ecology and evolution of ectotherms. In particular, the ability to move at sub-lethal low temperatures can be described through three thermal tolerance indices—critical thermal minimum (CTmin), chill coma temperature (CCT), and activity recovery (AR). Although these indices have proven relevant for inter-specific comparisons, little is known about their intraspecific variability as well as possible genetic correlations between them. We thus investigated these two topics (intraspecific variability and genetic correlations between thermal tolerance indices) using the minute wasp, Trichogramma cacoeciae. Strains from T. cacoeciae were sampled across three geographic regions in France—two bioclimatic zones along a sharp altitudinal cline in a Mediterranean context (meso-Mediterranean at low elevations and supra-Mediterranean at higher elevations) and a more northwestern area characterized by continental or mountainous climates. Our results evidenced a significant effect of both the longitude and the severity of the cold during winter months on CCT. Results were however counter-intuitive since the strains from the two bioclimatic zones characterized by more severe winters (northwestern area and supra-Mediterranean) exhibited opposite patterns. In addition, a strong positive correlation was observed between CCT and CTmin. Neither strain differentiation nor the covariations between traits seem to be linked with the molecular diversity observed on the part of the mitochondrial marker COI.

An investigation into the feasibility of delivering online education to remote communities in Canada Case location: Yukon

Canada continues to be among the world’s most ‘wired’ countries. Life in urban Canada is fueled by high-speed wireless connectivity, shifting brick-and-mortar services to cyberspace including banking, shopping and socializing. However, rural Canada is still catching-up on such technological advancement as a result of little investment in the digital infrastructure by the telecommunications sector to elude lower ROI, causing a Digital Divide. This Digital Divide poses an opportunity to be bridged by bringing rural Canada to cyberspace and giving them an equal opportunity to thrive. As cloud technology has disrupted many key sectors including business and social exchange; the Education sector still has not been able to fully utilize the massive opportunity cloud offers as a valuable platform for delivering education to remote Canada. My MRP focuses on the feasibility of delivering online education through the effective use of cloud technology in Canada’s key northwestern area called Yukon.

An investigation into the feasibility of delivering online education to remote communities in Canada Case location: Yukon

Canada continues to be among the world’s most ‘wired’ countries. Life in urban Canada is fueled by high-speed wireless connectivity, shifting brick-and-mortar services to cyberspace including banking, shopping and socializing. However, rural Canada is still catching-up on such technological advancement as a result of little investment in the digital infrastructure by the telecommunications sector to elude lower ROI, causing a Digital Divide. This Digital Divide poses an opportunity to be bridged by bringing rural Canada to cyberspace and giving them an equal opportunity to thrive. As cloud technology has disrupted many key sectors including business and social exchange; the Education sector still has not been able to fully utilize the massive opportunity cloud offers as a valuable platform for delivering education to remote Canada. My MRP focuses on the feasibility of delivering online education through the effective use of cloud technology in Canada’s key northwestern area called Yukon.

Three-Dimensional Modelling of Desorbed Gas Volume and Comparison to Gas Production Rate in the Montney Plays, Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin

Shale reservoir has been focused among unconventional resources since the first extraction of free and adsorbed gas from the low-permeable Barnett Shale via horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. In the beginning of production, free gas was rapidly recovered through an artificial fracture system, and then, desorbed gas followed at the final stage due to a decrease of reservoir pressure. This desorbed gas volume commonly occupies 10 to 40% of total gas production in shale gas play although it shows wide variety in cumulative gas volume and production time. The largest gas production in Canada is recovered from either tight sandstone or shale reservoirs. The Montney play in Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin (WCSB) has produced up to 80% of Canadian natural gas production. The desorbed gas production from this play has been reported up to 10% of total produced gas. The distribution and productivity of the desorbed gas have not been fully studied. Therefore, we focus to understand the distribution of the desorbed gas volume of eastern, middle, and northwestern areas in the Montney play. The desorbed gas volume within these areas was estimated from the relationship among canister, illite, and shale volumes in core samples and well logs. The average shale volume fraction in eastern area is 0.38 v / v , the average illite mineral volume fraction is 0.25 v / v , and the average desorbed gas volume refers to 8.52 scf/ton. In middle area, calculated volume represents 0.34 v / v , 0.216 v / v , and 8.15 scf/ton as listed above. The northwestern area also shows 0.65 v / v , 0.4 v / v , and 9.78 scf/ton, respectively. 3D models of each area indicated relatively rich and lack parts of desorbed gas volume. These estimated desorbed gas volume and gas production history were compared in order to understand when and how the desorbed gas would affect to gas production. It shows strong positive relationship, gradually increasing correlation to the later stage (from 24-44 months to 36-44 months) of gas production in the entire areas. This result implies that the estimation of later stage gas productivity is able from the estimated volume of desorbed gas, and also, the total gas production can be forecast in shale gas reservoir. Northwestern area in Montney play preserves relatively abundant desorbed gas volume, which will be dominant after 24 months of production.

Dilemmas of Ethnic Identification and Socio- Political Representation of the Rusins in the Slovak Republic and Ukraine (on the Results of an Expert Survey)

The article highlights the problem of ethnic identification and socio-political representation of Rusins in Slovakia and Ukraine. The author bases his presentation on the results of an survey among Slovak and Ukrainian experts. The object of research is the Rusin ethnic group of northwestern area in Slovakia (Prešov and Kosice self-governing regions) and Transcarpathian region of Ukraine. According to the survey among Slovak experts, 44% consider Rusins “a separate ethnic group, different from Ukrainians”; the same number of respondents defines Rusins “a sub-ethnic (ethnographic) group of Ukrainians”; 12 % cannot decide on this issue. Most of the respondents in Ukraine (44 %) define Rusins “a sub-ethnic (ethnographic) group of Ukrainian people”; 28 % are convinced that Rusins are representatives of a separate ethnic group, different from Ukrainians; 28 % stated their own options regarding the nature of ethnic identification of Rusins. The vast majority of Slovak experts (52 %) define “rather active” public and political participation of Rusins; 16 % state “active” participation; 16 % define it “rather passive”; 8% – “passive”, 8% were undecided about the answer. The Ukrainian respondent opinions were divided as follows: 48 % consider the public and political participation of Rusins “rather passive”; 28 % – “passive”; 16 % – “rather active”; 4% indicated the “active” role of Rusin national cultural associations with the remark that only older generations are involved; 4 % public and political participation of Rusins was defined as ”ineffective”. Slovak experts emphasized the active work of public and political leaders of Rusin origin Peter Krajnak, Miroslav Lajcak and Peter Medvid’. The respondents from Ukraine named Rusin leaders Yevhen Zhupan and Yuriy Prodan in Transcarpathian regional public and political environment.

Topographic and geomorphological features of a hydrothermal field in submarine Mienhua Volcano offshore northeastern Taiwan

<p>There is a high potential of hydrothermal mineral deposits in the Southern Okinawa Trough offshore northeastern Taiwan. This study aims to integrate bathymetry data, water column images, seabed image, sub-bottom profiles and ROV observations to better understand a hydrothermal field, submarine Mienhua Volcano (MHV). A repeated mapping survey equipped with EM-712 was conducted to see if significant bathymetric changes took place since 50 days in MHV. The volcano of 2 km width and 240-m relief height is present at about 1300-m water depth near Mienhua Canyon. The volcano combines with several small and rugged mounds. From ROV observations, two of the mounds show active hydrothermal vents covered by white tubeworms and a white smoker with some mussels, respectively. In addition, active water column gas flares are observed on the southeastern part of MHV. Based on the identification of sub-bottom profiles, the special distribution of acoustic blanking zone shows the southeastern part is more narrow than the northwestern area. However, comparing the bathymetry mapped in two times, no obvious overall morphological changes are detected, except on the volcano rim. Seabed image also reveals similar backscatter intensity within the rugged mounds, suggested they may be at similar stages of morphological development. We consider that the hydrothermal vents are variable. In addition, the preliminary results indicate the fluid migration is the important process to influence the evolution of the hydrothermal field in MHV. Therefore, we also applied more seafloor images, geochemical and geophysical data which have been reported in MHV. Our results could evaluate the relationship between the flare activities, geomorphological features and the location of the blanking zone in the sedimentary strata.</p>

Characterization of Green Infrastructure at the Local Level with Geographical Information System, Tunja (Colombia)

This article presents a characterization of the areas likely to integrate a Green Infrastructure (GI) for the Tunja city at local scale and spatial analysis is mainly applied to the land cover and land use of the study area. To identify the areas that could be integrated into the GI, four thematic dimensions were first zoned (ecological connectivity, multifunctionality, ecological status and accessibility to the population); they were later normalized on a scale of 1 to 10 to make them comparable; the dimensions were combined by an Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and finally those areas whose pixel values ​​were above the third quartile were selected in the integration of the dimensions. The zoned dimensions the following weights were obtained: ecological connectivity (48%), multifunctionality (30%), ecological status (13%) and accessibility to the population (9%). It was found that the main areas likely to integrate into the GI are concentrated in the western fringe of the city; however, the northwestern area has a greater fragmentation and lower ecological status than the southwestern zone (which refers mainly to the Protective Forest Reserve El Malmo). Likewise, several areas or patches were identified to the south of the city (referring mainly to wooded areas and presence of wetlands) as well as small wooded areas in the urban perimeter, but with greater isolation among the other areas of GI. Within the urban perimeter the zoning of areas that could be integrated into a GI was practically null.

Research on the Hydrochemistry and Fault Control Mechanism of Geothermal Water in Northwestern Zhangzhou Basin

The Zhangzhou Basin (ZB) is one of the most important hydrothermal regions in the southeast coast of China, with abundant underground thermal water resources. The hydrothermal region is located within widely scattered acid igneous rocks. Because of the low permeability of granitoids, the geothermal water flow is strongly controlled by fault structures. Previous studies mainly focused on the center of ZB and provided little understanding on the geochemistry and fault controlling mechanism of peripheral areas of the basin. In this study, the chemical compounds and elements of both thermal and cold underground waters of the Northwestern Zhangzhou Basin (NZB) were tested. Using cluster analysis, geochemical analysis, chemical geothermometers, silica vs. enthalpy mixing model, and structural interpretation of remote sensing, this study found that the thermal water in the research area mixes with shallow cold water in different proportions. The reservoir temperature ranges from 106°C to 147°C and differs between different sides of the Tianbao-Jinshan Fault (TJF) due to fault control. The difference in the circulation depth of underground thermal water causes this reservoir temperature disparity. The circulation depth of underground thermal water in research area ranges from 3.65 km to 5.44 km, which means the circulation depth of thermal water of the northwestern area is deeper than that of the central area of the basin.

Geological setting of the Chandragiri-Chitlang Range, southwest of Kathmandu Valley, central Nepal

Geological mapping was carried out in the scale of 1:25000 in the Chandragiri-Chitlang Range of central Nepal, SW of the Kathmandu Valley. In the area, lower four formations of the Phulchoki Group (Paleozoic age) from older to younger sequence, i.e. the Tistung Formation, the Sopyang Formation, the Chandragiri Limestone and the Chitlang Formation along with the Alluvial Fan Deposits and the Kathmandu valley sediments were mapped. Low-grade metamorphic rocks like met sandstone, phyllite, argillaceous limestone, ortho-quartzite and slate dominate the study area. The whole succession of the area is calcareous. The succession consists of a biotitezone in the lower part of the Tistung Formation, whereas the overlying younger succession belongs to a chlorite zone. The Chitlang Formation lies at the core of the Mahabharata Synclinorium and other local-scale structures in the area are the Chitlang Syncline, the Kirtipur Anticline and the Chandragiri Thrust (CT). The repetition of the older Sopyang Formation around the southeastern area and the Tistung Formation around northwestern area over the younger Chandragiri Limestone justifies the presence of the Chandragiri Thrust (CT).