Distant North Research Articles

Petrogenesis and Tectonic Setting of the Baluogenguole Mafic Dykes, Zongwulong Belt: Implications for Evolution of the Northern East Paleo-Tethys Ocean

The late Paleozoic tectonic setting of the Zongwulong Belt (ZWLB), a significant unit located in the northern Qaidam margin, Qinghai province, remains uncertain. Diabase dykes in the western part of the Zongwulong Belt offer insights into this issue. Field investigations reveal that the dips of the dykes are almost vertical, and they have sharp boundaries with the host rocks. These dykes consist of plagioclase, clinopyroxene, and opaque minerals exhibiting a characteristic porphyritic texture and massive structure. Zircon U-Pb dating of the dykes yields a weighted 206Pb/238U age of 289 ± 1 Ma. The dykes exhibit relatively high concentrations of TFeO, K2O + Na2O, and TiO2, while the SiO2 and MgO concentrations are relatively low. They display relative light-over-heavy REE enrichment, and lack negative Nb-Ta and Eu anomalies. The dykes underwent negligible crustal contamination, and experienced extensive fractional crystallization of olivine, clinopyroxene, and Fe-Ti oxides. Originating from the spinel–garnet transition zone at depths of approximately 75 km, the dykes result from garnet facies low-degree melting (5%–10%) in a continental rift setting. Combining these findings with regional geological data, we propose that the ZWLB likely experienced a continental rift in the west and exhibited a narrow oceanic environment in the east in the late Paleozoic period, potentially representing the most distant north branch of the East Paleo-Tethys Ocean.

“Liberty or Death!”

“Liberty or Death!”

Avifauna of the Adelbert Mountains, New Guinea: why is Fire-maned Bowerbird Sericulus bakeri the mountains' only endemic bird species?

The Adelbert Mountains, one of ten outlying ranges along New Guinea's north and north-west coasts, surprised ornithologists when their first exploration by Western scientists yielded the striking endemic Fire-maned Bowerbird Sericulus bakeri. It was then another surprise when further exploration revealed no other distinctive endemic. We summarise previous Adelbert studies and our four explorations including a survey of the highest summit. A total of 71 upland species has been recorded from the Adelberts, all of them also present as the same species or (in the case of S. bakeri) same superspecies on other outliers. The Adelberts are exceptional among low-elevation outliers in harbouring populations of seven upland species shared only with much higher outliers. The Adelberts are unique in supporting populations of ten upland species compressed at the highest elevations into a narrow elevational band below the summit. The elevational floors of those species lie a much shorter distance below the summit than for any species on any other outlier. In explanation, we propose the hypothesis that, among outliers, the Adelberts are especially accessible to colonisation by upland species from other upland areas, with two consequences: endemism is almost non-existent in the Adelberts except S. bakeri; and high-elevation populations of the Adelberts may be subsidised by colonists from other upland areas. The highest-elevation populations may have disappeared during the mid-Holocene hypsithermal and subsequently recolonised, further contributing to the lack of endemism. The Adelbert upland avifauna is more closely related, in presence / absence and taxonomic relationships, to that of the nearby Huon Mts. to the east than to the avifauna of the more distant North Coastal Range to the west. That suggests why the Adelberts support S. bakeri as such a distinctive endemic but the rest of their avifauna is undifferentiated: Sericulus is the only upland superspecies of north New Guinea that reaches its eastern distributional limit in the Adelberts; and its low elevational floor permitted it, but not higher-elevation species, to survive upwards shifts in range during the hypsithermal. An appendix summarises all 235 species recorded from the Adelberts, our observations of their elevational range and abundance, and their names in two local mountain languages of the Adelberts.

Association of estrogen receptor gene variants (ESR1 and ESR2) with polycystic ovary syndrome in Tunisia.

SNV (single nucleotide variation) in estrogen receptor (ESR1 and ESR2) genes are susceptibility markers for complex diseases, such as cancer, metabolic disorders and women infertility. We explored six widely used SNVs in ESR1 (rs2234693, rs9340799, rs3798577, rs3020314) and ESR2 (rs1256049, rs4986938) in polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) in women from Tunisia (n=254) compared to controls (n=170). Genotyping was performed by RFLP-PCR or real-time PCR and analyzed in GoldenHelix statistical package. Logistic regression revealed association of rs2234693, rs3798577 and rs3020314 (ESR1) and rs1256049 (ESR2), the association of rs2234693 (C/T) being the strongest with P<4.81×10-6, 2.88×10-5 after Bonferroni correction, OR 0.31, 95%CI (0.18-0.53)). Correlations were found with LH, LH/FSH or hyperandrogenism and even more significant with metabolic syndrome (rs9340799) and hyperglycemia (rs3798577). Among 14 haplotypes reconstructed in ESR1gene, four haplotypes (H1 to H4) were associated with PCOS the strongest being that of H1 (P<0.002) supported by Bonferroni (P<0.033) and permutation tests (P<4 x10-4). In haplotype trend regression, concordant correlations were found with insulin resistance (P<0.033) for H2 and with high blood pressure for H3 (P<0.048). While these data revealed influential role on metabolic rather and hormonal features of PCOS, the association of rs2234693 was the strongest among all ethnic populations studied thus far giving a new insight on estrogen receptor gene variation in distant North African populations and their role in metabolic alteration of PCOS.

Cross-Reactive Antibodies Binding to the Influenza Virus Subtype H11 Hemagglutinin.

H11 subtype influenza viruses were isolated from a wide range of bird species and one strain also was isolated from swine. In an effort to generate reagents for a chimeric H11/1 hemagglutinin-based universal influenza virus vaccine candidate, we produced 28 monoclonal antibodies that recognize the H11 HA subtype. Here we characterized these antibodies in terms of binding breadth and functionality. We found that the antibodies bind broadly to North American and Eurasian lineage isolates and also show broad neutralizing activity, suggesting that immunogenic epitopes on the H11 head domain are not under strong pressure from immunity in the natural reservoir. Furthermore, we found that the antibodies were highly hemagglutination inhibition active against the homologous chimeric H11/1N1 virus, but approximately 50% lost this activity when tested against a virus expressing the same the full length H11 HA of which the head domain is present on cH11/1 HA. Furthermore, while strong neutralizing activity was found to a genetically distant North American lineage H11 isolate, little hemagglutination inhibition activity was detected. This suggests that small structural changes between wild type H11 and cH11/1 as well as between Eurasian and North American lineage H11 HAs can strongly influence the functionality of the isolated monoclonal antibodies.

Swell description for Bonga offshore Nigeria location

The ocean environment offshore West Africa is considered to be mild. However, the generated swell from distant North and South Atlantic during austral winter and summer can reach high wave amplitudes with relatively low wave periods or low wave amplitudes with long wave periods, the later can be a crucial scenario to consider when the assessment of vessel resonance is of importance. Most offshore operations, which include offshore drilling, and installation in West Africa, are carried out from floating systems. The response of these systems and performance are governed by characteristics, such as amplitude and frequency of the wave and swell seas. It is therefore important to fully understand the sea conditions offshore Nigeria. This study covers the description of the swell sea offshore Nigeria using Bonga offshore wave measurements collected from the directional wave-rider (DWR), positioned at the Bonga site off the coast of Nigeria.

Historical black carbon deposition in the Canadian High Arctic: a &gt;250-year long ice-core record from Devon Island

Abstract. Black carbon aerosol (BC), which is emitted from natural and anthropogenic sources (e.g., wildfires, coal burning), can contribute to magnify climate warming at high latitudes by darkening snow- and ice-covered surfaces, and subsequently lowering their albedo. Therefore, modeling the atmospheric transport and deposition of BC to the Arctic is important, and historical archives of BC accumulation in polar ice can help to validate such modeling efforts. Here we present a &gt; 250-year ice-core record of refractory BC (rBC) deposition on Devon ice cap, Canada, spanning the years from 1735 to 1992. This is the first such record ever developed from the Canadian Arctic. The estimated mean deposition flux of rBC on Devon ice cap for 1963–1990 is 0.2 mg m−2 a−1, which is at the low end of estimates from Greenland ice cores obtained using the same analytical method ( ∼ 0.1–4 mg m−2 a−1). The Devon ice cap rBC record also differs from the Greenland records in that it shows only a modest increase in rBC deposition during the 20th century. In the Greenland records a pronounced rise in rBC is observed from the 1880s to the 1910s, which is largely attributed to midlatitude coal burning emissions. The deposition of contaminants such as sulfate and lead increased on Devon ice cap in the 20th century but no concomitant rise in rBC is recorded in the ice. Part of the difference with Greenland could be due to local factors such as melt–freeze cycles on Devon ice cap that may limit the detection sensitivity of rBC analyses in melt-impacted core samples, and wind scouring of winter snow at the coring site. Air back-trajectory analyses also suggest that Devon ice cap receives BC from more distant North American and Eurasian sources than Greenland, and aerosol mixing and removal during long-range transport over the Arctic Ocean likely masks some of the specific BC source–receptor relationships. Findings from this study suggest that there could be a large variability in BC aerosol deposition across the Arctic region arising from different transport patterns. This variability needs to be accounted for when estimating the large-scale albedo lowering effect of BC deposition on Arctic snow/ice.

Genetic structure of intertidal shimofuri goby in the Zhejiang Coastal Sea, China: implications for management

The shimofuri gobies Tridentiger bifasciatus (Gobiidae: Gobionellinae), are small, benthic fish indigenous to the coastal waters of the West Pacific Ocean. In this study, 582-bp mitochondrial cytochrome C subunit I (COI) and 789-bp nuclear ryanodine receptor 3 (Ryr3) DNA sequence data were employed to evaluate population genetic structure of T. bifasciatus. A total of 14 distinct COI haplotypes and 14 distinct Ryr3 alleles were recovered for 140 samples collected from eight intertidal localities in the Zhejiang Coastal Sea, China. The indices of haplotype and nucleotide diversity within populations are 0.42–0.87 (Hd) and 0.13–0.54% (π) for COI and 0.26–0.59 (Hd) and 0.05–0.09% (π) for Ryr3. FST distances between population pairs are − 0.007–0.768 (COI) and − 0.030–0.311 (Ryr3). The south population of Cangnan exhibits significant divergence from all the north populations (p < 0.01). The median-joining (MJ) network indicates that one COI haplotype and one Ryr3 allele found in Cangnan are absent in all the north populations. This observation of phylogeographic break can be interpreted: (1) the dispersal of T. bifasciatus is driven more by small-scale local currents, including inflows of local rivers than by large-scale oceanographic currents; (2) the recruitment is frequently shared among the geographically proximate populations in the northern areas of Zhejiang Coastal Sea, whereas infrequently shared between Cangnan and geographically distant north populations. Tajima’s D statistics, star-like pattern observed on the MJ network, and mismatch distribution analysis present compelling evidence for pronounced demographic fluctuations for the overall population of T. bifasciatus, and infer that the species along the Zhejiang Coastal Sea has undergone a sudden expansion following bottleneck in the past, probably during the quaternary glaciations. The central components for management efforts should occur with preserving ecological diversity and integrity, especially in areas with strong rates of economic growth and high degrees of artificial disturbance, as well as acknowledging separate management units for Cangnan and the other north populations of T. bifasciatus in the Coastal Sea.

January, Bhubaneswar

January, Bhubaneswar Bibhu Padhi Somewhere a flame plays withthe cold air. An easy smokespreads over the sleeping bodies. Somewhere else, in the distant north,a child cries for warmth and love,its body cold like winter. News broadcasters speak ofthe lowest winter in many years;rain falls on broken rooftops with a sound that brings togetherdistant memories of May and summer.The sun has disappeared. Nothing can be changed, nothingthat can take care of the next day;summer is too far away to be remembered. We stand on our feet and measurethe body's failure to recaptureits native heat, the sun's failures. Tell us a story that will go beyondthe cold and cover us with warmth.Teach us how to pray, recover an old faith. [End Page 121] Bibhu Padhi Bhubaneswar, India Copyright © 2018 Johns Hopkins University Press

A Miocene anastomosing river system in the area of Konin Lignite Mine, central Poland

This sedimentological study of the Wielkopolska Member of the Miocene Poznan Formation in the Joźwin IIB opencast lignite-mining field, central Poland, reveals a late mid-Miocene anastomosing fluvial system with ribbon-shaped channels filled mainly by sandy and muddy deposits. The fluvial system, extending across the eastern flank of the post-Mesozoic Kleczew Graben, was tributive in its eastern upper reaches, but was increasingly distributive and northwards deflected in its lower reaches near the graben axis. Lithofacies analysis of a representative palaeochannel indicates that the river discharge significantly fluctuated and that the channels were filled with mud-bearing stratified fine-grained sand by low-density tractional turbulent flow during the high and low water stages and with a massive mud or sandy mud by a high-density flow during the rising and falling stages. The spatial pattern of fluvial channels and deformation channel-fill sandbodies were controlled by the graben topography and the differential compaction of peat substrate, with possible influence of bedrock faults. The fluvial system is thought to have drained to an endorheic ‘terminal’ basin to the north, rather than into the hypothetical Baltic River and further westwards to the distant North Sea basin, as postulated by some previous authors. The present case study contributes to the known spectrum of anastomosing river systems as a sand- to mud-dominated end-member.

Channeling the Undercurrents: Fūsetsudome, Information Access, and National Political Awareness in Nineteenth-Century Japan

While knowledge and network revolutions spread information publicly across social classes in early modern Japan, the emergence of fūsetsudome—private compilations of political documents—reveals that intellectuals, even in far-flung regions, increasingly accessed uncensored political information. This article contextualizes fūsetsudome alongside public media and demonstrates how merchant-class painter and kokugaku scholar Hirao Rosen of Hirosaki in Japan's distant north made two such compilations to document Matthew C. Perry's arrival and the Meiji Restoration. Fūsetsudome indicate wide national political awareness by the 1850s and reveal how commoner-class intellectuals accessed uncensored political information through interaction with samurai connected to political authority.

Teleseismic S wave microseisms.

Although observations of microseisms excited by ocean swells were firmly established in the 1940s, the source locations remain difficult to track. Delineation of the source locations and energy partition of the seismic wave components are key to understanding the excitation mechanisms. Using a seismic array in Japan, we observed both P and S wave microseisms excited by a severe distant storm in the Atlantic Ocean. Although nonlinear forcing of an ocean swell with a one-dimensional Earth model can explain P waves and vertically polarized S waves (SV waves), it cannot explain horizontally polarized S waves (SH waves). The precise source locations may provide a new catalog for exploring Earth's interior.

Identification of sources contributing to PM2.5 and ozone at elevated sites in the western U.S. by receptor analysis: Lassen Volcanic National Park, California, and Great Basin National Park, Nevada

The proposed revision of the United States (US) air quality standard for ozone will result in violations in sparsely populated remote rural areas in the Western US. Replicating air quality as measured at surface monitoring sites by modeling is particularly difficult in this region due to complex terrain, poorly represented in regional and global models, and uncertainties in emission rates and timing at all scales (locally as well as hundreds to thousands of km upwind). As an alternative method, a fully empirical, receptor-based scheme using in situ aerosol composition and simple meteorological variables to simulate ozone (O3) measurements was tested and found to produce O3 simulation results comparable in uncertainty to regional modeling, and supporting trajectory-based identification of O3 source regions. This approach was tested using two widely-separated (650km) high altitude (approx. 2km above sea level) monitoring sites, Lassen Volcanic National Park, in northern California (LAVO) and Great Basin National Park in eastern Nevada (GRBA). Comparing correlations between observed O3 and aerosols, and examining back-trajectories associated with peak concentrations for the two sites permitted distinguishing among local, distant North American, and Asian sources of particulate matter (PM2.5) and O3. This analysis indicates that anthropogenic enhancement of O3 at LAVO is primarily due to transport from Asia. Asia is also the dominant source of anthropogenic O3 at GRBA in spring, but regional North American sources of O3 appear to drive additional ozone peaks in late summer and fall at this more interior site.

Of mice and the 'Age of Discovery': the complex history of colonization of the Azorean archipelago by the house mouse (Mus musculus) as revealed by mitochondrial DNA variation.

Humans have introduced many species onto remote oceanic islands. The house mouse (Mus musculus) is a human commensal and has consequently been transported to oceanic islands around the globe as an accidental stowaway. The history of these introductions can tell us not only about the mice themselves but also about the people that transported them. Following a phylogeographic approach, we used mitochondrial D-loop sequence variation (within an 849- to 864-bp fragment) to study house mouse colonization of the Azores. A total of 239 sequences were obtained from all nine islands, and interpretation was helped by previously published Iberian sequences and 66 newly generated Spanish sequences. A Bayesian analysis revealed presence in the Azores of most of the D-loop clades previously described in the domesticus subspecies of the house mouse, suggesting a complex colonization history of the archipelago as a whole from multiple geographical origins, but much less heterogeneity (often single colonization?) within islands. The expected historical link with mainland Portugal was reflected in the pattern of D-loop variation of some of the islands but not all. A more unexpected association with a distant North European source area was also detected in three islands, possibly reflecting human contact with the Azores prior to the 15th century discovery by Portuguese mariners. Widening the scope to colonization of the Macaronesian islands as a whole, human linkages between the Azores, Madeira, the Canaries, Portugal and Spain were revealed through the sharing of mouse sequences between these areas. From these and other data, we suggest mouse studies may help resolve historical uncertainties relating to the 'Age of Discovery'.

In Love with a Cold Climate

This essay discusses representations of the North in late eighteenth and nineteenth century travel narratives from Scandinavia. It takes as its starting point the traditional conflation of the North with cold that has permeated travellers’ views of Scandinavia, and shows how this stereotype persists even when it is contradicted by the actual experience or observations related in northern travelogues. From some examples of the tension between a real and imaginary North in a selection of travelogues, the essay moves on to look at the aesthetics of the northern landscape in terms of the concepts of the sublime and picturesque. It then shows how an idealising aesthetic emphasis is modified in many northern travel narratives by a foregrounding of realistic details that function as markers of an “anti-aesthetics” of the everyday or commonplace, and give readers a sense of the locally specific and specifically northern in descriptions of places, landscapes and human encounters. It concludes with an example that indicates how an acknowledgment of the aesthetic qualities of everyday human activities such as the dried fish trade helps to undermine the stereotype of the cold, barren, desolate and distant north.

Ireland in the Virginian sea: colonialism in the British Atlantic

In the late sixteenth century, the English started expanding westward, establishing control over parts of neighboring Ireland as well as exploring and later colonizing distant North America. Audrey Horning deftly examines the relationship between British colonization efforts in both locales, depicting their close interconnection as fields for colonial experimentation. Focusing on the Ulster Plantation in the north of Ireland and the Jamestown settlement in the Chesapeake, she challenges the notion that Ireland merely served as a testing ground for British expansion into North America. Horning instead analyzes the people, financial networks, and information that circulated through and connected English plantations on either side of the Atlantic. In addition, Horning explores English colonialism from the perspective of the Gaelic Irish and Algonquian societies and traces the political and material impact of contact. The focus on the material culture of both locales yields a textured specificity to the complex relationships between natives and newcomers while exposing the lack of a determining vision or organization in early English colonial projects.

Twenty-two novel microsatellite loci for lumpfish (Cyclopterus lumpus)

Lumpfish (Cyclopterus lumpus L. 1758) are widely distributed on both sides of the North Atlantic. They are a commercially important species, but stock size estimates have declined since the mid-1980s in Canada, Norway and Iceland. Little is known about the biology of this species, in particular the breeding migrations and population structure which are fundamental for effective management. This paper describes the development and characterization of twenty-two polymorphic microsatellite loci using next generation sequencing. The number of alleles per locus ranged from 3 to 27 in two geographically distant North Atlantic populations, with observed and expected heterozygosities ranging between 0.0625–0.979 and 0.0618–0.946, respectively. These loci are an important resource that will allow assessment of the population genetic structure of this species, and contribute to its appropriate management.

Elite Exoticism: Sea-rail Cruise Tourism to South Africa, 1926–1939

South Africa's railway and harbours operator (SAR&H) was the arch promoter of overseas tourism to South Africa for thirty years after Union in 1910. To its package tours for independent inbound tourists, the SAR&H added exclusive port-to-port rail trips across South Africa by partnering with overseas cruise ship operators. Whereas the European market was a mainstay, the more distant North American market only became accessible in relation to lengthy round-the-world cruises. Between 1926 and 1939 approximately fifty long-distance luxury trains met thirty-one cruise liners to transport some 5,000 wealthy tourists through various inland scenic, cultural and wildlife attractions in southern Africa. Port calls by visiting cruise liners created their own spectacle and stir. Eventually more cruise passengers elected to stay on board ship at the end of long ocean voyages, elite visitors took cross-country flights to increase the novelty of travel, and this first period of South African sea-rail tourism came to a close.

Spatial Foundations of Science Education: The Illustrative Case of Instruction on Introductory Geological Concepts

To study the role of spatial concepts in science learning, 125 college students with high, medium, or low scores on a horizontality (water-level) spatial task were given information about geological strike and dip using existing educational materials. Participants mapped an outcrop's strike and dip, a rod's orientation, pointed to a distant building and north, and completed 3-dimensional horizontality and verticality tasks. Many students, particularly those with low water-level scores, experienced difficulty on both field and laboratory tasks and failed to use good field-observation strategies. Error patterns implicated roles of cognitive regularization of the environment, embodied spatial cognition, and map experience. Data relating performance to participants’ spatial skills, gender, self-reported confidence in responses, spatial awareness, and strategy use suggest a range of instructional approaches.

Addressing the Sustainable Development and Climate Change Challenges Together: Applying the Sustainomics Framework

Excellencies, Eminent Colleagues, Honored Guests and Friends, I thank the Beijing Forum for inviting me to address this distinguished audience, representing the cream of the intellectual community and their special guests. I am indeed very privileged and pleased to be here today. Both the topic and timing are most appropriate. The intellectual community has a key role to play in effectively addressing the two major challenges of the 21 century-sustainable development and climate change. Climate change is an emerging issue of major worldwide concern to everyone on the planet. It threatens to exacerbate the formidable problems of development we already face-like poverty, food security, sickness, and water and energy scarcities. How can we re-energize and re-organize ourselves to plan, coordinate and implement the necessary responses on a global scale? Global warming is a reality. In Darfur, where several hundred thousand people have died in recent years, climate change has already exacerbated water and land shortages (due to growing desertification), undermined agriculture, and fueled conflict for these scarce resources among the poor. On the opposite side of the globe, many Pacific islands (and the Maldives)—often only centimeters above sea level—are threatened with inundation by rising seas. In the distant north, melting of the sea ice is affecting polar wildlife, and undermining the already precarious livelihoods of native peoples. These grim warnings of climate change underline the need to better understand the phenomenon and address the consequences. The latest Fourth Assessment Report of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) shows that global warming is unequivocal and almost certainly caused by recent human activities that have increased greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It also indicates that climate change will continue into the foreseeable future and likely intensify, with potentially disastrous consequences for the planet earth and its inhabitants.