Northeast North Research Articles

The Challenges and Opportunities of Entrepreneurial in Rural Areas: Case of Selected Ten Counties in Northeast North Carolina

This paper examines the challenges and opportunities facing entrepreneurs in Northeast North Carolina. Entrepreneurship has been practicing for many years in several countries and it has been a driving force for alleviating poverty in many countries especially in developing nations. Many policy makers and scholars strongly believe that economic growth can be achieved through entrepreneurship. The main objective of the paper was to identify the challenges and opportunities for entrepreneurs in Northeast North Carolina. The paper selected ten counties in Northeast North Carolina to examine the challenges that hindered the progress of entrepreneurs because they are not different from other entrepreneurs in developed and developing countries. To address the challenges of women entrepreneurs, it is significant to understand these challenges facing entrepreneurs in the ten selected counties in Northeast North Carolina. The paper concluded and recommended that government should encourage and support entrepreneurs in Northeast North Carolina so as to promote economic growth especially the affected ten counties

Soil Biota in a Nonnative Range has a Net Positive Effect on the Perennial Herb Lupinus polyphyllus

Invasive species can have detrimental effects on the health of local ecosystems. Lupinus polyphyllus is an herb native to western and northeast North America, but the species has become invasive worldwide. In northeastern Ohio, United States, the species is nonnative, but not invasive and not spreading rapidly. Because physical distance is not a barrier, there are other reasons behind the inability of the species to become locally invasive. Here, the net effect of the local soil biota on the range expansion of the species was tested to explore 2 alternative, non-mutually exclusive, hypotheses. First, if belowground enemies limit this species range, thenet effect of the soil biota would be negative. Alternatively, soil mutualists might have a relatively greater net effect on plant fitness. A greenhouse experiment was conducted with 3 populations of seeds from the invasive range across 2 experimental treatments: a general fungicide (ZeroTol®) treatment and a water-control treatment. Fungicide treatment reduced total biomass in 2 out of 3 populations, consistent with limitations by the abundance of belowground mutualists. Fungicide treatment also changed root structure by reducing the number of nodules, root length, and diameter, while increasing root tissue density. Although the fungicidetreatment hindered the growth of lupines overall, the changes in root structure indicate that the treated individuals were able to partially compensate by shifting to more of an outsourcing method of resource acquisition. The results suggest that in addition to belowground mutualistic interactions, phenotypic plasticity and intraspecific genetic variation may also contribute to the success of L. polyphyllus in its nonnative ranges.

Discussion: The Terreneuvian MacCodrum Brook section, Mira terrane, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada: age constraints from ash layers, organic-walled microfossils, and trace fossils

Exhaustive similarities in terminal Ediacaran–Ordovician cover sequences between tectonic inliers in the Appalachian–Caledonian (A–C) orogen define the Avalonian terrane from coastal northeast North America through southern Britain to Belgium. However, Barr et al. effectively block inclusion of the Mira belt (Mb) in Avalonia by masking a long-documented trans-Avalonian succession under locally defined lithostratigraphic names that prove to be confusing homonyms of themselves. Earlier revisions of Mira belt stratigraphy allow assignment of the Mira belt to a precise location in the Avalonian strike-slip regime—on the marginal–inner platform transition just as the northern Antigonish Highlands and southeast Burin Peninsula. The Mira belt is a tectonic inlier not a “terrane” in the A–C orogen.

Effect of Hudson Bay closure on global and regional climate under different astronomical configurations

During the Quaternary, the Hudson Bay switched between closed (covered by ice sheet) and open (ice sheet-free) conditions due to large variations of ice sheets. However, how the closure and opening of the Hudson Bay have affected the local and global climates is still poorly understood. Using the LOVECLIM1.3 model, here we investigate the effect of the Hudson Bay closure under glacial conditions with different astronomical configurations, greenhouse gases (GHG) concentrations and Northern Hemisphere (NH) ice volume. Our model results show that the closure of the Hudson Bay could lead to a strengthening of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), which in turn leads to a warming in the NH with notable warming in the Labrador Sea and northeast North Atlantic, a cooling in the Southern Hemisphere (SH) and a northward shift of the Inter-tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). In addition to the large-scale climate changes, the closure of Hudson Bay also leads to a strong cooling over the Hudson Bay region due to changes of surface properties and a cooling to the southeast of Greenland due to more wind-driven sea ice export from the Arctic. However, the effect of the Hudson Bay closure depends on background climate conditions, and it could weaken or slightly reinforce the effect of the ice sheets for different astronomical configurations.

Continuous streamflow prediction in ungauged basins: long short-term memory neural networks clearly outperform traditional hydrological models

Abstract. This study investigates the ability of long short-term memory (LSTM) neural networks to perform streamflow prediction at ungauged basins. A set of state-of-the-art, hydrological model-dependent regionalization methods are applied to 148 catchments in northeast North America and compared to an LSTM model that uses the exact same available data as the hydrological models. While conceptual model-based methods attempt to derive parameterizations at ungauged sites from other similar or nearby catchments, the LSTM model uses all available data in the region to maximize the information content and increase its robustness. Furthermore, by design, the LSTM does not require explicit definition of hydrological processes and derives its own structure from the provided data. The LSTM networks were able to clearly outperform the hydrological models in a leave-one-out cross-validation regionalization setting on most catchments in the study area, with the LSTM model outperforming the hydrological models in 93 % to 97 % of catchments depending on the hydrological model. Furthermore, for up to 78 % of the catchments, the LSTM model was able to predict streamflow more accurately on pseudo-ungauged catchments than hydrological models calibrated on the target data, showing that the LSTM model's structure was better suited to convert the meteorological data and geophysical descriptors into streamflow than the hydrological models even calibrated to those sites in these cases. Furthermore, the LSTM model robustness was tested by varying its hyperparameters, and still outperformed hydrological models in regionalization in almost all cases. Overall, LSTM networks have the potential to change the regionalization research landscape by providing clear improvement pathways over traditional methods in the field of streamflow prediction in ungauged catchments.

Sociology of Vibe: Blackness, Felt Criminality, and Emotional Epistemology

The opacity and mundaneness of racism often allows it to slip through our traditional systems of accounting and measuring. The study of racialized emotions has been an important intervention in sociology to understand the intimate nature of racialized social structures. There still is a need to understand the language Black communities use to communicate their complex emotional worlds and the nuanced ways abusive power systems are felt in everyday life. Using 24 months of ethnographic fieldwork in northeast North Carolina and data from 23 in-depth interviews, the author examines the relationship between Black people’s emotional habitus and racial structures. The results indicate that Black people developed vibe as a rhetorical tool to articulate their complex emotional economy and it is regularly used to make sense of racialize experiences. Vibe is not limited to racial understanding as it works to name the often unsayable and perceptive ways people know, feel, and respond to the opacity and non-quantifiable dimensions of social experience. This paper focuses on the ways Black community members used vibe to articulate feeling the criminalization of Blackness or what this research refers to as ‘felt criminality.’ Despite facing emotional subjugation Black community members were still invested in emotive projects and used their felt experience as an epistemological resource to make sense of racial processes in a supposedly colorblind society.

The north-east North Atlantic Tripole implicated as a predictor of the August precipitation decadal variability over north China

The north-east North Atlantic Tripole implicated as a predictor of the August precipitation decadal variability over north China

Two new forest pathogens in Phaeolus (Polyporales, Basidiomycota) on Chinese coniferous trees were confirmed by molecular phylogeny.

Phaeolus schweinitzii (Fr.) Pat. was originally described in Europe and is considered a common forest pathogen on conifers in the Northern Hemisphere. Our molecular phylogeny based on samples from China, Europe, and North America confirms that P. schweinitzii is a species complex, including six taxa. P. schweinitzii sensu stricto has a distribution in Eurasia; the samples from Northeast and Southwest China are distantly related to P. schweinitzii sensu stricto, and two new species are described after morphological, phylogenetic, and geographical analyses. The species growing on Larix, Picea, and Pinus in Northeast China is described as Phaeolus asiae-orientalis. Another species mostly occurring on Pinus yunnanensis in Southwest China is Phaeolus yunnanensis. In addition, three taxa distributed in North America differ from P. schweinitzii sensu stricto. Phaeolus tabulaeformis (Berk.) Pat. is in Southeast North America, “P. schweinitzii-1” in Northeast North America, and “P. schweinitzii-2” in western North America.

Intra-Seasonal Features of Winter Extreme Cold Events in Northeast–North China and Synergistic Effects of Circulation Systems in Mid-High Latitude

Based on the daily minimum air temperature (Tmin) data from the China Meteorological Data Network and the NCEP/DOE reanalysis data, the intra-seasonal circulation characteristics and evolution of extreme cold events (ECEs) in Northeast–North China (NE-N) during the winter of 1979–2018 are explored, and the synergistic effects of key circulation systems in the mid-high latitude on ECEs are discussed. The results show that: (1) the winter daily Tmin in the NE-N region presents a significant low-frequency period of 10–30 d; during the cooling phases, a pair of cyclone–anticyclone in the lower troposphere moves southeastward, accompanying the intensifying Siberian High, and leads to the abnormal northerly; the developing wave trains in the middle troposphere result in enhancing and maintaining cold air; furthermore, the situation of the upper tropospheric jet weakening in the north and strengthening in the south is favorable for cold air to move southward and accumulate in the NE-N region. (2) There are two wave trains in the Eurasian at 200 hPa level. The north one moves southeastward through the Ural Mountains to the coast of East Asia, with the upstream wave activity flux dispersing to NE-N region, causing the northeast cold vortex to develop. The south one with relatively weak intensity disperses the wave flux northward, and enhances the cold vortex. (3) The key circulation systems of ECEs are the Siberian High, the Ural Mountain Blocking High, the Northeast Cold Vortex, and the East Asian Subtropical Jet. The Ural Mountains Blocking High leads four phases earlier than low temperature, and the rest of the systems are basically in phase with low temperature. The synergistic effect of circulation systems will lead to extended-range cold in the NE-N region.

New seasonal pattern of pollution emerges from changing North American wildfires

Rising emissions from wildfires over recent decades in the Pacific Northwest are known to counteract the reductions in human-produced aerosol pollution over North America. Since amplified Pacific Northwest wildfires are predicted under accelerating climate change, it is essential to understand both local and transported contributions to air pollution in North America. Here, we find corresponding increases for carbon monoxide emitted from the Pacific Northwest wildfires and observe significant impacts on both local and down-wind air pollution. Between 2002 and 2018, the Pacific Northwest atmospheric carbon monoxide abundance increased in August, while other months showed decreasing carbon monoxide, so modifying the seasonal pattern. These seasonal pattern changes extend over large regions of North America, to the Central USA and Northeast North America regions, indicating that transported wildfire pollution could potentially impact the health of millions of people.

Listening to the video: Hip Hop videography and Rural Black Aesthetics

ABSTRACT The Black Hip Hop tradition, specifically rap, has appropriated and rechanneled music technologies and inscribed new meanings for cultural, economic, social, and political gains, videography included. Through an ethnographic study of Hip Hop in rural northeast North Carolina, USA, this project incorporates the voices of local Hip Hop videographers and rap artists to suggest that Hip Hop videography is a form of performative Blackness that exemplifies how the visual is a site of vernacular possibility. It shows how Black artists in rural northeast North Carolina work within the specific structure of the trap subgenre, which originated in urban centres, only to rupture it with visuals of rural Blackness. By demanding audiences to ‘listen’ to images, Hip Hop artists in the area known as ‘the 252’ use local history and the visual subjectivity of the surrounding region to alter the sonic experience of songs to set forth a local identity. This research positions Hip Hop videography as a relational space where identities are inhabited, imagined, and transformed.

Influence of climate variability on wind‐sea and swell wave height extreme over the Indo‐Pacific Ocean

AbstractIn the Indo‐Pacific Ocean (IPO), extreme significant wave heights (SWHs) can substantially induce coastal erosion, flooding, and devastating impacts on coastal livelihoods. This study examines the seasonal influence of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO), Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD), Southern Annular Mode (SAM), and Pacific North American (PNA) pattern on extreme wind‐wave parameters. The climatic extremes are calculated utilizing ERA5 reanalysis datasets from 1979 to 2019 and a nonstationary generalized extreme value distribution. Significant increases in extreme wind‐sea (Hmax) and swell SWH (HmaxSw) response to ENSO occur over the northeast North Pacific (NP) during December–February (DJF) and western NP during June–August (JJA). The PNA influence exhibits a similar pattern to ENSO during DJF yet is inactive in JJA. Hmax and HmaxSw responses to the IOD during September–November (SON) include significant increases over the western Pacific, southern Indian Ocean (IO), and southwest tropical IO, yet decreases over the central tropical IO. The HmaxSw response to the SAM is larger than that for Hmax over the southern IPO during DJF, which extends toward the eastern Pacific in March–May (MAM). Overall, extreme wind‐sea and swell parameter responses are found to be associated with sea level pressure (SLP) and SLP gradients.

Resolving Indigenous village occupations and social history across the long century of European permanent settlement in Northeastern North America: The Mohawk River Valley ~1450-1635 CE.

The timeframe of Indigenous settlements in Northeast North America in the 15th-17th centuries CE has until very recently been largely described in terms of European material culture and history. An independent chronology was usually absent. Radiocarbon dating has recently begun to change this conventional model radically. The challenge, if an alternative, independent timeframe and history is to be created, is to articulate a high-resolution chronology appropriate and comparable with the lived histories of the Indigenous village settlements of the period. Improving substantially on previous initial work, we report here high-resolution defined chronologies for the three most extensively excavated and iconic ancestral Kanienʼkehá꞉ka (Mohawk) village sites in New York (Smith-Pagerie, Klock and Garoga), and a fourth early historic Indigenous site, Brigg’s Run, and re-assess the wider chronology of the Mohawk River Valley in the mid-15th to earlier 17th centuries. This new chronology confirms initial suggestions from radiocarbon that a wholesale reappraisal of past assumptions is necessary, since our dates conflict completely with past dates and the previously presumed temporal order of these three iconic sites. In turn, a wider reassessment of northeastern North American early history and re-interpretation of Atlantic connectivities in the later 15th through early 17th centuries is required. Our new closely defined date ranges are achieved employing detailed archival analysis of excavation records to establish the contextual history for radiocarbon-dated samples from each site, tree-ring defined short time series from wood charcoal samples fitted against the radiocarbon calibration curve (‘wiggle-matching’), and Bayesian chronological modelling for each of the individual sites integrating all available prior knowledge and radiocarbon dating probabilities. We define (our preferred model) most likely (68.3% highest posterior density) village occupation ranges for Smith-Pagerie of ~1478–1498, Klock of ~1499–1521, Garoga of ~1550–1582, and Brigg’s Run of ~1619–1632.

A Diagnostic Early Seventeenth-Century Glass-Bead Assemblage from New Lenox, Illinois: Building a Midwestern Glass-Bead Chronological Sequence

Abstract An assemblage of 33 glass beads dates the protohistoric component at the New Lenox site in Illinois to within Glass Bead Period 2 (1600–1625/1630). All the white glass beads had been opacified with tin and lead, as determined by pXRF, resulting in a chemical composition indicative of a pre-1625 date. The New Lenox beads likely derived from indirect trade primarily with the French in northeast North America. Since it falls within a tightly dated time frame of circa 1609–1625, the New Lenox assemblage provides an important building block for a regional bead sequence for the Midwest.

A case report and statewide surveillance of “weak meat” condition of Alaska weathervane scallops, Patinopecten caurinus, linked to a recently identified pathogenic parasite, Merocystis kathae (Apicomplexa: Aggregatidae)

Weathervane scallop, Patinopecten caurinus, the largest scallop species in the world, is distributed from northern California, U.S.A., to the Bering Sea, and is only commercially harvested in Alaska. The fishery is considered well managed by the State of Alaska (U.S.A) Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) and federal government, with many precautionary measures in place to avoid overharvest. There have been episodic declines in some management areas due to unknown causes. Fishermen also encounter scallops with abnormal adductor muscles, a condition colloquially termed “weak meat”, characterized by the retention of muscle when shucked, an obvious darkened discoloration, and/or an abnormal texture making the product unacceptable for marketing. A similar syndrome in Atlantic sea scallops, Placopecten magellanicus, described as “gray meat”, occurs in the eastern U.S. and Canada, and proposed causes include senescence, loss of bioenergetics due to chronic infestations, or a synergism of these factors. Recently a severe apicomplexan infection was found to cause a gray meat condition in Iceland scallops, Chlamys islandica, and the collapse of that stock. This parasite was subsequently detected in Atlantic sea scallops with the gray meat condition off the U.S. East Coast. Studies that followed identified the parasite as Merocystis kathae, previously described from the common whelk, Buccinum undatum, more than 100 years ago. In 2015 Bering Sea fishermen reported weak meat in their catch, so samples were submitted to ADF&G for diagnosis. Adductor muscles from all affected scallops had many large foci of an apicomplexan associated with necrosis, fibrosis, and muscular atrophy. Given the reduced quality, marketability, and possibly fitness of affected scallops, we performed a survey to estimate prevalence, intensity, and geographic distribution of this apicomplexan in Alaskan weathervane scallops. We sampled 180 scallops, from individual beds within each of the three major geographically broad scallop areas in Alaska. Overall prevalence was about 82%, ranging from 69 to 100% by district. Overall mean infection intensity, based on the number of parasite foci/section, was about 9 (range of 5–29, by location), with scallops from the Bering Sea and Southwest Kodiak being most severely infected. Molecular analyses confirmed that the Alaskan parasite is M. kathae, i.e., the same apicomplexan that caused the collapse of Icelandic scallops and a suspected cause for gray meat and mass mortality of Atlantic sea scallops in northeast North America.

Climate driven declines in terrestrial input over the middle and late Holocene of perched boreal lakes in northeast Ontario (Canada) and teleconnections to the North Atlantic

The landscape of northeast Ontario, Canada, is dominated by glacial and postglacial landforms including numerous boreal lakes that formed following the retreat of the Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS) and Glacial Lake Ojibway. This study uses micro-X-Ray Fluorescence elemental analysis to examine changes in sediment cores from two boreal lakes from northeast Ontario with the goal of inferring changes in terrestrial inputs and redox status of these lakes over the middle to late Holocene. These headwater lakes were selected as they have small watersheds that minimizes the complexity of hydrological responses, and as they are relatively proximal (∼130 km distance between lakes) to allow the detection of regional signals related to changes in climate over the Holocene. Strong correlations between Si, K, Ca, and Ti in Hogback Lake and Green Lake cores suggest that these elements represent proxies of terrestrial input. Standardized composite trends of these elements were very similar between the two lakes and were combined to represent a regional signal, with the highest terrestrial inputs between ∼6000 and ∼4000 cal yr BP, that subsequently declined through the Holocene. These results suggest that regional patterns in terrestrial input are linked to changes in hydroclimate and likely increased terrestrial stability over the middle to late Holocene. These composite trends are compared to similar geochemical composite trends from Iceland suggesting climate teleconnections between northeast North America and the North Atlantic. Cool conditions in the North Atlantic result in increased soil erosion in Iceland and correspond to cool and dry conditions in boreal northeast Ontario with corresponding low inputs of terrestrial material, and vice versa, over multidecadal time scales over the middle to late Holocene.

Historical Variability and Lifecycles of North Atlantic Midlatitude Cyclones Originating in the Tropics

AbstractNorth Atlantic tropical and post‐tropical cyclones impact midlatitude regions, but the inhomogeneous observational record of the latter stages of tropical cyclones precludes many climatological analyses. The frequency of tropical‐origin storms basin‐wide is projected to increase under anthropogenic climate change, so establishing confidence in our knowledge of their historical variability and lifecycles—against which climate model simulations may be evaluated—is important. We used a Lagrangian feature‐tracking algorithm to identify tropical cyclones that impacted Northeast North America and Europe in seven global reanalysis data sets, distinguishing systems that retained warm‐core structures or underwent warm seclusion from those that underwent extratropical transition, acquiring cold‐core, frontal structures. Over the last four decades, ∼25% and ∼10% of tropical‐origin cyclones made landfall across Northeast North America and Europe, respectively, as warm‐core systems, with, on average, higher wind speeds than cold‐core systems. Historical warm‐core and cold‐core landfalls also exhibit distinct tracks, likely responding to differing steering flow and midlatitude conditions.

Conservation reliance and its influence on support for carnivore recovery

AbstractThe number of species reliant on consistent human intervention is rising. These species are labeled conservation‐reliant, which affords them unique resources to propagate them. A conservation reliance designation has important implications for recovery of large carnivores, particularly where private lands encompass historical ranges. As a policy tool, a conservation reliance designation may be used in conjunction with other popular instruments such as financial incentives or co‐governance to promote coexistence between carnivores and key cohorts such as landowners and hunters, who are often vocal dissidents of carnivore recovery, especially wolf recovery projects. Yet, the nascent literature on conservation reliance has yet to address the influence of conservation reliance on landowner or hunter support for carnivore conservation. This paper fills this gap with an analysis of responses from 639 landowners to explore the influence of a conservation reliance designation on intention to coexist with wild red wolves (Canis rufus) in northeast North Carolina. Findings suggest that respondents living in the red wolf recovery zone generally oppose a conservation reliance designation, a critical means to red wolf recovery. Hence, a conservation reliance designation may actually erode the value of some species they intend to preserve. Disapproval of conservation reliance poses new confronts to restoration politics and its diversity of strands, which must be woven into new ways of thinking about the ethical and political aspects of carnivore policy and management.

Hydrological basis of the Devils Lake, North Dakota (USA), terminal lake flood disaster

Devils Lake, a terminal lake in northeast North Dakota (USA), has experienced catastrophic flooding since 1993. From January 31, 1993, to December 31, 2014, lake level rose from 433.62 to 442.44 m, lake area expanded from 179.9 to 653.5 km2, and lake volume increased from 0.70 to 3.80 km3. More than $1 billion ($USD) has been spent in government payments to mitigate direct, primary, tangible flood damages. This paper provides a case study of the hydrological basis of the Devils Lake flood disaster. The unique geomorphic setting, paleoclimatic record, and hydroclimatic conditions of the region are summarized, and a wide range of hydroclimatic data is examined to provide a broad understanding of the physical basis of the flood disaster. The primary cause of the disaster was a transition to a sustained wetter climate that resulted in a dramatic response in basin hydrological variables in 1993. The transition from a long-term dry period to a long-term wet period caused the lake water budget to begin to change from an atmosphere-controlled water budget dominated by precipitation input to an amplifier lake water budget dominated by surface runoff input to the lake. Other important hydrological factors include a nonlinear precipitation–runoff relationship following the long-term drought, fill-spill and fill-merge hydrological behavior that is characteristic of wetland complexes, an increase in the lake area-to-basin area ratio, and the critical role of frozen soils in controlling infiltration and runoff production of spring snowmelt. Engineering works to manage lake volume through two outlets have reduced, but not entirely eliminated, future flood risk.

Study on Genetic Diversity of Phellodendron amurense based on cpDNA

In this study, 3 haplotypes were found in populations of Phellodendron amurense based on two combined cpDNA regions (psbA-trnH and trnT-trnL). Nucleotide diversity and haplotype diversity were 0.43×10-3 and 0.41, respectively at the level of species. The AMOVA revealed that only 8.53% of the variation was explained by differences among geographical groups, whereas inter-population and intrapopulation differences explained 18.32% and 71.35% of the variation, respectively. Phylogeographical relationships showed that all haplotypes were clustered into two lineages. Haplotype H1 and H2 cluster together, and Haplotype H3 composed a group. TCS network of haplotypes showed that haplotype H1 located in the center of the lineage, and it appears to be an ancestral haplotype. So we hypothesized that Northeast China populations and North China populations had a common origin. The mismatch distribution of this species suggested that all populations and populations in North China had not undergone recent expansion, but populations in Northeast China had undergone recent expansion. The results were consistent with the results of Tajima’s D and Fu’s and Li’s D test.