Une littérature importante en politique canadienne porte sur le(s) régionalisme(s) à l’échelle du pays, mais les dynamiques régionales intraprovinciales demeurent sous-étudiées. Dans cet article, nous analysons la géographie politique de l'opinion publique au Québec, où l'accent a été mis sur le « mystère de Québec », selon lequel la région de Québec se distingue du reste de la province, par exemple, en affichant des tendances conservatrices plus marquées. Nous produisons l'analyse la plus détaillée à ce jour des variations régionales des attitudes politiques au Québec, en comparant l'électorat de treize régions. Nos résultats mettent en évidence des variations régionales importantes tout en précisant et nuançant notre compréhension du « mystère de Québec ». Par exemple, la région est plus conservatrice sur la dimension économique et moins favorable à l'indépendance du Québec, mais pas plus conservatrice sur les attitudes culturelles. Nous concluons en offrant une perspective renouvelée sur les études régionales, suggérant l'existence d'autres « mystères » régionaux au moins aussi importants.

Most studies aiming to quantify carbon stocks in tropical forests have focused on aboveground biomass, omitting carbon in soils and woody debris. Here, we quantified carbon stocks in soils up to 3 m depth, woody debris, and aboveground and belowground tree biomass for the 25-ha Amacayacu Forests Dynamics plot in the northwestern Amazon. Including soils to 3 m depth, total carbon stocks averaged 358.9 ± 24.2 Mg C ha−1, of which soils contributed 53%, biomass 44.2%, and woody debris 2.7%. When only including soils to 0.5 m depth, carbon stocks diminished to 222.1 Mg C ha−1 and biomass became the largest contributor. Among 1-ha subplots, total carbon stocks were correlated with soil carbon stocks at ≥0.5 m depth, belowground biomass of all trees, and aboveground biomass of trees ≥60 cm DBH. Our results support the assumption of biomass as the likely largest carbon source associated with land use change in northwestern Amazonia. However, mining and erosion following land use change could also promote a significant release of carbon from soil, the largest carbon stock. To improve the global carbon balance, we need to better quantify total carbon stocks and dynamics in tropical forests beyond aboveground biomass.

In his proof of the irrationality of $\zeta (3)$ and $\zeta (2)$, Apéry defined two integer sequences through $3$-term recurrences, which are known as the famous Apéry numbers. Zagier, Almkvist–Zudilin, and Cooper successively introduced the other $13$ sporadic sequences through variants of Apéry’s $3$-term recurrences. All of the $15$ sporadic sequences are called Apéry-like sequences. Motivated by Gessel’s congruences mod $24$ for the Apéry numbers, we investigate congruences of the form $u_n\equiv \alpha ^n \ \pmod {N_{\alpha }}~(\alpha \in \mathbb {Z},N_{\alpha }\in \mathbb {N}^{+})$ for all of the $15$ Apéry-like sequences $\{u_n\}_{n\ge 0}$. Let $N_{\alpha }$ be the largest positive integer such that $u_n\equiv \alpha ^n\ \pmod {N_{\alpha }}$ for all non-negative integers n. We determine the values of $\max \{N_{\alpha }|\alpha \in \mathbb {Z}\}$ for all of the $15$ Apéry-like sequences $\{u_n\}_{n\ge 0}$. The binomial transforms of Apéry-like sequences provide us a unified approach to this type of congruences for Apéry-like sequences.

Friction stir welding (FSW) is a method of solid-state welding used to connect difficult-to-weld materials, such as aluminium alloy and magnesium alloy that cannot be joined using conventional welding techniques. This paper investigates the impact of FSW parameters on the corrosion characteristics of friction stir-welded AA2014-T6 aluminium alloy. Experiments were conducted in accordance with the Taguchi L9 orthogonal array by varying tool rotation speed, weld speed, and axial force across three levels. The FSW joints of the aluminium alloy AA2014-T6 were subjected to corrosion test using the electro-chemical workstation CHI660C. The Tafel plots and the corrosion rates were obtained from the corrosion tests. It was observed from the analysis of variance (ANOVA) results of the corrosion rates, that the tool rotation speed is the most persuading factor in controlling the corrosion rate. The scanning electron microscope (SEM) images of the corroded samples were analysed for the presence of pitting spots and its density.

Bagrada bug, Bagrada hilaris (Burmeister) (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae), is an invasive pest of cole crops in the United States. Because it also feeds on widespread weeds and persists in natural habitats surrounding crop fields, conventional control strategies are often ineffective at providing long-term control. One egg parasitoid, Gryon aetherium Talamas (Hymenoptera: Scelionidae), is a promising biological control candidate because of its ability to parasitise B. hilaris buried eggs. Recently, adventive populations of G. aetherium were recovered from sentinel eggs in California along with a native egg parasitoid, Ooencyrtus californicus Girault (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae). A better understanding of these parasitoid species’ spatial preference for foraging and their possible competitive interactions will help evaluate their host suppression potential. We compared the foraging abilities of these two parasitoid species for eggs deposited below and above ground. We also investigated the effect of interspecific competition on host suppression and the ability of O. californicus to parasitise eggs previously parasitised by G. aetherium. G. aetherium parasitised naturally and manually buried eggs, whereas O. californicus did not. In another experiment, O. californicus parasitised eggs glued to cards, but not in the presence of sand. Results suggest that G. aetherium may be negatively affected by the presence of O. californicus, and there was a slight but significant reduction in total host mortality when the parasitoids were present together. However, the inability of O. californicus to forage in soil likely limits negative interactions between these two species, and the two parasitoids may ultimately complement each other.

Let H be a real Hilbert space and $\Phi :H\to H$ be a $C^1$ operator with Lipschitzian derivative and closed range. We prove that $\Phi ^{-1}(0)\neq \emptyset $ if and only if, for each $\epsilon>0$, there exist a convex set $X\subset H$ and a convex function $\psi :X\to \mathbf {R}$ such that $\sup _{x\in X}(\|x\|^2+\psi (x))-\inf _{x\in X}(\|x\|^2+\psi (x))<\epsilon $ and $0\in \overline {{\mathrm {conv}}}(\Phi (X))$.

In this paper, we study the embedding problem of an operator into a strongly continous semigroup. We obtain characterizations for some classes of operators, namely composition operators and analytic Toeplitz operators on the Hardy space $H^2$. In particular, we focus on the isometric ones using the necessary and sufficient condition observed by T. Eisner.

For precision-required robot operations, the robot’s positioning accuracy, repeatability, and stiffness characteristics should be considered. If the mechanism has the desired repeatability performance, a kinematic calibration process can enhance the positioning accuracy. However, for robot operations where high accelerations are needed, the compliance characteristics of the mechanism affect the trajectory-tracking accuracy adversely. In this paper, a novel approach is proposed to enhance the trajectory-tracking accuracy of a robot operating at high accelerations by predicting the compliant displacements when there is no physical contact of the robot with its environment. Also, this case study compares the trajectory-tracking characteristics of an over-constrained and a normal-constrained 2-degrees-of-freedom (DoF) planar parallel mechanism during high-acceleration operations up to 5 g accelerations. In addition, the influence of the end-effector’s center of mass (CoM) position along the normal of the plane is investigated in terms of its effects on the proposed trajectory-enhancing algorithm.

Pummelo is the largest citrus species in the Rutaceae family and is important for human health and nutrition. This fruit is underutilized and threatened by human activities in its natural habitat. The present research was conducted in the Devanahalli region of Karnataka, which has a vast diversity of pummelo. This study aimed to evaluate 40 pummelo genotypes, selected through a preliminary survey, using morphological, biochemical and sensory assessments. Fruit and pulp weights ranged from 344.03 to 1746.23 g and 194.39 to 1073.07 g, with mean values of 939.67 and 522.81 g, respectively. Traits such as fruit length, diameter, fruit axis diameter, fruit volume, number of segments, rind thickness, fruit, pulp, peel weight, seed weight and seeds per fruit showed highly significant differences. Biochemical analysis revealed that ascorbic acid content varied from 28.53 to 60 mg/100 g, titratable acidity from 0.73 to 2.07% and total soluble solids from 7.63 to 11.07°Brix. High phenol (55.08–166.17 mg GAE/g FW) and flavonoid (39.26–137.78 mg CE/g FW) content were observed in fruit pulp, indicating significant antioxidant potential. Several morphological and biochemical traits exhibited significant positive correlations. A slightly higher phenotypic coefficient of variation was found for all the characters compared to the corresponding genotypic coefficient of variation. The principal component analysis indicated that the first nine components contributed 94.24% of the total variation. Hierarchical cluster analysis divided the populations into two distinct clusters. Sensory analysis indicated that genotypes, DVP-1 and DVP-2 had higher acceptability rates. The significant variations in plant traits among the genotypes offer great chances to select the best ones for genetic improvement programmes.

This paper proposes a mobile robot recovery mechanism for low-cost robotic systems due to vision sensor failure in vSLAM systems. The approach takes advantage of ROS architecture and adopts the Shannon Nyquist sampling theory to selectively sample path parameters that will be used for back travel in case of vision sensor failure. As opposed to point clouds normally used to store vSLAM data, this paper proposes to store and use lightweight variables namely distance between sampled points, velocity combinations, i.e., linear and angular velocity, sampled period, and yaw angle values to describe the robot path and reduce the memory space required to store these variables. In this study, low-cost robotic systems typically using cameras aided by proprioceptive sensors such as IMU during vSLAM activities are investigated. A demonstration is made on how the ROS architecture can be used in a scenario where vision sensing is adversely affected, resulting in mapping failure. Additionally, a recommendation is made for adoption of the approach for vSLAM platforms implemented on both ROS1 and ROS2. Furthermore, a proposal is made to add an additional layer to vSLAM systems that will be exclusively used for back travel in case of vision loss during vSLAM activities resulting in mapping failure.

Significant differences in life-history traits between the southern population (S) and northern (N) population of the cabbage beetle Colaphellus bowringi make it an excellent model for studying inheritance in this insect. In the present study, we observed the life-history traits of pure strains, F1, reciprocal backcross and reciprocal F2 progeny under a photoperiod of L:D 15:9 h at 22 °C. The S population had shorter larval development time, longer pupal time, higher body weight, growth rate and weight loss compared with the N population. In the F1 testing, the larval development time and body weight in hybrid populations were intermediate between the parents, and the paternal parents played a greater role in determining the larval development time, while the maternal parents exhibited a greater role in determining the body weight. The pupal time of hybrid populations was significantly shorter than that of the parents. In the reciprocal backcross testing, both father and grandfather affected the larval development time, while both mother and grandmother affected the body weight. Consistently, in the reciprocal F2 cross testing, the grandfather was more influential in determining the larval development time, and grandmother was more important in determining the body weight. In all tested populations, females had greater body weight, higher growth rate and weight loss than males. Hybridization pattern did not affect sex dimorphism and sex ratio. Overall, these findings suggest that different pathways (maternal or paternal effects) were involved in the inheritance of various life-history traits in C. bowringi.